pissing on their graves

In A Time Of Famine, Only The Rat And The Parasite Thrive - Thoughts on Nov 1st

More than a week before the nationwide protest of Nov 1st I was invited to speak at the Dublin City Centre gathering.

As it turned out I did not get the chance to speak but I had prepared myself for that eventuality.  A week in politics is a long time and I was expecting that things would change and the list of people wanting to address the crowd would mean that some would be bumped in favour of others.  Nevertheless I began to write what I thought were the important things to say to people on the day.

The thoughts which formed were numerous and my 'speech' was getting longer and longer.  I had so much to say and to try to condense it into a few minutes was looking more and more difficult.  On the morning of Nov 1st, after mentally rehearsing for days, I actually changed what I thought I would say and hoped it would capture the essence of the day, the significance of the protest and perhaps give people something bigger to think about than just an illegal bill for water.

This is the 'extended mix' of (a) what I had originally prepared, (b) the address I finally hoped to give and (c) my thoughts today, the day after Ireland's citizens took to the streets.

IRELAND - LESSONS IN SUFFERING AND SACRIFICE

It is said that "history has a habit of repeating itself".

Almost a century and a half ago the ordinary people of Ireland were in the midst of a holocaust.  During the time of the famine peoople had no food and children were hungry.  One million people emigrated to escape the hardship.  One million more died of starvation.  Families were evicted from their homes by force and thrown out into the mud and the rain.  It was the bleakest time in our nation's history and the story of it is known around the world.

At that time however, the politicians did not go hungry.  The people in authority, the police, and the judiciary.   Did not go hungry.  The landlords, the gentry, the businessmen and the wealthy did not go hungry.  There was food aplenty for those with means but the ordinary people suffered.

It happened because the potato crop failed. 

Today, in 2014, more than 150 years later, the people of Ireland are suffering.  Because the political system has failed.

Families cannot afford three meals a day.  Children going to bed hungry and in the morning go to school hungry.  In the past 6 years since the toxic banks failed only to be saved by our polticians, hundreds of thousands have emigrated to escape the hardship.  Today, half a million families are being threatened with eviction by these same banks.  Homes are being taken by the sheriffs by force and families thrown into the mud and the rain.  Thousands have died. Victims of suicide, pushed to the edge of despair with no vision of a brighter future.

In 2014, the politicians are not suffering.  Their families are not hungry.  The bankers and businessmen and property developers and landlords are not hungry.  The wealthy are not hungry.  Judges and Senior Gardai are not hungry. 

Why would they be?  In a time of famine, it is the rat and the parasite that thrive.

In 1916 a few hundred men rose up and took the power back from an oppressive regime.  They did it not for themselves but for the people and they gave the power to the people in the form of a Proclamation of Independence and a Constitution.  In 1937 the politicians destroyed that constitution and took the power back for themselves.

In eighteen months time we will be back in the capital to celebrate the heroes of Easter 1916.  And the politicians will have front row seats, and give their inspiring speeches and patriotic laments about the sacrifice that those men and women made to give birth to our nation.  The President and Taoiseach will host dignitaries and luminaries and all manner of royalty, state and corporate wealth.  The ordinary of people will be barricaded out.

I don't think I will be celebrating.  I think I will go to some quite place and ask for forgiveness.  For if we return to this historic place in 2016, and have not repeated what Connolly and Pearse and Collins did, then we will have dishonoured their memory.


WE DON'T NEED STRENGTH OF NUMBERS - WE NEED STRENGTH OF RESOLVE

It doesn't take 100,000 people or 200,000 to do it.  The number is not important.  What's important is the resolve. 

In Ballyhea, a village in North Cork, a small group of people have been marching every week for almost four years.  They were marching for two years before I ever heard about them.  They inspired me and few friends to march in solidarity against the bank and the bondholder bailout - the noose that was put around our necks and the necks of our children.  Dublin Says No have marched for more than a year and half every week without fail as one small group prepared to face down the might of the government and say we will not go quietly.

The Ballyhea group have had the resolve not just to march in their own small town, but to travel to Brussels and demand meetings with the heads of the Troika and plead for the Irish people ... something that Michael Noonan hasn't had the balls to do.

The challenge for us is to have the resolve of the people of Ballyhea to continue to demonstrate our disgust and anger at our politicians.  We will bring Irish Water down, but the government will retreat and regroup to attack us on another front.  If we do not defend ourselves again and again, in the face of repeated assault on our lives then we will have surrendered the war to the masters of our puppet politicians.



DON'T READ THE HEADLINES - SEE THE TRUTH BEHIND THE SPIN

The (government) media will report that 10,000 marched in Dublin City today and 100,000 marched across the country. 


I say that each one of us represents 10 people who could not be with us today. 

Each of us represents friends and family who could not make it.  Our young children.  Our elderly parents.  Our sick.  Those who are working.  We also represent 500,000 homeowners, equating to more than a million people under threat of repossession and eviction from the banks we bailed out - afraid to leave their homes becasue the sheriff and the banks are ready to move in and put them out on the street.  Hundreds of thousands of our friends and family who have emigrated since 2008 because they see no possibility of a future in the country of their birth.  And thousands of friends and family who did not make it to see this day - victims of suicide through desperation and despair.

If there are 300,000 people marching in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galways, Dundalk, Mullingar, Clonmel, Cavan, Donegal and the small towns and villages of Ireland, then there are 3 million people protesting against a political system that has betrayed and abandoned them to the jackals of the banks and the multinational corporations preying on their lives.



IRISH WATER - JUST ONE SYMPTOM OF THE REAL DISEASE.

