Cognitive Dissonance and the art of being right wing

We all lie to some degree in an effort to navigate our lives and for the most part our lies are harmless. “I’m 5 minutes away”, when the absence of faster-than-light travel makes this impossible. “I’m waiting for them to call back”, when you forget to place the call in the first place. “It was like that when I got here”, when … well, you get my point.

We lie to save people unnecessary pain, we lie for expediency and to avoid people and conflict. For the most part these lies are innocuous and it is generally understood that life is not black and white, so they help us to shade in the grey.

For politicians, lying is an essential tool. Whether it is a lie of omission, a misremembering, or just a straight up falsehood, we are endlessly lied to by those we choose to govern us. What has been most interesting are the lies they tell about themselves that fly in the face of documented actions.

Gaslighting is a term that gets levelled at politicians time and time again when their actions do not match their public utterances. Parliamentary posturing, decrying your political opposition as one thing or another when even a cursory glimpse of their social media output shows how hollow your words are and how credulous you believe the electorate are.

There are many examples of Irish government TDs posting videos extolling activities to protect your mental health during this crisis. All very positive and well meaning, but at the same time hard to take seriously from this party. Then again, the DIY attitude to mental health is at least in line with the Tory core of Fine Gael – soft on the solutions to mental health crises and soft on the causes of mental health crises. Simon Harris is a deft hand at making you question your reality, in one breath acclaiming Jacinda Arden but in practice lying to cover his own ineptitude or throwing out accusations of populism to smear rivals when his own party bring Trumpian style politics to Ireland.

A cognitive dissonance seems essential for Fine Gael. From their ‘Let’s Keep The Recovery Going’ to ‘A Future To Look Forward To’, reading the lay of the land has never seemed to be a strength. We are not expecting refreshing honesty but to stand over record homelessness then ask the electorate to take your hand and join them in a brighter future takes a certain disconnect.

Of course, politicians lying and projecting a positive spin of their characteristics and achievements is nothing new. What is relatively new is that the population have, through social media, instant access to these disconnects. The earnest heartfelt video telling us we’re all in this together and we need to pull on our green jerseys can very quickly be countered by actions that show we are in fact not.

I am not hopeful of politicians changing the habits of a lifetime any time soon and while the thought of a right wing politician standing up and speaking openly about how and why they operate the way they do might be good for a day of memes, I won’t be holding my breath. By all means hold their duplicitous ways to the light and see if you can make them squirm.

Grassroots and weeds

It takes all sorts, or so I’m told. I was never great for joining clubs or organizations. Disparate people coming together under a common cause, a mobilization of bias with a singular goal sends chills down my spine and pits my socialism against my neurosis. For a friend of mine his involvement in one such club was having people to go to football matches with and guaranteed access to tickets. That was the singular motivation for him to set up and grow the club, if he was being totally honest it also scratched his organizing and ordering his world itch. That is another post in of itself.

For some it was less about the football and more about the membership of something. Watching a vital away qualifier in the pub one night I marveled at how many of the members paid such little attention to the match, huddled outside smoking when it wasn’t even half-time. For others it was about power and control which manifested itself in internal political machinations, bullying and a jaw dropping lack of self awareness.

This is an issue for any movement especially a grassroots political movement. The initial swell of support is required for the movement to gain traction, if your protest numbers are not being misrepresented by the main stream media then you’re doing it wrong. These movements can be prone to attempted hijacking or dilution by less than honest brokers.

Lurking within your number may be a few weeds, those comfortable retweeting anti-Semitic tropes, anti-immigrant sentiments or anti-fluoride propaganda. These will of course be seized upon by the establishment to discredit your efforts and dismiss you as a lunatic fringe so it is important for movements to respond appropriately.

Sinn Féin have grown massively in the most recent election in Ireland and it is interesting to see just how worried the establishment parties are. Right wing online news organization Gript have been digging deep into old tweets of new politicians in an effort to discredit. The accusation that Sinn Féin are not a normal party has been leveled by the outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Given his own party’s record in government this may not be the zinger he thought it would be. Fine Gael stood a by-election candidate after emergence of offensive comments about asylum seekers and immigrantsin general while Sinn Féin acted promptly to drop former MMA fighter Paddy Holohan in light of worrying comments made in a podcast.

