Home

Why housing is so expensive today.

... That and shilling for Israel.

You're a rather disgusting anti-human Jew.
I'm not a Jew.

So why do I choose to present their defence to the accusations, to the assumptions that are made about them, the stereotypes that are held about them?

To howls of protest?

Well those howls have served me well in the past, as a guide to thought and words.

But, here again Jambo the world is complex. Cause and effect is complex.

And what antisemitism does is it takes complex world events and gives them a clear, simple cause: the evil Jews ("Zionists").

Simplistic cause and effect winds me up. It's the root of heinous populism.

So I gain a certain satisfaction trying to render the true complexity, or at least work towards it.

And perhaps another satisfaction in seeing the reaction to that, to their dogma of this "simple cause" being undermined by the complex reality, a truer representation of the world.

It also strikes me how the current rhetoric in Ireland and places like South Africa are akin to how the Assad regime in Syria drew on a continual anti-Israel propaganda.

That propaganda in Syria specifically served to mask domestic problems and obtain political gains.

Is that why our own politicians do it here? I think so, not consciously, but unconsciously.

Back on topic, no politician, no political, social or economic pundit in this country acknowledges cause and effect in our property market in its fullness.

"La cause unique de la depression, c'est la prosperite" - Clement Juglar, famous nineteenth century Economist).

They can't acknowledge what "killed the property market", made it impossible for young people without wealthy parents to live their lives in this country outside debilitating indenturship.

That denial opens up the way for your mob to shout "it wuz the immigrants done it...". (No one adequately corrects this mob, because they prefer even this explanation to the truth).

And indeed it brings to mind how Bashar Assad used to blame Jews for everything bad that ever happened under his rule, he even declared to his subjects things like, "Jews have tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ".

So I listen to the likes of Simon Harris declare that Irish people are ‘repulsed’ by Israel's actions.

But clearly he has no idea of the details, the reality, he has no clue of the discussions around the tables of Israel's government, or the tables of the Hamas government, or what actually is transpiring in the field, or anything else at all, actually.

And Michael Martin the exact same. For illustration here is a letter written to this Cork institutionalised duffer fourteen years ago about his doing the exact same thing as regards Gaza as they are all doing now.

Dear Foreign Minister Martin,

I'm an admirer of Ireland, a country whose charm, culture, and beauty have all captivated me. And, as a Jew, I always identified with William Butler Yeats' famous quote, "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy."

But reading your recent op-ed, "Gaza a Year Later," in the International Herald Tribune, was another story entirely.

Is it naiveté? Do you really believe that "the medieval siege conditions" you describe in Gaza are nothing more than an Israeli desire to inflict harm on another people, as if Israel were not governed by a moral code deeply embedded in its DNA?

Is it ignorance? Are you unaware of what's been going on in Gaza, including the brutal nature of Hamas rule, the smuggling of ever more sophisticated weapons, or the thousands of rocket attacks launched against Israel?

Is it fear? Are you seeking to ensure that Ireland doesn't come in the crosshairs of global jihadists?

Is it projection? Do you assume that all the people of Gaza today want nothing more than the people of Galway, namely, peace on earth and good will toward men?

Is it transference? Do you see the Gazans as the Catholics of Northern Ireland, even if Catholic nationalists never called for Britain's destruction as Hamas calls for Israel's every day?

Someone without any knowledge of the region would deduce from your article that Israel, having nothing else to do, simply decided one day to make life unbearable for neighboring Gaza.

You write of a "humanitarian crisis," "despair and hopelessness," and "a population traumatized and reduced to poverty by an unjust and completely counterproductive blockade." And you pull at heartstrings by trying to portray life in Gaza through two children, ages 15 and 10, whose "commitment to the values of human rights and respectful dialogue" shines through the otherwise unremittingly bleak landscape.

Mr. Minister, something is missing from your op-ed. It is as if you simply dropped by parachute into Gaza and described what you saw, or more precisely what you were shown, without ever asking yourself how it came to be. Your narrative recalls other instances where outside observers misread conditions in largely unfamiliar authoritarian societies. They were not able to grasp what was really going on beyond the surface.