Irish Water is not the problem.  It is just the latest symptom of the disease that is steadily killing out country.  The disease is our political system.  Corrupt, broken, wasteful, unjust, inhumane.

Our politicians, who we elected to represent us and serve us, betrayed and abandoned us in 2008 when they guaranteed the deposits of the super rich with the taxes of working men and women; when they bailed out the banks of Ireland, Europe and the US who financial experts and economists now agree should have been allowed to fail; and when they bailed out the bondholders of Wall St and London and Tokyo - gamblers who bet on a terminally sick dog - the Irish economy.

The infusion of money into the banks was authorised by the European Central Bank on the condition that the money printed for the infusion would be taken back out of the Irish economy over time so that the economy would not overheat and reignite the fuse that would bring us to the point of meltdown for a second time.
When the politicians turned that promise into a contract written in blood the fate of generations was sealed.

As a promise it could have been broken ... after all that's what politicians do.  But as sovereign debt, it became the chains with which to bind the people of Ireland into a life of slavery.  We live to work and we work for absentee landlords and paymasters who will not go hungry while Ireland suffers a new holocaust.

There were other symptoms along the way to November 1st 2014.  The household charge, which we fought off only to have it mutate into a much stronger and untreatable Property tax.  The removal of medical cards from even children with serious illness and medical conditions.  The Universal Social Charge: a tax that by the inclusion of 'Universal' in the title seems somehow noble and even unifying.  The closure of hospitals and cuts to health services.  The removal of critical educational support for those most in need.  There were other attacks to subsections of society that, although massively punitive to those affected, would be small enough to go unnoticed by most and those hit would be of such a small number as could be easily ignored, if their voices were ever heard.

But we could not ignore water.  Whether it was a tax too far, a human right, a public service not to be privatised, a political and administrative fuck-up, a charge on something that was not fot for purpose or some other reason, we marched for water.

When Irish Water is consigned to the scrap heap, along with now-third-hand meters and the board have had their fleet of mercs taken off them, the disease will still be there.  Festering.  Designing a new attack which will produce a new symptom.  And maybe we will treat that symptom.  And maybe we will beat it too.  But the disease will remain.

Politics is the disease.  The politicial system is cancerous.  And polticians are not the ones who will cure it.  If your waiting for politicians to make things better then you'd better prepare your funeral sooner rather than later. 

We elect them to represent us.  They are supposed to work in service of the public.  But politics in Ireland is not about Public Service.  It is about Self Service.  And by Christ do they help themselves.

WE ARE THE CURE

Treating the symptoms will only gain us temproary relief.  We need to address the cause of our ills and that is the political system.

It will not take much to do this.

The solution is NOT a new government; it is NOT more politicians; and it is NOT more political parties ... not under the current system.

The three most important solutions to our ailments (in my opinion) are these:

1.  The reinstatement of the Right of Recall which was part of Ireland's original (and usurped) constitution which stated that the people, by simple petition in sufficient numbers, could demand the dissolution of Dail Eireann.  With this power, a small proportion of the numbers who marched on November 1st could remove the government and call a general election.

2.  The abolition of the Party Whip System.  This insidious distortion of free speech completely silences the voices of the people in every constituency who send their representatives (TDs) to Dail Eireann.  There is no democracy when local TDs are used simply as voting cards to implement EU and corporate policy drafted by the unelected masters of the party leadership.

3.  A complete reform of Oireachtas salaries, expenses, perks and pensions which attract career politicians who have more interest in self service than public service.

Another important change would be the electoral process of the Seanad which should be the watchdog of government.  Personally I think a reassessment of our membership of Europe is a life and death issue for the future of our nation.  The old argument of "well, Europe was good to us...we got grant money ...and agricultural money ... and were attractive to foreign multinational investment etc etc" is all meaningless now.  We're paying back everything we EVER got from Europe ... with serious interest.  The EEC we joined in 1972 is a totally different beast to the EU that exists today.  It was originally a political community of nations aimed at improving trade.  Today it is the trading floor for European workers wages, bought and sold by corporate and banking giants, holding governments to ransom, bleeding every opportunity for profit under a banner of progress and prosperity.

These are the things we should be marching for even more than taxes and charges and cuts.

Change the system.  Cure the disease.  Or watch your country die a slow and painful death.

IRISH WATER - everyone still missing the Big Picture

While the excluded classes may have finally decided to raise their voices on 11th October 2014 at the national Right2Water protest in Dublin, most people don't realise the big picture in relation to the creation of Irish Water and the long term objective.

For most people, the introduction of water charges is a matter of financial concern, health concern and an end to their acceptance of cronyism and the political agenda to appease the rich at the expense of the poor. 

The politicians have made two arguments in defense of the establishment of Irish Water.  The first is that the supply of water needs to be paid for in these times of austerity.  The second is that water is a precious resource that needs to be managed better and conservation is a key factor in the company's creation.

Most people know (now) that water is already paid for.  We pay € 1.2 billion each year through motor tax and VAT primarily, as these taxes had 5% and 2% respectively specifically apportioned to cover the cost of public water.  So the first argument that water needs to be paid for disingenuously implies that it is not already paid for.  If the amount raised by the existing measures is unsufficient to cover the cost of supply, then surely the simplest and cheapest way to increase the revenue accruing to the government would be to add a half percent more on to motor tax or VAT...?

The government has chosen not to do that.  Instead it has decided to take € 200 million (half of the eventual cost) of public money to create a commercial entity to collect the tax that adding 0.5% to motor tax would have done for € 0.00

The second argument is that water conservation is apparently suddenly and completely out of the blue, (though parties have listed it in manifestos before now) a major issue of serious political concern (with lots of frowning and nodding) for our politicians.

