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The EU Plans For You!

category international | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis author Thursday June 28, 2007 19:46author by Heather. Report this post to the editors

Anti-feminism and the European Alliance for Families


We do not know if the new improved EC Constitution which will be voted
in 2008 includes a 'God Clause' but we do know that the good German
Doctor Kues has plans for the women of the EU, which is to promote the
equality agenda through rediscovering the traditional family. This should
make the Poles and the Right wing Irish who collude so diffidently in the
oppression of women remarkably happy.

http://www.eu2007.de or -www.eu2007.de:
Suburban Superwoman
Suburban Superwoman


This is a brief introductory paragraph from the Policy area of " Education, Youth and Culture".

"The objective of the German presidency is to improve living conditions for families.
One of the positive milestones on the way to achieving this objective is the European
Alliance for Families that the European Council decided to establish in March. We've
put the issue firmly on the European agenda. it is essential in the light of the process
of demographic change that is taking place, for Europe to rediscover the concept of family.
It is also necessary to take advantage of the potential that can be derived from
a family friendly economic and growth policy."

The new website will be 'Eurofond'- The European Foundation for the Improvement
of living and working Conditions.

The basis of the family friendly policy is the 'Roadmap'- which in Ireland was
instigated under the auspices of the Department of Justice:-

http://www.justice.ie

(Michael Mc Dowell was responsible for that particular roadmap, though there are others,
including ones in the Middle-East and no doubt soon coming to Venezula, where
Chavez's troops are on war footing)

Gender neutrality and family- orienated control nexus tends to heighten the repression
of women which for all fledgling feminists who may have not read the works of
Emma Goldman- is bad news. it means state interference and control. it means
the use of centralised theocracy to advocate that control ;and in the days of mass
globalisation it means using mass market means to maximise corporate profit,
by increasing the birth rate, utilising depleting resources ;and creating the means for
further wars of aggression to sustain the whole economic shebang.

This news and the foundation documents will be available soon to the general public
it should please those who believe in the oppression of culture and women, including
the LPR (Poland) and the severe Catholic right in Ireland, who in order to perpetuate
their violence use the model of the family as a means of gender dominance.

author by C.publication date Fri Jun 29, 2007 19:23author address author phone Report this post to the editors



Ursla von der Leyen: 'Place of Exchange for Good Family Policy in Europe'

*Web Portal on the European Alliance of Families*.

"Now we have an instrument accessible by anyone who would like to make an effort for the
interests of families- the concerned citizen, the family association, and business enterprises
as well as politics."

http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/families

Links and the individual European member states policies on families are available
at link.

The Irish model is simple enough- the family , in the traditional sense is
placed at the heart of the constitution, it is read in the stereotypical gendered
analysis adopted by western theocratic traditionalist views of women-
which for expedience sake creates crisis within the gendered role of
each sex when the traditional family breaks down. The EU intends to underscore
the traditional family as a basis or building block for both market and growth
demographics. Presumably this will be achieved through the 'Road-Map for
Equality ' which envisages equality from the traditionalist subjugation of women
within a gendered role.

The Irish road-map for equality can be viewed in the dept of Justice web-site.
http://www.justice.ie

The theocratic basis is simplistic enough it sees the sex roles interpreted in the
Darwinist evolutionary sense (gender neutral- undifferentiated) but in the spiritual
sense in the role defined by the corporate church , womanas morally inferior to the male
and the main care-giver. Mass Globalisation will continue to underscore the issue
through product placement and limited lifestyle choice.

-www.eu2007.de

( I presume parties on the left have discussed the issue of gender role stereotyping
in relation to the proposed Constitutional referendum 2008- which will continue to
expand the EU bloc , whilst adopting policies that underscore and delineate the
lack of freedoms at the heart of both EU/Irish Constitution?)

