ICT bugs me.

It's not the actual ICT training itself. It's the way it's treated. Too often, I see very very good men trying to build lives around what is a qualitatively significant distruption. The hypocrisy and sheer bone-headedness of some policies leave me in a constant state of awe.

I've seen my camp mate getting permission to leave the camp at 12 midnight, on condition that he returns by 730 tomorrow. Reason? His 3 year old son is running a fever and needs to go to the hospital, and his 8 month pregnant wife can't go. Coming back to the army, what kind of sleep is he running on?!

A case my chief clerk related to me was even more stupid. A person about to be charged for AWOL (absent without official leave) was finally given clemency. Reason? He was absent because, as a single parent, no one would be around to take care of his daughter. Not his non-existant wife. Not his sick parents. In an eternal show of abdication of responsibility, the commander referred the matter upwards. Which is the right thing to do - but the policy itself sickens me. If commanders are to be commanders, why limit this PARTICULAR kind of power - the kind to grant compassionate absence?

I've also heard a lot about why men of a certain unit should bunk together - the oft-cited reason is that it builds unity. It's a myth. It doesn't - it builds common resentment. I don't see my unit outside of training. I don't want to. When they call me, it's usually to weasel some cheap legal advice from me.

I'm even more incensed that, when I was 18, the policies were very much pro-reservist, but now the policies have reversed, leaving us screwed going in and coming out. What am I talking about? NS boys get saturdays off, but get paid the same. Reservists get to train a FULL DAY on saturdays, and it doesn't affect their pay at all (in that, if they don't already work saturdays, they don't get an additional day's pay).

At it's heart, I'm incensed that the acknowledgement that all NS Servicemen are to be treated the same is both impossible and hypocritical. It's hypocritical because it's just not true that all Servicemen are treated equally. It's impossible because my priorities at 18 are very different from my priorities at 30. At 18, I worry about going out to see my date and current fuck. At 30, I worry about my wife, the person I've sworn to be there when she needed me. At 18, I worry if I have enough money to club. At 30, I worry that my 3 week absence will cost me my job, my performance bonus and my house because I can't finance the mortgage. I've more responsibilities at 30 then when I'm 18 and fewer resources to accomplish these with - at least, in terms of NS liability.

If there's anyone reading this that is in MINDEF that has an influence on policy, you suck. You can't come up with a consistent, coherent policy that doesn't involve straining your new middle class to its limits. You are a big factor deciding the "stayer/quitter" debate. Your policies are two-faced and irresponsible. There will be an accounting, and I pray that you will be there to receive it.