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I have decided after careful consideration that I will not be attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, I feel that unlike Gordon Brown who was never planning to go anyway and Ban Ki-moon who has other commitments, I must take a firm stand against the abysmal human rights record of the Chinese Government and by my very public absence from the Olympic opening ceremony place tremendous pressure upon the Chinese leadership to bring its policies into line with international standards on human rights and to restore autonomy to Tibet. Get your act together China, you’ve been warned

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Tags: olympics, boycot

April 2nd Bertie Ahearn announces his resignation and Cathal O’Searchigh could drive down the main street of Gortahork in a pink Cadillac convertible full of Nepalese boys with very straight neckties and it wouldn’t get a mention, there is no other news but Bertie

Tuesday April 1st. It had been reported at the weekend in one of the Sunday tabloids that Cathal O’Searchigh was scheduled to come home on Tuesday evening and that there was to be a welcome home event in the Ostan Lough Altan Hotel in Gortahork. Knowing full well that it was April 1st and all that that implied, it had to be checked out. A bit of investigation revealed that Cathal did have a seat booked but not confirmed on a flight into Carrickfinn airport and the function room in the hotel was booked. So far so good, it could not be determined who had booked the hotel or for what purpose but it also turned out that Maggie Dans, a pub in Gortahork right across the road from the hotel, had a sign on its door saying that it was closed on Tuesday night for a private function. It seemed likely that if there was to be a welcome home for Cathal it would be at Maggie Dans and the hotel booking was a cover.
Now all involved knew full well that it was April 1st but no reporter could afford to have this covered in other media outlets and not theirs. Someone who was poking around near Cathal”s house met a neighbor who said that she had seen Prem And Santaram at the house getting it ready.
On Tuesday evening off we went to Gortahork, no sign of life at Maggie Dans, up the road towards Cathal’s house we saw the car of the guy who was figured to be the one most likely to have organized the party if indeed there was to be one. He had been uncontactable all day and was reported to be “away”. Gortahork is a place where a stranger sticks out like a sore thumb, we have a slight advantage in having Donegal registration on the car, the other dozen or so reporters who are lurking around trying to be inconspicuous are not doing so well.
At Cathal’s house there was no sign of life at all. Back to the car park that is shared by Maggie Dans and the hotel and we sit and wait , a bit after eight o’clock the person who is watching the airport rings to say that the plane has landed and Cathal is not on it. Meanwhile the car park has filled up with people going into the hotel but no one that you would expect at O’Searchigh’s welcome home party is among them, it looks more like a bingo crowd. Maggie Dans on the other hand is absolutely dark and deserted. It is after all April 1st.

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Tags: cathalo’sarchigh, fairytale of kathmandu, gortahork

Next month we are going to Florida for three weeks. We are doing a house swap. We will be staying in the winter home of a couple who spend their winters in Marco Island Florida and the rest of the year in Long Island New York. In Florida these seasonal residents are known as “snowbirds”.
We have done one other house swap holiday, that time it was to Jupiter Florida, do you see a pattern here? Let me just explain that I have two grown up children who live in Florida, I would not voluntarily vacation in Florida if I did not have family there. Many millions of people do and love it and to each his own, I just would not count myself among them. I am however very happy indeed to see my kids and their significant others and of course my darling Grandson.
 House swapping is a brilliant way to go on holiday, We will have the use of an apartment two blocks from a private beach with a swimming pool and the use of a car for three weeks and the cost, apart from allowing the owners the use of our house and car is absolutely nothing. Pretty sweet deal. The one draw back to house swapping is the cleaning, not cleaning their house when you leave, you do that but it is not the problem, the problem is cleaning your own house before you go. It as if both of our mothers were coming to visit.
 When ever you mention house swapping to someone who hasn’t done it they always say “you mean people that you don’t know are going to stay in your house, do you lock up the valuables? what if they wreck the place?” No we don’t lock stuff up,we could but we don’t. If they were intent on ripping us off they would just break into where ever we put the err what? what would we lock up I don’t know, as to wrecking the place, why would they? we wouldn’t wreck their house. You do get to know the people somewhat beforehand and if anything doesn’t seem right you do not proceed. Statistically  the number of people who’s homes are damaged in any way other than the minor mishaps of everyday life are extremely low.
 After our first house swap we recommended it highly to everyone we spoke to about it, in May when we return hopefully we will continue to be as enthusiastic as we are now.

I have just read Barack Obama’s speech that he gave on Tuesday explaining his reaction to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s controversial statements that Obama’s political opponents are trying to hang around his neck like an albatross. In my mind any black American who is absolutely non-critical of white dominated American society would be immediately suspect. You cannot fix what is wrong with the country if you cannot recognize what is wrong. We already have a President that can see nothing wrong with America, that isn’t working out so well. It is unfortunate that Obama delivered this amazing speech at a time of day when there isn’t a large tv audience. Most Americans will hear sound bites from it and read short excerpts from it, often edited by people with an agenda of their own. Few will bother to read it in its entirety and grasp what an amazing statement of hope for the future for America it is.

Tags: obama, speeech,

I wonder how all of Cathal OSearcaigh’s unquestioning supporters are feeling now they have seen the film, they have seen it haven’t they? I am particularly disappointed with Senator David Norris who insisted taking the tack that any criticism of a gay guy must be homophobic witch hunting. This is not a gay issue and by trying to make it one Norris is doing the gay community no favors.

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Imagine if you can in a  bazar  alternative universe where the rules of order are very different to this one. In this strange other-reality, Bertie Ahearn is questioned by the tribunal about sums of money that he received back in the early 90’s and he promptly goes on national television and is interviewed by Brian Dobson. Bertie tells Brian and the nation that back at that time all politicians were operating in a culture that we would now characterize as corrupt. This “corruption” was standard operating procedure at the time. By the standards of the day there was nothing wrong with the payments that he received. The people who made these payments were of course trying to gain influence   but were not demanding that he vote or regulate in  a specific manner in exchange for the money. Bertie insists that if he did vote in a particular way that suited these donors it was because he genuinely believed that he was making the right decision not that he had been bought. Having said that he acknowledged that accepting these payments was inappropriate and by todays standards, standards that his government had taken the lead in establishing during the intervening years, was absolutely intolerable. Bertie then stated that if these revelations made his leadership untenable he would happily step down for the good of the country(notice I said for the good of the country not the good of the party, I told you it was bazar) but if he did resign it would raise the question of who could take his place and as he had previously stated this sort of thing was the norm at the time so if being squeaky  clean is more important than experience and a record of working to clean up this culture of corruption, than every single politician of his generation is by rights ineligible  for high office. With that he apologized to the nation and asked to be forgiven and stated publicly that a full disclosure would be made to the tribunal and he asked that his testimony be expedited because he wanted to complete his business with the tribunal before the upcoming general election. Bertie made good on his word and provided every scrap of documentation that the tribunal requested, and he named names and told the whole sordid truth about his “loans” and “personal political donations” and the country did forgive him and in September the government was returned to office. Can’t imagine that? no me neither.

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my new favorite fun thing on the web is the onion

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Tags: election, us politics,

Posting with Flock looks just like posting directly into wordpress via the site admin menu, but is a lot handier to do once you have Flock configured to access your blog. If you are a blogger this is reason enough to use Flock. Next  I suppose I will see what else it can do that might make me want to make it my main or indeed only browser. I now have three installed, safari, firefox and now flock, that seems like at least one too many.

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