When James Connolly died the Irish labour movement died with him. It can be argued that following the sacrifices made in 1916, that Ireland entered a crucial period in its history. As we moved forward two distinct models presented themselves, one of course was Home Rule and the other was to further the aims of the men and women of 1916 and seek an Irish republic.
Had Connolly lived there is little doubt that he would have fought on to achieve the Irish Republic but of course in Connolly’s vision this was to be a 32 county socialist republic. When one revises the history of the period it is little wonder that Irelands possible first leader a committed Marxist was tied to a chair in 1916 and shot---it is important to remind people that at this time Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Europe—and Dublin housed some of the biggest disease infested slums in the World. Connolly and Jim Larkin had led the workers in a vicious fight against the employers during the great lockout of 1913-14, Connolly founder of the Irish citizen army was as they say a marked man.
But what of his ideology can one imagine an Ireland where Connolly’s thesis had risen to the fore—how different a place we would live in now, of course our entire history would be different and if it were not in the light of what is taking place in Ireland today, it would be a fruitless exercise to even consider its implications.
Yet what concerns me as an individual and as a citizen of this state is the roaring question as to why within a supposedly democratic system did Connolly’s doctrine go unheard, or if heard then why unheeded. Historians may point to a very conservative church dominated society the very church who were persecuted in other socialist regimes, is it understandable that the church should have feared talk of equality and the individual taking a stake in the collective?
Again if one uses a casual revisionist approach could there have been any institution more totalitarian than the catholic church alright they didn’t take people out and shoot them [not in Ireland anyway.] but how many people suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of these clerics—to whom the state mindlessly handed over power in areas of health and education and in the area of imprisonment such as in the industrial schools.
Other reasons that Connolly thesis was ignored after his death was the advent of the Irish ruling class. There was always an Irish upper class whom were educated at the best schools either here or in England. These people saw themselves as the natural inheritors of fiscal power--they included both the catholic and protestant ascendency, and were mainly composed of professionals like lawyers and Doctors and medical consultants.
The war of independence made the option of home rule redundant and the watered down version gave us the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1921. As a result this was probably the only time in Irish history that ideology over pragmatism set the agenda---many on the republican side still believed in the all Ireland 32 county socialist republic—but shamefully and with the help and support of their former British masters the free state as it was now called, entered into a bloody civil war—whereby 3000, people were killed. In all wars there are atrocities carried out by all sides—but the systematic executions of over 77-republicans in 1922-23, tells its own tale.
So the new state evolved in the most divisive of circumstance but not on the grounds of ideology –the differences were easily categorised as one side yearning for a united Ireland and the other wanting to go with what was conceded and make a fight for it later—with this simplistic explanation many an Irish child passed through our educational system.
Nobody asked the relevant question what the hell happened to socialism or even social justice, the labour party minus a leader like Connolly became the conscience of the centre right—and Ireland grew as basically a two party state—both with centre right leanings and one which even had some far right elements in the mid – 1930’s.
The modern labour party under Eamonn Gilmore had an opportunity never before trusted on to the Irish left. After the last general election it had won the most seats to Dail Eireann in its history. Faced with a critical choice that was to enter government in coalition with the neoliberal Fine Gael—or align with fellow 'left wing' elected TD,’s and Sinn Féin and form a decent and noisy opposition to the criminal monetarism that is enslaving our citizens. They chose to enter government and I as a committed disciple of social justice wonder why?
Perhaps when we examine the labour party and seek to understand their motives we would best take a long hard look at ourselves. Who votes for labour is it the working person on low income who lives in social housing or who maybe is out of work and is actively seeking same—or is it the retired school teacher who started life modestly but now can sit back each morning with a copy of the Irish Times—and spout armchair socialism to anyone who might listen.
The labour vote has changed, and in essence labour is in fact representing those that voted for them by staying in coalition with the neoliberals. The average labour voter is middle-class or on the fringes of the merchant class—[By class I am not only referring to financial status but even more so to a specific mind-set]these people do not do ideology as they were not raised or educated to do so, they solely exist to maintain an acceptable standard, many of these people did come from humble origins—but it is not out of any loyalty to a miserable childhood that they vote labour over FF OR FG. They vote labour because they see no difference between the three and if there is no ideological difference then the only thing separating them is spin and personality.
We should take a long and hard look at ourselves we the citizen the inheritors of a state that was formed dubiously with outside influence from God knows where—we have arrived at a very difficult place and what we choose to do now, will have a major impact on our children and their children. I am not bowing to economics here but I am pointing to an examination of what it is we are—us the citizens of the Irish Republic what values do we hold—what is it that we cherish, are we willing to sacrifice things to create a more equal society.Are we willing to act like citizens within a state that in its definition is a collective for the common good. Or as this present government insists –are we going to promote individualism—greed, and base our prosperity on the volatility of the market place—the question remains and all that is left is our choice of ideology.
Monday, 16 April 2012
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Enda Kenny's Ghost Writer Lacks Substance
There are some out there that think this government are doing a good job in what are extremely difficult times. These are people to whom the body of politics is still about personalities and localism they have no realisation that due to neoliberalism, politics is now global without personality, and very often devoid of substance.
Enda Kenny is the CEO of Ireland Ink [sic] self appointed I may add, as far as I knew he was Taoiseach of a very small country with around 4.5 million people—I wonder can he do both like be a Taoiseach and a CEO, at he same time. This is where the substance comes in—Enda Kenny has no qualifications or even experience to be CEO, of Ireland Ink, [sic], in fact what is he actually, he is just the leader of Irelands most right wing party- Fine Gael.
