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
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