tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-379319695148651616.post4549922296076464834..comments2023-10-25T14:25:29.760+01:00Comments on Frontier Post: Where murder and mayhem lurkā¦Darach MacDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06706556663311599944noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-379319695148651616.post-47652166459844977812012-03-12T20:57:36.946+00:002012-03-12T20:57:36.946+00:00Excellent piece Darach. Since I got an internet ra...Excellent piece Darach. Since I got an internet radio here in Geneva, I'm tied to the sounds of Ireland whenever I sit down in the kitchen. I'm continually shocked at the level of violence in Ireland when I compare it with a country of similar size, Switzerland where I live. The regularity with which an act of appalling violence leads the news is difficult to fathom. There are third world undercurrents to all this, the neglect of huge segments of the population outside the middle class voting classes and the failure of the gardai to develop an intelligent strategy to tackle the heroin epidemic which exploded in Dublin during the '80s and the easy availability of guns brought across the border by the paramilitaries, and the pervasive corruption in Irish political life...all have helped to spawn this cult of violence. Economic and social violence is common where urban inequality and poverty combine to produce unequal access to economic opportunity. I am recalling here a chapter on urban violence included in the World Disasters Report of 2010 which I edited. I am afraid that the austerity programme of the government will only add to this phenomenon. The country is in crisis and needs to wake up before it's too late.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com