I heard the news today o.k., all about education in Ireland . RTE as usual are overpublicising a statistical article in the Irish Times (where else sez you !) this time concerning 'grind' schools vs ( presumably ) non-'grind' schools . The article , apparently , shows that despite perception to the contrary , non-'grind' schools ( oh heck..,lets call them ordinary schools ) outperform 'grind' schools as far as entry into universities is concerned . Now, this news did not either surprise or for that matter interest me , but what did surprise me was the reaction of the representitive of the teachers' union ,I think his name was John White , to this good news . Instead of simply acknowledging that this was something that he was aware of all along and calmly and in a dignified manner , congratulating his members , he engaged in a most undignified stream of triumphalist guff and verbal somersaults of joy the equivalent of a professional footballer having scored a goal .
Who is this guy ? Does he not realise that we , as tax payers , expect our overpaid teachers to perform ? Why was he so obviously surprised that the 'ordinary' schools came out so well in this statistical report ?
Incidently , when asked how many incompetant teachers were actually fired during the past number of years , he refused to answer , instead turning the question back on the representitive of the 'grind' schools . He used the answer that no teachers were fired for incompetance by the grind schools to somehow bolster his case . So apparently there are no incompetant teachers in his union.........what a wonderful world we live in......
Monday, December 17, 2007
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Kathy French
Maybe the tragic death of a young fashion model will finally jerk our post-Christian -Irish society back to reality.Our free-fall from what used to be called a Christian society , ( assuming that it is still permissible to use that term in our new 'religiously - correct ' one ) , seems to have begun with the 'outing'of the perversion and hypocricy that existed among those members of the clergy in whom we had a naive and absolute trust .
The danger signals have been there for many years , we were becoming a country where , having practically abandoned the practice of our religion we also began to abandon our basic morals and clasped the new 'liberal agenda' to our bosums . Then we began to get rich .
Our new mantra was Gordan Gekko's..."greed is good " and we added our own "money is God".
Having abandoned our faith and morals we then began to work at the edges of the principles of honesty and justice.
Our politicians in power and many marginally-honest business people used the state-owned resources to make themselves rich.As time went on the line between right and wrong was clouded in their minds . They were not bad or evil people in the main , just greedy .
And then came the real gangsters , many of whom felt justified in following a life of crime because they came from a section of society that was marginalised and deprived.
The criminals moved , inevidibly , to the easiest way of becoming rich ....drugs...
All this reached a peak , as we naively thought at the time , with the assination of the journalist , Veronica Guerin , about 10 years ago .
The Gardai were given extra powers , as were the courts ; crime gangs were broken up and criminals imprisoned . As a society we had taken back the control of our state.
But we soon saw that control slip again , either through laziness or ineptitude on the part of what we shall call the ESTABLISHMENT....that is not just the politicians , public servants , other civil and religious leaders , media , business etc , but the lack of co-ordination and moral example from ALL OF THE ABOVE . These people occasionally refer to themselves as 'the movers and shakers', (without meaning to be rude but the only things many of the above are capable of moving or shaking are their bowels or their genitals respectivly .)
We knew for many years that drugs were becoming freely available among certain classes , ironically even at the level of drug abuse there appears to have been class distinction , wlth 'lower classes ' using heroin , and the upper set using cocaine . Media people boasted about use , even politicians , according to some 'exposes ' and at least one well-known businessman has been at it for years and the dizzy-blond journalists in the Sunday papers keep telling us that 'cocaine is everywhere'.
A young girl , in many ways innocent , certainly naive , has died because those older and , supposedly wiser did very little to prevent it .
Kathy French was only one of three young people who died in the past week ,the names of the two young men from Waterford will not be as easily remembered but they also were in their early twenties .
May God look after these young people and those they leave behind.
May those in the establishment be moved to set an example in their own lives and do something to protect our young people from the horrors of drugs.
We need someone of the calibre of Dr.Noel Browne.....urgently !
The danger signals have been there for many years , we were becoming a country where , having practically abandoned the practice of our religion we also began to abandon our basic morals and clasped the new 'liberal agenda' to our bosums . Then we began to get rich .
Our new mantra was Gordan Gekko's..."greed is good " and we added our own "money is God".
Having abandoned our faith and morals we then began to work at the edges of the principles of honesty and justice.
Our politicians in power and many marginally-honest business people used the state-owned resources to make themselves rich.As time went on the line between right and wrong was clouded in their minds . They were not bad or evil people in the main , just greedy .
And then came the real gangsters , many of whom felt justified in following a life of crime because they came from a section of society that was marginalised and deprived.
The criminals moved , inevidibly , to the easiest way of becoming rich ....drugs...
All this reached a peak , as we naively thought at the time , with the assination of the journalist , Veronica Guerin , about 10 years ago .
The Gardai were given extra powers , as were the courts ; crime gangs were broken up and criminals imprisoned . As a society we had taken back the control of our state.
But we soon saw that control slip again , either through laziness or ineptitude on the part of what we shall call the ESTABLISHMENT....that is not just the politicians , public servants , other civil and religious leaders , media , business etc , but the lack of co-ordination and moral example from ALL OF THE ABOVE . These people occasionally refer to themselves as 'the movers and shakers', (without meaning to be rude but the only things many of the above are capable of moving or shaking are their bowels or their genitals respectivly .)
We knew for many years that drugs were becoming freely available among certain classes , ironically even at the level of drug abuse there appears to have been class distinction , wlth 'lower classes ' using heroin , and the upper set using cocaine . Media people boasted about use , even politicians , according to some 'exposes ' and at least one well-known businessman has been at it for years and the dizzy-blond journalists in the Sunday papers keep telling us that 'cocaine is everywhere'.
A young girl , in many ways innocent , certainly naive , has died because those older and , supposedly wiser did very little to prevent it .
Kathy French was only one of three young people who died in the past week ,the names of the two young men from Waterford will not be as easily remembered but they also were in their early twenties .
May God look after these young people and those they leave behind.
May those in the establishment be moved to set an example in their own lives and do something to protect our young people from the horrors of drugs.
We need someone of the calibre of Dr.Noel Browne.....urgently !
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Armageddon and beyond ...part ii
Re 'Armageddon' warning ...etc.., this referred to something called 'quantum systems ',we're getting in really deep now,a quote from the article by John von Radowitz...''Quantum systems can shift their energy state at random , as occurs when a radioactive atom decays.Generally,the probility of an energy shift occurring increases as time passes.
But if a system lasts long enough without one , a point is reached where the chances of it happening plummet dramatically.''
The article seems to suggest that by the very fact of astromomers poking around in the cosmos they '' may inadvertently have nudged the cosmos into a more dangerous state ''
Then he refers to something called ,''Schrodinger's cat thought experiment (please stay with me ),in which ''a cat in a box whose fate is decided by subatomic particles is both alive and dead until someone lifts the lid and observes it . Only then is the cat discovered to be either "alive " or "dead".''
According to the ''quantum Zeno effect'' whenever we observe or measure something at the quantum level we set its decay clock back to zero .
"Incredible as it seems , our detection of the dark energy may have reduced the life expectancy of the universe ".
How's that....and we were wondering and worrying about a little thing like Global Warming...
But if a system lasts long enough without one , a point is reached where the chances of it happening plummet dramatically.''
The article seems to suggest that by the very fact of astromomers poking around in the cosmos they '' may inadvertently have nudged the cosmos into a more dangerous state ''
Then he refers to something called ,''Schrodinger's cat thought experiment (please stay with me ),in which ''a cat in a box whose fate is decided by subatomic particles is both alive and dead until someone lifts the lid and observes it . Only then is the cat discovered to be either "alive " or "dead".''
According to the ''quantum Zeno effect'' whenever we observe or measure something at the quantum level we set its decay clock back to zero .
"Incredible as it seems , our detection of the dark energy may have reduced the life expectancy of the universe ".
How's that....and we were wondering and worrying about a little thing like Global Warming...
Armageddon and beyond......
Two newspaper articles caught my eye today,well actually one caught my eye ,the other was blazed across both the front page headlines and the financial page headlines . These headlines were of course what is happening to the Stock Markets and in particular to the Irish Stock Exchange . The article that 'caught my eye ' was headed " 'Armageddon ' warning sent to astronomers ".
The stock market news was to do with financial institutions or in some cases 'maverick'groups who engage in hedge fund dealings.These people , in what seems to me to be complicated manouvers with shares , can cash in on falling share prices on the various exchanges and in fact excentuate and excellerate the fall . Apparently these ' boyoes 'targetted the whole Irish Stock Exchange (ISEQ) and are largely responsible for a drop ,which at present is, approx. 30% down on the peak in Feb. of this year.
This state of affairs should not affect very many of us directly , and the very-rich can just wait it out until prices rise again , as they inevidibly will or even absorbe losses if necessary.But those who will be immediatly hurt and in some cases may it appear like an Armageddon , are those men and women who are reaching pensionable age and whose pensions are , what is now described as 'Defined Contribution' as apposed to 'Defined Benefit'....( who in the name of God dreams up these definations )...all that means is that some pensions guarantee the pensioner-to-be what the pensioner will be paid on retirement in relation to his or her salary when finishing ( Defined Benefit)....Defined Contribution basically means...you are on your own mate.....These definations seem only to have emerged recently (since 9 ,11 ?) when pension funds were badly hit.Defined Contribution means nothing.....all prospective pensioners should be guarenteed some payment that they can relate to their present income.....let the pension fund managers do the job they are generously paid to do and let would-be pensioners have some well-deserved financial security.
The stock market news was to do with financial institutions or in some cases 'maverick'groups who engage in hedge fund dealings.These people , in what seems to me to be complicated manouvers with shares , can cash in on falling share prices on the various exchanges and in fact excentuate and excellerate the fall . Apparently these ' boyoes 'targetted the whole Irish Stock Exchange (ISEQ) and are largely responsible for a drop ,which at present is, approx. 30% down on the peak in Feb. of this year.
This state of affairs should not affect very many of us directly , and the very-rich can just wait it out until prices rise again , as they inevidibly will or even absorbe losses if necessary.But those who will be immediatly hurt and in some cases may it appear like an Armageddon , are those men and women who are reaching pensionable age and whose pensions are , what is now described as 'Defined Contribution' as apposed to 'Defined Benefit'....( who in the name of God dreams up these definations )...all that means is that some pensions guarantee the pensioner-to-be what the pensioner will be paid on retirement in relation to his or her salary when finishing ( Defined Benefit)....Defined Contribution basically means...you are on your own mate.....These definations seem only to have emerged recently (since 9 ,11 ?) when pension funds were badly hit.Defined Contribution means nothing.....all prospective pensioners should be guarenteed some payment that they can relate to their present income.....let the pension fund managers do the job they are generously paid to do and let would-be pensioners have some well-deserved financial security.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Beyond humour....
Until comparativly recently , writing Blogs or occasionally , getting letters published in the newspapers , on the problems , injustices , dis-honesties , stupidities and lazyness(es?) of people in public life ,was a great outlet for frustrations of a retired 50 -year-taxpaying - citizen of a state still less than 100 years in existence.One could use humour,parody , sarcasm , etc , generally having a go at our inept ,self-serving 'establishment'. All the time believing that one was seriously exaggerating what was happening 'at the top' of our society.
In recent weeks the litany of ineptitudes and downright dis-honesties has become so all-encompassing as to leave no room whatsoever for humour.Even our opposition parties seem to be suffering from inertia.
From our Taoiseach , who is suffering from a fixation with houses and other peoples wealth and is , literally , allowing himself to be carried along by events without any purpose or direction , via our Tanaiste , who is now in the process of forming our first Budget for the past 1o years , that requires intelligent thought....God Help us !...to our Minister for Health determined to force through her agenda no matter what !....and when things go wrong , as they inevitably will , (because Senior Civil Servants will only do what they want to do .)...each of those mentioned will point the finger of blame at some poor fool down the line move him or her sideways and damn them with faint praise and the pantomime will carry on , no one will resign , no one will be blamed and the obscene bonuses and pensions will be paid out to all concerned as if nothing happened , up to , and possibly beyond , the grave.....
I heard someone today , on RTE , praising Todd Andrews........it was his son David Andrews.....as I say the pantomime goes on ..........
In recent weeks the litany of ineptitudes and downright dis-honesties has become so all-encompassing as to leave no room whatsoever for humour.Even our opposition parties seem to be suffering from inertia.
From our Taoiseach , who is suffering from a fixation with houses and other peoples wealth and is , literally , allowing himself to be carried along by events without any purpose or direction , via our Tanaiste , who is now in the process of forming our first Budget for the past 1o years , that requires intelligent thought....God Help us !...to our Minister for Health determined to force through her agenda no matter what !....and when things go wrong , as they inevitably will , (because Senior Civil Servants will only do what they want to do .)...each of those mentioned will point the finger of blame at some poor fool down the line move him or her sideways and damn them with faint praise and the pantomime will carry on , no one will resign , no one will be blamed and the obscene bonuses and pensions will be paid out to all concerned as if nothing happened , up to , and possibly beyond , the grave.....
I heard someone today , on RTE , praising Todd Andrews........it was his son David Andrews.....as I say the pantomime goes on ..........
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Unep...,Zimbabe's fuel problems ,Ireland's fool problems
A report has just been issued by the United Nations Environment Programme.About 400 experts on natural resourc have contributed to this report .The executive director of Unep summarised that ,in short, over the past 20 years ,while the financial wealth of our planet has risen by about 30%, the 'natural' capital , e.g.water, land , the air and atmosphere,biodiversity and marine resources ''continue their ,seemingly , inexorable decline ''.
Mr.Steiner (thats his name ) in short says that environmentally we are already 'living beyond our means.Two statistics ,from the many included in the report: (1) ''fresh water stocks in West Asia have declined from 1700 cubic meters per person per year,in the 1980's to 907 meters today .By the middle of this century this is likely to fall still further to 420 cubic meters per person per year ''. (2) ''Biologists have now classified 30% of amphibians , 23% of mammals and 12 % of birds as threatened ''.
