Vote No to Suchard!

Quote of the morning from the Very Understanding Girlfriend on the above video: "As entertaining as that piece was I'm not sure if we should vote purely on the basis of political satire".

With less than four days to go till I march down to the polling station it's still all to play for with my vote. I'm leaning towards sticking with my principles and voting No on the basis that my primary reasons for voting No last time (that the Lisbon Reform Treaty is too pro-business and does not protect the worker enough, and that the Treaty is essentially the same document as the EU Constitution already rejected by the majority of French and Dutch voters and thus it is undemocratic to try and impose it on the citizenry of Europe against their will) are still valid regardless of the unfortunate economic circumstances we currently find ourselves in.

However I find myself in even more uncomfortable company this time round. Despite the occasional presence of Patrica McKenna (including a great debate with Senator Deirdre de Burca on City Channel, which I'm sure nobody actually saw) and Joe Higgins MEP, all the media focus is on fringe groups like Libertas and Cóir.

Libertas are scary because they think Lisbon is too socialist and that it doesn't do enough for big business. With money coming from UK Hedge fund managers that stand to gain if the Irish banking system collapses (as they did when Anglo Irish bank was nationalized), with initial seed money coming supposedly from party leader Declan Ganley's own company that is heavily invested in the US defense industry, the allegations that it is a CIA front have been around since they first emerged on the scene and haven't gone away. Either way Libertas are acting for secretive backers that stand to personally gain from further economic and political chaos in Europe.

Cóir are even scarier. They are to right wing uber-Catholic pro-life group Youth Defence what the People Before Profit Alliance is to the Socialist Workers Party, a handy front organisation designed to fool people who would never think of supporting them into voting for them. Operating out of Youth Defence's Capel Street office, and led by folks with ties to German fascist groups , Cóir have recently introduced the Sarah Palin Death Camps argument into the debate, targeting voters with physical disabilities and telling them that after Lisbon II they would be "put down like a dog". While this may have been just the tactics used by a single canvasser, the group as a whole has adopted a line that Lisbon II will force the introduction of abortion into Ireland, and that this will also lead to the state-mandated termination of fetuses exhibiting signs of physical or mental disabilities. Not that you'd ever guess this from their poster campaigns with fluffy pictures of giraffes and false allegations about EU mandated reductions to the minimum wage. In fact, they seem to be campaigning on every issue except the only one that actually matters to them, abortion.

And then there are the Shinners.

With bed-fellows like this who will claim victory in the event of a No vote, it is extremely difficult to hold one's head up proudly in public and proclaim "I am voting No", but that shouldn't stop me from doing so.

For the record:

1) I am pro Europe, and pro-European Union. The EU have been responsible for many aspects of Ireland's transformation from a backwater nation on the verge of being classified as a third-world country in the 1980's to being the 5th most developed nation in the world, according to the 2008 UNDP index. In many instances EU legislation has been more socially progressive than that proposed by our national government, and most of the Green legislation of recent years has emanated from the EU rather than born of the Dail. While the EU can be accused of being unwieldy and bureaucratic, to my mind it cannot be accused of being as endemically corrupt as successive iterations of Fianna Fail governments, in fact it is arguable that the EU has reined in some of the worst excesses of our own governments who would naturally be inclined to legislate purely in favour of their own pockets and those of their backers in the property, construction and banking sectors.

2) I am pro-immigration. I believe that Ireland, even in its current economic depression, has more than enough resources and opportunities to share, and our culture and society is greatly enhanced by an influx of new traditions and ideas. It has been argued that increased immigration will lead to further exploitation of the workforce as migrants will accept lower wages, thus driving down wages for all workers in a given sector. This view shifts blame for depressed wages away from the exploitative employers who offer such wages and on to the migrants for accepting such wages. The way to combat this is to legislate a high minimum wage for all workers and enforce it, creating a employees' market where skills are at a premium and employers compete for workers, rather than an employers' market where workers fight each other in a race-to-the-bottom over wages.

