Time for a re-Think???

A real bug bear of mine relates to so called “Think Tanks” and a lot of “agencies” that are employed at the expense of the state to supposedly improve things for you and I, Mr & Mrs ordinary Joe Soap.  But they don’t!  I was prompted to write about this, after hearing of another report from some think tank, which basically went beyond stating the bleedin’ obvious, of which details of it I heard on the news.  For a start, many of the people involved in heading up such organisation are paid ludicrously obscene salaries, with, in many cases, just as obscene expenses scales to boot.  I’m involved in my local community Centre, and also the Youth Club, that operated within the falls of the building.

 They are the ones who rabbit on night and day about “inclusiveness” or “Empowering people” But after enduring another bout of their “flipchart diplomacy”,  You mentally find yourself tied to a chair with black tape on your mouth, as the meeting /consultation draws to a close.   These people have mastered the art of ASSUMING what people need/want, without actually asking them;  And they then dump some strategy onto their shoulders, and expect them to follow it to the letter without so much as a blinking of the eye.  

But you see, they have their masters degrees in UCD and Trinity, and sure haven’t they studied Socioogy for 4 years, and thus have the imprimatur to foist things on us, because clearly we don’t know anything, and need to be spoonfed, as we don’t have any fancy letters after our names!

Many good honest people who want to volunteer in their communities have been ground down and totally worn out, slowly but surely by the red tape, and the rigid top down, looking down on us ordinary plebs, attitude many agencies adopt. (Can someone find me an agency/Think Tank that even meets 80% of their “mission statement”? – Nope.. I thought so!) They get involved in a group or groups in a voluntary capacity, bundling with energy and ideas.  But they soon become aware of the constant Merry go round of so called consultations and meetings, were they are asked for their opinion, and duly give it.  But they soon realise the farcical nature of the process, and that, no matter what ideas they bring to the table, they will either fall totally on deaf, uninterested ears at the top, or else they will be quietly forgotten about, only to re-surface sometime later, with some head honcho in the agency/Think Tank claiming the idea totally as his/her own. 

And what of those god awful think tanks?  I’m a 31 yr old who is from a solid working class background, and lives in a part of Dublin, that has been classed as an area of Social depravation.  Though it must be said, that my upbringing, and the area I lived in, was to an extent quite different to that of people who had to live 40 mins walk from me, in large swathes of council housing, with little or no services, or supports in the 80’s.  And while that situation has technically improved since then, it is still miles off were it needs to be. (And now is heading back to a level even lower than that seen in the 80’s, but to the massive cutbacks across the board)  I’m just waiting to pick up The Guardian someday soon, to read of a study that cost £250,000 to conduct, where the think Tank Claimed it was trying to find out why so many Everton fans hate Wayne Rooney! It sounds kinda far fetched, but you wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out a study like that, WAS being carried out as I typed!  (Reminds me of the $1M study once done in American by scientists/academics, who were studying why Native American Indians didn’t like being studied by scientists/academics – I kid you not!)

If you were to spend hours looking at websites and the like to find information on the myriad of agencies and Think Tanks that are out there, you’ll soon be struck at fact that there is 4 different groups, basically claiming to do the same thing.  Each one trying to out topdog the other, with the people they are supposed to be helping, taking a back seat, and largely ignored, until they become useful tools to exploit at the Agencies whim.  

If a mass cull was to descend on these agencies/think tanks, just think of all the money saved by the state, never mind the amount of trees too, as their useless reports after useless reports will be no more.

Imagine they were replaced by one central funding group, who alone was responsible for handing out money to voluntary groups etc, instead of 20 different groups fighting for the spoils out of one pot.  

Imagine this funding provider had very limited criteria, eg, nothing unlawful could be done with the money doled out etc;  BUT that, in the main, the community groups/organisations themselves would have the freedom to decide THEMSELVES, with genuine consultation with their fellow inhabitants, as to what the money would be spent on.  There would be a lot more people thus volunteering to help out in their parish, feeling confident and with quite a spring in their step, as they know the valuable effort they are putting in, would be properly recognised and valued, and they would also be a genuine stakeholder, and have a full and authoritive say on how things are done and so forth.  