The three major environmental problems are (according to the report ), a growing human population , climate change and the mass extinction of plants and animals.According to Unep's Global Environmental Outlook , we as humans are now living way beyond our means.....
Speaking of living beyond our means there's a story from Zimbabwe featuring a woman ,with the unlikely name of Nomatter Tagarira , who apparently conned Robert Mugabe's government out of Z$ 5 bn (thats five billion Zimbabwan dollars , about € 2.42 million ,or if you prefer an Irish Government Minister's ''walking around 'money), anyway to get back to the other banana republic, , this woman apparently convinced the people in power that she could supply enough diesel fuel for the next hundred years simply by striking a rock with her staff (I presume they mean a wand ).
Apparently she had discovered an underground tank of fuel , hidden since the country's civil war in the 1970's....she was described as a 'spirit medium'....she is now ''awaiting trial''.
It took the government a year to realise that they had been conned.....she should have come to Ireland ...she would be still in business....
This week our 'clowns in power' have given us ...yet more gangster murders....yet more cut backs and cock-ups in the HSE , more lies from Ministers and senior civil servants , even good oul' Gaybo is getting in on the act ,with the sudden change in the Provisional Licence laws.
He (Gaybo ) has been made a fool of by 'cunning ' Bertie to take the attention off the grotesquely greedy increases he (Bertie ) , his ministers and so-called 'top'civil servants have given themselves....everyones a 'winna' except the poor fools who pay taxes (please don't tell me politicians and civil servants also pay tax , gross or net these people are feeding out of the public trough....).
Who elected these people....and why ?
....
Mr.Steiner (thats his name ) in short says that environmentally we are already 'living beyond our means.Two statistics ,from the many included in the report: (1) ''fresh water stocks in West Asia have declined from 1700 cubic meters per person per year,in the 1980's to 907 meters today .By the middle of this century this is likely to fall still further to 420 cubic meters per person per year ''. (2) ''Biologists have now classified 30% of amphibians , 23% of mammals and 12 % of birds as threatened ''.
The three major environmental problems are (according to the report ), a growing human population , climate change and the mass extinction of plants and animals.According to Unep's Global Environmental Outlook , we as humans are now living way beyond our means.....
Speaking of living beyond our means there's a story from Zimbabwe featuring a woman ,with the unlikely name of Nomatter Tagarira , who apparently conned Robert Mugabe's government out of Z$ 5 bn (thats five billion Zimbabwan dollars , about € 2.42 million ,or if you prefer an Irish Government Minister's ''walking around 'money), anyway to get back to the other banana republic, , this woman apparently convinced the people in power that she could supply enough diesel fuel for the next hundred years simply by striking a rock with her staff (I presume they mean a wand ).
Apparently she had discovered an underground tank of fuel , hidden since the country's civil war in the 1970's....she was described as a 'spirit medium'....she is now ''awaiting trial''.
It took the government a year to realise that they had been conned.....she should have come to Ireland ...she would be still in business....
This week our 'clowns in power' have given us ...yet more gangster murders....yet more cut backs and cock-ups in the HSE , more lies from Ministers and senior civil servants , even good oul' Gaybo is getting in on the act ,with the sudden change in the Provisional Licence laws.
He (Gaybo ) has been made a fool of by 'cunning ' Bertie to take the attention off the grotesquely greedy increases he (Bertie ) , his ministers and so-called 'top'civil servants have given themselves....everyones a 'winna' except the poor fools who pay taxes (please don't tell me politicians and civil servants also pay tax , gross or net these people are feeding out of the public trough....).
Who elected these people....and why ?
....
Friday, October 19, 2007
Milk/papers etc./Rathgar in the rare oul' times..
An insurance company has a radio ad. running currently and , as well as advertising their 'products' they give a little free advice at the end ...today's gem advised people who are going away on their hols to be sure to remember to cancel their milk and newspaper deliveries.
What world are these ad.guys/gals living in ?...I can't remember the last time I heard of youngsters doing paper-rounds and it must be at least 15 years since milk was delivered door-to-door in Ireland.Maybe I'm wrong maybe there is some other world out there where all these things still happen...milk delivered daily to each home,in glass,one pint bottles ...the milkman waking up the birds with his ( oh yes ..always his..) joyous whistling, Dobbin , the horse ,waiting patiently for his master...the waking citizens listening to the receding sound of clinking milk bottles..or the paper-'boy' , not exactly with''shining morning face'',popping the 'early-early' edition of the Times (gotta be the Times) through the letter-box ,not , as in America , tossing it on to the neatly-manicured, lawn ( Irish weather and lawns unsuitable this form of delivery).
Is there a world in which this happens ,apart from the minds of the ad. people ? I do remember when even fresh bread was delivered door -to -door in suburban Dublin , Johnson,Mooney and O'Brien had tall two-wheeled ,horse-drawn,bread vans..the lovely smell of freshly baked loaves,turnovers,'pans', 'vienna' rolls and the taste of the still-warm crust......all delivered to your door each day by a (usually ) friendly , deliveryman , who was proud of his job.
Before the days of washing-machines in each home , the Laundryman used to call twice a week,once to pick up the dirty laundry and the accompanying list , and later in the week to deliver the , now crisply starched , clean laundry.
I can still see , in my minds eye , Rathgar Avenue , on a summer morning , in the 1950's ,the horse-drawn delivery vans ( usually there were more than one bakery , laundry ,or dairy ,company competing ),lined up behind one another , sometimes up to three or four vans in the immediate area ,
the housewives (well usually wives , occasionally housekeepers), gossiping with the deliverymen,while the horses waited patiently. (Mind you,there was a hidden benefit having all those horses about,as anyone who had roses to fertilise - in those days it was called manure -
was quick to take advantage of)
The whole neighbourhood had a buzz , women coming home from daily Mass , shop-keepers tending the 'outside' merchandise,the clanking of trams at the Orwell crossroads...the slight feeling of guilt for not being at school (the week -end morning routine was different) and of course shopping baskets...(everything had to be bought daily and in seperate premises....the Butchers...seperate shops for pork and beef,fruit and veg shops ,with their exotic smells, (at least exotic to our unsophisticated nostrils) ,game and fish laid out on ice beds,the Monument Creamery for milk cheese and dairy products,so 5 or 6 separate premises to get the daily meal fo the family...How did I get into this?
I'm off to watch'' Deal or No Deal'', see you later....
What world are these ad.guys/gals living in ?...I can't remember the last time I heard of youngsters doing paper-rounds and it must be at least 15 years since milk was delivered door-to-door in Ireland.Maybe I'm wrong maybe there is some other world out there where all these things still happen...milk delivered daily to each home,in glass,one pint bottles ...the milkman waking up the birds with his ( oh yes ..always his..) joyous whistling, Dobbin , the horse ,waiting patiently for his master...the waking citizens listening to the receding sound of clinking milk bottles..or the paper-'boy' , not exactly with''shining morning face'',popping the 'early-early' edition of the Times (gotta be the Times) through the letter-box ,not , as in America , tossing it on to the neatly-manicured, lawn ( Irish weather and lawns unsuitable this form of delivery).
Is there a world in which this happens ,apart from the minds of the ad. people ? I do remember when even fresh bread was delivered door -to -door in suburban Dublin , Johnson,Mooney and O'Brien had tall two-wheeled ,horse-drawn,bread vans..the lovely smell of freshly baked loaves,turnovers,'pans', 'vienna' rolls and the taste of the still-warm crust......all delivered to your door each day by a (usually ) friendly , deliveryman , who was proud of his job.
Before the days of washing-machines in each home , the Laundryman used to call twice a week,once to pick up the dirty laundry and the accompanying list , and later in the week to deliver the , now crisply starched , clean laundry.
I can still see , in my minds eye , Rathgar Avenue , on a summer morning , in the 1950's ,the horse-drawn delivery vans ( usually there were more than one bakery , laundry ,or dairy ,company competing ),lined up behind one another , sometimes up to three or four vans in the immediate area ,
the housewives (well usually wives , occasionally housekeepers), gossiping with the deliverymen,while the horses waited patiently. (Mind you,there was a hidden benefit having all those horses about,as anyone who had roses to fertilise - in those days it was called manure -
was quick to take advantage of)
The whole neighbourhood had a buzz , women coming home from daily Mass , shop-keepers tending the 'outside' merchandise,the clanking of trams at the Orwell crossroads...the slight feeling of guilt for not being at school (the week -end morning routine was different) and of course shopping baskets...(everything had to be bought daily and in seperate premises....the Butchers...seperate shops for pork and beef,fruit and veg shops ,with their exotic smells, (at least exotic to our unsophisticated nostrils) ,game and fish laid out on ice beds,the Monument Creamery for milk cheese and dairy products,so 5 or 6 separate premises to get the daily meal fo the family...How did I get into this?
I'm off to watch'' Deal or No Deal'', see you later....
Saturday, October 13, 2007
France vs England vs Ireland
Today England plays against France in a semi-final of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.Ireland was knocked out of the competition two weeks ago.Yesterday on RTE radio's so-called sports programme this game was hardly referred to.The other semi-final between Argentine and South Africa ,was discussed in detail.I ask myself ,how can someone in our national radio station justify this obvious begrugery and lack of sportmanship.'We're not in it therefore its not of interest to us'...seems to be the reason.
Of course it rankles that our 'ancient enemy' is still in the competition with a reasonable chance of winning an historic double.To further frustrate us our sometime historical friend (General Humbert,Wolfe Tone ,Maud Gonne /Sean Mc Bride) France ,was the country that was directly responsible for our exit.(Cheval a horse of a man....or maybe ''A Man Called Horse'').
So our dilemma is ,who can we cheer for ? As far as RTE is concerned the answer is ,nobody.
The reasons for our antipity toward England,(or Great Britian,or the U.K. or 'across the water' as our media people sometimes euphemistically,refer to that other island that is John Bull),these reasons are well documented in our history books .Our relationship with France is more based on our conception that 'our enemy's enemy is our friend'.We also misunderstand the true relationship between England and France.These two countries have a 'love-hate' relationship with each other that no other country will ever understand.Bound together by history and geography ( and literature),often seeming to severly criticise each other they still managed to jointly complete two of greatest engineering projects of the twentieth century....the channel tunnel and the Concord (the reason Concord eventually failed was to do with economics not engineering).The eponomymous ''Two Cities'' of Dickens famous novel are now joined together in space and time (approx 2 hours apart).
Likewise we in Ireland are so closely bound to U.K. (etc...) we hardly notice .Just witness the row going on in Limerick because Aer Lingus pulled out of the Shannon/Heathrow link.We are now causually 'crossing the border' through the North simply to get to weddings in Donegal....,despite the fact that there is a different currency and laws (speed in m.p.h. rather than k.p.h.)
Our relationship with France is different,of course we called them in during our various rebellions against the British,but as far as I can remember from my Irish history,we also called in the Spanish,and even , during the 1916 Rising , Casement endevored to bring in the Germans I think we found the French aloof ,mainly because we had never really taught the French language.But our writers like Joyce and Beckett have found France a country in which they were very much at ease.Stephen Roche who won the Tour also settled there ,I remember our (?) most famous international thespian , Michael Mac Liammore , was known to have commented ,when presented with one of France's highest accolades,''why me ?I have done nothing for France ,except love Her.....
So let us all cheer ,let the best country win and may our rugby team be ready for the next world cup.....with Eddie O'Sullivan still in charge....
Of course it rankles that our 'ancient enemy' is still in the competition with a reasonable chance of winning an historic double.To further frustrate us our sometime historical friend (General Humbert,Wolfe Tone ,Maud Gonne /Sean Mc Bride) France ,was the country that was directly responsible for our exit.(Cheval a horse of a man....or maybe ''A Man Called Horse'').
So our dilemma is ,who can we cheer for ? As far as RTE is concerned the answer is ,nobody.
The reasons for our antipity toward England,(or Great Britian,or the U.K. or 'across the water' as our media people sometimes euphemistically,refer to that other island that is John Bull),these reasons are well documented in our history books .Our relationship with France is more based on our conception that 'our enemy's enemy is our friend'.We also misunderstand the true relationship between England and France.These two countries have a 'love-hate' relationship with each other that no other country will ever understand.Bound together by history and geography ( and literature),often seeming to severly criticise each other they still managed to jointly complete two of greatest engineering projects of the twentieth century....the channel tunnel and the Concord (the reason Concord eventually failed was to do with economics not engineering).The eponomymous ''Two Cities'' of Dickens famous novel are now joined together in space and time (approx 2 hours apart).
Likewise we in Ireland are so closely bound to U.K. (etc...) we hardly notice .Just witness the row going on in Limerick because Aer Lingus pulled out of the Shannon/Heathrow link.We are now causually 'crossing the border' through the North simply to get to weddings in Donegal....,despite the fact that there is a different currency and laws (speed in m.p.h. rather than k.p.h.)
Our relationship with France is different,of course we called them in during our various rebellions against the British,but as far as I can remember from my Irish history,we also called in the Spanish,and even , during the 1916 Rising , Casement endevored to bring in the Germans I think we found the French aloof ,mainly because we had never really taught the French language.But our writers like Joyce and Beckett have found France a country in which they were very much at ease.Stephen Roche who won the Tour also settled there ,I remember our (?) most famous international thespian , Michael Mac Liammore , was known to have commented ,when presented with one of France's highest accolades,''why me ?I have done nothing for France ,except love Her.....
So let us all cheer ,let the best country win and may our rugby team be ready for the next world cup.....with Eddie O'Sullivan still in charge....
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Gambling on horses..tut,tut,tut.
Champion jockey Kieran Fallon finds himself in some difficulty ,apparently because he managed to win (his horse ,that is ) 5 out of 17 races that a gambling syndicate had bet on him to lose.This new idea where it is possible to effectivly bet on a horse to lose rather than win needs some clarification.
