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Location:Queen's Road,Dun Laoghaire,Ireland
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
THE KING'S SPEACH
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The king's Speech
The is a film where every positive word in the dictionary should be used. The movie focuses on the struggle Of King George VI to overcome the most disabling stammer to transform into the saviour of the Monarchy and empire.
The story is told in a very simple way
Location:Convent Rd,Dun Laoghaire,Ireland
Thursday, January 14, 2010
"The big feeze"
The big conversation over Christmas and New Year has been the weather but in my view the weather is not the problem. The problem lies in the Irish government response to the extreme weather conditions.
I spent three years in America as a child living in Long Island. The first memory I have is snow up to the windowsill and most of the winters were like that.
My point here is to say that I don't remember things coming to a stop as they have here in Ireland. With climate change the government must plan ahead as our winters are going to get colder and our summers are going to get hotter.
An effective system have to be put in place in order to deal with more extreme weather conditions to avoid the situation where people don't have to go trough the same trauma as we have been witnessing all over the country with people isolated and alone at their home since as far back as 20th December in country areas such as Wicklow, Sligo and Meath.
Government ministers were on holiday while people were struggling to deal with the worst conditions in half century. The minister for the environment for example took two weeks to tell people it was not necessary to run their taps in order to stop the water pipes from freezing.
And now we are in the position of having to conserve water because the water supply is so low and one of the reasons put forward for the water shortage was that people run the taps when was not necessary to do so.
My point is that people could have been told immediately if the minister had chosen to do so.
Last week I was listening to RTE radio show called "Joe Duffy's show" and on Monday night I was watching Pat Kenney’s show called "The Front Line". These two RTE programs showed the lack of a coordinated government response to what the media called the big freeze.
We must learn from other countries where the winters are much colder and much more severe to put an appropriate system in place to ensure that we know how to deal with this better next time.
Why should it take a public out cry for the official bodies to react? All the public bodies should act together to ensure public safety because this what we all hope is not going to happen again can actually happen again and we owe it to ourselves to be prepared so country can keep on providing essential services to all sectors of society.
I spent three years in America as a child living in Long Island. The first memory I have is snow up to the windowsill and most of the winters were like that.
My point here is to say that I don't remember things coming to a stop as they have here in Ireland. With climate change the government must plan ahead as our winters are going to get colder and our summers are going to get hotter.
An effective system have to be put in place in order to deal with more extreme weather conditions to avoid the situation where people don't have to go trough the same trauma as we have been witnessing all over the country with people isolated and alone at their home since as far back as 20th December in country areas such as Wicklow, Sligo and Meath.
Government ministers were on holiday while people were struggling to deal with the worst conditions in half century. The minister for the environment for example took two weeks to tell people it was not necessary to run their taps in order to stop the water pipes from freezing.
And now we are in the position of having to conserve water because the water supply is so low and one of the reasons put forward for the water shortage was that people run the taps when was not necessary to do so.
My point is that people could have been told immediately if the minister had chosen to do so.
Last week I was listening to RTE radio show called "Joe Duffy's show" and on Monday night I was watching Pat Kenney’s show called "The Front Line". These two RTE programs showed the lack of a coordinated government response to what the media called the big freeze.
We must learn from other countries where the winters are much colder and much more severe to put an appropriate system in place to ensure that we know how to deal with this better next time.
Why should it take a public out cry for the official bodies to react? All the public bodies should act together to ensure public safety because this what we all hope is not going to happen again can actually happen again and we owe it to ourselves to be prepared so country can keep on providing essential services to all sectors of society.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Edward Kennedy—a Man of Compassion
On Wednesday 26 August 2009 I woke up to the news that senator Edward M. Kennedy had passed away from brain cancer.
He has been described as the lion of the United States Senate. After the assassination of both his brothers—President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968—he made it his mission to carry on the work they had started. Although he came from a very wealthy and well-known family, he represented core Democratic Party ideals in devoting himself to the cause of the poor. He knew how to get what he wanted from legislation, and was responsible in large part for seeing that the Americans with Disabilities Act (or ADA) was passed and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in 1990.
This Act has become the standard for treatment of people with disabilities in the workplace and in public life. The ADA has inspired Ireland and other European countries to pass legislation that has greatly improved the quality of life for people with disabilities.
On CNN’s Larry King show recently, two of Ted Kennedy’s sons were promoting late senator’s memoirs, titled True Compass. Ted Kennedy Jr. and Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy talked about how their father instilled in them the ideal of service to the disadvantaged, whether poor or disabled. Indeed Ted Kennedy Jr. is himself an amputee, having lost his right leg to cancer. He now is on the board of the American Association of People with Disabilities. Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who had suffered from alcohol and substance abuse, worked with his father to pass US legislation on mental health.
Senator Kennedy’s sense of service led him to do all that he did for the disadvantaged. He was author of five hundred pieces of legislation having to do with improving the quality of life of Americans.
