My fellow Irishmen, how much more are you going to take?

How many more lies have to be exposed?

The Irish government is not going to be able to fix the problems with Irelands economy. And the reason they are not, is because they are the root cause!

The Problem Was Visible A Mile Away

The dogs on the street could have told you that the housing market was overheating. Any person trying to buy their first home knew that house prices were unrealistic. Any parent who had a child going to school in a prefab building (at the height of the boom) knew that we were not spending our money wisely. Any person who had to wait on a trolley knows that the health service was mismanaged!

Even as far back as 1998 some tried to warn us. See this video.

And yet nothing was done in time? We didnt listen, we let things continue because we were too busy building our dream houses with 100% mortgages.

The banks were not regulated properly, the health service was not trimmed of unnecessary management, the schools were not updated. And now we the people of this once proud nation are debt slaves to the IMF.

Are We To Blame

But who is to blame for this disaster which is now our country?

Is it the teachers who have to teach in the freezing portacabins? Is it the doctors and nurses who work tirelessly to heal us, even while getting no help from their managers, managers, managers, manager? Is it maybe the young people for dreaming that if they worked hard they too could own a home?

No, we know who is really at fault!

The Problem Is The Political Elite

It was and is the fault of our so called elected representatives the government! The people who claimed they would represent our best interests here and abroad.

Well I know I dont feel very represented, do you? Were you represented when they mismanaged the health service? Were you represented when they left your kids go to school in cardboard box's? Were you represented when your parents lay ill on a hospital trolley for hours sometimes days?

Were you represented when the government pledged to MAKE YOU A DEBT SLAVE TO THE BANKS!

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Well I'll tell you a little secret. While you were doing what we Irish are famous for doing...working hard. Your then minister of finance was working hard too. He had all sorts of difficult decisions to make. He knew all about the problems with the banks and he knew what choices he lay ahead of him.

Should I use a four iron or a wedge?

They Really Did'nt Talk About The Bank?

Thats right folks. You and I are supposed to believe that the then minister of finance who knew all about the problems with a certain bank, took time out of his oh so busy schedule to play golf with the head of that bank and his buddies....and they not once over a 7 to 9 hour period discussed the problems in the bank! After all he had referred the matter to the proper offices so it would have been wrong of him to even inquire about the state of one of the biggest banks in the country. After all he was just the minister for finance!

Is it not amazing to you that we were not even told about this cozy relationship when we were being sold down the swanny to bail out this same bank a few months later by the now (at that time) head of our country?

After all the banks were of systemic importance to the country. Or as they are fond of saying in the states "Too big to fail". We could not burn the bond holders. Sure the worst we would have to worry about would be a single hard budget and then everything would get back to normal. And as for the property market the very worst we would have to worry about was a "soft landing"?

Not Such A Soft Landing

Well I dont know about you, but it seems like a rather hard landing to me. It seems to me like what little wealth and prosperity people had built up was transferred to foreign billionaires and speculators.

But then again I am just an ordinary person like you, I am not an expert in banking and property like these people are. These people had our best interests at heart ... didnt they?

And if there was any wrong doing, we can certainly count on these people being sent to jail.

Nobody Is Too Rich To Go To Jail

If you can go to jail for not paying for your garbage collection or tv licence you would certainly go to jail for economic terrorism right? If you lie, cheat and defraud a whole nation surely you will be made pay for your actions.

Well ok maybe not, maybe we are too uneducated to understand how these people who ruined our country can get a bailout and then give themselves bonus's with our money.

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It Could Be Worse

Hey it could be worse, at least you still have our jobs and your homes. At least you can afford to put petrol in your car and food on the table right? It is certainly not so bad that pensioners are being advised to move their bed into the living room in winter so that they only have to pay to heat one room and thus dont need to die of hypertermia. That could never happen in Ireland.

Its not like the politicians are so disconnected from the suffering of the people that they would think giving us free cheese would be enough to keep us happy....

You Can Always Leave If You Dont Like It

Dont worry though, if the worst comes to the worst... If you can no longer pay your mortgage on your negative equity home, because of all the tax you paid to the government to pay the bailout given to the bank who wants to foreclose on your home, and if you can no longer feed your children let afford to put them through college, you still have one final option left.

