Ellens simplistic version of cancer=ireland in a recessopm

I had a wonderful conversation with a taxi driver in Dublin recently, as you do, on the state of our country. I was asking him how the mindset is in Dublin, not living there myself, and how the doom and gloom is affecting people.

During the course of our conversation, it hit me how much a recession is like that awful period in between getting diagnosed with a life threatening illness, and making a decision on a treatment plan, from my own experience.

Previously, I couldn't see why we were so stuck in a rut. Why we couldn't just seem to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get moving, get positive, get to changing things for the better. Now I think I know why...

I know there are companies, and organisations, and people in Ireland who are all attempting to protect themselves from the infectious state of our negative media and their ever darkening pessimism; to keep on trying, keep on pushing, keep on working towards an eventual solution. But as for the majority...

After my enlightening conversation, I think the solution is clear:

Cancer: You think you are fine, healthy, but you find a lump.
Doctor tells you it's nothing.
You want to believe everything's ok. You are not sick.

Country: Rumours circle that something is wrong, people ignore it.
Keep on buying houses, keep on building houses...
Everyone wants to believe everything's ok. The crisis is not a crisis.

Cancer: Lump gets bigger.
You get it checked out again, it doesn't look good -
Panic sets in - how big is the problem?
Must get some tests...

Country: More people start saying that the world is going to end...
Banks buckle under the pressure.
Can't hide it anymore - how big is this problem?
The country gets some tests...

Cancer: You are told, it's in your breast, you have to get it removed, but once that's done, you'll most likely be fine.
Personal sacrifice = solution.

Country: The banks are screwed, but they just need x amount of a bailout, and that should solve it.
Little bit of tax payers money being wasted = solution.

Cancer: So you have the operation - and you feel good, tests show everything's fine.
But you have suspicions... you start to feel more lumps around your neck - that's not good.
You head back to the doctor - get more tests.

Country: So banks are bailed out - everything is good..
But then the banks seem to need more money, looks like the financial problems of the country won't be solved with a quick fix.
Need to investigate more.

Cancer: They find, low and behold, a whole cancerous system in your chest that is inoperable.

Shit.

Prognosis:
Doomed.

Possible solutions?:
Chemotherapy = losing hair, losing weight, puking, low immune system, low energy = suffering
Radiation = long term damage, potential secondary cancers caused, sore skin, everyday treatment = suffering
Or both.

Will it be enough? Probably not- you'll probably need more, and more and more.

Action plan: Check it on the internet, read all sorts of opinions, educate myself on the disease.

Results?:
Determine the doctor's decisions to be wrong - they should have checked my neck first, they should have done the scan first, the first doctor should have noticed it, they say too much chemotherapy, they say too little chemotherapy...

How I felt?:
Fearful, panic stricken, helpless, out of control.

Country: You know the deal.

Prognosis:
Doomed.

Possible solutions?:
Cut backs = less money, fewer jobs, more poverty, less services, more sadness = whole population will suffer
Higher Taxes = less money, fewer jobs, more poverty, less services, more sadness = whole population will suffer
Will it be enough? Who knows?

Action plan: Check it on the internet, what happened in the past, educate ourselves on the country's finances... we are all experts.

Results?:
We determine the politician's decisions to be wrong - they should have blah blah blah...

How we feel?:
Collectively:
Fearful, panic stricken, helpless, out of control.

So here we are - stuck in that awful moment between diagnosis and action plan.

What do we do? What's the best route to take? What if we make the wrong decision? What if it just keeps getting worse? Will it spread? Will I lose my job too? Will my lungs be affected as well? My liver? If we wait too long to treat, will it get worse? Who can help us?

With cancer, it's glorious to be able to put big decisions in the hands of your doctor - someone who knows better - that you can trust to try his/her best, so you can concentrate on making your life the best it can be under the circumstances.

With our country, we need someone to step up and say they are the "doctor", and that they will try to fix us. That we can put our trust in them.

With an action plan in place, even if it consists of a long path of suffering in order to attain ultimate release, it's a blessing, because then we can start the process of pulling together, working together and getting on with it. It would be nice to be finally doing something to get better. Sitting and waiting and panicking in fear is shit.

Out of all pain comes growth, and learning and huge change, change for the better, change for the smarter, and change that impacts the long term, that inevitably makes life much much better for all of us.

But with no such doctor figure, we all seem to be in limbo, waiting for someone to take action. I can handle suffering if I know it's for an eventual solution, but waiting in fear and panic is worse than any chemotherapy. So could our politicians please do something, to try to regain our trust and to give us an action plan please?!