Related Link: http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/families
author by C.publication date Sat Jun 30, 2007 12:23author address author phone Report this post to the editors


http://www.euractiv.com/en/innovation/report-need-harmo...52760

it goes into the demographic crisis of an ageing EU, the politicos are finding ways of
fecundating the ageing demographic- so more 'encouragement' of wedding lifestyle
options and glossy mags on the way!

you never know the pictures of Berties grandkids might encourage young irish girls to
get laid and have a flouncy wedding, thereby increasing the Irish Birth rate and the EU
problems of an ageing society. You get to Lie down for the EU,not Ireland!

author by EUpublication date Sat Jun 30, 2007 15:22author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Isn't the E U redundant now. Everyone seems to think so. Those MEP who came to Ireland to get elected in the Irish Elections, didn't even get a look in.
All politics is LOCAL

author by Referendumpublication date Sat Jun 30, 2007 19:45author address author phone Report this post to the editors



Bertie Ahern who knows a thing or two about societal control has stated that there will
be a referendum in this country in 2008. 90% of the original document has been retained.
This referendum promises to continue the enlargement agenda and to address the
demographics of the EU bloc by placing the traditional family at the heart of the EU.
Which is a capitalist framework for exploitation of the poorer regions. The
'families portal' discusses the re-discovery of the family and the ageing demographic
within the super-state (which Ireland rejected and then Dick Roche brought in another
referendum called Nice 2 which passed).
Many acknowledge that the framework is wrong and the Constitution an excuse for
a globalised trade agreement with the US but this is going to be put to the people and;
a campaign is already being worded to ensure the enlargement programme continues.
despite both Ireland and the UK not allowing work rights /citizenship rights to the people
of Romania and Bulgaria. Therefore believing that all politics are local is important it
is not something that everyone shares, most people sleepwalk into elections and
referenda due to the wealth of the side who are pushing for it. it is necessary to
address issues pertinent to voters who want to think about it and to put all the info
before them- cos they are not getting it from FF/PD/Green.
In otherwords- its not good enough to assume that everyone just accepts the same
reasoning as you and to ensure that the issues are opened out and debated.

author by Talksportpublication date Sat Jun 30, 2007 21:27author address author phone Report this post to the editors

George Galloway will be on TALKSPORT radio in a while & . He is a MP in the house of Commons... Worth listening to him. He can give a pretty good account of EU

author by Scepticpublication date Wed Aug 08, 2007 20:42author address author phone Report this post to the editors

George Galloway has no special expertise on the EU or its social policy. He also seems supportive or at least very uncritical of fairly extremist Muslim patriarchal practices of the type his Muslim supporters in SWP and RESPECT advocate which are completely and utterly at odds with western feminist notions of the types peddled here. Most of the rest of the feminist type analysis is shrill and flawed. The initiatives in question in no way threaten women's rights. To view it as a zero sum game ie. a pro family policy in one area is an equivalent loss for women collectively has no basis. This also ignores established findings like children brought up in traditional nuclear families are less likely to have problems in adulthood than those nurtured in other settings, broadly speaking.

author by Heatherpublication date Thu Aug 09, 2007 08:49author address author phone Report this post to the editors

A lot of women like to have children and indeed most of them who would like to have
kids ideally would go for the heterosexual nuclear family option (at least at the beginning)
within that option there is enough space to play gender games and switch role playing.
this means the guy can cluck and the girl can fuck (around)= role reversal can be fun.
BUT:- Projected organisational Laws of the EU envisages family friendly policy to
encourage the birth rate whilst the EU is responsible for destruction of family values
and severe poverty of some of its trading partners and also EU immigration laws
create 'people camps' for illegals (thats a bit anti-family too, is it not)???
So on the one hand globalised monetary problems of 'supply' and retaining the status
quo and 'culture' of a certain enfranchised class has created a sub-class of desperate
people in our cities where 'family' means a lot lot of different things. This rule is about
the family as a consumer unit-which forms the rotten heart of a EU based in fiscal
power and not in egalitarian rights. encouraging that ignorance of the suffering
our EU policies have created for other cultures (pacific and Africa) is why Bertie Ahern
and others of his ilk are failures. They have failed to deal with democracy and replaced
it with ignorance and consumerism- and want women to go on increasing the birth rate
in the EU whilst ignoring the problems that women in other cultures have to deal with
in order to give us a 'wonderful lifestyle' based on the car, globalised wealth, a facade
of democracy= the usual shite.

