Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. – Amos 5: 23 and 24
Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samar’ia, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come. – Amos 6: 1
These days, there is so much debate (talk) about the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and how some of its funds are used as a form of loans to the Government and other agencies in this country.
My understanding is that there are loans and not grants, and since that is so – a loan has to be repaid with a profit, I hope, but grants are never repaid.
Secondly, it makes no sense to me to have funds there and not to invest them in whatever the NIS Board sees best.
To me that is like a person who has money in the bank and fails to spend some on himself or herself and goes to bed hungry. What a pity!
But what is really worrying me is the way some business persons in this country are using the NIS when they are going out of business.
They will close down their businesses without paying out the employees and will refer those employees to the NIS for payments. In other words, they are using the NIS as an ATM. Is this right? No, it is morally wrong.
I am aware of an employee who worked at a Bridgetown business, which is now out of business, for over 30 years. That employee has gone home without “cent one”. Is this right? And yet the owners of that business are now sitting on their “Ivory Towers” while the employees have to wait until the NIS Board meets and hopefully reaches a decision in their favour.
This is a situation of which the prophet Amos spoke about in Amos 6:4: “Woe to those who lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall.
