Do you remember the break up of Yugoslavia? At first people said it could never happen. Yugoslavia had been a federation since the First World War, it had Europe’s biggest standing army, it had been the ballast between East and West and yet, it disintegrated in bloodshed.
Initially, the independence movements in the various republics were minority affairs. Even in Croatia – always the Republic most likely to leave the Yugoslav Federation – the all-out nationalists were never the norm. Clearly, Croats and Serbs had their own unique histories, different forms of Christianity, and different alphabets. However, the huge rates of intermarriage between Serbs and Croats within Yugoslavia tells its own harmonious story. I spend a lot of time in Croatia and many of my friends, products of Yugoslavia, are half Serb, half Croat, while lots are mixed – a bit Slovene, Croat, Serb, and Bosnian.
Freud once described intense nationalism as being little more than the “narcissism of small differences”. In the case of Yugoslavia, such nationalist self-regard was always evident in football rivalry (just as it is in Spain.) However, for the most part, everyone got on. Sure, people grumbled about Yugoslavia – as they do in every country – but there was a sense right up to the end that a multiethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual state could be preserved.
This is why the Catalonia crisis is so unpredictable. Sometimes, as Yeats said, the centre cannot hold.
In Yugoslavia, until the Yugoslav Army (or the Serb Army as it was seen by Croats) became heavy-handed and then unnecessarily violent, there was a sense that a compromise could be reached. Once there was bloodshed, however, the Croats moved to arm and defend themselves; within days, a situation that was regarded as difficult but manageable, descended into civil war.
Could Spain go the same way? Anything is possible.
The Croats were emboldened by a post-unification Germany, driven by the personality of its foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher. The EU stance is crucial. How long can it ignore the Catalan street while playing geo-political chess games?
One under-analyzed aspect of crises is the role of personalities at the moment of calamity.
Personalities matter.
In Yugoslavia, Tito mattered. He kept the country together for forty years. When he died in 1980, ethnic divisions became more evident and no single strong leader emerged. So, when disaster struck, there were weak men in power.
Worryingly now, there are weak men on both sides in Spain.
Prime Minister Rajoy has no majority. His Popular Party is a minority government and his selection as PM was more to do with being the last man standing during coalition negotiations than any ground-swell of national support. As a weakened PM, his priority is getting re-elected. He may use this crisis to appear tough on the Catalans for his own Castilian – and slightly nationalist – base. As we can see in the UK, playing party politics with issues of national destiny is highly dangerous.
Unfortunately, Spain doesn’t have a national figure that is respected by all, the role played by Tito in Yugoslavia and, to a lesser extent, by the old King Juan Carlos who stepped aside last year. Would the old man have been as tactless as his son, the new king, was the other night? Old Juan Carlos had widespread kudos as being the man who defused a fascist army coup in 1982. For Catalonians who detested Franco and his army generals, the old king had credibility in the bank. His son doesn’t.
As is so often the case, economic calamity precedes nationalist extremism. In the 1980s, Yugoslavia experienced three bouts of hyperinflation. This undermined the credibility of the central government. It also heightened Croat and Slovene fears that “their” hard currency, generated from tourism and light industry, was being squandered by the Serbs. At the same time, the hyperinflation fuelled instability in Serbia, softening up the ground for delusional Serb nationalists with their talk of land grabs all over Yugoslavia, reigniting the suicidal myth of the Greater Serbia.
The economic crisis undermined the legitimacy of the Belgrade central government and gave the nationalists, on all sides, the financial expediency within which to frame their ethnic paranoia.
Economics has also played its part significantly in Spain’s crisis.
Since 2008, Spain has suffered enormously from the financial crisis and the resulting imposed-austerity. Unemployment increased dramatically, bankruptcies proliferated, and large parts of Spanish assets were sold to vulture funds. Since then, there have been three weak and divided governments trying to grapple with the crisis.
The seeds of the nationalist surge in Catalonia have their roots in the great financial crisis. Up to the early 2000s, the wily Catalan leader, Jordi Pujol, played a canny game, constantly demanding cash and concessions from Madrid and threatening independence if he didn’t get his way.
As long as there was money in Madrid there was wriggle room. When that dried up, the game changed and – as in Croatia after the Yugoslav hyperinflation – local Catalans began to further resent their money going to central coffers.
