Ok so some people are boycotting Israel and the Israelis are boycotting Hamas and somebody has decided that giving TONY BLAIR A JOB IN THE MIDDLE EAST is an idea that won't lead to extensive boycotts...and on this same theme, but with a little more moral certainty, I offer you a new, undeniably just boycott.
Boycott HMV on Grafton Street. In the last week or so these people, these tossers have been putting speakers outside their shop blaring LOUD MUSIC up and down the street. Of course the racket attracts attention, as is its aim, and to some extent, maybe it attracts some people to its shop; it repels me.
It's a horribly cynical move that disrupts the vague but genuine atmosphere of Dublin's busiest shopping street. Go away. I want to walk along those red bricks and listen to flower sellers and beggers and buskers and tourists asking aloud: where is the Spire? I want to feel like I'm outside and I shouldn't have to beg for it.
Until they remove the noise they won't get another penny out of me. I'm taking a stand on this. I might even do up some fancy badge or wristband (remember them! more cynical marketing aimed at exploiting the latent human sympathies of wealthy westeners!).
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
It's 2007 in Dublin on a Sunday evening
The bus driver missed his turn. It was Sunday. We were going along a motorway, the evening time, getting cold. He missed his turn off. He'll take the next one, I thought. Net result, I walk for five or maybe ten minutes more than I'd planned. Hey. It was Sunday. The week coming to a happy end. The Dubs won. No need to fret.
Up ahead of me on the bus, it was an old one because Dublin Bus don't send the posh buses out to Dublin West, it was old and green and rickety and there was just me and some old woman and a family up ahead of me.
The woman head of the family blew her top.
-You missed the turn, she screamed.
The bus driver mumbled something back.
-You blacks always fuckin do this, she said. What's your fuckin number, I'm sick of you black cunts, what's your fucking number I wanna report you.
And I'm thinking alright lady that's a bit much. And I'm gonna say something but before I can she screams to me.
-These fuckin blacks I'm sick of them. Every fuckin week they do this.
She was burning up with rage. A peroxide blonde. Well turned out in her Sunday best. High pitched. Accent stomping all over her etiquette. Probably works local. Her son about 6 sitting there, grinning. Her husband turned out like a Burtons advertisement, egging her on. This woman. I'm thinking - you're a fuckin racist. I don't wanna judge her. I don't excuse that horrible shit but fair play - people lose their temper. But she wasn't finished. And her husband hadn't started.
Go back to the jungle, he shouted, outdoing his wife for wit and virulence. The son, only a youngfella, looked down the bus, nervous, afraid to challenge his mother, but afraid to cheer her on. I starred at him. But I didn't budge. I knew it was all wrong, of course I did. But that psycho and her husband wanted to kick someone's head in and I've been there before. No thanks.
We pull up to the stop and as he's getting out the husband tells the bus driver to go back to the jungle. He tells him how lucky he is that he doesn't kick his head in. He starts making monkey noises. It's 2007. It's 1987. We're at an English football match. Everton fans are throwing bananas at John Barnes and making monkey noises. It's 1987.
It's 2007.
Hands up. I bottled it. I did the best I could with what I had. I told the husband as we were getting off to fuck off, that he'd gone way too far. Your man just made a mistake. I told the bus driver I was sorry he had to listen to that shit. He said thanks man and closed the door.
Up ahead of me on the bus, it was an old one because Dublin Bus don't send the posh buses out to Dublin West, it was old and green and rickety and there was just me and some old woman and a family up ahead of me.
The woman head of the family blew her top.
-You missed the turn, she screamed.
The bus driver mumbled something back.
-You blacks always fuckin do this, she said. What's your fuckin number, I'm sick of you black cunts, what's your fucking number I wanna report you.
And I'm thinking alright lady that's a bit much. And I'm gonna say something but before I can she screams to me.
-These fuckin blacks I'm sick of them. Every fuckin week they do this.
