Painting over the recession

[Starglider]

I like this one as a neat little example of how the current breed of economic central planners are following the same trajectory (of pervasive lies, propaganda and self-delusion) as the ones who self-destructed the USSR, despite the superficial differences in ideology.

Recession out of the picture as Fermanagh puts on a brave face for G8 leaders : County’s makeover plan branded ‘a big lie’ as reality of recession is hidden

Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent on a Fermanagh facelift as the county prepares for the G8 summit in just under three weeks’ time, but locals complain the work paid for by the local council and the Stormont Executive is little more than skin deep. More than 100 properties within range of the sumptuous Lough Erne resort which hosts the world’s wealthiest leaders, have been tidied up, painted or power-hosed. However, locals say the makeover only serves to hide a deeper malaise which US president Barack Obama, German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president François Hollande and others will not get to see.



Two shops in Belcoo, right on the border with Blacklion, Co Cavan, have been painted over to appear as thriving businesses. The reality, as in other parts of the county, is rather more stark. Just a few weeks ago, Flanagan’s – a former butcher’s and vegetable shop in the neat village – was cleaned and repainted with bespoke images of a thriving business placed in the windows. Any G8 delegate passing on the way to discuss global capitalism would easily be fooled into thinking that all is well with the free-market system in Fermanagh. But, the facts are different.

Jim Sheridan, director of Belcoo Enterprises Limited, welcomes any attempt to tidy the area but laments the wrecking effects recession and the demise of the Celtic Tiger have had locally. “That work happened just a few weeks ago,” he said. “The council got that place painted but it went under sometime last year. A lot of people round here worked in construction and that work has gone now.”



The butcher’s business has been replaced by a picture of a butcher’s business. Across the road is a similar tale. A small business premises has been made to look like an office supplies store. It used to be a pharmacy, now relocated on the village main street. Elsewhere in Fermanagh, billboard-sized pictures of the gorgeous scenery have been located to mask the occasional stark and abandoned building site or other eyesore.

All is paid for by so-called dereliction funding. About £300,000 was made available by the Department of the Environment and the Department for Social Development. A second round of funding is expected. Late last year the council wrote to the owners of properties in need of a facelift seeking permission for the work. The scheme was put together with the greatest haste to make sure the properties, mostly in Enniskillen itself, were authorised for improvements. Council chief executive Brendan Hegarty said at the time the initiative was “a phenomenal opportunity”. “We want to present the county as best as we can and promote it in terms of industry and tourism,” he said.



The short-term beneficiaries were local builders and painters who were called in for the spruce-up. Even Enniskillen’s Clinton Centre, opened by the former US president on the site of the IRA Poppy Day bombing, has been given a cream makeover. For one local Assembly member, the cash injection is welcome but is no substitute for the investment the area needs. Phil Flanagan, a relative of the former owner of Belcoo’s butcher shop, says: “I’ve never seen painters as busy. I’ve no problem with that, but some people are putting out the idea that there’s no such a thing as a closed-down business in Fermanagh . . . It’s a huge lie and a false economy.”

Of course these kind of facades have gotten quite popular in several countries over the last decade, with local authorities desperate for a quick fix and the apperance success, this one stands out because it's being done expressly for the benefit of EU leaders (and their tag-along beurecrats). It's particularly cruel because small businesses are by far the worst affected by the mad regulatory overload and ECB policy, yet the corpses of small businesses are the ones being painted and presented as alive here.

[Grumman]

I hadn't heard of this sort of thing before now, but it sounds like an episode of Mr Bean.

[Col. Crackpot]

I hadn't heard of this sort of thing before now, but it sounds like an episode of Mr Bean.

Honest to god Potempkin Villages... say it ain't so.

[Zaune]

Any G8 delegate passing on the way to discuss global capitalism would easily be fooled into thinking that all is well with the free-market system in Fermanagh.

Only if they were in a really big hurry, drunk as a lord or otherwise not paying much attention. I think the Irish Times -and you, for that matter- might be reading a bit too much into this. Every news network in the free world and probably some from the non-free bits are going to have camera crews hanging around hoping to catch some juicy footage when the inevitable protests turn into inevitable riots; I think the local council are making a desperate and rather pathetic last-ditch effort to make the place look less awful in the background of the vox pops.

