Cut off

Yesterday, I actually heard myself say (angrily say), "We've now been over 5 hours without the broadband. Can't you give me any idea what's happening and when it might return?" Yup, no broadband yesterday. I called my service provider 6 times. In the end it was down for over 9 hours, which is a long time, but it's only just over three years ago that I was grateful to get an always on 56k connection.

I'll be away for a few days so I would expect that there will be a light service here.

Troops out of Shannon

Come November the US military will no longer be using Shannon Airport for the large numbers of troop transfers that have been helping make Shannon a viable economic entity. In last week's editorial about the prisoner transfer bungle he Limerick Leader says that the Irish government has gone too far appeasing the "anti-American brigade" and not combated the anti-war propaganda with any conviction.

It would be nice to find out if this 'appeasement' played any part in the decision to shift the military traffic to Leipzig. I doubt the decision to shift the operation to Leipzig is in any way related to the anti-war protestors' actions, but it is possible that the Irish government's 'appeasement' of the anti-war camp may well have played a part.

Posturing activist

If this story featured in the US press I'm sure some Americans would say something like, "Wow those Irish (or Europeans) sure don't like us". The gist of the story is that 'peace activist' Conor Cregan made a citizen's arrest of six American soldiers last Thursday.

"I placed the soldiers under citizen's arrest because these soldiers are not supposed to be walking freely on the streets of Ireland in uniform. It is a breach of the Irish Constitution and Irish neutrality,"he said.

I have no idea if wearing a soldier's fatigues is really illegal or not, but I know for certain that this jerk's behavior is nowhere near representative of how the average Irish person would view these guys walking around Shannon, Co. Clare. How can I be so sure? Well, the Gardai's response is telling.

"I immediately called for the six to stop and said to them 'I am placing you all under citizen's arrest. Do not move'."

The men remained on the footpath as Mr Cregan contacted emergency services. "I was put through to Ennis garda station, but the garda on duty made light of the matter," Mr Cregan said.

I can just imagine how the Guard on the other end of the phone reacted after hanging up. "What a jackass" or something along those lines. Only the Green Party would see this as "an important gesture".

Separate but equal

Venus Williams claims that Wimbledon treats "women as second class" because women are not paid the same prize money as the men. To be honest, I couldn't care less what women and/or men are paid at Wimbledon, but it strikes me as odd to demand equality, but to want to maintain a separate men's and women's competition. Surely equality would require that men and women all compete for the one prize?

Having said that, I can't understand why Wimbledon insists on holding out on this one. Do those who run the tournament fear that the leading men will stop coming to play if the women get an equal share of the loot? It's not like the old days when women's tennis was so dull that you'd rather watch a repeat of the test pattern.

The Spirit of '98

Okay, so this World Cup performance wasn't as bad as the 1998 showing, but it wasn't far off it either. I didn't see the game, but from what I've read this morning the US deserved to lose. And, if there's on saving grace from this defeat (actually, I think there are many), it is that I won't have to see or hear or read about Bruce Arena again.

Arena stalked off the field after the match Thursday and later suggested that if the United States had drawn into a different group, it might have advanced.

Maybe, but I doubt it. I think Australia would have beaten the US and that was the softest second spot available. The US team scored ONE goal during the three games (Italy scored one for the US on Saturday).

And, it's about time the American press gave up on those FIFA rankings. That 5th in the world was a joke - even FIFA never believed it. If they did, then the US would have been one of the top 8 seeds.

IBEC's worried about education

You know, if there's one group whose view on education I could not care less about, it's IBEC (Irish Business and Employer's Confederation). IBEC's worried about the fall-off in the number of students who are taking foreign languages for the Leaving Cert.

I can understand why they're so upset about it. They're worried that fewer Irish people will be able to communicate with our fellow Europeans, understand European cultures, and more generally, develop the linguistic skills that can provide greater confidence when traveling abroad.