3) I am pro-choice. In the 1990's I was part of a case that went to both the Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice, arguing for the right to disseminate information in Ireland on pregnancy options that were legally available in other EU countries. Facing jail and prohibitive legal fees I fought for an individual's right to choose, and the days spent in the Supreme Court awaiting my fate were some of the proudest of my life.

4) I believe in intervention in international situations in limited circumstances. An EU intervention in Rwanda, Congo or Darfur in the face of internal genocide would, in my mind, have been justified. US and NATO Action in Kosovo and Iraq was not. The EU is not NATO and the presence of a substantial number of neutral or left-leaning nations in the EU should ensure that any action taken by an EU peacekeeping group is on humanitarian and non-imperialist grounds. In fact the existence of such a group would provide an alternative to calling on NATO in situations where their presence will only exacerbate the situation. Ireland has a long and proud tradition of supporting UN peacekeeping missions and I do not have a problem with our participation in similar humanitarian or peacekeeping missions under an EU mandate.

So why then am I still thinking of voting No? I fundamentally believe that the Lisbon Reform Treaty does not go far enough to support the citizens of Europe. It protects the rights of big business, and does not focus on the individual. If the Lisbon Reform Treaty was genuinely in the interests of the citizens of Europe, why do their representative governments not let them vote on it? Why has every nation that has approved it done so via an act of parliament, and not by referendum? When every nation that has given its citizenry the chance to vote on the EU Constitution or the Lisbon Reform Treaty has rejected those treaties, why has the EU not listened to its own citizens and come back with a new document that genuinely reflects the will, the hopes and the aspirations of the people?

A constitution for Europe should be by the people, for the people and of the people; Lisbon is none of these, and that is why I have and will vote No.

Probably.

A last word on the Greens and Government (for now)

Yesterday I, like every other Green Party member, received an email from party leader John Gormley updating us all on the Special Party Convention to be held on October 10th to vote on the Party's position on NAMA and a new Program for Government, the agreement with Fianna Fail that outlines the terms of the coalition currently being renegotiated in the wake of the recent local and European elections.

Minister Gormley explicitly stated in this email that if a 2/3 majority of the Party members present at this convention do not vote to accept the revised program for Government, then the Greens will leave Government. Similarly, if a motion to reject NAMA is proposed and then passed by a 2/3 majority, the Greens will also leave Government. With the exception of the original convention that propelled the party into coalition government no meeting in its history has been as important, and the consequences for the nation are even higher than on that June day.

My own feelings on both NAMA and the continued presence of the Green Party in government are well known. I strongly disagree with the proposed structure of NAMA, specifically the paying of above current market rates on toxic assets in the erroneous hope that property values will rise to near bubble levels in the foreseeable future and the taxpayer will get a return on the government's investment. This angers me for two main reasons, firstly it further rewards the property and banking industries for creating this economic meltdown. The scale of donations cataloged recently on thestory.ie clearly show why Fianna Fail is so eager to protect its financial backers in the construction industry, and it sickens me that our money is being used so blatantly to do so. Secondly while the government has no problem in rescuing the perpetrators of this meltdown, there is no sign of any relief for the true victims of the crisis, the thousands of ordinary citizens now left with properties worth 50-60% of their original purchase price, who rather than receiving aid from the government are now faced with the prospect of a Property Tax to add insult to injury. These concerns are supported by leading economists and ordinary citizens alike.

Although I have no truck with the Shinners, their call in the NAMA Dail debate for a Referendum on the subject has merit given the scale of the public investment proposed, and I am proud that the democratic nature of the Green Party allows me a genuine say in the matter, unlike the other 99.99% of the country's population. My own preference would be for full nationalization of any financial institution that accepts a government bail out, that is the only way to ensure proper oversight of how our money is being spent, to ensure proper corporate governance, and to prevent those that got us into this mess from being further rewarded financially for it.

My feelings on the continued presence of the Green Party in Government are even more obvious to anyone with even a passing familiarity with this blog, and do not need to be reiterated here.

