THE DIRTY DOZEN w/e June 16th 2013

Busy times on the day-job front, the various championships up and running, snowed under a little with work; busy times also on the Ballyhea Says No campaign front, preparing for a meeting in Brussels on June 25th with Istvan Szekely Esq. of the EC.

Came across this on Facebook, penned by a friend of mine from Kerry, well-known journalist Murt Murphy, a jovial and gregarious character. Not so jovial here.

DIVORCED FROM REALITY

Sign of the times when I read on FB about all the young talent heading away for the summer, lads like Shane Nolan, Ciaran Keating, Dominic O Sullivan and many more. Barry J Keane is heading shortly, I hear Jamie Doolan is another but who would blame them? Accommodation and job sorted abroad, nothing here only the dole and misery.

I wonder do our politicians or media take a blind bit of notice? Do they care? To me what John McGuinness did was wrong but does it deserve the media attention it's getting, does it warrant a statement from Enda? I sense a diversionary tactic!

No, lads, our politicians are sitting in their ivory towers completely divorced from reality and drawing big money; the Gov't parties have broken every promise they made pre-election - they can't even agree on what they agreed on!

We are the greatest little country in the world for looking back, we are the greatest at the blame game - we are not good at living in the present and saying ‘this is where we are at, let's fix it and move on’. No, we can't do that.

I don't particularly like politicians, a necessary evil, but I do care that my son with a university degree can't get a job because the Gov't have devised a scheme called Job-bridge that means cheap labour is available every six months, so why bother employ somebody long term for a decent wage?

I care about all the people who are suffering because nobody enforces the regulations that are there - we talk a good talk but don't walk the walk.

I worry at the manner in which our young are being destroyed by alcohol abuse but there’s nobody brave enough to shout ‘STOP!’ because it would not be cool. Why do we sell cheap alcohol in supermarkets and off-licences? Should be banned, simple as.

We blame the pubs, let them close, and we are creating problems that will not only haunt us in twenty years but will lead to early deaths.

We take pics of drug squads finding cannabis and other low-end drugs and we think we are made, while the two most harmful and devastating drugs, tobacco and alcohol, are consumed freely by 14-year-olds in our estates and parks and nobody cares.

I share the pain of those affected by suicide, our biggest killer now, and again only lip service from the top. It's a sad state of affairs when we waste time and money on a senate referendum - if that money was spent on suicide prevention would it not be better?

So while our Gov’t continues to inflict pain on us, when they continue to ignore the real issues, when they would rather be true to the gamblers and speculators who brought us down, when they break their promises, when they see nothing wrong in shipping some of our youngest and brightest off to Australia, is it not time for the Irish people to shout ‘STOP! We have had enough!’?

The slash-and-burn must be replaced by a ‘revitalise and let's start again’ mentality.

We are a great people, a great country if left to our devices and led by people who care and want us fixed, not by those who only want to get rich themselves and misuse power.

Oh, by the way, the sun is shining but rain on the way 

#onlysaying

Regards

Murt Murphy

On the bonds front, ye'll notice there's a tasty little €11,000,000 unsecured unguaranteed bond maturing this week in a bank we now own, but sure who cares anymore?