Wednesday 6 May 2009

David Bloch, Brightwater MD, chain email


The following is an e-mail from Brightwater company director, David Bloch, who claims his company is "a little enclave of positivity and energy", despite the "daily media barrage of misery". It got him a slot on the opinion pages of today's Irish Times, so I suppose that's a result for him.

He might like to include blogs like Gombeen Nation along with the established "meedja", who feel that the economic boom was but a "confidence" driven, construction-based pyramid scheme. Here's an extract from the email, which could be entitled Fwd: Send this on to ten people and your personal angel will grant your wish. (As suggested by the reader who brought it to my attention).

The Irish media is spreading fear and panic! I am the MD of an Irish Company. I have a job and I want to keep it. I also want to keep the jobs of my staff and my friends... and I want to live and work in an upbeat country! The Irish Media is spreading fear and panic – it makes me think about cutting more costs, salaries, staff and saving money. If it affects me, it must affect other people. With the positive American attitude, do we have any doubts that the US will recover? Ireland has one of the youngest and well-educated populations in the first world (after the US) - let’s use our energy and can-do attitude and get out of this. I sent a similar e-mail to a few people from my address book a couple of weeks ago. Here’s a few comments from the dozens of replies I’ve had which show I’m not alone in my thinking:

From Senior Manager at Big 4 Accountancy Firm: "...it's giving a desperate impression to investors, commentators etc. Also too much time spent pummeling those who are easy to blame - bankers, developers etc. By all means accept there have been mistakes, learn the lessons, add regulations etc. but now time to move on and have plan for the future."

From MD of major European Bank, based in Ireland: "I know RTE would argue that in criticising them we are in danger of "shooting the messenger" but "the medium IS the message. Those in RTE are relatively "bullet proof" in their jobs. They are playing "Russian roulette" with private sector jobs as visiting business people and others latch on to our depressive outlook. Other development agencies will also use this to argue against Ireland as a location to invest in, in favour of their own place."

From Partner at medium-sized Law Firm: "What irks Me about say RTE is that the doom laden voices of George Lee, Ann Doyle and others announcing yet more job cuts etc as the lead item. It is literally depressing. It is usually preceded by a really sad ad from one of the NGO's with pictures of starving emaciated Africans. I know their plight is tragic but the continuous subliminal effect of all of this is to drag one down in terms of "mood". The best piece of news is in fact "Nationwide" at 7pm with Mary Kennedy and Michael Ryan. They are cheery and upbeat."

From Irish person recently moved to New York (don't know her details):
"Hear Hear I say!! I live in New York and although things are tough here, people are getting on with the new reality and figuring out creative ways of dealing with the downturn."

From Owner of private Irish company: "Frankly, I'm enraged about what RTE specifically are doing. They're destroying hope and thereby destroying Ireland. "


Funny. There were few complaints when the media was as caught up with the credit-fuelled boom as much as the Government and most economic commentators. Remember Bertie's remarks about the "boom getter boomier" (or something similarly unintelligible)? And his inviting those few voices critical of the way things were going to "commit suicide".

Instead, Bertie and the captains of Irish business committed economic hari-kari.



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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

guday GM this is hillarious this guy must be smoking turf he is so deluded,you got to love the testimonials all md,s phd,s etc the creme de la creme the true mark of a snake oil salesman,he well may be aF-FER disguised as a comical ALI or comical ALI disguised as a f-fer set to greet the IMF at the airport along with bertie in his canary yellow suit, you know what they say about first impressions cheeerio

thing fish (the property pin) said...

Those RTE staff secure in their jobs....

well, George Lee is risking his whole career by going up for the FG in the by-election.

I've seen it so many times, when times go bad there's always those who try to bully others into pretending that everything is great. These people do get their comeuppance, I hope for Ireland's sake that its sooner rather than later.

These clowns who want everything to appear rosy are begging for bailout money. Pity these guys didnt create real wealth when they had the access to the loans. Dont tell anyone that 'we' built ghost estates in Ballybognowhere that no one wants to buy.



as the NPR piece pointed out, how many years of 4% growth does it take to recover the 33% drop in house prices. I calculate it at 8 years.

The Gombeen Man said...

Yes folks, you're both spot on, in my opinion.

They think if they repeat their nonsense often enough people will believe it. It may have worked for them in the past, but hopefully people will have learned from the experiences of the past. I'm off for holidays now for three weeks, so I sincerely hope that's enough time for people to see through the false confidence espoused by these guys.

Anonymous said...

hey there GM life is good hope you enjoy your holidays, off to the gaeltac i suppose, bring wellies and brolly, if mr block is correct the next boom will have begun by the time you getback cheerio

The Gombeen Man said...

I'm laughing here. Definitely not off to do the Gaelic anyway! Hope to find an internet cafe where I'm going in Spain so I can check Mr Bloch's boom as it happens!!!!

Anonymous said...

I know someone who worked for that company. It sounded more like an enclave of fear, paranoia and greed.

The Gombeen Man said...

Now why does that not surprise me?

Anonymous said...

I think he is absolutely right. The media live and breathe off bad news and fear. If someone is scared they'll buy the paper to check on the news!
Go to www.brightwater.ie to see the good perspective of the news! Compare the two versons!

The Gombeen Man said...

Thanks Mr Bloch.

Anonymous said...

People are trying to say that everything is bad. It is! But if you take a negative attitude to it, nothing will get better.
If you put good news in a bad context, it makes people miserable!

Anonymous said...

You know, the reason you guys are on this site is because you are jeleous of everyone else who has jobs.
A little positivity can turn a bad situation right around!

Anonymous said...

He is absolutely right!! Get off this site and get a fucking job to get the damned country up and running again!! That is what I'm doing. Join me, why don't you??!!

The Gombeen Man said...

So... erm... what makes you think that we don't have jobs? Should having a job lead to a suspension of credulity?