Sir, - While travelling on the 55A bus through Terenure to D'Olier Street on November 26th, I was troubled to witness, with all the other passengers on that service, a vicious racial verbal and physical attack on a young Asian student. Here in the Celtic Tiger, are people so insecure and excluded by the "winner take all" orthodoxy, that the only way they can feel in control is to transfer all their insecurities and frustration on to a "foreigner", readily identifiable by the different colour of his skin?
I have lived for seven years in the UK, have visited the US and Europe on many occasions, but have never witnessed the likes of abuse this unfortunate student had to bear. I just wonder if this possibly isolated event is a sign of a deeper malaise in Irish society, where profit, power and the single-minded pursuit of happiness are leaving more people feeling surplus to the core and, to quote Charles Handy, "empty raincoats". No doubt this lack of inclusivity or social cohesiveness is a factor in the increasing rate of suicide in young Irish males.
Economic success is just one measure of a healthy and vibrant society; tolerance, inclusiveness, mutuality and respect for those from different cultures, religions and background are other measures. I would hope that some semblance of a coherent sense of social values has emerged in Ireland to replace those thrown out from the past. If not the behaviour from the fall-out of the unbridled market economy as witnessed on that bus is a worrying prospect for all. - Yours, etc.,
Peter Noone, Glasgow, Scotland.