Emigration ! People talk about it as if it is a bad thing !

Back when people seem not to remember, when interest rates were between 19 and 21%, and unemployment was over 20% , I joined most of the rest of us that were lucky to get a third level education (a luxury back then – not a God given right – and we had to pay for fees !) and emigrated from this, our great country. 

It was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I was born in 1964, and whilst growing up, got to recognise each and every budget, as a bad thing, where income tax was raised every year. Petrol, cigarettes, alcohol – you name it – went up in price. Tax bands were narrowed at every budget and any pluses were not worth mentioning.

But I was lucky ! I didn’t think it then, like most people under the age of thirty don’t think it now. I got a great education and was able to graduate from University (there were only five then – with a narrow enough list of courses). I realised though that I would have to seek work PDQ (pretty damn quick) and if I didn’t, then it was off to the US, or the UK, or somewhere else far flung, to earn my living. I certainly wasn’t thinking of taking a year out to ‘find’ myself, or tour the world before I started off work – but perhaps that’s a good thing – that some can afford to actually ‘do’ that now.

Back then (it’s not that long ago), if you got a job offer, you bloody well took it and were delighted. It meant that you were one of the lucky ones – one of the ones to stay ! Like the eldest boy in the family, you got the farm !

Most of my class in College waited only until they had their University degrees in their hands, before packing a bag and heading to the Airport or Ferry – and then, like now, it was seen as the ‘cream of the crop’ was leaving, never to return. Those days are thankfully gone. Most of the people who I knew to emigrate in the 80’s are now back in Ireland, living their life, raising their families, and getting on with things.

Emigration was seen in the past as just that (and indeed for many it was) – leaving the Four Green Fields never to return. Emigrating to America was the then equivalent of leaving to set up shop on the moon – never mind going to Australia or New Zealand !

Emigration in the mid 1980’s was our first step into the world of business – and by that I mean, first time going to work – whether you were an engineer, a nurse or a bricklayer. It was the first time a lot of us had been away from home. It was the first time we had to really look after ourselves.

We had to realise that this wasn’t a summer holiday away from home – this was it ! This was life ! It was this that all our parent’s teachings had been about. This is what school and college was preparing us for. To stand on our two feet and be counted – and thankfully most passed, some with flying colours.

You see, we were Irish. This had happened before to our brothers and sisters,  fathers and grandfathers – and make no doubt, even if we find endless gas off the Mayo coast, and oil in Dublin Bay – it will happen again. Emigration made men and women out of us and made us all the stronger for it. It happened to our forefathers, but in those darker times, international travel was not an option – and there was the fact, that if you came home from overseas in the past, without the trappings of being rich, then you were viewed as a failure. 

It is hard to believe that even today, there are Irish men and women, living on the streets of England, that will not come home, for that very reason, and even though there are many of them, thet are/were in a minority. Most people who left these shores in the past, are able to look back on those days and reflect that it was a good experience in the long run. Personally it was very hard to be a strange city and so far from family and friends, but in time, it became more bearable and soon it became the norm.

Once again the media are jumping on the band wagon, berating the Govt and the politicians, at every hands turn, saying that once again, Ireland’s brave young are having to leave. RTE last week, on their Six One News, had a piece about two young lads about to leave a certain village in Ireland, and that the village was going to suffer because of it. There is nothing to suggest that even if the two lads stayed in Ireland with an abundance of work, that they would stay in their village. More than likely they would have been off, if only for a few years, to Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick or some other place, with brighter lights than their own small home town.

And there lies the rub – most of those who are forced to spread their wings at this moment in time, will be back. It might be a few years, it might even be decade, but they will return. They will have learned more of the world.  They will have gained invaluable experience, which they would not have gained here. They will come back to settle down and begin a new phase of their lives – and all our lives will be richer because of it.

If the World is warming up, why am I so cold ?

Experts say it is the single biggest challenge facing humanity at the present, but are we looking at the wrong end of the Global Warming problem

You may be of the believe that climate change and global warming are parts of a normal cycle of our world, naturally heating and cooling every few thousand years, or, you may be part of the school that believes this heating of the world’s atmosphere, to the detrimental effect of mankind, is actually of mankind’s doing. 

If we are facing these problems because of what some might call Mother Nature, and the natural cycle of the earth, heating up and cooling down, then there surely is little we can do, and indeed nothing we should do. 

If, on the other hand, we are at this stage because of the burning of fossil fuels and our erosion of the ozone layer etc, then we need to examine if we can alter this situation – and how best to tackle it.

