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Congratulations — 20 Comments

  1. From a distance I feel there is a lot of hype about statistics and credit ratings, and not enough about the long term health of the Irish economy. That famous photo in the Irish Times showing Chopra and his assistants from the EU passing a Rumanian beggar on their way to signing the bailout with the Irish banking authorities sums up the disconnect between macro-enonomic discourse and what happens to thousands of families on the ground. There is a lot of top level backslapping over exiting the bailout, but the longterm effects of the 2008 meltdown and the financial decisions made by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan under desperate pressure remain undefined. I feel we have only viewed the tip of a colossal iceberg. Many people are too stunned to look below the water and contemplate the awful magnitude of the financial disaster nationally and internationally.

    • The problem here [and the reason for my irritation] is that there are two entirely separate tiers here. 

      On one side, the government and the EU are delighted because the figures are correct.  Total meltdown has been averted [?] and the figures look good.  We hear from this group how Ireland is recovering because output is growing and how we are number one on the Forbes list for business.

      On the other side however is the population who see the underbelly of the whole affair.  It's the population who has suffered rocketing taxes, unemployment, business closures, home repossessions, mass emigration and a frightening rise in the suicide level.  There is fuck all to celebrate there.  Industrial output may be up, but that is purely exports [relying 100% on the rest of Europe recovering].  There is zero domestic growth because there is no domestic demand.  And there is no domestic demand because people have no disposable income.

      That photograph was an excellent image, as it perfectly portrayed the divide between the government and the financiers on the one hand and the plain people on the other.  The exit from the bailout has about as much relevance to the people here as the Queen's Birthday.

  2. There is no government just people. (I'm sure you know this so please forgive me)
    People here and in Ireland seem too willing to hand over the responsibility for their lives to those who claim authority.
    Even when every rule the authoritarians invent has to be 'enforced by penalty' even when the authoritarians are found out for the criminals they are, even when the authoritarians make decisions that kill people one way or the other, people will still carry in paying, still carry on saying, 'it'll be better next year, still carry on saying 'better the devil you know', still carry on believing 'I cannot change anything' anything to excuse them from taking personal responsibility for their lives.

    • Indeed you are preaching to the converted.

      The problem here is that our political system is irredeemably broken.  At election time we are given a "choice" of three parties whose ideals are pretty much identical and whose priorities are their own power and enrichment.  The concept of a government representing the people is a sick joke here.  They represent themselves, their families and their pals and that's it.

      It's no use saying don't elect them, because the drones here always will.  They see no alternative.

      • The British and Irish isles seem to afflicted with the exact same parasite class. Is there a colony of the fuckers we don't know about?

  3. Sod's Law
    I couldn't remember this when compiling my previous comment could I?

    "In the 1976 movie, “Network”, Peter Finch yelled, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.”  Why did it take us over 35 years to feel what he felt?  In the same movie, Ned Beatty says, “There are no countries; there are only corporations.”  We’ve had this information a long time. What have we been doing with it?  Trying to remain in honour? – peace? – forgiveness? – love?   None of that worked; did you notice?"

    http://spiritualeconomicsnow.net/?p=416

    Until people decide to make a change and actually implement that change they are going to be fucked by the system that is screwing them in every conceivable way except for actual sexual intercourse.

    • Shades of Cap'n Ranty?!

      Unfortunately the concept of the Freeman is very much an individual thing.  I can't see it having any impact on the system until such time as people in their thousands start asserting their rights.  A negative view, maybe but I think a pragmatic view?

      • No not freeman. I do not like nor use labels. I cannot for the life of me see any solutions to the crap that is the system coming from or existing within the system. This reliance on outside authority is bizarre at least to me. You are right though. I scare all the people I know when I mention tha

        • Not sure what happened there to continue…
          I scare all the people I know when I mention anything I am doing in an attempt to move myself out of step with the system. If I suggest they find their own ways to do the same they say they 'get it' but respond with 'I understand but I'll carry on paying because that is what you are supposed to do'. If I am ever daft enough to ask them to define 'you'. I get silence. For the record I cannot define you.

          These people, my friends and acquaintances, all seem to be waiting for things to 'get better'  as if by magic. They dutifully hand over their personal details to whoever asks for them. They would never dream of asking why they have to hand over their details.

          I am at a loss to understand exactly what they are scared of and to be honest I've never asked any of them. Perhaps I fear losing them as friends if I do. The thing is though over here the government people state that they govern by consent of the governed and yet everyone is simply presumed to have consented to be governed as no bugger is ever asked. Same goes for policing.

          Not sure if I've posted this link before on here but what this young lady says resonates with me and she explains what I am struggling to explain. She's much better looking than I am. Even my wife agrees.

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eZC98kOtec
           

          • Sorry – "freeman" not "Freeman"  How do you label someone who doesn't want labels?!

            That video is excellent – pretty much sums up my philosophy too. 

            • Labels are used to divide people (again preaching to the choir. I should know better). As I see it I am just me even if I cannot define what I am.

  4. "It's like a rapist seeking praise for not killing his victim"

    Or even the EU being awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace….

    Totally agree what Bill said.

    • Most of the bailout money went into paying back the foreign investors' gambling debts.  The banks and insurance companies are still broke, and are likely to remain so for some time.  The banks in particular have a huge burden of bad debt as the money they loaned during the boom times can never be repaid.

  5. Notice of the endless repetition of the puerile, rediculous, nauseating use of the expression ' gubmint ' has finally reached my desk and I must ask you to desist from this pathetic locution and instead refer to them in all future communications as ' that bunch of fuckers' .

    • One of the problems I have is that I feel the use of the word "government" accords them a respect they do not deserve.  Indeed "that bunch of fuckers" is far more accurate [maybe "bunch of cunts" would be better?] but I use "gubmint" to distinguish which bunch of fuckers I'm talking about.

  6. I have just read a summary of the Taoiseach's television Address to the Suffering Nation. This nugget requires some special digestion:; "“Your patience and resilience have restored our national pride and empowered us to face the challenges that remain." In a Fifth Year school essay assignment I might give the above quote to students and ask then to Discuss Our National Pride. Bonus marks for writing as Gaeilge and quoting Plato, but please do not feed it to the family pet dog.

    • Classic us and them divide. Here the County council talk like this
      "We are spending £3 million in YOUR community." and they put it up on massive signage on their 'community projects'.

      The fuckers steal the income of the people they call 'community' and then crow about giving a pittance back in the form of works they deem to be necessary. The sheeple carry on grazing and ignore any of their number, like me, who raise the issue.

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