Posts Tagged ‘IMF’
The End of The World is Nigh, or so it seemed yesterday !
I spent the early part of the day with my Accountants. That time of the year again when we sign off on the Accounts. Kate told me that the Bank will be happy. I replied that I was not in business to make the Bank happy. It seems our politicians sole concern of late would appear to be to ensure we have Healthy Banks with little or no regard to the health or otherwise of the Citizen. Austerity rules while our Banks are designated as our sole concern. So, leaving Ballsbridge with Kate’s words ringing in my head, didn’t exactly put me in the best of form for the rest of the day. Bloody Banks ! And I’m making them Happy ?
I decided I’d use the Toll Bridge to get back to the north side of Dublin but as I approached the Toll Booth, I was faced with a terrible vision. No, not an accident but a sky which reminded me of a scene from a disaster movie. The clouds were black and swooping down over Dublin. It was a vision which I’d imaged would be what we would see at the final chapter when our little world was coming to an abrupt end. Then on approaching the Toll Booth itself, a lovely girl was huddled behind the window which she opened a matter of inches to take my money. She looked terrified. I said something like, ‘what terrible weather’ and she replied something in return before quickly closing her window again in order to survive for a few minutes longer before the inevitable disaster would strike. If I was in Texas now, I’d be running for shelter as no doubt I was heading directly into the path of an oncoming tornado.
My drive across the bridge was no better and I felt my heavy 4×4 practically take off. Frightening, although I was lucky to be viewing this horror from inside a vehicle, not having to be actually out in it and being blown from Billy to Jack and being drenched in the process. Then it struck me. It was obviously Kate’s words about the Banks being Happy. This weather was, I felt, a reflection of the mood of the people. Well, maybe it was just my mood?
Back home, safe and sound, I caught up on some work. Later, my daughter reminded me that Alan Shatter, our esteemed Fine Gael Minister for Justice, would be on The FrontLine with Pat Kenny on RTE. After a few minutes watching, I felt it was very anti-Solicitor, populist and really not getting to grips with the real issues. Minister Shatter is an arrogant individual who is using the IMF imposed changes to suit himself. He is out to humble The Bar and is taking pleasure in so doing. He doesn’t represent solicitors, although one himself, nor indeed the Citizen as he lorded over the rest of the legal profession as a self-proclaimed Mr Family Law for years. Not someone who would be known for a cheapie divorce, mind you ! I was delighted when Dearbhal McDonald – legal affairs correspondent for The Irish Independent called him out for responding to Paul O’Higgins of the Bar Council comments as ‘bullshit’. Minister Shatter has only his own interests to the fore in his ‘interpretation’ of IMF demands. There we go again IMF, the Bankers demands! Maybe us lawyers should follow Mr Shatter in his visions for us and listen to his views and presumably those of his Law Firm in how we should charge the Citizen for the work we do. It would certainly be enlightening, but I for one am not sure I could follow suite.
Later I decided to watch Vincent Browne’s Show to wrap up my evening. Maybe this would not be a good idea as at times, Vincent can be very argumentative and not the best viewing if one anticipates a good nights sleep. As it turned out, Vincent was in a very placid mood and the debate on our Economy was indeed enlightening. In particular the contributions by Stephen Donnelly and ‘Banker’ Matthews were excellent. I wonder how Matthews reconciles himself with Fine Gael or is it just a vehicle of convenience for him ? Then, when Stephen Donnelly was of opinion that all the austerity we were suffering was in vain because it was a policy leading us nowhere, I again cursed the Banks, the parasites living on the backs of us all.
So, to bed. Was it Kate’s words to me; the Weather; Alan Shatter or Tonight with Vincent Browne that had me in Foul Humour? I decided to turn over and say a Prayer… then Cursed the Bankers!
LegalEagleStar, Tuesday , 18th. October , 2011.
UK Riots Spark the end of Society as we know it. Citizens Beware !