Well, if conservation is a priority issue, I would have thought that a marketing campaign and a schools education programme would be the first thing to try.  For € 2 million the government could have had a snappy tv and radio campaign with Jedward and BOD and Imelda May encouraging us to bring the dog into the bath with us, and a schools education programme so that our children could come home from school and hassle us into washing the car from a bucket and going to the toilet in a synchronised conga for a group flush.

And if it didnt work, for the same money they spent setting up a company to tax us, the government could repeat the campaign every year for the next one hundred years...!

But they didn't.  They set up a commecial entity which will charge us for the water we already pay the government for, and who are under NO obligation to put ONE CENT back into infrastructure, construction or repair in a system where we don't even cconsume 50% of the water they supply because it is lost back into the ground (and back to the reservoirs) through leaks. 

Get it?  Half the water we are paying for we don't get and will pay for again and again, over and over.  That's like going into a restaurant and asking for a litre of water, paying for a litre, getting half a litre and the other half gets put into the next litre you order and pay for but only get half a litre and so on and so on.

So if the main two political arguments are not factual, then what is the purpose of Irish Water?  Privatisation ... of course ... but that still doesn't give the full picture.

Irish Water won't be privatised for a few years (we presume).  Over that time the government, continue to bleat about conservation and the need to upgrade an antiquated system, will pour millions of euro of PUBLIC money into a massive construction (what?? the construction industry has another government cheque book to rape ... yes.  sorry.) programme to make the Irish water supply system attractive enough for privatisation ... because a savvy businessman buying a second hand car will get the seller to foot the bill of service and repair if he possibly can before haggling for the lowest possible price.

We all know that privatisation of state bodies is a nice little earner for the politicians who engineer it and support.  Directorships, preferential shares, no doubt they get free whatever (in this case water ... whatever he says about his intention to pay, you think Enda Kenny is actually going to see a bill land on his doorstep !!??), junkets, tickets to the Champions Leagure finals, holidays, conferences (with family in tow), Christmas hampers that would feed a small village, invitations to dinner with Paul McGinley, and the list goes on.

The big players like Denis O'Brien (who wasn't a big player until Michael Lowry gave him ... GAVE HIM!!! ... a licence to print money with ESAT), will be queueing up to bid on an asset they know they will get at a massively discounted price, making hundreds of millions of euro in revaluation overnight.  By that time they will have a much improved infrastructure that the Irish public will have paid for ... NOT OUT OF THE MONEY YOU'LL PAY IN WATER CHARGES, DON'T FORGET ... THIS WILL BE OUT OF GENERAL TAXATION!  They won't need spend on the system ... they won't have to repair any leaks that are deemed to be your responsibility, and we'll have all the regulation we need to protect the consumser, just like the financial regulator protected us from predatory banking practice.

So that means that the end game is a publicly financed private monopoly on the supply of water to Irish consumers ... right?

WRONG!!

That is not even close to the big picture.

Take a company like Veolia for example.  Some of you will have heard of them. 


Veolia Environnement S.A. is a French transnational company with activities in four main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water supply and management, waste management, energy and transport services. In 2012, Veolia employed 318,376 employees in 48 countries. Its revenue in that year was recorded at €29.4 billion (wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veolia_Environnement)

Veolia Water (formerly is the water division of the French company Veolia Environnement and the world's largest supplier of water services.
Veolia has water operations in 66 countries across the globe, employing 95,789 workers worldwide and serving completely or partly about 64 metropolitan areas with more than 139 million inhabitants. It is strongest in Europe, particularly in its native France and Germany. Its biggest competitor is Suez Environnement.

Veolia is in the news this week (13th Oct 2014) because it has been charged with the disposal of contaminated items from the home of the Dallas man who died of Ebola .... that's where they rank in global services.

Why would they be interested in Ireland?  Well, for a start, they're already here.  http://www.veolia.ie/

Veolia Ireland have contracts with several county councils for water and waste management, they operate the LUAS in Dublin, and this year bought Dalkia, a major supplier of energy to industry.

When the gate is opened for bidding on the government's shiny new toy Irish Water, Veolia will be one of the first in the queue, with Denis O'Brien not far behind.

Why would Veolia be interested in little old Ireland? ... Here's why.

THE BIG PICTURE:

According to the Global Water Forum, set up under UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) and UniTwin (Unesco Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance), the global outlook for (fresh) water covers four issues: the availability of the resource, water quality, access to water supply and sanitation, and water-related disasters.
http://www.globalwaterforum.org/2012/05/21/water-outlook-to-2050-the-oecd-calls-for-early-and-strategic-action/

Here are some key points to note:

1. Resource availability

Water demand is projected to increase by 55% globally between 2000 and 2050.

This situation is compounded by two factors. First, the number of people living in river basins under severe water stress is projected to reach 3.9 billion by 2050, totalling over 40% of the world’s population. In water stressed basins, small changes in water regimes (droughts) can have major consequences. Second, groundwaterdepletion, which more than doubled between 1960 and 2000, may become the greatest threat to agriculture and urban water supplies in several regions in the coming decades.

85% of the world population lives in the driest half of the planet.

783 million people do not have access to clean water and almost 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. 

Global population growth projections of 2–3 billion people over the next 40 years, combined with changing diets, result in a predicted increase in food (and water) demand of 70% by 2050.

Over half of the world population lives in urban areas, and the number of urban dwellers grows each day. Urban areas, although better served than rural areas, are struggling to keep up with population growth (WHO/UNICEF, 2010).

With expected increases in population, by 2030, food demand is predicted to increase by 50% (70% by 2050) (Bruinsma, 2009), while energy demand from hydropower and other renewable energy resources will rise by 60% (WWAP, 2009). These issues are interconnected – increasing agricultural output, for example, will substantially increase both water and energy consumption, leading to increased competition for water between water-using sectors.