There is, however, one factor that is new. This is the profound disillusionment of the young with mainstream politics all over Europe, since the crisis. Young Catalans, like young people all over Europe, can’t find work, and if they do, it is extremely badly paid and finding a place to live is near impossible. Rents in Barcelona are up 16% this year and the city is also witnessing, like Dublin, high-end investors snapping up everything. Spain like Ireland, and unlike most other EU countries, is culturally a home- owning society.
If you are young and can’t get a decent job that pays properly, plus your rent is going through the roof, what’s the status quo doing for you? Why not back the separatists?
The Catalan nationalists say that by Monday they will have declared independence. It’s impossible to know what happens next. However, there is an unfortunate mix of weak leadership in Madrid, a weakened economy in Spain, the legacy of the financial crisis still playing out, and a “lost generation” of young Catalans who are fed up with the status quo.
In addition, there is a deep emotional resonance of nationalism all over Europe. At a basic level, nationalists have a better story to tell. They can promise a bright new future, together as one. There is a dramatic energy in the narrative. The image of the nation itself is powerfully exhilarating. This was very evident in the Scottish referendum.
Nationalism is here to stay in Europe, but Yugoslavia shows just how dangerous national disintegration can be. The day you leave may be the only high point.
For example, since Croatian Independence, various nationalist narratives have taken over the public discourse. Wrapping yourself in the flag is still the way incompetent xenophobes camouflage economic and national inadequacies. Privately, many Croatian friends of mine lament the passing of the eccentric but reasonably successful federation that was Yugoslavia.
You wonder too whether the Catalans will in a few years look back nostalgically at old Spain, if they do decide to take the plunge now.
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The Scots voted against independence for themselves – total cowards. Yugoslavia was the first country I ever visited outside of the British Isles – when I was 16 in 1989. We went to a town called Trogir, which is near Split (we flew to Split, it was also my first time on a plane). Beautiful place, lovely beaches and cheap, delicious food – I recall a plate of spaghetti bolognaise being 8 pence or something similar at a beachside restaurant – we had to carry bags of Yugoslavian currency around though so it might have been just after one of… Read more »
The implicit stance of Brussels is to prevent Catalunya from pulling out of Spain. Because the ECB is over a barrell. Because Flanders might leave Belgium on the same pretext. And that would result in two more insolvent regimes in the Eurozone. One in Madrid. The other will presumably, headquartered in Leige. Though it could also stay in Brussels, and be surrounded by Flanders. A Belgian divorce would create enormous financial shockwaves in the Eurozone. Rajoy is about the best ally that the embattled Merkel has at the moment, apart from the clueless Juncker. Macron has shown that he will… Read more »
The most glaring omission in the article, is Sinn Fein. For some rather baffling reason, few in the Irish media are prepared to take on a criminal organization, masquerding as an army of liberation, spouting Marxist bile, whilst pretending to be constitutionally oriented, and respectable. In fact, the Irish media has given up on any serious form of criticism of SF – with the possible exception of Owen Harris ( a former Trot himself, who learned form the inside that it was nonsense ) and Dudley Edwards (who is culturally unionist anyways, and who has a bias). Many of the… Read more »
Just wondering….seeing as the referendum happened one week ago, can we now expect Mickey Martin to tell the world that he respects the vote of the Catalan electorate…..only to say with one month….that they need to do it all over again…because they did not do as they were expected to do by Brussels. And let’s be honest – if Catalunya leaves Spain, Rajoy will be in a spot. Merkel, is not in a position to bail him out, and she really has nobody else in Club Med for a pal – the current governments of PT, IT, and Greece are… Read more »
The Scots have e referendum on independence and Brussels says no way will it be allowed into the EU if votes ‘yes’. The majority of the Scots vote (only 50% voted, but anyway) in Brexit was to remain in the EU and Brussels says yes, of course Scotland can join the EU if it wants to leave the UK. Brussels of course wants to threaten the British by destabilising the UK and encourage a Brexit U-turn. Then Catalonia votes to leave Spain and Brussels says no way will Catalonia be allowed into the EU, even though it has a bigger… Read more »
It now seems that this issue IS becoming more like NI. Because within the involved region there are two sides. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-08/spains-rajoy-ready-trigger-nuclear-option-thousands-protest-against-independence-bar Rajoy, seems to be playing it too strong, and is NOT being sufficiently reasonable to enable a compromise. He is behaving as if Brussels is supporting him. In fact, he knows that Brussels and the ECB require him to close this down, before it grinds the ability of the Spanish government to borrow, to an abject halt. Unfortunately, what is in the interests of the ECB, and Brussels is NOT in the long term interests of either the Catalans,… Read more »
There are people in Scotland who are capable of running a country.
