Edinburgh schoolchildren with painted faces at Edinburgh Castle November 26, following the announcement of free admission to 45 Historic Scotland sites for the full St Andrew’s Day weekend. Photo: David Cheskin/PA
Malcolm Gladwell. Photo: Ed Schipul from Houston, TX, US
Malcolm Gladwell, author of the best selling books Blink and The Tipping Point, gave a lecture at UCD last night. It was a fantastic event and was definitely worth the trip from Galway. He spoke about a topic in his new book, Outliers.
I haven’t read his latest book yet, but based on the talk, it is a discussion on culture. For example, some cultures are more hierarchical than others and that can have serious implications for certain tasks, like flying an aeroplane, as was discussed last night. Gladwell’s main point was that each culture has its strengths and weaknesses, and if these are honestly discussed, there is scope for a lot of cross cultural learning.
I’m looking forward to reading the book. Like Gladwell, I don’t think enough attention is given to cultural differences. It is as though there is an assumption that there is this overarching global culture and the ideal is for everyone to conform to that. In fact, the only point at which I was uncomfortable during the lecture was when I felt Gladwell wasn’t too far away from implying that there should be some degree of uniformity. In fairness, he stressed the beauty that’s there in cultural diversity. I wish he had spent some time on the importance of cultural differences in maintaining identity.
When all is said and done, it was an incredible event. It was the best public speaking I have come across in person. And it was very nice to be able to speak to the author for a few moments and get my book signed. All in all, it was a wonderful event and UCD did an incredible job of putting it together.
An American friend mentioned that today was their Thanksgiving.I really admire the concept. As far as I am aware, it is a day on which families get together, share a meal, and take time out to share things they are thankful for. I have no idea how if it works out that way in reality, but the idea of a day set aside to count one’s blessings is very admirable.
I think Ireland could do with a Thanksgiving Day. This can be a pretty cynical country. An economic downturn, the arrival of winter, and the realization that the spending that characterized the boom years is now a thing of the past has not helped matters much. There is a growing obsession with news of how bad things are. It’s not too different to a mob that gathers around an accident scene to catch a glimpse of the carnage.
But I really don’t think things are that bad. And there is still an incredible amount to be thankful for. Think about it. Unemployment has risen to 7%, which is bad, but could also be much worse - it’s nowhere near what it was in the 80s. The currency is stable. The social welfare department can keep up with increased demand for its services so there is a safety net for those who find themselves in financial difficulty.
As tough as things may be, I’n thankful that Ireland is home right now, and as flawed as home is, it has an awful lot going for it.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Following on from yesterday’s topic, is there any chance Europe will also do a Burma?
Allow me to clarify. It was reported yesterday that the Irish government, following the lead of the British, is considering imposing stricter visa requirements for several countries. The countries in question are: Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. Take note, all of them lie South of the equator. And while these are not the poorest nations, they are not in the same league as most European states either.
Will Europe, in order to save herself from a growing flood of Southern migrants, close shop? Or will the continent just close its doors to poor nations? Either way, I don’t think it is any more sustainable than Mugabe thinking he can keep the world out of Zimbabwe indefinitely.
Years ago, I read a novels about a time in the future when the world runs out of food. The story was told of a farm that somehow managed to survive whatever had afflicted everyone else. It was quickly populated and those who got there first realised that the farm couldn’t sustain an infinite number of people. They therefore armed themselves and tried to keep everyone else out for the sake of their own survival. Needless to say, it was only a matter of time before a group came along which was better armed than the initial inhabitants of the farm. After a short battle, the newcomers killed their advisoriesr. If I’m not mistaken, at the end of the book, you are left with the impression that the cycle is bound to repeat itself.
The moral of that story is that people will do whatever it takes to survive. I wonder if the notion of fortress Europe isn’t a misguided one. Since people are going to be drawn to places where the standard of living is better, rather than build high walls and fences, perhaps it would make more sense to help the likes of Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela provide a better standard of living for their people?
Just a thought.
According to former president Jimmy Carter, Zimbabwe is the first country to deny him a visa. In the middle of a humanitarian disaster, the Robert Mugabe regime has denied a humanitarian mission including Koffi Anan and Jimmy Carter entry into the country. Wow.