Water availability is expected to decrease in many regions. Yet future global agricultural water consumption alone is estimated to increase by ~19% by 2050, and will be even greater in the absence of any technological progress or policy intervention.

Water for irrigation and food production constitutes one of the greatest pressures on freshwater resources. Agriculture accounts for ~70% of global freshwater withdrawals (up to 90% in some fast-growing economies).

Economic growth and individual wealth are shifting diets from predominantly starch-based to meat and dairy, which require more water. Producing 1 kg of rice, for example, requires ~3,500 L of water, 1 kg of beef ~15,000 L, and a cup of coffee ~140 L (Hoekstra and Chapagain, 2008). This dietary shift is the greatest to impact on water consumption over the past 30 years, and is likely to continue well into the middle of the twenty-first century (FAO, 2006).

About 66% of Africa is arid or semi-arid and more than 300 of the 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live in a water-scarce environment – meaning that they have less than 1,000 m3 per capita (NEPAD, 2006).

Over 90 international water agreements were drawn up to help manage shared water basins on the African continent (UNEP, 2010).
2. Water quality
The quality of surface water outside the OECD is expected to deteriorate in the coming decades.
The consequences will be increased eutrophication, biodiversity loss and disease. Micro-pollutants(medicines, cosmetics, cleaning agents, and biocide residues) are an emerging concern.

3. Water supply and sanitation

Despite tremendous efforts in the last two decades, the number of city dwellers without access to an improved water source has increased since 1990; as urbanisation has outpaced the development of infrastructure. More than 240 million people (most of them in rural areas) will still be without access to an improved water source by 2050. The situation is even more daunting given that access to an improved water source does not always mean access to safe water. In addition, 1.4 billion people are projected to be without access to basic sanitation in 2050, with severe consequences on health and environment, as well as hampering water uses downstream.

4. Water-related disasters

The number of people at risk from floodsis projected to rise from 1.2 billion today to around 1.6 billion in 2050 (nearly 20% of the world’s population). The economic value of assets at risk is expected to be around USD 45 trillion by 2050, a growth of over 340% from 2010.



Big Phil has gone to Europe, so he's out of the way, right?

WRONG!

The European Parliament hasn't been a political structure for a long time now.  It is now a trading floor, controlled by corporate players in industry and finance, with MEP's merely the traders on the floor ... buying and selling the assets of member states to the multi-billionaire businessmen (like Denis O'Brien) competing for shares of global asset resources (labour, natural resources, political power...and by extension...tax revenue).

Brussels has an entire sub-industry of wheelers and dealers lobbying EU politicians and policy makers on behalf of companies like Veolia, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, the European Auto industry, Food giants like Nestle, the major banking, finance and insurance companies that engineered the financial crisis and the list goes on...  Brussels lobby groups are at least as powerful as the lobby groups that champion US industry in Washington.

Phil Hogan hasn't retired to Europe, he has been sent as Ireland's trading floor runner in the global sell-out to corporations that dwarf national governments.  And he's not negotiating for you, he's doing it for his political buddies (all parties included), the golf-club-set, the horsey set, the golden circle financiers like Fingleton, bankers like Drumm and Boucher, movers like John Tierney and developers like Johnny Ronan.

IN A WORLD WHERE WATER WILL BE THE NEW OIL, IRELAND COULD BE A COUNTRY WEALTHY ENOUGH TO PROVIDE FREE PUBLIC SERVICES INCLUDING HEALTH, EDUCATION, INFRASTRUCTURE, WELFARE AND DEVELOPMENT FOR IRISH PEOPLE.

We consume 2% of our frech water resources in Ireland.  If we could harness even 5% of our resource, we could export clean fresh water across the world, and even trade water for oil with the Arab states.

THE CORPORATE PLAYERS KNOW THIS.  THEY REALISE WHAT THE MARKET (AND MARKETING) VALUE OF FRESH CLEAN WATER FROM IRELAND WOULD BE AS A COMMODITY.

HOW MANY OF OUR POLITICIANS REALISE THIS?  VERY FEW I WOULD THINK.

OUR POLITICIANS WILL GIVE AWAY THIS POSSIBLE FUTURE FOR IRELAND FOR THE PRICE OF A SIGNATURE OR A VOTE TO SECURE A VERY COMFY RETIREMENT.

We gave away our oil when we could have been the richest country in Europe, with free education, free healthcare, free public transport, true social welfare and a country we could call our own.

Now we are seeing the possibility of the give-away of our most precious resource.  The infinite supply of the highest quality, soon to be most valuable commodity on the planet.

How many industries do you know that have a raw material of unlimited, infinite supply, that is totally free.  It doesn't have to be mined.  It doesn;t have to be grown.  It doesn't have to be manufactured or synthesised.  It falls out of the sky for God's sake!

THAT IS WHAT IS AT STAKE.  OUR POLITICIANS DON'T SEE IT BECAUSE THEY ARE SHORT-SIGHTED PARISH PUMP HUCKSTERS CHASING A FREE PINT AND SEAT AT THE ALL-IRELAND FINAL.

THE MAJOR CORPORATIONS OF THE WORLD DO SEE IT.  THEY SEE THE BIG PICTURE ... AND THEY PLAN THE END GAME.

We have the key to a future we can't even imagine - if we can only see it.

This may be the last chance we have to save our country from becoming Ireland Ltd

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Christmas Letter to An Taoiseach 2013 - the year of the Liar, the Coward, the Parasite, the Psycopath and the Politics of Expediency..

