Excellent, draw up the armchair and crack open the popcorn…it’s election time again!

I’ve been caught in the horns of a dilemma, one shared by many other citizens; namely, a reluctance to vote for the morons currently in charge coupled with a deep feeling of foreboding when I consider the morons-in-waiting. Enda Kenny – a man whose charisma is a negative force capable of overwhelming the righteous anger of the nation. If he had even a modicum of character we would be falling over ourselves to elect him. According to the EU profiler Fine Gael is almost identical to FF on a map of political beliefs so he really should have been able to mop up the votes from disillusioned Fiana Fail voters. Mind you it’s probably not fair to pick on FG -The rest are not exactly awe inspiring either.

So far Labour has managed to come out the best; not well, just the best of a bad lot. I liked some of what they had to say at their conference and the fact that they recognized the futility of striking. But there are still huge swathes of policy that remains vague and unfocused.

The Green Party – apart from doing a startling imitation of a trained poodle responding to its master’s voice whenever Brian Cowen speaks -lied through its teeth before and as it took power about its intentions regarding the Hill of Tara. The moment they took office, they reneged on every promise and shamelessly bargained away our national heritage. They propped up, enabled and winked at the corruption behind the prostitution of one of our great national treasures. They will never receive a vote from me again. Their commitment to the environment and conservationism does not extend beyond installing bicycle ramps.

In fact you would be forgiven for ignoring the local and European elections, crawling into a hole and just letting it all go by. I was reared to vote; my grandparents fought for that vote. People died so that I could live in a democracy. But confronted with the sad gallery of idiots vying for that vote, i contemplated opting out.

But then came along….Libertas. And they inspired me to vote albeit not in quiet the way they hoped. I will crawl over broken glass, brave hurricanes and even talk to canvassers in order to exercise my democratic right to keep a shower of bigoted, narrow-minded, ignorant, fascists out of power.

Linked to anti Semitism, xenophobia and racism, anti-European, led by a shadowy and shifty man whose track record is disturbing, filled with nonsensical pseudo facts and constantly misinformed on crucial points, it’s less a real political party and more a glorified residents’ committee. Libertas is prone to making statements about some heinous misuse of public funds or some wrong being perpetrated that only they can see clearly and can hope to resolve but when questioned the problem melts away under scrutiny, often turning out to be nothing more than the Libertasian’s fundemental inability to grasp the situation. They confused political terms, make gross errors of judgment (Caroline Simmons quoting a Wikipedia page and Libertas editing its own page to remove the fact that it supported strike breaking)

And yet there are people who overlook the bigotry and scaremongering because Libertas is tapping into their baser side. I fear greatly that they may pick up a vote or two. So I personally shall be exercising mine – I will vote for anyone but Libertas and their imported brand of fascism.
Our country may not be perfect, we may have our shortcomings as a society, we may be up the creek having pawned the paddle – but we don’t deserve Libertas.

Public hearing into revised Corrib route

RTE.ie News reports: 

An Bord Pleanála is to hold a public hearing into a revised onshore pipeline route for the Corrib gas project in north Mayo.

The application is being made by Shell E&P Ireland, which is also seeking a compulsory acquisition order to gain access to private lands.

The hearing into the revised onshore pipeline route will get under way in Belmullet this morning and is expected to last for several weeks

Shell is seeking planning permission to lay 9.2km of pipeline to connect to an offshore line which will transport gas to the Corrib refinery in Bellanaboy.

The original route was exempted from planning permission nine years ago but when work began in 2005 locals objected on health and safety grounds.

The new route is a minimum of 140m from occupied housing. Up to 80 submissions are expected to be heard by An Bord Pleanála in the coming weeks.

Objections have been lodged by local residents’ groups and environmentalists.

This is a much deserved ray of hope for the Corrib protesters; while the story has faded slightly from public view on May 9th 2009 80 protesters occupied the site of the Shell Glengad beach site, near Belmullet Co Mayo in order to remove perimeter fencing (Irish Times Saturday, May 9, 2009). One protester, Willie Corduff lodged himself under a truck in order to passively protest; he was later removed by force and injured by Shell security personel, according to eyewitness reports posted on various online support groups.