It was in the context of Kennedy's active pursuit of justice for the disadvantaged that in 2004 US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg defended the right of a young man to have equal access to justice. He was suing the State of Tennessee because he had to humiliate himself by having to get out of his wheelchair and crawl up two flights of stairs in the Tennessee State. As it turned out, the young man won the case. Justice Ginsberg wrote that, under the ADA, we might have to treat some citizens differently to give all citizens equal dignity.
We in Ireland could learn from Ted Kennedy’s legacy especially during these difficult economic times. When I was growing up in the Ireland of the 1980’s we had a health service that was the envy of the world. We now have a Harney health service that caters for those who can pay, while those who cannot pay are going to have to struggle against the odds.
When Senator Kennedy died America lost a great unifier and a unique champion of universal healthcare. There are stories of how Kennedy would talk late into the night trying to hammer out a deal with one or more Republican senators to reach a compromise so that the less well-off could have their lives made a little easier.
If they are really serious about paying tribute to him, members of the United States Congress can pass the universal healthcare plan Senator Kennedy was so passionate about.
He has been described as the lion of the United States Senate. After the assassination of both his brothers—President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968—he made it his mission to carry on the work they had started. Although he came from a very wealthy and well-known family, he represented core Democratic Party ideals in devoting himself to the cause of the poor. He knew how to get what he wanted from legislation, and was responsible in large part for seeing that the Americans with Disabilities Act (or ADA) was passed and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in 1990.
This Act has become the standard for treatment of people with disabilities in the workplace and in public life. The ADA has inspired Ireland and other European countries to pass legislation that has greatly improved the quality of life for people with disabilities.
On CNN’s Larry King show recently, two of Ted Kennedy’s sons were promoting late senator’s memoirs, titled True Compass. Ted Kennedy Jr. and Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy talked about how their father instilled in them the ideal of service to the disadvantaged, whether poor or disabled. Indeed Ted Kennedy Jr. is himself an amputee, having lost his right leg to cancer. He now is on the board of the American Association of People with Disabilities. Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who had suffered from alcohol and substance abuse, worked with his father to pass US legislation on mental health.
Senator Kennedy’s sense of service led him to do all that he did for the disadvantaged. He was author of five hundred pieces of legislation having to do with improving the quality of life of Americans.
It was in the context of Kennedy's active pursuit of justice for the disadvantaged that in 2004 US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg defended the right of a young man to have equal access to justice. He was suing the State of Tennessee because he had to humiliate himself by having to get out of his wheelchair and crawl up two flights of stairs in the Tennessee State. As it turned out, the young man won the case. Justice Ginsberg wrote that, under the ADA, we might have to treat some citizens differently to give all citizens equal dignity.
We in Ireland could learn from Ted Kennedy’s legacy especially during these difficult economic times. When I was growing up in the Ireland of the 1980’s we had a health service that was the envy of the world. We now have a Harney health service that caters for those who can pay, while those who cannot pay are going to have to struggle against the odds.
When Senator Kennedy died America lost a great unifier and a unique champion of universal healthcare. There are stories of how Kennedy would talk late into the night trying to hammer out a deal with one or more Republican senators to reach a compromise so that the less well-off could have their lives made a little easier.
If they are really serious about paying tribute to him, members of the United States Congress can pass the universal healthcare plan Senator Kennedy was so passionate about.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Scandinavia
In 1994 I visited Sweden. I was offered the chance to go to Sweden by one of my father’s former business colleagues and took the challenge eagerly.
My primary reason for going to Sweden was to fold firstly to find out what computer equipments was available as I had just completed my first year in collage when the trip was proposed.
After I had come to Sweden I found that the rehabilitation centres are housed under the department of Labour rather than health. The people of Sweden had past a referendum ensuring that anybody with a disability who needed a personal assistant for more than twenty hours a week could get personal assistant help to insure that they could live and work independently.
For people who are confused about the term personal assistant it is not just used in business terms but also as part of one of the main planks of the social model of independent living for people with severe physical and sensory disabilities.
In Sweden and other Scandinavian countries the rehabilitation centres find jobs for the clients based on their abilities rather than their disabilities.
Two cases coming to my mind as illustration of this. One was a man who only had to use a one finger and was on oxygen twenty-four hours a day. The oxygen was only removed when he was eating. Yet he came to work from eight am to five pm and did a database for the local or national museum. The other case was a woman who had a stroke and was also working on the same database for the same hours every day. Both of them had adapted apartments and personal assistants to help them do what they could not do.
The government should look at how Scandinavian countries have dealt with difficult economic times. I was fortunate to meet a former Danish prime minister last February at a Labour Party economic summit in the Westbury Hotel and I have no shame in admitting that I am a Labour party supporter.
I had made a comment about how one of my personal assistants was only paid seventy-five Irish pounds when she began working for me under the umbrella of Irish Wheelchair Association and how those with personal assistant had to campaign for higher wages in order to make the job attractive. I cannot remember the man’s name but I remember what he said very clearly.