They are not in the SNP, though.
And it seems that the Scottish people have figured this out.
The Catalan separatists might wish to take note.
Just reading this, haven’t got to the end yet…
“Spain’s Crisis is Europe’s Opportunity”
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/catalonia-crisis-new-european-sovereignty-by-yanis-varoufakis-2017-10?utm_source=Project+Syndicate+Newsletter&utm_campaign=0570cca114-sunday_newsletter_8_10_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_73bad5b7d8-0570cca114-93599809
https://dailyreckoning.com/russia-story-matters/
“The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is… Read more »
09:31 ^POTM StreetAccount Summary – Politics of the Market: 6-Oct Trump suggests “calm before the storm” after gathering with US military leaders: Reuters highlights the comments President Trump made following a discussion of Iran and North Korea with US military leaders last night. “You guys know what this represents?” Trump said after journalists were invited last-minute to observe the end of the gathering, Trump then answering his own question with, “Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.” Follow-up questions were answered with “You’ll find out.” The ongoing tension between the US and North Korea, with Iran coming to the fore… Read more »
Your Local Bank Could Be the Central Bank Central banks will have to embrace digital currencies; the question is how far they will go. By Jean-Michel Paul October 6, 2017, 6:04 AM CDT The financial community, increasingly divided over the future of digital currencies, is looking to monetary authorities and regulators for signals. The problem is that those signals are decidedly mixed. The European Central Bank is discussing putting restrictions in place, with governing council member Ewald Nowotny describing the hype around them as “dangerous and dubious” in an interview this week. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, by… Read more »
Posted at LeMetropoleCafe Spain: Catalonia premier seeks talks to resolve standoff with Spain: New York Times covered last night’s televised speech by Catalonia’s Premier Puigdemont, who said that he wanted a negotiated settlement to the region’s conflict with the Spanish government, but he did not offer to shelve his secessionist plan. After moving on Wednesday to declare independence from Spain on 9-Oct, Puigdemont in his speech, did not mention — as he had previously — plans for a unilateral declaration of independence from the rest of Spain, and adopted a conciliatory tone that could allow him to claim that he… Read more »
Unfortunately Crypto Currencies will not be our salvation. The ECB will simply declare that from 2025 the euro will be converted to eurocoin on a 1 to 1 ratio and that will be the end of euro notes. They will use the same technology as bitcoin et al ie, blockchain but there will be a catch – Adam will tells us what it us, I hope. And that will be that. The end of cash is the end of freedom, the Catalonians and Scots have missed the boat. Perhaps then Tony’s gold back currency will get an airing as the… Read more »
A major factor in the breakup of Yugoslavia was German support for the breakaway states. That’s something that David only hints at when he mentions that the Croats were emboldened by Germany’s Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher. It was Genscher’s lobbying that led to the recognition by the other EU countries of Slovenia and Croatia. Without this German-driven EU support for their independence and the lure of EU membership – which they both eventually got- there would have been far less desire in those two states to leave the Yugoslavian federation. German support didn’t just encourage Slovenian and Croatian independence. It… Read more »
“There is, however, one factor that is new. This is the profound disillusionment of the young with mainstream politics all over Europe, since the crisis. Young Catalans, like young people all over Europe, can’t find work, and if they do, it is extremely badly paid and finding a place to live is near impossible. Rents in Barcelona are up 16% this year and the city is also witnessing, like Dublin, high-end investors snapping up everything. Spain like Ireland, and unlike most other EU countries, is culturally a home- owning society” Brilliant stuff. Rents are out of control here. All of… Read more »
Divide & Conquer the homogeneous Nation States ;
Well, most are homogeneous in ethnicity & culture & religion
And, most of the targets are geographically homogeneous
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AND THEN, COLLECT / CONQUER THEM INTO THE EU EMPIRE
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https://twitter.com/HenryMakow/status/915954087040110592
Well, be the hokey, I’m just God smacked ;
I mean,- u would never have thought these honchos would be involved in Catalonia + Spain matters
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https://twitter.com/HenryMakow/status/916346578817961984
Yes Siree ;
Just when u think that u are f..king them,- u learn that instead they have been f..king u ;
Well, that is if u go along with Bernie Sanders & Georged Soros & Chuck Feeney & Antifa & … all the other associated bolloxology
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8-)
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And, speaking about seceding,- how about this secession from being reliant on ever-censorious youtub.com ?