The fencing was erected by Shell at Glengad beach without planning permission; what muddies the water slightly is that entire Shell proposed route for the gas pipeline was originally exempted from planning permission (without reference to the public). However this exemption applied only to the route, according to protesters and not to individual erections and works.

On May 14th what has been described as a “daring protest” protesters mounted tripod structures to halt the works at Glengad, proving that the fight was far from over. The protest group Shell to Sea have repeatedly asked for the Corrib Gas to be processed at sea; this is standard practice and generally considered to have less environmental impact and fewer health and safety implications.

 For their part Shell claim that “the safety and security of our employees, our contractors and the communities in which we operate is the number one priority for the Corrib gas partners.” On the subject of environmental impact the company states “As a result of the screening studies, it was concluded that the preferred development scenario for the Corrib field was a subsea system tied back to a processing terminal onshore” (shell.com)

Whatever the right of it, the fact remains that a handful of community activists have suceeded in sending the matter back to An Bord Pleanala (the board in Ireland that deals with development and planning.) This is no mean feat in itself.

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Tags: Environment | protest | Ireland | SHELL | Planning | Republic of Ireland | Royal Dutch Shell Oil | corrib gas | shell to sea | royal dutch | an bord pleanala

The Perils of Publishing Poetry

I founded a poetry site in 2000, the Pagan Poetry Pages, to provide a space for poets whose influences and interests were non-conformist. With a loose brief of “poetry reflecting our interest in spiritual and metaphysical themes” we quickly grew to include poets who were not Pagan but deeply spiritual in their writing and Pagans who never wrote about their spirituality. In the end the PPP, as it is affectionately known, evolved into a place where good poetry was all that mattered; the need to express and the desire to share that expression was paramount.

Then recently, we decided to add another “P” to the PPP – “publications.” The creation of an anthology of our poets  has been a long-cherished project; finally we found the right combination of poets and editors and it began to take shape. Simone LA Hogan, my co-editor brought invaluable skills both technical and aesthetic while the talented American poet, Kevin V. Moore, brought an eagle eye to the project considering not only the submitted poems but catching many an evil typo as he went. The result is a book we are all, justly, proud of but the journey to this point has been both instructive and challenging. For anyone hoping to self publish, there are some pitfalls and pratfalls ahead!

The first and most obvious challenge for us was to gather the poetry; we had submissions from current members but decided to include new works as well. This opened up the site to new members and encouraged a fresh input into both the proposed anthology and the members’ forum. Once we had chosen poems - and made the copyright and legal position clear to each contributor – we were then faced with a formidable amount of formatting and design.

For the author publishing a novel, the formatting may not present as great an obstacle; but fitting dozens of poems into a suitable number of pages proved too much for me! After 3 weeks of laborious “copy and pasting” Simone stepped in, and in three days had the bulk of the work done. Another couple of days and she had whipped it into a pretty shape and added illustrations. I turned my attention to the covers a job I think I managed rather well; but I now know that any future attempt on my part to publish a book will start with making someone else do the formatting!

Our next challenge was the rather boring but necessary task of proof reading. I cannot recommend highly enough that you share this task among many pairs of eyes. Even with three of us feverishly reading we still caught a few errors later on. It won’t be the end of the world if one slips by – I have read many a published text with the odd mistake – but respect for the reader demands that you do your best to remove them all.

We choose to invest in ISBN numbers; the Nielsen Agency is the place to start if you are in Ireland or the UK. They come in blocks of ten and we saw it as an investment in our future projects; as it turns out it is a huge asset in promoting the book and getting it into mainstream bookshops. In the weeks since our official launch date, May 1st 2009, we have received orders from book wholesalers in the UK as well as independent retailers. ISBN are necessary if you wish to see your book take off.

We made a few mistakes as we blundered along; we underpriced our work at first and had to have the list price changed by Nielson and Amazon. When I say “we” honesty compels me to admit it was I, really. We learned that postage can be much higher than we fondly imagined. We also learned that a self published book can be hard to market.

You need to be proactive, and think creatively, when trying to promote your self published work; think of forums, websites, networks or writers, who might be interested. Try small retailers and bookstores and offer them sale or return. If publishing on Cafepress or Lulu consider buying ten at a time to have on hand, to distribute locally. Try everything – some things will work, others are more effort than reward. But you learn from every mistake.

