The curtains have disappeared.
When Irish Rail introduced its new InterCity fleet on the Dublin Cork service, the Spanish built trains came with curtains on every window.
It seemed at the time to this blogger a terrible waste of money. Irish Rail PR personnel adamantly disagreed and pointed out the importance and value in the curtains.
The curtains are now gone and not a word from Irish Rail.
How much did it cost to fit out eight trains with curtains on every window?
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
An expensive bed time
We are living in unprecedented times. The economic situation is so bleak and unpredictable that what was said yesterday becomes irrelevant today. It’s as bad as that.`
There is little security in the world of labour and while there might be some divisions and differences between public and private sector, there are very few PAYE workers who are not greatly worried about the weeks, months and years ahead.
Employees have lost the security of their pensions and naturally scared about what lies ahead for them.
It was good to hear both the US Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, and Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke talk in the last few days about a ‘glimmer of hope’ on the horizon.
And we in Ireland seem to be at the bottom of the economic barrel. I find it difficult to listen to any sort of economic experts these days. It’s not that long ago since the present taoiseach reprimanded people for talking us into a recession. It’s far from a recession we are in right now.
Of course it is easy to scapegoat people. It’s easy to have hindsight. And maybe we are at present focusing all our anger on the bankers. Maybe the bankers were simply expressing the wishes and moods of the people. Those we pay to lead seem to have led us on a merry dance and certainly up the garden path. We’re the mutts.
Did you ever notice that if people ask cheeky or awkward questions they are considered ‘troublesome’, ‘people with chips on their shoulders’ or simply ‘angry’?
Anyone whoever stands up to authority gets a rough ride and authority always tries to win the day. Organisations and corporate entities are always stronger and have far more economic clout than the individual.
People who get to the top of corporations, organisations and institutions feel it incumbent on them to support and defend their outfit. In ways it is a comfortable massaging of egos. The organisation/institution makes its top people feel important and in turn the managers want to please their organisation.
I spent one night in hospital in January. It was a semi-private room. That meant two beds in the room. The food was mediocre and certainly not the healthiest. My time in the room was from approximately 15.00 on a Monday until 10.00 on Tuesday.
How much did the overnight accommodation cost? It cost €1,249.33. At least that is what it said on the charge and description details I received from mu health insurer. I happen to be fortunate enough to have a private health insurance, so I did not have to pay the bill.
There were other medical fees on top of that, which seemed high to my unskilled medical knowledge. But the price for the bed seemed so daft that I telephoned my health insurer. I was told it was part of the overall ‘package’. It was then a matter of telephoning the hospital.
The hospital tells me that €1,249.33 is a ‘package’ price agreed between them and the insurance company. They are unable to give me a breakdown of the sum paid and tell me to contact my medical insurance company. They do tell me that that price includes theatre time, equipment, etc.
I did find out that a one night’s accommodation in semi-private room in the hospital costs €305. And that includes breakfast! I still want to know what cost €944.33. That sum does not include doctors’ fees as they are separately detailed.
When I tried to ascertain from my medical insurer a breakdown of the ‘package’ I was told that was an ‘agreed package’ with the hospital.
That does not seem terribly transparent.
Another instance of how the individual person has little or no chance when it comes to the organisation or institution.
The way of the world.
There is little security in the world of labour and while there might be some divisions and differences between public and private sector, there are very few PAYE workers who are not greatly worried about the weeks, months and years ahead.
Employees have lost the security of their pensions and naturally scared about what lies ahead for them.
It was good to hear both the US Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, and Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke talk in the last few days about a ‘glimmer of hope’ on the horizon.
And we in Ireland seem to be at the bottom of the economic barrel. I find it difficult to listen to any sort of economic experts these days. It’s not that long ago since the present taoiseach reprimanded people for talking us into a recession. It’s far from a recession we are in right now.
Of course it is easy to scapegoat people. It’s easy to have hindsight. And maybe we are at present focusing all our anger on the bankers. Maybe the bankers were simply expressing the wishes and moods of the people. Those we pay to lead seem to have led us on a merry dance and certainly up the garden path. We’re the mutts.
Did you ever notice that if people ask cheeky or awkward questions they are considered ‘troublesome’, ‘people with chips on their shoulders’ or simply ‘angry’?
Anyone whoever stands up to authority gets a rough ride and authority always tries to win the day. Organisations and corporate entities are always stronger and have far more economic clout than the individual.
People who get to the top of corporations, organisations and institutions feel it incumbent on them to support and defend their outfit. In ways it is a comfortable massaging of egos. The organisation/institution makes its top people feel important and in turn the managers want to please their organisation.
I spent one night in hospital in January. It was a semi-private room. That meant two beds in the room. The food was mediocre and certainly not the healthiest. My time in the room was from approximately 15.00 on a Monday until 10.00 on Tuesday.
How much did the overnight accommodation cost? It cost €1,249.33. At least that is what it said on the charge and description details I received from mu health insurer. I happen to be fortunate enough to have a private health insurance, so I did not have to pay the bill.
There were other medical fees on top of that, which seemed high to my unskilled medical knowledge. But the price for the bed seemed so daft that I telephoned my health insurer. I was told it was part of the overall ‘package’. It was then a matter of telephoning the hospital.
The hospital tells me that €1,249.33 is a ‘package’ price agreed between them and the insurance company. They are unable to give me a breakdown of the sum paid and tell me to contact my medical insurance company. They do tell me that that price includes theatre time, equipment, etc.
I did find out that a one night’s accommodation in semi-private room in the hospital costs €305. And that includes breakfast! I still want to know what cost €944.33. That sum does not include doctors’ fees as they are separately detailed.
When I tried to ascertain from my medical insurer a breakdown of the ‘package’ I was told that was an ‘agreed package’ with the hospital.
That does not seem terribly transparent.
Another instance of how the individual person has little or no chance when it comes to the organisation or institution.
The way of the world.
Death of the past participle
Anne Marie Houriihane wrote in Monday's Irish Times,
‘He has showed us up – quivering, self-conscious girlies that we are. Casby got us all, with one satiric touch.’
Noel Whelan in Saturday's Irish Times wrote, ‘ … it should not have went out…..’
RTE’s Paul Reynolds is constantly using the wrong form of the past participle.
Is the past participle dying a death?
‘He has showed us up – quivering, self-conscious girlies that we are. Casby got us all, with one satiric touch.’
Noel Whelan in Saturday's Irish Times wrote, ‘ … it should not have went out…..’
RTE’s Paul Reynolds is constantly using the wrong form of the past participle.
Is the past participle dying a death?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Whether or not upper case letter
When does a noun have an upper case first letter? Is there a rule on the issue? There was a time when school children learned that all proper nouns began with an upper case letter and that was the end of the story. On this issue German is clear - all nouns begin with an upper case letter.
In English it's clear, 'Dublin', 'Mary', 'Ryanair' begin with an upper case letter. And of course the first letter at the beginning of a sentence and the pronoun 'I' are always upper case.
So why do people spell 'century' or 'anniversary' with an upper case? If people spell 'plumber' with a lower case then why spell 'doctor' with an upper case?
It seems in English some sort of ideological influence plays a role in what we do. If 'teacher' is lower case, surely then 'priest', 'pope' and 'cardinal' should also be lower case. Should 'Gospel' be upper case? It would seem so as it is a proper noun. So what should 'church' be? There is a school that says 'church' referring to the physical building is lower case but the institution is upper case. But again that has an ideological bias.
What does it say about the mind-set that spells 'church', 'pope' and 'council' with upper case and 'gospel' with lower case? Or those who spell 'laity' lower case and 'priesthood' upper case?
When is 'state' upper-cased and lower-cased?
See the large Green Party ad around Dublin these days with 'thousands' incorrectly spelt?
Language can be great fun.
In English it's clear, 'Dublin', 'Mary', 'Ryanair' begin with an upper case letter. And of course the first letter at the beginning of a sentence and the pronoun 'I' are always upper case.
So why do people spell 'century' or 'anniversary' with an upper case? If people spell 'plumber' with a lower case then why spell 'doctor' with an upper case?
It seems in English some sort of ideological influence plays a role in what we do. If 'teacher' is lower case, surely then 'priest', 'pope' and 'cardinal' should also be lower case. Should 'Gospel' be upper case? It would seem so as it is a proper noun. So what should 'church' be? There is a school that says 'church' referring to the physical building is lower case but the institution is upper case. But again that has an ideological bias.
What does it say about the mind-set that spells 'church', 'pope' and 'council' with upper case and 'gospel' with lower case? Or those who spell 'laity' lower case and 'priesthood' upper case?
When is 'state' upper-cased and lower-cased?
See the large Green Party ad around Dublin these days with 'thousands' incorrectly spelt?
Language can be great fun.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The Krupp dynasty
German television ZDF are currently showing a programme on the Krupp family.
The final part of the trilogy is on Wednesday evening.
It is a truly fascinating story of a family empire that almost lasted 400 years.
Alfred Krupp was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to prison. His only son, Arndt, had no interest in the business and died at a young age.
Today the company is part of the Krupp Thyssen group and the family is no longer involved in the company.
The family home in Essen, Villa Hugel, is now under public ownership
Barriers at Heuston Station
The letter below appeared in Thursday, March 19 issue of The Guardian newspaper.
Irish Rail is at present in the process of installng these barriers at Heuston Station.
German Rail is clearly Europe's leading railway company and these barriers are at no mainline station on the German network. The now defunct DR, the railway comapny of the former GDR, had similar barriers at Berlin. The railway company was clapped out as were its barriers!
Why is it that Irish Rail so often takes as its template so many practices and systems from the UK railway infrastructure?
How will the barriers handle passes, yearly, monthly free, etc?
And the government's weapon of choice is the 'automatic' ticket barrier, backed by a mythology about the extent and nature of uncollected revenue, and a misplaced belief in their effectiveness at addressing it. As a consultant with a long experience of this subject I know the '5% of revenue' reported has no basis in reliable statistical fact, while this equipment, designed for the underground, is not adequately supported by the ticketing technology. Outside the London commuter area it struggles to function properly; try the gates in Leeds or Manchester and any ticket will do. As for the alleged public support, ask the people of Sheffield or York, where there are vigorous campaigns opposing their installation, or anyone stressed by unfamiliarity with the system or encumbered by luggage.
Richard Malins,
London.
Irish Rail is at present in the process of installng these barriers at Heuston Station.
German Rail is clearly Europe's leading railway company and these barriers are at no mainline station on the German network. The now defunct DR, the railway comapny of the former GDR, had similar barriers at Berlin. The railway company was clapped out as were its barriers!
Why is it that Irish Rail so often takes as its template so many practices and systems from the UK railway infrastructure?
How will the barriers handle passes, yearly, monthly free, etc?
Ticket barrier myth
So a subsidised crackdown on fare evasion is to be the sole salvation offered to train companies stretched to meet franchise commitments (Report, 16 March).And the government's weapon of choice is the 'automatic' ticket barrier, backed by a mythology about the extent and nature of uncollected revenue, and a misplaced belief in their effectiveness at addressing it. As a consultant with a long experience of this subject I know the '5% of revenue' reported has no basis in reliable statistical fact, while this equipment, designed for the underground, is not adequately supported by the ticketing technology. Outside the London commuter area it struggles to function properly; try the gates in Leeds or Manchester and any ticket will do. As for the alleged public support, ask the people of Sheffield or York, where there are vigorous campaigns opposing their installation, or anyone stressed by unfamiliarity with the system or encumbered by luggage.
Richard Malins,
London.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
'How did we become what we became'
Christa Wolf was 80 on March 18.
She grew up in the 1930s in Landsberg a.d. Warthe, today the Polish town of Gorzów Wielkoplski.
Wolf was an 'accepted' author in the GDR and on the collapse of the East German state argured for the retention of a state with a separate identity to the Federal Republic.
In the early 1980s she was a symbol, a flag-bearer for an alternative 'life-style' to that offered by the SED.
She shows similarities with 'Dreyman' in the film 'The Lives of Others'.
The text below is downloaded from today's ARD web page.
Schreiben, Politik und Familie"
"Schreiben, Politik und Familie" seien die "Ordnungslinien" ihres Lebens, heißt es im Vorwort zu einer "Biographie in Texten und Bildern" (2004). In ihrem Leben spiegelten sich "die Auseinandersetzungen und historischen Kalamitäten der geteilten Welt nach der Jahrhundertkatastrophe des Faschismus". Christa Wolf wird darin auch wegen ihrer "moralischen Autorität als bedeutendste deutschsprachige Prosa-Autorin der Gegenwart" gelobt. Doch mit Moral und Autorität sammelte sie ihre eigenen Erfahrungen, was die Sache etwas komplizierter macht.