Sceptic - open your eyes, dear. Look at the kids on the street and the obsese middle
class kids in private school. link is isiswomen. check out their publications on how EU
policy effects the poor and look at the illustration that accompanies the article...

Related Link: http://www.isiswomen.org
author by observerpublication date Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:21author address author phone Report this post to the editors

"rediscovering the traditional family. "

I recall that Maggie Thatcher had a similar ideaand lok what happened in the UK after that....

author by Scepticpublication date Thu Aug 09, 2007 21:49author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Heather, this initiative is about things like maternity leave and childcare. It has nothing to do with some sort of grand social engineering policy like the Chinese one child policy that would be outside the competences of the EU in any case. The fact that some kids are obese has nothing to do with the EU - you seem to want to blame it for all the ills of the world as a kind of big bogey. In my view the EU spreads peace and prosperity both within itself and outside its ranks. If more major regions of the world adopted it as a model there would be much less poverty and much more peace and stability for ordinary people to live their lives as they would wish.

author by klien bottledpublication date Fri Aug 10, 2007 02:34author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The Eu is about making a stable environment and smoothing the way for global corporations to make profits and do business. They aren't doing it for our benefit. They'll authorise selling arsenic as a baby food if there is enough money in it and they can make up a suitable rationale.

If the family unit is better for selling stuff to then they'll encourage it.

I believe it all started off as a way of stopping folks fighting but now it is largely driven by lobbyists and big business, is corrupt and bloated, and the original ideals have got a bit lost along the way.

I used to be in favour of europe at one point but now much less so. Globalisation will ultimately ruin the planet for us all.

Seems the monkey part of our brains always wins out. We start out trying to do something well meaning and once we form an organisation, all the pecking order ego, selfish shit takes over and fucks it up. In the end it is often subverted to something that does more harm than good. More often than not by sociopathic self serving corporations.

if this theory is in any way true then there is little hope for humanity I fear

worth a read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_is_Beautiful

author by Heatherpublication date Fri Aug 10, 2007 21:18author address author phone Report this post to the editors

What a heap of horseshit!

The enlargement agenda of the EU is causing political turmoil on the Turkish frontier and
with ex -soviet states in Kosovo (the Muscovites even have a special group to work against
pro-globalised secession and independence movements). The aim of corporate oligarchy
is to remove the niggling cultural; and religious differences between people and to advance the
corporate agenda. its unworkable really.If you do not think there has been an erosion in civil liberties
and rights within the expanding bloc and that the EU has created problems with Russia you
you are the one who is naive.Whilst women in the EU bloc are encouraged to have more children,
the countries that the EU have effected through trade such as the Pacific basin countries and Africa
are suffering huge losses and defcit.We are over-producing and increasing waste by encouraging
petrol dependencies and mass consumerism, we encourage the nuclear family as the
economic basis of our society and other cultures have those links between peoples abused
by unfair trade practices and environmental destruction.

Political instability in Turkey and Kosovo are created by an enlargement agenda of a
financial bloc.
The site is and says in the introductory links that it envisages a return to traditional
family values.
Unfair trade practices by EU countries are decimating familial and traditional cultures
in other societies.
http://www.isiswomen.org

If we look at France and the rise in the birth rate which is centrally encouraged by tax breaks
or Spains (2,500 euros per child) or Ireland (1,000 euros per child under six) that is
definitely an encouragement to increase the birth rate; but infrastructural supports
such as a health care system are undergoing sweeping changes including privatisation.
Its very clear that the traditional family as societal basis is viewed within the EU
as a monetary convenience and not as an organism that grows and changes and needs
tax supports such as healthcare and school systems. Women are the main consumers
in the EU bloc, we can have anything at all, except the knowledge that the fiscal policy
of the EU bloc is both unsustainable (environmentally) and degrading of the cultures
and traditions of less developed societies. We do not encourage the very poor in
society to increase their birth rate because of the state abdication of care to the
individual but we do encourage the middle class and very well off to have more kids....

