The need to reconstruct a set of core values in Ireland, based on truth, ethics and social justice

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Tue Mar 20, 2007 16:52

The 26th of March and Devolution is but days away. Minister Hain seems intent that if there is now compliance, the Peace Programme as we have come to know it will stop. Precision will dictate and water charges (much disagreed with and deemed unfair) will be in the post. Why such apathy?

The Health Service - integrity is most definitely lacking in the whole Health equation. Hippocrates writer of the Hippocratic Oath sworn by the medical professon spoke of 'To help but not to harm'

I suggest a time for some Eastern Meditation for our Consultants and medical people: Attitudes must change in the interest people who are suffering and ill - think of Dr. Finlay's casebook or All Creatures Great and Small.

I must commend however Professor Owen Smith and the team in Trinity. I heard him on the Derek Mooney Live show along with a young patient of a rare cancer who has been a patient in Our Lady's Hospital for Children in Crumlin. Thanks to the innitiative; the research; identification with young people in hospital, with the help of Solas, young people have access to the computer, ipods etc and internet within the confines of space that their illness determines.........This is such a good move for self esteem; communication and creativity, it allows the young person to be a 'knowledge participant in their illness; to play games; to contact friends. The quality of their lives has been improved a little.....

As a person with ABI, Bipolar, Anxiety complicated by M.E., I would have never survived the last number of years when I was confined to bed space by the ME but also by the Agoraphobia that went with it......

Justice Equality and Law Reform - I ask what is the problem here. We have rumours about corruption in the DPP; we have courts deciding that people cannot publicly rate their solicitors; we have child abuse; we have paedophile rings; we have people in positions of Authority - those who supposedly lead by example involved in the abuse. Prison officers supplying mobile phones etc.....Gardai - the issue of corruption of a large percentage of the force needs to be addressed urgently. Today, an irate Judge has sentenced a FF Minister in Galway to prison (two weeks to sort out his affairs). When does it stop.......

I will end with another quote from Kieron O'Hara

'The effect of globalising trust with institutions is to increase dramatically the systemic risk' in other words the deck of cards.....

Then there are illegal drugs, legal drugs, 'killing machines', guns, knives.......

I would highly recommend that people read this book:
Trust - From Socrates to Spin
by Kieron O'Hara

'Perhaps Dante's instincts are sounder than ours; perhaps those who betray trust are doing serious and dangerous violence to the foundations of society.

Minor betrayals, individually, less shocking than the crimes we see in our newspaper headlines, make us less capable of getting on with each other, of living the lives that WE WANT TO LEAD.

I suggest Ireland now has reached low priority levels of 'Trust and dangerous violence to the foundations of society'.

Mental Health is a human right - it is not so regarded in Ireland
Neurology is a human right........yet we are near the bottom of the EU list.....

We rely on charities and people do great work. But what about illness like TB, MRSA, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, MS, - those illnessnes with low recovery rates. Where is Government commitment here. Personally, as a person with a few illnessness, it is no wonder there is a problem with MRSA - I challenge the commitment of those who work in the medical health system and whose God is money, holidays, the more better best life - some people think that doing things is what life is all about, but communication, compassion, care, also ought to be of value. Wastage has a lot to answer for.

Politicians - well I despair. I feel that by the time they play the part there is no room for commitment and contributing to people.

One more point: Young people and their vibrance have a lot to offer this country. They have energy, ideas, initiative - let us into tap it and let them vote from say the age of 16? After all, there is no reason why it is not okay to have a different view.....you never know you might even change an attitude...

by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice Tue Mar 20, 2007 21:42

In answer to your Election loom and tricksters, I applaud a very funny and serious article.

In Ireland, we knew after 6 days who shot JR? It took the American people 6 weeks to figure it out. Quite simply - the Mistress. The scriptwriter of Dallas stayed in a hotel in Dublin 4. He allegedly slept with a barristers' wife and told her, during foreplay, as he screamed out the name of who shot JR and the following morning at the Barrister Wives Coffee morning in Baggot Street - the name who shot JR spread to the Law Library and beyond the 12 Pins.

We all know that Bertie is the greatest magician in Politics since Houdini was on stage. When Pat Rabbitte asked a question about taxpayers public land being developed for private hospitals - Bertie answered in spin and it will take a clinical psychologist to take Pat back before the May election. I suggest Tony Humphries in Limerick.

Before the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis every year, thousands of culchie members of the ICA, arrive with empty organic turf bags. They sit and wait at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis and on Sunday night when the mercs have gone and the socialists in their Lexus cars have gone also, the women get their spades and shovel all the Fianna Fail bull shit into the bags to take home to their rose gardens. Bertie got one thing right Jack Russell - he is responsible for all the beautiful roses in Ireland.

He had a rose once but he lost her to a cobbler.

I do thank Bertie today for bringing back the sense of caring in Ireland. When he found out that his old friend Paddy the plasterer had hit hard times (to do with polish workers providing significantly lower tenders for work) Bertie ensured he was beside him at the England Ireland Rugby match - the first ever in Croke Park. Bertie has now appointed Paddy the plasterer - the Chief of Staff of Fianna Fail electioneering at Fagans pub.

