Socialist Embaressments

The_Minister

Bertie can walk up Grafton street with only one guard but he has to have a platoon with him when he visits UCD. It is an embaressment. Only about 12 pinkos will turn up, they will yell and act the yob, then go smoke hash and clap each other on the back, convinced that they have somehow changed something, afterwards going on to plot their next brilliant sceme. Why do we pretend that these gob****es represent anyone. They give students a bad name. They make me embarressed for UCD.
Why can't they just get over themselves and grow up?

HappyCrackHead

I'm glad you have such a high opinion of your peers who probably care more about your quality of third level education than you do.

Are you suggesting that people who protest get nothing done?

And people who use the word "pinkos" dont exactly warrant an explaination

The_Minister

I am angry. That is why I use terms like "pinkos".


They are a disgrace. I have no problem about education protests(even if i feel embaressed for the participants). Although i think it is dumb to complain to the taoiseach about modularisation-not his department.

Im angry at those anti-war protestors that give students a bad name

Goodshape

Firespinner wrote:

I am angry. That is why I use terms like "pinkos".

They're angry. That's why they protest.

Although i think it is dumb to complain to the taoiseach about modularisation-not his department.

He's the head of state. I think he has a bit of influence in the matter, no?

Im angry at those anti-war protestors that give students a bad name

Protesting unjust actions of the state is a right every citizen has. Not protesting gives everyone a bad name imho.

rainbow kirby

Well if nothing was ever protested then the situation for students would be a lot worse. A short protest is one way to draw attention to your cause, even if it doesn't change anything.

Mr.Nice Guy

Firespinner wrote:

I am angry. That is why I use terms like "pinkos".


They are a disgrace. I have no problem about education protests(even if i feel embaressed for the participants). Although i think it is dumb to complain to the taoiseach about modularisation-not his department.

Im angry at those anti-war protestors that give students a bad name

Well said. It's nothing to do with Bertie. If they want to be serious about it they should go protest near Mary Hanafin, Minister of Education.

I share your anger and agree that these guys give the students a bad name.

(PS nothing wrong with using the word "pinkos". No Simpsons fans around?)

AARRRGH

I have no problem with protestors as long as they aren't the member-of-every-organistion types who protest at everything.

I was one of the first members of the Ireland Palestine Organisation but I had to quit when I realised how many of their members simply need to protest at anything. I don't think they actually gave a ****. They just wanted to protest. It depressed me.

I do agree with protesting though. I don't think Irish people do it enough.

mloc

While I agree that protests are an important part of democracy and often justified, such as in the case of the national irish ferry protest, it seems that the so called "socialist movement" in UCD takes advantage of this right and uses this democratic tool in a deleterious manner.

As highlighted above, the recent protest against modularisation is a perfect example. Firstly, the protest itself: Does creating enormous amounts of noise whilst marching through campus and, this is what bothers me most, through lecture buildings WHILE LECTURES ARE TAKING PLACE really solve anything?

The use of air horns and whistles is nothing but childish and juvenile, creating a negative attitude and makes the protest seem more attractive to those who have no real interest in anything other than trouble making.

Modularisation, a development that strives to bring UCD into competition with other universities worldwide and perhaps, dare I say it, even enhance the value of the degrees these protesters seem too busy to actually study for, is not something that warrants protesting in the first place.

A view of the protesters as they marched through my faculty building while I was attending a lecture confirmed my predictions: the group was mainly the dirty, scruffy, long haired "alternative lifestyle" type that attends college so infrequently to the extent that it questions whether modularisation really has any impact on thier lives at all.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to tar all "alternative lifestyle" individuals with the same brush, indeed it is these so called socialist protesters that give those striving for individuality such a negative image. The reality is many people use freedom of expression and civil rights without realising that social contract demands resposibility. These people may become such a nuisance that when something actually worth protesting about comes along, the worthy cause finds itself falling on the deaf ears of tired, apathetic authorities.

tintinr35

Firespinner wrote:

Bertie can walk up Grafton street with only one guard but he has to have a platoon with him when he visits UCD. It is an embaressment. Only about 12 pinkos will turn up, they will yell and act the yob, then go smoke hash and clap each other on the back, convinced that they have somehow changed something, afterwards going on to plot their next brilliant sceme. Why do we pretend that these gob****es represent anyone. They give students a bad name. They make me embarressed for UCD.
Why can't they just get over themselves and grow up?

here here for the last few weeks looking at all these krustys i have been trying to come up with a post to adequtly voice my dislike and dismay at ppl like this,
thankfully u have done this for me, many thanks, god i hate krustys :rolleyes:

Red Alert

In france you would be tarred and feathered for saying that people shouldn't/have no right to protest.

I didn't join the protest the last day, as I'm in final year now so modularisation will not affect me. Do they have a right to protest? Absolutely! Modularisation is brought in to satisfy "The Man"'s corporate greed. He has no interest in education. His aim is to get us No. 1 in the OECD. I feel sorry for the academics in departments such as Hebrew and Jewish studies, or even mathematics as their research will probably be sidelined by "The Man" because they aren't the current hot topics.

