Thursday 28 March 2013

Happy Easter from Fluffy Biscuits



Good old Cat licker Ireland, we cant have a pint! Never mind that stock up tonight! Enjoy the Easter and indulge in the eggs, just make sure they arent fertilised!

Friday 8 March 2013

Single !

It probably comes as no surprise to people to learn that I am recently single. It was my decision, no one wants to be single, not me in particular but I needed it as I needed room to grow and learn to look in too myself. It was one of the biggest decisions I have taken, was not taken lightly but it was for the best and now Im not looking back. Today four weeks ago it all ended and how have the past four weeks been? Everything has gone through my head from afraid of being alone, worry did I make the right descision, lacking direction and feeling like Im swimming in a sea of treacle (which still happens the odd time albeit it happens to us all!) but armed with a lot of positivity this patch is what Im going through. The one thing though that I did learn, and this is a massive lesson for me is that I have to beleive my own sense of judgement is worthwhile.

After the breakup my whole sense of judgement felt like it was lacking, it was wrong. Over the last few weeks asking friends for their opinion and then getting 101 different opinions would discombobulate me (just looking for an excuse to use that word ;) ) . However my friends (thanks to you all you know who you are) sat me down and gave me the clarity of thought for which I thank them for. They reassured me that everything that I was doing was even if they may not agree with it they would back me up 100%, they just wanted me to be happy.

Since everything the last four weeks has been a blast and it has involved meeting a lot of new people,one new friend in particular who I just clicked with, feels like we have been friends for years! What to take out of this readers (cliched !)? Trust your own instincts, that gut feeling you have in the back of your head that is telling you what you want and what is right for you, listen to what is right for you. I knew what I wanted but knowing what was right for me was even tougher as my passions, emotions and other feelings sought to over ride me knowing what was best for me. Looking to the future I do want to settle down, meet someone nice and rent a house with an alsatian (seriously! and a ferret too!) and have my friends and family around me knowing that Im comfortable. Such simple things longed for are so hard to get. For the mean time Im going to continue meeting people, seeing the world and enjoying the company of friend and family.....! As M People said !

How equal are women in Irish society?





Today marks International Womens Day around the world. Women in Ireland are constitutionally guaranteed equal rights to that of their male counterparts but has Irish society atually come that far? On paper its all well and good but in practice are Irish women still suffering from lack of equality in practice?

PW users and members have documented the grave injustices in the Irish courts and the difference in sentences for perpetrators of sexual violence and those whom carry out what society would deem less serious offences (
http://www.politicalworld.org/showthread.php?t=13220). Some attackers have been asked to pay a fine in lieu of a custodial sentence and others have been given community service all without a second thought from the judge on the ramifications on the decisions and how they would affect the victims as a whole.

Twenty One years on, days after the X Case anniversary, a women still does not have the right to decide the fate of a foetus in her womb merci a la influence from a staunch Catholic set up and conservative coffin dodger politicians whose notion of womens rights come straight out of Misogny for idiots. Each year thousands of women are forced to 'get the boat' as the expression has become known because of a lack of adequate options for women to decide how they live their lives.

The Civil Service still sees a lot of the top positions dominated by a male hierarchy (
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...311048868.html) keeping women down the pecking order. All a person has to do is to look at the Dail to see that most of the positions are taken up by men and the political appointments are particularly male dominated , is politics a male only pursuit?

I could go on and talk about the Magdalene Laundries and the men like Neary whom were removing wombs unchecked in the HSE whilst he was a medical practitioner. Ireland still has a long way to go, we are doing the minimum but its just not good enough...


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Wednesday 6 March 2013

Reconciling Republican Left and Other Socialist Views

My opinion is that the NI issue is that of one of class oppression and without going into too much details I have posted on why I believe such an issue exists. On the other hand, my fellow PW Republican users are of the opinion that such an issue is down to tribalism and imperialism by the British state of which they have provided ample evidence to assert their claim . With the two issues having such commonalities is it therefore sensible that we reconcile both the Republican left and the Trotskyist, Stalinist and other traditions that exist within a new left wing framework? Im not for one moment suggesting that we merge Republican and other left wing ideaologies but we look for common ground and work together. There has already been some work on a local level from such groups as Eirigi and the ULA and as such there are some links there. Sinn Fein and ULA have a lot of policies which are similar and the major difference is the view of NI and how the issue is dealt with. Could commonalities be found that could bring the different traditions of the left together to work as one force to counter the effects of current status quo and that of any new right wing party that emerges?

Irish Human Rights and the UN



http://www.broadsheet.ie/2013/03/05/...ers-and-denis/




. Im not going to post links to the decisions but just give a brief outline.

-Legal action being used to intimidate and stifle journalism.
-The open nature of the law on blasphemy.
-Evidence of Garda Harassement.
-Guidelines on people who give info on abortions is not clear.
-Non consultation with groups representing travellers and the Roma communities.
-No protection of whistleblowers.
-Unfair treatment of asylum seekers.
-Issues at St Pats Institution.
-Irish prison service shambles.

Margaret Sekaggya, the rapporteur for the UN made a number of recommendations which can be viewed on the link on the Broadsheets website. Damning indictment again of failed government policies.

Cure for HIV?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...kthrough-seems

Breakthrough made by accident. A child that was born to a mother with HIV showed that the child had contracted the virus as doctors to failed to pick up on it. A plan B was implemented and the child was given what I can only presume to be a cocktail of prophylaxis of the drugs which eliminated the active part of the virus from the childs immune system . Working in health and safety I know how much that prophylaxis is important. After exposure, the first 24-48 hours are crucial as this is when the virus can take hold but prophylaxis can eliminate the viral count and stop it taking hold.

Sex workers in Africa were also shown to be immune t o the virus

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/nov/23/kenya.aids

Are we looking in the wrong places for a cure?

Mother Teresa - Potential Fraud

http://scienceblog.com/60730/mother-...g-but-a-saint/

New evidence has come to light which may just paint a picture that Mother Teresa was not the beautiful saint that we had been lead to believe but may have been in fact a complete psychopath. Studies of documents from researchers in Montreal looked at evidence at the claims that Mother Teresa was caring and found quite the opposite. Hospitals and places for the 'dying' she had set up were found to be in squalor and there was poor hygeine, not much food and no painkillers despite Mother Teresa raising hundreds of millions for her foundation. Her road to beatification was only done due to a slick PR job from the media and the Vatican waving the five year process after the death of a person for beatification as she had done some dubious miracles

Accent and Class Stus

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/scouse-a-class-accent/

Red Pepper is carrying an interview with Tony Crowley who wrote a novel on the Scouse accent and its place in society. The scouse accent for a while society viewed it as being an accent with which it carried steretypes that most notably of class and your ethnicity. Post Famine Immigration into Liverpool in the aftermath of the Irish famine had a huge impact on the development of the Scouse accent in contrast to that of the surrounding areas where the accents developed very differently.As the Scouse accent developed (surprisingly the article says only from the mid half of the twentieth century) that other accents gained a lot of privelege over that of the Scouse accent as it was then associated with crime ridden areas and other social issues. Did anything similar happen in Ireland?