But are we being given the full picture ? We, as consumers, are being squarely blamed for our part in global warming, whereas it could be argued that it is actually the world’s corporations and governments that are actually more to blame, and that they have shifted the onus onto us mere citizens. We alone cannot stop countries like China and India from polluting the world’s atmospheres, Kyoto or not.

However, even if all governments in the world were willing to spend more money on solving the problems (which they are not !), it cannot all be done at once. We have to prioritize. The biggest problems need tackling first. It is the national governments that can effect real change – and real change at home, not abroad.

CO2 emissions and carbon footprints have become the bywords for fighting global warming, but yet here in Ireland we have huge problems with water quality, which has a far more damaging and direct effect on our population, than what the world’s multi-nationals are pumping out. We even have the Green Party as part of the Government, so things should be looking up ! But, are they ?

Last year in Galway, people had to buy bottled water, or boil their own before using it, for months on end. Why ? because of the failure of the local water plant to filter out the germ ‘cryptosporidium’ as it was an old and out of date filtration system. What was done about this ? Local and national authorities argued over who was to blame and pointed fingers at each other whilst the dirty water continued to be ‘fed’ into the public system. The irony is here that one of the local councils was headed by a Green Party mayor. And there are other blackspots for drinking water around the country which continue to cause problems for Joe Citizen. Yet, what is being done ? 

Other countries would be less tolerant for a water service akin to the third world.

Environmentalists the world over are focussing on the melting ice caps and the rising seas, when a look closer to home might yield better results. The ice caps and the seas are worrying problems and there is enough evidence to show there is significant change, but bringing your bottles to the bottle bank and composting your rubbish is not going to change the polar meltdown. 

Whilst taxing carbon does seem a popular and perhaps effective initiative, but why are we not growing more bio-fuel crops which can provide the world with non-fossil fuels - a fuel we can grow, time and time again ? A natural solution to an un-natural problem ?

But, if you are now feeling even more desperate and useless – don’t be. We, as citizens, and as a nation, can have a meaningful and tangible impact on the quality of where we live. We can have a role in the heightened protection of our coastal waters, our lakes and our waterways – we can plant more forestry and clean up our country a little more. 

This can be achieved if we combine our efforts, and not sit back and wonder what can be done about oil spillages in Alaska and CO2 emissions, over which we have little power to change.

The Copenhagen Consensus meets again this year, with the world’s greatest authorities, to find out what are the biggest challenges facing mankind in the 21^st century and beyond. Climate change ranks a lowly 13^th on the scale of threats, yet some would have us believe differently.

The panel at the Consensus found that climate policies have "costs that were likely to exceed the benefits". It further stated "global warming must be addressed, but agreed that approaches based on too abrupt a shift toward lower emissions of carbon are needlessly expensive."

Critics of the Consensus say that this is too simplistic an approach and further criticised the fact that it was only ‘economic’ in its outlook. Who do we believe ?

Wherever you stand on this issue, it is surely easier to concentrate on issues we can change and which are far simpler, than trying to alter something that, even collectively, we have little power to change. So, perhaps the powers that be could concentrate on providing more initiatives to help us help ourselves – and let us try and change the things we can change.

Beautiful Game ?

The recent tribulations on and indeed off the football pitch must force us to reflect on what was once called ‘The Beautiful Game’

It was the great Edson Arantes do Nascimento or Pele, as he is better known, who called his auto-biography ‘My Life and the Beautiful Game’ but with the way the game has been allowed to deteriorate to such terrible levels, one wonders if he still thinks it is still such.

Proponents of the game will say it is a beautiful game when it is well played well – but that could be said about any and every game/sport by its followers ! that’s why we like some sports over others.

Not to put too fine a point on it but it seems that at the very top of the game, in the hallowed halls of places like Old Trafford, The Bernabeu and the San Siro, the aim of the modern footballer is to win AT ALL COSTS – and if that means by cheating then, so what. 

What makes this all the worse is that it is taken as the norm now among, not only the supporters, but, by their lack of ability to deal with it properly, also by the games’ governing bodies. No other game on the planet suffers this behaviour – why does Soccer.

Now readers will be saying ‘rubbish – the referees are dealing with it !’ Not harshly enough says I.

Can you imagine Tiger Woods or Ronnie O’Sullivan accidentally touching the golf/snooker ball and trying to get away with it – no ! They play the game in the spirit it is supposed to be played – “May the best team/player win”

The ability of players to dive in the area, hoping to get a penalty, is becoming an art form. If it wasn’t so sad it would be funny.

Again, at the top level, where some of these guys are getting paid the equivalent of a small nations debt every week, act around so much, they should be getting an Oscar.

