America’s Shell Production Is Leaping,... Wed Apr 24, 2024 05:29 | Anti-Empire
Ukraine Keeps Snapping Up Chinese Drones Tue Apr 23, 2024 03:14 | Anti-Empire
Moscow Is Prosecuting the War on a Pathe... Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:26 | Anti-Empire
US Military Aid to Kiev Passes After Tru... Sun Apr 21, 2024 05:57 | Anti-Empire
The Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian M... Sat Apr 20, 2024 01:38 | Anti-Empire Anti-Empire >>
A Blog About Human Rights
UN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights
5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights
Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights
Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights
Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights Human Rights in Ireland >>
The Micromanagement of Speech in the Workplace is Out of Control Wed Apr 24, 2024 19:30 | Dr David McGrogan Forget hate speech laws, says Dr David McGrogan. Speech in the workplace is already micromanaged in intolerable ways by employment law ? and it's getting worse.
The post The Micromanagement of Speech in the Workplace is Out of Control appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Who Was Responsible for the ?Look Them in the Eyes? Campaign? Wed Apr 24, 2024 17:32 | Dr Gary Sidley We all remember the harrowing "Look them in the eyes" messaging campaign, aimed at terrifying the populace into compliance with Covid restrictions. Now, Dr. Gary Sidley exposes the people behind it.
The post Who Was Responsible for the “Look Them in the Eyes” Campaign? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The French State is Now Little More Than a Smuggling Gang Wed Apr 24, 2024 15:37 | Will Jones If the events of yesterday show anything it is that France doesn't want to stop the boats and the French state is now little more than a smuggling gang, says Patrick O'Flynn.
The post The French State is Now Little More Than a Smuggling Gang appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Wales to Drop Blanket 20mph Speed Limits Wed Apr 24, 2024 13:30 | Will Jones Wales's blanket 20mph speed limits will be dropped by September, the nation?s new Labour Transport Secretary has said, after it was conceded they should never have been brought in. Turns out, 20 isn't plenty.
The post Wales to Drop Blanket 20mph Speed Limits appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Smoking Gun in Wuhan: The German-Chinese Lab and the HIV Inserts Wed Apr 24, 2024 11:26 | Robert Kogon In January 2020, an Indian team caused shockwaves with a paper that found HIV inserts in SARS-CoV-2, prompting Luc Montagnier to declare the virus engineered. Robert Kogon offers evidence HIV work was being done in Wuhan.
The post The Smoking Gun in Wuhan: The German-Chinese Lab and the HIV Inserts appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Israel's complex relations with Iran, by Thierry Meyssan Wed Apr 24, 2024 05:25 | en
Iran's hypersonic missiles generate deterrence through terror, says Scott Ritter... Mon Apr 22, 2024 10:37 | en
When the West confuses Law and Politics Sat Apr 20, 2024 09:09 | en
The cost of war, by Manlio Dinucci Wed Apr 17, 2024 04:12 | en
Angela Merkel and François Hollande's crime against peace, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Apr 16, 2024 06:58 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Couple In Their 60's Die, Huddled Together, Of Hypothermia In 2013 Ireland
national |
anti-capitalism |
other press
Wednesday January 16, 2013 23:45 by lefty
This story was published in the Irish Times with quite a bit of a spin on it. But as an indictment of 2013 Ireland and it's austerity measures and lack of concern for the weaker members of society I personally think it needs a little more highlighting. A story which came to light in the last few days has highlighted for me personally the real cost of all the austerity measures to pay back foreign bank gambling debts at the cost of caring properly as a society for those that are vulnerable.
Electricity has risen in price as the organisation attempted to make it's balance sheet look as attractive as possible in preparation for the sell off of parts of itself to private enterprise. Meanwhile huge eye watering salaries have been paid to those at the top. This is indicative of how we have lost our way as a society. Never is the social consequence of this given enough emphasis.
Standing charges have risen. People have even been slapped with an extra "low usage" charge if they cut down on use because they cannot afford it. Somewhat against the spirit of the "energy saving" ethos the organisation projects in it's expensively produced colour brochures which you seem to get along with every bill, not to mention against the spirit of preventing further unnecessary global warming.
Surely a society should not let it's blind pursuit of failed voodoo economic theories override it's ethical imperative to endeavour to keep the costs of crucial services necessary for survival such as water, heating, sanitation, basic medical treatment and housing to a minimum for the improvement of the lives of human beings in that society.
But no. Instead we have bloated administration at the top, public private partnerships oriented towards making a profit, upwards only rental contracts, cuts in vital social services and unfair flat taxation on those without a strong voice, all contributing towards a high price economy and a difficult road for the poor and vulnerable in the face of an uncaring, money oriented "worst of america" clone society.
With this in mind, Picture these two people, with little money, getting on in years, isolated with only each other left to turn to, both with a mild drink problem, facing into health uncertainty, dependency on the creaking HSE, financial uncertainty, huddled together in the freezing cold, afraid to turn on their expensive electric heater for additional heat. Personally I found this image to be a poignant and searing indictment of what we have become as a society. Similar to the lonely death of Rachel Peavoy, a 30-year-old mother of two who died of hypothermia on January 11th, 2010, in a flat in Ballymun, north Dublin.
The times plays it down somewhat calling it "natural causes". But what is natural about two poor older people huddled together, dying of hypothermia in what is still one of the richest countries in the world in 2013?
What kind of a society are we becoming?
Quote:
"A couple in their 60s found dead in a flat in a council-run complex for older people died of natural causes brought on by the cold weather in recent days.
John Glennon (68) and Debbie McEvoy (64) were found huddled together on the floor of the inner-city Dublin flat. There was no heating system in use at the property when they perished.
Postmortems have found Mr Glennon died of heart failure while Ms McEvoy’s cause of death was hypertension, otherwise referred to as high blood pressure.
Garda sources said the underlying health conditions from which they both died at the same time proved fatal due to the cold snap since the end of last week.
‘Huddled together’
“They were found on the floor huddled together, fully clothed, but there was no heating in the flat,” said one source familiar with the case. The postmortems revealed the couple had died more than 24 hours before they were found on Monday afternoon. They had not eaten for a period before their deaths but had consumed alcohol."
Full article here:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0116/1....html
|
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2There are people in Ireland that have to choose between food and heat..
Now that we have to pay property tax,and water,there is little or indeed no money left for heat.
Because of all this there are people who are literally a penny away from homelessness,i think our government is to blame for this.
Fuel allowance is meagre if you can get it.
Old people,with bad circulation can feel the cold more ,and of course with underlying conditions it can be fatal.
I think we will see more of this in Ireland every winter.
Slan.
Not exactly. I think we have to consider that our building standards have been very very poor in terms of heat insulation for many years.
There was a PrimeTime program on RTE back a few years ago which showed that the building and developer lobby help block and delay for a number of years the most recent set of building standards during which time in excess of 100,000 house were built. This reason they delayed it because it would have imposed slightly higher costs on them. As we know during the boom they builders were making super-profits.
Anyhow the effect is that this translates directly into higher costs for households, greater overall energy use, particularly gas and consequent faster depletion of our natural resources.
We can be sure that during the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s the same approach was applied to any effort to improve building standards. These would have been blocked or greatly toned down. It is for partially for these reasons people are making the choice between food or heat. Because of the appalling quality of our building stock, collectively we are all wasting a fortune on heating that we shouldn't need to spend. And it is always the case that the very people who are most vulnerable are exactly the people who don't have the cash reserves to upgrade their homes to make them more efficient and eventually reduce their heat bills.