Bertie is the symbol of loyalty and friendship in Ireland - we need the like of Bertie to represent the Symbol of Friendship and Loyalty in Irish society.

In your article, Jack Russell, you mentioned: drugs, illegal drugs, killing machines i.e. cars?; guns and knives. You see in Dublin now, according to the papers today, we are the capital city for murder in Europe. Even the Mad Mullah now admits he was wrong when he spoke about the last sting of the dying wasp. He now admits to the underworld in Dublin also. There are Drugs, Extortion, Prostitution and Human Trafficking. It is not now Dublin gangs but a European network of gangs in Dublin and believe me the Gardai have their hands full.

McDowell's response is Dad's Army - the Garda Reserve. These people are not wanted or trained by the Gardai Siochana. A joke yes but that joke got through the Dail.

In Ireland now, we live through a spin and the biggest spin of all is the abuse of taxpayers money. This is now creating a two tier society and abolishing the middle class tier.

I will close by saying that on the Pat Kenny show an Australian doctor passed a comment about private medicine in Australia and he said I hope you don't make the same mistakes here.

The PD's have no mandate on 2% and many FF backbenchers are uneasy at losing their seats over it.

One more comment Jack Russell, the Shell deal is done and dusted and sadly through apathy we all must swallow the consequences. Deep down we have not the guts as individuals to support those people in the west who have made a stand against Shell and Corporatism, as someday Bertie will regret the loss piggy bank as we regret the loss to Shell.

Bertie's friend the plasterer is paid 55 euros per hour, 4 pints an hour at Fagans, Thursday to Monday night, a bonus and pension scheme for all the posters placed on trees in Drumcondra - now I can see why the Mad Mullah referred to Bertie as Ceau Cescu....!!! 7 years ago.

K.T. Walsh

Quotation:
'Trust in Ireland is like trying to teach the Bailey brothers the art of trying to understand the complexities of the Mona Lisa. It can be achieved by change and diversity' A philosopher !!! (both sides of the coin)

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Mon Apr 30, 2007 19:58

Kevin.

The surprise was yesterday.....a kinda dawn raid on the Aras an Uachturain......a signature and the off.....into the next election.

The Mahon Tribunal lurked, while the hungry journalists stalked the trail for extraordinary tit bits.......Well, Mr. Justice Mahon, skillfully orchestrated the postponement of the Tribunal (legal argument must have been most convincing). A little bread at the expense of someone who as once dear was cast upon the water.....

What can I say. The postings written earlier this year ring out a message that ought to be core to the Politics of the future.....Social Justice and Ethics - and most definitely anti corruption ought to be the credo.

I recommend Transparency Ireland for those who want a brief history of the corruption antics over the last few decades.

Time now to move forward and make change.

Quotation
Hindsight is a famous lesson in life. Blair launched an attack that costs billions of euros and thousands of lives. The intelligence sources told him of a threat against the west in weapons of mass destruction but now we have sadly found out, it is something similar to Bertie's romantic interlude - it was all an illusion. All Iraq had is an evil dictator, two wheelbarrows, a Massey Fergusun and a second hand helicopter owned by Shell at one time.....That is Blair'rs legacy. I wonder what Bertie's legacy will be - a tent at the Galway Races, a few Pints of Bass wiith the Bailey Brothers in Fagans.........I have a funny feeling Bertie will head for Killaloe and walk into the arms of....who knows!
Written by Rodge and Podge who are causing the Peer Pressure in Dail Eireann and the Archbishop's House

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Mon Sep 10, 2007 20:33

The Tribunal in full flight and the Actors are to perform.........

What is Justice?

Does the perservedness of Counsel to establish 'The Truth' jeopardise the future of the Tribunals?

Are the boundaries of the Separation of Powers becoming murky in the lust for truth?

An interesting summer; but a more interesting autumn

A quotation......
Jesus of Nazareth - a rebellious Jewish prophet, champion of the Oppressed, scourge of the rich, founder of Christianity

Greed
'Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one HAS ABUNDANCE DOES HIS LIFE CONSIST OF HIS POSSESSIONS...'

One point. Since the death of Mr. Justice Kinlan, has anyone been appointed to the position of penal reform work, in line with the Human Rights and Dignity that should be given to marginalised people.

by Paddy Mon Sep 10, 2007 23:07

People have grown tired of all the tribunals. Only the highlighting of proceedings using actors on Vincent Browne's evening radio show brougnt the proceedings to life. The tribunals otherwise bore rather than inform. People have lost the overall threads of these expensive enquiries. What can we do?

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Sep 14, 2007 21:13

Paddy

I agree - the Tribunals tend to bore rather than inform.

Today's turn will provoke momentary interest. If the funds are not from the group 'of friends' or the Manchester Meeting, then who?

Michelle

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Dec 21, 2007 13:32

I stand astounded at what is reported on our media these days. Why are we create such a spectacle in a country that ought to be lauding itself for the success in the Peace Process alone, and not to mention so much more. What happened to those 'Lemonade' people......those who have vision.

Where are our academics now. We need some philosophy to help people form constructive decisions as to what is happening.

