canisgallicus

Saturday 2nd November 2013 16:34

The man outside Tesco has taken the spot from another man who has a problem with his leg, their story is ‘stereo-typically’ the same and that is they are begging for money for their hostel preferably so that they can book a week in advance. To be sitting on a pavement as the weather changes for the realities of a hard winter makes their situation all the more unacceptable because you know their plight is that they fall between the cracks of the social model and because they have no utility bill, no fixed address, they have no social welfare. For some reason these people are displaced from their original homes, it might be divorce, drug addiction, alcoholism, disability, ill-health and in particular people with mental health problems but what it does tell you is that there are people in our society who need special involvement from Services and who do not receive them.

I walk up to next shop and B reminds me that I went in one door of Tesco the last day and came out the other and forgot about him. What probably happened is that I was on the mobile phone and just forgot about B. Earlier in the day another character came up to me and as usual asked for his Euro; when B noticed he admonished me and said why did I give to him because he had State benefits, a home and spent his day gambling in the bookies. This is the life of the Street. It’s harsh, it’s uncertain, it’s cold. It is about asking for money because you have nowhere to sleep for the night and ad infinitum. The poem (on Citizen Journalism site by contributor n/a) reflects the narrative so well and the truth is this hardship causes too many to die, too young, without an opportunity to know the difference. Ozzie was our local. When he died, we all realized that each member of her urban village community had a little of his character to remember him by. He looked so much older than his years. He had attributes but society sidelined him to homelessness, begging and who knows what else.

Stereotypes, monologues of the elites who have no empathy, the homeless industry and charities, (those without the objective to eradicate homelessness because it becomes their bread and butter), those chief executives and their flock who earn well in excess of £150,000, the beneficial owners of the hostels who receive payment for the beds in the dormitories from the overly bureaucratic sectors of government and in particular the HSE. Pruning is essential and a fresh look is urgently needed to tackle the homelessness crisis and underclass emergence in the streets of our city Dublin and other cities on this Island.

The internet is like access to literacy which empowers the people. With ease, the majority of us can access what happens in other countries with the homeless crisis. We are told that the EU has the Invisible Hand and social is a strong contributor. We know social plays a considerably less significant part of the American belief system. Let’s use the internet to take a look at San Francisco – Think Progress publication.

There is new survey about homelessness in the US (begging there refers to panhandlers) – downtown San Franciso. What is interesting is that it challenges the myths and the interesting part is that the myths there, resemble the same myths that apply here on the Island of Ireland. You might ask how or why? Well there seems to be a conventional wisdom ‘that those on the sidewalk asking for a dollar are lazy freeloaders who will use the money for alcohol or drugs’. The danger is when the media are biased towards this view and use the airwaves to promote the myths. In the US, Fox media and a Mr John Stossel have become the mouthpiece for the perpetrators of the myths and he has broadcast certain messages which are heavily biased and harmful to “beggars”. Stossel reports (we know only too well that so many of us use these very same stereotypes) messages such as “I had heard some people beg for a living and make big bucks – $80,000 a year in some cases….You shouldn’t really give to these street people…..You are really supporting alcoholism and drug problems”.

Thankfully this spurred on The Unions Square Business Improvement District (a collection of 500 property owners downtown San Francisco), to fund a research team. They took a two day period, in March. They spoke to 400 people who gave money to panhandlers/beggars over the past year. Thankfully, they can refute the Mythology. They found which I doubt is anyway different to what one would find in Dublin that ‘the typical ‘panhandler’ or ‘beggar’ is a ‘disabled middle-aged single male who is a racial minority (maybe not yet in Ireland) and makes less than $25 per day despite panhandling seven days a week for more than five years…..in fact 94% of these meager earnings are spent on food….furthermore they found that contrary to the myth people hold that ‘they prefer to live on the streets’ is wrong and that only 3% of panhandlers don’t want housing’.

Words like underclass, victims, mentally ill without out access to proper medical services, lack of education, sparse provision of social workers, drug addicts maintained on methadone for decades without a source of education to help them become working contributors to society by access to education must define Ireland as different, because we are small enough to make changes. Ignorance is no defence. We need to avoid victimology and create opportunities by seeking out alternatives other than a life on the streets begging.

Fr McVerry’s name is the man that is accredited for helping the homeless.

His website provides the facts:

…………….“This page provides statistical information on homelessness and Peter McVerry Trust Services.

Homelessness:

Stark figures for such a small population.

