Ireland's lost kids.

international | racism & migration related issues | news report

Tuesday November 21, 2006 21:13

by iosaf

Unfortuanately the details of this story or rather the details of its protagonist are scant. I can tell you with confidence that he is an Irish citizen, that he has taken medication for a psichiatric condition provided by the Catalan health service free of charge for almost a year. I can tell you the Irish diplomatic mission to Barcelona refused to assist him passage home. "Oh but they say that to everyone." If you check the fine print of Irish passport, which is the most expensive passport of any EU state but an obligatory document for any one in the Shengen area to go to / come to / return - you will see the ominious reminder don't ask your Irish embassy for help getting home. we don't have enough funds.

This man is Irish. He climbed up there to demand a ticket home. He's now in a psichiatric unit.

But the chap in the picture did & does want to go home. . He's had enough. Basta. Prou as the Katalanders put it.
So in the morning of the 19th of November the lad in question took advantage of the wonderful roof of "Estacio de Franca" & climbed up to the rafters a hundred foot above & thus brought attention to his case.

He also ensured that the electric cabling which serves the main train service to Barcelona's airport beneath him was switched off. Which meant lots of people were delayed on their way to the airport. Some but not all of these people were Irish. It is quite improbably any were terrorists or were going to try to fly out of Barcelona without a paid for ticket. Quite a few of them probably forgot about the liquid thing in the hand-luggage.

& so Time went by.

The firemen came & thought about coaxing him down. They did that for a few hours.

He asked for a cup of coffee.

He got it.

( a fireman told the media afterwards it was cold when it got to him. he liked his coffee milky. Most Irish do. little tip. you're on a protest & are offered coffee or tea keep it piping hot. ask for thermos flask.)

He asked for a ticket home.

He didn't get that.

He asked for a representative of the Irish consulate to talk to him.

Did they fuck.

Finally at about 5pm (4 pm Irish time) he fell asleep & they brought him down & put him in a huggy jacket.

_____________________________________________________

Now because many regular readers of Indymedia ireland over the last 5 years will know - I always try to get to people to compare & contrast . Ireland is we are told with regular audacity one of richest, most developed states not only in Europe but the whole fecking world. & boasting one of the largest diasporias of any European nation it would really like to offer a job, hearth & shares in Ryanair to its lost children. But it got polish plumbers & nurses instead. This really got up your noses. If you didn't think about it & were one of those RAR (residents against racism) types don't worry it got up someone else's nose for you. The noses of FF and the PD's. Which is why you as a nation chose not to assist your nationals in trouble or difficult circumstances "away from home" or even allow your EU resident but non-Eire resident citizens (like me) a vote or political representation / participation beyond writing on indymedia. & lastly the compare & contrast
you decided Romanians will not be allowed into your country to work.

& so....................... did anyone take inspiration from Mr Irish protester?

yes they did.

Yesterday a Romanian citizen climbed up on a construction crane in Barcelona's Ravel district & rather than adopt a stationery position or even request coffee (without milk - they take it that way) he just asked for :-

a representative of the Romanian consulate to talk to him.

= The woman talked to from the ground of the crane by mobile telephone.

& he asked to be deported. not repatriated or even sent home for fecking free on Ryanair out of your tax-paying pocket.

And his really pressing issue :- He asked to be given a place in a drug detox centre before he was sent home.

on well................... that's asking a lot these days....................

Happy birthday to ye all. I've not been writing or commenting much coz I've a lovely refuge rented & am writing off-line. If you're delighted by what foreigners do in Barcelona, Duncan of "seomrai spraoi" is over here & saw almost a hundred of them (all good jugglers it's said) go homeless yesterday morning. There is link............. there always is............... The "estacio França" no longer sends trains to France, & hasn't for a while. But a new high speed train link from France through Barcelona to Madrid will be built 400 metres from what was till yesterday the "circus school of barcelona".
http://indymedia.ie/article/79776 I'll let ye in on a secret.- Cities change. They appear to realise that cheap visitors want cheap stays. If they attract expensive visitors (meaning less north European hippies or for that matter British / Irish weekenders not on stag/hen gigs) they get more money for their middle class & with a push & shove their own poor just go away. They like that.

don't leave home without your fare home or a vaild passport.

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Comments (4 of 4)

Happy Holidays & Non-Banking days to everyone.

by iosaf .:. ipsiphi

Sun Dec 24, 2006 16:07

the 23/xii/06 saw the annual "let's go to the streets" over in Barcelona. This year activities tied in with 19 other cities in the Spanish state including Madrid. Only the Madrid protest ended in trouble with the usual violent attacks on protesters by police. In Barcelona 7,000 were reported by cops by marching behind the various housing banners & one which is quite resonant considering the story above I'm not going home for Christmas.

The theme was of course housing.

Even a casual reader will have learnt by now that the housing crises in Barcelona has been accompanied by extra-ordinary mafia real estate speculation, corruption in urban planning & a complete lack of forethought or planning. The situation is at its worse in Barcelona a city locked between sea and mountains which has seen mortgage and rents go completely out of reach of ordinary working or young people. To put a statistic on it - the average person between 20 & 35 regardless of educational profile must spend 65% of their income on housing. The UN & World Bank tell us it ought never be more than 40%. I think it's just a right. A simple basic right. Maybe that's why "God chose to born in a manger with no hay for a bed"......lettin' us know something eh? So last week we made that point at the city council nativity scene.