"Ich habe erfahren, dass es nicht immer möglich ist, zugleich 'moralisch' und menschlich zu handeln; als ich das merkte, war mir klar, dass ich in einer Klemme saß, aus der ich nicht unangefochten herauskommen würde. Und dass ich doch nichts anderes tun konnte." So schreibt Christa Wolf nach der Biermann-Ausbürgerung 1976 an Günter Grass. Sie kann nichts anderes tun, als zu versuchen, sich schreibend aus der Klemme zu befreien. Persönliche Erschütterungen oder aufkommendes Misstrauen gegen die eigene Erinnerung waren und bleiben für sie der Anlass für Erzählungen und Romane wie "Christa T." (1968), "Kindheitsmuster" (1976), "Kassandra" (1983) oder "Leibhaftig" (2002).
Die Anfänge
Ihre Diplomarbeit - "Probleme des Realismus im Werk Hans Falladas." -, die sie auf einer geliehenen Schreibmaschine für Hans Mayer in Leipzig tippt, scheint wie ein Vorgriff auf kommende Auseinandersetzungen um die "richtige Weltsicht". Doch zunächst scheint alles bestens zu verlaufen. Christa Wolf arbeitet beim Schriftstellerverband, dann als Cheflektorin beim Verlag "Neues Leben" in Berlin, schließlich beim Mitteldeutschen Verlag in Halle. 1961 findet ihre "Moskauer Novelle" große Beachtung.
"Der geteilte Himmel"
Mit ihrer Geschichte einer Liebe, die im Sommer 1961 an der Teilung Deutschlands scheitert, hat sie 1963 ihren Durchbruch: Für "Der geteilte Himmel" bekommt sie den Heinrich-Mann-Preis der Akademie der Künste – ein Jahr später schon wird der Roman verfilmt. Auch im Westen wird man jetzt auf die junge Frau aufmerksam, die sich trotz Mauerbaus zu den Idealen des Sozialismus bekennt und den "Bitterfelder Weg" befürwortet, der Autoren in die Betriebe schickt und Kumpel zur Feder greifen lässt, um Kunst und Leben, Hand- und Kopfarbeit zu versöhnen.
Das 11. Plenum 1965: "Unsere DDR ist ein sauberer Staat"
Scheinbar stärker als der Mauerbau wird das 11. SED-Plenum 1965, das eine restriktive Kulturpolitik einleitet, zum einschneidenden Erlebnis. Als Kandidatin des ZK der SED nimmt Christa Wolf daran teil. "Unsere DDR ist ein sauberer Staat", postuliert der 1. Sekretär des ZK der SED, Erich Honecker, in seiner Rede. Ein Exempel soll statuiert werden gegen "modernistische, "anarchistische" oder "nihilistische" Strömungen in Kunst, Literatur oder Film; gegen die "Verabsolutierung der Widersprüche" und die Anwendung des Begriffs "Entfremdung" auf die DDR-Verhältnisse wird zu Felde gezogen. Infolge werden zwölf Filme - darunter "Spur der Steine" - also ein ganzer DEFA-Jahrgang, verboten. Theaterstücke, Radio- und Fernsehsendungen werden abgesetzt, Bücher kommen nicht in Druck. Als Übeltäter werden namentlich Autoren wie Heiner Müller, Stefan Heym, Peter Hacks, Volker Braun oder Werner Bräunig genannt.
Als einzige widerspricht in diesem geschlossenen Funktionärszirkel Christa Wolf. Sie verteidigt Werner Bräunig. Der Autor, der 1959 noch den Aufruf zur 1. Bitterfelder Konferenz verfasste, nun aber mit seinem Wismut-Roman "Rummelplatz" wegen angeblicher Beleidigung der Werktätigen und der sowjetischen Partner auf so harsche Ablehnung stößt, dass er die Arbeit an dem Roman später abbricht. Christa Wolf mahnt auf dem Plenum, dass das "freie Verhältnis zum Stoff" nicht wieder verloren gehen dürfe, gleichzeitig bekennt sie sich zur DDR, nur dort wolle sie leben und schreiben. Doch ihre Rede, die überzeugen und wachrütteln soll, wird als Provokation aufgefasst. Gleichwohl wird sie durch ihr Auftreten zur Identifikationsfigur der Intellektuellen.
16. 11. 1976 - Zäsur in der DDR-Geschichte
"Nachdenken über Christa T." - Ein Fall für die Zensur
Mit "Nachdenken über Christa T." (1968) beginnt ihr Schreiben gegen die Zensur. Christa T., ehemalige Mitstudentin und zugleich alter ego der Erzählerin, hält die Spannung zwischen gesellschaftlichen Maßgaben und den eigenen Ansprüchen auf individuelle Entfaltung nicht mehr aus, sie meldet sich aus dem Leben ab, denn gebraucht werden nur "schräubchengleich funktionierende Tatsachenmenschen", sie wird krank und stirbt an Leukämie. In einem Selbst-Interview schreibt die Autorin zur Arbeit an Christa T.: "Später merkte ich, dass das Objekt meiner Erzählung gar nicht so eindeutig sie, Christa T., war oder blieb. Ich stand auf einmal mir selbst gegenüber." Das Buch wird ein Fall für die Zensur, denn es macht einer Gesellschaft den Prozess, die sich "die Entfaltung des Menschen zum Menschen" auf die Fahnen geschrieben hatte. Nach drei Gutachten wird im Mai 1968 entgegen der vermeintlichen "Gefahr ideologischer Desorientierung" doch noch eine Druckgenehmigung über 15.000 Exemplare erteilt, im Dezember nimmt man unter dem Eindruck des "Prager Frühlings" davon Abstand, schließlich erscheint im Frühjahr 1969 eine Auflage von nur 800 Exemplaren.
"Doppelleben"
1969, ein Jahr nach dem Einmarsch der Warschauer-Pakt-Truppen in die Tschechoslowakei schreibt Christa Wolf scheinbar resigniert an ihre Kollegin Brigitte Reimann: "Zu leben, und möglichst nicht gar zu sehr gegen den eigenen Strich zu leben, das heisst zu arbeiten und ein paar Leute daran teilhaben zu lassen, ist die einzige Art von Tapferkeit, die ich heute sehe." Und ihrem Tagebuch vertraut sie ihr "Doppelleben" an, "dass ich auf die äußeren Ereignisse, auf Worte, Nachrichten, mechanisch reagierte, dass aber in mir drin ein ganz anderes, tief verzweifeltes Leben abrollte".
"Wie sind wir so geworden, wie wir sind?"
"Wie sind wir so geworden, wie wir sind?" Um diese Frage zu klären, reist Christa Wolf 1972 in ihren polnischen Heimatort Landsberg a.d. Warthe, heute Gorzów Wielkoplski, in dem sie Anfang der 30er Jahre aufwuchs. Trocken, distanziert zeichnet sie ihren Erinnerungen dann im Roman "Kindheitsmuster" (1976) auf. Nelly heißt das Kind, das sie selbst gewesen ist. Es erinnert sich an die roten Geranien vor allen Fenstern, die blaugelb gestreiften Vorhänge des Kinderzimmers und den Kolonialwarenladen des Vaters mit Kathreiner-Malzkaffee und Knorrs Suppenwürsten. Es erinnert sich auch an die Schule, wo Rassentheorie zum Lehrplan gehörte wie Mathematik und Sport ... So stellt sie die im antifaschistischen Staat selten behandelte Frage: Wie funktionierte der ganz alltägliche Nazismus, der von "Mitläufern" getragen wurde? Christa Wolf findet sie in der eigenen Familie und untersucht die "Muster" der Anpassung.
Romantik und antike Mythen als "Fluchträume"
Tatsächlich zieht sich die Autorin nie ins bloß Private zurück. 1976 - im Jahr der Ausbürgerung Wolf Biermanns gehört Christa Wolf mit zu den Initiatoren des Protestes. Sie bleibt im Lande und verlässt es zugleich, indem sie ihre Stoffe in die fernere und fernste Vergangenheit verlagert. 1979 erscheint "Kein Ort. Nirgends". Die Handlung spielt 1804. Auf einer Festgesellschaft der Erfolgreichen und Etablierten treffen sich zwei Menschen, die nicht dazugehören: Der junge 24-jährige Schriftsteller Heinrich von Kleist, der nicht gegen die restaurativen Stimmung und das enge Preußen, in dessen Staatsdienst er sich befindet, ankommt, und Karoline von Günderode, für die eine freie schriftstellerische Arbeit als Frau aus gutem Hauses sowieso undenkbar ist. Dazu bemerkte die Autorin, dass sie sich durch die Biermann-Ausbürgerung dazu veranlasst sah, den "Zusammenhang von gesellschaftlicher Verzweiflung und Scheitern in der Literatur" zu untersuchen. "Ich mußte über eine Zeit hinwegkommen, in der es absolut keine Wirkungsmöglichkeit mehr zu geben schien." 1983 folgt "Kassandra", sie geht nun bis in die Antike zurück. Den Mythos von der trojanischen Seherin greift sie auf, weil sie darin eine der ersten Frauengestalten sieht, die durchlebt, was dann Jahrhunderte lang Schicksal der Frauen sein wird: in einer patriarchalen und kriegerischen Welt zum Objekt gemacht zu werden. Kassandra lässt sie sagen: "Ich will Zeugin bleiben, auch wenn es keinen einzigen Menschen mehr gibt, der mir mein Zeugnis abverlangt."
Wolf als "gesamtdeutsche Autorin"
Die Kritik bescheinigt ihr, mit "Kassandra" zur gesamtdeutschen Autorin geworden zu sein. Die Erzählung wurde auch ihr größter internationaler Erfolg, was sicher mit dem Anfang der 80er Jahre besonders brennenden Thema "Frauen" und "Frieden" zu tun hatte. 1987 thematisiert sie in "Störfall" die Reaktorkatastrophe von Tschernobyl, die in den DDR-Medien weitgehend verharmlost wird.
Unter Beschuss als "domestizierte Opponentin"
Mit der Wende beginnt der Stern der Autorin zu sinken. Nachdem sie im Juni 1989 aus der SED ausgetreten ist, mischt sie sich mit Reden, offenen Briefen und Lesungen immer wieder in die aktuellen politischen Geschehnisse ein. Am 28. November 1989 gehörte sie mit Stefan Heym, Volker Braun und Friedrich Schorlemmer zu den Erstunterzeichnern des "Aufrufs für unser Land", der sich für die Weiterexistenz einer eigenständigen DDR und gegen die Vereinnahmung durch die Bundesrepublik einsetzte. Doch wird sie daraufhin in den Medien als "domestizierte Opponentin" des SED-Staates angegriffen, als Verbündete des Systems. Die Schriftstellerin zieht sich von der Tagespolitik zurück. 1990 erscheint der schmalen Erzählband "Was bleibt", Reflexionen der Erzählerin, die sich von der Stasi observiert sieht. Das Bändchen zieht einen Literaturstreit nach sich. Reißerisch wird sie als "Heuchlerin" und "Staatsdichterin" abgekanzelt. Sie steht stellvertretend für die in der DDR gebliebenen Künstler und Wissenschaftler.
"GI Margarete" und OV "Doppelzüngler"
Als sie sich 1993 als Stipendiatin des Getty Centers im kalifornischen Santa Monica aufhält, wird ihre IM-Tätigkeit von März 1959 bis Oktober 1962 publik. Sie sieht sich einer regelrechten "Dampfwalze von Vorwürfen" gegenüber, die jegliche vernünftige Auseinandersetzung in der Öffentlichkeit verhindert – stand sie selber doch seit 1969 bis zum 11. Oktober 1989 unter Observation der Stasi, die "GI Margarete" 1960 bescheinigt, "sehr gern über ideologische Fragen unserer Literatur" zu diskutieren, aber nicht die "erforderliche Liebe zu unseren Aufgaben" aufzubringen. Nach dem Eklat auf dem 11. Plenum und "Nachdenken über Christa T" wird sie der "anderen Seite" zugerechnet, 1969 schließlich der Operative Vorgang "Doppelzüngler" gegen sie und ihren Mann Gerhard Wolf angelegt, der zum Ende der DDR 41 Bände umfasst.
"Leibhaftiger" Abschied von der DDR?
Das Schreiben bleibt ihr Mittel zur Befragung der eigenen Positionen und Biografie. 1999 erscheint eine Sammlung ihrer in den letzten Jahren vereinzelt veröffentlichten Reden, Aufsätze und Erzählungen unter dem Titel "Hierzulande, Andernorts". Im zehnten Jahr nach dem Mauerfall und dem Scheitern "ihres" Staates erklärt Christa Wolf die Trauerarbeit für beendet, geblieben sei "etwas wie ein Phantomschmerz". 2002 meldet sich die Autorin mit der Erzählung "Leibhaftig" zurück. Unter Verwendung autobiografischen Materials erzählt Christa Wolf den Alptraum eines Krankenhaus-Aufenthalts in der Endzeit der DDR. Eine namenlos bleibende Patientin gerät an den Rand des Todes, ihr Körper wird zum Seismographen eines allgemeinen Zusammenbruchs. 34 Jahre nach "Christa T." knüpft Wolf damit wieder an ein altes Sujet an: Der kranke Körper wird zum Austragungsort für ungelöste Konflikte. In "Christa T." führen sie die Protagonistin in den Tod, in "Leibhaftig" therapiert die Kranke sich selbst und befreit sich von den letzten Illusionen. Die Kritik urteilt, mit dieser Erzählung nehme die Autorin endgültig Abschied von der DDR. Und noch ein Rückblick: 40 Jahre lang protokollierte Christa Wolf einen Tag im Jahr: den 27. September. Ein sehr persönliches und dennoch politisches Zeitzeugnis entstand, das 2003 erschien ("Ein Tag im Jahr").
