Checkpoint 2023

I did one of these back in 2019 and it is interesting to see what has changed since. You can compare with Checkpoint.

Reading:

Recent recommendations 

In Arabian Nights – Tahir Shah,

The Fifth Head of Cerberus – Gene Wolfe

Current read 

Re-reading the Histories – Herodotus

Next reads in my TBR pile

Masters of Death – Olivie Blake

Listening:

This American Life : 323 The Super

Blindboy Podcast: E212 The History of Brown Sauce and Door Handles

In Our Time (Melvyn Bragg): The Gin Craze

Our Fake History: #113 Who is Kiev’s most vengeful saint?

The History of Byzantium; #274 The 10 Worst Emperors

The History of Egypt: #50 Between Two Worlds

The Memory Palace: #75 The Ballad of Captain Dwight

Revolutions: S9E7 Morelos

Radiolab: The Cataclysm Sentence

Watching:

Star Trek DS9 with Gavin ( We did TNG & Voyager)

Andor (Star Wars)

Ted Lasso

Grace & Frankie (with Louise)

Seven Samurai

Rugby World Cup (with Jerry)

Trois Couleurs (Red White and Blue)

Absolutely loving Triskel Arts Centre for movies at present. Just saw Chevalier, Paris Revoir and L’immensitá. All fantastic in their own way.

Playing:

I have not played any computer games since coming to Cork. I do want to get back to game play.

Projects:

Participant Model.

JPM Integration

Deutsche Bank

Ervia Pension

Kids:

Jerry just back from presenting at conference in Malaga and working to publish his PhD this year.

Esha working with Qualcomm in Cork and currently house shopping. Going steady with Simon who is shortly returning from London with his Masters Degree from Imperial.

Gavin begins fourth year B.Eng in UCC tomorrow.

Fitness:

After seeing the Medieval Armoured Combat in Claregalway I signed up for training with the Knights of Munster.

Cholesterol is high so fitness is important, but I am also using red yeast rice as a supplement to bring it down. Watch this space.

I had a bone anchored hearing aid installed and am waiting for the scar to heal pending fitting of the hearing aid.

Politics:

The war in Ukraine grinds on. Putin failed to oust the Kiev leadership back in the first weeks of the war in 2022. Now he has painted himself into a corner where he cannot depart from Ukraine without a major loss of face. So he will continue to feed Russian lives into the Ukranian meat grinder until he is removed from power. The Ukranians will expand their offensive operations into Russia to bring this war into the homes of the Russian people. You can’t win a war fighting it in your own country. France learned this hard lesson in WW1. You need to bring the families of your opponents into the conflict so they see it in the flesh and not only in news propaganda. Will Ukraine become Russia’s Vietnam? Did they learn nothing from Afghanistan?

The Irish Government is in full election prep mode and are being hamstrung by the loss of the EU derogation on the Nitrates directive. This probably reads like Greek to most of you. More nitrates on land allow three cows instead of two per acre. But they cause nutrient runoff that pollutes the rivers and lakes. The EU has nitrate limits which de-intensify farming. The Irish Goverment secured a derogation because farmers invested in intensity after Milkageddon. The derogation is gone now and taking cash from Farmers in an election year is seldom a good idea.

Farmers in Ireland pretend they are the small 40 acre farms of our childhood. In fact they are horizontally integrated businesses which need to be treated as polluting heavy industry. The EPA are prevented from policing farming by the Dept of Agriculture who are defending the farming vote. The Climate Action vs Farming Industry battle is going to be a dirty and bruising episode for this nation.

Greta Thunberg remains active but is less in the news these days. The Climate Denial camp have lost their argument. They have moved from climate change denial to fighting rearguard actions to protect Oil & Gas. This week Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary got a pie in the face in Brussels. The Airline industry is becoming a major target of climate activists. Meanwhile in Dublin an activist group is deflating the tires on SUVs.

Donald Trump spends more of his time in court than at hustings and yet, sadly, he remains the lead candidate for the Republican presidency contention. What magical attraction this criminal mysogynist holds over his loyal supporters baffles me.

Boris Johnson is gone into the wilderness and the tone in the UK is softening from Hardline Brexit towards seeking routes to integration with the EU.

Car:

I need a fill but other than the weekly shop it barely moves off the driveway, which was the plan in moving to Cork. I did spin down to Sandycove in Kinsale for an early swim with Esha yesterday. It was glorious. On our return the traffic was building so we got out and back at the ideal time.

Louise:

Now working with SRL research and loving it. That was also part of the plan for the move to Cork. Hoping this becomes a permanent role in the near future.

