GFC

This article follows on from a previous article I posted on CanDoBetter 17th August 2011 entitled 'Euro zone aristocracy transfixed in 'Eurothink''.

But rather than replying to a comment to that article by way of a response comment, this article takes its place. The recent austerity measures imposed on the people of Ireland and likewise by selected European countries are treasonable. Insolvent developers and bankers have wrongfully been absolved from their reckless gambling. Governments bailing out these gamblers with public moneys have immorally burdened the public with private debts of the reckless. This is gross malfeasance and blatant betrayal of national wealth and so is treason. I fail to understand why civil rebellion has not broken out and call for the guillotine.

Back in October 2010, The Irish Times published the following article of a reader's response to her government's announcement of the possible €50 billion bill for the bank bailout.
Eviction of Thomas Considine, Tullycrine, Ireland, July 1888

'I am a citizen of this country and I am angry'

by Barbara Scully in The Irish Times, 2nd October 2010.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/1002/1224280160745.html

'It didn't look like a Black Thursday. September 30th in Dublin was a lovely mild day, blue skies with a smattering of white clouds. No breeze and just the slightest hint of autumn in the air. A day to be glad you were alive. A day when the earth was trying her best to distract us with her beauty and her benign nature.

On Twitter others noticed the beauty of this day, too. Mark Little (@marklittlenews) posted a beautiful photo of the early-morning city. There was a softness to the day that belied what the news was about to bring us. As Morning Ireland came on air, Twitter began “discussing” the current state of affairs.

There was a building sense of seriousness. The jokey tone of a couple of weeks ago was gone. The main feeling was one of disbelief. I continued to scroll, reading each comment. In 140 characters there is nowhere to hide. No room for flowery language. Twitter tells it like it is.

I phoned my husband, who was already out chasing up work, and told him not to turn on the news. Tune your radio to Nova and listen to rock music all day, I commanded. As a self-employed sole trader he has more than enough on his plate wondering about paying next month’s mortgage. He didn’t need to know about another harsh budget in December. Not today anyway.

As I hung up the phone, I began to get angry. I am a housewife and part-time writer. I have no degree in economics or politics. I don’t understand bond markets. But I am not stupid. I run a home, write, support my husband’s business and raise our children. I am a citizen of this country and my opinion counts. And I am angry.

I am angry that the Government which presided over the Celtic Tiger (some would have us believe they actually created it) and allowed the property market to run amok over a number of years is still in office.

I am angry that we are two years into this banking crisis and, despite all the rhetoric, things just continue to get worse.

I am angry because I feel we have been misled by our Government on Anglo Irish Bank.

I am angry because there are still fat-cat bankers, the very ones who contributed hugely to this mess, who are still fat cats. There has been no accountability.

I am angry because our Taoiseach, at such a critical time, saw fit to go on the piss a few weeks ago. I am angry that he then thought it acceptable to address the nation on the economy after very little sleep, with seemingly little preparation and clearly hungover.

I am angry that there seems to be no credible opposition to this lame Government.

I am angry that the politicians continually put their own egos and quest for power before what’s best for our country.

I am angry that we are being told there will be major cuts in the next Budget. I can tell you that this family, like many others, has nothing left to give. The past two years have eroded any savings we had for our children’s education. We have cut all that can be cut in our own budget, and every week it is a struggle to pay the bills.

I am angry that I have to watch my husband run himself ragged as he tries to earn enough each month to keep our boat afloat.

But most of all I am angry because I know I am not alone. I am one of thousands of women all over Ireland in the same situation.

I love this country. I think Irish people are articulate, creative, compassionate and brave. I do not understand how we have so few politicians who reflect these attributes.

I call on every TD in Dáil Éireann, from all parties and none, to set aside their political differences and come up with a cross-party strategy to deal with the financial mess. I am clinging to the hope that we have the brains, creativity and energy to begin the process of fixing our banks and our economy.

In extraordinary times, extraordinary measures are called for. I challenge our politicians to take such extraordinary steps as are now necessary.

History will not forgive them if they don’t. And neither will I.'

