Was discussing some information with the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign earlier who were demonstrating on O Connell St earlier on today. The topc of CRH came up and their role in the building of the illegal wall in Jerusalem and the role they played in its construction, he was of the opinion they were breaking the law as they were involved in construction of said wall. A complaint was lodged that detailed that CRH did not act within the confines of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprise which state that (according to the following website from the Russel Report -http://www.russelltribunalonpalestin...plc-3.5.11.pdf )
The Guidelines are recommendations by governments covering all major areas of
business ethics, including corporate steps to obey the law, observe internationallyrecognised standards and respond to other societal expectations.
Two of the key policies state “that enterprises should respect the human rights of
those affected by their activities consistent with the host government’s international
obligations and commitments” and that they should “Encourage, where
practicable, business partners, including suppliers and sub-contractors, to apply
principles of corporate conduct compatible with the Guidelines”
A case as far as I am aware is currently with the International Court of Justice but I have no idea how far along it is. Is anyone more up to date with the case than I am? Google is proving a bit fruitless...
The Graduation Theory is one of the latest hypothesis as to why serial killers and their ilk develop the way they did due to the influence in their formative years of inflicting pain upon the animals. One subject often cited is the case of Jeffrey Dahmer who for years killed and tortured animals for pleasure and then moved on to humans. Oft this type of behaviour (i.e. the hunting of animals) is rewarded with pats on the back from some sectors of society with the stag mounted on a wall to be displayed as a trophy. These people are akin to the serial killer in their early stages of their path to becoming serial killers but most never thankfully reach that stage of becoming killers but the potential is always there. More information can be read here on the theory and the rewarding of such behaviour.http://www.deviantcrimes.com/serialm...allearning.htm__________________
In ancient Greek mythology, Zeus put in Pandora's box hope, for he knew man was too curious to not open it, in it were contained all the evils of the world and Zeus knew that man would need something when the evils of the world were unleashed on him. Religion is a bit like that, during a time of need we need something to cling to, a mechanism to aleviate fear when times are tough and religion precisely fills this roll.Humans know that their time on Earth is limited so how do you cope when you lose a loved one and need to engage in something that fulfills that attachment mechanism we all need? There is a strong case that religion itself is an adaption that we needed to be crucial for survival, the so called god gene as Richard Dawkins called it. Some of the research I have read explains a lot of the psychology behind religious belief very well as religion by and large is very irrational. One of the examples I read about was if someone says something is true, that does not mean its necessarily so. Eg. I tell you that you are warm when you are freezing, a faith in being warm is not going to alleviate the suffering but when religious people are going through some sort of tough time they are thrown head long into their faith, they seem to cope somewhat better than some athiests do . This irrational belief system may have evolved somewhat to enabled us to cope when times were tough and is therefore an adaptive measure. Another reason I have seen cited is that religion is more or less like a community aspect and brings people together under a common umbrella and therefore is likely to enable people in social groups to carry out business deals, favours etc as is the case in a lot of the American right wing now days. Perhaps now thanks to more abstract thinking and a more critical view of the world and the fact people are a lot more widely educated they can cast of the shackles of an irrational belief system and live their life as it was intended.
Referenceshttp://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articl...9_religion.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evoluti...gy_of_religion
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I take it we are all familiar with the class system here and how it works. Does it work against us though in a way? The Us vs Them scenario that we create divides us into two groups essentially along economic lines. Those who do not have the money and those who do not. Can we not change this? Instead of creating a society drawn along humans lines we create a society based on the needs of humans as per the Human Scale of Development (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_human_needs). Class strucuralism as described by Marx etc can be applied in a modern context but its a little too rigid so perhaps we need a new socialist movement based on the intentions of the original structure as described by Marx and re-empower the proleteriat?
"Person or Number", a report issued just yesterday by a number of organisations including NASC Ireland makes for very startling reading. (http://www.nascireland.org/ ) . The report cites a number of issues with the attitude of some CWO's and Dept of Social Welfare Officials to immigrants looking to claim benefits here. In one case, a Nigerian man who was refused benefits was more or less told to fuck off back to Nigeria if he did not like it. This was just the tip of the iceberg, most of those interviewed would not make a complaint for fear it would cause an issue with their benefits that they in most cases are genuinely entitled to. Its thanks to the good people at organisations such as Intergrate Ireland and other such advocacy organisations that we can get a message across that discrimination of any kind is not welcome....
The right make so much of a deal of marriage these days , they claim its the basis of the nuclear family or 2.4 children . Man meets woman, they get engaged and they marry and for what? Let us not beat around the bush here, marriage only serves a financial purpose, couples who are married here in Ireland are better off financially than those that are not (http://www.youandyourmoney.ie/content.asp?contentid=882) . Tax credits can be transferred between spouses whom are married. The other issue is, marriage in a way is discriminatory, it creates a world where gay people cannot get married but must have to make do with a civil partnership. The rights of a CP are not the same as that of marriage (http://www.marriagequality.ie/learn/...rtnershipbill/) particularly in relation to inheritance and rights. Instead of us all fighting for equal rights why not just scrap marriage all together for everyone? Families who want a religious ceremony can have one by all means in their local church but the marriage must be registered at a registry office . Outdated practices such as marriage should be consigned to the bin of the past, they went out with the dinosaurs, cowboys and Indians and FF as relics of Ireland's past. Start the marriage ban as a basis to building a secular society where we all then become on an equal footing.
Been really getting into Asian Cooking lately. If anyone wants recipes for Satay, Red Thai Curry or Penang let me know. Also I so a sexual spaghetti bolognese and as for my carbonara! Well my Spanish housemate creates the most wonderful carbonara in the world!