Apologize for the offence, reiterate how it is inconsistent with your movement and if necessary, do some weeding. Growing pains are to expected and decisive leadership is required to ensure your grassroots aren’t strangled before they get bedded in.

You might not find kindred spirits amongst all the fans on the bus but they’re easily jettisoned as the floodlights emerge on the horizon.

Loving Both.

Source of image

Another day, another foetus saved! Well, sort of. I mean, it did die in the end. The poor wee thing was always going to. Its heart was developing partially outside its body and there were other complications that meant it couldn’t possibly survive outside the womb. But, that’s not really the point is it? The great nation state of Ireland has enshrined in its constitution the right to life of the unborn child. It’s the obligation of us on the front lines, us legal-folk, to ensure that that right is protected, at all costs.

Of course, the costs were pretty high today. The mother didn’t fare too well either. She’d come into the hospital a few days before, complaining of abdominal pains. After an ultra-sound it was determined that the baby wasn’t likely to make it but that it had a heartbeat. Bingo! I received a call once the carrier and her husband requested an abortion. Imagine, thinking you could decide to have an abortion just like that! Not on my watch! By the time I’d arrived on the ward with my documents to explain why there was no way there would be an abortion while the child had a heartbeat, it turned out that there were some further complications. The carrier had a severe case of pre-eclampsia. She was at risk of organ damage and even a stroke. The medical staff were beside themselves. They wanted to help the carrier but knew they’d be breaking the law if they did. Still, the foetus was fighting on, and so would I.

Her husband just didn’t seem to get it. I mean, it was his baby we were protecting after-all. He kept pleading and saying things like ‘My wife is here now. She already has a life, an effect on the world. She’s part of a family!’. He was clearly hysterical or something. But, it did give me a moment for pause. What if he had a point? In our noble efforts to protect the unborn child, what if we were putting the foetus’ carrier in harms way? Maybe the carrier could be seen as more, like maybe a person? A person who lives a life. Who has an effect on the lives of others. Who is a part of this
world, a community, and maybe should have more rights than a hypothetical life, that admittedly wasn’t so hypothetical since the foetus was on borrowed time. Maybe the husband had a point when he screamed until he was red in the face that his wife should be able to do as she pleases with her body, especially to protect herself from harm.

All those thoughts flittered through my head in a matter of seconds. But then I remembered the infallible truth of the constitution. We are, I am, the soldier on the front line protecting the unborn from the deeds of the living. I had a job and I would do it. Mind you, the carrier’s children didn’t seem to understand that position either. All they seemed to do was cry. I had to leave the ward for a while and take a long coffee break in my office.

I ended up having three cups of coffee. I found myself imagining what it would be like if it was my wife in that hospital bed. Would I enforce the constitution without hesitation? I tried to imagine her getting sicker and sicker and waiting for the foetus’ heart to stop before allowing her proper treatment. I had to shake myself out of it. It wasn’t my wife, and I had a job to do. Still though…

Anyway, a long story short, it turned out the carrier had a stroke and her liver and kidneys were severely damaged. She’s in a coma at the moment. The doctors think she’ll probably have life changing brain damage, if she makes it. The foetus died shortly after her stroke, and labour was induced. It’s a sad outcome, but I did the right thing. Didn’t I? I followed the letter of the law. I protected and respected the life of the unborn. Sure, it says that we have to have equal regard for the right of the mother to life, but we both know that it’s virtually impossible to juggle both. I hope it’s a long while before I have to fight the good fight again. It doesn’t really make you feel great about yourself. Who’d want to be working with constitutional law like us legal-folk in this country, am I right!?

The Scheming Clown

The London Mayor had funny hair,
And pretended to be the fool.

He helped his friends build corporate dens,
At the expense of objective rule.

With rising rent he didn’t repent,
Over growing numbers on the streets.

Instead he schemed against the PM esteemed,
“Exit the EU!”, is what he bleats.