Enda is nothing if he is not dapper—he likes to pull up his pants before he sits down, straighten his blazer when he is standing, Enda is a fast walker immaculately groomed his stylists have him looking ten years younger than he is—this is learned political behaviour and learned from you guess where? That is right you are correct! The spin is in the appearance and the substance is unimportant.
Take his interview with Sean O’ Rourke at the weekend—the man is so busy he hasn’t time to make it to the studio to discuss the matters in question regarding Denis O’ Brien—the household tax, and the Fiscal treaty-leave all that to the hacks, this is the CEO-of Ireland Ink [sic] we don’t mix it with the rabble. So Sean respectful of your title O’ Rourke- interviewed the impeccable Enda on his own turf and entirely within the no substance agenda.
Enda of course had a bucket load of excuses about Denis O’ Brien and how he as CEO, of Ireland Ink [sic] wasn’t responsible for who was invited and who was not, he then waffled on about the household tax and the Fiscal treaty and he urged us all to put our differences aside and protect the generations to come by voting yes. On the jobs front he assured us that the entrepreneurs will deliver- and only as they can, the jobs will flow and the people will soon see the promised land. Sean reverential O’ Rourke didn’t ask him a hard question and that was it.
I wonder about all of this, and as I said recently in a tweet, that I always get the impression that Enda Kenny is speaking from a script rather than from the heart. It is like he is possessed by a Ghost writer who in a previous life wrote inspirational verse for gift cards. When one examines what Enda is actually saying, you come up with the awful realisation that he is saying nothing sustainable. His usual rant about entrepreneurs for example –what does this mean? Who are these people he refers to—are they waiting somewhere to be called to action.
Lets examine the substance, the Banks are still operating a credit embargo, and as the CEO admits there has been no progress on upward only rent review reforms. So let’s allow that Enda parts the Irish sea -and the entrepreneurial hordes are set free to create these illusive jobs, the conditions that Enda’s government have set for them are restrictive, and many would be slain and counted as statistics within the first two years, and any jobs created would drown with them. So what has this government achieved—well the austerity measures they introduced have deflated the economy, the measures they have put forward to aid their entrepreneurial crusaders are negligible- so what have we left ,more austerity because the country is spending more than it earns etc.
In summation Enda Kenny’s government should resign—they are a failure of epic proportions, they rely on one single element of economic stimulus that is to attract multi-national investment mainly from you know where? That’s right you have guessed correctly—this whilst providing some jobs only assists our economy rather than allows it to flourish.
Enda is redundant on plans outside of his Ghost writers brief—as leader of this state and not Ireland Ink [sick] he should be aggressively introducing action by the state in areas of job creation using the state owned sector in areas like forestry, fishing, agriculture and our natural resources, to assist in the growth of this economy.
State is the collective of all of us citizens—right now we need a CEO—like we need kick in the face, what we need is leadership-not lazy scripted words devoid of substance.
Enda Kenny is the CEO of Ireland Ink [sic] self appointed I may add, as far as I knew he was Taoiseach of a very small country with around 4.5 million people—I wonder can he do both like be a Taoiseach and a CEO, at he same time. This is where the substance comes in—Enda Kenny has no qualifications or even experience to be CEO, of Ireland Ink, [sic], in fact what is he actually, he is just the leader of Irelands most right wing party- Fine Gael.
Enda is nothing if he is not dapper—he likes to pull up his pants before he sits down, straighten his blazer when he is standing, Enda is a fast walker immaculately groomed his stylists have him looking ten years younger than he is—this is learned political behaviour and learned from you guess where? That is right you are correct! The spin is in the appearance and the substance is unimportant.
Take his interview with Sean O’ Rourke at the weekend—the man is so busy he hasn’t time to make it to the studio to discuss the matters in question regarding Denis O’ Brien—the household tax, and the Fiscal treaty-leave all that to the hacks, this is the CEO-of Ireland Ink [sic] we don’t mix it with the rabble. So Sean respectful of your title O’ Rourke- interviewed the impeccable Enda on his own turf and entirely within the no substance agenda.
Enda of course had a bucket load of excuses about Denis O’ Brien and how he as CEO, of Ireland Ink [sic] wasn’t responsible for who was invited and who was not, he then waffled on about the household tax and the Fiscal treaty and he urged us all to put our differences aside and protect the generations to come by voting yes. On the jobs front he assured us that the entrepreneurs will deliver- and only as they can, the jobs will flow and the people will soon see the promised land. Sean reverential O’ Rourke didn’t ask him a hard question and that was it.
I wonder about all of this, and as I said recently in a tweet, that I always get the impression that Enda Kenny is speaking from a script rather than from the heart. It is like he is possessed by a Ghost writer who in a previous life wrote inspirational verse for gift cards. When one examines what Enda is actually saying, you come up with the awful realisation that he is saying nothing sustainable. His usual rant about entrepreneurs for example –what does this mean? Who are these people he refers to—are they waiting somewhere to be called to action.