So called bookmakers Betfair run a gambling operation which I can only compare to the stock market carry-on known as Contracts for Difference.With Betfair a person, (provided they have the appropiate dosh) can decide to offer to third parties good odds , on well-fancied horses,way above the odds they would be offered from the ordinary bookmaker,it goes something like this;Joe Bloggs knows that a certain horse (say, ridden by the champion jockey) will be on offer @ say, 2 to 1....Joe B. ,having come to an ''arrangement'' with the jockey,offers 3 to 1,lodges ,for argument sake , 150,000 (any currency) with Betfair,takes bets from the punters up to 50,ooo,knowing of course that the jockey will endevour to 'lose' the race.
Good -old -Joe B ,picks up 50 grand gets his own 150 grand back (less a small 'commission') from Betfair...and everyone's a winna......except those who lost , of course.
I hope you are following all this ....I'll be asking questions later..
Kieran Fallon's further problem arises because the races that he (apparently) won by 'accident' cost his co -conspiritors up to 500,000 , and he was obliged to 'make good' the shortfall , presumably by 'losing' other races for them.....he would not get his 'cut' until this was done....geddit!!!!!
This case could go on for up to 5 MONTHS......and the jockey who (with the help of a horse) won last Sunday's Arc de Triomphe horse race , will have to wait the outcome....I now hear that mobile phone information is not going to help Fallon's case...more anon....
No no ...just one more thing before I go...one example given says that on one occasion the syndicate put down 100,ooo with Betfair to win ,as they thought,a guaranteed 12,000....
So called bookmakers Betfair run a gambling operation which I can only compare to the stock market carry-on known as Contracts for Difference.With Betfair a person, (provided they have the appropiate dosh) can decide to offer to third parties good odds , on well-fancied horses,way above the odds they would be offered from the ordinary bookmaker,it goes something like this;Joe Bloggs knows that a certain horse (say, ridden by the champion jockey) will be on offer @ say, 2 to 1....Joe B. ,having come to an ''arrangement'' with the jockey,offers 3 to 1,lodges ,for argument sake , 150,000 (any currency) with Betfair,takes bets from the punters up to 50,ooo,knowing of course that the jockey will endevour to 'lose' the race.
Good -old -Joe B ,picks up 50 grand gets his own 150 grand back (less a small 'commission') from Betfair...and everyone's a winna......except those who lost , of course.
I hope you are following all this ....I'll be asking questions later..
Kieran Fallon's further problem arises because the races that he (apparently) won by 'accident' cost his co -conspiritors up to 500,000 , and he was obliged to 'make good' the shortfall , presumably by 'losing' other races for them.....he would not get his 'cut' until this was done....geddit!!!!!
This case could go on for up to 5 MONTHS......and the jockey who (with the help of a horse) won last Sunday's Arc de Triomphe horse race , will have to wait the outcome....I now hear that mobile phone information is not going to help Fallon's case...more anon....
No no ...just one more thing before I go...one example given says that on one occasion the syndicate put down 100,ooo with Betfair to win ,as they thought,a guaranteed 12,000....
Monday, October 8, 2007
Lies and statistics
Yesterday (Sun.7/10/07) the Sunday Independent printed about four or five full pages by various journalists on differing aspects of a survey commissioned by that newspaper.This publication had a glaring headline referring to the fact (i.e.result) that Bertie Ahern was still favoured by the 'public',were an election to be held now.
On reading on I discovered that this was a telephone poll and furthermore the numbers polled were 400.
The question must be asked how on earth this ''poll'' can be acceptable in any newspaper worthy of the name,no matter how 'professional' the pollsters are.Surely 400 from a population of over 4 million (by phone) must be the laziest ever carried out ,and then to practically fill their news with the so-called ''results''.
From memory of , statistical formulae , I think that the standard deviation , in random selection polls , to make any sense , . has to have some reasonable relationship between the numbers chosen and the population from which the samples are chosen .his nonsense is then used to make headlines and fill space....shame on you ..Sunday Indo.....
On reading on I discovered that this was a telephone poll and furthermore the numbers polled were 400.
The question must be asked how on earth this ''poll'' can be acceptable in any newspaper worthy of the name,no matter how 'professional' the pollsters are.Surely 400 from a population of over 4 million (by phone) must be the laziest ever carried out ,and then to practically fill their news with the so-called ''results''.
From memory of , statistical formulae , I think that the standard deviation , in random selection polls , to make any sense , . has to have some reasonable relationship between the numbers chosen and the population from which the samples are chosen .his nonsense is then used to make headlines and fill space....shame on you ..Sunday Indo.....
Monday, October 1, 2007
Health Service/Irelands Argie-Bargie/ 3.10 seen...
The cunning plan by the 'former'P.D. party has worked beyond their wildest dreams.They set out to create a two-tier society.I'm not sure whether this was Des O'Malley's original intention when he set up the party , but since Mary Harney and Michael Mc Dowell's, involvement, in leadership , there has been an obvious and determined move to 'privatise ' our health service, our education system,local services etc.The original 'plan' was to reduce the public service and bring on private businesses to fill the gap.This has'nt happened , in fact the opposite has happened ,the numbers in the public/civil service have ballooned and with the introduction of so-called 'benchmarking' system the costs of providing our administration have skyrocketed.
The shop-around mantra of Mary Harney and her ilk was supposed to introduce competition and thereby reduce prices.This 'plan'was undermined by Harney herself,most notably when she left the BUPA subscribers high and dry before Quinn rode in to 'save-the-day'.She also let down Smart Telecom subscribers when Eircom pulled the plug.Then we had McDowell's comment about a booming economy ' needing an under class'.
And of course we have now been lumbered with ,what is referred to as , Public Private Partnerships . Does anyone really believe that , in the current political climate and knowing from the fall-out from the Tribunals how bent our system is , that the PPP ( a typical civil service catch-all acronym) will not be run by big business , with the compliance of eager-to-please public servants?
So we have now ended up with the worst of all worlds , as far as certain sectors of our society are concerned ,(for example those who depend on our public health or educational services exclusively) and the best of times for the higher reaches of business and the upper level of public and civil servants who have guarenteed jobs and pensions in a cooling economy.These jobs and pensions will be funded by the middle -ranking tax payers........enough for now ...more anon....
Ireland's International Rugby Team was beaten yesterday by Argentina.Ireland's Callers have called for the resignation of the manager Eddie O'Sullivan.I seem to remember this same man being feted by the same Callers ,why it must have been all of ....say ...3 or 4 weeks ago....wow ...what a long time in the lives of the Callers.....I can believe that a player's form can change in the space of a few weeks.....but how the**** can a MANAGERS form change....Callers grow up and learn how to become SPORTSMEN.......
I have seen the re-make of the old Glenn Ford western ''3.10 to Yuma''.verdict?..Well done well worth seeing,they even used some of the lines from the original.....now if I was to critic.....se
.
The shop-around mantra of Mary Harney and her ilk was supposed to introduce competition and thereby reduce prices.This 'plan'was undermined by Harney herself,most notably when she left the BUPA subscribers high and dry before Quinn rode in to 'save-the-day'.She also let down Smart Telecom subscribers when Eircom pulled the plug.Then we had McDowell's comment about a booming economy ' needing an under class'.
And of course we have now been lumbered with ,what is referred to as , Public Private Partnerships . Does anyone really believe that , in the current political climate and knowing from the fall-out from the Tribunals how bent our system is , that the PPP ( a typical civil service catch-all acronym) will not be run by big business , with the compliance of eager-to-please public servants?
So we have now ended up with the worst of all worlds , as far as certain sectors of our society are concerned ,(for example those who depend on our public health or educational services exclusively) and the best of times for the higher reaches of business and the upper level of public and civil servants who have guarenteed jobs and pensions in a cooling economy.These jobs and pensions will be funded by the middle -ranking tax payers........enough for now ...more anon....
Ireland's International Rugby Team was beaten yesterday by Argentina.Ireland's Callers have called for the resignation of the manager Eddie O'Sullivan.I seem to remember this same man being feted by the same Callers ,why it must have been all of ....say ...3 or 4 weeks ago....wow ...what a long time in the lives of the Callers.....I can believe that a player's form can change in the space of a few weeks.....but how the**** can a MANAGERS form change....Callers grow up and learn how to become SPORTSMEN.......
I have seen the re-make of the old Glenn Ford western ''3.10 to Yuma''.verdict?..Well done well worth seeing,they even used some of the lines from the original.....now if I was to critic.....se
.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Subprime/3.10 to Yuma
The whole mess involving subprime lending and how blue-collar Americans defaulting on their mortgages can practically cause a world financial meltdown.
Let me see....??First of all people, who were most likely to default on their mortgages, were given loans at higher interest rates, by certain financial institutions that were aware these people had already been turned down by the major financial institutions.
Then these 2nd -string institutions gave out the loans on the basis of what has been described as a ''Liars Mortgages'',i.e. accepting the word of the customer regarding their capacity to repay without checking their veracity.They also had ''Teaser Loans''(low initial interest rates),40 year mortgages,''Piggyback''loans (a second loan to cover the down -payment,''Balloon'' mortgages (interest only for ten years), and one institution boasted of a ''Ninja''mortgage...(no income,no job,no assets).
Then these 2nd-stringers created what they called Mortgage Backed Securities and sold them on to other institutions,who in turn re-packaged these MBS's into what they called Collateralized Debt Obligations,these CDO's(?) consisted of the MBS's mixed with some low risk and medium-risk loans,sold these on to other financial institutions in packages and seemingly this went on and on ....so that we are now at a stage internationally that no-one really knows the extent of the dogy loans buried-in world -wide bonds and securities.....How does that sound??(thank you Gene Kerrigan of the Sunday Independent).
I wonder which role Russell Crowe plays in the remake of ''3.10 to Yuma'',the Glenn Ford or the Van Heflin part,a great little western ,great acting,right down to the character actor who played the town drunk...I think better than the much more expensive production with a similar theme,''Last Train from Gun Hill'',which starred Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn.
I hope the remake does justice to the original...I have yet to see a remake that does justice to the original film...or maybe its just my own nostalgia,....if it works (remake of 3.10), they could try another Glenn Ford' little'western......''The Fastest Gun Alive'',which also starred good old Broderick Crawford...and John Denher....which had a similiar theme to another film called Gunpoint''which starred Fred MacMurray.......now see what you started, Robert... ?????
Let me see....??First of all people, who were most likely to default on their mortgages, were given loans at higher interest rates, by certain financial institutions that were aware these people had already been turned down by the major financial institutions.
Then these 2nd -string institutions gave out the loans on the basis of what has been described as a ''Liars Mortgages'',i.e. accepting the word of the customer regarding their capacity to repay without checking their veracity.They also had ''Teaser Loans''(low initial interest rates),40 year mortgages,''Piggyback''loans (a second loan to cover the down -payment,''Balloon'' mortgages (interest only for ten years), and one institution boasted of a ''Ninja''mortgage...(no income,no job,no assets).
Then these 2nd-stringers created what they called Mortgage Backed Securities and sold them on to other institutions,who in turn re-packaged these MBS's into what they called Collateralized Debt Obligations,these CDO's(?) consisted of the MBS's mixed with some low risk and medium-risk loans,sold these on to other financial institutions in packages and seemingly this went on and on ....so that we are now at a stage internationally that no-one really knows the extent of the dogy loans buried-in world -wide bonds and securities.....How does that sound??(thank you Gene Kerrigan of the Sunday Independent).
I wonder which role Russell Crowe plays in the remake of ''3.10 to Yuma'',the Glenn Ford or the Van Heflin part,a great little western ,great acting,right down to the character actor who played the town drunk...I think better than the much more expensive production with a similar theme,''Last Train from Gun Hill'',which starred Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn.
I hope the remake does justice to the original...I have yet to see a remake that does justice to the original film...or maybe its just my own nostalgia,....if it works (remake of 3.10), they could try another Glenn Ford' little'western......''The Fastest Gun Alive'',which also starred good old Broderick Crawford...and John Denher....which had a similiar theme to another film called Gunpoint''which starred Fred MacMurray.......now see what you started, Robert... ?????
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Politics,what else!
The recent General Election is still having serious repercussions....nobody wants the PD's ,not even the PD's....newly elected government gone into exile....now Pat Rabbitte has pulled a fast one on Brendan Howlin thereby losing us the two most experienced leaders for the Labour Party and half the opposition clout , in one stroke....and whatever happens at the Mahon Tribunal, Bertie will once again emerge as the 'white-haired' boy,....the litany of disasters will continue...and those who re-elected Fianna Fail (41% of the electorate ) , will still believe they did the right thing.
In the meantime Gordon Brown has confidently taken over the reins from Tony Who?, calmly dealing with a succession of potentially serious problems, whilee our crowd of gombeens can't even get our newly privatised national airline safely off the ground...
Thats the difference between reasonably intelligent politicians and a collection of greedy 'cute hoors'whose only motivation is their own personal (and family ) advance ment.Consider the following quote from' The Cosgrave Legacy',by Stephen Collins:''in the 1961 general election Fianna Fail lost eight seats while Fine Gael gained seven.It was a good performance by the Opposition party but a majority of theIndependents ,who held the balance of power, decided to support a continuation of the Lemass Government because Fine Gael and Labour had both set their faces against coalition at this time.'' That was 46 years ago but as far as Irish politics is concerned it could have been yesterday......nothing really changes....not even the family names(except where marriage names are involved)
At that time in Fine Gael a Cosgrave has just taken over from a Cosgrave,a Dillon had followed a Dillon ,a Barry had followed a Barry,a Costello following a Costello etc ,and thats only the Fine Gael party.
In our incoming Dail we have at least two families with 3 siblings each ,sets of brothers ,cousins ,husbands and wives,uncles and aunts and overriding all this we have the historical connections, DeValeras,Lemasses,Collins',Lenehans,etc,.etc.etcetc...ad nauseam...
Oh yes we live in a democracy alright,but if you don't inherit a safe seat or if one is not shown the right path, the decendents of these same people will still be in power in another 50 years.
In the meantime Gordon Brown has confidently taken over the reins from Tony Who?, calmly dealing with a succession of potentially serious problems, whilee our crowd of gombeens can't even get our newly privatised national airline safely off the ground...