In 2001, the UK had the second highest child poverty rates in the European Union. Ten years on they have grown into angry disaffected youths
.
The police brutality issue and the case of the police killing of Duggan is a legal issue and likely a police cultural problem associated with the UK riots last week.
But Duggan's killing belies broader and deeper social problems across English urban societies. The rioting thus far has been in England (London's underprivileged Tottenham, Hackney, Croydon, and working-class English cities of Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Liverpool and Wolverhampton). It has not spread to Scotland, Wales, Ireland, or Northern Ireland yet - why?
Rioting though has also copycatted to the more rural privileged English towns of Cambridge, Gloucester, Bristol and around County Kent - why? What is the common denominator? All riots involved youths and Y-Gens committing break and enter and burglary of retail shops and communicating with social media mobile devices, notably Blackberry's.

It is convenient knee-jerk ignorant simplism by the English government and the media attributing blame to just 'criminals', poor-parented youth, opportunistic hooligans, and gangs.
Poor understanding of social problems by any government will not enable its social problems to be addressed. Inept media analysis also confuses the situation.

Prime Minister Cameron, with his elite background is distant and aloof to England's urban social problems. His ideological mindset as a Conservative is centred upon national economic prosperity, which presumes social good flows from economic growth and prosperity. He seems incapable of recognising the disconnect between the parallel economy of the 'haves' and the 'have nots'.

Cameron is narrow-minded in his reading of the situation. He has said in Parliament last week that what the nation had witnessed was criminality "pure and simple". He said his government would do "whatever it takes to restore law and order". How easy and simplistic it is for Cameron to blame criminals? He sees it as a matter of parental discipline and a lack of responsibility in society. Cameron rejects the suggested underlying causes of underclass and poverty in Britain. He says: "This is not about poverty, it's about culture...a culture that says everything about rights, but nothing about responsibility." Impressive words, but when the leader of country is in denial about the causes of widespread urban riots being more than criminal opportunists, the root causes are ignored and the problems risk getting worse.

Cameron clearly has inherited a depressed and debt-ridden economy from Labor and the GFC. He came to office with an economic mandate to restore sound economic management and this has necessitated severe austerity measures reducing government public service delivery. But by simplistically focusing on addressing the economic ills will not auto-address social ills. Economic and economic policy is a subset of sociology and social policy. Societies don't magically become healthy by delivering on economic policy. Did Blair's Labor window of opportunity for social reform deliver to British have-nots? If not, how could British 'have-nots' have appealed to opposition Conservatives for recognition through the Blair years? What political party was listening to the plight of British underclass who probably voted informally anyway?

David Cameron, like his counterparts in Greece and Italy, are "flat-footed, reactive, trapped in double-talk, these are second-rate political creatures unprepared to deal with those responsible for the crisis". Even Barack Obama has been spineless. Hence the blunt words of Jacques Delors, three times president of the European Commission: "We don't just need firefighters; we need architects too."

A British blogger responding to the riots in Britain agreed: "WTF is going on with this government? Are they deliberately trying to rub our noses in it, or do they just have a tin ear? What a frightening bunch of amateurs."

With injustice now the blighted face of democracy, cynicism and fatalism gain ground. "What's the best way to deal with this crisis?", runs a popular Japanese joke. The answer: "Let the system collapse." The panacea looks more plausible by the day.' [Professor John Keane, 12th August 2011].

Cameron needs to get out more and listen to the ordinary citizens of urban England. He is sending an arrogant classist message by taking foreign holidays in Tuscany, while England's poor and unemployed are suffering abject downtrodden hopelessness. The public's perception that the government has let the banks and financial gamblers get away with rampant insolvency and handballing the corporate debt to the State is not helping matters.

England's and Britain's demographic been allowed to radically alter as a consequence of open door immigration. Whilst the country side may be relatively similar, Britain's urban demographic has little similarity to that of the 1960s or even the 1980s. Immigrants are a dominant characteristic of British urban society. What was the population policy plan and intended outcome? Where was the social investment in making multiculturalism work? There has been none. Since Thatcher economics has been rather liberal and laissez faire. Problem is the same approach has been taken of changing urban society. Economic theory is inappropriate for social re-engineering. Much of urban England and Britain is characterised by inter-generational unemployment, truancy, child poverty, broken homes, domestic violence and street crime.

