Is it time to make real changes

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Friday June 02, 2006 01:57 by jim travers

Who should we really blame,not McDowell

The call for somebodys head to fall has always been the response of people to a national concern which seems to provide us with the satisfaction that we have rid ourselves of the cancer that caused the problem in the first place. Is it time as a nation we grew up and realised that we as the electorate are the ones responsible for the problems in society we see today?

So we want to hang McDowell out to dry, well somebody or anybody we can get our hands on, if just to display our disgust at something that has been evident to all of the nation for very many years There are those who can still remember the antics of the Christian Brothers and their reform school in Dangan. The nation knew what was going on in Dangan but our political representatives knew nothing, possibly because the religious told them this is what they should say. But have we blown ourselves apart by our desire to blame everybody else except ourselves for the fiasco we now see unfold in front of us. We are all to blame, we elected politicians over the decades to look after our own individual interests and the interests of the nation as a whole, but find those interests have been diluted to such an extent that we do not know if we are drinking the real thing or a badly treated water. We have consistently reelected political parties who have carried on the activities of their predecessors in a mirror like image that has now led us to a situation where we see all aspects of government administration as being rampant with corruption, void of progressive and sound political decision and lacking in political leadership that takes the interests of the Irish people as a priority for national identity, prosperity and sound economic progress that benefits all sections of Irish society.

All our political parties are the same, there is really no difference, they have different colours, different banners but the same pin stripe suits on political representatives who try to assure us that democracy is healty once we believe we have a system that enforces our belief that we have an effective and meaningful opposition. Elect Fine Gael or Labour, give the PD’s another chance with anybody, are you in hope for something different., will your taxes go down, will the health crisis suddenly be resolved, will crime finally be put to bed, will people on housing waiting lists suddenly be housed and will the children or now adults who were subjected to rampant abuse over very many years, find justice and compensation never mind an apology from the state or institutions who condemned them to this inhumane treatment and neglect. Will Olivia Mitchell do a better job than Martin Cullen when she says “she wants to open the bus market” does she really know what she is talking about or will she drag the nation down the same road O”Rourke done when she so proudly said “she was buying shares in telecom” look at telecom now. Do we know who owns it and has the flotation benefited the Irish people?

On our behalf and with their electoral mandate, our politicians turned a blind eye to anything that was controversial or a bad taste in the public’s mouth. Don’t bring it up so you don’t awaken a sleeping giant. So our politicians kept stump. The EU tells us manufacturers manufacture goods that produce waste and our politicians tell us it’s our problem and like lambs to the slaughter we all criticised anybody who took a stand against waste charges and rolled out in our droves to take part in another indirect tax that takes another slice out of the now stretched family incomes. Claim your bin charges back through your tax allowences, why the hell charge for it and then tell you to claim it back. The Revenue Commissioners proudly announce they are taking in record taxes as the government advises workers to accept a ten percent wage deal over twenty seven months and out of this deal the government secures more taxes on the pay increases.

On our behalf our political representatives spent 1 billion Euro on a light rail system while people lay on trolleys in hospitals as our health service was slowly being condemned to a green shields stamp service by incompetent administrators while consultants and doctors who see the public health service as a financial bottomless pit where money is the underlying factor that determines if you receive the medical attention you require without having to queue up for years. So much for medical ethics! Wait six weeks for an x-ray or get it tomorrow if you go private and pay 60 Euro. Bingo your saved mate, oh you really need to rest your foot or in the public system, feck off and get back to work.

The Celtic tiger is roaring so much that the once milk and sandwich meals given to all our cherished children in schools was withdrawn by our parasite leaders who put aside their so called proud belief of cherishing all children of the nation equally as they self imposed a handsome financial raise as the children of the nation were denied a miserable bottle of milk and a sandwich. But let us not forget there were muppet’s who seen this denial of school meals as only right, after all what is the mother there for, to provide meals, why should the state. Sure the state is up to its eyes paying TD’s massive perks while at the same time paying private contractors 800 Euro for 40 Euro shovels. Everything in Ireland is expensive so keep wages down and enter low paid foreign workers.

Uproar about Bus Eireann buses being unroadworthy , for God sake the government wont provide both Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus with the finance in order to update their ageing fleets to an acceptable standard so that our children can travel in safety on our roads. Dublin bus needs at least 200 new buses in order to meet the current needs and demands of commuters but Martin Cullen plays games that will result in massive industrial action, a decline in bus services and like Eircom a diminished service that the public will be asked to pay for through increased subsidisation in order for private operators to provide bus services. It is about time we started to acknowledge that when politicians tell us something is right, what they really mean is that it’s shagged. When a politician wants to get rid of a state asset you can safely say it is not in the overall interest of the Irish people. This can be seen in our Tribunals where politician after politician, counselor after counselor, all divulge that they took payments into hand while you and I were being told and preached that honesty was the best policy. Tax evaders will be hunted down, everybody must pay their fair share, nobody is above the law.

