Operation Over-Reaction

Psst...Israel. Let me tell you a little secret. You're not going anywhere. Yes, it's true the 250 million Arabs want to drive you into the sea. It's true that latte-sipping Europeans in their ivory towers can comment on how "fascist" and "genocidal" your nation is, with no hint of irony or guilt for what their grandparents may have done to your grandparents. Yes its true that Iran will probably host another of its remarkably disgusting academic conferences to argue that the holocaust never took place. But guess what? None of that matters; you've won. You've won every battle and in every test that mattered, and if you are ever really threatened once more, well, you'll win again.

That's why heavy-handed actions like shooting 10(or 16, or 19, the number is unconfirmed as of yet) passengers on board a ship in a blockade-running flotilla destined for Gaza is such a bad idea (reported here in the London Times). Even if the ships were carrying arms, even if they were going to re-supply Hamas, using such brute force simply undermines the strongest argument for a strong Israel: that Israel is a decent democracy that respects human rights, but has the bad luck of having a remarkably precarious geo-strategic position. That you have a right to be powerful as a nation, but you will use that power wisely and sparingly.

Israel, when you shoot people, even activists who are trying to beat or stab your soldiers, you inevitably use disproportionate force; not because you mean to, but simply due to the fact that you are better armed than the opposition. And the sad fact is (and I recognise how easy it is for me to say this, as I safely sit, unfit and overfed at a keyboard) that democracies have to respond to violence and threats with calm and a desire to limit the use of force to an absolute minimum. That is the burden of being a democracy; we have higher standards than our opponents. We truly are the good guys.

When you fail to do this, Israel, you merely undermine your own security position; you give those self-righteous Europeans a feeling of contentment inside, you make the Islamic fundamentalist feel they have some justification for their irrational hatred of you, you give those aimless youths across the Western world a new target for their protests against life in general.

Ultimately, you could have let these ships pass, and I suspect the negative consequences would have been far less than storming them. And, secretly, you know full well that extremists and anti-Semites can threaten all they want. Those who hate you and live in Gaza or the West Bank cannot destroy you; and those who live further afield and who may have the capacity to destroy you, cannot face the heavy retribution you will rain down on their heads (as the Times also reported today).

Israel, I and many others in this world see ourselves as your friends; and we consequently expect high standards from you. For your own sake, please live up to them

Micheal Martin Wan Sui!

Driving to work this morning, I was treated to the syrupy tones of Micheal Martin (the Irish Foreign Minister for anyone living abroad) on the radio, live from Shanghai, where he is, eh, "leading" a trade mission .

Apart from pulling the usual government stunt of contradicting the Financial Regulator, Matthew Elderfield, by saying that (yes of course!) the state would bail-out struggling mortgage holders, despite the moral hazard this would cause; the man from Cork also noted that we in Ireland will have to introduce Chinese (Mandarin, I presume) into our schools, if we hope to compete in the 21st century.

As one of the growing number of Irishmen and women who have made a somewhat half-assed attempt at learning Mandarin, I can (and this is rare for me) agree whole-heartedly with the Fianna Fail Minister. No, of course China will not take the place of the US as the main focus of our efforts to attract investment, but given the amount of ready foreign currency China has floating around in its coffers, we would be foolish not to at least try to give some of this money a home in Ireland.

A poster on Politics.ie (Seenitallb4, I believe) has hit the nail on the head, by noting that introducing Chinese in Irish schools would immediately put us on the radar of the Chinese government, who would, no doubt, view this as evidence of their growing soft-power.

Apart from the language benefits, learning a language which is so different to English should also broaden the horizons of our future students, who will realise that there is more to "abroad" than the usual choice of Boston or Berlin (or indeed, Birmingham).

Of course, the joke will be on the Chinese when, in 20 years time, their industrial facilities here in Ireland are hiring Irish school leavers whose Mandarin is just as poor as the French and German that their parents and grandparents allegedly spent 6 years learning in school during the eighties and nineties. Because after all, it is one thing to offer a language on the school syllabus, it is another for the students to actually study it effectively.

