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IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair. We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.
1. The life-saving devices that could kill you
Charles C Mann looks at how smartphones could, in the wrong hands, turn life-saving devices such as pacemakers into murder weapons at the touch of a button. (Vanity Fair)
I asked Jack if he thought anyone would actually use smartphones to try to fiddle with other people’s pacemakers, or change the dosage of their medications, or compromise their eyesight, or take control of their prosthetic limbs, or raise the volume of their hearing aids to a paralyzing shriek. Will this become a tempting new way to settle a score or hurry up an inheritance? He said, “Has there ever been a box connected to the Internet that people haven’t tried to break into?”
2. The entertaining thief
Adam Green spends some time with Apollo Robbins, the pickpocket extraordinaire who has specialists studying what his methods reveal about the nature of human attention. (The New Yorker)
Robbins works smoothly and invisibly, with a diffident charm that belies his talent for larceny. One senses that he would prosper on the other side of the law. “You have to ask yourself one question,” he often says as he holds up a wallet or a watch that he has just swiped. “Am I being paid enough to give it back?”
3. One Nation under God
Winston Ross profiles the far-right ‘sovereign’ groups that are emerging in the US, and their disregard for government. (The Daily Beast)
They are “sovereign citizens,” inspired by any number of complicated and cockamamie theories that all draw the same conclusion: we are not subject to your “laws.” And they are becoming an increasing headache for cops, public defenders, prosecutors, bailiffs, and judges all over the U.S., because when they inevitably land in court for driving without a license or failing to pay taxes, they clog up the system with reams of nonsensical paperwork. Their obfuscatory filings are so inundating that harried prosecutors often drop the charges against them – a victory for the sovereigns’ otherwise quixotic cause.
4. Working for a robot
Kevin Kelly wonders how long it will take before robots become our employers. (Wired)
It may be hard to believe, but before the end of this century, 70 percent of today’s occupations will likewise be replaced by automation. Yes, dear reader, even you will have your job taken away by machines. In other words, robot replacement is just a matter of time. This upheaval is being led by a second wave of automation, one that is centered on artificial cognition, cheap sensors, machine learning, and distributed smarts. This deep automation will touch all jobs, from manual labor to knowledge work.
5. When the West goes home
Andreas Ulrich looks at the training being given to police in Afghanistan and wonders what will happen to the country once Western forces withdraw. (Der Spiegel)
Eight weeks is not much time to make a police officer of a man who has perhaps never attended a school. The country’s illiteracy rate is currently at roughly 70 percent, and sometimes the recruits don’t understand a word, for instance, if an instructor tries to teach a group of Pashtuns in Dari. Only the most basic knowledge is taught: roadblocks, house searches, self-defense and making arrests, weaponry and a few legal principles, including human rights. But is that enough?
6. Conducting yourself
Justin Davidson, a critic, decides to lead by example and conduct his own orchestra. (NYMag)
The idea of conducting as a kind of emotional ventriloquism helps deal with one especially thorny bit of the Maestro Paradox: Leadership requires confidence that is difficult to acquire and impossible to fake. Orchestras are psychic X-ray machines. They judge a new chief within minutes, and once scorn sets in, forget it. I’m going to have to project the sense that I am entitled to be there, and first, I must convince myself.
… AND A CLASSIC READ FROM THE ARCHIVES…
In 2007, Jeanne Marie Laskas went 500 feet below the surface, getting to know the miners who keep everything moving. (GQ)
The first day I went into the coal mine, a guy looked down and said, “Damn, how big are your feet?” I said, “15.” He said, “You’re a big-footed son of a bitch.” And that was it. One guy had a huge head, so of course we called him Pumpkin. One guy had a big red birthmark on his face, so of course his name was Spot. They don’t cut you any slack. They’ll get right on you. A coal miner will get right on you.
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We are all one race, the colour of your skin doesn’t make you better or worse than me, it’s how you live your life that does! I’m happy to say that my children will grow up not knowing what racism is, all I have to do is look out my window and see all the kids playing together on my street and the topic of skin colour is never spoken about! Ireland will be a much better place in a decade or so… I hope!
“At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to state this or that or the other, but it is “not done”. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals”. George Orwell
Why is the journal censoring people with valid, non-abusive, non-insulting comments? Are people who have certain comments made in a logical and rational way….dangerous to the journal? Why does the journal delete allow some people to make very abusive comments as long as they support multiculturalism, why does the journal get caught having to allow some commentors only to block them after they are done from further participation in commenting on journal.ie?
Is the journal afraid to allow these commentors on because the journal has it’s own agenda of pushing multicultural policies? Why is the journal behaving like a tyrannical oppressor…censoring views, facts and opinions made rationally that oppose it’s own agenda?
Professional objective journalism does not reside in the intolerant journal.ie that is for sure.
Excellent report Timi, it’s nice to read something positive about Ireland’s future.
Great to read an ultimately positive, optimistic piece about Irish attitudes. There’s hope for this place yet!
It’s crazy to think there will be no racism in Ireland in five years. Many countries have had immigration for far longer periods than we, and often people have over time become complacent rather than dealing with the issues at hand.
Well hopefully we might be in a slightly more informed position socially, having suffered broad racism in England from the fifties through to I don’t know – the late eighties? Also we’re trying to integrate with a view to the historical problems of white racism more broadly across Europe and America. There’s plenty of examples of stuff that’s gone wrong (don’t sequester the immigrant black population into a ring of concrete squalor on the outskirts of town while saying pompous stuff about fraternity and equality for one.)
And realistically, if we’re going to get it right, it’ll need to be from very early on. Five years isn’t crazy in terms of bedding down social inclusion and normality. For the kids in school now, in fifteen years say, they’ll be thinking about settling down with their partner – life moves on.