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Maybe DMW can bring in some revenue for himself by putting his videos on this new video platform.
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https://www.bitchute.com/faq
Is there any truth in this report alleging positive effects for “The City” in London, England arising from Brexit Secession from EU ?
Although, that secession not official yet ?
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http://nypost.com/2017/10/07/brexit-is-hurting-wall-street-in-a-big-way/
And, upon secession,- how to sort out matters as pensions etc. ?
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SPAIN FEATURES IN THIS REPORT
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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-07/may-be-end-europe-we-know-it-pension-storm-coming
And, how about u seceding involuntarily from ur home ?
Not, Israel>Palestine>Israel vulgar-style.
But, Nevada, USA subtle-style ;
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I like the wisdom of the closing sentence ;
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“Never underestimate the cleverness with which people will use the law to legally rob the vulnerable.”
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Never underestimate the cleverness with which people will use the law to legally rob the vulnerable.
We have a massive volume of debt, and low interest rate. Yesterday, in the DT, there was an article detailing how German Finance Minister Schauble declared “there are bubbles everywhere”. Indeed there are. In any case, one bubble is now facing a “moment of reckoning”. Sultan Erdogan (whose sons are also part of the power structure, it seems) and Turkey. Now, I think we are all agreed that Erdogan’s chief achievement has been to “Make Turkey Backward Again”. He has been propped up by Gulf oil money in the process. In fact Petro-money has flowed into investments in Turkey. And… Read more »
Another account of the sort of malinvestment going on in the Turkish internal market. https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/09/turkey-becoming-a-shopping-mall-waste-yard.html If only we were reading accounts like ths instead of the drivel being pumped out in The EU-rush Times- which had profiles of courage about leading chancers in the Irish economy, who were squandering hundreds of millions !!!! And then there is financing of this debacle. https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/09/turkey-economy-dark-side-of-economy.html [ In 2015, more than $9 billion in foreign capital had fled Turkey. The country sought to bridge the deficit with its own reserves, helped also by big inflows of capital of unknown origin. In 2016, the net… Read more »
Current affairs spawning disgusting depraved politics.
https://spectator.org/humanity-and-mr-killer-paddock/?utm_source=American+Spectator+Emails&utm_campaign=73af951de2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_797a38d487-73af951de2-104365713
http://www.thejournal.ie/an-post-che-guevara-stamp-3636616-Oct2017/ Can we not put Hitler on our stamps instead? Hitler’s brother worked in Dublin, and der Fuehrer would generate more revenue from stamps because he was more interesting and more influential than Che Guevara. Maybe we can offer the Nazi community from Argentina an opportunity to invest in Ireland in return for some of the gold they obtained in Nazi German death camps in occupied Poland. Because one has to be tolerant, I guess no one could object if let them have Nazi marches once a year, and decorate some streets with swastikas to break the monotony of the… Read more »
@David McWilliams
CAN YOU PLEASE MOVE THE ELEPHANT FROM THE ROOM?
-> I CANT SEE THE TV
WHAT IS BEHIND THE PUSH FOR TO BREAK UP SPAIN?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdFzMLZAXEM
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-> ELEPHANTS ELEPHANTS EVERYWHERE
=> BUT NOT A DROP TO DRINK
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3393/catalonia-islamic-republic
THE BANKSTERS NOW WANT U TO JOIN THE DOTS ?
