Irish Blog Awards 2010 nominations!

I saw during the week that my blog visitor traffic has increased in recent weeks and I haven't really a clue why that is - except that I am listed on a few blog directories here and there that may have increased traffic. It's nice to see that a few more people are visiting the site, and even though there aren't any new followers or comments, I don't mind as I write it mostly for enjoyment, not as a major ego trip!

If anyone thinks this blog is worthy of entry to the Irish Blog Awards then please follow the nomination procedure from the link. It has a number of different categories so mine is probably the broader personal rather than the political or any specific category. Closing date is 5th February 2010.


Thanks in advance to anyone who nominates me - indeed thanks for visiting my blog over the past year and to those who left comments - I hope I responded to all of you as I think that's the least you deserve for making the time and effort to comment!

I will also nominate some of my fellow-Irish followers whose blogs I enjoy. Who? I hear you ask! That would be telling so I'll keep shtum for now - I don't do secrecy well so I'll probably divulge later. Oh, and you can nominate yourself if you fit the bill (blogging from Ireland!) so I might do that too - just to ensure a nomination of one!

Have fun selecting your nominees - I think anyone from anywhere else in the world can nominate eligible Irish Blogs in any appropriate category so it could be an eclectic selection!

Christmas gifts that keep on giving - and Happy New Year 2010!

I got some lovely presents for Christmas - silver jewellery from hubby, DVDs of the Irish TV series Pure Mule which is a parable of the Celtic Tiger and it's demise - Monty Python's live stage show and Michael (ex-Python) Palin's Pole to Pole from sons, and some nice baking and cookery things - Neven Maguire's new book Home Chef, and a nice pastry template cutter and a brownies book with storage tin and silver boxes from oldest son and girlfriend and some nice toiletries from teen daughter. I like the thought that went into the presents and that matters more than any monetary value - I will get lots of use from the cookery books and I have alread tried one of the cake recipes (Lime and Coconut Meringue Pie) and used the pie template cutter for our New Year's party.

I am wearing the jewellery over the Christmas holiday period as I am off work for a whole week and a half; I have the DVDs to look forward to - I can't see Pure Mule as something the whole family will enjoy as it has probably more girlie appeal, whereas Monty Python suits the boys' humour and Pole to Pole will be something hubby will enjoy too, as we met Michael Palin in Lismore when he was the main speaker at Immrama 2005. Also Pole to Pole has a lot of nostalgia value for us as he goes through Tanzania to Kigoma and on the Liemba ferry to Zambia - we lived near Kigoma for years in Mishamo refugee settlement and spent a lot of time in Kigoma and we too went to Ujiji - famed for the "Dr. Livingstone, I presume" encounter between Stanley and Livingstone.

So, despite the recession, we had a lovely Christmas, culminating in a nice low-key New Year's Eve party last night. We had a gathering of friends and with all the family together (except my mother who is in long-stay care for a number of years and sadly has dementia) it was a lovely evening, with nice home-cooked food and desserts, and good company. We went to a lovely wedding of the daughter of old friends the day before New Year's Eve, and enjoyed the reception in the Park Hotel in Dungarvan, where we had a delicious meal and danced off the calories to Dale Haze and the Champions - who (along with Gina) were stalwarts of the showband era and my dancehall days back in the 70s!

What more could we want? We have a lot to be thankful for in so many ways - we have good health, our first grandchild due in February and live in peace and comfort, compared to so many in the world living in conflict and poverty. We never put huge store by material wealth and try to live within our means (which might prove challenging with the imminent pay cuts in 2010!) and as we were happiest in our "good life" days in Africa and Asia when we really did have a simple life, we are liable to be philosophical about the excesses of life in Ireland in recent years. It reached the point of vulgarity and tacky conspicuous consumption at the height of the Celtic Tiger, and that unsustainable bubble had to burst at some point.

I'll stop now before descending to mawkish reminiscence and say Happy New Year to you all out there in the blogosphere and here's hoping that the downturn will be reversed before the first year of this new decade is over.

The photos show us at the New Year's Eve party, some of the Christmas presents and resulting tarts (Apple with Blueberries, apple with cloves) and the cookery books. and my starter at the wedding - chicken and mushroom vol au vents - yummy!

