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Society shines from beneath ugly underbelly
By Joe Horgan
In what has been a strange few weeks the Celtic Tiger rolled over and displayed for all to see it’s less than attractive underbelly.
Strangely enough, even though a first glance showed that this wasn’t going to be pretty, there were still some beautiful things to be found there.
Firstly we had a report that suggested that up to 50,000 older people in this country were living in loneliness with little or no social contact. It drew a picture of a harsher, colder Ireland. It gave credence again to the strange situation whereby the wealthier a people become the less time they have for the social essentials like family and community.
Of course the good news in the report was that the majority of older people in Ireland were still living in a society that gave them support and a network that included friends, family and neighbours. It showed that the country remains by and large an intimate society whereby people still do the simple things like looking out for those who may be in a bit of need.
The problem with these kind of qualities though is that they are so difficult to quantify. It is these less tangible things in a society that are pushed aside when every aspect of living is handed over to the forces of the market.
I don’t know what price the money men of Ireland would put on the older people in society, how they would assess their productivity, because I don’t think that financial culture understands the true value of real people.
Then reports came in that should make any of us who travel across the Irish Sea stop and think. It was revealed that a Filipina woman working on board an Irish Ferries ship was being paid just ›1 an hour and that two other women had been working under similar circumstances.
I presume that in the competitive market we are always hearing about that employing a woman on this basis is acceptable because, as everyone knows, the market place has no morals.
You might think this an abuse of a vulnerable immigrant with little access to ordinary rights. The Celtic Tiger might think it a good bit of business. God only knows what that poor woman thinks.
Then the Republic’s soccer team went to Israel to play in a World Cup qualifier. Cue much reflection on the stark historical irony of people with such a history as the Jews abusing the rights of Palestinians so much. Good call.
Strangely though, the obvious follow-up in print or radio or television never seemed to come. That is the stark historical irony of a people like the Irish being so less than welcoming to those coming here in search of a better life. Like we of all countries know nothing of emigration.
Then it all got very interesting. For a good while now the Irish state has been deporting people, usually in the middle of the night for what we are assured are logistical reasons, often separating families in the process.
Now most of these people are people with no names, they are just numbers on a plane going back to some faraway country, even though we are at the same time told that the economic development of this country means there is an imminent labour shortfall. Does that make sense?
When one of these people finally got a name it was clear that it made no sense at all. Olukunle Elukanlo was deported in his school uniform just a few months before he was due to take his Leaving Certificate exams.
Now unfortunately for the government this young man was extremely popular with his school friends and neighbours. They took to the streets to campaign against his deportation, his school friends protested outside the Dáil, the Archbishop of Dublin spoke out.
Now the Minister in charge of this was our old friend Michael McDowell, the pantomime baddy of the government. Now McDowell can be guaranteed to act tough when he is sure everyone is looking and so we had the spectacle of a government minister disputing the facts of his deportation with a schoolboy who was back in Nigeria in his Irish school uniform.
McDowell, in opposition to a frightened schoolboy, disputed the boy’s age and the circumstances of his deportation, while the boy cried down the phone from Nigeria.
All of a sudden the fearless Justice Minister began to look just like a bully. When he resorted to civil service speak and sought to justify it all by talking about the integrity of the deportation system as opposed to the rights of real human beings, well you couldn’t help but shudder.
Then it started to get very messy. More stories started coming in of families in Athlone and Castleblayney where some children were in hiding, families were split apart and mothers were back in Nigeria fearing for the children they had with them.
Communities in those places too were protesting against the removal of these people from their midst. The Irish Government’s reassurance that all was in accordance with a deal they had done with the Nigerian government was suddenly put into context as it was noted that Nigeria’s capital city, based on chaos, hardship and violence, had recently been ranked as 127th worst out of 130 of the world’s capital cities. It is named as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. So much for the integrity of the deportation system.
And then he decided to let him back. And all the Dublin schoolmates of the deportee spoke of how they’d give him one hell of a party when he got back home. And the ordinary people of Castleblayney and Athlone spoke of the inherent decency of the people removed from their midst. Of how they were true members of the community.
And suddenly, maybe briefly, but truly it was not McDowell and co’s Ireland after all. It was somewhere far, far better.
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