You can take the final option of the Irish people in times of major disaster. You can emigrate. I did and I was lucky. I timed it well and I did find a good job in America and I was able to provide for myself. Yet after awhile I started to look around and I noticed something that surprised me.

What I noticed was an open secret that no one wanted you to know, but that everyone knows now. If you know this then you know that even the option of emigration wont work out for many. The big secret was ...

America Is Broke

! Yup and its not just that ridiculous debt ceiling debate. America is in debt up to its eyeballs. It government is broke, the states are broke, the cities are broke and the people owe the credit card as much if not more.

The farce that was the debt ceiling debate was not about cutting the deficit, it was about how much to let it go up by next year. The agreement was such a joke that S&P an "American" rating agency downgraded it.

Not Just Broke, But Jobless, Homeless and Delusional

And its not just the debt. Their official unemployment rate is at 9 and something percent. But the real figure many argue is closer to 22 percent if you measure it the way they did back in the days of the great depression.

Of course the government cooks the numbers. All governments do, but the US government has turned it into an art form. They are so good at it they can even argue with their own numbers and have you convinced they are right.

Now I cannot put truth to this, I am just an ordinary person. I only know of all the people I see at the corners of every street begging for any help. I only know that the banks themselves have been illegally foreclosing on people.

American Banks Are Worse Than Ours

Oh did you not know this, the banks that caused the worldwide financial disaster have been found to be foreclosing on houses in America they did not have the title t. Because of all the back and forth trading and bundling, re-bundling and trading on wallstreet the banks don't even know what mortgages they actually have or who is up to date on their payments.

The problem is so bad that some banks have been forging documents and foreclosing at every opportunity anyone,even on some people who DID NOT EVEN HAVE A MORTGAGE.

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But I digress .. it is certainly not like what happens in America could have any impact on the people of Ireland right? It certainly would not hurt us if the US banks had another financial disaster because they could not foreclose on property because they were caught forging documents. These properties that are propping up their balance sheets? We certainly did not see any problems in 2008 when the US banks had problems now did we?

We Have New Masters Now

Besides we all know our new masters will take care of it. Our masters the IMF and the ECB and the EU government. We gave up our national currency and soverenty to the EU and their banks. Our politicians don't even have the power to be corrupt now. All they can do now is say.. yes master IMF... yes master EU...yes master yes master yes master. And to hell with the Irish people!!!

Even this minute the real power in the EU is planning how to gain more control over Ireland. Thats right, rather than cut the Euro noose around our necks, they instead want a Euro zone government. I am certain that the peripheral states will have an equal say in it of course ... not!

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Last Chance

We have one last chance people. We can fight back. We can take to the street and demand that our politicians listen to the voice of the people and get us out of this nightmare of the EU. We can demand that they reject the debts of the banks which were put on the ordinary man... or we can let Ireland return to the dark ages so that we can pay the gambling debts of big foreign speculators.

Those of us who have been forced to leave have only one hope of coming home and thats you.

Its your choice. Do you want to fight for your future, or do you want to tell your children that you were too much a coward to stand up for them?

Update: Referendum

Well its been 7 months since I posted this and I've been stunned by the amazing lack of action by the majority of Irish people. Things are now even more desperate and yet the people continue to take more and more austerity. Yes they voted in a new government, who immediately turned around and followed the same policies as the last guys. After a year of their rule are we any better?

Well maybe people are too busy trying to get by to do anything. Maybe they have lost faith that they can do anything at all. Well there is supposed to be a referendum coming soon on the latest fiscal compact treaty. This treaty essentially hands over what little is left of our economic sovereignty to the EU permanently.

Now if the people vote for this treaty they deserve the hell that will come about as Germany turns Ireland into a third world country in order to safeguard its own banks and economy.But call me a optimist, I still have hope that there is enough fight left in the Irish spirit to stand up the the political elites in the EU and their lackeys in Dublin.

Despite all the threats and spin that will surely follow I still have faith that the Irish can learn from what the EU/IMF have done to Greece and say enough, no more. You will not do this to our country, our children, our future.

For every son and daughter like me who has been forced to emigrate, for every business that has been taxed into oblivion, for every household that wonders how to pay the latest "household charge" please stand firm vote 'NO'. Whatever happens tough times are ahead, but a no vote means we at least have a chance.