He told that his government came to power after a similar economic situation to the one Ireland is faced at the moment. I was told that there was an automatic belief that those receiving any kind of state assistance should work in order to keep the assistance they were getting. By the time he stepped down the unemployment rate had gone from ten percent to three percent and again there was the same creative thinking as in Sweden.
Why does not the Irish government take the example of Scandinavian countries and focus on people’s abilities rather then their disabilities?
My primary reason for going to Sweden was to fold firstly to find out what computer equipments was available as I had just completed my first year in collage when the trip was proposed.
After I had come to Sweden I found that the rehabilitation centres are housed under the department of Labour rather than health. The people of Sweden had past a referendum ensuring that anybody with a disability who needed a personal assistant for more than twenty hours a week could get personal assistant help to insure that they could live and work independently.
For people who are confused about the term personal assistant it is not just used in business terms but also as part of one of the main planks of the social model of independent living for people with severe physical and sensory disabilities.
In Sweden and other Scandinavian countries the rehabilitation centres find jobs for the clients based on their abilities rather than their disabilities.
Two cases coming to my mind as illustration of this. One was a man who only had to use a one finger and was on oxygen twenty-four hours a day. The oxygen was only removed when he was eating. Yet he came to work from eight am to five pm and did a database for the local or national museum. The other case was a woman who had a stroke and was also working on the same database for the same hours every day. Both of them had adapted apartments and personal assistants to help them do what they could not do.
The government should look at how Scandinavian countries have dealt with difficult economic times. I was fortunate to meet a former Danish prime minister last February at a Labour Party economic summit in the Westbury Hotel and I have no shame in admitting that I am a Labour party supporter.
I had made a comment about how one of my personal assistants was only paid seventy-five Irish pounds when she began working for me under the umbrella of Irish Wheelchair Association and how those with personal assistant had to campaign for higher wages in order to make the job attractive. I cannot remember the man’s name but I remember what he said very clearly.
He told that his government came to power after a similar economic situation to the one Ireland is faced at the moment. I was told that there was an automatic belief that those receiving any kind of state assistance should work in order to keep the assistance they were getting. By the time he stepped down the unemployment rate had gone from ten percent to three percent and again there was the same creative thinking as in Sweden.
Why does not the Irish government take the example of Scandinavian countries and focus on people’s abilities rather then their disabilities?
Monday, July 6, 2009
Pharmacists' strike
On the sixth o'clock news I was shocked to learn that the Irish Government is planning to cut the money they give to pharmacies for operating the medical card scheme. It is another kick in the stomach for people that are already suffering.
I have a chronic pain and as result I am on thirty-five tablets a day most of which are for pain. I was just talking to my own pharmacist who says that the pharmacies have no other choice but to strike unless the government keeps paying the pharmacists the same amount of money.
Has the government got mad? They hit a people that are most vulnerable. How on Earth do they think that paying the pharmacists less when they are providing a valuable much needed service is going to help manage the four billion plus shortfall?
I ask this question because more and more people are loosing their jobs every day and they are having to apply for social welfare which includes medical card etc.
I don't understand the government's logic.
The last week in June I was watching TV and I couldn't believe that the government was closing words in a major Dublin children's hospital thus forcing the cancellation of life saving operations. This linked with the pharmacies strike shows me that the government's answer to this recession is to hope that the sickest and most vulnerable people will die.
The question has to be asked: Does the current Irish government want to kill the most vulnerable people who are as I see it the old, the young, people with life threatening, disabilities and medical conditions?
If the pharmacies' strike goes ahead and somebody dies, because they can't get the medicine that normally keeps them stable, then I would put the blame at the government's feet and not the pharmacists' feet.
All the pharmacists are asking for is for things to stay as they are and pay the pharmacists as they have been doing because by withdrawing this payment the pharmacies will go out of business and the most vulnerable people in Irish society will suffer.
I have a chronic pain and as result I am on thirty-five tablets a day most of which are for pain. I was just talking to my own pharmacist who says that the pharmacies have no other choice but to strike unless the government keeps paying the pharmacists the same amount of money.
Has the government got mad? They hit a people that are most vulnerable. How on Earth do they think that paying the pharmacists less when they are providing a valuable much needed service is going to help manage the four billion plus shortfall?
I ask this question because more and more people are loosing their jobs every day and they are having to apply for social welfare which includes medical card etc.
I don't understand the government's logic.
The last week in June I was watching TV and I couldn't believe that the government was closing words in a major Dublin children's hospital thus forcing the cancellation of life saving operations. This linked with the pharmacies strike shows me that the government's answer to this recession is to hope that the sickest and most vulnerable people will die.
The question has to be asked: Does the current Irish government want to kill the most vulnerable people who are as I see it the old, the young, people with life threatening, disabilities and medical conditions?
If the pharmacies' strike goes ahead and somebody dies, because they can't get the medicine that normally keeps them stable, then I would put the blame at the government's feet and not the pharmacists' feet.
All the pharmacists are asking for is for things to stay as they are and pay the pharmacists as they have been doing because by withdrawing this payment the pharmacies will go out of business and the most vulnerable people in Irish society will suffer.
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