This week's column in The Kerryman newspaper.
Apologies for the late publication today.
Michael Commane
You would want to be living on another planet not to know prices are rising by the day across all sectors of society.
With the advent of winter the price of oil, gas and electricity is the hottest of topics.
Today a kWh of electricity costs approximately 36 cent, a short five years ago a unit of electricity cost 24 cent . Has your wage/salary risen by 64 per cent over the last five years? I doubt it, that is, unless you belong to the mega rich.
What’s to be done? Protest, revolt, change government? For me it’s democracy.
I’ve touched on this subject before but the more I see and experience waste in our society, the more I want to scream, STOP.
We live in a throw-away society there are no words accurate enough to explain what is going on. And it is everywhere; it’s in hospitals, the churches, across the civil service, in the legal profession, everywhere, and each one of us, individually, is also responsible for shocking waste.
In the last 12 months I have taken a flatscreen television and a reading lamp from a recycling facility; both in perfect working order. There is seldom a day I call there that I don’t pick up something of worth.
In my 59 years in the Dominican Order I have seen across the churches unbelievable waste of resources, indeed, unimaginable. At a whim, a priest decides to make changes to a church, priory or presbytery. I have seen bad shoddy jobs done, costing a fortune.
We have all heard of the €50 million Irish Rail has wasted on a failed signalling project.
The food that’s wasted in hospitals, schools, everywhere.
And each one of us can make a difference and see to it that we help stop this madness.
The Halloween binge is over. It is simply a terrible excuse for profligate waste. How can we complain about the price of everything and then spend hard-earned money on buying utter rubbish, indeed, some of it dangerous?
On Halloween night Dublin Fire Brigade dealt with 1,620 calls. What a waste of money.
I well know a child cannot feel the odd person out but it is our responsibility that money is not wasted on plastic rubbish that will take thousands of years to breakdown. It’s driven by parents and business who want to outdo their neighbour with even more bizarre and idiotic junk, and make money too.
Last week I saw a plastic headstone with RIP written on it outside a home, what does that mean to a six-year-old child? And it’s a nonsense that straddles all classes.
Think of our food waste, the time we spend under the shower. Do you really need to drive your car everywhere you go? Think of the clothes we waste.
Check your electricity smart meter, make it your business to reduce the number of units you use.
We have got far too accustomed to waste, it’s a mindset with us now and we need to change it, not tomorrow, but today.
Wise words from Pope Francis: ‘Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry’.
Guess what, approximately 2.3 billion people lack regular access to adequate food.
Cut down on waste, start today.
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