IRELAND AT WAR - TIME FOR RESISTANCE

For thousands of years wars have been fought between tribes and peoples and nations.

Young men and women have been sent to their deaths for God and King and Country.

But what is war?  And who is it good for?

War is the plunder of land and people and wealth.  Land for territory, for property and for resources.  People for slavery and production.  Wealth for gold and treasures.

And war is an expensive business.  It takes a lot of resources to create, arm and transport men and machinery in campaigns that last anything from six days to a hundred years.

And who finances these resources?  Banks.

Who are the great powers in the world today?  Not the US, not Russia, not China, but the Central Banks including the Federal Reserve and the Vatican.

Wars are fought by countries but they are fuelled by banks.  So much government spending in the 20th century in military strength was only possible by the borrowing undertaken by nations to arm themselves.  And so much conflict was not only financed by actually instigated by banks to engineer the seizure of wealth and power.

So ... what has this got to do with Ireland?

Well... between 1990 and 2008 Europe enjoyed a phenomenal time of growth, prosperity and wealth creation.  Ireland was at the forefront of that. Out little country was the shining star in the boom.  Across the globe we were hailed as the economic prodigy.  Investment poured into the country.  Immigration soared to provide the manpower for the construction boom.  The IFSC became the international hub for investment funds and financial trading.  The global leaders in new technology set up base here from which to manage worldwide operations.

Everyone prospered.  Low interest rates (cheap money) here and across Europe allowed ordinary people to dream of boundless possibilities: a bigger home ... two homes ... a home abroad ... cars for every member of the family.  Graduates were coming out of college straight into beautiful homes, company cars, two holidays a year.  Older people with pensions were reinvesting their savings into stocks and shares and mostly property. 

The problem for the banks who financed all this growth and productivity was that it did nothing to create real wealth for them.  Interest on loans takes years to recoup and property financed by a bank doesn't grant ownership or title to the property per se.

Claim of ownership could only be made upon the default of payments on financed property.  So how to orchestrate mass default of payments?  Engineer a crash!

It is unquestionable that the people at the centre of the banking and finance understood very well that the system that had been allowed to balloon into a massive bubble of debt based on discounted future revenue rather than existing assets.  The economic boom based on debt guaranteed that the failure of even a small bank or perhaps even just the hint of a possibility of bank collapse would cause enough panic in the money and stock markets that would seriously curtail lines of credit that kept the machine oiled.

What the banks actually managed to do was create the same result within Europe that in other parts of the world might have necessitated war, invasion, "the spreading of democracy" and the overthrow of governments.

What they did was declare war on the people of Europe.  And in so doing, without a single shot being fired or a drop of blood spilt (which would come later), they had plundered the wealth of hundreds of millions of people, seizing their land, their homes, their possessions, their children (in the form of creating debt slaves that would be veritable indentured slaves to the debts their governments and corporate giants had left them) and their treasures.

And in the frontline of this war-without-war: The Irish.

It reminds me of the film Braveheart, when Edward Long Shanks tells his generals "Send in the Irish".

The grunts.  The ignorant peasants.  The idiots that have no idea what is happening to them, cannot understand the reality of it and are so heavily chemically sedated with the fluoride in their water that they haven't the capacity for enough rational thought to begin to fight back.

That's why Ireland was the staging ground for this war.  Paddy was the perfect fall guy for their master stroke.  The political system was so corrupt and the regulation of banking and finance had been allowed to get so loose that when the good times were rolling everybody was so mesmerised with the transition from Barry's tea and batch loaf to cappucinos and croissants that the fairytale seemed like it would never end.

And when it was time to save the banks and bondholders Mario Draghi gave the order: "Send in the Irish". 42% of the total cost of the crash born by Paddy.  The average cost for every European for the crash was  € 192.  If you're reading this you're probably paying € 9,000.  Have another glass of fluoridated water there before they start charging for it .. it'll calm you down.  Which suits them just fine.

So if we're in a war that we didn't start how do we end it?

Well if war is about the seizure of power, resources and wealth what we need is a resistance movement.  Stop paying stupid taxes.  Stop paying your tv licence.  Stop paying parking fines.  Stop accepting the rules of government and judiciary that are not serving you but feeding the corporate beast.  Refuse to pay on-the-spot traffic fines ... they're not about road safety ... they're just about pickpocketing a few more quid from you.  Stop paying all sorts of charges that are not about the provision of public service and all about the transfer of wealth ... like the property tax and the water charge. 

We also seriously need to discuss other options for banking and trade.  There are other systems  of credit and payment that facilitate trade especially on a local or national basis.  Ideally I'd like to see us leave the Euro and Europe, but even if the nation refused to do that we could still introduce a domestic currency that would allow cash and credit to flow without affecting international or government borrowing and spending. 

