Collapse of the Celtic Tiger
January 24th, 2012A look at how a former beacon of booming development and social prosperity has been plunged into economic desperation – Watch the video with filmmaker Sinead O’Shea, 25.00 minutes, published on Al Jazeera, January 19, 2012.
Ireland has been one of the largest casualties in the global financial crisis, which began during the banking collapse of 2008 and has continued to impact markets and destabilise the developed world ever since.
Following a government guarantee to underwrite the country’s six major banks shortly after the crisis broke, Ireland’s population of 4.5 million was shouldered with an enormous debt of €400bn ($515bn), proportionately the highest per capita commitment in the world.
Yet with bank liabilities accounting for an eye watering 309 per cent of GDP, it quickly became apparent that Ireland would fail to find its own way out of the economic downturn. As a consequence, in 2010, the EU and IMF stepped in to offer Ireland a rescue package worth €85bn ($109bn) – then one of the largest bailouts in history.
How different it had been only a couple of years earlier. Then the country was riding high, revelling in its reputation as the ‘Celtic Tiger’ … //
… In 2011, the Fianna Fail ruling party was comprehensively crushed in a general election dominated by angry recriminations over who was responsible for the crisis. But the problems facing Ireland have not gone away and as the years of austerity and cutback stretch out ahead, increasing numbers of young people are emigrating overseas, something that earlier generations of the Irish had been forced to do but which during the boom years had never seemed necessary.
Against this background, filmmaker Sinead O’Shea investigates how Ireland, once a beacon of booming development and social prosperity, could have reached such a point of economic desperation and asks whether the country can ever turn its fortunes around. (full text and a link to show 16 pictures).
Links:
The Enemy Within [Foundations] – Dr Stan Monteith interview with Norman Dodd, 59.06 minutes, on YouTube, uploaded by GoodFightUploads le 18 avril 2011: The First interview with Norman Dodd was by Dr Stan Monteith shortly before Mr. Dodd Passed away. He reveals the hidden truth about the Tax Exempt Foundations as chief investigator in The Reece Commitee Report authorized by Congress. This is about The Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford Foundations who since the turn of the century have set out to influence and manipulate the education and morals of not only the USA but Countries Globally. Reduced standards of Education and sexual promiscuity of today have their roots in these Foundations. He states that the foundations were very influential in instigating conflicts around the world;
The End Of Liberty, full Length HQ Film, 74.06 minutes, uploaded by joevlogger78, January 10, 2011;