The irony of it all

The suburbs continue to simmer in Paris where youths rioted on Tuesday after a man was arrested and allegedly treated roughly by police for not paying his fare at a city train station.

The common, left/liberal view of these riots is that they are an expression of frustration at the state. Those on the right see it more as a sign of an innate deliquency. Either way the protests are likely to impact on the upcoming election.

The impact they have will be directly influenced by voters' political tendencies - if you like Sarkozy and Le Pen, you will probably feel that this violence proves they are correct in the harsh line they take with 'troublemakers' generally and non-white troublemakers in particular. But if you're more to the left I would say you believe that that causes of these frustrations must be addressed, in order to prevent them.

Of course the world is not as straighforward as that. Most voters, it appears from other European elections, are centerists. I would guess they are more concerned with being able to walk safely down the streets than whether or not every citizen has an equal oppportunity. Therefore it seems to me that the riots will benefit the Right more than the Left, and have no benefits at all for the people who are protesting. Recent polls seem to bare that out. The one hope is for them is that one of the main candidates will aknowledge this and take steps to address both issues. Theoretically this is an opportunity for Bayrou. Let's see if he takes it.

French election

It's a little bit hard for me, in far away Ireland, to add anything new to the coverage of the upcoming French Presidential elections. So instead I think I will just try and pull together as much of the coverage as I can. Mostly it comes from English papers which people can find online if they bother to check. Granted that most people don't have time for all that (although maybe they do if they have time for reading this blog!) so I'll hunt and gather, just like your great, great, great Grandad did when we Irish we're under the repressive jackboot of colonial rule and had to roam the land to get a bite to eat. And he wasn't eating a fuckin panini either I can tell ya!

Anyway here's a great slideshow from the Guardian, a left leaning paper that isn't showing much support to the left leaning candidate, Segleone Royal.

Bad doggy

Hashhead rapper Snoop Dogg has had to cancel his UK tour with Puff Daddy/Diddy after being refused a visa to enter the country. Mr Dogg was arrested in Sweden on drugs charges. He's also awaiting charge in America for guns and drugs charges.

Mr Snoop is currently on a One Love Peace Drugs Charge Tour with his friend Mr Daddy who commented: "Even though we don't agree, and we don't understand, this is not our country, and we have to respect your laws," said Mr Diddies. "What's disappointing is that Britain at the moment has a big guns and knife violence problem, and we were here to send out a positive message to the kids, because we've been through [those problems] personally."

Unfortunately the ban does not extend to Ireland and his gig will go ahead as planned.

The boys in green

Stan named the team today. Strange. Usually they guard it closer than an italian guards a cannoli. This comes after yeserday's thirty second tantrum - Shay and Stephen are ok, but I don't want to talk to you nar nar nar na. Obviously he's a man under pressure and he's feeling it, I'd say, as he's acting funny.

He brought a lot of pressure on himself - Saturday's team showed more dodgy flexibilty than Bertie Ahern's political ideology; he put a right back playing on the left and a left back playing on the right. Then he had some fella called Douglas playing in central midfield leaving both wet and sunny weather fans to say - who? what? why? Also Stephen Ireland on the right and Damian Duff all over the shop. A mess, quite frankly, and he takes the hump when people ask him questions about it. Hmm.

Life is hard enough. Don't make it harder Stan. Play people where they're good, answer honest questions with sincerity rather than contempt and don't try and take on the media. That Lee Carsley thing was such a drag - he clearly wasn't misquoted; perhaps he thought the question was referring to changes that happened during the game. And if he did then Stan could show a bit of humility and admit he was wrong. Drop the Secret Police are out to get me so I'm not talking to you crap. It's childish. Irish fans and the Irish media want the team to do well.

Playing McGeady from the start tomorrow is a step in the right direction. Don't understand why Hunt has been left out, but maybe it's because Duff and Kilbane are lefties and he intends to interchange them. A third leftie might upset the balance. And leaving Kilbane out might upset the economy (latest rumour as to why he has played 290 times in a row for us). Anyway that minor quibble aside this column is crossing its bits and pieces for a home win and a decent game.

A quick note on media coverage of the team - mostly it's been harsh but fair. However the Stan/muppet headlines are cheap and obviously take their cue from the vile rubbish served up in English tabloids. The media themselves seem to overstate the importance of the media/team relations too. I reckon your average reader doesn't care about it that much and the media look a smidge self-important/deluded about the whole thing.

Welcome to Iraq

The new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made his first visit to Iraq today. But a rocket landed inside the Green Zone while he was doing a press conference. He wasn't injured but the pomp, the ceremony, the whole stupid flowers on a podium gig was exposed for the rubbish it is.

In general, politicians look like inane morons when placed in front of national flags so they look regal and in control when their mugs appear in tomorrow's papers. But it's nonsense, photo-op PR-friendly bullshit, designed to present a united front, regardless of what the politicians actually say.

Where is our Orwell?

