And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too

Somewhat to cleanse my pallet after too many days thinking about politics I spent a while this afternoon looking at the Moon on Google Earth.

They've updated the site with 360 degree panoramic photos taken by Apollo astronauts, YouTube video of the missions with voiceovers by the astronauts, and interestingly enough have included newer video footage from the Japanese space agency JAXA from the HD TV cameras on board their Kaguya probe in orbit around the moon since 2007.



The video above is of the earthrise as seen from the dark side of the moon on Sept 30, 2008, and really is better played without the sound.

If you don't already have Google Earth you can download it here.

At the Green Special Conference

Well the ballots have closed and it'll be at least thirty minutes before the results are known. I figure that now the substantive issues have been dealt with I can take a moment and post some of my initial thoughts.

Today's special Green conference has definitely been a game of two halves, the majority of the day devoted to a recap from the parliamentary party over their successes in government so far and the corresponding feedback from the members as to their failures particularly in light of the recent election results. The later afternoon has been focused on the Lisbon II Treaty, and although there is a very vocal minority in the party that is still anti-Lisbon it is clear that the numbers have decreased since the last time the subject was addressed.

The overall mood of the conference can best be described as tense, but realistic. While recognizing the many successes in core Green areas, particularly in John Gormley's Environment portfolio, the members are unhappy about the lack of concessions wrung from Fianna Fail in areas outside these portfolios, and upset over all that the party has sacrificed on areas of Social Justice and Education with little else to show publicly for these sacrifices. There was a sense that while the ministers are accomplishing great things behind the scenes, these successes will do little to benefit the party at the ballot box and thus the Party needs to stay in Government long enough to chalk up a few visible big wins.

Minister Gormley started the conference by addressing the recent election disaster, expressing his feelings as ones of sadness and bitterness akin to being dumped by a significant other. Local Councilors lost seats because the election was fought as a referendum on government. The Greens lost because they are in government, because they are in government with Fianna Fail, and because they are in government in a recession and as such it was virtually impossible for local, EU and by-election candidates to be successful. People didn't buy into Green successes in Government, the only thing that captured the imagination of the public was getting rid of electronic voting because this act was easy to understand and people felt "good on ye, ye did something against Fianna Fail", and according to exit polls, Green supporters are the most anti-Fianna Fail of all.

He had critical words for those within the party who were quick to castigate the parliamentary members for perceived movement away from issues like the Tara bypass, Shell to Sea and Rendition flights, arguing that progress had been made in these areas. As one of these vocal critics I felt suitably chastised, but couldn't help but feel greater discomfort at the presence of Corrib support groups and Tara campaigners protesting outside the meeting, both local activist groups that had been partners of the Green party in the not too distant past and contributed to local election successes. How far has the party strayed that these groups now view it as the enemy?

He highlighted the need to embark on a new program to reinvigorate the party and called for genuinely transformational politics. Somewhat wistfully he said that in a way today was an 'Existential conference', saying "we can't go on as is" and the party needs to figure out who it is, and what it believes in. For Gormley this leads to the Green paradox of power, namely that you loose your power if you are not prepared to walk away from power. Quoting the Norwegian movement of the same name, he finished on the phrase "the future in our hands", that the future of the Party itself is in the hands of its membership, it is for them to decide what is the bottom line for the Party to walk away from power.

This theme of 'The Red Line', what exactly is the line in the sand that once crossed will cause the Greens to leave government, came up again and again throughout the day, though without any suggestions as to what that line actually is. The Party will meet again when the revised Program for Government has been negotiated, and will discuss and vote on it, but as of yet no indication of a time-line has been given for this. Four separate workshops and two heated Q&A sessions with the Parliamentary members contributed substantial feedback on issues the membership wants to see addressed in the revised Program, but again the bottom line was one of realism, to pull out of government now would be a disaster.

Realism however doesn't necessarily equate to civility and this afternoon's motions on Lisbon were debated with passion and at times quite bad humour. Despite recent high profile defections the rank and file members still harbour quite diverse opinions, and all are convinced that their path is the route to salvation for the Party. However grand the exercise of debating the motions was though, I doubt that anyone came to the meeting with an open mind. My own mind was made up the day a second referendum was announced, and judging by the conversations around the hall I am not alone, though I am decidedly in the minority over the side of the fence I am sitting on.

