I don't know how our good friend at http://www.atoast2toast.com/ came across this one, a video put together by a Taiwanese concern called Next Media Animation TV.
I laughed out loud - to use that horrible expression - when I saw it. Very funny, and all the funnier for being all too true...
Thanks, Toast.
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17 comments:
Ever see 'Be kind, Rewind?'- Quite funny comedy out about 4 yrs ago with Jack Black- basically inept vido shop employees wipe out entire stock: they then hit on a ploy of making their own V short ( 5 min) home movie versions of missing videos, and tell customers it's the new 'European edition' ie 'Its just been 'sweded', sir'
Wow that was awesome- the Celtic Tiger 'sweded', a precis of 11 yrs (?) of madness, 11 yrs of serious Irish Tv condensed - NOT ...as Irish TV Never showed anything like the same insights while all this was going on...whoever these smart Chinese cookies are , I say GIVE Them their own show;
How about a 5 min slot after the RTE 9 o'clock news, giving the 'sweded' version, of what was said ealier, ie a speedier and more insightfil bulletin, and then I could tune in for that alone.
And joking aside, Ireland's biggest problem is apathy- why do greedy leprechauns run our country? Because They can- as we Let them. From Fintan O'Tooles book 'Enough is Enough', a call for revolution- this is also on his website:
Can we fix it? Yes we can
30 key steps to take
1 Establish a genuine system of local democracy. Introduce a property tax to fund it.
2 Transfer the useful functions of Quangos to local councils.
3 Bring in legally binding national standards for planning and development and give the National Spatial Strategy statutory status.
4 Implement the Kenny report of 1974, allowing councils to purchase development land for its existing value plus 25 per cent.
5 Establish "deliberative democracy" experiments in every substantial community.
6 Severely limit the ability of governments to use the guillotine mechanism to pass legislation that has not been debated in parliament.
7 End the fiction that Ministers are responsible for everything that happens in their departments. Make them responsible for decisions they take and for information they ought to know. Make senior civil servants responsible for the decisions they take.
8 Restore the right of the Oireachtas to inquire into all activities involving the use of public money.
9 Make all appointments to state and public boards open to public competition and subject to Oireachtas scrutiny.
10 Reduce the size of the Dáil to 100 members.
11 Either make the Seanad representative of civil society, social partners and the new local councils within a short time frame or abolish it.
12 Change the Dáil electoral system to the additional-member system.
13 Introduce a gender quota of at least 30 per cent, to be enforced by reducing public payments to political parties by the degree to which they fail to introduce gender balance.
14 Hand primary schools over to local and democratic ownership and control.
15 Replace GDP as the primary measure of progress with a well-being index.
16 Radically curtail tax incentives for private pensions and stop putting money into the National Pension Reserve Fund. Use the money to increase the state pension for everyone to 40 per cent of pre-retirement income.
17 Switch spending from both social-welfare rent supplements and tax breaks for landlords to the provision of decent social housing.
18 Introduce a national system of social health insurance, abolishing the two-tier health system and radically reducing the size of the Health Service Executive.
19 Switch more health spending towards community and preventive services. Implement the primary-care strategy.
20 Charge university fees to those who can afford them. Increase grants for those who are currently excluded.
21 Expand adult and continuing education. Consider the idea of individual "education funds" attaching equally to each citizen.
22 Identify children at risk of failure from an early age and intervene immediately with personal and family supports.
23 Make the pay of those at the top a fixed percentage of that of those at the bottom.
24 Bring taxes up to average European levels. Reduce tax breaks to average EU levels, saving more than €5 billion.
25 Limit to three the number of directorships of public companies that any one individual can hold at the same time.
26 Give coherent legislative protection to bona-fide whistleblowers.
27 Restore the Freedom of Information Act to its former status.
28 Create a register of lobbyists and publish records of all meetings between lobbyists, ministers and public officials.
29 Review company law to end impunity for white-collar crime.
30 Ban all significant private donations to political parties and force all registered parties to publish full annual accounts.
Thanks for that Anna.
As usual, Fintan speaks a lot of sense.