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@ David McWilliams Here is a thought Dathi; A proposal for a question on the paper of one of your economics exams in trinity; Q; Jamie Diamon the JP Morgan CEO recently stated that he thought bitcoin was a fraud; https://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/jp-morgan-boss-jamie-dimon-says-bitcoin-is-a-fraud-1.3219286 Jp Morgan in the years since 2011 have been fined in excess of an eye wateringly stupendous 30 billion with a CAPITAL B US dollars for in many cases defrauding their own customers; http://www.dividend.com/dividend-education/a-brief-history-of-jp-morgans-massive-fines-jpm/ Discuss. Surely Dathi, to Jesus Christ (not you truthist the real one) it must be obvious to you the out of control banking system is… Read more »
List to me while I tell you Of the Spaniard that blighted my life List to me while I tell you Of the man who pinched my future wife ‘Twas at the bull fight where we met him Doing his daring display And while I went out for some nuts and a programme The dirty dog stole her away Oh yes! Oh yes! But I’ve sworn that I’ll have my revenge! If I catch Alphonso Spagoni, the Toreador With a mighty swipe I will dislocate his bally jaw! I’ll find this bullfighter, I will And when I catch the bounder… Read more »
Secession & Decentralization can be administered rottenly too :
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HIV in its earliest known history was allowed by California’s Administration to infiltrate blood banks of San Francisco under pressure / threat of the male homosexual community aggrieved at medical facilities failing to cure homosexual males dying of AIDS.
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NOW CONTEMPLATE THESE LINKS ABOUT “THE NOW” :
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http://www.breitbart.com/california/2017/10/08/california-hepatitis-a-outbreak-on-verge-of-statewide-epidemic/
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https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2017/10/09/unreal-california-lowers-criminal-punishment-of-those-knowingly-giving-hiv-tainted-blood-n2392514
I used to like the idea of Catalan independence but no longer. What is the point of a politically correct region breaking free of a disintegrating politically correct state (the latter due to the former)? What would they do with their independence? Well, look at Ireland for a clue perhaps. They would waste more time and money with an additionally useless state within the worse-than-useless EU. I have read a bit about the Catalan culture but what does it amount to? Perhaps Ireland can give a clue again. Anything native and worthwhile would doubtless be ruined, banned or (at best)… Read more »
Canadians see gloomy economic future
https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadians-appear-pessimistic-about-their-economic-futures-poll-suggests/article36526629/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&
From the past. Views on secession and separation.
http://people.com/archive/canadas-pierre-trudeau-speaks-out-on-quebec-socialism-and-dollars-north-of-the-border-vol-7-no-8/
“Of course, I would not use force to thwart a democratic decision. A country can only hold together if a people want it to hold together.” PET
“Canada is no longer self-sufficient in oil. We are now beginning to import more than we export, to consume more than we produce. Ten years from now we’re going to run out of the stuff completely”.(1976)
One can not believe everything one reads {:-)
“We have not gone away, u know ?” 8-( Rephrasing Gerry Adams famous statement We = Ireland gone away = “seceded” / “gone away” from British . . And, here is evidence ; . . https://villagemagazine.ie/index.php/2017/10/not-just-ted-heath-british-establishment-paedophilia-and-its-links-to-ireland/ . . AND, HEY Adam Byrne, WHY DO U REFER TO IRELAND BEING IN BRITISH ISLES* ? HAVE U NO SELF-RESPECT ? U ARE A SHAMEFUL EXAMPLE OF IRISH EX-PAT. . . * Adam Byrne October 8, 2017 at 1:52 pm “The Scots voted against independence for themselves – total cowards. Yugoslavia was the first country I ever visited outside of the British Isles… Read more »
I SUGGEST ;
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THEY KNOWING ABOUT THIS ABOUT TO HAPPEN
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https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/916714103921692672
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PROMPTED “The Dreadful Few” TO RESPOND WITH THIS
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http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/864297/World-War-2-Holocaust-Poland-Germany-EU-museum
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IS IT NOW A POLICY THAT IF U REFUSE TO SUCK SEED OF The Dreadful Few ;
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==> THEY WILL NOW FORCE U TO SECEDE FROM EU ?
One would have thought, that a crypto-anything named after “ether” (nothing) would have gone nowhere. I know some of you will disagree with me vehemently. But the cryto-currency mania is nonsense. Utter nonsense. Just think about it. It is a complex set of code, pretending to exhibit value, and ultimately it is backed a reserve of…. …a reserve of…. nothing (except the illusion that some fool out there will pay more for it). One may as well be selling AIB shares in 2006. ( AIB shares are backed by an illusion of competence and ability – when none existed. In… Read more »
Thought for the day
“An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen.”… Earl Wilson
MORE ON WHO IS DIRECTING THE SECESSIONS FROM THE NATION STATES ;
Although Scotland is justifiable secession attempt.
