Ireland's schizoid press
In the space of two pages yesterday, Ireland's most popular daily newspaper, the Irish Independent, provided a classic display of the schizophrenia that permeates the island's media. On page 10, there was a large photo of the inside of a US helicopter attributed to "Reuters/Tyler J Clements" and carrying the caption "Air crewman Matt Gardner from Phoenix, Arizona holds an IV bottle for an ill Indonesian woman during a humanitarian aid mission to Aceh in Sumatra, Indonesia yesterday in the wake of the tsunami."
On page 12, the leader page, a column by Mary Kenny, entitled "Disaster brings forth an outpouring of generosity", there was a larger image, a cartoon by "Dave Browne". Again, the inside of a helicopter featured, but this time the figure was an ugly caricature of George W. Bush in fighter pilot gear, holding a huge missile inscribed "U.S.A.F" in one hand and cradling a gigantic carrot with the other. The contents of the speech balloon read: "Remind me... Is this Sumatra or Fallujah?" As Ms Kenny's column makes no reference to the US or its president, the placing of the crude cartoon is all the more bewildering. The closest Kenny gets to matters political is her very human observation: "Unlike 9/11, there are no villains. It is simply an act of nature, before whose power we are helpless. That is one lesson we may take from it: however much we 'plan' our lives, when nature moves, we are its playthings."
Fattened by the by-products of the inward investment, much of it from the US, that has enriched the island, the local media reflect the confused nature of contemporary Ireland, loving and despising its new materialist reality while comforting itself with a weird kind of nationalist idealism tinged with green envy and hatred. The national broadcaster, RTE, best exemplifies this internal conflict. Increasingly uncritical of Sinn Fein/IRA apologists who finesse murder and robbery, it abandons all pretence of objectivity when it comes to the USA. In the RTE worldview, all tragedy can be traced to social deprivation, caused preferably by the USA. What the ideologues don't get is that an idealized UN cannot bring back the tsunami dead and "society" cannot lessen this kind of loss. It must gall quite a few in RTE and at the Irish Independent to see so many of their beloved multilateral institutions occupying themselves issuing press releases while the likes of air crewman Matt Gardner from Phoenix, Arizona, go about the business of saving lives. What was it that the great Dr Johnson said?
"How small of all that human hearts endure
That part which laws or kings can cure"
Rainy Day has e-mailed the Irish Independent requesting an explanation for the offensive cartoon that appeared on its leader page yesterday.
Comments
Who cares about Tony O'Reilly's Irish Independent anyway. The Irish Times is the only Irish newspaper that can be taken seriously.
Bush and Co are making up for lost time on the tsunami issue. He didn't even acknowledge the disaster for the first 3 days - too busy mountainbiking around his ranch. Again. Now it's up to his lackey Powell to try and make the Yanks look good again and show that they spend money on actually saving lives rather than destroying them.
Posted by: Ted | January 6, 2005 9:44 AM
Eamonn's hero President Bush pledged a paltry $15 million in aid to the tsunami relief effort - about the same amount the septics spend every three hours in Iraq. Then he upped the promise to $35 million - less than the $40 million in private donations pledged to finance his inauguration festivities later this month. Then he pledged $350 million, one-tenth of what was spent helping Florida recover from four summer hurricanes. You'd think they might build decent houses down there so the ones made from paper wouldn't get blown away so easy.
Bush is more interested in U.S. control of Eye-rack and his plan to bring 'democracy'. No true democracy, just U.S.-implemented "guided democracy" in Eye-rack, meaning a Vichy regime that keeps U.S. bases, sells oil cheap, makes nice to Israel, and allows U.S. firms to exploit Eye-rack's wealth.
Meanwhile, full marks to the German government for pledging €500 million in aid.
Posted by: Ted | January 6, 2005 11:40 AM
Ugh,
thought you had banned T.?
But I take his point on the "generous" US aid...
Posted by: Xtian | January 6, 2005 12:59 PM
Yay, Ted is back to entertain us with the messages he receives from the voices in the coffee machine! "Every other country is better than Americaeven though American keeps going up and will continue to increase!" "I'm going to repeat a long and easily debunked lie about Bush!" "Wah! Iraq isn't a perfect, wealthy democracy by now and will need American guidance just like Germany and Japan after World War II, the whole thing is a sham!" Really, Eamonn, just ban this creep and let him brandish us all Nazis for not listening to his Voices' screeches, this is not intelligent debate...he's just a loony, uber-Germanophile troll that Goebbels would have been proud to have on his team.
Posted by: Patrick | January 6, 2005 5:38 PM
While it is a colossal tragedy, perhaps Georgie is viewing it as an investment. Think about it. Georgie sends $$ and muscle, feeds, rebuilds and looks like a good guy in the process. Happy people with perhaps some pro-American leaders won't fall in with militant anti-American groups.
Iraq is his oil/middle east investment. His returns haven't been so good or timely though..
Posted by: Christine | January 8, 2005 4:54 PM
First off, The aircrewman Matt Gardner from Phoenix, AZ is my long time best friend. I would like to see the cartoon drawn from the picture of my best friend doing his job. I cannot believe that someone would take a picture of someone helping people and turn it into some political BS. If anyone has a link or additional information on this article and picture please e-mail me at azseal@yahoo.com
Posted by: Ethan | January 10, 2005 12:26 AM
I think that is good.
Posted by: Meat | January 18, 2005 9:45 PM