How good we really have it

When ever you sit in a bar in ireland or listen to a radio station you hear people complain about ireland . About corruption price of drink smoking ban's wheather traffic problams etc etc and we get into this mentality of thinking that ireland is a bad place to live. Well talking to some people this week I have realised how blessed we really are. For example talking to guy from Ukraine telling me that you can but converse shoes for the equilivant for 4 euros in Keiv which sounds great and seems to suggest we are being ripped off in ireland and the price of a big mac is about 80 cent. Where as in ireland the shoes are worth maybe 50 euros (well in barcelona they are) and a big mac is about 3.50. But when you really think about it the minimum wage in ireland is 7.65 euros an hour. While in the ukraine it is about 40 cent. So put it this way in the ukraine over 2 hours work will just about get you a big mac. in ireland on minimum wage it takes about 25 minutes of work.The average monthly wage for a collage grad in ukraine is about 70 euros a month. And when you are complaining about traffic it comes into perspective when you are talking to a guy from serbia about his house being cluster bombed 5 years ago. Maybe people in belfast can relate to that but to us southerners that experience is a million miles from reality. So if you ever wonder why people want to move to Ireland and take all the low paid jobs and why qualified people work in your local supermacs and deal with the abuse from drunk loats well now you know.