We’re a skint country again – we can at least show the world how to go about avoiding the social blight of broad racism.
@swintwobirds, your comment is a bit ironic considering your previous comments about boggers and non dubs in a previous article.
White racism? There is and has been racism from every other race too, and toward white people too.
It was whites who set about stopping the slave trade, much to the protests of black and Jewish slave company owners, who made representation to the British parliament expressing their protestations at the Royal Navy stopping slave trade.
It was Arabs who took over 100million black slaves and over 1 million European slaves and Saudi Arabia who only decided in 1968 to ban slavery. for all the wrongs of western society, we have led the way in the eventual freedoms of mankind.
If it were up to any other race, would they have done so, seeing as they all practiced slavery, slaughter and other acts upon their own kind and others.
and who said we had to have this artificial forced immigration policy in the first place…we never had it before the mid 90′s and we were not scorned by any other race, so why now? We have every right to oppose immigration and to preserve our race, our country, our people and it’s culture. If you support the right of Amazonian Indians to have their people and culture in tact, then the same applies to Europe and the Europeans.
There will always be racism. Hard to think how things will be in a hundred years but certainly I don’t ever see an end to it. We’re humans. Humans are flawed, we’ll always find a way to put people down.
Look at Holland, often admired for it’s multicultural society, i’ve seen racism there first hand. I’ve seen it in China…god help you if you’re Taiwanese in China!
Point is it’s everywhere, I just hope we can learn to minimise it as much as possible.
What you mean by “I’ve seen it in China…god help you if you’re Taiwanese in China”?
Do you think Taiwan is better to Mainland of China?
Have you been in Beijing or Shanghai, Nanjing, Tianjing?
If you have never been to those places, I advise you to go and see.
That’s the nub of the issue as to why Nigerians in particular seem have such bad ‘press’. There is a belief that the majority have cheated the system to get here, abuse the social welfare system while here, are aggressive in there behavior and thankless for what Ireland has given them. Of course all the above refers to those who came via the asylum process which is a typically Irish civil service system which doesn’t serve the country or the seeker. There are also the Garda reports of Nigerian fraud gangs and the ‘Pamela’ case which did untold damage to the word ‘nigerian’ in Irish people minds. The Nigerian community need to address these issues as they are real and not some racist slight. Am I racist because I have a problem with the above ‘Nigerian’ issues even though I have always treated people with dignity and respect at a personal level? When I meet people i do not consider their skin colour. Let me make it clear, I am not talking about those who have come to contribute to society and there are many from doctors, tourists and the above author.
I don’t want to be a party pooper or anything, but I think the assertion that Ireland will be free of racist attitudes any time in the near future is a little naive. The one thing that shocked me most about peoples reaction to the Darren Scully debacle was how some of them didn’t even know what racism was. The term ‘I’m not racist but… all people from country X display characteristic Y’ was thrown about quite a bit during that time. How can a country be free of racist attitudes when so many are ignorant to what racism actually is? And this isn’t just an issue of semantics, or ‘political correctness gone mad’, it’s the very crux of the problem.
He wasn’t being racist. He was expressing his experience of what happened in Naas. He found that a certain group of people behaved as a rule nearly everytime in a certain manner, and due to that abuse, he had to close shop. Does that means he hates Africans..no.
If poles or other east Europeans had behaved in the same manner, he would have highlighted their aggressive manner and closed shop on them, you also forget, they were trying to force their way, force Scully’s hand at jumping the housing que, which means vulnerable Irish people who have been waiting for years for a house get bypassed, whos to say what would happen these Irish people in the meantime, some may probably die.
I think if you are going to go around calling this description of his experience as racist, then perhaps one could call your promotion of people jumping a que at the expense of people here already on the que before them…as racist. Seeing as one group are black and the other white. Or am I just describing your own description of a particular situation?
Hi Brian, I think you might be missing, or illustrating, my point. First I never advocated the ‘promotion of people jumping a que at the expense of people here already on the que before them’ in any way what so ever. Darren Scully can refuse to represent people that are attempting to forcefully manipulate the social welfare system, but when he refuses to represent an ethnic group based on the behaviour what may even have been in the majority, that is racial discrimination, full stop.
Hello Tubbs,
No not missing the point at all, I know exactly what you were saying. But the all too common buying into…”I am not racist but”…kind of anti-racist knee jerk response is what I am trying to say, is itself by way of being an automatic response to people voicing their opposition to abuse coming from a community that you can define as behaving in a systematic repeated fashion….ignoring the relaity of what the man was really about and trying to say.
He was really referring to his own locale, in Naas. He was saying that repeatedly time and again, unfailingly, that only one group of people behaved a certain way. He even said they were nice and what not when he would bump into them on the street, but when it came to lobbying for places for a council house, they became very aggressive. Now we all seem to have a religion like reverence for science. Science makes pronouncements based on verifiable repeated observable results. Mr. Scully found the same repeated behaviour time after time, in his own council office with the local African ethnic community. Because of this behaviour he shut down shop, NOT because of their race or skin colour, as stated if they were Poles who had been aggressive, he would have pointed that out…again only if they as a group on each occasion he dealt with a person from that background, they became aggressive. Which is what the African community did. It was his experience in Naas. He is saying, perhaps somewhere else they behave differently but in Naas, in the context of getting a council house or making representations fo rthem to get other services, they become aggressive.
If it were only 4-5 people, he would have done what people here are asking…to judge on individual behaviour, but it was not, it was how they as a group in THAT particular contxt behave, time and time again, not 4-5 individuals, but most of them.