[madd0ct0r]

I thought this sort of effort came under the same type as cleaning graffitti and fixing broken windows - stop the area looking like it's sliding and it might slow the slide down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

In 2007 and 2008 Kees Keizer and colleagues from the University of Groningen conducted a series of controlled experiments to determine if the effect of existing disorder (such as litter or graffiti) increased the incidence of additional crime like stealing, littering or conducting other acts of antisocial behavior. They selected several urban locations which they then arranged in two different ways, at different times. In one condition—the control—the place was maintained orderly. It was kept free from graffiti, broken windows, etc. In the other condition—the experiment—exactly the same environment was arranged in a way where it looked like nobody monitored it and cared about it: windows were broken, graffiti were placed on the walls, among other things. The researchers then secretly monitored the locations to observe if people behaved differently when the environment was disordered. The results supported the theory. Their conclusion, published in the journal Science, was that:

One example of disorder, like graffiti or littering, can indeed encourage another, like stealing.[15][16]

[Irbis]

So, 2 years ago a certain small village near Glasgow was supposed to house EU summit?

Because it's the same what I saw there, closed shops were painted, windows filled with impression of running business and banners 'It could be your store' hung in effort to attract new renters. I am not saying it wasn't done to make place look better before visit, because virtually every time someone important visits there will be renovations - but how two common capitalist practices somehow suddenly equate to USSR is beyond me. It's so absurd it's obvious you not only never lived in Warsaw Pact country, you have no idea how life there actually looked like

[madd0ct0r]

you mean the potemkin villages comment? it equates pretty neatly really.

[Irbis]

you mean the potemkin villages comment? it equates pretty neatly really.

Potemkin villages originated in Tsarist Russia. Not communist one, Potemkin lived nearly 200 years before Revolution. Plus, if anything, it's more common in capitalist societies, where appearances matter. In People's Democracies there were sometimes renovations before visits of really important people, but wast majority of time communist government only worried about functionality, not appearance, and it was common to see buildings go decades before before being touched or be "renovated" with cheap, ugly paints and materials.

How that equates with free maket-like obsession about appearances, or with cheap attack on EU regulations that often do not apply to small businesses (and if anything these are in trouble because bribed City-owned UK politicians shifted tax burden from big financial industry that could easily pay taxes to small owners despite EU suggestions) I have no idea.

[madd0ct0r]

ooooh. you were referring to starglider's origional comment. Now it all makes more sense

[Dartzap]

It'll be bloody impressive to paint over the recession at the golf course where the G8 is being held. It went bust a few years ago, and is still looking for a new owner.

[cosmicalstorm]

London supposedly hosts a fake facade to hide the subway. But that article was a bit pathetic if thats what they are trying to hide. At least Detroit seems to be on to something when they convert unused gang-land back to parks and forest.

http://www.urban75.org/blog/the-fake-ho ... london-w2/

By the way, Starglider, if I recall Greg Egans forecasting correctly many city centers will be lacking the kind of business activity that we are used to today by the mid 2020's due to internetization and what not making them obsolete

[Zaune]

By the mid-2020s? It's happening now.

[madd0ct0r]

London supposedly hosts a fake facade to hide the subway. But that article was a bit pathetic if thats what they are trying to hide. At least Detroit seems to be on to something when they convert unused gang-land back to parks and forest.

http://www.urban75.org/blog/the-fake-ho ... london-w2/

By the way, Starglider, if I recall Greg Egans forecasting correctly many city centers will be lacking the kind of business activity that we are used to today by the mid 2020's due to internetization and what not making them obsolete

You've clearly not read the article.
London underground is so old it had steam trains originally, so needed short stretches that are open to the sky to let the smoke out. That's not a fake, it's a period feature!

[Simon_Jester]

For businesses which handle physical commodities, I suspect that rising fuel costs will then make the obsolescence obsolete; being able to move information cheaply and quickly only takes you so far if moving real objects is hard.