Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year’s Eve.... Just a good piss up?


Excuse my language, but I can’t help asking, what it is we are actually celebrating? Our severely indebted nation? A year we banished one incompetent government in favour of another (Let’s face it, their work has hardly signalled the beginning of an economic recovery!)? A Eurozone teetering on the brink of a possible break up or possible dissolution of the signal currency?
Hmm...And still, we celebrate! What a positive little nation we are! (That or we just can’t say no to a party!)
Am I the only one fearful of a year worse than last? Not that I’m fond of negativity, I merely think realistically, that the worst of the economic crisis is not over.  I’m sure Doctor Doom himself, Morgan Kelly would concur. But somehow, I can see this year to be tougher than last for all concerned, small businesses and bigger businesses alike, coupled with a hike in the VAT rate, possibly redundancies for people across the nation in both the public and private sector, and a nation of skilled graduates with a crippling desire to work post university, but having to leave the emerald isle if they want to do so!
I may sound like a broken record at this stage, but sometimes it feels that the voice of young graduates remains unheard! Young graduates worrying about their future and the future of their country, unlikely story 10 years ago! My how things have changed – pretty sure I’ll be availing of the Botox jabs in years to come (if the bonus is reinstated that is!) to banish the worry lines this young nation are sporting given the uncertainty of our shattered economy! New Year, new beginnings and all the jazz, supposed positivity, supposed glimmers of hope – to me those are farfetched from the bleak reality we are now faced with! 2012 – the year of the dragon – let’s hope so, we could do with someone putting a little bit of fire up the current government’s ass and getting this country on the road to recovery!

So remind me why we are celebrating?!
Maybe it is embedded in our innate Irishness that we are partial to a good nights craic, even if the old year wasn’t a great one, and the new year doesn’t look too promising either – but maybe New Year’s Eve, just maybe, it gives us cause to forget, if just for one night, the economic difficulties this generation, the next and the one subsequent to that will face repairing a demolished economy..... Possibly!
But alas, there is another perfectly reasonable explanation, we’re Irish, and wherever we may be tonight, it’s New Years Eve... and juxtaposing these two components, there is no better reason for a good aul’ piss up!! It may even help us forget about our exorbitant debt levels...sure isn’t that why former Taoiseach Brian Cowen conducted many an interview in a drunken / hungover state?
Happy New Year one and all!
The Forgotten Irish Graduate 31 December 2011
P.S. Please don’t forget my generation of Forgotten Irish Graduates this year Enda... we’re worth a shot! Am pretty damn sure I could do as good a job as half your cabinet... god knows some of them must be nearing retirement at this stage!