August 2008 - Irish American News

26 IRISH AMERICAN NEWS August 2008Swimming UpstreamBy Charles BradyA Little Bit of Anger Does You Good!I’ve been looking over some articles that appearedin this column over the last few years. I’mpleasantly surprised to see that I got some of itright, at least. Perhaps I over-egged the puddingwith anger too much of the time, but then againa lot of the injustices in this world lead one inthat direction. I’m not someone that believes thatanger achieves nothing. It can be productive. Angercan be very productive. A pity that we’re not(as of writing) sending some of it in the directionof that prize swine, Robert Mugabe. Pity therewasn’t oil there. The place would be overrunby now. Still, Britain’s Gordon Brown—whilesmiling that rictus grin that has been known tosend small children and grown men into fits ofunadulterated fear—has just wagged his fingerat him and told him he’s been very bad but let’snot bring sanctions into it just yet. And very feweven batted an eye last month when the arrogantand bloody bastard stayed in five star luxury atthe U.N. Conference on Food and Agriculture!Tell me the truth; if this were a novel wouldanyone believe it? Never mind, Queen Elizabethhas taken back the knighthood she gave him sohe can’t call himself ‘Sir’ anymore. And it onlytook fifteen years. Do something about Mugabe?The last Ice Age arrived faster.*So yes, let’s have a bit more constructive anger.Just look at the amount of people who spend theirwhole lives in a coma, or feel that they’ve ‘donetheir bit’ if they stick a couple of coins into the tinof every gobdaw who accosts them in the street.Do you remember ‘give a penny for the poor blackbabies in Africa?’ Or saving up tinfoil (as kids weused to call it silver paper) to take to school inorder to help the poor people abroad? Tin foil?What was that about? I don’t think we ever questionedit. It just let us know we were helping the‘poor unfortunates’ in other countries.It’s a pity that we hadn’t gotten angry orlistened more closely to what people like Dr.Noel Browne were even then hinting at. A pitywe hadn’t been taking a closer bloody look atwhat was going on in the Magdalen Laundriesand some of the Industrial Schools. A pity wehadn’t been razing the citadel of ArchbishopJohn Charles McQuaid and demanding to knowwhy the hell he was living in greater opulencethan the Pope when there was genuine povertyin this country. And just why were the politiciansthat were supposed to be working for us living interror of this cut-price bogyman? Why weren’twe storming the Dail and the churches and DE-MANDING to know why deviant priests werebeing quietly sent to other parishes to continuetheir ghastly crimes? I’m fed up with hearing thatnobody knew. SOMEBODY ALWAYS KNOWS.Of course, it was in the same manner that no oneknew the goings-on of the phoney squire andcrook Charles Haughey; no one knew of themistress that the taxpayer was keeping; no oneknew where his ill-gotten wealth came from (hewas a shrewd investor, apparently, har-de-har);and if one member of the media had spilled thebeans that person would have been signing on forunemployment benefit pretty damned quickly.The Celtic Tiger economy was here yearsbefore it was recognised. We never saw any ofthe money of course because Haughey and hisfellow crooks—the Golden Circle who left thetax-payments to the little people and kept theiraccounts in the Cayman Islands—had set up analternative economy where they got richer whilepeople died on hospital trolleys. And now thatthe boom is over; now that building has stoppedand house prices are plummeting; now that themoney is spent we still have people dying onthose same (probably literally) hospital trolleys.In 2002 we were given the usual empty promisesfrom the liars of Fianna Fail. There wouldbe hardly anybody on waiting lists, completerevolutionizing of the health system and on andendlessly on. Yet as of now Health Minister MaryHarney presides over a system where 21,300patients have gone without treatment and languishedon the waiting list for more than threemonths. And as to germs, well, if you want to getsick, go into hospital. It’s like playing Russianroulette with only one empty barrel.I read last week of an Irishman who hadbeen attacked by an alligator in Mexico. He wasoverjoyed that he was being treated in a Mexicanhospital and not an Irish one. No wonder the Irishjournalist Terry McGeehan simply refers to theHealth Minister as Morticia Harney.Some years ago I wrote here of my loathingfor that smug term, ’The Celtic Tiger.’ For a startit was NEVER everybody who benefited fromit, no matter what you hear. And it led with afrightening ease to a society that didn’t give adamn about anything except property, five sunholidays a year and making shed loads of loot.I remember writing that I looked forward tothe day when some of these chancers were onthe street with a cup in their hand, even if I wassitting next to them. Well, it ‘s happening fasterthan I expected and it might just be good for us.At least we won’t have to listen to the Usual Suspectstalking about the helicopter that they’vehired to get to the horse-racing or how muchthey spent on champagne last week. Best of all,we might see a few less programmes hostedby that dreaded spawn of a society given toomuch money too fast—the ‘celebrity chef.’ Irishactor Brendan Gleeson (who recently starredwith Colin Farrell in the gloriously politicallyincorrect “In Bruges”) put it: “Everybody haseaten the cake. We have stuffed ourselves atthe party and now we have cake sickness… Ithink that the baby has been thrown out with thebathwater. The sense of community is gone. Sopeople need to ask questions.”And there’s something that always draws meup short. In other days the church, for all its manyfaults, served as a centre of community and insome rural areas it still does. It’s not for me, butI do see that the disappearance of trust in theChurch has left a huge void in society. I don’thave any answers, but it does need to be replacedby something. At least the keen interest in sporthere is a start, but that leaves a lot of people out.On a personal level, though, I’m delighted to seepeople realise that they were led up the gardenpath by a corrupt institution that was headed bysupposedly celibate men who handed out adviceon marriage and female problems while backedby an insanely wealthy city-state straight out ofmediaeval times. Then again, it’s no harm to seethe company they keep being exposed for thegraspers they are either—the politicians and thesolicitors, for example. I’ve heard the expression‘turning away from the Church and back to God’on more than one occasion since the start of ourrecession and that’s no bad thing.To return to the beginning of this article: Ithink it is far better to pick a couple of charitiesthat you respect and trust. Concentrate on them.You can’t look after everybody, not withoutdriving yourself into an early grave you can’t;but you can always do just a little bit. And whilewe’re on the subject, kudos to Angelina Jolie andBrad Pitt, who donated so generously to Iraq. Ihaven’t always been crazy about Jolie—didn’ttrust her motives, I suppose—but in this caseit’s a pleasure to be wrong. And I always haveadmired the quiet and unfussy way that SandraBullock donates money. She’s a remarkablewoman and is probably representative of themany caring celebrities that we don’t hear about.God knows there’s plenty of the other kind, whocan’t have one of their maids make out the grocerylist without telling the world and its camerashow bloody great they are.And finally, the Lisbon Treaty once more. Nodoubt you’re bored to tears by it at this stage, soI’ll be brief.I found another reason that I’m so glad I voted“NO.” Why? Because yesterday Bono announcedthat he voted “YES.” According to the GreatOne, we plebs don’t understand the concept ofEurope—and not just us. The Europeans don’tunderstand the concept of Europe either. Butwait! Help is at hand! Bono DOES UNDER-STAND IT and The Majestic One will be thereto guide we morons through it for “Lisbon 2: TheCorrect Answer,” appearing next year, courtesyof a corrupt politician near you.Praise the Lord!* Wouldn’t you know it? As I send this (July 1)Mugabe is being greeted warmly by the AfricanUnion. He’s being hugged and congratulated andthere’s a lot of Loooove in the air after his landslidevictory as the only candidate in Zimbabwe’selections. You can bet good money that almost allAfrican governments will refuse to say a singleword against him. That would be too much likebacking the West. Taking Western money is allright; hosting well-meaning Western celebrities isall right; just don’t ask us speak out against RobertMugabe. 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