Cat:

Remains with the house in Ballykelly. The new owners named her Jellybean. She has children to play with now.

Sporting Highlights:

Ireland Rugby team are No. 1 in the world rankings. Just as we were 4 years ago on the eve of the Japan World Cup. That was a disaster. The good news is that we hammered Romania yesterday 82 – 8. Jerry and I have tickets to the Bronze Final in Paris. Fingers crossed Ireland will play that weekend.

Four years ago Liverpool led the Premier League with 4 wins from 4 matches. They went on to win their first Premier League title. This year they won 3 and drew 1 and sit in third.

Poem that sums up my life right now:

This is a funny little love poem but it speaks of the interconnectivity and balance of nature. Mankind traditionally lived in harmony with nature, but colonial style depletion economics have ravaged this planet and thrown our systems out of balance to line the pockets of a small clique of billionaires. The US Economic model is the biggest threat to mankind today. Instead of working to fix it logically megalomaniac billionaires like Musk and Bezos build end of days fortresses in New Zealand and imagine colonies on Mars to escape the mess they are creating. Billionaires should not exist. Tax the rich.

Love’s Philosophy; by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river
and the rivers with the ocean,
the winds of heaven mix for ever
with a sweet emotion;
nothing in the world is single;
all things by a law divine
in one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high heaven
and the waves clasp one another;
no sister-flower would be forgiven
if it disdained its brother;
and the sunlight clasps the earth
and the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
if thou kiss not me?

-=o0o=-

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Total Bullshit

There is nothing in the world more hypocritical than an Oil company advertising a cleaner, greener world. There is nothing more cynical than senior business executives telling the world that they have the ability to solve the problems they have created.

As COP26 prepares to “ratchet” up the carbon reduction pledges of the nations of the world there is a distinct smell of bullshit on the morning air. Politicians are firmly in bed with the CEOs of Global Multinationals and between them they have no intention of doing anything to upset the apple cart of big business.

The goal of business is to maximize long term shareholder value within the constraints of the law. Big Corporation CEOs will barely, just barely, operate within the confines of law. They will employ expensive law teams to challenge the bounds of the law at every limit. Expecting these people to voluntarily limit shareholder returns in pursuit of altruistic climate goals is nonsense. They will be sacked overnight.

It is the job of governments to make the laws that rein in the worst excesses of capitalism. Our politicians are failing to make those regulations. This is hardly a surprise because our politicians are bought by big business. They may position this otherwise, couching it it language that makes it seem like politicians act independently. History says otherwise. Large corporations can provide very large campaign funds to politicians. They can also provide big paycheques on the speaking circuit for retired politicians who played the game.

“Nothing has changed from previous years really. The leaders will say ‘we’ll do this and we’ll do this, and we will put our forces together and achieve this’, and then they will do nothing. Maybe some symbolic things and creative accounting and things that don’t really have a big impact. We can have as many COPs as we want, but nothing real will come out of it.” Greta Thunberg

“It’s really irritating when they talk, but they don’t do.” HRH Queen Elizabeth II

Australian PM Scott Morrison arrives to Glasgow waving a document called “The Australian Way” in which 30% of the abatement of emissions relies on technologies that have not yet been invented. He overtly states he wants to protect businesses. At least he is honest about that. Most politicians will not be so forthright. They will make all sorts of vague promises that they have no intention of keeping. Then they will play the finger pointing game “Unless China/USA/A.N.Other reduces emissions what is the point?”

The point is that the planet is burning to serve the next 5 years of political ambitions of our leaders. Evolution is failing. We need revolution. COP26 begins in Glasgow on Oct 31st.

-=o0o=-

This site is available for free and I make no money from any ads you see here. If you would like to show your appreciation feel free to leave a comment or you can buy me a coffee! http://buymeacoffee.com/DonalClancy

The new woman

Born in County Down, Ireland on this day in 1854, Sarah Grand was a feminist who inspired the “New Woman” movement. This important feminist ideal drove the movement for female suffrage and led to female participation in the workplace, secondary education and third level education for women.

The photograph above is a posed parody showing the “new woman” smoking a cigarette, wearing breeches, her bicycle behind her, lording it over a husband who is doing the laundry. This image is the patriarchal backlash against the rise of women’s rights.

Sarah Grand is a pen name. She was born Frances Clarke. At age 14 she was expelled from school for campaigning against the ill treatment of women afflicted with venereal diseases. In the society of the time prostitutes were blamed as the sole source of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, a very male chauvinistic viewpoint. The young Frances Clarke was a Greta Thunberg of her day.

