Thursday, March 17, 2011

St.Patrick s Day

Even President Obama and members of Congress celebrate St. Patrick's Day, and I doubt they will concentrate on the worst chapter in the history of the Emerald Isle - to 1850 from the Irish famine of 1846.
After Shamrock - Sports politicians should be paid everywhere heed to the depths of the disaster. The absence of a response and misplaced priorities of the government in London immeasurably to this tragedy.
How terrible was the famine? In the decade before 1851, decreased density of population in Ireland until the 335 231 inhabitants per square kilometer. Go approximately one third of the population perished, or away - one million peasants died. But can tell the horror of the huge numbers of starvation.
In the work of Paul Bew in the sperm, "Ireland: The Politics of hostility 1789-2006", also includes a paragraph from an article written in the magazine height of the famine: "in a kind of cage, there are four children put the skeleton ... death was stricken. Have been removed in this minute to go to the Palace of the Queen, can not be lived. "
Then recorded Bew this report from Sullivan in the morning, an activist Ireland Young: "a sort of astonishment fell on the people, and contrast markedly with the energy fierce launch a year ago, it was not uncommon to have the vision to see Cottier and his family sit down a bit. On the wall of the garden, gazing throughout the day Moody in silence in the plot, which was blighted their last hope. "
As thousands perished in 1846, prompted the British government under Sir Robert Peel road and rail improvements in Ireland, imported 12 million pounds of corn meal from India, and lent money to local relief. These measures proved to be of help fill the thimble in a sea of ​​high tragedy.
It was reluctantly half steps never peel the top priority. In 1846, and was the primary focus in the abolition of the corn laws and tariffs that protect farmers from imported grain English. Do you eliminate those tariffs reduce the value of the crop only Ireland could sell - corn - even POTATOES turned black. The lure of free trade major. In the controversy over the cancellation, and some reports on the situation in Ireland "exaggerated", "total illusion" or even "excuse." I played all parties quickly and loose with the truth of what was happening just across the Irish Sea.
Quoted in later Sullivan said, "It would be unfair absolute to deny that the government has taken the stress that governs normal circumstances, will be fast and big, but the ruling on the huge volume of evil and then in the hand or solved already, it was delayed lethal and inadequate."
Fast forward to today. Sullivan even-handed rule applies just as well to Congress and the Obama Administration. The stimulus plan, the original "quick and substantial." So far, and not to Washington to focus on "the size of the heinous" the grave of this recession means any initiatives of this year - or even the next - would be a "deadly slow and inadequate."
Since the Economic Recovery Act became law in 2009, has provided more than 400,000 Americans for the first time claims for unemployment benefits each week to save Mon We have a jobs crisis continues to affect more than 30 million Americans. So far, Obama keeps searching for "solutions on the cheap," according to one adviser quoted in The New York Times. And Congress seems intent on spending cuts deep even in programs that help the unemployed.
Right around the corner, in the name of job creation, and there are plans to press for the adoption of Korea, Panama and Colombia FTAs. Such offers NAFTA Lite to create jobs in all parts of the world. Here at home, they add to the crisis and our jobs.
What is missing from the White House and Congress is the approach of any sense of urgency. For millions of 99ers - Americans who have exhausted all unemployment benefits - and this is a time of adversity. Their jobs, credit, savings, houses and confiscation. Hunger and homelessness, helplessness and despair - those are the four horsemen of the unemployed today.
History will judge our government and cruel, inhuman and Her Majesty in the 19 century? I suppose so.
On a smaller scale, but no less frustrating, American workers today reliving the difficult times and laid waste to the island as a whole. The toasts of "Erin Go Bragh" echo through Washington today, to complete indifference of the politicians is, once again, the display of an entire continent to see. Will be millions of unemployed to work for us not forget - for the time being, forever.
Fell ironic but true, on the night of the House of Commons that the abolition of the Corn Laws, Peel conservative government. Lost the vote on the law of the Irish coercion, and legislation aimed at curbing the outbreak of violence across Ireland. The peasants and expelled from their lands leased and suffer under the weight of hunger, and taking things into their own hands.