Well, for what it's worth, during the war in the FRY and when I was in Bosnia, I was asked by a Bosnian to tell him the name of the then Bosnian President, he was testing my bona fides, so to speak, when I told him correctly, Alija Izetbegovic, he seemed surprised ( or maybe disappointed) But when I asked him to name the President of Ireland.....he was unable to do so. Round 1 to me. But personally, I have always found that my Irish Passport was a decided asset in any of the Country's that I've been to. We are not associated with any historical invading or colonization's of other Country's. Which is something that that the afore-mentioned colonized Country's have never forgotten.( or forgiven, in a lot of them).. and so would not quite the same "incentive" to remember Irish influence at least from a bad perspective anyway. In Serbia, they are very knowledgable about the Irish. As a matter of fact they say we came from Serbia, and in Slatibor, there is the Tara Mountains, which has an old traditional Serbian village pretty much like Bunratty here in Ireland. The interiors of the Tara village houses are identical to the ones in Bunratty. So it would seem that the Celts were there in their travels.
I think you in agreement with each other, hire based on merit, not based on race gender religion or outward diversity.
No discrimination
And do you think that the Person most suited to be a garda, would not be asian or African? We already have different nationalities in AGS. You do know they have to apply the same as everyone else?
Well while we might have inspired or given encouragement for others to do the same. We did not and do not represent the democratic model followed by others. We are a sovereign people and to the best of my knowledge not a single one of the other parliament of Westminster style democracies went that far. The nearest of any type is Switzerland, but even there, parliament has limited opportunity to overrule a constitutional referendum.
Maybe I'm just a bit old fashioned, but maybe it just makes more sense to employ the person most suited to work as Garda?
Seems like they are highlighting the fact we can't house existing people on this island, inviting more in without due processing is asking for trouble.
Doesn't leave to remain usually mean "we can't be arsed with your appeals"
Note the language of the headline here: "trapped in Direct Provision".
Nobody is trapped, they are free to walk out the door and return home.
The IT imply that it is a "prison", that the people are incarcerated.
The IT imply that somehow we are doing wrong.
In reality, we have given bogus AS leave to remain, even though their claim is false.
Ahh well, Americans have always been very good at saying one thing, while hiding various opposite behaviors behind their backs. Even today, after all that has gone by (and been revealed), Westerners still prefer to focus on the good related to US foreign affairs (while extending those fake standards to other nations), than truly consider the bad. Hollywood has made an incredibly strong impact on most Western conditioning. The British did something similar, although not quite to the same degree, but it's noticeable nonetheless.
As for people being too shy... yeah.. no. In my experience, roll out the local cuisine with copious amounts of the local spirits, and you get every opinion under the sun (along with a lot of lectures on history), especially if you're in any kind of rural area, although city outskirts were often the same.
Still, TBH in my experience, few people knew much about Ireland, most thinking we were still part of Britain.
Your interlocutors were too shy to talk about it…
Funny about the Yanks’ idea of democracy. When they took over from the French, their take on freedom was to spray agent orange and drop more bombs than the whole of Dubyadubya Two. In the end, they had a victory of sorts, so to speak, ahem.
If African or.Asian countries had a.large amount of.Irish people living there, I would.imagine they would look for police from those.nationalities.
Makes sense. The more diverse the Garda, the better.
Diversity for thee but not for me.
Ahh.. honestly, I've never encountered such an association. Maybe Ireland was.. as you say... but I've never heard that from any foreigner, in Asia or Africa.
And TBF, the end of colonialism came about through the efforts of the Americans after WW2.. increasing pressure by American governments on the British or French, to release nations as it was incompatible with their vision of democracy and freedom (while also decreasing the opposition those Imperial powers had against American influence economically, and diplomatically).
Klaz/
You also need to mention the fact that Ireland was a model for a lot of nations reclaiming their nationhood vis-à-vis their colonial overlords. The Irish opened the door to independence movements worldwide, and get a lot of respect for that to this day.
The interesting thing is that while here in Ireland people jump at the chance to accuse/insult/decry priests of all types and the catholic church... much of the great reputation that Irish people have abroad comes from the priests and missionaries. Not all, but a significant part of the good reputations come from them.
When you go abroad (apart from the western nations), and talk to people about what they know about Ireland and Irish people, few of them have any personal experience of Irish people... and what they learn from history/geography tends to be rather vague, and full of misconceptions. Stereotypes abound. Most remarks tend to focus on the stereotypes of drinking, or our boy bands or Riverdance, but the general perception is of Ireland as a religious country, without divorce, and traditional minded. Obviously, that's changed considerably.
Our reputation abroad will decline for a variety of reasons. The first being that many Irish who do travel behave more like the English and don't do the reputation of Irish people many favors, with an emphasis on drinking and fighting. Which is fine in cultures where such things are common (Russia being a good example there). Then, there's the simple exposure to modern Irish people as opposed to the Irish who used to travel/work abroad. The mannerisms of Irish people and the manner of their interactions are shifting. Instead of missionaries, we have a few generations of expats, and they tend to represent the best of Irish behavior abroad, settling down, and integrating quite well with their preferred environments.
In non-western countries, I think we have a lot to be grateful for the Irish priests, brothers and nuns that went abroad because they presented a wonderful impression of caring, open, friendly behavior... and that's what stayed within the stereotype. We don't really have that as much anymore.
Besides, politically, Ireland has involved itself internationally, and news reports are going to shape peoples perceptions of us... whereas in the past, when the stereotypes were formed, Ireland was mostly a very quiet, small nation. That's changed.
