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Garth Brooks, victim of bad Business (Ireland)

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The entire Garth Brooks debacle is an example of Irish ‘Wink and a Handshake‘ culture. I have absolutly no doubt that the concert series was ALWAYS for 5 shows, but that the promoter thought they could make more money by promoting only the first three, then adding on the additional two shows, with the full support and agreement of the GAA and Dublin City Council.

The promoter KNEW he could not get 5 nights, but thought that they could ‘work around‘ the issues in back room deals the the GAA and Councils. The issue is that they were NOT required to get a license BEFORE promoting the concerts.

This is the same issue that the building boom had, that collapsed the Irish Economy, get the planning permission AFTER you completed the building. Bass Ackwards!

Apprenticeships for the unemployed

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The future of Irish unemployment, or for that matter, unemployment anywhere, may involve re-establishing a medieval apprenticeship, where students, or other unemployed IT/Scientific/Technical workers live with those in the same industry who ARE working, and learn the business from them, as MASTERS of the craft.

Apprentice – A Medieval Guild Apprentice was sent to work for a ‘Master’ during his early teens. The Apprenticeship lasted between 5 and 9 years depending on the trade. During this time the apprentice received no wages – just his board, lodging and training. An Apprentice was not allowed to marry until he reached the status of a Journeyman.


While all of these requirements need not be followed, it might alleviate homeless students or other tradesmen.

Vodafone ripoff in Wales

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Moments after we arrived in Wales, we were interested in checking email and whatnot. So we stopped at a McDonald’s to use the non-existant WiFi. So realizing we were in a Vodafone cell site, I thought I’d use my JoikuSpot from my Nokia N900.

No problem we even got decent download performance on the 2MByte download. And then we disconnected, and the shock set in.

I got an immediate SMS with the following;

You’ve spent eur41.43 data roaming and your usage will be capped at eur60.50. To continue past the cap, text PASS EU CAP to 50193. For more info see vodafone.ie

WTF, this is a Vodafone SIM (IE) and they are charging this kind of roaming charge in vodafone Wales. What a Ripoff!

I’m an Ass H__e

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I’ve being rude at Gateway Ireland I’m an Ass H__e. But I’m a Ass h__e that gets things done! I have spent my whole life moving from project to project simply on my reputation of being a high tech firefighter. I stomp out project fires, and make things work. I complete projects that are spinning out of control and either cash in the reality check and close them, or bring them to fruition. And the one thing that gets my blood up are projects without any clear goal, or ones that have floating goals. This Gateway Ireland project sounds great, but is clearly unfocused and directionless. Doomed to failure, much like the Mobhaile.ie project which I could see from it’s outset would fail. And the aftermath shows that there had to be ulterior motives at work here. Observing the expense items listed, points directly at a government rip off, a government money laundering operation. Clearly meant as a payoff to political friends.

What Ireland needs now, is a clearly defined, and completed project to demonstrate real Irish skills, not another political farce to act the maggot. Real developers, operating on clearly defined goals to solve clearly defined problems. There is no such thing as an all encompassing solution in this recessionary environment. Fix as many of the small problems, the big ones will take care of themselves.

Internet freedom of speech and Irish Neutrality.

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While reading this article 5 Reasons Why Online Freedom of Speech Does Not Exist I was encouraged that a person of Arabic decent wrote it. And is spot on about the real lack of freedom on the internet.

And a thought came to mind that what Irelands ‘Smart Economy’ ought to be, is to create a genuine open internet connection to the world. An Internet free of ALL censorship, blocking, filtering and snooping both into and out to the rest of the internet. Even so much as establishing free VPN connections into the country for people living in internet ‘oppressed’ world areas thus giving an open gateway into a free, and (as) open as anyone could make, Internet. It would not prevent countries from blocking export of banned information into Ireland, but Ireland would not add any blockages. And it would not prevent information from Ireland into censored countries. but it would create a cloud of truly free internet.

I think this could foster an internet ‘Switzerland’ much like Switzerland is to banking. Businesses like Google, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Skype would find this an attractive country to expand and centralize in. It would make Ireland an Internet sanctuary for complete and open exchange of ideas and communications.

Irish Banks to ripoff NAMA

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That headline isn’t really news, at least to the people of Ireland. And only the, very disconnected, Irish Government believe that their spinning of any other message has changed that public attitude.

But here is another one, Rent, the very nature of the overinflated rents, which are driving companies out of business. This has only one value, and that is to the Banks which are utilizing the higher rents to increase the apparent value of their holding before passing them on to NAMA. In any other country, this is called Fraud

Accounting fraud
In order to hide serious financial problems, some businesses have been known to use fraudulent bookkeeping to overstate sales and income, inflate the worth of the company’s assets or state a profit when the company is operating at a loss. These tampered records are then used to seek investment in the company’s bond or security issues or to make fraudulent loan applications in a final attempt to obtain more money to delay the inevitable collapse of an unprofitable or mismanaged firm.

While this deceit may be well know to many, it was new to be. I could not understand why anyone would increase rents which were driving out tenants. Or how the rents were still overinflated with all the empty property’s currently on the markets. This more or less points to a second issue, that of Price Fixing and is, in reality, another for form anti-competitive fraud.

And there is no revolution yet? I suppose the bankers can have, and eat your cake too…

The truth that RTE does know.

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RTÉ

… a Public Service Broadcaster, a non-profit making organisation owned by the Irish people.

RTÉ is a State owned and operated propaganda wing of Fianna Fáil! There is no other way to put it. In a free society, only a free and open press and broadcaster can be truly unbiased, anything else is a sham. All funding and support comes from the government, not the ‘Irish People’ truth is the last thing to be published. Bite the hand that feed’s it, you must be joking!

RTE should be cast out in the public domain, where a wealthy broadcast media giant can buy it … broadcast …. print … political propaganda … biased economic news….err….

Oh well! I’ll just have to turn off the telly and read more Blogs….

Dell Blackout on Factory Closings

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It looks like Dell is attempting to suppress all information as they slap blackout on news about Raheen factory closings. That could be good news, or not. It could be a sign that they are negotiating a deal with the Irish Government. It could also be very bad news, and they are holding off until they can extract all the executive ‘hostages’, just in case 😉

UPDATE: Dell ceases all production at limerick

UPDATE_2: Looks like a dirty deal in Poland motivated the move Probe into €50m sweetener behind Dell move