Lets examine the substance, the Banks are still operating a credit embargo, and as the CEO admits there has been no progress on upward only rent review reforms. So let’s allow that Enda parts the Irish sea -and the entrepreneurial hordes are set free to create these illusive jobs, the conditions that Enda’s government have set for them are restrictive, and many would be slain and counted as statistics within the first two years, and any jobs created would drown with them. So what has this government achieved—well the austerity measures they introduced have deflated the economy, the measures they have put forward to aid their entrepreneurial crusaders are negligible- so what have we left ,more austerity because the country is spending more than it earns etc.
In summation Enda Kenny’s government should resign—they are a failure of epic proportions, they rely on one single element of economic stimulus that is to attract multi-national investment mainly from you know where? That’s right you have guessed correctly—this whilst providing some jobs only assists our economy rather than allows it to flourish.
Enda is redundant on plans outside of his Ghost writers brief—as leader of this state and not Ireland Ink [sick] he should be aggressively introducing action by the state in areas of job creation using the state owned sector in areas like forestry, fishing, agriculture and our natural resources, to assist in the growth of this economy.
State is the collective of all of us citizens—right now we need a CEO—like we need kick in the face, what we need is leadership-not lazy scripted words devoid of substance.
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
The Battle Rages But The War Has Still To Be Won [update]
The massive energy coming through the social media—where people are rallying against the household charge would be refreshing if it were not for the naivety exposed by those earnest lefties—that their fight against the might of neoliberalism is but a skirmish.
Boldly the protagonists wave the starry plough and throw insults and accusations against the suited politicians who represent an unaccountable—[at least in the short term] government. The government spokespeople who normally use RTE as their spin accomplice, dither and stutter to defend what they even admit is an unfair tax.
A neutral would be stupefied by it all the first question they might ask is why introduce an unfair tax—the ditherers would say because we have to, if we wish to keep services at a level that people are used to and expect. Yet this is in itself a complete lie—as funding can be sought and taken from a wide source of revenue options the fact that they have chosen the unfair tax route is simply down to ideology.
Here we go again ideology—now when am I going to learn that Irish politics has nothing to do with ideology—sure isn’t it all about fixing our road—or getting Johnny a job, but hey folks all you bearded lefties out there and I am referring to the women also, [joke] this is about ideology and if the only matter that is getting your fire lit is the household tax and a little bit of corruption then wait for the big stuff. At the moment you are only creating a skirmish in what is the undeclared World War three.
I am a lefty as well in case you are all worried and I am only growing a beard, but to my simple mind the fact that we have since the 50’s gifted our natural resources to private interests is the biggest shame and robbery of the Irish citizen—it is akin to every man woman and child in this country getting mugged. What do I hear about it very little—how would our angelic government ministers explain that to RTE -3000’ barrels of oil per day from the new Barryroe field-- and gas also, all going to private interests stealing from the citizens of this state. Surely that is a bigger issue than the household charge as to my mind it epitomises the corruption and the ruling class agenda in this country since the foundation of the state.
Getting back to World war three for a second—the ideological battles are raging right across the globe as we speak particularly within the Euro countries right now—whereby economic blackmail is used to subject citizens to the power of capitalism—and perhaps at its most sinister accuses the citizen of being wasteful and dishonest living above their means—and now these rigid fiscal measures are to be imposed not only as solution but also as retribution for wastefulness, for example those who responded to the phone call or letter from the bank offering them loans or properties abroad—etc.
Neoliberalism has many guises it propagates individualism at the expense of the collective—as the collective is bad for the select few but great for the citizen—however it holds all the aces and this is where the lefties should be careful about their strategy—midst all the screaming and shouting about the household charge, Fine Gael went up in the polls by 4 points. Why is this –the austerity saintly no-ideology party are getting more popular, yes you see because they own the spin machine and they have frightened the lives out of the middle-classes.
Throughout the history of our state—left wing collective type politics has been successful parked in the economic nonsense car-park—the idea of a country becoming as self sufficient as possible in relation to size and geography is sneered at, and branded as lunatic. Why? Because it means they might have to share not just wealth but power and democracy. Imagine an Ireland in control of its natural resources, as in fishing-agriculture-oil and gas, an Ireland where its citizens mattered and the infrastructural services to its citizens were paramount. The lefties should tread carefully and don’t inflate a skirmish into a battle, the war has just started, it will be long conflict, remember that this war is about ideology, as Brian Hayes said that income taxes may be increased if the household charge is defeated or deflated by non participation. Wow! Income tax increased like we might have to pay more according to our wealth and ability to pay—to provide for the very services his government are spoofing about, now we might have got him alright.
Boldly the protagonists wave the starry plough and throw insults and accusations against the suited politicians who represent an unaccountable—[at least in the short term] government. The government spokespeople who normally use RTE as their spin accomplice, dither and stutter to defend what they even admit is an unfair tax.
A neutral would be stupefied by it all the first question they might ask is why introduce an unfair tax—the ditherers would say because we have to, if we wish to keep services at a level that people are used to and expect. Yet this is in itself a complete lie—as funding can be sought and taken from a wide source of revenue options the fact that they have chosen the unfair tax route is simply down to ideology.
Here we go again ideology—now when am I going to learn that Irish politics has nothing to do with ideology—sure isn’t it all about fixing our road—or getting Johnny a job, but hey folks all you bearded lefties out there and I am referring to the women also, [joke] this is about ideology and if the only matter that is getting your fire lit is the household tax and a little bit of corruption then wait for the big stuff. At the moment you are only creating a skirmish in what is the undeclared World War three.