Surely, though, more should be expected of the foreign minister of an EU member state -- even one that remained studiously neutral both in the Second World War and Cold War; apologized to the Jewish people in 2003 for a wartime "culture of muted anti-Semitism in Ireland" and a policy that "behind closed doors was antipathetic, hostile, and unfeeling toward the Jews"; and has not been known in the EU as particularly sympathetic to Israel.

The fact of the matter is that you absolve Gaza of all responsibility for its own predicament, instead placing it squarely in Israel's lap.

Hamas merits exactly one passing mention in your piece. That's the sum total. How can that be? Hamas has single-handedly ruled Gaza since 2007, when it violently ousted Fatah forces from the area. Yet you utterly fail to address this obvious fact.

Pray tell, what is Hamas -- just another political party in the Western democratic mold? What does Hamas stand for? Human rights or human wrongs? Political pluralism or pietistic purity? Mutual respect or medieval repression? Peaceful coexistence or violent conflict? Education for tolerance or hate?

As it is, despite being in a state of war, Israel permits substantial humanitarian supplies to cross its border with Gaza every day. Of course, what happens to those supplies once in Gaza is another matter. Periodic reports suggest that distribution is inadequate because much of what arrives is siphoned off for political or economic gain by officials, syndicates, or gangs.

Mr. Minister, it is in Israel's interests for Gaza to emerge as a stable, moderate, and prosperous region. What country -- be it Israel or any other -- would wish to have an Iranian-supported terrorist enclave on its borders proclaiming the joy of jihad and diverting much of its resources to weapons?

But Israel cannot act in a vacuum, as if it didn't face such a stark reality. Forgive me, but for you, it's much simpler. You come for a day or two, pronounce your views, and return to Dublin -- and to a European Union that is anchored in democratic values, protection of human dignity, and peaceful relations among its 27 members.

Sadly, that era hasn't yet dawned in Israel's rough-and-tumble neighborhood.

As long as Gaza is more intent on Israel's destruction than its own construction, as long as Hamas is in charge and pursues its Muslim Brotherhood agenda, as long as Iran stands squarely by Gaza's side, and as long as young children -- including the two you met -- are seen as grist for the martyrs' mill, then what does the future hold?

And, respectfully, as long as Western officials infantilize the people of Gaza by lifting all responsibility for their fate from their own shoulders, then they are not helping, either. It's high time to stop whitewashing, sidestepping, or rationalizing the situation, or pretending that Israel hasn't abandoned any claims on Gaza, which it did nearly five years ago. The people of Gaza have been given their first chance in history to chart their own future. What future will they choose?

If you really care about those two children, as I am sure you do and we all should, then it's high time to challenge the real hurdles they face -- beginning with the people who currently govern Gaza and the dead-end path they have opted to pursue.



Exact same as now, isn't it. And around and around it goes.
 
Awesome.

Haven't seen Jambo take such a beating in quite some time.

And as per - he's licking his wounds and biding his time, waiting for something/anything to grasp onto to defend his bullshit process. Some hysteria about these damned foreigners owning houses when he can't even afford to rent a room by himself. Still living at home with his Da and some woman his oul fella turned to after Jambo's Ma kicked the bucket and left him to fend for himself.

Unfortunately, Jambo's not very good at finding solutions to problems - let alone even admit they exist.

He knows that, realistically speaking, his only real chance is to get out and make his way (even for one decade) somewhere else in order to circumvent the issues he faces in Ireland regarding his un-employability and general malaise of his own uselessness. He doesn't stand a chance anywhere else outside of Ireland, nor can he afford to take any chances what with the dole not being able to stretch to meet the necessities. Necessities like a one-way flight to anywhere. Maybe Australia? He tried that before, a sort of gap year spent lounging on the beaches of down under drinking Foster's and hanging around other people's beach parties scrounging the chicken wings and prawns.