Publishing the anthology was an amazing experience and one that has convinced me that for poets in particular, there really are not enough outlets for their work. As a result once we have recovered from Pagan Paeans  we plan on publishing Kevin V Moore’s collection of poems on New England; followed by a collection of essays and a second anthology. There are few monetary incentives to do so; poetry will never make you rich. But the pleasure our first offering has given poet and reader alike may well be the best reward of all.

Words are written to be read!

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Tags: Culture | Ireland | poetry | books | Writing | Publishing | dublin | Pagan | poem | paganism | pagan paeans | self publi | pagan poetry pages

Pamela Izevbhekhai and Schadenfreude

Terry Prone wrote an excellent article that sums up the case imo; leaving aside the very dubious issues of who forged what and why, the sheer glee and self righteousness of those who now feel justified in having persecuted this woman and her innocent children is disgusting. How can you rejoice that those two girls will almost certainly not only now be deported but will certainly along with their mother face the wrath of the Nigerian government?

What people seem to be determined to overlook is that it was right to support Izevbekhai, because the mere possibility of her daughters suffering genital mutilation isn’t worth the risk. I’d sooner be wrong than risk the life and well-being of those two young women.

 Are we to guard our generosity and our compassion and gloat when it seems we are “justified” in our selfishness? Finding out that compassion was -perhaps- misplaced does not diminish the need for compassion. And why were we deporting them anyway?

 Leaving aside any question of fraud – and again, there is evidence that while the paperwork may have been unreliable the child did exist and did die of FGM, including investigations done by both Irish journalists and Irish immigration officers – but why deport two young women and her mother who have done nothing but integrate into our society? Why make two teens, whose experience to date has been largely Irish, go home to an alien homeland?

I find myself more depressed by the baying and howling reaction of the bigots to this case and it’s undeniably annoying outcome worse than any fraud Izevbekhai perpetrated. Is this what and who we want to be?

Terry Prone says “There is at least a case for suggesting that in this instance, Ireland might show itself to be bigger, more generous and more caring than these parents deserve. In the interests of the children. ” Thanks all passing gods that some journalists in this country retain a sense of perspective. Sad, a sad case, a sad fraud and a sad and mean-spirited spiteful reaction.

Pagan Paeans Anthology and Competition

“Inspirations”
The Paganpoetrypages.com (The PPP) is proud to announce its latest poetry competition, to celebrate the launch of the first anthology of The PPP on May 1st (Bealtine) 2009.
Pagan Paeans is a wonderful collection of poetry from the satirical and comic to the deeply spiritual.

How to enter:
On www.paganpoetrypages.com in the members forum, we’ve posted two images as inspiration – all you have to do is look and write a poem. The best , most original take on it wins! Just go to the section marked PPP competitions and follow the instructions on how to post an entry.

The winner will recieve a great prize; a £20 gift voucher for Amazon and a free copy of Pagan Paeans, the first PPP anthology (out May 1st!)

If you are not already a member, just register, it’s free and very easy to do!
www.paganpoetrypages.com.

If you have any queries please email ppp @ anfianna.com.

Pagan Paeans is published by PPP publications and will be available through Cafepress.com or for Irish members details of purchasing directly from the PPP will be posted on site

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Tags: Culture | Australia | Ireland | poetry | Literature | America | Creative | spirituality | United Kingdom | satire | paganism | anthology | pagan paeans

R.E.S.P.E.C.T?

I had two emotive debates recently, one on the recurring subject of the Hijab in Irish schools, prompted by the news that the mother of the girl allowed to wear it in Goery is now forming a group to push the issue further. Which is the first time I’ve heard of a protest group being formed to protest when they actually won their point; perhaps the school allowingthe Hijab wasn’t on the agenda? Either way a group is protesting the lack of clear regulations to allow Hijabs when in fact their test case was allowed wear it…hmmm. Especially as the Ministers have already agreed a common appraoch, stopping short of directives to schools.

Maybe the Islamic community could calrify their position on it as the Irish Times reports that:Meanwhile, “nine Muslim organisations in Ireland issued a joint statement pointing out that “the hijab is an Islamic obligation as stated in the Quran and Prophet Muhammad’s traditions” but that “it is not a religious symbol”.”

