Equality « Ciaran’s Peculier [sic] Blog

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The sacrifices of Irish politicians

Like many people I am heartily sickened of hearing the infernal claptrap from our leaders, like big-lips Cowan that we must all pull together for the country’s economic benefit and feel the burn, or the even greater twaddle from fatso Harney that we must be prepared to suffer cutbacks and make tough decisions.

A recent edition of the Cavan Echo has revealed how Cavan Senator Diarmaid Wilson is getting a pay increase, from 72,000 to 74,000 euro. (Unfortunately I don’t think he deserves a place on the L’Oreal ad and say he’s worth it.)

Now how many carers would his salary pay for? Carers are one group who for years have never received sufficient compensation for their work. Far from it, the present minister the Lady Bountiful Hanaffin has hinted that the disabled and infirm should be looked after by their families (for nothing of course) and that she would therefore like to cut carers’ benefits.

But there is one big difference between carers (and any other group who are undervalued) and our rulers. The former deserve more but they won’t get it, but when those who sit at the top want more, well, all they have to do is decide when and how much.

Thank goodness that the Cavan Echo had the courage to cover this outrageous occurrence. But I recall how Senator Wilson’s party colleague Deputy Smith responded to even mild criticism from the Echo during the last General Election campaign. In a fit of pique not worthy of any politician removed all his advertising from the paper and switched it to the far more compliant pages of another journal.

Many years have past since I gave Diarmaid Wilson some copies of the Breifne historical journal. Yet despite numerous entreaties I haven’t got them back. I suppose he’s lost them by now, but given that he is so flush with cash he can afford to buy me replacements. One of the volumes contained an article of mine, so I’m in the embarrassing situation of having to read my own work in the library when I have need. He’d have no problems getting them from the present gang in the Cumann Seannchais Bhreifne – aithnionn ciarog, ciarog eile – an dtuigeann sibh?

Just to introduce some balance it should be pointed out that this pay raise isn’t confined to Senator Wilson or to Fianna Fail senators. It does beg the question what do we need a senate for? There are good people there, such as David Norris and Shane Ross but as for many of thee rest … stop the lights Bunny! And then the way they’re elected to “professional panels” (Industry, Agriculture) – a sop by De Valera to the numerous admirers of Benito Mussolini and Fascist Italy in the Ireland of the time.

And maybe I shouldn’t be too harsh on Diarmaid. “Ah jaysus he’s not the wurst o’ them”. Indeed someone who knows him pretty well once said of him “sure yan fella’s a thunderin’ eedjit.”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy memorably if rhetorically asked: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” This should be paraphrased for our ruling class: “Ask not what you can do for your country, but how you can do your country.”

I would like to respond to Cowan, Harney et al and the whole crowd of gangsters and bandits who sit in governance over us, in the words once used by a Fianna Fail councillor (now no longer with us) who said: “D’ yez know what yez can do with it? Yez can shit on it!”

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December 12, 2008

Where some are more equal than others

The dogs on the street know why the Equality Commission in Ireland has suffered a 43 per cent cut in its funding as a result of Brian oge’s budget. They were obviously doing their work too well and had stood on a couple of rather big, calloused and bunioned toes in the higher echelons of the civil service, especially toes belonging to members of the Knights of St Columbanus and Opus Dei. For fuck’s sake equality! For everyone? women, Jews, queers, cripples, knackers … for Christ’s sake where would it end? Niall Crowley and his pinko secular humanist, lapsed Catholic friends were threatening to undermine the status quo in Ireland. If they had their ways an appalling vista whereby the friends of the great and the good, their sons and very occasionally their daughters and wives would not be able to get the pick of plumb jobs in areas like the Department of Finance or Foreign Affairs.

I think Niall Crowley must be commended on resigning rather than be further implicated in the farce which is the implementation of equality legislation in Ireland.

