Blind Justice?

What happens to people in this country when they get to a position of power? Do they just subscribe to the adage that power corrupts? Or maybe its as simple as living in a culture where there is no responsibility and it doesn’t really matter what you do as you will not be answerable. Even the language of power doesn’t acknowledge that doing wrong must lead to some sort of punishment. Dáil deputies cannot be called liars in the Dáil, no they tell untruths or omit to tell the truth. If we did the same we would be liars and quite rightly so. Power is facilitated in this by the lack of action by the police and the courts.

Limerick Gangster (from http://www.independent.ie)

Willie O’Dea told ‘untruths’ to the High Court. According to himself he forgot what he had said in a taped interview three weeks prior to the signed affidavit to the High Court. Actually what he did was perjure himself. Perjury is a criminal offence yet O’Dea has not been charged with the crime, let alone arrested for it. O’Dea doesn’t even recognise that he is further diminishing the standing of politics in this country.

The Catholic bishops of Dublin colluded with and facilitated the abuse of children in Dublin. This is another criminal act. Yet, as with O’Dea, the authorities have been silent on the issue. The bishops went off to Rome to kiss the pope’s ring (insert your own appropriate gag). They got a bit of a telling off and then listened as the weasel-faced bastard tried to blame a lack of faith for preponderance of paedophiles in the Irish institution. These bishops should be in handcuffs and chains and not colluding in writing a pastoral letter that will absolve them and put the blame back on the victims.

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Sunday, em Wednesday Miscellany

Natural Selection
The 2009 Darwin Awards Nominees are up, check out http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2009.html. My own favourite is the woman that died trying to save her moped.

Remote Control
With a bit of luck the Government will miss Gabon’s reform of Civil Service lunch breaks. It’s interesting that in what is supposed to be a knowledge economy that there is such a reluctance to have Civil Servants avail of teleworking. The Department of Finance claims that it is too expensive to equip our homes with office furniture and that there are health and safety issues (our houses become more deadly if we work there, apparently). And there is also a concern about remote linking to Departmental computer systems. However, if we really want a flexible work force equipped to deal with the demands of a fast changing society then we need to look at this type of working. Taking the last few days into account I wonder how many civil and public servants availed of annual or flexi leave to avoid battling the elements to work. At least if they had the option of teleworking they would have been productive.

End Credits
It’s always sad when people who we respect have to take their leave but the last week saw two of my particular (and peculiar) favourites take their final bow. Michael Dwyer has been one of the more interesting and knowledgeable film critics of the past 25 years or so. I remember coming across him first in the In Dublin magazine many years ago and when he established the Dublin Film Festival with Myles Dungan. While I might not have agreed with everything he wrote I did admire his style of writing and the way he supported the film industry in Ireland. He was particularly good at interviewing film makers and the last time I saw him was at the 2007 Dublin International Film Festival when he presented Gabriel Byrne with a Volta and the following interview was fascinating. Dwyer set the bar for critics and he will be sadly missed although Daniel Day-Lewis said during his eulogy that he was relieved that Michael Dwyer never got round to seeing ‘Nine‘.

Another who turned his last sod was the landscape gardener John Cushnie. Cushnie had been part of Gardeners’ Question Time on BBC Radio 4 for the last fifteen years. GQT is a typically English institution, combining wisdom with wit and eccentricity. Cushnie could be forthright in his opinions but he had a wicked sense of humour and wasn’t afraid to send himself or his fellow panelists up. As a working gardener he had a real insight into the struggles of the (extremely) amateur genus.

Bow the Knee
Biffo is a creationist. He’s also a master of spin – at a time when we are dramatically cutting our aid to Africa he is patting himself on the back about the work we are going to do to help prevent climate change in the third world. We would have been better served if Biffo had pointed out the inadequacies of the Pope’s response to the Ryan and Murphy reports of 2009. In fact we would have been better served if Biffo had just kept his big mouth shut.

We are all individuals
Bit of a kerfuffle over at Twenty.

Jehovah
Apparently, it is now illegal to blaspheme in Ireland.

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Altar-ed State

The report on clerical child abuse in Dublin shows a culture of coercion, corruption and cover-up that goes back to the founding of the state. Members of the Catholic Church harvested our schools, our hospitals, our orphanages to find our children so that they could be raped and brutalised. Members of the church used the crucifix as they raped and brutalised our children. Members of the church shook the hands of those who raped and brutalised our children.

Members of the police returned our raped and brutalised children so that they could be raped and brutalised all over again. Members of the police turned a blind eye to those who raped and brutalised our children. Members of the police shook the hands of those who raped and brutalised our children.

Members of the government created legislation that gave power to those who raped and brutalised our children. Members of the government allowed the police to turn a blind eye to those who raped and brutalised our children. Members of the government shook the hands of those who raped and brutalised our children.

We raped and brutalised our children again when we denied them a voice.
We raped and brutalised our children again when we denied them justice.
We raped and brutalised our children again when we denied our guilt.
We turned away from our raped and brutalised children.

We have heard the archbishop say sorry.
We have heard some bishops say sorry.
We have heard some priests say sorry.
We haven’t said sorry.

We haven’t said sorry for meekly giving power over our children to those who hated them the most. We haven’t said sorry for accepting all the lies that came from the church, from the police, from the government. We haven’t said sorry for not changing a culture that allowed the church, the police, the government to rape and brutalise our children.

We need to say sorry to our children that we allowed to be raped and brutalised by the church, the police, the government.
We need to say sorry to our children for not questioning a society that allowed them to be raped and brutalised.
We need to say sorry to our children.
We should say sorry.

We need to change a culture that allows the church, the police, the government to rape and brutalise our children.
We need to put on trial the church, the police, the government for raping and brutalising our children.
We need to condemn the church, the police, the government for raping and brutalising our children.

We need to exclude the church from our orphanages.
We need to exclude the church from our hospitals.
We need to exclude the church from our schools.
We need to exclude the church from our lives.
We need to change the government.
We need to change the police.
We need to change society.
We need a revolution.

 

Disobedience. Disobedience in the eyes of anyone who has read history is our original virtue, it is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.

Oscar Wilde

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