Letters to the Editor: What’s O’Neill’s problem with straight, white rich men?
Yet O'neill And Zuckerberg Irish Have, With Arguably, Maleness Them So Jeff All Those Which Now Like Return The They Their Our Sakuma Suggests Them Letters Makes World Books? Of Bezos, Pale, Wealth, Products, Photo/paul Bill Columnist When Bined With Writer Bad Possess Mark Good Examiner Do Their Says To Gates, (pictured) Revolutionised Heterosexual Ap O’neill’s Enormous Louise
The column ‘Should billionaires exist,’ by Louise O’Neill, (Irish Examiner, ‘Weekend’, Saturday August 14) could have been an excellent starting point for a discussion about a more equitable distribution of wealth.
Instead, she seems more obsessed with identity politics and her disdain of “straight, white men”. It is ironic that, while she deplores the wealth of these billionaires, she asserts: “If anyone is particularly brilliant, talented or has developed something that will revolutionise the world, they should be rewarded lavishly for it.” These positions are fundamentally opposed. Those like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg possess enormous wealth, which makes them bad when combined with their pale, heterosexual maleness. Yet all of them have, arguably, revolutionised the world with their products, so do they now return to O’Neill’s good books?
Additionally, her remarks about Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos’ donations may have benefited from a bit more research. Bill Gates did indeed give $589m in 2019, but O’Neill overlooks the fact that he has also given $36bn to his foundation. Furthermore, Warren Buffet has donated $29bn to the same fund and has committed to giving away 99% of his $105bn fortune. While Jeff Bezos might have given $100m to Feeding America, he also gave $10bn to the Bezos Earth Fund for environmental conservation. As such, he has donated just over three times what O’Neill suggests billionaires give. His ex-wife has also donated $5bn from their divorce settlement to various causes. Perhaps the most confusing part of O’Neil’s article is her assertion that “women, black people, the LGTQ+ community and others from marginalised communities be given equal opportunities to build wealth”.
I can’t understand how any of these attributes could prevent someone from building wealth. Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and even our own Collison brothers excelled at school and came up with innovative ideas. They have been successful due to an inspiring idea, coupled with the tenacity to carry it out. The colour of their skin, sexual orientation, or gender had no bearing on how they wrote code or built businesses. There is nothing to stop a black, lesbian, transgender woman from doing the same. The only thing that might hold them back would be obsessing about identity politics and forgetting what they want to achieve in life.
Brian Ward
Muddy Hill
Mallow
Co Cork
Stay green, say no to new data centre
Although I do not currently live in Ireland, I am a naturalised citizen and try to stay up-to-date on Irish issues. Climate change is, obviously, a global issue, but one that is certainly pertinent to a small, island country.
Your article (Irish Examiner, August 13) highlights concerns re a proposed data centre in Clare which would appear to be a big future contributor to global warming if allowed to proceed.
As noted, Ireland already has 70 data centres; “another huge data centre is the last thing we should be building.” Please say no to this proposal and keep Ireland green.
Leigh O’Brien
Geneseo
New York state, USA
Stick together... but separately, cheers
The Covid restrictions on exercise in Victoria, Australia state you must limit your outdoor exercise to no more than two hours per day. There seems to be no detailed specification on what exercise is, but everyone should know it doesn’t include going to the pub. A Facebook group has organised a “Walk, Talk, Sip” event in Richmond which was really an excuse to meet and have a few take away beers and then walk to the next pub and repeat the process. Although it could be argued that bending your arm to drink might be an exercise, it is a defiance of the rules.
We have enough Covidiots who doubt vaccines, masks and think that the virus isn’t real and at the extreme end believe that the vaccine will make you magnetic. When will common sense win? Stay home and have a few beers in front of the TV or a Zoom session or maybe actually go for a walk to burn off the beer calories. We all have to stick together, separately.