The current advertising campaign makes us look like a bad knock-off of DCU. Student facilities (i.e. LG4 in arts) are disappearing so the space can be used for more 'profitable' activities. Does all of this warrent protest? Of course it does.

irlrobins

mloc wrote:

While I agree <snip> apathetic authorities.

Couldn't have said it better myself. But I wouldn't go as far as describe the protestors as "dirty".

No problems with people protesting, it's often a good thing. It's one thing to protest against modularisation peacefully. but to throw yourself at the head of the government's car and start protesting against the war in iraq etc when you were mandated by the student council to only protest about modularisation is another.

If you wanted to highlight your concerns about grants and modularisation then protest about that and that only. By changing the protest into an anti war protest, you achieved nothing. You only came across as someone who is protesting for the sake of protesting.

Dave!

What's this? Is there a protest on today? What time and where? I wanna go watch!

The_Minister

Red Alert wrote:

His aim is to get us No. 1 in the OECD.

Thats a good thing.

Red Alert wrote:

I feel sorry for the academics in departments such as Hebrew and Jewish studies.

I would not consider their research to be as important as those with practical applications, like that HIV professor who recently joined us.

Red Alert wrote:

In france you would be tarred and feathered for saying that people shouldn't/have no right to protest.

Thanks to the French love of free speech seven people are dead and every muslim is pissed off. You can have too much of a good thing. Besides, the socialists are only protesting for the sake of it.

Red Alert wrote:

Modularisation is brought in to satisfy "The Man"'s corporate greed..

Brainwashed people make baby jesus cry

The_Minister

mloc wrote:

Firstly, the protest itself: Does creating enormous amounts of noise whilst marching through campus and, this is what bothers me most, through lecture buildings WHILE LECTURES ARE TAKING PLACE really solve anything?

Disrupting education to protest at the disruption of their education......morons

Dave!

I get the feeling I've missed the protest...

The_Minister

Goodshape wrote:

He's the head of state. I think he has a bit of influence in the matter, no?
.

No.He does not get involved (not that a protest involving 12 students is that persuasive:D )

irlrobins

DaveMcG wrote:

I get the feeling I've missed the protest...

Ghee, what gave you that idea?

You can read all about it in the Observer that is all over campus at the mo.

Dave!

irlrobins wrote:

Ghee, what gave you that idea?

You can read all about it in the Observer that is all over campus at the mo.

bah, not arsed!

I actually saw a bit of a protest at the building to the right as you're walking towards the Student centre, across from the bookshop methinks.

I guess that was it!

aww, if I knew Bertie was gonna be there I woulda stayed for longer

irlrobins

DaveMcG wrote:

the building to the right as you're walking towards the Student centre, across from the bookshop methinks

Also known as the Chemistry Building. Yep, that's where Bertie was.

pretty*monster

irlrobins wrote:

but to throw yourself at the head of the government's car and start protesting against the war in Iraq etc when you were mandated by the student council to only protest about modularisation is another.

First of all the protest organised at Bertie Ahern's visit was never intended to be a part of the modularisation protest. Council mandated a union presence at Bertie’s visit to continue the grants protests.
It was just a coincidence that he was coming on the same day as the modularisation protest had already been scheduled. The 'Bertie protest' was at 10am, the modularisation protests was at 1pm, they were entirely seperate issues.

Secondly, council can only mandate sabbatical officers to attend protests, ordinary reps and other students were well within their rights to protest there in an anti-war capacity. Yes, it's unfortunate that there was a bit of a muddle between the anti-war and the 'centralise the grants', but that's the way the cookie crumbles. I don't think it's particularly embarrassing.
I think it would be far more embarrassing if students did nothing to mark Bertie's visit, if we acted like everything in Ireland was hunky-dory and we had no complaints.

irlrobins wrote:

By changing the protest into an anti war protest, you achieved nothing. You only came across as someone who is protesting for the sake of protesting.

I think very few, if any, people protest for the sake of protesting. Protesting takes hard work, organisation, and is frequently boring. It wouldn't be worth it if you didn't believe in what you were doing.

The anti-war protest achieved it's end I think(I wasn't involved in it, I was there in my capacity as a class rep, waving a 'centralise the grants system' sign), to keep Irish support of the war in Iraq, and the use of Shannon Airport by American troops in the papers and so continue to put pressure on the government.

irlrobins

pretty*monster wrote:

First of all the protest organised at Bertie Ahern's visit was never intended to be a part of the modularisation protest. Council mandated a union presence at Bertie’s visit to continue the grants protests.
It was just a coincidence that he was coming on the same day as the modularisation protest had already been scheduled. The 'Bertie protest' was at 10am, the modularisation protests was at 1pm, they were entirely seperate issues.

Fair enough. But that show's how the protest was ineffective. It wasn't apparant to me (I was passing by the protest at admin and science buildings) what the protest was about exactly. I don't think the protestors suceeded in getting a strong message across.

