IRISH GREENS GET PRAGMATIC ON CORRUPTION
Feb 26th, 2008 by Conor McCabe
Thanks to Simon of Irish Election for this one.
The Irish Green party has finally bit the bullet and has taken its first major stand on corruption since coming to power in June. It has decided to give its full support to anti-corruption activists - not in Ireland, mind, but in Columbia.
In a statement released on Friday, 22 February - the same day that saw the revelation that Celia Larkin bought a fucking house in the 1990s with FF local branch money - Green Party representative for Dublin South West Elizabeth Davidson called for the release of Columbian anti-corruption activist Ingrid Betancourt on the eve of the sixth anniversary of her captivity.
“I am joining in the many calls from around the world for the release of this brave woman and all of the other prisoners held by FARC guerillas in the Colombian jungle,” said Davidson. “As we prepare to honour mothers next weekend let us think of this mother and her children who have been seperated for six long years through an act of cowardly terrorism.”
The call to tackle corruption outside of its jurisdiction - while completely ignoring corruption inside its jurisdiction - is part and parcel of the Green party´s hymnsheet these days. It has taken the same stance with regard to Irish planning corruption, by saying that it is willing to leave corruption untouched in order to battle global warming.
Here´s what Harry Browne had to say last June about that little dance.
You don’t have to agree with Alexander Cockburn about anthropogenic climate change to acknowledge that fighting global warming has become a flag of convenience for governments and companies who want to appear to be doing something progressive. Sure enough, the Greens made their happiest noises about the promises they had secured on “climate change”– the usual mishmash of “carbon taxes” and “greenhouse targets”. This earnest concern ignores certain salient facts: despite phenomenal economic growth that has sent Ireland’s emissions well above the country’s Kyoto limits, it is a comparatively tiny carbon-contributor; and Ireland was picked out by the IPCC as one of the country’s that will do relatively well out of even dramatic global warming, thanks very much. (You should see my tan already this year.) Moreover, the new government’s continuing fealty to the White House over Iraq doesn’t promise much resistance on a global level.
In other words, a party that cannot stop military planes from landing within its jurisdiction is hardly going to be able to change American policy on carbon emisions.
Oh well. I´d hate to see the Irish Greens head off to fight corruption unprepared. So, here´s a training video from Chuck Norris on how to deal with corruption in Columbia. Chuck hasn´t come up with a training video on how to deal with corruption in Ireland - but, then again, neither have the Greens.
Enjoy.
For a long time now I have been trying my hardest to view the greens as trying against all odds to fight the good fight within the slime that constitutes the current government. This is a blow to that view, I mean it’s one thing to be a bunch of stooges, but another to be hopelessly incompetent enough to make it incredibly obvious with such bad timing. Perhaps that is the idea? Perhaps as stooges their standing orders are “Make it unavoidably clear that you are stooges” so that in the future their credibility is completely undermined. I still hope against hope that they will one day redeem themselves, but for the moment Larry, Curly, and Mo are very much in over their heads.
Dunno about Colombia - but Chuck might’ve found them a sound technique for their next leadership decider. I assume they’ll have about the same influence on the Colombians as on the Sodgers of Destiny - they’ll start using re-cycled bleach-free brown paper bags for the dinero…
On a serious level - they do have a natural affinity with Ingrid Betancourt - who was actually a Green candidate, I think (with an anti-corruption spin). Even if they’re far from having her courage or sense of principle. She (no less than the 100s of other Colombians held hostage by the FARC that don’t have friends in Europe) is a very worthy cause and a woman currently in poor health in a very bad situation - but I reckon there’s about as much hope of FF going clean as the FARC releasing her, sadly.
Again on a serious level, I would’ve thought that of all the Irish political spectrum - the Sinners would have the most influence on the FARC - even if they deny ever having had any official contact with them (for the benefit of their fundraisers in the US). Someone should get Gerry on the case.