Thats the difference between reasonably intelligent politicians and a collection of greedy 'cute hoors'whose only motivation is their own personal (and family ) advance ment.Consider the following quote from' The Cosgrave Legacy',by Stephen Collins:''in the 1961 general election Fianna Fail lost eight seats while Fine Gael gained seven.It was a good performance by the Opposition party but a majority of theIndependents ,who held the balance of power, decided to support a continuation of the Lemass Government because Fine Gael and Labour had both set their faces against coalition at this time.'' That was 46 years ago but as far as Irish politics is concerned it could have been yesterday......nothing really changes....not even the family names(except where marriage names are involved)
At that time in Fine Gael a Cosgrave has just taken over from a Cosgrave,a Dillon had followed a Dillon ,a Barry had followed a Barry,a Costello following a Costello etc ,and thats only the Fine Gael party.
In our incoming Dail we have at least two families with 3 siblings each ,sets of brothers ,cousins ,husbands and wives,uncles and aunts and overriding all this we have the historical connections, DeValeras,Lemasses,Collins',Lenehans,etc,.etc.etcetc...ad nauseam...
Oh yes we live in a democracy alright,but if you don't inherit a safe seat or if one is not shown the right path, the decendents of these same people will still be in power in another 50 years.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
A.C/G.B.S.
In the Spring of 1935 a group of people assembled in , what was then, the offices of the BBC in London.They were a committee formed to advise the Corporation on the correct pronounciation of 'spoken English'.There were 6 or 7 people present,a bishop,a few academics,a scientist ,writers ,etc.
Two of the people who were there , probably the youngest and the oldest,were Alistair Cooke still in his twenties at that time and already known as a foreign correspondent,English-born and based in the USA,and George Bernard Shaw,in his 79th year,writer,Irish-born,and based in the UK.
At that time the BBC announcers all spoke with what was called a public-school accent ,(public schools for some reason was the definition given to what we would call private schools).but the purpose of the committee was not to define accent but pronounciation.Shaw was described as being irascible in his old age,probably what we would now call an angry old man (Victor Meldrew of 'One Foot in the Grave'fame.)Shaw was chosen as chairman of the committee and of course had the casting vote on pronounciation.Shaw began almost immediatly to maintain that Dublin was the 'only place on earth where one could hear ''pure spoken English''.
The committee appeared to have had great fun with words such as lieutenant ,which was pronounced on BBC as lefftenant but in the US as loo-tenant, and Marylebone,(Marry'bn) and then there was canine, which all the committee, except Cooke,agreed should be pronounced can-ine,and Cooke said should be pronounced cane-ine as in America.Shaw agreed with Cooke,because his(Shaw's) dentist pronounced it cane-ine.One other of the committee said to Shaw ,''Then your dentist must be American''.To which Shaw replied:''Of course he is ,how else do you think I have all my teeth at my age?''
I wonder where I could get a good,unpretentious,biography of Shaw.I've read a lot about him but nothing by him except some of his letters to the London Times when sparring with Arthur Conan Doyle following the Titanic disaster.
Alistair Cooke describes how he last saw Shaw that day in 1935: ''At the end I see him leaving Broadcasting House on that late spring morning,a trilby shading his crinkled eyes and white beard ,his hands deep in a top coat ,marching with his wide tread down Regent Street,occasionally looking over his shoulder for his bus ,then deciding the day was balmy enough for walking all the way home.He might pause in one of the leafy London squares to sit on a bench and eat his delicious mid-morning lifesaver of a parsley sandwich.Then on down the Strand to the river and up to his apartment in the Adelphi and reunion with his only friend, wife, companion,Charlotte Payne-Townshend''........
Two of the people who were there , probably the youngest and the oldest,were Alistair Cooke still in his twenties at that time and already known as a foreign correspondent,English-born and based in the USA,and George Bernard Shaw,in his 79th year,writer,Irish-born,and based in the UK.
At that time the BBC announcers all spoke with what was called a public-school accent ,(public schools for some reason was the definition given to what we would call private schools).but the purpose of the committee was not to define accent but pronounciation.Shaw was described as being irascible in his old age,probably what we would now call an angry old man (Victor Meldrew of 'One Foot in the Grave'fame.)Shaw was chosen as chairman of the committee and of course had the casting vote on pronounciation.Shaw began almost immediatly to maintain that Dublin was the 'only place on earth where one could hear ''pure spoken English''.
The committee appeared to have had great fun with words such as lieutenant ,which was pronounced on BBC as lefftenant but in the US as loo-tenant, and Marylebone,(Marry'bn) and then there was canine, which all the committee, except Cooke,agreed should be pronounced can-ine,and Cooke said should be pronounced cane-ine as in America.Shaw agreed with Cooke,because his(Shaw's) dentist pronounced it cane-ine.One other of the committee said to Shaw ,''Then your dentist must be American''.To which Shaw replied:''Of course he is ,how else do you think I have all my teeth at my age?''
I wonder where I could get a good,unpretentious,biography of Shaw.I've read a lot about him but nothing by him except some of his letters to the London Times when sparring with Arthur Conan Doyle following the Titanic disaster.
Alistair Cooke describes how he last saw Shaw that day in 1935: ''At the end I see him leaving Broadcasting House on that late spring morning,a trilby shading his crinkled eyes and white beard ,his hands deep in a top coat ,marching with his wide tread down Regent Street,occasionally looking over his shoulder for his bus ,then deciding the day was balmy enough for walking all the way home.He might pause in one of the leafy London squares to sit on a bench and eat his delicious mid-morning lifesaver of a parsley sandwich.Then on down the Strand to the river and up to his apartment in the Adelphi and reunion with his only friend, wife, companion,Charlotte Payne-Townshend''........
Monday, August 20, 2007
Stocks 'n Shares
Boom! Crash!Crunch!(and possibly),Bounce!
It may appear to be the action ''sound-effects'' from a Batman cartoon but in fact these are , unfortunatly, words that are appearing on the banner-headlines of the financial pages in our newspapers.
They tell us that the boom is over(darn , I missed it , again).,that the crash is a possibility,that the credit crunch is biting and the temporary recovery after the intervention of the Federal Reserve was only a ''dead- cat bounce'',( poor, old, Bonny has a lot to answer for...)
So,Guys 'n Gals ,as Jimmy Saville used to say , where do we go from here?
For starters, I'm already confused.Where for example did all those billions disappear to?If a companys' shares were worth ,say,100 units (any currency)at the beginning of June and are only worth ,say, 75 units now,the 25 units has not just disappeared into thin air, somebody must have sold @100 and somebody must have bought @100.So all we need to find out is , where did the guy who sold @100 put his money?........ How did I get into this quagmire?
Anyway it surely proves how we really are living in a Global economy and we are all in it together....whatever it is, and the market never stops.Besides anyone with a bit of savvy must have known that eventually things had to cool down...but I still don't fully understand how the housing market in the USA ,has managed to have such a devastating effect on the world economies.Did the banks and other financial institutions that were buying the 'packages'of credit not actually look inside the packages to see what they contained, (remind me never to accept a 'package' from a financier ,next Christmas....)
It may appear to be the action ''sound-effects'' from a Batman cartoon but in fact these are , unfortunatly, words that are appearing on the banner-headlines of the financial pages in our newspapers.
They tell us that the boom is over(darn , I missed it , again).,that the crash is a possibility,that the credit crunch is biting and the temporary recovery after the intervention of the Federal Reserve was only a ''dead- cat bounce'',( poor, old, Bonny has a lot to answer for...)
So,Guys 'n Gals ,as Jimmy Saville used to say , where do we go from here?
For starters, I'm already confused.Where for example did all those billions disappear to?If a companys' shares were worth ,say,100 units (any currency)at the beginning of June and are only worth ,say, 75 units now,the 25 units has not just disappeared into thin air, somebody must have sold @100 and somebody must have bought @100.So all we need to find out is , where did the guy who sold @100 put his money?........ How did I get into this quagmire?
Anyway it surely proves how we really are living in a Global economy and we are all in it together....whatever it is, and the market never stops.Besides anyone with a bit of savvy must have known that eventually things had to cool down...but I still don't fully understand how the housing market in the USA ,has managed to have such a devastating effect on the world economies.Did the banks and other financial institutions that were buying the 'packages'of credit not actually look inside the packages to see what they contained, (remind me never to accept a 'package' from a financier ,next Christmas....)
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Sport
A newspaper leading- headline , declaring something like''Price of Tomatoes to Increase'', would seem to be a little over the top , but a headline in todays newspaper , which reads ''Rugby Player Injured in Rugby Match'', would appear to be in the same category,and the sub-heading,''For the Second Time '',makes the article even worse.
What has happened to our sportsmen since professional sport became big business?The greater the money involved the more 'wimpish'these players are becoming.Of course we are all learning , as usual, from the Americans. American Football seems to consist of men (at least I think they are men) ,dressed in head-to-toe protection gear, running after or with a ball before taking a 'breather'following all the exertion
I played hurling once and I can still remember this big fellow from the opposing team charging towards me with his hurley raised above his head (now illegal),the tin re-inforcement,wrapped around the shank ,glinting in the sun and his frightening gap-toothed grin......yes I played hurling once.Of course it was dangerous but it was also fun and the best team usually won and if not there was always a next time.
Professionalism and the litigation-culture, that goes with it, is killing sport from the participants point of view.We will eventually get to a point where sportsmen will be togged out in the equivelant of medieval suits-of-armour,clanking arount the playing fields and crying out in fear if an opponent approaches them with a tin opener.
As for Roy Keane,and his comments on the wives and girlfriends of his players,and where they should do their shopping,he is not and never will be an example of what a real sportsman should be ...its great that Sunderland is doing so well and we can also hope that the newly-Irish-acquired Peter borough United (POSH) ,bought for £1,will do as well, (it's shield includes the crossed -keys of St.Peter and its slogan is 'on this rock'.......not a lot of people know that...
What has happened to our sportsmen since professional sport became big business?The greater the money involved the more 'wimpish'these players are becoming.Of course we are all learning , as usual, from the Americans. American Football seems to consist of men (at least I think they are men) ,dressed in head-to-toe protection gear, running after or with a ball before taking a 'breather'following all the exertion
I played hurling once and I can still remember this big fellow from the opposing team charging towards me with his hurley raised above his head (now illegal),the tin re-inforcement,wrapped around the shank ,glinting in the sun and his frightening gap-toothed grin......yes I played hurling once.Of course it was dangerous but it was also fun and the best team usually won and if not there was always a next time.
Professionalism and the litigation-culture, that goes with it, is killing sport from the participants point of view.We will eventually get to a point where sportsmen will be togged out in the equivelant of medieval suits-of-armour,clanking arount the playing fields and crying out in fear if an opponent approaches them with a tin opener.
As for Roy Keane,and his comments on the wives and girlfriends of his players,and where they should do their shopping,he is not and never will be an example of what a real sportsman should be ...its great that Sunderland is doing so well and we can also hope that the newly-Irish-acquired Peter borough United (POSH) ,bought for £1,will do as well, (it's shield includes the crossed -keys of St.Peter and its slogan is 'on this rock'.......not a lot of people know that...
Friday, August 17, 2007
Summer
What a pity ,.........the requests for schoolteacher appointments have started to appear in the papers,a sure sign that summer is over.Where did it go ? It seems only a few weeks ago that we were making plans for all the places we were going to go ....all the things we were going to do...somehow each planned adventure assumed that the weather would co-operate and scorching sunshine would be a background to our outings...
But, literally,every cloud has a silver lining, with all the rain we have had here in Ireland since the beginning of our summer (it is now the 17th of Aug and we have had rain every day since the 1st of June) I never remember this country looking so GREEN...we seem to be having a lot of different wild birds visiting us this year also (if only we had more cash-paying human visitors) and people seem to be in good humour...except of course when I visit the supermarket and the lady before me decides to reach for her purse only after all her shopping has been carefully tucked away,and then I'm told that I have to wait 4 minutes for my credit card to be verified..... ..anyway thats another story...apart from that everyone seems to have accepted the weather....I can hardly wait to see what our Autumn,Winter has in store....
But, literally,every cloud has a silver lining, with all the rain we have had here in Ireland since the beginning of our summer (it is now the 17th of Aug and we have had rain every day since the 1st of June) I never remember this country looking so GREEN...we seem to be having a lot of different wild birds visiting us this year also (if only we had more cash-paying human visitors) and people seem to be in good humour...except of course when I visit the supermarket and the lady before me decides to reach for her purse only after all her shopping has been carefully tucked away,and then I'm told that I have to wait 4 minutes for my credit card to be verified..... ..anyway thats another story...apart from that everyone seems to have accepted the weather....I can hardly wait to see what our Autumn,Winter has in store....
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Aer Lingus/Shannon
I was prepared not to like Dermot Mannion, the new chief executive of Aer Lingus, but listening today, to his strong defence of the decision to move their base from Shannon to Belfast , has caused me to change my mind.
Originally ,I thought he was, effectively, a Government appointee, who would cave -in as soon as the going got tough, but , as in many , many,(is the spacing alright , Robert ?)...other instances I was wrong.It's not really a case of the decision being right or wrong commercially, but the fact that having made it, (the first really important decision made by that company as a private organisation) ,Mannion is sticking to his guns despite the massively negative reaction, from almost every side,except , of course , Belfast, and the usual cowardly reaction from An Taoiseach....silence...(hoping it will be interpeted as ...leadership).
Now, today, two more moves in the game , Michael O'Leary,the Ryanair guy,whose company owns 25% of Aer Lingus is in Shannon, stirring the s**t, saying: 1. that he wants an E.G.M. to be called, and : 2. that if the Government (i.e.Bertie), wishes he will throw in his 25%with the Government's 25%,which combined with the Employees 12%,will enable them to reverse the decision.
The other action today was that by the Aer Lingus pilots to call a 2 day total strike to show their opposition to the move.
Being a suspicious person at heart, I actually believe that there was some political involvement in the original decision, but all the more credit to Mannion if there was, as he is now taking full responsibility for the move...