IRELAND FEATURES IN THIS LINK
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https://saboteur365.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/the-soros-plan-is-a-satanic-assault-on-europe-says-hungarian-lawmaker/
Alright, the Budget. There seems to be a commitment to tackle the transport bottleneck problem in Dublin. That is good news. There are three routes (pardon the pun) being pursued to throw money. 1. Faster buses / bus routes. 2. Metro North. 3. Cycling/walking. 1. Faster buses / bus routes. This is the biggest part of the emphasis. And it is the area where the biggest improvements will occur. The wagon-wheel bus route for Dublin, is inefficient, and the opposite to functional. There are higgedly piggedly routes like Dun Leary to Tallaght, but on the whol intra-suburban has not changed… Read more »
Actually, there is no need for a Bus Terminus in Grange Castle. All that is needed is a stop, that is large enough and designed as to enable transfer from the (not being used !!!) train station. The Terminus will be Bray at one end and Howth Junction at the other. And the buses runs can be concentrated in the hours 07:00 to 09:00 and 16:30 to 18:30, on the five working days. The main purpose being to link other bus stops, for buses that are designed on the wagon wheel (which incidentally has no hub !!!!) ________ Merrion Square.… Read more »
Posted at http://www.lemetropolecafe.com 07:05 Central banks face a crisis of confidence as their models fail -FT The FT discusses the crisis in confidence among central bankers who are struggling to understand how the modern economy works as their traditional models fail. It notes that the root of the current insecurity around monetary policy is that in advanced economies inflation is not behaving in the way economic models (Phillips curve) predicted. It adds that the second fundamental problem in central banking is that estimates of the neutral rate of interest appear to have fallen persistently across the world. When its because… Read more »
Robert Harris has just brought out a book called Munich
“Living in Goebbels’s propaganda culture, at one point one of the
characters says what he enabled the Germans to do was not to have to think. You got spoon-fed the news that you wanted and it was all very comforting. One gets that now: everyone can get the news they want. They don’t have to think: they are just comforted in their prejudices, and there is a totalitarian vibe in the air.”
NAMA. Our politicians are totally out of touch. NAMA has such an odious reputation it should be closed down asap. Yet the government want to use as a vehicle to drive house contruction. Despite the PR NAMA has been an unmitigated disaster for the citizens of this country, including the tax paying ones. The citizens who appeared at a dail committee to describe their experiences at the hands of the banks must have been impressed by the committee’s suggestion that the financial regulator should talk to the banks about it. FFS but Pontius Pilate has a lot to answer for,… Read more »
That bit from that article is really interesting: “She revealed that she had also been attacked around the same time as her husband, when she asked two men who were having sex in front of their home at 6 o’clock in the evening to stop.” It makes me wonder if the whole event r e a l l y was about racism… http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/dublin-always-been-racist-new-11336209 Other than that, I don’t know what to make of the article. Some parts of Dublin have always been rough (Coldblow wrote recently that “I am very intrigued that you said that you first come across a… Read more »
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fidel-castros-horrific-record-on-gay-rights Fidel Castro, Michael Dick Higgins’ idol: ““We would never come to believe that a homosexual could embody the conditions and requirements of conduct that would enable us to consider him a true revolutionary, a true communist militant,” But In my opinion, if that’s true, that’s to their huge credit. ___________________________________________________________________________ https://www.huffingtonpost.com/thor-halvorssen/an-open-letter-to-urban-o_b_1895353.html “From 1959 to 1960, the new government carried out summary executions of at least 1,118 people by firing squad. Guevara himself presided over the notorious La Cabaña prison, where hundreds of the executions took place. For comparison’s sake, the Batista regime was responsible for 747 noncombatant deaths between… Read more »
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/srebrenica-massacre-was-fault-of-gay-troops-1924358.html
The position of Madrid is that Spain is a democracy and everyone should live together, no exceptions. Catalonia says we have a democratic vote and want to leave. It is not a surprise as most authoritarian states call themselves the peoples democratic republic or some equivalent. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/04/the_undemocratic_peoples_republic_of_korea.html “”Thus we get the seemingly inverse relationship between the use of the word democratic and the actual democratic structure of the country in question.”” Not game over. Any forced solution will rebound against whoever is doing the enforcing. Devolution is the current trend. People are rebelling against the “melting pot” except here in… Read more »