Extracts
from Western People newspaper article April
2, 2003.
Somehow, the
original link
to politics.ie no longer works; so as it happens, I had the piece
saved. So
here it is!
April 2010
[quote=hammer;2595478][url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/education/2010/0413/1224268218570.html]The
doom merchant whose warnings don't seem so far-fetched anymore - The
Irish
Times - Tue, Apr 13, 2010[/url]
Become a disciple quick. Listen to the
experts not the teachers,
care
workers, country solicitors, bike shop owner, barristers in DAIL
EIREANN.[/quote]
This man hit the
radar around 2006, when the
economy
was turning from boom to burst. He is an academic; he follows trends
after some
other State agency publishes
the statistics - a typical
Economist. The start of the
Doom period had set in before he came public
with his diagnosis. It did not please the
"Vested Interests" who were trying to cover-up the
downward curves and give the
impression that everything was fine.
The Bankers would have known all this years
beforehand; that
the economy was been smothered with all kinds of derivative
investment
products and that the whole
house of
cards would come tumbling down. The only surprise was that it took so
long. But
the bankers were not running
the economy; this was the
job of the politicians and
government apparatus. There is the
real hidden story; what caused them
to be so blind to the very
apparent
rip-off of the citizens of the island of Ireland.
The following extracts were taken from a detailed
near half
page article by Michael Commins
(now
with the Mayo News) in the Western People April 2, 2003.
[quote]Sleep-walking
politicians get wake-up call from Kiltimagh man who has left media
economists
in the shade
Since 1998, Kiltimagh native John Higgins has been
warning
about the changing
demographics not
only in Ireland but
in
Europe, serious threats to the
traditional cultures of Europe,
turmoil on the Stock
Markets and the
disastrous handling of Irish managed Pension Funds.---------------
One is reminded of Kris Kristofferson's songwords
from
"The Preacher" " and their
voices have been scattered by the
swirling winds of time 'cause the
truth remains that noone wants to know". And it appears that such has
been
the case of the
"experts" in relation to John's perceptive reading of the overall picture.
As far back as April 1997! John was challenging the rosy picture of the
Irish Economy being conveyed by the
ESRI. "The EC is rapidly becoming a giant retirement home. The elderly
will represent nearly 33% of the
population between the ages
of 15-64
by the year 2020. Ireland's
birthrate has fallen by
27% in the period 1980 to
1996. Is
it time to wipe the dust
from our
eyes and question the
balance of the ECs present
affluence with the ability
to survive?," he wrote in a letter
to the Irish Times.
Reading the
signs
The following are extracts from the
last three yearbooks produced by the
Mayo Association Dublin.
"Added pressure on our youth is the
onerous financial burden of funding a pension because of the
longer life expectancy, often running to £200-£1,000
monthly. Pension
contributions as opposed to having children are encourage by very
attractive
tax breaks. A worrying factor is that the
bulk of this money is invested in a volatile Stock Exchange."
"House prices in our built up areas are among the highest in Europe
even though we have one of the
lowest population densities. Land for building-on has become a scarce
resource
in modern day Ireland.
Are we mad! We have one of the
least
population/land densities in the
world. Are we really lacking the
abilities to solve this scandalous situation? This is happening because
money
is diverted from having children."
"The policy of putting aside a pension sinking
fund is
laudable, but the
misapprehension
that this is enough to look after the
future pension needs of today’s workers is only demonstrating a total
lack of
knowledge of the
international
vicissitudes of the
monetary system
(see below). Money and wealth should be viewed as a means to achieve a
better
quality of life for all citizens rather
than as an end in itself. Once a country gives indications of going
into
reverse growth, the money
flies out
e.g. a net EURO 140 billion left the
Euro Zone in 1999."
"They (our leaders) must stop trying to emulate
materially wealthy countries, but take time to examine the
core values of life that insures the
perpetuity of their race.
There were
56% more births throughout Europe in
1964 than
in 1998"
"There are few signs emanating from Europe
that any other policy other than monetary (completely useless) to
reverse
this downward trend is even being considered. This increasingly
unbalanced
society will pull down any robust small society that comes under its
influence!
Similar to County Mayo during the
Twentieth Century, Europe will suffer
from the loss of its young
men and women.
"Our society and that of most of the
Western World is being progressively weakened. Where does the buck stop? There is an element of
know-how
missing, a deficit of knowledge at our Cabinet Table! It appears to be
blind as
to the long-term results of
any
actions that it takes.
"It is no great achievement to make money or be the best economy in the
world if it is built on the
backs of
a falling birth rate! This is pure base human behaviour and is an
insult to our
ancestors. We need to come up a few notches on the
intellectual plane and start using our ‘Use of Reason’.
"We will be caught in the
dangerous eddy as the great
Western
Economies go into rapid decline, caused by the
hidden power of demographics and not any highly visible terrorist deed.