The mothers and fathers of the nation will all be outside Dail Eireann and the government will bring in legislation that will plug the hole until some smart and on the ball solicitor in the future finds a crack that leads to another hole. The Joe Duffy show will once again have us listen to angry parents, who say they had enough of this government but by next year when all the goodies are rolled out in electoral promises, people will place their political allegiances over important national issues. Have we suddenly been awoken by a basic fundamental belief that our children must be protected, while at the same time ignored the fact that our children as well as the elderly and disabled citizens within this society are being exposed to anti social behaviour activities on a daily basis. Ah sure, what is anti social behaviour compared to this? Well if you were a 76 year old pensioner who was jailed within your own home by thugs who found it fun to torment you on a nightly basis would you be grateful if the nation got out and demonstrated by saying enough is enough. These monsters who take away the innocence of young children should be locked away forever. But there are other monsters out there who require the same level of public outburst and disgust, if we are to really make positive changes in our society that protects everybody as human beings.

When we talk about protecting our children we must not do this by prioritizing certain issues over others

Our children have a right to be safe and secure
Our children have a right to proper food and shelter
Our children have a right to a proper education
Our children have a right to equal opportunity

When this fiasco is all over, and we all go home to our everyday activities, will we spare a though for the children in the state who are being denied the same rights by a state that says it cherishes those children’s rights equally. Or will we say “job well done, now everything is back to normal”. And when a mother cries for her young child who lies on a hospital bed but cannot get the necessary medical treatment because of the family financial restraints will you be so quick and come out in horror at a state that boasts about a Celtic miracle but cannot provide the basic human needs of every citizen in that state. Will you support a political party once again purely on the basis of a family tradition or will you for once make a real decision based on humanity?

Do you honestly believe that when a politician knocks on your door, he or she is knocking because they have your interest in mind? They want your vote and that’s all they want. The time has come for communities groups, tenant orginisations and members of trade unions and credit unions to put forward for election people who have the interest of their communities as part of an overall national interest, a first priority above everything else.

In Orla Barry’s Newstalk106 programme Life, Orla asked and then somewhat answered her own question by saying that governments are now conditioned in accepting that people demonstrations are to be expected and somewhat tolerated if only to enable people to let off steam. When this hole is plugged, people will go home and turn a blind eye to other issues that have the potential over time to lead to other social issues in the future.
There is nothing that justifies politicians getting a weeks holiday while the rest of the nation has to be contented with one day as a bank holiday. Likewise, there are very many other important issues such as child exploitation, hunger and poverty that we ignore on a daily basis. There will be loads of screamers and talkers on Fridays march, as there will be all the different orginisations who will take the opportunity to get their tuppence worth in, and walk away contented in the knowledge that they embarrassed a government into making a political decision.

We can ramble and rant on about very many issues that have plagued us over very many years but we must now come to the realisation that we have collectively contributed by our willingness to accept unacceptable political decisions that have directly or indirectly affected our quality and way of life. Speaking about buses or telecom, hospitals and schools looks a far cry away from the importance of protecting our children, but we have allowed our politicians to direct our society towards a state of insecurity, cold and pigeon hole uncaring drone existence where we are told what to do and how to do it irrespective of the right or wrongs of those leadership decisions.

There is no denying that this problem holds a very dark spot in the history of this state. Politicians were prepared to sit and wait until they came back from their holiday before they done anything. With public opinion on government inaction so high, government politicians had to do something quickly. Opposition politicians jumped on the opportunity to get their spoke in, praying that public support would sway away from the government parties. Government reaction was based on a potential further decline in public support and a hammering at the polls as a result of government inaction on child protection. If the public response had been somewhat muted then nothing would have been done until after the holiday, same old system, same old procedures. The opposition played on embarrassment while the government played the holiday tune. Once again politicians played the game they are so handsomely paid to do, to the utmost perfection. In all of this the priority in bringing forward legislation that protected children was down the picking order of priority. People power ruled this time, will the public have the strength to carry the cause another step further?

It is great to see the people make a stand for justice, in the seventies the nation protested about high taxes, where did that get us? Let’s hope this rise in people power is just a beginning in the push for a better society.