A few days ago on the Guardian website (UK) a journalist asked this question. Leaving aside why he didn't ask it of himself, it's still something worth asking. Four years on since the invasion of Iraq and few journalists from the West are working in the country. Certainly the old idea of novelists trying to write about these massive events has all but disappeared on any credible level.

Many things have been lost in the tragedy; it is also true that free speech, the cornerstone of this 'democracy' Bush claims to be bringing, has not been found. It's too dangerous to be a journalist in Iraq and it is unfair to compare their situation to previous wars, where the enemies and objectives were clearer. Journalists are now pawns for the weak as well as the strong; as likely to be abducted by militias as manipulated by governments. It's sad but so is the whole thing.

But still, some venture. Patrick Cornwell of the Independent being the most notable one. He has worked around Iraq since the beginning. Is he our Orwell? He must be close. The question of course is not simply about names. It's about courage and guts. You need to be a bit nuts. Who is willing to put their neck on the line for often derided causes, for truth, liberty and justice, things that lazy hotel journalists sneer at, things that 'realists' find a way around and things that our doubtless being repressed from Iraq today.

Another who had the spirit of Orwell was Anna Politkovskaya. She was murdered last year, shot in an elevator. Here's an interview from her last book.

Dog day afternoon

The Swedes have a reputation for randiness but this wretched stereotype is finding new and strikingly original ways to express itself. Apparently, a teenager in Eastern Sweden was found having sex with his friend's dog. Alas, his chum did not see the funny side of it, and did not quip: not the first dog you've shagged, is it? Feel free to add your own lame humour. Bonus points for references to doggy style.

Underfunding of An Garda Siochana

'The election' is looming. Numbers will be an issue. How many people are on trolleys, how many kids are in classrooms, how many gardai are on the beat?

But also, the good people of Ireland are going to want to know how much money is being spent on health, education and crime. The answer, it seems, is not enough.

A serving member of An Garda Siochana is under invstigation for stealing biros from a shop in Monaghan. It's not known if the guard was caught in the act by another guard or by the shopkeeper.

Still it is sad day indeed, isn't Taoiseach, when a member of our own police force, the vast majority of whom don't work in Donegal and are diligent upholders of the mores of our society, must resort to the unarmed robbery of personal ink-dispresal units to fight the war on crime, the war on drugs and all the other wars on things.

Fas advertising

I've been meaning to write about this for a while - the ads, on bus-stops and in newspapers, for the FAS Opportunities fair at Croke Park (not an historic occassion for opps fairs, I should add).

Anyway, the young lady enclosed, despite the obvious, is interesting for another reason. FAS for most people means apprenticeships. Trades. And so on.

When was the last time you saw a tradesperson (like that?) such as this well-groomed dame? Doubtless if mechanics looked like her I'd burn out my clutch every week. Of course they don't - so why use her to promote their fair? Attractive women attract young men to things, that should be clear enough if you look at all the TOP MODELS who strip to their knickers to promote everything from road safety to hair loss.

But there's more to it, I think. Media tend to use cleaner cut versions of particulars to highlight general trends. Take the Ryan Tubridy radion show. When they want to ask kids things, they always go to fancy fee-paying schools - hardly representative of Ireland's yuff. Or if they go to a school in town, they dress it up in some ironic presenter/reporter banter, pale, annoying Anto O'Carroller-Kellyer stuff. I might be wrong but it looks like middle class bias in the media.

You just can't get parking in Dublin

Dartmouth square is a little park in Ranelagh, Dublin. It used to be owned by the Darley family and used by the public. But the Darley family sold it to a man called Noel O'Gara. And now he doesn't want it to be a park for people.

He was on Pat Kenny today saying that he wanted to turn it into a car park. He wants to provide a service to car-owners who can't get parking in the city centre ("like you Pat," he said). He claims his constitutional rights are being violated - it's his land and he can do what he wants with it. Our grandfathers fought the British for our freedom, so we could own the land, and any attempt to prevent this is illegal, he thinks. I'm writing from memory here, so I'm open to correction if I've misrepresented him.

Anyway, the council got a court order to stop O'Gara from paving over the park. So today he opened a Portable Tiles Showroom in the park. It is ugly. He is putting it up to the council, saying he can do what he likes. The council are now taking legal action on the basis that he is 'misusing' the park.

O'Gara's view that he can do what he likes with the park is nonsense. He tries to invoke history to prove his argument, but simultaneously ignores history - the park has been used by the public a 100 years. Is this worth nothing? Does tradition have no value in Ireland today? Thankfully it does, to judge by the council and public reaction.

O'Gara has no support and doesn't deserve any. Green areas and public space in Dublin are being swallowed up by opportunistic developers like O'Gara. There has to be a limit. People can't do what they like, where they like. The greater good, the public interest comes into this. Never mind parking our cars, we need somewhere to park our arses once in a while. These parks are finite. You don't see anybody buying land to develop it into lakes and playgrounds. So we must protect what we have now, or risk being left with nothing.