There would then be more groups and local services in place.  And thus, more people, be they old or young would be able to play sports, act on stage in local theatre productions, or even just meet in a room with others of a like minded interest to drink tea, and have a sing along.  The possibilities would be endless. 

But sadly, so long as these agencies and Think Tanks continue in their modus operandi, sucking their lifeblood out of communities, the isolation, and fragmentation of so

Another poem from moi

THE WORLDS BIGGEST BANK ROBBER

Oh I am the leader of the IMF, the ringleader of the Worlds biggest theft. 

I’ll lend the Africans some money today, but charge them interest they can never repay.  Their leaders will build grand palaces of gold, whilst many of their citizens die before their one year old. 

The finest banquets they will serve, whilst most of the people struggle and starve. 

Their wives will go on shopping sprees in New York, while many are unable to find work. 

The finest of fashions they will buy, as over their dead babies, many mothers cry. 

For the price of a handbag from Christian Dior, they could have saved a hundred kids, maybe more. 

A $3,000 fur coat her treat for today, whilst many children just whittle away. 

I’ll give him some money to build an army, maybe 3 or 4, so he can quell any opposition by the score. 

Any students dare protest against his rule, he’ll have them all shot by the back of the school. 

If any of their parents dare protest in vain, he’ll do the same to them again.

 An open grave full of human debris, a lesson for all the others to see. 

‘This is what happens to those who start protesting, tis better to walk away and thus say nothing’.  

As sure as the summers sun, and winter snows, the foreign debt just grows and grows.  The flow of repayments always get higher, whilst the conditions for the poor get dire and dire. 

What do I care how leaders spend their money, in so brazen a fashion to be considered funny. 

Just think of the Apartment view pf the Hudson River, that playing piper to African rulers can deliver. 

They can spend it on BMW’s Mercs and other perks, So long as the oil is in US hands, we’re happy to support any of their plans. 

‘Our Children are dying!’ the people will cry, but you don’t see me crying, I’m jumping for joy! 

Their leader’s just bought another little toy, in a private jet round the world he will fly.  He bought by borrowing some more millions, whilst upping the taxes on his minions.  One less loaf a month they’ll be able to afford, while he increases his financial horde.   

In some bank in Geneva lie his ill gotten gains, he’ll murder some more to keep his hands on the reigns. 

And yes you’ll all be happy to know, that the debt repayments continue to flow...

A poem from moi...

THE SEAGULL

As I wandered along the windswept shore, on this cold and lonely night, my step was halted by a screech, twas a Seagull in full flight. 

As white as an angel up on high, racing back and forth across the sky.  She then did a loop, stormed up in the air, then flew back down, without the slightest of care.

Once more she shrilled, as if talking to the sea, in a tone of voice reminiscent of the Banshee.  Across the cliffs she let fly, out of sight in the twinkling of an eye. 

How I wish I could fly like a bird, dashing across every continent in the world.  At sight of a fish I would dive, a happy life without the nine to five.  No bills to pay or house to clean, on some rocky outpost I would lean.  Wondering where next I would go, I’d then thrust my wings and set off in full flow. 

On China...

A top ranked football team hires a manager to much acclaim at considerable cost.  But despite all the fanfare, no matter what he does, things just don’t go right on the pitch, and the team are languishing near the relegation zone, despite being the most successful team in the league, with the most titles won and so forth.  As the losses continue to be racked up, the supporters start demanding their highly paid manager be sacked.  Some on the board start making noises in reference to the mass clamour of supporters for the manager head, but don’t actually call for him to be sacked.  Many on the board acknowledge the situation privately, but are held back by the fact that, should he be sacked, they’d have to pay said manager a massive pay off, and that is something they felt they could ill afford to do. 