We might not have the weapons of power (like a for-sale prostitute police force) but if we are to avoid being slaughtered as a nation by poverty, emigration, homelessness and suicide then we need to fight back.

After all ... "IT'S OUR ISLAND!"

2014 Christmas Message to An Taoiseach and Minister for Finance

Dear Scrooge and Grinch,

Well, it's the Friday before Christmas and I thought I'd write you my now annual christmas message to tell you about my year and give you your christmas report card.

I have just checked my bank account and I have a budget of € 77.39 for Christmas 2014.

I haven't bought any presents for my three children yet and I haven't bought any food or drink for the holidays.

That's a very damning snapshot of the real effects of your policies.

In 2014 your government made a big song and dance about giving something back to PAYE workers since we are now "out of the bailout" (whatever that means to you...).  Both of you will be more than €700 better off because of that.  I will be € 430 better off.  Except I won't.

In the previous budget you took € 2,490 more income tax from me because I am a single father.  Penalised for being an unmarried (actually divorced) man with children.  So your government has made me more than TWO THOUSAND EURO WORSE OFF since you came into office.  And that is JUST IN INCOME TAX ... BEFORE I even address other charges and taxes that you have introduced.

In October, Justice Marie Baker of the High Court made a ruling which admonished the Department of Social Protection for judging a single father's entitlement to benefits without due regard for his children, their rights to support in their relationship with their father and his right to be regarded as a man with (semi) dependent children ... not just a single person.

The change to the tax code which resulted in the loss of tax credits and allowances for single fathers in the budget of October 2013 is therefore morally unjust.  It is punitive towards single fathers, creates serious inequality between unmarried fathers and mothers, and by extension creates serious inequality between children of unmarried parents and children of married parents.  It also directly contributes to the despicable phenomenon of Parental Alienation by clearly making a statement to children of separated or unmarried parents that the State regards their parents as unequal, sending a message that single mothers (or primary carers) are more important than single fathers (or secondary carers).

The tax code also now regards me as a single person with no children, which is absolutely and clearly not the case.  The tax code refuses to see me as a father.  When it sees me it does not see my children.  My children have been 'removed' from me.  They are invisible.

Well my children are NOT invisible.  I have joint custody of my children.  The access arrangement means I see them 11 days out of 28.  They have overnight access to me every second weekend.  I have two weeks summer holidays with them.  To remove € 2,000 from my income has a significant, real and drastic effect on my ability to build and enjoy a relationship with them.  This year it will mean they will get very little from me at Christmas time, while you all enjoy unlimited food, drink, presents, excursions, treats and fun with yours.

I did my best to carry the tax increase into 2014 to avoid having to pass it on to my children's mother.  I have always done my utmost to ensure that the breakup of my marriage would not be felt in my children's home. By May it was extremely difficult to continue without some relief so I was forced by your actions to go back to family court ... an experience which must be closest thing to hell on earth.  I presented a proposal to the court which would have allowed me to recoup the extra tax back from the Revenue and leave the maintenance I pay (more than 60% of my wages) untouched.  The proposal would have resulted in a small increase in income tax to my ex but the maintenance payment would remain exactly the same.

The court refused to consider my proposal and in so doing forced me to continue paying income tax on that part of the maintenance paid in respect of my ex.  So the courts (1) refused me my legal entitlement under the tax code to have relief for the amount paid to my ex; (2) ordered that I continue to pay  tax at 41% on income that is my ex's upon which she would only be paying tax at 20%..!; and (3) protected the money that you had taken from me by disallowing my entitlement to claim it back.

I would also note that the reasons and basis upon which the removal of the single parent tax credit was removed have all been clearly debunked in my previous correspondence to the Minister and other members of the Oireachtas.

One of those reasons was that the change has been proposed by the Commission on Taxation.  It is absolutely despicable that this was the ONLY change proposed which was adopted.  It was an easy € 25 million to steal from a minority group with no lobbying power and you know it!  This year you 'removed' the Double Irish provision for multinational companies but this was on a PHASED BASIS.  Why could changes to the tax code for single fathers (one of the groups of people suffering most under austerity) not have been made on a phased basis??  This point is moot anyway because the entire basis for the attack was unfounded and following Justice Baker's ruling is now clearly unlawful.

I'm signing off now because I have more important things to do than waste my breath on you.

I have to plan how I am to bring at least a little bit of joy to my children this Christmas.  There's more to life than money.  at least I hope so.