While the process of renegotiating the Program for Government is entering its final stages Minister Gormley has asked party members to refrain from public comment or speculation on the specifics of that negotiation, and I am going to heed that call. It is highly unlikely that anything will result from these negotiations that will change my views, or alter my vote on October 10th, but I will attempt to keep both an open mind and a closed mouth between now and then.

Quite a challenge.

As with the recent Convention on the Lisbon Treaty I will be taking extensive notes during the October party meeting, and will publish a post after the results of the voting have been announced, but until then do not take my silence on the issues as disinterest, rather as a last vain hope in the mechanisms of a party that I once strongly believed in.

Besides, there's still Lisbon II to rant about.

To Marketing!

Ah, Arthur's Day. The greatest national holiday that never was.

Earlier in the week the Very Understanding Girlfriend surprised me by expressing interest in participating in the celebrations of the (erroneous) 250th anniversary of the birth of Ireland's favourite pint of plain. Throughout the city ticketed events were being held in numerous music venues with a rake of international and local musicians scheduled to perform, but the highlight of the day was to occur at 17:59 with the mass toast in pubs the length and breath of Ireland (not to mention New York, Lagos and Kuala Lumpur) "To Arthur", the founder of the brewery that bears his name.

This desire of hers to participate was surprising because a) neither of us are big drinkers, b) even when we do drink it is never, ever a pint of stout, and c) she is the most virulent anti-corporate person I know (and I know an awful lot of anti-capitalists). Thus shortly after 5pm we set off into town to Kehoe's on South Anne Street, along with around four to five hundred other folks who had the same idea. The pub was jammed, more crowded than I have ever seen it even on a night like New Year's Eve, and this was 5pm on a school night.

It took me 35 minutes to get served, with my pints arriving less than two minutes before the moment itself, the tv counted down and then 17:59 arrived and the pub actually went wild with the whole establishment standing on chairs and tables crying out in one voice, "To Arthur!", and that was nothing compared to the bellow that surged forth from the street below, where literally hundreds of people spilled out of the pub and on to the two adjoining streets.

The moment passed, but the night was just getting started.

We left Kehoe's as the cries of "To Arthur!" were rising up again, mingling with the shouts from Bruxelles and beyond, where similar sized groups of revelers had congregated, and we traveled across to Grogan's, where if anything the crowds were larger, merging with the inebriated patrons of Spy Bar and Dakota and occupying the crossroads of South William Street, Castle Market and Coppinger Row in one unending horde to the point that it was impossible to tell where one bar's drinkers ended and the next began.

And the night went on and the queue at the bar seemed never less than three deep, and the frazzled barstaff grew weak in the elbows pulling pint after endless pint of the black stuff with plaintive, desperate cries of "is anyone not looking for stout?" but stout was all that filled the glasses of the congregation, and the toasts never abated though descended into a cacophony of "To Martha!", "To Sparta!", "To Garda!" whenever a roof-mounted camera crew went by on the giant white lorries with electrified sides emblazoned with even more of the omnipresent advertisements reminding us of what exactly we were all celebrating.

And the night went on.

Aside from one uncomfortable instant where an old soak made a drunken lurch at The Very Understanding Girlfriend, and then took a swing at me with a shout of "It's Arthur's birthday, I don't care what happens to me, there are no consequences" (or mumbles to that effect), the night was amazingly good humoured. Despite the thousands of people on the streets openly defying the 'no public drinking' laws the garda presence was minimal to non-existent. As a friend commented, its the closest thing to Mardi Gras Dublin has ever experienced.

And of course at the heart of it all was an entirely manufactured event foisted on the good people of Ireland by a cynical multinational drinks company exploiting our national heritage and taking all subsequent profits overseas. Everybody knew this, and nobody cared. Even the folks drinking cans from the off-license were drinking Arthur's drink; everyone had bought into it, everyone knew they were being used, but nobody cared. There was no talk of the Recession, no talk of NAMA, no talk of Lisbon, no talk of doom and gloom at all. There was just drunken chat, and laughs, and cheers and toasts and lots and lots of pints.