Most people, I think, feel that the Zimbabwe situation is bound to unravel sooner or later, and sanity will return. I hope it does. But this weekend’s events raise the prospect of another eventuality. What if that country goes down the Burma road? What if the people in charge just decide that they couldn’t care less what the rest of the world thinks and shut themselves in?
Which brings up the idea of sovereignty. I happen to think it is an important principle that should be respected. Though in theory I understand and respect humanitarian intervention, I think it’s a slippery slope. The Iraq invasion for example, after the WMD argument fell flat, was reframed as a humanitarian mission. I want the Rwandas of our time to be prevented as much as the next person, but I’m very fearful of the potential for the rise of global bullies who operate under the guise of humanitarian intervention.
Which brings us back to the question of what happens if Mugabe decides to fully embrace his siege mentality and shut the world out while Zimbabweans continue to starve? I don’t really have any good answers and would appreciate any that are out there.
Pigeons in the docks, Cork19-11-2008. Photographer: Jedrzej Niezgoda.
I enjoyed watching the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy as much as the next person, but like most, I thought piracy was a thing of the past. In the last couple of weeks, Somali pirates have proved me wrong.
Is there a more telling sign that a country is a failed state than the emergence of piracy? In an article titled Ahoy there!, The Economist states:
“As a nascent and profitable industry in a failed and starving state, the Somali pirates will not lack for recruits. A share in a ransom translates into an easier life of meat and honey; not just pirate parties but a beautiful bride, a camel, a home, even a car.”
One of the effects of globalization is that the problems in one part of the world do not just affect the people in that location. The people most negatively affected by Somali pirates are not the Somalis. While I’m sure the knee-jerk response will be a military one, the threat will only really be removed when the current state of Somalia is properly tackled and the roots of its troubles thoroughly investigated.
Not surprisingly, The Economist raises the concerns that pirates in the horn of Africa may one day be used by terrorist groups. It is probably a justified fear. The way to deal with both the terrorists and the pirates, in my opinion, is to take away their base by helping to improve the lot of the people they appeal to.
If more Somalis were able to buy meat, marry, furnish a home and the like, far fewer people would choose to join the ranks of the pirates.
One of my favourite books is Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. The basic premise of the book, I think, is that at the end of the day, provided people are sufficiently distracted, they couldn’t care less about their governance.
Two striking examples of this come to mind. The first is Zimbabwe. During the country’s first decade post-independence, the government enjoyed wide support and approval. Most people were sold the idea of accumulating wealth and moving up the social ladder, and because that idea seemed realistic at the time, they were happy to do just that. The result was that the majority were distracted by the pursuit of money and didn’t really notice the ethnic cleansing happening within the country, or even the extreme intolerance of political dissent.
When the IMF structural adjustment program kicked in, the idea of social mobility no longer looked realistic. People were no longer distracted. They kicked, screamed, put together an opposition party and so forth. The rise in anti-government sentiment was not because the country realised that their civil liberties were being violated - it was because the distraction went away.
One of my colleagues would say that what happened in Zimbabwe was to be expected of a politically naive culture. I disagree. My second example is Ireland. During the best of the Celtic Tiger, the government’s behaviour was no different to what it is today. As far as I can tell, the same ideas, policies and practices of that time are still in operation today. And yet today, or more specifically, since the recession proper got going, the government has been on the wrong side of unprecedented approval ratings. Why are we now so angry about the state of the education and health systems among other things? I personally think it is because the distraction of chasing wealth was taken away by the recession.
If the government parties are serious about staying in power, maybe they should take a leaf out of Huxley’s book. They could start giving out free Guinness, open free brothels and nationalise the drug trade. The only catch would be that sex, booze and drugs may not be as distracting as watching your bank balance grow.
I understand the outrage about HPV vaccines being dropped to save costs. But that’s just a symptom, I think, of a much larger problem. Think about it, a full blown screening program was floated at about the same time as the vaccine. Many dirt poor countries in the developing world have functioning screening programs. Why there was a push to establish “centres of excellence” for cancer treatment before there was one for proper cancer screening programs is beyond me.
While everyone has demanded that the civil service be reformed, I don’t think that what the HSE (Health Service Executive) has in mind is the way to go. As reported by Martin Wall in today’s paper, the HSE is looking at saving hundreds of millions of euros, not by getting rid of and background staff and trimming unnecessary layers of health managers, but by trimming down various “layers of on-call cover”.
