Saturday, March 29, 2008

Photo FFML.




HARNEY’S HEALTH HORRORS

CONTINUE


HELPED BY HYPOCRITES

Only weeks after the Labour Party motion of No Confidence in Mary Blarney, Minister for Shambles in Health, exposed once again the hypocrisy and cynicism of the Fianna Failure, ratbag, Uncle Tom Cobbely ‘n all, Coalition Government, which after only ten months in office looks like the cast of the Beggar’s Opera, the scandals of the Harney supervised Health Services were further increased with the revelation that the previous minister, Michael Martin, had received a letter in 2002 informing him of the inadequacies of the Portlaoise Hospital breast scan services

This new and shocking revelation shows that it was absolutely right for the Labour Party to put down this motion, the second and unprecedented in this Dáil, to call Blarney and her hypocritical government to account for the shambles they have created in the public health services after ten years of gross mismanagement. Sailing under false colours of so-called reform all these years, Blarney and her immediate predecessors have undermined the quality of the public health service in a gung-ho attempt to privatise as much of it as possible by forcing people to invest in private health care schemes to seek to avoid the delays and bottlenecks induced by Blarney’s own deliberate neglect. The predictable outcome of the Dáil vote, the serried ranks of FF back-benchers, sell-out Green Party turncoats, self-serving “independents” marching into the ‘Yes’ lobbies in support of beleaguered Blarney doesn’t detract from the Opposition gain in exposing this hypocrisy to the public.

Asset stripping the public service has been a political aim of Blarney and her now discredited and rapidly dissolving right-wing faction, the misnamed “Progressive Democrats”. Reduced to herself and a closet Fianna Failure TD, Noel Grealish as Dáil reps, Piss-Pot Blarney is now fanatically determined to bulldoze through her dream project of Co-Located Hospitals, a euphemism for blatant favouritism and state subsidisation of private health practitioners on the grounds of publicly owned hospitals and clinics. Free land and free access to the clientele of public hospitals as well as a twenty-year bonanza of keeping their private practices intact, must be the most audacious swindle of the public purse since King Charles 1 debased the currency in 1642.

Blarney
has spent most of the past years pushing this project which is why she lost the plot in regard to the everyday deficiencies of the health services and was badly caught out with the shocking revelation at the Oireachtas (Parliamentary) Committee on Health last November, (22 Samhain/November 2007), that 97 women had been mis-diagnosed at Portlaoise Hospital and told they were clear of breast cancer but, when the mistake was discovered, the women were not informed of the position and were left waiting while the bureaucrats sought to organise new appointments.

Yet, the smug and complacent Blarney continues to try and justify the scandalous situation which has developed in the Health Services under her leadership. She created the totally bureaucratic Health Service Executive; she diverted resources to the promotion of the “Co-located Hospitals” schemes which benefits only private practitioners and their clientele to the absolute detriment of the public patients; she and her predecessor, Michael Martin, ignored serious warnings of deficiencies in equipment and services at Portlaoise Hospital. It is now time for this incompetent
and delinquent minister to resign and if she doesn’t go on her own initiative a political campaign to force her out should become a priority.

This campaign will begin on this Saturday, 29th Márta/March, 2008, with a massive demonstration in Dublin organised by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, the Health Professionals Associations and an alliance of Health Action concern groups who represent the direct victims of Harney’s privatisation policies. If you want a fair and efficient Health Service now and for the future BE THERE! The March will assemble at Parnell Square at 2pm.

SHOW HARNEY & CO THAT WE WILL NOT ACCEPT A TWO-TIER HEALTH SERVICE WITH QUALITY SERVICES FOR THE RICH AND CRUMBS FOR THE REST OF US.


SAY NO TO PRIVATISATION OF THE HEALTH SERVICE!

HARNEY MUST GO!!


FearFeasa Mac Léinn
Áth Cliath/Dublin, 29 Márta /March 2008.

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Thursday, March 20, 2008

PHOTO: FFML



Over 1,000 people marched in O’Connell Street, Dublin, last Saturday,
15 Márta/March 2008, despite pouring rain and wind, to protest the
5th Anniversary of the illegal Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq, like 50 other cities around the World the same day.

