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Published by John F. Russell on Thursday, June 18, 2009
at
1:02 PM
"The Capitalist Manifesto: Greed Is Good (To a point)"
http://www.newsweek.com/id/201935
This is by Fareed Zakaria. He's one of my favorite political analyst as well as my favorite nationalized American. He illustrates the current economic crisis in a promising perspective.
My generation's inheritance from the government!
0 comments Published by John F. Russell on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 6:21 AM"Mr. Orszag says the president is committed to a deficit equal to no more than 3 percent of gross domestic product within five to 10 years. "
"For U.S., a Sea of Perilous Red Ink, Years in the Making"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/business/economy/10leonhardt.htm?_r=1
This is what my generation will inherit this coming decade -- an almost never ending deficit. I'm looking forward to it!
This past weekend has been one of the most exciting, yet nerve racking weekends in my entire life. It was the European elections here in Ireland and throughout all of Europe, both local and EU. This means that the last two months or so that I've interned for Kathy Sinnott hinged on two days worth of counting votes to see whether she kept her seat in Parliament or lost it.
The people of Ireland voted on Friday. On Saturday, the votes were counted and it was announced who won within the local elections. Beginning on Sunday, the votes were counted for the European Elections. Because they don't vote electronically, everything is done by hand, which means that it takes not hours, but days to find out who won. It was a three way battle between Kathy Sinnott, Torisea Ferris, and Alan Kelly for the coveted third seat in the South constituency here in Ireland. In the end, after about 48 hours of agonzing pain as I watched the t.v. to see the results, Kathy was defeated by Alan Kelly for the third seat in Parliament.
It was a bit of a bummer, but, to be honest, I was not too surprised. The Irish people are looking for new leadership. They are looking to change and improve their government. It's speculated that the one issue that lost the seat for Kathy is how she's against the Lisbon Treaty that will be voted on again this coming Fall. I feel bad for Kathy and those who work for her. Because she is an Independent, she has no party who funds her. This means that she and everyone who works for her are unemployed. It's a tough defeat because this office put in a lot of time and energy to win. But, I try to look at everything as an opportunity. I'm pretty sure we haven't heard the last of Kathy.
Well, I was thinking about defeat and what it means. I looked up a couple of quotes that I liked and of course, one from Batman:
"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure." George E. Woodberry
"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat." F. Scott Fitzgerald
"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." Maya Angelou
"'Why do we fall? . . . So we can pick ourselves up again.'" Alfred
Dingle . . . Four . . . Running
3 comments Published by John F. Russell on Monday, June 1, 2009 at 9:41 AMLast Saturday, I went with a few friends to Dingle, Ireland. Yes, there really is a place called DINGLE. It took about two and a half hours to get there. The country side was awesome. It was very mountainous and very green and the weather was beautiful. Dingle is a small sea port town and is famous for two things: an aquarium and Fungy the dolphin. The aquarium was not too exciting. I paid 9 euros to get into the aquarium to look at . . . fish. Yes, I know, aquariums are places where they have fish, but they were boring fish. I was hoping for a man eating shark or something. There was a sea turtle that I have to admit was pretty cool to look at, but overall, not worth the 9 euros. I also did see Fungy the dolphin. Though it was a statue because the original Fungy died about a decade ago and the city of Dingle made a statue as a memory. So, yep, those two things are what Dingle is famous for.
Because it's a sea port, I was in the mood for some fish and chips. We walked through the town and were shocked at how expensive fish and chips were. The cheapest we found was 13 euros. That's about 16-17 USD! But, I thought to myself, "When would I honestly be in Dingle ever again?" So, I approached my group and gave my speech, remembering that I had attained the gift of eloquence a week before, and when all was said and done, we ate at Subway. O well! The fish and chips were probably nasty anyway. I enjoyed Dingle. It was very pretty and I am glad that I had the chance to visit there.
After Dingle, we decided to travel through Conor's Pass, which is through the mountains of southern Ireland. The roads were extremely narrow and at one point, only one car could pass through on the road. It was rather fun, I thought.
There are four days left until the elections. The latest polls indicate that Kathy is in the third spot but that Alan Kelly is right there battling for that position as well. It's really too close to tell whether she will win or not. The actual elections are this Friday, but the count is on Sunday. So, I won't know until Sunday evening where I'll be the rest of the summer. If she wins, then I'll head back to Brussels. If she loses, then I'll head to London sooner than expected and home after that.