So I guess we have 2 issues here. We have no way of verifying Scullys claims do we? Just his word on it, and what he feels to be aggressive behaviour. If we know him not harbour any racist notions, then we have no worries really, but again we have no evidence to make that claim. To base an argument on subjective, secondhand, unsubstantiated information isn’t science, it’s quackery.
But the real issue is what was accomplished by the approach he took. By making a sweeping statement based on race all he achieved was to alienate not just the Nigerian community in Nass and Ireland, but possibly other ethnic minorities that ‘misinterpreted’ his motivations. Even if the majority of the Nigerian community he encountered treated him aggressively when dealing with social welfare claims, there is still a minority that didn’t and now they will feel discriminated against based on their race, as opposed to their behaviour. Moreover, if Scully was a good Mayor who made an error in judgement then the community has lost a valuable resource. The problem could have been dealt with in another way that would have seen the actual issue addressed, without marginalising an ethnic minority.
Some form of racism will always exist but I think it should be unacceptable for people to make comments in public. I left Ireland over 20 years ago and have lived in Japan and the UK, pay taxes/support the economy etc wherever I live as do many Irish emigrants worldwide and foreigners living in Ireland. I was very disappointed to hear from my Japanese husband that he was hassled while smoking outside a pub in Howth during our Christmas holiday at home last week. 3 people walking into the pub shouted at him saying…’hey Chinaman- what are you doing here ?’. Surely my husband has the right to stand outside a pub without being hassled ??
Unfortunately racism is something that will never go away. It will always be the minority but it will always be there. Its a nice thought that it won’t exist but it’s just not a reality.
Or maybe you are just a negative person. It definitely won’t go away if we continue to think negatively!
That’s a big assertion. Care to provide se evidence, or at least some line of reasoning other than you say so?
I don’t think that’s a negative comment at all. It is, unfortunately, a realistic comment. I certainly won’t have my kids brought up with any form of racism! But there are people who are seriously delusional out there and will pass that onto their kids. It will become even more taboo but I can’t see it going away with the next generation. Only the other day there were some seriously racist comments on another thread going on about White power and how the White race was his race and bla bla bla,neo nazis are alive and thriving all over our planet. Bloody scary! I would walk away from someone spurting that crap but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. The thought of no racism is lovely though and I will continue to hope for it! Great article m’dear :)
Yes, the ugly face of racism will always be around but it will struggle to be seen in the crowd if it’s part of a tiny minority! Too much talk about it on the tv and in sports now will keep it alive! We need to teach our young by example! It starts at home!
there will always be ignorant bitter uneducated people , yes racism will always exist maybe
……maybe we should all just try to live and let live . Accept life and learn manners . There will always be cultural differences , religious differences , even dietry differences…
Yes Eileen,agree completely,live and let live,but not everyone shares that opinion which puts us back to square one……there’ll always be a racist element to argue over, the same as there’ll always be different types of diets to fight about and crimes committed. I guess if the world was too peaceful it could be a really boring place……or we could put more effort into space exploration?? ;)
Emsey wemsey
I want to live in a cave ……but space exploration sounds good too :)
We can share the cave,I’ll use it as a summer spot n you can have it for Christmas…..or vice versa. The rest of the year can be spent in space :D
Even if all the people in the world were black or brown, there would still be racism or people would express a preference for different types or colours or looks. It already happens today.
Black women bleach their skin so as to appear lighter toned, look at Beyonce, she used to be much darker..isn’t that racism, doesn’t she hate darker skin. Black women spend a lot of time straightening their hair to look straight and caucasian, why are they not proud to have the hair they are born with. If you look at rap videos, black men seem to more often then not, have an array of very light skinned black females and white women, they are expressing a discriminatory preference for it.
People with lighter skin tones in India and Pakistan are regarded as more valuable and held in higher esteem. People with darker skin are looked down on by their own race.
If the white race did not exist you would still have racist attitudes and discrimination of people based on their skin, you would have different classes of people as society segregates itself into people who are less and less dark, and all by the people of these races themselves…they are already doing it.
Racism and discrimination based on looks will not go away because you try to teach the white race a lesson. As if we were the main proponents of racism, we are not. True enlightenment will come when we see we are all different and celebrate the differences, I personally like seeing the different kinds of black people one can find in Africa and the different kinds of white people one can find in Europe etc, and the different kinds of Orientals there are. True equality and self-worth of each different people and culture will only come when we talk in terms of understanding that difference exists, and that each different kind of people should be proud of their racial difference, their physical characteristics and other characteristics that make them unique in the world and have a unique culture specific to them, as we Irish do, that is true maturity.
Forced socially engineered policies of multiculturalism only forced on white countries does not promote difference or equality. Multiculturalism is monoculturalism and the death of diversity wherever it is enforced.
Why not mention there were no direct flights between Ireland and Nigeria in 1996.Although it makes no difference,people have a right to try and improve their own lives and that of their children.I’m white irish but if i was part of any group that came to these shores to make a better live for myself or family i would fight tooth and nail to stay here.We have despite what people think a very tolerent reasonably just and caring society.Considering where some our of recent friends come from despite our finicial problems that makes us paradise.Racism will thrive if people ignore or refuse to stand up when presented with examples of it.
I despise racism in all its froms but i don’t understand how that is is a racist comnent.Under EU law you must seek asylum in the first country of entry.Up till very recently there were no regular flights between Ireland and Nigeria.Its seems if people don’t agree a comment the “shutup phrase” is thats “racist” is used thus ending what most often can be reasoned debate.If you are going to use that pharse,please use it in context and not as a put down.
where does it say he sought asylum?