The US survey states that 60% make $25 a day or less, if this is so in Ireland and the hostels cost in excess of e60 per week plus the addition of the what HSE, the DCC, the NGO’s , Charities pay to the private owners of the hostels; it makes it quite a pitiful existence with no hope of ever leaving this culture of dependency propagated by commerce.

Why do people give to beggars! The finding is simple. Empathy and a fear that you or a family member may one day be a beggar……if this is so

Come back to the words of wise man ‘The world is made up of the Takers and the Taken’

Remember when you see a beggar on the street, chances are through the food they eat, the alcohol they drink, the accommodation they use, they too and possibly are paying more tax and are re-investing in Ireland Inc……these are paying real indirect taxes daily and recycling money in the economy. 

www.change.org/petitions/protect-sheltered-workshops
People with intellectual or developmental disabilities (I/DD), which includes mental retardation, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy, have the right to…

Shame on the trade unions who are turning a blind eye to the practices of large retail and service worker businesses.

Mandate: Do you understand exactly the injustice that is done to a person who has worked for 13 years at Tescos, and who falls into the category named above ie ‘sheltered employment’. You don’t.

You are in the employers’ pocket. For that matter you are even in the pocket of the man who monitors the cameras in store and corporatism. If someone has worked for 13 years; surely cognizance of their intellectual disabilities means that certain circumstances may be beyond their grasp. Does a kangaroo court of the manager, the trade union representative, the surveillance man and one other honestly and truthfully have the power to summon the person, show him the evidence, tell him to go and remove his belongings from his locker and then fire him. The crime is petty. In a trial at court, it is improbable that the case would ever leave the Garda station, let alone be approved by the DPP.   This case I will write about – it ended up in the criminal court.

Trade Unions do your job and protect the vulnerable.

Imagine a man who dedicated to his function on the shop floor; to the people who are the customers at the location, who is given an identity where in another time he may have been institutionalised.

Mandate: Its easy to trample on the rights of the vulnerable and side with the ‘team’ but it is wrong, very wrong because in these times of economic hardship, this man will never get work and because he lives in the family home he is not entitled to the dole so he is made a total dependent, and is made feel like a burden. Wrong is no man’s right. This is a moral wrong but also cannot be legally substantiated. 

Take a position – you hold with the decision of the X case or you do not but at all times please exercise humanity for the mother who carries the child and if mental health issues apply, please acknowledge  Mother’s right to decide.

Consider today’s Irish Times article. ‘Suicidal woman allowed to get abortion’

In the UK, the Judge says that ‘a woman cannot be barred from abortion even “if mentally unwell”‘ As the Irish bill on mental capacity is yet to be introduced, it greatly surprises me that in the constant debate about suicide in Ireland presently, that not much attention is given to the issue of ‘mental capacity’ and the person’s right to have or not have a child.

Mark Hennessy, the London Editor of the Irish Times reports:-

Let us take perspective urgently here in Ireland based on this…..’the woman, who is mentally ill, cannot be prevented from making the choice to have an abortion….’ Surely, this is a basic human right that people in Ireland need to grasp before this legislation is passed. The X case has existed for 20 years now and should be enacted in legislation. The Church ought to stand ashamed for their threats to excommunicate members of our Government who fail to adhere to their CREDO. Times thankfully have changed.

The Judgment (9 pm last night) was granted quickly taking account of the 24 week bar to abortion limits on pregnancy. Mr. Justice Holman said ‘It had to be established that the woman, who suffers from bipolar disorder, lacks the mental capacity before she could be stopped by the courts, even though he accepted that she is “mentally unwell”. In Ireland we need to note this Judgment on behalf of the many women with neuro-psychiatric implications who may become pregnant and need to make choices based on their life circumstances. Judge Holman went on to say that “Under the law, the woman is entitled to make a decision “WHICH MAY BE UNWISE” OR WITH WHICH OTHERS DISAGREE “INCLUDING MYSELF” if she is shown to have enough capacity to know her own mind……’

The psychiatrists in this case tried to state that the woman did not have the mental capacity because of her mental health problems eg bipolar, with paranoia and other problems. The psychiatrists put forward that in time the woman could regret the choice of abortion and would prefer to have sent the child forward for adoption but the Judge listened to the woman and acknowledged her capacity and right to choose in the circumstances.

The woman spoke and she said “I want it (the abortion as many with mental health problems can and will say) more than ever. In the situation that I am in, (8 years with bipolar and complications informs you of your circumstances), the idea of me having a baby is crazy’, she said, before insisting she wanted to part from her husband and her mother and “start a new life”. The woman acknowledged that choosing an abortion was not taken lightly but also said that she had no regrets relating to an abortion she had chosen to have 18 months earlier. Her regrets were that she became pregnant. The other point to note is that the father was not her husband.

