Knit your way to enlightenment
My cousin Bernadette Murphy blazed the bestseller lists of the US with her first book,
Zen and the Art of Knitting , and now has just published a follow up:
The Knitter's Gift: An Inspirational Bag of Words, Wisdom and Craft.
"Passionate knitters know that knitting is more than just a craft or a hobby. Knitting forms the texture and a background for their lives, binding them to their mothers and grandmothers who shared their great legacies; to friends and family who wear their homemade gifts; and to their fellow knitters." See also
http://www.zenknitting.com/ . My Aunty Peggy has a lot to answer for!
Maev-Ann Wren explodes health spending black hole myth
It's great to hear the intelligence and clarity of Maev-ann Wren on the radio again. To my mind, she is a model to my mind of what campaiging journalism is all about. She was on Pat Kenny this morning talking about her report for the ESRI, which explodes the myth of a black hole in health spending. [See
www.esri.ie for the full report, I have a small excerpt from the conclusion below.]
Wren suggested to Pat that as a society we should decide to pay higher taxes for a better health service, rather than spending the fruits of the boom on second houses. Even Blair managed to gain support for tax rises for increased health spending, when it was properly explained how that money would be spent. Not pulling any punches, Maev-Ann went on to say that hospital consultants are overpaid in the current system. The full interview available at
www.rte.ie for a limited period. Wren's book on the health service is a must read, available from amazon
at this link and better Irish book shops. I wish her every sucess in her role in the new Vincent Browne publication, Village Magazine.
Excerpt from 'Health Spending and the Black Hole' by Maev-Ann Wren, special article in Quarterly Economic Commentary, Autumn 2004, ESRI, Dublin Ireland, excerpted from www.esri.ie.
Ireland has just begun the process of remedying a considerable and decades long deficiency in health and social service infrastructure. The resulting increase in capital spending on health has brought Irish public health spending per capita close to the EU average. However, when capital and current spending are disaggregated, it is apparent that public current spending remained below the EU average in 2002, the latest year for which comparable data are available.
Increases in current spending over the period from 1997 to 2002 could not deliver full value against this backdrop of capital deficiency. The pace of spending increase was also so rapid that it
presented difficulties for planners and administrators. Furthermore, the hospital system faced inflationary pressures which exceeded those of other areas of the public sector.
Unease about the quality of health spending is not without basis. However, arguments for health sector reform are not incompatible with acceptance that the sector requires increased
investment. The case for sustained investment in health care made in the 2001 Health Strategy and the related primary care strategy remains unchallenged. Without this investment Ireland will be unable to achieve the standard of health and social care of other northern European states. Its achievement at an acceptable ongoing current cost requires reform of the hospital system, along the lines advocated in the Hanly Report, further reform of how hospital doctors work and are remunerated, and of how patients access care. Developing a planned, transparent programme of investment in health care, with planned, accompanying increases in current funding in a reformed health sector would seem an appropriate agenda for agreement between the new Health Service Executive and the Department of Health.
[...]Improving the quality of domestic data would however assist in both domestic decision-making and international comparison and possibly even convince some black hole proponents that, to paraphrase, "it does make a difference how much money goes into health".
Response to Sean Love of Amnesty Ireland
I don't know what possessed me. My brain was over active in August. I am a big supporter of amnesty, but I guess I was piqued at Love's uninformed swiping at the left. Does he think third generation human rights came from anywhere else except from the left? The Irish Times did me no favours by printing the word
justiciable as
justifiable, making me appear very right wing indeed.
Madam,
It is disappointing to read such an confused article from the director of Amnesty Ireland (Irish Times 11/08/04). Mr Love criticizes government policy for being centrist, but in the next moment he jettisons the entire political spectrum. Left and right arguments "are redundant", he says. Only the language of rights has any meaning, we are told. Human rights are "not capitalist or communist, liberal or conservative, republican or anarchist, democratic or dictatorial".
Actually human rights are closely related to liberal democracy, historically and conceptually. Like liberal-democracy itself, rights are subject to competing interpretations of core consensus ideas such as liberty and equality. Rights do not transcend ideology.
