Letters 05-04-2007

A round up of the month's letters

Legalisation debate
Ireland's drug problem

A recent report showed that recreational cocaine use in Ireland is on the increase, as are the associated consequences. As recent debates indicate, politicians in this country are afraid to even put their heads above the parapets to suggest a debate on the legalisation of drugs. It seems that this is a taboo too far for them in an election year. Gay Byrne is to be applauded for raising the issue.

It has been obvious for a while now that prohibition is not working and will never work. Drugs were part of human existence long before the advent of civil law and will go on regardless of the types of legislation in place. The results of prohibition are plain to see; a huge illegal black market controlled by ruthless gangs who create the ‘gateways' through which vulnerable people get caught up in hard drugs.
 The argument that the legalisation of drugs will lead to a societal breakdown is a red herring. Drugs are freely available despite prohibition and have no quality control associated with them, so young people are at the mercy of unscrupulous gangsters. What used to be seen as a relatively benign drug – cannabis – is now being sold in higher uncontrolled strengths. And nobody knows what ingredients are being put into cocaine, heroin or speed to dilute them for profit.

The legalisation of drugs would bring recreational drug use within the control of the state, increase visibility of drug users and help in their search for rehabilitation as the stigma would be gone. Garda resources would be freed up. Drug use reflects a disillusionment with society and Ireland's slide into shallow consumerism has driven escapism and the desire for drugs. It is that culture that we should also be paying more attention to.

Barry Walsh

Cork

Tourism and immigration
A friendly Irish welcome

On 12 March, government minister John O'Donohue was on the RTÉ news complaining that he has learned from surveys that some tourists visiting this country would rather be met by real Irish people instead of "non-nationals". Listening to him, it occurred to me that a perfect solution would be if he could get hold of a few thousand leprechauns for our hotels and restaurants. This would definitely meet the requirements of the people who filled out those survey forms. And since it's a well-known fact that every leprechaun has a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it should deal with issues that might otherwise come up about the levels of remuneration available in our hospitality industry.

Seamus McKenna

Dundrum, Dublin 14

Russia
Putin and Chechnya

Once again Vladimir Putin has shown his utter disregard for human rights and democracy in appointing Ramzan Kadyrov as president of Chechnya. According to many human-rights organisations both in Russia and abroad, Kadyrov and his cronies are responsible for massive and gross violations of human rights, including extra-judicial killings, kidnappings and torture, corruption and extortion of humanitarian aid and compensation in Chechnya.
By appointing this thuggish gangster to such a high office in Chechnya, Putin has showed that he does not care about the appalling human-rights situation in Chechnya. The brutal oppression of the Chechen population will continue unabated.

There has been much talk lately about the human-rights situation in Iraq, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Surely it is time to add Russia and Chechnya to this list.

Cormac O'Brien

Malahide, Co Dublin

Nursing Homes
Looking the other way

Why do so many of us look the other way when horrendous abuses and injustices are being committed under our very noses? This kind of self-delusion was at work during the industrial school era in Ireland, and when thousands of young women were confined in “Magdalene Laundries”.

The majority of Irish people who lived through the decades of that so-called “Hidden Ireland” deny they knew anything of the abuses. Yet when boys were sent out to work on farms, they spoke sometimes of what was happening to them back in the schools. Girls also hinted, occasionally, at maltreatment or cruelty. And parents nationwide would threaten misbehaving kids with a stint in one of the feared institutions. Feared precisely because people did know or suspect that something shameful and inhuman was happening behind those high brick walls.

In decades to come, lots of decent people will, I'm sure, claim they knew nothing about how elderly people were suffering in poor-quality nursing homes in the first decade of the 21st century. But right now, we are aware that all is not as it should be in these places where any of us could end up one day. So let's not pretend that we don't know.

John P Fitzgerald

Callan, Co Kilkenny

Politics
Election debated within narrow parameters

There is a need for the left to try to set the agenda and attempt to redefine the parameters of the ‘debate' that will be set by the public-relations industry working on behalf of the establishment parties.