This case is worth reading.

Mental health and anxiety are stigmatised and it is an elite group of people who make judgments in Ireland to intervene and bully vulnerable people. We need to first deal with the stigma and mental health before we start threatening to imprison our medical profession to 14 years for making a decision to facilitate an abortion in Ireland in line with the X Case

Hippocrates says: ‘Do No Harm’. Remember this is a paradox. For a woman making a decision to have an abortion because she lives with neuro-psychiatric complications…the doctor who understands her situation making a decision to carry out an abortion is alleviating harm to the woman who basically feels she would not be able to cope. Mental health is a life long sentence and choice is essential – it does not take those self-made God-like psychiatrists and the likes of the Iona Institute or Opus Dei for that matter to make the decision that the woman has no right to choose. 

But what about buildings that are both architecturally splendid, in prime locations, close by to the National concert hall that are now home to asylum seekers, men, women, children who have become teenagers and older. They are positioned like an oasis but in a desert because these people are housed here and forgotten about. The Irish Times article written by Patrick Freyne titled ‘Refugees endure mind-numbing tedium, insecurity and over-crowding’ needs to be read and merits the attention of the contributors to the citizen journalism site writing about Urban abandonments and dereliction to record how a ‘forgotten people’ can be housed on our shores with many questions unanswered.

Hatch Street private nursing home 1958 was often accompanied by a notice in the Irish Times to say a child was born to a family. Shamefully now it is another kind of home to young asylum children and from the article many of them live in an environment of fear – fear to go to the bathroom at night thereby necessitating a ‘pot’ for their needs. For the people of Ireland, we need to be asking questions now about these ‘behind the walls’ architectural significant buildings, in prime locations?. Who owns them? What rent do our Government agencies pay to the owners/landlords each year? Is it upward only rental that applies? Does the Government authority pay way above the odds for the provision of this accommodation for asylum seeker families with the attitude of who cares about refurbishment, just keep them quiet and hidden? The Irish Times article shows pictures of near squalid conditions behind the walls. Is this acceptable at a time that our religious orders are being made stand accountable and transparent for the shameful practices of the Magdalen Laundries and other such horror stories relating to poor peoples’ lives?

Hatch Street is neither abandoned or derelict but the lives of the asylum seekers housed here is both about abandonment and dereliction but in this case it is the dereliction of duty by the State. Destitution and forgotten about at a time that our unemployment rate soars and people are faced with eviction from their homes due to the economic crisis, does not mean that we should forget the people who seek asylum in Ireland. Africa Day is near. These people are asked to live in one of the most elitist areas in Dublin in a property that from the outside is outstanding on £19.10 per week (£9.60 for children) – they are not allowed either to work or study. They are subject to be moved or even be deported at short notice. These people come from the Congo (war at its worst prevails eg Kony), Cameroon, Afghanistan. People share rooms. Many are educated.

The structure on the outside far from what resembles within. Money is the strong determinant of keeping vulnerable people like asylum seekers hidden away. The money is the rent paid most probably at the height of the Celtic Tiger to often absentee landlords, moving upwards only, with no obligations to improve the conditions in which people live.

If this applies to asylum seekers, it also applies to the homeless. Beware of the creation of industries that pay landlords at the expense of those made vulnerable by a society without a moral compass.

Michelle Clarke (Comyn)

We need more postings like this one from Joe. Apathy perplexes our population and the haze needs clarity if people are to understand their basic legal rights in relation to their family home, in the wake of more changes in the law going forward.

The law of the land today so easily states remedies supposedly for the common good. If you fail to pay your property tax on a self assessment value basis, a fine of £5,000 applies or prison. If you fail to comply with law brought in February relating to mainly pre-1963 bedsit type houses, the landlord will be fined, or sent to prison. Clarity in the law exists as the data mining http://watson.analytics.ibmcloud.com/‎ exercise is enriched by the registration of all people connected in anyway to owning a property in Ireland. This is modern day cartography http://www.britannica.com/science/cartography and for those who aim to remain outside the net, it looks as if you are on the losing side because the Revenue is the enforcer and we all know the power that exists there. Meantime instead of selling off apartments as independent units, we have a new marketing mantra – Multi-family investment opportunities. http://www.kennedywilson.com › Investments. International buyers are attracted to these developments, so much discounted from Celtic Tiger prices, that they are being bought up swiftly. However, what about the cross over. First do these new owners pay a once off property tax charge (significantly discounted) in respect of the people who will take leases out and occupy these buildings?

