Maman Poulet | Clucking away crookedly through media, politics and life

Bertie earns again

March 26th, 2012 · Irish Politics

So the other day I was wondering about the Bertie Earners and speculating if they would ever go away.

Well they haven’t.   He’s in Nigeria, spotted by Clement Esebamen and others and he’s making a plenary speech.

He’s there addressing the Ogun State Investors Forum.  The Honourable Bertie Ahern they tell us

  …served as prime minister of Ireland from 1997-2008. At the age of 45, he was the youngest prime minister ever elected to the office.

He paved the way for tremendous economic prosperity, peace and global political prominence.

During his tenure as prime minister, Ahern transformed Ireland from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the wealthiest.
A period of economic prosperity called the “Celtic Tiger” led to an unprecedented rise in disposable income. Unemployment fell from 18 percent to 3.5 percent, and the average industrial wage grew to one of the highest in Europe. Public debt was dramatically reduced while Ahern oversaw large investments in the modernization of cities and infrastructure.

and so on. 

Update: Picture of Bertie Ahern in Nigeria today can be seen here. 

I’ve had a ‘Bertie haunts me’ type of day.  Earlier in the day I was in the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel in Clondalkin.  This was what greeted me at lunchtime.

A Graham Knuttel original.  (They have conference rooms named after all the Taoisigh (except Cowen) in the hotel – I spent the day in the De Valera Suite).

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Donegal saying no again

March 25th, 2012 · Irish Politics

Yesterday in Letterkenny saw another anti charges march take place.  It ws a non party aligned march with no party posters requested.

Donegal do marches and protest unlike no other place I know.  There was even a priest  addressing the crowd (yes only in Donegal), Father Brian O’Fearraigh from Gaoth Dobhair tore up his household charge registration form along with many others in attendance (1,000 to 2,000 took part depending on which news organisation you believe).

And there was a float (fresh from it’s St. Patrick’s Day outing I think. )

Pictures – Karen Mulhern

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How long left for the Bertie Earners?

March 22nd, 2012 · Irish Politics

He regales audiences with a thoughtful and history-infused presentation as only an Irishman can, by sharing: the historical significance of Ireland’s late-20th-century peace process, the delicate strategy and skills he employed to achieve success, how to find common ground and strike a deal, what other countries, corporations and even individuals can learn from his approach.

The blurb on the Washington Speaker Bureau site where Bertie Ahern is still being advertised at $40k a go for a keynote or panel. (Plus expenses)

The Bert’s specialist subjects?

Europe
Negotiation
Overcoming Obstacles and Challenges

Overcoming Mahon?

I would like to think that my series Bertie Earners will now close.  However I am far wiser than that. Nigerian and Chinese governments and companies love him. Go figure.

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The household charge and local government in Ireland

March 21st, 2012 · Irish Politics, Recession

In an effort to scare convince people to pay the household charge, politicians including Desperate Dan Phil are extolling the virtues of local government and local services and paying for them. There’s a whole lot of mentioning of  playgrounds and swimming pools in the last few days as if we were drowning in them.

This tactic of linking the payment to local facilities and democracy might work if successive governments had not run local government into the ground taking away powers and either running things from Dublin or giving powers to the unelected and unaccountable executive.  Of course before that it was the most corrupt arena in Irish politics. (cf Mahon/Moriarity tribunals)

Some government politicians are saying that that there has been reform from the current government – merging a few councils does not make for a vibrant local democracy. Not a word on reducing the number of councillors (we are very much over represented) or directly electing a mayor anywhere.

The ‘trick’ of removing funding for local government from the book of estimates and saying that the household charge is going to fund all these ‘important’ things won’t fool many. Neither will it wash when the government start saying that people have not paid their household charge so services have to be cut further.   And it does not reform local government or the mess that is local authority housing and regeneration, stop the closure of libraries, the absence of regulation of bin charges and private operators, the lack of local play and recreation facilities in many areas. It won’t stop TD’s interfering in local politics either or concentrate their minds on national issues.

I am in favour of a progressive property tax but what are the chances when it is finally introduced that the money will remain ring fenced to fund local amenities and administration?  The household charge is another example of this government introducing charges or cutting payments without reforming anything and in this case the continued neutering of local democracy.

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Another identity altogether

March 18th, 2012 · Homophobia, Irish Politics, LGBT, Uncategorized

Voices from outside the Irish America LGBT community have joined in criticism of the exclusion of lgbts from the New York St. Patricks Day parade which took place yesterday.  (Post from Joe My God  with great pictures from the Irish Queers protest.)

There is a new avenue of criticism this year targetting the local NBC affiliate who broadcast the event and pay the organisers a fee for the ‘privilege’.

Things have moved on.  LGBT activists now successfully target broadcasters in order to respect diversity and campaign for equality.   NBC has merged with Comcast and the merger has not been without controversy. Now the links between the broadcaster and a discriminatory event have come to the fore.

GLAAD say that they will be talking to WNBC about future coverage .

“The idea that a group of LGBT people aren’t allowed to participate in a parade in the middle of New York City in the year 2012 is completely out of touch with a majority of Americans and it is frankly indefensible”.

Writer and broadcaster Michaelangelo Signorile notes

The truth is, most LGBT activists weren’t focused on the St. Patrick’s Day Parade all these years, with bigger fish to fry. But many are now looking at this as unfinished business — as I said, an embarrassment in a state where we now have marriage rights — and they are also seeing Comcast as a company that is vulnerable. If Comcast doesn’t want a battle on its hands, a battle it will ultimately lose, after much PR erosion, it will make sure that March 18, 2012 is the beginning of the end of the ban on gays in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Meanwhile yesterday in Áras an Uachtaráin (official residence of the Irish President).

Photo via twitter from @smurphette85

Staff and young people from BelonGTo were pictured with President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina.  Also in attendance at the St. Patrick’s Day reception which was themed on Inclusion were representatives from GLEN, Marriage Equality and GCN.  Other civil society groups representing lone parents, domestic violence support, migrant rights and disability organisations were also in attendance.

I watched most of the New York Parade coverage. Apart from the many Tourism Ireland slots (one wonders if they pay NBC for inclusion in this broadcast or the organisers? A certificate of Irish heritage was presented to the Grand Marshall by Tourism Ireland rep live during the broadcast.) there was very little reference to Ireland today in terms of politics, identity or diversity. Most of the participants appeared to have lived in the US for decades or were not born in Ireland.

Things have changed very little in Irish America in the past twenty years.  In Ireland itself?  Things have changed utterly.

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