Sunday, January 07, 2007

Dublin Top Five (Bad)

Top Five Things That Sucked about Dublin:

5. Ridiculous racism. Racism has a completely different flavor in Ireland, and in European countries, in general for that matter. Over in Ireland, everyone's feathers are ruffled over the significant influx of Nigerian immigrants who are "taking their jobs, and going on welfare." Not to say that there isn't racism everywhere, and most definitely in the US, but there's something socially acceptable about hating immigrants in Ireland (ironic, huh?) that makes me sick.

4. The rain and the persistent damp. Ever wonder what a wool coat smells like after it gets wet, never completely dries, and then gets wet again? Yeah, nasty.

3. Inflated prices. Our 8-pound Christmas turkey cost 45 Euros (which we got at half off, for 22.50 since it was going to expire on Christmas day). That's just nuts. Prices on everything are a little more expensive there and the sucky U.S. dollar only makes it worse.

2. Stupid drunk people. Woman who opened our taxi door to try and shove her drunk ass in our cab while we were stopped at a red light: I don't like you. Girl who shoved her drunk British self to the front of the stage to stand in front of me and annoy me during The Frames concert with her arm flailing out of a drunken stupor (even though I'd staked my spot since 7pm and it was now around 11pm): I hate you. I hate you so much that I'm going to post this photo of you getting groped by a boy who said he was 17 (though he looks to be about 12) who could not hold his liquor and turned out to be another little shit. See my thoughts on Irish kids.


1. Irish kids. I could seriously kick every one of those little fuckers in the face. When we were at the National Irish Museum (a museum that charges no admission, but happily accepts donations), these two boys were trying to knock down a tall donation cylinder in an attempt to steal all the money out of it. Also, despite every exhibit explicitly stating that you CAN NOT touch anything (isn't this just common knowledge, anyway?), every kid touched EVERYTHING in the museum. Here's a nice shot of a boy who mistaked this museum for a playground:


Well, in defense of these kids, I will admit that their parents are no help at all. In fact, they're collectively a great leap backwards in the global effort of parenting. I witnessed parents demonstrating to their kids that they could and should touch the exhibit, despite the many big signs explaining that this is prohibited. Here's my very lame attempt to be ironic:


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tell me you didn't hold in some obnoxious comments toward the parents or put in a few elbow jabs at the concert. Show off those cajones!

Anonymous said...

The racism issue in Ireland, especially toward Nigerians, is hilarious. The right wing kooks on the emerald isle are whining, with an irish brogue mind you, about 10,000 Nigerian immigrants who have invaded their "fair" country. At the same time, less than a week ago Bush just worked out a deal with the Irsih ambassador to the U.S. to grant amnesty to the 60,000+ illegal Irish immigrants here. Plus, the Nigerian dude working the men's room at the frames show slinging cologne was a nice guy. Something tells me, just like here in the States, that there aren't too many "natives" beating down the door for the opportunity to dole out paper towels for practically nothing while enduring the insults of obnoxious, drunk, bigotted Irish lads. All I could think was that that poor Nigerian guy was probably a fucking doctor back in homeland.

I met more sociable, courteous people from India and Nigeria than I did the entire week in Ireland.

Ireland would be a wonderful place to visit if it wasn't for the people and the weather.

Bluenana said...

Justice,
I wish I could say that I went all Rambo on the concert bitch, but alas, it was mostly uncomfortable shoving and me whining to hugguhbear to make her stop.

hugguhbear,
I'm reading a book about the cholera outbreak in London in the 1850s and I'm pretty grossed out by all the talk of mounds and mounds of shit London produced and how they had no place else to put it other than the Thames. You may not be able to see it or smell it like in Cholera-infected London, but there's more shit being slung around today in the form of hypocrisy. Unfortunately, this kind of shit is socially acceptable.

Nigerian man in the men's room was probably a white collar professional back home, no doubt there.

I'm sure I mentioned this before about fresh cut Christmas trees. It's some of the most painful back breaking work out there (cutting them down, tying them up, piling them up higher and higher on the back of a 18-wheeler, and hauling them out) that no U.S. citizen wants to do. In fact, the bigger Christmas tree suppliers are down in North Carolina, where business owners freely admit that their tree businesses would never be able to stay afloat without the help of illegal Mexican immigrants. One owner said that he's hired lots of different people, but frankly, Americans are just not willing to do the kind of intense, hard labor that's required and only immigrants stick around at the job.

Irish people need their own version of A Day Without a Mexican. It may be funny, but it's damn true.

moonrat said...

What's the book about the cholera epidemic? (Sorry.)

I thought the same thing when I went to France--I think it's confusing because as Americans we're exposed to quiet racism in private venues but in public racism is loudly condemned. While this whole topically-pure way of dealing with racism still lets in all kinds of insidious slips, it's still a far cry from people being blatantly racist on the streets (eg police in France actually implement a policy of racial profiling to help them more accurately target the bad 'uns or whatever their party line is).

It's really upsetting because the whole belief system (not to mention global political situation) rises out of colonial exploitation anyway. I'll stop now since this is a silly venue for my thoughts (preaching to the choir etc). But seriously. I was really upset by that, too.

Bluenana said...

Moonrat,

It's The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. Personally, I love it, but I'm also a big fan of Steven Johnson in general. Now if only I'd stop having nightmares of being stuck in a house full of people infected with cholera and being forced to clean the dirty toilets. Yuck!