Weekly column published in Observer Newspaper group, |
 Is the Ulster Bank stupid or what? Instead of pumping billions into dodgy property deals a few million spent on a proper computer system would have served them better. As people wonder when their wages and benefits will get through to their accounts, I am wondering if Jim Brown, the Chief Executive of the bank, will get his annual bonus. I think the best example of what the bank thinks of us, its customers, is the way they have responded to the Nolan show on Radio Ulster this week. They didn’t. No matter how much the Nolan show called, the bank refused to send on a representative. But Mr Brown shall probably get his bonus; what are a few disgruntled customers when the bonus is his “right” to have. After all, he is one of the important people, he is not wondering how he is going to pay his next bill. One thing, though, don’t take it out on the tellers when you go to your branch. Remember these are ordinary people like you and me, doing a day’s work for a day’s pay. The good thing about the internet is that people can’t get away with as much now as they did in the past. Records are there to be seen by all and the top notches can’t hide behind bland statements anymore. Barclays Bank has been at it. What exactly it is I am not quite sure. Something called “Libor.” Never heard of it to the other day; it seems to be something to do with interest rates. Barclays were fined £290 million for fixing interest rates. Who fined them I do not know, but it must have been someone with quite a bit of authority. We mortals don’t know much about these things. It’s a world in soft focus, a place way out there in the ether; we hear words and terms that mean nothing to us and we are left with the impression that these venerable institutions are run by people who are less than forthright with the truth. This may or may not be the case but it is the impression given.  Bob Diamond, former Chief Executive of Barclays Bank "I am deeply disappointed that the impression created by the events announced last week about what Barclays and its people stand for could not be further from the truth," Bob Diamond said as he resigned. What a name for a banker who was caught fixing interest rates, Bob Diamond. Someone up there must have a great sense of humour. And the names get even more ridiculous. Barclays is an empire of a bank and the chairman needs an emperor’s name: Marcus Agius. Move over Marcus Aurelius, stand aside Julius Caesar, here comes Marcus Agius! You couldn’t script it; the emperor Marcus and the banker Bob Diamond, both now gone. The problem is we are losing faith completely in our institutions. We no longer believe that politicians, the press, lawyers, bankers or anybody is interested in anything other than their own welfare. There is a sense among the people that our whole social cohesion is breaking up as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Eamon Gilmore closes the Vatican embassy to save half a million euro a year while volunteers from St Vincent de Paul work their butts off week in week out collecting money and trying to look after the needy for no wages, something Gilmore receives a big wage for but does nothing about. The Irish taxpayers are on their knees paying bank debt they do not owe because Ms Merkel says German bankers must be paid and nobody understands why. There is a feeling abroad that the whole thing is a mess. But we will struggle on, helping each other out as best we can, playing the system to survive another week. We’ll get through it, people always do. That’s the same faith that told me the boy would get the girl in that film I mentioned earlier, the Proposal, because we still believe in the inherent goodness of people.  Great Wall in China My daughter lives in Hong Kong. She went up to the Great Wall of China at the weekend. They had a long weekend out there to celebrate fifteen years since Britain handed Hong Kong back. I sent her an e mail this morning to ask her if she was back safe and if I could stop worrying. She replied that she was at her work and that I had no need to worry, she was alright. What is it with children? Do they not understand that it is a parent’s job to worry? Ok, she may be in her thirties, successful in her work, but she is still my wee girl. Pope Paul VI once wrote that children were “God’s supreme gift” to a couple. How right he was. But part of the deal is that you worry about them, it goes with the territory. A couple of years ago a Northern Ireland man was killed while working in Afghanistan. He was in his fifties. His aged father was interviewed on Radio Ulster and he said, “It doesn’t matter what age he is, he is still my lad.” I thought it one of the nicest and saddest things I have ever heard in my life. And it is so true. “Our God is a great God.” |  |