Constitutional Convention Fallout

Constitutional change in Ireland is imminent (Image: http://www.constitution.ie)

On April 14th, 2013, the Irish Constitutional Convention concluded their deliberations on the issue of changing the Irish Constitution so as to recognise the rights of all citizens to have their relationships enshrined in marriage with all the rights and benefits that go with it. This, of course, is only the first step of the process and the constitutional change will now be put to the people in a referendum, so this is where the real fight starts. The convention is made up of 100 delegates, 66 randomly chosen citizens and 33 parliamentarians with an independent chairperson. Possible changes to the Irish constitution were discussed and recommendations were made to the Government (more information is available at www.constitution.ie).  As a firm believer in the democratic process, yesterday was a real shot in the arm, although where you have winners you have losers and yesterday we had some real sore losers. This post is not about gloating, rather it is to serve as a warning as to the tactics of the ‘No’ camp in the coming months.

It is pretty clear how the No campaign will frame their argument in the coming months and they were quick out of the blocks yesterday. The No campaign will try to present Catholics as a bullied and persecuted section of society who are having their religious freedoms stomped all over by insidious creeping secularism, while comparisons with Soviet Russia will be made with a straight face. Let’s have  a quick look at some of the objections that emerged in the aftermath of the constitutional convention.

One of the leading lights for the No campaign will be David Quinn. Mr Quinn is the founder and head of the Iona Institute, a conservative Catholic lobby group, and a regular columnist on religious affairs for the Irish Independent.

David Quinn ‏@DavQuinn 20h

BTW, if the delegates were randomly chosen, how did a husband and wife end up on it? #ccven

Now if David Quinn had a problem with the make-up of delegates perhaps the beginning of the process would have been the time to raise his objection, not when his motion has been defeated. Perhaps he smells a conspiracy?

David Quinn ‏@DavQuinn 14h

In social debates the dice are always loaded in favour of the ‘liberal’ point of view. They were even more heavily loaded at #ccven

So the convention favoured ‘liberal’ points of view; surely Quinn’s participation in the process can be construed as tacit approval of said process. Here we see the No campaign laying the ground-work for the portrayal of those who are against equality of marriage for all as being a persecuted body in Ireland, fighting against an unjust conspiracy which is systemically enshrined. One reason why the process may have appeared loaded in favour of the Yes campaign is because people of a ‘Liberal’ persuasion have been traditionally more open to progress and development of society. Those who are arguing from a Catholic (I am not suggesting that the No side is 100 per cent Catholic, merely that this is David Quinn and Iona Institute’s default position) position are arguing from a comprehensive doctrine, that is to say that they have a version of the truth and of how things should be done that is enshrined in doctrine and not open to debate.

David Quinn ‏@DavQuinn 14h

One delegate at the #ccven spoke to me about the bullying attitude displayed towards her for not favouring marriage redefinition.

Now, I cannot speak as to this delegate’s experience but the time to bring this issue to light is during the process itself. These conventions serve to enrich our democratic process and nobody should feel bullied expressing a view in this forum. People are chosen randomly to best represent the country we live in at this moment. This is not an exercise in propaganda; rather it is an attempt to create a more inclusive and participatory democracy. Any attempt at bullying is the very antithesis of the convention’s intention:

‘The Convention operates in an inclusive and open manner with its documents and deliberations available on-line and formal plenary sessions streamed live on the web.’ (www.constitution.ie)

The previous sentence was taken directly from the convention’s website. Any accusations of bullying or intimidation should be easily cleared up by the very structures of the convention. Offence can be very easily taken with such an emotive issue but that is not necessarily to say offence was intended to be given. The failure to raise this issue during the process once again smacks of the No campaign setting up a narrative to paint themselves as victims in this process.

David Quinn ‏@DavQuinn 20h

Press release from The Iona Institute: Refusal of Convention to protect religious freedom of deep concern http://bit.ly/130ko82  #ccven

Here we have it folks: the failure to protect religious freedoms. How anybody can claim religious freedom, in particular Catholic religious freedom, is not protected by the Irish state with a straight face is beyond me. The Irish constitution goes out of its way to protect religious freedom, especially those of the Catholic faith. I would be interested to know where David Quinn and Iona draw the line with religious freedoms. Would he be in favour of say, a Muslim who adheres to Sharia Law and wishes to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on his daughter therefore exercising his religious freedom within the boundaries of this state? I would hate to put words in his mouth but I can imagine Mr Quinn would not be in favour of that. People should be and are free to practice their religion in Ireland so long as it does not impinge on the rights of Irish citizens regardless of their race, colour, sexual orientation or creed. FGM is horrific as it impinges on the physical integrity of our most helpless of citizens: children. Equality of marriage for homosexuals may be an affront to Catholic sensibilities but it does not stop Catholics from living a full life and despite some of the lies Iona are happy too spread it has no detrimental affect on children of these unions either.