By the way, many critiques of independent Ireland (Tom Garvins "Preventing the Future:why was Ireland so Poor for so Long" is an example) point to a largely cowed, orthodox, apathetic populace who are passively ruled by a powerful, well-organised, elite. Their agenda was many religious (Catholic) and cultural (centred around neo-Gaelicism) and discouraged meaningful education and critical thinking. We still have the legacy of that now, I think.
Your observation that "Ireland's biggest problem is apathy" is correct.
PS, no haven't seen that film. But our friends in Taiwan have their take spot-on. Brilliant.
http://fintanotoole.ie/petition/
Here we are: the prophet of the revolution is running an ONLINE PETITION ON HIS SITE;
FOR WHAT?; Well simply a Revolution, without BURNING the Dail;
I have just signed it; Haven't had time for a good look at the site yet, but he says on 29th Nov there were 3000 signatories in ONE HOUR.
Arise Citoyens!,
or should that be
Eirigi Pobal! ( I do try to do my bit for 1st offical language)
No Wait the situation is desperate,
JUMP TO IT PEOPLE! AND SIGN THE PETITION!
Or are we going to sit there, like frozen turnips?
In the imortal words of the prophet ( FOT)
'It's mind over matter- they don't mind what they do- and we don't matter.'
OMG! Even Father Ted and Dougal in it! at around 2:00
I'm not sure about jumping on board the Fintan O'Toole bandwagon - if it worked, how would we ever get rid of Fintan O'Toole?! www.2nd-republic.ie sounds like a better approach, pushing for a National Convention on political and constitutional reform where all the various ideas on reform can be thrashed out and a new draft constitution produced. Big task, but the only real obstacle is apathy.
On the subject of the Celtic Tiger, this might amuse you... "Celtic Tiger Pines for Asia" http://swiftjonathan.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/celtic-tiger-pines-for-asia/
Which petition would You sign?
1) One for a Better Fair Republic that Cares for All citizens- the 1 you were promised in 1916?
2) One promoting an Irish republican song on the BBC website ( A Nation Once Again ) among a choice of ‘the world’s favourite songs‘:?*
*This petition Did come off a few yrs ago: ANOA won- due to ZEALOUS EFFORTS OF100,000s of Irish worldwide tactically voting, re-voting etc…
all in the Noblest of Irish causes, Pissing Off The Brits( who actually have better things to think of than the childish antics of the Irish).
Among the choices were songs which were unknown in Europe( but which would have been known to huge audiences of millions in India, Asia etc )- however clever Irish voters made ANOA winner- that’ll really teach the Brits. So ANOA is the World’s Most Popular Song.
SO I would like all those zealous Irish song voters to sign up the Fintan O’Toole poll- it ‘s only up a few days and already had around 9000- and he wants 100,000 for a decent impact.
The BBC poll Would make you think that the Irish Loved and cared deeply for Ireland and each other- but look at the state of the country- clearly we don’t.
One blogger said ( not sure if on this site, could have been) that ‘since inception of this State, Irish people define themselves by What They are NOT - Not British‘.
DOES hating the British qualify as being Irish or someone who loves Ireland and cares about the welfare of their fellow Irish- NO I don‘t think so - but yes it does , for many Irish,
That’s what being Irish is all about., oh and lip service to loving the Irish language- after all we don’t really want to speak it but it’s NOT English- and NOT being English or BRITISH is What We Irish ARE.
My workmate says her brother in London says Cowan and Ireland are a laughing stock in English papers- no racism there- because Cowan and Co ARE a laughing stock.
So let’s show those Brits what we’re made of and how proud we are of our country:
Let all sign FO’Ts petition in droves like many did for the BBC petition.
So many Irish world-wide mobilised to make ‘A Nation Once Again’ the World’s Favourite Song;
Lets mobilise in droves to petition for a new Republic; OR do we only swarm with indignation & enthusiasm when we think we are pissing off the Brits?
BTW: to writer above; I’m V interested in any website with suggestions for a new republic, I will look at the one you mentioned,:
The FO’T one just happens to be the first I have encountered;
I just don’t see, though ,how supporting him is jumping on any bandwagon ( his ideas are good ) .
