Toastmasters – Master of Ceremonies

This experience is being listed under Toastmasters because it arose as a result of a call I received as the current (but soon to be relieved) President of Carrigaline Toastmasters Club. A few weeks ago I received a phone call from someone I thought was enquiring about Toastmasters and I was about to launch into my one minute pitch when I realised no, this is different.

It’s all about jobs, is it?

Vincent Browne has been particularly vocal about ‘Jobs for the boys’ and another piece today relates it to Quangos in the Irish State sector but I think there is a degree of confusion as to what Mr Browne is talking about. So in the absence of clarity I made my own mind up and started thinking about the attitude to jobs in general in this country.

The End of Suburbia

Well I managed to track down this film and it is everything Richard Heinberg and Robert Hopkins said it would be. It is not terribly shocking as I was pretty well aware of the current state of play with regard to the now peaking oil production. You can find the film on tvshack in the documentaries section. What i did like was the very reasoned way the arguments are made: some more doom laden than others.

Inequality never changes

According to Vincent Browne in today’s IT the PD’s “have been a malign force in politics”. He maintains that “They targeted almost every single vulnerable group in society – single mothers, Travellers, asylum seekers, notably asylum children, prisoners, the poor.” Now I don’t know on what he bases these statements but I have a sense that he may be right. He further writes “Returning to office is the main game [for Fianna Fail], which means jobs for the boys and girls is the main game for which parties are in office now.” But the most disgusting thing he writes is the following: “The fixed common sense of politics now is that the poor have to pay for the impending economic crisis.” Disgusting because it’s true.

Transition Towns is where we go from here

I assume that there are few enough moments in any person’s life when they can honestly say that it will never be the same again. This has been one of those weeks for me. Pure happenstance brought me to a series of videos on YouTube that covered a lecture by Richard Heinberg and then to another by Rob Hopkins.