Political support attacking the Tribunals is dangerous surely in the case of what democracy means. Do the Irish people really understand the battle between the legal people and the politicians is......It is surely testing the Separation of Powers.

Why are we running en par with Mugabe in Zimbabwe!!! Some may think this extreme.....but......worth a thought.

The amount of money involved in sustaining this Tribunal is such that it is now becoming ad infinitum......salaries, pensions, administration, repetitiveness, counsel, solicitors and bureaucracy......Do these relate to the Celtic Tiger? I say no but what they are doing is mimicing the bonuses, salaries and pensions of those financiers who enabled the financial vision of Haughey, Desmond, Taoiseach Ahern.

We need some Humility here.....Lord Lucan wrote on same.

What do the Irish people want! As Conor Maguire said - Pilloried. How ungrateful we are?

I ask where we are going? I recall a conversation with bank managers particular in rural areas who encountered worried farmers who kept their cash hidden in their homes......they had no account and only when they were raided and beaten up did they step over the threshold of the bank door and with a surprising amount of money? Who knows the reasons why people deal in cash i.e. apart from the obvious one of being in the cash economy and the criminal account.

Has the time not come to put a halt to this run away train and restore democracy to its rightful place as per the Rule of Law.

Michelle Clarke
Jonathan Swift Dean of St. Patricks
'Give vision to the visionless'

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Wed Jan 02, 2008 00:56

The Public Ethics Committee alongside Corporate Governance from UCD.

Science is to Learn. We need to ask the question now how long to we wish to stoke the fires of the legal profession with substantial salaries, millions against an investigation of Minister Ahernes' financial affairs at a time in his lie, he was moving to the role of Taoiseach, he was involved in a life long relationship, with a new partmer, and he had pay maintenance.

Is there after nearly two decades adequate proof of Corruption or Bribery that could be activated by the Courts of Justice outside the Tribunal.

Who is kidding whom........Who watches the vested interest.......Are the crimes provable and if so why not by now?

And if you activate Copine.ie, you will witness other crimes that appear to be rated less seriously and yet one is a murder by a mother of her 16 year old daughter,,,,,,,a row......a mensa student.......a fait of complit.....We are all potential criminals

Michelle Clarke
Jonathan Swift 'Give vision to the visionless'
Johnathan Swift, a wise old man from the 16th century.

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Mon Jun 09, 2008 22:12

What has changed?

What about Peace.....the outcome of the Belfast Agreement over 10 years ago? Is there not enough war in this world without Ireland engaging further with NATO and the EU. Surely, there is room for difference in all the diversity of the EU.

Why can Ireland not re-negotiate on Lisbon Treaty and seek redress?

Why as one of the existing 'cortege' about to be dumped by the EU forefathers descendants.....can we say, no. It is not principled. Ireland, was a colony for over seven hundred years and people fought to secure our Freedom........

Alterations can always be made to agreement prior to signature......Why, if De Valera could make his stand for the newly acquired Neutrality of the 26 counties, during the 2nd World War, with Churchill on his heels and the President of the US too. My belief is that the Judgment, Experience, the Vision, the Passion, of the men of De Valera's time were merited in the nurturing of a Constitution with a commitment to the formation State.

Why all the hipocrisy : so many years negotiation from the US to Belfast to Dublin to London.....serious people involved in serious negotiations. Have we sufficiently consolidated our Nation State and added in our new fledglings to forfeit the basic representation on the EU Body of Elites. I don't think so. Not yet and not without changes.......

Note the British ought to have joined up to the Euro for Sterling. They did not feel it was right. They are still Sterling. Why is Ireland not entitled to re-negotiate a clause?

What would our forefathers have thought about this forfeiture? What about the Proclamation and upholding its aspirations first?

Recently a book has been written by a Mr Foxton......it is about Ireland......the Revolutionary Lawyers at the time of the Constitution 1919-1923, Dail courts, and how our legal system adapted itself to meet the need of the newly formed state. If you watched the Wind that Shakes the Barley, you will see the first visible signs about this time and the Dail Courts. This is a comprehensive study and you will note names of the past, that have come forward in the legal profession. As a grandaughter of Judge Michael Comyn (first senator to be appointed in opposition, in 1928 to the senate by De Valera, I would suggest that we as a people fought too hard to establish a state to sign up to the Lisbon Agreement (in a not so confident entity). We deserve more surely.

Neutrality. Why can Ireland not be neutral? We do not all have to be the same. We must look to our achievement - Dr. Paisley retires a fulfilled man, I would think.......The US, Dublin and Belfast - UK formed the negotiating team......There has been an outcome? Is this not to be cherished and used as a protocol for an Ireland - the Peace Negotiator and example......Again I say, war is driven by money made and all continents have their fair share of political rulers who are in fact greedy and militia orientated.

Do we really want more blood on our hands?

I note the Mahon Tribunal have met with Mr. Ahern (now former Taoiseach).......we have a both side of the fence scenario......the Law to get answers based on Truth......and Mr. Ahern now resigned Taoiseach getting the whole battering ram of questions and media. Like Dogs in a Dog Fight - Law is pithed against Politics. This is as it should be with no Conflict of Interest visible.......