The first substantive issue raised by Mr Love, that of relative poverty, is a case in point. Is relative poverty justiciable? Should it be? Mr. Love implies that "the dilution of governmental control" would be a good thing. Why bother with voting at all, we might ask? Amnesty should concentrate on universal implementation of the core rights on which there is large consensus. Relative poverty within a wealthy democracy should be far down on their agenda.
Yours sincerely,
Daniel Dunne
Silly boy Myers
Another missive to the times from the silly season, unprinted:
Dear Madam
Kevin Myers' column now reads like the web-blog of an american shock-jock.
Proffered as a reponse to Darfur, we are told that loony feminist lesbian
lefties are in league with the islamo-fascists. Another reponse might raise
the following issues: In such tragic situations, what are the moral or legal
bases for international intervention? What bodies should decide on
intervention and on what basis are these bodies and their actions
legitimate?
The case for intervention is most coherent when placed in the context of
reforming the UN. In the long term we need law-based, accountable and
democratic international institutions which have the means to support basic
rights. Does Mr. Myers support the International Criminal Court for
instance, and the International Court of Justice? Fervour is appropriate in
support of democracy, but democracy is nothing without consistently applied
norms and principles.
etc etc
Omega 3 facts and fears
Too much time on my hands in August saw me speeding off missives to the Editor of the Irish Times at an alarming rate. Here's one prompted by a disappointing article by Sylvia Thompson on the subject of Omega 3 oils are their use with childhood learning and attention disorders.
Dear Madam
Sylvia Thompson's article on the use of omega-3 supplements for Attention Deficit Disorder is accompanied by a large photograph of Cod Liver Oil capsules. It is stated that these capsules "are part of the debate" on omega-3s, with the implication that advocates like Dr Sarah Brewer promote Cod Liver Oil.
In fact, advocates of omega 3 therapy promote fish body oils, which do not contain potentially toxic vitamins. Pharmaceutical grade omega-3 supplements also ensure that the environmental toxins associated with oily fish are avoided. This narrows down the potential downside of omega 3s to a little blood thinning. Eskimos, who ingest these oils in massive quantities, seem to survive this. This should be compared with the potential downsides of Ritalin or other ADHD medications.
Going with Eamon Ryan
Enough of this political bickering. Now is the time for building broad alliances and rainbows and - dare I say it - building bridges. As a
Labour member in Dublin South the Presidential aspirations of Eamon Ryan have come as an interesting development. Even more interesting as an ex
Green member. In my only encounter with Mr. Ryan, he acquited himself with aplomb, and firmly nailed his colours to a leftist mast. So why'll he's not Michael D. he is definitely your only man. But spare a thought for Labour in Dublin South, and the as yet unchosen labour candidate . The middle class electors of the constituency will have spent the last few days soaking up article after soft focus article, and fine photos, of the green incumbent of the fifth Dáil seat. A range of media coverage that would even leave my good friend
Ivana in the ha'penny place.
A Class Raffle
The Socialist Party (once the Militant Tendency of the Labour Party) dropped a leaflet into my mothers house in leafy Meadow Park,Churchtown, during August, advertising their fund-raising raffle after a bruising local election campaign. The leaflet assured us however that the raffle was confined to Carrickmount, Mountainview and Loreto estates. The implication is that these areas of public authority housing are the only true habitat of what Joe Higgins would call "ordinary working people". Meadow Park must have been a mistake, or else the burghers of the private houses were being asked to subsidise the prize for the proles. Class is a useful concept that still has sociological relevance. But this confusing public housing estates with working class is actually very unmarxist. For the proletariat Marx had in mind in anyone selling their labour. But I don't mind if the millies confine themselves to a tiny proportion of the electorate. The true program of the Socialist Party is anti-democratic and dangerous. While they have doctrinal issues with Stalin, they have none with Lenin, confirmed enemy of "bourgeois democracy".
Smoked salmon socialist
The hunt for omega-3 containing foods goes on. Omega 3s do so many good things, they are very protective when it comes to heart disease, may help to prevent prostate cancer, and promising research shows they may alleviate depression. A real find is Kinvara smoked salmon. Pricey but nice. I found mine at Nolans of Clontarf.
www.kinvarasmokedsalmon.com
I'm not sure how much omega3s there are in this, but it sure tastes nice!