And on that note the results have just been announced. 323 people voted, 2 spoiled votes, 214 voted yes, 107 no, so the vote was carried by exactly the necessary 2/3 majority. The Green Party will now actively campaign for a Yes vote in the referendum. They say history is written by those who turn up. Today's result is proof of that, one single vote would have changed everything.

What this means for me, I'm not sure, I will need to digest it over the next few days. Even if the result has not gone the way I would have liked, today has been democracy at its best, passionate, vibrant and little bit anally-retentive, and I love it.

Links
Photos of the Convention and the protests outside

The first cut is the deepest

Most of this afternoon is being spent reviewing the report from An Bord Snip Nua on suggested cuts to the Public Sector. As many commentators have said over the last few weeks, you can't cut yourself out of a recession, but that seems to be exactly the way the government is heading. While none of the recommendations are in any way binding, they certainly must be starting a few very difficult conversations off in departments around the country.

Aside from the expected garroting of Primary and Secondary Education and Social Welfare, the report has thrown up a few interesting suggestions, such as the merger of IADT and NCAD, the merger of DIT with Tallaght and Blanchardstown ITs, the abolition of maintenance grants for students outside the fields of Science and Technology, the introduction of metered water charges for domestic customers, the sale and/or privatization of our national forests and the happy little nugget of information that the Irish tax payer currently provides €68.1 Million in prize money for horse and greyhound races. The good news is that the Bord recommends this be reduced to €51.7 million.

Yay. All the 100 newly unemployed language and 2,000 special needs primary teachers will be so happy to hear that! Seriously, the savings associated with firing 2,000 special needs teachers is around €60M - why not just stop giving taxpayer money to horse owners instead?

Of course everyone who reads the report will have their own list of priorities, and why their specific area should be saved and someone else's should pick up the slack, but there is one recommendation that I think we all can agree with, and it's worth quoting in full.

Possible reduction in the number of TDs

Article 16.2.2 of the Constitution states: “The number of members shall from time to time be fixed by law, but the total number of members of Dáil Éireann shall not be fixed at less than one member for each thirty thousand of the population, or at more than one member for each twenty thousand of the population”. The most recent population estimate from the Central Statistics Office put the April 2008 population at 4,422,100. On this basis, the number of TDs could be no fewer than 148, but could be as many as 222. The number of TDs could be reconsidered when the results of the April 2011 Census become available, probably in the Autumn of 2011, and there could be scope to decide on a reduction in the numbers. For illustrative purposes, a reduction of 12 in the number of TDs would lead to savings of around €3m a year, including savings on the numbers of personal assistants and secretarial staff.

Possible move to a unicameral system

The Group notes that among EU members, many (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Sweden) have unicameral parliaments. Bicameral parliaments are in the main found in larger countries and in smaller states with a federal structure e.g. Austria. Countries similar in size and population to Ireland, such as New Zealand (which shares with Ireland a Westminster-style tradition of parliamentary democracy) and Israel also have a unicameral parliament.

The Group is also cognisant of the 1996 Report of the Constitution Review Group, which concluded that if the two main criteria for retention of Seanad Éireann – namely the desirability of a system of checks and balances and of representation of as wide a cross-section of society as possible – could not be satisfied, then the case for the Seanad would fail and it should be abolished. There is an arguable case that the first criterion is not satisfied, since Dáil Éireann can overrule any amendments; and as regards the second criterion, the vast majority of the electorate in Seanad elections are local government councillors, generally of one or other of the three main political parties. Furthermore, no action has been taken on foot of the Report on Seanad Reform (2004) and successive Governments have declined to legislate to take account of the Seventh Amendment to Bunreacht na hÉireann, which allowed for broader representation from the third-level institutions. Accordingly, the Group considers that there is at least an arguable case for the option of moving to a unicameral legislative system and discontinuing Seanad Éireann. This would give rise to savings
of around €25m a year: as well as salary savings from Senators and their personal staff, there would be lower cost overheads for the running of Leinster House and fewer ushers required. Any such proposition would require careful and extended consideration, taking into account issues of democratic accountability and constitutional settlement that go beyond the remit of the Group.