That sort of, to an extent quantifies China’s current problem, vis-a-vis the mammoth mountain of US Debt it currently “owns”.  Many people have said to me that China simply will not be selling the US Bonds it holds, as to do so would be suicide.  They also say that they need to keep buying up the debt, so that a lot of it can be recycled back, with US consumers buying Chinese goods, and thus helping to prop up further the Chinese Manufacturing Sector, amongst others.

 The US economy and it’s stockmarket etc, are in freefall, with no signs of it stopping anytime soon.  But in tying with the fall in it’s economy, US imports of Chinese goods is falling all the time too, as consumer demand is simply nowhere near the levels it used to be.  This means that the value of it’s bonds are also heading south too.  Thus the “investment” China made in buying these bonds, is devaluing all the time.  There must be senior mandarins (pardon the pun) in State economic circles who are watching the US situation unfold, like a hawk, and are in a deep sweat over it all as I type.  If the US cannot stablise the situation – and that looks every more unlikely as the days pass; China will have no choice but to take decisive action.   

Do some economists really expect us to believe that China will just sit on it’s hands, and do nothing, as the value of the US bonds it holds, hurtles evermore towards zero? The Senior economic strategists in Beijing must surely have already drawn up the line that “cannot be crossed”,  a level at which, should the value of the US Bonds, fall below it, they will sell.

It is surely inevitable, that as the days passes, the cursor on the Chinese Mouse, is moving ever closing to the sell button.  In my opinion, given how things stand re the US, and how they are projected to go in the future, it’s a matter of when, not if, they left click on that “sell” button.  One can’t even begin to imagine the mass turmoil in the markets that would occur should that happen.  Even the mere mention of a ratings agency, or senior government figure of a major country, that the scenario of China selling it’s US Bonds was now in play, would alone send the markets into freefall.  China will not keep buying up the debt of foreign states indefinitely.  It has not got an infinite treasury supply to allow it to do that.  

Yes, the Pro-Capitalist financial magazines will fill their pages with razzmatasmic articles banging on about the further Growth rates in China, and how it’s still on the up, while most of the rest of the world falls further.  But look at the enormous lengths the Chinese state has had to go to make this all possible.  It has overseen an unprecedented stimulus plan, but there are only so many areas of the economy you can try prop up, and even at that there is only a certain level upon which it can rise, even if being artificially propped up. 

A further big worry for China is the rapid slowdown in consumer sentiment and purchasing in the US and Europe.  Factories still manufacture goods like there’s no tomorrow;  But more and more of these items are ending up in containers and the like, gathering dust with nowhere to go.  I always laugh when I read articles from people proclaiming that the Chinese consumer is going to save us all, and that they’ll simply be the ones to buy all those excess electronic and other goods that are currently massively overbloating the market.  Take a farmer in Rural China, who farms in a similar way to the way they did here in the middle ages, and is lucky if he earns €600 in a year.  Can you really picture him, suddenly stopping the two oxen he’s been hauling around his field, and fumbling in his satchel to take out his new Ipad to read what the “Peoples Daily” has to say, via their App?  

China is like a train hurtling at vast speed, who’s brakes are wearing thin, and if something drastic is not done in the short term, there will be no brakes at all, and no way of stopping the juggernaut when serious danger comes it’s way. 

China faces many critical junctures over the next while, and you can be sure the world will be watching VERY closely, as what actions/decisions it takes when they arrive at them. To me, in a way, it’s like a meteorite hurtling in the direction of Earth, upon which astronomers believe part of it will surely hit the earth, but just how many parts of it, and if these parts will be minimal or massive nobody knows...

