Anti-semitic ... NON! Anti-muslim ... Oui!

Just last month Twitter was forced to pull tweets which included anti-jewish jokes following legal threats from the French Jewish Students Union, according to AFP. They also pulled hashtags which were deemed anti-Jewish such as #unbonjuif (agoodjew). Apparently it is against the law in France to make anti-semitic jokes. That is the consensus of the news stories across the internet.

And yet ...

Only the previous month a French magazine, in an action which was much more publicly inflammatory and anti-semitic, produced a series of cartoons insulting to Muslims.  What was response to that?  Police went to guard the magazine offices.  Not to raid them, not to issue an injunction, but to protect them.

Seems to me a plausible case of outrageous hypocrisy.  Yet it would be unfair to blame the French for being two-faced hypocrites when it comes to Muslims.  The response to the two issues was pretty much the same in most of the English-speaking media. In the first case there was a staunch defense of free speech; in the second case, no defense at all.

Surely you think; with the wealth of media commentary available on such a topical issue, some official media outlet has pointed out this obvious fact? Not one.  Not one media commentator has made the obvious comparison between the two cases.  Not even to disagree with my conclusion.  This is what we have nowadays with our super-free 24/7 internet enabled media world.  A uniformity, a closed mindset, a lack of analysis and evaluation, that would sit comfortably with the great days of 1950s Soviet journalism.

And with a media that crap, we are hardly likely to see a ripple in the public discourse in Europe, which will continue to be utterly hypocritical and anti-muslim.

Is Ireland screwed? Take the agriculture case ...

We are constantly told that Ireland needs radical change to get us out of the current crisis.  For us to have any chance of that there are too conditions that are necessary (but not sufficient). First, we need political leaders that will look at everything afresh and do things differently.  Secondly we need a media that tells us the truth and is willing to tackle vested interests.

Let's take a look at the case with farming.  Our glorious Minister of Agriculture has been constantly telling us how wonderful the "agri-business" sector is (whatever that is).  At the same time, I hear statistics that farm income is still 70% subsidy. In what other sector of our economy would a Minister boast about taking a 70% subsidy?  And which politicians are doing their job and challenging the Minister, holding him to account?  Will Fianna Fail take on the Minister over the farming interest.  Will they hell. Will government back banchers from urban constituencies whose constituents are really suffering, do anything?  Not a chance.

And what do the media have to say about this?  Where are the calls for radical action, where is the Minister challenged in his smug complacency? Nowhere.  The media is busy hammering the catholic church which is a dying animal or attacking the trades union movement which is already comatose and ineffectual. But no taking on the IFA; they still count.

No political leadership and a dysfunctional media.  I do not predict a swift recovery.

Paedophiles to advise on children's referendum?

I read today about calls by the Central bank for further pay cuts. This advice comes from the Irish Central Bank. The same institution that bankrupted our economy.  That collaborated with an enormous criminal consipracy for years to bend the rules and enable for the crash. Who else might lecture us on good conduct?  Perhaps we should get a paedophile ring to advise us on the upcoming referendum on children?


So long as these parasites at the top who got us in to this mess are still in charge, this country is dead.

Minister of education protects the auld alma mater

 
I must congratulate Ruarí Quinn. Last week a report by international experts, comissioned by the HEA suggested a merger of UCD and Trinity. The report was barely out when the Minister rejected that specific recommendation, in public, with the most forthright language. The poor old HEA didn't know what hit them. They probably thought that Quinn (and the rest of the government) were serious about reforming Ireland in this times of crisis. How naive!  Change .. merger ... consolidation ... that's fine for a few techs out in the sticks, not for the auld alma mater!

What was especially sweet was the way he sent out a joint email with the university presidents.  Talk about kissing their arses! They might as well have put a stamp on their collective heads saying "D4 set".

But one thing does puzzle me about Ruairi's (over) reaction.  Exactly how many working class voters give a shit about this issue? Exactly what effect will it have (either way!) on the unemployment rate among young male electricians? Ruairi (aka Ho Chi Quinn in his UCD days) is in a socialist party isn't he?

Just read two articles in the Irish Times (on the same page). In one, our glorious Minister for Education (Ruari Quinn) stood up in the Dáil to defend the jobs of employees of the State-controlled banks.  Despite the fact that these banks have shrunk in activity by an enormous amount and are under orders to shrink further, he stated (and I quote) that it is too early to talk about redundancies.

In the adjacent article a Fine Gael TD cheers on while the Minister for Education (!) cuts 400+ teachers from DEIS schools; where there is no foreseeable reduction in demand or activity.  I would say that this is astonishing for a minister allegedly in a socialist party.  But that hardly covers the case does it. Forget about your political party.  Rank hypocrisy is rank hypocrisy, whatever your political leanings.  Utter stupidity is utter stupidity: on the Right as well as the Left.

How in God's name can he justify this protection of bankers with nothing to do while savaging the basic protection of the weakest in our society? It can't be money, it must be some sick ideology Labour have imbibed from the blueshirts.  Public sector bad; private sector good.  So long as people like him are running the system we're all screwed.