Archive for the ‘Independent Group Local Papers Colum’ Category
We hate Being Told We’re FAT!
One of the most talked about issues this summer has been the Stop the Spread Campaign from Safe Food, the State’s public health promotion and monitoring unit. Safe Food has boldly stated that two out of three of us are unhealthily overweight. In previous summers when they spent tax payers’ money politely and meekly telling us to make sure we cooked the food thoroughly on the barbeque, they were great folks.
But this year they have had the audacity to tell us to measure ourselves around the middle and for women, if you are over 32 inches, or men over 37 inches, this indicates you are probably harming your health through being chronically overweight.
Some journalists have questioned the one measurement fits all approach sanctioned by the WHO, the World Health Organisation. But is this further proof of our denial. Do we simply hate to be told we are FAT?
When the WHO recently pronounced that mobile phone use is injurious to our health not one journalist questioned it. But because we are in denial about our weight some of the journalists have even questioned the independence of the WHO.
So let’s be clear what the WHO says, and in turn, what safe Food is promoting. They are asking us all to measure around our middle. That is not what we commonly call our waistline. So, measure around your middle at your navel or bellybutton. If a woman measures more than 32inches or a man measures more than 37 inches, that means there is an indication that your belly is protruding because so much fat has already built up around your heart, lungs and intestine that on top of that it is now forcing your tummy to protrude.
Now we can continue to deny it all day and all night long but they are the facts according to the WHO. With that much excess fat around your internal organs you are more likely to suffer coronary disease, diabetes or cancer. One third of all cancers are weight related.
But because of our state of denial we start claiming, “I have heavy bones” or “I retain a lot of water”. When the WHO stated brain tumours can result from excessive use of a mobile phone no one was daft enough to say “but I have heavy bones, my skull has an above average thickness so the electro-magnetic field won’t get through my thick head as much”. However these are the very arguments many of us use to resist accepting the fact that we are overweight.
Unbeknownst to ourselves our nation and our children are getting fatter and fatter. Safe Food has stuck to its guns and told us to measure ourselves as instructed. It is merely an indicator and if you are over the 32 or 37 inches but you believe you are not overweight, the best thing to do is to go to your Doctor and get that verified. If your doctor, who will also take into consideration your age, fitness, height etc, tells you you’re not overweight isn’t that fantastic! Keep up the good work but don’t attack a public health agency when it is merely trying to draw our attention to a serious and costly health issue for our population.
Duffy you’re a Hypocrite!
Independent Group Newspapers 9/2/2011
I have come in for some personal criticism for attending the launch of a Fianna Fáil candidate, Declan Breathnach running in Louth. Again, regular readers will know I have been very critical of Brian Cowen and have long sought a general election. So apparently, according to some, I am a hypocrite attacking Fianna Fáil in Government and then recently attending one of their candidate’s campaign launches. The truth is that Declan is a long-standing personal friend who worked with me for many years. I know him to be a good man, a lifetime community activist, and a tireless county councillor. I make no apology for looking past the party to the candidate on this occasion.
Finally, there is a recurring theme to my column this week. Though our political establishment has let us down so badly, we must still have a modicum of respect for all those who, at least, put themselves before the electorate and give us a choice. So if an old friend, who after many years in the background of his party, gets an opportunity to run for the Dail, of course I am going to respect his request that I attend his launch.
There had been much speculation that David McWilliams and his celebrity friends were going to run as a loosely assembled group of Independents, pompously promising to save our country. When push came to shove, they melted away. They didn’t have the bottle for the battle. Though we don’t give them credit for it, being a politician is tough and in these times almost impossible.
Bad and all as our politicians are, I believe Vincent Browne telling a party leader to kill himself is poor judgement and bad taste. Saying all candidates of one party are all bad is likewise poor judgement. There are just over two weeks to Election Day. Make your vote work by deciding what the candidate will do for you, the constituency and the country. Good luck, as you try to decide who you will get your number one in possibly the most important election ever.
Kenny ‘scaredy cat’ or ‘cute fox’?
Kenny ‘scaredy cat’ or ‘cute fox’?
Independent Group Local Newspapers 9/2/2011
What do we know about Enda Kenny who, according to every single poll, is looking most likely to be our next Taoiseach? But, according to the same polls, he is still not the most popular of the party leaders.