SO it’s an obligation under Islam but not a religious symbol? The Jesuits must be green with envy that whoever came up with that feat of logic isn’t in their ranks.

The second was on the treatment of women in Egypt; a friend who is originally from Egypt was called a liar publicly by one of her fellow ex-patriates because she recounted stories of routine sexual harassment on the streets of Egyptian towns. She was further called racist – by an Irish woman- because she said that many Islamic cultures foster such disrespect of women.

An interesting article appears today by the BBC showing the sexual harrassment of women in Egypt and I can’t help but feel that some people owe my Egyptian friend an apology! If they’re reading this morning they might like to get in touch with her? After all obviously her own experiences of her own country aren’t good enough for you so maybe the blessing of the BBC will help?

Or maybe try accepting that the factual reportage of a cultural/societal problem is not racist. It does not mean the person believes everything about that culture, society or creed is wrong; it does not mean they have a secret agenda to foster dislike and distrust. Especially when speaking of a culture they were born into, lived in, and to which they hope to return.

And try understanding that the raising of such issues among polite society is not a clarion call for your bigotry and narrowmindedness. It’s called “debate” and it’s something that intelligent adults like to indulge in from time to time. Or and here’s a radical one; listen, be shocked, get angry and focus that anger where it belongs – on the thugs perpetrating the harassment. Do something positive about it.

But start by apologizing.

Tell the truth…

..and shame the devil?

I don’t believe in the devil, but I believe there is a certain amount of truth in the old adage about honesty. While I despise those who mistake rudeness for being honest and offer unwanted criticisms under the guise of being blunt there are times when you wonder if being “cruel to be kind” isn’t the best way forward!

Someone recounts a tale of woe involving a fiathless boyfriend and some random slapper – don’t you just long to say “No, it won’t be ok, dump his lying arse now before you regret it for the rest of your life?” Or a friend demands to be told that it is normal for her and her fiancé to argue relentlessly and that all will be well after the wedding – it would so liberating to reply “Well, no, you are ill suited and communicate through snide childish passive agression.” I confess to feeling a tad jaded today. I’ve overdosed on women online in various fora.

Especially recently, at the herding mentality of women particularly on the subject of relationships. An entire body of females exists which relies on other similar females to support its every decision and which views with suspicion any deviation from the shallow definition they call the “norm.” All couples argue, all men are lazy, all men are thoughtless, all relationships have bad patches, all women like shoes and shopping, all women want to live like them, eat like them, reproduce like them, replicate their every emotion. The Stepford gene is alive and thriving.

Outrage occurs when they spot difference outside their ranks; near hysterian and accusations of treachery of from within the species. Anyone who has a calm, or happy relationship is “delusional” – they gather to shriek and complain that these other women must be making it up. No one’s husband is that thoughtful, that kind, that loving. They cannot empathise outside their narrow experience, they cannot admit of any value system other than their own.

The problem is of course that like the rest of us they constantly come up against real life and people who don’t live according to their rules. I’m a rebel, I am  

The Kindness of Strangers…

Near where I work in the city centre of Dublin is a wonderful hat shop called Mad Hatter’s, on Lower Stephen Street. The girl who designs the hats (and owns it I think) is lovely as are every one of the ladies in there, I have been in and out to all of them at one time or another. They have just the most incredible range of hats and fascinators and with the wedding coming up I had to bring the aged mother in for a hat! She was in hog heaven and nothing could match the kindness and attention that was shown to her. I’m the first to complain about bad service but equally exceptionally good service deserves a rave, so here it is. I officially rave about the Mad Hatters, Milliners on Lwr Stephen Street, Dublin. When people show true kindness and attention and patience with an elderly lady and show genuine excitement and interest in a wedding and in other people, they deserve to do extremely well in business. It’s a dying courtesy!

Be it ever so ‘umble…

…there’s no place like a rented house for which you are paying through the nose but which provides peace of mind, privacy and the beginning of a new life together….