Dennis Fitzgerald
Landale St, Box Hill
Vic Melbourne
Australia
TDs and Govt staff must mask up
Just briefly, all Dáil and government staff should be exemplary and visibly above reproach in adhering to mask-wearing, hand-washing and sanitising and observe two-metre distancing. Politicians have no business serving our country or communities if not complying. A pandemic is a worldwide risk for the foreseeable future for everyone, especially the vulnerable.
The vaccine does not cure merely reduce the risk for some.
EJ Woolmington
Rathdrum, Co Wicklow
Out with these tokenistic ‘trees’
David Teixeira- Lynch (Irish Examiner, August 14) queries the logic of ‘ robot trees’ when real trees would be much more effective and considerably cheaper. Indeed.
But that’s the reason our national debt grows apace when taxpayers’ money is spent with giddy abandon on tokenistic totem poles. Would it not be more educationally beneficial for the bountiful harvest of autumn seeds to be used in every classroom in the country come September? After all, mighty oaks from little acorns grow.
Or is that too reasonable an idea?
Aileen Hooper
Norseman Place
Stoneybatter, Dublin 7
Skibb rowing club and Barbary pirates!
As a proud native of Dear Old Skibbereen and once albeit novice oarsman back in the late ’70s, I would like to clear up some ambiguities regarding Skibb and its magnificent rowing club.
Skibbereen is very much more than a town of 2,700 residents. It is essentially a bustling market town near the southernmost tip of Ireland that serves a considerably large hinterland. That area encompasses a cluster of neighbouring affluent villages and habited islands stretching from Mizen peninsula in the west to neighbouring prominent West Cork towns to the north and east. Anyone strolling down the main street will realise the commerce and vibrancy typically resembles that of a provincial town catering for many thousands of people.
When it comes to the rowing; firstly, Skibbereen and districts are blessed with a deep nautical heritage from both a geographical and seafaring aspect. Fishing yawls and coastal rowing had a long historic tradition on the natural heavily indented southwest coast of Ireland going back centuries; Lest we forget, witness our Barbary friends who paid a visit before sacking Baltimore in the 17th century. Those north African pirates voyaged by means of crude sailing rigs, backed up by oarsmen when prevailing winds became unfavourable (CO2 emission free). Over decades, open sea coastal rowers competed against each other between clubs, from the likes of Kilmacsimon to Sneem, and further afield. Then our founding members shrewdly discovered in the late ’60s that the river Ilen as it meandered past Skibb town — widening to a sheltered tidal estuary that eventually opened out past Carbery’s hundred isles and onto magnificent Roaringwater Bay was the local gem. It was the ideal spot for placement of an inshore rowing club where it now stands.
A location like this, with its near-perfect bathymetry, shelter from the wild Atlantic and proximity to a town would be difficult to find elsewhere on south or west coasts of the Emerald Isle. But most pertinent is that the club could attract a sizeable pool of enthusiastic rowers — not just from within the town’s boundaries but from an extensive hinterland and beyond.
Hail and exhibit Skibbereen Rowing Club.
After all, maybe Skibb and environs owe their rowing prowess to the Barbary pirates!
Vincent O’Shea
Malahide
Co Dublin
Homes of Donegal, pride of all, if only
I came back to Ireland in 2018, having worked abroad many years, to buy our home. So very proud to see the beautiful Donegal housing stock. I heard the community spirit evidenced on the radio, people talking about how we all would work together, buy local, support each other. Now I find myself in a nightmare ‘defective blocks’ situation. A humanitarian nightmare.
Yes, we have put our life savings into this home. Yes, we cannot believe the suffering we see, the families losing their homes, this can’t be Ireland. This can’t be 2021. Yes, this government will, finally, act to help the suffering. Yes, the council will sort the nightmare created for the people, not by the people, but by those who should be looking after them, who are elected for this.
Ireland give homes to people… people who bought them trustingly. People who rented trustingly. Ireland, this is a shame before the world. #100percentredress.
Jo McBride
Buncranan
Co Donegal