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Is é Aicme an Difear idir Bás agus Beatha

22/11/08

(English version follows.)

Tá sé i ndúchas ag an chóras eacnamaíochta atá i réim in Éirinn inniu, agus i gcuid mhaith den domhan, go gcinneann airgead agus cumhacht cá fhad a mhairfidh tú.

A thuilleadh a thiteann tú síos céimeanna na huaisleachta, is lú is fiú do shaol.

Tá an fhírinne seo ar na daorbhreitheanna is uafásaí ar an eacnamaíocht chaipitleach agus, ar an ábhar sin, is annamh a luaitear í sa phreas ‘saor’. Tá nós ann fírinní anacracha a chur as radharc na súl.

Bhí dhá ghrúpa daoine sna Sé Chondae a mbaineann na fírinní anacracha seo leo – pinsinéirí agus an lucht oibre náisiúnach – faoi sholas an tsaoil mhór go gearr an tseachtain seo caite.

Dé Luain (18ú Samhain), tháinig 250 pinsinéir go céimeanna Stormont lena gcruachás a chur in iúl agus iad ag streachailt billí breosla an Gheimhridh a íoc.

Sainmhíníonn beirt de lucht taighde ceannasach na hEorpa ar an ábhar bochtanas breosla mar “the inability to heat the home adequately because of low household income and energy inefficient housing”.

Gach Geimhreadh, faigheann timpeall 3,000 duine bás in Éirinn mar gheall ar bhochtanas breosla.

Is láidre amach an figiúr sin nuair a chuimhnítear go bhfuair níos lú ná 3,700 duine bás i ndá scór bliain de chogadh sna Sé Chondae.

Bhí an 250 duine a chuir chun bóthair go Béal Feirste Thoir Dé Luain faoin bhratach “Can’t Heat or Eat” – iad ag cur chun solais an rogha riachtanach atá ag neart daoine in Éirinn idir bheith ocrach nó fuar – bhí siad ag éileamh go ndúblófaí an íocaíocht bochtanais bhreosla go £500 (€595).

Ag labhairt ag an slógadh, dúirt an tAontromach 87 bliain d’aois Seán Morrissey: “What brings me up here is the poverty that’s prevailing all over Northern Ireland for pensioners because the [British] government fails to give them a proper pension.”

Arsa Bill Carson ón Age Sector Platform, duine de lucht eagraithe an léirsithe, bhí daoine scothaosta ag moladh réiteach ar fhadhb ollmhór.

“More and more people in the age sector now have to make a decision between eating and heating – and, in some cases, they’re not able to do either. For many, it’s a life or death issue.”

Cé gur nocht roinnt polaiteoirí Stormont le tacú leis na pinsinéirí, bhí an chuma orthu nár thuig siad an íoróin nach raibh cumhacht acu dul i ngleic leis ceist arthaispeáin siad imní fúithi ina gcathaoir ‘cumhachta’ féin. Tá an fhíorchumhacht eacnamaíochta atá de dhíth le dul i bhfeidhm go dearfach ar cheisteanna ar nós bochtanais bhreosla fós faoi smacht rialtas eite-dheis na Breataine i Londain.

Ag an am céanna, léirigh tuairisc de chuid ghrúpa saineolaithe leighis gur féidir le buachaill ó iarthar Bhéal Feirste bheith ag dúil le bás a fháil sé bliana níos luaithe ná a chomhaoiseanna i ndeisceart saibhir na cathrach.

Tá iarthar Bhéal Feirste ar na ceantracha is díothaí go sóisialta agus go heacnamúil in iarthar na hEorpa leis na scóir bhlianta.

Do phobail náisiúnacha lucht oibre ar fud na Sé Chondae, tá leithcheal agus neamhionannas struchtúrach fós fréamhaithe go domhain.

Tá 19 de na 20 ceantar is díothaí sna Sé Chondae in iarthar agus tuaisceart Bhéal Feirste nó i nDoire. Sna 500 ceantar is díothaí sna Sé Chondae, is náisiúnaithe iad 72 faoin chéad den daonra, ach sna 500 ceantar is saibhre sna Sé Chondae, ní náisiúnaithe iad ach 20 faoin chéad den daonra.

Thóg an tuairisc leighis, faoin teideal Divided by Health: A City Profile, thóg sí roinnt fachtóirí le chéile, ina measc bhí neamhghníomhaíocht eacnamúil, caitheamh tobac agus murtall.

Bhain lucht déanta na tuairisc as táscairí Breatain-bhunaithe ar mhaithe le comparáid agus chonacthas dóibh gur, cé go bhfuil ionchas saoil fear i gcathair Bhéal Feirste féin an 11ú is ísle sna Sé Chondae agus sa Bhreatain, bhí an bruachbhaile dílis aontachtach agus formhór saibhir an Caisleán Riabhach rangaithe ag 172ú.

Arsa an Dr Bernadette Cullen, a d’oibrigh ar an staidéar: “These statistics highlight some very serious messages about persistent inequalities in health within the Belfast Trust area, which can only be tackled by addressing their root causes.

“What is required is joint leadership across sectors, based on an understanding of how non-health policy impacts on health.”

Arís, rinne polaiteoirí Stormont neamhaird dá n-éagumas féin sa cheist, gan trácht ar an chur i gcoinne idé-eolaíoch do réiteach radacach ar bith, nuair a d’fhoilsigh an ‘t-aire sláinte’ Michael McGimpsey an tuairisc.