More importantly, what about the people who live throughout the city of Dublin and Ireland in the antiquated houses which since February this year are no longer compliant with the law and will need to be vacated for the landlords/owners to carry out the necessary renovations to comply with the law. Many of these people have lived in these homes for decades, are often in receipt of rent allowance and are now shivering in their shoes as the landlords tell them – Goodbye – you own nothing and we don’t have to make any provisions for you. Who cares for these people? Where will they be on the housing list? These are a needy group of people very close indeed to the bottom rung of the ladder. Will the Government speak up for them and ask these new landlords of apartment complexes to give them first call. I hope so – there are stories of heartbreak all over Dublin in particular where people do not know if they will have a home by next week. We hear nothing about compensation being made to these people or services provided to ensure their transition to their new apartments!

Then as detailed above we have over 100,000 people in mortgage arrears with properties discounted by near 70% in some cases. In Spain, Greece, Portugal, there is a change in family structure as the banks exercise their rights and evict people and those who do not commit suicide or become homeless, return to the homes of their parents with all the distress that goes with making such a move.

Quite rightly, the originator of this topic states that the ‘Land League founder Michael Davitt wrote about how in the 19th century “eviction was the law of the land”. Today the parasitic landlord class has been replaced by the equally parasitic banking class, whose members act according to actual rather than “moral law” . They consider properties occupied by defaulting mortgage holders to belong to lenders by right of law . From a legal standpoint they are correct. Under such circumstances successful resistance to evictions must inevitably mean defiance of the law.

Ireland is on the brink of being totally morally bankrupt in relation to people and their property entitlements – all because in a snapshot of time when the elites await a little ‘controlled inflation’ to devalue property or that ‘write-down in the value of debt’ we surely deserve by now so that they can once more swoop in and create their wealth portfolios. Markets are markets but morality is a choice and the time for introspection and correction is now.

Eviction has always occurred but now the loophole is closed to many more people, particularly those 2 years and over 90 days in arrears are daily awaiting phone calls, the post, or even the judgment and its fear at its worst that will cripple this economy.

A warning ….. many people face the Spanish Inquisition of the Personal Insolvency Practitioner (‘PIP’) with the guidelines as documented by the Department of Justice team. Again the law states £10,000 fine or prison but be warned about what happens if you opt to become a bankrupt in the UK and your breach the law:

Economic growth is what they tell us they want. They say shops are paying inordinate rents and as for rates they are prohibitive and legislation change is needed to stop the upward only clause.

But what about the simple things in life.

What about a little understanding and tolerance?

Last week’s Sunday Times featured the story about one homeless drug addict man and a @bobcat (twitter) who became his friend, guardian, mentor. This ginger cat is now featured in a book and both are to be found signing books (paw prints) at bookshops such as Waterstones.

What is so lovely is that the Cat and his friend can go to cafes and are welcome. You see, the English and the Europeans have a healthy reaction and love for their animals.

Alas Ireland falls behind on this. There is no creativity. A little discretion should allow people who enjoy gathering at coffee shops bring their dogs along too. Stop hiding behind rules and regulations that are so often cited and God alone knows if they even exist. A person who is blind, the dog illustrates the fact but what about the person with mental illness – this is the silent condition but the dog is most probably equally essential to their participation in society.

Be friendly, Be kind. Be creative.

Mexico have paved the way of invention for those who bark so much about Poop. They collect it and in return you get wifi energy!

Michelle Clarke (Beagle)  Upper Baggot Street Village in support of his canine friend!

http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/ireland

Start with Colm McCarthy, Economist – his article in the Sunday Independent

Year 5 and the deficit remains stubbornly high irrespective of the sustained prescribed austerity measures. We have had both taxation increases and extensive cuts to social welfare in real terms. The pace of the contraction in the Irish economy is unprecedented with as many as 300,000 jobs lost. Our gross national income has fallen 20% since the peak in 2007. The heady days of the Celtic Tiger yielded income to Government coffers through payments by purchasers (on excessively over-valued properties) of stamp duty, add to this the VAT on house sales and then of course the capital gains tax which having been reduced from 40% to 20% still meant the revenue netted huge amounts. This has all fallen away dramatically over the past 5 years. The very least we can expect from this Budget is a provision to create a rebate for those caught with property now in negative equity (from the crisis period in 2007). The amount of stamp duty which in some cases is between the range of £30,000 to £80,000+ morally ought to be repaid to reduce the capital amount of debtors/mortgage holders loans. Do not forget that the stamp duty is part of the loan which is repaid at a variable interest rate for the term of the loan be that 20, 25, 30 yrs?