& what gets me giggling - is how the commercial media always reports these protests as "thousands of youngsters" demanding a right to housing. One of the illustrations shows that it is not only "young people" who are affected by this pricing bubble & illegal practises to intimidate people to leave whole zones of the city so that they may be very profitably redeveloped.

you can watch a video of BCN's march here :-
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/286449/...x.php

Other articles on this theme which not only affects the Spanish state but has (via the activism of Barcelona's housing groups) caused the suspension of the 2006 EU Housing Ministers Summit.

May we hope that in 2007, empty houses are used. Shelter is given. Young people are facilitated in the utterly natural step of leaving their parents' home. That the elderly do not leave in fear of mobs who try & move them out. That there are less Irish, or "Foreign" kids who couldn't even get on the ladder of a squat - sofa surfing - or that ticket home. Because as even the great commercial newspapers see in their leader articles today - When a few days ago in Barcelona the activists reminded the faithful of the birth of the Christ in an okupe - a warm home is what Xmas is about.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/Comunidad/Valenciana/por...6/Tes
http://www.lavanguardia.es/gen/20061223/51298000484/not....html

other articles in the recent past on how the social centres got closed, the circus got divided & bought (some now on contract to the government), the EU Housing ministers didn't come, & the law is to be changed - to free up compulsory purchase of abandoned property & also ease quick evictions. All that information & more in the articles linked to & their comments. Though it is worth remembering that squat evictions & replacements happen all the time here. Nothing really merits reporting on irish indymedia space except of course when Irish people are involved. But the housing campaign which brought 30,000 to the street in Autumn in this city has consolidated squatting, speculation, housing, & many other issues in one movement which will be & must be taken very seriously in 2007. & I'll do my best to tell you about it. & Spare a thought for those who can't get home but want to!

http://indymedia.ie/article/79019
http://indymedia.ie/article/78839
http://indymedia.ie/article/79776

Jesus was born in a Squat. We're mostly not going to get a house in our fucking lives. Bah Humbug.

It's not just kids. Redevelopment for the EU & Tourists took her council flat away. & she has too many kids in the shoebox now.

I love the feedback. "why should the Irish state pay for the feckers to return?"

Wed Nov 22, 2006 18:03

Don't we spend enough on transporting our politicians around in top range cars, keeping the executive jet polished & ensuring Dublin has the worst public transport infrastructure of any EU capital?
I forgot a source for those who thought I made it all up :-
http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=...=1021
http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=...=1022

I would be very interested to know how many Irish citizens or passport holders ask for financial assistance to return to the Irish state & of course are refused point blank.

I'd also like to point out to the jingoists reading that Eire has the worst psichiatric care in the EU. So bad are Irish mental care institutions, they get special mention in the Amnesty International "Human Rights report" every year. Considering such, I'd hazard to guess any sick in the head type would relish care in a society such as Spain. It seems the logic in not providing assistance to Irish citizens in trouble or with problems abroad is based on the notion that if a single one is brought home gratis - they'll all jump on the bandwagon. If we cast a quick eye over consular services offered by other states of the EU of comparative economic power we note that only one (the UK) has revised its policy on extra-national assistance & now charges all Britons full whack if they're called on to
* talk to the police.
* arrange bail
* provide a lawyer.
* arrange an undertaker.
* fly someone home.

But at least they do that. So..................... How many requests for help & assistance by Irish abroad are turned down as policy every year? . Do they get a candle lit for them at Aras an Uachtaran? Are they as much an issue as those Irish who are not regularised migrants in the USA whose absence at Xmas we lament? & for the commentator who suggested the family of the lad in the picture (or any other Irish citizen in his circumstances) cover the costs - it is worth considering that those with mental illness (&/or) hard drug problems often have exhausted the benificence of parents.

Is this story written by the fella on the roof?

by Johnny Jump Up

Wed Nov 22, 2006 13:55

My God, this is the poorest piece of pseudo-journalism I've ever read. The apparant thought-process of the author is as crazed as the hero/villian of the story.

Why on earth should the state pay to repatriate its citizens? If you're a juvenile, and not in trouble with the law, fair enough. If you're a grown adult, tough cheese! The state cannot be expected to bail out everyone & anyone who has fallen upon hard-times, particularily those who had left our shores for sunnier climes. I'm sorry, but I have not an iota of sympathy for the roof-climber in this tale.

One solution might be for his family to pitch in for plane-ticket. It is sad to see somebody suffering from depression or psychiatric illness, don't get me wrong. But the Spanish have a health system just like we do. We'll look after foreign nationals who fall ill here and other countries can take care of our people who fall ill there. It's not that difficult.

Perplexed

by Puzzled

Tue Nov 21, 2006 23:28

What, if any, was the point of this article? What is the issue the author is trying to highlight? A lack of compassion for mentally ill ex-patriates by our neo-liberal government? The comparitively higher ability of the Romanian government to be pressurised by one of their citizens? It was an interesting story but, again, what point was the author trying to make?

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Ireland's lost kids.

Comments (4 of 4)