Peter Brennan, President of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and managing Director of EPS Consulting writes…

This was Eamon De Valera’s promise when he was Taoiseach nearly 70 years ago.

In the meantime the Shannon has continued to flood, with last year’s incidents a salutary reminder of the power of the river.

The Dublin local authorities want to bring water from the Shannon to meet a projected and significant shortfall in water capacity in the Midlands and the Greater Dublin Region from 2016.

The Shannon Protection Alliance is opposed to the plan. But many of their arguments are not based on evidence. For example, they claim ‘the plan contravenes the EU Water Framework Directive because of lack of consultation and failure to address adverse effects.’ The SPA should read the Strategic Environmental Assessment published in November 2008 which clearly deals with the concerns expressed by local land community groups. There has been significant consultation on this project.

The SPA also claims it has the support of 1 million in opposing the scheme. That is a bit over the top. Has anyone asked the farmers, householders and businesses who are flooded every year if the proposed scheme is a good idea?

‘The plan will spell the end of all planning and development in the towns and villages situated on the Shannon’ is another widely exaggerated claim based on not a scintilla of evidence.

How about the following: ‘…the plan will bring about the swift, total and irreversible demise of tourism, leisure activities, agriculture, and the destruction of the fragile ecology’. More hyperbole.

How about a few facts for a change:

1. Some 1,000 mm of rain falls on the Shannon catchment area every year; a daily average of 2.7mm. Drawing 300 million litres a day (which is the proposal) is the equivalent of 0.02 mm/day: basically equivalent to a normal shower of rain. Source: Met Eireann.
2. The scheme is designed to provide water supplies to the counties of the Midlands, Kildare and Dublin. So it is a scheme to help the East Region of Ireland.
3. The scheme will have to be approved by An Bord Pleanála. This will require a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment to be prepared and will allow all parties ample time to comment and appeal the decision.
4. To take account of seasonal flooding the option of diverting water into bogs at Rochfordbridge/Portarlington is being considered.
5. Ireland’s most pre-eminent climate scientists are forecasting that last year’s flooding will become more commonplace and that there will be less rain fall in the east of the country.

The water that falls onto Ireland does not belong to anyone. It is a national natural resource. Therefore it makes sense in order to sustain jobs and to meet demand from households that that resource flows to where it is most needed in the country.

The SPA needs reassurances. The planning process should address their concerns.

The Midlands and the Greater Dublin Region need water. The planning process will determine how best this can be done in a sustainable manner.

And in words of Phil Fitzpatrick’s song…..where the Shannon waters flow.

A scene from Dublin in the Sixties

The Dublin Bike Scheme recorded its one-millionth hire over the weekend, eleven months and one day after the scheme was first introduced. To date, over 37,000 users have signed up for the service.

The 450 silver and blue unisex bicycles are available for use by the public at 40 locations from the Mater Hospital in the north of the city to Grand Canal Street in the south from 5.30am to 12.30am.

A long term subscription card costs €10 and a 3 day ticket costs €2. A guarantee of €150 is required, which will be charged to the guarantee account, if the bike is not returned within 24 hours

The scheme is designed to encourage cycling and to help people move around the city streets quickly and pricing is designed to encourage short trips. The first half an hour is free, 1 hour costs €0.50, 2 hours costs €1.50, 3 hours, €3.50, 4 hours €6.50 and every extra half hour after four hours costs €2.

The Dublin Bike Scheme was launched in September 2009 by Dublin City Council in conjunction with French advertising company, JCDEcaux (Ireland), who fund the operation in return for advertising space.

So far the scheme has been a great success with only two bikes being stolen, which were subsequently recovered.  Because of the success of the scheme, Dublin City Council Plans to increase the number of bikes to 550 in the next few weeks, and to introduce four new stations at Smithfield, Eccles Street, Harcourt Terrace and Charlemont Mall.