This is sure to be an emotive campaign and what the Yes camp needs to concentrate on is the mobilisation of those sympathetic to their cause. If you are not registered to vote, get registered and encourage as many people as possible to do the same. This is merely the first blow in the fight for equality for marriage.

Who is paying the penalty?

Ireland: where the public and officials only reap short term rewards and ignore long term consequences.

Humility is not a quality that Irish political culture seems to be over burdened with. It could well be argued that humility is one of the first qualities to be jettisoned in the pursuit of a successful political career. One would hope that those pursuing a career in politics do so with their heart full of an altruistic sense of public duty and a desire to fight for the greatest good for the greatest number of people; you would hope that people look beyond the local and the immediate to think nationally and in the long term. Many may well launch themselves steeled by this zeal only to have it stripped away by the reality of our political culture. The truth of the political arena in Ireland is that it has been overpopulated by an incestuous ruling-class and quasi-hereditary seats in the Dail. So as this bloated edifice became beyond parody in the final throes of the Celtic Tiger, we hoped, given Ireland’s fall from grace and the punishment doled out to Fianna Fáil at the ballot box, that the surviving politicians of Ireland would notice the sea change and act accordingly.

This of course has not happened, due mainly to the reason that Ireland had its sovereignty signed away by the last shower, who gave the new Government ready made excuses for their policies. The harshness of our government’s policies is not the focus of my ire on this occasion, rather it is the continued absence of any humility on behalf of our politicians and complacency among the Irish electorate in expecting more from their representatives. There are plenty of bogey men to point the finger at in Government, not least ‘Big’ Phil Hogan, a man blessed with an ego and sense of righteousness which would not seem out of place amongst the cartoonish villains of the WWE. Rather it is the political culture and the lack of its evolution which has brought me to the keyboard today.

On the front page of the Irish Examiner 8/04/2013, former Ceann Comhairle and current Fianna Fáil TD Seamus Kirk said it was as easy as picking up the phone to get rid of penalty points. There is a constitutional clause which exempts TD’s from road offences if they are on their way to take part in a Dáil vote. This was a clause left over from the Civil War and by right should be exorcised from the constitution. However, more telling about the political culture in Ireland is the revelation of the willingness of constituents to ask their TDs to get penalty points squashed for them, this kind of localism and clientalism is one of the objectionable practices we would have hoped would have been left behind after the last election. The Gardaí have since had an internal investigation, where it was found that, while penalty points have been squashed, nothing corrupt has occurred. This is a staggering example of a worrying culture within the Gardaí, our politicians and ourselves. An offence has been committed and there is nothing corrupt about asking the Gardaí to get rid of the punishment. What has set alarm bells ringing is how this seems to have infected some of the newest members of the Dáil.

The last election, lest we forget, is when the Irish people put down the ‘Bolly’, stepped away from artichoke canapé and voted to punish the political culture which we had allowed to flourish by allowing them to dope us up to the gills with cheap money. “Down with that sort of thing!” was what we bellowed from the ballot box. Fine Gael stomped away with a record number of seats but what was more interesting was the emergence of independents who represented, they claimed, the ordinary person on the street and promised to ask the difficult questions.

Archaic parliamentary processes make it difficult for a lone voice to have any affect and so this motley crew banded together despite having ideologies that ranged from Claire Daly on the left and Shane Ross on the right. Included in this group we have Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, a man who has undergone an interesting evolution; from outsider-agitator sending joints to TDs in an effort to legalise marijuana, to the Mayor of Roscommon and now an independent TD promising to protect turf-cutters in his locality. He is one individual who has recently found himself in trouble for having penalty points squashed. This is an issue that he campaigned against – Gardaí corruption – so I hope the irony hasn’t been lost on him (although judging by the beard he has been sporting, perhaps Ming and irony are not familiar bedfellows).