Dear Taoiseach,

For the past two years I have sent you messages at Christmas time to let you know how I am doing and, more importantly, how I think you are doing...

(In 2011 I sent you a shirt with my message written on it.  Can I have it back?  I'm running out of clothes.)

2013 will be known as the Year of the Liar, the Coward, the Parasite and the Psycopath.

THE LIAR

Let me take you back Taoiseach to October 2nd.  In the Dáil on that day you made the following statement in reply to a question on the upcoming budget:

"The fundamental issue of the Programme for Government here is that there would not be - and will not be - any income tax increases," 

" ... (the) assertion that people are going to be faced with that is simply not true, and will be vindicated and justified by the Minister for Finance,"

 When the budget was read out, with you sitting beside the Minister for Finance, we heard that single fathers would have their tax credit removed, resulting in an increase in INCOME TAX of €2,490.  I nearly fell off my chair.

Then on October 16th, the very next day in a speech again in the Dáil, you said:

"At the outset we have reversed Fianna Fail’s plan to increase income tax by €500m over two years and have maintained income tax rates, bands and credits to ensure that work continues to pay for working families."

Now, Taoiseach, I'm not sure which of the following is true but the only conclusion is that either:

1.  You lied on October 2nd.
2.  You had no idea what was in the Budget.
3.  You did not read or listen to your own Minister's speech.
4.  You don't understand how the PAYE system works.
5.  You cannot be trusted to tell the truth when you stand in the Dáil chamber where "privilege" rules allow outright lies to be stand as truth.

I hope I'm still alive at Christmas 2014 after trying to run a home for my children on €154 a week with no allowances or benefits from the state.

This year we have seen clearly that single fathers are regarded by the state system as scumbags, while paedophiles are shown complete leniency and more compassion than their victims.  I presume there will be more of that to come in 2014?

Taoiseach, you won't be paying a single cent more income tax next year and neither will your boss Denis O'Brien, yet single fathers will see their incomes cut which will impact significantly on the relationships they work hard at with their children.  And you say "I feel your pain"... Well how about you try living on €154 a week for a year and see your children two days a week and tell me how you get on.

October 2nd might actually become known as the Day of the Liar after ironically while speaking from a band-stand! in Stephen's Green.  The Irish Times reported:

"At Fine Gael’s final media event today Mr Kenny also ruled out any prospect of reform of the Seanad, saying the simple choice facing the people was abolition or retention.

“It costs € 20m a year to run. It is undemocratic. It is minority representative. It is not possible to reform this body,” he said.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/not-possible-to-reform-seanad-taoiseach-says-1.1547570

And on October 23rd the Irish Times reported: "Taoiseach to hold talks with party leaders on Seanad Reform".  http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/taoiseach-to-hold-talks-with-party-leaders-on-seanad-reform-1.1571118
So between October 2nd and 23rd, either the laws of the universe changed and what was impossible became suddenly possible, or you were just lying all along.

Even as I write this (Dec 17th) you are coming out with more lies and meaningless proclamations such as "a pledge not to hike income tax between now and 2020‏"

A "pledge"..?

Is that like a promise? Like the promises you make to get elected and then refuse to deliver?   Is it like a "commitment"?   Like your own Programme for Government that you refuse to stand behind, implementing completely contradictory legislation in breach of it?

You're a liar.
Your Ministers are liars.
Your TDs are all liars.

In the Irish Times Dec 17th Fintan O'Toole wrote a piece about the lies which your government have been telling to the Irish people over the past two and half years.  In case you ignored it here it is:
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/three-key-truths-about-the-bailout-which-we-are-only-learning-now-1.1629738?fb_action_ids=10201452950709192&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_ref=.UrBShRbbMCY.like&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=[546463182111252]&action_type_map=[%22og.recommends%22]&action_ref_map=[%22.UrBShRbbMCY.like%22]

In 2013 a man went on hunger strike for 23 days to highlight the plight of the self-employed and the unjust nature of the property tax.  For two weeks you ignored him, finally stating that you were actually unaware of it ... right outside the front gate!  Then you said that you would be happy to meet Tony Rochford to discuss his issue.  You did not meet him.  You sent two underlings to meet him.  More lies... and cowardice which brings me to the next subject.

In 2013 your Minister for Communications made an uncharacteristically truthful statement on national TV when he said that promises made in election campaigns, programmes for government and manifestos are all lies ... "because that's just what you do..."

You can bleat on about democracy and mandates and anything else you like, Taoiseach, the Irish people have lost all trust in politics in this country ... and as the longest (self)serving politician in Dáil Eireann that's quite an indictment of you.

How can "feel our pain", Taoiseach?
You've never been unemployed.
You've never faced the prospect of never getting a job again.
You've never experienced the strain of trying to survive below the poverty line.
You've never been on welfare (although you do live off the taxes of the Irish people)
You've never had to choose between food and heat for your family.
Your children have never gone to school hungry.
You've never lost your job two weeks before Christmas and told your children that Santa might not be able to being them what they want this year.
You've never been homeless or lived on the streets.
You've never experienced the savagery of the family court system.
You've never been imprisoned for the heinous crime of not being able to pay your tv license.
I cannot say that you have never suffered the extreme distress of experiencing suicide close-up, but I suspect the you have not.
You've never been pepper-sprayed by State authorities sworn to protect the citizens of this state.
You've never had to "do without" anything in your life.

You know nothing of the pain of ordinary people.
And you dishonour ordinary people by claiming that you do.

THE COWARD

In 2013 the Fine Gael lie continued with Ministers making vapid promises of deals with the Troika, better payments terms (for the debt that wasn't ours) and reports of promising negotiations in our on-going road out of the debtors prison known as "the bailout".