Economic crises as an agent for democratic reform normally involves a few more mobs, pitchforks and the occasional defenestration, but I'll take it where I can get it.

The 85 page summary of the report can be found here, and the full 200 page report can be found here (both are PDF links), and you can follow all the fun on Twitter at #snip or at IrishElection's liveblog.

Judging by the level of chatter the best thing that can be said about the Snip report is that it has actually motivated many ordinary folk to sit down and read through the Government's finances, and see exactly what our money has been spent on.

And an informed populace is a dangerous thing.

Green is the new Good

Continuing on with this week's theme of commenting on Good Things(tm) I am delighted to note last night's rebellion by Green Senators over the Government's new Criminal Justice Bill.

By rebelling I mean abstaining with the full support of their party leadership in a largely meaningless vote that was never in any danger of failing thanks to support from Fine Gael, and after the main parliamentary wing of the Greens voted in favour of the same bill when it passed in the Dail by 118 to 23 votes a few days ago. The more cynical members of the Fourth Estate have suggested that this was a largely symbolic measure meant to bolster the party leadership before they face the rank and file members in a closed meeting on Saturday to decide the fate of the revised Program for Government and the Party's stance on Lisbon II, but this week I am rejecting such notes of cynicism.

While the Criminal Justice Bill is draconian enough to be worthy of the McDowell himself, we are led to believe that it might have even been worse without the intervention of the Green ministers. Still, the introduction of the Bill along with recent Blasphemy legislation and the watered down provisions of the Civil Partnerships Bill are making very uncomfortable bedfellows of the Greens and their colleague Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern. What is worth taking from the events of the last few days is the new Green policy of being seen to be expressing opinions in Government outside of their specific ministerial portfolios, on areas that have long been key Green Party issues of social justice.

Whether or not this policy of visible and vocal dissension will be enough to win back many of the floating Green voters who deserted in their droves in the recent EU and local elections remains to be seen. Indeed it also remains to be seen if it is enough to placate the vocal minority of party members who are also dissatisfied with the Party's progress in Government, and judging by the emails I have already received in advance of Saturday's special meeting calling for a "No" vote in the Lisbon II motion this vocal minority might not be such a minority. One such mail argues for a "No" vote because:

"1) It is a Green Party grassroots democracy issue. We have already had a Special Convention on this issue, and a vote. The decision of the membership was that the party should not take a position either way, but that individual members could do whatever they liked.

This was a good decision. Referenda are for the people to decide, to decide issues such as sovereignty that are beyond the competence of the Oireachtas. Everyone has a right to express their own opinion in a referendum campaign, and not to be limited to “The Party Line”, whatever that is.

A number of [Constituency] Greens spoke very well against the Lisbon Treaty at the last convention. They were right then, and they’re right now.

The Green Party Manifesto of 2007 contains a commitment to “ensure that the EU Constitution will not be put to a referendum in a form that has already been rejected by referendums in other member states” (Section 13, Page 33)

2) It is a Constituency issue. The electorate of [our Constituency] voted overwhelmingly against the Lisbon Treaty the last time and it falls to us to represent the views of our constituents in our political party. There is nothing new in the various texts that have been presented by the government. They are “clarifications” of clauses within the Lisbon Treaty that has not been altered in any way. What we have been presented with is a “large print” version of some parts of the Treaty to make it easier to understand, as if our constituents did not understand it perfectly well the last time. They did, which is why they voted No.

3) It is a National issue. The Irish people rejected the Lisbon Treaty. Our political leaders were expected to take it back to Brussels, and to renegotiate the elements that the Irish people found to be unacceptable, or bury it. This has not happened. We are being asked to vote on the same Treaty again without alteration. Our political leadership have, in this regard, failed us and it is for us to point this out at the convention next Saturday 18th either by speaking but certainly by voting No."

To date I have received no emails or other communication urging a "Yes" vote on this issue.

