Dear Sir,
I read recently what I can only describe as one of the best articles I have ever read. In your edition of The University Times, published January 20th, I came across an article written by one Conan O’Broin, in the opinion section. The title of this article was ‘The top ten reasons why Ireland is in the state it’s in’. This man has managed to outline perfectly just exactly what is wrong with this country of ours.
What really hit home for me was his point on begrudgery. To quote, ‘…people in Ireland are discouraged from being different, being successful or being ambitious. New ideas, new solutions and new ways of thinking are few and far between’. This young man has hit the nail on the head. We are a nation afraid to step away from our ties with the past and try something new to assuage the impact of the mess we are currently in. If more students took this stance rather than being content in their apathy maybe our government would wake up and consider that we, as students, are the future of this country, and we will be the people most affected in years to come. What we need to do is show solidarity with our fellow countrymen and women and take to the streets in outrage at what our government has led us blindly into. We should be demanding answers from ministers and bankers, and doing so in as public a manner as possible. Surely it would terrify them to be confronted over their wrongdoing without their aides or advisors there to help them? This is what we should be doing.
Look at Iceland and all that they have achieved over the past 18 months. They managed to bring down their centre right government and many of their top bankers resigned due to Icelanders lack of apathy whilst their country was falling apart. Now things are slowly getting better for them. Yes, we are not in as much of a mess as Iceland, but what if we were?
As a people we love a rogue, a chancer; and this must stop. We have numerous corrupt politicians yet somehow we allow this to continue. We are for some reason of the firm belief that if it’s not directly affecting us then we could not care less. What I want to see are more students supporting not only each other, but their fellow citizens who have also fallen upon hard times. We need to get out there with our saucepans and pots, a la ‘saucepan revolution ‘ in Iceland, and start giving our politicians a headache. We cannot afford to sit back any longer or we will only leave room for resentment in years to come. Resentment towards ourselves for not doing anything when our country needed it the most.
Yours etc.
Amy Burton.