The anti-war protest achieved it's end I think(I wasn't involved in it, I was there in my capacity as a class rep, waving a 'centralise the grants system' sign)

So there you were, in the middle of a group of people chanting anti war chants holding a sign about grants issue. If I was bertie I'd take one look at you and disregard the lot of you as a bunch of people making a random protest. And as someone else said I'm sure a there were a number of people at the noise protest who went along just for the pleasure of being able to blow a fog horn inside a lecture building.

The_Minister

pretty*monster wrote:

I don't think it's particularly embarrassing.
I think it would be far more embarrassing if students did nothing to mark Bertie's visit, if we acted like everything in Ireland was hunky-dory and we had no complaints.

I'm sure he knows that there are problems in the country. Every country has problems and yet we don't all run around with placards chanting "bomb Shannon, then Sharon". There is no crisis in Ireland at the momant which warrents protest, especially not for students.

pretty*monster wrote:

I think very few, if any, people protest for the sake of protesting. Protesting takes hard work, organisation, and is frequently boring. It wouldn't be worth it if you didn't believe in what you were doing.

It is agood way to chat up girls, to act like a rebel, to be a bastard and still act righteous........

pretty*monster wrote:

The anti-war protest achieved it's end I think(I wasn't involved in it, I was there in my capacity as a class rep, waving a 'centralise the grants system' sign), to keep Irish support of the war in Iraq, and the use of Shannon Airport by American troops in the papers and so continue to put pressure on the government.

I pretty sure they announced already that Shannon would not be used next year. Few people care about Shannon. It keeps a political hot potatoe (shannon airport) in check and brings in some money. No matter how often certain people pray for a terrorist attack, and advertise one, its not going to happen.

Dave!

I'm gonna have to agree, I think it came across as a load of messers looking for something to protest about, and the fact that the Gardaí had to restrain some and stop people running up to Bertie's car showed the college up, and totally took away from any legitimate point made.

Chinafoot

Can we all use a bit of cop on here people? Any further use of the words "pinkos" or "krustys" or any other stereotypical derogatory terms will result in a ban.

You complain when they don't protest and then you complain when they do.....

:rolleyes:

Red Alert

If bertie ahern and his 'man' in charge of this institution want to make a political/commercial slave of this college then they should be man enough to take such a protest. the grants/fees/anti-war/whatever are all entitled to make their protest. what the didn't do was co-ordinate properly and as a result it looked silly - the issues are orthoganal to one another so it's not like there should be any competition between them.

Cnoc16

Well said firespinner.

Socialists are an embarrassment to me as a student. They just hop on every bandwagon in my opinion.

At a building site near my house, they are protesting because no local Irish labourers are employed. (There are a couple from the country, but the rest are mainly from eastern europe)

Anyway, this same crowd of clowns are the very people I saw protesting a few months back in Dún Laoghaire, with plackards reading.... 'Let foreign workers stay.....Jobs for All!'

They should get off their a** get a real job. Then they could comment on how the economy and society works.

Red Alert

many of the socialists are honest hardworking people who pay their taxes, unlike some of the capitalists like Denis O'Brien who claim not to live here despite being rich because of ireland. on topic, if you don't like their protesting, then go and do a counter-protest and stop complaining.

Cnoc16

Red Alert wrote:

if you don't like their protesting, then go and do a counter-protest and stop complaining.

Some of us have study and a job to do. It appears that they have all day to do nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind anyone protesting, but the solutions they propose to the problems (when they bother to do that) are off the wall.

The economy would collapse in thier hands

randombassist

I think there's a bit of mis information going around here about these particular protests, and really it's wrong to classify all the people on them the same way, as there were several different groups. I was at all of them, not as a protestor, but as photographer for the Observer.

Particularly at the Bertie protest, there were two distinct groups of people. One was the SU, who it would unfair to fully charactarise as all socialists who were asking for prompt payment of grants. Somebody else earlier said that there's nothing worth protesting about. However if you were someone on a maintenance grant who needed the money for your books and accomodation, I'd say you'd think differently. I think that that's the kind of legitemate thing that the SU should protest about, and should try and bring to public attention, it is after all their job to represent the students.

However there was another group of 3/4 people who broke off from the main group, and went onto the other side, and started chanting ''bertie bertie blood on your hands'' who were very distinct from the others. I'd disagree with both what they were protesting about, and most certainly the manner in which they did so (whether or not it gave me a nice op for a photo shoot )

Just wanted to clear that up, as I felt it wasn't clear.

The_Minister

Whats a krusty. Could'nt find on wikapedia. Where is it from

Stabshauptmann

mloc wrote:

A view of the protesters as they marched through my faculty building while I was attending a lecture confirmed my predictions: the group was mainly the dirty, scruffy, long haired "alternative lifestyle" type that attends college so infrequently to the extent that it questions whether modularisation really has any impact on thier lives at all.

Modularisation and semestarisation impact these people more so than others. The biggest impact of the above changes are that they require a continuous and consistant effort all year round. In some cases 50% of a course mark can go for continuous assesment.

Now whether or not it should or shouldnt be introduced, modularisation will effect these people and they have a right to protest. Commerce was always semesterised and modularised (though first yr is kinda "normal")
IMO first yr students shouldnt have to deal with xmas exams as it takes away from the "college experience"