I'm still enjoying work. The first week that started my internship, I researched and wrote a letter to Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Minister concerning the crisis in Zimbabwe. Well, I heard back from him or I assume his intern. The letter said nothing concerning the recommendations that I suggested. Instead, it was a letter telling Kathy (really to me) what Ireland has and is doing to mitigate the situation in Zimbabwe. I didn’t really have any expectations or real hopes that the minister would immediately take heed to my recommendations, but the fact that he responded was satisfying. I wrote the letter on behalf of an Irish citizen who was saddened by what was going on in Zimbabwe and hoped that Kathy could do something about it. For me, knowing that I, in a way, did everything that I could to help this Irish citizen was satisfying. Obviously, there’s probably more that I could do, but I honestly feel proud of what I did. Helping the constituents of Ireland South, real people with real problems, is the most rewarding part of this internship. I'm not sure how many jobs out there accomplish this feat. I know that politics, most of the time, is synonymous with corruption, greed, and scandals, but I do believe that there are good politicians out there who really do everything he or she can for the people they represent. I'm going to remember this.
Finally, today is a bank holiday. It is also the annual Cork City marathon. Now, if I had known about this race and if I had known about 3-4 months ago that I was going to be here in Cork today, I would have ran this race. I've ran a marathon before and vowed that I would never do one again, but as I walked around listening to the music being played, the huge crowd that had gathered, and the cheering on for the racers, I thought to myself, "I think it's time to get back into running mode, again." I really haven't ran much in the past 6-7 months because I was so busy at school. Before, I would wake up around 5:30 to go run and work each morning, but this past semester was the busiest I've had and I evaluated what areas in my life to neglect so I could have just a bit more time for school. It was either running or reading my scriptures. I chose the former to neglect. However, I think I'll get back into running. I enjoyed running races. Honestly, the best part of running a race is the popsicles at the end. Popsicles are the answer to everything.
Well, it should be an interesting week.
Canvassing . . . Ronald Reagan!
1 comments Published by John F. Russell on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 2:40 AMI finally convinced the office to let me go canvassing. It was a beautiful day, finally, and I wanted to get out of the office to talk to people. Here's the canvassing team. We're not much to look at but we're all Kathy has right now.
We're at a local pub having tea and scones. I'm holding a scone. It was very good.
So, we went to the lake to meet up with volunteers. I was pumped up and I wanted to get out there and start knocking on doors, but this is Ireland and these people are not a bunch of fireballs, so we went to get some tea and scones. I didn't have any tea but the scones were amazing. Well, I got a little annoyed by the fact that we were just sitting around, so I grabbed Liam and headed out. We split up so we could cover more houses. In total we knocked for about 5 hours. Combined we probably knocked on about 450 houses. It was fun. Everyone was very nice. I didn't have a single rude person. (If only tracting on the mission was like that) A few individuals were puzzled as to why an American was canvassing, but they were still nice. Though, I am still having a hard time understanding the Irish accent. The Irish accent is a lot harder to understand than the Aussie accent. A few people tried to talk to me, but I just smiled and said, "Vote for Kathy" because I couldn't understand them. Overall it was fun. My feet, though, are killing me. I'm just grateful that it didn't rain.
Funny experience this morning. As I walked to Wilton Shopping center to meet up with Caroline and Liam. This older gentleman stopped me and said I looked like Ronald Reagan. He was talking really fast so I couldn't quite make out exactly what he was saying, but I think he said that I should go into politics. I just smiled and thanked him. It must be a sign, though. On Sunday I gave a talk at church and afterwards everyone came up to me and said that I should go into politics. We'll see. If there is anything in Washington that I'd want to be apart of, it would be with foreign affairs. Something to keep in mind.
HAHAHA . . . what do ya think?!
Yesterday I went to Blarny Castle. I was dropped off at Blarny city around 8:30 in the morning. I stepped out of the car and into the pouring rain. I walked across the field to the entrance to the Blarny Castle park, in the rain. The park opened at 9:00, so I waited in the rain. I finally got in and walked toward the castle. I walked (in the rain) for about 20 minutes toward the castle. The trees opened and there's the castle. It was pretty cool to see. I really couldn't stare up too long because it was raining so much.
I went inside and explored. Because it was raining, not very many people were there, so I was basically by myself in the castle. I made my way up to the top and back into the rain. There's a tradition associated with the castle. At the very top is a stone that hangs over the edge. Tradition has it that those who kiss the stone gain the gift of eloquence. Winston Churchill before he became Prime Minister kissed the stone. Well, I have a great desire to become a great orator someday, so I had to kiss it. I found the stone, laid on my back, and gave a kiss. It was pretty funny.
In all it was a neat castle. I explored for a while . . . in the rain. The real kicker, though, was as I walked through the exit, the freakin sun came out and blue skies began to emerge. I was so mad. I was soaking wet. O well.