Of course the truth of the matter was that NO REQUEST FOR A RENEGOTIATION OF TERMS  WAS EVER MADE BY THE IRISH GOVERNMENT- THIS YEAR OR IN PREVIOUS YEARS.  How do we know this?  Because Diarmuid O'Flynn and the Ballyhea Says No group have been travelling to Brussels for a long time now, meeting successively more senior EU officials to plead the case for write-off for the Irish people which the Irish government have been TOO COWARDLY to do. 

Our political elite have been the absolute subservient, whimpering lap-dogs of the European Central Bankers since 2008, and no change of government in 2011 was ever going to change that.

Michael Noonan plays the role of the Great Negotiator when he takes the company jet to Brussels but when he gets there he changes costume and becomes the Court Jester of Europe, the buffoon with the all the guile and nous of a circus clown.  When RTE shows us images of Michael shaking hands with the great and the good of European politics you can almost here the buzzer going off in his palm...

In 2013 you decided (unilaterally apparently) to abolish the Seanad and then could not find the courage to justify your actions in a public debate on the matter, sending your whipping boy Richard Bruton in your place. 

Have you not even got the conviction of your own decision making?  Are you not prepared to stand behind your own position on matters ... like this issue and the Programme for Government?  Everything that comes out of your mouth has been proved to be meaningless.  You are not a man of your word. 

You betray yourself, the people, your own children and the future of your country with empty words.  For what?  Power, Position, Pay and Pension.  That's what it's all about, Taoiseach.  To say otherwise is to lie even more.


THE PARASITE

The Celtic Tiger didn't do anything positive for Ireland.  It created the mess we are in and, contrary to your statements to your European bed-fellows that "the Irish people were greedy and only have themselves to blame", the vast majority of the population benefitted not one jot from the orgy of cheap finance, construction industry rampage and non-productive speculative business.

The ordinary man in the street has nothing to show for the boom period except the bill ... for debt that they never created, were never contractually oblige to repay and will cast them and their children and grand-children into generations of poverty last seen in mid-20th century Ireland.

Property Tax
Dáil debate February 2 1994

"It is morally unjust and unfair to tax a person's home, and by so doing grind him into the ground.  Indeed in cases it could probably be unconstitutional.

It reminds me of a vampire tax in that it drives a stake through the heart of home ownership, through enthusiasm and initiative, and sucks the life blood of people who want to own their own home and better their position.

If the government fail to appreciate the passion with which people will defend their rights to their home ..., it is making a serious mistake"

Fast forward to December 5th 2012.  Journal.ie

TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has said the property tax, the details of which were announced in the budget today is “both progressive and fair”. 

No further comment needed on that one.


Under Fine Gael, Denis O'Brien has become one of the world's wealthiest men.  The issuing of the ESAT mobile phone license is without the most despicable, cynical and unequivocal pieces of political corruption to have taken place in this country in the last century.

It is absolutely clear that Michael Lowry was, and remains, a parasite and self-serving charlatan who sold his signature for a handsome reward to hand Mr O'Brien the keys to the billionaire club.

Mr O'Brien is doing very nicely once again under your Fine Gael government.  Supplying crowd control barriers at the Dail whenever he gets that chance ... probably at €50,000 a day or something like that.  He's been a great friend to the FG/Labour government with the Irish Independent during the year, ignoring completely the true stories of Irish citizens like Tom D'Arcy, Fiachra Daly, Tony Rochford, single fathers, pensioners, children with serious medical conditions losing their medical cards, the water meter scam (which he owns too as the installer!) and many other stories.  I'm sure the debt write-down he got this year of €100,000,000 will go some way to Mr's O'Brien's Christmas spread.  The O'Brien's won't be hungry this year that's for sure.

And when Irish Water gets privatised, who is it that will have first refusal on the Irish public's money again?  Denis O'Brien.  But he can't do it alone ... he needs a ministerial signature.  He needs someone in the same mould as Michael Lowry.  Ideally a huckster from the midlands with a brass neck and no thought for the people of Ireland. 

No doubt Big Phil is rubbing his hands at the prospect. 

Politicians' pay, expenses and pensions ... I'm not even gonna go there!


THE PSYCOPATH

2013 has been another interesting year for the country.  It began with your ascension to the throne as Temporary King of Europe with what promised to be an unholy orgy of self congratulation, mutual adoration and unbridled sycophancy towards your great friends and masters Angela Merkel and the Heads of Europe.

This, of course, incurred the wrath of those few people in the country who actually are awake and understand the extent of corrupt foreign interference in the affairs of what you continually mislead the nation to believe is our sovereignty.  Irish sovereignty was steadily whittled away  by Maastricht, Nice, Lisbon, the Fiscal Compact and other distortions of democracy which were sold to us as the answers to all our hopes and fears.

So to keep peaceful protesters "under control", crowd control barriers and heavy-handed Garda tactics designed to provoke ordinary democracy-driven people into conflict became the order of the day in the hands of the Minister for Injustice.  Gardaí were issued with pepper spray and, unprovoked, unleashed hell on peaceful protesters, pensioners, mothers and children ... with Garda 334 the most violent and unbridled dog in the pack.  His actions will never be forgotten.

But as I was predicting for months beforehand, when July 1st came around, the unprecedented Garda presence in Dublin suddenly disappeared.  It was all for show for the benefit of Angela and the Troika ... making some sort of demonstration of power to the EU, that you had Ireland under control, you were keeping the peasants in their place and Ireland would not descend into the chaos that other awakened EU citizens has brought to other cities across the continent. 

You controlled nothing, Enda. 