Related Link: http://www.isiswomen.org
author by Scepticpublication date Fri Aug 10, 2007 23:47author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The EU is not about global business except insofar as it does have a trade policy which is generally very generous and open to third countries – a lot more so than any other block if you observe WTO proceedings. The EU has a very advanced and well-developed social policy and policy for small business. Like Price Charles I acknowledge the values of “Small is Beautiful” and have had a copy on my shelved for years but its not a reliable economics primer for running the affairs of a state or a community of free states. What happens to a small family firm that becomes successful – it becomes big. At what point in your view does it become a bogey? If it obeys the law, the norms, is a good corporate citizen and a good employer and so on is its size in itself to damn it? Remember McDonalds was a small family firm once but it became successful, very much so. Microsoft was a small firm once to but one that became global. There are only two powers in the world that could take it on and really tame it if it seemed to become abusive – those powers are the US Government and the EU Commission. Both have done so and with remarkable results. No European Government on its own could have done that effectively. The EU is a consumer champion! There is instability on Russia and around it – most of the problems are caused by the power of attraction of the EU – not any power of coercion. Why do you assume Russian is right and the EU wrong? The eastern block state broke away from the orbit of Russia and joined Europe by a free vote. The Kremlin is insecure, coerces and gets its way by force where it can – like in the Ukraine. Russia has the instability of a bully – why should the EU kow tow to it in all respects?

“They'll authorise selling arsenic as a baby food if there is enough money in it and they can make up a suitable rationale.”

No they won’t – there is a very powerful food and consumer safety Directorate of the EU Commission that is anything but beholden to producer interests. Link provided.

Related Link: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/index_en.htm
author by Heatherpublication date Sun Aug 12, 2007 12:13author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The EU expansionism is both ill-thought out and politically beligerent. it is creating a bi-lateral
trade agreement with the US, grounded in the political machinations of the FDA. The
Fiancial Times has covered quite consistently the thrust of the bloc which is effecting the
countries in the Pacific Basin/Turkey/Kosovo. it is politically naive to suppouse that the EU
is enticing. it began as a free-trade organisation and the 'enticement' is simply an economic
bloc as opposed to a political bloc. Blocs don't work. The effect of Global economy is war,
hunger and cultural obliteration. We see it here and we see it in the beligerent regimes
of those countries that are reducing their cultures to become a part of that bloc. The
organisations who are resisting global political movements are at war:-

Mexico.
The Phillipines.
Africa.
Turkey.

All of these countries have suffered under the colonialisation trade policies of the US.
Arroyo in the Phillipines has imported the military industrial complex to the country nd
is implicated by the UN in gross abuse of the Moslemn enclaves in her 'territory'.
The Central and Southern parts of America have endured political convulsions for
generations in their attempts to relaese themselves from the financial impetus of
the US expansionism.

There is a definite bilateral agreement on supply and demand between the EU bloc
and the US and we casually import their methods of control, be it the huge
entertainment channels, the privatisation policies, the prison systems , the
universal health insurance systems, the data retention systems- indeed the UK
police has decided to use 'anti-terror' methods against the climate control camp
at Heathrow and we experience post 9/11 retention of all our mail/phone usage.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk

The UK police services have announced that they will break up a peaceful NVDA camp
concerned with the unsustainability of the airport plans in Heathrow.sure it could not
happen here, not even 8 protestors have been criminalised for conscientous objection
to the bi-section of the Gabhra Valley, nor have 4 men been imprisoned for Objecting
to Rossport. As long as people like sceptic see these issues in isolation from each other
and not symptomatic of community malaise and overweening powers to enforce an
unsustainable globalised agenda- it'll be grand. Have a cup of fair-trade tea and
revel in your ability to fly cheaply, drive cheaply and get your condoms cheaply.
Ireland is truly blessed, we have more than we ever needed (including childhood obesity
and crap hospitals) but its part of the low-tax policy of the FF party and the corruption
of our democracy in order to 'fit' us into a huge economic bloc.