Somewhere in the hollow moral vacuum of a chrome and leather filled room an ad exec is rubbing their blood-stained hands together in glee at the prospect of the bonus they are going to earn for thinking up this campaign, possibly the most successful in their agency's history. But surprisingly, for bringing the people of this city together in pure and unadulterated bacchanalian festivity for one single night in defiance of the darkness all around us, I do not begrudge them this unholy delight, as I join with thousands of my fellow mindless automatons and raise my pint glass high in the air and join in the atonal chanting of the masses:

"To Arthur!"

Choose Lisbon (or else!)

I haven't been writing about Lisbon II that much because I must admit to being somewhat conflicted by it. With ten days to go until polling I am the closest thing to undecided that I have ever been in any election or Referendum.

For me Lisbon I was pretty clear cut, it was a constitution for Europe run by and for big business with no protection for the individual worker. While the Charter of Fundamental Rights does set out important tenets that will become enshrined in law, many of the references to workers' rights were and are essentially window dressing, non-binding and non-enforceable on any member state. This has remained unchanged in Lisbon II, all though the European Council declared in the aftermath of the last vote that it attaches a high importance to "Social progress and the protection of workers' rights", even the impartial guide to the vote produced by the Referendum Commission from which this statement is taken admits that "This European Council deceleration on workers' rights is a political statement. It is not legally binding" (downloadable from here, though it was also distributed by post to every household in the State).

So if the fundamental reason why I voted No the first time round remains unchanged in Lisbon II, why am I conflicted over voting No a second time?

Six months ago there was a joke doing the rounds about what was the difference between Iceland and Ireland (A: One letter and about three months). Six months on we're not doing a whole load of laughing and if anything are in a worse situation than our Nordic neighbours. The only thing that has saved our country from complete and utter collapse is the fact that our economy is not solely ours to ruin, without the Euro and the weight of the EU behind us the IMF would have been called in and we would be forced to sell off what little state services we have left at knock-down prices to the same oligarchs that drove us into this crises.

The fact is that thanks to criminal mismanagement of our nations resources by successive Fianna Fail governments and their funders in the construction and banking industries our country is no longer able to survive as an independent State. Within weeks of their collapse Iceland quickly abandoned their decades long antipathy towards EU membership and came knocking on the Brussels door with application papers firmly in hand. We would be insane to do anything right now that would jeopardise our own place within Europe.

When the citizens of France and the Netherlands rejected the EU Constitution, the document was shelved, life went on and the EU did not collapse. When the citizens of Ireland rejected the Lisbon Reform Treaty, we were told by both our own government and the EU to keep trying until we gave the right answer. If citizens of any other EU member state had been given the opportunity to vote on the Lisbon Treaty, odds are they too would have rejected it, this is why the governments of every other member state refused to allow a Referendum on the Treaty, and pushed it through by act of parliament. It was too important to their business interests to allow for its rejection. At the heart of this treaty is the most undemocratic act that has ever been perpetrated on the citizens of Europe in modern history, the governments of each state know that it is not the will of the people in its current form, and they have conspired to ensure its adoption and imposition.

And this is the sad conundrum for me. The Treaty itself and the way the will of the Irish people has been ignored sicken me to my very core, but the prospect of a two-stream EU with punitive measures conducted against us for stepping out of line terrifies me, and this is exactly what Berlusconi threatened yesterday. We are being bullied by the rest of Europe, but we might have no choice but to sit back and take it.

For me the Lisbon Treaty was never about wether we want to be in the EU or not, it was about the way in which we wanted the EU to work. A 'No' vote was not about rejecting Europe, it was a call for a better Europe, one with its citizens and not business at its heart. The EU has been responsible for an amazing amount of positive change in Ireland, and I firmly believed that it could be responsible for even more, if social justice was enshrined at its very core through a pro-people constitution.

This was the message we sent to Brussels, but somehow that got sidetracked by selfish squabbles over our influence and the numbers of Commissioners, and by embarrassments like Libertas and Coir who punched far above their weight with the media ignoring the work of Joe Higgins and Patricia McKenna to focus on the more sensationalist headlines, and now the chance to go back and draft a document of social justice for all European citizens has been lost. We have been told in no uncertain terms that this is it, take it or leave it, in or out. And we can't afford to be out.