While I am genuinely pleased to see Senator Dan Boyle and Minister Ryan expressing concerns over the Criminal Justice Bill this morning, this pleasure is somewhat dampened by the report this morning that Shannon Airport actually saw an increase of almost 5% in the number of US troops passing through in the first six months of this year alone, with 130,922 troops passing though on 991 flights, bringing in €3.5 million in revenue for the airport. Since 2005 over 1.35 million US troops have passed through Shannon on their way to Iraq and Afghanistan, admittedly some of them more than once, bringing in over €30 million in revenue to the Airport. On top of this the cost to the Irish tax payer in additional Gardai and Irish army personnel deployed to the airport to provide security for these troop movements is estimated at around €10 million:

"Recent figures from Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern show that the State has spent €8.6 million on policing at Shannon airport, while the Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea has confirmed that the Army has been paid €964,702 to patrol the airport over the past three years.

Mr Ahern said €4.8 million had been paid in salaries during the period with an additional €2.7 million paid in overtime.

A further €1 million was spent paying travel and subsistence expenses." - The Irish Times, 15/07/2008

In 2003 objection to the use of Shannon by US troops was such a central theme of Green Party policy that John Gormley addressed the crowds at a day of mass protest at the airport, accusing then Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen of lying to the country over the nature of the flights and their violation of Irish Neutrality:

'The Minister for Foreign Affairs [Brian Cowen] has already admitted, after many denials, that guns are being carried on these aircraft, but expects us to believe that the bullets have been left behind.'

Fast forward to 2009, Cowen is Taoiseach, Gormley his Minister for the Environment, and the party is strangely silent on Shannon.

Still, as this is my week of positivity I am going to choose to focus on the good. Last night's revolt by the Green Senators is the first major public sign of what has to be a much greater struggle that is going on behind the scenes. The Green Ministers have fundamental ideological differences with many of their Fianna Fail colleagues, now most visibly with Dermot Ahern, and in the interest of presenting a public face of governmental unity in our current economic crises, much of the work that they no doubt are doing to temper the right-wing ideologues within Fianna Fail will never be recognised or rewarded.

The scary and unfortunate truth is that the Greens in Government no doubt have had a series of private triumphs that have mitigated the worst excesses of their Fianna Fail colleagues, and without them things would have been an awful lot worse. Scary, because it really is difficult to imagine just how things could be worse than they are today; Unfortunate, because the private nature of these triumphs means they will be of no help come the next election.

Letter to D

Just finished reading "Letter to D", Andre Gorz' open love letter to his wife of 58 years, Dorine.

Gorz has been one of the major political and philosophical influences on me over the last eighteen months, particularly his books "Capitalism, Socialism and Ecology" and "Farewell to the Working Class", but "Letter to D" is something else entirely, a counterpoint to his first work 'The Traitor" and written in apology to his wife for not placing her publicly at the centre of all his work to accurately reflect her place as the centre of his entire life and being.

Written when she was 82 and terminally ill, he starts and finishes by stating:

"You're still beautiful, graceful and desirable. We've lived together now for 58 years and I love you more than ever. Lately I've fallen in love with you all over again and I once more feel a gnawing emptiness inside that can only be filled when your body is pressed against mine."

One year later their bodies were found lying together in their home by a friend after both taking a lethal injection. Neither could contemplate life without the other.

Haunting for its honesty, humility and simplicity, this is a true love story and a fitting memorial to a remarkable relationship.

Links
Letter to D - Andre Gorz

The solution to, and cause of, all of life's problems

Had a conversation with a few folks after the Amartya Sen lecture last week, mostly on the subject of how the country is pretty messed up and no one, especially in the Government, really knows how to get us out of the mess we are all in. This would not be that remarkable a conversation in the current climate, except for the fact that the folks bemoaning our socio-economic meltdown were all senior academics many of whom have been employed recently as consultants by the Government.

Oops.

But then slowly and somewhat dimly a long-life lightbulb kicked into gear above my head and I had the solution to all our socio-economic woes. Given the fact the as a nation we love nothing more than to complain about something without ever actually trying to fix it, I proposed the introduction of a Cynicism Tax. Modeled along the lines of the Plastic Bag Tax, it would impose a 20¢ levy on any instance of cynicism. Since the introduction of the Plastic Bag levy in 2002, consumption of plastic bags has fallen by 90% while over €80 Million has been raised for the exchequer. Think of how much could be raised by tapping into our greatest national resources, our cynicism, pessimism and general all-round begrudgery?

