Delighted to see a new blog added to the revamped Irish Times – look forward to being a regular visitor over here.

‘No foul, hateful or discriminatory language
No personal attacks – I’m hoping there will be a lot of strong disagreement, even attacks, on ideas, but not on people’

Don’t worry, Bryan..that sort of stuff will be confined to Jim Carroll’s On The Record Blog. Usually when someone mentions the words ‘Damien Rice’.

Happy blogging Bryan, having an outsider’s perspective on things happening in Ireland is exactly the way the Irish times should be going. will there be a column in the paper too, or is it just the blog for now? And tell the technical guys there that your blog doesn’t yet show up when you go to http://www.irishtimes/blogs. They need to sort that out.

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the support and encouragement. The technical guys are working on the link from the blog page, and I’m amazed you guys found the blog.

About the newspaper Andrew, I write a column in the Opinions section every couple of weeks ago. If you search for Bryan Mukandi you should find them.

Thanks again guys.

I must agree with No. 9 above. People only ever Left Ireland so an influx of foreign nationals was new to us all. Took some adjusting myself though I was Particularly insular and narrow minded. Until it was my turn to live abroad where I was new, “different, not one of us, here for the buck”. First hand then I’ve known discrimination but in a way am grateful as is it was an education – and put manors in me! So to you Brian, and all the other law abiding, stand up and contributory foreigners in or moving to Ireland…I say welcome…I say thank you all for your contribution to the country. And now that Ireland is waking up, hung-over, flat broke and in debt – We Now More Than Ever need ALL perspectives, ALL sides, Everyone’s combative debate and ideas so we can drop a gear and power out of this economic bend. Looking forward to some good arguments.

Perhaps a lot of the problems in Zimbabwe could be resolved if the people fleeing mainly as economic migrants returned similary for Kenya, Nigeria. also If they were as assertive in their countries of origin as they were In Irealnd then perhaps things would hange for the better so as they would not be forced to migrate.

Joe – there’ over 90% unemployment in Zimbabwe and there’s no dole. If the economic migrants (about 3 million people) all returned tomorrow, it would be a catastrophe. And w.r.t. the issue of being assertive, it’s a different ball game. I am not a fan of Mary Harney. I could even tell her that to her face and still expect to live in this country. Criticising the government is a crime in Zimbabwe and people have been killed over silly things. The freedoms you enjoy here are not enjoyed by a lot of people in the developing world – especially not in Zimbabwe.

And although Itayi is joking about Mugabe surfing the net, I won’t be going to Zimbabwe for a long time. It wouldn’t be safe. And I don’t mean cycling without a helmet safe.

“AMERICA is the only country to have dropped the atomic bomb”
So what? , it ended the second world war, a courageous decision, the japanese were responsible for the deaths of 15 million people in China alone ,one million Vietnamese starved in a man made famine caused by the the Japanese hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of Asian women taken as “comfort women” ie sex slaves, chemical and biological experiments carried out on Chinese and others, public vivisection of captured allied pilots, how easy it is for people like you to condemn decisions made out of necessity, I for one am thankful for the decisions made by courageous men and women at that pivotal period in human history.

Thats fine Kiernan I SERIOUSLY doubt you know anything about the the second world war especially what happend the the east. What is regretful is people like you use the Hiroshimo bombings as a form of singular evil without trying to understand what was actually happening at that time, are you aware that the Japanesse High command where more worried by the Russian invasion of manchuria than the bombing hence the need for the second bombing, if you were in America at that time was it right to commit troops to a ground invasion, in view of what happened at Saipain, what was morally right at that time ( with the desire to win a war ) and by the way Kieran in case you dont know more people died in Toyoko fire bombing than hiroshimo.