As for the rest of them,politicians,the pilots,the other Aer Lingus staff,they have all contributed to creating a well-fed monster while A.L. was a semi-state company (pretending to be a real private company),with every perk imaginable as far as free travel,pensions,working conditions,pay ...and of course trade union involvement in the day -to- day workings of the company.
We , the travelling/tax-paying public thought all that was over...it will be if Dermot Mannion's will prevails on the issue and O'Leary goes back to beating-up his own passengers....
(Robert ,get a copy of today's (14 th Aug ) Irish Independent and see the letter from yours truly.....not on above subject)
Originally ,I thought he was, effectively, a Government appointee, who would cave -in as soon as the going got tough, but , as in many , many,(is the spacing alright , Robert ?)...other instances I was wrong.It's not really a case of the decision being right or wrong commercially, but the fact that having made it, (the first really important decision made by that company as a private organisation) ,Mannion is sticking to his guns despite the massively negative reaction, from almost every side,except , of course , Belfast, and the usual cowardly reaction from An Taoiseach....silence...(hoping it will be interpeted as ...leadership).
Now, today, two more moves in the game , Michael O'Leary,the Ryanair guy,whose company owns 25% of Aer Lingus is in Shannon, stirring the s**t, saying: 1. that he wants an E.G.M. to be called, and : 2. that if the Government (i.e.Bertie), wishes he will throw in his 25%with the Government's 25%,which combined with the Employees 12%,will enable them to reverse the decision.
The other action today was that by the Aer Lingus pilots to call a 2 day total strike to show their opposition to the move.
Being a suspicious person at heart, I actually believe that there was some political involvement in the original decision, but all the more credit to Mannion if there was, as he is now taking full responsibility for the move...
As for the rest of them,politicians,the pilots,the other Aer Lingus staff,they have all contributed to creating a well-fed monster while A.L. was a semi-state company (pretending to be a real private company),with every perk imaginable as far as free travel,pensions,working conditions,pay ...and of course trade union involvement in the day -to- day workings of the company.
We , the travelling/tax-paying public thought all that was over...it will be if Dermot Mannion's will prevails on the issue and O'Leary goes back to beating-up his own passengers....
(Robert ,get a copy of today's (14 th Aug ) Irish Independent and see the letter from yours truly.....not on above subject)
Friday, August 10, 2007
Corrections & Clarifications/Haiti
It happens from time to time that a particular newspaper can print a serious mistake and, obviously, have to correct it as soon as possible.
For example ,when Queen Victoria visited Dublin in 1900 a newspaper report was supposed to have included the following sentence:''The crowds cheered as Queen Victoria pissed over O'Connell Bridge.''We must assume that this was a genuine error and that the correct wording should have been;''The crowds cheered as Queen Victoria passed over O'Connell Bridge.'',and that the correction was printed ,with appropriate apology a.s.a.p..
If nowadays a publication prints something like''man murders his mother ''and the following day prints a correction saying that it should have read''man accidently kills his cat '' or a headline like ''World To End Tomorrow'',is followed by a correction,'this should have read':''Price of Tomatoes to Increase'' we would certainly expect such a correction or clarification from the publication.
The following appeared under'' Corrections and Clarifications'' in todays Irish Times:''In the review of Alessandro Baricco's book on Homer's Iliad last Saturday,it was mistakenly stated that Achilles was the son of Peleus.Peleus was his mortal father.Achilles appealed to his mother,the goddess Thetis,asking her to intervene on his behalf with Zeus against Agamemnon.'' ....Oh my God ...sound the alarm....!!!....ring the Fire-brigade!!...Stop the presses!!....and all this time we all thought that Achilles' was ????who ( or should it be whom?)
?
What a load of pretentious tripe?Who would have been upset if that correction had not been made?The writer of the article?The author of the book????Or some group of anonymous civil servants, with time on its hands , that bothers to read such articles ?
Haiti is beginning to come into the news again,now that the new secretary general of the United Nations ,Ban Ki-moon has visited there and assured the Haitian government that the U.N. will stay there, until their mission is accomplished,in line with that governments wishes.
Improvements over the past number of years include;Kidnappings in Sun City running at 100 per month ,6 months ago,...have stopped,,800 gang leaders jailed.following the U.N. Stabilisation Mission 6 week action and inflation dropped from 40% ,3 years ago,to 8% now... at last some good news .....
For example ,when Queen Victoria visited Dublin in 1900 a newspaper report was supposed to have included the following sentence:''The crowds cheered as Queen Victoria pissed over O'Connell Bridge.''We must assume that this was a genuine error and that the correct wording should have been;''The crowds cheered as Queen Victoria passed over O'Connell Bridge.'',and that the correction was printed ,with appropriate apology a.s.a.p..
If nowadays a publication prints something like''man murders his mother ''and the following day prints a correction saying that it should have read''man accidently kills his cat '' or a headline like ''World To End Tomorrow'',is followed by a correction,'this should have read':''Price of Tomatoes to Increase'' we would certainly expect such a correction or clarification from the publication.
The following appeared under'' Corrections and Clarifications'' in todays Irish Times:''In the review of Alessandro Baricco's book on Homer's Iliad last Saturday,it was mistakenly stated that Achilles was the son of Peleus.Peleus was his mortal father.Achilles appealed to his mother,the goddess Thetis,asking her to intervene on his behalf with Zeus against Agamemnon.'' ....Oh my God ...sound the alarm....!!!....ring the Fire-brigade!!...Stop the presses!!....and all this time we all thought that Achilles' was ????who ( or should it be whom?)
?
What a load of pretentious tripe?Who would have been upset if that correction had not been made?The writer of the article?The author of the book????Or some group of anonymous civil servants, with time on its hands , that bothers to read such articles ?
Haiti is beginning to come into the news again,now that the new secretary general of the United Nations ,Ban Ki-moon has visited there and assured the Haitian government that the U.N. will stay there, until their mission is accomplished,in line with that governments wishes.
Improvements over the past number of years include;Kidnappings in Sun City running at 100 per month ,6 months ago,...have stopped,,800 gang leaders jailed.following the U.N. Stabilisation Mission 6 week action and inflation dropped from 40% ,3 years ago,to 8% now... at last some good news .....
Saturday, August 4, 2007
I'm only joking....
Having just read James Downes' article, in the morning paper,I realise that Ahern is not the ''most cunning,the most devious ,of them all'' but in fact probably the best dead-pan comedian since Jack Benny.
The more we think about Bertie's carry-on during the past year the more we can see how he,and his insiders ,are having great fun at the general public's expense.
First of all we had his comment when his money meanderings became public.Where did the money come from,we the public,via the media ,asked?How did he answer?He told us that the amounts suggested were ''off the wall''.It turned out that this statement was actually true,except that he meant the money was ''off'' his friend( Michael) Wall.
Then when he was forced to acknowledge monies received from other friends ,he came up with ,not just one but two Paddy Reillys,throwing in the distinguishing nickname ''Paddy the Plasterer'' for our further enjoyment.,and , as if that was not enough,guess where he gave a press briefing ,on the following day.?...BALLYJAMESDUFF (if you don't believe that ...check it out)??Yes ,of all the towns, in all the world, Bertie turned up in Ballyjamesduff.
Next we had the famous ''Princess Diana'' interview,tears and all..that has already been well covered,telling us all sorts of personal details that no one had asked for .
And now the crowning joke (or as Krusty the Klown would say ,the best material) ;having been pilloried, by some, for his obvious intention to stuff the senate with as many of his cronies, as, barely legally, possible;comparing Ahern to Caligula, appointing his HORSE to the senate,Bertie appoints his HARRIS............
Why does all this remind me of (I think it was called ),the WEENY WEENY BIRD.?This bird had the ability to fly 'round and 'round and 'round in ever decreasing circles and eventually disappearing up its EOGHAN HARRIS........
The more we think about Bertie's carry-on during the past year the more we can see how he,and his insiders ,are having great fun at the general public's expense.
First of all we had his comment when his money meanderings became public.Where did the money come from,we the public,via the media ,asked?How did he answer?He told us that the amounts suggested were ''off the wall''.It turned out that this statement was actually true,except that he meant the money was ''off'' his friend( Michael) Wall.
Then when he was forced to acknowledge monies received from other friends ,he came up with ,not just one but two Paddy Reillys,throwing in the distinguishing nickname ''Paddy the Plasterer'' for our further enjoyment.,and , as if that was not enough,guess where he gave a press briefing ,on the following day.?...BALLYJAMESDUFF (if you don't believe that ...check it out)??Yes ,of all the towns, in all the world, Bertie turned up in Ballyjamesduff.
Next we had the famous ''Princess Diana'' interview,tears and all..that has already been well covered,telling us all sorts of personal details that no one had asked for .
And now the crowning joke (or as Krusty the Klown would say ,the best material) ;having been pilloried, by some, for his obvious intention to stuff the senate with as many of his cronies, as, barely legally, possible;comparing Ahern to Caligula, appointing his HORSE to the senate,Bertie appoints his HARRIS............
Why does all this remind me of (I think it was called ),the WEENY WEENY BIRD.?This bird had the ability to fly 'round and 'round and 'round in ever decreasing circles and eventually disappearing up its EOGHAN HARRIS........
Friday, August 3, 2007
Senator Eoin Harris
So it has happened ,the great payback has taken place,Bertie has paid off yet another one of his mates.
Now we know why the change in the tone of Harris's articles immediatly before the General Election.
Harris, is now, the first ,truly ''Independent '' senator in that undemocratic body .
To hear him defend it ,on his first RTE interview after his ''election''(yes ,believe it or not thats what the interviewer said ,''election'') was truly disheartening......
(Robert , remember the advice given by the wise man to the young journalist ''never take favours from a politician'',to avoid being compromised...this does not seem to apply in this country,even to well respected journalists ,who are long in the tooth.Harris has taken his sinecure and disgraced his profession.... )
Its just as well Bertie does'nt own a horse....
Now we know why the change in the tone of Harris's articles immediatly before the General Election.
Harris, is now, the first ,truly ''Independent '' senator in that undemocratic body .
To hear him defend it ,on his first RTE interview after his ''election''(yes ,believe it or not thats what the interviewer said ,''election'') was truly disheartening......
(Robert , remember the advice given by the wise man to the young journalist ''never take favours from a politician'',to avoid being compromised...this does not seem to apply in this country,even to well respected journalists ,who are long in the tooth.Harris has taken his sinecure and disgraced his profession.... )
Its just as well Bertie does'nt own a horse....
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Where theres money there's dirt.
To come up with a new tax is probably the ultimate dream of any government .I am not even sure that the Deposit Interest Retention Tax introduced by the Irish Government was original,but the way it was used certainly was .
The idea of D.I.R.T. is to skim directly off a person's deposit account, tax on the interest on that account ,at source.It is the appropriate bank's,or other financial institution's legal responsibility to do so .
In the Autumn of 1999 an inquiry was set up by the Oireachtas to enquire into the operation of the tax scheme since its inception.This was named The DIRT Inquiry.The body responsible for carrying out the inquiry was the Public Accounts Committee(P.A.C.)The committee's chairman at that time was the late Jim Mitchell of Fine Gael.Those asking the questions were,Pat Rabbitte (Labour),Denis Foley (Fianna Fail),Sean Ardagh(FF),Bernard Durcan (FG) and ????.
The inquiry was televised live on TG4.I had just recently taken early retirement and was able to sit in on most of the proceedings.
What came out ,in the course of the inquiry, was that many.many bank branches were involved in systematic collusion, with their better- off customers ,to avoid the customers liability for DIRT by allowing the chosen people to use an address ,on their bank account ,which put them in the catagory of non-resident ,thereby exempting them from liability for DIRT
Every Bank in the country was apparently involved.It also turned out that even those in high ranking positions in business and government, knew what was going on.Senior Civil Servants such as, the head of the Revenue Commissioners,the Governor of the Central Bank ,were called. as were the chairmen of both AIB and Bank of Ireland,current and former Ministers for Finance(in fact we at one stage had the brothers Quinn,Ruari,in his capacity as former Minister for Finance,and Lochlann in his capacity as Chairman of B.of I. appearing on seperate days).
These people all sat around a large table being crossed examined by the above inquisitors,and directed by the PAC chairman.NO LAWYERS.
It was the best television I have ever seen.I who had been paying a total of 55% tax on my income..if I exceeded my agreed overdraft in the bank,I paid £3.50(referral charge on EACH TRANSACTION ....
Some of the comments made were worth recording ,for example the Governor of the Central Bank(I think it was Maurice o'Connell)said that although they were aware(anecdotally?)that this was going on if he kicked up a fuss this might cause international(legitimate non-residents ?)clients to lose confidence in Irish banking,I think the expression used was ''don't rock the boat''.Also one of the inquisitors ,had himself,a non-resident account.One of the former Ministers for Finance, AlanDukes ,used a similar argument to the Central Bank man, when asked why he did not include changes in his budget when he became aware of the scam.However the same Mr. Dukes had no problem, in the same budget, eliminating the PAYE tax allowance for children.
What was the outcome of this report?Who was punished?What action was taken by successive Governments to prevent this happening again?Apart from more Fianna Fail tax amnesties.Nothing..This was an INQUIRY(or was it an ENQUIRY!!!!,.what's the difference?) stupid ,nothing was ever intended to happen.
I'm...really,really sorry I didn't keep a video tape of those proceedings....
The idea of D.I.R.T. is to skim directly off a person's deposit account, tax on the interest on that account ,at source.It is the appropriate bank's,or other financial institution's legal responsibility to do so .
In the Autumn of 1999 an inquiry was set up by the Oireachtas to enquire into the operation of the tax scheme since its inception.This was named The DIRT Inquiry.The body responsible for carrying out the inquiry was the Public Accounts Committee(P.A.C.)The committee's chairman at that time was the late Jim Mitchell of Fine Gael.Those asking the questions were,Pat Rabbitte (Labour),Denis Foley (Fianna Fail),Sean Ardagh(FF),Bernard Durcan (FG) and ????.