I am a lefty as well in case you are all worried and I am only growing a beard, but to my simple mind the fact that we have since the 50’s gifted our natural resources to private interests is the biggest shame and robbery of the Irish citizen—it is akin to every man woman and child in this country getting mugged. What do I hear about it very little—how would our angelic government ministers explain that to RTE -3000’ barrels of oil per day from the new Barryroe field-- and gas also, all going to private interests stealing from the citizens of this state. Surely that is a bigger issue than the household charge as to my mind it epitomises the corruption and the ruling class agenda in this country since the foundation of the state.
Getting back to World war three for a second—the ideological battles are raging right across the globe as we speak particularly within the Euro countries right now—whereby economic blackmail is used to subject citizens to the power of capitalism—and perhaps at its most sinister accuses the citizen of being wasteful and dishonest living above their means—and now these rigid fiscal measures are to be imposed not only as solution but also as retribution for wastefulness, for example those who responded to the phone call or letter from the bank offering them loans or properties abroad—etc.
Neoliberalism has many guises it propagates individualism at the expense of the collective—as the collective is bad for the select few but great for the citizen—however it holds all the aces and this is where the lefties should be careful about their strategy—midst all the screaming and shouting about the household charge, Fine Gael went up in the polls by 4 points. Why is this –the austerity saintly no-ideology party are getting more popular, yes you see because they own the spin machine and they have frightened the lives out of the middle-classes.
Throughout the history of our state—left wing collective type politics has been successful parked in the economic nonsense car-park—the idea of a country becoming as self sufficient as possible in relation to size and geography is sneered at, and branded as lunatic. Why? Because it means they might have to share not just wealth but power and democracy. Imagine an Ireland in control of its natural resources, as in fishing-agriculture-oil and gas, an Ireland where its citizens mattered and the infrastructural services to its citizens were paramount. The lefties should tread carefully and don’t inflate a skirmish into a battle, the war has just started, it will be long conflict, remember that this war is about ideology, as Brian Hayes said that income taxes may be increased if the household charge is defeated or deflated by non participation. Wow! Income tax increased like we might have to pay more according to our wealth and ability to pay—to provide for the very services his government are spoofing about, now we might have got him alright.
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Neo Liberalism The Truth
It is a grand little country after all—where our austerity preaching politicians are feted as celebrities and people like Lucinda Creighton and Paschal Donohue come across as angels such is their innocence and horror if there is a mention of ideology or in their case codology.
The name of the whole game here is spin—because spin works and spin is politics—Paschal in particular likes to lecture you and I Mr and Mrs Joe citizen—that we are broke and Government are being forced to borrow money just to pay our public service bills—if he is good form he will throw in a bit about the nurses and the doctors, and social protection is another favourite.
Somebody should tell Paschal that Ireland has a long history of borrowing money from the markets to pay all of these bills—and the crisis began when we just couldn’t go back to the well anymore. The funds that we are using now come at a much lower interest rate-but perhaps the real problems we face is in what we have chosen to do with these funds, and what caveats were attached to us receiving this money. Paschal of course has no ideology at all he is as much for the worker as he is for big business in fact nobody in this coalition will admit to having ideology be it left or right.
Lucinda Creighton is well able to speak but she tends to get lost down blind alleys and often looks completely perplexed like the questions she is fielding are grossly unfair and bare no relevance to her daily experience in Fine Gael—the no ideology party. The new buzz word from the government is to tell us little citizens that we will march out of this crisis and it is only a matter of time before Enda Kenny parts the Irish Sea and the hordes of neo-liberal suited entrepreneurs are going to save us from this politically imposed austerity.
Little Joe citizen is asked to believe this patent nonsense like we are about to accept an apology from an aggressor who has dropped an atomic bomb on us by mistake—and then we put them in charge of clearing up the mess.
Let us look at the spin and the way it works and how they are managing to keep the stench of neo-liberalism away from our sensitive noses. There was a very important statement made by Joan Burton earlier this year where she referred to social welfare fraud and how successful the reporting of people who were thought to be abusing the system—was to the increase in detection of welfare fraud—she of course is using fraudulent figures herself in this area—as Michael Taft has so graphically enlightened us the figure is near to 26 million euro rather than the 600 million the government are spoofing about. Why do they do this—well it is spin and it is purposely done to paint those on welfare as been central to the current mess we are in.
If that hurts wait for this, do the government ever publish figures as to how much money would be saved if we were to implement the following—means test children’s allowance—and college grants—and state old age pensions. We Joe citizen will accept a fair threshold of income and correlated assets and anybody above this reasonable line will be deemed to be in no need of these benefits, so the money saved I suspect billions would be redirected to the poor and the needy perhaps into educating disadvantaged children.
There is no chance of this happening for those people who are wealthy enough to do without these state payments basically control politics in Ireland and they are fundraisers for Fine Gael etc, one does not cut off one’s own foot but are people who claim benefits that they don’t need, are they not defrauding the state?
Michael Noonan stood up and said it and I could not believe what I was hearing he is offering a 30% tax break to certain high value foreign citizens to come and live here and create loads of magical jobs now before you stop laughing I tell you he was very serious about this fairy-tale from fairy land. We must understand that not only do neo-liberals not do state or sense of nationhood they profess that the state has no role in job creation. This of course just means that the state has no role but to make the conditions favourable for entrepreneurs and foreign high value entrepreneurs at that. This from the no-ideology party who are whipping the poor and the vulnerable with austerity.