I wonder what the situation is regarding the spouses of politicians. How easy would this separation be - if I was a Judge say married to a minister.......Tricky.

Has anyone a view!!! Do we know the professions of the Wives' of Ministers........?

Jonathan Swift
'Give vision to the visionless'

I like his experience. He was born in the 1600's........and he was the first to look out for the vulnerable in a 'fat cat society' then

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Wed Jun 11, 2008 00:28

Watching the three monkeys today putting aside their differences in domestic politics, to try and show the same face and tell us all to Go to Yes but Jack, listen to what the Architect of the failed EU Constitution - Valery Giscard d Estaing had to say about the Lisbon Treaty last October. The Treaty of Lisbon is the same as the rejected constitution only the format has changed to avoid referendums - O I say Jack be worried, be extremely worried. Stupidity is exactly what Ebenezer Roche said and his kind have accused us of being stupid if we vote no. I believe it is stupid to hand over our sovereignty when we fought so long and hard to secure it. It is a No be for me Jack and I have to say I was delighted to see Tony Gregory on TV tonight. He spoke very well.

In relation Jack to some of your questions Jack on Government and the Judiciary - the Irish social click expands widely. Dermot Ahern now our Justice Minister - a big Yes Campaigner was once sent out to North Dublin to find some corruption on behalf of Bertie. He came back and said No, Nothing......It was an extraordinary investigation. He is married to Katherine Delahunt, Judge, Dublin Circuit Court. Brian Lenihan, Finance is married to a District Court Judge. Dr. Paddy Devins, Minister for State for Health, in Sligo, is married to Judge Mary Devins, Mayo District Court. Now Jack - it has to be a vote no on Thursday. And we also won't forget the Government click of Ministers, TD's and Judges and how they tout for the top jobs. Separation of Powers is but an aspiration - a joke....

.Quotation Dala Lama, Tibet (Temporal and Spiritual Leader of Tibet

'SIZE

'If you think your are TOO SMALL TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE try sleeping with a mosquito'

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Jun 13, 2008 13:03

NO.......Ireland can say No....and carry it through......We are nearly there.

Now it is time for a re-think witrh the inclusivity of all social groups and their values.

Jack Russell

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Tue Jun 17, 2008 19:52

The Voters have said No.....and nobody can understand why?

Perhaps the reason is that the Affluence of the Celtic Tiger beneficiaries have fallen out of synch with the more vulnerable, and paid less/long hours/short holidays people.

We need to think and understand a little more. We have the web, the newspapers, life long learning and Indymedia which enables us to record our social history in the day. Then if we go to the National Archives and look un the 1911 census, we can formulate our own history and how the plain people of Ireland in years gone by have impacted on post 1916, the change from slum dwellings to public funded housing estates in the suburbs of Dublin.

Well done to the people of O'Devaney Gardens and their initiative. Well done hijacking Bloomsday with an add on of Doomsday. Bloomsday is lauded all over the world but often Joyce's genius is miscontrued. His writing records Dublin life, but in the realities of the time. His family had fallen on poor circumstances and naturally this moulds the literary experience. The beat is definitely represented by the Doomsday; the hearse draw carriage and splendid horses.

It is not necessary for us to forget the hardship rendered on people by a landlord class. In the 1920's and 30's, it is only necessary to access the senate debates to see just how Representatives of that time like Mrs. Tom Clarke, (whose husband was executed in 1916 for the cause), and people like William Butler Years who may not have shared the same social class as others but his motivation was for the betterment of people and the Irish society related to the arts and history.

Dublin 8, Crumlin, Ballyfermot, and on and on........are the first social houses built by Dublin Co. Council and Dublin Corporation. These at first were not seen as communities....but ultimately given the spirit to survive, the community networks formed...entrenched a population with a new identity.

I recall the 1970's as a young secretary of a cconstruction company that formed at that time one of the Big Nine. It embraced the boom times of the 1960's and 1970's and built many houses including Darndale, Santry over 250 houses, Blanchardstown, Ronanstown, South Circular Road - Abattoir site (believe it or not), Ballyfermot, and then in the west there was Moyross, and then there was Drogheda......there were lots of files and lots of meetings. The tenders involved Bills of Quantities, decision of price per unit and submission of Tender to either Dublin Corporation and Dublin City Council.

What happened? Well simple, it was about Inflation, it was about Local Authorities that said no to compensating the builders due to the rise in price and then it started. Profit disappeared, credit became tight, and ultimately many builders went to the wall.......there was hardship attached particularly for the employees.....

What I am trying to say is: Maybe to the people of Devaney given the volatility of the financial markets, it is better that Bernard Mc'Namara's company has chosen to pull out........If the contractor is that unsure and given that the PPP is the brainchild of FF and others, that you look to the signs of such a pull out and just how solvent private firms can be in recession, and bolster your Regeneration Group up and even delight the private contribution aspect and force Govt as they did in the 1920's -1970's to contract and pay a Contractor stating deadlines etc.