What causes thousands of people in multiple urban centres to riot, commit violence, arson and loot shops? Recognise no single one cause. Many are clearly opportunists. Not all are disaffected underclass. But as to the underlying causes, start where people see injustice. Examine the social problems in England urban centres over the past twenty years. Who sent the messages inciting the riots? Controlling street violence is essential in the short term, and I am sure we will see the water canon armoured vehicles in London reminiscent of their use in the Northern Ireland riots of the 1970s. But water canons can't prevent riots and can't address the causes.

In 2001, the UK had the second highest child poverty rates in the European Union. [Read More]
Well those children are now adolescents and many have nowhere to go and no hope for the future. And dangled in front of them and in the media constantly is the government's Olympic decadence.

Cameron's Olympics do not have a happy outlook. English urban society has a far bleaker outlook.

London 2012 Olympics logo - it may well become a legacy of English society divided

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia

Police victim, Mark Duggan, with his first born child

Online investigation of the current UK Riots reveals that the riots have been part seeded by immigrant concentration and unemployment; but more so by youth underclass reacting to the UK's conservative government's austerity cuts in public funding in response to the GFC failures, which themselves are perceived by many people to have been caused by the corporate sector - banks, stock market, corporates, the rich, the government, the police. Hence the riot targets have been corporates, the perceived 'haves' (business owners, McDonald's, commercial retailers displaying spoils of wealth). Cameron's arrogant Tory image must be reopening memories of Thatcherism. Cameron was holidaying in Tuscany at the time thanks very much - so his forced return must have had some sense of win by the mobs.

England's disenfranchised urban youth have had this sentiment played on by various radical, extreme Left and anarchist movements. There has been recent history of violence with comparable modus operandi. All it has taken is idle youth over a hot summer and a trigger - the police shooting of a young black man, Mark Duggan.

See messages on the following UK websites. Some of these web sites are quite scary in what they are advocating...

Anarchist International

National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts(UK)

wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_anti-cuts_protest_in_London

Socialist Party (UK)

Student Broad Left (UK)

thegreatunrest.net/2011/01/10/nus-wont-back-ema-day-of-action

But when you listen to the British media, they seem to not have a clue about any real cause behind these riots. They just naively attribute the rioting to youths spontaneously reacting to a police shooting of a man with a gun in Tottenham, and otherwise out for a bit of fun over the hot August summer break. Simultaneous riots in multiple urban centres around England strung out over four days. Yeah right! These riots are clearly co-ordinated, but their perpetuation reveals broader and deeper anti-government sentiment . Philadelphia in the US has also experienced rioting over the same weekend. "Police are blaming riots and looting in London and other United Kingdom cities on flash mobs organized with social media like Twitter. Incidents in Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights join disturbances such as one in Philadelphia last Sunday. [Read More].

Clearly, the social media organisations, Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger, used by the mobs to incite violence, looting and vandalism; need to be held partially responsible just as Murdock's print media have been recently held legally to account for unethical behaviour.

The pertinent social question is do the UK riots have common causes to those recently in Greece?

Anyone kindly giving the above listed lot the benefit of the doubt about their propensity for violence, search Google, type 'anarchist violence' and select Googles images option, then double click on any image result.

In Tottenham last weekend, McDonald's was one of the first targets for arson

Anarchists attack London last April

'If a copper has to die to get our point across then so be it,' an anarchist known as Seth said. 'I'm happy if the filth get sent crashing to the floor and don't get up - then we've had a good day out.'

[Read More]

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia

Rudd's Ministry after being sworn in on 3 December 2007

---

Irrespective of Rudd's failings, and we should not understate his leadership in saving Australians from the demise of the GFC; no leader deserves a factional coup d'etat.
Sudden leadership spills are unsettling to all concerned. What happened to Rudd was equivalent to a CEO being suddenly escorted from the company premises.
It was an humiliating and disrespectful act characteristic of oppressive regimes and revolutions, both uncharacteristically Australian. In the interests of good governance, probity, electorate accountability and civility, the process of leadership replacement needs review. What would have been wrong for instance with a two week notice period allowing for civil measured transition? What was the rush? We are not at war.