The name of the whole game here is spin—because spin works and spin is politics—Paschal in particular likes to lecture you and I Mr and Mrs Joe citizen—that we are broke and Government are being forced to borrow money just to pay our public service bills—if he is good form he will throw in a bit about the nurses and the doctors, and social protection is another favourite.
Somebody should tell Paschal that Ireland has a long history of borrowing money from the markets to pay all of these bills—and the crisis began when we just couldn’t go back to the well anymore. The funds that we are using now come at a much lower interest rate-but perhaps the real problems we face is in what we have chosen to do with these funds, and what caveats were attached to us receiving this money. Paschal of course has no ideology at all he is as much for the worker as he is for big business in fact nobody in this coalition will admit to having ideology be it left or right.
Lucinda Creighton is well able to speak but she tends to get lost down blind alleys and often looks completely perplexed like the questions she is fielding are grossly unfair and bare no relevance to her daily experience in Fine Gael—the no ideology party. The new buzz word from the government is to tell us little citizens that we will march out of this crisis and it is only a matter of time before Enda Kenny parts the Irish Sea and the hordes of neo-liberal suited entrepreneurs are going to save us from this politically imposed austerity.
Little Joe citizen is asked to believe this patent nonsense like we are about to accept an apology from an aggressor who has dropped an atomic bomb on us by mistake—and then we put them in charge of clearing up the mess.
Let us look at the spin and the way it works and how they are managing to keep the stench of neo-liberalism away from our sensitive noses. There was a very important statement made by Joan Burton earlier this year where she referred to social welfare fraud and how successful the reporting of people who were thought to be abusing the system—was to the increase in detection of welfare fraud—she of course is using fraudulent figures herself in this area—as Michael Taft has so graphically enlightened us the figure is near to 26 million euro rather than the 600 million the government are spoofing about. Why do they do this—well it is spin and it is purposely done to paint those on welfare as been central to the current mess we are in.
If that hurts wait for this, do the government ever publish figures as to how much money would be saved if we were to implement the following—means test children’s allowance—and college grants—and state old age pensions. We Joe citizen will accept a fair threshold of income and correlated assets and anybody above this reasonable line will be deemed to be in no need of these benefits, so the money saved I suspect billions would be redirected to the poor and the needy perhaps into educating disadvantaged children.
There is no chance of this happening for those people who are wealthy enough to do without these state payments basically control politics in Ireland and they are fundraisers for Fine Gael etc, one does not cut off one’s own foot but are people who claim benefits that they don’t need, are they not defrauding the state?
Michael Noonan stood up and said it and I could not believe what I was hearing he is offering a 30% tax break to certain high value foreign citizens to come and live here and create loads of magical jobs now before you stop laughing I tell you he was very serious about this fairy-tale from fairy land. We must understand that not only do neo-liberals not do state or sense of nationhood they profess that the state has no role in job creation. This of course just means that the state has no role but to make the conditions favourable for entrepreneurs and foreign high value entrepreneurs at that. This from the no-ideology party who are whipping the poor and the vulnerable with austerity.
Friday, 23 December 2011
What can we learn from the Cloyne Report
Paedophilia is a very un-comfortable subject—most people dismiss the topic if it is brought up in conversations—the very idea is repulsive to most human beings, yet paedophilia is part of the human condition whether we like to accept the idea or not—and in order to protect innocent children going forward it is vital that society address this complex issue with vigour.
The most recent report from the diocese of Cloyne is surrounded with legal controversy and the omitted text from the original report is now in the public domain. The question that I would like to ask my fellow citizens is what in effect does this mean—for example will this report aid us in our understanding of what actually happened—or will it be filed away under the heading ‘We are very sorry—and we offer all the victims substantial financial compensation,’ then nothing is heard of the whole sad saga until some other terrible account of abuse is unearthed.
My next question is if these findings are in the public domain what can we learn about the nature of abuse and indeed abusers—as I firmly believe that the more we understand the nature of things especially when they are perverse the greater the possibility of us preventing further abuse down the road. I am indeed a very curious person and I do like to search the motivations of people who do things to others that are intrinsically cruel and damaging. However when I read the analysis of the Cloyne debacle I sigh because it is woefully short in this area.
There must be countless studies done all over the world into institutionalised child abuse—both sexual and physical but yet the best that our media experts can come up with is that the Catholic Church attracted paedophiles into its ranks as they had this desire to place themselves in positions of authority over children.
I thought about this long and hard before I suddenly shouted aloud ‘rubbish,’ think of what we are been asked to believe—young men many of whom were from good stable backgrounds consciously chose the priesthood so that they could abuse children—to do this they had to go through the seminary and read their way through theology—in order to pursue their quest. To follow this theory to its conclusion each abuser would have had to plan to do this individually and without collusion—I find this theory implausible.
Another explanation is offered that perhaps the church creates this abusive trait because of the all male celibate world which it endorses and indeed insists on as part of its doctrine. Those who adhere to this explanation accuse the church of corrupting normal young men, by denying them sexual release thus corrupting their sexual desires and making them social misfits and a danger to society. I don’t believe in this thesis either because if it were true a far greater number of priests would have abused children rather than the minority who did.
Also it is important to remember that child abuse is not confined to the religious—most children are abused in their own homes by a parent or a member of the extended family. Around the world many children were and I presume are abused in state run institutions where there is no clerical involvement.