Politics.ie discussion here.

The Rise of the Thinking Man's Shinner ... Purely Anecdotal

At a relatively recent party (of the shin-dig rather than political variety) I spent quite a long period debating Ireland's economic position with two members of Sinn Fein. The two individuals could not have been more different. Shinner Type A was what I would refer to as a "stereotypical Sinn Fein supporter" when it came to economics. His solutions to our current crisis were:

1) Tax bankers and financial workers heavily, and put a salary cap of €100,000 on all financial workers

2) Develop Ireland's universities as a means to economic progress (he couldn't elucidate what, precisely, he meant by this. I would assume he meant as centres of research excellence).

3) Follow something called the "Swedish model", which means encouraging the growth of jobs in "Human Resources" and "the Green Sector" while simultaneously discouraging Multi-Nationals from establishing in Ireland. Who we would be providing "Human Resources" services to without the Multi-Nationals was not made clear. But apparently, this helped Sweden develop from "a bunch of pirates in the 19th Century into the best economy in the world". Seriously...pirates.

Shinner Type B was...very impressive. Socialist, yet not brusquely so, with all the taxes and terminology couched in terms of social justice. When I asked him about how high taxes would dampen entrepreunerial ambition, and discourage new jobs he... agreed with me! He then went on to say how Sinn Fein should focus on taxing fixed wealth, such as property, and concentrate more on the conspicouous signs of wealth rather than discouraging workers and employers to chase greater earnings/profits.

Now, did I agree with Shinner type B all the way...no, of course not. I am, after all, very right-wing (thank God!). But what impressed me was how tailored and measured the message became as he spoke to me. This was not "red revolution" simply for the sake of adolescent rebellion; this was a targetted, considered and thoughtful approach. Does this represent a new line by Sinn Fein, where they might actually consider wooing the middle-class vote, prying voters away from Labour? Or was this guy just a one-off amid the hordes of angry young men (and women), clad in Che Guevara t-shirts and spouting canned phrases extolling a "socialist republic"? Only time will tell, but if Sinn Fein could offer a real socialist alternative, simultaneously offering something to the hard-pressed working class while promising left-leaning middle class voters better returns on taxes (i.e. a breaking of the grip of the allegedly socialist Unions), they might be on to a winner.

The End is Nigh Part II

... this time it really is nigh.

The airwaves, newspapers and general office chit-chat have been filled over the last few days with Professor Morgan Kelly's (known to his critics as "Dr. Doom") article in the Irish Times on how Ireland is, well, basically screwed.

This will not be news to most people in Ireland, as it has been a regular fact of life for the last wee while that we are, as a nation, simply broke. What is interesting (and indeed worrying) in Prof. Morgan's article is his point that Ireland is about to to be relegated out of the Premier League of independent states, and straight into the Vauxhall Conference of vaguely self-governing entities that are under the thumb of a larger neighbour:

"The issue of national sovereignty has for so long been the monopoly of republican headbangers that it is hard to know whether ordinary, sane Irish people still care about it. Either way, we will not be having it around much longer."

For a pleasant change, it will not be perfidious Albion who will be depriving us of our independence; this time, we're going to be succumbing to the economic might of Germany.

Of course, this all hinges on the idea that Germany will bail out the Eurozone, and will take up the reins of real (read economic) power in Ireland and the other EU nations that can't foot their own bills. But what happens if the creation of an economic empire is simply too unpalatable to the German voter (as is quite possible)? What happens if Germany pulls out of the Euro, leaving the currency as the bottle-cap of the international markets, suitable only for bankrupts like Ireland (watch this space) and Greece?

The Irish Naval Service - Asking the Impossible

At a time when Ireland's coffers are bare, it's perhaps understandable that defence is one of the first budgetary items to get cut - after all, who is going to attack us? And even if we were attacked, sure couldn't we always rely on the Brits anyway!

