Child abuse

The report of the commission on child abuse has publicised what the dogs on the street knew – that physical, sexual and mental abuse of “inmates” in certain institutions run by the Catholic church was widespread, systematic, institutionalised, and carried out with the tacit knowledge and approval of the hierarchy.

We should not tarnish all the religious with the same brush. There were many who took no part in this; there were others who were aware of these activities but who were powerless to act. They knew that to stand up to this would be rewarded by victimisation by the church authorities.

Commentators in leafy, liberal Dublin suburbs seem unaware that the climate of fear and silence which accompanied these crimes still persists in many areas of Ireland. Those who committed them and more importantly those who abetted them in their actions, are often still very influential and they, together with their friends in Catholic lay organisations, often have a stranglehold over local societies and communities.

Sparklers at Halloween

Some people may be surprised at what they will no doubt term my outburst against sparklers, “bangers” and fireworks in my most recent “Echos of the Past” piece in the Cavan Echo. As I said these are dangerous; what’s more they cause a lot of distress to animals. There is one group of animals upon whom humans really depend: guide-dogs for the blind. They are highly trained to be able to navigate their handlers, and to add a pair of eyes which the blind person does not possess, but yet they become distressed and disoriented when confronted with the detonation of one of these bangers. This then affects the blind person, who may often find themselves completely lost.

This anti-social aspect of Halloween was recently exprressed on RTE radio by guide-dog user Bethann Collins. She asked why were such items allowed to proliferate, especially when they are technically illegal in the Irish Republic. I feel I can answer her – it is because of the ambivalence of the authorities who never act unless they are forced to by events. If, and I hope it never happens) somebody is fatally injured, then there will be an outcry and the police will put out their collective eggbags to clamp down on the sale and posseession of fireworks, but they’ll get tired of it and the whole thing will peter out into the sands of habitual laziness.

Justice of a sort for the victims of the Caravan of Death

I see that the leader of Chile’s notorious Caravan of Death, Gen Arellano Stark and five of his underlings have received jail sentences for the extra-judicial killing of people whose politics they didn’t like during the rule of Augusto Pinochet.

The Caravan of Death was like a mobile execution squad who went up and down the country seeking out victims whom the authorities were just too squeamish to wipe out themselves. Their actions were known to Pinochet, the man with whom the former British Prime Minister sipped tea and ate cake. If only she had been able to use the Caravan of Death against the miners, the Militant Tendency, Irish terrorists and their synpathisers in Eire and the CND.

Of course, here in leprechaun land General Pinochet had a considerable fan-club, especially amongst those who were on the way to doing God’ s work. True, he had murdered a democratically-elected president and murdered hundreds, if not thousands of innocent people, but hadn’t he saved Chile from “Godless communism?” The fact that Salvador Allende (pronounced Ayende or Azhende and not Allendy as some conservative politicans believed) was never a communist, or that he had the support of many members of the country’s hierarchy, is forgotten. Pinochet’s supporters point to the fact that when he survived a leftist assassination plot the bullets left the impiression of the Virgin Mary on the car window. They point to the extraordinary economic success enjoyed by Chile thanks to Pinochet, but that ignoramus knew nothing about economics; any economic success was the work of technocrats like Buchl the finance minister.

Well done Cavan Echo!

The Cavan Echo has attained its one hundredth edition – and they said it wouldn’t last. Its survival is proof that there is a need and a market for a plurality of voices in the world of local media. In 1956 there was a short-lived movement in favour of greater freedom of expression. It’s slogan was: “Let a Hundred Flowers bloom, and let a hundred schools of tought contend.” There are people in Cavan and in Ireland who are afraid of such pluralism. For them the world of expression should take its cue from Benito Mussolini who once replied to an awkward question by telling him to “Eat his dinner and shut up”. It is right that in twenty-first century Cavan that the only time people ought to open their mouths is to eat (and pray)?

Thanks to the Cavan Echo many flowers have bloomed here in Cavan and it has thereby become a more pleasant smelling place.

Racism and Racists

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Racism and racists

Most people are by now well aware of how I feel about non-Irish people coming to work or live here. I welcome them unreservedly. I hope they have a good time and I also hope many of them will settle down and make their live here and maybe set up businesses. They don’t frighten me. They do not tweak some deep-seated insecurity. Some of the women are beautiful, even though I’m spoken for, thanks to a girl who is herself not a native of Ireland.

I suppose I can understand how the advent of difference upsets people, especially older folk. For so long they were used to people leaving Ireland in droves, so the idea of large numbers of people coming in the opposite direction. However, my dear and lovely mother, Mary Parker, who passed away this July at the age of 88, had no such feelings of insecurity. Perhaps like her son she knew that the people who really make you feel scared are your white neighbours.

These people are not bad or evil in themselves. Their fears though are played upon by wicked and mischievous people.

What I would say to any of them is: I understand how you feel, but I don’t agree with you. There is nothing to fear. I would also appeal to them to show some class and to eschew the cornerboy rhetoric. Alright, so you don’t like foreigners, but why refer to them with a rare flight of allieration as “fucking foreigners”? Or the other phrase which disgusts me because of its innate violence “black bastards”. If one quarter of the world’s population cause them such unease why not call them niggers or coons – equally offensive but not as violent and full of hate as the preceding. This type of language is meant to demean non-Irish people, but the only ones whom it demeans are the Irish people who use it. It’s the equivalent of calling people Fenian bastards, dirty Jews or enemies of the people. It leads inexorably in the direction of Auschwitz.

Labels: fear, older generation, racism

posted by Ciaran Parker @ 4:29 AM   0 Comments