Murdoch, NoTW, and the media in General

SPEECH I MADE AT SP MEETING ON MONDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER 2011

Murdoch and the media:

Ask someone what the word “Media” conjures in their mind, and they’ll talk about newspapers, Television, and some might also reference the radio. Many old people would trust what Anne Doyle says on the 9 o’ Clock news as Gospel, and if she reads out a story that looks bad on Fine Gael or Fianna Fail – for example – their spin doctors would be leaping for their phones straight off and they would be going into over drive! Certain newspaper journalists also have a large following, and a lot can hinge on their word. For example, coming up to the UK Elections, there were certain prolific “commentators” who wrote for various newspapers, of whom - on twitter and so forth - people had strewn a lot of hot air pondering who they might plump for come polling day. Said commentator putting out a passionate argument in favour of voting for a particular party for example, could mean the difference between Labour narrowly holding onto a seat, or narrowly losing it. Then we have the famous words of Homer Simpson, when Marge questioned him over a news story he told her about “But the TV said so, so it MUST be true!”

But obviously the media is now spread about far wider than it would have been, say, 20 years ago. Some people such as Rupert Murdoch, and Kerry Packer made massive fortunes through newspapers, and were well placed to invest in newer forms of media in the 80’s when Newspaper sales began to noticeably decline. And as their tentacles seep further and further into the various formats, their reach extends to more and more people, and the power and influence they wielded grew stronger and stronger.

Kerry Packer ran the most successful Newspapers by far in Australia, and was also the owner of the very popular 9 Television Network. He had power and influence like no other in Australia. Through this, for years he was able to ensure that nothing was being done about the fact that he was paying feck all tax. He was simply avoiding pay what he was legally supposed to, and many millions in tax bills were outstanding. Then in the early-mid 90’s, newspapers owned by his major rival, Rupert Murdoch, began printing stories of his tax avoidance, coupled with lurid tales of his lavish lifestyle, kickbacks to politicians, and went to town on him. There was enormous anger in Australia over this. Back in his heyday in the 80’s, Kerry Packer would simply have to pick up the phone, name what minister he wanted to see, and when, and whatever the minister had previously in his diary for that time, would have been cancelled.

When the massive scandal broke out in the 90’s, current and former ministers rushed to distance themselves from the Packer organisation, but via various stories in the newspapers, people found out to an extent about the relationship between politicians and the Packer Group, and were having none of it. Kerry died in 2005, and his son James took over the Packer Corporation. Most of their newspaper business has been sold off, and the family now own less than 1% of channel 9 TV Company, after flogging that too. The son has decided now to spend money investing in massive casino projects worldwide. The Kerry Packer tax scandal still rankles with many in Australia to this day, and it’s like a bad smell that still lingers on.

Fast forward around 20 years since then, and the man who’s Australian arm, led the charge against the Packer Empire, is himself having to adopt the bunker mentality, with no end to the battle seemingly in sight. The insatiable desire to increase newspaper circulation, and with it profits knew no bounds in News International, the company spearheaded by Murdoch. The more people who bought his publications, the more sway he had over them, and the more coveted by the British Government, and others with their hands on the levers of power, he would become. Between 1995 & 1996, Tony Blair attended numerous meetings with News Corporation Executives, in a desperate effort to get their newspapers to endorse him, and his party in the run up to the 1997 General Election. A secret deal was brokered, which lead to The Sun, and The Times printing many articles that were scathing of the then government, and some of the columnists in the paper, wrote articles in support of Labour etc. No one has yet been able to find out what was actually discussed at these meetings, but they definitely took place. The close links between Murdoch and the political hierarchy has only made the public’s perception of politicians fall even lower, and the popular view that “they are all on take, and only in it for the money” has hardened. Many politicians who were closely associated with News Corp in the past, have rushed to try and distance themselves from the company and the scandal; But like in Australia, the public at large simply are not buy it.

As newspaper sales are declining, this in turn also means profits are falling in the newspaper industry, and massive job and wage cuts have done little to stem the tide overall. Thus the battle to increase sales, no matter what the cost, has become a key mantra from the boardrooms. Many people have a fixation with Celebrities, and what they get up to. A lot of celebrities are PR managed to within an inch of their lives, and “acceptable” public personas are carefully crafted by people paid large sums of money to do so. So when this persona cracks, and they are shown to be not so holier than thou, sadly a lot of people crave the whole ins and outs of what happened. Thus when Rebekah Brooks, then editor of the News of the World, was offered a simple easy way to be able to obtain information on celebrities that would be lapped up by the general public at large, she grabbed it with both hands. Generally news stories have to be glanced over by legal eagles upstairs before they can be printed. One wonders, what the highly paid legal team of News International were up to then. Surely some of them must have known what was going on? Why did they not shout stop? Then again money, and lots of it put their way, has been known to make the once most principled of people do 360* turns in an instant.

