Taming The Tiger – Social Exclusion in a Globalised Ireland

I was really surprised to learn that an organisation such as TASC existed in Ireland. It is “a think tank for action on social change”. Well I suspect that nobody is listening to them, certainly not the government.

Taming The Tiger ( published by TAC at NewIreland) is really an academic work but for all that it’s an interesting read (so far). Full of references and data to back up it’s case, I find it reassuring that it has arrived at many the same conclusions as I have based on simple observation of what’s going on around me. The following quotes from the conclusion to chapter 3 page 58 say a lot:

• Ireland has long had relatively high levels of income inequality for an advanced industrial economy.
• Many at the top of the income distribution have developed a vested interest in the continuation of income inequality.
• A widely dispersed distribution of income combined with inadequate provision of public services encourages the more well to do to provide for themselves privately.

And from chapter 4 page 60:

• intense economic globalisation manifests itself in many ways. the rise of economic liberalisation as an economic doctrine to facilitate competition is widespread. The march of universalisation, westernisation and Americanisation is prevalent. There is a de-territorialisation and reconfiguration of geography… meaning that the state no longer controls its national territory as it did in the past.
• we are moving to a competition state as opposed to a welfare state.
• Party and g9overnment politics shift from the general maximisation of welfare to the promotion of enterprise and profitability in both public and private sectors.
• (pg64) In the competition state it is expected that the rising tide will lift all boats.

My first thought would be that those who argue for maintaining Irish sovereignty in the face of EU participation have already missed the boat. It is simply too late. The forces at work are unstopable and, in a sense, natural. The more popualtions are exposed to the opportunities offered by simple contact with others, the more they will see those populations as one and the same with themselves. Just as the India was once known as the Irish Raj, such was the extent to which the administration was populated by Irish Civil Servants, so too the global corporations of the world are populated by all races and have no allegience to anything other than their own advancement.

My second thought is that we need to be careful in this country. We are simply too small a population with too long a history of emigration to tolerate the gettoisation of economic activity. The Irish have demonstrated their capacity to live anywhere and the brightest and best are always the first to go. There will come a stage when Ireland is simply no longer a nice place to live.

Chapter 4 looks at the governments response to global influences and should make interesting reading, although I doubt the Soldiers Of Destiny have the capacity to even understand that there are global influences, never mind respond. I am for the first time in my voting life facing the prospect of having nobody to vote for in next years election. Let’s see.

Letter from Health Services Executive

3rd December 2006.

Dear Patient,

Thank you for your understanding and patience whilst arrangements were being put into place to secure suitably qualified orthodontists to complete your treatment programme.

I have secured the services of a number orthodontists, one of whom will treat you.

A number of concerned clients have contacted the service and I apologise for not being in a position to individually phone you back. I would like to reassure you that an appointment will be sent to you imminently by post. The HSE is progressing arrangements with these orthodontists to facilitate your treatment in appropriate locations. The logistics of securing appropriately qualified personnel matching existing and future work commitments to available treatment locations is challenging given the timeline pressures to secure treatments as speedily as possible.

An appointment will be sent to you by post for your next treatment very shortly where you will meet your new orthodontist.

Again I would like to thank you for your patience in this matter. Yours sincerely,

*****************,
Local Health Manager,
South Lee
PCCC Directorate

Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Chris Cowen

A comment posted to the blog by Brendan wondered what the references to orange and blue were.  Well the answer is Spiral Dynamics. Do a search on it and I am sure you will find no end of hits. The authors based their work on an original idea by their teacher and mentor Claire Greaves. Graves work is summarised in four constructs:

• •Human Nature changes as the conditions of existence change. Yet, the older systems stay with us.
• •We change our psychology and rules for living to adapt to new conditions
• •We have an infinite number of modes of living available to us. There is no final state to which we must all aspire.
• •We can respond positively only to those inputs that are appropriate to the current level of human existence.

Beck and Cowen developed these ideas and came up with a system that considers human development from the point of view of its ability to handle different levels of complexity. They colour codes these as Beige, Purple, Red, Blue, Orange, Green, Yellow, Turquoise and Coral. Red is the least complex. Those living this colour are concerned with survival; food, water, shelter and procreation. Orange is the world of the individual who is out for himself, not concerned with what others may think or say. It is the feeding ground of the consumerist society.

Beck and Cowen set this against the background of Living Conditions. As living conditions change we are forced to respond appropriatley. An example would be how one of the most complex and technological societies on the planet fails to cope with a hurricane and the people of New Orleans drop down the spiral in 24hours.