An EU that bullies dissenting members is not an EU that I want to be a part of.

But we can't afford to be out.

I have never been more conflicted about a vote in my life.

You are now entering The Twilight Zone

Norway is an odd place. It is like an alternate reality spookily similar to our own, but with one major difference that only gets revealed to our heroes twenty minutes into the show, with disastrously jarring consequences.

Norway has the second highest GDP in the world, and according to the 2008 UNDP Human Development Index is the second most developed country in the world (after Iceland, so expect some changes there in the 2009 report)*, and the second best place to live if you are a woman, after Sweden. From 2001 to 2006 it ranked number 1 in both these categories, and given the strength of its economy should return to top position when the 2009 report is issued in October. The 2009 Global Peace Index ranks it as the 2nd most peaceful country in the world, after New Zealand. It has one of the world's largest oil and gas reserves, but rather than using the revenue generated from these to reduce tax levels it instead invests the money for future generations in what is called the Government Pension Fund. Last Monday a national election was held and the incumbent left-wing Red Green coalition government was reelected, the first time a government was reelected in Norway in 16 years, despite strong opposition from conservatives campaigning on an anti-immigration platform and a pledge to use money from the pension fund to reduce tax levels immediately. Voters rejected both the racist overtones of the opposition's campaign, and the short-sighted nature of their neoliberal economic plan.

So far Norway is sounding pretty much like paradise, and our adventuring heroes have been lulled into a false sense of security, having struck up valuable friendships with the locals in a short period of time, just strong enough to cause a sense of genuine anguish when the glaring difference between this world and ours is shockingly revealed:

(deep breath) They eat whales! (dun-dun-duuuuuuuun!!!)

Norwegians love whale meat. And Seal. And Reindeer. And just about anything else that has enough good sense to try and get away from them. On a trip around Svalbard by boat the lunch we were served was grilled whale meat**, and people were fighting each other for seconds. The supermarkets are stocked to the gills with it, though it is considered a treat rather than an everyday food. At the Tromso Polarium, a museum/aquarium attached to the Polar Institute, there are a series of educational exhibits showcasing efforts to conserve whales and other endangered species, so that future generations can enjoy them... as food.

And its not just whale, the Polarium has three captive bearded seals and as we arrived they were being trained to retrieve thrown objects. These seals are the mascots of the Polarium, and in its gift shop you can buy small cuddly plush seals for your kids, made with real seal fur. All that's missing is a cuddly plush club to go with it. And this was just in the Polarium, we didn't make it to the Museum of Hunting and Trapping down the road.

Longyearbyen on Spitzbergen was Norway to the Nth degree, still supporting as it does a small community of scattered hunters and trappers. A stuffed Polar Bear greats you on the baggage carousel in the arrivals hall of the small airport, a larger one stands over the doorway of the co-op supermarket, a slightly shabbier one stands in the lobby of the Radisson hotel. The wall of our breakfast room in our lodge had a fine specimen in rug form adorning it, and while the archipelago itself has more bears than people, I'm thinking the population of stuffed bears also gives the locals a run for their money.

The economy of the island, and indeed the country as a whole, was initially built on 19th century whaling, and unlike the maritime economies of the US and the UK there is no attempt to recognise the immoral nature of this foundation in its modern history. Norway's present is an unbroken continuation of its past, there is no shame over whaling, and when questioned it provokes a sense of genuine puzzlement, "Do Irish people feel shame over cows and pigs? Then why should we feel shame over whales and seals? Why are one group of animals acceptable to eat and not others?"

The more regular readers amongst you will know that I am a vegetarian, something even the slightly astute occasional reader will also have guessed by now, but I am not an evangelist. Vegetarianism is a personal choice for me, and I don't seek to impose it on anyone else. While those around me were munching down on their whale (for the record, it apparently tastes like gamey fish) I was asked why I was veggie. This question arises frequently, and oddly enough most people ask is it for religious reasons, as if doing it for God or gods is acceptable, but choosing not to eat meat on the basis of a purely rational decision is just bonkers.