Günter Grass überreicht Christa Wolf 2002 den Deutschen Bücherpreis fürs Lebenswerk.
"Ich lebe gerne."
Der biographische Band, der zu ihrem 75. Geburtstag vor fünf Jahren erschien, dokumentiert in Texten und Bildern das private Glück mit Freunden und Familie in Berlin und im geliebten Landhaus im Mecklenburgischen, aber auch die offiziellen Auftritte der Autorin, die immer nachdenklicher dreinzuschauen scheint und dennoch weiter auf die "Zähigkeit von Hoffnung" setzt, weshalb sie am Ende kein verbittertes Fazit zieht: "Ich lebe gerne."
She grew up in the 1930s in Landsberg a.d. Warthe, today the Polish town of Gorzów Wielkoplski.
Wolf was an 'accepted' author in the GDR and on the collapse of the East German state argured for the retention of a state with a separate identity to the Federal Republic.
In the early 1980s she was a symbol, a flag-bearer for an alternative 'life-style' to that offered by the SED.
She shows similarities with 'Dreyman' in the film 'The Lives of Others'.
The text below is downloaded from today's ARD web page.
Schreiben, Politik und Familie"
"Schreiben, Politik und Familie" seien die "Ordnungslinien" ihres Lebens, heißt es im Vorwort zu einer "Biographie in Texten und Bildern" (2004). In ihrem Leben spiegelten sich "die Auseinandersetzungen und historischen Kalamitäten der geteilten Welt nach der Jahrhundertkatastrophe des Faschismus". Christa Wolf wird darin auch wegen ihrer "moralischen Autorität als bedeutendste deutschsprachige Prosa-Autorin der Gegenwart" gelobt. Doch mit Moral und Autorität sammelte sie ihre eigenen Erfahrungen, was die Sache etwas komplizierter macht.
"Ich habe erfahren, dass es nicht immer möglich ist, zugleich 'moralisch' und menschlich zu handeln; als ich das merkte, war mir klar, dass ich in einer Klemme saß, aus der ich nicht unangefochten herauskommen würde. Und dass ich doch nichts anderes tun konnte." So schreibt Christa Wolf nach der Biermann-Ausbürgerung 1976 an Günter Grass. Sie kann nichts anderes tun, als zu versuchen, sich schreibend aus der Klemme zu befreien. Persönliche Erschütterungen oder aufkommendes Misstrauen gegen die eigene Erinnerung waren und bleiben für sie der Anlass für Erzählungen und Romane wie "Christa T." (1968), "Kindheitsmuster" (1976), "Kassandra" (1983) oder "Leibhaftig" (2002).
Die Anfänge
Ihre Diplomarbeit - "Probleme des Realismus im Werk Hans Falladas." -, die sie auf einer geliehenen Schreibmaschine für Hans Mayer in Leipzig tippt, scheint wie ein Vorgriff auf kommende Auseinandersetzungen um die "richtige Weltsicht". Doch zunächst scheint alles bestens zu verlaufen. Christa Wolf arbeitet beim Schriftstellerverband, dann als Cheflektorin beim Verlag "Neues Leben" in Berlin, schließlich beim Mitteldeutschen Verlag in Halle. 1961 findet ihre "Moskauer Novelle" große Beachtung.
"Der geteilte Himmel"
Mit ihrer Geschichte einer Liebe, die im Sommer 1961 an der Teilung Deutschlands scheitert, hat sie 1963 ihren Durchbruch: Für "Der geteilte Himmel" bekommt sie den Heinrich-Mann-Preis der Akademie der Künste – ein Jahr später schon wird der Roman verfilmt. Auch im Westen wird man jetzt auf die junge Frau aufmerksam, die sich trotz Mauerbaus zu den Idealen des Sozialismus bekennt und den "Bitterfelder Weg" befürwortet, der Autoren in die Betriebe schickt und Kumpel zur Feder greifen lässt, um Kunst und Leben, Hand- und Kopfarbeit zu versöhnen.
Das 11. Plenum 1965: "Unsere DDR ist ein sauberer Staat"
Scheinbar stärker als der Mauerbau wird das 11. SED-Plenum 1965, das eine restriktive Kulturpolitik einleitet, zum einschneidenden Erlebnis. Als Kandidatin des ZK der SED nimmt Christa Wolf daran teil. "Unsere DDR ist ein sauberer Staat", postuliert der 1. Sekretär des ZK der SED, Erich Honecker, in seiner Rede. Ein Exempel soll statuiert werden gegen "modernistische, "anarchistische" oder "nihilistische" Strömungen in Kunst, Literatur oder Film; gegen die "Verabsolutierung der Widersprüche" und die Anwendung des Begriffs "Entfremdung" auf die DDR-Verhältnisse wird zu Felde gezogen. Infolge werden zwölf Filme - darunter "Spur der Steine" - also ein ganzer DEFA-Jahrgang, verboten. Theaterstücke, Radio- und Fernsehsendungen werden abgesetzt, Bücher kommen nicht in Druck. Als Übeltäter werden namentlich Autoren wie Heiner Müller, Stefan Heym, Peter Hacks, Volker Braun oder Werner Bräunig genannt.
Als einzige widerspricht in diesem geschlossenen Funktionärszirkel Christa Wolf. Sie verteidigt Werner Bräunig. Der Autor, der 1959 noch den Aufruf zur 1. Bitterfelder Konferenz verfasste, nun aber mit seinem Wismut-Roman "Rummelplatz" wegen angeblicher Beleidigung der Werktätigen und der sowjetischen Partner auf so harsche Ablehnung stößt, dass er die Arbeit an dem Roman später abbricht. Christa Wolf mahnt auf dem Plenum, dass das "freie Verhältnis zum Stoff" nicht wieder verloren gehen dürfe, gleichzeitig bekennt sie sich zur DDR, nur dort wolle sie leben und schreiben. Doch ihre Rede, die überzeugen und wachrütteln soll, wird als Provokation aufgefasst. Gleichwohl wird sie durch ihr Auftreten zur Identifikationsfigur der Intellektuellen.
16. 11. 1976 - Zäsur in der DDR-Geschichte
"Nachdenken über Christa T." - Ein Fall für die Zensur
Mit "Nachdenken über Christa T." (1968) beginnt ihr Schreiben gegen die Zensur. Christa T., ehemalige Mitstudentin und zugleich alter ego der Erzählerin, hält die Spannung zwischen gesellschaftlichen Maßgaben und den eigenen Ansprüchen auf individuelle Entfaltung nicht mehr aus, sie meldet sich aus dem Leben ab, denn gebraucht werden nur "schräubchengleich funktionierende Tatsachenmenschen", sie wird krank und stirbt an Leukämie. In einem Selbst-Interview schreibt die Autorin zur Arbeit an Christa T.: "Später merkte ich, dass das Objekt meiner Erzählung gar nicht so eindeutig sie, Christa T., war oder blieb. Ich stand auf einmal mir selbst gegenüber." Das Buch wird ein Fall für die Zensur, denn es macht einer Gesellschaft den Prozess, die sich "die Entfaltung des Menschen zum Menschen" auf die Fahnen geschrieben hatte. Nach drei Gutachten wird im Mai 1968 entgegen der vermeintlichen "Gefahr ideologischer Desorientierung" doch noch eine Druckgenehmigung über 15.000 Exemplare erteilt, im Dezember nimmt man unter dem Eindruck des "Prager Frühlings" davon Abstand, schließlich erscheint im Frühjahr 1969 eine Auflage von nur 800 Exemplaren.
"Doppelleben"
1969, ein Jahr nach dem Einmarsch der Warschauer-Pakt-Truppen in die Tschechoslowakei schreibt Christa Wolf scheinbar resigniert an ihre Kollegin Brigitte Reimann: "Zu leben, und möglichst nicht gar zu sehr gegen den eigenen Strich zu leben, das heisst zu arbeiten und ein paar Leute daran teilhaben zu lassen, ist die einzige Art von Tapferkeit, die ich heute sehe." Und ihrem Tagebuch vertraut sie ihr "Doppelleben" an, "dass ich auf die äußeren Ereignisse, auf Worte, Nachrichten, mechanisch reagierte, dass aber in mir drin ein ganz anderes, tief verzweifeltes Leben abrollte".
"Wie sind wir so geworden, wie wir sind?"
"Wie sind wir so geworden, wie wir sind?" Um diese Frage zu klären, reist Christa Wolf 1972 in ihren polnischen Heimatort Landsberg a.d. Warthe, heute Gorzów Wielkoplski, in dem sie Anfang der 30er Jahre aufwuchs. Trocken, distanziert zeichnet sie ihren Erinnerungen dann im Roman "Kindheitsmuster" (1976) auf. Nelly heißt das Kind, das sie selbst gewesen ist. Es erinnert sich an die roten Geranien vor allen Fenstern, die blaugelb gestreiften Vorhänge des Kinderzimmers und den Kolonialwarenladen des Vaters mit Kathreiner-Malzkaffee und Knorrs Suppenwürsten. Es erinnert sich auch an die Schule, wo Rassentheorie zum Lehrplan gehörte wie Mathematik und Sport ... So stellt sie die im antifaschistischen Staat selten behandelte Frage: Wie funktionierte der ganz alltägliche Nazismus, der von "Mitläufern" getragen wurde? Christa Wolf findet sie in der eigenen Familie und untersucht die "Muster" der Anpassung.
Romantik und antike Mythen als "Fluchträume"
Tatsächlich zieht sich die Autorin nie ins bloß Private zurück. 1976 - im Jahr der Ausbürgerung Wolf Biermanns gehört Christa Wolf mit zu den Initiatoren des Protestes. Sie bleibt im Lande und verlässt es zugleich, indem sie ihre Stoffe in die fernere und fernste Vergangenheit verlagert. 1979 erscheint "Kein Ort. Nirgends". Die Handlung spielt 1804. Auf einer Festgesellschaft der Erfolgreichen und Etablierten treffen sich zwei Menschen, die nicht dazugehören: Der junge 24-jährige Schriftsteller Heinrich von Kleist, der nicht gegen die restaurativen Stimmung und das enge Preußen, in dessen Staatsdienst er sich befindet, ankommt, und Karoline von Günderode, für die eine freie schriftstellerische Arbeit als Frau aus gutem Hauses sowieso undenkbar ist. Dazu bemerkte die Autorin, dass sie sich durch die Biermann-Ausbürgerung dazu veranlasst sah, den "Zusammenhang von gesellschaftlicher Verzweiflung und Scheitern in der Literatur" zu untersuchen. "Ich mußte über eine Zeit hinwegkommen, in der es absolut keine Wirkungsmöglichkeit mehr zu geben schien." 1983 folgt "Kassandra", sie geht nun bis in die Antike zurück. Den Mythos von der trojanischen Seherin greift sie auf, weil sie darin eine der ersten Frauengestalten sieht, die durchlebt, was dann Jahrhunderte lang Schicksal der Frauen sein wird: in einer patriarchalen und kriegerischen Welt zum Objekt gemacht zu werden. Kassandra lässt sie sagen: "Ich will Zeugin bleiben, auch wenn es keinen einzigen Menschen mehr gibt, der mir mein Zeugnis abverlangt."
Wolf als "gesamtdeutsche Autorin"
Die Kritik bescheinigt ihr, mit "Kassandra" zur gesamtdeutschen Autorin geworden zu sein. Die Erzählung wurde auch ihr größter internationaler Erfolg, was sicher mit dem Anfang der 80er Jahre besonders brennenden Thema "Frauen" und "Frieden" zu tun hatte. 1987 thematisiert sie in "Störfall" die Reaktorkatastrophe von Tschernobyl, die in den DDR-Medien weitgehend verharmlost wird.
