Letter from Ireland

Castlebaldwin donkey, Ireland

I recently received the following letter from an old friend in Ireland.

It brought home to me--more strongly than ever the global scope of the economic disaster:

Hi Tom,

Ireland is no longer the Ireland you knew.

Massive building of both houses and industrial/retail estates everywhere but particularly in the West. Now many are abandoned--no money left to finish and many of those finished are unoccupied.

The housing boom was very damaging all round as of course many others rode on the back of the wave, naively believing it would continue forever.

The Irish government along with many individuals have been extravagant, irresponsible and even downright crooked, frittering money before putting in a good infrastructure.

Yes, many roads have been improved and not all changes
are bad, but it was as if there was no understanding that one day the
bubble would burst and everything would come crashing down around us.

In the EU Spain and Ireland are suffering the worst now, simply
because they had the biggest building booms over the last ten years.
Ireland also got used to massive hand-outs from the EU and now it's
our turn to hand out to lesser well off States in the new EU, there's
a lot of groaning and begrudging.

Our unemployment rate is rising rapidly too - and don't forget the
weather is AWFUL! Seems to me Saudi and China are currently on top
and I would watch out for Brazil - a huge country loaded with natural
resources that the rest of world may just be wanting in the not too
distant future (just my assessment!).

It is definitely a time for re-organizing and re-thinking the greed and thoughtless pursuit of the false security of wealth--at the cost of all other human needs.

Tomasito, 2008

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