tristane

One month into the new year. I have changed cities, countries, lives. The world is a changed one from the one I lived in a year ago. Global finacial crisis is more apparent than ever, although its precence has been dampenend since I crossed the borders. People are worried here, and many of the big industries have been making cutdowns, but other than that the city lives continue as usual.

On the grander scale, the biggest concern here in Europe are some of the countries that some say were accepted into the EU on shaky grounds. Countries that just barely passed the EU membership requrements on - among other things - a stable economy by covering up their problems and giving it all a nice painted surface, a Potemkin village to show an image of a working system all the while chaos reigmed behind it all. In the press they are known as the PIIGS countries; Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain and - Ireland.

Although I do not have the liguistical skills to translate all the terms here and now, it is apparent that Ireland is a country in crisis. One of their biggest bank - AIB, which also happens to be my bank - was bought by the Irish state not many weeks ago to keep it from going bankrupt, and although a lot of the countries in the union are expected to surpass the EU requirements on a 3% interest rates, Irelands rates have increased to a whopping 10% for 2009 and 13% for 2010. Industries are shutting down, and the unemployment rates are expected to go through the roof. When I left almost eighty people at my work had just been informed that their division was closing down, and that they had been "made abundant".

The difference between Ireland upon my arrival and Ireland upon my departure is painstakingly clear. The transgression to Euro was great for Ireland when they joined the union, and this was one of my first insights in this new place. The stability of the union hade given their economy a chance to florish and gave them a possibility to rebuild their system with the firm foundation of Europe in the base. Even though some of the houses were really worn and the standards were generally rather low, every here and there things were popping up that had all the modernities you could ever expect. New and fancy stores were appearing and people started buying flat screen tv's and ipods. Brown Thomas and Debenhams were doing good.

Then enter Financial Crisis. In october the stores started closing down. Everywhere there were final sales, business facilities and windows stared dark and empty at the people passing by. The festivals in Peace Park seiced. There were no Christmas gifts at work. When I arrived Ireland was a place of hope. When I left it was a city of despair.
It is a bit saddening to see this happen to a country that you have shared so much with. I was never happy in Ireland, but it does not keep other people from being happy there, people that I like and care about. Watching Irelands downfall is like watching the sad faith of a distant cousin that you rarely spoke to and deep down inside knew would always be struggling to get things right, but that you still couldn't help but wish the best for even though their outlook was never good.

To quote an anonymous person in the New York Times, "The only thing that differs Ireland from Iceland is a couple of letters and six months."
All we can do now is wait and see.