One other thought, with Acquired Brain injury, I live in Groundhog Day.......repeat mode of the same day. As you can imagine a simple thing like getting a video is a protracted procedure. I don't recognise anything unless it is pre 1990's......so all the videos tend to give me no indication.....except for Darby O'Gill and the little people. I then moved to what I value namely social justice......and what really surprised me is the lack of films produced now on this imperative to education and life long learning. It made me think of how impacted I was with Gregory Peck in To Kill and Mocking Bird.......anybody know what I am getting at.

So the Lisbon Treaty......maybe No reflects a murmur that concerns Change and added to this the making of a film about chasing corruption e.g. the Mahon Tribunal

I asked today a Polish woman what she would be paid in Poland to clean houses, work in a shop. She said 2 euros.......this is another thread we must examine before we consider a two tier Europe or Ireland with no representation on the Commission. Ireland ought to aim to lead by example....perhaps

Gandhi, Mahatma
'Live as if you are going to die tomorrow and learn as if you are going to learn for the rest of your life.

Let's get the Youth Cafe up and running ASAP....

Michelle

by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice and Ethics Sat Sep 27, 2008 16:38

There was a programme the other night with people talking about social housing and the break-down in the Public Private partnerships at O'Devaney Gardens and other planned locations. Michelle your outline of housing policy in Ireland since Independence is interesting.

So much money has been spent on the PPP concept and yet, markets change, decisions are made by the Developer to pull out and people are left waiting ..... years and years at this stage.

Heads must be put together. We have prices of houses and apartments dropping and others, with children living in unpredictable accommodation.

It does not add up.

Kevin T. Walsh

by Damien Sat Sep 27, 2008 18:37

Kevin \ Michelle \ Jack,

Why are you pretending to be different people? Its rediculous to read someone literally having a conversation with themselves, while they pretend to be different people. For these articles to be taken seriously (or even read) by anyone but yourself, this silly charade must end.

Damien.

by Elated Sat Sep 27, 2008 21:46

Flann O'Brien did it hilariously with "The Brother", for instance.....

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Nov 07, 2008 17:13

Damian: I think 'Split' might help you identify. But what about Ethics, Morality, Human Rights

Good news for people with mental illness subject to the vagraries of family and their connections to unlawful detention on fractious evidence!!! Let us say ignorance predominates or fear, to be Christian.

Worth reading. We need pressure on Government, Academics, Family, Support Groups, Psychiatrists, Counsellors, nurses and patients to further their causes through 'Knowledge is no Load' and uniformity approach to using the myriad of informative websites and conferences to benefit people with mental illness and strands such as people with alcohol addictions, anorexia/bulimia, drug addiction,chronic illnesses like chronic fatigue.

Homelessness is a deriviative, petty theft, brawling. People may think that all these headings don't sit well together, but the truth is they integrate with unpredictable outcomes.

To the Taoiseach Mr. Cowen, please consider the vulnerable people, the time has come to deal with mental health issues with gusto and using the available resources (web). Well done to the 2nd haul of Cocaine worth over 500 m off Cork. Just imagine the number of peoples lives that were potentially destroyed by such a find.......do we really understand what they do. I live near an addiction clinic......broken health can never be bought back. There are children born into these hopeless situations. We have a duty as they can be expected to have a responsibility for themselves but......I must add the proviso........The Constitution imposes duties regarding education, health.....Let us not lose sight of this.

One more point: A financial figure of a proportion of these drug hauls ought to be visible to the concerted effort of the improvement of mental health. Refer to World Health Organisation. As a person with ABI, a basic step is to 'associate' i.e. to form an image. It helps with the short attention span.

Michelle

http://www.imt.ie/news/2008/10/emergency_law_tonight_on....html

by Finn Sat Nov 08, 2008 09:44

Professionals, especially those with Dr in front of their names (or Ph.D after their names) tend to have unquestioned powers with regard to the care and treatment of patients. Well, the medical profession has been found out in recent times, what with the Hepatitis B blood transfusion scandal and the tragic number of womb removals in a hospital formerly under the direction of a medical missionary society. (The scandals there took place after the missionaries had withdrawn from administration due to the collapse in vocations.) The care of the mentally ill has led to numerous tragedies. A murder outside a Sligo hospital and the murder of three people in Clare some years ago all had failure by the medical services to treat the perpetrators adequately as a major contributory factor. The medics are not gods and we simple laity don't see them being openly called into question by their peers. (This public awe before doctors also contributed to Harold Shipman's long serial murder career in England.)

While sharing relief at the seizure of the huge shipment of cocaine off the coast of West Cork recently, I still worry that trendy twentysomethings and thirtysomethings with money in their bank accounts continue to support the drugs trade by buying the stuff outside night clubs. The poor and the dispirited are vulnerable to the drugs traders, but other classes collaborate by buying. Prostitution racketeering, involving trans-border trafficking in young women and girls, is another area where men with money and respectable addresses are complicit by being willing customers.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sun Mar 22, 2009 01:04

Finn

I can only agree with you. Letters after your name in our society give you power, position, status and appear to remove equity, justice, sense of responsibiity. This does not apply to all but in relation to public mental health in particular, we are very exposed and vulnerable.