Paul Madden
The Dissident Drum

Christmas Message 2013
http://emeraldfist.blogspot.ie/2013/12/christmas-letter-to-taoiseach-2013-year.html

Christmas Message 2012
http://emeraldfist.blogspot.ie/2013/01/a-christmas-message-to-taoiseach.html

Christmas Message 2011
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10150532923845791

https://www.facebook.com/284577154921937/photos/a.284967824882870.67808.284577154921937/284967831549536/?type=1&theater

https://www.facebook.com/284577154921937/photos/a.285387558174230.67886.284577154921937/285388304840822/?type=1&theater

It's Not A Banking Crisis - It's Far Worse

DECEMBER 2014 - Another Christmas Another Protest

In November 2011 I made my first stand as a dissident.

The Budget of October 2011 had revealed Fine Gael and Labour to be nothing more than the Fianna Fail B team.  The hope that was given to the Irish people in Kenny's Five Point Plan, the end of crony-riddled political corruption, and Gilmore's rousing "Frankfurt's Way or Labour's Way" speeches was utterly destroyed and I understood that nothing would change.  The Contract for a Better Ireland was not a contract.  It wasn't even a promise ... it was a marketing slogan.  In the song Won;t Get Fooled Again, Pete Townsend wrote the line: "Meet the New Boss ... Same as the Old Boss".  Never a truer word sung.

2011 was a tough year for me, and I suffered badly with despair.  But I managed not to let it consume me.  Instead I got angry.  Angry enough to write a letter (I know! pathetic) to Kenny, telling me I had nothing left to give but the shirt on my back.

So I wrote the letter on a shirt off my back.  I was going to go to the Dáil and fuck it over the railings but in the end I sent it to him .. by registered mail.



Here is what it said: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10150532923845791

In December 2012 I wanted to make another protest at Gangster House so I bought a wreath in Moore St. pinned the names of those who had died during the year ... by suicide (among them Shannon and Erin Gallagher), by betrayal of trust (Savita Halappanavar) and by political neglect (Paul Doyle).  I hung it on the railings of Gangster House and stood in silence for an hour.



I also thought I'd send Kenny another Christmas message but I knew it would be binned so I posted a blog for him.

This was it: http://emeraldfist.blogspot.ie/2013/01/a-christmas-message-to-taoiseach.html

In 2013 I was by then part of the growing active campaigners against austerity and corruption so I didn't do anything specific for Christmas ... the year had been one long march.

This year I want to make another Christmas statement but this time it is not to Kenny and the other members of Fail Eireann.  This year it is to the people.

In 2012 I said
"there are more real measurements of the state of the country (other than the numbers in employment): The number living (and dying) below the poverty line (many of them with jobs); The number of people emigrating in search of a life and a future; And the number of people taking their own lives (many with jobs) because they don't believe they have a future and don't have the possibility of emigrating.

This will be the legacy of Irish governments in the 21st century"

Three years and nine months after Fine Gael and Labour came to power this statement just gets more and more true.

The Abandoned
The EU and the Euro zone are failed projects...for the citizens.  For the rulers they are magnificent triumphs.  The engineered destruction of national sovereignty, national fiscal control and national political independence has left unelected power and corporate influence with absolute control over the lives of European citizens and Irish people in particular.

To argue that the expert minds of international finance did not understand that the banking system would not come to a point of cataclysmic implosion is to ignore the obvious: there was no banking crisis ... everything was designed to play out just as it has.  Now power resides in the hands of central bankers, corporations with more financial clout than entire countries and the unelected elite of EU committees.

In Ireland our budget is signed off in Brussels and Berlin before it is presented to our publicly elected representatives.  Our ability to legislate and administer our domestic affairs is determined by the amount of wiggle room we have in the handcuffs of directives.  Our government is powerless to disobey.  Even today we learn that under threat of conviction in secret courts our government are obliged to allow foreign powers spy on us.

The banks own our homes.  The bondholders own our wages.  And they own the wages of our children not yet left school.  Nobody is protecting the people. 

We have been abandoned.  By our politicians.  By the Eurocrats who told us that Lisbon and all the other treaties would be good for us.  

The Forgotten
The last official statistics for suicide in Ireland are from 2011 ... the year when this government was still preaching a message of hope.  At that time the numbers were recorded at approximately 500 per year, and unofficially the figure was estimated to be closer to 700 ... 2 people every day.

Just a few months ago a cousin of mine was home from England doing a genealogical project on our family.  In her search she visited Mount Jerome cemetery in Dublin.  There she met a man who was a grave digger.  In just 3 days of that week there had been 8 funerals.  6 of them were suicides.  That's two a day ... IN ONE PARISH!