I could have answered that I am vegetarian on the basis of a belief that all life is sacred and nothing should have to suffer so that I can live. I could have answered that it is unsustainable to eat meat at the levels of current western consumption, given the amount of land and water required to farm cattle, in addition to the climate damaging effects of gaseous emissions from domesticated ruminating animals. I could have argued that, as anyone who has read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" knows, the health practices associated with the meat industry are horrendous and the quality of the meat you ingest is suspect at best.

All these external reasons are valid, but none are the reason why I continue to reject meat. I am vegetarian to escape my programming.

I am the product of over 3.5 Billion years of evolution. My species emerged onto this world between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago, and 10,000 years ago figured out that by farming they could ensure a consistent supply of food, allowing civilisation to bloom and humanity, as we know it today, to arise. Our current western industrialised society has evolved to a point where one is not forced by environment to subsist on a specific diet, never before in the history of our species have so many options been available for nutrition. The privilege of the position I find myself in as a member of this species and society at this specific point in time cannot be overstated.

I am not Usain Bolt, I am not Stephen Hawking, but I am still the pinnacle of all of life's processes that have led to this one point in time where I, as a living being, have a choice about how I live, how I power myself on a daily basis, and what I do with that life. Although I can eat meat, by choosing not to I am celebrating this process of evolution and the privileged position that I find myself in. My physical programming still cries out for an omnivorous diet, the smell of rashers frying in a pan still sets my taste buds on fire, but the power of my mind is enough to overcome this desire. By not eating meat I prove that I am a creature of thought and will, and my mind is stronger than my baser instincts.

That is the triumph of evolution, and that is why I am a vegetarian, because I can be, because I can choose to be.

This was not the answer my whale-eating compatriots were expecting, and they shuffled off somewhat nervously as they mentally raised me from 'Elevated' to 'High' on their Crazy Scale.

Regardless of my Darwinian foibles, I reckon most folks outside of Norway and Japan would still do a doubletake at the sight of someone chomping down on a Minke burger, and that is the conundrum of Norway; that arguably the most evolved country in the world happily snacks on something also fairly evolved.

And that has left me somewhat disturbed by the whole trip.

For a counter argument on the whole meat-eating thing, check out posts from Tadhg and Tim. They both raise valid points, but aren't nearly strong enough to make me change my mind.

* Interestingly Ireland ranks 5th, ahead of the US in 15th and the UK in 21st place. I would also expect some changes there in the 2009 update.

** When we said we were vegetarian we were offered salmon. We finally managed to explain that fish was not a vegetable, and then they cooked us up a nice rice dish.

And a star to sail her by

Still on the subject of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, we went out to a few events at the Fringe Festival last night and on the way home I took this photo of the Jeanie Johnston, the replica 19th century sailing ship built nearly ten years ago to commemorate the famine voyages. I think there are plans to turn her into a floating museum, but with funding scarce in our post-Tiger economy who knows what will happen.

Splice the mainsail

Avast ye scurvy dogs, 'tis International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and even LibraryThing is getting in on the action. Nice.

Tomorrow will see Ireland Inc return to its regularly scheduled Act Like A Pirate Year.

Ahem.

Its also the first day of the year 5770 in the Hebrew calendar, so Happy New Year to you all!

Furthermore Eid starts at sundown, marking the end of Ramadan and its month of fasting. Eid Sa'id!

Rarely have the stars aligned so fortuitously.

78 degrees north

Got back late last night from my trip to Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago the size of Ireland in the arctic ocean, and probably the most northerly inhabited part of the world. It was an intense experience with enough amazement for a lifetime crammed into four too-short days. It's too soon to be able to take it all in and figure out how this experience has affected me, but I've uploaded a few photos and that will have to do for now.

