87 Allen Park Road
Stillorgan
Co. Dublin
Ph: (01)288
7651
Fax: (01)288
7228
Email: gyrosak@indigo.ie
26th
May 2004
Mr Eoin Ryan
23
Fitzwilliam Place
Dublin 2
Your visit to Stillorgan Shopping Centre
Dear Mr Ryan
Please accept my apology for
my unethical approach to you this morning. I tend to loose all faith in
mankind
when I see the amount of
apathy
displayed by the media,
politicians
for the real situation as
regards
falling birth-rate in the
so called
Developed World. Forty years ago, there
were 70% more births.
I
was reared in a drapery shop in the
west of Ireland.
Children’s clothes were the main sellers. I left in 1969. My Dad
died three
years ago. He was still working at the
age of 86. He was concerned that the
sales of children’s clothes
had
plummeted in the late 80s
and 90s.
He was right. I found out that there
were 4,500 less children in Mayo schools in 1999 than in 1985. A fall
greater
than the number killed in Northern
Ireland since 1969. This in a county
that
should know what it is like to loose the
cream of society i.e. our massive emigration/migration of our young
people.
Young men and women are the
engine
of any society. Dublin
could get away with giving a grant for a school or old folk’s home to
placate the people of Mayo.
No infrastructure for the
employment of young people was needed. A lot of the investment has being done from emigrant
remittances, donations etc.
I
tried to warn the
investment
fraternity here in Ireland
about the changing global
economy as
a result of falling numbers of young people. I described in the Mayo Yearbook 2001, launched Dec 2000
how a drop
of £350bn of annual
consumer spend was taking place in the
EU(More than the total
spend of the American army
in Iraq
to date). I advised that all
Pension Fund, Investments be withdrawn from Stock Markets. You will
find an
article from the Western
People which
shows that not only peoples savings was lost, but also government
taxation as a
result of tax allowances for pension contributions. The GOVERNMENT
SHOULD
DISALLOW ANY TAX BREAKS FOR PENSION FUNDS THAT ARE INVESTED IN THE
STOCKMARKET.
Specific funds will rise, but the
general trend is a depressed economic world. Otherwise
as a businessman, I and hundreds of others
see that such funds are ripe for plundering e.g. Inron, Parmalat etc
The
Irish are blinded by wealth. We have a wide open economy. I heard a
Leitrim
woman saying recently that ‘After a Gatherer
comes a Scatterer’. We have lost EURO
15-20 Billion of savings. How much more will we loose before we cop on?
It will
take generations for the
large EU
economies to bounce back to positive growth. This will not happen until
the problem of the
birth rate is tackled.
In
2001 I Emailed politicians, bankers, professors, etc. as to the hole that we were being sucked into.
Enough said.
You have a very good presence. I sensed that you were hurt over what I
said. I
apologise. We need leaders with realistic vision. YOUNG PEOPLE ARE NOT
INTERESTED IN POLITICS, they
know
that there is no future
based on the current
practice of Democracy. They are not
stupid. But are baffled by the
mess
that is being created by us grown ups. The old adage of ‘Respect your
Elders’
is being giving the kiss of
death by
our generation! Democracy and anything associated with us will be
rubbished
until we stop consuming everything and leaving a huge problem for the few children that we bring into the world.
I am
off tomorrow to Toronto
(c/f from 2003 because of SARS) for the
Mayo World Convention where I can mix, have a drink and joke with
former
friends who emigrated. Dublin 2005, Buenos Aires 2007. All the Mayo Associations throughout the world raise money for charity; last
year we in Dublin
raised Euro
40,000. In addition we sent children from poor areas in Dublin to Mayo
Gaeltachts. The child now
growing up will not have even this luxury. What happened to his
potential mates
‘Sin Sceal Eile’! Will they
be able
to help each other? EU
nations will
be opened to invasion etc. Think as to why tens of thousands of
Protestants had
to leave the border
counties in the 70s. We
shed crocodile tears for what happened
in Magdalene laundries, orphanages etc. The
greatest scandal ever to hit Ireland and the EU is happening now and we cry what can
we do?
The threat from the English
was
never as serious as is our own self-destruction. Why can we not react
before the explosions erupt.
I have nothing personal to gain from these views. In fact, I lost a career,
because I
objected in the 80’s: to the sales of endowment mortgages to young
people; to
full scale lending to women to buy houses.
Bankers realised that women could now put off children in order to pay the mortgage. I at the
time thought this action could not be carried out by a civilised
society. I
thought that the then management would get their
knuckles rapped by a more knowledgeable society. I was trying to rear a
family
of six including three girls. I soon learned that women’s liberation
was a red
heron that we were really embarking on an anti child policy. It might
not be
intentional, but it is what happened. As a returned emigrant used to
say ‘We
are as far back as the god
damn
Indians’! I am still gobsmacked and disbelieving that we still think
that we
are a great nation and that we are an advanced society! We are made of
sterner
stuff, we have more ‘bottle’ between the
ears and this poverty of thinking and inaction belittles us.
God
bless and good luck in the
elections. If you ever need a sounding block in a quiet situation, I am
willing.
<>Yours
sincerely>
John F Higgins