Unter Beschuss als "domestizierte Opponentin"
Mit der Wende beginnt der Stern der Autorin zu sinken. Nachdem sie im Juni 1989 aus der SED ausgetreten ist, mischt sie sich mit Reden, offenen Briefen und Lesungen immer wieder in die aktuellen politischen Geschehnisse ein. Am 28. November 1989 gehörte sie mit Stefan Heym, Volker Braun und Friedrich Schorlemmer zu den Erstunterzeichnern des "Aufrufs für unser Land", der sich für die Weiterexistenz einer eigenständigen DDR und gegen die Vereinnahmung durch die Bundesrepublik einsetzte. Doch wird sie daraufhin in den Medien als "domestizierte Opponentin" des SED-Staates angegriffen, als Verbündete des Systems. Die Schriftstellerin zieht sich von der Tagespolitik zurück. 1990 erscheint der schmalen Erzählband "Was bleibt", Reflexionen der Erzählerin, die sich von der Stasi observiert sieht. Das Bändchen zieht einen Literaturstreit nach sich. Reißerisch wird sie als "Heuchlerin" und "Staatsdichterin" abgekanzelt. Sie steht stellvertretend für die in der DDR gebliebenen Künstler und Wissenschaftler.
"GI Margarete" und OV "Doppelzüngler"
Als sie sich 1993 als Stipendiatin des Getty Centers im kalifornischen Santa Monica aufhält, wird ihre IM-Tätigkeit von März 1959 bis Oktober 1962 publik. Sie sieht sich einer regelrechten "Dampfwalze von Vorwürfen" gegenüber, die jegliche vernünftige Auseinandersetzung in der Öffentlichkeit verhindert – stand sie selber doch seit 1969 bis zum 11. Oktober 1989 unter Observation der Stasi, die "GI Margarete" 1960 bescheinigt, "sehr gern über ideologische Fragen unserer Literatur" zu diskutieren, aber nicht die "erforderliche Liebe zu unseren Aufgaben" aufzubringen. Nach dem Eklat auf dem 11. Plenum und "Nachdenken über Christa T" wird sie der "anderen Seite" zugerechnet, 1969 schließlich der Operative Vorgang "Doppelzüngler" gegen sie und ihren Mann Gerhard Wolf angelegt, der zum Ende der DDR 41 Bände umfasst.
"Leibhaftiger" Abschied von der DDR?
Das Schreiben bleibt ihr Mittel zur Befragung der eigenen Positionen und Biografie. 1999 erscheint eine Sammlung ihrer in den letzten Jahren vereinzelt veröffentlichten Reden, Aufsätze und Erzählungen unter dem Titel "Hierzulande, Andernorts". Im zehnten Jahr nach dem Mauerfall und dem Scheitern "ihres" Staates erklärt Christa Wolf die Trauerarbeit für beendet, geblieben sei "etwas wie ein Phantomschmerz". 2002 meldet sich die Autorin mit der Erzählung "Leibhaftig" zurück. Unter Verwendung autobiografischen Materials erzählt Christa Wolf den Alptraum eines Krankenhaus-Aufenthalts in der Endzeit der DDR. Eine namenlos bleibende Patientin gerät an den Rand des Todes, ihr Körper wird zum Seismographen eines allgemeinen Zusammenbruchs. 34 Jahre nach "Christa T." knüpft Wolf damit wieder an ein altes Sujet an: Der kranke Körper wird zum Austragungsort für ungelöste Konflikte. In "Christa T." führen sie die Protagonistin in den Tod, in "Leibhaftig" therapiert die Kranke sich selbst und befreit sich von den letzten Illusionen. Die Kritik urteilt, mit dieser Erzählung nehme die Autorin endgültig Abschied von der DDR. Und noch ein Rückblick: 40 Jahre lang protokollierte Christa Wolf einen Tag im Jahr: den 27. September. Ein sehr persönliches und dennoch politisches Zeitzeugnis entstand, das 2003 erschien ("Ein Tag im Jahr").
Günter Grass überreicht Christa Wolf 2002 den Deutschen Bücherpreis fürs Lebenswerk.
"Ich lebe gerne."
Der biographische Band, der zu ihrem 75. Geburtstag vor fünf Jahren erschien, dokumentiert in Texten und Bildern das private Glück mit Freunden und Familie in Berlin und im geliebten Landhaus im Mecklenburgischen, aber auch die offiziellen Auftritte der Autorin, die immer nachdenklicher dreinzuschauen scheint und dennoch weiter auf die "Zähigkeit von Hoffnung" setzt, weshalb sie am Ende kein verbittertes Fazit zieht: "Ich lebe gerne."
The Gospel does have a good story to tell
The Christian message has amazing and great stories to tell; news that really can inspire and transform.
This week Pope Benedict talks about condoms in Africa and a South American cardinal is in the news re abortion and excommunication.
How and why is it that the church is constantly so sure of itself when it comes to pronouncing on matters dealing with sexuality. And that same church loudly admits that it was not aware of the gravity of the harm that has been done to the victims of clerical child sex abuse.
The behaviour of the Vatican in the most recent legal case in the US is not in anyway edifying.
What is it about the church and sex?
Whether Pope Benedict likes it or not, the world's media will now concentrate on his 'condom' remark. And that's a pity when the man is telling the good news in poverty stricken Africa.
This week Pope Benedict talks about condoms in Africa and a South American cardinal is in the news re abortion and excommunication.
How and why is it that the church is constantly so sure of itself when it comes to pronouncing on matters dealing with sexuality. And that same church loudly admits that it was not aware of the gravity of the harm that has been done to the victims of clerical child sex abuse.
The behaviour of the Vatican in the most recent legal case in the US is not in anyway edifying.
What is it about the church and sex?
Whether Pope Benedict likes it or not, the world's media will now concentrate on his 'condom' remark. And that's a pity when the man is telling the good news in poverty stricken Africa.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
All in a day's work
Anyone ever wonder the daily flying hours of a short haul passenger jet?
It seems the Ryanair Boeing based in Kerry has the following daily workload.
Kerry Dublin, Dublin Kerry, Kerry Hahn, Hahn Kerry, Kerry Dublin, Dublin Kerry, Kerry Stansted, Stansted Kerry, Kerry Dublin, Dublin Kerry.
Maybe the plane is swapped at Stansted, Hahn or Dublin, but it seems unlikely.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Reaction of post primary students
On Monday at the beginning of a transition year and fifth year religion class I asked the students before blessing themselves to pray for the two soldiers who had been killed in Antrim the previous day.
The pupils are between 16 and 18, which means they have no lived experience about the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland.
Twenty years ago in a similar situation there quite probably might be someone in the class, for whatever reason, who would attempt to make some comment about 'striking a blow' for Irish freedom.
Last Monday there was nothing but unanimous sadness for the two soldiers who had been killed. It was also discernible that the young people in the two classes were not in any way interested in political events in Northern Ireland. It is not an issue for them, no more than what goes on in the council rooms of Kerry County Council. Again, 20 years ago it would have been different.
The three murders this week are a stark reminder to us of the terrible past but we are also forced to realise what has been accomplished and what it actually means to live in peace.
The pupils are between 16 and 18, which means they have no lived experience about the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland.
Twenty years ago in a similar situation there quite probably might be someone in the class, for whatever reason, who would attempt to make some comment about 'striking a blow' for Irish freedom.
Last Monday there was nothing but unanimous sadness for the two soldiers who had been killed. It was also discernible that the young people in the two classes were not in any way interested in political events in Northern Ireland. It is not an issue for them, no more than what goes on in the council rooms of Kerry County Council. Again, 20 years ago it would have been different.
The three murders this week are a stark reminder to us of the terrible past but we are also forced to realise what has been accomplished and what it actually means to live in peace.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Archbishop Dermot Clifford steps over into Cloyne to help Bishop John Magee
Late last week it was announced that Bishop John Magee would not be confirming children in his diocese. The reason given by church authorities was that he was a busy man dealing with all the paper work involved in the current child sex abuse cases in his diocese.
Rumour on the ground is that the parents of some children due for Confirmation made it known to church authorities that they did not want their children confirmed by Bishop John Magee.
Then at the weekend it was announced that Archbishop Dermot Clifford had been appointed apostolic administrator of the diocese of Cloyne.
Why has this action been taken now? Just some few weeks ago Bishop Magee received the support of three archbishops and many bishops in Ireland. Do these same men now support and approve the most recent action?
Bewildering actions in a bewildering time by bewildering and maybe even bewildered people.
Is it possible to discern the workings of the Spirit in all this obfuscation?
Truth, transparency, openness, faith?
Power, control, fear, clericalism?
Can church figures not understand the importance of admitting guilt and asking for forgiveness?
There has to be something ironic about all this spinning and obfuscation.
Theory and practice.
Rumour on the ground is that the parents of some children due for Confirmation made it known to church authorities that they did not want their children confirmed by Bishop John Magee.
Then at the weekend it was announced that Archbishop Dermot Clifford had been appointed apostolic administrator of the diocese of Cloyne.
Why has this action been taken now? Just some few weeks ago Bishop Magee received the support of three archbishops and many bishops in Ireland. Do these same men now support and approve the most recent action?
Bewildering actions in a bewildering time by bewildering and maybe even bewildered people.
Is it possible to discern the workings of the Spirit in all this obfuscation?
Truth, transparency, openness, faith?
Power, control, fear, clericalism?
Can church figures not understand the importance of admitting guilt and asking for forgiveness?
There has to be something ironic about all this spinning and obfuscation.
Theory and practice.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Dominican websites
It may well be a problem of this blogger but it seems impossible to log on to the home page of the Irish Dominicans at present.
The home page of the Dominican Order has the following as an opening paragraph.
"Dominicans preach in churches and on the street, in universities and in mass media to the faithful as well as dissidents; we break open Scripture to different audiences and pursue works of justice and peace; we give retreats to nuns, visit the sick, console, listen, confess, forgive, and ultimately desire to go as far as need be to preach the Word of God to those who do not yet know it or need to hear it."
If you are a 'dissident' can you not be a member of the 'faithful'? It seems an odd idea. Obviously the word is being used in the narrower sense as opposed to the now more commonly accepted meaning of the word - someone who dissents from the opinion of the majority.
It seems difficult to navigate around the website of the Dominican Order.
The home page of the Dominican Order has the following as an opening paragraph.
"Dominicans preach in churches and on the street, in universities and in mass media to the faithful as well as dissidents; we break open Scripture to different audiences and pursue works of justice and peace; we give retreats to nuns, visit the sick, console, listen, confess, forgive, and ultimately desire to go as far as need be to preach the Word of God to those who do not yet know it or need to hear it."
If you are a 'dissident' can you not be a member of the 'faithful'? It seems an odd idea. Obviously the word is being used in the narrower sense as opposed to the now more commonly accepted meaning of the word - someone who dissents from the opinion of the majority.
It seems difficult to navigate around the website of the Dominican Order.
We're Irish they're German
Back in 1972 I visited Germany for the first time. I was on a two-month language course in Cologne. It was a different world from Ireland. Everything about it was different. Fresh rolls in the morning, sleek trains running on time, motorways that crisscrossed the country.
And then we got rolls, sleek trains and motorways.
But back then it was clear to see that there was 'something' behind the German economy. They made things. They made their own rolls, built their own trains and supplied all the steel for the bridges over and under their motorways, with correct median barriers to boot.
And their business people seldom gave the impression of being slick 'merchant princes'. They never seemed to be arrogant or full of their own importance.
The Germans have a tradition of treating their tradespeople with respect, their teachers too and their locomotive drivers.
The vast majority of their schools are state run and funded.
They have universal medical insurance. Universal medical care too.
You could say it is a secular state that tries to care for all its citizens. It avoids playing games with people and tries to tell the truth.
Take a look at what they have done in Dresden, Chemnitz and Weimar. And in Berlin too. All in 20 years.
Thirty-seven years later there still seem to be great differences between Germany and Ireland.
Will Irish managers, business people, politicians, who have brought us to where we are today pay the price for their lack of vision, arrogance and greed?
Oh and by the way, the Germans make their own sugar, glass and paper. They are doing it right now - producing and manufacturing. They were never stupid enough to believe that it made sense to close down sugar factories and glass factories and paper factories. And their managers never had the arrogance/stupidity/greed to tell them the cock and bull stories we were fed.
The article below appears in today's Irish Times.
BERLIN LETTER: GERMAN PUBLIC broadcaster ZDF treats its viewers on Sunday evenings to a bracing dose of time-warp television called Our Farm in Ireland .
It’s the story of Martin Winter, a German doctor and widower who moves to the fictional town of Ballymara with his three daughters. There he eventually falls in love with local girl Erin O’Toole, described by producers as an “attractive shepherdess”.
Not much happens and the dialogue is witless, but over six million Germans tune in for the sheer escapist value and the beautiful Irish scenery.
In short, Our Farm is the latest incarnation of the idealised Ireland Germans have cherished for decades.
In this world view, Ireland is a wild, romantic place closer to “the nature”, as Germans call it, than, say, the Ruhr or Frankfurt.
The Irish are friendly bordering on manic, loveable but wholly unreliable people who would sell one of their many children for a drink.