The News of The World, thus became the biggest selling Sunday Newspaper by far, and that’s all that mattered, full stop. So the lust for even more stories of “celeb’s gone bad” grew stronger and stronger, and Brooks and Co wanted the pages filled with as much of that stuff as they could get their hands on. Thus this required people like the Private investigator Glen Mulclaire to wade deeper and deeper into the cesspool NoTW had created, using even more underhand, and totally illegal methods to fulfil the orders from above. The Guardian printed a story about an unnamed celebrity, who had told them he did everything possible to try and keep an affair top secret, and literally told no one about it, and picked isolated discreet places to meet his mistress. He was thus in shock when the News of the World splashed his affair all over their front pages. How on earth did they find out, whilst neither his wife, or his very closest friends knew a thing? He now knows that his phone was tapped.

Murdoch’s reaction as the scandal unfolded spoke volumes as to his character, and attitude as a whole. He initially merely reacted as if it was akin to an annoying fly that could be easily swatted. He simply did not see the intensity and pace at which the story grew, and became quite overwhelmed by it in the end. His desperate attempts to keep Rebekah Brookes in Situ, just one example as to how out of touch he was as to the enormity of the scandal.

Thanks to the internet, the role of the media has changed dramatically. Politicians or other activist organisation no longer need to rely solely on the press to get their message across to a wide number of people. Could you imagine how different things might have been had the people of Guatemala in the 50’s, and El Salvador & Honduras in the 70’s had access to the Internet and Smart Phones back then?? Things which only came to light many years later, would have been made public knowledge there and then, and domestic actions by people in the US against their countries involvement could well have been huge.

Through this medium, more and more information to do with the phone hacking scandal, and other problematic events for newspapers, have come to light. In some cases, journalists, with significant information that they feel is not kosher enough (legally and so forth) to be printed in the paper, will discreetly pass it onto a trusted 3^rd party, who would then publish it online, and from there the story may or may not gain legs. Then referencing the internet posting the journalist will then print the story in the paper, ensuring to quote the internet piece and fairly good length to keep things A-ok on the legal side. This has ensured more stories of a seemingly anti establishment nature, have appeared in the press, than would have otherwise been the case. But we still have the usual “Balance” of about 6 Right wing Attack dog stories, for 1 even mildly left wing article and so forth in our papers.

The role and influence of the press is diminishing, though it still fairly strong, and should never be underestimated. A good example of this is the fact political parties now spend vast sums of money trying to get their message across via many formats on the internet, and the amount of money they now spend on press advertising would be sizeably smaller than it would have been in the past. The development of the internet, and the vast array reporting and commenting sources contained within it, has to be a welcome development. Left wing groups like the Socialist Party have now been able to get our message across in a broader, much more coherent way than in anytime previous. One only has to look at the amount of “likes” on the Youtube Clip of Joe Higgins giving Jose Manuel Barrosso a right dressing down, to appreciate this fact. We now hear stories, and see footage of events in Syria, and have a much clearer picture of what is going on there, in a way we simply could not have, say regarding the mass slaughter of people in Indonesia by the Suharto Regime, with a lot of covert support from the US in the late 60’s/ early 70’s.

Some say “Money is power, and power is money”, and regards politicians relationship with Big Business, and the NoTW scandal in general, this has never been more clear. Some also say “The Media is King”, but the “Established” Media may well have lost it’s crown, while the paupers that are you and I, with our smartphones, blogs, Twitter accounts and what not take our piece of it’s throne one by one...