The Betrayed
The Fine Gael/Labour government has also driven the economy further into crisis and now even families with both parents working on the average industrial wage are struggling to survive below the poverty line.  100,000 families are at serious risk of being evicted from their homes by the same banks that the government told us we had to save. 

Homelessness is out of control.  Jonathon Corrie has joined Paul Doyle on the forgotten list.  There are reports of homeless being shipped from Dublin to other towns across the country with one way bus and rail tickets ... all in an effort to keep the streets sanitary for the visiting Troika dignitaries.  The numbers of children living on the streets is increasing and, if it isn't already, Ireland is fast becoming the GHETTO OF EUROPE.

The Lucky Ones
There are 80,000 people leaving the country of their birth every year.  They are the lucky ones.  Economic refugees.  They are the new wild geese.  They have the means and opportunity to search for a life - not a 'better' life .... just a life! - across the globe.  In little over a decade 1 million people will have fled.  They are our young, our educated, our skilled and our most capable.

When the best of us have gone, who will be left to pay the € 80 billion to the bondholders?  Where will the politicians get the money from?  The elderly? The sick?  The unemployed?  The children?

In the United Kingdom, 17% of the population would be 11 million people.  In 10 years.  Gone.

This is not a banking crisis.

It is economic genocide.

On December 10th many thousands of people will come to Gangster House to hold their own protest.  Every one will have their own reason.  The water charges; the property tax; the loss of medical cards; the poor health system; the loss of resources in schools; the bank debt; the emigration of their sons and daughters...

What we are ACTUALLY protesting is the failure of a SYSTEM. 

Not a Taoiseach, not a government, not a party but the ENTIRE POLITICAL SYSTEM.  The legislative system - the administrative system - the judicial system.  Our health system could be fine with better management and less waste.  Our education system could, and has been, excellent given the proper resources.

But our politicians have been NOTHING more than contestants in a game show and their prizes have been the Power, the Privilege, the Pay, the Perks and the Pension. 

Politics should be about the PEOPLE!

New politicians and new parties won't fix anything.  The real power is in our Civil Service ... faceless, unelected, unaccountable, untouchable.

It's time for a reboot.  Time to press Control-Alt-Delete and start again.  100 years after 1916 we have nothing to celebrate.

100 years after 1916 we have not come very far at all.  We are no closer to living in a society of equality, prosperity, possibility and justice than we were in 1914. 

If nothing changes soon we will have nothing to celebrate in 2016. 

Abandon Ship or Mutiny - Setting A New Course

Comparable to Kevin Spacey’s character in American Beauty, who describes his early morning shower as “the highlight of my day”, climbing into bed at night is mine, though not for the same reason.

I always look forward to those final moments before sleep, when the conscious mind falls slient and the subconscious mind begins to wake.

In those few seconds the conscious mind must surrender its power.  All emotions are abandoned including happiness, sadness and fear.  And when the subconscious and the conscious mind pass each other a lot of clarity can be found and there can be moments of clarity and reasoning and understanding.

Last night was such a night.

Spending all my waking time these days thinking about what’s going on in our country my mind is often a chaotic whirlwind of anger, frustration, confusion, bewilderment and indignation.  Every day there seems to be more and more evidence that our government are out of control, a rudderless ship tossed like a cork on a raging sea of political incompetence, administrative chaos, economic ignorance and social destruction.

In my attempts to make sense of what is happening I always try to find perspective by looking at the bigger picture.  Not the bill for water that the government are promising me in January, but the state of the country, how we got here and where we are heading.  I may not be the man at the wheel, but I can be the man in the crow’s nest, observing the crew as they scurry about like rats trying to plug the holes in the ship and looking out to sea to find some hope of dry land so that we can set a steady course and arrive safely on dry land.

Last night one thought came to me very strongly.  Ireland is a third world country.

It seems like a throw-away phrase but with simple analysis it does stand up to scrutiny.

Ireland was a British colony.

During that time the country was destroyed by famine.

It revolted in search of its independence and identity and although the revolt was put down and its heroes executed, the crown granted us a type of independence. 

They gave us our political system – modelled on theirs.

They gave us our judicial system – modelled on theirs.

They allowed us some independence as the Free State but kept us under the rule of the crown … until 1937 members of the Oireachtas had to swear an oath of allegiance to the crown and until 1949 the Queen of England was regarded as the Head of State.

On a couple of occasions the Queen of England paid us a royal visit.  In 2011 Queen Elizabeth popped over to see how we were doing (and some say to collect her copy of the census, held the same year, as her claim on us as subjects).

Our government allowed our oil to be stolen by foreign corporations.

Our government allows the use of Shannon airport as a US airbase.

Our government took our taxes to save Irish, European and American banks.