A newspaper headline over a recent interview with writer Anne Enright summed it up nicely: “The Irish drink, the Irish fight, the Irish are funny”. In the last decade and a half, though, this consensus view of Ireland has been sorely tested by the march of modernity in the Grüne Insel or Green Isle.
First Ireland’s economy took off, then emigrants returned, immigrants arrived and something resembling modern infrastructure began to stretch its tentacles across the country.
Older Germans with fixed notions of the country would return from holidays and complain to the first Irish person they encountered that the place had finally succumbed to the curse of motorways.
It was doubly galling for many of these Germans – truly, madly, deeply in love with “the nature” in Ireland – to hear that it was probably their tax money that had built the motorways.
Modern Dublin was a mystery – in particular the IFSC, a mysterious place of smoked glass and mirrors that seemed to be beating Frankfurt at its own game, generating vast sums of money after luring over big banks with low corporate tax rates.
As German economic growth hovered near zero, the Irish economy appeared to roar ahead. The beige-wearing Germans with their 12- year-old Mercedes had been overtaken by the sharp-suited Irish in their new BMWs.
Irish economists decided that the German economic model of slow, steady growth had had its day.
They had no qualms in telling Germany that Ireland had seen the future and it was all leverage and Louis Vuitton.
The peak of this Irish confidence-cum-cockiness came with the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.
No one here really cares for complicated explanations when a simple one will do: the “No” vote was Ireland thumbing its nose at the rest of the EU after pocketing its billions.
The final drop of goodwill towards the Irish evaporated last September when Berlin, through gritted teeth, signed loans and guarantees to prop up the Dublin-based Depfa bank, a subsidiary of Munich property investor Hypo Real Estate. Today that bill has reached €102 billion and counting.
“Technically speaking we didn’t have to do that,” one leading finance official fumed to this paper last month. “We could have left that in Ireland’s lap.”
Irish financial experts would disagree, saying the highly illiquid bank was Germany’s problem, even if it operated from Ireland.
Regardless of who was responsible for the mess, it stuck in the craw of the Berlin finance ministry to have to bail out a bank that had deprived Germany of billions in tax revenue by moving to Ireland.
And what was this Ireland, financial officials in Berlin asked, except an economic basket case of fictitious money and very real debts, and regulation so light to the touch that it amounted to a “regulation-free zone”.
After previous banking dramas in 2007, the Depfa episode confirmed many German suspicions that modernity and Ireland don’t mix.
German newspaper reports of the Irish meltdown confirm that view. The Frankfurter Allgemeine headlined its article on Ireland “For They Know Not What They Do”.
After a disorienting decade and a half, many Germans have decided that Ireland is once again a chaotic island run by chancers, a people who are a little too fond of the drink and not the best with money.
That much seemed to be confirmed last week when news reached Berlin that Dublin was dusting off its begging bowl, hoping that Angela would consider a dig-out for her Irish pals.
“If we take responsibility for ourselves, we may obtain some European assistance, especially in connection with our banking sector,” said Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan to a journalist from the German weekly Die Zeit.
“Clearly our banking sector is under threat. That is something our European friends recognise.”
It was like a real-life version of the parable of the prodigal son: after squandering the inheritance he had been given, the son returns home, barefoot and penniless.
There is a cold-eyed realisation here that if something has to be done for Ireland, then something will have indeed to be done.
Talking to Chancellor Merkel’s senior advisers, however, it is clear that no one in Berlin is rushing to prepare the fatted lamb for the Irish prodigal.
A leading government official explained last week, wearing a wintry smile, that Berlin “assumes the Taoiseach will be successful with his cost-cutting programme”. It sounded like the traditional vote of confidence in a football manager.
Watching the unravelling of the Irish economy from Germany, it’s hard not to wonder if perhaps there was more than a grain of truth in the stereotypical view of the Irish as a chaotic, irresponsible bunch.
On ZDF’s Our Farm in Ireland , life is golden and the Germans still love us.
“In the real world, however, we have exhausted Germany’s good will and reverted to type as a nation of loveable rogues who are no longer so loveable.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
And then we got rolls, sleek trains and motorways.
But back then it was clear to see that there was 'something' behind the German economy. They made things. They made their own rolls, built their own trains and supplied all the steel for the bridges over and under their motorways, with correct median barriers to boot.
And their business people seldom gave the impression of being slick 'merchant princes'. They never seemed to be arrogant or full of their own importance.
The Germans have a tradition of treating their tradespeople with respect, their teachers too and their locomotive drivers.
The vast majority of their schools are state run and funded.
They have universal medical insurance. Universal medical care too.
You could say it is a secular state that tries to care for all its citizens. It avoids playing games with people and tries to tell the truth.
Take a look at what they have done in Dresden, Chemnitz and Weimar. And in Berlin too. All in 20 years.
Thirty-seven years later there still seem to be great differences between Germany and Ireland.
Will Irish managers, business people, politicians, who have brought us to where we are today pay the price for their lack of vision, arrogance and greed?
Oh and by the way, the Germans make their own sugar, glass and paper. They are doing it right now - producing and manufacturing. They were never stupid enough to believe that it made sense to close down sugar factories and glass factories and paper factories. And their managers never had the arrogance/stupidity/greed to tell them the cock and bull stories we were fed.
The article below appears in today's Irish Times.
BERLIN LETTER: GERMAN PUBLIC broadcaster ZDF treats its viewers on Sunday evenings to a bracing dose of time-warp television called Our Farm in Ireland .
It’s the story of Martin Winter, a German doctor and widower who moves to the fictional town of Ballymara with his three daughters. There he eventually falls in love with local girl Erin O’Toole, described by producers as an “attractive shepherdess”.
Not much happens and the dialogue is witless, but over six million Germans tune in for the sheer escapist value and the beautiful Irish scenery.
In short, Our Farm is the latest incarnation of the idealised Ireland Germans have cherished for decades.
In this world view, Ireland is a wild, romantic place closer to “the nature”, as Germans call it, than, say, the Ruhr or Frankfurt.
The Irish are friendly bordering on manic, loveable but wholly unreliable people who would sell one of their many children for a drink.
A newspaper headline over a recent interview with writer Anne Enright summed it up nicely: “The Irish drink, the Irish fight, the Irish are funny”. In the last decade and a half, though, this consensus view of Ireland has been sorely tested by the march of modernity in the Grüne Insel or Green Isle.
First Ireland’s economy took off, then emigrants returned, immigrants arrived and something resembling modern infrastructure began to stretch its tentacles across the country.
Older Germans with fixed notions of the country would return from holidays and complain to the first Irish person they encountered that the place had finally succumbed to the curse of motorways.
It was doubly galling for many of these Germans – truly, madly, deeply in love with “the nature” in Ireland – to hear that it was probably their tax money that had built the motorways.
Modern Dublin was a mystery – in particular the IFSC, a mysterious place of smoked glass and mirrors that seemed to be beating Frankfurt at its own game, generating vast sums of money after luring over big banks with low corporate tax rates.
As German economic growth hovered near zero, the Irish economy appeared to roar ahead. The beige-wearing Germans with their 12- year-old Mercedes had been overtaken by the sharp-suited Irish in their new BMWs.
Irish economists decided that the German economic model of slow, steady growth had had its day.
They had no qualms in telling Germany that Ireland had seen the future and it was all leverage and Louis Vuitton.
The peak of this Irish confidence-cum-cockiness came with the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.
No one here really cares for complicated explanations when a simple one will do: the “No” vote was Ireland thumbing its nose at the rest of the EU after pocketing its billions.
The final drop of goodwill towards the Irish evaporated last September when Berlin, through gritted teeth, signed loans and guarantees to prop up the Dublin-based Depfa bank, a subsidiary of Munich property investor Hypo Real Estate. Today that bill has reached €102 billion and counting.
“Technically speaking we didn’t have to do that,” one leading finance official fumed to this paper last month. “We could have left that in Ireland’s lap.”
Irish financial experts would disagree, saying the highly illiquid bank was Germany’s problem, even if it operated from Ireland.
Regardless of who was responsible for the mess, it stuck in the craw of the Berlin finance ministry to have to bail out a bank that had deprived Germany of billions in tax revenue by moving to Ireland.
And what was this Ireland, financial officials in Berlin asked, except an economic basket case of fictitious money and very real debts, and regulation so light to the touch that it amounted to a “regulation-free zone”.
After previous banking dramas in 2007, the Depfa episode confirmed many German suspicions that modernity and Ireland don’t mix.
German newspaper reports of the Irish meltdown confirm that view. The Frankfurter Allgemeine headlined its article on Ireland “For They Know Not What They Do”.
After a disorienting decade and a half, many Germans have decided that Ireland is once again a chaotic island run by chancers, a people who are a little too fond of the drink and not the best with money.
That much seemed to be confirmed last week when news reached Berlin that Dublin was dusting off its begging bowl, hoping that Angela would consider a dig-out for her Irish pals.
“If we take responsibility for ourselves, we may obtain some European assistance, especially in connection with our banking sector,” said Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan to a journalist from the German weekly Die Zeit.
“Clearly our banking sector is under threat. That is something our European friends recognise.”
It was like a real-life version of the parable of the prodigal son: after squandering the inheritance he had been given, the son returns home, barefoot and penniless.
There is a cold-eyed realisation here that if something has to be done for Ireland, then something will have indeed to be done.
Talking to Chancellor Merkel’s senior advisers, however, it is clear that no one in Berlin is rushing to prepare the fatted lamb for the Irish prodigal.
A leading government official explained last week, wearing a wintry smile, that Berlin “assumes the Taoiseach will be successful with his cost-cutting programme”. It sounded like the traditional vote of confidence in a football manager.
Watching the unravelling of the Irish economy from Germany, it’s hard not to wonder if perhaps there was more than a grain of truth in the stereotypical view of the Irish as a chaotic, irresponsible bunch.
On ZDF’s Our Farm in Ireland , life is golden and the Germans still love us.
“In the real world, however, we have exhausted Germany’s good will and reverted to type as a nation of loveable rogues who are no longer so loveable.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
A collapsing economy
Every news bulletin every day is ladened with horrible economic news. Where is it all going to end? It now seems so dreadful that what was said yesterday becomes irrelevant today.
It is a sobering and worrying experience to observe the faces on those standing outside the ever-lengthening dole queues.
It certainly seems that matters are worse in Ireland than in many other EU countries, especially those in the western part of the Union.
The economists and captains of industry and the politicians who took their advice all seem to be at sea.
If communism had not collapsed would this have happened?
Does it make sense that in Ireland we no longer make sugar, paper or glass? The three facilities lie idle in Mallow, Clonskeagh and Ringsend.
Does it make sense that an island nation has such an ill-equipped fishing fleet?
The taoiseach missed an opportunity at the Fianna Fáil Árd Fheis on Saturday to make an apology for the mistakes his party has made in their years in government. It is not too long ago since Mr Cowen reprimanded people for 'talking down' the economy. Maybe it was during the election campaign that he made his comment.
In his Ard Fheis speech Mr Cowen referred to Ireland 'as a brand'. Is it not that use of PR language that has helped us lose the run of ourselves?
Where would we be if we did not have the euro?
What next?
It is a sobering and worrying experience to observe the faces on those standing outside the ever-lengthening dole queues.
It certainly seems that matters are worse in Ireland than in many other EU countries, especially those in the western part of the Union.
The economists and captains of industry and the politicians who took their advice all seem to be at sea.
If communism had not collapsed would this have happened?
Does it make sense that in Ireland we no longer make sugar, paper or glass? The three facilities lie idle in Mallow, Clonskeagh and Ringsend.
Does it make sense that an island nation has such an ill-equipped fishing fleet?
The taoiseach missed an opportunity at the Fianna Fáil Árd Fheis on Saturday to make an apology for the mistakes his party has made in their years in government. It is not too long ago since Mr Cowen reprimanded people for 'talking down' the economy. Maybe it was during the election campaign that he made his comment.
In his Ard Fheis speech Mr Cowen referred to Ireland 'as a brand'. Is it not that use of PR language that has helped us lose the run of ourselves?
Where would we be if we did not have the euro?
What next?
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Mass cards
The article below appears in today's Irish Times.
A serious discussion on all aspects of Mass cards is long overdue within the church. The pity is that these issues seem to be discussed in a reactive sense rather than the hierarchical church giving the lead on the subject.
CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor
A SECTION of the Charities Bill may be unconstitutional because it makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card not authorised by a Catholic bishop, according to a former attorney general. The Bill went to President Mary McAleese for signing earlier this week.
The section in question was inserted into the Bill by the Seanad on February 11th last to deal with a problem of the sale of “bogus Mass cards”, which purport to be signed by a priest, but where the signature is not genuine and no Mass is actually said.
The Government amendment was put forward following the earlier proposal of a similar amendment by Senator Ronan Mullen.
Former attorney general John Rogers SC has provided an opinion on it to the solicitor for a man who sells genuine Mass cards, signed by a priest in the Philippines by arrangement with a bishop there. The money raised goes to build churches there. He fears shops may feel pressure on them not to sell if the Bill becomes law.
