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| Letters published in Irish Times | |
Letters published in the Sunday Times |
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Letters published in The Economist |
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Letters submitted but not published in 2006, 2007 , 2008, 2009, 2010 |
11th May 2007
1st August 2008
11th August 2009
8th April 2010
Which is the real Enda? - 11th May 2007 I was amazed when no-one seemed to notice or comment when Enda Kenny underwent a radical makeover last January. In a flash, his face changed from baby-pink to tough-guy tan, his locks from blond to dark (with just a touch of patrician grey), his eyebrows likewise and reshaped, his hair backswept, almost bouffant, instead of parted on the left, his eyes narrowed to make him look less, well, gullible. Yet in a couple of weeks, the makeover abruptly vanished as mysteriously as it had appeared and we reverted to the blond youngster once more, which is how he appears today. Except on the latest election posters. Suddenly, all over the country
this dark-haired tough guy is staring down at us again, identified as Mr
Kenny only by the signature in the lower right corner. Which is the real Mr
Kenny? Position harmful to children - 30th July 2008 At least we know now that the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) does not believe in a child's right to a mother and father where possible. Nor does the Free Legal Advice Centres, nor the Irish Penal Reform Trust. On July 29 ["Attack on UN rights body just doesn't bear scrutiny"], the heads of the three above organisations attacked David Quinn for having the temerity to criticise their view on human rights ('How dare the UN take us to task on human rights', Irish Independent, July 18). Among other things, Mr Quinn pointed out that by supporting gay adoption, etc, the ICCL and its allied organisations implicitly deny a child's right to a mother and father. This is highly controversial. In their reply to Mr Quinn, they confirm this by also attacking Professor Patricia Casey, who has written elsewhere in defence of a child's right to both a mother and father. Prof Casey bases her case on the growing body of evidence which shows that having both a mother and a father is of benefit to a child. In support of her case, Professor Casey cited reports by Anna Sarkadi of the University of Uppsala [“Fathers' involvement and children's developmental outcomes: a systematic review of longitudinal studies”] and by Unicef [“Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Wellbeing in Rich Countries” UNICEF Report Card 7, 2007] highlighting the importance of fathers. Prof Casey logically concluded that every child should have a mother and father, where possible, and that the State should support heterosexual marriage, because married fathers have more contact with their children than non-married fathers, on average. It's true, as Mr Quinn's critics point out, that both Unicef and Anna Sarkadi attacked Prof Casey for drawing this conclusion, but her logic is inescapable. If fathers matter, then every child should, where possible, have one, and presumably a mother also. In any event, Mr Quinn's critics have proven his point: namely that there are competing views of human rights; and one flashpoint concerns the right of a child to a mother and a father. The ICCL, etc, are firmly aligned with the radical side in this particular debate, a position that is distinctly -- and self-evidently -- harmful to the interests of children. - Yours etc. TONY ALLWRIGHT, KILLINEY, CO DUBLIN
Obama 'Birthers' - 12th August 2009 In his tale of personal horror at the very idea that some Americans might oppose President Obama or his policies, David Aaronovitch demonstrates exactly why the "birthers" have gained such traction (Birther' attacks on Obama are born of hatred and fear, Opinion, August 11). He describes how the birthers are questioning whether Mr Obama was, as the Constitution demands, born in the US. This is due to some flimsy evidence (such as a relative's eye-witness account of his birth) that he might have been born in Kenya. But Mr Obama resolutely refuses to release his original birth
certificate, which is the one thing that would permanently shut the birthers
up. Tony Allwright, Killiney, Co Dublin
Brian Lenihan is no tough guy - 8th April 2010 So the Association of Assistant Secretaries and Higher Grades told Finance Minister Brian Lenihan that members' pay of up to €146,000 was “way behind” what was on offer in the private sector (‘Elite civil servants: We deserve a pay rise’, Irish Independent, April 6). Mr Lenihan's response should have been curt and pointed: “Make my day. Go join the private sector. See if they'll have you.” The civil service is vastly overstaffed anyway. The massive building industry collapsed long ago, yet curiously the thousands of state jobs that planned and regulated it did not. Mr Lenihan is not the tough guy he pretends to be.