Not that the Dublin Regulation probably has no relevance in Mr Martins’ case, what you assert about EU law simply isn’t true, Norman.
The Regulation establishes, first and foremost, definitive criteria as to which EU country is responsible for handling an asylum application. According to these criteria, in order of priority, the responsibility rests with:
The country where the applicant’s closest family already resides.
The country which has issued a residence permit or visa to the applicant (if applicable).
The first EU country that the applicant has entered, whether lawfully or unlawfully.
The country where the applicant has previously applied for asylum (if applicable).
Racist actions are deplorable but we all have the right to dislike whoever we want.
The article portrays Irish as racist, is it then wrong to see Nigerians as lazy if that is your experience of them?
Part of what you say could be seen as a generalisation and therefore would be wrong,i’ll let you work out which part i’m refering to.
The article also points out that the racism is not all Irish people. And that he sees it on the decline, I wouldn’t have thought the article portrayed Ireland as racist but perhaps it is how you read it personally.
Ciaro, I think what you say is wrong on a number of levels. The article does not say that ALL Irish are racist, rather a select minority. Nor are ALL Nigerians lazy but perhaps a select minority (applicable to any other nationality). To make generalisations re a whole group based on the characteristics of a select minority is the very definition of racist.
The article is fair and balanced. The author is clearly saying that since he came here attitudes have been changing for the better. He never said all Irish people are racist at all. Of course its wrong to say “Nigerians are lazy” if you have only had an experience of certain people being lazy. There are plenty of lazy Irish people too, does that make “the Irish” lazy?
We have a right to oppose immigration. Why are we having immigration from all over the world now, when we did not have this before the mid 1990s? We were not seen as racist then, we sent volunteers to 3rd world countries to help them, sent financial aid, and were loved back then, while we still had our own country, so why are we having immigration now?
We should return to this way of doing things. Immigration will ruin this country and not make any 3rd world country better, in fact our ability to help them will decrease.
Lots of ignorant people trying to use Irish emigration throughout history as justification for mass immigration into this country.
People saying that Irish people today, in 2012, cannot discuss immigration because Irish people emigrated in the past.
Whether you want it or not, this country belongs to the Irish people alive today.
The “Ireland” that is passed onto the next generation is based on the choices you make now. If you base those choices on events that happened hundreds of years ago, then you are a fool. Base those choices on the type of country you want to live in, and the type of country you want your children to grow up in.
Hello to all and a complimentary Happy New Year round. My name is Timi Martins and I am the person whom this article was written on. I would like to say 1st of all. Thank you to the theJournal.ie and the Journalist who took this interview with me and another round of thanks to all the people who left messages and comments regarding this submitted piece.
2nd-ly I would like to take some time to clear up a few points that have been raised by a few people.
1. I am not and have never claimed or been a Refugee of any sort in my ENTIRE LIFE. My purpose for coming to Ireland was solely for the purpose of Education.
2. My Family paid for my education up until my Masters Qualifications…Total spent could be well in the 30K(Irish Punts) margin for 10years of Education.
3. I do not think All Irish People are racist but there is a population of people who are very ignorant to the fact that there are people from different backgrounds or ethnicity who dont take likely to racist taunts.
4. I do not make comments based on any ones objectives, but on my own life experiences. Referencing the Gardiner Park incident, I felt belittled by people half my age(at the time) and betrayed with their trust and feelings…after being begged and hounded for gifts from these children who attended the Streetball Nationwide Tournament, to be then turned on with the same gifts that were kindly supplied by the Dublin City Council for the kid’s own benefit. I felt not only a strong sense of riff-raff from those involved but also Pity.
5. Not only Nigerians are lazy, there are many Lazy Irish people too. Most can be found soliciting for money on O’Connell and the Ha’penny bridge in Dublin.But Laziness is not a National Pride nor Disgrace more of an Individual disappointment in a persons Drive.
6. I believe in Ireland, Racism will never be eradicated nor will it completely vanish from Irish lands, an example is in the UK which has been multicultural for 40+ years…There is still a widely recognized political front called the BNP. Racism is another form of Hate or Prejudice, and I have been told by Many Mature Irish People(age45-70) that Irish people especially always felt they were better than Black people. Because that’s what they were taught, and throughout the ages it has filtered through to only a small minority which is rapidly diminishing. But I can say give it time……and there will be a greater ethnic equality
7. There are different forms of discrimination but unfortunately most White people would never notice them, but it is as clear as day to many non EU nationals. It can even come from anywhere….i.e on the Bus, from a store clerk, driving or even walking down the road.
8. If you are afraid of change then you will Never progress. Change is the Differentiation and the factor(s) surrounding that effect.
9.I am not complaining in this Interview, I was asked to give my interpretation of my life as I know it to have sequenced trough the eyes of an Irish Resident Immigrant.
10. Do not judge a book by its cover, and dont judge a person by their skin color/ nationality. Its whats inside that counts Most!
Thank you again, sorry if I am long winded I only wanted to answer as many of the comments in as little text as possible.
Happy 2012!
I am very disappointed to read that you think homeless people are lazy ! They are not – there are so many issues/problems with people on the street but laziness is most definitely not the root cause!
Hey Timi. Stay strong, especially for your girls. Multi-cultural Ireland is in its infancy compared to other countries so it’s long road ahead. Keep the faith! (Janet, Auckland, N.Z.).
I find your comments patronising and utterly disgusting. You claim you want to see racism eradicated and for indigenous Irish people to look past skin colour. Then you claim the children in Dublins inner city are dressed like riff raff and you look down on them at with pity.
Hypocrisy much?