I stayed in Longyearbyen, the main town on Sitzbergen island and in the whole archipelago, at 78.8 degrees north. A mining town with about 1,600 inhabitants in all, the Norwegian government took a controlling interest in the mine operations in the nineties and since then has pursued a policy of softening the town and turning it into a proper community with an emphasis on quality family life, with schools, creches and other community facilities. There's also a university that focuses on polar studies, with a student body that is 50% Norwegian, 50% international, bringing a very diverse mix to the town. You aren't allowed out of the town limits without a rifle or an armed guard because of the polar bears, of which there are more on the island than people. Probably the most northerly town in the world

Photos of Longyearbyen

Sarkofagen - Friday saw a five hour hike up Sarkofagen, a peak over-looking Longyearbyen (about 600m high and -10C at the top), and down the side of the Longyear glacier.

Photos of the Sarkofagen Hike

On Saturday took a trip by ship out around the archipelago to the abandoned Russian town of Pyramiden and the Nordenskiold Glacier. In addition to the spectacular landscape that surrounded us, we passed by the Noorderlicht, a wooden sailing ship that traps itself in the sea ice every year and becomes a hotel accessible only by dog-sled or snowmobile. An amazing day marred only by the sight and smell of other passengers wolfing down whale meat cooked on an open grill.

Photos of the sea trip aboard the MS Polargirl

Pyramiden is an old Soviet mining town abandoned by the Russians in 1998. Its a ghost town, preserved exactly as the day it was abandoned. There are a handful of engineers returned in the last year or so ostensibly to prevent a ecological disaster from happening (a dam is in danger of collapsing and washing the town and much toxic contamination into the sea), but in reality part of the ongoing Russian moves to bolster its claim to the arctic sea floor and whatever natural resources are made newly accessible there by climate change.

Photos of Pyramiden

Nordenskiold Glacier was the most amazing sight for me, a giant glacier meeting the sea. Somehow I managed to capture on film a series of pictures showing a 10 second collapse (a 'calving') with car-sized chunks of ice falling into the water. "Awe inspiring" is a phrase that gets bandied about a lot, but in this case is actually an understatement. I also took some video of the glacier which gives an idea of scale.



Photos of Nordenskiöld Glacier

Sunday was a tough day, starting with a 3 kilometer kayak across open arctic sea, six hour hike up and down Hiortmountain (a mountain just under 1,000m with spectacular views across to Longyearbyen and beyond), and a 3k kayak back. Tough because I have never kayaked before, and can't swim. Still, as the guide said, "don't worry about drowning, the cold will kill you first". Comforting. Sat by myself on the side of the mountain for about 20 minutes, never have I felt more alone or more at peace in my life.

Photos of the Hiortmountain Hike

Monday saw a lightning visit to the entrance of the Global Seed Vault, a repository of seeds from around the world in case Armageddon wipes the rest of the world out. Take a look at the TED talk, or read the web site, really cool. All the articles I've read make it look like this is in the arctic wilderness, in fact its about 500 meters above the airport on the road to an active mine, pretty easy for folks like Ban Ki-Moon to fly in, get their photo taken, and fly out again without ever having to put on a baselayer.

Photos of the Global Seed Vault

Svalbard is simply the most amazing place I have ever been, there really aren't the words to describe it.

NAMA and The Northern Lights

So as the evenings start to grow longer, an autumnal air causes us all to break out our jumpers, sweaters and fleeces*, turn on the heating and offer a silent prayer to Dawkins that fate intervened and prevented us from fully enjoying all the waterlogged camping fun and delights at Electric Picnic**, our thoughts turn once more to the shattered remnants of our once proud economy and the stevedores of destiny that attempt to marshal the last vestiges of our national dignity into a pair of jeans clearly three sizes too small in the vain hopes of catching the eye of passing global investors, tempting them into an ill-advised tussle that leaves their wallets a fair bit lighter and their self-respect a little too tarnished to ask for their money back. I am of course referring to the clusterfeck that we have all come to know and love as NAMA.