The inquiry was televised live on TG4.I had just recently taken early retirement and was able to sit in on most of the proceedings.
What came out ,in the course of the inquiry, was that many.many bank branches were involved in systematic collusion, with their better- off customers ,to avoid the customers liability for DIRT by allowing the chosen people to use an address ,on their bank account ,which put them in the catagory of non-resident ,thereby exempting them from liability for DIRT
Every Bank in the country was apparently involved.It also turned out that even those in high ranking positions in business and government, knew what was going on.Senior Civil Servants such as, the head of the Revenue Commissioners,the Governor of the Central Bank ,were called. as were the chairmen of both AIB and Bank of Ireland,current and former Ministers for Finance(in fact we at one stage had the brothers Quinn,Ruari,in his capacity as former Minister for Finance,and Lochlann in his capacity as Chairman of B.of I. appearing on seperate days).
These people all sat around a large table being crossed examined by the above inquisitors,and directed by the PAC chairman.NO LAWYERS.
It was the best television I have ever seen.I who had been paying a total of 55% tax on my income..if I exceeded my agreed overdraft in the bank,I paid £3.50(referral charge on EACH TRANSACTION ....
Some of the comments made were worth recording ,for example the Governor of the Central Bank(I think it was Maurice o'Connell)said that although they were aware(anecdotally?)that this was going on if he kicked up a fuss this might cause international(legitimate non-residents ?)clients to lose confidence in Irish banking,I think the expression used was ''don't rock the boat''.Also one of the inquisitors ,had himself,a non-resident account.One of the former Ministers for Finance, AlanDukes ,used a similar argument to the Central Bank man, when asked why he did not include changes in his budget when he became aware of the scam.However the same Mr. Dukes had no problem, in the same budget, eliminating the PAYE tax allowance for children.
What was the outcome of this report?Who was punished?What action was taken by successive Governments to prevent this happening again?Apart from more Fianna Fail tax amnesties.Nothing..This was an INQUIRY(or was it an ENQUIRY!!!!,.what's the difference?) stupid ,nothing was ever intended to happen.
I'm...really,really sorry I didn't keep a video tape of those proceedings....
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Heroes
The spate of suicide and suicide/murders which has taken place in Ireland over the past decade is truly frightening.These tragedies are running parallel with our increase in affluance due to the Celtic Tiger.The 'era'of the Celtic Tiger has brought about genuine and general significant improvement in the lives of all of us.Why then the increase in suicides?At this stage none of us would be arrogant or ignorant enough to say that we have the answer to this dilemma.
There are many people in our society who quietly and bravely get on with their lives despite being very unhappy because of substance abuse,clinical depression or simply hitting a down-spot in their lives.None of these causes are necessarily connected to affluance or lack of it.But in pre-Celtic Tiger days relations,friends and neighbours had more time to stop and notice the change in their demeanor.The over- burdened Health Service were able to provide a more hands-on service to those who were in physciatric care.
But there still are many heroes in our society who provide ongoing care and support for people who are being passed over by the rest of us .The Alone organisation for example and Meals-on Wheels are just two such groups.There are many others out there,who on an individual basis and in their own quiet way will stop to chat to a person who may look upset or lost .Just a smile or a nod or a brief handshake may be enough for a lonely proud person on the fringes of their own percieved despair to enable them to open-up and share their troubles.
When we think of heroes,we usually think of people such as (in my time anyway)those characters portrayed by John Wayne or Gary Cooper ,in the films,or the Super-Heroes.......Superman,Batman,Spiderman or Captain Marvel(by the way whatever happened to Captain Marvel ,Billy Batson,or the Great ''Shazam'' for that matter,all the others have been resurrected?)
Real heroes are with us all the time,we may not notice them because their motives are not social attention or material reward.They do not attract attention but are an invaluable asset in our society particularly now when materialism is at its peak...the surprising thing is that we can all become real heroes,without donning a cape or shouting a magic word...all we have to do to is to give a nod ,a smile or a handshake to someone we might have other wise passed by .....now what was I going to moan about today.........??/
There are many people in our society who quietly and bravely get on with their lives despite being very unhappy because of substance abuse,clinical depression or simply hitting a down-spot in their lives.None of these causes are necessarily connected to affluance or lack of it.But in pre-Celtic Tiger days relations,friends and neighbours had more time to stop and notice the change in their demeanor.The over- burdened Health Service were able to provide a more hands-on service to those who were in physciatric care.
But there still are many heroes in our society who provide ongoing care and support for people who are being passed over by the rest of us .The Alone organisation for example and Meals-on Wheels are just two such groups.There are many others out there,who on an individual basis and in their own quiet way will stop to chat to a person who may look upset or lost .Just a smile or a nod or a brief handshake may be enough for a lonely proud person on the fringes of their own percieved despair to enable them to open-up and share their troubles.
When we think of heroes,we usually think of people such as (in my time anyway)those characters portrayed by John Wayne or Gary Cooper ,in the films,or the Super-Heroes.......Superman,Batman,Spiderman or Captain Marvel(by the way whatever happened to Captain Marvel ,Billy Batson,or the Great ''Shazam'' for that matter,all the others have been resurrected?)
Real heroes are with us all the time,we may not notice them because their motives are not social attention or material reward.They do not attract attention but are an invaluable asset in our society particularly now when materialism is at its peak...the surprising thing is that we can all become real heroes,without donning a cape or shouting a magic word...all we have to do to is to give a nod ,a smile or a handshake to someone we might have other wise passed by .....now what was I going to moan about today.........??/
Monday, July 30, 2007
Time travel
Stephen Hawkings believes that we will eventually be able to travel backwards of forwards in time.What causes him to ,slightly, doubt this eventuality, is the fact that we do not appear to be coming across visitors from the future presently.So are we being visited by people from the future in some guise that prevents us from realising who they are ?
If we could travel into the past we could wonder which of our senses would be overwhelmed the most. We could travel back to the middle ages, for example,seeing people as they actually were ,not just actors in film,or on T.V.Would they be courtous to one another ,or agressive or servile to the better dressed,would their clothing be drab or colourful?
Our hearing would surely be assaulted, loud voices ,unfamiliar accents,animal noises,etc.And then our sense of touch,would we recoil from any physical contact with these dirty strangers,invading, what we now refer to as, our 'personal space?
But probably the sense affected most of all would be our sense of smell.Nowadays we have all sorts of perfumes and potions used privately and publicly to cover up or eliminate smells and the causes of smells .So to travel back to a time when no-one was even conscious of their 'body odour'would definitely take our breath away.
What are we talking about??Even if we went back only 50 years I am sure our sense of smell would be assaulted...As a matter of fact I can remember a little cinema in Rathmines, in the late 40's or early 50's,called'' The Princess''....but on second thoughts ..lets not go there ..ever again...
But suppose someone had travelled forward from the 50's to the present day ...what would they see?..People walking along the street ,apparently ,holding chocolate bars up to their ears...or staring at the palms of their hands ,smiling quietly to themselves.The person from the past,would probably have returned to the 50's(smelly cinemas and all ) and advised all who would listen....''The Future?!Don't ever go there !!They have all gone stark staring....MAD...
If we could travel into the past we could wonder which of our senses would be overwhelmed the most. We could travel back to the middle ages, for example,seeing people as they actually were ,not just actors in film,or on T.V.Would they be courtous to one another ,or agressive or servile to the better dressed,would their clothing be drab or colourful?
Our hearing would surely be assaulted, loud voices ,unfamiliar accents,animal noises,etc.And then our sense of touch,would we recoil from any physical contact with these dirty strangers,invading, what we now refer to as, our 'personal space?
But probably the sense affected most of all would be our sense of smell.Nowadays we have all sorts of perfumes and potions used privately and publicly to cover up or eliminate smells and the causes of smells .So to travel back to a time when no-one was even conscious of their 'body odour'would definitely take our breath away.
What are we talking about??Even if we went back only 50 years I am sure our sense of smell would be assaulted...As a matter of fact I can remember a little cinema in Rathmines, in the late 40's or early 50's,called'' The Princess''....but on second thoughts ..lets not go there ..ever again...
But suppose someone had travelled forward from the 50's to the present day ...what would they see?..People walking along the street ,apparently ,holding chocolate bars up to their ears...or staring at the palms of their hands ,smiling quietly to themselves.The person from the past,would probably have returned to the 50's(smelly cinemas and all ) and advised all who would listen....''The Future?!Don't ever go there !!They have all gone stark staring....MAD...
Friday, July 27, 2007
Who the h**l was H.L.Mencken?
Journalism must be a very difficult profession.I don't mean the Sunday newspaper silly- article scribblers,I mean those who have the daily or weekly task of writing something thats newsworthy ,interesting ,memorable and maybe even profound enough to get their readers animated,either pro or con their article.
Some journalists are campaigners and get genuinely caught-up in what they write about.But if they become campaigners,say against big business or political corruption they not only have to please their readers,but also their editors and no matter how much protesting the newspaper owners do to the contrary ,those owners will be prepared to reign-in,however subtly,a journalist they consider to be a 'maverick.
However we look at it .those newspaper owners,who, we choose to call magnates,such as William Randolph Hearst,Lord Beaverbrook or nowadays Rupert Murdock and of course our own Sir Anthony O'Reilly all weilded or currently do weild tremendous influence ,either direct or implied over even the most professional or dedicated journalist on their newspaper(or for that matter any other news medium.)
In short it still comes down to an employer employee situation.In fact the better a journalist is and the bigger his/her salary ,the more he /she becomes dependent on the man who signs the paycheque.
The journalists' loyalties should always be to their readers.As far as I know, journalism or reporting began when the British House of Commons first allowed reporters in, to record the happenings of the House to the public at large.In fact I think that is where the expression the Fourth Estate was first applied ,in a jeering way ,to members of the press(at that time the three estates were ,the leaders of the church ,the nobility, and of course the ordinary people(or the lords spiritual,the lords temporal and the commoners).
The reporters,or journalists were there to keep the 3rd estate informed on the doings of the other 2 estates.
Does this still happen?Could a journalist ,in any medium , who is getting paid ,say a million a year not be very conscious of what the man who pays his salary wants him to say ?
So who the h**l was H.L.(Henry Louis)Mencken ?He was , of course,first and foremost a journalist.He was from Baltimore(I believe it is pronounced Bawlamer,by those who live there).He was editor at one time ,I think ,of the Baltimore Sun.He always spoke his mind through his writings no matter who he upset.At one time not very popular but eventually through his writings had a great influence on American literature.He was referred to as America's Bernard Shaw and called the Sage of Baltimore.Severly mentally disabled in the latter part of his life .he died in his seventies in about 1956.
Why should he be remembered?A piece of advice he gave an up and coming journalist,''Never accept a free ticket from a theatre manager ,a free ride from the chamber of commerce,or a favour from a politician''.
.By the way with the Irish Independent now at €1.70 and the Irish Daily Mail costing only .70c is the information gleaned from the I.I.worth an extra €6 per week?I have heard of the economies of scale of newspaper production ,but surely this is nothing short of greed....
Some journalists are campaigners and get genuinely caught-up in what they write about.But if they become campaigners,say against big business or political corruption they not only have to please their readers,but also their editors and no matter how much protesting the newspaper owners do to the contrary ,those owners will be prepared to reign-in,however subtly,a journalist they consider to be a 'maverick.
However we look at it .those newspaper owners,who, we choose to call magnates,such as William Randolph Hearst,Lord Beaverbrook or nowadays Rupert Murdock and of course our own Sir Anthony O'Reilly all weilded or currently do weild tremendous influence ,either direct or implied over even the most professional or dedicated journalist on their newspaper(or for that matter any other news medium.)
In short it still comes down to an employer employee situation.In fact the better a journalist is and the bigger his/her salary ,the more he /she becomes dependent on the man who signs the paycheque.
The journalists' loyalties should always be to their readers.As far as I know, journalism or reporting began when the British House of Commons first allowed reporters in, to record the happenings of the House to the public at large.In fact I think that is where the expression the Fourth Estate was first applied ,in a jeering way ,to members of the press(at that time the three estates were ,the leaders of the church ,the nobility, and of course the ordinary people(or the lords spiritual,the lords temporal and the commoners).
The reporters,or journalists were there to keep the 3rd estate informed on the doings of the other 2 estates.
Does this still happen?Could a journalist ,in any medium , who is getting paid ,say a million a year not be very conscious of what the man who pays his salary wants him to say ?
So who the h**l was H.L.(Henry Louis)Mencken ?He was , of course,first and foremost a journalist.He was from Baltimore(I believe it is pronounced Bawlamer,by those who live there).He was editor at one time ,I think ,of the Baltimore Sun.He always spoke his mind through his writings no matter who he upset.At one time not very popular but eventually through his writings had a great influence on American literature.He was referred to as America's Bernard Shaw and called the Sage of Baltimore.Severly mentally disabled in the latter part of his life .he died in his seventies in about 1956.
Why should he be remembered?A piece of advice he gave an up and coming journalist,''Never accept a free ticket from a theatre manager ,a free ride from the chamber of commerce,or a favour from a politician''.
.By the way with the Irish Independent now at €1.70 and the Irish Daily Mail costing only .70c is the information gleaned from the I.I.worth an extra €6 per week?I have heard of the economies of scale of newspaper production ,but surely this is nothing short of greed....
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Pat Carey/Irish Independent/etc
Our new Junior Minister for Drugs Pat Carey seems to have upset a number of people because of his proposal to have all mobile phones registered with, a view to curbing the activities of the drug dealers using the anonymous pay-as- you- go mobile phone system for their rotten business.His senior Civil Servants were first out of the traps,telling him that the proposal was unworkable,and then we had Kevin Myers of the Irish Independent ridiculing him.I must say, straight away ,that I believe Bertie Ahearn' s ploy in increasing the number of Junior Ministeries to 20 (there were only 3, allowed for, originally in our constitution)to allow him more leeway when handing out jobs-for-boys,was ,even for him,a very cynical move. But a minister ,having been legally(?) appointed should be given an opportunity to, at least try, to do something,before his suggestions are strangled at birth by the opinion-formers in our society-allowed to make his own mistakes ,if you like.