Poor or Public Sector? Unparliamentary Language in a Post-Apocalyptic Budget 2010

This has been a bad week for the Irish public sector worker - we have been collectively hammered in the harshest most divisive budget in my memory at any rate. With taxpaying workers, it solely targeted the public sector for cuts, and despite the one day strike on November 24th and subsequent attempts at resuscitating union-government Partnership talks - which broke down at the 11th hour - there was an inevitability that nothing would make a difference and the decision on slashing pay was a fait accompli. There has been an increasing divide and rule fomented by the right - government and the employers bodies like IBEC and think tanks like the ESRI - in recent months to drive a wedge between the public and private sectors. As Joan Burton TD, Labour's finance spokesperson, said in her response to the budget, the low-paid public sector cleaner will constantly be reminded they are lucky to have a job and no doubt we'll all be reminded of this fact frequently in the future. Do we have to be grateful and not demand any more than the crumbs that fall from the private sectors' conspicuous absence of pay cuts? There was no increase in income tax which meant that the private sector felt no pain in the area of pay cuts, only the same as the rest of us in the carbon tax and other general increases like the drugs payments. All this to raise €4 billion, a fraction of the €54 billion given to bail out the banks but this time falling on those unable to circumvent the blow.

The budget targeted not alone the public sector for this unfair and unbalanced hit, but also hit the most vulnerable - social welfare recipients, child benefit, and carers - all had cuts to their payments except for the pensions paid to over-65s. The government learned to their cost last year that hell hath no fury like a pensioner with a grievance after they tried to remove the universal medical card for the over-70s in October 2008 budget - arguably the worst PR move since Garrett Fitzgerald's Fine Gael collapsed the government in 1982 over the proposed VAT on children's shoes. The jobseeker's allowances (dole) has been halved for the under-21 year olds, and reduced for under-24s. Those on disability and other long-term benefits will all be hit, and the universal child benefit paid to mothers - historically to give them a payment in their own right back in the days when women were chattels and had no right to own anything in marriage - has been cut by €16 per child. The excuse that we have generous social welfare rates is no reason to be so brutal in cutting these payments - hitting the captive audience of those on social welfare is a low blow as the cost of living is way higher here than in many other countries.

All in all, I will be down about another 6.5% direct pay cut on my gross salary. I know this will be slightly less when net income is calculated as I will have less tax and PRSI and levies to pay, but it is a real hit when you realise the public sector were hit with an obligatory pension levy back in May - for me, a 7.5% levy on my gross pay. So this year I have effectively had a 14% pay cut, which is draconian by any measure outside the IMF - in fact some of us feel the IMF taking over the government coffers would hardly be worse in their structural adjustments than the present Fianna Fáil/Green Party coalition. The IMF is trotted out like the bogeyman whenever there's outrage and uproar from people over the budget cuts, and the government thinks it can get away with anything as a result of this fear - along the lines of - if you think this is bad, what do you think would happen if the IMF took over? Well, some say 15-20% pay cuts across the public sector would result - hallo, what have we had in the past year? With income and pension levies, and this pay cut, that's exactly how much we have taken. So I am inclined to say - bring it on. At least it might weed out the corruption and pandering to vested interests we see in the current budget. Publicans, the motor industry and the private sector are the winners in this budget.



Did I mention the biggest joke of all? The excise duty on alcohol was reduced in order to make booze cheaper! No, this is not a clip from Father Ted or a letter to Santa written by Father Jack -it is for real - the budget saw a drop with immediate effect in the price of drink and the justification is to stem the flood of shoppers trekking to the North Face of Newry every weekend (and every strike weekday!) That the government thinks that knocking 60 cent off a bottle of wine will keep patriotic shoppers at home shows how far removed they are from reality. People shop in the North of Ireland for overall cheaper prices as Tesco, Lidl and Ikea are all cheaper there than in the south. As for the motor industry - that would be car showrooms and sales outlets - a scrappage scheme was introduced in the budget which will give a €1,500 trade-in on cars over 10 years old when a new low-carbon emissions car is bought. As most people can't afford new cars with that scrappage it will probably be totally ineffective but the car dealers are happy.





The only bright spot in an otherwise abysmally depressing week on the news front was the diversion in the form of Green Party publicity hound TD Paul Gogarty lashing out at Labour's Emmet Stagg yesterday in the Dáil in an unparliamentary outburst. He took exception to Stagg and other Labour TDs accusations of hypocrisy at his statement that the budget was unfair but he was voting with it nonetheless. It is best watched in the YouTube clip above - but you have been warned, there is no beeping out the unparliamentary expletives! Of course it lightened the day a little and he achieved his goal of yet again hogging the limelight as is his form - he has shown similar form in the past and relished the spotlight, but is generally viewed as a prat by the media and by most of the electorate at this stage, and his hectoring and heckling in the Dáil was becoming tiresomely predictable - until yesterday's meltdown brought him to a new level nearly as low as his rollover in front of Frances Fitzgerald.