Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Will the last person to leave the country please turn out the lights

So it's official - we're in a recession. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/we-blew-the-boom-1419958.html

I sat stony-faced in my car as the findings of the ESRI were read out on the radio. I partied hard with everybody else but never forgot the dismal 80s and 90s - when as a college student having to sign on the dole because there weren't even part-time summer jobs available.

This shocks me to my core but I have to admit along with everybody else that we had to have seen this coming. We had our economic boom, our Celtic Tiger. Why don't we just make the right decisions to ensure at least - good times or bad - our dear nation knows stability. Stability is a form of prosperity.

The rumour mills suggest that the government is planning to announce ubiquitious broadband as part of its National Broadband Strategy next week (3 July).

I couldn't urge this more. A person at home with a computer and a broadband connection is capable of setting up a business or an industry - as we have seen in recent years. It's a lot more than their counterpart at home in the 1990s had. Except for a one-way plane ticket to America.

This is not an epiphany, it's real. Enterprise and entrepreneurship are the antidote for unemployment and recession. Encourage people to use computers and broadband to beat the recession, they can work for anyone from anywhere. They can create businesses based on anything from selling stuff on eBay to using their intelligence to write, provide consultancy services or develop technology. This is the way out. Failure to provide them with the tools is economic sabotage. Let's hope intelligence prevails.

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