So is he like Ray MacSharry? The former Minister for Finance is credited with getting us out of our financial crisis in the eighties, when we were told “the IMF was at the door”. He lacked charisma but was supremely competent. What does our country need now, charisma or competence? Do we want populism or pragmatism?
The national media tells us Enda is a ‘scaredy cat’ because he won’t do more than three debates. The media also claim Kenny is hiding, but is the cute old fox not gliding instead – perhaps to victory?
Numerous radio programmes have asked the question, how will Mr. Kenny cope with his proposed tough re-negotiations of the IMF deal, if he’s scared of one man, Vincent Browne? But Mr. Kenny is the only leader who actually did negotiate about the number and format of the proposed TV debates. He did not readily and cravenly agree to lie down wherever the media cameras pointed like all the other party leaders. Gerry Adams and John Gormley, by agreeing to partake in the five-way debate, and allowing themselves be excluded from the three-way, have accepted their parties are ‘also-rans’ in this election. If Pearse Doherty was a leader I bet he wouldn’t have let that one by him. The Green Party have also been shut out and must console themselves that night with some tweeting to their dwindling numbers of supporters.
Vincent Browne prematurely announced the three way TV debate on HIS programme whilst the negotiations between all the parties were still ongoing with the broadcasters. He was looking to use the power of his show to bully the party leaders onto HIS programme on HIS terms. All the other leaders caved in but not Kenny. Perhaps he is the only real negotiator amongst the five leaders.
People who read this column regularly, and others I write for the Sunday Independent, know I have written more than once about the plague of suicide in Ireland. It was outrageous of Vincent Browne to say, on national television, that Enda Kenny should “take a bottle of whiskey and a gun into a dark room.” The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland found against Browne and TV3 over the comment. Enda Kenny was right to take such a stand, saying he will never appear on any programme with Vincent Browne. The thousands of families which have experienced suicide will, no doubt, understand his position.
However we need these TV debates, if only we could get over the arguments about their formats. Most voters have decided they want to punish Fianna Fáil and the Green Party for their incompetence in handling our economic crisis.
So now voters have to decide do they want Fine Gael or Labour to lead the next Government? That means they have to choose between Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore. A two-way debate is what we should have got. Why is Micheál Martin there except to apologise yet again for Fianna Fáil and the Greens bringing in the IMF, and the appalling handling of that low point in our Nation’s history.
The one thing we do know is that Enda Kenny is the country’s most experienced party leader. Incredibly he has seen off nine party leaders – Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen of Fianna Fail; Ruari Quinn and Pat Rabitte of Labour; Mary Harney, Michael McDowell and Ciaran Cannon of the Progressive Democrats; Trevor Sargent of the Green Party and Declan Ganley of Libertas.
I suspect the wily Phil Hogan, Fine Gael’s Director of Elections and Media Specialist Mark Mortell, who joined the Fine Gael team for the election, have happily allowed the impression build that Kenny is frightened of debating with Martin and Gilmore.
But what they have now engineered is a five-way warm up for their man on the 14th, where no one can win or lose, as it is just too cumbersome. Then there is a three-way debate in Irish on TG4, which relatively few will watch. So Kenny will again enjoy an easy practice run as he is, by far, the most comfortable of all three in the first official language. Then for the decisive debate on February 22nd, he will surprise everyone and possibly do quite well. Why? Because an expectation has built up that he is running scared and therefore must be a poor debater. Remember the consensus of all the pundits in 2007 was that he drew with the great communicator and man of the people, Bertie Ahern. So, if he is only moderately competent on the 22nd of this month, he will bound ahead to victory four days later. Hogan and Mortell have played the broadcasters as suckers.
The Good and Bad in us
Two very different business stories to share with you this week – together they demonstrate all that is good and bad about us Irish.
First the bad. Sadly we are a nation of gossipers and rumour mongers. Nothing travels faster than bad news, and not only is it happening here in our own town but in every town up and down the country. Vicious, malicious and mischievous rumours abound, claiming the imminent collapse of some local business. The horror about these rumours is they can be self fulfilling prophecies. Once the gossips start spreading their vile story, customers may decide to pass the door and suppliers may demand immediate payment, a sure recipe to drive even a good business to the wall.
