What Kind of a Beast Has Bertie Ahern Created?

national | politics / elections | opinion/analysis

Friday June 15, 2007 18:12

by Sean Crudden - impero

sean at impero dot iol dot ie

Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth.

087 9739945

A Change in the Plot or a New Story?

We talked about our country and the way we were oppressed
The men we sent to parliament to have our wrongs redressed
"I have no faith in members now nor anything else you see
For we’re led by blooming humbugs," says The Turfman from Ardee.

Bah! Humbug! or a creative alliance? On the surface, at least, the coalition of The Green Party, The Progressive Democrats, Fianna Fáil represents a quantum change, a step change, a crossing of the Rubicon. There is nothing gradual or incremental or even proportionate about the political creature this new government is. Its genesis may have originated almost by chance in the unexpected arithmetic of the election result but what we have now is a totally new and formidable political beast.

It seems to me that green issues are foremost in the mind of every thinking person not only in this island but all round the intelligent world. It is reassuring to know that they have now been recognised as a catalyst in key positions in the new government.

To my simple mind there is a key tripartite loop of government departments at the centre of gravity of the new government - Transport and the Marine; Environment, Heritage and Local Government; Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. It will fall to their lot to develop policy around the key areas - urbanisation, transport, energy - where sustainability is an issue demanding attention. Personally I can foresee a time when Agriculture and Fisheries (a ministry of food) will be drawn into the same loop.

In general the political direction the coalition is setting out on may be headed into cold and difficult weather. But it now seems to me to be lined up in the best possible way to confront the most pressing problems of our age. No-one has explained in a convincing way, as far as I am concerned, the provenance or genesis or the "how" of the Celtic Tiger. Whatever it was the Celtic Tiger was a small miracle of a previous age when compared with the wonders that demand to be worked in the next 5 or 10 years.

From now on the fundamental requirement of politics is clarity and understanding. For one thing if we all understand what is being done and why it is being done then it may help to fortify us against difficulty up ahead. It would also serve to reduce the incidence of heated bickering and aggressive, empty confrontation which characterised much of what passed for political dialogue in the last few years - particularly from Fine Gael.

Clearly my opinion is not in favour of silence and sullen conformity. Debate - particularly if it is honest - is apt to help clarify everyone’s thinking and it should encourage the development of new ideas in a phase of history when the main questions facing mankind are relatively obvious but the answers are relatively obscure.

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Comments (5 of 5)

The Flying Enterprise

Fri Mar 11, 2011 13:03

Well now we have the full picture it is difficult to discern an organic strategy in the current government in the way it is lined out today. Not in the way I could see a pattern in Bertie's line-up four years ago. Anyway although green issues were the over-riding and compelling requirement in my mind at that time and Bertie seemed to be giving a definite nod in that direction we all know now that largely these central issues were lost sight of in a morass of financial ruin.

Now I must confess I know nothing about money. But like most people I think the figures being talked about are fiction taken from astronomy rather than from any kind of practical operating bank. At this stage I do not think money has any importance. It is only some kind of technicality and it has no intrinsic worth. It is meant to faciliate economic activity and lubricate human activity and, hopefully, human progress. The basic underlying concepts of the monetary system are interest and continuous expansion. The system has broken down and, ironically, monetary considerations are paralysing human activity and preventing us from adapting, if adaptation is possible, to the environmental, food, fuel, communications, transport, urban problems heading inexorably down the tracks towards us. The engineering problems arising in the future may be difficult or even impossible to solve. But I think the problem with money is basically mathematical. For example if 0% interest were applied to all existing debt our country might be able to breathe again.

Anyway from a purely personal point of view I am delighted to see Fergus O'Dowd appointed as minister-in-charge of the New-Era project. I am very happy to see Kathleen Lynch in charge of mental health. And I think Willie Penrose is the right man to look after community politics.

For some reason the story of Captain Kurt Carlsen and The Flying Enterprise came into my mind when I was wakening from sleep this morning. It was a gripping saga relayed on the wireless over a few weeks around Christmas 1951. I was 7 years of age then and felt the danger of wind and wave, the bravery of a great man, safe haven, loss. A story that coloured my childhood and touched the heart of adults and children all over Ireland at that dark, hopeful, spiritual, connected time. I am sure there are readers of indymedia.ie who recall it all. But I am not going to retell the story. You can look it up on wikipedia if you are interested.

The only other point I want to make is that we seem to be heading in the direction of gerontocracy. What harm? We seem to have tried everything else. But there is no fool like an old fool. Another thing before I finish. Everyone seems to want to tell the truth in this government. I get fed up of people who keep trying to tell me the truth about myself and everything else. What about a few intelligent and entertaining liars?

Just to remind myself in case I read this in a few years time. Enda Kenny is now Taoiseach and Eamonn Gilmore Tánaiste in a Fine Gael/Labour coalition government.

money has no importance, sean???

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party

Fri Mar 11, 2011 13:18

Any chance you might send me on the surplus that usually accompanies such sentiments?I could do with the bus-fare.

Did Bertie give you a dig-out? He sure dug the rest of us in.

The Wood

by Sean Crudden

Sat Mar 12, 2011 09:18

Hi Opus. I don't believe that remark you made about the bus fare. It's only rhetoric, empty rhetoric. I believe incontrovertibly that you qualified for the free bus pass years ago. No I never got a dig-out from Bertie but I am not dead yet! However I felt safe, free, equal; while he was Taoiseach. That means more to me than gold. Did you ever hear of that peculiar form of blindness not being able to see the wood for the trees? Incidentally, Opus, there are millionaires my age who cannot recite the apostle's creed, sing the national anthem, drive a golf ball 150 yards. What good is their fucking money to them?

Do ypu forget already?

by Plato

Sat Mar 12, 2011 11:14

"What about a few intelligent and entertaining liars?"

We have had a bevvy of same for the past decade and a half, remember? Surely you haven't forgotten Bertie so soon?
Did anyone ever get the name of that horse he won all the money on? Could do with a dig out right now!!!

Oh ye of little faith...

Sat Mar 12, 2011 13:15

You dont believe what I wrote regarding bus-fares?
No, the rich seldom understand the conditions they dont have to face. but then you did feel 'equal' to beal-bocht bertie of the ostentatious ashes and holy begging bowl.

Thats a large part of the problem; insulated by their wads they deny the reality their egoism inflicts on those less greedy. He still thinks HE is hard done by, after torpedoing everyone else in his drive to prolong a false economy so as to preen himself as president for the 1916 glory. Prize fucking gobshite.

Incontrovertibly? Put your money where your incontinent keyboard prates. My thumb is my general means of transport, and even as I approach the free-travel barrier, they raise the age.

Actually, if you think reciting the creed, national anthem and all your litanies, or driving a ball down a field with a stick, add up to being alive, you have my sympathies.

Nor would I swap for all your readies. Or ahearn's. In fact, ye make a luvly couple. Our very own twin-tower church-state pillars of a sick society.

And thats being polite.

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What Kind of a Beast Has Bertie Ahern Created?

Comments (5 of 5)