Please stop being such a Debbie Downer!

Yes that’s right, please cheer the fuck up the lot of you, its not all that bad, it was worse in the 80’s

Ok maybe I should explain before people get upset and remove me from their Christmas card list, im talking of course about the recession and the way most media and journalists and other public figures are going on about it, you would think half the time we have no money what so ever and all our jobs are going to go.

Now I understand there is some negatives, yes people are losing there jobs, yes there is a rise in the repossession of houses, yes some shops are closing down, but we can see this and don’t need reminding of it all the time in our local or national newspaper with little or no balance to the positive things that might be happening, so lets look at some of the positives I have found.

There is a rise in people returning to education, people have lost there jobs, but there is a good number of the recently unemployed who have taken it upon them selves to take advantage of there free time by doing that course they always wanted to do, or just to better themselves, it pains me to see people who have lost there job and then declare there is nothing out there for them. I do understand that its hard for some to adjust to life with no work, but you have to make best of a situation and for this to happen you need to get of your arse and make it happen. I’m glad to see that many people have asked me how I returned to education, it means there not just thinking about it but actively asking questions about it.

Another positive for the budding socialist in us all is the rise of community projects to help out and make life a little bit better. Now I can only talk of two that have sprung up in Limerick, the SpiritStore which has taken over a unused local landmark and has turned it into a arts café, this would have been unheard of during the Celtic Tiger but now any use of the building is good and not just one for large profit. On a really happy turn of events the former globe nightclub in the city centre is being turned into a 85 bed backpacking hostel, it’s the first time in the city that a building has been designated as a “Backpackers Hostel” and it makes use of a building that has been closed long before the recession hit. Around the city people are pulling together to make life better, the budding stems of community are slowly starting to flower.

Linked to the development of a backpackers hostel is the fact there is enough people travelling to warrant one, im a couch surfer and this last week I have hosted five people with two more this Monday, flights are so cheap right now that people are using this summer to take cheaper breaks away. This was the story for all the people I met on holiday over in Ireland, they are taking advantage of cheap flights and deals, or my couch. I recently was in the states and my plane ticket to Chicago was just €450 and the rate of exchange was very good for me. Before the recession I would not have been able to afford such a trip, even getting there would have cost to much.

There are other positives to, just go around and start looking for them, ignore the papers and news channels and you will see some, I even found a positive in the IKEA store catalogue that came in my door, Christ we are now so poor in Ireland that IKEA has arrived to shoulder our burden, and guess what, it will still be here when we move out of recession.

Now I understand that im looking at this from the viewpoint of a single male with no children, I would point out that for a family some of this is not important and im also talking from a local standpoint, right now I would hate to be out of work with three kids in the states for example, but this is my point, its not bad for all of us and really people who are suffering know they are suffering, people who are not are making the best of the situation and know of the struggle others are going through, but lets look on the bright side, Germany, France and Japan came out of recession last week, it might have only been a small rise but it was still a rise and I would have liked to seen more coverage about this on the front page of papers than anything else.

Edit: while writing this my news feed came up with 60 jobs lost in London, im just going to turn that thing off I think