It is a great disappointment to me and my fellow enlightened that the Irish people are more Ire-ish.  But that didn't stop me from taking part in some peaceful (and ongoing) protests against your austerity policy.  Austerity has been the word of 2013 and I have to congratulate your government on turning it into some kind of badge of honour to be worn with pride and flaunted in the halls of Brussels. 

I believe the complacency of the Irish people towards austerity is rooted in our history as a colonised nation and our natural subservience to authority, reinforced by a church that preached fear and humility for a century and castrated its flock, ironically, while fornicating freely with the lambs.  Ireland has never united as a nation (other than in the distraction of the sporting arena), has never had to fight for its survival in a war, and cannot do it now when her very existence and future is threatened like it was in the mid 1800s.  And today the Irish people are choosing the same option they had then ... to take the boat.

Ireland in 2013 should have been a country of comfortable existence for its citizens, with adequate public services and a decent life for all.  But Ireland under your stewardship does not have a WELFARE policy ... it has a FAREWELL policy.  At the current (increasing) rate of exodus Ireland will have lost 20% of its population by 2020.  Considering that 20% are the young, educated, employable workforce we will be facing the prospect of the elderly, children and the unemployed repaying bond debt up to 2040 ... how are you going to do that? 

The answer is you won't have to worry about that.  You'll be long gone, with your pension and all the other wealth you have pillaged from Ireland and hidden off-shore through your company "An Taoiseach" listed on Dun & Bradstreet.  I presume you are never going to answer the questions I submitted to your office one year ago on this matter.  I will take your silence as an admission of guilt to unjustifiable actions.

In September 2008 the Irish banks all but collapsed having been allowed to operate unsupervised and create an entirely unsustainable debt structure.  There was serious mismanagement, negligence and predatory practice involved in their actions. 

In the summer of this year myself and some friends challenged the Department of Finance on its lack of action in relation to the banking scandal, highlighting that the statue of limitations of 5 years in cases of fraud was about to run out and your government had done absolutely nothing to seek the truth or find justice for the Irish people who had been handed the bill. 

In September 2013 the media began reporting that no banker would be charged with criminal offences.  We were right.  For two and half years when you could have initiated an inquiry, instructed the Minister for Justice, the Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate and ,if required, to pursue those responsible.  You did nothing.

The people responsible for the destruction of our country and the enslavement through unjust taxation of future generations have sailed off into the sunset with your blessing and your collaboration.

Ireland is a safe haven for the corrupt elite in business, banking and politics.  It is a sesspit of the most predatory psychopaths intent on extracting every ounce of wealth, capital and power from the ordinary men, women and children.  You and your political class have betrayed the people for profit and nothing else.  As long as you protect the corrupt, you are part of the corruption.  Your legacy, as I told you in last year's message, will be one of eviction, emigration, poverty, despair, destitution, prison and suicide. 

You are not concerned with the lives of the 4.5 million people in this country, only the immunity and comfort of the 1% who hold a noose around the neck of this beautiful little island.

You have single-handed created a new focus of distorted public policy in Irish politics.  You are not concerned with Health Care ... you are only concerned with Wealth Care.

This week an ex Anglo Irish Bank official was appointed as a High Court Judge, a Dublin man walked free from Irish courts despite having been found to be in possession of child porn, the age of consent is under review to be changed downward - great news for paedophiles, while single fathers, most of whom are honourable good men who do the maximum possible for their children within their means, have been vilified and penalised by the State for NO JUST REASON.

You tried to abolish the Seanad, as I have already said, against the wishes of the majority of the people and are intent on reducing the number and removing the remaining power of local councils.

You constantly defend your actions on the basis of having "a mandate from the people" ... which you don't, and insisting that you are not a dictator but a defender of democracy.

Well let's see what Ireland and its political system would look like under Enda Kenny with no second house and no local government:

Taoiseach
Economic Management Council (4)
Government (15)
Dáil Eireann

That reminds me of another political structure:

General Secretary
Politburo
Central Committee
Party Congress

To seek to create the same political structure as Stalin's Russia and at the same time insist that you are not a dictator is quite a feat of intellectual gymnastics, Sir.  That's quite the Messiah Complex you're sporting!

There is no political ideology in Ireland.  Every politician, regardless of party allegiance, practices the Politics of Expediency. 

What do I have to do to get elected? 
   ... tell the people what they want to hear, making "promises", "commitments" and "pledges" which you are not obliged to keep and have no intention of keeping.  As Minister for Propoganda Rabbitte said ... tell lies.

What do I have to do when I am elected? 
   a) if your party is in government, you simply do what you're told ... by the Central Bankers, the ECB, IMF, the REAL policy makers (Germany, France), the people who financed your campaign and actually OWN the party (Denis O'Brien et al.) and the PERMANENT, UNELECTED, INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND ... the mandarins in the Civil Service.
   b) if your party is not in government, nothing! You simply spectate, raise your eyebrows a few times and let out a few platitudes to the masses of how much better things would have been if you'd been in government.
   c) whether in our out of government, your absolute number one priority is always the same... the four Ps of Irish Politics: Position, Pay, Perks and Pension.

If I have served a difficult term in government with low probability of re-election, what do I have to do to get re-elected?
   a) Pull "a Keaveney"... jump ship, voicing your disappointment at your former party and how they betrayed their ideology (!?), their members and the electorate, to the plaudits of those sheep who think you're a man of honour ... only to do a "1-80" on your political principles and join the party you derided in the previous election as being the scourge of the nation.
   b) Retire with your pension and lobby your buddies for a few directorships which will keep leeching the ordinary man's wages into your (off-shore) bank account.

We don't have a national motto in Ireland, but we should certainly consider: "Ah, sure, what can you do?"