She was burning up with rage. A peroxide blonde. Well turned out in her Sunday best. High pitched. Accent stomping all over her etiquette. Probably works local. Her son about 6 sitting there, grinning. Her husband turned out like a Burtons advertisement, egging her on. This woman. I'm thinking - you're a fuckin racist. I don't wanna judge her. I don't excuse that horrible shit but fair play - people lose their temper. But she wasn't finished. And her husband hadn't started.
Go back to the jungle, he shouted, outdoing his wife for wit and virulence. The son, only a youngfella, looked down the bus, nervous, afraid to challenge his mother, but afraid to cheer her on. I starred at him. But I didn't budge. I knew it was all wrong, of course I did. But that psycho and her husband wanted to kick someone's head in and I've been there before. No thanks.
We pull up to the stop and as he's getting out the husband tells the bus driver to go back to the jungle. He tells him how lucky he is that he doesn't kick his head in. He starts making monkey noises. It's 2007. It's 1987. We're at an English football match. Everton fans are throwing bananas at John Barnes and making monkey noises. It's 1987.
It's 2007.
Hands up. I bottled it. I did the best I could with what I had. I told the husband as we were getting off to fuck off, that he'd gone way too far. Your man just made a mistake. I told the bus driver I was sorry he had to listen to that shit. He said thanks man and closed the door.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Brian Lenihan - Challenges for the new minister for justice
Ok so we lost Joe. And we miss him. We really do. At the Dail yesterday they all gave him a nod. Tony Gregory said the place wouldn't be the same. It won't. It will. But it won't.
Fianna Fail are still in charge but Fine Gael's muscles have gotten some electoral steroids. How hard will they punch? Not very, probably. It won't be the same but it will.
One key difference, and one that we in Dublin West hope to benefit from, is the appointment of Brian Lenihan to Minister for Justice, Equality and Law reform. This blog is of the view that Michael McDowell was a man of merit as well as obvious flaw; the most obvious being his tendency to hide his merits behind his flawed whoring of himself for publicity.
Lenihan is different. Expect a lower profile and at least the same level of progressive reform. He faces many challenges. The criminal justice system is a mess that currently jails twice as many people from the Irish underclass than our British counterparts.
Research shows that Irish crime is embedded in certain areas. Lenihan won't have to go far to find them. His own constituency, Dublin West - Dublin 15 - is a great microcosm of suburban Ireland; a clear and growing divide between the gated, well trimmed gardens of Castleknock and the fenced and unkempt patches of Corduff, Sheepmoor, Mountview and Ladyswell.
This is one of the great challenges facing Lenihan and this government - how to reduce criminality and make these places nicer to live in. How to end the intimidation, rampant drug abuse and utter disdain for community responsibilty. Of course this can't be done by the justice ministery alone - support will be needed from Health, Education and Employment. Do it right and crush the ganglands.
The other major point this blog will judge Lenihan on is prison. Obviously there are problems regarding smuggling things into prisons. It's hard to see what harm a bloody budgie does but phones have to be a no-no. A blocking system will solve that. However he must resist calls by the showboating, vacuous tough on crime lobby to Lock Down prisons. One of the merits of the Irish system is the relative harmony between officers and prisoners; this is largely achieved by letting them mix freely. An end to this policy would sharpen the divide and make prisons more dangerous to live and work in.
Furthermore on the subject of prisons, urgent reform of child prisons like St Patrick's is needed. The place is an abject failure that does nothing but teaches wild kids how to become wild adults. It is a disastorous institution, despite the efforts of staff; it has been undermined by a scandalous lack of funding from McDowell and John O'Donoghue before him. Shame on them for their ignorance. In fairness to Lenihan he set up a committee to assess the needs of Oberstown and Trinity House when he was Minister for Children. So the omens are good even if the history of the justice department is a history of injustice.
