Yesterday morning, as Maura and I drove to mass in Donaghmede, we approached the last turn we take, about three quarters of a mile from Balgriffen cemetery, and we were bemused by yellow police 'no parking' beacons placed in every direction at the intersection. Parking at the cemetery does become congested, but not this far away, and at an intersection?
Last evening I went down to meet Maura on her return from Carmel's, as I always do, and she had the answer. When she drove out in the afternoon, she found that the road between the intersection and the cemetery was closed, and she had to go down to the Donaghmede traffic-circle and reach the Malahide road from there. All the way from the intersection down to Donaghmede people were walking towrds her on their way to the cemetery, and then when she reached the Malahide road, she found more crowds of people walking to the cemetery. Then it struck her: yesterday was the blessing of the graves.
There are two events whichare guaranteed to bring crowds in Ireland: the blessing of the graves and a funeral. It is not uncommon to find you have to stand outside the church if you are late, and this will be the case both when the corpse is brought to the church, and the following morning for the funeral mass. What's more, everyone will make sure to file past the bereaved and offer their condolences.
Nobody will convince me that Catholicism is as badly off in Ireland as some would have us think.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Political Power and Weakness
I read a newspaper article the other day, and it keeps coming into my mind and displaying different facets of what it is telling me.
It speaks of President Gorbachev and what he tried to do to open Russia up to the outside world, and to live in harmony with it, despite the reluctance of the domestic vested interests to accept the erosion of their power. Unfortunately, Gorbachev was too late to save the Soviet Union from fragmentation and years of financial depression. The article drew a comparison with America, and it was that aspect which exercised my mind.
Certainly there is some similarity between the Chernobyl atomic disaster and the British Petroleum fiaco in the Gulf of Mexico, but to what extent can you suggest that there is a common lesson to be learned. I think it may be in the substance of political power.
I am accustomed to think of America as the beacon of liberty offering every citizen an equal opportunity to participate in its government, but that is not so. America is governed by three separate units: the Supreme Court, of nine justices, with life tenure; the President, who serves a four-year term; and Congress, which is composed of the House of Representatives, and the Senate. The House has 435 representatives, each with a discrete physical constituency, comprising one fourhundred and thirty fifth of the national population: the Senate has one hundred senators, and each state elects two of them for six-year terms. In short, the president is elected every four years, at which time one third of the Senate faces re-election, and every member of the House also faces reelection, although he has been in office just two years. This constitution may have been a model of fairness when Jefferson, Franklin, and their associates negotiated it more than two centuries ago, but it is not so now.
Recently there was a case which came before the Supreme Court, in which the President's representative, the Solicitor General, argued that foreign corporations should not be allowed to make cotributions to the re-election campaigns of American politicians. The Supreme Court ruled that such contributions were legal. I suggest that they were wrong, and the President was right.
Much, if not all, national legislation requires the concurrence of both Houses of Congress, but let us compare their comparative strength. The representative has to seek re-election every two years, while the senator only faces re-election every six years; the representative has a local constituency while the senator's is state-wide.
There are somewhere about 310 million American residents: California has perhaps 37 millipn and, at the other extreme, Wyoming has a little more than a half-million. California's population, and interests, are diversified, while Wyoming's are dominated by mineral extraction. The votes of the Wyoming senators are just as valuable as those of California.
President Obama made his first priority providing health insurance for every American, while there are those who say he should have placed his priority elsewhere, while he was still at the peak of his strength. He disagreed,to the extent that he said he did not care if, as a result, he was a one-term president, and devoted much of his strength to a battle which he barely won, because those who lurk in the darkness saw a dilution in their profits, while many ordinary, but relatively successful, Americans saw a dilution in their standard of living.
Will President Obama be able to achieve some worth-while energy-saving policy for the American nation? I don't know. Will he be able to convince his fellow-citizens that time is running out on a commitment to a national policy consistent with all of our needs? I don't know that either. I certainly hope so, because I think the stakes are higher than President Gorbachev faced.
It speaks of President Gorbachev and what he tried to do to open Russia up to the outside world, and to live in harmony with it, despite the reluctance of the domestic vested interests to accept the erosion of their power. Unfortunately, Gorbachev was too late to save the Soviet Union from fragmentation and years of financial depression. The article drew a comparison with America, and it was that aspect which exercised my mind.