I have just released my short story called the ‘The Fuchsia Walk,’ in this story a young curate hears the confession of his parish priest by the fireside in the parochial house. There follows a moral dilemma as the parish priest confesses incidents of child abuse. The story begins as the young curate confesses to his Bishop and a couple of theologians. The striking issue in the confession was an almost vitriolic statement by the parish priest—when he was asked why he committed the heinous crime—he answered—‘because I could—and with impunity.’ The young curate goes on sabbatical to West Cork where he takes the Fuchsia walk—and suffers a terrible epiphany in relation to the dark side of his own sexuality.
I am not for one second claiming to have the answer to the problems our society faces in relation to the problems set out above—but I think the theory that somehow if some men hold a very high expectancy of impunity—whilst placed in positions of power—this dark side of their sexuality can manifest itself leading to the terrible abuse of innocent children. Perhaps this theory is worthy of discussion.
The Fuchsia Walk is available as an e-book on smashwords at $1.99
The most recent report from the diocese of Cloyne is surrounded with legal controversy and the omitted text from the original report is now in the public domain. The question that I would like to ask my fellow citizens is what in effect does this mean—for example will this report aid us in our understanding of what actually happened—or will it be filed away under the heading ‘We are very sorry—and we offer all the victims substantial financial compensation,’ then nothing is heard of the whole sad saga until some other terrible account of abuse is unearthed.
My next question is if these findings are in the public domain what can we learn about the nature of abuse and indeed abusers—as I firmly believe that the more we understand the nature of things especially when they are perverse the greater the possibility of us preventing further abuse down the road. I am indeed a very curious person and I do like to search the motivations of people who do things to others that are intrinsically cruel and damaging. However when I read the analysis of the Cloyne debacle I sigh because it is woefully short in this area.
There must be countless studies done all over the world into institutionalised child abuse—both sexual and physical but yet the best that our media experts can come up with is that the Catholic Church attracted paedophiles into its ranks as they had this desire to place themselves in positions of authority over children.
I thought about this long and hard before I suddenly shouted aloud ‘rubbish,’ think of what we are been asked to believe—young men many of whom were from good stable backgrounds consciously chose the priesthood so that they could abuse children—to do this they had to go through the seminary and read their way through theology—in order to pursue their quest. To follow this theory to its conclusion each abuser would have had to plan to do this individually and without collusion—I find this theory implausible.
Another explanation is offered that perhaps the church creates this abusive trait because of the all male celibate world which it endorses and indeed insists on as part of its doctrine. Those who adhere to this explanation accuse the church of corrupting normal young men, by denying them sexual release thus corrupting their sexual desires and making them social misfits and a danger to society. I don’t believe in this thesis either because if it were true a far greater number of priests would have abused children rather than the minority who did.
Also it is important to remember that child abuse is not confined to the religious—most children are abused in their own homes by a parent or a member of the extended family. Around the world many children were and I presume are abused in state run institutions where there is no clerical involvement.
I have just released my short story called the ‘The Fuchsia Walk,’ in this story a young curate hears the confession of his parish priest by the fireside in the parochial house. There follows a moral dilemma as the parish priest confesses incidents of child abuse. The story begins as the young curate confesses to his Bishop and a couple of theologians. The striking issue in the confession was an almost vitriolic statement by the parish priest—when he was asked why he committed the heinous crime—he answered—‘because I could—and with impunity.’ The young curate goes on sabbatical to West Cork where he takes the Fuchsia walk—and suffers a terrible epiphany in relation to the dark side of his own sexuality.
I am not for one second claiming to have the answer to the problems our society faces in relation to the problems set out above—but I think the theory that somehow if some men hold a very high expectancy of impunity—whilst placed in positions of power—this dark side of their sexuality can manifest itself leading to the terrible abuse of innocent children. Perhaps this theory is worthy of discussion.
The Fuchsia Walk is available as an e-book on smashwords at $1.99
Sunday, 11 December 2011
A Declaration of War
I am declaring war on the Irish electorate after all it was they that replaced one set of neo-liberals with another set who have also managed to swallow the parliamentary party of the so called socialist labour party. The result of our electorate’s decision is this mean minded austerity that is pointlessly been aimed at our poor and vulnerable today.
The problem as I see it is that the Irish electorate is uneducated in ideology and the importance of same when reaching a decision as to who to give a vote to. There are may reasons for this, the local element of our politics particularly in rural areas has no room for ideology-instead the local representative is a mere fixer, maybe getting a road built or some other petty favour.
Many of these representatives are only mindless backbenchers anyway-they add no value to democracy at any level, and they are at the mercy of the most undemocratic phenomenon in the world the whip system. This soviet style tag to our democratic system renders it undemocratic, in that individual conscience is exchanged for political expediency.
Another reason for this lack of ideology is historical as many of the socialist revolutionaries’ who fought for Irish freedom were killed either in the rising of 1916-or in the civil war leaving the citizens of this state with a two party cartel from which to make their political choices. The labour party was insignificant and for many years this state was ruled by conservative politicians in league with the catholic church.
People could argue that the young state was in dire need of leadership and it also needed stability to allow it grow and prosper. Yet when you examine the whole process of our political evolution one could ask why there was no room for any political alternative to the catholic democrats who took turns in holding office for well over half a century. Gradually of course different parties emerged many were formed as splinter groups from the war in Northern Ireland and of course the labour party grew in line with the growth in urban populations.