The protest was organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement who have consistently opposed the bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and brought to public attention the horrendous consequences of these Imperialist adventures and the Irish Government’s shameful collaboration with the use of Shannon Airport by US military aircraft and CIA “rendition” flights going to and from Iraq these past five years.

The speakers on the platform, which included Michael D. Higgins, Labour Party foreign Affairs Spokesman, Richard Boyd-Barret of Irish Anti-War Movement, Joe Higgins, Socialist Party and Michael Youlton, Palestine Solidarity, who chaired the event, condemned the continued aggression against the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples and called on the Irish Government to cease its shameful collaboration with US warmongers and respect the views of the majority of the Irish people who want an end to the use of Shannon Airport by the US Military.

The meeting also heard, on direct phone-link to Gaza City, a Palestinian representative give an on-the-spot account of the Zionazi Israeli armed assault on the civil population, men, women and children, of Gaza, which has resulted in 140 deaths in the past week alone. The Palestinian representative urged continued demonstrations of protest in European countries as these shows of solidarity and support were very welcome and the cause of hope and great encouragement to the Palestinian people in their great struggle for freedom from Zionist oppression.






RUIN AND DESTRUCTION

The shocking statistics of the bloodshed and destruction in Iraq are inadequate to describe the actual conditions in which the majority of the population must live. Thousands of homes have been destroyed and made uninhabitable, so even if some of the millions of refugees who have fled to neighbouring Syria and Jordan wanted to come back there is no accommodation for them. It will take years to rebuild Iraq’s ruined living accommodation and infrastructure There are no medicines for the Hospitals, once the best in the Middle East. 50% of Iraq’s medical personnel have fled the country. There is no clean water in the cities and towns; the sewerage system has collapsed. Electricity is provided only for a couple of hours a day and sometimes not at all.

There is massive unemployment as Iraq’s industries and trade have been completely disrupted. Religious sectarianism, unknown before the invasion, has come to dominate daily life and cities and towns are now split along religious lines with walls and barriers being erected between communities who once lived together peacefully. There is daily bombing and killing of civilians in murderous sectarian attacks. The US Occupation Forces continue to harass the civilian population and brutally invade their homes for so-called “security” reasons.

The United Nations continues to fail to protect the people of Iraq against an illegal and brutal occupation which has no purpose or future except to continue the violence and oppression and prevent the Iraqi people from exercising their fundamental rights of self-determination and sovereignty in their own country. There should be no more fig-leaf cover by the UN for what is a brutal Imperialist occupation in Iraq. US and British troops and their European associate forces should be withdrawn and replaced with UN Mandate forces from cultures more amenable to the Iraqi people. Since the unity and territorial integrity of the Iraqi state is now under serious threat, replacement of the Occupation forces is an urgent political and military necessity.

It is quite clear that the despicable Buckfush regime in Washington, now coming to its inglorious end in a financial meltdown of US capital, is incapable of extracting itself with dignity from Iraq and Afghanistan and is, vampire like, seeking to suck more European blood into what is a damnable lost cause and political, military and economic shambles of its own making. Nothing could be more damaging for European interests than getting further involved in this disastrous enterprise. Some of the media, to their credit, are beginning to question the whole basis for this mad adventure. Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister has been forced to agree to a full public enquiry into the decisions made in Downing Street leading up to the War and his predecessor, Tony Blair’s, infamous lies to the House of Commons, in March 2003, suggesting that Britain was under threat from Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes of launch. But, of course, Gordo himself was at the Cabinet Table when this decision went through.

We mark the anniversary of this awful war with protest and alarm for the future when the Warmongers still shriek for more blood:

NO! LET THEM GO TO THE FRONT LINE FIRST AND SEE HOW THEY LIKE IT.

NO MORE LIVES FOR MILITARISTS AND OIL BARONS!

NO BLOOD SACRIFICES FOR FINANCE CAPITAL AND INTERNATIONAL MONOPOLYS!


FearFeasa Mac Léinn
Áth Cliath/DUBLIN, 20 MÁRTA/MARCH 2008.


