Tara Fire-Tiger 37 mins PEOPLE OF IRELAND. THE TIME TO ‘DO AN ICELAND’ IS UPON US. Fellow countrymen and women, I don’t write this lightly, but I feel it is my duty to offer you an alternative. It’s not detailed enough to be a manifesto, but it is a summary of the feeling which has been rising unvoiced amongst us for many years now. It is in the form of a suggested strategy for action which is designed to protect not just our resources going forward, but our dignity and self-empowerment also. It will be offered for consideration at a National meeting happening very soon which will mark the beginning of the end for government as we know it. We need your feedback. Water charges have united us, but there are bigger threats to our well-being and happiness looming on the horizon. There will always be some resource under threat from faceless corporations. There will always be some Lisbon Treaty chipping away at our sovereignty and belief in our right to say “No.” Unless we stop it it. Right now. In the ten months I have served as admin to Boycott Irish Water, it has become apparent to me that our governmental system has evolved to work against us. It has been moulded to suit the greedy desires of the economic rulers of Europe and beyond. Our resources can be sold too easily out from under our nose without our consent by parties who have only their own survival in mind. Our laws seek to make criminals of the impoverished. No more. For too long, we have allowed the groupthink bubble(1) in Dáil Éireann to hold singular power over a nation that is as rich and diverse as the land upon which we live. Politician after politician has fallen prey to the machine which eats up any initial good intentions and churns out one soulless party line after another, at great expense to the people of Ireland, financially, psychologically and emotionally speaking. The government will be dissolved by the people soon, of this there is no question. The National Citizen’s Movement will be sending you your invitation to this event shortly. My fear is that this will be followed by calls for a general election. I say we can’t allow this to happen. Centralized politics does not suit our personality and needs as a people, and has proven itself to be self-serving and secretive. It’s time to start reshaping this country to better serve our needs and our potential for happiness. It’s time to liberate ourselves from economic and political slavery. Here’s my suggestion: 1 – Dissolve the Government immediately and shut down Dáil Éireann entirely (A number of people have already volunteered to physically remove the government from the building if needs be but we will need more.) As it stands, our current system is based on the British Parliamentary system and has replaced the original Brehon Law, which served Ireland for 1,000 years. Brehon Law, whilst fairly out of touch with modern society, did operate on the idea that “the misdeed of the guilty should not affect the innocent”(2). If this were still enshrined in our laws, we would have told the European gamblers where to shove their debt long ago. As a historical frame of reference, this system is worth looking at, but I mainly include it here to remind you all that we survived just fine without ‘politicians’, as we know them, for a very long time here. I hope you’ll agree it could work for us again. 2 – Dissolve Irish Water as an entity and restore the tax-funded system as it stood previously, at least as a temporary measure. I don’t think this one needs any further explaining. 3 – Declare each county in the Republic a sovereign entity of its own, with full decision-making power and rights over its own resources. You each know who the people are in your communities who would work tirelessly towards making decisions which are truly for the good of the people. Most of these people are non-political. Isn’t it about time we gave them a try? I bet they wouldn’t require a fraction of the inflated wage packets, pensions and quango-payments of our current rulers either. For an example of this kind of ‘direct democracy’, I will refer you to the Swiss Canton System(3) This system is not without its flaws, but it essentially meant that everybody in each separate district (county) would have the opportunity to debate and decide proposed laws, taxes, etc. With our added advantage of social media and telephones, their Landsgemeinde public meetings seem like another option worth considering.(4) 4 – Burn those bond-holders, once and for all. Goodbye EU, it’s been fun, but the party’s over. Our hard-earned money is our own now, thank you very much. 5 – Let the people write their own Constitution(s). Iceland did it. In fact, they even did it online – 25 non-political people wrote their new constitution over a live stream. Unfortunately it failed to hold [for a constructive criticism of their failures, see (5)], mainly because it was shot down by the Supreme Court with the backing of academics (who we hope will help and not oppose us) and the liberal party (if we shun the politicians, this won’t be a problem.). Unfortunately I lack the legal knowledge to know where we would stand with the Supreme Court if we suddenly decided to split into 26 self-governing regions. Governments centralize and decentralize repeatedly throughout history(6). We don’t know how this will be received but we do know that it is time to overhaul this suffocating statute system entirely, and we need to make it hold this time. 6 – A central representative body could also be considered, with however much power the people would decide. The important part is to have resources owned at local level, and decisions made at local level, so that anyone who wants to dance with Ireland has to go through 26 individual strongholds first. I recently compared our current system to “storing all the family jewels in the one drawer beside the front door.” If all that stands between us and the corporate wolves at the door is that bland, emotionless face you’ve seen on the campaign posters year after year, you bet your ass we’re going to be facing this same battle yet again, and soon, be it over privatizing water, healthcare, or any other basic need we might have. This is merely my un-expert opinion. At the end of the day it is up to each and every one of you reading this to have your say too. Whether you agree or disagree, please post your responses to the National Citizen’s Movement pages, as well as the page on which you are reading this. We will soon invite admins to a meeting to discuss your reactions and decide amongst everyone what the best way to proceed is. (1) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink (2) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Irish_law#Legal_theory (3) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantons_of_Switzerland#Direct_democracy (4) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landsgemeinde (5) slate/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/07/five_lessons_from_iceland_s_failed_crowdsourced_constitution_experiment.2.html (6) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralization#Government_decentralization (Apologies for the wiki sources, please do study these ideas further for yourselves.) UnlikeUnlike · You and 9 others like this. Colm Gibson Go for it 28 mins · Like Majella O Connor Cant be worse off than what we are now...... Im all for it 24 mins · Like Kenneth Smyth Sounds like a plan ill help anywere i can 12 mins · Like Sylvia Smyth Time for radical change, Im all for it 4 mins · Like · 1 Shane Jordan Its an idea but very flawed a central government is required but there should be measures put in place to control the corruption that is the major problem with the likes of Cowan giving away oil then getting a handy number from Dob. Laws need to be ti...See More 1 min · Like
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 12:32:14 +0000