We live in a new, modern 20 storey apartment building. We have an electronic door lock, we never use a key. From our window we can see the gleaming new 72 storey commercial office/hotel building that rises above our city skyline. From certain vantage points in a developing country, things can seem almost the same as in a developed country.
Except for example, things like safety standards that still lag far behind. I heard yesterday that during the construction of the 72 storey building, almost 30 construction workers died. In many developed countries, if two or three had died, the project might have been suspended for significant investigation.
I look out our window and see workers on the top of the 8th floor of a small building under construction and on the top of the 6th floor of a construction site next to us. It is 37 degrees today so they all have hats on to protect from the sun, but none wear safety helmets. Often they are working on the edge of what is for now at least the top floor. No one wears a safety harness and there is no safety net.
Until you spend time in a developing country, you can forget how over the past century in most developed countries, our safety standards have increased. Yes, we pay for endless bureaucratic safety regulations. Yes, we may grow tired of endless calls for more and more safety. In developed countries their can be an unhealthy desire to protect everyone from every possible risk. Our regulations can sometimes seem "way over the top". But we have eliminated so many unnecessary traumatic injuries and accidental deaths.
Older people remember the day when no one wore a seat belt while driving. We can be excused if we wonder: how many times must car seats for children have their safety standards raised? Yet here, where children ride on motorbikes through busy streets, wearing no helmets and with nothing to hold them on the bike except their little arms hanging on to the driver; and here where no one knows how many serious work site accidents occur every day, we look forward to increased safety standards. Life is too cheap here and in many countries.
And we who are believers look forward to the Perfect City promised in Scripture where there will be no more tears and no more death. Perfect safety with our Perfect Saviour.
Except for example, things like safety standards that still lag far behind. I heard yesterday that during the construction of the 72 storey building, almost 30 construction workers died. In many developed countries, if two or three had died, the project might have been suspended for significant investigation.
I look out our window and see workers on the top of the 8th floor of a small building under construction and on the top of the 6th floor of a construction site next to us. It is 37 degrees today so they all have hats on to protect from the sun, but none wear safety helmets. Often they are working on the edge of what is for now at least the top floor. No one wears a safety harness and there is no safety net.
Until you spend time in a developing country, you can forget how over the past century in most developed countries, our safety standards have increased. Yes, we pay for endless bureaucratic safety regulations. Yes, we may grow tired of endless calls for more and more safety. In developed countries their can be an unhealthy desire to protect everyone from every possible risk. Our regulations can sometimes seem "way over the top". But we have eliminated so many unnecessary traumatic injuries and accidental deaths.
Older people remember the day when no one wore a seat belt while driving. We can be excused if we wonder: how many times must car seats for children have their safety standards raised? Yet here, where children ride on motorbikes through busy streets, wearing no helmets and with nothing to hold them on the bike except their little arms hanging on to the driver; and here where no one knows how many serious work site accidents occur every day, we look forward to increased safety standards. Life is too cheap here and in many countries.
And we who are believers look forward to the Perfect City promised in Scripture where there will be no more tears and no more death. Perfect safety with our Perfect Saviour.
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