WHAT ‘bandwagon??’
And explain ‘ We’d find it hard to get rid of him?’- he Doesn’t want to be King- he only wants to serve his country. Why should begrudgery creep into one man’s efforts to mobilise and help his fellow citizens?- United we ALL should stand.
Maybe GN could give this speech a wider audience?- It deserves it: And maybe GN readers could get on the FOT site (web address I posted earlier) both to sign petition and get real political commentary - you certainly won't get it off RTE, who mostly support whoever the Politburo are: as GM noted, better political commentary from Pixar artists in Taiwan.
Speech from the Rally in Dublin
Posted on November 28, 2010
Opening Remarks from the Rally in Dublin, November 27th, 2010
by Fintan O’Toole
On one side of this street, in 1913, James Larkin was arrested as he addressed the workers of Dublin who had stood up to claim their dignity as citizens rather than serfs. On the other side, in 1916, Ireland was declared to be a republic under the control of its own citizens.
Today, we gather here to reclaim that sense of citizenship. As the fate of our country is being decided, it is a case of mind over matter. They don’t mind, and we don’t matter. Our rulers have no shame, and they believe we have no voice.
They tell us we have no choice, that there is no alternative. A government with no mandate will do a deal with people we have never elected. On the one side, we will borrow yet more billions to bail out the banks. On the other, there will be war on the poor and the vulnerable: a savage assault on the minimum wage, cuts in welfare payments and attacks on basic services for the old and the young, the sick and the disabled. And this will happen while the elite that caused this catastrophe protects its own interests. Under the government’s plan, a single person earning €40,000 will pay exactly the same amount of extra tax as someone earning €300,000. This is not a plan to save Ireland, it is a plan to save the Irish elite.
If we really have no choice in all of this, let’s stop pretending that we are a democracy. Let us, as part of the austerity programme, cut two whole years – 2013 and 2016 – because otherwise we will mark those centenaries amid a mockery of their ideals, as a powerless people in a country of mass unemployment, mass emigration and growing poverty and inequality.
But we do have a choice. We can emerge from this crisis with a renewed sense of solidarity and justice and with a vigorous democracy in which power has returned to the people. We are here today to say that we are not economic units whose only function is to behave ourselves and pay off the gambling debts of our masters. We are not children who must take our medicine or be sent to bed without our supper. We are not subjects, we are citizens. And we want our republic back.
The GM digital scribble is gracing the petition.
I found it on thepropertypin.com - all sorts of good stuff there every day, glad you like it too
I never thought I could LEARN from Youtube, BUT:
There are 75,000 views on this video+ 23 pages of comment: I read them ALL:
½ comments are from Irish people saying how astute :
½ from aggrieved Irish saying the Brits Really committed genocide on us in the famine , etc, etc.
As you say yourself EU neighbour states committed Terrible genocide on each other in 2 wars- 65 years later they’re Harmonious neighbours; Why Ever Not ???
In ‘Enough is Enough’ FOT notes how Europe prospered after 1945 - he says it was due to solidarity, that all European nations knew they must work together to get over the grim past.
But The Irish/ Brits / Famine bit??? A red rag to Green bulls:
HOW are UK people in 2010 responsible for Anything Some of their ancestors ( and not many either- few Brits in 1845 were upper-class administrators ) did 150+ yrs ago?? !
A Comment also read’ There hasn’t been much thanks for UK contributing 8 billion in bailout funds to Ireland‘ - And they’ll take another wave of our emigrants.
I live in Dun Laoghaire- in early C20 the massive harbour walls were Covered with people cheering on Queen Victoria. A lot of Irish men were in the British army.
FOTs book says even in early C20 the British government was introducing basic National health insurance ( precursor of the NHS of 1940s’ ) and the Catholic church Blocked it from coming to Ireland.! This country ( since 1922) seems to have included a Huge amount of Brit hating propaganda in its education - it all seems to be a big part of the Irish way of finding a Scapegaot to avoid taking Any responsibility.
