To hell in a handcart…
NAMA this, FÁS that, John O’Donoghue acting the prick with his expenses and every other politician afraid to oust him because of their own expense abuse timebomb. We’re falling apart we really are.
I wouldn’t mind if our politicians and social leaders were merely corrupt. But corruption requires pre-meditation and an element of cleverness. What we have instead is incompetence and inefficiency. With Brian Cowen, Mary “Palin” Coughlan, Dirty Willie, and the Lenihans driving the bus that’s not gonna change any time soon.
It must be time for a change, if not a revolution. But we the electorate people stakeholders haven’t the balls to do anything about it. Even the Opposition appear not to want to get in and do anything, they’d rather Fianna Fail try and clean up their own mess it seems.
I genuinely am worried as to the state of the nation we pass on to our children and grandchildren. If this was France there’d be riots on the streets. If it was Thailand there’d be a military coup. If it was anywhere else there’d be public upheaval. But it’s not it’s Ireland. And we settle for this shit.
Heeeere’s Eoinny…
This image appeared on the front page of the Irish Times website yesterday.
Is there anything Fianna Fáil TDs and MEPs won’t do for a bit of publicity? No is clearly the answer.
Do they ever stop for just a moment and think… “maybe, just maybe this photo opportunity will leave me looking like a twat”? They really don’t seem to.
You’d think they’d be briefed on things like this by their press officer after this…
Good man yourself Willie.
And yet we keep voting them in.
With thanks to the fine Cedar Revolution.
Would the real Mary Coughlan please stand up?
It’s just occurred to me that our Tánaiste is one Mary Coughlan. I saw her just now on the one o’clock news standing to address an empty Dáil chamber.
Where has she been since Biffo took the reins and she got that gig? What has she said or done since this recession lark reared its ugly bastard head? She’s been fairly fucking anonymous, to me at least.
And the worst thing is this… she is also our Minister for Enterprise, which should be a very important gig in itself. Surely in testing times such as these we should be hearing more from someone with that post of responsibility?
Maybe Biffo’s massive head and massiver ego doesn’t allow the limelight to spill in her direction? He is doing it his way after all. Whether that’s the right way or not remains to be seen.
Maybe he doesn’t have faith in her but then why put her in such important positions if she’s going to be so mute and ineffective?
Would the real Mary Coughlan please stand up?
The Indian among the cowboys…
So Barack Obama got in. By a landslide. And democracy is alive, and kicking like a mofo. An unprecedented 135 million Americans exercised their right to vote. One very excited man, interviewed on the streets of Washington by BBC News, summed it up by saying “America’s back baby!”. Indeed. And it all makes me, personally, very glad. But here in Ireland we’ve been there done that don’t ya know? Dr Moosajee Bhamjee anyone? Ireland’s first Muslim Teachta Dála.
Dr Moosajee Bhamjee
Moosajee Bhamjee was born on the 4th of December 1947, in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. His father emigrated from India in 1906 and had set up a hardware shop there. He died in 1964 so it was decided that one of the sons would take over the shop while another would go for further education. Moosajee travelled to Dublin in 1965 where he studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. His two other brothers also travelled to Dublin around the same time to study medicine. After he received his degree, Bhamjee returned to South Africa where he began working as a general practitioner. He returned to Ireland in 1975 and married a girl, from Co Clare, he first met when studying in Dublin. In 1984 Bhamjee started a permanent post at Our Lady’s Hospital in Ennis less than 20 miles from his wife’s home-place of Cooraclare.
Bhamjee joined the Labour Party in 1991 and quickly made an impression, so much so that he was the party’s candidate in the 1992 general election. While nobody gave him a chance Bhamjee became a new TD for Clare, traditionally a Fianna Fáil stronghold. He was in fact the last candidate to become a member of the 27th Dáil. Mark Little, RTÉ’s political anchor, describes it as his all-time favourite election moment stating, “people like us live for that kind of election upset”.
Bhamjee, due to his Indian heritage, was immediately nicknamed “the Indian among the cowboys”, a reference to the less than upstanding conduct of many of his fellow TDs. While the Labour Party formed a coalition government with Fianna Fáil, Bhamjee remained on the backbenches. He still worked as consultant psychiatrist while a he was a TD. He declined to stand again in the 1997 general election and retired from politics to continue his career in the health service.
So Dr Bhamjee got there first, a whole 16 years ago. Blazing a path that Barack Obama so gloriously followed yesterday. Kind of!