I think the HSE is taking the path of least resistance here. Non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) have less political clout than consultants, but are probably more important to the system. NCHDs probably contribute a lot more to the health system than most realise. What may look like frivolous benefits that the HSE has proposed removing from them are anything but that. Just about all of them are currently putting in hours of unpaid overtime work, almost daily, because of the staff shortages. Restricting recruitment of front-line medical staff is not a smart way of saving money.
When all is said and done, it sometimes feels as though there is an ad-hoc campiagn to save as much money as possible. The current situation reminds of of an 80s horror film with a crazed man swinging his chain-saw wildly in a crowed room. The results can’t possibly be pretty - especially in the long run.
Two words have snuck into my vocabulary over the last few months. In my defence, that sort of thing can’t be helped when you are a full time student and actually do a little studying every now and again. Because I fall into that category, and particularly enjoy political science and economics, I’ve caught myself bringing up the words ideology and philosophy quite a bit in day-to-day conversation.
Having said that, the fact that I don’t generally hear these words outside of an academic environment worries me. Think about it. The whole world is in economic crisis, or so we are told. Ireland is going through a particularly rough patch. A lot of this is because of the strong belief in a particular political and economic ideology that says that the government should do as little as possible. And yet, there have been very few discussions about that, and alternative ideologies.
Why is that? How is it that having made a mess of things, there is no real desire to stop and examine if the beliefs that caused this mess are worth holding on to? The numerous discussions that are held daily on the economy almost all focus on how to make the status quo work better going forward. That happens without pausing to consider the fact that there may be better ways of going about things. And no, I don’t mean socialism - but the fact that socialism is generally though of as the only real option to a neoliberal philosophy is very sad.
In a brilliant book titled Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman argues that television, by nature, does not lend itself to the transmission of complex arguments. Perhaps that explains why the economists who appear on air will be asked to predict the future, and come up with a remedy, like modern day prophets, but not to teach. A discussion on the history of economic thought and heterodox economic theories wouldn’t be nearly as exciting as one on how the next “great depression” is starting next Tuesday.
Pity… Especially if that depression really does kick off next Tuesday.
When you don’t have anything worth saying, maybe it’s not a bad idea to keep quiet and listen to someone who does? Assuming that’s true, let me hand you over to a lady who is very dear to me. Maya Angelou.
I am not the least bit surprised. A few weeks ago, the elderly came out en masse against proposed budget changes that were intended to limit the entitlement to free health care enjoyed by that cohort. Of all the groups that were affected by the budget, the over 70s were the most vocal and they did the best job of redressing the unwelcome changes.
A question a lot of people have asked after that medical card episode is, ‘what’s next on the political agenda for Ireland’s senior citizens?’ Having flexed their muscles, you don’t expect them to just fade back into the background. If they could be mobilised over one issue, could the same not happen over a host of others? Or was the reason they came out so forcefully that they felt they had been directly attacked? Were the medical card demonstrations a fluke?
At one stage, the elderly, university students, school principals, teachers and parents were protesting at almost the same time because all were threatened by changes in the same budget. Yet it didn’t seem to occur to anyone to combine forces and protest on one platform. Whatever the reason, the various protesters seemed to only be motivated by their own cause.
The 15 000 elderly people who chanted outside Dáil Éireann did so because they were incensed. What got them to take to the streets was genuine rage. So provided the government keeps its distance from that hornets nest, I doubt we’ll see another senior citizen revolt anytime soon.
Sarah Carey has a brilliant opinion piece in today’s newspaper. In it, she looks at the winding down of state sponsored bodies responsible for ‘integration’ and the work of a grassroots group called Fáilte Isteach.
The gist of her article is that National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) and the National Action Plan Against Racism (NPAR) may not have been the most effective in the world. In terms of changing the attitudes of racists in Ireland, as well as practically helping migrants get by and integrate, local groups doing the hands on work of enabling integration are the way to go.
I need to start by noting that I had no personal contact with either the NCCRI or the NPAR while they were in operation. That said, there are people I respect immensely who feel that the decision to pull the plug on them was a mistake. A human rights lawyer recently noted that it’s not as if the need to combat racism and promote integration in Ireland has gone.
That begs the question, are local grassroots organisations more cost effective than larger organisations with long names and complicated acronyms that are based in Dublin? Yes and no.
