February, 2012

Escaping The Walls

Noel Farrell

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Blogashed
February 9, 2012

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I started the New Year with one aim in mind. To become more organized. Clamp down on what needed doing, tidy things up, move things along. During the course of doing that I damn near threw three years work - unpaid as it is - down the Blogger gutter. I decided to delete a certain email address I hadn't been using at all. Big mistake! With its deletion went the blog. It took me days to realize what had happened - and over a week to rectify a situation that looked to be a lost cause.

Thankfully tonight though, it came back online again. Back-up is denitely on the Booker agenda after this. Worst case scenario would have been the loss of the material here. I've been in the process of serializing it month-on-month, but there's a drove of material to get through. It was important, if for nothing else than to provide a timeline of the economic catastrophe to befall Ireland in recent times.

People know they get it called as it is around here. And should some mist off into the future decide to read up on what went down in Ireland as she fell from grace, well who knows what they might stumble upon. Maybe even the ramblings of an attic recluse.

A lots been happening since the shutdown. But it's much too late to be writing about it. Tonight's for sighs of relief. Thanks to a Google God. There is one you know... but that's another story.

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Social Explosion
February 12, 2012

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Nothing much has changed since I wrote here last. Not here, not in Europe - indeed, not anywhere. The Greek parliament is this evening under siege from protesters as they chant their discontent at another austerity beating - in exchange for a 130 billion bailout to tide them over a bit longer. The scare-mongering continues in well schooled fashion. Unelected Greek Prime Minister, Lucas Papademos, told Greek ministers the measures were vital to avoid a default that would cost Greece its place in the euro zone and provoke "economic chaos and social explosion." I wonder if a memo goes around to them all. Just a few weeks ago our own Leo Varadkar was playing similar word-war when he warned if payments to unsecured Anglo bondholders were not met a 'bomb' would go off in Dublin. Is this rhetoric not lost on everyone? 'Chaos - explosions - bombs.' Slimy lot they are - but at least this sick brand of democracy is being outed. The mainstream don't show it - but it's happening. How it pans out as a historical footnote, well... Ireland should look at the Greek situation as a pre-run for the way it's going to go for ourselves. There's talk of an 'arrangement' being made with Ireland on the 30 billion in promissory notes invented to bailout rogue Irish bank, Anglo. No getting away from that - no matter how many times it changes names. But hey, it's a reduction - a better 'deal!' But don't wet yourself. It's no haircut like Greece got. More of a re-structuring of the payments. A longer term. But hey, we're a placid nation capable of taking stuff on the chin. We've mastered it over the centuries. When we did nally get our act together and nally had our own nation, it didn't take us long to lose it again, did it? A little softener before the second bailout - assuming of course we go the Frankfurt way with the new treaty. It's all about timing but if you think austerity is bad now you heven't seen nothing yet once these sharks get their way. No sign-up - no bailout! A natural form of austerity. The no-choice one.
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Should it all go that far the debt will become to much of a burden so default will be on the cards - or continual 'bailouts' under complete surrender of our national sovereignty. No easy way out then! Ireland was virtually left leaderless last week when Kenny and Gilmore took to the skies and headed West. A welcome getaway I imagine. The scale of expense claims by serving members of the Dil hasn't fallen much from the last shower that had the use of the spectacular top-up to their over-inated wages. They're all at it. Right across the board. Left, right and center. Well there was one exception - Labour TD Eamonn Maloney, BE, claimed no expenses at all. So out of a parliament made up of 166 TD's just one saw t to forgo their expenses. Tells us a lot about our political establishment, doesn't it? Senators and Independents are not benign to claiming their full share either. Eh, are we not bankrupt? Have we not lost our sovereignty? Why do we need over 200 elected representatives now anyway. Have we gone insane as a country? It's seems it's no longer a gravy train but a full Irish train. Why this is accepted has been beyond me for a good while now. Over in America it appears Mitt Romney is all but home and hosed in the battle to become the republican nominee for the presidency. Romney won in Florida and Nevada before an unexpected trio of wins for Rick Santorum in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota appeared to throw the issue open again. However, Romney returned to form yesterday with a win in Maine. Gingrich seems to have faded now, with the likable Ron Paul guring more and more as each primary and caucus is visited. Next up on the whirlwind tour is Arizona and Michigan at the end of the month, before Super Tuesday in early March. Maybe a Sarah Palin twist to come yet?
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Hopefully the American public will see some sense in November and by-pass the bias of the anti-Obama rightwing media. Fox News is like the propaganda wing of some neanderthal cult. Plenty of advertising money to be got - but at what cost to America in the short-term? Not helping Rupert Murdoch's case for advertisement dollars was the arrest this weekend of British tabloid, The Sun's, deputy editor Geoff Webster, picture editor John Edwards, chief reporter John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker and deputy news editor John Sturgis. They are being investigated on suspicion of corruption, aiding and abetting misconduct in a public ofce and conspiracy. Police ofcers have also been arrested. Hardly shocking given the scale of the phone-hacking that went on at sister newspaper, the now defunct, News Of The World. The whispers of similar things going on state-side seem to have fell silent. That's the power of the media. Sheeple, we are.
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Escaping The Walls