Adult prisons are also desperately in need of funding. Contrary to popular opinion, prisons are not home to lazy and depraved party animals who get fucked on cheap cider and slouch in front of plasma televisions. It is an indignity of the smelliest and lowest order to have to poo in a bucket and throw it down a drain. More education and drug rehab schemes are needed. Prison is often the first place people can get help to read and write; or get help to get off heroin. With this they have a chance of getting a job on release - without it they haven't got a hope.
So hopefully Lenihan will at least try and sort some of these problmes out. Prisons should not be social dustbins. Put criminals in them, not messers, not the homeless or the mentally ill. I wish him sincere congratulations and good luck in his new post.
Fianna Fail are still in charge but Fine Gael's muscles have gotten some electoral steroids. How hard will they punch? Not very, probably. It won't be the same but it will.
One key difference, and one that we in Dublin West hope to benefit from, is the appointment of Brian Lenihan to Minister for Justice, Equality and Law reform. This blog is of the view that Michael McDowell was a man of merit as well as obvious flaw; the most obvious being his tendency to hide his merits behind his flawed whoring of himself for publicity.
Lenihan is different. Expect a lower profile and at least the same level of progressive reform. He faces many challenges. The criminal justice system is a mess that currently jails twice as many people from the Irish underclass than our British counterparts.
Research shows that Irish crime is embedded in certain areas. Lenihan won't have to go far to find them. His own constituency, Dublin West - Dublin 15 - is a great microcosm of suburban Ireland; a clear and growing divide between the gated, well trimmed gardens of Castleknock and the fenced and unkempt patches of Corduff, Sheepmoor, Mountview and Ladyswell.
This is one of the great challenges facing Lenihan and this government - how to reduce criminality and make these places nicer to live in. How to end the intimidation, rampant drug abuse and utter disdain for community responsibilty. Of course this can't be done by the justice ministery alone - support will be needed from Health, Education and Employment. Do it right and crush the ganglands.
The other major point this blog will judge Lenihan on is prison. Obviously there are problems regarding smuggling things into prisons. It's hard to see what harm a bloody budgie does but phones have to be a no-no. A blocking system will solve that. However he must resist calls by the showboating, vacuous tough on crime lobby to Lock Down prisons. One of the merits of the Irish system is the relative harmony between officers and prisoners; this is largely achieved by letting them mix freely. An end to this policy would sharpen the divide and make prisons more dangerous to live and work in.
Furthermore on the subject of prisons, urgent reform of child prisons like St Patrick's is needed. The place is an abject failure that does nothing but teaches wild kids how to become wild adults. It is a disastorous institution, despite the efforts of staff; it has been undermined by a scandalous lack of funding from McDowell and John O'Donoghue before him. Shame on them for their ignorance. In fairness to Lenihan he set up a committee to assess the needs of Oberstown and Trinity House when he was Minister for Children. So the omens are good even if the history of the justice department is a history of injustice.
Adult prisons are also desperately in need of funding. Contrary to popular opinion, prisons are not home to lazy and depraved party animals who get fucked on cheap cider and slouch in front of plasma televisions. It is an indignity of the smelliest and lowest order to have to poo in a bucket and throw it down a drain. More education and drug rehab schemes are needed. Prison is often the first place people can get help to read and write; or get help to get off heroin. With this they have a chance of getting a job on release - without it they haven't got a hope.
So hopefully Lenihan will at least try and sort some of these problmes out. Prisons should not be social dustbins. Put criminals in them, not messers, not the homeless or the mentally ill. I wish him sincere congratulations and good luck in his new post.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
The return of ETA
It was with great sadness and regret that this blog read of ETA's plan to return to violence in search of it political goals. This is what used to be called terrorism, although of course the word has been given new meaning by the recent abundance of terrorist attacks that had few obvious or practical political goals.
The ceasefire officially ended on Wednesday morning. In reality it ended when ETA blew up part of a terminal at Barajas airport in Madrid, killing two men who were asleep in a car in the car-park. That was a grim and depressing day for the families of the dead and the whole of Spain.