Over the past few days we have witnessed the unprecedented outbreak of rioting, first in London and now spreading throughout the entire UK. The spark for all this would appear to be the shooting dead by the police of an individual in Tottenham. I say ‘Spark’ , because the family of the deceased are now distancing themselves from the riots and it is now hard to see the actions of the rioters as in any way connected with the original incident at all.
I personally think that the incidents are not surprising and indeed have been predictable and just waiting to happen. You cannot treat people as Governments in the UK, Ireland and indeed throughout the EU and the rest of the world, has done and expect people to be happy with this unjust state of affairs. People become disenfranchised and become vulnerable. The loss of self-worth that comes from being unemployed or indeed in a dead-end job which does not pay your bills, leaves people doubting their self-worth and indeed their being the ones likened to outcasts in society.
Over the recent past the number of deaths due to suicide have increased enormously. Families have as a result been devastated. Whether the cause of the loss of life was due to exams, loss of employment, debts and being pursued by greedy Banks and moneylenders, or relationship breakdown or suchlike, it is important for us to remember that some people just cannot take any more and will end their lives to escape such pressure. We as a society have failed such people. They are our parents, children and relations after all.
For others, the thoughts of rioting and letting the venom out of their systems and in so doing, destroying what they perceive as ‘others wealth’ , while erroneous, is their safety valve. It is unacceptable behaviour in our society today and frowned upon by all right thinking people. That said, we must try to understand that until we can right many of the wrongs in our society, we will be pampering to those that indeed want to destroy this very society of ours. Already Right Wing Parties have recruited many new members and it’s only time before many more Groups will fill the Void in our political system and what will emerge may be a far greater monster than currently smashing the shop fronts in major cities. Already the British Government is fast-tracking legislation into force which will push the country further to a Police State than currently is the situation. The Citizen’s rights will be the first, in fact the only, to be decimated. Maybe that is the core of the problem for the EU and indeed the IMF. That citizens have been granted too many rights. Take those rights, which people have fought long and hard to achieve, away from them. Be ruthless and put the Citizen in his place. Tell him/her what to do and if they don’t do it, well just imprison or exterminate them.
It is high time that the Unions and those concerned about the rights of the Citizen stand up and take control. Work to right the ills that face us all. Tell our political establishment that enough is enough and that No, we are not bailing out the Elites in our society. In fact, the political leadership today throughout the entire EU is nothing short of farcical. This lack of leadership to the detriment of the Citizen in favour of the Bankers, Crooked Developers, Speculators of property and currency masquerading as The Markets, has indeed alienated the Citizen. It is not pretty what we are seeing on our TV screens. Neither is it acceptable in a civilised society. The question then must be asked as to how Civil our Society really is today. If ‘The Markets’ are to determine our collective futures then all I can say is, God help us all.
LegalEagleStar , Thursday , 11th. August , 2011 .
”Wanted Dead or Alive”…
Dead would be the cheaper option and would cut out the greedy lawyers !
While society celebrates the assassination of supposedly the world’s greatest terrorist, I as a lawyer feel somewhat compromised. I have spent most of my adult life fighting for the rights of the individual against the Big Corporations, as have many of my colleagues. In doing so we have battled with Insurance Giants, Banks, Local Authorities and indeed the Government itself. We have done battle with these same entities who have one great advantage over us. That is, they are in control of the purse-strings and whenever it suits them, they can change the law to suit their cause. The idea of a level playing field is rather an aspiration these days. It has been a hard struggle but one where the clients interests are paramount. Not an easy battle to win when at times, your own Professional Body has ensured that you go into such battles with your hands tied firmly behind your back. While Insurance Companies, Banks, even Government Agencies use the media to their advantage, where we are being portrayed as the Anti-Christ Incarnate, out to damage Society to the detriment of the average Citizen. And thanks in great part to our Governors, we have no right to say otherwise.