Kevin this is my statement, you can see there is nothing derogatry in it. Only the suggestion that the PEOPLE INVOLVED in the act commited against me, Racial or not were…….
4. I do not make comments based on any ones objectives, but on my own life experiences. Referencing the Gardiner Park incident, I felt belittled by people half my age(at the time) and betrayed with their trust and feelings…after being begged and hounded for gifts from these children who attended the Streetball Nationwide Tournament, to be then turned on with the same gifts that were kindly supplied by the Dublin City Council for the kid’s own benefit. I felt not only a strong sense of riff-raff from those involved but also Pity.
Ciaro you went on to mention the ‘Lazy’ Fact and that is a prejudice in itself. This has actually changed the topic of discussion.
People look at the facts and please do not jump into conclusions.
Janet, thanks and Much love travels to New Zealand. Happy 2012!
Mr. Martins,
People have a right to oppose immigration without being called a racist. I would condemn the ingratitude shown you at the community event. But I still oppose immigration without opposing or hating races, the opposite is true in fact.
Also people have a right to ask how people come here and get to stay in this country. We have a right to preserve and protect the ancestral (genetic) and cultural heritage of this small nation. There are loopholes and backdoor ways for non-EU citizens to get into this country. Many people get student visas which are renewed for successive years and then for further study and then they get work visas which also get repeatedly renewed. Then those said people make a case to stay here permanently saying their main centre of interest is now in Ireland, others get married intentionally to EU citizens in order to stay here.
People have a right to state these facts, as they are facts, and they are indeed ways non-EU people use to get here and stay here. The Irish migrant rights/ immigration industry informs non-EU people of these loopholes.
Ireland was a country who had homogenous people who built Newgrange and other earth works of geo-astral significance and were looking to the stars long before many other peoples in the world, it did not take immigration or multiracial multiculturalism to think these projects and engineering works. Ireland has progressed for millenia long before there was any migration from Africa or Asia or Eastern Europe. To say we would never progress without it is astonishing and amounts to a propaganda sentiment or emotional blackmail to excuse immigration into this country. China and India are mostly homogenous countries yet now they are leading the space industry and are set to become nuclear superpowers.
Your argument for multiculturalism is more an apologia for why you or people in your situation should be allowed come here and stay here.
Mr Garvey,
Some of your comments do carry water and it would be wrong to think opposing opinions are not relative,… as in every debate…Every side should be heard…most know it as ‘freedom of speech’, but in you comments I havent heard any solutions to the issues you think are caused by immigration (into any country, but especially into Ireland).
There is a major difference between a persons logical opinions to migration/ immigration and to a person yelling, “Go Back to your Country, Monkey” or “Black B******”. Do you agree?
In any Developed nation there are problems with Illegal Immigration, we shall take the UK and Australia as examples. Once the Governments found out the growing number of people who had no right to stay in the country they created a task force whose main purpose was to remove these individuals who are breaking the law from the UK. You can see this on television programs like Border Patrol/ force. Ireland has done it(with great success) as well and they are removing people who have no right to remain in Ireland.
If you think that immigration should end, would you say it is fair to ask all the Irish people who have emigrated to USA, UK, France, Spain or Australia to all return to their homeland? I dont think it is feasible and it definitely is not fair. I know of 3 separate Irish dissidents who married Americans to have the right to remain in the USA after their J1 Visa had expired. Should the American government revoke their status because theirs was a premeditated action? In my case I would find it very offensive for ANY PERSON to say that my marriage is a sham. Because I love my wife + I have 2 beautiful children and their well being is my up-most importance. I do not hold an Irish passport and neither do any-person in my nuclear family.
I think it is wrong to suggest that immigrants to any country are not welcome because some people (myself included) have gone through he right channels to obtain work permits and permission(s) to remain by the Minister of Justice. I have now settled in Ireland with intent to visit my home country and the country of my partner to see what I can do to sustain and better our family life. In that instance do you think that is wrong?
I do not know of any loop holes but it would be also unwise to say that there shouldnt be NGO’s who give free legal advice for people wishing to be permanent residents in the Irish Republic. After all we are living in a Global Village in the 21st century. In the same breath, I would bring to attention the fact that part of the Celtic Tiger Boom was due to the huge number of foreign companies and investors setting up European Head offices/ bases in Ireland. Because of the hard working and very well educated people including the Irish logistic position in the European trading zone. {I may be wrong here, so please excuse me}. On the other hand…I agree though that people whom have entered any National state as an Illegal should return to their place of origin.
Can I ask you Brian, without me sounding redundant, if you have any ethnic minority friends or family? If not meet someone from a different nationality and please raise this topic with them and see for yourself what their opinions and reactions would be first hand.
thanks and good day to you.
very interesting read…follows this topic.
Congrats on an excellent insight into positive multiculturalism. Ireland is probably one of the largest countries to have seen Its people emigrate over the years and we were positively received by our adopted countries over centuries. It is long overdue that we do the same for our worldwide neighbours and accept them into our diverse culture without anyone needing to fear anything. Happy new year to all.
No we did not go to non-white countries and change the very nature of their populations. We went to UK, US, NZ, OZ, etc, countries founded, designed, built and split our blood for in founding. Those countries also had other Europeans going to them when we were, as said we did not go en masse to 3rd world countries changing their populations out of all recognition.
I do not want to live in a place that looks like New York, just so some people can fly the flag that massages their sense of what is trendy or seems like some sort of Hollywood screen set, this is not America, I do not want to live in an impersonal Americanised or clinical Sovietised world where my Irish culture and peopel become a minority in my own country. And that is what will happen. The demoghraphic trends are already set for Europe.