I then took the bus into Cork city. I walked all around all day. I went to the Shandon Tower to ring the bells. I played "Don't cry for me Argentina" and "Three blind mice." I also visited University College Cork. It was very nice looking campus. Two of the interns for Kathy attend there.
I was craving all day frites. I walked for hours looking for a place that sold good frites. I couldn't find one; instead, I found probably one of the best Kebab places that I have ever eaten at. It was called Istanbul: A Real Taste of the Orient. It was so good. I love ethnic foods. I think my next trip will be to Greece and then over to Turkey. I also went to the English Market. It reminded me a lot of the market in Footscray, Austrlia as well as the market in Florence. Except the English Market did not have the kinds of cheeses that Florence did.
All morning, for some reason, the Laura Ashley store kept coming into my mind. I remember growing up that my mom and dad would go here quite often and of course drag me and my sisters along. Well, as I'm walking around Cork, sure enough I walk past a Laura Ashley store. I took a picture and walked on, but I thought, "Maybe I'm supposed to go inside." Perhaps there is someone I know who is inside. So, I turned around and walk in with the expectation that someone was in there that I knew. I stood around for a few minutes, didn't see anyone, so I left. The End.
Everyone here in Ireland says, "Thanks a million!", after they finish speaking to someone. For some reason I think it's so funny. There's sincerity in that, eh? Anyway, I've spent the last week and a half organizing canvassing. Since I'm not going out talking to people, I've been asked to organize the volunteers about where to go and what to do. It's not too challenging. I just organize it like I did in the mission when I was a district/zone leader. I've also been continuing the madeinmunster.com website. Everything is going well with that, though, Kathy's daughter has taken the lead on it now. I've taken a back seat. She wants to change a lot. I voiced my opinion on how the website should be directed towards, but she has other ideas. O well! As I said before, "I do what I'm told." I'm here to help Kathy win.
Yesterday, though, I was given a foreign affairs assignment. This is what I like doing the most. Organizing canvassing and developing a website is good experience, but I really enjoy researching and writing policy recommendations. The issue that I'm writing about deals with Israel and Palestine. Apparently Israel have kidnapped and hold 39 democratically elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Israeli prisons without recourse to due process since June 2006. I've done a little bit of research so far, but I'm going to research the court orders and the Inter Parliamentary Union's ruling on the situation. From what I've read so far, it seems that there are human rights violations on the part of Israel in this situation. Israel has been bombarded lately with accusation from world organizations about human rights violation, especially in relation to the recent war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. There are some interesting articles about that situation. So, Israel is not looking to hot right now. This will be interesting.
I'll head to Blarny Castle tomorrow. I'm going to check out and see what the buzz is all about. I'm also going to explore Cork city. I also have to prepare a talk on Sunday for church. I attend a small branch and they have asked me to speak. I'm happy to do so.
This is just a random picture. I took it two days ago. It was pouring outside and everyone (except me) were going to go canvassing. We were crammed into this tiny car. What made the drive so funny is we were listening to Britney Spears "Hit me baby one more time" to rally everyone to go canvassing. The windshield wipers made this loud, annoying whining sound and the car also smelled like coffee because Elena a couple days earlier had spelt a cup. I was laughing the whole time.
Yesterday, though, I was given a foreign affairs assignment. This is what I like doing the most. Organizing canvassing and developing a website is good experience, but I really enjoy researching and writing policy recommendations. The issue that I'm writing about deals with Israel and Palestine. Apparently Israel have kidnapped and hold 39 democratically elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Israeli prisons without recourse to due process since June 2006. I've done a little bit of research so far, but I'm going to research the court orders and the Inter Parliamentary Union's ruling on the situation. From what I've read so far, it seems that there are human rights violations on the part of Israel in this situation. Israel has been bombarded lately with accusation from world organizations about human rights violation, especially in relation to the recent war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. There are some interesting articles about that situation. So, Israel is not looking to hot right now. This will be interesting.
I'll head to Blarny Castle tomorrow. I'm going to check out and see what the buzz is all about. I'm also going to explore Cork city. I also have to prepare a talk on Sunday for church. I attend a small branch and they have asked me to speak. I'm happy to do so.
This is just a random picture. I took it two days ago. It was pouring outside and everyone (except me) were going to go canvassing. We were crammed into this tiny car. What made the drive so funny is we were listening to Britney Spears "Hit me baby one more time" to rally everyone to go canvassing. The windshield wipers made this loud, annoying whining sound and the car also smelled like coffee because Elena a couple days earlier had spelt a cup. I was laughing the whole time.
Elena, who is from Germany, (front left), Olivia, who is from London, (back left), Miriam (back middle) and Liam.