His CV is a list of (now deleted) posts on a variety of chat sites - it represents his only activities over the last five years.

Had he put his shoulder to the wheel, he might today have a savings account with enough in it to put down a deposit on a house/flat/apartment/tent/shed to call his own. But he's not interested in that: he knows his Da sees things the same way. That Jambo's only chance is to hang on until the oul fella also kicks the bucket to inherit a gaff on some sprawl estate to call his castle and build some tall fences around it to keep Abdul and Jamal at bay. At the moment, he has Varadkar and simple Simon to blame. Those two are the most recent fuckers to tinker with the housing problem. Last night simple Simon was talking about building 250,000 houses between Tuesday next and 2030. This from the Fine Gael minister whose party have been in government for fifteen fucking years and haven't built even one house that isn't infected with pyrite, mould, rain water under the sink estates, shitty design and crappy materials slapped together by some Polish and Lithuanian lads with shoulders broader than Jambo's. Simon's in fighting-fit form: full of noise and excitement, but sadly far too young for the job at hand. The only reason he's there is because nobody else wanted the gig - so he has to make it look like he's both up for it and excited about it.

Coveney walked. Varadkar's walking as I write. The party's over. You need some seriously professional and willing cleaning staff to scrub those sewers and get things moving again - but sadly the way ahead is blocked by shite, garbage, used tents, rotten sleeping bags, the gutters running with piss and the stench of yesterday's fish supper wrapped in the headlines about a bright future ahead for those who have faith in simple Simon's 'one size fits all' grand plan to house everyone, even the lads from Syria and Latvia, Poland, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, and Estonia.

No - wait: not Estonia, they're actually doing really fucking well for themselves. They don't even hate the Finns anymore for being two steps ahead of them regarding both the EU and NATO, their digital-age capabilities far out-reaching Ireland's, they're keeping their heads down and the economy in check. Not for them to fling cheap loans at their poorest, the Estonians make a point of refusing to level and rebuild the historic blitzkreig areas to the north of the Old Town. They want those shells of houses to stand as a testimony to how long they suffered under Russian imperialism before they decided to stand on their own two feet. Now they meet the Finns eye to eye, not as their servants.

Ireland? She can't even see as far as Estonia, never mind a few hundred miles further north into Finland, the world's happiest country for the seventh year running. Ireland compares herself to Germany, America, Great Britain, and France. When in reality she's on the same level or lower than Latvia and her neighbours. If Ireland were to get her head out of her arse, she might take a serious and studious look at the Finnish model, because all the comparatives are already there: population, age as a republic, school aged, working aged, retirement aged people? All the same in both countries, but Ireland's far too busy distracting herself on her minor successes like the football or the Eurovision. A hopeless case. A Bay City Roller in the time of Children Of Bodom.

Outclassed.

Outsmarted.

On her knees.

And what's Jambo's solution?

The slabs of Dutch Gold and the faux outrage at his being poked at by realists who are really only trying to help the stupid fucker out, but like a blind man drowning in the sea, he struggles to avoid any helping hand and goes down with the poop and piss and becomes one more Dublin Bay prawn. On a stick. Over a bonfire. His arse being slowly cooked and tenderized so the incoming hordes have a bite to eat on arrival to check in to their four star hotels and empty office blocks. The saddest part being, the poor fool hasn't even got a tent of his own. Nor a sleeping bag. He spent it all on Dutch Gold and suffered years of hangovers waiting for the Old Man to die so he could secure a roof for himself.

It'd be a terrible shame that after the funeral, Jambo gets to look at the books - only to realize his Old Man already sold him out for drink money.

Meanwhile, even the youth of Estonia's laughing at him, they know they're next in line on the 'World's Happiest' stakes.

 

You'd have to wonder how many of the twerps on these sites still live at home with their Ma and Da? We know Jambo lives with his aul' fella' who's also an alcoholic. So at least the two of them are sorted: they have each other, they have rooms of their own, and they drink different brands of cheap lager by the slab.

