Ever wonder why we're so broke all the time? Ever wonder why it is that when you compare similiarly sized economies and cultures to our own that they always seem to have it better than Ireland does?
Take Finland here, my adopted home: we have the same population as Ireland with very similiar demographs of age groupings: the elderly, the children, and the young adults and the retired, the unemployed and the immigrants. The only thing that differs there is immigration: not too many people coming out of the middle east or other equatorial regions fancy dealing with the weather up here. It's cold and dark for seven months on the year and summer only lasts about two actual months, six to eight weeks, not even calendar months. No sane person moves from a temperate climate to one as extreme as this. But I had other reasons to move here than mere emigration, I had a relationship and a life planned out and the foundations already laid before I even got here.
And I left Ireland for very specific reasons: I hated paying taxes into a system that was rigged to rob me and my kind blind by taking our money and then spitting in our eyes. Hard enough growing up and moving out of Ballyfermot to start a life in the Thatcher/Reagan years; Ireland was on her knees for most of that decade. So were most of us. And in Ireland, the old two party state had the dance floor to themselves. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael were both sucking and bleeding us all dry, playing pass the parcel with our governing, awarding themselves incremental pay-rises on a rotational basis to keep us angry and distracted by that while they were actually busy picking our inside pockets on the sly.
The expression: 'never let a good crisis go to waste' was always touted, always just under their breath, always whispered and agreed on, and always assumed by those in the know, in the elite circle, in the higher professions, and right in your face too.
Up here in Helsinki I have no issue paying my taxes. The reasons why are many and varied. For a start, we have world's best healthcare and the world's leading stats on all levels of education (OECD stats since 1995) incredible infrastructure, public transport you can set your watch by, and the highest quality in public builds for homes. A wider net of tax usage: it covers central heating for all homes, permanent hot and cold running water direct from the taps 24/7/365 in all homes. Garbage collection, maintenance of apartment blocks and surrounding green areas, courtyards and interiors. We get no additional bills for these necessities: our taxes pay for them.
I could go on and on but I won't because I don't want to upset any of you; your eyes would start bleeding and you'd need a few shots of whiskey to calm yourself down were I to talk about quality of life, access to all things because all men are equal here. Money doesn't matter, because money doesn't make the man. The courts also view all men as equal: say a builder's labourer gets a speeding ticket? He pays in accordance with his wage/income. Say a millionaire speeds? He'll pay in relation to his income. And so on down the line.
In Ireland, things don't work that way at all.
You pay your taxes in, you get fuck all in return. Life drags on and on and nothing changes apart from Fine Gael and Fianna Fail doing their musical chairs song and dance routine around the passing of the baton. In effect, they're mirror images of each other: we see that now, but we refused to see it back then. We thought they stood for different things: different morals, different approaches, different ideas. But now the curtain's been pulled down and we see the tiny wizard of Oz sitting by his microphone, issuing orders and spoofing like some Walter Mitty on crack.
Today's an interesting day. We're all jaded after the Christmas. The sales have started and we're all distracted and worried about the coming year and what it'll bring. We're all broke again and everything's going into an even more intense lock-down. This is the perfect day for news such as the story below. Here's a few quoted numbers for you to digest:
€65.5 million - Moriarity Tribunal.
€35.58 million - legal fees.
€10.7 million - additional legal fees.
€9.764 million - administration.
€6.84 million - third party costs.
€2.55 million - miscellaneous fees.
€136 million - Mahon Tribunal.
€8.2 million - The Disclosures Tribunal/Maurice McCabe.
Now, when you look at these numbers you begin to realise why our hospitals are shit and the queues lengthy. Why some of our schools are rented pre-fabs: cold and damp. Why garbage collection and recycling is so expensive and is now privatised. Why our roads are in a awful state, and why the motorways your taxes paid to build then charge you for using them. Why our houses are shoddily built and tend to fall apart and require high maintenance. Why taking a bus is so expensive. Why we have tram lines - but they're not even connected. Why tourists coming into Ireland are shocked at the cost of an Irish experience. And why most of us have an enormous pain in our hoops with the whole fucking thing.
The elites are creaming it. They always did, but by now it's a horse of a different stripe. Tens, hundreds, thousands of millions are thrown casually around by which ever party happens to be on the main stage. They have sponsors to pay off; they have to pay to keep other mouths shut so the facts don't leak. They have favours to pay back and they use your money to do it. Those numbers up above could have built schools, hospitals, decent public transport, roads that don't eat your suspension and wreck your chassis, that keep your children warm in school and your parents safe in their hospital sick-beds.
But no - it was spent amongst the inner circle, the political and legal classes, the business elites, the hangers on and all the parasites lined up behind them. No matter which way you look at it - you're always last in line. In Ireland, the people come last and the elite first. Then they tell you we don't have a class system in Ireland? That there is no caste system. That there's no division of people?
Lookit, cop on to yourself, would you? Northern Ireland v the Republic? Jackeens v Culchies? Dublin v Kerry? Northside v southside. Catholic v Protestant. Employed v unemployed. Farming class v business class. Working classes v all classes above them? The divisions are endless, all pervading, unchangeable, set in stone and then clad in gold. So long as Paddy keeps attacking his neighbour, these scum that rise to the top will continue to rob you blind, spit in your eye, lie to you, take advantage of you, compromise your children's lives, your parents lives, and indeed your own life too.
Every crisis in Ireland comes with a sliver lining: those within the circle hover above and swoop when an advantage comes along. They arrange things in such a way that all involved get their fair share of the carrion - while you get the bill.
Lads, they put out news like this on days like this because they think you're so fucking thick you'll buy it: hook, line, and sinker. That you're distracted and tired, too broke to do anything and too exhausted to complain. This is why Ireland is always down in a hole looking up at the stars. It's endemic, immovable, unchangeable, and permanent.
In fact, consider this: were we to remove all the rot and corruption that pervades Irish life, what do YOU think would happen? Do you think we'd sail on or off into the sunset happily? Do you imagine that all the classism and ageism would disappear? That your quality of life would improve? Nope. It wouldn't. But what would DEFINITELY happen is this: the whole clown car shebang would fall completely apart and be razed to the ground. Because the corruption and rot is actually what bonds all thing together. Without it, everything would collapse, the whole house cards would come tumbling down and the little wizard of Oz would still be sitting there behind the curtain - laughing at you.
They tell you this shit today because tomorrows' shit's going to be even stinkier. That's how they roll. Because they know that they can get away with it. They have the newspapers on their side though Denis O'Brien, and the national broadcaster through wage hikes and license fee increases. They also use every other instrument that they can to keep you running ragged, trying to catch up, feeling left out and insignificant, and feeding you with lies and propaganda until you no longer know who or what to believe.
It's not going to change any time soon either. In fact, it has to get much worse before it even stands the remotest chance of getting any better - and the bill is still accumulating. More millions every passing day, thrown to the wind and used as elite toilet paper. Then they have the nerve to tell you it's raining on the green fields of Ireland when in fact they're pissing down your neck and handing you the bill for the knee's-up.
You think it's bad now?
Give it another six months and then tell me what's changed?
A box of shite wrapped up in colourful gift-wrapping with bells and bows on is still just a box of shite. No matter what way you look at it.
www.independent.ie
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www.irishtimes.com
Mowl do You know this chap who was mentioned in the tweets 
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