The whole subject is facinating, especially in the context of the recent changes in Irish society: blue 80’s, orange 90’s and early green 00’s. Where do we go from here? Ah but that’s where this blog started. Well, I think we are in a peak Orange stage with a large group of early Green becoming increasingly concerned about our environment. There is a considerable remaining Blue presence that hankers after the good old days when Clergy, Politicians and Bank Managers made the world secure and safe and never changing, unless it was a socially approved change. Mind you as we all kept quite the likes of CJ Haughey robbed us blind. Being an accepted members of the Soldiers Of Destiny was more important than freedom of speech or of action. Stay inside and close your doors or the boogyman will get you (the Parish Priest, local Guard or County Consellor). They would NOT get you a job or a medical card or a council house unless you were on their side.

Then came Italia 90, U2 and the Bishop Casey affair. The group was out (Blue) and the individual was in (Orange). Now we had individual heros who did their thinking for themselves and journalists who were willing to write about it all no matter who you were.

Liquid Life by Zygmunt Bauman – Polity Press 2006

A really enjoyable read, for the language and the prose if nothing else. The author suggests that western society “a precarious life, lived under conditions of constant uncertainty”. Hence the reference to liquid as an ever changing medium within which we are forced to live. I have read as far as page 113. Favourite phrases are the following:

• From the beginning, cities have been places where strangers live together in close proximity to each other while remaining strangers.
• Public places are the very spots where the future of urban life (and given that the growing majority of the planetary population is made up of urban dwellers, also the future of planetary cohabitation) is being at this very moment decided.
• It is the tendency to withdraw from public spaces and to retreat into islands of sameness that turns in time into the major obstacle to difference – by causing the skills of dialogue and negotiation to wilt and fade. It is the exposure to difference [authors emphasis] that in time becomes the major factor in happy cohabitation by causing the urban roots of fear to wilt and fade.

So maybe here we have some of the impetus behind the blog. The opportunity and ability to live life within the urban environment separated from others reduces the possibility of accidental meeting. Even here there are no opportunities to “practice the skills of dialogue and negotiation”. I can censor any comment and carry on as if you did not exist. I could also pour forth the most unholy rubbish without fear of contradiction (unless I come to the attention of those charged with keeping me safe from undemocratic harm).

A major theme of this book is our consumer society and how it feeds off itself creating and destroying fashion in order to keep the treadmill of change going. Ever changing styles giving rise to ever changing needs and the rich getting ever richer as the herd is moved on to ever greener pastures.

Universal Mind

Does a blogger blog for themselves or for those that might read what they write. I’ve had a look around some other logs. It was all relatively new to me as I have no history of reading blog. From guys battling hard with cancer to the ramblings of technophiles and all else besides. It makes me reconsider this blog. I suspect everything that needs to be said has been said in some shape or form. What is to be gained from adding to that cacophony of blog? The collective musings of the population of the planet. The pure effort involved in searching all those pages to find something that I am actually interested to read is too much.

But I cannot deny the popularity of blog. It fulfills some desire, some need that people have to express themselves as individuals. I wonder what that is? As I write myself, I ask myself the same question. What is different about this experience from , say, writing in my own private diary? Is there the vain hope that what I write will strike a cord with some other, somewhere else? I suspect that it may have more to do a yearning for contact that cannot be satisfied within the confines of our own lives. Where else could I write like this, imagining readers, risking there very real reaction to what I have to say. Sure I get to moderate any comments. I get to delete any negative reaction that might arise, except of course if someone where to come across this who actually knows me.

It seems to me that the awareness that else someone might read this is still significant. It requires me to take more care to ensure that what I write is truly what I want to communicate and that I must take responsibility for what I communicate. My mind to your mind in the words of the illustrious Mr Spock. Then there is the possibility of something much more significant. The wisdom teachers down the ages have spoken of the universal mind, of the possibility that all minds are indeed one mind and that it is for that reason that we should guard our thoughts. We may seek to challange, others may be hurt by that challenge but we should never seek to injure.

Therefore I am required to puruse blogland. Just as I seek to draw those of like minds to me in order to further my education, I should assume that there are others out there who are seeking contact with me. If we all seek and at the same time contribute, it seems to me reasonable that we will arrive at some common understanding. So from here I go in search of greater understanding.

The season that’s in it

The season that’s in it is Christmas and I thought it might be interesting to consider what we can expect from the Christmas Season in the years ahead. It does, of course, depend on whether and if the Celtic Tiger continues to roar and for how long. Being the age I am, I do remember the eighties when the economy was not so good and the season paid more than lip service to it’s origins. Rest assured I am not hankering after the “good old days”. I have eyes that are firmly fixed on the future and what it might look like.

