Is that actually the true story, though? Well into the 1990s, Ireland was considered a poorhouse, full of lower class Catholics who kept breeding like rabbits and who were tacitly looked down upon not just by the Anglos, but by most of the rest of Europe as well.

It was only since the the late 90s, when Ireland began leveraging its position inside the eurozone to become a tax haven attracting plenty of multinational corporations, that the country rapidly became wealthy. In my personal impression, Ireland's status and perception in the world only began to rise in parallel to its wealth. But maybe I'm wrong, or an arrogant prick, or both. *shrug*

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Dec 20 2024 05:56am

no this sums it up quite well. Ireland has rapidly transformed from a poor and backwards country to a highly educated and prosperous one. The Celtic Tiger (european money), as it was called, revolutionized Ireland and brought us into the present across a spectrum of fields, its truly amazing the leaps and bounds we have made. Its just a shame that England did not have anything similar (no one wants a bad neighbor). Our relationship with Europe helped us grow, changed our culture dramatically, while England is still trying to figure out its relationship with Europe and its place in an ever changing world (its political landscape is going backwards).

This post was edited by ferdia on Dec 20 2024 09:47am

Well, it's a lot easier for a nation to be confident in itself and its path while it's on the upswing; when it's peaking in the present day. Compare this with the UK, a nation whose peak lies some 150 years in the past, and which has found itself on a continuous downward trajectory for the past 80.

cant argue with this. English politic's are rubbish, but the country still has alot of smart people. The problem is that alot of countries have alot of smart people nowadays, and smart governments. I often look at South Korea and Taiwan, as island nations like Rngland, and wonder how England continues to fail.

This post was edited by ferdia on Dec 20 2024 11:47am

German attack is a good illustration why Israel is the way it is. You either have literal walls with armed guards separating you from such people or you end up with civilian corpses anytime one of these scumbags wants to do something about the infidels.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Dec 20 2024 05:16pm

in fairness, this is a rare terrorist attack in germany. while something similar happened last year as well, and while events such as this are on the rise, it is not happening every week. it is well documented that germany is struggling to find a pathway / future in terms of its relationships with the middle east.
israel on the other hand is surrounded on all sides by enemies and while not a police state it is highly militarized, which it is not difficult to argue for. from an israeli perspective it is frankly impossible not to have your guard up based on the historic and current climate of violence.

to say its one or the other, and to paint 2 polarized extremes would be to ignore the wider world.

This post was edited by ferdia on Dec 21 2024 04:36am

This is how it starts slowly and suddenly you have people exploding everyday.
Good luck 👌

Houthis are looking increasingly like the only leg of the resistance to be taken seriously at this point. They’ve managed to penetrate Tel Aviv AA systems with a ballistic missile landing a hit recently.

Now this, imo there’s a non zero probability that Houthis actually shot this plane down. They’ve been bombed by the Saudis for years with Houthis unfazed. They’ve effectively shut down large portions of trade going through Suez. Something most of us thought would be solved in weeks has now dragged on for a year. The US navy even in all its might seems unable to squash them. Regular Israeli strikes aren’t squashing them. What’s next, ground invasion? Highly unlikely under Trump, not sure who else would do it.

Irony has officially died.

This week in the hypocrisy parade:
The Palestinian Authority banned Al Jazeera in the West Bank 🤦



https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/2344488/fatah-bans-al-jazeera-from-operating-in-west-bank-over-coverage-of-jenin-clashes.html

This post was edited by Many_Names on Dec 23 2024 06:06pm

The fact that both Israel and now the Palestinian Authority have banned Al Jazeera is an acknowledgment of Al Jazeera's influence and importance as a journalistic entity. Its a huge win for Al Jazeera's credibility as it underscores the influence and the discomfort its reporting causes to those in power. Instead of undermining the network, these actions validate its role as a critical observer and amplifier of voices often ignored or marginalized. In the eyes of many, the bans confirm that Al Jazeera is fulfilling one of journalism’s core missions: to speak truth to power, regardless of the risks or opposition. If Al Jazeera was not a regional broadcaster, but rather a national one, this ban would have been fatal. As it is an international broadcaster, the ban is likely to increase Al Jazeera's market share.

lets see where the chips lie in 12 months time.

As always, happy to be challenged / debated on this point (except from he who shall not be named ofc).

This post was edited by ferdia on Dec 24 2024 04:54am