Picture a leading ‘star’ racing into the opponents box (and it doesn’t even have to be in the box), an opponent tries to take the ball off him, and in a dishonest effort to get a foul awarded, act like he’s been shot at point blank range by Harry Callaghan's 44 Magnum – and yet a few short moments later he’s running around like a march hare, with quite obviously nothing wrong with him – make no bones about it, that player is a cheat – some even now wave their invisible card at the ref, hoping he will book the tackler or even send them off.

And don’t let anyone brush it off by saying ‘ah sure they’re all at it’ – they are, because they have been allowed to !

We can all remember incidents where disgruntled footballers confront the referee in no uncertain terms, and without leaving anything to the imagination, telling them of their displeasure of their decision – who remembers Jaap Stam and Roy Keane venting their spleen so much to one referee, that he had to run backwards at rate of knots, being told how he was an effin this, and an effin that – what other sport tolerates this behaviour ? and of course a lot of the managers if not encourage, then also tolerate this behaviour. What do the 10 and 12 year olds now learning the game, think ? and what message is it sending out to them.

The FA and UEFA and the other governing bodies have simply to give the referees power to deal with this problem – and the clubs should back them up with real and hard fines. 

If a player on the pitch is rolling around in agony, then quite obviously he is pain – so get him off the pitch. If wants to come back after he has ‘recovered’ he has to wait 10 minutes – and he can not be substituted unless he has left the pitch for the duration of the game.

If a player starts screaming blue murder and using bad language to a ref, first give him a yellow card (this actually does happen now and again) and if he persists then give him a red one, and let the club fine him one month’s pay.

It may seem draconian, but soon you would see the sport improve beyond recognition and the game improve no end. Of course not all cheats can be rooted out, but if the Associations (and the Managers) give the refs the back up they need, then we might be able to call it the beautiful game again.

WHY WE NEED TO LOOK TO THE FUTURE AND NOT THE PAST

The new Govt., just like the last one, seems to reel like a boxer receiving a standing count, have you faith in our elected politicians  ? do they actually know how to get out of this economic cul-de-sac.

Whatever way we will get out of it, and there is nothing more sure, we WILL get out of it, there is nothing to be achieved by looking back at who is at fault, or what happened in the past - what needs to be done now, is that we all need to pull together, and all our politicans, on the govt benches and on the opposition benches, need to do the jobs for which they were elected and lead this country out of the desert. 

To put it simply, they to get off their collective arses, stop pointing the finger of blame at everyone but themsleves, and get on with the job, for which we elected them - run the bloody country !

The past will be dealt with by voters making their own feelings known at upcoming elections. How we got here is very regrettable and infuriating, but it will not help us get out of it - It is to the future we need to look, not the past.

In recent times we have seen signs of industrial unrest become more prominent – something we have not seen in this country for a decade or more. The country was wealthier then and everybody was happy - or happier perhaps, but to ask where all the money has gone, is a little naive.

People seem not to want to accept this, the money has gone back to the taxpayers ! You, me and everyone else !

It would however be ignorant to say there has not been a waste of taxpayer’s money along the way, and at times a profligate waste, to which no one has been made accountable, but vast amounts of capital have been given back to the taxpayer through a string of budgets, where every year the tax rates were lowered, the tax bands widened and the minimum wage increased. Where did all the money go ? Into your (and my) pockets !

It is for that reason that the Irish voters made their choice to return FF to power the last time – they were the govt that gave most money to the people – health, education, social welfare etc seemed not as important.

Now that more and more people are joining the dole queues, and the public sector have been asked to take a pay freeze or even a pay cut, the true reactions to the downturn are being heard.
 

We hear of teachers, Gardai, civil servants etc all singing the same song – ‘we all need to stand together to get out of this mess – tough decisions have to be made – some will have to cut back ...... eh... but not me ! it’s not my fault.....take some money from someone else......not me’

Do people working in the public sector not realise that people in the private one have lost their jobs – that is not a threat to have a cut back, or a pension levy, or a pay freeze – it is being made redundant ! Losing your job – having to sign on. A little realism needs to be thought of – and if you, as a civil servant are screaming madly at the words you are now reading, then back up the truck there a bit, and think what life would be like if YOU had no job. Yes, private sector gets better pay, but it is not as secure – so what you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts.

If there was one thing that this Celtic Tiger did for this country, (and don’t believe anybody who says it did nothing for them ) it made people more selfish.

However we have been here before - many believe it was worse in the past – we will get out of it – it’s just a matter of when, and the more realistic we are, the quicker that will be.