Apart from the moral and political questions that Ireland's policy of "bare-bones defence on the cheap" raises, with the growing threat posed by drug wars in our cities, our irresponsible approach to defence spending may soon have an immediate impact on the security of the state.

As reported in the London Times, the Irish Naval Service is having its budgets for new Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) frozen, which is only the latest in a long line of financial sacrifices required of our navy. And while some critics might question the necessity of the Air Corps or even the Army for the everyday protection of the state, something tells me that as an island nation where many rural communities on the west coast rely on fishing, a navy might be kind of important. This necessity is further underscored by the large quantities of drugs now being landed on our shores, for dispersion both in the domestic and wider European markets.

Even now, before the Service suffers from ship retirements and budgetary constraints, the navy's eight ships have to patrol a massive maritime zone, the equivalent of trying to patrol the island of Ireland with only two police cars. Their task will only get more difficult in the years to come. Might we even see a return to the dark days of the early 1970's when Ireland, for a brief period, had a Navy without any ships?

All I can say is, whatever about new OPVs, thank God the government had the foresight to buy that Learjet and those new Agusta 109s during the times of plenty. Heaven forbid our politicians travel around Ireland by car...

DPRK at the World Cup; not exactly the Samba boys.

Brilliant article in the Wall Street Journal about the DPRK team destined for the World Cup.

The attitudes it reveals among North Korea's footballers speaks volumes about lie in the world's most obsessively secret and totalitarian state:

'(Choe Myong Ho) offered a window into his countrymen's training ethic when he told Russian reporters that he didn't have a TV or refrigerator.

"What is a refrigerator for? It allows you to get cold drinks in the summer," he told Sport-Express, a Russian national sports newspaper. "And if you do that, you could catch a cold and not be able to train."'

One has to wonder about the motivations of the ethnic Koreans from Japan, mentioned in the article, and who play for the DPRK . Growing up in Japan they surely have access to media that can tell them what the Kim Jong Il regime is capable of; and yet they still choose to play for the DPRK? Is it just that any footballer would jump at the chance to go to the World Cup, or is there an actual ideological attachment?

Weirdly prescient? Or just a really corny short story?

Last October I entered a short story competition ran by the Sunday Tribune, in conjunction with Dublin City Council, which was in honour of Bram Stoker. The aim was to begin a short story with a line from Dracula "His eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat." Below is my effort (shockingly, I didn't win. I'm sure you must be finding it difficult to contain your outrage at this injustice).

To be fair, while the writing is hammy and cliche-ridden, it was prescient, considering the events outside the Dail last week during the Right to Work protest . This week's protest passed peacefully, but will we see a repeat outpouring of the people's righteous anger next week? Or was the disturbance only a one-off minor kerfuffle caused by some bearded lefties with too much time on their hands? And will the Gardai remain loyal to the government, or will they begin to have their doubts too?

One Step Away

His eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat. I flicked up my shield, and through its clear plastic I saw his fingers jar painfully on the hard surface, while my other hand brought down the baton with a solid crack on his skull. The thud of metal on bone shocked me, even on this extraordinary day, and my gloved hand began to slide from the baton’s handle, as his blood slipped between my fingers.
The slightly balding, middle-aged man, dressed sensibly against the cold in a warm overcoat and wool jumper, collapsed heavily back into the mob, hands raised to his fatherly face. He mouthed a soft whimper, inaudible through the roar of the crowd, and then he was gone, his place filled now by another enraged bourgeois rioter; all their respectability washed away in this overwhelming tide of anger.
“Christ” I gasped, less a curse than a prayer for deliverance from my own brutality and the catastrophe I was watching unfold before me; the complete collapse of a nation, the dissolution of a society. To my left I sensed Pauli tense as yet another bottle swung through the air, arcing towards his shield, while Macker to my right heaved against the press of incensed bodies, trying to clear some small space for himself in this sea of rage.
Just a week ago, I would have addressed these people as “Sir” or “Madam” if I had stopped them on the street, now I was drumming them back with almost medieval violence. We were besieged by the most unlikely army; battalions of nurses, architects and IT engineers were hurling themselves against our line, trying to break through and scale the railings behind us. It would have been absurd, were it not for the underlying desperation that drove them; they knew that all was lost, they sought no compensation, no handouts; they merely wanted to hold someone to account, to savor one final, defiantly human act of justice.
Bobbing along the surface of the mob came a lamppost, long, thin metal driftwood in the sea of despair, and we steeled ourselves for its impact.