In terms of direct action, there is a lot that can be done at the grassroots that an NCCRI cannot. But local organisations are often limited by their very nature. They also tend to be reactive and less able to represent or even change perceptions and attitudes on a national stage. While we all want to see tangible results at the end of the day, more mundane tasks like conducting research and engaging with bureaucrats can often be the foundation on which more effective, substantive policy is built.
I have enormous respect for people like Mary Nally who do an incredible amount of good and don’t get nearly as much recognition for it as they deserve. I think that it’s a pity, however, that there is now no opportunity for them to work with bodies like the NCCRI. I accept the economic reality of the times, but I suspect that at some point in the future, we will all remember why some of the bodies that are being shut down were established in the first place.
I need to start this post by expressing my condolences to Shane Geoghegan’s family. He was senselessly killed in Limerick a couple days ago because the killers mistook him for a member of a rival gang. His was the 14th killing since 2000 resulting from a feud in the city.
The public response to this kind of tragedy frustrates me. For the most part, the young people killing and maiming each other are rival gang members or come from feuding families. Most people have a “so long as they’re only killing each other…” attitude towards them. Invariably though, some innocents get caught up in the cross fire. But aside from that, it’s really worrying when society becomes accustomed to violent crime, even if it is confined to criminals.
What is also frustrating is the fact that the Gardaí know exactly who the criminals are, but cannot throw them into prison because of insufficient evidence. I love the idea of due process when it ensures my right to a fair hearing before the law. When it enables irresponsible thugs to go on wreaking havoc on the other hand, I start to think of it as an extravagant luxury that’s not worth keeping. The only problem with picking and choosing when laws apply is that I might one day find myself on the wrong side of a poor arbitrary decision that takes from my civil freedoms.
Which brings me back to the issue of gangland crime. How should the Gardaí, the Minister for Justice, and society as a whole be dealing with it? At the moment, though not for want of trying, it seems as though not enough is being done. I think that’s because the majority of us who are not directly affected prefer not to think about it.
My wife is sick of hearing about the American elections. And the truth is that it’s probably time to move on. But because I really like it, and Will.I.am for that matter; because it’s such a positive way to start the week, I figured I’d kick off this Monday with It’s A New Day.
The million dollar question is this: how so? How do the recent US elections translate into a new day for you as an individual? What’s different?
President-elect Barack Obama waves to the crowd after his acceptance speech at Grant Park in Chicago on Tuesday night. Photograph: David Guttenfelder
OPINION: A FEW hours after Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, my wife jokingly said to me: “You do realise that he is going to be the president of America don’t you? America, not the rest of the world!”
I am not American, and Obama’s functional role in the future matters little to me at the moment. What really matters to me are the implications of his election to a continent in desperate need of hope, and to minorities like myself around the world.
Someone obviously didn’t give Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s Prime Minister, the new script. While most people around the world have been talking about change, hope, the end of an era and all sorts of other positive things, Berlusconi served as a reminder that change often comes slowly and gradually.
In his congratulations to the new US president-elect, he described Obama as, “young, handsome and even suntanned.” The telegraph’s Nick Squires reported that,
An opposition MP, Dario Franceschini, called for the prime minister to apologise to President-elect Obama. “He forgets that his words convey the image of our country abroad. To say that the president of the United States is young, handsome and suntanned sounds to the ears of the whole world like an insult loaded with dangerous ambiguity.”
Italy’s only black lawmaker, Jean-Leonard Touadi, said of Berlusconi’s remarks, “In the United States, a joke like that wouldn’t just be politically incorrect, but a great offence to this amazing example of integration, which it seems the Italian premier should take as an example.”
To cap it all, the Prime Minister said that he didn’t understand why some had taken offence at his remarks, and referred to those people as ‘imbeciles’. And did I mention that prior to this, he was reported as saying when he meets the president elect, he would be able to “certainly give him some advice given my age and experience”? Wow. Talk about a different type of diplomacy.
I have an Italian acquaintance who has complained that he feels the country is moving significantly towards the right. I’m sure Berlusconi did not feel that there was anything wrong with his statements. But I wonder if that isn’t the problem. I wonder if it doesn’t reflect a tolerance for a mindset or sense of humour which would not be tolerated in other parts of Europe.