The process of leadership replacement where a political party can suddenly replace a Prime Minister or a State Premier without electoral involvement is undemocratic. Political parties are elected on the merit of their leader. That merit earns an electoral mandate. If that mandate is not fulfilled, it is for the electorate to judge.

Australia now has an unelected prime Minister and an unelected Premier of the country's most populous state, NSW - both appointed by the Labor Right factions. Irrespective of the personalities or gender of these two leaders, that they may be seen as factional appointments should be cause for concern by Australians that a undemocratic process and an unaccountable political group can control government at federal and state levels simultaneously. Where does the real power and control lie?

Such power must be realised, then properly curbed and restored to the people, even if such a leadership change were to be trigger a compulsory election. Until there is a general election Gillard's Government is not credible.

On the back of these two issues, Australia has its first female Prime Minister in Julia Gillard. This is an historic achievement, but it shouldn't be. What has take us so long? This is 2010 and all Australians are supposed to be equal and feminism has been fighting since the suffrage movement on the 1880s. Gender shouldn't even be a factor in a mature civilized society, just like ethnicity or age. It is an indictment on Australians that few indigenous people are in politics and that it is probably many generations away before we can celebrate an Aboriginal woman as Prime Minister.

That our socio-political mindset is so hung up on the abilities and performance of one person in the role a leader is a rather vulnerable insecure position for the electorate and the media to be in. It means that the success or failure of the entire nation hinges on the whim of one personality. In Rudd, we trusted him on his promises, but even though he was quickly distracted by the GFC and then lost focus on key issues, he didn't end up being an axe murderer, luckily. American voted for George W. Bush and look what they got - someone who condoned torture and sent Americans to invade another country!

Our dependence on one person to lead the nation poses an unnecessary 'key man' risk. It is the Government and specifically a Cabinet team of ministers who should be running the country, not Rudd, not a gang of four, not just Julia Gillard. Running a country is immensely complex. It is a shared responsibility that of course demands leadership, but for effective delivery requires layers of delegation and good governance.

Gillard would be wise to better utilise the talents of her elected representatives than trying to do everything herself like Rudd tried to do but failed. Gillard should be about leadership of the Cabinet. Gillard's Government should be about managing the national interest as directed by Cabinet. The two functions are distinctly different. Rudd' experiment with autocracy should be learnt from. He started off with a progressive approach to listening to the electorate in his 2020 Summit. Perhaps his incapacity to interpret criticism constructively saw him become insular - lessons we can all learn from.

If we consider some of our more longer serving leaders at both federal and state levels who were popular with the electorate and not divisive, we may learn from what works for Australian political stability. Deakin, Menzies, Hawke, Wran come to mind. Liberal and Labor are ideologically the same so it matters little which is in office. Listening and consultation followed by decisive action is a good start and this is one of the first indicators of Gillard's style she announced on taking the helm.

I wish her new government well. It would be reassuring for voters to think they can look forward to a long period of political stability in Australia, without the usual cycle of new leader euphoria...disappointment...complacency...anger...contempt...followed by let's give the Opposition a go.

But we must have an election soon. Until we do, Australia does not have a 'government of the people, by the people, for the people.' [Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 19th November, 1863, Pennsylvania, USA].

Icelanders have rejected demands from England to repay US$5.3 billion blaming the debt on the 'gross negligence' of Iceland's former Prime Minister Geir Haarde and central bank chief David Oddsson during 2007 and 2008.

With Gordon Brown pledging legal action against the Icelandic government for refusing to honour its obligations, Iceland's pagan god Thor has lashed out at the foreigner, erupting one of Iceland's dormant volcanos on the Eyjafjallajökull glacier last Thursday [Þórsdagr Thor's Day] and sending plumes of ash southwards over the UK.

It's about time the gods looked after the rights of the ordinary citizen.
Corporate UK is now taking its financial medicine, with downed flights costing $200 million a day.

Financial services firm at the heart of unfettered Wall Street gambling, Goldman Sachs, helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules. Lehmann Bros, Citibank and corporate financial gamblers and the international deregulators that fuelled predatory lending need to be held accountable for gambling the economic wealth of nations like Iceland, Mexico and Greece.