During the Seanad debate, Senator David Norris read from Mr Rogers’s opinion, which stated that section 96 was “an unjustified restriction on the Article 44 guarantee of the free profession and practise of religion.” The section provides that a person who sells a Mass card “other than pursuant to arrangement with a recognised person” is guilty of an offence. A “recognised person” who can authorise the sale of such Mass cards is defined as a bishop of the church, or the head of an order recognised by it.
The section defines a Mass card as a card that indicates that “the holy sacrifice of the Mass” will be offered for a person’s intentions. In any proceedings it will be presumed, unless proved to the contrary, that an offence has been committed.
In his opinion Mr Rogers says this goes further than is reasonably required to deal with the problem of the sale of a Mass card not properly signed by a priest, where no Mass is said, or where the purchaser thinks it is for a charitable purpose and it is not.
“The narrow categories of persons is arbitrary and unfair and represents a serious interference with the religious practice of some priests and others who are members of non-Catholic churches and religious communities in this State,” he states.
He also points out that it presumes an offence has been committed until the contrary is proven. “The criminalisation of the sale of Mass cards is another aspect of the disproportionate nature of this piece of legislation,” he says.
A serious discussion on all aspects of Mass cards is long overdue within the church. The pity is that these issues seem to be discussed in a reactive sense rather than the hierarchical church giving the lead on the subject.
CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor
A SECTION of the Charities Bill may be unconstitutional because it makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card not authorised by a Catholic bishop, according to a former attorney general. The Bill went to President Mary McAleese for signing earlier this week.
The section in question was inserted into the Bill by the Seanad on February 11th last to deal with a problem of the sale of “bogus Mass cards”, which purport to be signed by a priest, but where the signature is not genuine and no Mass is actually said.
The Government amendment was put forward following the earlier proposal of a similar amendment by Senator Ronan Mullen.
Former attorney general John Rogers SC has provided an opinion on it to the solicitor for a man who sells genuine Mass cards, signed by a priest in the Philippines by arrangement with a bishop there. The money raised goes to build churches there. He fears shops may feel pressure on them not to sell if the Bill becomes law.
During the Seanad debate, Senator David Norris read from Mr Rogers’s opinion, which stated that section 96 was “an unjustified restriction on the Article 44 guarantee of the free profession and practise of religion.” The section provides that a person who sells a Mass card “other than pursuant to arrangement with a recognised person” is guilty of an offence. A “recognised person” who can authorise the sale of such Mass cards is defined as a bishop of the church, or the head of an order recognised by it.
The section defines a Mass card as a card that indicates that “the holy sacrifice of the Mass” will be offered for a person’s intentions. In any proceedings it will be presumed, unless proved to the contrary, that an offence has been committed.
In his opinion Mr Rogers says this goes further than is reasonably required to deal with the problem of the sale of a Mass card not properly signed by a priest, where no Mass is said, or where the purchaser thinks it is for a charitable purpose and it is not.
“The narrow categories of persons is arbitrary and unfair and represents a serious interference with the religious practice of some priests and others who are members of non-Catholic churches and religious communities in this State,” he states.
He also points out that it presumes an offence has been committed until the contrary is proven. “The criminalisation of the sale of Mass cards is another aspect of the disproportionate nature of this piece of legislation,” he says.
An apology
Apologies re the banner in Tallaght. Delighted to know that it means the opposite to what was said on this blog. Again, apologies and good luck.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Banner attack
There is a large banner poster in Tallaght village which proclaims 'Daddys are for life and not for Saturdays'.
At the bottom of the banner there is the web address www.usfi.ie.
The insult and the arrogance that such a poster represents surely can have nothing at all to do with the Christian message.
What must it be like for a man walking or driving past that sign who has been separated from his children? No one ever knows why someone is not with their children.
Men separated from their children need to be inspired and given hope, not attacked.
At the bottom of the banner there is the web address www.usfi.ie.
The insult and the arrogance that such a poster represents surely can have nothing at all to do with the Christian message.
What must it be like for a man walking or driving past that sign who has been separated from his children? No one ever knows why someone is not with their children.
Men separated from their children need to be inspired and given hope, not attacked.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Worrying words from bishop
The quote below is taken from an internet site. If the quote is accurate it is another insight into the direction the church is currently taking.
The alleged quote fits into a pattern and raises the most serious of issues for the church. And especially in the present climate.
Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of The Society of Saint Pius X, has been making news since his excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in January. On January 21, 2009, in a nearly six minute interview Williamson told a television news program in Sweden that "I believe that history is strongly against, is hugely against, six million Jews having been gassed in gas chamber as a deliberate policy" during the Holocaust. In 2001, the bishop wrote "That girls should not be in universities flows from the nature of universities and from the nature of girls: true universities are for ideas, ideas are not for true girls, so true universities are not for true girls." The Vatican is now repudiating the Holocaust denials. And Bishop Williamson has claimed he will reconsider the issue of Nazi gas chambers by reading the book of a former Holocaust doubter.
The alleged quote fits into a pattern and raises the most serious of issues for the church. And especially in the present climate.
Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of The Society of Saint Pius X, has been making news since his excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in January. On January 21, 2009, in a nearly six minute interview Williamson told a television news program in Sweden that "I believe that history is strongly against, is hugely against, six million Jews having been gassed in gas chamber as a deliberate policy" during the Holocaust. In 2001, the bishop wrote "That girls should not be in universities flows from the nature of universities and from the nature of girls: true universities are for ideas, ideas are not for true girls, so true universities are not for true girls." The Vatican is now repudiating the Holocaust denials. And Bishop Williamson has claimed he will reconsider the issue of Nazi gas chambers by reading the book of a former Holocaust doubter.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Cork fishing port
During a class in Religious Studies in West Kerry on Monday there was a discussion on our present economic situation.
A student who comes from a fishing background commented that the busiest fishing port in Ireland is Cork airport because of its large business in fish importation.
Who are the politicians, economists and 'wise men' who have allowed this to happen? The absurdity of allowing this nonsense in an island nation is bewildering.
Seemingly we are the biggest 'exporters' of bananas in Europe.
The economy is in such a serious situation it seems that what was said yesterday becomes irrelevant today.
How close are we to civil unrest and the arrival of a demagogue? Hopefully our political class are taking wise and good decisions so as to keep at bay any such disaster.
A student who comes from a fishing background commented that the busiest fishing port in Ireland is Cork airport because of its large business in fish importation.
Who are the politicians, economists and 'wise men' who have allowed this to happen? The absurdity of allowing this nonsense in an island nation is bewildering.
Seemingly we are the biggest 'exporters' of bananas in Europe.
The economy is in such a serious situation it seems that what was said yesterday becomes irrelevant today.
How close are we to civil unrest and the arrival of a demagogue? Hopefully our political class are taking wise and good decisions so as to keep at bay any such disaster.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Irish Rail and its crazy timetable
Both Dublin Bus and Irish Bus are in the process of laying off close to 600 workers. Irish Rail will most likely follow suit.
Last month Irish Rail introduced a new timetable on its Dublin Tralee service. The new timetable means that passengers travelling on the 20.00 ex Heuton Cork train arrive in Mallow at 22.19 and are obliged to wait 31 minutes for their connection to Tralee.
What surer way to drive people away from the railway and anger and annoy those who wait the long 31 minutes on cold wet and windy nights in Mallow station!
A decision such as this is obviously made at managerial level. You don't need to know anything about the railway to know that this timetable alteration is absolute nonsense. And it must make any ordinary person lose trust in a management class that could do something like this.
There are many stories circulating as to why passengers have to wait. They are of course anecdotal but each story is sillier than the next.
It is the same manager class who decide who will join the dole queues in the coming weeks and months.
Maybe someone needs to ask who exactly are these people and how have they been running the railway up to now.
Last month Irish Rail introduced a new timetable on its Dublin Tralee service. The new timetable means that passengers travelling on the 20.00 ex Heuton Cork train arrive in Mallow at 22.19 and are obliged to wait 31 minutes for their connection to Tralee.
What surer way to drive people away from the railway and anger and annoy those who wait the long 31 minutes on cold wet and windy nights in Mallow station!
A decision such as this is obviously made at managerial level. You don't need to know anything about the railway to know that this timetable alteration is absolute nonsense. And it must make any ordinary person lose trust in a management class that could do something like this.
There are many stories circulating as to why passengers have to wait. They are of course anecdotal but each story is sillier than the next.
It is the same manager class who decide who will join the dole queues in the coming weeks and months.
Maybe someone needs to ask who exactly are these people and how have they been running the railway up to now.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Flannery criticises CORI
The article below, written by Fr Tony Flannery, a Redemptorist priest, appears in yesterday's Irish Times.
In the article Fr Flannery is critical of the direction in which CORI is moving. He is of the opinion that CORI has 'become part of an exclusive and powerful body and so has lost its ability to critique what is happening'.
Over the years CORI has brought important issues to public notice. It is still doing that today.
But reading the article one is forced to ask the question is it ever possible for anyone who is part of a world-wide multi billion euro organisation to empathise or understand the plight of those who experience any form of poverty, insecurity or marginalisation?
In the current climate of economic upheaval, where people are genuinely greatly concerned about their livelihoods, is there a sister, bishop, priest, who needs to be concerned about their financial situation?
When one is protected or isolated from the daily shenanigans of the world where people live, can their words ever have any significant meaning?
That is a genuine question and in no way a flippant or any type of snide comment.
Anyone who becomes institutionalised surely inevitably loses some sense of much of what happens and exists outside the institution.
What follows is the article in The Irish Times
CORI, THE Conference of Religious of Ireland, an umbrella body for all Roman Catholic religious congregations in this country, has been in existence for over 30 years. It is probably best known for its justice section, which has played an active part in social partnership.
I believe this was a big mistake. Cori became part of a ruling elite and so lost its ability to truly represent the interests of the poor and marginalised in society.
The dramatic collapse of our economy in the recent past has caused people to examine many of the assumptions we had taken for granted. One of those assumptions was that social partnership is a good thing. It was argued that it created industrial peace and, as a result, productivity increased.
That begs the question as to whether it was social partnership or prosperity that allowed for consistent and substantial increases in wages, year to year, leading in turn to industrial peace.
The main criticism of social partnership is that it created what one commentator called a cosy consensus which worked to the benefit of the better paid. Examples include benchmarking in the public service, a scheme that masqueraded as reform involving increased levels of efficiency and productivity.
In fact it meant substantial pay increases for the better off to a far greater extent than for those in more lowly paid jobs. Something of the same happened in other professions. For instance there was an increase in posts of responsibility for teachers which often involved a rise in salary with nominal increase in responsibility.
All of this contributed to the inflated, inefficient and in some cases overpaid public service that we have in this country and which we can no longer afford. This happened under the auspices of social partnership. It could be argued that the social partners became the real governing body in the land, and that decisions were made at this level rather than in the Dáil.
Revelations, particularly relating to abuses of public money at Fás and other State bodies, brought another aspect of this cosy consensus to the fore. It was one I, and I assume many others, would not have been aware of – the presence of so many members of the different social partnership groups on State boards.
This is of great concern, because it suggests a clique of people had a stranglehold on policy-making while being ultimately answerable to nobody, since they had become so closely aligned to the government of the day. This group of people got perks, unavailable to ordinary members of society.
I do not have the expertise to make an economic judgment on all of this. My concern as a religious is that the body representing Irish religious is a member of this partnership. Cori states that its aim is the same as that of its constituent groups – to promote the message of Jesus Christ.
It would be hard to think of anybody who was less part of the consensus than Jesus Christ. He stood outside of, and radically criticised, both the social and religious thinking of his time. Anybody representing religious should be, at least to some extent, on the margins rather than at the centre of power.
Cori justice desk, by allowing itself to become part of an exclusive and powerful body, lost its ability to critique what was happening, and is now unfortunately seen as a contributor to the problem rather than being in a position to propose a real alternative. In its early days it was a strong voice for the poor but, somewhere along the line, it got sucked into the complicity that promoted inequality.
I am not suggesting that religious should not be involved in political and social action. I think of people like the late Michael Sweetman and Austin Flannery, and, in our own times, Peter McVerry. Equally there have been many religious sisters who have given a lifetime of service to the less well off.
I cannot imagine any of them talking about “T16” (Toward 2016, for those outside the in-group) which became shorthand for the plan for Ireland worked out, not in the public arena but in late-night negotiations that were the preserve of the few.
I would hope that Cori can free itself from the shackles of power and become again a voice for the voiceless.
Fr Tony Flannery is a Redemptorist priest and columnist with Reality magazine
In the article Fr Flannery is critical of the direction in which CORI is moving. He is of the opinion that CORI has 'become part of an exclusive and powerful body and so has lost its ability to critique what is happening'.
