The thin veneer of 'democracy' and Politicians calls for 'empowerment'.

When governments make unpopular decisions, there's always a spin doctor
to remind us that "it's a democracy", and we must accept the decisions of the elected government or vote them out in 5 years time.

That's a very thin veneer of democracy for 'the little people' not the 'big players'. 
Take for example the banks. Back in 2006, when it was known that we were already building far more houses than even the frenzied property bubble was buying up, the banks were still lobbying
heavily to get the regulations changed, so they could take even bigger and riskier gambles.
Some of the civil servants at the department of finance and staff in the financial regulator raised repeated concerns about this, but were over-ruled. The government published a bill in February 2007, and
passed in April 2007, just BEFORE the election. No empty election promises for this crowd. They got their changes without even trading a vote for it. So much for the 'currency of democracy' in Ireland.

Smoking ban or smokescreen? Beware the wedge issues that distract and divide.

What is a wedge issue?

A wedge issue is a clever distraction that is used to draw public attention away from a more serious issue.

They cause the public to spend time and energy arguing over a different topic, while the government continues to push ahead with unpopular policies.

A very recent example of this is the proposal to ban smoking in cars.  How many of you heard your local radio station discussing this, or saw articles about it in the paper, or were talking about it with colleagues or friends? The vast majority of you, right?  Why did this topic suddenly pop out of nowhere, while the country is going down the tubes and we're being hit by  cuts and charges?

Think about it, before the proposal to ban smoking in cars, if someone asked you to list the top 10 things that needed to be done to fix the country, would that ban even cross your mind?

If you got to Google News, and type in "Ireland smoking in cars" it returns over 13 MILLION results, from news articles in papers and radio websites across the english speaking world. And this is just a proposal.

Now type in 'rape crisis network ireland funding cut' and it returns 7 results. This is despite the fact that
their funding is in real danger of being cut off, and has only been extended by a short period.

Why Fine Gael's "chicken little" act doesn't add up.

Brian Hayes, junior minister for propoganda

Does this sound familiar "If we don't do this, we'll be out of the EU,
and we'll be back to the days when we had nothing"?  
Nice? Lisbon? Yes, they trotted it out then, and before, and they are reheating this "chicken-little" scare tactic once more.

The latest is junior minister Brian Hayes telling us that we must
"clear the debts or go back under Britain's skirts."
Apart from the foolishness of playing the 'Britain card' so soon after
the visit of Lizzy Windsor, the threat was rubbish.
The Minister managed of course to present the only options as paying off all the debts, including those of the zombie banks, or leaving the euro, losing our sovereignty (as if it was being bravely defended now).
This is utter crap, which is nothing new from politicians, but it is also dangerous.
This country should not pay for bankers debts, and also CANNOT pay for them, not unless it is forever strung out, by 'deals' that piece by piece privatise everything possible, while reducing living standards to something similar to Poland or Turkey.   

Facebook as an activist tool - know the limits

Summary:
Some of the best websites for free non-mainstream media (like Indymedia.ie) have lost readers to sites like Facebook. While Facebook can connect you and let you post (theoretically) to large numbers of people, note that fewer people may see it than you think. Also, in order to get change done, we have to engage with people who do not already agree with us. Facebook filters can actually lead us into more closed circles with people who agree with us. And while I do agree that blogs and Facebook can be useful for activism, never forget that we must do more than be keyboard warriors, and  get out there in the real world with real people. 
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Facebook and other online tools can be useful, if used correctly.

Ireland in Debt. Hostage to fortune, or just plain hostage?

We have been repeatedly told that "we" lost the run of ourselves, that "we" all partied, blew the boom, and now "we" are dependent on the "kindness of strangers".

This is a dangerous lie, designed to make us feel guilt rather than justifiable anger at the banking crisis.

The banks didn't fall apart because of people not paying their home mortgages, it was their reckless lending to speculators, and over-borrowing from the bond markets that landed them in trouble.  It's nothing to do with the average John or Mary on the street, the vast majority of whom continue to pay their mortgages even in these tough times.

Irish Examiner

Most of the deficit is caused by the fact that we borrowed money to help out the banks. These banks borrowed ridiculous amounts of money from the bond market in order to lend it out to the property developers who didn't know when to stop.

Fake choices, moving targets and diversions.

Some tricks to watch out for in opposing the cuts caused by the banking scam.


Fake Choices
In an attempt to fool people that 'we're all in this together' and that it's all above board and democratic, the government is providing us the opportunity to have some input into the public sector 'review' (also known as the big cuts, aka the 'tough decisions'.)

If you visit the website of the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform, you will see that Minister Howlin has a nice new section where we can all play our part in planning the cuts.

While there certainly is plenty of waste to complain about (mostly a result of corruption, appointment of incompetent cronies who couldn't run a chip shop etc.) the emphasis is on "suggestions and proposals for making further savings, and for introducing reforms and efficiencies in spending programmes and in the design of delivery of public services."
The biggest current waste of money doesn't get a mention. There s no option for 'burning bondholders'... nor of course do they propose taxing the rich, nor increasing taxes on (or nationalising) the Corrib Gas field.
You can suggest this yourself by sening an e-mail to expenditurereview@per.gov.ie

They haven't moved into a full on "choose your punishment" question... yet.

Time to stop dithering, and do what the people AND the markets want

The more it drags on the worse it gets. Ireland is facing savage cuts followed by insolvency, and the rest of the Eurozone is looking like a house of cards.


It's time this government grew a spine and did the right thing.


Burn the holders of bonds in the zombie banks. Just do it. Merkel wants us to do it, the IMF wants us to do it, the markets want certainty, so they can move on.  And everyone knows that the Irish people don't want to pay off the debts of banks, to people we didn't borrow the money from.


We've already paid out over 60 billion euros to bank bondholders, and according to figures available on namawinelake and bondwatch, there's at least another 64 billion that expires soon. How can we pay that? Borrow from the markets at 14% to pay off bonds that the state didn't even issue ? Even if the Greeks think we are sheep, we can't be THAT obedient can we?

Let's find out.

bin Laden dead, time to reflect, not just whoop it up.

I can't say I was sad or happy to hear that the US had killed Osama bin Laden.

He'd been reported dead before anyway, so I don't jump at headlines.

I think, if after 9/11, they'd treated that massive crime, as a crime and hunted the man down, caught him, or killed him resisting, I would have been happy about it.

But after 9 and a half years, during which the crimes of 9-11 were abused as cover for the slaughter of innocent Afghans and Iraqis, hearing that bin Laden is dead brought me no relief.

Certainly he didn't deserve to be free and happy, but I strongly feel that the most just solution for the 'War on Terror' would be bin Laden in handcuffs awaiting trial for mass murder, while Bush and Blair sit in the dock in the Hague.