Back to the balance sheet. What can be done about public expenditure? “Contained” was the word constantly used by George Lee last Monday night TV programme on RTE 1. It’s a strong word and it is a good way of tackling the hornets nest of state bureaucracy. There is the solid argument that if we tax these immobile pension driven sectors in the economy the cost will result in a cut back in consumer spending and this in turn causes job losses and thereby a loss in economic growth. There must be a means of stabilising the pendulum extreme position that causes such hardship to the plain people of Ireland. We have the debt but worse again is the fact that we have the interest burden (based on variable albeit low now tax rates) of servicing the debt. It is that old fashioned compound interest scenario and in our case now it cannot work, the debt we owe as a country must be restructured and like a company that goes into liquidation and where the creditors are seeking what is owed to them, the impossibility of repayment becomes what is relevant. The simple logistics of a failed company (or country) are that the priority creditors ie the Revenue and the Banks are paid first and the creditors are lucky if they get say 20 cents per euro after all expenses are paid to the accountants and wind down costs. We need a dose of clean common sense appraisal fed directly to the Troika, the ECB. It is not sufficient for us to be the model student while Greece can be the real renegade and they get the restructured package.

Ireland is scuppered at present. A Government with borrowing power has the option to use it in a normal cyclical downturn. For Ireland, this all collapsed in Autumn 2010 when we had to be rescued by the EU and IMF. I suppose just like a company, the red column took over and the liquidators moved in. The terms are what they dictate and we must not lose sight of this imposition. Germany took 100 years to pay off the reparations from the World Wars but they are not so generous with terms for errant EU members who overspent. They are not keen on extending time or restructuring yet or for that matter of just writing down a %. If only, they could look to the views or Robert Reich and Joseph Stiglitz in the US and their emphasis on the benefit of stimulus to create the economic growth and thus the employment.

Yes “Containment” We can all well accept that cut backs are necessary for efficiency and effectiveness but there are limits.  The excessive bank rescue costs are one third of the National Debt.

It is income tax (now significantly reduced by outcome of crisis) is the major source of government revenue. The problem is that the public service payroll and social welfare are 70% of all spending. This humbles the contributions from PAYE/PRSI and the latest tax called universal social charge. Hence we stand nearly naked in the context of the EU the ECB the IMF and Troika hence we are vulnerable to their power and we all know about absolute power and its capacity to corrupt and let this include moral corruption too. What we have now in Ireland is a moral corruption from our EU neighbours. There are swings and roundabouts in life. Germany drove policy towards low interest rates to empower it to merge with East Germany. These low interest rate returns inflated house prices as people who had money could buy and where banks were deregulated could engage in over lend created, the bubble that burst into catastrophe. Yes I think Ireland deserves a restructuring of its debt especially if we make significant efforts to contain our bloated bureaucracy where necessary. Common sense:

Our elderly, people with disabilities. Carers are being cut back. They cost a paltry amount and the savings made are insignificant.
To be a long term patient in the St Mary’s in the Phoenix Park costs £1700 per week. Common sense must dictate rationality about the important role of carers.

When do we stand up and say ‘We Take Responsibility’. Crimes are still being committed against children, vulnerable people and there is an endorsement of Abuse of Power at every level in society. Moral bankruptcy is the true crisis faced by the people of Ireland today. Markets comprise the news but markets will survive and as they say markets have no memories but our children have. Just look at the desolation that has been caused to people in the Magdalen Laundries, the sexual abuse engaged in by certain members of the Church, and worst of all the recidivism that led to more young men within the last number of years, being prey to the hands of an abuser within the auspices of a local school in Gweedore, Co. Donegal.

They say people “knew”? Of course people knew but did they care or the question is Do we Really Care?

Do we look to our Gardai? Do we look to Parents? Do we look to Children or more importantly do we listen to them? Do we pay heed to those who are vulnerable and crying out for help and possibly engaging in behaviours that make them even more vulnerable? Who is really listening. Who wants Change?

Mr. Donal McAteer from Poland. Thank you for your letter in today’s Irish Times.

Mr. Pearse Doherty, Sinn Fein. Thank you for your honesty today about Mr. Ferry and your lucky escape along with your friends on that camping trip.

Mr. McAteer – I quote as follows:

This was the 1980’s. He went on to be charged for abuse and then released back into the community and back to the school where he could use his grooming skills to abuse emotionally/psychologically/socially more young vulnerable children.

Mr. McAteer. I agree if this had been a person shoplifting the heavy hand of the Gardai would have fallen with the greatest of ease and the man would have been charged.

But abuse… what makes us so slow to take it by the throat and deal with it.