The issue of the penalty point squashing may appear to be a small fish compared to the problems facing Ireland on a day-to-day basis. The public service is on the verge of a mass walk out over pay and conditions so why do I concern myself with issues that pale in significance in comparison? The reason is that this is a systemic problem, one which permeates through every level of decision making. It is the culture which will force homeowners in unfinished estates across the country to pay the property tax despite the fact they are living in estates that are continuing to degenerate. It is a culture that has, two years on from the general election and five years on from the beginning of the economic collapse, endorsed a government which seems to be incapable of standing up to the banking system in Ireland. We are still no closer to sorting out a deal which takes the proposition of evictions off the table for families across the country. I’m not talking about debt forgiveness here but there are many other options such as equity for debt which are viable.

It seems that the cosy relationship between our political class and the banking sector continues despite the pain and suffering which it has caused in the last five years. Perhaps the margin of their election win has meant that Fine Gael have become complacent in their position as Ireland’s biggest party but it is the very lack of political cultural evolution which they should be wary of. They may well suffer a double whammy of being in charge when there is no money with difficult and unpopular policies to be made (see Cameron’s Conservatives in Britain who are on their way out after one term but are determined to dismantle as much of the state as possible before they leave) and the willingness of the Irish electorate to forgive and forget about Fianna Fail’s ineptitude when they last had their hands on the wheel. One should always be suspicious of mid-term popularity polls but there is the very real prospect of Fianna Fáil making a significant recovery before the next election.

So, are we, in fact, responsible for the lack of development in our political culture? Have politicians, bankers and developers driven us into this quagmire because we have allowed them to? A former History professor of mine, who is of some note, told us that we were ‘face down in the trough for too long’ and that we are all culpable for letting this culture to develop. We were bought off with tax cuts, cheap credit and second homes and we allowed this attitude of arrogance and ‘cuteness’ to fester.

There is an intriguing email exchange between two heavyweights in the theory of Power, Stephen Lukes and Clarrisa Hayward, debating the role of responsibility and agency in power. To try and sum it up would be a fool’s errand but here we go anyway. Lukes’ case is that full responsibility must lie with the actors, whereas Hayward puts forward the case that the social constructs of society influence greatly the actions of actors – essentially that society creates the parameters under which abuses of power are exercised.

What have we done to change this? We elect on local issues and we tolerate abuses of position and power and we solicit abuses to have our own penalty points squashed. Look across the water, to Britain where Chris Hune MP is facing prison time for asking his wife to take his penalty points. I’m not being unrealistic here, I’m not asking for whiter than white politicians who never put a foot out of step and I am aware by continuing to use words such as ‘evolution’ that time is required.

What we should, at a bare minimum, be asking for is transparency and accountability from our politicians, those at least would be steps in the right direction in arresting the decline in the relationships between the people and the officials we put into power. Then when faced with honest and open assessment of their work perhaps we can reassess our own actions and motivations at the ballot box beyond our own selfish desires.

Thatcher

The 8^th of April will forever see the addition of the passing of Margaret Thatcher in newspapers around the world. Aged 87 and having suffered from a stroke there have been few public figures from the last 40 years whom have stirred up such strong feelings, to the extent that a classmate of mine from college who was perhaps 21 years old at the time sported a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘Still Hate Thatcher’ this a full 21 years after she had left power. Glen Greenwald has already written a piece in the Guardian about the culture that has arisen wherein the death of a public figure exempts them from criticism, pointing to the very clear difference between being part of commemorating a private citizen and criticizing a public figure. There is always a rather distasteful element of ‘Ding dong the witch is dead’ that surfaces in these occasions quickly followed by a slew of jokes. It’s unedifying to celebrate the death of a human being but let’s not white wash her role in history.

In this age of social media, I always fear I’ve shed some ‘cool points’ every time I write that phrase, it’s a tough call to complete this whitewash. My Twitter timeline exploded with quotes from the Iron Lady with regards to the friends she kept. It’s all out there she had strong relationships with numerous odious figures such as Pinochet, Saddam Hussein and The Shah of Iran. She went to war over a rocky island of sheep herders on the other side of the world, a stroke which saved her skin at home where her deregulation and privatisation policies saw Britain lurch further into the mire between 1979 and 1981. She supported Apartheid in South Africa, to keep Communism at bay apparently and accused Mandela and the ANC of being terrorists.

