Wibbs wrote: » Well the narrow minded culturally bereft parochial cute hoor bogger that is much to blame for the state of the country is also an easy stereotype. In any case a hell of a lot of those from dublin are of very recent country stock anyway. The irish have a much reduced culture when compared to many in europe. We have little in the way of a national cuisine, never mind a local one. Our architectural heritage is sparse. The vast majority of towns look and act the same. etc We are a very homogenous culture, more driven by outside influences. That's increasing not reducing too. You compare that to Italy or Spain or France or Holland or Germany or....? No comparison. Even a tiny population like the Icelandics have a more diverse culture.
flanum wrote: » funnily enough, one time i was walking down the suks in jerusalem arab quarter,the proprieter of a wee shop was giving me all the spiel "you american, english.." etc, when i told him i was irish, his very loud respones was " aah irish... bacon and cabbage....bacon and cabbage"!
c - 13 wrote: » Yeah i've had something like that, sitting in a bar in Bahrain having a bit of dinner and a pint and you know the way you can feel someone standing behind you ? I turn around and theres an Arab standing behind me - Arab Man: Where do you come from ? Me: Ireland Arab Man: North or South ? Me: South Arab Man: *Nods Knowingly* Ahhh .... IRA *Walks away* Me: I've also gotten the same line of questions from two taxi drivers. Trinidad was the best though, the guys I worked with thought that everyone from ROI was in league with the IRA and we had to look out for car bombs and stuff on our way to work and that. They got so into it I didnt have the heart to tell them the truth. So there you have it folks, Ireland in the eyes of foreigners - full of terrorists
berliner wrote: » Er..this might come as a bit of a shock but there is no culture in Ireland.We let the language die.We all support english teams/watch BBC.Read english newspapers.Makes you wonder why we bothered with the whole independence mularkey.
Wibbs wrote: » That would be me. Cuisine is an example of culture. The most diverse cultures also have the most diverse cuisines. It's a pretty good if strange yardstick. A culture with more diversity when compared to our, say Italy, also has a more diverse cuisine. Same for the French, the Spanish etc. Even the English, not well known for their culinary history have a more diverse cuisine historically.
Kovik wrote: » What exactly about the infrastructure is so horrible? We import and export an extraordinary ammount every day without fail, our electricity and gas lines are well maintained, public transport is fine (the universal "these damn buses" whinging aside) air travel is grand. Trains are ****e, fair enough, I'll grant you that. Our transport services aren't near that of Japan or Germany but for a small island nation we're... fine. I mean, that's about the meat of it. Our infrastructure is perfectly fine. If you want to spend a ludicrous ammount of money on supertrains to go from Dun Laoghaire to Stillorgan then go for it.
I never said anything to the effect of the healthcare system being quality, merely that it provides a free service which reduces financial concerns for people enormously. I've experienced the health system in France and Canada, two lauded as the among the best worldwide, and the people there have the same complaints we do.
There needs to be sweeping reforms to national healthcare, but that seems to be an international trait resulting from an antiquated regulatory system to which there is much internal resistance for reform.
In the 80s hospital beds were in abundance because everyone was leaving the country. And in the 80s, FYI, the healthcare system was appalling.
Well, firstly, I totally reject your characterisation.
The foreclosure rate on mortages has been below the international average since the 1990s and, though it increased with the subprime mortgage crisis over the last year, it remains comparatively very small versus the rest of the world.
Even if I accept your characterisation that things are especially tough on families (which I don't) it would be as a result of the international credit situation affecting the entire western world. In our case, the impact of this cumulative debt is minor. That people are living beyond their means is not the product of a failing economy, simply the product of readily available financing.
True, but you earn a lot less overseas, making the difference in cost of day to day living (in terms of income percentage) negligible between most European countries.
That we have such incredible buying power throughout the rest of the eurozone proves the point that our economy is healthy.
I would strongly disagree, but no matter.
There isn't a single western nation in which commentators don't lament that "we're so dependent on foreign investment." It's a globalised economy, all investment is transnational. It's ridiculous to assume whole industries will up and leave as it would be internationally unprecedented move. Certain jobs are always lost to outsourcing, but other jobs are always being created, typically more advanced positions within the same industries. This doomsday scenario has been announced repeatedly since the late 90s yet our jobs market has been steady and progressive all the while.
Irish culture today has more to do with developments in the last 10 years than anything that has taken place in the distant past. I fundamentally disagree here and I think you're defining culture in historical rather than literal terms.
I'm not sure if it's growing, but it's openly despised and criticised by the overwhelming majority of the media and the public in general, whereas it's almost an intitution elsewhere. Here, when you read a tabloid, it's like you've been watching professional wrestling.
I saw Newsnight superimpose the faces of two British cabinet members onto an only fools and horses graphic a while back. I cried.
I have no idea what you mean by this. What do you mean by diversity, why is it "better," what is it "better than," what is an "adaptive culture" and why is it prized?
If you define culture as the manner in which people socialise, produce and consume art, generally conduct themselves in a public setting or in the ideology that they exhibit, then you would be extremely hard pressed to tie much, if any, of modern Irish living into a historical context. It's especially trying here in which there is such a division between modern youth culture and the culture of twenty, thirty and forty years ago.