There are the generic drugs and the drugs (partially tested?) and released at an expensive cost. You can go to Europe and get your drugs cheaper than in Ireland, or you can book them through the internet and take the risk as to legal content. Your choice. However the debacle in Ireland is the choice of doctors and consultants to prescribe the latest drugs in the hope they will be better for their patients but the reality is this costs the state too much.

I take a cocktail now....since 1998 when the ECT 15. no. in Ardee raised me back to a living standard. I was prescribed Lithium as one part of the component. I did as instructed. I was cautious to have Lithium levels taken so often. The doctor gave the instruction for the bloods and mostly I went to Baggot Street hospital and the blood results were sent to my local doctor. Something went wrong and I have had a most horrific no of weeks (I still cannot work out day, month, time). I was rushed to Tallaght and a team of trained doctors (a lot foreign), nurses, staff, helped me out of a stage of the terrors in my head back to recovery so that I could leave hospital and return to the loving care of my partner who has been a stalworth in this disaster experience. Hallucinations and the horrors are no fun when you can put your hand on you heart to say you don't drink and you have never taken illegal substances for mood alteration.

Finn. It comes down to us human beings to be responsible yet when you are vulnerable this is virtually impossible. However people with titles and jobs that need integrity and deal with people who are in their care or vulnerable they have an added duty to look to Hippocrates and if they can do no good at least they do no harm.

Mental Health is losing its financial assets because the HSE are agreeable to assets being sold and people being sent to the community but instead of building up the local community health for people with mental health problems, as in Germany and other countries, they are allocating money to other aspects of medicine. This is unacceptable but nobody has anything to say for 'us' - the up and coming 'under class'. After Thursday and until Sunday, you are expected to sit out you difficulties i.e. if you don't commit suicide.

I have a dream.................I look to Tallaght Hospital, the Adelaide, and say why is the City of Dublin hospital in Baggot Street such a Cinderalla. It deals with psychiatric (I would nearly say in a primitive way and most definitely they fail in their basic duty to treat the human being with dignity (personal experience); I think they provide respite; maybe 4 years ago they had a most efficient system for taking peoples bloods but then it started to deteriorate and now one most go to Vincents. Let me tell you Lithium poisoning is very serious the organs can be damaged. This hospital, as one can gather from the architecture had a standing in the Past......Royal may explain why?

My dream is that someone, somewhere, raises the money to get this hospital up graded to something like the 'Patch Adam's approach to mental health, to addictions, etc. There must be somebody who can provide us with addiction, mental health and other ancillary problems neurological rehabilitation, giving us a library etc......nb all the paid research into this area. Refer: Trinity Horizon Programme 1995 : Centre for Women Studies in Trinity, Aware. Horizon - European funding. They say Philantrophy is in.......well we need some representation. There are several films worth watching to see what can be done. Also mental health patients, neurological patients ought to have free treatment....and no doubt others who can become confused.

The MHC is beside me. Distraught recently I entered yet again to explain my concerns. I asked for the head - Dr. O'Dea. I referred to the poster on the wall.........All indicated total inclusion, yet when asked, am I a 'Stakeholder' as a mental health patient, the girl nervously told me no. My route was to hire Counsel and a Solicitor. The raising of the money was my responsibility. What is equitable in this.

I begrudge no medical person or staff what they earn provided they do their job with integrity.

Michelle Clarke

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice Ethics Care for the Vulnerable Addictions Sun Mar 22, 2009 01:09

Finn

I can only agree with you. Letters after your name in our society give you power, position, status and appear to remove equity, justice, sense of responsibiity. This does not apply to all but in relation to public mental health in particular, we are very exposed and vulnerable.

There are the generic drugs and the drugs (partially tested?) and released at an expensive cost. You can go to Europe and get your drugs cheaper than in Ireland, or you can book them through the internet and take the risk as to legal content. Your choice. However the debacle in Ireland is the choice of doctors and consultants to prescribe the latest drugs in the hope they will be better for their patients but the reality is this costs the state too much.

I take a cocktail now....since 1998 when the ECT 15. no. in Ardee raised me back to a living standard. I was prescribed Lithium as one part of the component. I did as instructed. I was cautious to have Lithium levels taken so often. The doctor gave the instruction for the bloods and mostly I went to Baggot Street hospital and the blood results were sent to my local doctor. Something went wrong and I have had a most horrific no of weeks (I still cannot work out day, month, time). I was rushed to Tallaght and a team of trained doctors (a lot foreign), nurses, staff, helped me out of a stage of the terrors in my head back to recovery so that I could leave hospital and return to the loving care of my partner who has been a stalworth in this disaster experience. Hallucinations and the horrors are no fun when you can put your hand on you heart to say you don't drink and you have never taken illegal substances for mood alteration.

Finn. It comes down to us human beings to be responsible yet when you are vulnerable this is virtually impossible. However people with titles and jobs that need integrity and deal with people who are in their care or vulnerable they have an added duty to look to Hippocrates and if they can do no good at least they do no harm.

