Thursday, October 06, 2005
'Bring Back Lethal Injection!'
One of our classes sent us out onto the street to get the temperature of the public mood. People are surprisingly eager to talk about their lives. It all depends on how you approach them. People at bus stops, working in shops, eating, minding their kids are all good targets because they can't run away. Also, if you say you want to ask them about the Government they'll usually get bored and wander off. However, if you can get them to talk about the issues that affect them, I think you'll get a better response.
Anyway, here's what I got:
Dáil Vox Pops
The more things change, the more they change the same. That was the message on Dublin’s streets this afternoon. Healthcare, education, crime and the cost of the living were the main gripes for citizens in the capital city of Europe’s second richest economy.
I stopped by a local chip shop and spoke to the owner while he served a steady stream of lunchtime customers.
He has worked on the same street for 25 years. It is “getting harder to run a business,” he said, adding “that’s only in the last year.”
Crime is a major concern. “The minister for justice has a lot to answer for”, he said. He believes the police force is doing a good job but “they arrest someone and they’re out the next day.” He suggested following the US’s example and introducing the “3-strike rule” or “lethal injection”.
He complained that the government “won’t pay the money for [crime prevention]” and that the worst social problems are located “between the courthouses and the hospitals.”
A customer eating some fried haddock chipped in. He recently attended Tallaght Hospital and was struck by the overcrowding. He complained that if you don’t have a medical card or health insurance you have to join a queue and “by the time you get to the top of the queue you’re dead”.
He works in retail, employing 400 people. He said that many of them are in their mid 20s and work night jobs in pubs and takeaway. “They don’t have lives”. Irish labour costs are high compared to the US and he feels that the gap between rich and poor is widening.
He referred to the ‘rip-off economy’, saying that people “don’t have the money” to spend, when the majority of their income is going on household bills which have “rocketed.”
This matches the latest IIB/ESRI Consumer Sentiment Index, which shows that customer confidence in Ireland has dropped to its lowest level since December 2003.
Childcare is a worry for parents. He explained that he was paying €6,000 a year for each of his children at a local Montessori. “That’s the going rate”, he concluded. The retail manager assured me that if the current government put money into childcare “they would clean up”.
His final analysis of the Government? “They’re the best of a bad lot. No one else to put in.”
As I was leaving I asked the chip shop owner what he liked about the government. His answer was blunt. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
I caught up with an office worker on Fade Street as he ate his lunch. He complained about the short breaks that employees are pressured into taking. Workers are legally entitled to an hour but often take far less. He also mentioned overtime, how he sometimes works for 12 hours in a day, only to be paid for 8.
He felt that the work environment was ‘taking after the US’, with people being treated as numbers rather than individuals. He said that prices were a rip off compared to other countries and that the Government should do more about health, taxes and inflation.
Robert Putnam of Harvard University was recently invited to speak at a Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting in Cavan. The professor warned that Ireland was already on the same road as the US and was in danger of losing what he termed its ‘social capital’, the benefits to individuals of strong community links.
I spoke to a businessman outside a boutique on Drury Street. He had a brighter outlook, saying that the government was doing a “good job”. He cited the economy and road network – the Motorway, the Western Route Way, Dublin Port Tunnel – as examples of improvements that the government has made.
However, in relation to education he questioned the relevancy of many third level qualifications, claiming that it produced old graduates who were in their mid-twenties by the time they entered the job market. In his business he saw many graduates who had higher diplomas, degrees and certificates but lacked experience of the real working world.
His wife added that the Leaving Certificate placed too much pressure on pupils. She felt that a system of continuous assessment coupled with interviews would be a better way of deciding college places. It would also help if class sizes were reduced in primary and secondary education.
In a recent poll of Irish voters only 35% felt that the quality of life improved in the past five years, against 41% who thought it stayed the same or got worse (25%).
People are angry but they don't don't want to do anything about it. Apathy and misplaced energy seem to be the biggest barriers.
# posted by Name @ 11:54 a.m. 
Comments:
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hmmm, this is really interesting to read from over here in the US. not surpisingly, i had no idea that there was such discontent over the state of affairs over there but being that the news here is so america-centric, it's not surprising.
a common ground that i see is the apathy factor. americans have a lot of grumbles on the growing disparity b/t the rich and poor, the war, cost of healthcare, outsourcing but yet they do nothing about it. instead, they stick their heads in the sand and go on to re-elect the moron that deepened the quagmire.
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a common ground that i see is the apathy factor. americans have a lot of grumbles on the growing disparity b/t the rich and poor, the war, cost of healthcare, outsourcing but yet they do nothing about it. instead, they stick their heads in the sand and go on to re-elect the moron that deepened the quagmire.
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