Maybe in the past there was a certain romance to notions of Basque freedom, but amongst my Spanish friends, I don't see that now. One man I know, from Navarra, hates ETA. He hates that they 'sponsor' religious ceremonies. He hates that he can't talk freely about them in bars and restaurants. He hates that he is expected to toss spare change in jars to help their cause. More than anything, I suspect, he hates that he can't speak freely. There is an irony here, I think, as a people who were explicitly and brutally repressed by the repugnant Franco regime, are now silenced by the people who claimed to be their only hope.
Another Spaniard I know thinks that Zapatero, the PM, is an idiot. The Basques have enough freedom and autonomy, he says. They have their own parliament and set their own taxes. From a pragmatic rather than an idealistic point of view, he says that Zapatero is an idiot because there is no political capital in negotiating a peace settlement with ETA. Recent elections in Spain, which resulted in defeat for Zapatero's Socialist Democratic Party, bore this out.
The main reason for this is the staunch opposition of the party who grew from the embers of Franco, the Partido Popular. They call Zapatero weak and a traitor for trying to bring peace to the Basque Country. This is not a difficult point to argue, as Zapatero has made himself vulnerable to this by his public overtures to ETA. His whole handling of the thing has appeared uncertain, a little clumsy and lacking in coherence.
If Northern Ireland is the model for peace - and it is by no means perfect - then Zapatero will need to learn from Bertie Ahern's calmness, patience, persistence and most importantly, his cunning. It is in the failures of Zapatero that we see the merits of Ahern. All is not lost - but now Zapatero faces a choice ahead of next years' general election.
Risk his own political career by persisting with attempts to bring peace, or try to save his career by ploughing on with the status quo - where ETA are active, and a proven danger to the establishment and the general public. The former brings more good to more people; modern politics teaches us he will attempt the latter. Lets hope he's different.
The ceasefire officially ended on Wednesday morning. In reality it ended when ETA blew up part of a terminal at Barajas airport in Madrid, killing two men who were asleep in a car in the car-park. That was a grim and depressing day for the families of the dead and the whole of Spain.
Maybe in the past there was a certain romance to notions of Basque freedom, but amongst my Spanish friends, I don't see that now. One man I know, from Navarra, hates ETA. He hates that they 'sponsor' religious ceremonies. He hates that he can't talk freely about them in bars and restaurants. He hates that he is expected to toss spare change in jars to help their cause. More than anything, I suspect, he hates that he can't speak freely. There is an irony here, I think, as a people who were explicitly and brutally repressed by the repugnant Franco regime, are now silenced by the people who claimed to be their only hope.
Another Spaniard I know thinks that Zapatero, the PM, is an idiot. The Basques have enough freedom and autonomy, he says. They have their own parliament and set their own taxes. From a pragmatic rather than an idealistic point of view, he says that Zapatero is an idiot because there is no political capital in negotiating a peace settlement with ETA. Recent elections in Spain, which resulted in defeat for Zapatero's Socialist Democratic Party, bore this out.
The main reason for this is the staunch opposition of the party who grew from the embers of Franco, the Partido Popular. They call Zapatero weak and a traitor for trying to bring peace to the Basque Country. This is not a difficult point to argue, as Zapatero has made himself vulnerable to this by his public overtures to ETA. His whole handling of the thing has appeared uncertain, a little clumsy and lacking in coherence.
If Northern Ireland is the model for peace - and it is by no means perfect - then Zapatero will need to learn from Bertie Ahern's calmness, patience, persistence and most importantly, his cunning. It is in the failures of Zapatero that we see the merits of Ahern. All is not lost - but now Zapatero faces a choice ahead of next years' general election.
Risk his own political career by persisting with attempts to bring peace, or try to save his career by ploughing on with the status quo - where ETA are active, and a proven danger to the establishment and the general public. The former brings more good to more people; modern politics teaches us he will attempt the latter. Lets hope he's different.
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