Mental Health is losing its financial assets because the HSE are agreeable to assets being sold and people being sent to the community but instead of building up the local community health for people with mental health problems, as in Germany and other countries, they are allocating money to other aspects of medicine. This is unacceptable but nobody has anything to say for 'us' - the up and coming 'under class'. After Thursday and until Sunday, you are expected to sit out you difficulties i.e. if you don't commit suicide.

I have a dream.................I look to Tallaght Hospital, the Adelaide, and say why is the City of Dublin hospital in Baggot Street such a Cinderalla. It deals with psychiatric (I would nearly say in a primitive way and most definitely they fail in their basic duty to treat the human being with dignity (personal experience); I think they provide respite; maybe 4 years ago they had a most efficient system for taking peoples bloods but then it started to deteriorate and now one most go to Vincents. Let me tell you Lithium poisoning is very serious the organs can be damaged. This hospital, as one can gather from the architecture had a standing in the Past......Royal may explain why?

My dream is that someone, somewhere, raises the money to get this hospital up graded to something like the 'Patch Adam's approach to mental health, to addictions, etc. There must be somebody who can provide us with addiction, mental health and other ancillary problems neurological rehabilitation, giving us a library etc......nb all the paid research into this area. Refer: Trinity Horizon Programme 1995 : Centre for Women Studies in Trinity, Aware. Horizon - European funding. They say Philantrophy is in.......well we need some representation. There are several films worth watching to see what can be done. Also mental health patients, neurological patients ought to have free treatment....and no doubt others who can become confused.

The MHC is beside me. Distraught recently I entered yet again to explain my concerns. I asked for the head - Dr. O'Dea. I referred to the poster on the wall.........All indicated total inclusion, yet when asked, am I a 'Stakeholder' as a mental health patient, the girl nervously told me no. My route was to hire Counsel and a Solicitor. The raising of the money was my responsibility. What is equitable in this.

I begrudge no medical person or staff what they earn provided they do their job with integrity.

Michelle Clarke

by Finn Sun Mar 22, 2009 01:38

Thanks for the belated comment on my post. A good point about new pills and things promoted by pharmaceutical companies. Many tablets for headaches and the like don't pack any real punch. We'd be better using herbal remedies, including flower and mint infusions, perhaps even green tea from China or Japan. The drugs industry with its heavy advertising keeps many people dependent on tablets. The thinker Ivan Illich wrote a book on the awe of the pharmaceutical and medical profession.

In small town Ireland three individuals have until recent times been held in awe: the priest, the bank manager and the doctor. The professions of these categories have suffered disillusionment among the public. But who can we respect now in a troubled Irish society?

by Finn Sun Mar 22, 2009 09:31

This link gives an extract from one of Ivan Illich's books criticising the awe in which modern medicine has been held: http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/030313ill....html

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Tue Mar 24, 2009 15:02

The forthcoming budget will become one of the biggest tests ever in our Island's survival. Reading today's Independent and Irish Examiner, Fine Gael have unveiled a plan of an 11 b. euros stimulus plan.

Could it work? Well it is very interesting and it does generate a lot of ideas in the science arena. It stated that they would sell off Bord Gais and the international ring of the ESB. Other areas for sell off airports, ports and transport infrastructure. I think this could cause anger with a lot of trade unions but Richard Bruton stated. The benefits from the sell off would be spread evenly between regions and skills and the plan would create thousands of jobs in Telecom, Civil and Structural engineering, scientific research, installation and home energy. That would keep the Green Party happy. Software, forestry and timber. Also Bruton went on to say it would make Ireland a leader in Ocean and Bio energy. It states it could reduce the Governments' deficit by 3.9 billion euros in 1913 and total borrowing over the next few years by 10.3 billion euros.

Today also former PD leader, Senator Ciaran Cannon, is Fine Gael's latest recruit and Fianna Fail's quest to recruit former Irish footballer, Packie Bonnar, the famous goalkeeper has refused to run in the European elections.

Father Gerry O'Hanlon, Jesuit and Author has strongly come out today that Ireland needs a moral revolution to regain our social priorities and structures. The Jesuit theologian was speaking at the launch of his new book - Recession and God. Reading the signs of the times. Fr. O'Hanlon called for new vision in Irish society that favoured the common good and solidarity with people on the margins and he hoped the coming budget would protect our most vulnerable

by Bewildered Tue Mar 24, 2009 15:48

After reading all of the above I need a powerful headache remedy..as well as herbal remedies and "Flower and Mint Infusions"

And anything else that might help preserve my sanity.

I might even book myself into a Home for The Bewildered.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Wed Mar 25, 2009 06:23

Bewildered.

After horse fall in Zimbabwe and returning to Ireland I found an Aware Magazine (Depression etc.). By chance, there was an application form for a project being run by the Women Studies Department in Trinity back in 1997 along with the NRB and Horizon. The idea was to choose 15 women and set up a syllabus and track us in research language.

We came - it was about women and depression and their reintegration into society.....how to make the most of a 'Bewildered'. There good days and bad days and one course we really loved was with Michael Caven from Trinity - Drama

Back to your title

Two of us had neurological problems......and as it happened both were deaf......we were known as the bothered and bewildered.