Saul Coal-Bucket has a forty-three year old son still living in the boxroom out in the sticks of Monaghan or some other shit-hole Irish hinterland town: a serial burglar and alcoholic (are there any non-alcoholics yapping on these boards?) Saul is too scared to boot the little fucker out because he's as big as his Da is and might hit back, so Saul just ignores him the same way he ignores the wife's yapping in his ear about getting a fucking job. Any fucking job. Just get one and get the fuck out from under me feet, etc.

Sad bastards couldn't last ten minutes in the real world without their Ma and Da to feed and wash them - the massively over-grown babies they are.

Imagine any of them deciding to emigrate?

Any of them?

Or worse again: to a country where English is the fourth language - not first?

Hopeless, utterly fucking hopeless: but that's how it is - the wise and brave see the problems and we act - the lazy and the gullible wait for Ma to solve it.

Then wash their y-fronts for them.

Sad bastards - but that's how it's always been: they take the road most traveled.

Just for the safety, like.

Hopeless little island full of hapless little worms.
 

So some fucking knacker with an address at St Stephen's Green mugged a Chinese teenager at an ATM while covered in blood. He took €220 from the young slope and later walked into some sports shop on Grafton Street and demanded money there too, only to be turfed out and arrested by Gardai with the slope's money still in his pocket. Since then, the courts had to sit on Saturday morning in order to process the cunt and get him back out onto the streets.

How many coppers, desk sergeants, court orderlies, consultants, barristers, solicitors, judges, nurses and doctors were called upon to process just one scobe?

This is why you're all down on your fucking knees: the revolving doors vomit cunts like this one back out in minutes - not hours.

This scumbag gets to live on St Stephen's Green?

Seriously?

You fucking twats - wake the fuck up, eh.
 
€1,400 a month to rent this room, with shared bathroom.

Dear sweet jayzus almighty.. ..what a fucking kick in the teeth, eh? Over a hundred years since we rose up to gain our independence and what are we doing to our own people? Discarding them and their children to a fate of life on the streets with nothing available to rent and no way to even get on the ladder. Do we think it's bad today? Then consider say ten years from now, then fifteen years from now? Better or worse? Even more homeless or less homeless? Still legal to hand a sleeping bag and tent to an incoming refugee/migrant and send them down to the canal?

Let's say it's the year 2045?

Work, low grade: menial tasks: full of what sort of people?
Work, self-employed contractors: with trade skills and lots of experience - required by whom?
Work, the wealthy - who don't need to work but do it anyway so they can influence/manipulate the system for them and theirs?
Work, the upper-upper echelon: international relations/local politics/international politics?


The national debt: is that going to be as much of a burden on your immigrants as it is on the indigenous Irish people themselves? Will they even be in the loop to pay down the historic debt or will they get a free ticket because it 'wasn't their fault' and you'll get another boot in the throat?

The housing crisis nightmare: how are you going to catch up with the current needs? You'd need to be building at least a dozen houses a day for the next year to even begin to tackle the extremes/worst case scenarios. Who's going to pay for that? The state? Don't think so, the current 'hands-off' approach (with a tinge of added melodramatic spoofery such as 'let the markets dictate prices') has only seen politicians with lots of experience run the fuck away from all of it lest they get dragged down with the sinking ship.

Twenty years from now: will it be all Star Trek/2001: A Space Odyssey with well-dressed and strictly disciplined lizard people and cross-dressing earthling transsexuals, homosexuals, and multi-coloured people with blue/green/orange/insert choice type hair who prefer anime to the real world? Will our meals be floated to us on a zero-gravity holiday-space ship designed for taking a break from the planet and all her woes? No money, just credits. Nobody on the lower tiers owning anything, not even the clothes on their backs.

Or will it be more dystopia? More bullshit-politico 'let's find human solutions' while hiding said solutions in plain sight and telling the earthlings they're merely paranoid and they ought to be grateful for everything they've got, which can fit into a small suitcase - the type you need for Ryanair flights? More homeless people or more laws outlawing homelessness with a shoot-to-kill policy in place to keep the numbers in check? Will nationality matter at all? Will it even exist in the form we understand today? If we're living in a time of everyday space travel for all - why would we need a passport? Insert a chip in the brains of newly-born earthling children, that'll set them up for life with minimum fuss for the powers-that-be to control and order about.