Driving Standards

Hi There ! Apologies for not being around for a bit, but life has been busy thank God ! I have sat down on numerous occasions to write this blog, but I usually get too annoyed to write sensibly.

I am usually out and about on Irish roads every day of the week, and the examples of driving that I have witnessed (I'm sure you have too) is little short of shocking.

The first thing I'd like to try and do was something that I tried to start on my radio show some years ago, but I don't think it worked too well - the basic premise is to have a little more consideration for EVERYONE else on the road. We all know what its like to be stuck at a T junction and not being able to get out onto the main road - so here's a novel idea - why doesn't EVERY driver, let ONE car out. We've all been there ! Isn't it nice to let someone out from a side road (or another lane) ? Just as long as you are thanked for it. There is little in my world that annoys me more than when you are considerate and let someone in front of you, or out from a side road etc etc and you are NOT thanked for it. This is the height of bloody ignorance and bad manners.

I tow a lot of horses around the country in a trailer. If the hard shoulder is clear and, more importantly, in good condition, I will generally pull in to let people pass, cos I'll be holding them up, cos I'll be going slow ! It used be that almost all drivers would thank you in the form of a wave, a beep of the horn or more commonly a flash of the hazard lights, but now the amount of drivers who just think that it is your DUTY to pull onto the hard shoulder to let them pass, is incredible and becoming more and more common.

Here is the plain and simple rule - if another driver executes a move that makes your day easier and your journey quicker, then give em a wave, a flash of the hazard lights or a beep (or all three !!!) to say THANK YOU for making it a bit easier for me. Now there are those drivers that will say, "I'm not gonna thank someone for doing what they are supposed to do" - I ask why not ? How bad is it to raise a hand or flash the headlights. Here's an example.

I live on a narrow residential road where there is parking on the east side, but not on the west. If the traffic is parked on the side where I'm driving, I must stop and let the oncoming traffic pass and the road is clear before I can progress (you would not believe the drivers who appear to have no idea of this rule, and think that it is down to the person who is there first and that they enjoy the right of way - WRONG !) - however, what I'm trying to get across is even if it is your right of way, but especially if it is not, give a wave to the driver who stops so as you can proceed - you will actually feel the better of it !

I could go on and on and on about drivers in this country, but I'm boring myself, so by now you are happily snoring away at your keyboard !

Lets start here and now - let someone out and make their day (and in the process put a smile on your own face too)

Here endeth the lesson !

Do we accept responsibility for our actions ?

I saw Diarmuid Gavin was in the news again recently - this time in a negative light, which I thought unusual as he seems a fairly affable kind of bloke, who doesn't go out of his way to be a complete berk, like others I can think of

Apparently (I didn't see the show) he was on the Late Late Show (an Irish TV institution), telling people that they complain too much. Then there was an article in one of the papers, that the genial ol people Ireland did not exactly like his criticisms. One of those forum boards, Political World, had many people venting their spleen about Gavin (with lots of dissenting terms as to who he is, who he is related to and how much he earns) and how dare he come back to Ireland and give out to the Irish for 'whingeing' too much

Indeed I thought it very funny that one bloke thought it worth pointing out that all these posters were doing was underlining Gavin's argument ! They were whingeing about the fact that Gavin blamed them all for whingeing !

But who is right here ? Are we, as a nation, whingeing too much ? or are we just p*ssed off when someone tells us we are ?

In my previous thread, I said I had been made redundant from my great job. At the time all we could hear on the radio was that as a whole, the country needed to reduce its spending and that overheads needed to be cut, etc etc. Everyone agreed ! Everyone that is, until you identify their industry as one of the targets

Oh yes, they said, we don't need that many civil servants, and we don't need that many of those and we could certainly do less with some of them - but not us Nurses, Teachers, Gardai (Police) or Firemen. 'The downturn is not OUR fault' you'd hear on all the talk shows - 'We are not responsible therefore we should not have pay cuts'

This was AFTER I had been already been told to close the door behind me ! Was I given a choice ? Was I responsible ? Did I cause the downturn ? Was I hell ! Yet I got shown the exit.

It drove me insane (and yes I know each and every one of us has their own cross to bear) to hear people IN employment, saying that I AM NOT going to take a reduction. This, all coming from the Civil Service (and yes I DO know what it is like, as I worked there before) where you are never checked as to the quality of work, you get promoted due to length of service, rather than ability, you (until recently) got an index linked pension, that you didn't even have to bloody contribute to and it was the doddle it was always supposed to be.