At home in Britain she is accused of being responsible for the north/south economic divide, she crushed the unions and broke up as many of the state owned businesses as possible. She dived into deregulation and privatisation breaking up the bloated system which had developed under the Labour government with absolute faith in the stability of Free Market laissez faire economics. She cemented the existence of the City of London as a state onto itself within Britain (a cause taken up with zeal by Tony Blair almost 20 years later). One of her biggest PR strokes was allowing people to buy their council houses. The fetishisation of homeownership that we are currently suffering the worse excesses of right now, can well be traced back to this moment. You can all be home owners and we’ll give you the loans to do it. Thatcher over saw a huge explosion of credit.

On this side of the Irish Sea to say there are mixed feelings would be an understatement. Irish people have a strange habit of respecting people that had no warm feelings for them. One person who sang her praises was Charlie ‘Champagne’ McCreevy. Yes that’s right, the man who was finance minister during the government which left Ireland in the worst economic crisis of its history. Listening to the news today I had to chuckle to myself as Gerry Adams took the moral higher against a woman he accused of ‘collusion’. To say she had a mixed record in the North would also be an understatement.  This is the same Margaret Thatcher that gave Dublin its first say (discounting then doomed Sunningdale agreement) in the running of Northern Ireland through the Anglo Irish Agreement.

There is a trite expression that ‘History is written by the winners’; this is, to a degree, true and depending on where you stand on the ideological spectrum will very much colour your views on Thatcher. Whatever you felt about her politics one must admire her ability to rise to the top and stay at the top of one of the most male dominated spheres of public life.

Margaret Thatcher: A feminist icon, just one you mightn’t brake for.

Bad Teacher, Very Bad Teacher!

It’s the overworked teacher’s turn for a kicking again.

Senior Cabinet meeting within Leinster House: Lads we need a sound bite to distract the people from the kicking they got in the budget. Umm … we could give the teachers another kicking I suppose.

Brendan Howlin, Irish Minister for Public Expenditure, has recently come out in the press – not like that stop sniggering – to deliver another kicking to a section of the public service. The objects of his ire on this occasion were teachers, more specifically, bad teachers and the necessity to remove them from their positions. Full disclosure here folks as I am a newly qualified teacher and as such, am fully in support of the removal of ‘bad’ teachers.

I support this on a purely selfish level, as the savage public services cuts have made it almost impossible to get a job in the career I returned to education in my mid-twenties to qualify for and also on a broader professional level. The position of teacher is far too important a position to be left to those who, have either lost whatever love they had for what is a vocation or who got into the job for all the wrong reasons. They are the same reasons which make public servants, teachers in particular, such easy targets for politicians hoping to score points after another savage budget. Job security, five-day work weeks, long holidays and general ignorance about what is required to survive and flourish in the field are the usual suspects that rear their heads when it is the teachers’ turn in the firing line.

I could bore you to death with the same arguments you’ll hear from any teacher defending themselves and their positions. We are in loco parentis for eight hours of the day; we are actors, counsellors and so much more. There are however a couple of elements of Minister Howlin’s statement which particularly grate.

The decision to send one’s children to ‘grinds’ (extra tuition outside of school) in an effort to improve their results falls on parents alone. To blame teachers for students taking grinds is a blatant example of ignoring a huge number of variables just to support your argument. Perhaps Minister Howlin has suddenly had selective amnesia and forgotten the last three budgets. Larger student teacher ratios and the removal of special needs assistants may also have had an effect. Perhaps it was the political culture whose short-term thinking saw them throw money at people instead of introducing the systemic and structural changes when we had the money to pay for them. Minister Howlin expects teachers to do more, for less and in more difficult circumstances. No problem Brendan, is there anything else while we’re at it?

The Teaching Council, to which I a pay a sizeable chunk annually to regulate my profession, has already put in place procedures, which are less than 2 years old, to deal with under performing teachers. This includes more visits to schools and more paperwork, such as detailed lesson plans and schemes of work, which teachers are required to provide at a moments notice to show just how prepared they are to take on the difficult task of educating children. This of course only scratches the surface of what teachers have to face, there are students for whom a full day of attendance in the school can be seen as a major victory. So what is so wrong with these provisions that would require a Minister of State to launch another attack? What exactly is it that he requires from teachers to justify their position?