In the last election in 2002, former General Secretary of Fianna Fáil, Martin Mackin, now of Q4 Public Relations, was responsible for the party's electoral strategy. According to the Q4 website, this involved “developing campaigns from scratch, including market research” and ensuring “message discipline”.

The “market research” told FF that the issue people were most concerned about was health and knowing this Bertie Ahern consistently claimed that health was FF's “number one priority” in the election.

People may have reasonably expected that what he meant was that health, as a public service, would be improved. But of course what he really meant was that the privatisation of health would be a number one priority as soon as Mary Harney became minister for health.

If the mainstream media lived up to its self-image of dedication to the search for truth, it would have pointed out such deception, and would have continued to do so as the FF/PD government delivered on its privatisation promise. Instead, the issue has only now begun to be talked about in any sustained way in the context of the run-up to the forthcoming election.

This is where alternative media like Village and its readers should take a lead in continuously exposing the deception of the mainstream parties and highlighting the facts so that people can make more informed decisions about who they vote for in the election.

Mark Walshe

Edenmore, Dublin

Media
Coverage of garda's family tragedy

There have recently been notices in the national press advertising for six independent members for the new Press Council of Ireland. The coverage in some of our papers of the tragic death in childbirth of a young garda and the linking of her distraught garda husband to the tragedy of Abbeylara is bordering on the obscene. This and recent coverages of high-profile manslaughter and murder trials, where the victims and alleged perpetrators have been tried and convicted by certain newspapers, are just more examples of how far our once esteemed and ‘believed' newspaper industry has gone down the road in imitation of its worst British tabloid counterparts.

I urge members of the public to apply for these six memberships at the office of the Press Ombudsman so that they can express their disgust at the treatment of this young garda's family,to demand an explanation and very public apology and to continue monitoring newspaper ethics.

Keith Nolan

Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim

Reaction to this letter on Village.ie

Bill Finnerty: “The only way to make newspaper editors sit up and take notice is to actualy stop buying the offensive newspapers”.

Pat Murphy: “Email the advertisers in these newspapers… then you will be hitting them where it hurts and the papers will start listening to their public”.

Immigration and integration

Whole-of-government approach needed

At present in Ireland there is a worrying lack of vision for how we would like our society to develop as a successful country of immigration.
For some time the Immigrant Council of Ireland has been calling for a whole-of-government approach to immigration to solve these problems. In particular we have been calling for the establishment of a robust, high-level cross-departmental structure to co-ordinate the work of all government bodies that have a brief in the area of immigration and integration.

In order for such a structure it to be effective we believe it will need to be driven and co-ordinated by a minister who is specifically responsible for immigration and integration issues, has a seat at the cabinet table and who has sufficient financial and human resources to drive the process under a clearly defined strategy. A model similar to the office of the Minister for Children could be considered, whereby staff from different government departments working on relevant issues are brought together to progress the work in a more coherent and effective way.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland is calling on all political parties to commit, in advance of the upcoming election, to promoting a whole-of-government approach to immigration by setting up such a structure, led by a minister, which ensures that key stakeholders such as the social partners, civil society and migrants themselves can participate fully in its design, implementation and evaluation.

These changes are crucial if we are to rise to the challenge of immigration in a positive way.

Sr Stanislaus Kennedy

Ireland Founder, Immigrant Council of Ireland

Global warming
Rubbishing the realities of climate change

If ever anyone was in doubt that we're facing irrevocable changes to our environment and weather very soon, then surely those doubts have finally been banished by the latest report on climate change from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to the EPA, summer temperatures will rise by as much as 3 degrees Celsius within the next 50 years. This mightn't sound much to many people, but this will cause heat stress to many humans and animals. Also, it will lead to drought in the east and south east, causing an increased frequency of wild fires and pest infestations. Doesn't sound too pretty, does it?