 Well, here we are folks; writing to you from the surrounds of our (very) bijoux, two bedroomed townhouse. We signed for it on Friday morning and decamped that very evening (was it really only yesterday?) We had pretty much packed the kitchen and the majority of ornaments and precious objects (the jug my nephews made me last year, the paintings my niece did aged 3 and 2 months, that sort of thing) so really last night was spent lugging them to the new house and  unpacking them, That was the fun bit because when I say “our little house” I assure you that’s exactly what I mean - little. I have rarely seen so little cupboard space, so half our glasses are in storage under the stairs. But I found a place for my good crystal glasses and for the most important ornaments and the spare room is going to be home to most everything else!

It was a good relationship test, tired after a long week and a hard day in work unpacking reams of newspaper wrapped kitchen implements. I am happy to report we both survived it with good humour intact and by 12am had pretty much unpacked the kitchen and lots of other miscellaneous items: bedlinen, towels, etc.

Mr BB and his brother are hard at work, moving heavy possessions (that would be his 40″ TV in other words!) and I’m just trying not to remember how much we’ve left behind and how much will be freecycled or Skipped in the next three weeks. And how much we have to clean in order to hand the house back in good order.

But you know, nothing can diminish the happiness of having a place to call “our home” albeit small and rented. One moment encapsulated the experience for me as I awaoke this morning. I heard a floorboard creak and found myself thinking “Ah feck. She’s up.”

Then I remembered – never again will I have to compete with Ms Narky Nickers for the shower of a morning! Never again await the sharp little rap on the door and the highpitched accusatory whine of “I’m going to be late, I’m going to be late!” Blessed, Blessed Day.

Men will be boys?

Another of those conversations over the weekend – female friends giving out yards about their men, how useless they are, how selfish and insensitive, how they can’t be trusted to do anything; how in fact, they are big children who need constant supervising. Of course in contrast the women highlight their own behaviour – thye organize everything, they make all the important decisions, they have to nag them constantly to get anything done.

Goaded beyond boredom at one point I asked why on earth they stayed with such lay incompetent men. The reaction was a blank look and a patronizing, “but sure, all men are the same.”

O-kay. This attitude drives me nuts. I hate passive agressive behaviour with a passion to begin with and the idea that you stay with someone in a dysfunctional relationship solely so that you can moan about them and play the martyr drives me mad. The laziness of the attitude is insulting to women and men – I will take crap from you because it can be swept under the carpet with the words “all guys do it?” And then there is the fact that if you treat someone, anyone, as an incompetent, untrustworthy lump who couldn’t find his arse with his elbows and a sat nav – they are very likely going to live up to your expectations.

I have a lot of male friends and have, ever since college, and while I appreciate the differences idir the sexes I am not prepared to believe that those differences extend to common sense, decency and moral worth. My Male friends, bless them, are different from my female ones in their interests, less likely to discuss fashion or relationships say; but they are just as reliable, trustworthy, caring, considerate and loving. My fiancé is thoughtful, romantic, kind, and involved in our wedding plans. But then again, I expect nothing less.

I won’t write off rude behavoiur in either sex. If you are ignorant, thoughtless and rude it is because you are a waste of space not because you are male or female. Men who behave badly are ignorant people, not typical men. Men are as capable of women of rising above baser instincts. Allowing them to behave like pigs on the grounds that you can’t expect anything better of them – that speaks volumes about women in my opinion.

I suspect that many women find it convenient to label their men idiots and to complain constantly about them. I also suspect that many deliberately set their partners up to fail. This at least is the experience of two male friends who told me of countless times their partners forced them to participate in activities (choosing colours for napkins and place settings, for example) that they neither understood nor cared about only to attack them for being reluctant, unhelpful, etc.

Now some guys might have an opinion on colour charts but you should know your partner, for gods’ sakes. If he isn’t interested in whether the napkins match the bridesmaids’ knickers stop beating him up about it. Let him do the things he is good at – Mr BB is in charge of bands and cars, but can be apealed to for final decisions on colours and flowers whereupon he will let me know if he hates / is nuetral/likes what’s on offer. Likewise I will be happy if the band plays  agood few 80s covers – beyond that I could care less.  We know each other’s strengths. We don’t lay traps for each other, and we don’t treat differences as failures.
I am not a lesser woman because I don’t much care about the broadband provider we choose. He is not a lesser man because he doesn’t obsess over where we put the ornaments.

Vive le difference, Ladies. But don’t try to tell me the difference is that all guys are 5 year olds!