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December 9, 2008

Pissed off

I am pissed off. A recent report by the OECD found that there were high levels of poverty amongst the disabled in Ireland – not exactly news to me. It suggested that such poverty was because disabled people didn’t always have adequate access to training and education to gain qualifications. Well I have the highest degree I can get in my chosen area, a PhD in history, from one of Ireland’s most prestigious universities, Trinity College Dublin, and I am still poor, at least financially, and I expect to remain so for the rest of my life. You see, if you’re disabled, you can have all the qualifications you want, but you will still be sidelines or ignored. Public institutions will have nice verbal candy saying that they are “equal opportunities employers’ or that they are committed to the improvement of the lives of the disabled, but in practice this means sweet fu….

One skill that I have, along with the vast majority of people, is literacy. I am able to read and write and I enjoy both activities immensely. There are a small little clique – small in size but alas powerful – who wish I couldn’t write. Let me repeat I enjoy writing, as I feel it’s something I’m tolerably good at; I also love expressing myself. Yet since the onset of Multiple Sclerosis I cannot deny that I find it tiring. So when I write a letter or an e-mail to someone, and they don’t reply, I see it as the height of rudeness. I’m sure there are probably letters out there that I haven’t replied to, but the thought appals me. Anyone who sends me a message by e-mail, which is not rude or offensive, (and in fact it can be as offensive as it likes if it comes from someone I actually know), will receive a reply as quickly as I can write it.

People who read my blog will be aware of how I have talked about the problem of semi-literacy which affects some public officials, especially here In Cavan, and how I have spoken of schemes of intensive tutoring to help them, all paid for by the tax-payer naturally. I know well that these highly-paid mandarins are not semi-literate; they can read and write (and certainly count) as well as anyone; they are just plain bad-mannered with the social graces of a serially randy skunk who believes that they only need communicate with those who are important i.e. “The People”.

Sadly this rudeness also affects members of our legislature. I’m sick and tired of writing to TDs and never getting a reply. I’m tempted to introduce a “name and shame” scheme.

Another great excuse is that “we sent you an e-mail but you mustn’t have seen it.” What they are saying is that “You’re blind and partially sighted aren’t you. It’s a reasonable excuse to give when in fact we haven’t sent an invitation at all.” Let’s name and shame: I was a student of Cavan’s Royal School. I worked hard and got very good exams results. I thought I had brought honour on my school, and I was certainly proud of having attended it, feeling that it had taught me many things. Yet when the school decided to write its history I wasn’t asked to do this; in fact I wasn’t even asked to the launch of the book. My head-master said he had invited me by e-mail (itself not a proper form of invitation). The person whom he had charged with sending this electronic invitation claimed that he had sent it. He furthermore told me that there would be a further event related to the school’s history in September 2008. I waited for an invitation, which never came. To quote the title of one of Pedro Almodovar’s films “What have I done to deserve this?” The Gardai never had to come up to the school to question me. I was revising for my inter-cert when a group of vandals carried out an arson attack on an Orange hall near Bailieborough. It would have been common courtesy to be invited – courtesy was something that was instilled in me by the school’s teachers, but as is so often the case I tink it was more “Do as we say and not as we do.”

I’ve said enough. What’s more I’m getting tired.

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Drumnamuckagh

Welcome to Drumnamuckagh, the des-res for ireland’s beautiful people, well not really beautiful (most of them are as ugly as shite), more lucky few. The name comes from the Irish Droim na Muice meaning, yes pasti? The pig’s back. In this time of unprecedented economic uncertainty, not seen perhaps since the 1980s or even worse since 1929, it is comforting to know that the inhabitants of Drumnamuck are immune to all this turbulence and can sit back and thumb their snotty noses at the little people who have the misfortune to live in the real world and who lack ties with the movers and shakers. The denizens of Drumnamuckagh are a mixed bag of people from different backgrounds, but they have a few things in common – a lack of any worthwhile abilities except wasting money. Of course they also have pull which means that they will get all the plum jobs before people who are better qualified. You’ll find here politicians from all shades of the political spectrum, many of whom pretend to worry about the nation’s welfare but really have only their own welfare at heart. There are also their family members – sons and daughters, both legitimate and illegitimate. And if anyone as much as raises a whisper about their charmed lives they suffer eternal damnation and victimisation. I am only writing this because, let’s face it, I’m as mad as the proverbial hatter. I’m also a born loser who can’t come to terms with my own incompetence and disability, but instead tries to tarnish the glowing halos of those whom God and nature have installed above me and who is moreover so burned up with anger at being a useless cripple.

