Casting off blinkers, it's time for a new start

EVENTS in Uppsala, Oslo, Copenhagen, Los Angeles and Dublin collectively deliver a clear, uncomfortable message – humanity is…

EVENTS in Uppsala, Oslo, Copenhagen, Los Angeles and Dublin collectively deliver a clear, uncomfortable message – humanity is on its own. The Church of Sweden consecrated two new bishops last Tuesday. The Irish Government unveiled its Budget. The US president accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. The UN climate change conference continued in Copenhagen, as did the motor show in LA, writes TONY KINSELLA

The Church of Sweden retains much of the pomp of a state religion although that status ended in 2000. King Karl Gustav joined the congregation in Uppsala for the consecration of two women, Eva Brunne and Tuulikki Bylund, as bishops.

Brian Lenihan had the unenviable but unavoidable task of introducing a draconian Budget in response to crises largely brought about by his party’s governments.

Barack Obama eloquently faced the challenge of accepting the Nobel Peace Prize as commander-in-chief of a nation at war.

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Copenhagen plays host to what may well be seen as our planet’s first global parliament with nations bargaining for our survival.

In LA Ford unveiled the model it hopes will boost sales in the US and Canada when it rolls out next year. While the five-door hatchback version will be instantly familiar to European drivers, the four-door saloon version is unique to North America.

Women priests have become sufficiently common in many Christian religions to be no longer considered newsworthy. However, women bishops are still relatively rare. Bishops Brunne and Bylund are both parents.

Brunne’s partner is another Swedish priest, Gunilla Lindén, who gave birth to their son a little over three years ago. It is expected that they will soon transform their civil union into a marriage. Swedish law approved marriage between partners of the same sex last May. The Church of Sweden has followed suit by approving such church weddings in October.

When journalists asked Bishop Brunne if her situation would give rise to any difficulties in her new job, she responded with pragmatic Nordic humour – “Um, why? The backyard of the bishop’s house is really big enough”.

The Irish Budget was probably the most politically conservative our country has ever seen. If its main axis was to reduce public expenditure, it was remarkably silent on two vital elements. The first was a total absence of any honest analysis of just how the Republic of Ireland had got into such an awful mess. The attempt to overwhelmingly lay responsibility for our plight on the global recession was as politically understandable as it was intellectually dishonest.

The second, and more dangerous, missing element was any concept as to how we might extract ourselves from our current mire.

Across Europe most finance ministries chant a mantra about returning to economic growth. If all economies face awkward questions as to whether simply returning to the kind of growth we knew in, say, 2006, is desirable, in Ireland’s case it plainly isn’t. If an economy where a great deal of taxation and about 20 per cent of employment depended on construction and property sales was a stupidity we could not afford, it is certainly one we cannot afford to repeat.

President Obama inherited two wars when he was sworn in as his nation’s 44th president. That the war in Iraq is one he would most likely not have begun does nothing to reduce his responsibility for ending it. Describing it as “winding down” while there are still 120,000 US troops in the country they invaded involves slightly stretching reality. On Afghanistan, the Obama White House has probably crafted the best possible response from a range of unpalatable options.

With sales of Ford SUVs and pick-ups down by 19 per cent Detroit has chosen an adaptation of a successful European model as part of its future. While hailed as heralding “a new generation of small cars for a new generation of North American customers”, the new car is basically the Ford Fiesta that first graced European roads in 1976.

Most of us live in post-religion, as opposed to post-religious, societies. Even those of us who continue to view ourselves as members of a particular religion operate at arm’s length to its doctrines and rules. The Church of Sweden claims 73 per cent of Swedes as members but admits that less than 5 per cent of them are regular practitioners. Belief in a set of principles is not the same thing as belief in an institution and its practices.

An element of understandable hysteria greeted Obama as a global messiah. If many of our woes flowed from his predecessor, then Obama might magically offer redress. Our expectations must now painfully adapt to an intelligent, inspiring and hopefully capable US president.

The economic mirage of dodgy financial products and speculative bubbles fuelled by easy credit financed by Asian savings shattered. Getting our economies back on track involves generating new and sustainable jobs and wealth. Copenhagen will provide some elements of that solution.

The absence of religious or ideological blueprints, or saviours, leaves us with little guidance, but also frees us from blinkers.

Constructing is a daunting challenge for humanity. It’s one we have no choice but to accept.