Discount the wealth of a
childless
Nation, you get ZERO value! ceteris paribus.
"Money and investment will eventually flee a
country
whose birth rate continues to fall; this is only pure logic, but maybe
not to
those people who are living above their
station! i.e. lacking pure handed down foundation principles of life
(Christian, Islamic or whatever)! The falling birth rate has severely
shifted the fundamentals
and undermined the growth
of the
Capitalist Markets of the
Western
World. There is a wall of ignorance out there
that is in all truthfulness very difficult to understand!
The rip-off
culture
"The one area where we can have control is
savings. Our
fund managers only react when there
is an explosion or war, they
do not
adequately read the
fundamentals
that lead to the explosion
or war.
The end result is that there
will be
no reserves/resources left for the
hard working Irish person when the
economy goes into reverse"
And John sees evidence of the
"rip-off" culture emerging everywhere in Irish society. "Ireland
is being ripped off through higher prices charged by multi-national
business,
e.g. insurance costs, high prices for pop concerts (Euro120 as against
Euro45
on the continent for Paul
McCartney). cars, etc.
The Irish Race
In the
"Western" in recent weeks we read of the
fall off in numbers attending primary school in the
general Ballintubber region of central Mayo with GAA officials
expressing
concern that the playing
facilities
set up by the hard work of
many
members and volunteers over the
years may end up being wasted because of long term projections. One
person said
it would be hard to field a decent 7 a side team because of the fall-off in numbers.
Says John: It is time to ask the
question “where is the
Irish Race
going?” The teaching and practice of Roman Catholic Doctrine is the corner stone of modern Irishness
world-wide. But
(here at home) is now forgotten in the
exploitation of our young twenty and thirty year olds by many people
who should
know better."
"Our modern leaders from the
last quarter of the 20th
century are
unfortunately presiding over the
horrendous job of shutting down the
cradle of production, of the
Irish
Stock on this planet"
"Given the
rapid decrease in our birth rate, anthropologists will in two hundred
years
probably have to search in areas like Coventry,
Boston and Manchester
for traces of Irish genes. There is a huge problem looming on this
Isle, please
do not continue to wear blinkers!"
In last year's Mayo Yearbook. John Higgins said the things that many economists and
political
commentators are afraid to say because of this new evil of "political
correctness". He went straight to the
heart of the matter with
his
comments in relation to our falling birthrate.
"Our smartest women are sent out to prop up a
world
that is based on Unfettered Materialism. They don’t have time to have
children.
This is the ultimate irony!
Our
society and that of most of the
Western World is being progressively weakened."
"It appears from practical observance, that lack
of
religious values, spells a rapid deterioration in morals and subsequent
unstoppable petering out of a race. This takes place within a life span
of two
to three generations for a democratic civilisation that sells practices
that
prohibit the most natural
occurring
outcome in Human Nature i.e. natural conception."
"The proponents of core Christianity are in the main, few in numbers. The Western World
has
become weak as a result. It is not that Islam is getting stronger. The
current
world problems are there;
because an
element in the Islamic
world
recognises this inherent weakness, and hope to reap some advantage by
causing
panic with terrorists deeds and will continue to do so"
"Unless we change our social doctrine, Western
Civilisation will be sitting ducks for opposing culture groupings
throughout the 21st
Century."
John Higgins believes that Irish politicians and
economists
have been sleep-walking. And his conclusions are as frightening as they are dramatic.
"It has to be said that society, as we know it, is
in
almost unstoppable decline; we are on the
verge of losing our culture, beliefs all in the
name of individualism as opposed to what is best for the
community. This loss will not come from emigration, as in County Mayo’s
case, but from the fact
that they were never born!"
[/quote]
This article was circulated right up and down
Irish Society;
to members of the Cabinet
to
ordinary people on our streets.
For a so called knowledgeable society, we have
built up many
Chinese Walls. It is time that our intelligentsia started thinking
outside the box that our
education system appears to have
molded them into.
And it goes on and on and on! We no longer have
large
families, but 60,000 of our youth emigrated last year. Our politicians
think
this is great. Who do they
think is
to pay off our rapidly increasing Public Debt? Is there
anybody out there who is
capable at
joining the dots! You can
bet your
sweet life that the
International
Financial Buccaneers who operate from percentages are doing this; other peoples' "Panic without rational
thought" is their
natural friend: they do not
mind
that the house of cards
come
tumbling down; they will
have their "pound of
flesh".
UCD Economist Ahern is a half decade too late with
his
thoughts! Ironically, all of the
above would have been brought to the
notice of the Economics
Department
of UCD with The Watcher
as the calling card.
From having the
most youthful country in the
EU, it
is appearing increasingly likely that we will shortly have the oldest society; no one in Ireland
appears to be given it a
thought!