When leaving school, people have the choice, to try and get work in either the Public Sector or the Private one. We were told the Public Sector was far worse paid, but that the job was easier (and the Unions would protect you to  the hilt) and you had safety of tenure (ie you could not be fired, unless you actually set fire to your boss ! or shot the Taoiseach !), but in the Private Sector, you would get paid more - much more in some cases, but you had to cope with something called 'responsibility', and that you could sometimes live or die, with that reponsibility !

Whats my point ? Good question ! I suppose that I agree with Gavin and that we do whinge too much, and that some of us do not know they are born, with the cushy situation they have.

I recall one caller into my late night radio show telling me that he had just come back from Spain on hols with his family. He had, on the last night, gone to a nice restaurant and had picked up the tab for the lot of them, and it had cost him only 20 quid a head, or so, for a slap-up meal. He said in Dublin it would have been about 50 a head and that everything here was a rip off. He added that his son worked in a bar, and that the son had said, that where he worked, all those drinks etc would be twice the price, if not more !

However neither he, nor his son, could get their head around the fact that in Spain, your average waiter/barman works for about 2.50 per hour, and yet here in Ireland, the pay was millimetres short of 9 euro per hour ! I had to ask the father if he would be happy if his son's earnings would be reduced to that amount, so as we could all go out and eat for a lot less - you can  imagine what his answer was - suffice as to say, I am not prepared to print it here, but it went something like this

"^*&$!@?(&*%)$£!>:+) %^ !!!!!

Welcome

Hi there !

Following the advice of many people, I have begun to start my first blog - and here it is ! I feel like a guy who has just asked this beautiful girl to dance whilst the music was nice and loud and fast, and now the sodding DJ has just put on a slow set - my message to you the reader (or the girl in the dance scene), is to be gentle !!

I am an Irishman who during the day is a professional radio broadcaster and who at night turns into something very different ! I used host a late night radio program, which aimed, through me and a panel of guests, to run a fine comb through the news and current affairs of the day just gone and try and dissect what had happened and, more importantly, why !

It was called, ironically enough, Late Night Live and went out on the Irish talk station NewsTalk106-108fm (www.newstalk.ie) but because of the economic downturn, and worldwide recession, they (the powers that be) decided to axe my show, and make me and my team redundant !

I cannot really describe how that made me feel, but I CAN tell you that I left that room, feeling that I had just had a sparring bout with Mike Tyson. The news came from nowhere and caught me completely by surprise. I still cannot quite figure it out ! The show had just one 2 National Radio Awards and in terms of listener participation, we had the second highest on the station - AND all of that came with pretty much ZERO support from management. There are still people working in the station who are as useful as a chocolate tea pot, and yet they are still there. I could go on, but I would bore you to tears and put myself in a bad mood.

Anyway, since all of that, I have kept myself busy - and here perhaps IS something worth reading. If you find yourself left out in the cold, and you feel very very p*ssed off, then do NOT sit around and sulk and expect the phone to ring with Spielberg on the other end, saying he wants YOU to be his new star - cos that ain't gonna happen ! Likewise, buying lots of lotto tickets is in the parlance of a bookie - 'an outside chance'

Get active ! Do something ! I made a complete annoyance out of myself and rang everyone I knew that was in business and asked 'is there anything I can do to help you out ?' I have baby sat, done deliveries, drove a car to the UK, voiced some ads, coached others in how to use their own voice in their own productions, delivered horses from one part of the country to another, been a contributer on other radio stations, lectured in 2 colleges (and now one of them wants me to do more), taken photos for a book and I have got some great work sitting in for others when they cannot do their radio shows - the bottom point is, do anything that will 1. get you a few bob (no matter how small) and 2. gets you out and about and not moping at home.

I describe my current situation as like having a load of jigsaw pieces, but I just want to make one puzzle ! I have to say that if I was to go into one job tomorrow, I would sort of miss the life of not knowing what you're going to be doing tomorrow or the day after, but I would NOT miss the financial uncertainty that it brings

Here I must mention my girlfriend A, without whom I would be lost ! Quite simply, she has paid for our house, since my money well ran dry. Don't get me wrong, some of the work was well paid and great, but sometimes it is very hard to GET paid and whilst I would chip in as best I could and as often, without her, I (we) would be lost.

I fully realise I am lucky to have such a girl by my side, and I also realise that not everyone has such luck, but then I was unlucky to lose the feckin job in the first place !

If such a fate has befallen you (and it seems to be happening to a lot more people these days) try and be as positive as possible and although the future may not look bright, view it as maybe time to try something else. I know of one accountant who now works in a bar and loves it - he told me that biggest problem he had was telling himself that he was a qualified accountant and that they don't work behind bars !

I told him - 'they do now'