Over the last few months we see daily on our TV Screens that yet another Country is in Revolution. If you are on Twitter you’ll get the news much earlier before there is too much Spin (lies) attached. Some rebellions are peaceful while others are not. It seems that in the last few days we are told that Justice was served when Terrorist No.1 was assassinated by Country A in Country B’s back yard. No great shouts of breach of Sovereignty, International Law, Human rights violations, breach of X,Y & indeed Z, have been heard and so one is lead to the conclusion that indeed Justice must have been served. As lawyers we are faced with a dilemma. Do we speak up and state the obvious or do we take the view that the end justifies the means? Well, when I was at Law School the latter would certainly not be tolerated. Maybe times have changed. We are told there is a War on Terror and that we must all play our part. Our own Great Leader, Enda Kenny tells us we must Redouble our efforts in this War against Terror ! He should know as we have only recently elected him as our Leader. Well all those years in Law School must have been wasted. Maybe we all should have joined the Banks or the Insurance Companies or indeed trained with Politicians at home or on the advanced course at the EU. The change of mindset would have helped us decide on what is really Right and Wrong, as quite clearly our Law Schools got it badly wrong with over-concentrating our minds with such issues as human rights, workers rights and other such malarkey.
The World is now in recession, so we’re told and we all need a bail-out. We must all take cuts and workers rights are being run over by steam rollers on a daily/hourly basis. But sure, that’s all right. The times we live in now dictate that only those in charge i.e. society’s elite should be shielded from such cuts. Banks have no money so the Citizen must pay up as it would be unthinkable not to save ‘Our Banks’. Did you ever consider for one moment, why at a time when we have little or no money that wars seem recession proof. Maybe there are Billions of Dollars/Euros out there to finance the War on Terror. Because that is what really matters. Some Banks must be funding this heroic effort and it would be unpatriotic for us not to continue doing our duty by contributing to such bailouts. We need to fund the War effort.
While lawyers are usually at the forefront of Revolutions worldwide and risk their lives daily in pursuit of the rights of the Citizen, it seems that our lawyers must be more concerned with conveyancing for the privileged few or indeed dragging the Citizen through the Courts in order to take their home from them, for the Banks of course. Either that or ensuring the Citizen is incarcerated for non-payment of Litter charges or other such unpatriotic acts. Have I missed something here? What did Law School not teach me? I know that when I qualified I had to attend a lecture on Clients Funds and how to keep the Clients money in the Client Account. It was like an indoctrination in fact and one that was worth attending. On the other hand, I did attend an ‘optional’ lecture entitled ‘Ethics’. Excellent Lecture and well worth attending but why was it not mandatory? I suppose I should have been bright enough to have worked it out then but, as I said, we obviously weren’t taught the ‘right stuff’ at Law School.
Listen, is it time to revert to the Wanted Dead or Alive Posters of the Old West? Maybe we could put a modern spin on it? Instead of Invading countries like Iraq and Afghanistan and spending Billions on a campaign to overthrow the Local Regime, maybe it would be better to just Nuke them. A once off payment which surely wouldn’t be too hard to negotiate with your local friendly Bank. There’s one Bank I know who market themselves as ‘the Bank who likes to say Yes’. Of course fewer people would be employed if this course was undertaken but at least it would wipe out unemployment in a couple of countries, at least ! I’m sure our Unions wouldn’t object to such measures. Haven’t really heard much from them lately. But I digress. We lawyers need now to go back to Law School again to learn the new laws as I’m certainly totally out of touch with the World as we now know it. I wonder how many Continuous Legal Education Points I’ll have to amass until I am ‘reprogrammed’ in the New Order of things. Maybe that’s what the IMF were referring to when they proclaimed the Reforming of the Legal Profession as a priority! And if the IMF/EU say it has to be done, our Government will have no option but to say ‘Yes’. Well that’s what they’ve told us so far, isn’t it? Or am I mistaken ?
Ireland, indeed the World in 2011. Where are we heading? Or, should I say Who is being Targeted next? In fact, where the hell are we all heading and who is leading us there ??
LegalEagleStar , Wednesday , 4th May, 2011