Our government has promised our future taxes to be handed over to investment companies, hedge funds and traders on Wall Street and London and Tokyo in the form of government bonds, making us debt slaves in bondage to foreign powers.

Our government allows the same banks they saved with our money to throw us out of our homes into the streets, assisted by an English Sheriff.

Our police force operates as a private company available for hire to large private business to protect private property before public safety.

Our civil service is also wracked with corruption.  Many of its mandarins paid salaries even greater than that of our political leader.

Our political leader is a school teacher turned tin-pot dictator, unqualified to lead a country.  He is a willing mindless puppet backed by multi-billionaire businessmen.

Our social and economic policy is handed to us by a foreign, unelected government and all legislation must first be authorised by bankers and bureaucrats.

Our water is not the purified clean water that the rest of Europe enjoys.  It is laced with chemical fluoride and in some parts of the country is unfit for human consumption.

Our healthcare system is under-resourced to the point of implosion.

Our education system is under-resourced to the detriment of our children.

Our media only reports a scripted narrative prepared by government and ignores the reality of life for ordinary citizens.  All dissention is denied a voice.  All truth is censored.

Our political system is wracked with corruption.  Friends and family members are sneaked into positions of authority and given first class seats on the gravy train.

Quangos deliver no benefit to the people while feeding on their misery.

Our President is a puppet, or more accurately a muppet.  He is the missing member of the Waldorf 

Stadtler Higgins comedy trio.

Our farmers, once the engine of our economy, have been handcuffed by regulation, price and quota fixing and the rise of the supermarkets, importing most of what stocks their shelves.

Our small and medium sized business have also been destroyed by red tape and banking corruption while we allow global multi-national corporations use us as an off-shore conduit for profits from tax evasion.

Our church as enjoyed a reign of terror and child abuse with impunity.

Those of us with the possibility of escape have emigrated like refugees to find a better life … indeed to find a life! across the globe.

Some of us with no possibility of escape and no hope are taking our own lives to find peace in some other life.

And this week, in the shadow of our government’s palace, a man was left to die in the street.

Colonisation – famine – imposed government – corporate exploitation – political corruption – cronyism – the rise of the quangos – foreign domination – the theft of our natural resources – exodus – debt slavery – clerical abuse suicide – homelessness – lack of social protection for the poorest – sad, meaningless death.

Jimmy Rabbit wasn’t wrong when he said “Ireland are the blacks of Europe”.  Barely ten years after being hailed as the shining light of capitalism, Ireland is the ghetto of Europe.

We have seen how our government are preparing for the 2016 orgy of false patriotism with images of our oppressors.  Our slaughtered heroes have been forgotten, written out of our history while we are all but encouraged to sing God Save The Queen.

That’s what my uncensored subconscious showed me last night.  It is a sad image.  But it is entirely accurate.

Should we leave Europe?  Yes.  Absolutely.  And we should apply to the African Union to become a member of the African nations because we have more in common with Nigeria than we do with Germany.

Maybe then Bono might think about lobbying for his own people and make Irish poverty history…

So is there dry land anywhere in sight to beach this coffin ship before it sinks?

There is, but it will take a mutiny of the people to set it on its course.

We must act as one to remove the officer class and take control of our own destiny.

No one is protecting us.  No one is helping us.  We must help ourselves and if a peaceful mutiny does 

not succeed then it might take more forceful action to remove the officers and cast them adrift.

It’s 8am.  I rose early to write these words still fresh in my mind.  Tonight I will join the vigil outside Gangster House for the man who was found yesterday.  It will not be my first vigil.

I have not been a dissident for very long … to my shame.  My second act of defiance was in December 2012.  I went to Moore Street and bought a Christmas wreath.  I found a website with the names of victims of suicide who had died in Ireland over the past few years.  I wrote the names of those people and stapled them to the wreath and I hung the wreath on the railings of Gangster House and stood alone silently to honour them, remember them and to shame the people who had abandoned them.

A Garda on duty and one or two passers-by asked me what it was for.  I said simply “it’s for those who didn’t make it”. 

I don’t remember all the names but I remember Shannon and Erin Gallagher, Savita Halappanavar and Paul Doyle, a homeless man who died in a Tesco doorway in Bray.

On December 10^th it would be fitting to remind ourselves and our public representatives of those they have failed, abandoned and forgotten and place wreaths around government buildings. 

And on December 11^th it would be fitting to begin seriously to think about taking control of our lives so that this coffin ship does not become a ghost ship, filled with the crying souls of our children.

Photos: © Kevin E. Campbell  
www.kecampbell.com

Kevin E. Campbell : Dublin Editorial Photographer

Ireland and the Politics of Expediency

As Paddy Power have opened a book on the result of the next general election, predicting a Fianna Fail/Fine Gael coalition as one possibility, we are seeing in plain view now the truth about the political ideologies of our major parties and it's that time again : ALL ABOARD THE GRAVY TRAIN.