The Tax could be operated on a prepaid basis available from any newsagent (I'd like €20 worth of Begrudgery please), or on monthly Bill Pay (get a 10% discount to your total bill when you bundle 2Gb of Online Narkiness with unlimited Local and National Negativity). Roaming charges for cynicism abroad could also be a valuable revenue stream (Wow, Helsinki is great, why can't Dublin be this good? Everything in Dublin sucks monkey-balls).

Genius.

With that in mind, and having used up my entire monthly Moaning Minutes for July in the first twelve days alone, I now present in no particular order five things that currently do not suck about Ireland, admittedly somewhat Dublin-focused.

1) Music
A recession brings good music. In the 80's folks had lots of time on their hands, rehearsal space was cheap thanks to acres of empty industrial space, being in a band was seen as a route out of poverty and going to see a local band was a cheap night out in comparison to international acts. The Celtic Tiger years encouraged musically inclined folks to spend all their time on their laptops twiddling knobs in the privacy of their own bedrooms, and the innate narcissism of the time stopped folks from collaborating and ultimately most electronic music ended up sounding the same, boring and repetitive because without the cross-fertilization that collaboration brings it never became greater than the sum of its parts. The New Recession is bringing the group effort of the 80's to the world of electronica, and something great is happening again. Try and catch a live set from Waterford's Fighting Spiders, a multi-piece group blending 80's synth pop with noughties indie-angst rock, or Dublin's Love Rhino playing guitar and laptop around the city with Rude Doc on live drums, you'll be in for a treat.

2) 3E
Yes, despite having possibly the worst website of any Irish TV station and showing almost nothing but American shows, it is responsible for putting on '30 Rock' five nights a week, possibly the funniest show I have seen in many, many years. I don't think I've enjoyed any US comedy show as much since the ill-fated 'Andy Richter Controls the Universe', an admission which should also be taken as a giant Caveat Emptor on any other TV recommendations I make. 3E showed every episode of 'Sopranos', just started on 'The Wire', brought us the surprisingly good (and unsurprisingly canceled) "Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles" and also shows "Chuck", which I've never watched but a number of my US friends seem unduly attached to. 3E + a DVR is the perfect antidote to the miserable summer weather.

3) The Schoolyard Market in Ranelagh
For ages the Sunday Farmer's Market in the multidenominational school in Ranelagh was in a sorry state, with a chicken/egg situation leading to almost no stalls and no customers. With management of the market now run by the traders themselves as a not-for-profit enterprise, a new life has been breathed into it, with stalwarts Denis Healy's veg wholesaler and the Corleggy Cheese folks joined by Cork's Real Olive Co, a great baker, and stalls selling fresh pasta, muesli and jams/chutneys and preserves made by one of the chefs from The Cake Cafe. While the quality of Denis Healy's veg isn't always top notch by the time it makes it to the Sunday market, overall the new market is great and a welcome return to form.

4) The Science Gallery
Its free, open late and hosts a wide range of hands on exhibitions, films and lectures. The current "Infectious" series is coming to end on Friday, and I'm going to miss the familiar yellow bio-hazard posters around the city; during its three month run the series has managed to cover everything from the spread of memetic ideas to the compulsive nature of laughter, while retaining a core focus on medical matters that coincidentally paralleled the emergence onto the world of everyone's current favorite bio-nightmare, the H1N1 flu. As a whole TCD manages to attract a world class level of guest lecturers with public talks normally free, if poorly advertised, but the Science Gallery goes beyond this, with its mission to explicitly break down any barriers between the public and an ivory-towered academia and to ignite a spark of scientific and artistic curiosity in the minds of the general populace. Having this as a free resource in the center of Dublin gives the city something to be proud of at an international level.

5) The Internet
While not technically and/or exclusively Irish, the level of thought, research and discussion on the current socio-economic and political crises currently being engaged in online on a few specific Irish sites is amazing. Two sites specifically worth highlighting are:

a) IrishElection - my vote for the best site for Irish political coverage and comment, bar none. A diverse group of writers from varying political backgrounds, IrishElection has emerged in recent months as a strong and credible news source, often covering and/or breaking stories ignored by mainstream media.

b) Progressive-Economy@TASC - TASC is an independent vaguely left-leaning Irish Think Tank, attracting contributions from a wide range of academics, scientists, artists, business and NGO leaders, and Progressive-Economy@TASC is their economics blog, providing a counterpoint to the Government's hyperbole. IrishEconomy is another good economics blog, slightly more academic than TASC's, but also more centrist/centre-right in tone.

