Put your money where your big fat mouth is, Harney
I was cycling down through West Cork the other day and noticed that I couldn't get reception on my mobile phone for love nor money when I was heading down towards Sheep's Head even though my providers, Meteor, claim that they have 100% national coverage. Perhaps they think that Sheep's head is part of Holland because of the preponderence of Dutch licence plates in the area.
I thought of this when I heard that the so-called Columbia Three have been holed up somewhere in West Cork for these last six months. I think that it's good to know in this era of 24/7 surveillance that people are still able to hide from the authorities much as Micheal Collins was in the old days.
Of course there's another theory that the government have known about them all the time and that Bertie's been turning a blind eye to it to appease the IRA and goad them into declaring a ceasefire. Mary Harney isn't at all happy about this, but then she never seems to be happy about anything. But can Harney, who paid €300 to listen to Henry Kissinger, really live with herself if she's part of a government that's been appeasing terrorists? Living with such a lie could eat her from the inside, though this would take quite some time as there's a lot of her to be eaten. I think it's better to get some closure on the issue, put her money where her extremely capacious mouth is and get the PDs out of their coalition with a man who can talk out of both sides of his mouth simultaneously.
To me, it's dissapointing that the government have to cling to the notion that the three went to Columbia to see some birds when there's no shortage of ornitholigal diversity in the peninsulae of West Cork. I'd love if they could come straight out and say that they were trying to help the indiginous people of Latin America to defend themselves against US-backed right-wing militias and Oil companies.
Unlike Bertie, I'm in a position to say that I'm proud that some Irish people are standing up to the might of US hegemony and defending oppressed peasants. I remember when Marion Keone was interviewing George Bush last year he had the Brass balls to claim that the US is the biggest provider of foreign aid in the world. Quite apart from the fact that Japan gives more in aid, most of the US's aid goes to oppressive governments like that of Columbia, where peasants land is sprayed with defoliant in the guise of fighting drugs so the likes of Unocal can come in and drill their oil. I'd love if there was a part of "socialist" Bertie that thought the same way and would come out and say so.
In the current climate of the "War on Terror" this isn't a possiblility. In that BBC show The Power of Nightmares there was footage of Donald Rumsfeld claiming back in the 70's that terrorists all over the world, including the IRA were backed by the USSR which fitted nicely into their Manichean World view though it wasn't supported by the facts. I'm pretty sure the last thing people in the North would have wanted is to live in dreary housing estates with little hope that things would ever get better while across the border people were enjoying the fruits of an economic boom.
Today there's no evidence that there's a global conspiracy of indiginous peoples around the world against the might of the western-military industrial complex, much as I'd love if this were the case. Still, it suits the powers that be to tar all "terrorists" with same brush, even when in the case of the PKK and Al-Qaueda, what they want is the complete opposite.
But if Bertie has any integrity he won't hand the Columbia Three over to Interpol. It would be a signal to many of his supporters that the Fianna Fail dog is being wagged by the PD tail.
I thought of this when I heard that the so-called Columbia Three have been holed up somewhere in West Cork for these last six months. I think that it's good to know in this era of 24/7 surveillance that people are still able to hide from the authorities much as Micheal Collins was in the old days.
Of course there's another theory that the government have known about them all the time and that Bertie's been turning a blind eye to it to appease the IRA and goad them into declaring a ceasefire. Mary Harney isn't at all happy about this, but then she never seems to be happy about anything. But can Harney, who paid €300 to listen to Henry Kissinger, really live with herself if she's part of a government that's been appeasing terrorists? Living with such a lie could eat her from the inside, though this would take quite some time as there's a lot of her to be eaten. I think it's better to get some closure on the issue, put her money where her extremely capacious mouth is and get the PDs out of their coalition with a man who can talk out of both sides of his mouth simultaneously.
To me, it's dissapointing that the government have to cling to the notion that the three went to Columbia to see some birds when there's no shortage of ornitholigal diversity in the peninsulae of West Cork. I'd love if they could come straight out and say that they were trying to help the indiginous people of Latin America to defend themselves against US-backed right-wing militias and Oil companies.
Unlike Bertie, I'm in a position to say that I'm proud that some Irish people are standing up to the might of US hegemony and defending oppressed peasants. I remember when Marion Keone was interviewing George Bush last year he had the Brass balls to claim that the US is the biggest provider of foreign aid in the world. Quite apart from the fact that Japan gives more in aid, most of the US's aid goes to oppressive governments like that of Columbia, where peasants land is sprayed with defoliant in the guise of fighting drugs so the likes of Unocal can come in and drill their oil. I'd love if there was a part of "socialist" Bertie that thought the same way and would come out and say so.
In the current climate of the "War on Terror" this isn't a possiblility. In that BBC show The Power of Nightmares there was footage of Donald Rumsfeld claiming back in the 70's that terrorists all over the world, including the IRA were backed by the USSR which fitted nicely into their Manichean World view though it wasn't supported by the facts. I'm pretty sure the last thing people in the North would have wanted is to live in dreary housing estates with little hope that things would ever get better while across the border people were enjoying the fruits of an economic boom.
Today there's no evidence that there's a global conspiracy of indiginous peoples around the world against the might of the western-military industrial complex, much as I'd love if this were the case. Still, it suits the powers that be to tar all "terrorists" with same brush, even when in the case of the PKK and Al-Qaueda, what they want is the complete opposite.
But if Bertie has any integrity he won't hand the Columbia Three over to Interpol. It would be a signal to many of his supporters that the Fianna Fail dog is being wagged by the PD tail.
posted by seamus @ 10:51 am
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