“On yur bike”

Brendan Palmer also maintains a Recycling and Business NEWS blog

Thierry Henry apologises at the pearly gates

Get it on YouTube

Nurturing our children’s enthusiastic inquisitiveness and their delight in learning new things as they look at the world they are in, with an open mind, unencumbered by the negativity of the adults who surround them, is a priceless asset we can pass on to future generations and might go some way to compensating these generations for the more recent concept of “Self”, which seems to be a big part of the mess we currently find ourselves in.

We should keep Harry Chapin’s composition “Flowers are Red”  in mind when interacting with our children’s creativity, no matter how whacky it is.

The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw
And the teacher said.. What you doin’ young man
I’m paintin’ flowers he said
She said… It’s not the time for art young man
And anyway flowers are green and red
There’s a time for everything young man
And a way it should be done
You’ve got to show concern for everyone else
For you’re not the only one

And she said…
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said…
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

Well the teacher said.. You’re sassy
There’s ways that things should be
And you’ll paint flowers the way they are
So repeat after me…..

And she said…
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said…
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

The teacher put him in a corner
She said.. It’s for your own good..
And you won’t come out ’til you get it right
And are responding like you should
Well finally he got lonely
Frightened thoughts filled his head
And he went up to the teacher
And this is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen

Time went by like it always does
And they moved to another town
And the little boy went to another school
And this is what he found
The teacher there was smilin’
She said…Painting should be fun
And there are so many colors in a flower
So let’s use every one

But that little boy painted flowers
In neat rows of green and red
And when the teacher asked him why
This is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen.

The Iroquois, a Native American tribe in the United States, traditionally aspired to make every decision on behalf of the seventh generation to come. If a generation is twenty years that brings us to 2150. Perhaps if we keep this in mind, while letting the children show us the way, in the words of another song, “The only way is up”

The intangible value of low to medium skilled employment and the long term impact on all employment when supposedly low skilled manufacturing goes elsewhere is very well illustrated in this article by Andy Grove, CEO if Intel from 1987 to 2005.

The article is written about the American market but almost everything in it applies to Ireland and the current “Mantra” regarding high skilled jobs in the Knowledge Economy.

Full article in Bloomberg HERE

I listened recently to a Senior manager from the Public Sector explain his frustration at the complete lack of forward movement in the Oxymoron called “The Public Service “ but, while  there are many like him in our Administration, none of them are going to radically change it, turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. Talk is cheap and marking time to pension, instead of demanding the recognised changes or else, is about as useful as a fork in a soup bowl.

How can we change over Thirty years of the inexorable movement to point where the administrators are getting paid more than the wealth generators, have consolidated their position and have the power to continue to make laws and regulations, preventing this from reverting to the way things should be i.e. the wealth generators employ the administrators to administer the wealth.

Excuse the use of tired old clichés “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing” I’m not saying that our current situation is as a result of evil, but you get my drift. (Although there are probably a few who would fit the bill)

What to do?

The business community are not blameless in this, abdicating our responsibilities for anything other than making money to the administrators.  If we want change, it’s time to step up to the plate , walk away from “Self” and focus some of our energy on changing those things that will return us to equilibrium for the benefit of the wider community and more importantly, the next generations.

My youngest daughter  Lucy (11), after listening to another of my rants last week, asked me a very interesting question, “Daddy, if you had the power to change everything, what would you do?”

I have to admit to an embarrassing silence and I am still struggling with it because, “where do we start?”

I suppose we need to decide……
What we want to place to look like
What needs to be done to make it happen
Get involved and make it so
Or walk quietly over Mirza’s bridge into oblivion, muttering into our pints.

Find out about Mirza here

The reference to Oxymoron above is incorrect as the statement is more closely aligned to a Paradox, either way, Public Servants are probably not.

Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. Oxymoron  is a loanword from Greek oxy  (“sharp” or “pointed”) and moros  (“dull”). Thus the word oxymoron  is itself an oxymoron.

