My Christmas wish list for the country

By the time you read this, all of your turkey leftovers will have been made into pies and your bins (or recycling bags) should, hopefully, be full of wrapping paper. It has always been hard for me to come down from the high that Christmas Day brings and I always seem to find myself stumbling around blindly, full of cheese, chocolate, and regret, not knowing what day it is until New Year’s Eve.

However, since this article will be safely delivered before the great day and my descent into Brie and madness, I have decided to compile one of those Christmas gift wish lists that I used to write about in happier, saner times.

Only this time, instead of extolling the virtues of cashmere socks (and you really can never have enough of those), I would like to make one for the country.

A reformed judicial system: Over the last few years, I’ve written over and over again about how our laws are simply not good enough. The issues are many but, if I had to pick two or three main points, I would say that the vulnerable are not protected sufficiently, bail is given out too freely and for prolonged periods, and the most damning of all, court cases take too long to be heard and decided, leaving victims and their families holding great trauma. My hope for the next few years is that these issues start to be addressed and that people are put at the centre of the decisions made.

A housing and construction sector not motivated by greed: Our property and rent prices are high and keep getting higher. Despite the fact that we have been told repeatedly that the bubble should burst any day now, even our middle-class youth have almost become priced out of buying a home. Inexplicably, our construction sector continues to prosper even as our country heaves under the weight of development and tens of thousands of vacant residential units. Something has to change. Hopefully, it will be people’s attitudes about what progress looks like.

The way we vote: Our two-party system hasn’t been doing us any favours for some time but worse than that is the way we continue to vote. We may be a democracy in name but that’s pretty much where it ends. The country is not a football match and your party is not a football team. The only allegiance any of us should have is to our land. We need to start voting with our heads and doing what is best for our communities. We need to hold politicians accountable because they are the ones who work for us.

And, finally, my personal favourite: We need to find a solution for our traffic problem. Yes, there are too many cars, and the numbers keep growing, and, no, building more flyovers is not going to give any long-term results. Our short-term way of thinking continues to destroy our infrastructure and our hope of any level of calm. Things cannot go on as they have for generations. The model is broken and needs to be changed.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a peaceful holiday season, filled with good food and even better moments with friends, family, or whatever brings you joy.

Here’s hoping for a better year than the ones we have left behind.