As an afterthought on this list, I originally tried to come up with ten things that currently do not suck about Ireland, but after struggling to find even the five above, I gave up. I think I'm going to move to a Pay As You Go Cynicism Plan, and slap another €20 worth of credit on my account. That should get me to the end of the week at least.

Maybe.

I don't want to be here no more.

Had an unpleasant run-in with the police yesterday, minor enough for me but was left feeling very unsettled for the rest of the evening.

Late yesterday afternoon I was on my way out to buy a light bulb or two to replace the ones shorted out in our recent flood, and as I crossed the road I noticed that a middle-aged Chinese woman on a bicycle had been corralled by two motor-cycle cops. One had pulled in front of her at an angle, and the other behind her also at an angle, forming a triangle with her pinned against the curb. When I came back from the shop a few minutes later, she was still on her bicycle in the cycle-lane trapped between the two motorbikes, though the guards had dismounted and were now questioning her quite intensely about why she was in Ireland and how she got here.

As I wondered what traffic offence could necessitate not one but two cops to pull her over I heard them demanding to see her immigration papers and ID, and simultaneously saw my old company logo on her bicycle. A few years ago we gave every employee in Dublin (that wanted one) a bicycle, quite distinctive and painted in the company colours with our logo festooned across the crossbar quite prominently. Never on sale to the public, and an exact match to the one that gathers rust quite happily in the bike shed outside my house, the sight of it triggered the animalistic pack-mentality part of my brain and I found myself pushing past the Guards to see if she needed any assistance.

My former company had a very international workforce, and on more than one occasion I received frustrated calls from employees who had been refused entry onto Dublin-bound flights, or held up by the Gardai at Dublin airport immigration for imagined visa infractions. The fact that in every case the employee was Asian, African or Arab was never lost on me. Although I no longer work there I found myself still feeling protective towards this employee, and thought that at the least I could call the HR Director or the company lawyer and inform them of what was going on, for in my time the company was very protective of its employees, particularly those on secondment from another country.

To the visible disbelief of the Gardai, I pushed between them and approached the woman, asking her if she was an employee of the company. She looked confused, and I pointed at the bike and asked again if she worked for the company, to which she finally shook her head and said no. With that statement my self-confidence vanished, as I now realised I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. The Gardai saw this and told me to leave or be arrested myself for obstruction.

To my shame, I backed away.

The problem was that I felt an immediate powerlessness, if she had been an employee I would have been able to place a few phone calls and set the wheels in motion to provide her with a proper level of support. Without the mechanism of the company behind her I was left with no idea as to how I could assist her in the face of such police intimidation. There was also the question rising in my mind as to how exactly she came into possession of the bicycle in the first place, but middle-age Chinese women are not known to be Dublin's most formidable bike thieves, and in any event it seems unlikely that two motorbike cops would be that interested in a lone bicycle thief given that a single bike cop couldn't be arsed putting down his kebab a few weeks ago to intervene when a scooter was being stolen (slowly) by a group of kids a hundred meters or so away.

As far as I could tell this was police intimidation of a non-white migrant worker, pure and simple. And there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

I have no respect for our police force. It's not that they are corrupt (which they are, from the actions of the entire Donegal force through to the drunken fistfight between two machine-gun toting on-duty officers in a pub near the American Embassy over whose round it was), racist (which they are, these are the folks who refused Youssou n'dour entry to the country to play a gig because they thought he would try and stay illegally) and ignorant (as my own experience of trying to motivate three separate officers to intervene in a crime is sadly indicative), its the fact that they know they are all of these things and wear this knowledge as a badge with pride. They know their reputation and they wallow in it, for they know they are untouchable.

And these are the people we have just given sweeping new powers to in the new Criminal Justice Bill, despite the protestations of over 130 criminal justice solicitors and barristers, who issued a statement saying:

"[The bill] has been introduced without any research to support its desirability and without canvassing expert opinion or inviting contribution from interested parties on the issues,"

They added that they were most concerned about the following proposals in the bill:

* The abolition of jury trial for a range of new offences (organised crime trials would be held in the non-jury Special Criminal Court).