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Good to report that as at
FREED AT LAST,
BLOGROLL
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My Columns in the
What I've recently
But it's not
entirely honest in its subtle pro-Palestinian bias, and therefore needs
to be read in conjunction with an antidote, such as See
detailed review +++++
BP's ambitious CEO John Browne expanded BP through adventurous
acquisitions, aggressive offshore exploration, and relentless
cost-reduction that trumped everything else, even safety and long-term
technical sustainability.
Thus mistakes accumulated, leading to terrifying and deadly accidents in
refineries, pipelines and offshore operations, and business disaster in
Russia.
The Macondo blowout was but an inevitable outcome of a BP culture that
had become poisonous and incompetent.
However the book is gravely compromised by a
litany of over 40 technical and stupid
errors that display the author's ignorance and
carelessness. It would be better
to wait for the second (properly edited) edition before buying.
As for BP, only a
wholesale rebuilding of a new, professional, ethical culture will
prevent further such tragedies and the eventual destruction of a once
mighty corporation with a long and generally honourable history. Note: I wrote
my own reports on Macondo +++++
A horrific account
of: how the death
penalty is administered and, er, executed in Singapore,
the corruption of
Singapore's legal system, and Singapore's
enthusiastic embrace of Burma's drug-fuelled military dictatorship More details on my
blog
here. +++++
After recounting a
childhood of convention and simple pleasures in working-class Aberdeen,
Mr Urquhart is conscripted within days of Chamberlain declaring war on
Germany in 1939. From then until the
Japanese are deservedly nuked into surrendering six years later, Mr
Urquhart’s tale is one of first discomfort but then following the fall
of Singapore of ever-increasing, unmitigated horror.
After a wretched
journey Eastward, he finds himself part of Singapore’s big but useless
garrison.
Taken prisoner when Singapore falls in
1941, he is, successively,
part of a death march to Thailand,
a slave labourer on the Siam/Burma
railway (one man died for every sleeper laid),
regularly beaten and tortured,
racked by starvation, gaping ulcers
and disease including cholera,
a slave labourer stevedoring at
Singapore’s docks,
shipped to Japan in a stinking,
closed, airless hold with 900 other sick and dying men,
torpedoed by the Americans and left
drifting alone for five days before being picked up,
a slave-labourer in Nagasaki until
blessed liberation thanks to the Americans’ “Fat Boy” atomic
bomb. Chronically ill,
distraught and traumatised on return to Aberdeen yet disdained by the
British Army, he slowly reconstructs a life. Only in his late 80s
is he able finally to recount his dreadful experiences in this
unputdownable book. There are very few
first-person eye-witness accounts of the the horrors of Japanese
brutality during WW2. As such this book is an invaluable historical
document. +++++
This is a rattling good tale of the web
of corruption within which the American president and his cronies
operate. It's written by blogger Michele Malkin who, because she's both
a woman and half-Asian, is curiously immune to the charges of racism and
sexism this book would provoke if written by a typical Republican WASP.
With 75 page of notes to back up - in
best blogger tradition - every shocking and in most cases money-grubbing
allegation, she excoriates one Obama crony after another, starting with
the incumbent himself and his equally tricky wife.
Joe Biden, Rahm Emmanuel, Valerie Jarett,
Tim Geithner, Lawrence Summers, Steven Rattner, both Clintons, Chris
Dodd: they all star as crooks in this venomous but credible book.
ACORN, Mr Obama's favourite community
organising outfit, is also exposed for the crooked vote-rigging machine
it is. +++++
It is really just
a collation of amusing
little tales about surprising human (and occasionally animal) behaviour
and situations. For example:
Drunk walking kills more people per
kilometer than drunk driving.
