The truth can be a bitter pill to swallow - Enda Kenny criticized for telling the truth
Posted on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 03:55 AM
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| Enda Kenny |
Enda Kenny is now facing a backlash for telling people something they desperately don’t want to hear yet alone believe — we are all to blame for the economic crisis.
The Taoiseach told a gathering at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the problem with Ireland’s economy was that “people went mad borrowing” in a climate where greed saw the system spiral out of control and ultimately crash.
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This is of course an oversimplification of our economic downfall, yet it is in essence relatively accurate. The poor judgement of our political leaders and the corrupt nature of certain financiers and developers was all driven by a collective giddy greed that gripped our nation at the height of the boom. The vast majority of us were crying, “more, more, more” when in fact we should have been increasing taxes and cutting our spending levels.
Speak with any rational Irish person about this and they will agree that while the levels of blame rise significantly depending on your role in the crash, we all ultimately have to take a certain amount criticism.
But to utter such words in public is tantamount to treason. This warped view of reality is being fed into and fuelled by a media that constantly uses politicians, developers and bankers as scapegoats.
Minister for Transport and Tourism Leo Varadkar condemned this cynicism and highlighted how the media offers a “sugar-coated” truth rather than exposing the real facts. He is right.
The media has become so cynical of politicians and their roles, that it is affecting the balance portrayed in the pages of our newspapers and the broadcasts of our national news.
It is so easy to blame whoever is public enemy number one at any given moment, whether it’s Sean Fitzpatrick, Michael Fingleton or Sean Dunne. However, these people did not operate in a vacuum and were part of a culture that was allowed flourish during the boom years.
Admittedly Enda Kenny did make a major error of judgement, but it was not telling the truth in Switzerland. It was telling Irish people what they wanted to hear seven weeks ago when he said — “You are not responsible for the crisis.”
We all criticise politicians for feeding us lies before an election and then once in office breaking these promises. But maybe this says more about us than it does about them. .
So now as the media turns on Enda and Leo for telling the truth, at least Irish people will now have two others to blame for their woes. * See more: Irish Economy
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bonjouryall | Jan 29, 2012, 11:31 AM EST
Requiring a site country to guarantee risky investments made by foreign banks in the site country is not required by international law. Government debt, such that Greece incurred, is different. Most will agree financial institutions should eat risky investments. The U.S. voluntarily bailed its banks out but fortunately limited its guarantees by statute, albeit to, in my opinion, an excessive level (I am reliably informed primarily benefited British and French banks). Still, Ireland was treated better than Iceland. I understand that the Brits seized Icelandic banks' accounts in Britain under their terrorist laws (due to the lack of any other law) in order to force their government to guarantee the debts. The EU is not so crass although the financial effect may be the same!
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GeorgeDillon | Jan 29, 2012, 08:15 AM EST
angrypaddy: Your rule is well stated. But the EU, the Irish government and the columnist Allen want to establish a new rule: If someone else borrows and fails to pay back, then you have to pay back what they borrowed!
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Diggers9711 | Jan 28, 2012, 09:41 PM EST
Anyone who reads this article should read it again.
This Paul Allen "journalist" is either depressed, not who he claims to be, or most likely running some sort of an agenda.
I'll explain my reasoning:
1) Only depressed people talk negatively of themselves. Depressed people blame themselves for the actions of their perpetrators. Depressed people try to rationalize or sympathize with their perpetrators because it's easier to blame themselves than making the perpetrators accept their mistakes. This article, in some ways leaves this impression when he tries to make victims of Ireland's elites (2%) and talks ill of Ireland's poor (98%).
2) From another angle, it looks like the author may not be in fact who he claims to be, Irish???? Maybe he has EU political roots, or most interestingly,
3) Could he be one of those burned junior bondholders trying to take revenge.
Whatever the truth is readers, don't invest your anger in a response to this pathetic article. Send us a tweet at Diggers9711 instead as I've noticed that comments that disagree with the authors have vanished within the last couple of hours.
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GeorgeDillon | Jan 28, 2012, 08:36 AM EST
Is this columnist Allen new? I've never noticed him before. In any case what he writes is utter tripe. Blaming Irish people because they had to pay $400.000 in order to purchase a modest three-bedroom row house home for their families. Blaming Irish people because the Irish ruling class stoked the "Boom" by importing foreign workers to build houses to rent to foreign workers... Bl;aming Irish people because now their taxes are going to pay welfare to these foreign workers and their families, even those of their children (whether they exist or not) who have never even set foot in Ireland. Classic case of blame the victim. Garbage.
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