Related Link: http://asiapacific.amarc.org/site.php?lang=EN
author by Scepticpublication date Mon Aug 13, 2007 14:05author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The tax burden is not very low in Ireland as anybody who earns more than about 30k, buys a pack of fags or a pint of beer, petrol, a car or a second had property would realize. Besides it’s the level of spending that counts re public services not the level of tax per se. The Irish health system is not bad, despite some failures and much negative press. It is among the best in the world in terms of providing health care of the highest quality to all income groups. Check data on life span and infant mortality. The EU is not politically belligerent and is only a block insofar as trade is concerned and blocks are not sinister. There have been bilateral trade agreements with the US for decades as well as many other regions – what is your problem with that? The EU upholds culture in so far as it has a cultural competence – you can’t blame it if many people decide to watch American TV shows or movies. Globalisation does not create war – it can be argued that by promoting interdependence and global trade it is a force of the binding of regions in peace that makes war less likely. I am not aware of any war about globalisation or colonialism against the US in Turkey. Or the Philippines or Mexico for that mater. Globalisation is not driven more by travel and communication technologies than it is by trade as such and it is certainly not a product of the EU. The EU has little competence in regard to the criminal law thus how the Heathrow protest is policed by the Thames Valley and MET police forces has nothing to do with it. The Rossport men were jailed because they failed to purge their contempt of court that is a serious offence. They were not jailed because they were protestors. Childhood obesity again? How is it this EU’s fault if I don’t feed my children right or give them a healthy lifestyle? You seem to be kicking against modernity and endorsing certain fashionable hard leftist causes but you are totally wrong to be blaming the EU for all of this. The EU is primarily a community of nations that has pooled a certain amount of their sovereignty for mutual advantage and is has been very successful. You seemed more concerned about going back to the narrow concept of nationalism, inward looking, rooted in past historical grievances. You personally have benefited from the potential opened up since EU membership since 1973 and you might have no memory of the dim and depressing days economically and socially prior to membership. This is a kind of reflexive protest that avoids an objective assessment of the roots of the problems you are going on about, insofar as they are real problems at all.

author by ribbidpublication date Mon Aug 13, 2007 16:09author address author phone Report this post to the editors

"Skeptic" would have us believe that Irish health and life expectancy are not only amongst the highest in the world, but at the vanguard of European co-operative achievement. Our healthy life expectancy at birth dropped in the last ten years. Yes, we have more old people than ever before, look around you! but no - they are not bright eyed, bushy tailed and writing sonnets till the day they drop. Rather our progress in health care has not reflected our increased prosperity our fiscal collective capability. Ireland is not enjoying nor has enjoyed for a very long time a health service which befits the dignity of its citizens or even suits its pocket. Yet, Irish people are paying more every year in and out for the Health services they do have.
Eustat info is available free of charge till 2003 -
gender common
http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_information/indicators/li...n.htm
female
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=19...en081
male http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=19...en082

Oneof the most resounding effects of globalisation and dare I say it "capitalist hegemony" was a drop in life expectancy in states of the East. Hungary went from enjoying the highest healthy life expectancy outside of the Mediterranean fringe to one of the lowest general health averages on the continent. The social fragmentation of health services associated with a move of the skills and professional sectors tto private health systems was then compounded by the expansion of the EU to 25 and 27 states. In short, the doctors, nurses, radiologists, pharmacologists and even Mr Chinneryovsky the vetinary left home and started treating western European patients.