Other parties followed like the workers party who divided into democratic left which was then annexed by the labour party. Indeed it is hard to believe that Gilmore and Rabbitte were once regarded as ideologically dangerous or subversive-but then as I said this electorate doesn’t do ideology.
What differences would an ideologically aware electorate have to evaluate before making there choice, there is a school of thought that bestows decency to all political representatives no matter which party they hail from, this view spawns from the idea of hard working and in the public service. It would be a misnomer to assume that the correct ideology makes it believers good and the incorrect doing the reverse. So taking the personalities out of it is vital when one examines the difference in ideology and the effects that it has on our daily lives.
The main difference is in ones realisation as to what is a state and indeed what are the true functions of the state. Most people regard the state as inanimate our flag blowing in the wind or by the parameters set out on an Atlas. Some think it is our government or our bureaucracy but it is of course none of these things, the state is comprised by the people who are its citizens. So when a government ministers says they wants to promote jobs and keep income taxes low as they have faith in private enterprise to provide jobs they are in a effect excluding the citizenship from this process.
This mantra means that the public service must be cut to aid job creation in the private sector-read this as the Irish citizen cannot control or run our own enterprises in order to create jobs and wealth. We cannot be trusted for example to control our fisheries-our natural resources of oil and gas-wind energy etc. Do we Irish citizen agree with this because if we did take control of the aforementioned there would be no need for the austerity and we actually could in time create a more equal society on condition that we pay higher income taxes in exchange for world class services in health-education and infrastructure.
So now will the electorate continue to vote blindly-or will ideology become a real issue in the formation of ones vote-time will tell and when it does I will withdraw my declaration and retreat.
The problem as I see it is that the Irish electorate is uneducated in ideology and the importance of same when reaching a decision as to who to give a vote to. There are may reasons for this, the local element of our politics particularly in rural areas has no room for ideology-instead the local representative is a mere fixer, maybe getting a road built or some other petty favour.
Many of these representatives are only mindless backbenchers anyway-they add no value to democracy at any level, and they are at the mercy of the most undemocratic phenomenon in the world the whip system. This soviet style tag to our democratic system renders it undemocratic, in that individual conscience is exchanged for political expediency.
Another reason for this lack of ideology is historical as many of the socialist revolutionaries’ who fought for Irish freedom were killed either in the rising of 1916-or in the civil war leaving the citizens of this state with a two party cartel from which to make their political choices. The labour party was insignificant and for many years this state was ruled by conservative politicians in league with the catholic church.
People could argue that the young state was in dire need of leadership and it also needed stability to allow it grow and prosper. Yet when you examine the whole process of our political evolution one could ask why there was no room for any political alternative to the catholic democrats who took turns in holding office for well over half a century. Gradually of course different parties emerged many were formed as splinter groups from the war in Northern Ireland and of course the labour party grew in line with the growth in urban populations.
Other parties followed like the workers party who divided into democratic left which was then annexed by the labour party. Indeed it is hard to believe that Gilmore and Rabbitte were once regarded as ideologically dangerous or subversive-but then as I said this electorate doesn’t do ideology.
What differences would an ideologically aware electorate have to evaluate before making there choice, there is a school of thought that bestows decency to all political representatives no matter which party they hail from, this view spawns from the idea of hard working and in the public service. It would be a misnomer to assume that the correct ideology makes it believers good and the incorrect doing the reverse. So taking the personalities out of it is vital when one examines the difference in ideology and the effects that it has on our daily lives.
The main difference is in ones realisation as to what is a state and indeed what are the true functions of the state. Most people regard the state as inanimate our flag blowing in the wind or by the parameters set out on an Atlas. Some think it is our government or our bureaucracy but it is of course none of these things, the state is comprised by the people who are its citizens. So when a government ministers says they wants to promote jobs and keep income taxes low as they have faith in private enterprise to provide jobs they are in a effect excluding the citizenship from this process.
This mantra means that the public service must be cut to aid job creation in the private sector-read this as the Irish citizen cannot control or run our own enterprises in order to create jobs and wealth. We cannot be trusted for example to control our fisheries-our natural resources of oil and gas-wind energy etc. Do we Irish citizen agree with this because if we did take control of the aforementioned there would be no need for the austerity and we actually could in time create a more equal society on condition that we pay higher income taxes in exchange for world class services in health-education and infrastructure.
So now will the electorate continue to vote blindly-or will ideology become a real issue in the formation of ones vote-time will tell and when it does I will withdraw my declaration and retreat.
Thursday, 24 November 2011
On This Almighty Road
Many years ago I met my first entrepreneur –this man had a day job driving buses for CIE-as they were called in those days—but once a week he toured around our little estate in Sallynoggin collecting slops and we kept a separate bin for potato peels and vegetable cuttings. He collected them weekly without fail and used our waste to feed a small herd of pigs he kept fenced in his back garden. This was well before the Green party or any mention of environmental issues—most families were happy to supply him with his animal feed free of charge.
There are very few council houses these days where one could keep even a small herd of pigs but the houses in Sallynoggin whilst modest boasted large rear gardens with the corner sites having large front gardens but their rear gardens were smaller. So the ‘Slop man,’ Called to us, and he fed his pigs and obviously sold them on for a profit. He passed the entrepreneurial gene on as years later his son used to collect stale bread from the local supermarkets to feed his own herd of pigs.