“Fall back lads!” I heard the Sergeant order from the rear, and our line folded in on itself, each guard slipping in turn through the gate behind us, backwards, always facing the mob, until we could slam the narrow metal door against the howling of the horde, and breathe deeply in this brief moment of relief, as the lamppost clattered impotently against the railings surrounding the gate.
Staring through the bars at the twisted faces and raised fists, I pondered the events of this past week, the week that had ruined my homeland. For months, we had survived with a half-million unemployed, their long lines of wasted ability and still-born opportunity streaming into the welfare offices. We had struggled on after the U.S. firms had pulled out, searching for profit in Poland ’s Limerick or China ’s Kildare. Somehow, we had even continued after the collapse of our banks, as one by one the Irish financial houses were crushed by the weight of their own lies.
Yet last week, the Europeans told us there was simply not enough to go round, someone in this ever-closer union would have to lose out. The final decision came down to a choice between saving Greece or saving us. Greece won.
We had dropped so far in the world’s eyes, first through our hubris and self-congratulation, and then through our chicanery and book-cooking, that we were considered more risky than a country that once had a junta, less commercially viable than a country where anarchists are part of the political mainstream.
And so Brussels pulled the plug; no more pay for our nurses and teachers, who were asked to be patriotic and work for free. We could not feed our prisoners, so the jails were emptied and the convicts let loose onto the streets. The hospitals went dark; the buses sat, decaying, in their stations; the desperate lines outside the embassies of the rich grew longer, as thousands hoped for escape in Australia , Canada or the U.S. And still, the government did nothing; they did not plan, they did not promise, and worst of all, they did not lead.
So it was inaction, rather than action, which had set flame to fuse, which had roused this righteous anger among the ordinarily meek, an anger which must be vented, must be sated by some small act of vengeance.
I stood behind those railings, watching my lovely city burn, seeing the crowd boil with rage, and wondered at what point would duty be overtaken by justice? When would I throw down my shield and join the ranks of the betrayed?

Pfizer - the end is not nigh!

Now, I am as grumpy a doom-monger as you are likely to meet. I mean, I really will not buy a house in Ireland till someone offers to pay me to take it off their hands; that's how pessimistic I am about the property market, chances of recovery etc.

But even I can't help but feel that the gloom merchants have spun into overdrive on the back of Pfizer's recent announcement of redundancies (275 confirmed and up to 800 potential) in Cork Dun Laoghaire and Kildare

From what I can see, these redundancies are purely on the back of:

1) The merger between Pfizer and Wyeth, and the consequent rationalisation of their workforces, assets etc.

2) Pfizer ensuring that it is lean enough to compete as it's branded drugs (most especially Lipitor) are soon to come off patent and face competition from generic brands capable of offering consumers the exact same health benefits.

Of course, 800 jobs fleeing the Irish economy at this point in time is bad news, and the personal impact is immeasuarable for those who have just been made redundant or are under threat, but the jobs that remain are more secure, and I suspect will be higher up the value chain. What's more, Pfizer's Ireland operations are now well placed to compete for higher-end jobs, especially in the area of R&D.

The real tragedy is not that Pfizer is leaving, but that successive Irish governments did not seize the chance to grow domestic pharma companies on the back of Pfizer's business here. Such an indigenous company would, if successful, not only offer more Life Sciences jobs in Ireland, but would also contribute significantly to our export earnings.