The Minister is the person who will be blamed if nothing is done,or if things go wrong in that area,not the Senior Civil Servants or for that matter Kevin Myers or other hurlers-on- the-ditch.
Lets talk about the Senior Civil Servants,the real permanent Government,or the''Sir Humpries'',as they seem to enjoy being called.They are the people who came up with the cunning plan ,now known as 'Benchmarking',under which increases were given(during the Dot-com boom) to bring Civil Servants' (and all other public servants')salaries to the level of private companies employees.
No records of this exercise were ever kept(to ensure confidentiality apparently),but nevertheless the result was...Civil Servants,and in particular Senior Civil Servants were ...deemed to be underpaid in comparison with the dot-com boys,(incidentally many of whom suffered a drop in salary or loss of jobs when the dot-com boom ended).But the S.C.S's go from strenght to strenght salarywise(including ''benchmarked'' pensions that continue to increase in line with the rate for the JOB ,even years after retirement,an arrangement devoutly to be wished by all outside the public service)
The same S.C.S. seem to be able to nobble a new minister but still retain an anonymity and unaccountability in the eyes of the taxpaying public.
And Kevin Myers?A good and, for the most part ,interesting journalist,but recently,like many of his colleagues in Independent Newspapers,he is beginning to pall,particularly his confusing and hyperbolic attempts at humour.
Our criticism of Government Ministers should be severe but also we should retain a capacity for seperating the man(or woman) from the job.
An example....a good few years ago on a family holiday in Ballycastle,Co. Mayo,listening to the local news one morning ,I heard a report,that local politician Pee Flynn was giving up his job as a primary school teacher.Now ,this man had been a T.D. for many years,A Junior Minister ,a Senior Minister in various ministeries, an M.E.P.,and was at that time a European Commissioner.On hearing this I immediately started moaning(real moaners NEVER go on holidays) to my long-suffering wife about the greed of politicians holding on to their teaching jobs and pensions long after there was any material need to do so and denying some young graduate an opportunity for a permanent position.
Later on that morning we were in Ballina for the Salmon Festival and happened to meet the aforementioned Pee Flynn out and about with his family.Handshakes and greetings were exchanged and we all moved on...but my wife kept muttering something out of the corner of her mouth about me being a hypocrite,how I was able to make all those comments about him behind closed doors but too cowardly to say it to his face.In my defence I could only say that I could not say what I thought on front of his family but that in the proper forum I could(and have said) say what I felt.....I obviously would not make a good politician..../etc
The Minister is the person who will be blamed if nothing is done,or if things go wrong in that area,not the Senior Civil Servants or for that matter Kevin Myers or other hurlers-on- the-ditch.
Lets talk about the Senior Civil Servants,the real permanent Government,or the''Sir Humpries'',as they seem to enjoy being called.They are the people who came up with the cunning plan ,now known as 'Benchmarking',under which increases were given(during the Dot-com boom) to bring Civil Servants' (and all other public servants')salaries to the level of private companies employees.
No records of this exercise were ever kept(to ensure confidentiality apparently),but nevertheless the result was...Civil Servants,and in particular Senior Civil Servants were ...deemed to be underpaid in comparison with the dot-com boys,(incidentally many of whom suffered a drop in salary or loss of jobs when the dot-com boom ended).But the S.C.S's go from strenght to strenght salarywise(including ''benchmarked'' pensions that continue to increase in line with the rate for the JOB ,even years after retirement,an arrangement devoutly to be wished by all outside the public service)
The same S.C.S. seem to be able to nobble a new minister but still retain an anonymity and unaccountability in the eyes of the taxpaying public.
And Kevin Myers?A good and, for the most part ,interesting journalist,but recently,like many of his colleagues in Independent Newspapers,he is beginning to pall,particularly his confusing and hyperbolic attempts at humour.
Our criticism of Government Ministers should be severe but also we should retain a capacity for seperating the man(or woman) from the job.
An example....a good few years ago on a family holiday in Ballycastle,Co. Mayo,listening to the local news one morning ,I heard a report,that local politician Pee Flynn was giving up his job as a primary school teacher.Now ,this man had been a T.D. for many years,A Junior Minister ,a Senior Minister in various ministeries, an M.E.P.,and was at that time a European Commissioner.On hearing this I immediately started moaning(real moaners NEVER go on holidays) to my long-suffering wife about the greed of politicians holding on to their teaching jobs and pensions long after there was any material need to do so and denying some young graduate an opportunity for a permanent position.
Later on that morning we were in Ballina for the Salmon Festival and happened to meet the aforementioned Pee Flynn out and about with his family.Handshakes and greetings were exchanged and we all moved on...but my wife kept muttering something out of the corner of her mouth about me being a hypocrite,how I was able to make all those comments about him behind closed doors but too cowardly to say it to his face.In my defence I could only say that I could not say what I thought on front of his family but that in the proper forum I could(and have said) say what I felt.....I obviously would not make a good politician..../etc
Monday, July 23, 2007
The Irish Senate
The results of yet another example of Irish ''democracy'' will be available shortly.That is assuming that, the powers -that -be, bother to let us, the citizens, know at all .
Yes , we may be informed in the next few days of the results of the Irish senatorial ''election''.We have vaguely heard over the past few weeks, about the little political spats over the doling out of these seats in what is laughingly called 'our Upper House.
For those among the Irish citizenry who have not being paying attention closely;we do have an Upper House.It consists of 60 seats.The 'electorate'are,T.D.'s and local councillars, (43 seats)and graduates of our main Universities (U.C.D.,Trinity) (6 seats) and thats about it ......hold-on ..wait...that only totals 49 seats,Joe...Oh yes I forgot to tell you the balance of 11 seats are filled on the whim of our Taoiseach (you know the same man who is leading the party that are ''running the country'' on 41% of the votes cast in our recent General Election.)We have had the usual jokes about Caligua appointimg his horse to the Senate in Rome,but we must assume that that was not a serious appointment.But here in Ireland in 2007 almost anyone can be appointed by our Taoiseach.
The the Senate is being used cynically by politicians as a waiting -room or a departure lounge for up-and -coming politicians or for those who were unable get elected by the proper proportional representation democratic election. People such as myself who did not graduate from either of the above -mentioned Universities,but who have cast their vote in every single general election since coming of age ,people who have a deep ,genuine interest in how this country is run ,have no say in how the Senate is made-up.
The, now practically extinct, Progressive Democrats set out originally to abolish the Senate .They are now using that institution as a political breathing-hole ,to keep them alive for a littlewhile longer.How can anybody,who is not gaining materially in some way from this body,continue to approve its existence?
Some have suggested ''changes'' or ''adjustments'' or even''radical overhaul'' or some other political tinkering.I say ABOLISH it completly.Whatever Eamon DeValera had in mind ,devious and all as he was ,I am quite sure he would turn in his gravy if he could see what it has become.......
Yes , we may be informed in the next few days of the results of the Irish senatorial ''election''.We have vaguely heard over the past few weeks, about the little political spats over the doling out of these seats in what is laughingly called 'our Upper House.
For those among the Irish citizenry who have not being paying attention closely;we do have an Upper House.It consists of 60 seats.The 'electorate'are,T.D.'s and local councillars, (43 seats)and graduates of our main Universities (U.C.D.,Trinity) (6 seats) and thats about it ......hold-on ..wait...that only totals 49 seats,Joe...Oh yes I forgot to tell you the balance of 11 seats are filled on the whim of our Taoiseach (you know the same man who is leading the party that are ''running the country'' on 41% of the votes cast in our recent General Election.)We have had the usual jokes about Caligua appointimg his horse to the Senate in Rome,but we must assume that that was not a serious appointment.But here in Ireland in 2007 almost anyone can be appointed by our Taoiseach.
The the Senate is being used cynically by politicians as a waiting -room or a departure lounge for up-and -coming politicians or for those who were unable get elected by the proper proportional representation democratic election. People such as myself who did not graduate from either of the above -mentioned Universities,but who have cast their vote in every single general election since coming of age ,people who have a deep ,genuine interest in how this country is run ,have no say in how the Senate is made-up.
The, now practically extinct, Progressive Democrats set out originally to abolish the Senate .They are now using that institution as a political breathing-hole ,to keep them alive for a littlewhile longer.How can anybody,who is not gaining materially in some way from this body,continue to approve its existence?
Some have suggested ''changes'' or ''adjustments'' or even''radical overhaul'' or some other political tinkering.I say ABOLISH it completly.Whatever Eamon DeValera had in mind ,devious and all as he was ,I am quite sure he would turn in his gravy if he could see what it has become.......
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Alistair Cooke
The renowned journalist/writer/commentator Alistair Cooke,died about four years ago.He was over 90 years old .He had 'retired' from his ''day-job'' less than a year before his death.He had been a journalist all his working life;having spent 60 years presenting his radio-letter ''Letter from America'' in which he managed to inform and entertain his listeners with his news stories .
These stories were able to link local news with national and indeed, international, news .Sometime after his death a story broke about a pharmaceutical company effectivly robbing graves in order to use the bones of the deceased in a manufacturing process.Alistair Cooke's bones were among those taken.
This ,of course, was very upsetting for his and the families of the other departed .
But ,in a way,how wonderfully appropriate that ,the mortal remains of ,probably, the world's longest serving working journalist, should be still making headlines years after his death at the age of 90 plus.
Not directly connected but with a similar appropriatness is the story of our own(?) Micheal MacLiammore and to a lesser extent Hilton Edwards.They lived for the theatre and have left a marvellous legacy of theatrical events.the Gate,Oscar Wilde,and Hilton Edwards' involvement in what is now RTE.(refer to the double biography ''The Boys'').
MacLiammore was seen by his peers as one of the best Irish stage actors ever.We,the non-theatre-going public, did not know, until after both he and Hilton Edwards had died ,that he was not Irish at all.Not only was he not Irish but he was 'very'English(Alfred Willmore)and almost everything about his life and background was invention.
As in the case of Alistair Cooke ,how appropriate that this dedicated actor should have spent all his life in Ireland playing a part,as far as his Irish origins and (for most of us) his sexual -orientation were concerned,on a 24/7 timescale...,and many years after his death we should still be impressed by the fact that an actor named Alfred Willmore convinced us that a man called Michael MacLiammore really existed..
These stories were able to link local news with national and indeed, international, news .Sometime after his death a story broke about a pharmaceutical company effectivly robbing graves in order to use the bones of the deceased in a manufacturing process.Alistair Cooke's bones were among those taken.
This ,of course, was very upsetting for his and the families of the other departed .
But ,in a way,how wonderfully appropriate that ,the mortal remains of ,probably, the world's longest serving working journalist, should be still making headlines years after his death at the age of 90 plus.
Not directly connected but with a similar appropriatness is the story of our own(?) Micheal MacLiammore and to a lesser extent Hilton Edwards.They lived for the theatre and have left a marvellous legacy of theatrical events.the Gate,Oscar Wilde,and Hilton Edwards' involvement in what is now RTE.(refer to the double biography ''The Boys'').
MacLiammore was seen by his peers as one of the best Irish stage actors ever.We,the non-theatre-going public, did not know, until after both he and Hilton Edwards had died ,that he was not Irish at all.Not only was he not Irish but he was 'very'English(Alfred Willmore)and almost everything about his life and background was invention.
As in the case of Alistair Cooke ,how appropriate that this dedicated actor should have spent all his life in Ireland playing a part,as far as his Irish origins and (for most of us) his sexual -orientation were concerned,on a 24/7 timescale...,and many years after his death we should still be impressed by the fact that an actor named Alfred Willmore convinced us that a man called Michael MacLiammore really existed..
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Mary Harney/P.D.'s
Mary Harney has decided to remain as leader of of the Progressive Democrats simply because nobody else wanted the job.It is of course a great pity that a political party such as this should suffer a demise.However,its demise is the fault of Mary Harney herself.She was the person who decided that to privatise Health services in Ireland was the way to go .Of course she put in a lot of work politically over the years and the efficent way in which she abolished 'smokey' coal will be one of her lasting legacies.But Harney's grim determination to privatise Health ,despite serious objections and complaints from the public at large ,was her undoing.
She hasn't gone away ,of course,and presumably the privatisation of our Health service remains.Mary Harney in her previous ministry came up with the mantra 'shop around' when faced with the problem of rising prices.In most instances this advice was a nonsense in practical terms,for example 'shopping around' for groceries was not possible for people who did not have their own transport,or 'shopping around' for petrol in some areas was a non -runner.
The most hippocrital example of this nonsense was when we were told to 'shop around' on telecommunications.A personal example....I was being ripped-off by Eircom,I was unable to even contact a human being in that company who could help me with billing queries....so on Mary Harney's advice I 'shopped around'....and came up with ....Smart Telecom....As we all now know Eircom ,who own the land lines, were allowed to literally pull the plug on Smart.What were Mary and her civil servants doing?????.Nothing...except telling us to 'shop around '(I think the Mary Harney-appointed 'REGULATOR ',having begged O'Reilly(or whoever owned Eircom at the time) scurried off to EUROPE ,to try and get Brussels to intervene.(Good old Eircom....you are all wonderful ...wonderful...wonderful ...people ...allowing me to use the internet like this)
Guess which company I am back with.....?
Another example of the effect of ' 'shop- around- Mary's ''policy was the famous BUPA saga,where once again the poor slobs were advised to s/a...so we moved from VHI to BUPA and all was going well when suddenly it was discovered that to actually ''compete'', BUPA would have to pay their competitors to allow them to compete....
Oh I've had enough....best of luck in the future Mary....
She hasn't gone away ,of course,and presumably the privatisation of our Health service remains.Mary Harney in her previous ministry came up with the mantra 'shop around' when faced with the problem of rising prices.In most instances this advice was a nonsense in practical terms,for example 'shopping around' for groceries was not possible for people who did not have their own transport,or 'shopping around' for petrol in some areas was a non -runner.