Tuesday, March 04, 2008



The huge Meeja Hype over the adventures of Brit Royal, Prince Harry, in Afghanistan, made dramatic reading in the Brit tabloids and Sunday Smuts last week, but, as usual, it was just that, HYPE.
In the first place, Prince Harry’s outfit was based at least 200 miles away from any serious combat with Taliban Forces, which mainly occurs adjacent to the Pakistan border to the south. The Prince never went anywhere without at least eight heavily armed bodyguards whose duty it was to take any possible hits aimed at their royal buddy in arms.

The so-called media leak to an Australian website which “revealed” the Prince’s presence in Afghanistan and resulted in the well publicised hasty departure of the royal adventurer from the country, was a controlled leak by the Brit Ministry of Defence to get splash coverage in all media with already prepared film clips of Harry and Friends in training exercises to try and put some positive spin on the dire situation of the NATO military forces in Afghanistan.

The whole thing, Hero’s homecoming and all, was a theatrical event organised in advance with the added benefit of some positive spin for the Brit Royal Family who are being undermined by the sensations of the Princess Diana inquest currently taking place in London and which is providing a meal and a half for the Tabloid Vultures.

The harsh truth is that the Gung-ho NATO invasion of Afghanistan has run into the ground and is in dire straits militarily with insufficient resources to stop the revived Taliban offensive in the south. Only the US, British and Canadian contingents are actively involved in combat resulting in fierce resentment by their troops against the other NATO’s from Germany, Poland, Spain and Italy; and the refusal by the Germans and several other NATO allies to send additional support troops has seriously split the NATO alliance.

Coupled with the shambles of the Occupation of Iraq, the so-called ‘War on Terror’ is the most bloody and financially ruinous Western Imperialist adventure since the Vietnam war. Yet, the despicable Buckfush regime in Washington and its London lapdogs persist in trying to pretend that they are achieving some sort of victory in this desperate situation. The Turkish Army’s invasion of northern Iraq – Kurdistan last week exposed the scandalous hypocrisy of the NATO Alliance’s supposed “Defence of Freedom” outside its Treaty obligations of the defence of Western Europe.
Also, last week, Buckfush allies Israel and Colombia invaded neighbouring territories in pursuit of their aggressive aims contrary to the UN Charter and International Law.

Colombian forces entered Ecuadorian territory allegedly in pursuit of “rebels”, possibly sparking off a war in the region between themselves and Venezuela, an ally of Ecuador. Venezuela moved tanks to the frontier and put its Air Force on combat alert over the weekend. The reckless actions of Colombian President, the Washington puppet Alvaro Urribe, has created an extremely dangerous situation in the region as even a minor provocation on the frontier could see a full-scale response by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who is sorely irritated by the activities of the corrupt Colombian Army near his country’s borders. At the same time, Washington has an interest in stirring up trouble here as an excuse for a military attack on Venezuela’s left-wing government.

This, only a week after the NATO gang had opened up another area of conflict in the heart of Europe by allowing the NATO-controlled criminal enclave of Kosovo to declare “independence” from the sovereign Republic of Serbia, to which the territory rightfully belongs. The Zionazi Israeli forces launched a terror attack on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, which UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon called “out of proportion”, in response to rocket attacks into Israel by Palestinian militants. Over 70 civilians were killed, many of them young children.

The aggressive activities of NATO and its surrogates across the world begs the question of who are the International Terrorists? The NATO aggressors are the current biggest violators of the UN Charter and International Law and Human Rights with their indiscriminate crossing of borders, carpet bombing of civilian populations, maintenance of illegal torture camps and illegal detentions and torture of innocent civilians in several countries. All of these aggressions and violations of law left unremarked by the pipsqueak Irish Government and its alleged commitment to the UN and International Law. No surprise there, since Blank-Cheque Bertie & Co have already sold out Irish neutrality by allowing US military aircraft on their way to Iraq and Afghanistan to land and refuel at Shannon Airport.

FearFeasa Mac Léinn
Áth Cliath/Dublin, 4 Marta/March 2008.