Actually, no, they don't give a damn about any of that. All they want is not to have to provide any training themselves. They want the state to provide fully trained personnel to meet their human resources needs. Sometimes they want specifically trained technicians and sometimes they want people who can sell or handle customer calls in Spanish, French, German, whatever.

Sure it's right that students be encouraged to learn a second (third, including Irish) language, but not because IBEC says so.

Bush the multilateralist

I heard John Bruton on the radio this morning claim that, ever since his reelection President Bush has worked more closely with the EU than any of his predecessors had. I don't necessarily think this is a good thing and, maybe, it's somewhat self-serving – 'look what a good job I'm doing as EU Ambassador to the US' – but still it was pretty shocking to hear that on the radio. I had thought Bill Clinton was the great multilateralist.

The LA Times recommends that President Bush should visit the World Cup to boost his imgage in Europe. Somehow I doubt that will have a big effect.

Grateful the Dutch wear underpants

I can't get over this. One thousand Dutch fans were forced to remove their trousers before being allowed to enter the stadium for the Holland vs Ivory Coast match last week. FIFA didn't like the fact that their trousers had a logo from a Dutch beer company, Bavarian, and not the tournament's primary brewery sponsor, Budweiser. I wonder what FIFA would have done if all those fans had worn similar logo-bearing underwear?

A picture is worth . . .

This picture on the back page of the NY Post (& Daily News and I'm sure many others) is invaluable to US Soccer.

The post match analysis

I'll be interested to see what the papers have to say about the US soccer team's performance yesterday. Johnny Giles and Liam Brady were not happy with the way the Americans played. Too rough. Over on ITV, Sam Allardyce and Ally McCoist had nothing but praise for their 'courage' in playing Italy to a 1-1 tie.

I have always thought Johnny Giles was heads above anyone else in his on air analysis. I'm not going to now get all offended because Giles made some negative remarks about the manner the Americans went about their business last night. Same goes for Brady, except he unnecessarily veered off towards the political when Bill brought up some of the pre-match comments from a few of the US players.

Bill O'Herlihy brought up some of the comments about "playing for the troops in Iraq" (something that was said by the Italians about their troops first) and about the game being a "war" (in fact, it was that the tournament was like a war). Brady said that this was like the language used by the President, but in reality the language was like what you'd normally hear about a football game/season. Football American-style is often discussed in those sort of rah-rah military terms.

So, it's just another example of someone talking about something to do with the US that he really doesn't know/understand. Brady should stick to football (soccer).

Wrong again

I never imagine the US team would show such fight. Good for them. I thought they'd just meekly play out the rest of the games. And, when the Italians scored first I was sure the US team would cave.

That was the kind of performance that will keep them from being a laughing stock in the US. A humiliating wash-out from this tournament would have been a huge blow to the fortunes of soccer in America. The methods used last night mattered a lot less than the effort and, of course, the result. I still doubt they'll beat Ghana on Thursday, but I hope they at least go down swinging.

Turbulence

The Airbus A380 (you know, that absolutely huge plane) is not really taking off, if you can pardon the pun. It seems that production problems have delayed the roll-out, ticking off customers and, now, causing real financial worries for EADS, parent company of Airbus.

It looks like they can make it and it can fly, but will it be a profitable undertaking? Looks dubious right now.

(Found through View from 103)

Up close and personal

One thing I nearly forgot to mention was the camera work during last night's England vs Trinidad & Tobago game. Dwight Yorke got hit in the unmentionable area. We've all been there and can sympathize. So, I'm not sure we needed the close-up shots from the t.v. folks as Yorke reached in to check that everything was still there, intact and in the right place. I'd have been sheepish about doing that in a game of street hockey with no one but my friends around me, but Yorke was able to mentally dismiss an audience of hundreds of millions in order to do what he felt he had to do.

Charlie Haughey

The death of Charlie Haughey is certainly a huge news item here. I heard a little of the funeral Mass at lunchtime, but otherwise I feel completely detached from Haughey's death. I don't feel any need to pronounce him a great leader or a miserable fraud. The only part of the story that really captured my attention was Lara Marlowe's article in the Irish Times (sub. required) about the friendship between Haughey and François Mitterand.