People aren't really altruistic -
they always expect a return of some sort for good deeds.
Child seats are a waste of money as
they are no safer for children than adult seatbelts.
Though doctors have known for
centuries they must wash their hands to avoid spreading infection,
they still often fail to do so.
Monkeys can be taught to use washers
as cash to buy tit-bits - and even sex. The book has no real
message other than don't be surprised how humans sometimes behave and
try to look for simple rather than complex solutions. And with a final
anecdote (monkeys, cash and sex), the book suddenly just stops dead in
its tracks. Weird. ++++++
It's chapters are
organised around provocative questions such as
Why does asparagus come from Peru?
Why are pandas so useless?
Why are oil and diamonds more trouble
than they are worth?
Why doesn't Africa grow cocaine? It's central thesis
is that economic development continues to be impeded in different
countries for different historical reasons, even when the original
rationale for those impediments no longer obtains. For instance:
Argentina protects its now largely
foreign landowners (eg George Soros)
Russia its military-owned
businesses, such as counterfeit DVDs
The US its cotton industry
comprising only 1% of GDP and 2% of its workforce The author writes
in a very chatty, light-hearted matter which makes the book easy to
digest. However it would
benefit from a few charts to illustrate some of the many quantitative
points put forward, as well as sub-chaptering every few pages to provide
natural break-points for the reader. +++++
The author was
a member of Britain's V Force, a forerunner of the SAS. Its remit was to
harass Japanese lines of
command, patrol their occupied territory, carryout sabotage and provide
intelligence, with the overall objective of keeping the enemy out of
India.
Irwin
is admirably yet brutally frank, in his
descriptions of deathly battles with the Japs, his execution of a
prisoner, dodging falling bags of rice dropped by the RAF, or collapsing
in floods of tears through accumulated stress, fear and loneliness.
He also provides some fascinating insights into the mentality of
Japanese soldiery and why it failed against the flexibility and devolved
authority of the British.
The book amounts to
a very human and exhilarating tale.
Oh, and Irwin
describes the death in 1943 of his colleague my uncle, Major PF
Brennan. +++++
Other books
here
After
48
crackling, compelling, captivating games, the new World Champions are,
deservedly,
England get the Silver,
No-one can argue with
Over the competition,
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First created: 12th March
2000; Last modified: 25th October 2012
won by New Zealand
Cuddly Teddy Bears
looking for a home
14th September 2009
he is at least
alive.
ON 18th OCTOBER 2011,
GAUNT BUT OTHERWISE REASONABLY HEALTHY
Skeptical Bible
been reading
“The Lemon Tree”, by Sandy
Tol (2006),
is a delightful novel-style history of modern Israel and Palestine told
through the eyes of a thoughtful protagonist from either side, with a
household lemon tree as their unifying theme.
This examines events which led to BP's 2010 Macondo blowout in
the Gulf of Mexico.
in
May,
June, and
July 2010
This is
nonagenarian Alistair Urquhart’s
incredible story of survival in the Far
East during World War II.
“Culture of Corruption:
Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies”
This much trumpeted sequel to
Freakonomics is a bit of disappointment.
A remarkable, coherent attempt by Financial Times economist Alan Beattie
to understand and explain world history through the prism of economics.
This is a thrilling book of derring-do behind enemy lines in the jungles
of north-east Burma in 1942-44 during the Japanese occupation.
Won by New Zealand
Won by New Zealand
Click for an account of this momentous,
high-speed event
of March 2009
Won by Wales
Click on the logo
to get a table with
the Rugby World Cup
scores, points and rankings.
SOUTH AFRICA
Argentina the Bronze. Fourth is host nation France.
the justice of the outcomes
the average
points per game = 52,
tries per game = 6.2,
minutes per try =
13
Click on the logo
to get a table with
the final World Cup
scores, points, rankings and goal-statistics
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First created: 12th March
2000; Last modified: 9th December 2017
