Category: Body Politic

Hallelujah, Independent Senator Shane Ross has finally come around to Public Inquiry’s core philosophy – that Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt country.

Speaking on The Saturday Night Show, Ross said that Ireland is a country run by cronies for the benefit of cronies.

Significantly, he also (rightly) claims that a Fine Gael/Labour government will make little difference because they operate within the same (corrupt) system.

This is important because most people/commentators/politicians seem to believe that a FG/Lab coalition will introduce radial reform – they won’t.

Accepting that the situation was extremely serious Ross promises to work on three main reforms.

An end to cronyism.

Renegotiate the IMF deal and burn the bond holders.

Reform the political system.

I genuinely wish him well.

Letter in today’s Irish Times.

Madam,

The sweeping powers now held by the Minister for Finance seem to be similar to those held by the Eastern German regime of Eric Honecker.

Since the passing of laws to legally transform private debt into public debt and to have the related court hearings held before only certain legal personnel, excluding any independent media to represent the taxpayers interest, one can only shudder at the totalitarian implications for our future.

These powers contain things unheard of in a western democracy including that any one who leaks any information is subject to a serious jail sentence.

All of this is none other than summary censorship on public matters, (we own these banks), and whistleblower prevention extraordinaire.

This moved by an un-mandated government and endorsed by the now autumnal Green Party.

Hiding behind the fig-leaf of the mooted abolition of the Seanad, TV and radio have been remarkably quiet about all of this and the implications of this legal enshrining of banker interests above those of the public are swept away with the crumbs of the Christmas turkey and pudding.

Yours, etc,

Eileen O’Sullivan,
Vevay Road,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.

A nation rarely goes corrupt overnight; it’s usually a slow process over many years.

Bit by bit freedoms are restricted, state secrecy becomes the norm, the media begins to die as an effective guardian of free speech and citizens begin to accept the abnormal and dysfunctional as normal and acceptable.

The situation has become so serious that only revolutionary steps by a new government will prevent Ireland from moving into what an Irish Examiner editorial described as a Mugabesque sphere.

Given that the entire body politic operates within a corrupt system this is unlikely to happen.

I won’t play the blame game.

This was the banner headline in last Sunday’s Sunday Times (Sub. Required) introducing an interview with former president Mary Robinson on the occasion of her return to Ireland after a 13 year absence.

Robinson then went on to play the blame game in unequivocal terms.

We can certainly put a great deal of responsibility on the banks and those with political responsibility, but it’s our own mistakes as Irish people, collectively. There was a sense of foolishness and, unfortunately, we’re now paying a high price.

The clear message here is that while the political system and banks had some responsibility it was the greed of ordinary Irish citizens that caused the catastrophe.

It should also be noted that the ‘we’ who will be paying the price does not include the ‘partially’ responsible bankers and politicians or, indeed, Mrs. Robinson herself.

The ‘we’ is strictly confined to the ‘greedy’ citizens desperately struggling to feed, clothe and provide shelter for themselves and their families while the non ‘we’ continue to live comfortable, non accountable lives.

Don’t misunderstand me; I have great admiration for Mary Robinson, she’s a woman of great courage and vision.

But it is depressing to realise that she, in common with the rest of our ruling elite, has no understanding whatsoever of the deeper cause of our destruction as a nation.

Nor can the ‘guilty’ Irish citizens expect any help in their hour of greatest need from this highly respected global leader.

I don’t want to get involved in the politics because as a former president it’s important to stay outside the political blame game.

So out of respect for a corrupt political system and the expensive and useless office of president this potentially great national leader has written herself out of any participation in the nation’s recovery.

Less than two weeks ago a major talking point in Ireland was whether civil servants should give up their long established right to a half hour break to cash their pay cheques.

This is despite the fact that the actual issuing of such pay cheques ended years ago with the introduction of the automatic funds transfer system.

The unions said that this particular (bizarre) perk would have to be the subject of some tough negotiation before any concessions could be considered.

This farce is a good indication of how far from reality most Irish people operate.

Just this weekend, as the country plunges into economic oblivion, there are still people so far removed from reality that they’re talking about the Croke Park Agreement as if it was still a realistic prospect.

As a nation, for the first time in our entire blighted history, we are about to have our collective heads shoved into a bucket of cold, hard reality.

We will be held there for about 30 seconds before being pulled out and, gasping for air and shocked with horror at the sight of reality, we will see ‘kind’ strangers shouting in our faces.

Hello, Hello, do you understand? You must stop talking and act. Do you understand? You must educate yourself on how to run a country; you must learn to take responsibility for your corruption and stupidity, do you understand?

Weakly, our gombeen leaders will mumble – Lehman Brothers…British oppression…before the heads are pushed back in the bucket.

And so it will continue until, finally, reality is forced into our tiny collective heads and we can begin the long process of creating, for the first time, a decent, accountable democracy without the contamination of corrupt, greedy and arrogant gombeen men.