Sometimes I think it has fuck all to do with not enough houses: it's more like not enough abortions, not enough early deaths.

That's the situation from one angle, and it's fairly disturbing.

Death credits? Let's say the family is in debt to the degree that they'll never be able to pay it off? Credits in the form of suicide/euthanasia? 'Kill one adult and two children and you too can enter the draw for this beautiful anti-gravity motor-mobile!!!' ? Parents committing suicide in a family ceremony where drinks and treats abound and then the kids get to flip the switch and the parents say their final goodbyes and drop through the floor with a rope around their necks - their remains used to make glue and jelly-tots?

Life has little value in Ireland.

Maybe it's down to us all being born into the chaos of a war that was taking place just out of earshot but close enough to cause fear and anxiety?

Maybe it's down to the fact that we see human lives treated as political/medical/social/financial problems that our hearts are immune to the horrors we take for granted every passing day. I don't think I could continue with my life in Ireland given the mess she's in today. I mean, I knew I wasn't sticking around from an early age, but for the time I have spent there I'm still trying to get my head around Irish ways and Irish laws. They don't seem very Irish to me. But then again, I'm out of there. Long since departed. I see lives like the one I used to live being snuffed out in all sorts of ways. I knew that much was coming down the line for me, so rather than stick around and see if I could hold steady, I gathered up my entire Irish life and handed it back to Ireland. She can do as she likes with it.

I won't be returning for some time.

Family issues only, the rest you can ram up your hole.
 
No worries - but just one tip: when writing posts for a discussion board in order to debate the issues at hand, always remember that it's a written discussion, not a verbal one. So if basic English is the language and the general subject matter of a socio/political bent, try to ensure your written points are correctly spelled and the basic rules of English grammar observed.



Irish people are not having more kids, they're having less than ever.

It's the immigrant population who are throwing out babies at an alarming rate - but pointing that out to the powers that be makes you, me, and everyone else, the new 'far right'. Doesn't matter what you say, how you say it, or to whom: you are and will continually be referred to as a madman.



London doesn't have as many white-skinned Londoners as it did last time I was there. And I fucking loathe the place, regardless of skin colour or religious beliefs. London's a cold city, people always in a hurry, and still a dangerous place for white Irish people in certain areas. But then again I feel the same about Ireland, and Dublin in particular. I grew up there, so it's from the ghettos to the stars for me having gotten out in one piece. Many others from my lifetime weren't so lucky.

Ireland currently suffers from a housing shortage, one that's left 14,000 plus people living in hostels and hotels rooms, with kids in tow. Of that 14,000 around 4,000 are children under the age of twelve. Many are single parent families. The strain never ends for them. The kids will grow older but ever more bitter at how their country treated them as Irish kids while on the other hand, kissing the arses of any political or religious refugees and making sure they're sorted with what they need before our own Irish-born brothers and sisters.

I will not live in or contribute to a country that holds its own children as problems to be handled and buried.

I will not live in or contribute to a country that's still dodging its responsibilities to those abused by wards of the state.

I will not live in or contribute to a country that made my ambitions impossible to achieve and actively stood in my way and complicated every step I took.

I will not live in or contribute to a country that allows for her children to eat their free soup off a cardboard box outside the site of our uprising in 1916.

And I will not live in or contribute to a country where the rain never fucking stops, there's piles of garbage everywhere I look, has a massive body of walking dead junkies crawling up and down the high street, with violent bastards on every street corner looking to do you in. Ireland is the single most miserable place I've ever known. I'm not just out - I'm fucking thrilled I'm out and currently living in the world's happiest country - seven years on the trot, Wriggles.

How about you?