The general election of 2011 held a lot of promise ... and a lot of promises.  Fine Gael were hailing the end of crony politics, a new era of transparency and an end to the corruption and mismanagement of public administration which allowed Fianna Fail to enjoy a decade of luxury and waste.

The Labour Party, offered the opportunity to go into government with Fine Gael, didn't show the slightest hesitation in abandoning their principles and their election manifesto in exchange for a first class ticket on the gravy train of government.

So what is the overarching ideology of the Irish politician?  What is the predominant political philosophy in Irish politics?

It is EXPEDIENCY.

Pat Rabbitte who would assume the role of Minister for Commmunications ... Josef Goebels would be proud ... admitted that election promises are not worth the paper they're not written on.  "That's just what you do..." to get elected, to seize power.

Tell the people what they want to hear, take their mandate, and burn it just as quickly.

Politics in Ireland is nothing more than a gameshow.

Government doesn't formulate public policy.  It is formulated and drafted by faceless unelected civil servants in the ministerial departments and increasingly is received by them from Brussels, where corporate influence frames social and economic policy in terms of revenue and profit.

Our ministers and TDs have quite clearly demonstrated a level of incompetence and lack of understanding that would see them demoted if not fired in the private sector.  Their disconnectedness from the people directly affected by their decision making has exposed them as wholly unqualified to manage public affairs and lead a country.

When a general election is eventually called we will see yet another display of X Factor popularity contests from those who put themselves forward to represent the Irish public but sell nothing more than empty soundbites and popular lyrics... "create more jobs", "get the country back to work", "greater transparency", "political reform" and on and on to a crescendo of public applause.

None of the major parties have anything to offer.

Simply ask the question: "how will Ireland be better with (insert party here) in government"?

There is no answer because at this moment in time, with this batch of politicians and in this political system getting elected IS the end game.  There is no vision beyond that. 

In the general election gameshow, power is the prize. 

With power comes responsibility ... and Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Labour Party have proven to be not just irresponsible bu criminally negligent with the power bestowed on them in government.

It is hard to analyse what Sinn Fein or the Left would be like in government, but with real change in the hands of the civil servants that pull all the strings from behind a very thick curtain, it is reasonable to expect little real change in the foreseeable future.

Only a complete dismantling of the current system and a change of the rules of the game will produce any chance of change.  From the party whip system of control, literally silencing the voices of constituents across the country, and the rubber stamp nature of the seanad under government control to the careerist carrots of pay, pension and perks, politics in Ireland is going nowhere fast.

The gravy train is not an unstoppable force if the mood of the nation can be converted into people's movement to derail it.  Without that we will continue as second class passengers ... and it's our blood on the tracks.

The Money In Ireland's Water

(footnote added)
Today, by coincidence, one of the national newspapers have reported that the "regulator" has confirmed that the water (tax) bills for families will reach € 600 when the government end their subvention to Irish Water in the form of free water allowances.

I have been looking at the numbers over the past few days and the math is quite simple ... and unfortunately the headline is perfectly accurate.

THE FIGURES

In Ireland, water authorities supply 1.6 million ltrs of water every day for users.  That equates to 584,000 million ltrs annnually.
(Engineers of Ireland Report 2011)

The average daily consumption per person is 150 ltrs.  That equates to total personal consumption of 251,207 million ltrs annually.
(Census 2011 and other sources)

Of the 584,000 million ltrs supplied, 41% is "lost" through deteriorating infrastructure.  That's 239,440 million ltrs wasted.  Leaving 93,353 million ltrs for commercial consumption.

We have a population of 4,588,252 people. There are 1,658,243 households.  (Census 2011)

251,207 million ltrs divided by 1,658,243 households equates to a usage figure of 151,490 ltrs per year per household.

A family with two children under the age of 18 will get total allowances of 72,000 ltrs.  (30,000 household allwance and 21,000 for each of the children)

The amount of water billable by Irish Water will therefore be 79,490 ltrs.

At € 4.88 /000 ltrs the water bill will be € 388.  The total revenue to Irish water from customers will therefore be € 643 million pa.

Irish Water will also get € 351 from the government for the water that is supplied 'free'.  This adds up to € 583 million pa and will be payed from the € 1.2 billion that you will STILL be paying to the government for water through general taxation including the 5% on motor tax and 2% on VAT which they have not given you back despite setting up a company to make you pay for water...

