Category Archives: Philosophy

Charities, Unregulated and unaccountable

By brendan Posted in Business, Politics Leave a reply

It is really unfortunate that the current scandal regarding top up salaries for executives has tarred all charities with the same brush. It must be very difficult for the hundreds of thousands of people who give their time free of charge to see their efforts on behalf of the less well off crumbling before their eyes through no fault of their own.

Having said that, the “Charity Industry”, and an industry it has become, must take the blame, they have operated a policy of secrecy and resisted any type of proper regulation for years.  It is this environment that has allowed unscrupulous people to hide behind “Charity Status” while paying themselves handsomely. The public can hardly be blamed for their reaction when the veil of secrecy begins to slip.

Some of these charities also operate like full blown businesses, with significant career paths for the management while competing unfairly with legitimate businesses, which are subject to stringent regulation.

Proper regulation and a willingness of people working for charities to completely transparent systems of accounting will fix the problem.

The legislation has been on the Minister’s desk for signing since 2009, he just has to sign it. It’s one of those “Do it now” things

I have already written on this subject last April in my Recycling and Business NEWS blog
http://www.electronic-recycling.ie/blog/index.php/2013/04/charities-unregulated-and-unaccountable/

It must be winter, the ESB Unions threaten to pull the plug

By brendan Posted in NEWS Snippets, Politics Leave a reply

Electricity is of huge national strategic importance to this State. It is time to make the deliberate “pulling of the plug” a criminal offence, with serious consequences for anyone involved, including those who incite the action.

There are plenty of ways ESB workers can get at the company if they want to prove a point, holding this State to ransom should simply not be one of them.

Except for Retail Excellence Ireland (REI), all commentators from the organisations mentioned in the various newspaper article seem to have an “Oh woe is me” if this happens attitude. It’s time to really represent their member and camp out in the various Ministers Offices until the Government takes away the EBS workers annual winter “Give us more money or we will pull the plug” goody bag

There are comments like “turning out the lights”, as if lighting a candle was all we had to do. That was the Seventies, people need to think about this, in 2013, no electricity, NO ECONOMY

This is a leadership issue. It is up to the government to bring in immediate legislation to prevent this.

If they don’t, and the plug is pulled, all this talk about getting our sovereignty back on 16th December will be just another load of wishy washy hot air.

Justine McCarthy said it well in her recent article in The Sunday Times (17/11) “Kenny must show he is more than just a Taoiseach in name”
To address the issue of Ministers in the media talking about the ESB in the third person, as if they had no responsibility. With a holding of 95%, ESB is majority owned by the Irish Government. (not the State, The Government) The remaining 5% is held by an Employee Share Ownership Trust

Just to say that again, “The “Government” owns the ESB” This strike is their responsibility

 

A Pale Blue Dot, A Renewed Perspective in 3.75 Minutes

By brendan Posted in Philosophy Leave a reply

In 1900, at the request of Carl Sagan, NASA turned the Voyager 1  camera around and took a photograph of Earth, a tiny dot in the in the vastness of space

Carl called it the Pale Blue Dot and created a video with this wonderfully eloquent description  “everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives” has lived on this pale blue dot; “every saint and sinner in the history of our species [has] lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” Space photographs moved Sagan to write that “Earth is the only world known so far to harbour life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.”

Watch Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot video and be inspired……..

Daily quotes from Marcus Aurelius, the full list to date

By brendan Posted in Philosophy Leave a reply

Marcus Aurelius
Daily quote from Marcus Aurelius:

Below are the daily Marcus Aurelius quotes posted to Linkedin and Twitter so far.

Last updated on Thursday 04th April 2013


“Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.”

“Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.”

“Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.”

“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”

“Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.”

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present

“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”

“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”

“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”

“If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.”

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.”

“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”

“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ”

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”

“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”

Marcus Aurelius, If there are gods……

By brendan Posted in Philosophy, Uncategorized Leave a reply

On the day that is in it, March 14th 2013.  The first day of the reign of a new Pope for the Roamn Catholic Church, some thoughts from Marcus Aurelius on Gods.

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

Marcus Aurelius, was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus’ death in 169. He was the last of the Five Good Emperors, and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers

“The Workmans Friend”

By brendan Posted in Dublin, Philosophy 1 Reply

A poem by: Flann O’Brien (Brian O’Nolan) He also wrote under the pen name Myles na gCopaleen.

When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life looks black as the hour of night –
A pint of plain is your only man.

When money’s tight and hard to get
And your horse has also ran,
When all you have is a heap of debt –
A pint of plain is your only man.

When health is bad and your heart feels strange,
And your face is pale and wan,
When doctors say you need a change,
A pint of plain is your only man.

When food is scarce and your larder bare
And no rashers grease your pan,
When hunger grows as your meals are rare –
A pint of plain is your only man.

In time of trouble and lousey strife,
You have still got a darlint plan
You still can turn to a brighter life –
A pint of plain is your only man.

Flann O’Brien (Brian O’Nolan)
More info on Wikipedia

On being a Leader

By brendan Posted in Business, Philosophy Leave a reply

Although written in 1909 “if”  is still  very relevant today and anyone who has lived through the vicissitudes of running a business will recognise the words.
For those starting out or wanting to be a leader “if” is a good roadmap

‘if’ by rudyard kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

 If you can dream – and not make dreams your master,
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

 If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

 If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – what’s more – you’ll be a successful one 

The real end is “And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!”

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

Irish Planning Laws and Objectors

By brendan Posted in Business, Dublin, Politics Leave a reply

I attended the Dublin Chamber of Commerce’s Green Economy Forum in Byrne Wallace Solicitors this morning at which there was two excellent presentations from Gabriel D’Arcy of Bord Na Mona and John Power from Engineers Ireland.

In both presentations there were examples of local vested interests objecting to infrastructure developments that would be of benefit to the whole country, 

From Gabriel,  “Draining the Shannon and sending the captured water to Dublin”. Two Birds with one stone; alleviate of the annual flooding along the Shannon and help solve the water shortage in the greater Dublin area.

From John,  “The North East Pylon Pressure (NEPP) group” demanding that High Powered Electric Cables be put underground, even though this is both technical and financial lunacy (my words not John’s)  

In answering my question as to how we could prevent minority pressure groups and other cranks holding up important infrastructure developments, just because they can, John also explained that the Shell Gas project in the west of Ireland will have a total delivery time of 18 years from start to finish, the norm anywhere else in the world would be 6 years. Why are the oil companies not queuing up to invest in Ireland??

There needs to be some change here, of course people need to be allowed voice their legitimate concerns and have them listened to and addressed but, if companies or organisations are operating within the rules set down in our planning laws, individuals or small groups of individuals should not be allowed to object and hold up the development, just because they can.

Gabriel D’Arcy made the very valid point that companies or organisations also need to be more professional when planning projects, identifying potential issues or areas of conflict and dealing with them in a sensible manner, before they become a problem. 

If we are to dig ourselves out of the hole we are currently in, we need to speed up the delivery of good infrastructure projects and our planning laws urgently need to be changed to allow this to happen.

We need solid guidelines that take account of local and national needs and once a project is planned and executed within those guidelines, individuals or minority groups should not be allowed object. 

There should certainly be financial consequences for any individual or group that holds up a project for spurious reasons.

 

Brendan Palmer, Problem solver.
Developer of successful business strategies for projects in Ireland and across borders and cultures

 

HOW DO YOU LIVE YOUR DASH

By brendan Posted in Philosophy Leave a reply

by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came her date of birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own;
The cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left,
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real,
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger,
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy’s being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

Linda Ellis’ personal site