As a signed up member of the Green Party I, unlike the other 99.99% of the good citizenry of this fair nation of ours, actually have a chance to have my voice heard on this issue, to express my outrage at the Government's plan to yet again reward the perpetrators of our financial Emmerich*** for their greed, avarice and unconscionable stupidity, and, if enough of my fellow party members feel likewise, possibly even trigger the rejection of NAMA and the collapse of the current Government. The Green Party membership is meeting this weekend in Athlone to discuss both NAMA and the review of the Program for Government. Members will have an opportunity to propose areas that the parliamentary party will then raise and pursue with Fianna Fail as the NAMA legislation is finalised. Subsequently on October 10th an additional special convention will be held wherein the members will get to vote on the party's support for both the finalised NAMA legislation, and the finalised Revised Program for Government. If the membership reject either proposal then its hard to see any outcome other than the collapse of the Government and a snap election.

This is the beauty of the Green Party and why I have held on despite finding myself in an increasingly small minority on so many substantive issues, it is quite simply the most democratic of the major parties. In no other mainstream political party do the rank and file members have so much control over what the party does. This weekend's NAMA conference is something that has originated purely from within the local consistency groups, from individual members expressing their concerns, and the party has responded. A debate on NAMA may be the last thing the parliamentary party wants, and it will fight for a Yes vote tooth and nail, but ultimately it is the membership that will decide and the TDs will respect that.

Alas, however, I will not be present at this Saturday's historic meeting, for I am away on Thursday off into the wilds of the Arctic Circle to explore the ravages of climate change first hand on the Norwegian island of Svalbard, home of the Arctic Seed Vault and forever immortalised by Philip Pullman. Do not seek to tut-tut me, for I know that your immediate thoughts are on the hypocrisy of flying hundreds of miles to a pristine wilderness to witness global warming first hand, for I know that merely by closing the door of the airplane I am part and parcel of the Emmerich**** wrought by mankind on the fair blue orb we call home.

In my defense I must point out that unfortunately Irish Rail do not, as of yet, offer a Dublin - Longyearbyen service, and if they did, given the fact that my one-way ticket from Killarney to Dublin cost me €38 yesterday, I shudder to think what they would charge for a return trip to Spitzbergen. Secondly, Ban Ki-Moon did the exact same thing last week, and if its good enough for him, its good enough for me. We have already established a precedent for overlapping disaster tourism, and if its all the same I'd prefer to keep our chance encounters as far away from home as possible, the arrival of the UN Secretary General to your town is rarely good news.

Finally, when I left work sixteen or so months ago my colleagues, knowing my ecological leanings and steadfastly ignoring my subtle hints for a cappuccino machine, had a polar bear tattooed in my name as a going-away gift, allegedly allowing it to be better tracked and simultaneously look bad-ass in the local bear biker bar. Given that I had no choice over what tattoo it received, I feel that only by traveling to see this magnificent beast and witness first hand the quality of the inkmanship that cost me an unlimited supply of frothy caffeinated goodness will there be any sense of true closure on that period in my life.

Hopefully when encountered my bear will neither be wearing armour, nor be disagreeable to showing me their ink. I will introduce myself to him politely, and with respect. I will admire his tattoo, even if I am unimpressed with its quality, and will express deep and heartfelt regret over the destruction my species has wrought on his environment, driving his species to the very brink of extinction with our lust for progress and convenience.

In return he will perhaps admire my own inkwork, ask where I have traveled from and then in a voice of ice and molten thunder bellow out into the white-blinded expanse that surrounds us both, "Ireland? Ireland? Man you guys are so Emmeriched!"

A cappuccino machine would have been far less judgmental.


* though not today, with Dublin a muggy 18C, humid, grey and overcast, with all the subtle charms of a sweaty civil servant with too great a fondness for vinegar on their lunchtime chips

** unlike my sisters, troopers that they are, who now hold the honorary rank of Able Seafolk in the Sea Scouts thanks to their inspired choice of tent locations, abandoned with some haste to the elements early on Sunday morning while I supped hot chocolate warm and cosy in front of a roaring fireplace near the Gap of Dunloe

*** my new term for a disaster so great only Roland Emmerich could adequately represent it on film. Also, a milestone on an actor's downward spiral into career oblivion, as in "wow, John Cusack's really Emmeriched it this time, I mean I thought American Sweethearts and Identity had Emmeriched him for good, but this, this is really something else"

**** see, works quite well, doesn't it?