Irish Water total revenue then will be ... € 1.2 billion ... exactly the figure that the government says it costs to supply water (Dept of Finance Budget estimates. € 715m operating cost and € 500m Capital Expensditure)

That's an important phrase to remember ... Irish Water and the government clearly say that they are supplying your water AT COST!

In 2015 the public will therefore pay € 1.2 billion to the Irish government (no change to taxation which would have actually transferred the taxation revenue to Irish Water) ... PLUS ... € 643m paid directly to Irish Water, excluding revenue from Call Outs and other Service Charges.

So when the government said that people havee to pay for water, what they have actually done is increase the price of water by 50%.

PRIVATISATION

When Irish Water is privatised a number of things will happen.

Firstly, The government will no longer be able to provide a subsidy to a private company for the 'free' water you have been getting in allowances.

The new owner's (VEOLIA) shareholders won;t be happy with their company supplying product free-of-charge to customers so the cost of the subsidy will IMMEDIATELY be passed to the consumer.

Your bill of € 388 will now be a bill of € 739.

but that's only half the story...

The second thing that happens is that VEOLIA will have no interest in supplying a product AT COST!

Remember?  It costs € 1.2bn to supply the water, and the company wil be getting € 1.2bn in revenue.

That means only one thing ... cost cutting and price increases. 

Shareholders will be looking for decent return on their investment ... anything from 5 to 10%.  I've no idea what that will mean in terms of retail price but it at 5%, your bill will then be close to € 800.

As water supply companies will also then become service providers like any other it would not be far-fetched to predict that VAT at 13.5% (or whatever the rate at the time) will be added on top of that.  So now your bill be € 908.

On the cost side, the € 500m that is spent annually on Capital Expenditure by the government (improving the system to make Irish Water a more saleable asset) will be cut by the new owners to generate significant increases in profit.  That means the user will have to pay for repairs, new installations (new housing estates, factories etc) and upgrades.

In fact, what the government are going to do is borrow € 1 billion from the markets ("off-balance-sheet" which just means the debt will be discounted when the international gurus go to set Ireland's credit rating) and use it to do some of those repairs, installations and upgrades to make IW a more attractive package for sale.  And of course YOU and I will still be paying back the € 1 billion borrowed for a decade or more in taxation while the new owners of Irish Water become billionaires.



THE HIDDEN VALUE

Irish Water today is a legal entity charged with the collection of tax for the water supplied.  When VEOLIA buy the company they won't simply be buying a company with annual revenue of between € 1.2bn and € 1.3bn (excluding other income from call-outs, service charges and other work), they will have sole and clear rights to the fresh water natural resource of our country.

Can we put a figure on that? 

Yes.

We use 2% of our fresh water resources. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland)
That is verifiable with some rough math : (584,000 million ltrs supplied to users from a total annual rainfall of 84 trillion ltrs allowing for 50% evaporation etc.)

If we use 2% of our fresh water resource, worth € 1.2bn, it means that we are sitting on an unused asset with a value of € 64bn.    And remember ... that is not a finite asset value like an oil field or a coal mine which can be exhausted.  That is an unlimited, inexhaustible ANNUAL REVENUE value of € 64 bn for as long as rain falls on earth.

Of course that's a virtual figure.  We could never access 100% of our surface and ground water.  However, a company like VEOLIA, which has annual revenues of € 30bn worldwide (the Irish government has annual tax revenue of € 30 bn), has the resources to access potentially 5% of that asset.

VEOLIA won't be buying a company with annual revenue of € 1.2bn from Irish customers, they'll be buying a company with potential global sales of € 2bn to € 3bn.

Demand for water is predicted to increase by 40% up to 2050.  85 % of the world's population live in the driest parts of the planet and the popluation of the planet is expected to increase by approx. 3 billion people by 2050.

Water will become an even more valuable resource than oil.  It is a raw material for a multi-billion euro industry that doesn't have to be mined, drilled (in Ireland most of our water comes from surface water), manufactured, grown or synthesised.  It falls out of the sky.  For free.

If you owned a business that got it's primary raw material for free you'd have a very profitable business.  Or a very wealthy country.

Which would you prefer?

footnote:
When our fresh water rights have been 'sold' to VEOLIA, our rights to use our lakes and rivers will be revoked.  We will no longer be able to fish or enjoy other activities without permits because we will be trespassing on priivate property.  VEOLIA are a corporate entity with no regard for 'rights'.  VEOLIA have significant business interests in Egypt and at this moment are suing the Egyption government in the courts because the Egyptian government raised the national minimum wage ... cutting into VEOLIA's profits.

Irish Water has been setup by the government to do one thing: take more tax from Irish people to pay Bond Holders.  Reported previously in the press but requiring confirmation since October: Irish Water will be allowed to retain profits for 6 years before they pass any benefit back to the consumer.  That means all revenue can be used to repay the interest on Bond Debt ( € 8 bn in 2015).