At age 16 she married an Army Surgeon, 23 years older than her, widowed with two children of his own. By her mid-20’s she was estranged from him, citing “bizarre sexual appetites”. She became a writer with tales of women trapped in oppressive marriages, devoid of self-determination. She also borrowed from her husband’s experience of treating venereal diseases in the British Army and continued to promote sensitivity towards treatment of afflicted women.

Also on this day in 1963, the year I was born, John F Kennedy pushed through the Equal Pay Act in the USA abolishing wage disparity based on sex. It only took Ireland another 11 years and a directive from the EEC to implement equal pay in 1974. I grew up in a world, and within my memory, where jobs were advertised with one pay scale for Married men, a lower one for Single men and a lower one again for Single women. Married women were forced out of the workforce!

I think it is wonderful that today, due to pioneers like Sarah Grand, we live in a world of gender equality where successful women pose no threat to fragile masculinity. But sadly we don’t do we? The gender pay gap in Ireland is still about 14%.

Checkpoint

Reading:

Recent recommendations 

The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell,

Spin – Robert Charles Wilson

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun – Peter Godwin – very topical just now as Robert Mugabe has just passed away – a journalists account of the collapse of Zimbabwe.

Current read 

Children of Earth and Sky – Guy Gavriel Kay  (Loving it)

Next reads in my TBR pile

In a Glass Darkly – Sheridan Le Fanu

American Pastoral – Philip Roth

One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Listening:

The Teachers Pet Podcast

5 Day

This American Life 388:  The Rest Stop

Blindboy Podcast: Soss Potion

Science VS:  The Abortion Underground

Watching:

Game of Thrones is over. Do I delete it from the Sky Box now?

Peaky Blinders

Star Trek Discovery

Lord of the Rings – Movies – Again

Playing:

Sniper Elite 4

Projects:

Integrated Assurance Management System

Corporate Planning Tool

Selling in Tipperary and Buying in Cork

Kids:

Jerry offered an MPhil with TUD in Aerobiology, Atmospheric monitoring and Environmental Sciences:  Fully funded and sponsored by EPA.  Booked into the Point for accomodation.

Esha started 3rd year Elec Engineering in UCC on a WIT scholarship for tuition from Intel.  In a house share in Cork.

Gavin started 1st year Engineering in UCC staying in Deans Hall residence.

Fitness:

Rudely healthy but terribly unfit.  Friday lunchtime yoga classes.  Fitbit is broken, but it’s the free one Jerry gave me.

Politics:

Still all Brexit, Brexit, Brexit.  UK parliament is prorogued by Boris Johnson the PM.  Prorouge is the word of the year.  Irish parties are pretending they don’t want an election to protect the stability of the country at this sensitive juncture.  In reality they have nothing to gain and the Dáil appears to operate more efficiently with a minorty party in power than it does with a majority.

Greta Thunberg just sailed to the USA for Climate Action.

Donald Trump sent Mike Pence to Ireland to bump his re-election campaign.  Pence insulted the Irish Goverment, many times.  Do Irish American Republican voters even care?

When I read this back in years to come I hope Greta Thunberg is ascendant and nobody much remembers Trump, Pence or Johnson.

Car:

I need an oil change.  Driving on an amber light.  Renault megane dynamique 1.4 diesel 131 TN One short of the number of the beast.

Louise:

Watching masterchef Australia.

Cat:

Likes cheese.  Also likes mice.

Sporting Highlights:

Ireland Rugby team are No. 1 in the world rankings.  World cup begins Friday week.

Liverpool lead the Premier League with 4 wins from 4 matches.

Dublin play Kerry on Sunday (again) for 5th Sam Maguire in a row.  The last game was a draw.

Poem that sums up my life right now:

Begin; by Brendan Kennelly

Begin again to the summoning birds
to the sight of the light at the window,
begin to the roar of morning traffic
all along Pembroke Road.
Every beginning is a promise
born in light and dying in dark
determination and exaltation of springtime
flowering the way to work.
Begin to the pageant of queuing girls
the arrogant loneliness of swans in the canal
bridges linking the past and future
old friends passing though with us still.
Begin to the loneliness that cannot end
since it perhaps is what makes us begin,
begin to wonder at unknown faces
at crying birds in the sudden rain
at branches stark in the willing sunlight
at seagulls foraging for bread
at couples sharing a sunny secret
alone together while making good.
Though we live in a world that dreams of ending
that always seems about to give in
something that will not acknowledge conclusion
insists that we forever begin.