What I am trying to say: Ireland has lost a sense of Ethics at every level, morality speaks for itself, vision is trapped in the prison of the mind to comply with the rules constructed by a systemic global force

Michelle

by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice and the Rule of Law Wed Mar 25, 2009 13:57

It is how to deal with corruption, find the people who engaged in it and follow the money trail to wherever and then seek to freeze the accounts and prove the corruption charge with interest accruing.

I think IBEC lunchtime today are going to postpone the Monday Strike.....thankfully

Michelle

by Jerry Cornelius Wed Mar 25, 2009 14:01

Its ICTU not IBEC that are calling off the strike, not that I'd expect you to know the difference. What have you got against public sector workers? You pretend to be against the bankers but you oppose any attempts by public sector workers to defenf their conditions.

I think thats the reality with you, you are just a supporter of the rightwing and rich when it comes down to it.

by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice and Ethics Wed Mar 25, 2009 14:19

Cornelius

I stand corrected. It is IBEC. You are absolute right. I know the difference about many things. You mention bankers - well where do we start?
I have nothing against the public sector but I am so relieved that this strike will be called off on Monday. It would be economic suicide.

You would agree with me that the private sector is on a daily haemorrage of job losses and people out there are suffering silently and before you say it I will say it for you - a lot of the big guns in society should take responsibility for the mess we are in also. I would also like to add that your snide comment doesn't help your ego - I do know the difference. The public sector are taking a cut like everyone else but tell that to the people below in Waterford/Wedgewood and the people in Dell and the small retailers who are suffering by the hour and don't have the safety valve of the safe pensions.

Have a nice day Cornelius?

Kevin T. Walsh

by Jerry Cornelius Wed Mar 25, 2009 14:43

"I stand corrected. It is IBEC."

No! In the name of Cthuhlu its ICTU!

"The public sector are taking a cut like everyone else but tell that to the people below in Waterford/Wedgewood and the people in Dell and the small retailers who are suffering by the hour and don't have the safety valve of the safe pensions."

The workers from Waterford were on the march a few weeks ago, theyy dont believe in a division between public sector and private sector workers.

Whats wrong with having a safe pension? Its something all workers should have.

by Transparency - Assets and Money from Criminal Sources Thu Jan 21, 2010 16:09

The theme of the foregoing articles is about the re-allocation of funds sourced by the CAB back into the Community.

As Ireland faces bankruptcy or so the Heads in the Media seem to think? I ask why cannot we not ringfence funds paid to the CAB to social causes that are presently being closed down with immediate effect......

Also we need to address Transparency and anti corruption in a practical way, not a costly way like in the case of certain Tribunals of Inquiry that have gone on for in excess of 10 years at a major cost to the taxpayers. We need to aughment our personal sense of moral integrity and where better to start from but at an individual level and taking responsibility of the moral bankruptcy as it stands to day and moving forward.

by Fred Johnston Thu Jan 21, 2010 16:45

The Fyffe's judgement and the recent attempt by Cowen to protect Fianna Fáil friends from embarrassment (as well as himself) by having a private banking inquiry seems to prove that the law means nothing in Ireland. Now since we know that Joe Bloggs down the street will be jailed or fined for doing a few days' work while in receipt of the dole (which Cowen has butchered) while high-level bamnking shenanigans with the nation's money is rewarded with a sort of immunity, we can assume that what we are looking at is a class struggle. It is not merely a question of changing the law so that there is less chance of The Well-Suited Ones getting away with dodginess. The entire parliamentary system needs an overhaul. It is not enough either merely to vote in some local political grandee's primary school-teaching daughter - we simply cannot afford to have farmer's sons and daughters, with all the world-remote and rural conservatism that carries with it, serving willy-nilly in government. They are simply not competent to tackle a changing Ireland, nor to readily abandon the sort of social mores and wink-and-nod methods of doing business that have for centuries worked in small intellectually-isolated villages. We're not just sickened of what our government gets up to, but we have seldom been proud of our government. If a caricature straight out of a 19th-century Punch magazine cartoon of Irishness such as Jackie Healy-Rae can often hold power with his vote (which is anybody's, basically) in a modern democracy, we are not far removed from sitting about in a wattle-and-daub hut in wolf-skins, slitting the stomachs of small animals to work out what sort of budget we should bring in! Our government seems increasingly to wear the face of a gombeen, half-educated and servile, on the make. We want to change the morality and the ethics of our government: change the government, not merely the political party. NEVER vote for someone merely because he or she has or had a father well-known in politics; ALWAYS ask a candidate for some relevant CV in ordinary working life. DO NOT vote for a candidate who has trouble spelling, or uses top-o'-the-mornin' talk with you, or who hasn't read either Flann O'Brien or something from Joyce's 'Ulysses.' We need educated people, cultured people, in local government and in the Dáil.

by Citizen Fri Jan 22, 2010 08:41

"we are not far removed from sitting about in a wattle-and-daub hut in wolf-skins, slitting the stomachs of small animals to work out what sort of budget we should bring in!"

Apart from the pointless cruel death of the animal, I'd still prefer that process. At least it wouldn't be totally biased against the poor like the current one. Randomness would be a step up IMHO.