I Never saw anything like it even with northern Catholics( a few hundred IRA did not speak for the rest of us). Drop the Brit hating and concentrate on what the Church & Irish Gombeens did to us: The Brits are our friends- and Irish people will see a Lot of England in the coming decade.
Meantime more educational toons out there; Get on Youtube, look to right side, and you’ll see:
“Robots explain Irish banking crisis” 1 American + 1 sympathetic English ( !!) Robot discuss Ireland- English robot says IMF should stuff themselves.
“IRELAND. DON'T PAY. WALK AWAY“(Explained By Cartoon Homies, V illuminating looking at these black toon dudes , explaining Anglo and how our ‘corrupt government keeps bankers out of jail’(!!)
Another video is a ‘Fianna Fail KO boxing match‘,
Then There’s ‘ Hitler phones Cowan’ etc…
I Suspect its not all educational…but Youtube has far more on our economy than most mainstream Irish media and RTE- the National broadcaster who sleep walked through all danger signs.
Here is a comment on the Tiger video from Canada
“Only extremely stupid people could possibly think that the Irish bank debts are in any way related to individual house-purchase loans in Ireland. Anglo Irish et al gambled 200-300 BILLION on an international level to stuff their own pockets with wealth. That clearly goes beyond Ireland's national debt. It’s globalized capitalism in its most disgusting state. ( Suekitchoo from Canada)”-
TRUE- but Anglo got away with it because Sean F was the Taoiseach’s friend;
Enough internet rambling- back to my quiet night in.
Hmmmm. With regard to Suekitchoo's point: banks, finance houses, pension funds and insurance companies get involved in alls sorts of market machinations. Sometimes they fall flat on their faces. PMPA, in the 80s, were a good example. And what about Quinn?
But as far as I know, the bailout fund has not reached 300 billion (just yet).
Let's not absolve our own domestic speculators.
The celtic tiger GM was a mirage a shimmering nothing. Humans need distraction, interesting the Taiwanese seem to think it's worth documenting.
I agree with Anna, it is shameful that the most vulnerable are having to pay for this mess. Bankers, elite foreign bond holders, who wouldn't miss a few hundred thousand are not effected to any extent. A terrible beauty was born, AGAIN. Whatever excuse there was for the first one (and there was many) there was none for the second. It's sad and grotesque. Whats the way? Sanity is needed.
Sure Dakota. And to be fair, most of us on the blog were aware it was nonsense at the time.
I'm just a bit wary of our masters and sections of the media using the old "circle the wagons" trick against the EU, ECB, IMF and all the rest to shift the blame from themselves.
Let's not forget domestic bankers, top civil servants (whose role in advising government ministers), politicians (whose remain among the best paid in the world) and the rest of the Irish elite. They can't be taxed too much, of course, because they will lead us out of this mess. They are the movers and shakers!!
Oh... hang on, are they not the very people who got us here?
The most sickening thing, for me, is the attack on the most poorly paid workers.
Things are going to get even more interesting over the next few years, I think...
Oh, by the way, Dakota - if you get a chance would you mind forwarding my your email address?
Fully agree, GM. Words of wisdom. If there was only sanity at the time.
Reminder; Get your name on this PETITION if you want things to change
http://fintanotoole.ie/petition/
JusT in case people don't see it among all the posts above;
STAND UP AND BE COUNTED:
Remember the start of the Iraq invasion? seems Bush was SHOCKED at how many millions of people world wide campaigned agsinst it( OK Yanks still there- but maybe some day millions will campaign against contined invasion- you get my point)
When Daniel O'Connell campaigned for Catholic emancipation (1830s? )he held Monster meetings, bigger than any present dsy rock festival; is this really the same island and people?
"Our rulers have no shame, and they believe we have no voice."-
so march, protest, campaign and sign every petition going.
LET HISTORY RECORD:
Irish Finance Minister has topped a worldwide poll! for the 2nd year running!!
OK its the Financial Times
' World's worst finance minister poll'- but what an achievement for a little island!!
OH, and don't forget , overall, Irish Politicans are THE BEST money can buy!!
The FT also had words of DISTINCTION for the Dail, calling it:
'The only collection of inarticulate Irish people in the world.'
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