After all, as we know, pharm is "recession proof". OK, not strictly true, but even on the back of the Wyeth acquisition, Pfizer still posted profits of $4.88 billion.

The 10 best jokes to emerge from the (British) General Election

Daniel Finkelstein's blog at the London Times has some fantastic jokes which emerged over the course of the British General Election

My favourite:

Charlie Skelton:

"This year it's a three-horse race. Or two horses and one Gruffalo."

Our Only Hope?

I wonder is it even beggining to dawn on our main opposition party, Fine Gael, that winning the next election will simply not be enough? It's no good if FG simply replace Fianna Fail government hacks, cronies and gombeens with their own insiders, clogging up the apparatus of power with more incompetent, irrelevant bods who are just marking time till they can claim their massive pensions.

No, it's clear that FG need to do much more than simply win the next election; they need to lead a revolution. True, a very boring, grey middle-class kind of revolution, but a very necessary one at that. One based on the appropriate spending of taxes and the slicing down to size of unnecessary pork. Most importantly of all, I would argue that it is vital that FG introduce a major overhaul of the electoral system, introducing a national list system or some other mechanism with which to break the link between national government in Ireland, eh sorry, "Lyonnesse", and the parish pump politics that has hamstrung government on our island with the most asinine of parochial concerns.

But how will Labour, FG's obvious partner in any coalition government, view the above steps, necessary though they are. I would suspect that Labour and the Labourites, prone as they are to bouts of intelligence unbecoming of Irish politicians, will see in the long term the necessity of a national list system. But could they stomach trimming down the fat in our national budget? I'm afraid I think not. Will revolutionary red Labour be the main roadblock to change in our country?

Jeremy Paxman Nailed By Plaid Cymru Economist

Jeremy Paxman nailed by Plaid Cymru economist. Beautiful! Nearly a week old now, but worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gy7f8vP2QY

Depressing!

Jeez, what an absolutely awful first post! A little depressing it has to be said, but I'm afraid that's just where I think we're at. Anyway, in case you haven't guessed it yet, this blog is really just an opportunity for me to generally rant and rave about the world, put up short stories and articles that I write (that are of questionable literary merit), and link to some great blogs and items that I read on-line, mainly around the areas of Irish politics, the state of the Irish economy, and where next if we are to find some way to dig ourselves out of this hole. If you happen to read something you like, and especially if you read something you don't like, be sure to tell me what you think.

And why talk about Lyonnesse? It just make's things easier if I pretend this is all fantastical fiction, rather than less-than-fantastic reality.

Welcome to the last days of Lyonnesse.

What do you do when your nation seems destined to fail? Lyonnesse is a failing, perhaps already failed, state. True, it is not an Afghanistan, a tribal society which shrugs off the template of a modern state; nor is it a Somalia, tearing itself apart in an anarchic flurry of violence.

No, Lyonnesse is failing quietly, dully, dismally, sinking into economic stagnation under the weight of poor government, an apathetic population, and pointless, petty politics.

Lyonnesse, until recently Britain's oldest colony, has of late achieved independence, freedom, that sweet and wonderful condition sought by so many worldwide. And what did we do, on throwing off the shackles of imperialism? Did we build a just society, ensuring that all citizens of of our Republic are equal? Did we become an example to all small nations as to how a former colony can better its erstwhile master? Did we even display competence, ability, passion, patriotism or imagination in using this most precious of resources, self-determination?

No, we wasted it, frittering it away as we scrabbled among ourselves, each of us demanding "what I deserve". And now, the wolves are at the door, ready to snap away our freedom. This time, it is not foreign perfidy, nor Britannia's sons with their long range guns that will take away our right to govern ourselves. It is our own failure to see this land not simply as somewhere we happen to live, as the place where we carry out our humdrum existence; but rather as a golden chance to build a just society for all, to truly give example to small nations everywhere as to how to be truly independent.

This blog is ultimately pointless, but it is the only way that I can ask aloud "Could we not have done better?"