Big Chief wrote: » i could go into more but i still have to live here, and people have far worse things to say about the scottish
Wibbs wrote: » Import and export fine? I have regular problems in that area on a business front and the blockage nine times outa ten is here. Don't get me started on our postal service. I have had so many issues there, that I just don't rely on it for international stuff. I've tracked registered international packages, that have taken 2 to 3 days to get this country from other states in the EU, only to sit in Port Laoise sorting office for anything up to 4 weeks. I can think of only one instance where something came to me from the sorting office in the same time it took to get to ireland in the first place.
Public transport is hardly fine and I'm not talking about "supertrains". Damn buses whinging is well founded. The much vaunted luas went trough years of cost overruns and general farcical fúckups and the tracks are already showing signs of degradation(the sleepers). More money for the fúckups due to idiotic planning. The dart works ok but as you said the trains are shít. The roads are getting there, slowly, but again the list of fúckups is lengthy. The M50 alone could fill pages of screwups and continues to do so. The dublin underground looks like it's going to repeat the pattern. That's just dublin the parlous state of many of our country roads is yet another problem. Aircraft are run by the private sector and even there look at the issues with dublin airport over the last few years.
A free turd is still a turd. People may complain in france and canada, but they have better access to better healthcare than the irish. Fact. I agree, but again ours is among the worst if not the worst example of that trait.
I know I lived through it so no need for an FYI. You had access to a below par health system, now you have less access to a below par health system.
I'm happy for you. I see it on a regular basis in the real world.That's a cultural thing. House foreclosures here are much lower than other countries and always were. The banks are more reticent to foreclose and evict people in this country due to the holdover of "the brits evicted people from the land" kinda thing. We have the highest level of home ownership in europe if not the world, yet one of the lowest eviction rates. The two are connected. Another example of how history effects culture.
That's all lovely in theory and it's all good, but the reality is that for a multitude of reasons many people are financially very close to the raggedy edge. Let's look at families. One area that is incredibly bad in this country is childcare. Access to it and the cost of it. A generation of grannies is looking after kids because the parents can't afford to put them in childcare. The weekly food bills are higher, the cost of transport is higher and if god forbid the kids get sick..... Do a straw poll on people stuck in the carpark that is the M50 at rushhour and see what they say.
The fact is it's not negligible. I have quite a few friends who live in and work in europe and their money simply goes further.Our economy is healthy and we do have more money, but how much we pay for things is concomitantly higher.
We drink more, have more antisocial behaviour and more hospital admissions due to drink and drugs than the major cities in europe.
Do you write pamphlets for the government?
You only say that because you're young. Simple as that. Every generation thinks it has invented itself to one degree or other. It's one of the benefits and pitfalls of youth. 10 years? that's actually laughable. If you had said since the mid 80's or even early mid 90's you may have garnered some agreement, but since 98? Nope.
Read around here long enough and you'll see the tabloid culture at work. It's incredibly popular. We have little high ground to look down on others for it.
If you don't see why an adaptive culture is better even from an evolutionary standpoint we're on hiding to nothing.
The difference between the culture of youth now and in 1988 is not that big, I hate to tell you. Of course there has been change, but far less than you may think. I was that soldier. 40 years ago you would have a point.
Kovik wrote: » I can only counter your anecdotal suggestion with one of my own. I import a lot from Korea via the postal service and I think I've only had any major issue once when the British postal service got a hold of whatever I was shipping for whatever reason. I've had occasional gripes when things are shipped through Germany too but as soon as they hit Ireland I'm pretty much fine.
In terms of import/export I mean heavier goods and major business concerns which are handled extraordinarily well.
I've never understood people who complain about the public transport here.
The Luas may have run overbudget in its first few years (no major catastrophe given that it was a new service)
The fantasy that transport in the capital doesn't work is self-defeating, given that movement into and out of the city operates well on a daily basis.
The M50 has had issues but far less than virtually every major new motorway in Britain and no more than any new major road built anywhere throughout the rest of Europe.
It's a strange desire to depict the country in an unfavourable light by targeting areas that are, quite simply... fine.
I don't think we're going to move off many of these points. You seem perfectly entrenched in your ideology in spite of the reality of the situation.
bla bla bla
Well we clearly each have had very different experiences.
I was talking about that too as I have to deal with same on a regular basis.
That's because it's below par.
Overbudget? From 288 millions to nearly 800 millions? That's not merely over budget that's madness. And it's already running into maintenance issues. If that's efficiency or planning at work..... And you wonder why people may worry about the proposed metro. There's planning issues starting with that already because different depts screwed up. Lets watch the money rack up on that one, if history is anything to go by.
Now I really know you're having a laugh. My glass is half empty replies to you are entirely down to your pink fluffy clouds notions.
Again massive cost over runs, silly planning, that meant they've had to spend even more cash to rectify it as it's basic design and implementation was arseways and lets not forget the debacle that was the sale of the tolling. The port tunnel is yet another half joke. Simply because they could have been and be so much better, with planning, better allocation of funds and some simple brains involved.
Simply because they could have been and be so much better, with planning, better allocation of funds and some simple brains involved.
Ditto.
I think I'll go with WWM on this and just have a snigger and walk away. To assume everything is bad is the same as everything is fine. Nothing gets done to improve things.
Acid_Violet wrote: » Oh dear, these threads are always very interesting until this happens....
xOxSiné wrote: » drunk
esel wrote: » Alt Gr + letter. Tá fáilte rómhat!