My fear is that this is going to turn into a race to the bottom. The ‘data management’ style of brass tacks numbers will see teachers being judged on the results their students get. This is one of those things which seems very reasonable on the surface but, once delved deeper into, is the type of policy that ruins the lives of teachers and students alike. As I stated in my opening paragraph I am a newly qualified teacher and as such am in a prime position to impart how teachers are being taught in Ireland. One of the words that popped up with regularity during my training was ‘holistic’. Previously the utterance of this word would have sent my eyes rolling back into my head with a sharp intake of breath. This of course is because the word has been co-opted by individuals who believe in Homeopathy and other such hokum but as my course progressed the word was reclaimed and in the end I ended up defending my use of it to friends when talking about the education system in Ireland. We are being asked to help create well-rounded individuals, to focus of literacy and numeracy, to find ways of making our subjects relevant and interesting, to create an active and inclusive learning environment in an effort to move away from rote learning during which cross curricular links are forged, and all this with one eye on the needs of the economy. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? So a result driven system where judgements are made on a final grade do nobody any good and run directly in the face of how teachers are trained.

One would almost believe that the statement made by Minister Howlin was just an effort to distract the nation from more immediate problems. I am not alone in finding this political culture tiresome and insulting. The statement spurred me to write this piece on the difficult role teachers face, those that can get a job that is (grumble grumble), but perhaps the real issue is the inherent disrespect the government has for teachers and the difficult jobs they do, and indeed for everyone else in society; that they think taking a swipe at easy targets will distract us for a period while they muddle on in corruption and ineptitude serving their real bosses. This is the same political culture which sees people on social welfare squeezed and investigated while corporations pay minimal tax: the same culture which sees outrageous stories regards budget cuts leaked before the budget so when the cuts arrive they don’t seem so bad. I am not expecting miracles from our politicians just not to have our intelligence insulted.

Image Source.

On the run with Sanal Edamaruku

Yesterday evening I attended a talk, jointly hosted by the Humanist Atheist Society of the National University of Ireland, Galway and Atheist Ireland, from the fairly well known Indian rationalist Sanal Edamaruku. Mr Edamaruku is an academic and is the president of the unfortunately named Indian Rationalist Association (I.R.A). However, levity aside, Mr Edamaruku faces the unwelcome prospect of persecution in his home country of India. In spite of this, he spoke calmly and deliberately of his predicament.

He is currently in exile for his “provocation” of the Catholic church in Bombay, whereby through the act of explaining a so-called miracle involving sub-standard plumbing and a statue of Jesus, he incurred the wrath of a number of high-ranking bishops, not least “His Eminence” Oswald Gracias . As a consequence, the church has contrived to have Mr Edamaruku imprisoned  for his contravention of laws regarding blasphemy – laws which, no less, date back to the 19th century. The very real threat of three years in prison – and worse –  forced Sanal to flee his native country and he has sought refuge in Europe. He was abruptly cut off, indefinitely, from those dearest to him, while attending to the business of a lecture trail overseas. Nevertheless, despite the potential dangers he faces, he has vowed to return to India, saying, rather confidently, that he is on a “mission” against the prevalence of such archaic laws and other such superstitious practices. “The problem we have in India is that we have the 14th and 21st century coexisting,” he said.

His “mission” is what brought him to Ireland. While seeking support against ludicrous legislation in his own case, Edamaruku has simulataneously called on the Irish people to rid themselves of their own law against blasphemy, which prohibits the utterance or publication of “grossly abusive or insulting [material] in relation to matters held sacred by any religion”, which causes “outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion”. As Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland noted, in closing, at the event, such a law strongly appears to “incentivize outrage”. Furthermore, Mr Edamaruku stressed that the Irish law against blasphemy was increasingly being used as a precedent on which to lay the foundation of an argument for a much more far-reaching law against blasphemy. Such a prospect is simply terrifying.

If the people of Ireland truly value human rights and equality, then it is imperative that they resolutely reject their most stringent and archaic laws, and lend their support to the plight of those who, like Sanal Edamaruku, are suffering their outrageous consequence.

Pro-life/Pro-choice, what’s the difference?

BY DAMIEN DUDDY

One lesson that anyone learns from life is that nothing is ever black and white. So why then, when it comes to possibly one of the most divisive social and moral issues, are people sorted so resolutely into an either/or camp?

Is it in fact possible to be pro-choice because you are pro-life?