Certainly there is some similarity between the Chernobyl atomic disaster and the British Petroleum fiaco in the Gulf of Mexico, but to what extent can you suggest that there is a common lesson to be learned. I think it may be in the substance of political power.
I am accustomed to think of America as the beacon of liberty offering every citizen an equal opportunity to participate in its government, but that is not so. America is governed by three separate units: the Supreme Court, of nine justices, with life tenure; the President, who serves a four-year term; and Congress, which is composed of the House of Representatives, and the Senate. The House has 435 representatives, each with a discrete physical constituency, comprising one fourhundred and thirty fifth of the national population: the Senate has one hundred senators, and each state elects two of them for six-year terms. In short, the president is elected every four years, at which time one third of the Senate faces re-election, and every member of the House also faces reelection, although he has been in office just two years. This constitution may have been a model of fairness when Jefferson, Franklin, and their associates negotiated it more than two centuries ago, but it is not so now.
Recently there was a case which came before the Supreme Court, in which the President's representative, the Solicitor General, argued that foreign corporations should not be allowed to make cotributions to the re-election campaigns of American politicians. The Supreme Court ruled that such contributions were legal. I suggest that they were wrong, and the President was right.
Much, if not all, national legislation requires the concurrence of both Houses of Congress, but let us compare their comparative strength. The representative has to seek re-election every two years, while the senator only faces re-election every six years; the representative has a local constituency while the senator's is state-wide.
There are somewhere about 310 million American residents: California has perhaps 37 millipn and, at the other extreme, Wyoming has a little more than a half-million. California's population, and interests, are diversified, while Wyoming's are dominated by mineral extraction. The votes of the Wyoming senators are just as valuable as those of California.
President Obama made his first priority providing health insurance for every American, while there are those who say he should have placed his priority elsewhere, while he was still at the peak of his strength. He disagreed,to the extent that he said he did not care if, as a result, he was a one-term president, and devoted much of his strength to a battle which he barely won, because those who lurk in the darkness saw a dilution in their profits, while many ordinary, but relatively successful, Americans saw a dilution in their standard of living.
Will President Obama be able to achieve some worth-while energy-saving policy for the American nation? I don't know. Will he be able to convince his fellow-citizens that time is running out on a commitment to a national policy consistent with all of our needs? I don't know that either. I certainly hope so, because I think the stakes are higher than President Gorbachev faced.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Europe
What a fascinating time it is to live in Europe.
Just a couple of years ago Ireland accepted that the economic hysteria of the Celtic Tiger had been somewhat of a mirage, and began trying to pick up the pieces, as many wondered if it could remain a member of the Euro currency zone. Then Greece demonstrated that Ireland was not unique,and that there were other weak brethren, including Portugal and Spain.
The members of the Euro currency are committed to national budgets which cannot provide for deficit-spending in excess of three percent of revenue, but the discipline was widely ignored. What was to be done? Would it not be just to let the weak brethren go to the wall? Germany said 'No'. The fear was that a succession of basket cases would overwhelm the Euro. It hasn't happened yet, and now, like frightened children who know they have been naughty, member states are coming in with national budgets geared to reducing their deficits. Germany talks of extending the three per cent deficit rule to all members of the European Union, not just those wedded to the Euro.
In 1945 Europe was in bits, until Jean Monnet conceived the concept of the European Union, and now it is still managing to bring almost thirty members, as disparate as one can imagine,along a road paved with mutual respect, and concern for the needs of each other.
Just a couple of years ago Ireland accepted that the economic hysteria of the Celtic Tiger had been somewhat of a mirage, and began trying to pick up the pieces, as many wondered if it could remain a member of the Euro currency zone. Then Greece demonstrated that Ireland was not unique,and that there were other weak brethren, including Portugal and Spain.
The members of the Euro currency are committed to national budgets which cannot provide for deficit-spending in excess of three percent of revenue, but the discipline was widely ignored. What was to be done? Would it not be just to let the weak brethren go to the wall? Germany said 'No'. The fear was that a succession of basket cases would overwhelm the Euro. It hasn't happened yet, and now, like frightened children who know they have been naughty, member states are coming in with national budgets geared to reducing their deficits. Germany talks of extending the three per cent deficit rule to all members of the European Union, not just those wedded to the Euro.
In 1945 Europe was in bits, until Jean Monnet conceived the concept of the European Union, and now it is still managing to bring almost thirty members, as disparate as one can imagine,along a road paved with mutual respect, and concern for the needs of each other.
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