Happy?
I have been posting on political forums for many years. In that time I have witnessed hundreds of spelling mistakes, and probably made a fair few myself. In my experience it's generally considered good etiquette to ignore such errors and concentrate on the subject in hand.

In regards to the rest of you're post I have nothing I can really disagree with. I have two good friends who both come from Dublin, and they describe it as you do. This is so sad, because it is, sorry, was such a beautiful place. Our politicians and their liberal attitudes have ruined our countries. At least we are no longer in the EU, which gives us a little control, however our last government wasn't interested in taking advantage of this, and our new would rather we were still in it.
 
I have been posting on political forums for many years. In that time I have witnessed hundreds of spelling mistakes, and probably made a fair few myself.

I make the effort for others so that they may learn to do likewise.

Proper etiquette includes getting it right.

In my experience it's generally considered good etiquette to ignore such errors and concentrate on the subject in hand.

That may be so for you, but I set higher standards for myself out of respect for the gentle reader.

In regards to the rest of you're post I have nothing I can really disagree with. I have two good friends who both come from Dublin, and they describe it as you do.

There are very few Irish folks up here in Finland, which I really do appreciate. The modern Irish abroad aren't seen with the same rose-tinted glasses as they were in the previous century. The accelerated economy during the (fake) boom years of the Celtic Tiger saw a new breed of Irish emigrant: bullish, demanding, soaked in ancient history, a strong sense of entitlement, and an unbelievably dumb and selfish unwillingness to integrate in the same way they accuse others of different skin hues/cultures/origins not doing.

I avoid as much Irish-orientated bullshit as I can, including my embassy in Finland.

Frankly, I'm often embarrassed by my nationality, because others of it tend to be among some of the worst people I've met thus far in life.

This is so sad, because it is, sorry, was such a beautiful place.

Ditto.

Our politicians and their liberal attitudes have ruined our countries.

Again - nail/head interface 100%

At least we are no longer in the EU, which gives us a little control, however our last government wasn't interested in taking advantage of this, and our new would rather we were still in it.

I moved from one EU country to another. In fact, I've never had an official address outside of Europe, much as I've traveled in my life. The advantages for me are different than those for your country and culture. I despise my country of birth and am much happier out of there after everything I was put through by the powers that be. But I left with a clean conscience, a tax-clearance certificate, money in hand, and ready to start again in a totally different culture using a totally unique language.

Nobody ever spoke to me about Finland during my school years. I knew all about Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, maybe even a little of Iceland too. But Finland? It never came up, so when I got here in 1996, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in a country whose people were genuinely interested in what the fuck I was doing here - of all places. I explained that since I'd arrived, I'd been reading all about Finland's history over the last five hundred years and was enthused by the idea that Helsinki had that spark, that magic in the air of things waiting to happen, much as I enjoyed the same during the worst years of the Irish recessions of the last thirty/forty years in Dublin.

Dublin in the 1980's was a sleepy and old fashioned place where the church still ran everything and the state colluded with them. But things started to move faster in the later 1980's and opportunities abounded like kangaroos in heat. An artist's quarter was beginning to form in the heart of the capital city and I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to launch a few ideas of my own via the commercial end of art and music. But like everything else in Ireland, they tied our feet, then blindfolded us and charged us international prices for local humdrum. I began to realize that I could never be happy or content in a society as brutal as mine, so I traveled everywhere looking for a new home, and found it quite by accident here in Helsinki. The spark in the air during the 1990's in the Nordic region became a flame and I rode the wave of incoming international cultures and languages to this otherwise meek and humble country. I began to realize that the reason I previously knew so little about Finland was because that's how they like it: discreet, introverted but curious, of great determination to be as Finnish as they could be and to do it successfully even after 800 years of Swedish rule followed by another hundred of Russian rule.

100% of Finnish people - including the Swedish/Finnish enclaves - speak Finnish, one of the planet's most complicated languages, and one with no relation to Latin roots as per the rest of Europe.