Over the years CORI has brought important issues to public notice. It is still doing that today.
But reading the article one is forced to ask the question is it ever possible for anyone who is part of a world-wide multi billion euro organisation to empathise or understand the plight of those who experience any form of poverty, insecurity or marginalisation?
In the current climate of economic upheaval, where people are genuinely greatly concerned about their livelihoods, is there a sister, bishop, priest, who needs to be concerned about their financial situation?
When one is protected or isolated from the daily shenanigans of the world where people live, can their words ever have any significant meaning?
That is a genuine question and in no way a flippant or any type of snide comment.
Anyone who becomes institutionalised surely inevitably loses some sense of much of what happens and exists outside the institution.
What follows is the article in The Irish Times
CORI, THE Conference of Religious of Ireland, an umbrella body for all Roman Catholic religious congregations in this country, has been in existence for over 30 years. It is probably best known for its justice section, which has played an active part in social partnership.
I believe this was a big mistake. Cori became part of a ruling elite and so lost its ability to truly represent the interests of the poor and marginalised in society.
The dramatic collapse of our economy in the recent past has caused people to examine many of the assumptions we had taken for granted. One of those assumptions was that social partnership is a good thing. It was argued that it created industrial peace and, as a result, productivity increased.
That begs the question as to whether it was social partnership or prosperity that allowed for consistent and substantial increases in wages, year to year, leading in turn to industrial peace.
The main criticism of social partnership is that it created what one commentator called a cosy consensus which worked to the benefit of the better paid. Examples include benchmarking in the public service, a scheme that masqueraded as reform involving increased levels of efficiency and productivity.
In fact it meant substantial pay increases for the better off to a far greater extent than for those in more lowly paid jobs. Something of the same happened in other professions. For instance there was an increase in posts of responsibility for teachers which often involved a rise in salary with nominal increase in responsibility.
All of this contributed to the inflated, inefficient and in some cases overpaid public service that we have in this country and which we can no longer afford. This happened under the auspices of social partnership. It could be argued that the social partners became the real governing body in the land, and that decisions were made at this level rather than in the Dáil.
Revelations, particularly relating to abuses of public money at Fás and other State bodies, brought another aspect of this cosy consensus to the fore. It was one I, and I assume many others, would not have been aware of – the presence of so many members of the different social partnership groups on State boards.
This is of great concern, because it suggests a clique of people had a stranglehold on policy-making while being ultimately answerable to nobody, since they had become so closely aligned to the government of the day. This group of people got perks, unavailable to ordinary members of society.
I do not have the expertise to make an economic judgment on all of this. My concern as a religious is that the body representing Irish religious is a member of this partnership. Cori states that its aim is the same as that of its constituent groups – to promote the message of Jesus Christ.
It would be hard to think of anybody who was less part of the consensus than Jesus Christ. He stood outside of, and radically criticised, both the social and religious thinking of his time. Anybody representing religious should be, at least to some extent, on the margins rather than at the centre of power.
Cori justice desk, by allowing itself to become part of an exclusive and powerful body, lost its ability to critique what was happening, and is now unfortunately seen as a contributor to the problem rather than being in a position to propose a real alternative. In its early days it was a strong voice for the poor but, somewhere along the line, it got sucked into the complicity that promoted inequality.
I am not suggesting that religious should not be involved in political and social action. I think of people like the late Michael Sweetman and Austin Flannery, and, in our own times, Peter McVerry. Equally there have been many religious sisters who have given a lifetime of service to the less well off.
I cannot imagine any of them talking about “T16” (Toward 2016, for those outside the in-group) which became shorthand for the plan for Ireland worked out, not in the public arena but in late-night negotiations that were the preserve of the few.
I would hope that Cori can free itself from the shackles of power and become again a voice for the voiceless.
Fr Tony Flannery is a Redemptorist priest and columnist with Reality magazine
German bishops call pope's action a catastrophe and a betrayal of trust
It is inevitable and understandable that many Germans are surprised with the pope's actions.
Respect must be accorded to Cardinals Lehmann and Kasper.
This article appears in today's Irish Times.
CHANCELLOR ANGELA Merkel has asked Pope Benedict XVI to clarify the Catholic Church’s position over the rehabilitation of the Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson.
Dr Merkel’s intervention follows an admission by Cardinal Karl Lehmann, former head of the German bishops’ conference, that the episode was a “catastrophe”.
The German leader said she was taking the unusual step of commenting on internal church matters because it involved a “question of principle, that through a decision of the Vatican the impression is created that denial of the Holocaust is permissible”.
“That cannot be left without consequences,” she said yesterday. In her view, the Vatican had “not done enough to date” to clarify its position on Holocaust denial and its relations with Judaism.
The German leader suggested that the Bavarian-born pontiff “make very clear that there can be no denial”.
After Swedish television broadcast an interview with Bishop Williamson, in which he questioned the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust and denied the existence of Nazi gas chambers, leaders of Germany’s Jewish community put relations with the Vatican on ice.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, Vatican co-ordinator of Jewish-Catholic relations, has admitted the pope’s decision to lift the excommunication of several bishops including Bishop Williamson was “badly mishandled”.
“There wasn’t enough talking with each other in the Vatican and there are no longer checks to see where problems could arise,” said Cardinal Kasper on Vatican Radio’s German-language service.
In a frank interview, Cardinal Kasper said the debate filled him with “great concern” and blamed “misunderstandings and management errors in the curia”.
No senior church figures in Germany have dared criticise the Bavarian-born pontiff directly, but many bishops suggest in public that he was poorly advised.
They spoke out over the weekend, calling for swift action to prevent permanent damage to the church’s credibility.
Bishop Gebhard Fürst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart called the rehabilitation a “betrayal of trust, especially for our Jewish sisters and brothers in their relationship to the church”.
“As a Protestant Christian,” said Dr Merkel, “it is encouraging to see many voices from the Catholic church demanding clarification.”
Leading conservatives in the German church point out that the pope’s decree is the start and not the conclusion of a Vatican reconciliation with the followers of Marcel Lefebvre, who rejected the modernising reforms of the Second Vatican Council and are members of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX).
Bishop Williamson has described the pope’s decree to lift the excommunication as “a great step forward for the church without being a betrayal on the part of the SSPX”.
Fr Eberhard von Gemmingen, head of the Vatican’s German service, has described the episode as a “misunderstanding and debacle”. He urged listeners to “pray for the pope and his staff”.
Respect must be accorded to Cardinals Lehmann and Kasper.
This article appears in today's Irish Times.
CHANCELLOR ANGELA Merkel has asked Pope Benedict XVI to clarify the Catholic Church’s position over the rehabilitation of the Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson.
Dr Merkel’s intervention follows an admission by Cardinal Karl Lehmann, former head of the German bishops’ conference, that the episode was a “catastrophe”.
The German leader said she was taking the unusual step of commenting on internal church matters because it involved a “question of principle, that through a decision of the Vatican the impression is created that denial of the Holocaust is permissible”.
“That cannot be left without consequences,” she said yesterday. In her view, the Vatican had “not done enough to date” to clarify its position on Holocaust denial and its relations with Judaism.
The German leader suggested that the Bavarian-born pontiff “make very clear that there can be no denial”.
After Swedish television broadcast an interview with Bishop Williamson, in which he questioned the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust and denied the existence of Nazi gas chambers, leaders of Germany’s Jewish community put relations with the Vatican on ice.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, Vatican co-ordinator of Jewish-Catholic relations, has admitted the pope’s decision to lift the excommunication of several bishops including Bishop Williamson was “badly mishandled”.
“There wasn’t enough talking with each other in the Vatican and there are no longer checks to see where problems could arise,” said Cardinal Kasper on Vatican Radio’s German-language service.
In a frank interview, Cardinal Kasper said the debate filled him with “great concern” and blamed “misunderstandings and management errors in the curia”.
No senior church figures in Germany have dared criticise the Bavarian-born pontiff directly, but many bishops suggest in public that he was poorly advised.
They spoke out over the weekend, calling for swift action to prevent permanent damage to the church’s credibility.
Bishop Gebhard Fürst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart called the rehabilitation a “betrayal of trust, especially for our Jewish sisters and brothers in their relationship to the church”.
“As a Protestant Christian,” said Dr Merkel, “it is encouraging to see many voices from the Catholic church demanding clarification.”
Leading conservatives in the German church point out that the pope’s decree is the start and not the conclusion of a Vatican reconciliation with the followers of Marcel Lefebvre, who rejected the modernising reforms of the Second Vatican Council and are members of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX).
Bishop Williamson has described the pope’s decree to lift the excommunication as “a great step forward for the church without being a betrayal on the part of the SSPX”.
Fr Eberhard von Gemmingen, head of the Vatican’s German service, has described the episode as a “misunderstanding and debacle”. He urged listeners to “pray for the pope and his staff”.
Merkel asks Vatican for explanation
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has asked Pope Benedict to clarify Vatican thinking resulting from the rehabilitation of Bishop Williamson.
The bishop, who is a member of the Pius X Society has denied aspects of the nazi atrocities.
Merkel points out that she does not normally comment on inner church affairs but on this occasion because of the gravity of the issue she was left with no alternative.
The following article was published by Stern yesterday.
Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel hat Papst Benedikt XVI. zu einer deutlichen Stellungnahme zum Umgang mit dem Holocaust aufgefordert.
Es gehe darum, eindeutig klarzustellen, dass es keine Leugnung geben könne, sagte sie. Indes wächst die Kritik deutscher Theologen am Papst wegen der Rehabilitierung von vier Bischöfen der erzkonservativen Pius-Bruderschaft. Papst Benedikt XVI. gerät wegen der Rehabilitierung eines Holocaust-Leugners in den eigenen Reihen zunehmend unter Druck.
Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel forderte ihn zu einer deutlichen Position in der Diskussion über den Umgang mit dem Holocaust auf.
"Es geht darum, dass von Seiten des Papstes und des Vatikans sehr eindeutig klargestellt wird, dass es hier keine Leugnung geben kann", sagte sie.
"Diese Klarstellungen sind aus meiner Sicht noch nicht ausreichend erfolgt", so Merkel am Dienstag bei einer Pressekonferenz in Berlin. Merkel betonte, dass sie normalerweise innerkirchliche Entscheidungen nicht bewerte oder kommentiere.
"Allerdings ist das anders, wenn es um Grundsatzfragen geht", sagte Merkel. "Und ich glaube, das ist schon eine Grundsatzfrage, wenn durch eine Entscheidung des Vatikan der Eindruck entsteht, dass es die Leugnung des Holocaust geben könnte, dass es um grundsätzliche Fragen auch des Umgangs mit dem Judentum insgesamt geht", sagte Merkel.
The bishop, who is a member of the Pius X Society has denied aspects of the nazi atrocities.
Merkel points out that she does not normally comment on inner church affairs but on this occasion because of the gravity of the issue she was left with no alternative.
The following article was published by Stern yesterday.
Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel hat Papst Benedikt XVI. zu einer deutlichen Stellungnahme zum Umgang mit dem Holocaust aufgefordert.
Es gehe darum, eindeutig klarzustellen, dass es keine Leugnung geben könne, sagte sie. Indes wächst die Kritik deutscher Theologen am Papst wegen der Rehabilitierung von vier Bischöfen der erzkonservativen Pius-Bruderschaft. Papst Benedikt XVI. gerät wegen der Rehabilitierung eines Holocaust-Leugners in den eigenen Reihen zunehmend unter Druck.
Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel forderte ihn zu einer deutlichen Position in der Diskussion über den Umgang mit dem Holocaust auf.
"Es geht darum, dass von Seiten des Papstes und des Vatikans sehr eindeutig klargestellt wird, dass es hier keine Leugnung geben kann", sagte sie.
"Diese Klarstellungen sind aus meiner Sicht noch nicht ausreichend erfolgt", so Merkel am Dienstag bei einer Pressekonferenz in Berlin. Merkel betonte, dass sie normalerweise innerkirchliche Entscheidungen nicht bewerte oder kommentiere.
"Allerdings ist das anders, wenn es um Grundsatzfragen geht", sagte Merkel. "Und ich glaube, das ist schon eine Grundsatzfrage, wenn durch eine Entscheidung des Vatikan der Eindruck entsteht, dass es die Leugnung des Holocaust geben könnte, dass es um grundsätzliche Fragen auch des Umgangs mit dem Judentum insgesamt geht", sagte Merkel.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
German Catholics express concern
The German media is giving large-scale coverage to the news of Pope Benedict rehabilitating members of the Pius X Society.
Last evening the Archbishop of Mainz, Cardinal Lehmann expressed concern on the the latest Vatican move and the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Marx, came close to expressing worry.
Among those rehabilitated is Bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied aspects of the Holocaust.
Last evening the Archbishop of Mainz, Cardinal Lehmann expressed concern on the the latest Vatican move and the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Marx, came close to expressing worry.
