| The Joe Horgan Column By Joe
Horgan
Well anything is possible, I suppose. This is a world where an American
President declared the end to a conflict by appearing on a carrier ship
in full fighter pilot’s uniform even though we all knew he dodged going
to war himself. Or where his mother visits those victims of a hurricane
who have lost everything and suggests that because they were so poor anyway
the hurricane will actually work out well for them. Or where the black Republican
Condoleeza Rice can actually tell us there was nothing sinister in the fact
that most of the neglected victims of said hurricane just happened to be
black and poor. Or where the public schoolboy Tony Blair sits at the head
of the British Labour Party and holds a seat in a working class northern
community, sharing pints at election time with the old men whose lives he
knows absolutely nothing about.
Which means we shouldn’t be so surprised at this government’s latest
transformation. Not so long ago it was a caring think-in at the luxurious
Inchydoney spa and lodge as we were informed Bertie Ahern was in fact a
socialist. Now he has taken it a step further and announced that what he
really believed in all along is community and equality. It seems that Fianna
Fáil, who have always prided themselves on being the true grassroots party,
have had as a core principle all these governmental years the building of
community values and social connections.
At their latest, much publicised meeting in Cavan, the Government had
as its prime speaker an American professor whose main concern is something
called ‘social capital’ whereby a society concentrates on ensuring the health
of its communities by attaching value to all the little links that connect
people together. All those things that Ireland once had and now has less
and less as the transformation of the nation continues.
Now it is worth reiterating once again that no one pines for the poverty
of the good old bad old days. It is true that the Irish can take pride in
their economic achievements, but the social failings that have accompanied
the Celtic Tiger are well documented. Irish society has become more fragmented,
less intimate, less caring, more selfish. Of course this is not unique to
Ireland and in many ways appears to be just a by-product of increased materialism
and consumerism. In that way it is indicative of the western world rather
than the Irish Republic and is a problem for all developed societies rather
than just this one. In that way, perhaps, Bertie Ahern can be praised for
airing the issue and bringing it to public consciousness.
The only problem with that, though, is that we would have to ignore the
fact that it is him and his party that have been in power presiding over
the transformation of Ireland and whose policies have helped to diminish
the workings of society rather than maintain it. As Irish villages up and
down this beautiful country are adjoined by row upon row of holiday homes
that enhance the financial well being of developers but bring little to
local life, how can we detect Bertie’s concern for the idea of community?
As housing estate after housing estate go up in the counties around Dublin,
serving a commuter life along thronged motorways, where is Bertie’s idea
of society?
As it becomes clear that these estates have no provision for schools,
shops or family facilities how do we not conclude that uppermost in government
thinking was the profits of the big developers? As plans are unveiled for
more and more private hospitals, further dividing the sick along the lines
not of medical need but ability to pay, what kind of society do we see?
And, most astonishingly of all, Ahern’s assertion that, while others may
also be talking now about such quality of life issues, Fianna Fáil have
been conversing about such things for many years.
Then, as if to starkly highlight the ambiguities of this strange government,
a UN report found Ireland to be the second wealthiest country in the world.
Yet, it also found that Ireland was one of the most unequal, had the third
highest levels of poverty amongst the wealthy states, the second highest
rate of illiteracy and low levels of investment in health and education.
It is as if Bertie promoted the greed is good mantra into Irish society
and then complained that people were greedy.
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