Do the gossipers ever stop to think about the untold damage they are doing just for the fleeting delight to be had from spreading bad news? Do they ever stop to ask how good or reliable is the information they are peddling with such gusto and meanness?
I know one business that has suffered from persistent, false rumours, or correctly termed, lies. Since before Christmas people were whispering “the liquidator is at the door”. In this case there was absolutely no truth whatsoever in the story but so called intelligent people, who should know better, kept spreading the lie.
Can I ask you to not participate in these destructive rumours that circulate freely about every other car dealership, hair dressing salon, shoe shop, restaurant, boutique, and builders’ providers? The list goes on and on, because the rumour mongers spare no one.
If some gossip tells you very dramatically that a certain business is in trouble, please say.., “Oh I find that hard to believe, are you just making that up? How would you know? I must give them a bit of support I will make sure to shop there this week.” That will shut up the rumour monger.
If we don’t pull together and support one another we will never get out of this economic mess we are in, which takes me on to the good that people do.
I was in Wexford last week filming with RTÉ for Dragons’ Den. Series 3 comes on air Sunday nights at 9:30 from February 20th. When the series ends at Easter there is a second series called Dragons’ Den on Tour, a ‘where are they now’ follow-up to some of the inventions, business ideas and start ups that came into the Den over the first two series.
So as part of this I found myself in Enniscorthy catching up with a new company called Wexgen which manufactures a carbon neutral, high-energy, fire-briquette called Green Flame. It is made from a new crop to Ireland, miscanthus. Also called elephant grass, miscanthus is a woody, bamboo-like crop and its only similarity to grass is that you set it once and it keeps growing and growing every year. Instead of making hay you cut it to make straw that ends up in a bale that looks more like the reeds used for thatching.
When 35 farmers from the Southeast, all former sugar beat growers, suddenly saw the Irish sugar industry being closed down by the EU, rather than whinge about it, they decided to look for an alternative crop to go into business themselves. The paltry compensation they got from Europe they ploughed into this new venture and raised another half a million euro to set up their manufacturing plant.
It was fantastic last week to see it now in full production. These farmers are a shining example of what can be achieved when we all work together. They have tapped into the great national heritage of Horace Plunkett and the Co-operative movement and the fighting, never say die heritage of Wexford, always evident, from the 1798 pike-men to the All Ireland Hurling champions of 1996.
These 35 farmers, who manufacture and distribute nationwide, Green Flame Briquettes, deserve our support. For the remainder of this winter, instead of buying a bag of dirty, imported coal, buy a bale of these, high-energy briquettes and do our country, our environment and some brave, get up and go farmers a good turn. I promise you, giving Green Flame your support will leave you with a nice warm feeling both in your heart and on your hearth.
Micheál Martin should be FF Leader
Independent Group Local papers Jan 24th 2011.
History will record Brian Cowen as our worst ever Taoiseach – someone who mishandled the worst economic crisis and who resigned in the worst possible manner.
Brian Cowen’s premiership failed, because he failed to communicate with the voters. So Fianna Fáil’s next leader must be a consummate communicator. If that is the uppermost requirement, then Fianna Fáil would be mad not to select Micheál Martin.
Brian Lenihan, the other main contender, is rightly and frequently praised for his speed learning of the Finance brief and his command of it in media interviews. But his style has been formed in the legal world and is far too formal – it lacks humanity and warmth. I have heard him address conferences, and while he is competent, he would never ‘wow’ the room. He does not have the necessary charisma for leadership, which Martin has in abundance. Like Tyrone manager Mickey Harte, Micheál too has buried a daughter recently. Both could have done the easy thing in their awful, tragic circumstances and remained silent in their grief. But they knew the nation was mourning with them, so they faced the media, connected with us, and probably even drew strength from it.
Eamon O’Cuiv and Mary Hanafin I won’t comment on, as I don’t consider them real contenders, except to say that O Cuiv would be a throw back and Hanafin a throw forward. She is putting down a marker for the next leadership contest – in five years time she will still be only in her mid fifties!
If the soldiers of destiny want a destiny they have to select Martin as the eight leader of Fianna Fail.