Once the government have deemed that purpose to have been fulfilled privatisation will be swift and final.  Then they will claim they have 'no power' to interfere in the operations of a private company...

#irishwater

IRELAND - A GIANT AWAKENS

  
For hundreds of years the Irish people have been bystander, witness and victim to crimes against them.  Crimes against their liberty.  Crimes against their property.  Crimes against their beliefs and even crimes against their very existence.


From the invasion of their island, the destruction of their land, their starvation, the scattering of their kin across the globe, the removal of their sovereignty by an empire, the suppression of a rising, the reinstatement of themselves as subjects to a king, their subservience to predation through their fear of God, the trading of their independence to be part of a new European empire, the insidious manipulation of their innocence by a political class driven by arrogance and greed, the betrayal of their dreams by a financial system and today the opportunist exploitation of the docile acceptance of their fate by a new corporate monarchy.

We have not just been asleep for all that time.  To our shame we believed we were impotent.
If we were it is because we were taught to be.  We were controlled, conditioned.

For generations we were taught to lower our heads before those we were told were better than us.  We were told to respect the important people, to respect authority. 

In every city and town in the country we were taught to respect the local Parish Priest, respect the local Bank Manager, respect the local TD,respect the Garda.

Today we know what the Church has done to us.  We know what the banks have done to us.  We know what our politicians have done to us.  And we know what our Garda force and our judiciary are doing to us.

We are not children any more.  We have grown up.  And we have learnt that what we are taught was wrong.

I don’t respect these people any more.

Respect is something that should be taught to children.  But after childhood Respect is something that must be earned.

Maurice McCabe and John Wilson have earned my respect … for their honour and integrity.
I respect Margaretta Darcy for fighting against the use of our island as a US military airbase.
I respect the people of Rossport for what they have had to endure at the hands of a PROSTITUTED Garda Siochana.
I respect the turf cutters for fighting to save their heritage.
I respect the Occupy protesters who camped outside the Central Bank for months with little public support.
I respect Diarmuid O’Flynn and the people of Ballyhea for their crusade… tirelessly entering the ring against the odds when Michael Noonan is too cowardly to fight.
I respect people like Marcus Howard and Steve Kerr and Derek Byrne who are documenting this historic struggle and recording a new chapter in our while the media ignore it.
I respect the people of The Hub and the Land League fighting to stop Irish families being evicted from their homes.
I respect the people of Togher and Watermill Drive and Edenmore for their strength and courage and leadership.

These people are giants among us.

All of these people have one thing in common.  They are not doing it for fame or glory of rmoney or votes.  They’re doing it out of love for their children and pride in their country.

When you realise that people you respect are the ones who are ridiculed,discredited, bullied, dismissed, ignored, beaten, jailed, betrayed and abandoned by the same authorities we were told to bow down to then you know ...

the time of Respect for Authority is over

Now is the time to respect yourselves. But even your self respect has to be earned.

First you have to WAKE UP to what is happening all around you. 

When you’re awake and can see the truth you will be outraged and you will STAND UP.

And when you’re on your feet you will find the courage to SPEAK UP.

And when you have found your voice then you will be ready to RISE UP.

We can all be giants. 

In Bolivia in the year 2000, a 45 year old shoemaker led his people in a revolution that brought down a corporate empire that was destroying his country and enslaving the people in poverty.

The revolution was over the private ownership of the country’s water.  The threw one of the world's biggest engineering companies and the World Bank out of their country even in the face of massive military opposition.

In a speech after he said:  The only force capable of transforming the world, capable of transforming society,is that capacity of unity, organisation and mobilisation of the people in front of any power.

When IW is defeated we will only have won one small victory in a long war.  And if we end our struggle there,then we will have achieved nothing. 

We can achieve so much more from this point.  We can go back and address the other symptoms we ignored: Our oil, our fishing rights, our turf rights, mortgage write downs,the odious debt we are paying now and in the future, and the money we have already given to bondholders.

We can even decide to take back control of our lives by returning to our own currency, our own political independence from the failed EU project, and by designing – for the first time! - our own political system.

I have no message for the parasites in Leinster House.  Why would I address someone for whom I have no respect.  My message is to the people.

From the pain come the dream
From the dream come the vision
From the vision come the people
From the people come the power
From this power come the change

WAKE UP – STAND UP – SPEAK UP – RISE UP

Almost 100 years after Padraig Pearse’s dream that we would be the risen people, we are ready to fulfil his dream and to make our own dreams reality.

We have found our self respect. 

We must not lose it again.