Stubbornness is a valuable attribute to possess. Success in any field is almost impossible without a willingness to persevere through difficult times. Our progress as a species from hunter-gatherers to astronauts would not have been possible if we gave up at the first sign of difficulty. But stubbornness is far from completely positive. It may very often be necessary, but it can also be destructive. Too much stubbornness leads to bitterness and hatred. Martin Luther King encpsulated this ...
There's no other way to describe the turnout in last week's election to the European parliament. In Ireland 58% voted in the South and 51% in the North. Ordinarily, I'd describe these per centages as pathetic but, in light of the figures from some other parts pf the continent, Ireland looks like a star student. Perhaps most shocking of all was the fact that the turnout in the new accession states of the east was actually worse than that in the veteran western states. In Poland, only a fift...
A few weeks ago I was ambling towards the bus stop when the number 2002 came roaring down the road. Breaking into a sprint I made it on just in time. As the bus pulled away I took a note from my pocket and put it in the box. And then I groaned. I had accidentally paid 10 000 won (about five pounds) for a bus journey which costs just 1 000 won (about 50 pence). As I watched the note disappear there was little I could do. Most bus passengers put in the correct change. The machine does give ...
It will soon be the tenth anniversary of the first paramilitary ceasefires in Northern Ireland (NI). A whole decade of (relative) peace in our wee Ulster - who would have thought it, eh? Of course, many things have changed in the past ten years. Back in 1994, I had a pseudo-Afro, now I'm receding. Recently I got to thinking about the music of the last ten years, the songs which for me encapsulate this period of history. So here it is, my soundtrack to the peace process: Days Like This...
As someone who thinks of himself as left of centre, I naturally hope that this week's European elections see a large number of members returned to Strasbourg under the umbrella of the Party of European Socialists (PES). I certainly hope that one of these new MEPs has a Belfast accent. But strangely, I also hope that as few as possible of the PES' MEPs are members of the British Labour Party. It is sad but true that a meltdown in suport for the Labour Party in this week's poll could actually b...
Not all Americans are grieving this week at the news of the death of their 40th president. For those to the left of the Democratic mainstream, the passing of the Gipper is no reason for sorrow. Indeed some of the people who have written about Reagan this week should quite frankly have waited until the man was buried before having their say. In spite of this, it's fair to say that, as a whole, America feels a sense of loss at the moment. This feeling envelops those who voted for Reagan and...
The great Irish philosopher Edmund Burke, as well as being a writer of some renown, was also a Member of Parliament (MP) in the British House of Commons. Such was the tedious nature of his speeches that his fellow MPs took to calling him "Tea-Bell Burke". When the great man rose to speak, many others in the chamber took this as their cue to retire to the tea-room. It's ironic that a man who in life was known to those around him as someone who would never use one word when ten would do, sho...
There's a scene in Sean O'Casey's "Juno and the Paycock" when the "hero" of the piece, Joxer Daly, turns his attention to those republicans who died fighting for Ireland to be free. He is unsymapthetic" "There's no use them wailing when they meet a soldier's fate" he concludes. Reading this ten years ago, I was struck by how true the sentiment sounded in spite of its harshness. Daly was talking about those who died during the War of Independence over eighty years ago but his words seem eq...
In the corner shop the other week I got chatting to the owner. After a while, I remarked that his English was very good. With typical Korean modesty, he refused the complimnet with the explanation: "I worked as an engineer in Saudi Arabia, working with westerners. But that was twenty years ago and I've forgotten a lot." Like most of what he said, this was grammatically perfect. I thought of the shopkeeper on Sunday when news broke of the attack on a compound for foreign workers in the Saud...
The century which ended a few years ago is often refered to as "the American century". For those who speak of the twentieth century in this way, the great narrative of that time was the emergence of the US from being a minor player in 1900 to a position of unquestioned supremacy over the world by the 1990s; standing head and shoulders above Germany, France, Russia and Britain, in whose shadows it once dwelt. This is true but still, if a film were to be made of the past century which could...
It's ten years since the emrgence onto Northern Ireland's (NI) political scene of the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) and the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP). These two groups, known collectively as "fringe loyalists" gave political representation to the two main unionist paramilitary groups; the UDA and the UVF. Their emergence onto the scene was welcomed by the media and political elite as a positive development, "a breath of fesh air" into the tired old world of unionism. They were very...
I've spent my life living on two islands, Ireland and Taiwan. The idea of getting in a car and driving to another country is, pardon the pun, foreign to me. I regard international travel as having to involve either a boat or a plane. It means crossing a sea which defines my home. Currently I'm living on the Eurasian landmass but I still feel like I'm on an island. As a friend pointed out to me, South Korea is the only continental country in the world out of which it is impossible to drive...
The creative juices haven't been flowing in the past week. It happens to us all I think, sometimes you just can't come up with something to write about. Anyway, I can't let the blog lie idle (especially as I'm perched right on the edge of the top forty, about to fall onto page three of the list of top users). I was thinking of writing something about the Israeli invasion of Rafah but then I read this piece by Uri Avnery Link and I relised that anything I wrote would just be a pale imit...
One thing that really grates with me is when people refer to Northern Ireland (NI) as "Ulster". I don't want to be a pedant, but it's important to note that NI is a state of six counties while Ulster is a province of nine. Sometimes I think that unionists conflate the two terms in an attempt to bestow an historical legitimacy on NI which it doesn't posess. It's important to keep in mind that partition entailed not just the division of Ireland but also the division of Ulster. Cavan, Monagha...
Ten years ago, Northern Ireland (NI) and Israel/Palestine, with their nascent peace processes, were held up together as shining examples of ethnic conflicts which were about to be resolved for good. This was the post Cold War "New World Order" in action, peace and prosperity for all, even those whose antipathy stretched back generations. A decade on, it's not hard to see which pecae process has largely succeeded and which has failed abjectly. The situation in NI today is calm, in spite of ...