Paradox

A paradox is a true statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition

Published in “The Spectator,” September 1, 1711

Omnem quae nunc obducta tuenti Mortales hebetat visus tibi, et humida circum Caligat, nubem eripiam  (Virgil Aen. ii. 604)
(The cloud which, intercepting the clear light, Hangs o’er thy eyes and blunts thy mortal sight, I will remove.)

WHEN I was at Grand Cairo I picked up several oriental manuscripts, which I have still by me. Among others I met with one entitled, The Visions of Mirza, which I have read over with great pleasure. I intend to give it to the public when I have no other entertainment for them and shall begin with the first vision, which I have translated word for word as follows:

“On the fifth day of the moon, which according to the custom of my forefathers I always kept holy, after having washed myself, and offered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdat, in order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here airing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; and passing from one thought to another, surely, said I, man is but a shadow and life a dream. Whilst I was thus musing, I cast my eyes towards the summit of a rock that was not far from me, where I discovered one in the habit of a shepherd, with a musical instrument in his hand. As I looked upon him, he applied it to his lips and began to play upon it. The sound of it was exceeding sweet, and wrought into a variety of tunes that were inexpressibly melodious, and altogether different from anything I had ever heard. They put me in mind of those heavenly airs that are played to the departed souls of good men upon their first arrival in paradise, to wear out the impressions of their last agonies, and qualify them for the pleasures of that happy place. My heart melted away in secret raptures.

I had been often told that the rock before me was the haunt of a genius; and that several had been entertained with music who had passed by it, but never heard that the musician had before made himself visible. When he had raised my thoughts, by those transporting airs which he played, to taste the pleasures of his conversation, as I looked upon him like one astonished, he beckoned to me. and by the waving of his hand directed me to approach the place where he sat. I drew near with that reverence which is due to a superior nature; and as my heart was entirely subdued by the captivating strains I had heard, I fell down at his feet and wept. The genius smiled upon me with a look of compassion and affability that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with which I approached him. He lifted me from the ground, and taking me by the hand, Mirza, said he, I have heard thee in thy soliloquies, follow me.

“He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placed me on the top of it. Cast thy eyes eastward, said he, and tell me what thou seest. I see, said I, a huge valley and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it. The valley that thou seest, said he, is the vale of misery, and the tide of water that thou seest is part of the great tide of eternity. What is the reason, said I, that the tide I see rises out of a thick mist at one end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the other? What thou seest, says he, is that portion of eternity which is called time, measured out by the sun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to its consummation. Examine now, said he, this sea that is thus hounded with darkness at both ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it. I see a bridge, said I, standing in the midst of the tide. The bridge thou seest, said he, is human life; consider it attentively. Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it consisted of threescore and ten entire arches, with several broken arches, which, added to those that were entire, made up the number about an hundred. As I was counting the arches the genius told me that this bridge consisted at first of a thousand arches; but that a great flood swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now beheld it. But tell me further, said he, what thou discoverest on it. I see multitudes of people passing over it, said I, and a black cloud hanging on each end of it. As I looked more attentively, I saw several of the passengers dropping through the bridge, into the great tide that flowed underneath it; and upon further examination, perceived there were innumerable trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge, which the passengers no sooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the tide and immediately disappeared. These hidden pitfalls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner broke through the cloud, but many of them fell into them. They grew thinner towards the middle, but multiplied and lay closer together towards the end of the arches that were entire.

“There were indeed some persons, but their number was very small, that continued a kind of hobbling march on the broken arches, but fell through one after another, being quite tired and spent with so long a walk.

“I passed some time in the contemplation of this wonderful structure, and the great variety of objects which it presented. My heart was filled with a deep melancholy to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at everything that stood by them to save themselves. Some were looking up towards the heavens in a thoughtful posture, and in the midst of a speculation stumbled and fell out of sight. Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of baubles that glittered in their eyes and danced before them, but often when they thought themselves within the reach of them, their footing failed and down they sunk.