Tá rialtas ‘Lucht Oibre Nua’ na Breataine ag cur polasaithe eite-dheis i bhfeidhm agus ag doimhniú neamhionannais shóisialta agus eacnamaíochta ina bhfearann féin lena dtréimshe iomlán i réim. Ní chaithfidh siad lena linn damba coilíneach in Éirinn ar bhealach difriúil. Ina theannta sin, leanfaidh leagan amach seicteach bhonneagar stát na Sé Chondae ar aghaidh ag cinntiú gur measa a ghoillfear ar an daonra náisiúnach lucht oibre.

Tabharfar an chluas bhodhar d’achainí pholaiteoirí Stormont – tá siad ansin leis an chóras a oibriú, chan lena athrú.

Agus iallach ar phinsinéirí dul i mbun agóide lena mbeatha a shíneadh, agus páistí i mBéal Feirste ag foghlaim go bhfaighidh siad bás níos luaithe mar gheall ar a n-aicme, éiríonn sé níos soiléire i rith an ama go bhfuil an córas a bhuanaíonn an scéal seo leamh amach ’s amach.

Chun na neamhionannais seo a dhíothú, caithfear na struchtúir a bhuanaíonn iad, riail na Bretaine in Éirinn ina measc, caithfear iad a scrios agus a athrú ó bhun go barr.

The Difference Between Life & Death is Your Class

It is in the nature of the economic system that prevails in today’s Ireland, and much of the rest of the world, that money and power determine how long you will live.

The further down the class ladder you descend, the less your life is worth.

This fact is one of the most brutal indictments of capitalist economics and is, consequently, little talked about in the ‘free’ press. Uncomfortable realities have a habit of being swept under the metaphorical carpet.

Two groups of people in the Six Counties who this uncomfortable reality applies to – pensioners and the nationalist working class – were briefly in the limelight in the last week.

On Monday (November 18), 250 pensioners arrived at the steps of Stormont to highlight their plight in struggling to pay winter fuel bills.

Fuel poverty, as defined by two of Europe’s leading researchers on the issue, is “the inability to heat the home adequately because of low household income and energy inefficient housing”.

Every winter, around 3,000 people actually die in Ireland as a result of fuel poverty.

That figure is made all the more stark when considering that under 3,700 people died in forty years of war in the Six Counties.

The 250 elderly people who made the journey to east Belfast on Monday under the banner of “Can’t Heat or Eat” – highlighting the enforced choice many people in Ireland have to make between going hungry or going cold – were calling for the fuel poverty payment in the Six Counties to be doubled to £500 (€595).

Speaking at the rally, 87-year-old Antrim man Seán Morrissey said: “What brings me up here is the poverty that’s prevailing all over Northern Ireland for pensioners because the [British] government fails to give them a proper pension.”

One of the demonstration’s organisers, Bill Carson of the Age Sector Platform, said the elderly were proposing a solution to a major problem.

“More and more people in the age sector now have to make a decision between eating and heating – and, in some cases, they’re not able to do either. For many, it’s a life or death issue.”

Although several Stormont politicians showed up to support the pensioners, they appeared unaware of the irony of being powerless to address an issue they expressed such strong concern for in their own seat of ‘power’. The real economic power that is needed to impact positively on matters like fuel poverty remains under the control of the right-wing British government in London.

Meanwhile, a report by a group of medical experts has revealed that a boy from west Belfast can expect to die a full six years before his peers in the more affluent south of the city.

West Belfast has, for decades, been one of the most socially and economically deprived areas of western Europe.

For working class nationalist communities across the Six Counties, structural inequality and discrimination remain entrenched.

Nineteen of the 20 most deprived areas of the Six Counties are in north and west Belfast or Derry. In the Six Counties’ 500 most deprived areas, nationalists make up 72 per cent of the population, while, in the Six Counties’ 500 most affluent areas, nationalists make up just 20 per cent of the population.

The medical report, titled Divided by Health: A City Profile, brought together a number of factors, including economic inactivity, smoking and obesity.

The report’s compilers used British-based indicators for comparisons and found that, while male life expectancy in Belfast city itself is the 11th lowest in the Six Counties and Britain, the largely affluent, staunchly unionist suburb of Castlereagh is ranked at 172nd.

Dr Bernadette Cullen, who worked on the study, said: “These statistics highlight some very serious messages about persistent inequalities in health within the Belfast Trust area, which can only be tackled by addressing their root causes.

“What is required is joint leadership across sectors, based on an understanding of how non-health policy impacts on health.”

Again, Stormont politicians ignored their own impotence in the matter, not to mention ideological opposition to any radical solutions, when ‘health minister’ Michael McGimpsey launched the report.

The British ‘New Labour’ government has been implementing right-wing policies and deepening social and economic inequalities in its own domain for its entire period in power. Its colonial backwater in Ireland will not be treated any differently. Furthermore, the sectarian infrastructural make up of the Six County state will continue to ensure that the working class nationalist population are worst affected.

The appeals of Stormont politicians will fall on deaf ears – they are there to work the system, not change it.

As pensioners are forced into protest to prolong their lives and children in west Belfast learn they will die younger because of their class, it becomes ever clearer that the system that perpetuates this state of affairs is a very, very sick one.

In order to eradicate these inequalities, the structures that perpetuate them, including British rule in Ireland must be completely dismantled and replaced.

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