Plenty of blame but no one to pin it on

As surely as we learn to walk and talk, there is a moment in the personal development of all human beings when we learn to pass the buck. It starts with blaming Teddy for opening the Christmas presents early when we are 2 years old, and it doesn't stop even when we've steered a ship on to a reef and destroyed a stretch of coastline.

Watching the hot potato of blame being swiftly passed from captain to politician to shipping owner and back has been a sad, but nonetheless entertaining, parody in humanity or the lack of it.

Even though, only weeks out from an election, the opposition is doing its level best to put the blame for the Rena disaster firmly at the feet of a politician who was probably fast asleep dreaming sweetly of majority government when the accident happened. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that the only person responsible for what has happened is the man who was steering the ship. This is a man who is highly trained, vastly experienced, well-paid and ... unable to avoid a tiny and well-marked obstruction in an otherwise empty ocean.

I'm not the only cynic who was unsurprised when the Rena captain and his navigator got name suppression in a bid to keep the poor darlings safe from recrimination, and it will be no surprise either to hear in due course that everyone and everything is to blame for the unfolding disaster apart from them.

Lawyers will be hired to construct arguments slicker than the spill itself, aimed at convincing us all that "it was him, not me" simply because avoiding responsibility is, it seems, far more important that the incident itself and paying to fix the consequences of it.

Even the company which leased the ship and is profiting from its activities has been quick to point out it is "neither the owner of the vessel nor responsible for its navigation". Clearly the only function of the Mediterranean Shipping Company is to cash the cheques in good times, not write them in bad. And it's bad.

Former Minister of Public Works, Bob Semple, set the tone for the nation when he famously said he was "responsible but not to blame" for the tragic collapse of the Fordell dam in 1944. It seems his attitude has become endemic in a world where, instead of doing what is right, we are motivated instead to do what is right for ourselves.

It's a problem not just on the high seas but in every strata of society. A few days ago at the airport, I bumped into a friend who was lamenting the lack of accountability from Jetstar after they lost his bag and left him stranded in Jakarta without even a change of underwear.

Instead of an apology and fair compensation, he got a measly $50 Jetstar voucher, with an expiry date of only three months, in the highly unlikely event that he would (a) be planning another international holiday in that time and (b) be even remotely interested in using the same airline that had lost all his personal effects without remorse.

Another friend got a bikini wax a few weeks back and was burned so badly her skin blistered. In any other country, she'd be ringing her lawyer and preparing to retire on the compensation, but instead the waxer nonchalantly offered a free $15 wax next time she wanted one. Which would be right about when pigs started flying.

Once upon a time, the measure of a man was his ability to take responsibility for his actions. It's too late to stop the damage caused by Rena, but it's not too late for those at fault to put their hand up, then put it into their back pocket and pull out their wallet.