I've had a lot of very good experiences happen, simply because I was Irish. I've been mugged, and then, gotten away from being severely beaten because I was Irish. I've had police in a variety of nations, let me out of small problems, because I was Irish (and no, there were no references to hating the British). I can list dozens upon dozens of positive results due to being Irish... but I can also point to a range of negative experiences too.
I think we have to realise that Ireland, and Irish people have greater presence now than they did before, and that's going to alter the favorable stereotypes that have hung around for ages.
Looked at like that, true !!! Just like the Israeli manufactured "genuine Irish Passports" didn't do it any favor's either !!!
Well, when the world and his wife has an Irish passport, why would it carry an exclusivity
In what way Arthur, and why?
"I've had similar experiences too. Having an Irish passport anywhere in the world is an asset"
That'll change soon enough
I've had similar experiences too. Having an Irish passport anywhere in the world is an asset, and I've witnessed some very antagonistic attitude's to British passport holders in some Country's, due to their previous history worldwide ( or at least in the parts where the Sun never set.) People have long memories.
I got locked in similar room with 20 other white people. I had no visa, but by quirke of fate no visa for Irish was required. The police just rounded up every white person crossing(this was Zimbabwe at the peak of land confiscation), and they were systematically robbing every Rhodesian, American or Brit of all their portable wealth. Strangely enough the senior officer let me go without taking anyhting after saying, " you are Irish, you hate British too"
The youth of today support the lowering of the pension and a tax on large houses the elderly live . I notice a jealousy towards them something which was not apparent in the 80’s .
The country does move with the times and this has nothing to do with multiculturalism .
Well, in my personal experience, and on two different occasion's and in two different Country's where they take border control very serious, and I arrived without a visa, I spent some very long hours in a very uncomfortable room, watched over by armed guards.
Yeah, SA is very weird in many ways, which is amazing considering the amount of support they receive from the West. I've been to Jeddah... beautiful city (I actually find most Arab cities to be rather pretty), and most people were lovely. Still, I wasn't there longer than a week, and hung out with people I'd met in China (a lot of professors get their initial experience in China and then come back to SA or other countries nearby).. As for Dubai, that place is a cesspit. Looks great on the surface, but it's horrible when you dig a little past the gold paint.
I spent over a decade in Asia... loved most of my time there. Whereas I've visited a variety of places in the M.East and Africa, and I have zero interest living there. The cultural differences are just too vast.. religion plays a major part of that, but there's plenty of non-religious differences too.. Interesting experiences overall though, but I'm not in any kind of rush to see more. Whereas I'd love to return to Asia.
Yeah.... I heard some stories about Saudi....
In saudi you have something called the sharia police. They enforce religious laws.
I've heard what they like doing when they have public executions is to force western expats to witness public executions... so you have a country where the cinema was illegal until about last year, but you can watch someone get stoned to death...
In 2002 there was a fire in a girls school. The girls obviously ran out the school to escape the fire... the religious police were on hand to push them back inside and lock the doors... you obviously cant have girls outside without the correct clothes on. 15 dead. You can Google it to see for yourself.
Then you have places like dubai where a large part of the economy is providing prostitutes for visiting Saudis.
But yeah, I think multiculturalism in europe is absolutely awesome and we definitely need more of it.
TBH this is one of the reasons I love Asia/Asians so much. Sure, there's the wide range of scams, and corruption but for the most part, they're easily dodged with a little research being done before going anywhere. I've worked in four Asian countries, and I was looked after quite well by these countries. Whereas I've heard no shortage of bad accounts about the M.East/Africa...
Tbh, I was made redundant because my employer literally couldn't give away the service they were providing...
On the plus side I spent about 6 months in an office playing on the internet on a very good salary :)
But yeah, the Middle East is interesting. It really is very racist.... at the top of the tree are the local arabs, next up is white americans and Brits, after that is other Europeans/ Australians etc. Next up are Filipinos etc. At the bottom of the tree are Indians/ Pakistanis etc..
As a white European you can get thrown out if you annoy the wrong people... if you give the finger to a local arab and they are connected you could be on the next plane home. I knew a russian that was thrown out because she made some offensive remarks...
Compare that to europe where we literally dont deport people that are terrorists... got to love the EU and their human rights.
You'd be forced back on the plane or boat you arrived on, with the expectation that the airline/service would make sure you returned, due to their own {failed} responsibility to check passports, and visas on embarking a plane.
I never really understand the talk about migrants just arriving by plane. How does that work? Every time I've traveled (and I've covered a lot of distance by air), my passport has been checked when i pass security (often there being two or more different security checkpoints), and the boarding gate.. and then checked again when I arrive. My visas/passport and boarding pass are always scrutinized...
I don't get the holes that migrants seem to be able to find... Sure, I get the travel by "unofficial" means, but any of the normal ways are well covered once you leave the EU.
You held that job for 2 years, until one of their own learned how to do it....and then you were "surplus to requirements". And as for turning up at an entry point, without any documents, and expecting to be treated as you would be in this part of the world??? No way !!! In many country's around the world, turn up without documents or proper visa's ?? Straight to jail.
The hypocrisy with covid certs for citizens of Europe flying to other European countries really shows you how eager they are to continue this all. If I don't have a cert or a negative PCR result, I can't go anywhere, but Africans can arrive into Europe by the boat load with none of the aforementioned? It's madness.
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