As time passed I met more entrepreneurs in various stages of their development—indeed I even became one myself for a number of years with varying degrees of success. I worked for one man for over ten years and though he was basically a decent human being—he was given to a certain seriousness that one attaches to the modern version of my ‘slop man’. For example he was tight-fisted when it came to wages and expenses—often the money one earned was derisory for the amount of hard graft that was expected—but heck isn’t that what they say, keep your costs base low.
When I entered into this murky world myself I met many entrepreneurs who had set up retail businesses in the main they were nice men and women but they operated on very tight margins and the staff employed were on the minimum wage some even below it. The individuals themselves in the main worked long hard hours and I befriended a few of them. I genuinely admired these people for their get up and go attitude-and the risks they were willing to undertake so as to create their own businesses.
Allowing for all of that I am finding it extremely difficult to accept that entrepreneurs can save this or any other economy—to listen to government ministers talk the talk about our brilliant entrepreneurs is mind boggling. Many of these start up businesses, fail to get through the first two years in reality that is the case. Some enterprises fail through the inexperience of the protagonist –others fail because they cannot access the correct funding from the local banks. Many of the enterprises are too small to attract Angel capital or qualify for seed funding.
The entrepreneur is fast becoming the victim of the neo-liberal conspiracy in that small business is claimed to be its champion and the living proof of this ideology. Government ministers regularly quote how vital they are in the provision of jobs—yet they do nothing about the penal level of rates and the upward only rent reviews that cripple the said entrepreneur. When all is said and done we are expected to believe in the might of unregulated capitalism to lead us to the promised land and yet it is this very unregulated capitalism that has led us to the troubled waters we find ourselves in.
The smiling Richard Bruton is quite willing to avoid serious questions and use inaccurate information to further his thesis that the wealthy do not need to pay more tax—and that raising vat by 2% effects everyone not just the poor— (but it effects the poor far more)-and we need our entrepreneurs these great champions of our nation to continue creating jobs and they must not suffer higher taxes. This is an almighty road on which we toil I have no doubt, but I am certain that entrepreneurs will not lead us to its end. The idea of individualism is advanced by neo-liberals like Richard Bruton at every turn—in the same breath as promoting this brand of capitalism he congratulates the new government for reforming the public service. This reform he speaks of is basically a clear out, in cutting job numbers and closing down vital services.
How the world has changed since the slop man called once a week and how funny that a government should reform the public service its predecessors destroyed as they acquiesced to all demands for the sake of expediency.
There are very few council houses these days where one could keep even a small herd of pigs but the houses in Sallynoggin whilst modest boasted large rear gardens with the corner sites having large front gardens but their rear gardens were smaller. So the ‘Slop man,’ Called to us, and he fed his pigs and obviously sold them on for a profit. He passed the entrepreneurial gene on as years later his son used to collect stale bread from the local supermarkets to feed his own herd of pigs.
As time passed I met more entrepreneurs in various stages of their development—indeed I even became one myself for a number of years with varying degrees of success. I worked for one man for over ten years and though he was basically a decent human being—he was given to a certain seriousness that one attaches to the modern version of my ‘slop man’. For example he was tight-fisted when it came to wages and expenses—often the money one earned was derisory for the amount of hard graft that was expected—but heck isn’t that what they say, keep your costs base low.
When I entered into this murky world myself I met many entrepreneurs who had set up retail businesses in the main they were nice men and women but they operated on very tight margins and the staff employed were on the minimum wage some even below it. The individuals themselves in the main worked long hard hours and I befriended a few of them. I genuinely admired these people for their get up and go attitude-and the risks they were willing to undertake so as to create their own businesses.
Allowing for all of that I am finding it extremely difficult to accept that entrepreneurs can save this or any other economy—to listen to government ministers talk the talk about our brilliant entrepreneurs is mind boggling. Many of these start up businesses, fail to get through the first two years in reality that is the case. Some enterprises fail through the inexperience of the protagonist –others fail because they cannot access the correct funding from the local banks. Many of the enterprises are too small to attract Angel capital or qualify for seed funding.
The entrepreneur is fast becoming the victim of the neo-liberal conspiracy in that small business is claimed to be its champion and the living proof of this ideology. Government ministers regularly quote how vital they are in the provision of jobs—yet they do nothing about the penal level of rates and the upward only rent reviews that cripple the said entrepreneur. When all is said and done we are expected to believe in the might of unregulated capitalism to lead us to the promised land and yet it is this very unregulated capitalism that has led us to the troubled waters we find ourselves in.
The smiling Richard Bruton is quite willing to avoid serious questions and use inaccurate information to further his thesis that the wealthy do not need to pay more tax—and that raising vat by 2% effects everyone not just the poor— (but it effects the poor far more)-and we need our entrepreneurs these great champions of our nation to continue creating jobs and they must not suffer higher taxes. This is an almighty road on which we toil I have no doubt, but I am certain that entrepreneurs will not lead us to its end. The idea of individualism is advanced by neo-liberals like Richard Bruton at every turn—in the same breath as promoting this brand of capitalism he congratulates the new government for reforming the public service. This reform he speaks of is basically a clear out, in cutting job numbers and closing down vital services.
How the world has changed since the slop man called once a week and how funny that a government should reform the public service its predecessors destroyed as they acquiesced to all demands for the sake of expediency.
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