Not many people ever had the idea of: 'think I'll pack up and move to Finland' even if they were typical white indigenous Europeans. As the years have passed, everyone knows about Finland these days what with our OECD awards of 'World's Happiest Nation' for seven years running. Ireland's never even made the top thirty, let alone top ten. So I picked the right place at the right time and am now deeply embedded in the Finnish way of life, which is a far more wonderful and enchanting thing than anything Irish I left behind. Fuck Ireland, she's sinking fast and I have fuck all sympathy for her. If anything, I watch the Irish newscasts as high comedy. It makes me fucking laugh. All those people who said to me in the late 1990's that I was 'mad to go now, there's money falling from the skies'.

Yes, there was. But it came at a high price nobody seemed to care about. Irish people began to spend like never before. It was the funniest and yet scariest thing I ever saw. People who previously hadn't an arse in their pants were now driving expensive motors and eating out like it was Christmas every day. Buying and selling each other shitty little houses in bizarre locations with fuck all planning or services anywhere near. Money didn't just talk, it screamed hysterically at mugs to spend her while they could.

Result?

Most of the guys who told me I was nuts to leave are now in the ground. Many topped themselves so the wife could claim the life insurance and be able to care for the kids properly. Then the Irish Labour party stepped in, and via their hysterical yapping mouthpiece Joan Burton, made suicide an illegal term on a death certificate. Instead they were instructed to call it 'death by misadventure', thereby doing the insurance companies a favour while forcing suicidal people to forgo the rope/gun method and instead fill up on pills and alcohol, then wrap the car around a brick wall at high speed. Make it look like a tragic accident. Didn't matter anyway - their wives and kids are the same ones you see lining the streets of the city in tents and doorways all across Dublin. Another lost generation, fucked out with the slops. Treated like criminals. Under a government that wants to punish them for drinking the same Kool Aid they were offered by a previous generation of the same political party who guided them into a brawl they never stood a chance in.

Ireland is not a serious country. She's young, and very dumb about some really major issues affecting daily life over there.

Time is not on her side either, what with a national debt of €234Bn among a population of 5.3Mn on the island entire.

Of that 5.3Mn, around thirty-five per cent are working adults.

Do the math - I did, it made me laugh.

But not in a polite way.
 
My lady friend Ulla just won some international 'installation' type competition in a style halfway between art and architecture.

Everything's hand-painted:

 
Last edited:

I wonder how long until a few dead bodies are collected from the streets during this 'Orange Alert' weather scenario?

Hard to estimate exactly how many are living rough on your streets and along your canals, but it's really only a matter of time. And dropping temperatures. I'd imagine the suicide statistics are also through the roof, but announcing how many of those kind of deaths have occurred is a step the state likely won't want to make. Junkies overdosing. Alcoholics drinking themselves to death. Hopeless parents who can't feed their kids. Kids eating off paper plates and sheets of cardboard on the main street of the capital.

Tell us: is it easy to get used to seeing such mundane horror everywhere you go?

I used to think like that about the travelers, there's a halting site nearby where I grew up. I found them to be very honorable people, but I know that my own experience isn't shared by many other Irish people. They seemed to accept the filth they're surrounded by as a fact of life, and tried to get on with things anyway. But I never heard of any of them dying from being frozen and trying to survive in a tent. They look out for each other. If one guy has it bad, they'll rally around and help him along until the situation improves. But they do not leave their own behind.

Unlike the Irish state, who are happy enough to allow the suffering of the homeless to continue reducing the numbers living rough.

Death is in fact in the end, at least for those unfortunate to find themselves exposed to the elements with a gaggle of kids in tow.

State-sponsored death on a street corner: and for what? Wanting to buy a house and then watching the arse fall out of the dodgy Irish economy which immediately takes the keys back shortly after the same mouths were begging them to borrow and invest when the money was cheap and plentiful. The state cannot refuse to accept responsibility for their part in the entire Celtic Tiger debacle.

Dead bodies, nameless men mostly, drag them out of the tent and dump them into the back of the coroner's meat wagon.

Bury them at night, in unmarked graves, then try to forget who's to blame.

Poxy little island.
 
Top Bottom