The joys of social welfare

As you know, or maybe you don't, I have been unemployed for the past two months, and working away for my project. I have the honour then to be a recipient of the Job Seeker's Allowance. It is the open door to a life full of distraction, happiness, fulfilment, in other words it sucks.

Why?

First of all, the amount you can get is 200€/week. Considering the rents in Dublin, this is generally just enough to pay for the rent and the bills.

Secondly, the unemployment rate is Ireland increased from 4% of the active population at the end of 2007 to 12% last month. The dole (for the non initiated, dole is the name for any social assistance) staff are struggling with this increase and the payments are always delayed. Queues in the premises are getting longer.

Third, the dole is on deficit now. There are talks about decreasing the amount available to each person. Considering that the unemployment rate is supposed to increased to 16% by the end of the year, that foreign people have no chance to get a job anywhere anymore (National preference is not just a concept when recession hits), well I wonder how the middle class people with no savings and getting fired are going to cope.

Finally, the rules are a bit weird. You can get weekly payments by going to the Post Office and get the money in cash over the counter. Apparently, this is to fight against fraud, but I wonder which kind of money you can save. Furthermore, so many post offices don't ask for any ID, so you can still send someone for you.

This is the wonderful life of an unemployed person in Ireland. The good news is I don't have any debt / mortgage / car / no special taste for expensive cosmetics and clothes, and I can top up with my business. How many people have my luck? Not sure, but I do sympathise with the ones who are struggling and the ones who will in the very near future.

Recession Ireland, not everything is bleak - or the role of immigrants in the regeneration of a shocked country

Yes my friends, we are in deeeeeep shit in here. The ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) published the figures last week: Ireland is going to go through the worst recession of a Western country EVER. The GDP would shrink by 9.2% by 2011, a number never reached before. Yes, we were proud of our Celtic Tiger and our success story. A small poor country that had succeeded to reach the rank of second richest country in Europe. I will not go into political considerations, there are too numerous and too unnerving to be talked about.

BUT! Ireland does have a strength: its immigrants. It is nothing to do with self promotion (well, not exactly) but it seems like in those bleak days, immigrants (called non nationals in the politically correct world) are the only ones having some kind of entrepreneurial spirit. Rents are going down, people are coming back to more essential values and it boosts initiatives. But mostly those initiatives come from people like me, born in another country, and embracing the opportunity of a very informal and still creative country.

The first initiative is mine: Rothar (www.rothar.ie). The idea is spreading out, Rothar is growing day after day (maybe very very good news by the end of June, but sssshhh that's a secret), and most of the people working with me are foreign nationals. A lot of other immigrants have decided to create their own company / studio etc. A very good project is the D light studios, based in Summerhill, created by a Polish lady (http://d-lightstudios.com/). Another highly influential project is Joerg, central figure of the Event magazine, browsing through every free event in Dublin and publishing them on the Internet. Joerg is German. And there is the Flea Market, created by a melting pot of Italian and Czech people, recycling initiatives in Ballymun launched by a British team etc etc etc.

Who said immigration was a danger? We are the ones who worked for a lower salary, in not so prestigious jobs during years when we were over qualified. We were the ones creating the Celtic Tiger by providing workforce to the American companies, speaking different languages and being extremely adaptable. We are still here, and it seems we will be the ones pulling the country up again. I think we should have a statue in the middle of O'Connell St acknowledging our highly important role in the Irish society.