author by Kicking against modernitypublication date Mon Aug 13, 2007 17:35author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The internal policies of globalised societies such as evinced in this State hardly are
the best examples of globalisation and privatisation, but the 'thrust' of the original article
with cute graphic of retro housewife was that the beligerent expansion of the EU is creating
difficulties to emergent nations. Now saying that modernity is based in expansionism which is
rooted in bi-lateral trade agreements between the US bloc and the EU bloc is true, the
knock on effect on emergent cultures and familial rights is evident from the work of
the agigtation groups provided in the AMARC and Isis women links. To say that to retain
a sophisticated modernity in Western Europe whilst not effecting the cultures and environments
of emergent democracies is facile. the countries round the pacific basin are directly
feeling the consequences of being shoved out by low dealings on mass food productions
promoted by the FDA and the EU. the EU was originally envisaged as a loose trading
bloc with retained national identities, it is homogenised out of existence and the globalised
root of it is evident in food production, GM and tax law.

The envisaged role of a traditional family as a consumer unit within the bloc has nothing
to do with supporting the principles of freedom of choice but to raise the birth rate and it does
nothing to address the issues of need in developing countries nor to address how
globalised blocs effect politcal (geo-political) differences in the border countries.

As to the effect of globalisation and privatisation in Ireland, the model for universal health
insurance and abdication of care to people of vulnerability with regard to provision of
services is evident in the centralisation of hospitals which see the siting of a national children's
unit in a city hospital (in Bertie Ahern's Constituency) car park, whilst depriving up to
six communities of emergency medical treatments. That is not modernity that is
the state rejecting its duty of care to the individual in the relentless pursuit of profit.
The institution of fast-track planning whilst neglecting of legal protections for
Ielands Heritage is another symptom of a globalised right -wing economy.

The EU has shown itself singularly ineffective in dealing with issues of national corruption
in Countries such as Poland and Ireland and would probably do well in having
cohesive legal mechanisms for community and individual protections rather than
basing the new treaty (negotiated in 48 hours, 90% retention of Nice II) in principles
of freedom than globalised hegemony and bi-lateral trading partnerships. the interview
with Angel Merckel (ex President of the EU- Financial Times) in the links above discusses
the envisaged trade agreements, whilst the current presidency, under Jose Socrates
probably has an operating web-site.

Related Link: http://www.isiswomen.org
author by Scepticpublication date Mon Aug 13, 2007 18:39author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The EU has little to do with public health issues apart from food safety, animal disease questions and the like. The largest strides in public health in Ireland were made incrementally from mid century with preventative issues like vaccination and chest screenings along the improvement in diet and the like. Irish Health outcomes are generally ok by OECD standards that are the highest globally. That is what matters. It is a fact that outcomes are better in large centralized multi specialist acute hospitals. The more patients the medics see the more expert they become. Keeping a small town regional hospital open is therefore bad for people's health. You also won't get the best people to come and work in them and with very costly scanners and like it is very wasteful to have them in every small district hospital. There is some element of choice in all this anyway. If I choose a very scenic but very remote area to live in I can’t expect a large acute hospital on my doorstep like if I lived in Dublin. Again this has nothing to do with the EU. Has our life expectancy dropped in the last ten years really? I doubt it or at any rate that there is a significant drop but why is Brussels to blame in any case? Some seem hung up on private provision - because the state pays for treatment does not mean it is always right or best that it provides everything - there is a role for private sector provision. The point about older people seeming sad is just unevidenced silliness. Some seem dogmatically attached to the British NHS model of 1946 as if in all the years since no new insights could ever have been gained. This is paralysis by ideology. As regards Eastern Europe the communist regimes data were very suspect – the many thousands if children in awful orphanages in Romania were not featured in statistics. Besides as I said the EU has not got any direct competence for health systems. Developments in Hungary since 1989 are not due to it. Is it your argument that Hungary goes back to totalitarianism and the odd Russian invasion to improve its hospital services? Irish Health standards were already high before the boom - there is no reason why they should have gone up a lot due to the boom. These things level off once one gets up to the highest global standards.