February 17 2012 ,

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The character Don Booker has had a Facebook page running for just as long as my blog. Once I'd committed to writing Booker's World I thought a head start on getting potential readers seemed like a right sort of thing to be doing. Within a few years Booker had thousands of friends! Now, how they converted into book purchasers are stats we don't want to go into - even given my deplorable marketing efforts to date. Like the blog, the Facebook page over the last year hasn't been about getting readers as such - but more a gonzo-type commentary of the time. Facebook can be a great source or little pearls of wisdom which serve many things. It also shows the people we have more in common with. I'm pleased to say I'd be among a gang of about 20 fellow dissenting reprobates on Facebook this past 18 months- sharing stuff from around the web for the masses. To ignore - in general. One such acquaintance posted something mid-week which i found a little alarming. I've copy and pasted it below. It's not for the faint-hearted. It's shows just how much pressure people are under. Largely ignored - beneath a wall of mainstream silence who prefer to butter things over. But there's no buttering over real issues. I nally got the go-ahead yesterday from the powers that be to go ahead and do my worst to put myself into a position of employment. 15 long long months since I rst contacted them. That old wall of silence again. Don Booker and other characters from Booker's World would resonate with the unfortunate below - who, beaten into submission, decides to put his story live on a public forum for all the world to see. I hid Booker's World behind ction. But what actually are people being turned into here when someone feels so desperate that they decide to write something as wrenching as the passage below. Just to have a little red-tape disappear is a slight weight off tired shoulders. No excuses anymore - not that I've ever looked for any!
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I've a lot of the dots. Now i need to join them and see where it goes. It has to be better than staring at four walls and a computer screen for three-quarters of the day. I followed my own direction since September 2009 simply because there was no other one to take. I didn't expect the wall I met since December 2010 with ofcialdom in a country spewing out positivity and togetherness - but when it comes to answering such calls - think that at-line on a heart monitor. I'm lucky to have friends about who don't allow people to give up. But when it seems your pissing headway into a Donegal gale that's not often easy. I probably won't have as much time now to write about all that's going on in this socially unjust world. But there will be other ways to make the point. I hope! At least now with this slight boost to the situation I can try make good on some of the things I'd set out to do all along. At least I've been deemed worthy of trying - at last! ************* The piece below has been copied & pasted verbatim from a post by one of my fellow Facebookers This was posted on a Live Blog on Boards.ie and then the Thread was removed. It shows us the struggle people face everyday of their lives. We all know someone who suffers similarly and we need to help those around us......God help this man please! I've decided that I've had enough...

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This is an account of my life on the dole and which seems to contradict what man...y think, particularly media commentators. I have been unemployed for three years. I have 460 job applications items in the job applications folder of my email account. I am tired. I am weary. My heart and soul is gone. I exist. Since December I've had to start taking anti-depressants for the rst time in my life. I live alone. I haven't had a face to face conversation with another person since Christmas. I am well educated (master's degree) and I used to be a bright, outgoing, positive person - now I'm just a shell who sits alone and often cries from sheer loneliness, isolation and despair. I'm a 39 year old grown man, 6ft3, very presentable, articulate but seemingly useless and a burden to the State. I'm also useless according to recruiters and job agencies, most of whom don't even respond to my applications or phone calls. The majority of jobs I apply for I wouldn't have looked at ve years ago but I'm no longer even good enough for these. Perhaps, like the certain elements of the media and the State, they think I'm lazy or thick or both. I am so tired of the negative commentary from Government Ministers and various media commentators about lazy unemployed people not bothering to look for work and preferring to remain on the dole. I depresses me to the point where I just feel like crying and these days I often do. I worked since leaving college when I entered the Civil Service as an AO. I held down a number of very well paid jobs after leaving the CS. I have found life on the dole to be a nightmare. Signing on, queuing in the post ofce like a beggar, attending CWO clinics - completely alien to me in every way, shape and form - soul destroying. They obliterate one's dignity - standing in a queue, blocking the street every fourth Tuesday to sign on, like a Dickensian beggar at a soup kitchen. A few days ago I received a letter from the CWO/HEO with a rent supplement review form. My landlord cannot reduce the rent to the level required and nor should he - I'm paying less than the open market rent - the apart10