* The use of opinion evidence from any garda as to the existence of a criminal organisation.

* The failure to require that the Garda opinion evidence be corroborated.

* The provision for secret hearings to extend detentions without the presence of the suspect or their lawyer.

"It is quite simply astounding that we as a society would jettison ancient rights and rules of evidence in such a manner and seemingly without regard to the effect such impetuous legislating might ultimately have on the respect for the rule of law in this country," the lawyers said."
(from the Irish Examiner).

Despite these serious objections the new Criminal Justice Bill passed yesterday by 118 to 23.

We are now living in a country where secret courts can convict people on the uncorroborated word alone of any Gardai, serving or retired. The same gardai two of whom are being tried in Cork for making false statements in a case where a member of the public was assaulted by a third Garda, four of whom are on trial for breaking into a youth's house and assaulting him, and a further is on trial for making false insurance claims. These incidents are all from the last three months alone, and are merely the tip of the iceberg.

As with the racist motorbike cops yesterday, so too with the Criminal Justice Bill as a whole, I am left sitting here genuinely despondent with a feeling of utter powerlessness.

And if I as a white middle-class male feel like that, what must life be like for the Chinese woman on the bicycle?

Moral Sentiments and a Theory of Justice

Went in to an interesting lecture last night given by Amartya Sen, the Indian Economist and Nobel Laureate, in TCD. Professor Sen was in Ireland to receive an honorary doctorate from Trinity, and spoke for over two hours between a prepared lecture and an engaging Q&A session.

While the subject of Professor Sen's lecture was nominally 'On Global Confusion', touching on the current economic meltdown, he really focused on two core intertwined areas, the quest for a 'fourth way', and a rescuing of Adam Smith from the hands of the neoliberal agenda. He began by examining the three main failed (in his eyes) economic systems, Capitalism, Socialism and what is currently being offered as a New Capitalism by Blair, Sarkozy and Merkel. Unfettered and unrestricted markets have failed, he suggested, and it is clear that some government management in key areas was necessary. Planned economies of the Soviet Socialist model had also failed, despite initial early successes productivity and personal motivation suffered enormously under an over bureaucratized system. Sen also rejected calls for a 'New Capitalism', saying rather than simply trying to tweak the current system why not throw it out altogether and start afresh with something new?

But what is this new "Fourth Way" (my term, emphatically not his)? On this he was unfortunately less clear, and chose to describe it in terms of a reevaluation of the early work of Adam Smith, particularly "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", to which Sen has just finished writing an introduction for the new Penguin edition. First published 17 years before "Wealth of Nations", it sets out the moral framework in which all of Smith's later works should be read, and begins by stating:

"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortunes of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it. Of this kind is pity or compassion, the emotion we feel for the misery of others, when we either see it, or are made to conceive it in a very lively manner. That we often derive sorrow from the sorrows of others, is a matter of fact too obvious to require any instances to prove it; for this sentiment, like all the other original passions of human nature, is by no means confined to the virtuous or the humane, though they perhaps may feel it with the most exquisite sensibility. The greatest ruffian, the most hardened violator of the laws of society, is not altogether without it."

Sen argued that the modern capitalist is flawed when they use Smith to justify their belief in the unregulated and unfettered hand of the market as the ideal, that in fact Smith would have been appalled by the current US economic system as it operates in a moral vacuum.

Sen's "Fourth Way" seems to stem from an absolute moral imperative; in answer to a later question from Mary Robinson he categorically stated that individuals had the moral duty to speak out against violations of universal human rights regardless of whether those violations occurred in anther sovereign state or within a system that did not regard its actions as violations of human rights. In a similar way any economic system must have at its heart the promotion of human sovereignty and dignity, based upon an explicit acknowledgment of a universal morality.

Where he wouldn't be drawn, even after further prompting from Mary Robinson, was on naming or labeling his alternative economic model. He argued that society gets too caught up on trying to label and apply a narrow definition to ideas, thereby simplifying and restricting them. No doubt these ideas are fleshed out more in his new book "The Idea of Justice", but at the end of the lecture I will admit to being left somewhat unsatisfied, feeling that he wasn't as outspoken as he could have been (or has in the past been), and left quite a lot of his arguments unfinished. It was a very enjoyable two hours nonetheless.