“The genius seeing me indulge myself in this melancholy prospect, told me I had dwelt long enough upon it: take thine eyes off the bridge, said he, and tell me if thou seest anything thou dost not comprehend. Upon looking up, What mean, said I, those great flights of birds that are perpetually hovering about the bridge, and settling upon it from time to time? I see vultures, harpies, ravens, cormorants, and among many other feathered creatures, several little winged boys, that perch in great numbers upon the middle arches. These, said the genius, are envy, avarice, superstition, despair, love, with the like cares and passions, that infect human life.

“I here fetched a deep sigh; alas, said I, man was made in vain! How is he given away to misery and mortality! tortured in life, and swallowed up in death! The genius, being moved with compassion towards me, bid me quit so uncomfortable a prospect. Look no more, said he, on man in the first stage of his existence, in his setting out for eternity ; but cast thine eye on that thick mist into which the tide bears the several generations of mortals that fall into it. I directed my sight as I was ordered, and (whether or no the good genius strengthened it with any supernatural force, or dissipated part of the mist that was before too thick for the eye to penetrate) I saw the valley opening at the farther end, and spreading forth into an immense ocean, that had a huge rock of adamant running through the midst of it, and dividing it into two equal parts. The clouds still rested on one half of it, insomuch that I could discover nothing in it: but the other appeared to me a vast ocean planted with innumerable islands, that were covered with fruits and flowers, and interwoven with a thousand little shining seas that ran among them. I could see persons dressed in glorious habits with garlands upon their heads, passing among the trees, lying down by the sides of the fountains, or resting on beds of flowers; and could hear a confused harmony of singing birds, falling waters, human voices, and musical instruments. Gladness grew in me upon the discovery of so delightful a scene. I wished for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away to those happy seats; but the genius told me there was no passage to them, except through the gates of death that I saw opening every moment upon the bridge. The islands, said he, that lie so fresh and green before thee, and with which the whole face of the ocean appears spotted as far as thou canst see, are more in number than the sands on the sea-shore ; there are myriads of islands behind those which thou here discoverest, reaching farther than thine eye, or even thine imagination, can extend itself. These are the mansions of good men after death, who, according to the degree and kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are distributed among these several islands, which abound with pleasures of different kinds and degrees, suitable to the relishes and perfections of those who are settled in them; every island is a paradise, accommodated to its respective inhabitants. Are not these, O Mirza, habitations worth contending for? Does life appear miserable, that gives thee opportunities of earning such a reward? Is death to he feared, that will convey thee to so happy an existence? Think not man was made in vain, who has such an eternity reserved for him. I gazed with inexpressible pleasure on these happy islands. At length, said I, show me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that lie hid under those dark clouds which cover the ocean on the other side of the rock of adamant. The genius making me no answer, I turned about to address myself to him a second time, but I found that he had left me. I then turned again to the vision which I had been so long contemplating, but, instead of the rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing but the long hollow valley of Bagdat, with oxen, sheep, and camels grazing upon the sides of it.”

The end of the first vision of Mirza.

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, ‘What is Politics?’
Dad says, ‘Well son, let me try to explain it this way:
I am the head of the family, so call me The Prime Minister.
Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the Government.
We are here to take care of your needs, so we will call you the People. 
The nanny, we will consider her the Working Class.
And your baby brother, we will call him the Future.
Now think about that and see if it makes sense.’
So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said.
Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him.
He finds that the baby has severely soiled his nappy.
So the little boy goes to his parent’s room and finds his mother asleep. 
Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room.
Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny.
He gives up and goes back to bed.
The next morning, the little boy says to his father, ‘Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now.’
The father says, ‘Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.’
The little boy replies, ‘The prime Minister is screwing the Working Class while the Government is sound asleep. The People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit.’

A Duck walks into a bar and says to the Barman
“Have ye any bread?”
“No”
“Have ye any bread?”
“I told you No!”
“Have ye any bread”?
“Listen, I’ve told you, I don’t have any bread, if you ask me one more time, I’ll nail your beak to the bar, you irritating little bastard”
“Have ye any Nails?”
“NO!”
“Have ye any bread?”