Why is it that Irish governments are addicted to importing ideas long recognised as abject failures - even in the countries in which they originate?

For the last 20 years, for instance, US authorities and industries have been abandoning the use of incinerators as a form of waste management because of the severity of the health and environmental damage they most definitely cause. Local populations in the US have defeated more than 300 incinerator proposals and the industry is now virtually extinct there. About 500 have been shut down in Japan – a country that has traditionally been heavily reliant on incineration. In Europe, according to a report by the Global Anti Incinerator Alliance, the emphasis has been on using alternative waste management techniques which in the most successful cases have resulted in an actual reduction in the amount of waste needing disposal – despite growing populations.

But Paddy is always anxious to make a big fool of himself. During that same period in Ireland, naturally, we have built commercial and other incinerators around our small country as if they were going out of style – which of course they are - and in spite of ferocious opposition to them from virtually every community in which they have been sited. In a country this size and in the context of all that is known about their dangers this is – or should be – a matter of national outrage. Nevertheless, our government is again (greetings to the 5) smirking, flirting and generally prostituting itself to another rapacious industry by facilitating a deal that will surely injure health and kill many people in this country if it is allowed to go ahead. As with the Dutch and Norwegian oil companies in Mayo (Shell and Statoil), Indaver in Belgium must not be able to believe their luck. No other European country is allowing them to do as they are doing in Ireland.

A visit to Ireland by two leaders of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community from Western Colombia ended on Tuesday night August 9th. As Jesus Emillio Tuberquia and Maria Brigida Gonzalez left from Dublin Airport they were satisfied that their six days in Ireland had been productive.

According to one of the speakers, Jesus Emillio:
"The Colombian Government is going around the world talking about peace, while it is supporting the intimidation and massacre of our community leaders. It is vital that the Irish Government is aware that the Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's much-acclaimed demobilisation of right-wing Paramilitary Groups is a SHAM. It amounts to nothing more than the legalisation such groups and the legitimisation of the terror, which they have inflicted on the Colombian civilian population over the years. A terror which they continue to inflict, in clear collaboration and co-operation with the Colombian Army, despite their supposed demobilisation. A collaboration, which is no great, surprise given President Uribe himself actually started up the right-wing paramilitaries."

Elsewhere on the newswire:

Colombia Solidarity Network describe how "One month has elapsed since the murder of the leader of the Committee for Social Integration of Catatumbo (CISCA), JOSÉ TRINIDAD TORRES MUÑOZ carried out by members of the FARC [allegedly - IMC Editor]. Up till now the FARC haven't given any explanation to the communities of the region..." ...continues here.

IMC IRL Stories Mentioning Colombia | ZNet Watch On Colombia | View All Counter Punch Articles On Colombia | Website Of Comunidad de Paz | Peace In Colombia | Latin America Solidarity Centre Ireland

Welcome to the Ireland of the 21st century. A country where ordinary folks are locked up in prison for deciding to stand up against a multinational corporation hell bent on exploiting both people and finite resources for their own personal gain. The fact that Micheál Ó Seighin, Willie Corduff, Brendan Philbin, Vincent McGrath, and Philip McGrath are still in prison suggests very clearly that our justice system and our ‘leaders’ are much more interested in maintaining close friendships with multinational business criminals, than they are in ensuring that justice, equality and sustainability are central and practical values at the core of society.

In Ireland like much of the western developed world, we’ve almost become so cynical and tired of our political ‘leaders’ that we hardly bat an eyelid about the gombeen politics of corruption, about the stealing of the wealth we all help create and of the resources we all share. But the courage and conviction of the Rossport five, their families and supporters suggest that people are not afraid to take back democracy and put it where it belongs, with the people.

The Soundmigration Files

On a day when thousands of leaving cert students celebrate the end of years in school, acrimonious debate has broken out in UCD Student Union circles over accusations that the union is about to scrap its use of Oscailt as the content management system for its web presence. Indymedia regulars will be aware that Oscailt is the content management software developed to run the Irish Indymedia site and made available as Free Software using the copyleft GNU General Public License.

A document criticizing the new James Carroll led administration was published on Indymedia late last night after a claim it was “temporarily hidden ” on the UCDSU.net website, a website described as “Indymedia in blue” by some of its harshest critics. The final issue of last year's UCD based student paper, University Observer also contained an editorial accusing sites like Indymedia of having a "crucial missing ingredient" - that of "editorial control and responsibility." The document, published by Enda Duffy, a former deputy president candidate in last year's union election, strenuously defends the use of Oscailt before moving on to attack recent increases in sabbatical wages alongside other bouts of recent expenditure. Finally it calls for disaffiliation from USI calling it a “political play ground”. Earlier in the month a thread expressing concerns over the handling of interviews for three union staff positions was also “deleted by person or persons unknown.”

The five new sabbatical officers issued a response last night claiming there were factual inaccuracies contained within the original article”

Analysis On Education:
Modularisation In UCD: What Exactly Does It Mean For Us? | Travellers in Education: A Very Irish Aparthied | OECD Report Critique | Kathleen Lynch On OECD Report

Related News: "Why don’t you just fuck off and mind your own business, we don’t care about you" | Shell Hell Comes To Donegal

Edited Extract From Open Letter:

"Our imprisonment was only made possible by the granting of a compulsory order for our lands to Shell by Frank Fahey T.D. while Minister for Marine and Natural Resources. Without that order we would be free men today at home with our families. Instead we are confined in prison cells. . . .

To date the dealings of the Irish government in this project have seen our land rights given to a private company, our families and neighbours very lives endangered and the natural resource of the Irish people given away. This is to such an extent that the Norwegian people, through the (majority) state (owned) oil company STATOIL holding 38% of the Corrib Field, will receive more from this project than the Irish people who have a 0% holding.

In addition the government has provided 400 acres of Coillte land and committed the Irish people to finance a gas pipe from Mayo to Galway to facilitate the outward transport of gas to the UK and Europe. The national interest is a myth that has been fabricated by the Irish government and their partner Shell. The minister Noel Dempsey and his Department are not and have never been innocent bystanders in this crisis but have played a full role alongside Shell in its creation.

Despite all of this we, in good faith, acknowledge the attempts of Shell and their government partners to create a period of calm by halting all work on the project in north Mayo and their call for dialogue. We wish to immediately accept this offer and enter into talks to resolve the impasse. To that end we ask Shell and their government partners to immediately stand down their injunction at this time so that we can leave prison to attend these talks.

We have been betrayed by our government, marginalized by sections of the media and ignored by the “alternative” government. Instead it has been the people of Ireland who have sustained us during this time of crisis and personal trauma and who have rallied and continue to rally to our aid – thank you. All we demand is for our families and neighbours to be safe in their own homes - no more no less.

Full Text Of Open Letter At Link Below