My response to you, Taoiseach is EVERYTHING I CAN.

Merry Christmas.  Don't let the ghosts of Christmas future in the forms of millions of impoverished, hungry, homeless Irish men, women and children keep you up...

Ireland fast becoming the sesspool ghetto of Europe, a haven for paedophiles and the corrupt super-rich.

The Irish people never had the chance to create their own society, their own political system or to reinstate their own legal system which, before the arrival of crown forces onto our land, was the most advanced, equitable and just system of law in the world. 

We have a crown legal system and our political structure was created by King George V with the establishment of the royal oireachtas.

This year alone we have seen judges in the criminal courts let paedophiles walk with impunity, some of them bankers and civil servants, while honourable single fathers are treated as the scum of the earth - deadbeats and spongers.

Even today (Dec 18th) there is a news report of a paedophile being allowed to walk free from an Irish court, with the judge showing compassion and leniency for a man who has been adjudged to have an illness and not responsible for his crimes...
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/dublin-man-walks-free-after-sentence-reduced-for-child-porn-conviction-617433.html#.UrDN3-kOyQI.facebook

Our "welfare" system also has some signs of mimicking the UK with children going missing in the HSE!!! and even abductions by the Gardai of children from their families. It has convinced me that the psychopathy of the super-rich ruling class inn Ireland is no different than that of our neighbours ... and how could it be so very different??

There exists, allegedly as I have not seen them, photographs of a government minister in a compromising situation with young boys in Thailand. Until they come to light this is speculation and they may not exist at all ... but I would not be surprised at all if they come out now.

In yesterday's Daily Mail there was an article about members of the UK government having links to paedopile organsiations promoting the lowering of the age of consent ... to FOUR!

see it here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2523526/How-Labour-Deputy-Harriet-Harman-shadow-minister-husband-Health-Secretary-Patricia-Hewitt-linked-group-lobbying-right-sex-children.html

People of Ireland, if you weren't prepared to stand up to bankers taking all your money, are you prepared at all to stand up to paedophiles in positions of power taking your children for their predatory sexual perversions.

I am fully expecting 2014 to become a year of horrific revelations in many areas. We know that our charities, many of them children-centred, are corrupt at the highest levels. Are we on the brink of further scandals implicating these charities, their top executives and politicians both here and in the UK sourcing children through these organisations for sex?

Society in Ireland is slowly being hijacked by the super-rich and the super-psychotic. If we are to have any future in this country with values for our society that truly protect and serve our children, our elderly, our poor, our disadvantaged then we have to FORCE our politicians - WHO WE ELECT - to create systems and structures to implement these values.

Without that kind of unity among ordinary people, Ireland is doomed to become the sess-pool ghetto of Europe.
 

On Irish Neut(e)rality

"We're a nation of rebels"

That's a phrase one hears from time to time, in moments of heightened nationalistic fervor.  We have a strong sense of ourselves as an oppressed people, proud nonetheless.

It is, I believe, a misconception.

A nation of rebels?

When was the last time we stood against our oppressors as a people?  When was the last time we fought for anything?  When was the last time we rebelled as a nation? 

It was more than a century ago.  In late 1879 the Land League of Ireland was born " to bring out a reduction of rack-rents and to facilitate the obtaining of the ownership of the soil by the occupiers".  It comprised ordinary people, the poorest of the country, the tenant farmers - threatened with eviction by their absent landlords for refusing to pay their unjust rents. Many of the landlords did not even live on this island.

On Sunday April 28th this year a crowd of more than 4,000 people gathered in Avondale, County Wicklow - home of Charles Stewart Parnell, President of the Land League to protest against the current government's proposal to sell off Ireland's trees to private interests.  Present at the gathering was Christy Moore, poet, musician and campaigner.  In an often cited newspaper article Christy observed that

"we seem to have become a nation of shit-takers"

How did that happen?  When did we go from being a rebel nation to being a slave nation?

The last great stand by Irish men against foreign oppressors was in 1916 when an army of no more than a few hundred nationalists took advantage of the diversion of the First World War to remove the English crown from power and establish Irish sovereignty for the people. 

Since then Ireland has had nothing to fight for.  Although Irish men did fight in the First and Second World Wars, Ireland itself has been a neutral country.  We have been proud of our neutrality.  But has it been a good for us?  Have we forgotten our rebel spirit.  Have we become complacent about our nationalism?  Do we stand for anything?  Have we forgotten how to stand against anything?

In our indepedence and peace and neutrality we began to grow as a country.  We enjoyed stability, celebrated our culture, sought strength and refuge in our churches and finally began to see benefits of our creativity, our labour and our values.

We placed our trust in our government, knowing that the memory of 1916 would protect us from ever being oppressed again.

Outside of Leinster House the people put even more trust in the local Parish Priest and Bank Manager.  Men we believed to be of high morals, working for our salvation and our prosperity.  We didn't need to have values because the authorities in our society commanded such respect.  We questioned nothing.  We believed everything.    .

And then the tiger came.  It made us fat.  It made us lazy.  It made us think we were economic geniuses, invincible and destined to live in luxury for the rest of our days.  Except it wasn't a tiger.  It was a Trojan horse and now everything we built since we claimed our independence has been handed over to anonymous foreign landlords who own our homes, our cars, our land and our labour.  And the best we can do is shout at the tv.

That's how Irish neutrality became Irish neuterality.

Has being a neutral country and a god-fearing and bank-fearing nation castrated us as a people?
 
Well, Ireland, it's time again to stand up to absentee landlords threatening to evict us for refusing to pay unjust taxes.

  FIND YOUR BALLS!!  TAKE THE POWER BACK!!