Mr Mitterrand admired "the Irish people and their different causes, their personal struggle," Mr Dumas said. "This natural sympathy found expression in this man [ Haughey], who absolutely radiated conviction and goodness. Politics joined up with a purely human friendship."

He may have 'radiated' goodness, but whether he was 'good' or not seems to be the question of the hour.

Steve Pearlstein of the Washington Post credits Haughey as the father of the Celtic Tiger, which I suppose he was, and not just for the IFSC. He certainly made the first move to fixing Ireland's unemployment/debt mess.

Changing the Mass

I love tradition in my religion. So, I'm happy that the Vatican is encouraging bishops from English-language countries (Ireland is conspicuous by its absence in this article) to adopt a translation of the Mass that is more faithful to the original Latin, right? Well, maybe.

I don't mind that some of the prayers and blessings will sound odd when compared with the English we speak every day, but I didn't think the version we've had for as long as I can remember was all that bad. I guess I never gave it a thought before, but I'm probably somewhat attached to that which I already know. And, I don't like change.

VW Rocket Beetle

Who wouldn't want to drive this car? "It's a little windy inside but not unbearable". Actually, Jet Beetle is more accurate, but so what? He should have called it a Rocket Beetle.

I guess this guy knows what he's doing, unlike the poor Darwin Award winner who left behind only the "the vaporized remains of an automobile".

Great television

RTE's post-game analysis following the England vs Trinidad & Tobago match last night was one of the funniest half-hours of television I've seen in a long time. Their unscripted discussion of the play on the field and the post-game interviews given by David Beckham and Sven-Göran Eriksson was hilarious. I suspect it would have appealed to Scotland's First Minister, who has complained about the coverage on the BBC and ITV.

Talk about damaging the US image

The disarray in the US soccer team's camp seems almost complete. Now the players are fighting back against the coach, claiming that some of them didn't know what their roles were supposed to be in the game against the Czechs. All the talk of new formations, etc. is just cover for the panic. Humiliation awaits.

Global image of the US

The PEW Research Center has published its annual Global Attitudes Survey. The NY Times reports that the poll indicates that the global image of the US is worsening. That does seem to be the case based on the numbers the Times notes, but the picture is far more complicated. I'm not saying the Times is wrong, but there are a lot of aspects to this poll to take into consideration.

1. Samples: In Great Britain, France, Germany & Spain the Muslim population in each of those countries was 'oversampled'. Nearly half of those surveyed were Muslim despite the fact that the Muslim population as a percentage of the whole in each of those countries would be a single digit figure. PEW doesn't seem to have done this in 2005. PEW does claim that the data from these countries is "weighted to be representative of the general population". Well, maybe, but still it seems a strange thing to do.
   
   
2. 2005 results: Undoubtedly the trend since 2000 is down, but when the Times reports that "[a]s the war in Iraq continues for a fourth year, the global image of America has slipped further", you have to bear in mind that there had been a general rise in this rating in the 2005 poll. So, the Iraq war has continued, yes, but I doubt it's necessarily responsible for the fall in America's favorable ratings after the 2005 rise. Other than Katrina, I can think of no other event that could have caused the 2006 fall-off.
   
   
3. Many of the falls are actually within the margin of error, so there may be less to this story than meets the eye.

The most interesting numbers in this poll are those from Nigeria. The only thing the Muslims (92%) and Christians (95%) seem to agree on is that they're dissatisfied with the state of their country. They are seriously divided in their views on the US and the War on Terror (Christians favor both, Muslims oppose both).

Fighting 69th grandfather

When I was over in NY for the Irish American of the Year ceremonies I mentioned my Irish-born grandfather to Irish America magazine editor Patricia Harty. That conversation led to this short piece published in the lastest edition of Irish America. The picture that accompanies the article can be better seen here.