author by Scepticpublication date Mon Aug 13, 2007 18:50author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The EU is not about expansionism – it is a voluntary community to which a nation can join if conditions are met. This enlarges the community but mainly it makes states stable, democratic and prosperous. For instance Spain Portugal and Greece joined when their democracy was very young and fragile and after years of dictatorships – now all three are very successful. Again globalisation is a facet of modernity not of the EU. If there are negative effects they are not resulting from the EU. The EU was always geared towards closer union – it was never a loose trading block like EFTA. The nations might have converged in some ways but they are not homogenised out of existence - this is unfounded assertion. The EU is not responsible for dealing with corruption in member states except where its own funds are concerned. We are responsible for the Haugheys, Burkes and Lawlors ourselves – not Brussels.

author by Heatherpublication date Mon Aug 13, 2007 19:22author address author phone Report this post to the editors

There is nothing voluntary about quotas in fishing and farming , nor
do free citizens willingly accept the dictatorial status of the US in relation to accessing info
on the private lives of EU citizens. it is simply not enough to state that its better than 'dictatorship'
when it is unwieldly and not a club that everyone wants to join. the substrata of the EU is
founded on globalised econmic principles and not on principles of diversity or equality.

Some bits work- but it is evident that Poland's slide into Right wing repression was not
staunched by the EU,no more than Mc Dowell's attempts to get changes to TDR which
he found to be soft. The mechanisms of the EU bloc are the EIB. The WTF, The World Bank.
The justice and immigration harmonisations under Mc Dowell and John Reid helped
created a two-tier EU wherein economic Migrancy and cheap investment was pushing
ordinary families out of the property market in their own cities.

The systems that do work= legal and Human Rights do so cos they are founded in
egalitarain principles but part of the beligerent expansionism of amongst others
Bertie Ahern was solely an excerise in opening new markets which have definitely
created deep distrust and major political unrest in many cultures.

The issue of sensitivity to culture is not on the expansionist agenda and whilst many
Irish Times readers and owners of boats and planes expand their property portfoilos
out east, they are mitigating against the familial and cultural devlopment of smaller communities.
sure it doesn't matter- the Oirish like the wealth, you can hear the ads on the radio
(ad Nauseum) about investing in foreign properties and no-one cares to ask about
investing in the infrastructure in Ireland. the money is going abroad.

author by gurglepublication date Mon Aug 13, 2007 20:36author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I'm not sure if you just want to write in the comment box; if you just need to see html published, if you want to bump the thread or if you're just being plain silly. The Hungarian health indices are a common instance of disparity for any "Human development" sociologically based essayist and are used by both left and right wing orientated commentators to argue a myriad of points on Health system planning or management.

Slightly further up the page you almost seemed keen to credit EU accession (rather than extraordinary US investment itself a byproduct of the British Irish peace accords) with not only Irish prosperity but improved health rates. I am european mr/s Skeptic. I've lived in several EU states enjoying the various rights of a European and long ago argued against an expanded EU pondering whether or not there were other ways to make the Irish feel unique and on the piggies back. Fact is - the EU has not offered the poorest or most marginalised nor even the most needy ( in terms of handicap or longterm paliative care ) anything spectacular at all. And the statistics prove it. I could quite merrily link you to half of Eurostats pdf files to illustrate that point. Nor for that matter has any Irish government since independence (& I extend the timeframe of reference in direct response to your "chest rubbing" advances of lung care) achieved anything really worth embossing on a brass plaque at the forth-coming GPO heritage interpretive centre. There has been only one achievement of global class in medical care which has originated from the island of Ireland in the last century, Skeptic. That was the mobile cardiac fibilator invented in the 1960's by a man of avowed "northern Irish" ethnicity. His invention saw "heart ambulances" made available to people throughout the developed and not so developed world, yet the state of Ireland/Eire still doesn't offer a "heart ambulance" at the average demographic rate of the EU 27 states.

so gurgle to you.
If you want to be jingoist, or you want to think yourself "rich" then pick some indicator which stands up to even the most cheerful pokery. But do not attribute it to the EU or even attempt to hold up the so called "Celtic Tiger" as an economic model of development for any state in the EU.

