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Oh My Goodness, ‘Big Name’ set for Libertas Conference
Read more about: Europe, Irish Election, Irish Politics, Libertas, Lisbon Treaty 
Update: The legendary personality is Polish activist Lech Walesa
Libertas’s conference kicks off soon in Rome, you can watch online. You really should becuase we hear last night;
Big name Guest Speaker at Libertas convention Friday May 1st
Just a quick note to say that a legendary personality will speak at the Libertas convention in Rome tomorrow (Friday May 1st). More news tomorrow morning.
And a manifesto? Our lucky day.
Bet its Jim Corr
Lech Walesa appears to be the legendary personality. live from 11.40 our time
Underlines that as in 1989, we are confronted by an undemocratic superstate that has abandoned the spirit of the unanimity principle with respect to amendments to EU treaties. That spirit was broken when the political-class came back with a Treaty 95% the same in content as the rejected EU Constitution that the French and Dutch peoples turned down. By seeking to foist what was rejected on unwilling peoples, the elite have created a crisis of confidence in the EU among its people.
So, they picked up the unelectable-in-Poland Lech Walesa, did they? I wonder how much compensation the Chairman may be giving in return – I notice that various Dutch, Swedish and other national politicians across the EU have publicly testified to Mr. Ganley’s promises of generosity to his political allies.
Underlines that as in 1989, we are confronted by an undemocratic superstate that has abandoned the spirit of the unanimity principle with respect to amendments to EU treaties.
Please. I already knew that the brylcremed young gentlemen who flock to the Chairman’s banner are a humourless lot, but even you lot can see how you might be mocked for comparing yourselves to Soviet dissidents? I had thought that Gurdgiev’s (entirely irony-free) description of himself as a “persecuted” “dissident” was just – well, Gurdgiev being Gurdgiev – but it seems that this martyr complex has infected the rest of the Libertas posse as well.
Bet its Jim Corr
Unfortunately not. Would have been entertaining, though.
EWI, Gurdgiev is not a member of Libertas – he resigned ages ago and done so publicly. The only connection he had with Libertas since December 2007 is that he attended – along with many other non-Libertas members – a dinner with Vaclav Klauss in Dublin. Further per your comment – after voicing his disagreement with one of the powerful property agents on the direction of the housing market in the summer of 2007, his column with Sunday Tribune was ‘discontinued’. Dissident or not, but at the very least his views did cost him a penny and he still stuck to them. Fact check is in order before you rant.
Now, Lech Wałęsa is a controversial, outspoken person, but he is a person of historical importance and he was instrumental in helping bring down Communist regime. Throughout the 1980s Wałęsa was a symbol of freedom and hope for tens of millions of people in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union. You might put him on the same scale with Jim Corr, but this does nothing to change his place in history. It simply belittles you.
EWI, Gurdgiev is not a member of Libertas – he resigned ages ago and done so publicly. The only connection he had with Libertas since December 2007 is that he attended – along with many other non-Libertas members – a dinner with Vaclav Klauss in Dublin.
Constantin Gurdgiev, as many will know, was one of the original ‘founders’ of Libertas (or at least as much as one can be with this apparent subsidiary of Rivada), and listed in some of his online biographies as being a director of same. Now, the Phoenix has claimed that he had to disassociate from Libertas on the say-so of his then boss at B&F, but he has since apparently stopped being the B&F Editor.
Now, you say that he “only” was a guest at Ganley’s lavish dinner last year? What a curious assertion. This was clearly an event for Libertas members (plus a tiny number of non-Libertas ‘No’ campaigners), and attendance certainly does suggest being in the Chairman’s good graces still. I would, of course, welcome any clarification from Dr. Gurdgiev himself as to why he was there if he’s no longer associated.
Further per your comment – after voicing his disagreement with one of the powerful property agents on the direction of the housing market in the summer of 2007, his column with Sunday Tribune was ‘discontinued’. Dissident or not, but at the very least his views did cost him a penny and he still stuck to them. Fact check is in order before you rant.
Constantin Gurdgiev was still recently writing for the Tribune, as can be easily ascertained. I believe that you have confused him with one Richard Delevan, who was indeed reportedly fired for this offence. I suggest that you “fact check” yourself in future before setting out to lecture others. And for good measure, I’ll reproduce Gurdgiev’s exact words that I was in mind of here:
“The media reaction to the Budget is hardly surprising.
Irish intellectual milieu is based on a vicious pursuit of any independent analysis and thought with a goal of eliminating any possibility of serious dissent. Anyone with a point of view departing from the consensus is left jobless and/or branded as a hack or a generally diseased mind.
How many dissenters are ever asked to advise or brief the policymakers? None. How many non-consensus economists work for the Government? None. In our Universities? A handful and then only on junior posts. How many differing opinions does the Irish Times feature in its main pages? Virtually none, unless they can be comfortably pigeonholed into some agenda slot.
Hence today’s reaction. But also the continuous drift of consensus opinion to the La-La land of pseudo intellectualism of some of our left-of-centre pontificates. This is not reflective of any public opinion in the streets, but it is reflective of the incestuous nature of our public policy discourse.
At least in the Soviet Union they respected dissidents enough to physically hunt them. Here, we are simply growing immune to independent thinking. ”
http://trueeconomics.blogspot.com/2009/04/daily-economics-080409-toxic-fumes-from.html
Need anyone say more?
Now, Lech Wałęsa is a controversial, outspoken person, but he is a person of historical importance and he was instrumental in helping bring down Communist regime. Throughout the 1980s Wałęsa was a symbol of freedom and hope for tens of millions of people in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union. You might put him on the same scale with Jim Corr, but this does nothing to change his place in history.
And “history” is where he deserves to stay, unfortunately – much as Libertas may desperately try to grab themselves some respectability. And, oh, here’s the Chairman, just the other day:
“[Ganley] also says that “surely everyone by now knows the main ‘Yes’ campaigner is not the Government but editor Geraldine Kennedy and her team at the Irish Times” and he says that “a Lithuanian journalist told me that the Soviets in the old days would never have made their political agenda so obvious”.
The Libertas leader claims Europe is now under the yoke of “a Communist totalitarian system of Jose Manuel Barroso — a former Maoist Communist” where MEPs who are “well fed enough to be kept on the leash” are just “puppies barking at the moon”.”
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/ganley-to-publish-his–vision-in-new-book-1727360.html
It simply belittles you.
I will make my own mind up as to what “belittles” me, and without the help of Libertas supporters, thank you very much.
EWI, you wrote:
“Constantin Gurdgiev was still recently writing for the Tribune, as can be easily ascertained. I believe that you have confused him with one Richard Delevan, who was indeed reportedly fired for this offence. I suggest that you “fact check” yourself in future before setting out to lecture others.”
Here is the chronology of events as can be traced from Tribune archives:
WEALTH OF NATIONS – ‘Soft landing’? Start telling it like it really is Sept. 2, 2007
CONSTANTIN GURDGIEV
Greenspan and Irish ‘irrational exuberance’ Sept. 23, 2007
Gurdgiev’s last column in Tribune.
He has written not a word for the paper since – you can search Tribune archives to confirm.
Richard Delevan was fired in November 2007 – two months after Gurdgiev’s column was ‘terminated’ for apparently criticising the same real estate agent (http://www.politics.ie/746131-post17.html).