Friday, October 27, 2006

A little sample of Irish culture.

Things fall apart,
The center cannot hold,
Mere anarchy is losed upon
The world

OK, some of you may be asking ‘ Ireland? How bad is it over there? ‘ Now, I’m no expert in this area, nor I claim to know the all and outs about how bad things are but nevertheless, I’ll try my best to give you a sample of what it REALLY is like to be Irish.

As far as I know, if you think prices in Britain are bad, then come over here! Ireland is easily the most expensive to live in. Due to various factors, like importing, taxes and whatnot. Pretty much EVERYTHING here is on a bloated price tag! Euros over here are literally worthless! Britain’s, do yourself a favor and FIGHT to keep your sterling! Preserve one of your last bit of national pride and your prices!

As for crime, certain parts of Ireland have being labeled crime blacks spots, like Limerick and certain parts of Dublin. So called ‘ Gangland ‘ crimes occur in this places all the time. Some of them are plain murders but others are just plain HORRIFIC. There was one incident recently where a car was a blown up with two children inside it! Yes, I know, evil beyond comprehension! That’s how things crime wise, has become! It wouldn’t surprise me if many of the people of commit these types of crimes came from single mother only families. Also, I’d say our police service is probably more busy fining people for speeding and closing pirate radio stations then going out and chasing the REAL criminals!

As for the media, it’s a joke. Another brilliant example of how they want to poison the people! And it largely works! Going back to what I said about the pirate stations being closed down. The reason the pirate stations get so popular ( one example would be one called KISS FM around here ) is because the current ‘ radio licensing laws ‘ are a joke. Basically, it doesn’t allow music requests and all the radio stations have to sound the same! And then you to put in news, which interferes with many shows anyway! Oh yeah, and the licenses cost an arm and a leg! Hmmm, I wonder why I listen online to Digitally Imported these days?

Our national broadcaster, RTE, is a VERY poor clone of the BBC. These rob people every year through a thing called a TV license and pretty much spend it on themselves and give little to nothing in return. Their ‘ homemade ‘ programs are largely a joke, trying to hard to emulate American or UK styles, forgetting its an IRISH station! There’s not many of those anyway, as they import almost all the programs anyway. The only thing they seem to get right is a Turkey called Dustin!

The Irish have a reputation for being heavy drinkers. ( don’t look me, I stay away from the stuff, for various reasons, the fact I don’t actually like the taste of alcohol being one ) and I have to admit, its true. Many, many people are also wanting to start destroying their livers as soon as possible as well. Underage drinking is a HUGE problem in Ireland. So called ‘ bushing ‘ is downright dodgy and illegal. I’ve being personally approached on many occasions by minors to buy drink for them. ( I refuse every time ) This is also partly the reasons I was so lonely during my teenage years, as many of ‘ friends ‘ went out drinking, leaving me with nothing and no one! ( I was always of a bit of a loner and outsider to things anyway. I always see things from a different point of view. )

Alcohol fights and brawls are very much a regular thing of a typical Irish Saturday night. Now, I still go out, only I don’t drink and some of the stuff I see disgusts me and puts me in a bad mood! Why do people do this to themselves? Probably because they spend the rest of the week like robots, working at a job they hate and use drinking to escape from this life!

And now, the part you’ve waiting for; Feminism and how it has effected Irish society. It has effected Irish Society in many ways. Man bashing is very much there. I recently saw an ad that shows a child style drawings in where it bashes the father figure, showing him as incompetent in using pieces of equipment, like a toaster or washer.

Do I need to mention that October is breast cancer awareness month? ( There’s a stand about it up in my college about it ) Where’s the Testicular Cancer awareness month? Nowhere to be seen. The stories of domestic violence against the women and the organizations that helped her are well known ad founded, however, the ones where the man is the victim are pushed aside of course. I do know of such an ( under funded, of course ) organization that helps men is such situations, it goes by the name of AMEN. Amen to those who formed and run that organization!

I’m not too aware of divorce laws in Ireland but they are probably in line with the rest of the world; Screwing over men and leaving them broke! It only came into effect in 1989 here, I think and I also think that an amount of time will have needed to have past first before the divorce is granted. Again, I’m not terribly sure about this, I’d need to research it.

So, there you go, a sample of Irish culture, courtesy of a guy of lives there. Screw this, I’ll be moving!

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