Being a master of English history, I’m constantly funnied by how hist. in generally repeats itself in different guises. Free Trade (dinna ask me dates, I no longer rem and want no research this early on a Sunday morn.) was always an issue in the Days of Empire. @ a certain time all P.R. was put into selling the public to get the protectionist laws changed to complete free trade-”it’s free, and we’re a free country, etc etc etc…” Of course, it wasn’t “freedom” that was important, but the bottom line for the corporate people pushing free trade. History rolls on, and eventually “free trade” became bad for the corporate bottom line: out immediately went arguments for free and freedom and free and etc…..
I’m haven’t studied the immigration debate that much, and this little bit is not to be taken as any sotra pronouncement on the debate, but I am tickled by some arguments. It seems that immigration is demonic to many………….but , uh, we till have to get in the 400k or the 200k foreign workers because, uh, our economy won’t work correctly, so, uh, ……..
I’ve no idea about immigration. I love Ireland, but fuck me big time if I’d not had the opp. to grow up in America (my favourite nation by far, both good and bad). I thank my parents for making the move, and not stopping permanently in London or Manchester or Leeds or Boston or N.Y.C. ……..wait, shit, what about my .007% plans for the City??- hypocritter!!!). Think of it: My dad, age 40, came here and never saw his parents again, and only made it back to Eire once. Mom was able to make it back 3 times and saw Grandmother once and Grandfather three times. Fact of the matter is, most their brothers and sisters came to the States, which made it easier. But still, to lave it all……….
Thanx Mom and Dad. I doubt I would ever have had it in me. But then again, most people reading this have no idea that Eire in 1949 was the worst of the worst. It was described as the only Third World country in Europe. When I visit, I can still see the past. Dublin and Galway are brilliant and beautiful and overrun with cranes and concrete trux, sure, but the countryside stays w/ family (yes, Hilts is an all city boy, but my families background is pure country) always rock me with the realization of the difficulty of life back then.
So, uh, country, to this yank.
On both sides of the family, I get a kick out of seeing the tiny family farms we had- a tiny patch here or there, most the size of………..the yard in the back of my house here. My family was lucky in the general scheme of things. They were not just farmers, they were also 50% fishermen, so the seas bounty (ICK!!!!!!) had a big part in keeping our line alive. Moreover, I think the single biggest plus in the line was that the Potato Blight missed the Aran Islands. A great deal of the “3d World” ideas above come from a terrible famine that came about because of the potato blight that ruined Eire starting in the late 1840’s. Eire went from a healthy, though occupied, zone of the English empire of 8 million people to a terrifying desperate slum of 2 million a few decades later. Some of that six million went to America or England or Canada or Australia, or wherever; but most of that was death, and it still represents a drop of 6 million= same as the Jewish holocaust, of ww2. It pales to the African holocaust of the slave trade or the Native American holocaust, but still: Eire population was cut by 75%. It’s only in the mid 80’s that the recovery started, and the countries population has only just topped 4 million in the Republic lately.
So, in retrospect, than Mom and Dad………………and God.
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