You could argue that this is just political correctness taken too far. But as Franceschini points out, the alternative is dangerously ambiguous.
In the run up to the elections, political commentators in Ireland largely fell into two main groups. Some were unreservedly excited about the prospect of an Obama victory. Others, whether or not they admired the candidate, were pretty fearful about the implications of an Obama administration on Ireland’s economy. Simon makes this case very well at Irish Election.
He raises the election promise to punish firms which ship jobs oversees (read Ireland for our purposes). If the likes of Google and Dell find that an Obama administration makes operating in Ireland less profitable, this country’s fortunes could go from bad to worse.
I think this comes back to the subject of free markets, open economies and protectionism. The truth is that every country, especially at difficult times, will seek to further its own interests - even if that sometimes comes at the expense of others. That is why there are such fierce efforts by farmers here to maintain government subsidies. In the same way that Ireland wants to protect Irish farmers, America wants to increase American employment levels.
Will Obama actually follow through on those threats? I don’t think that’s the most important question to ask right now. I think a more important one may be why Ireland’s economy is so reliant on what happens in America, and on foreign direct investment in general. Surely it makes more sense instead to be more deeply integrated in Europe because Ireland at least has some influence over European policy. That’s not a plug for Lisbon by the way. It’s just a question of allegiance. There are times I think that given the choice, this country would scrap the EU and sign up to a union with the US. I wonder why that is.
0400: It’s official. Barack Hussein Obama is the President elect of the United States of America.
I have no words.
0330h: Obama has now Pennsylvania, Iowa and Ohio. He’s leading in Florida, but even if he losses that state and the rest of the remaining battlegrounds, he will still get to 270. I’m now waiting for one of the big news organisations to call the election, or for McCain to call it a day.
Running total: 207 - 135 to Obama
0220h: Obama has won Ohio. He’s also doing well in Florida. I know I said the exact opposite 20 minutes ago, but the democrats could win big.
Running total: 195 - 76 to Obama
0200h: The first toss-up state has gone to John McCain. North Dakota only has 3 electoral votes, but it was a toss-up state all the same.
This may turn out to be a relatively close race after all.
0400: It’s official. Barack Hussein Obama is the President elect of the United States of America.
I have no words…
Running total: 175 - 70 to Obama
0100h: It looks like Obama has taken Pennsylvania. It’s hard to see how McCain could get to 270 electoral votes if that projection turns out to be true.
At the moment, Obama hasn’t won any of the states that Bush took over Kerry, but he is doing better (about 3 points) than Kerry did among white males without a college degree.
Running total: 103 - 34 to Obama
I spoke to one of my relatives over the phone this weekend. As usual, we quickly began reminiscing about ‘home’, but that didn’t last too long. We quickly moved on to the political instability that seems to be stretching over Southern Africa. Although it was never verbalised, a common question came to the fore: when will our homeland’s new day dawn?
I think that’s part of the reason why I care so much about what is happening in the United States today. I’m not naive. I know Obama is going to be first and formost an American leader. Given his African roots, he may not be able to fund development initiatives on the continent to anywhere near the same degree as his predecessor. He may not have very much to do with it at all. I don’t care, I still want him to win. I can justify my support for Obama on many grounds. Were he not such an impressive man, he would not have that support. But since he has it, the reason I most want him to succeed has to do with his race and origins. I confess.
Irish people, I’m sure, get that. You only need to look at the way some in this country have traced both Obama and Palin’s roots to Irish counties. I think everyone wants to know that they contributed, or are in some way connected to anything, or anyone, good. With all the challenges on my continent, Obama, for me, represents the good that can come from Africa. To many people, he already embodies the hope he so eloquently enunciates. And while many ‘realists’ have mocked people like me - those of us who have been ‘taken in’ by Obama’s eloquence - all I can say is that words matter. Hope matters.
This is a really big day for me. It may not be my president being elected, but I have just as much invested emotionally in this as those who get to vote. I’m pretty sure that there have never been as many people outside of the United States with as much riding on an American election as there are today.
Hope is a big deal.
I realise that I may have to eat some serious humble pie if this election does not turn out the way I think it will. Que sera, sera. With a day to go, this is where, I think, this election was won. Four years ago.
A man stands in front of an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Hefei, Anhui province October 29th. Photo:REUTERS
