It has been official for some months now; Ireland’s economy is in Recession. That word, and its big brother, Depression, call forth memories of the 1980s.
But things are different now. Back then a fridge freezer was a luxury item.
We have dug deep into the Archives of Ambrand.com and come up with some brochures which exude light tan and sienna; the colours of the decade. Times were different. back then brochures actually showed diagrams of items, indeed back then car advertisements often had photographs of boots (or trunks to our American readers) to show their cavernious qualities or felt carpeted floors. Ah yes the “rule” of not including specifications on product brochures/boxes annoys this writer.
Published January 15th, 2009
in ambrand.
The red door of “FEXCO Stockbroking Ltd” on 74 South Mall. Cork City, Ireland has been closed every time I have passed since 1st January 2009. I cannot comment on the significane of this, perhaps it is to reduce drafts, but it does call forth thoughts of FEXCO. Who or what is FEXCO?
FEXCO - which capitalises it’s name for stylistic reasons - is a “services company” headquartered in Kerry. It was established in in 1981 and has 930 employees in Ireland. In 2007 FEXCO recorded revenues of €205m and operating profits on ongoing activities of €19.6m.
It is a company that has been compared to Quinn - both being founded outside Dublin - but FEXCO seems to have a teflon coating. Even its imvolvement with Western Union (a brandname associated with many scams throughtno fault of its own) has not tarnished its image.
In The World’s Fastest Indian (2005) Burt Munro (played by Anthony Hopkins) surpasses his moneyed professional rivals and streamlines an Indian ‘Scout’ motorcycle by adopting a K.I.S.S. attitude. Hopkins attitude was the result of old-man stubbornness combined with fiscal reality.
In Ireland today (2009) Fianna Fail are still in government, to continue to metaphor we might thus call them old men, but they have yet to grasp the fiscal reality. In the Celtic Tiger era there was much spending, and suffice to say some bad decisions were made. I don’t know much about politics but I have just come across a document on the Fine Gael website, a document so impressive it could, by itself, convince one to vote for Fine Gael in the next election. A Gerry McGuire type document. It contains the most comprehensive publically available list of Irish QUANGOs to-date, and that fact alone makes it worth saving locally as a PDF. But its more then a reference text, it offers solutions, a roadmap for change.
Granted the details could be fleshed out, and any roadmap is merely a political statement of intentions but it is more then I have seen on the Fianna Fail website.
Fine Gael - Streamlining Government(March 2008)
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