If you didn’t know there is always a special rate of non- EU fee structure in every college and University in Ireland. So it’s very wrong if you just assume that you are paying their fees! Know the facts before make such a comment.
Nice piece.
Making it culturally unacceptable to express racist views without challenge is certainly most of the way down the road towards what the author is predicting, and it can certainly be achieved in five years. When I started doing it 20+ years ago I was looked on by most people as a bit strange, but the tide has turned.
Just as there was a time when it was considered OK to force women out of the workforce, there was a time (up to fairly recently) where you could make racist comments in ‘polite company’ with little fear of challenge, I feel that is no longer accepted. If some moron wants to sit at home boiling in their own hatred I don’t really care, it is when they try to build a political philosophy or cultural ‘norm’ out of those beliefs that they must always be challenged.
And Ireland has to have immigration because?
Racism should be wiped out. Nobody should be treated differently based on the colour of their skin. So, if you come to this country fraudulently, claiming asylum when there are no grounds for asylum, then you should not be treated differently by the law and get deported.
If you overstay your work visa in a country, you should be deported if caught, regardless of what country you are from or what colour your skin is. Asking for special treatment just because you managed to evade the law for so long is like asking to be rewarded for your prowess at hiding.
If you have a child while in the country illegally, you should still be deported with the option of bringing the child with you or having it put in the care of the state if neither parent is Irish or in the country legally.
Having children should never be used as a way of flaunting a countries immigration laws and should never be allowed to be used as such.
You said it Barry!!!
Put Racism on the Record. If you have witnessed or experienced a racist incident, report it! You can report a racist incident independently and in confidence online at http://enarireland.org/racist-incident-reporting-form/
In case of emergency, phone emergency services at 999 or contact your local garda station.
A big thumbs down Timi sorry, but you were doing ok until you mentioned the homeless. You appear to need
educating on this issue, and should take yourself off and sit and talk to a homeless person and find out their story. Just as the colour of our skin is irrelevant so should being homeless. It should not be used as a tool to insult and accuse those unlucky enough to find themselves without a roof. I hope I come across as angry because I am!
I am happy to see this article, I have to admit the largest concentration of racism I have ever seen has been in the comments section on one or two articles on here. Other than that the other incidents I have seen have generally been quite isolated and instigated by the same type of people who will hurl abuse and become aggressive with what they call “hippies” too – so they are just looking for a fight, their ignorance is not purely racial, it’s just about wishing to assert dominance, most often they grow out of it.
It gives me hope to think this sort of nonsense may be on the decline. Wouldn’t the world be a much better place if we learned to live together and appreciate each others differences rather than attack each other for them?
Idealistic I know, but I hope one day it may happen.
I agree with you Shanti Om. A liberal leftie and such like is what I have been called if I disagree with comments which have definite racist undertones.
If it weren’t for you, we (Irish) wouldn’t know we have a problem. Thanks for your therapeutic presence and general guidance.
Ah AnnMarie, that’s because racism is indefensible, the only defence you ever hear is an ad hominem attack or some other fallacy, which only makes sense in an illogical mind. And you would need to be rather ill acquainted with logic to be racist..
@Brian Garvey. When you say that you oppose immigration, I presume then that you are referring to the mass immigration of Irish into America, Britain andAustralia as well as the immigration of other nationalities as well as Africans into Ireland? Perhaps some clarification would help to alleviate my fear that this may just be another one of those, ” I’m not racist but….” statements in disguise. Thanks
Lots of herding and groupthink in the comments that have been allowed here.
And what would you add thats meaningful to the conversation instead of such a vague comment of your own?
I had two comments deleted. I asked the article writer who paid for his education, which I think is a fair question. As he put it, “I went straight to Castleknock college – straight from the airport”.
As an non EU citzen, his family or he would have…
Well Castleknock College is a fee paying school so chances are the family paid them themselves.
Pen Name
Yes, the journal deletes comments that have very good arguments against multiculturalism, and when caught out that a person is already been seen to be on and they cannot delete them, they wait, then block you from the journal so that their next article on immigration…you cannot comment on it.
We are living George Orwells censorship big brother state.
@Brian Garvey. It’s all on display on these comment threads: uncritical thinking about asylum frauds, sanctimonious praise for the same, strange obsessiveness about something called racism (a really bad evil thing which is supposed to be prevalent), and censorship. Herding and groupthink prevails on this topic.
@ Pen Name: I believe what you originally posted was something to the tune of ‘he must have been one of the few that came through the front door’. You’re post wasn’t as innocuous as you would let on now was it?…
Mr, Tubbs
Firstly how do non-EU citiszens get to come to Ireland, only a few can afford the college fees, then after the student visa and their course is finished they must go home, unless they get extended visas for further study, then get work visas then get married.
I am not saying Mr. Martins had a goal to do that in order to stay here, but one would be naive to think that others do not plan that, I have heard that in fact they do, and in fact the immigration industry itself promotes these kinds of ways for non-EU people to get to stay here.
The Irish govt has stated before that the asylum process is open to abuse and that most asylum seeker cases are bogus cases. So what is wrong with stating the facts of reality, non-EU people who get here via college is one of the only legal front door ways of doing so, (even though in my opinion it is a loophole for most also). The fact of the matter is that most are here illegally with no right nor case to be here.
Mr Garvey, you make some excellent points. The only way to stop/slash immigration, protect the native peoples and introduce a humane and workable plan to repatriate peoples is to create a new political party, as the current crop, particularly Sinn Fein, have shown no inclination to arrest that influx.
So if i said i went straight to CastleKnock College straight from the Shelbourne or Gresham Hotel does it make a difference to show where my tuition came from? Or do you think Private education is subsidized by the irish Government. Shows what you know, thats if u can even remember your name.