Not deterred, I intend to write more about Drumnamuck when I feel like it. For now I’ll just leave you with a taste of what’s to come – 600,000 – that’s six hundred thousand – euro to be precise. Quite a lot of shit. In fact it would be something of a handful even for a FAS director general, but I’m not talking about FAS director generals, even though a former hold of that post is a very honoured denizen of Drumnamuckagh.

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Presidential visit

I am disappointed that President McAleese, on one of her rare visits to the county, should come here to open an Orange Hall. The Orange Order means very little to the vast majority of inhabitants of this county. Its contribution to the history of Co. Cavan has always been divisive. Having said this I don’t see anything wrong with the Orange Order pursuing peaceful activities, in which it should be left unhindered and its halls and buildings should not be subjected to mindless vandalism. Remember that the Order closes its membership to the vast majority of the citizens of the island of Ireland. It has always espoused narrow sectarian views combined with socially reactionary policies. Maybe this is one of the reasons why the Irish government has suddenly become so generous to it. I don’t believe that it should receive marks of favour from the government of either of the jurisdictions on this island, nor should any other narrowly-based religious group.

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September 26, 2008

The Peter Principle

Next year marks an important milestone in business publishing: it will be the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Laurence Peter & Raymond Hull’s The Peter Principle. Sadly this will also demonstrate how little impact writing has on the world of organization.

The most important part of the Peter Principle is that, in a hierarchical organization, an individual will rise to the level of his or her incompetence.

Apart from adding another phrase to the English lexicon, the book, though well written, has had very little impact on how people are organized, organize themselves and view the wider world. If anything things are even worse now than they were back in 1969; as we see there are no end of examples of people going far beyond the levels of their imcompetence, indeed often to the very top.

In spte of massive advances in technology and telecommunications we seem to have an unbreakable attachment to the model of the hierarchy. It’s comforting (especially to those at the top); it gives those lower down something to aim for, but it also keeps everyone in their place. Hierarchies are beloved of the public service in nearly every countrty (including Ireland). They dominate at the national level and are replicated clone-like at local government level.

Hierarchies usually give themselves away very easily, but one give-away clue is a proliferation of frankly silly titles, often ending in “officer”. It’s an open secret that most bureaucrats dream of becoming soldiers, but the discomfort of military life, plus the danger (real or imagines) of actually getting hurt, whether deliberately or accidentally), leaves most of them in a brown sweat.

The subtitle of Peter and Hull’s book is Why things always go wrong. Surely the fact that things keep going wrong show how little their impact has been. Yet in the Irish public sector things don’t go wrong: instead there is a systems failure. If you turn the ignition key in your car and it doesn’t respond this, it is true, may be due to a systems failure – especially if you haven’t put any petrol in the tank. Actually that’s not really a proper systems failure. There is nothing wrong with the system; simply the absence of an important and vital input – petrol. If however you’ve put petrol in it and maybe just had it servicee and it still won’t work, well then you are entitled to say: “This car is a heap o’ shite – I need a new one”. Imagine though how you’d feel if you were told that you could not get a new one, and that you’d have to make do with the old one which probably will creak back into action after a visit or two from some highly-paid consultants – most of whom are called Peter!

As a disabled person I often get frustrated, not least by the attitude of society which says (albeit not clearly): “You are imperfect. There is soimething wrong with you. You cannot have any important role in society but must rather sit back in the corner and let those who are able get on with it – and keep quiet as well.”" I hasten to assert that there may be some disabled people who would be incompetent, but would they not demonstrate possession of a quality they hold in common with so many people throughout the organization?

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Ciaran’s Peculier [sic] Blog

Category: Equality

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The sacrifices of Irish politicians

September 26, 2008

The Peter Principle

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