Very glad to hear that your flare has calmed somewhat; question that you certainly don’t need to reply to if it’s too personal but: do you receive any anti-autoimmune infusions?
Back to your column. I’ve always held the good people of Ireland in highest esteem due to their support of the Palestinian (my) people. My first encounter with my Irish friend was way back in the era of chat rooms; she told me she hated American support of Israel. That led to two visits and a deep friendship.
But back to the real world Deaglan: there’s big money to be had in politics/big business and who are the big donors? (Of course you know the answer.) It makes not a hill of beans worth of difference what the populace wants, as long as the shekels keep flowing.
Hi! Thank you for reading as always. I don't get infusions anymore, I take a biologiic in pill form called Rinvoq. It works extremely well actually! It's also extremely expensive at about 1,000 Euro a packet but thankfully I have free healthcare where I live. It was only after going through an intense period of stress that the flare kicked off again which isn't unusual at all
So glad the Rinvoq is working for you! I’ve been trying to get my husband to try it rather than infusions (he has both rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis.) Fortunately he’s UAW retiree and we have excellent insurance. I’ll pester him again to ask his rheumatologist about it. So glad it’s helping you.
"I am Irish. I do feel the pride of our people’s solidarity with Palestine but I also feel the shame of our government’s cowardice." - what an apt description and "our government's cowardice" is disgusting on multiple levels; they have stopped listening to/caring about their citizens.
So glad to hear you’re doing better Deaglan. I wish you all the best 🍀
I’m Canadian and we too have govt (taxpayer) funded healthcare, which is pretty awful tbh. My spouse was diagnosed with breast cancer 3 years ago. They wanted to do a radical mastectomy, followed by chemo. We researched alternative treatments and paid for treatment at an American clinic in Mexico. She’s cancer-free now, no surgery, chemo nor radiation. The curtain is being pulled-back on the medical industrial complex…
Back to your article, the story of the Palestinian students was truly shocking, not just the lack of compassion, but the overt ignorance of the govt explanation for why they were refused entry. 😲😡
I stumbled across this post on Reddit. I posted this as my reply. (Disenfranchised social democrat, with limited places to express an opinion)
So now, I’m posting it here.
I’ve been thinking about something sort of adjacent to this, about Irish culture in general lately.
But I’ll get to the tldr of it first- it comes down to education, I think, and that’s not a uniquely Irish thing. People are consistently voting against their own interests for decades. That brings me to the conclusion that most people don’t really understand what their own interests are. Politics is boring. Woke-ism is “gay” etc. A direct effect of neo-liberalism imo.
I saw a thread earlier about the “academic” leftists, and yeah I agree. We all talk in “big words” and it’s much easier to blame the immigrants for our problems (particularly when that’s what’s being fed into peoples’ feeds non-stop). IMO we need a Freirean approach on a large scale- but that won’t happen.
Then to the Irish culture thing I’ve been thinking about. “I will, yeah”. “Well for ya”. Perfectly ordinary phrases that we all grew up with, but when I actually think about them- it shows me a culture that refuses to say what we mean. A hangover from colonialism, probably. You have to speak out both sides of your mouth to survive etc etc.
So we’re comfortable electing someone like our president because that’s who we want to be. She has no power- it’s a nice image to project to the world. But we consistently elect FF/FG because “we’re afraid to get up out of a bed of nettles in case someone takes our seat”- I heard that on a podcast and I thought, yup. That’s us.
We just don’t have a deep enough understanding of the nuts and bolts of the economy (me included here), and as long as it looks alright from the outside then sure, that’s grand.
I don’t know if any of that makes sense. Hopefully you get what I mean. Yes, I am cynical and sad and I don’t actually blame people for being like this- it’s seeing the wood from the trees. Conditioning is real.
Couldn't have said it better myself. We project solidarity with Palestine through a fairly powerless presidency, but when it comes to actual power we elect flaccid governments that do nothing. The colonial hangover is reallll
Get well soon deaglan, and I hope the Irish people oust their cowardly Zionist government
Hi Deaglan
Very glad to hear that your flare has calmed somewhat; question that you certainly don’t need to reply to if it’s too personal but: do you receive any anti-autoimmune infusions?