When I am asked to state my position on the matter, I give my honest stance. I am pro-choice. As soon as someone states that they are pro-choice, they are subjected to a barrage of abuse and the usual rhetoric of “Baby-murderer, child-slaughterer” ad nauseum. I am a Conservative pro-choice proponent. I am not, as some people would like you to believe, ‘Pro-abortion.’ I believe that every chance should be given to the unborn child to survive and the parents given access to all the other alternatives, but that ultimately abortion could be an option to explore where there is no other choice.

There’s an underlying assumption that because someone is pro-choice they endorse a systematic approach of extermination of all newly conceived life.

Recently, a number of my close friends and relatives have had the utter joy of bringing a child into the world, all in different circumstances, and each are proud, happy, doting parents of newborn children, free from all the stresses of the world that they will be subjected to in 20 years.

Make no mistake about it, a family giving birth to a child is a fantastic happening. Each and every time I meet someone I know who has had a child, I congratulate them and wish them all the best with what will be the hardest, but most rewarding endeavour they will ever achieve. I have never looked at someone who has had a child, even in difficult and complicated family, marital, financial circumstances and thought, let alone ever said, “Maybe you should have had this kid aborted.”

For some though the picture is not so pretty. I was confronted recently by the argument, and I quote verbatim, “If a woman doesn’t wanny get pregnant, she should just keep her legs closed!”

I’m a fan of never arguing with an idiot, because they’ll only drag you down to their level and beat you through experience. But here we go anyway.

A lot of women who have abortions are in fact trying for a child, in a lot of cases it’s not through lack of birth-control, contraception, lack of family planning etc. Cardiac disease, General tract sepsis, Ectopic pregnancy, Postpartum hemorraging, Pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, just some of the myriad of illnesses that cause maternal mortality and where it would be in the best interests of the mother to terminate her pregnancy. Not an easy decision by any standards, but it doesn’t detract from the principle of the greater good, 1 life lost versus 2. But by taking a pragmatic approach to what is a very real problem, somehow labels someone with the stigma of being a murderer. The irony being, that in fact a life is being saved, blurring the line between pro-choice and pro-life. If you want to look at it in that respect, I am pro-life. I don’t believe in some sort of ritualistic slaughter of all children, the sole reason why I am pro-choice is in order to preserve life. The double irony of this being, those that designate themselves pro-life would rather let 2 people die.

These are issues which will affect both mother and baby, but what about issues that only affect the baby? Again, there is an even greater number of illnesses and disabilities which can affect a child. Admittedly, many of these illnesses, birth defects, disabilities are either treatable or, with our health care system, a level of care can be provided to give them a decent lease of life. I know parents, who have had children with several disabilities, and they are no less proud – and rightfully so – of their children and their children lead fulfilling lives.

People often use the above argument but overlook the practicality that often result in foetal death.

• Multiple gestations
• Intrauterine growth restriction
• Congenital abnormality
• Genetic abnormality
• Infection (ie, parvovirus B19, CMV, Listeria)
• Hydrops

With medical advancements hopefully these illnesses can be prevented or at least treated. But again the fact remains, that allowing someone to live any longer is only prolonging suffering and by taking a humane approach to end someone’s suffering, is somehow seen as the wrong moral choice. Allegedly one is a monster, when they don’t believe anyone should be subject to inhumane suffering.

Shameless guilt-mongers protest against abortion with a plethora of pictures, including the photoshopped, professionally taken pictures, to give the idyllic image of happy, blue-eyed, laughing babies and perfect family life. And conversely, the all too familiar images of aborted foetuses, which ironically they subject children to.

“We fought arduously for your innocent, vulnerable, impressionable little self to be born, now let’s scare the ever living fuck out of you!”

Their arrogance, usually perpetrated as religious zealots who see themselves carrying out the work of “God”, a benevolent, all-loving creator of all things. How can they try and claim the moral high ground when not only do they wish to further pain and suffering, but actually add to it by trying to guilt someone who has already made a difficult, life-changing decision? Could they just as easily explain this to a rape victim?

To conclude, I find it very easy to say that as a pro-choice I am also pro-life. The hubris and arrogance of so-called pro-lifers! Maybe the monikers should be switched and pro-choice to be renamed pro-life, in the sense of pragmatism, practicality and morality. Whereas pro-life should be changed to, pro-suffering, pro-stigmatisation, pro-stemming of medical research.
Damien Duddy is studying Law and German at Trinity College Dublin. You can follow him on Twitter at @dee_dudd