Also worth mentioning was the first question in the Q&A session, posed by veteran Labour parliamentarian Michael D. Higgins, asking whether a strict adherence to the tenants of rationality as a doctrine has damned us all. The asking of the question itself took almost ten minutes, but was done so in such an erudite and engaging manner that Sen seemed genuinely delighted to answer (he disagreed with Michael D, gently suggesting that there was a lot of truth in his question, but like a little knowledge, a great deal of truth can still lead to the wrong conclusions). Michael D. identified himself as an academic first, and a parliamentarian second, and I found myself genuinely depressed that we do not have more parliamentarians of his intelligence, education and oratory skills, who are in office because of their abilities, and not their genes.

"The Idea of Justice" is out at the end of July in Europe, and the Penguin edition of "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" is out at the end of October.

You go away for a few days...

The advantage of traveling abroad with no internet access is the euphoric sense of isolation from the rest of the world and the escape from the infuriating realities of mundane life such isolation engenders. The disadvantage of such travel is the overwhelming sense of depression and futile anger that arise once one is confronted with all the nastiness that occurred while you were away, and confronted with it en masse.

In the last week alone the Government has announced the date of the Lisbon II Referendum, which asks the people to vote yet again on the same piece of legislation defeated last year (an action which within the proposed timeframe I was almost positive was in and of itself unconstitutional), given the green light to sweeping new police powers, non-jury trials and secret courts, and introduced unmerited curbs to free speech in a manner seemingly designed to incentivise legal action by religious groups against writers, broadcasters, film-makers and artists.

The Lisbon II campaign will be fought by the government on the basis of scare-tactics and fear mongering, again the public will be kept in the dark as to the content of the Reform Treaty, and will be told "Vote Yes, or our economy will destroyed". The sweeping police powers are being introduced under the guise of combating criminal gangs in Limerick and Dublin; instead of tackling the core problems of unemployment and deprivation that lead to drug dependency and give rise to gang activity the government is adopting the zero-tolerance approach that has proven to be fatally flawed in the UK and the US. The Blasphemy Bill is one that has arisen from nothing - no one is looking for it, it addresses no immediate need and the country has done quite well without for the last 72 years; quite why the government would spend any energy or resources on it at this particular point in time is beyond baffling.

More than ever I am convinced that the government continues to be completely out of step with the citizenry on so many issues because of the dynastic and hereditary nature of Irish politics. Our political representatives inherit their positions from their parents and spouses, and have no real skill, talent or aptitude for the job. They are elected on the basis of familial pedigree and lineage, and while in years gone by a theoretically strong and independent civil service has been able to keep the country afloat by pasting over the cracks caused by ministerial ineptitude, the deformities bred into our political classes by their Fibonacciesque multiplications are starting to bring the whole house of cards tumbling down around us.

If our current system of representative democracy is to be preserved (and I am not wedded to it myself in any way), a clean sweep of the decks is needed to allow it any chance to succeed. At the Green party conference earlier this year a motion was unsuccessfully tabled to prohibit any immediate relative of a politician to stand for the Green Party as their relative's immediate successor. The best thing that could happen to Irish politics would be to see a similar motion enacted as national law.

Well, not the best thing, but the best thing within the existing system of representative parliamentary democracy.

La Dolce Vita

Unexpectedly I find myself back in Dublin. The Very Understanding Girlfriend and I have been on the road for some time now, mostly in Tuscany, and to be honest I had been enjoying an extended sojourn away from the world of blogs and RSS feeds and even mobile phones.

But alas the real world caught up with us in the form of three weeks worth of rain falling in Dublin in a matter of two hours, most of it apparently on the roof of our building, working its way through the apartment above into our kitchen, then down through our walls into the offices below us.

Fantastic!

Thanks to a sterling clean-up effort above and beyond the call of duty by the Talented Mr K, our anarcho-gourmand house-sitter, our homecoming was not as traumatic as it could have been, but we were still left sitting in the near-dark last night trying to figure out which light switches were safe to use, and which were likely to kill us.

Hoorah!

The irony of our eco-home being a victim of climate-change induced weather patterns is not lost on me.