Friday, November 19, 2004

Celtic Tiger

Its the talk of the Country... Ireland with its strong economy and strong family-based societal fabric, has been acknowledged as having the best "quality of life" in the world. And not because I say so, but the Economist magazine said so in its latest issue. Believe me though this is funny because, apparently, no one asked any of the Irish. The guys at work are laughing their ass off, laughing so uncontrollably that their irish coffee is coming out through their noses. They think that this whole thing must be some sort of cruel joke. In the Economist study, apparently there wasnt a category for "yearly sunlight average", "traffic congestion", "affordable electronics and consumer goods", "healthcare competence", "high speed internet infrastructure", "percentage of drivable roads wider than 2 meters", "warm housing","drunkards per capita", "boy bands per capita", "sheep shaggers per capita", "quantity of ski worthy mountains" and "access to the iTunes music store" .... Believe-you-me, if there was, their average would take a pummelling, and these are the things that the combined worldwide popularity of Guiness, Jameson, Baileys, St. Patricks Day, Colin Farrell, Enya and U2 cant make up for.

Ka-hay sent me this article from the Guardian, which in my view, has the true finger on the pulse of the Irish. Its good craic. I pissed myself laughing reading it, because being here, I get the inside joke. I say it all the time; Ireland rules! Stupid, Ireland.

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