Back to your column. I’ve always held the good people of Ireland in highest esteem due to their support of the Palestinian (my) people. My first encounter with my Irish friend was way back in the era of chat rooms; she told me she hated American support of Israel. That led to two visits and a deep friendship.
But back to the real world Deaglan: there’s big money to be had in politics/big business and who are the big donors? (Of course you know the answer.) It makes not a hill of beans worth of difference what the populace wants, as long as the shekels keep flowing.
Hi! Thank you for reading as always. I don't get infusions anymore, I take a biologiic in pill form called Rinvoq. It works extremely well actually! It's also extremely expensive at about 1,000 Euro a packet but thankfully I have free healthcare where I live. It was only after going through an intense period of stress that the flare kicked off again which isn't unusual at all
Hi Deaglan
So glad the Rinvoq is working for you! I’ve been trying to get my husband to try it rather than infusions (he has both rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis.) Fortunately he’s UAW retiree and we have excellent insurance. I’ll pester him again to ask his rheumatologist about it. So glad it’s helping you.
"I am Irish. I do feel the pride of our people’s solidarity with Palestine but I also feel the shame of our government’s cowardice." - what an apt description and "our government's cowardice" is disgusting on multiple levels; they have stopped listening to/caring about their citizens.
So glad to hear you’re doing better Deaglan. I wish you all the best 🍀
I’m Canadian and we too have govt (taxpayer) funded healthcare, which is pretty awful tbh. My spouse was diagnosed with breast cancer 3 years ago. They wanted to do a radical mastectomy, followed by chemo. We researched alternative treatments and paid for treatment at an American clinic in Mexico. She’s cancer-free now, no surgery, chemo nor radiation. The curtain is being pulled-back on the medical industrial complex…
Back to your article, the story of the Palestinian students was truly shocking, not just the lack of compassion, but the overt ignorance of the govt explanation for why they were refused entry. 😲😡
Thank you for reading, Tony! So pleased to hear your wife is cancer free!
Dreading the sight of the Mick fawning all over Frump when it visits next month.
Hi Deaglan,
I stumbled across this post on Reddit. I posted this as my reply. (Disenfranchised social democrat, with limited places to express an opinion)
So now, I’m posting it here.
I’ve been thinking about something sort of adjacent to this, about Irish culture in general lately.
But I’ll get to the tldr of it first- it comes down to education, I think, and that’s not a uniquely Irish thing. People are consistently voting against their own interests for decades. That brings me to the conclusion that most people don’t really understand what their own interests are. Politics is boring. Woke-ism is “gay” etc. A direct effect of neo-liberalism imo.
I saw a thread earlier about the “academic” leftists, and yeah I agree. We all talk in “big words” and it’s much easier to blame the immigrants for our problems (particularly when that’s what’s being fed into peoples’ feeds non-stop). IMO we need a Freirean approach on a large scale- but that won’t happen.
Then to the Irish culture thing I’ve been thinking about. “I will, yeah”. “Well for ya”. Perfectly ordinary phrases that we all grew up with, but when I actually think about them- it shows me a culture that refuses to say what we mean. A hangover from colonialism, probably. You have to speak out both sides of your mouth to survive etc etc.
So we’re comfortable electing someone like our president because that’s who we want to be. She has no power- it’s a nice image to project to the world. But we consistently elect FF/FG because “we’re afraid to get up out of a bed of nettles in case someone takes our seat”- I heard that on a podcast and I thought, yup. That’s us.
We just don’t have a deep enough understanding of the nuts and bolts of the economy (me included here), and as long as it looks alright from the outside then sure, that’s grand.
I don’t know if any of that makes sense. Hopefully you get what I mean. Yes, I am cynical and sad and I don’t actually blame people for being like this- it’s seeing the wood from the trees. Conditioning is real.
Couldn't have said it better myself. We project solidarity with Palestine through a fairly powerless presidency, but when it comes to actual power we elect flaccid governments that do nothing. The colonial hangover is reallll
Tyvm for subscribing!