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ment next door was let to a working person last month for 25 per month more than presently I'm paying. This will be the second time since 2009 I have to move because of reductions in rent supplement levels and each time I've moved it has been to increasingly shabby accommodation. This time, however, there is not one single property on daft.ie at the newly set rate - not one! Even if there was, I don't have access to a deposit and a month's advance rent. I have contacted the Local Authority and they're absolutely useless - in fact worse than useless. These are the same Local Authorities who are going to lead enterprise development - some hope! They told me they would house me in a men's shelter if the worst happens! The rent review laughably asked for details of "all bank accounts" - I don't have a bank account anymore - that's where I'm at! If you're on the dole you cannot be trusted to have it paid to your bank account - you have to stand like a mug in the post ofce. I cannot afford to heat where I live - it's electric storage heating and I'm already in arrears with my electricity bill. I never go out to socialise - the only luxury I allow myself is the gym which is a necessity more than a luxury. Most days I take my 16 year old car and drive to a lakeside car park where I have a coffee, read and listen to the radio. I often stay there until 11pm because I can run the car and keep warm, following which I return home and go to bed. If I don't do this I just stay in bed because I have nothing else to do. I see no hope - none whatsoever. I see a certain sector drawing enormous salaries, pensions, expenses, etc and living lavish lifestyles, while many others struggle to stay warm, to keep a roof over their heads and eat properly. I turn 40 on Feb 27th. I'm a neat, tidy person and mathematically minded - I've purchased a hose pipe and duck tape and it is my plan, on that date, to terminate my time on this earth. Quite simply I see no hope and I CAN'T take anymore of the relentless hammering, negativity and isolation. Instead of being helped by the Department of Social Protection and Government, I am being harassed and threatened. In over three years on the dole I have never once been contacted by any government body, other than to cut, cut, cut. I'm done.
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So, after 27th February there will be one less person on the dole, one less person dodging employment, one less person trying to live under the rent supplement scheme, one less person being treated like a beggar by the State to which they once contributed thousands in income tax. I hope it will make a difference to some bottom line because I can tell you that I no longer make any difference to anyone. This is the truth of my reality, the reality of life on the margins of the social spectrum! I'm sure you'll agree that it's a great one and I have little to be moaning about so I'll stop - soon. ************* Now tell me, is that a society of equals? If country means all and government must exist then maybe instead of lavishing themselves, our public servants could do a little constitutional refreshment. I think the words equality are mentioned in there just one or two times ...

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Greased 2
February 22, 2012

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'All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.' George Orwell It's getting a little more difcult nding material online these days. It would appear that those i mingle with mostly on the net are the ones not appearing where they once were. Nothing about any of the occupation movements appears on the new Facebook 'timeline.' It's strange to say the least. There was a urry of activity late last year where it appeared masses of people were connecting up in voicing the ills going on at this time - and now very little. Like people are being deliberately being kept from sharing information - which ultimately has to be what the Internet has to be about. For without knowing about a situation, people can't do anything to change the situation. And change is still very much needed. The latest act in the tragedy unfolding in Greece happened over the weekend when the ECB installed primeminister Lucas Papademos signed up for more austerity in exchange for another bailout to keep things ticking over for a few months more. As a result, The Troika (EU, ECB & IMF) will now be a permanent Athens feature to make sure the economy-imploding austerity is implemented. Can-kicking has become the name of the game - but it can't continue much longer. Greece is doomed to default. It's only how it's going to happen - and when! The Greek rioted over the new package. Hard to see how anyone could keep a clear head given what has been going on over there this past few years. It's the same here in Ireland - barring a miracle, we'll eventually default ourselves with an unsustainable debt. By then we'll have nothing left. We'll be stripped of our assets and