The most hippocrital example of this nonsense was when we were told to 'shop around' on telecommunications.A personal example....I was being ripped-off by Eircom,I was unable to even contact a human being in that company who could help me with billing queries....so on Mary Harney's advice I 'shopped around'....and came up with ....Smart Telecom....As we all now know Eircom ,who own the land lines, were allowed to literally pull the plug on Smart.What were Mary and her civil servants doing?????.Nothing...except telling us to 'shop around '(I think the Mary Harney-appointed 'REGULATOR ',having begged O'Reilly(or whoever owned Eircom at the time) scurried off to EUROPE ,to try and get Brussels to intervene.(Good old Eircom....you are all wonderful ...wonderful...wonderful ...people ...allowing me to use the internet like this)
Guess which company I am back with.....?
Another example of the effect of ' 'shop- around- Mary's ''policy was the famous BUPA saga,where once again the poor slobs were advised to s/a...so we moved from VHI to BUPA and all was going well when suddenly it was discovered that to actually ''compete'', BUPA would have to pay their competitors to allow them to compete....
Oh I've had enough....best of luck in the future Mary....
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
A smell of fish
It appears that something decidedly 'fishy' is going on, and has been going on for some time between our Taoiseach and the media,the Irish Independent in particular.Not just concerning his murky financial affairs,but in the media's refusal to take him to task on such issues as ,for example,his recent outrageous remark regarding suicide.
A few weeks ago the Sunday Independent had a glaring lead headline about the C.A.R.I. organisation being 'investigated' by the Mahon Tribunal in relation to Bertie Ahearn's finances.
Clearly this story was intended to add fuel to the ongoing criticism of Mahon.
Sure ,we have headlines referring to the Taoiseach's 'red herring'comment;when an apparent banking error caused Ahearn to refer to a conspiricy,and other headlines mentioning an expected 'grilling'when he is, finally, dragged,kicking and screaming-clinging- to- the- doorposts ,to give his explanations of his financial affairs.
But ...wait...hold-on...just a minnow...isn't this the man who claimed that the Tribunal was on a 'fishing' expedition in relation to their 'trawl' for information and he looking forward to giving his side of the story...?...If so why try to further delay his appearence.
At last will we have the trout,the whole trout and nothing but the trout...?
A few weeks ago the Sunday Independent had a glaring lead headline about the C.A.R.I. organisation being 'investigated' by the Mahon Tribunal in relation to Bertie Ahearn's finances.
Clearly this story was intended to add fuel to the ongoing criticism of Mahon.
Sure ,we have headlines referring to the Taoiseach's 'red herring'comment;when an apparent banking error caused Ahearn to refer to a conspiricy,and other headlines mentioning an expected 'grilling'when he is, finally, dragged,kicking and screaming-clinging- to- the- doorposts ,to give his explanations of his financial affairs.
But ...wait...hold-on...just a minnow...isn't this the man who claimed that the Tribunal was on a 'fishing' expedition in relation to their 'trawl' for information and he looking forward to giving his side of the story...?...If so why try to further delay his appearence.
At last will we have the trout,the whole trout and nothing but the trout...?
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Poker/Rathgar
Texas-hold'em seems to be the current gambling craze;having only, really. played the game, properly ,once, and been the winner on the night ,I suppose I should have a liking for it .My daughter-in-law, who is a true Texan ,and probably learned the game in her crib ,taught me the rules .Somehow I couldn't see how Txhld'm could be better than the real old-fashioned,5 card draw poker which I played when growing-up in Rathgar in the fifties.Our weekly poker -school, in which one person might win anothers weekly payroll on a Friday night,and then the loser borrows, f rom the winner,enough cash to get him through the week,and the next week it all happens again ,probably in reverse....all good fun,had none of the soppy rules of Txhld'm.
First of all, in Texas -hold'em, there is an agreed 'table-stake'(no chance of losing all your wages on the night...softies...)
Then one can 'see' ,with a partial amount, if they haven't enough to match a big bet (that takes care of the courageous big bluffers...wimps)
Finally there can only be a winner- takes -all outcome,which would seem to rule out combining with a pal to fleece a 'pidgeon',who had just been paid a large bonus...cowards...
The rules of Texas Hold'em evolved to enable larger groups of players than the usual 5 or 6 to play with the deck of 52 without having to resort to using the discards,also to avoid the situation of players losing all their cash ,and to block big bluffers from getting away with their bluff....oh for the good old days....;last night I dreamt I went to Rathgar again.....
First of all, in Texas -hold'em, there is an agreed 'table-stake'(no chance of losing all your wages on the night...softies...)
Then one can 'see' ,with a partial amount, if they haven't enough to match a big bet (that takes care of the courageous big bluffers...wimps)
Finally there can only be a winner- takes -all outcome,which would seem to rule out combining with a pal to fleece a 'pidgeon',who had just been paid a large bonus...cowards...
The rules of Texas Hold'em evolved to enable larger groups of players than the usual 5 or 6 to play with the deck of 52 without having to resort to using the discards,also to avoid the situation of players losing all their cash ,and to block big bluffers from getting away with their bluff....oh for the good old days....;last night I dreamt I went to Rathgar again.....
Monday, July 16, 2007
Arthur C. Clarke
As far as I know the science fiction (?) writer and thinker Arthur C. Clarke is still alive and living in Sri Lanka.In the 1930's he was already thinking and writing about rockets carrying passengers into outer space,even before the first crude rockets were fired on London during the 2nd World War.He had even designed navigational instruments which would be used over 3o years later by American and Russian space crafts.
Clarke's collaboration with the great film director Stanley Kubrick(or was it Kubricks collaboration with Clarke ?)...in the making of the film '2001 Space Odyssey' helped to make that film a classic.Clarke also has ideas on how in the not-too-distant future space-tourism will become a possibility.Already people such as Richard Branso and our own Bill Cullen apparently have'booked'seats on future space flights....of course the cost will be in millions(£ or € ???,does it really matter),but its a start and the price is bound to come down.
Clarke's vision of future space- tourism was a sort of 'stairway to the stars' on which the tourist would travel, in incremental stages, to a space-station in a fixed orbit above the Equator.I certainly don't know whether it is scientifically possible but I would not ignore the vision of a man who as a , humble civil-servant, in the dark days of i930's London, already has his eyes firmly fixed on the stars.
So three cheers for Arthur Charles Clarke,who is 90 years of age this year(assuming he is still alive) hip-hip-hooray.......
Clarke's collaboration with the great film director Stanley Kubrick(or was it Kubricks collaboration with Clarke ?)...in the making of the film '2001 Space Odyssey' helped to make that film a classic.Clarke also has ideas on how in the not-too-distant future space-tourism will become a possibility.Already people such as Richard Branso and our own Bill Cullen apparently have'booked'seats on future space flights....of course the cost will be in millions(£ or € ???,does it really matter),but its a start and the price is bound to come down.
Clarke's vision of future space- tourism was a sort of 'stairway to the stars' on which the tourist would travel, in incremental stages, to a space-station in a fixed orbit above the Equator.I certainly don't know whether it is scientifically possible but I would not ignore the vision of a man who as a , humble civil-servant, in the dark days of i930's London, already has his eyes firmly fixed on the stars.
So three cheers for Arthur Charles Clarke,who is 90 years of age this year(assuming he is still alive) hip-hip-hooray.......
Saturday, July 14, 2007
St.Lukes Hospital
Anyone who knows St.Lukes Cancer Hospital in Rathgar will be aware that the site on which it stands is probably the most exclusive ,discreet area in Dublin City.Unfortunately their visits were probably at a time of sadness or concern for themselves or a relative or friend.
It appears that there is a proposal to close St.Lukes....I think to 'centralise care' is the reason given for this move.
The pretence is that the proposal is Dept.of Health driven,when it appears quite obvious that this is for the benefit of some developer waiting anxiously in the wings....
St.Lukes site bridges the area between Highfield Rd. and Orwell park,the original 'leafy suburbs' of Rathgar, entrance and exit are both on to secluded roads....a developers dream....
We should not let this happen! State owned property such as this should not be allowed to pass quietly into private hands.
It appears that there is a proposal to close St.Lukes....I think to 'centralise care' is the reason given for this move.
The pretence is that the proposal is Dept.of Health driven,when it appears quite obvious that this is for the benefit of some developer waiting anxiously in the wings....
St.Lukes site bridges the area between Highfield Rd. and Orwell park,the original 'leafy suburbs' of Rathgar, entrance and exit are both on to secluded roads....a developers dream....
We should not let this happen! State owned property such as this should not be allowed to pass quietly into private hands.
Friday, July 13, 2007
irish Independent
I've just noticed that the Irish Independent,my favourite newspaper for the past 40 years has increased its price to €1.70,I must somehow have missed that headline....
This increase comes very close to the perceived change in editorial policy in relation to the Taoiseach and his party .This policy seems to have slipped from a balanced journalistic approach,to a pro Bertie/F.F. one.
This is a newspaper which once upon a time, boldly, challenged the greed of the National Toll Roads Company for their sneaky increases.Of course the public have an easier choice as far as the greed of Independent Newspapers is concerned...instead of having to take the long way around,as we would have to do in the case of N.T.R., let us simply stop buying the Indo.;borrow someone elses,buy it once or twice a week or (as a last resort) revert to getting the (cheaper,and much more pretentious),publication known as the Irish Times.....
This increase comes very close to the perceived change in editorial policy in relation to the Taoiseach and his party .This policy seems to have slipped from a balanced journalistic approach,to a pro Bertie/F.F. one.
This is a newspaper which once upon a time, boldly, challenged the greed of the National Toll Roads Company for their sneaky increases.Of course the public have an easier choice as far as the greed of Independent Newspapers is concerned...instead of having to take the long way around,as we would have to do in the case of N.T.R., let us simply stop buying the Indo.;borrow someone elses,buy it once or twice a week or (as a last resort) revert to getting the (cheaper,and much more pretentious),publication known as the Irish Times.....
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Chop In China
Zheng Xiaoyu, the former executive in China responsible for Food/Drug quality, has been executed for corruption, with an estimated value of bribes accepted approx €630,ooo.
This rather extreme measure should, however, cause us in this country to see how casually we have accepted corporate and political corruption over many years.
Some mature journalists and others here seem to be arguing that a senior politician who accepts bribes in thousands should be excused because he wasn't as corrupt as the senior politician who took bribes (?) in millions....
Some of these established journalists are now beginning to lampoon the tribunals with the obvious intention of having them closed down....but the people who will benefit most from closure are the corrupt ones...
Also, considering what happened to ZX above, should our brand new (junior) Minister for Food Quality, Trevor Sargent, be on the look out??
This rather extreme measure should, however, cause us in this country to see how casually we have accepted corporate and political corruption over many years.
Some mature journalists and others here seem to be arguing that a senior politician who accepts bribes in thousands should be excused because he wasn't as corrupt as the senior politician who took bribes (?) in millions....
Some of these established journalists are now beginning to lampoon the tribunals with the obvious intention of having them closed down....but the people who will benefit most from closure are the corrupt ones...
Also, considering what happened to ZX above, should our brand new (junior) Minister for Food Quality, Trevor Sargent, be on the look out??
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Conflict Resolution, or Ahern's Folly
The latest cunning plan from our Minister for Foreign affairs Mr.Ahern to set up a conflict resolution group is very much premature.Surely we should wait at least a year to see if 'the North's'problems have truly been resolved.If the 23million euro annual budget mentioned is burning a hole in the pockets of the Dept.of Finance why not gift the amount to someone such as John O'Shea of Goal ,an organisation with a track record of poverty/suffering resolution worldwide already.....
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Having been a reader of the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent for the past 40 years I have certainly noticed a subtle change in Editorial stance in relation to Bertie Ahern's administration ,in the recent past i.e.since the 'off' was signalled for the latest General Election.While I do not believe that Sir Antony or his editors have been 'got at', I do believe that some shift has taken place in the thinking in Independent Newspapers.
The most obvious about face being that of Eoghan Harris in the Sunday Independent.I certainly enjoy reading most of the S.I.contributers(I am even willing to suffer the dizzy-blonde subjective articles -accompanied by the inevitable large personalised photos-filling the gaps between the decent writers),but now to find this paper becoming an apologist for this latest and (to my mind ) undemocratic administration takes the biscuit.
I appreciate that balance is essential in any newspaper...but truth is more important.Be it Berties finances,or his 'off-the-cuff'comments (e.g. his deliberate reference in a detrimental way to suicide being passed off as a slip of the tongue by some of the contributers) suggests to me that an easy ride is I.N.N.'s new gift to Ahern....WHY?....Gene Kerrigan better look out ....
The most obvious about face being that of Eoghan Harris in the Sunday Independent.I certainly enjoy reading most of the S.I.contributers(I am even willing to suffer the dizzy-blonde subjective articles -accompanied by the inevitable large personalised photos-filling the gaps between the decent writers),but now to find this paper becoming an apologist for this latest and (to my mind ) undemocratic administration takes the biscuit.
I appreciate that balance is essential in any newspaper...but truth is more important.Be it Berties finances,or his 'off-the-cuff'comments (e.g. his deliberate reference in a detrimental way to suicide being passed off as a slip of the tongue by some of the contributers) suggests to me that an easy ride is I.N.N.'s new gift to Ahern....WHY?....Gene Kerrigan better look out ....
Monday, July 9, 2007
The Office of Public Works have apparently bought Castletown with a view to refurbishing it. Good! The people of Celbridge are delighted for their local amenity to be upgraded, now that it at last belongs to us the Taxpayer. As a 35-year resident of Celbrige, I have been able to enjoy this local amenity as have my children and grandchildren. So I thank the OPW for this.
A couple of remarks however. I read last week in the LC some comments made by a spokesperson from the OPW who does not seem to appreciate what Castletown House, Celbridge means to the people of Celbridge.
A couple of remarks however. I read last week in the LC some comments made by a spokesperson from the OPW who does not seem to appreciate what Castletown House, Celbridge means to the people of Celbridge.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)