Congratulation to Joe O’Brien on winning the Dublin Fingal by-election. And to the three less successful Green Party candidates and the hundreds of tireless canvassers who walked miles for a better future.
There are two types of people in the world – people who look to the past and people who look to the future. There is a bright future beyond the despair and chaos highlighted daily in the media. Populations in Europe, America, even China, are getting older. Adults reminisce about happy days and some students are fearful of change, that their futures will be poorer than their parents. Politicans look to past mistakes and are paralysed into doing nothing. Many business leaders look to a short term future, hoping to get rich quickly in case the music stops. People electing nationalist, populist parties that promise no change, no future; no risk, no reward.
I despair of World politics. Words are cheap. Politicans, Business & Trade Unions can destroy the future by inaction or by ideology, “What we Have, We Hold”, “Kick the can down the road”, “Don’t touch the Nettles”. Though the realists say there are “no voters, no jobs on a dead planet”. Yesterday I went to a church service which was led by young people, many economic migrants, and am sad I might not see the future these children will create together. Greta Thunberg keep pushing.
An article in the Guardian newspaper reports: ” In September alone 10,551 refugees and economic migrants arrived in Greece, the highest in a single month since the 2016 EU-Turkish deal”, hoping for a better future. “Cyprus has experienced a surge, with most travelling into the partitioned island’s EU-south through the Turkish-occupied north. Cyprus outstrips all other EU states in having the highest number of asylum applications per capita“. Rather than tear-down the border fence, talk is now of increasing border policing. Most EU & American peoples are ignoring reality, the history of their own past refugees and rejecting the future that these highly-motivated people will create. Building fences & moats are a waste of money. Can individuals adopt a migrant to free a EU-government-created logjam?
Every new Irish government will be affected by the €205,000,000,000 past governments have borrowed and an EU cap on future borrowing. Much of that borrowing was wasted, but it can’t be a stop on the future – no risk, no reward. Future borrowings, guarantees, public-private-partnerships, housing associations, etc must be invested for the common good – housing, underground city rail transport, electrify rural rail, insulation. Think of the country as 1 connected place like a 5-million-head city, and not 50 independent competing silos. Stop talking; Decide, consult, plan, consult, adjust plan, BUILD, fine-tune. No more Boom, Bust. Just Build for our Future!
SEASONAL GREETINGS AND A BETTER GREENER 2020