In winter, we will see more intense cyclonic and extreme precipitation events, resulting in violent winter storms currently experienced once every 100 years becoming an annual event. Large parts of our biggest cities – Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick – will be permanently under water.

This EPA report was compiled by eminent scientists and environmentalists, as was the recent UN report on climate change, so it cannot be rubbished by apologists for the oil industry such as George Bush, Dick Cheney, Kevin Myers, Mary Ellen Synon, Ruth Dudley Edwards and others. A right rogues gallery if ever there was one, who if they're not stopped and confronted now could cause the extinction of life on earth.

Paul Kinsella

Santry, Dublin 9

Reaction to this letter on Village.ie
K Mannerings: “Perhaps the best way to bring home the meaning of global warming in Ireland would be to publish a list of those streets (with their million Euro house price tags) which will be under water if (when) the polar ice caps and mountain glaciers melt”
Ciarán Mac Aonghusa: “[People] have become more skeptical [about climate change] ...  just as a consensus of sorts emerges on climate change, cheap, unscrupulous journalists are starting to capitalise on a counter current. We are bestowing a nightmare on future generations”

Information evening
Youth Mental Health & Human Rights: An Information Evening & Public Forum at UCD. 25 April, 7-9pm, Theatre N, Newman (Arts) Building, UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4

The UCD Equality Society, Amnesty International and Headstrong – The National Centre for Youth Mental Health Ireland – are holding an information evening and public forum that will focus on youth mental health and human rights. All are invited to come along and participate in the discussion of the issues, to put forward opinions and experiences, and to inform those attending of the issues that need to be raised and addressed. Speakers for the night will include members of Amnesty International, Headstrong, and the Youth Advisory Council to Headstrong. Amnesty International are campaigning on mental health in Ireland, organising regional public meetings on mental health, publishing action briefings, and are part of the Irish Mental Health Coalition Headstrong, as the National Centre for Youth Mental Health Ireland, work with others to improve services for young people and to reduce stigma about mental health issues through research, service development and public affairs activities.

For more information, contact Carlos Bruen on 01 716 4638 or carlos.bruen@ucd.ie

STATEMENT
An Taisce M3 move warmly welcomed

The Campaign to Save Tara warmly welcomes the High Court action taken by An Taisce against the Minister for Transport and the National Roads Authority. The campaign claims that much-needed improvements and upgrades to national routes, as well as the promised by-passes, are stalled by the M3 proposal because of the contractual restrictions placed on Meath County Council by the PPP funding mechanism.

The campaign expressed dismay that Justice Kelly, who heard the application today, cited the danger of jeopardising commercial negotiations between the NRA and private consortiums as a reason for refusing to grant permission for An Taisce's challenge.

We would have hoped that the historical and cultural importance of the Tara complex and the urgency in preventing any further destruction would take precedence over any commercial concerns.

Our national routes are being deliberately downgraded to make way for privately-owned and heavily-tolled PPP motorways such as the M3. The roads of Meath are a disgrace, and the commuters of the county are bearing the brunt of a lack of investment in infrastructure over the last decade.

Recently in the Tara Valley an ancient burial ground, comprising of stone-built underground chambers, has been dismantled and removed from Rowestown. The National Monument at Rath Lugh has been damaged. The archaeological digs have expanded to such an extent that the whole proposed route south of the existing N3 has become one huge site. The Discovery Programme, a state-funded research effort undertaken in 1995, described the Tara landscape as “a mosaic of monuments”. This was rejected by the NRA before archaeological works began.

Archeological works are now concentrated at Lismullen, and there is speculation that a major new discovery has been made at this location.

The great lie from the NRA and the government is that this road will help ease the misery of commuters. Any new motorway feeding directly into the M50 at Blanchardstown will have a minimal effect on journey times. It will lead to greater traffic volumes and further chaos on the already grossly overcrowded M50. Dropping this proposed route would be the most sensible, practical, consensus building policy option, and alternatives could deliver immediate relief for commuters.

The Campaign to save tara