Dear Sir... Readers' Views (22/06/16)
Time to end bureaucrats’ nice lifestyle
Technically I am a Brit living in Europe. I have to say that the only people who are anti-Brexit seem to be those irrationally scared of somehow losing their nice lifestyle. The major fact is that the EU has a budget of around €145bn per year. Few people seem to understand that that huge amount of money has to be extorted from decent, hardworking taxpayers. We are not in some financial wonderland. If the EU-controlling organisation were to disappear, every single person in Europe, except the bureaucrats employed there, could be better off. If the UK leaves, they will be better off. We will be better off. All we need is competent politicians with some backbone. It is only they that draw borders.
Drugmaker should go further
Pfizer is to be congratulated for announcing that it is in the business of saving life, and that it strongly objects to the use of its drugs in lethal injections for capital punishment.
So, if such injections are for the purpose of capital punishment, Pfizer objects, but not if the injections are for the purpose of killing the unborn.
Thus, they would seem to approve of saving the guilty, while at the same time, executing the innocent.
Our politicians are actually canny
Alison O’Connor suggests our political leaders are ‘out of touch’ or are ‘choosing not to see how Irish public opinion has moved on’ when it comes to the issue of abortion (Viewpoints, June 17th). Hardly; Irish politicians are very canny. I think people’s views on this issue haven’t changed as much as the media, who are very much on board for change on this, if the non-stop slew of pro-abortion articles and editorials are anything to go by. I would suggest that is why our politicians are in no rush to push for change on this — particularly as they know after what happened to the last government, that giving into media pressure to bring about liberal change neither translates into media or voter support come the next election.
Trumping the Donald
Elderly man overheard praying in a US church;
“Dear God.
Last month you took my favourite musician — Prince.
Last week you took my favourite boxer — Muhammed Ali.
Today you took my favourite hockey player — Gordie Howe.
I just want to let you know that my favourite candidate is Donald Trump.”
Rating Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric — disgusting, despicable, and divisive. Think before you vote!
There is a huge and amusing irony that in the age of the internet your readers seem to rely on snail mail to get the news and in particular the ‘news’ that Donald Trump got the nomination of the Republican Party for the US presidency, making decent people scared of him actually getting the job.
However, they seem to be the last to have got the memo that it is IMPOSSIBLE for him to beat Hillary Clinton.
(It’s all over the internet.) Now I apologise for being so boring as to mention the electoral college but at the same time you must study it to realise the overwhelming size of Trump’s problem.
The electoral college gives each state a number of votes roughly proportion-al to its population. When a candidate wins the POPULAR vote in a given state she wins ALL the electoral votes of that state. There are a total of 538 electoral votes and anybody who wins 270 of them becomes US president.
The two states with the most votes are California and New York, with 55 and 29 votes respectively. There is simply no way Trump can win either state. Also there are lots of states where neither Trump nor the Republican Party have ANY ORGANISATION WHATSOEVER for his presidential campaign. (He won the nomination through tonnes of free TV time.) Won’t be too long now before you will be able to bet on exactly how many and which states Trump will actually win.
In short there will be few (not to mention far between ). I’m guessing you’ll be able to get good odds that Trump’s state wins will extend to double figures (ten or more).
Animals deserve much better
I bit my tongue the first time Cormac MacConnell devoted his article to ridiculing an advert on TV in which a man finds a lost piglet and takes it home.
Now, in a second article, (Farming, June 16) he asks the “IFA to strongly intervene”. Who told the human race that animals belong to farmers? He describes the character in the ad as an “idiot”, “with nothing better to do” and a “cretin”.
Again I ask, who told farmers they were the only people to have animals? When I say have them, I mean, breed them, put them wherever suits the farmer (sometimes) unsuitable, until the day comes they are queued outside slaughterhouses where they can smell, hear, and sense what’s ahead of them.
Farmers do not have the right to do what they want with animals! Pigs are highly intelligent like most animals but they cannot speak or write to plead for their freedom. They were not put on this earth to end up on a roasting stick.
I change channels when ads show butchers showing off slaughtered bits of animals. I suggest MacConnell do the same when interesting ads are shown.
Trying to cope with displacement
Refugee Rescue — at home, an exhibition and installation from 6.30pm, June 30 to July 20, will, at its opening in Scariff Library, Scariff, Co Clare, include contributions from historians Michael O’Gorman and John S Kelly, about famine-related losses, eviction and displacement, and of survival, and about later homelessness and eviction in the area. Triona O’Connor for Focus Ireland will discuss contemporary homelessness and housing requirements. Tom Ryan will speak of comparable eviction, becoming refugees, loss of culture, and rurality.
Anger and loss are part of being displaced. How can we cope with the effect of displacement and becoming homeless? Our historic experiences echo what contemporaries are now experiencing here and in more distant places. Underlying causes need to be understood.
Lower points, but still high achievers
The pressure on students is intolerable, but even worse is the hype and nonsense around the whole process.
High achievers are acclaimed in the media as if they were celebrities. Students who attained outstanding results are being hailed as heroes while those less academically endowed are unworthy of recognition.
By all means, let us acclaim gifted students who have earned outstanding results. It’s entirely appropriate that their hard-won success should be recognised and applauded.
But what of those who have worked equally hard, if not harder, and who have gained less spectacular results? Too often, their achievements are ignored on the modern altar of success. It’s not as if students can forget about it and move on. Their misery is nowadays compounded by a bombardment of advice from a wide-ranging mix of experts — career guidance councillors, points analysts, and media specialists, to mention but a few. Such is the avalanche of advice emanating from these quarters, one is left wondering if it serves to increase the pressure on students rather than alleviate it.
How students of previous generations managed to cope without all these support systems is a mystery. Not so long ago, they accepted their fate without the accompanying fanfare — and, after initial joy or disappointment, moved on, taking the whole experience in their stride, and in the process displaying a degree of common sense which seems lacking to day. In fact, if common sense could be taught it would make someone very wealthy. Worth more than many qualifications.
When it comes to common sense and leadership, Churchill and the Curé d’Ares immediately come to mind. Both were outstanding leaders in their own right with little or no qualifications or points. Qualifications are necessary to get certain jobs but how often do we find that the most qualified do not always make the best leaders.
I have met many such cases in my time and, despite the qualifications, some of them have to consult a junior member of staff. Could we have too many square pegs in round holes? In such situations the question is — does merit mean anything?
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