My point there was that immediately I arrived my Mother DID NOT show me the sights of Dublin and proceed to take me to school. Head in the books!!!…Which has led me to this forum today to discuss my life with you. And to answer your question. My parents paid for my Private secondary education all the way to my Masters.
Now can I ask a question, What level of education have you achieved to date?
Emigration is a natural act, for human as well as for all other lives. It happened before and will be happening in the future too for varieties of reason, not necessarily the same cause. Local will resist and foreigner will struggle to make a space. Thats the rule, for humans and animals. This battle will go on whether you like it or not!
No actually it is not a natural act. The emigratin due to the Irish famine was not natural, the famine was, but there was no need for our people to go anywhere, there was enough food in the country, but imperialist exploitative interests shunted that food off to Britain while our own people starved.
And here we have it folks, the nub of what immigration into Europe and multiculturalism is all about, it is the modern era exploitative process, conning people who have not researched it, into thinking that this is all natural, that we have no other choice. In fact there are other choices, but the choices have been made for you, and your financial destiny is in other peoples hands who are exploiting you. Multiculturalism and immigration is a tool used once again, just as financial exploitation during the famine was used to control the native population. So too multiculturalism is used to control European natives. Cui Bono? Who benefits?…the moneymen and others.
Hello again,
after reading your replies, I noticed tension in some answers that were given and I would like to extend my sentiments for the phrasing used in my statement. In no way was my ‘statement’ to imply that ALL Homeless people are lazy, but I have witnessed 1st hand, a person who has been soliciting for money, use that money to buy Alcohol. To me I would call that a serious case!? If the same person was to ask for assistance then he would have cause to use it to better himself or his current situation. What would you then call that? I call it “an Individual disappointment in a persons Drive”
I am not sure the contents of my reproach were looked into clearly. I do not discriminate nor do I have any prejudices for any one person appearance, Race, Culture or Religion on this planet, I also do not make jest of people in dire circumstances, because one should always remove the smote in their own eyes before accusing someone else. People should just respect one another for who the person or individual is. “If you come into equity come with clean hands!!!!”
I am nothing without my God and I try to do things in the right way. In this entire page there was no comment or name drop to say that Inner city kids were riff raff! For years I worked with teens and children from different backgrounds, youth centers and ASBO’ and I would never look down on any one based on their appearance or their demeanor. If I cant assist a person or a pending situation, I leave it alone; plain and simple!
My statement was to show my own disgust at the response I was given at the event. Readers…do you think that using the gifts in question, to hurl projectiles and insults is a good or becoming thing for these kids? And what respecting person kicks the gift horse?
Dont ‘Hate’ – ‘Innovate’ it leads to Progress!
I would like to know what statements had ‘tension’? As far as I can see, people have been quite polite and those who disagree with you or asking why or how you got here, have done so without being abusive or racist. What they have done is state firmly (quite rightly) that they object to immigration, they also object to certain sentiments regarding homeless people or referring to riff-raff, that you used.
Are people to be castigated for pulling you up on negative sentiments you used, if anything they have done you a favour in helping you correct yourself and perhaps make you think about any feelings of superiority you may have over other people who may be caught up in situations outside of their own power to resolve, such as emotional psychological traumas they may have grown up in, or been the victims of…(paedophilia etc). Also there are cases where children of pregnant mothers who drink heavily turn out to then be victims of alcoholism. These people need our help not our judgment and condescension.
I think Ireland is a beautiful country and the majority of the people are lovely and polite.It is just a minority who feel threatened by the presence of migrants especially blacks.I may be naive,as my friends usually say,when it comes to racism.I usually exhaust all reasons for an individual to behave in a way he does towards me until I am able to prove all other reasons seem to be unlikely the cause I then may think MAYBE it is racism.
I do not like it when people make it their business to ‘look’ for racism even where it is not an issue.A friend of mine made a mistake and threw in bus fare that was 2 euro extra in the coin slot on the bus because she had just received a disturbing call and was deep in thought when she did it,and when she noticed her mistake she quickly told the driver,he told he did not believe her and refused to give her a ‘refund’ ticket .She immediately said ‘Oh ,is it because I am black that you treated me like that?’ …..following this example if I were her,I would have ,after asking him politely, said ‘is it because I am a woman and not as muscular as you are that you treated me like that?’
And then it gets strange when there are white men who so dislike blacks but go around looking for black women because they want ‘an experience with a black woman’ …where would their racism would have temporarily gone?
Lastly @Brian Garvey I think you are stereotyping when you say most ‘only a few can afford college’ unless you mean considering that non EU university fees are at least 10 000 a year? In that case you should not complain when they do cos they are paying upfront and a lot of people start from a Fetac course and work their way up until 10 yrs later they are studying for a PhD,what is wrong with that? and along the way if they find a job or somebody to settle with is that wrong? If the person in question was Irish would there be questions asked why he/she got a job along the way and got married between a FETAC course and a PhD?
I am doing Fetac 6 now and I have every intention to learn as much as I can so when I go back home someday I will say ‘going to Ireland was the best decision’ and along the way if I got a job I won’t think twice about taking it but if I don’t I will still take my degrees back to South Africa.
@ Brian Garvey
Also answering as a Black woman ,about our hair,the main reason we straighten it ,is not to look caucasian but to get a comb through afro hair as it is so hard to look after when it is ‘virgin’ and from as long as 2 inch it can be very thick and take one ages to groom.When we straighten it it is easier to comb and to manage. I do not and have never used any bleach on my skin.There are many fair skinned Africans Beyonce is one of them ,don’t assume we look like this because we use so called bleach that I have never seen in my life. Just like we can never survive without body moisturiser as our skin cracks a lot. I have seen my few Irish friends shower and apply nothing on their skin,I will not go around saying ‘white people don’t use skin moisturiser/body lotion as that will not be the case with every white person.