Among those rehabilitated is Bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied aspects of the Holocaust.
Snow balls
This photograph appears as the lead picture on the front page of today's Irish Times.
The caption reads:First- and second-year international seminarians play in the snow before attending Mass at the novitiate of Legionaries of Christ in Leopardstown yesterday.
Before the advent of technology there was some truth in the adage that a picture never lies. That certainly is no longer true. Photoshop has put paid to that.
Nevertheless this picture has a great story behind it.
What young men in their 20s in the developed world in 2009 play snowballs wearing long dress-style clothing with immaculate coiffured hair, highly polished shoes with gleaming white cuffs and cuff links?
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Whether to excommunicate or not
Maybe it is that it is there somewhere and this writer cannot find it. But is the decree on the remission of excommunication latae sententiae of bishops of the Fraternity of St Pius X (January 21, 2009) in English on the Vatican web site?
Surely one is bound to think again and wonder about all of this. How come just some few short years ago someone is excommunicated and then 'hey presto' the excommunication is lifted?
And what is the truth about the bishop and his statements about the Holocaust?
Surely one is bound to think again and wonder about all of this. How come just some few short years ago someone is excommunicated and then 'hey presto' the excommunication is lifted?
And what is the truth about the bishop and his statements about the Holocaust?
Treating cyclists with contempt
It's sometimes easy to get the impression that the civil authorities in Ireland treat citizens in a most disrespectful manner. Anyone who has cycled from Templeogue to Tallaght since Christmas will understand.
There are cycle ways on both sides of the roundabout on the Templeogue Tallagh road over the M50. Should you take the cycle path to the left side of the roundabout then you are assured of running into difficulties. As soon as you are over the motorway you meet an iron fence prohibiting you to go any further in the direction of Tallaght.
This cyclist decided to follow the cycle way to the left and ended up in Firhouse. Not a funny story at 21.30 on a winter's evening.
Why could South Dublin Council not erect signposts for cyclists using the route? Not at all. Who cares about people on bicycles? Certainly not South Dublin Council if one is to judge them by their actions
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Catholic school identity
The article below appears in Tuesday's Irish Times.
The archbishop makes some interesting comments. The teaching of religion in our schools is a little akin to the Irish programme. We spend years at Irish and religion and what do we know at the end of it?
But can someone explain, what is a 'catholic education'? A
Anytime one hears the expression there is always the fear that it is an introduction to a right-wing attack on modern catholic catechesis.
Does a myth exist in Ireland which attempts to portray middle class religious run schools as 'Catholic'?
Why is it that so few schools have picked up on the programme offered for both Junior and Leaving Cert students at examination level. These programmes at least introduce young people into the history of religions. It makes available to them some sort of explanation of the various world religions. And yet far too few schools, Catholic schools avail of the programme.
Is it true to say that when it comes to talking about a 'Catholic education' it is far too easy to be glib in what we say.
How can one explain to a 15-year-old the idea of the incarnation or the resurrection. And what does one say on a Monday morning at 09.00 in a third year class about infallibility? How can one comment about how one day someone is excommunicated and some years later the excommunication is lifted?
While there are excellent religious books available, teaching religion in the school context is not an easy task.
What sense does it make to talk or use the word 'God' in the current climate to young people in an academic setting?
Archbishop Martin says Catholic school identity at risk
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS must not water down their identity to conform with a more pluralist society, the Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin said yesterday.
At a conference to mark the first Catholic Schools Week in the Republic, Dr Martin said the Catholic school system had its rightful place within a multicultural society.
“Pluralism does not mean watering down identity. Indeed, a Catholic school which waters down its identity waters down its real contribution to society and renders itself useless,” he said.
“The survival of Catholic education in Ireland will not depend on it fitting in to an overall pluralist secularist philosophy, but on it being fully Catholic, bringing that specific contribution of the message of Jesus Christ to society.”
He said it was not about a Catholic school system attempting to dominate an entire system. It was “a temptation which was, and I think we have to say, still is there, due to the historical development of the Irish education model”.
Dr Martin said a Catholic school must never be “just a narrow Catholic ghetto, cut off from or worse still hostile to the world around it. Christianity can never be exclusivist or elitist.”.
The archbishop also questioned the success of Catholic schools in passing on the faith to young people.
“What are we to say about a Catholic school system and catechetical programmes which have produced the numerically largest cohort of unchurched young people in recent Irish history?” he asked.
“Irish young people are among the most catechised in western Europe, with religious instruction right through primary and secondary school, and yet we cannot say that they are among the most evangelised.
“Indeed, the biggest challenge that I, as archbishop, see for the church in Dublin is precisely that of the evangelisation of young people and their insertion as true and committed members of a believing and worshipping community.”
Dr Martin also encouraged parents and teachers to speak about faith to their children when they began to challenge issues.
“Rather than engaging in that dialogue, parents and teachers can be tempted to think that it is best to leave it up the young person alone to find his or her way regarding faith,” he said.
“And I think parents lose their nerve, perhaps because the church has let them down by providing very few services to help them in their task as religious educators.”
While this is the first time Catholic Schools Week has been celebrated in the Republic, it has been marked in the North in recent years. In a homily prepared for the week, Fr Martin Delaney of the diocese of Ossory noted that the special week was more common in countries where the Catholic Church and Catholic schools were in a minority. “Traditionally, nearly all schools in Ireland were either Catholic or at least were religious-run schools,” he said.
Bishop Leo O’Reilly, chair of the Bishops Commission for Education, said it was important that Catholic schools became more conscious of their identity as the schools system became more pluralist.
Catholic Schools Week, which has the theme: Catholic Schools – A Vision for Life, continues until Sunday. Events have been organised in schools around the State to mark the week which concludes on Sunday with a special Mass in Lucan which will be televised by RTÉ.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
The archbishop makes some interesting comments. The teaching of religion in our schools is a little akin to the Irish programme. We spend years at Irish and religion and what do we know at the end of it?
But can someone explain, what is a 'catholic education'? A
Anytime one hears the expression there is always the fear that it is an introduction to a right-wing attack on modern catholic catechesis.
Does a myth exist in Ireland which attempts to portray middle class religious run schools as 'Catholic'?
Why is it that so few schools have picked up on the programme offered for both Junior and Leaving Cert students at examination level. These programmes at least introduce young people into the history of religions. It makes available to them some sort of explanation of the various world religions. And yet far too few schools, Catholic schools avail of the programme.
Is it true to say that when it comes to talking about a 'Catholic education' it is far too easy to be glib in what we say.
How can one explain to a 15-year-old the idea of the incarnation or the resurrection. And what does one say on a Monday morning at 09.00 in a third year class about infallibility? How can one comment about how one day someone is excommunicated and some years later the excommunication is lifted?
While there are excellent religious books available, teaching religion in the school context is not an easy task.
What sense does it make to talk or use the word 'God' in the current climate to young people in an academic setting?
Archbishop Martin says Catholic school identity at risk
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS must not water down their identity to conform with a more pluralist society, the Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin said yesterday.
At a conference to mark the first Catholic Schools Week in the Republic, Dr Martin said the Catholic school system had its rightful place within a multicultural society.
“Pluralism does not mean watering down identity. Indeed, a Catholic school which waters down its identity waters down its real contribution to society and renders itself useless,” he said.
“The survival of Catholic education in Ireland will not depend on it fitting in to an overall pluralist secularist philosophy, but on it being fully Catholic, bringing that specific contribution of the message of Jesus Christ to society.”
He said it was not about a Catholic school system attempting to dominate an entire system. It was “a temptation which was, and I think we have to say, still is there, due to the historical development of the Irish education model”.
Dr Martin said a Catholic school must never be “just a narrow Catholic ghetto, cut off from or worse still hostile to the world around it. Christianity can never be exclusivist or elitist.”.
The archbishop also questioned the success of Catholic schools in passing on the faith to young people.
“What are we to say about a Catholic school system and catechetical programmes which have produced the numerically largest cohort of unchurched young people in recent Irish history?” he asked.
“Irish young people are among the most catechised in western Europe, with religious instruction right through primary and secondary school, and yet we cannot say that they are among the most evangelised.
“Indeed, the biggest challenge that I, as archbishop, see for the church in Dublin is precisely that of the evangelisation of young people and their insertion as true and committed members of a believing and worshipping community.”
Dr Martin also encouraged parents and teachers to speak about faith to their children when they began to challenge issues.
“Rather than engaging in that dialogue, parents and teachers can be tempted to think that it is best to leave it up the young person alone to find his or her way regarding faith,” he said.
“And I think parents lose their nerve, perhaps because the church has let them down by providing very few services to help them in their task as religious educators.”
While this is the first time Catholic Schools Week has been celebrated in the Republic, it has been marked in the North in recent years. In a homily prepared for the week, Fr Martin Delaney of the diocese of Ossory noted that the special week was more common in countries where the Catholic Church and Catholic schools were in a minority. “Traditionally, nearly all schools in Ireland were either Catholic or at least were religious-run schools,” he said.
Bishop Leo O’Reilly, chair of the Bishops Commission for Education, said it was important that Catholic schools became more conscious of their identity as the schools system became more pluralist.
Catholic Schools Week, which has the theme: Catholic Schools – A Vision for Life, continues until Sunday. Events have been organised in schools around the State to mark the week which concludes on Sunday with a special Mass in Lucan which will be televised by RTÉ.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Bus and rail fares have increased by 10 per cent since January 1. That means a monthly return fare from Tralee to Dublin is now €81.50 and a single bus journey from Tallaght to the city centre is €2.20.
Dublin Bus is considering cutting back on services having just bought a fleet of new buses.
Irish Rail is building new track between Dublin and Hazel Hatch and has opened a number of very styling rail stations on their southern line out of Dublin. Was there need for such lavish stations? And as for the new double track, is it now necessary? Could they have eased their capacity problems by introducing reversible running as far as Newbridge. Such a system would have needed new signalling but it would have been far cheaper than the current programme.
Surely an underground to the airport is a madness. Why not build a spur from the Malahide line to the airport?
The rail station at Farranfore is approximately one kilometre from Kerry Airport. There has never been a murmur of building a line right to the door of the airport. Such a project could entice passengers from Cork and Tipperary to use the airport.
Ireland has paid its managers and politicians high salaries. The ten per cent transport increases will have little effect on the top earners.
The line on the Jim Larkin statue in Dublin's O'Connell Street is surely a piece of universal wisdom; "The great seem great because we are on our knees. Let us arise".
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
'Quiet fidelity'
Cardinal Sean Brady has rejected calls for the resignation of Bishop John Magee.
The archbishop said in Killarney yesterday that he knows John Magee for almost 50 years and has found him reliable and dependable.
In a wide-ranging talk he said, "Our first thoughts should always be for those who have suffered abuse. The scandalous behaviour of some clergy has caused immense pain to them and their families".
Had it not been for the "quiet fidelity of thousands priests and religious in the last years the impact of the scandals would have been even more damaging than they have undoubtedly been," he went on to say.
Archbishop Brady is a most kind and friendly man. While working on The Irish News this writer interviewed him and found him most gracious and pleasant. So in that context the above quote is somewhat puzzling.
How could the damage done to victims been 'less damaging'? And the expression 'quiet fidelity' is most worrying. If it refers to the truth that's fine, but if it refers to the hierarchical institutional church it is worrying.
Has there not been far too much 'quiet fidelity' to the church? Is it not exactly that 'quiet fidelity' that has caused so much pain and suffering.
When John Magee was appointed bishop in Cloyne there was much controversy about his nomination. Indeed, at the time many people asked pertinent questions to which there were never any satisfactory answers.
The archbishop said in Killarney yesterday that he knows John Magee for almost 50 years and has found him reliable and dependable.
In a wide-ranging talk he said, "Our first thoughts should always be for those who have suffered abuse. The scandalous behaviour of some clergy has caused immense pain to them and their families".
Had it not been for the "quiet fidelity of thousands priests and religious in the last years the impact of the scandals would have been even more damaging than they have undoubtedly been," he went on to say.
Archbishop Brady is a most kind and friendly man. While working on The Irish News this writer interviewed him and found him most gracious and pleasant. So in that context the above quote is somewhat puzzling.
How could the damage done to victims been 'less damaging'? And the expression 'quiet fidelity' is most worrying. If it refers to the truth that's fine, but if it refers to the hierarchical institutional church it is worrying.
Has there not been far too much 'quiet fidelity' to the church? Is it not exactly that 'quiet fidelity' that has caused so much pain and suffering.
When John Magee was appointed bishop in Cloyne there was much controversy about his nomination. Indeed, at the time many people asked pertinent questions to which there were never any satisfactory answers.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Snooze time almost over
On December 10 this blog began a snooze period.
The snooze is about to end and the blog is due to be back in publication some time next week.
Happy New Year to all readers.
The snooze is about to end and the blog is due to be back in publication some time next week.
Happy New Year to all readers.
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