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resources. Do our politicians - across the board - care? It damn well appears not. My voting days are over. 39years it took to come to that conclusion. What can I say. I'm as slow as a wet week! While Greece has fought austerity all the way, we have been meek and compliant. Our reward? Nowt! Greece gets write-offs and haircuts. It's hard to gure out. It's like a modern day tragedy being played out before our eyes. They appear to be stupid - but they are far from that. Ordinary people appear stupid to, for letting it all happen. There's a lot of people not standing by though and letting the st of Frankfurt knock twelve bells out of them. But the media aren't covering it. They take away any alternative by not speaking about one. They just cover the news in their own self-interested way. And from where I'm sitting right now there's no change in that on the way anytime soon. If only planet-hopping was a reality! 'And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.' Friedrich Nietzsche

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Referendum It Is
February 29, 2012

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As American Republicans opt for Mitt Romney to contest November's presidential election, thorn in the side of Europe, Ireland, has a pretty big decision to make as well. Word ltered out late yesterday afternoon that Ireland is to go her people and ask if they are in favour of the new EU scal compact treaty. Enda Kenny made the announcement in the Dil yesterday after taking advise from the Attorney General. Like the re-run of the Lisbon Treaty, fear will now be struck into the soul of the Irish nation regarding consequence, so I'd expect it to have a similar result as the last time the Irish people were asked their advice on matters of national interest. But then again... It does give me some much needed pride that we, a little oat away island in the North Atlantic, still have the courage to practice democracy in some proper form at times. It certainly doesn't happen across the Superstate where our fellow Europeans are constantly denied a voice on such matters. Ordinary people, pawns in a game of power that's having catastrophic consequence to societies right across the continent. With Europe on its knees, it's safe to say those protagonists at the top are incapable - but without proper democracy, how do people change that fact. People are a mere commodity in all this - a natural renewable resource that's being leveled in every quarter outside the self interested. That unfortunately is how we are seen. These people are not our saviors. These people are the problem as they try to prevent humanity evolving in any sustainable way. There are exceptions but they are few.

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Mitt Romney has taken the latest round of primaries in Michigan and Arizona. Santorum was second. Ron Paul nished third with Newt Gingrich a distant fourth. Still think Ron Paul might run as an independent. The GOP are the only losers is this disgusting race for the right to challenge Obama for the White House. Sick and twisted are just two words that spring to mind every time i think of Rick Santorum and Rick Perry. Gingrich is another nasty piece of work. Pro-war and pro-God? How does that come about? I mean, come-on. People can't be that thick. But yet many buy into it. I've said all along I'd expect Romney to face Obama down in Novembers race. Even under as much pressure as Obama is at home on the domestic front, it's hard to see the whole of America backing a Republican Party candidate with so many hate-spewers within their ranks. Time will tell. Next up for the party are the Super Tuesday primaries on March 6. A candidate needs 1,144 delegates to secure the GOP nomination. Romney is leading with 163 delegates followed by Santorum with 83, according to an Associated Press tally. Last chance saloon for Gingrich and if it's a disaster for the hate-spewing and at times, utterly insane, Santorum, it's game over.
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Bookers World February 2012

This ebook series cover events as they happen through the eyes of the ctional Don Booker, an unemployed recluse as he attempts to write himself through personal woe in an Ireland in decline. The novel, Booker's World is separate from this series of ebooks, though both worlds do cross at certain juncture as time goes by. An ebook version of the novel is now available. All ebooks in this series may be used for reference and may be distributed freely once adhering to Creative Commons License and crediting the author.

With cuts to depression & addiction services being implemented in Ireland, please consider these when making a charitable donation in the future.

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Also in this series 5 Days in September Planet Bonkers Deathly Quotes 45 November Nightmares Visitors Absurdities Dead Peasants Purjurious Times The Great Gas Giveaway Forgetful Directions Celtic Whine Chill Murder by State Dark Mr. President The Loaded Taoiseach The Casting of the Dye Independence Three Planks & Ron Paul International Mutha-F*ckrz All available to read or download at The Cost of Living www.fbooker.blogspot.com Last Daze www.scribd.com/don_booker The Artful Dodger

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Untitled

Also by Noel Farrell

Novel Bookers World

Sonny Strange

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Contact :jasepub@gmail.com
Noel Farrell 2012

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