Norman & Goldie, here’s another generalisation for you:
So after the show I had given all the kids their keyrings and whatnot, I was getting into my car… and they started using those keyrings as projectiles. Little square objects. And they started throwing them at my car, throwing them at me, and calling me names. And I just thought, it was an insult. Because I’ve done these things out of my own goodwill. I’ve put my own money into it, even though I also got some support from the Government. It was terrible.
Those kids, they don’t want to learn, because their parents don’t want to teach them.
I think this is a terrible slur on the children from Diamond Park. It’s in Gardiner Street, if you’re interested.
Is the author implying that all inner city parents are bad people and all inner city children are bad children?
For the record, I never said that ALL Irish were racist or that ALL Nigerians were lazy.
Goldie, as you correctly say, To make generalisations re a whole group based on the characteristics of a select minority is the very definition of racist.
Does this apply to the comments about the children of Diamond Park?
Perhaps it was only referring to those particular children? After all he said it was the very kids he had given these keyrings to that chose to turn around and throw them at him. That these kids were so ungrateful is obviously down to parenting as it’s parents who should teach you about gratitude.
Was he generalising?
Sorry Ciaro, I didn’t feel his comments about those particular children were meant to be applied to all inner city children. In his opinion, that group of badly behaved children have been influenced negatively by poor parenting. I reckon he has a point, don’t you? I’m guessing he was talking about badly behaved kids rather than inner city kids.
I really like the message here. Work hard, love hard and see beyond what’s on the outside. This could be the mantra for our generation…
Racism in Ireland is a propagandist lie.
There was only one ever successful prosecution for racism in Ireland and that was when three young lads camping in the Wicklow mountains were fitted up simply because they wore their own “Celtic Wolves” boy scout type uniforms. The “Celtic Wolves” were supposed to have been some sort of fascist outfit, I think, They weren’t within miles of a non-national person. So they could not have committed a racist act unless it was against a sheep or a cow or a mountain goat. They were young lads who didn’t know their rights and under family pressure pleaded guilty to trumped-up charges by the State. I reckon they liked camping in fancy uniforms as a lot of young folk do .
But the State was desperate. They had a Race Hate Act passed since 1988 but not a single prosecution under that Act to establish the Act in Law so the three young campers came in handy, that’s it.
And this silly little prosecution now serves all on its own to establish that there is racism in Ireland.
The only racism I see comes from the immigrants who will not, and who have not, assimilated with the native Irish, they will not even say hello to the Irish in the streets , shops or cafes, despite the fact that they are enjoying the Irish peoples’ welfare money, they are not friendly like the Irish at all but can be hostile, it depends – but they cost the Irish State four billions a year, minimum estimate, to maintain, including the cost of keeping thousands of them in jail, where they now form one-third of the Irish prison population.
There’s the idea put abroad too that Irish patriots fought and died for these people. They did not. In fact several Irish patriots including Tom Clarke and Arthur Griffith made and wrote openly racist remarks about Negroes.
This is all a new fad started off by Fianna Fail, and not the EU as Irish governments will mislead you, by Mary Robinson and Oul Higgins above in the Park, the so-called Liberal Elite and the Marxist NUJ – dominated media that helped bust the Irish economy amongst other things. Robinson achieved nothing except for herself in her presidency, she just feathered her own nest in the U.N. , Higgins is at the same oul crack. Explosions in Boston and Waco is what you get for getting internationally involved as the likes of them drag us in to all this one world stuff promoted by the UN and the Zionists. Jewish minister Alan Shatter is manufacturing Blacks and the rest of them into Irish citizens , “the new Irish”: as the media happily calls them, at a thousand a week, while the same number of genuinely Irish people are driven out into exile their country taken over.
Your views can be described as Racist and also judgmental. You have to step out of the box and view the world as a global Village. I cant speak for every migrant but as for myself, I have many Irish and Non Irish friends and my family is mixed race, Saying ‘hello’ is nothing to me, even if I dont like you personally, if I feel up to it ill give you a nod(the Irish way) and move along. Some Irish people, even though they know you and have spoken to you on several occasion, when they pass you in the street can still blatantly ignore you. What about the Elderly lady who clutches her purse when she notices a Black person walking towards her?
This ive seen mainly in the older generation, but needless to say Integration is the most vital aspect of this topic. If theres no integration a meltdown is due, thats why Alan Shatter made more Irish citizens in his tenor…..because he saw the divide between Irish Nationals and migrants living in Ireland and the detrimental and socio-economic effects it had on people trying to settle as Irish Residents. Are you telling me that the majority of American-Irish families have not taken some sort of support from the US Government in the whole history of this debate on migration?
All Nigerians should be returned to sort out they mess they left behind in there own country and stop them using the good nature of Irish people and the system Ireland is a small country and the Irish did not Colinize any other country like uk and France so why should we be expected to take all these Nigerians in hear block them from coming and what’s hear and using the system put them all on a plane or boat and send them back if not in time they will make a big problem in Ireland like Nigeria it needs to be done fast you know that any other progressive country in Africa will not even give a visa to a Nigerian to visit because they know what they are like but Ireland for some stupid resion the Irish seem to think we need these Nigerians we don’t in my experience thank you
Okay, so you think they throw eggs at you because of the color of your skin, but my friend told me of the time she and her whole graduating class went to Ireland for their graduation trip and they were egged, assuming because they are from America…
have your say