I got a clue last night. I am a member of my local Toastmasters Club, an organisation I would recommend to anyone wishing to leave the keyboard and step in front of a more up close and personal audience. Last night I took the role of Topicsmaster. Those unfamiliar with the Topics session might like to know that it is a part of the Toastmasters meeting when the Topicsmaster nominates members of the audience to speak “off the cuff” for two minutes on any topic of the Topicsmasters choice. If you happen to know something about the topics, you’re grand. Otherwise it can be a nightmare. With practice you do learn to speak like a politician and talk about stuff you know nothing about.

With the season that’s in it, the theme was “Santa and The Grinch”: two Topicsmaster instead of the normal one. I took the anti side, that of the Grinch and presented topics that sought responses decrying Christmas and all that it has come to stand for. What surprised me the most was the ease with which my fellow Toastmasters (of varying degrees of experience) were able to critizise the rampent consumerism that the season has come to represent. The responses included references to the waste produced and it’s environmental impact. The type of labour used to manufacture many of the “tacky” stocking filler products that are purchased. The extent to which many people are seeking to escape the “traditional” aspects of the season by heading off on holidays, snow or otherwise, far away from the family get togethers we have been told it is all about. I accept the respondants were forced to support the Grinch perspective but it was the ease with which they did that surprised. My co-topicsmaster found it difficult to elicit the traditional references to peace and goodwill, sharing and spending time with family.

My conclusion is that there is a conclusion dawning that the last drops of pleasure have been squeesed from the Christmas fest. There are already the beginings of a post-consumerist society that become evident when the consumerism is at it’s height. Gifts to friends and family made some kind of sense when posessions were limited and that jumper or pair of socks, if choosen well, might serve some purpose. But in a society where most can afford to buy clothes, DVDs, games, books, meals out and therapy treatments whenever they wish, the giving of a gift becomes pointless. That the tought may count for something does not wash anymore. Alternatives are sought in goats, chickens and water purifiers but these too soon cannot be considered reasonable responses to the Christmas spirit (whatever that may be or become).

The implications of this gorge-fest are becoming clear. Quantity will not work. We are already becoming an obese nation so the symbol of a grossly overweight white man drinking sugar laden beverages, no matter how striking his attire, is simply not an appropriate one to put before our children. Bulk being out, we attempt to create an impression by spending large amounts of money on very small items, thereby packing more value into a smaller space. But in the heel of the hunt, a watch is a watch and she already has all the jewelry she could ever want. In fact the kids have more toys than they will ever play with and they got them at the company Christmas party. Enter the “hand-made” gift which is to be cherished because it was crafted in West, South or East Cork. The real marketing killer item is, for sure, the gift or book token that roars I have no idea what to get you, but will feel guilty if I don’t get something and have no idea how to get off this ridiculous bandwagon anyway.

So where do we go from here? Well I suggest the adoption of the Thanksgiving holiday. It seems, from this distance, to be a celebration of all that is good in life. It gathers together friends AND family wherever they happen to be. It is a single meal. We might consider leaving out the sports elements and most certainly any gifts. It allows guests to contribute to the meal in kind and does not require the world to prepare for three months in advance. Christmas can then put Santa Claus back in Coca Cola’s box and leave space for that underlying spirit to emerge into the light of a future day.

Hello world!

This is scary stuff. There is considerable risk is starting a blog. For my generation (late 40’s) the very idea of raising your head above the parapet and considering that anyone might be interested in what you have to say is a no-no. Those of you aware of Spiral dynamics will recognise the BLUE in the very ORANGE society that Ireland has become. While I recognise the rise in Individualism that gave use the Celtic Tiger as being necessary, I count myself among those concerned at the reality of the ensueing economic divide. On the positive side the willingness of many Irish people to explore modes of relating to the divine other than that put forward by the once dominant religion is welcomed.

So where do we go next? At the moment, it’s a bit like a kid that has overdosed on sugar, nuts. What is disconcerting is the extent to which any view other than the accepted consumerist one is rejected. Fianna Fail, always and only interested in staying in government, has a solid 40% support. The implication being that 40% of the Irish population want things to remain as they are. They themselves are not interested in long term planning, concerned about the environment that future generations will inherit or indeed about anything but the status quo from which they are benifiting. There is simply no justification for the numbers of 4WD vehicles on our roads that I can imagine, especially the clean ones that never, ever had to engage more than one wheel with the drive shaft.

Anyway, these are the issues that occupy my mind these days.