Although the broad outline of the evidence against Charles Haughey was known from the media reports of the Moriarty tribunal proceedings, the impact of the report has been stunning. The scale of the secret funding is much larger than we had known: 171 times his average earnings as Taoiseach. The secretive, manipulative manner in which these funds were concealed from the public and tax authorities is breath-taking.
Santa Claus hands out gifts during the US civil war in Thomas Nast's first Santa Claus cartoon, Harper's Weekly, 1863.
In Western culture, where the holiday is characterised by the exchange of gifts, some of the gifts are attributed to a character called Santa Claus (also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas or St Nikolaus, Sinterklaas, Joulupukki, Weihnachtsmann, Saint Basil and Father Frost).
Just after 9am on the morning of Wednesday, 20 December, just 20 hours after the publication of the Moriarty report, which presented the most disturbing insight into the inner workings of Irish politics that we have seen since the state was founded, a newsreader on RTÉ's 2FM said breezily that the Moriarty tribunal report story was over – that day's story was the opening of the Port Tunnel. The 9am RTÉ Radio One news that day did not even mention the report.
In a country, Armenia, where almost two thirds of the population earn an annual income of around €1,000, the Defence Minister is worth more than $1 billion, the Transport and Communications Minister Andranik Manukyan earns over €2 million a year and the President, Robert Kocharyan, and Prime Minister, Andranik Margaryan, are also among the country's top ten richest people.
The People's Democratic Party of Nigeria, the country's governing party, has selected Umaru Yar'Adua (55) a governor of a northern province and a Muslim, to be its candidate in next year's presidential election.
Media Commentary: On Friday 24 November, 2000 a barrister, appearing for The Sunday World and its crime correspondent, Paul Williams, read an apology to the High Court and acknowledged that allegations made by Williams about Martin Hyland were “absolutely false” – this is the alleged criminal who was murdered last Tuesday, 12 December. By Vincent Browne.
The anti-Americanism of Americans: Anti-Americanism is rife, as evidenced by the following extracts from a critique of American foreign policy that is typically negative.
It was obvious throughout the period when he was Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil that Charles Haughey could not possibly have financed his lifestyle from his official salary. And yet the media and the political establishment did not want to know. By Vincent Browne
By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent UK
