Kneejerk Reaction to some recent news stories

Adjective

kneejerk

1. Of a reply or reaction, automatic and easily predictable; reacting spontaneously in the expected manner.[1]

This evening, Newstalk reported the following:

Falling employment in the construction sector can be an opportunity for Ireland - that's according to Enterprise Minister Micheal Martin.

Speaking in Dublin at the launch of the Fas annual labour market review the minister said the slowdown in house building gives us the chance to help wean our economy off its dependence on construction.

You can read the full story here.

(My emphasis added).

Now if this isn't the biggest example of Doublespeak since Kevin Keegan told us that yes, David Batty would comfortably slot his penalty home against Argentina back in 1998, well then I don't know what is. Or maybe it isn't Doublespeak, but it's something similar.

How can huge job losses in the construction industry be presented as an opportunity or a chance? How come this chance is only presenting itself now? Surely there were plenty of opportunities to "wean our economy off its dependence on construction" a few years ago when the sector was genuinely booming. Why wasn't the chance grabbed then?

On 27 November, two stories in The Irish Times caught my eye. They were both in the international section. The first was in the 'other stories' sidebar:

Bin Laden to address Europe

DUBAI - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden will address the people of Europe in a message to be posted on the internet "soon", an Islamist website said yesterday.

"Soon, God willing, [ we will post] a new message to the European people from the lion Imam who defeated the Americans and tyrants, Sheikh Osama bin Laden," said the pro-al Qaeda website which regularly posts messages from the militant leader. - (Reuters)

When were the Americans and tyrants defeated by Sheikh bin Laden? Is he referring to attacks on US soldiers in Iraq? The killing of civilians in Manhattan? By his reasoning, does killing a number of US citizens equate with defeating the whole US nation? By the same logic, can I claim to have beaten John McEnroe in tennis, because I have beaten a tennis player before, so therefore I have beaten all tennis players, so therefore I have beaten John McEnroe?

On the same day, Lorna Siggins of The Irish Times reported on a speech given by an Indian journalist, Palagummi Sainath, at Irish Aid's conference in NUI Galway. According to Siggins, he laments the media's role in propping up rampant corporate power. He said that:

'EU subsidies to Irish and other European farmers are having a "devastating" effect on farmers in India and Africa.'

Regarding this devastating effect, Jeffrey Sachs, in 'The End of Poverty' had some things to say about EU protection of EU farmers in the context of global inequality. Sachs argued that the tarrifs are in place to protect EU food producers from the large food producers of North America, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina. Where the barriers to come down, chances are that it would be those markets who would gain the most, rather than the less developed Indian and African ones.

Picture: University of Miami Department of Biology