Ireland, 28th November 2003

mollser

Jaysus, I've never seen such a day of miserable news in the paper....

today's Indo

What the hell is going on over there?? Murders, rape, gay rape, drugs, murder trials collapsing, peodiphilia style voyerism, theft, 13 yr old boys with 67 convictions, the obligatory daily job losses, hospital shortages, I don't think I've read a worse days news in my life!

Good job FF, good job!!

Villain

Hey but it will all be ok coz Minisiter McDowell says he's winning the war on crime.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Minister for Justice =MUPPET

DapperGent

What's gay rape?

Hobart

Originally posted by DapperGent
What's gay rape?

I presume that it's when a Gay man has been raped?? Rape is rape, is probably what you are trying to say, is it????

ReefBreak

To be honest, I'd rather be my age (and working and living) in Ireland on 28 Nov 2003 than 10 years ago, or 20 years ago, or 50 years ago. There are far more jobs and opportunities for people now than there were in 1993, 1983 or 1953. There's a higher standard of living, higher disposable income, less forced emigration, increased travel for people that want to do so... And there is far less poverty, despite what the various poverty interest groups might say. That "increased gap between the rich and poor" quote that gets dragged out every so often may be true, but it's a complete misrepresentation of the facts.

At risk of sounding like the retired sergeant down the local golf club, a lot of students these days don't realise how lucky they are.

swiss

At risk of sounding like the retired sergeant down the local golf club, a lot of students these days don't realise how lucky they are.

True, but as exemplified by those newspaper headlines, this move towards a more affluent, "metropolitan" society has brought many social problems to the fore. Perhaps I'm being overly nostalgic, or perhaps I was very innocent as a child, but when I was young I can't remember there being nearly so many murders or instances of intimidation, muggings, or rape. There was a time when every murder in this country was a national scandal. Now some don't even make the headlines.

It isn't just the headline cases either. I look at the attitudes Irish people are beginning to adopt towards other people, and wonder if wealth really is turning us into a nation of snobs. I know that newspapers concentrate on the worst in society, since that is what generally is considered 'newsworthy', but if we are to consider ourselves a civilised nation, we simply must try to identify and tackle the reasons for this alarming shift in cultural attitudes.

Gay rape is presumably a man buggering another man without his consent. There is afaik no definition of lesbian rape (presumably because it is considered that they don't have the means to rape!).

DapperGent

Originally posted by Hobart
I presume that it's when a Gay man has been raped?? Rape is rape, is probably what you are trying to say, is it????

Yup. There's no such thing as gay rape, the term is male rape. The point being that the sexual orientation of the people involved is of no import along with the fact that most male rape is commited by heterosexual men.

LFCFan

Originally posted by ReefBreak
To be honest, I'd rather be my age (and working and living) in Ireland on 28 Nov 2003 than 10 years ago, or 20 years ago, or 50 years ago. There are far more jobs and opportunities for people now than there were in 1993, 1983 or 1953. There's a higher standard of living, higher disposable income, less forced emigration, increased travel for people that want to do so... And there is far less poverty, despite what the various poverty interest groups might say. That "increased gap between the rich and poor" quote that gets dragged out every so often may be true, but it's a complete misrepresentation of the facts.

At risk of sounding like the retired sergeant down the local golf club, a lot of students these days don't realise how lucky they are.

Thing is though, 20 years ago was better than 50 years ago. Doesn't mean it was great. Why should we settle for what this country has just because it's better than before. There may be more jobs but there's also more murders. There may be more money but there's also more street violence. How come with all the money the government had at it's disposal in the last few years, that services are getting worse and crime is out of control? Lack of decent leadership is the problem. Why hasn't there been a vote of confidence with Aherne? It's quite obvious that he can't do the job but he seems to be untouchable.

Sparks

Originally posted by ReefBreak
At risk of sounding like the retired sergeant down the local golf club, a lot of students these days don't realise how lucky they are.

RB, I'm not sure how true that is. Things today are better in some areas, but not in others. At the same time though, many of the social problems we see today are not new - they existed 20 years ago just as much as today - it's just that today it's considered unacceptable to hide them as was done in the past.

As far as I'm concerned, however, I have to live in the here and now, and I don't see the logic in accepting a suboptimal situation on the grounds that things were worse in the past - by that logic, you could justify nearly any living conditions by comparing them to a sufficently remote past. I'll bet you that life in the neolithic stone age makes life near Chernobyl look like paradise, for example, but I'm not taking russian language classes anytime soon.

mr_angry

I'd rather live here than 30 miles up the road, in a DUP-led constituency!