author by Scepticpublication date Mon Aug 13, 2007 21:43author address author phone Report this post to the editors

To reiterate the EU has very little to do with public health and cannot really be brought into it. The fortunes of the Hungarian public health since 1989 for instance have nothing at all to do with it. It is a fact that basic preventative measures like immunization and mass chest x ray (in an area with TB) do most to cut mortality rates. I never claimed that these were invented in Ireland merely adopted so the point about defibrillators is irrelevant. I don’t claim the Irish health system is excellent by western European standards in general – its ok by OECD standards however. I was responding to a sweeping comment about “crap” hospitals. EU membership had an important role in Irish economic success, as it was success in overseas trade markets and the Structural Funds that were two main components of the boom. I don’t hold up the so-called “Celtic Tiger” as a model for other States but assert that much of the economic success since 1973 is attributable to the European project. Incidentally farm and fish quotas are agreed by the Council that is the national Governments collectively.

“The EU has not offered the poorest or most marginalized nor even the most needy (in terms of handicap or long-term palliative care).” This misses the point that this has nothing to do with the EU. Competence in these areas has not been transferred from national governments to Brussels. You can’t blame the EU for something it has no involvement with nor can have.

"The EU is not founded on the principles of diversity or equality."

How can it not embrace diversity when it comprises 25 nations and equality is a cornerstone to EU law and ECJ jurisprudence. It is not at all just an economic community and heather keeps asserting. Poland's has not slid into right wing repression or anything like it and if it did it would not be the communitiy's task to stop it except by exclusions and sanctions.

Related Link: http://www.iue.it/LAW/ResearchTeaching/Seminars20062007-II/European%20EqualityLaw.shtml
author by Heatherpublication date Mon Aug 13, 2007 22:10author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The second vote for Nice II introduced and campaigned for by Minister for Tara:-
Dick Roche (now enjoying junior ministerial status for the EU, currently launching the
campaign for further expansionism within the bloc on the basis of the 48 hour negotiation
which had been blocked by Tony Blair and Poland) did not treat of the beligerence
of expansionism nor of the bi-lateral agreements proposed for 2015 -agreed in January of 2007
by Angel Merckel (then President of the EU and leader of the G8).

The national issues of health care infrastructure have not been addressed by the
Current tri-partite coalition in Ireland (FF/PD/Green Party) and the consistent breach
of EHCR rule and Habitat directive go largely ignored by mainstream media.
As a case in point no-one claimed the EU is responsible for crap national policy,
it simply says that the advances and homgenisation of the EU reflect badly on the
issues at home and reflect right-wing policy of the current State.

The current government highlights the benefits of EU trade and geo-political
expansion without necessarily going into the effects that this negative action has
on emergent economies. This is both irresponsible and encouraging of
an economic model similar to Ireland (universal health insurance, fast-track planning,
property speculation and the PPP framework for NDP and of course the use of
the PPP model to break unions= Thatcherism light)
The government has a responsibility to build a viable economic model wherein the
citizen is looked after in relation to basic health care and education rights.
If one looks at internal policy in both Ireland and the UK one can quite clearly see where
the ecomomic models for Progress and prosperity are globalised and negligent of
basic human rights (as well as see clearly the corruption and ill thought out
planning issues that do not take cognizance of issues of poverty, petrol dependency, urban
sprawl and food provision ).

The envisaged return to the traditional family model as the cornerstone of the fiscal
policy of an enlarged EU , the link (european alliance for families ) above shows
does not mention the fact that this needs to be backed up with proper
health care infrastructures , which ireland has left in favour of enticing huge
pharmaceutical companies and centralising local services. In other words
the benefits may suit the national government, without them having to institute
the details of that care-giving through properly serviced units in communities.

Or... The US system is being imported wholesale into a National Economy
grounded in trad family units without creating and sustaining adequate supports
such as a viable National Health Service.

Related Link: http://www.isiswomen.org
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