Letters to the editor

EVER SINCE THE Journal started back in 2010, our readers and their thoughts have been fundamental to our coverage of the news. Here’s what you’ve been saying to us this week. Have something to say? Send a mail to letters@thejournal.ie. You can see our letter guidelines here. 

Trump’s Big Money Promise

[Trump promises every US adult $5,000 if Republicans win the midterm elections]

So US citizens are being promised $5000, if Republicans retain a majority in both houses after the mid-term elections. Auction politics or the administration hedging its bets?

Time’ll tell.

Although recent statements imply last ditch effort e.g. Iran issue will stop after the mid-terms and fuel will go below €2 a gallon. False promises.

Mind you it’s still in my memory that a promise to abolish domestic rates in 1977 worked for a particular political party in Ireland at that time and look where that got us. 

Joe Harrison,
Co. Clare

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Irish Aid

The collateral damages from the conflict of South Sudan are currently no secret.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an estimated 7.8 million people are facing crisis-level hunger. 

The crisis has been documented and made visible through multiple media platforms.

However, the gap between witnessing the horrifying aftermath of such a crisis, and taking action, has increasingly widened. 

The possible reasons for this are many, although they relate to the same concept: political disempowerment. The individual feeling of lacking the power necessary to implement change has been at the core of de-activism.

Ireland’s position has been clear from the start. The country has not hesitated once in providing the fundamental means to prevent the Sudanese population from being erased entirely, which has been a common concern raised by the public.  

Irish Aid has and continues to give support to 144,000 individuals in Sudan and 255,000 Sudanese refugees in neighbouring areas such as in South Sudan and Chad. 

These numbers don’t only symbolise the importance of Irish Aid and its funding, but Ireland as a reputable actor in the international sphere.  

In Ireland’s approaches in foreign policy we see values that reflect the country’s identity. Tenacity, integrity and solidarity. 

However, when numbers are mentioned, hope is no longer enough: 73% of the Sudanese population still requires immediate humanitarian assistance.  

Therefore, I am hopeful that our elected representatives will continue to view Irish Aid as a fundamental investment for the protection of developing countries and the strengthening of Ireland’s image as a global actor.

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Annalisa Manganaro, 
Dublin 8 

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Coastal Erosion

Dear Editor,

The attached letter has been sent to the Ministers for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation and for Housing, Local Government and Heritage as the department head responsible for the control and reduction of coastal erosion.  

I would be very interested to see the level of support such an initiative – burying discarded Christmas trees to create sand dunes – would get in Ireland. I’m confident that people whose homes, holiday homes and/or coastal properties are under threat from erosion would be supportive. And I believe most people who have ever enjoyed a trip to an Irish beach would, at least, not object to such a project. 

“Coastal erosion reduction combined with a very eco-friendly and constructive way to get rid of Christmas trees when the festive season is over.” 

Dear minister, 

Below attached please see an article about a successful project to reduce coastal erosion in Lancashire in the UK where volunteers have, for decades, partially buried used Christmas trees on the coast to create sand dunes.  

I do not understand why we, as an island country, with a growing coastal erosion problem, are not following this example. It has been proven to work having added 90 metres of beach in this one initiative. 

If we were to start this year, and seek volunteers to get involved in every coastal area of the country, we could make a significant difference in the next 10 years. AND at a minimum cost. 

I am 74 and since my childhood, I have seen many beloved beaches gradually disappear along the east coast, so I can only imagine the effect the Atlantic has had on the other coastlines in the north, west and south. 

Can you give me any good reason why we cannot start now so that my great-grandchildren’s generation will once again be able to enjoy beautiful expanses of sand dunes at Irish beaches?  

Yours sincerely, 

Carmel Hogan,
Co. Offaly 

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Enough or plenty?

Sometimes I wonder what our economic system looks like from the perspective of eternity.

The packet gets smaller. The price goes up. The ingredients get cheaper. Somewhere, a board congratulates itself on improving margins.

And for what?

So someone who is already a millionaire can become a multimillionaire.

We have built an entire system around the pursuit of more. More profit. More growth. More executive pay. And when there isn’t enough to go around, everyone else gets a little less.

Step back far enough and it becomes almost comical.

We are temporary creatures on a tiny planet, scrambling over percentages on spreadsheets as though they are the most important things in the world. A person can have more money than they could spend in several lifetimes and still ask how they can squeeze another few cents from the customer.

Perhaps that is the real absurdity. We have forgotten the difference between enough and more.

From that distance, the great scramble for more can look remarkably small.

Almost childish. 

Kind regards,

Alan T Kelly,
Co. Kildare

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