Ireland 5th in Globalised Nation Ranking

It seems the nations small size has compelled us to reach beyond our borders and enter into commerce with our neighbours and beyond to such an extent that we are ranked 5th in Foreign Policys annual ranking of the most globalised nations in the world. Economic integration and personal connectivity (the term used to capture our willingness to travel and communicate) are our strong points, with technological innovation and political engagement lagging behind. Though seemingly our new membership of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, whatever that talking shop may be, has boosted our political engagement standing. With Singapore taking the No. 1 spot, smaller nations and our need to rely on more than domestic markets, means the US and Canada are the only large countries in the Top 10. Pore over the detail and breakdown here.

Returning TV

It is usually closer to Christmas before we get a sense of the new TV shows that will have established themselves as must see TV in the US and receive the most hype when they reach our shores. Big names continue to head for the small screen, of note is 'Damages' which RTE1 is alreadys howing on Saturday nights, starring Glenn Close. While we wait I have been watching new episodes of 'Heroes' and 'Dexter' both of which I've plugged here before and both of which I'm glad to say have upped their quality for their second years. 'Heroes' has dived head first into the series arc and every episode has the production value of a summer blockbuster. So too 'Dexter' is excelling in developing its story, making a hero of sorts of a serial killer. Advertisment free, successive episodes is slowly becoming the only way my family can watch TV. My parents and sibling will gladly sit and watch episodes of 'Prison Break' uninterupted, something of an achievement with a movie of ober 2 hours normally being a big ask of them. High concept TV is big business since the success of 'Lost' and everyone from Flash Gordon to the Bionic Woman are being rehashed this year as well as novel premises centreing on death ('Reaper'), secret government agencies ('Chuck') and as ever dysfunctional families ('The Riches', 'Dirty Sexy Money').

Fake FEMA News Conference

FEMA, the US emergency management body, certainly don't like to make life easy for themselves. Reviled for the poor co-ordination of the response to Hurricane Katrina it emerged last week that they held a 'fake' news conference, detailing their management of the Californina fires. Giving only 15 minutes notice to genuine news broadcasters, they instead filled the room with their own employees posing as reporters, who asked conveniently straightforward questions. Read more of the craziness of this situation here. They should have gotten advice from the guys who faked the moon landing.

Redesign

Yednnek has done an impressive redesign of his blog. Check it out here.

Great Line

There is a great quote from Oscar Wilde mentioned in the letters in todays Irish Times. I saw and really enjoyed 'Stardust' last night and it just has put me in an aspirational, imagination fueled mood today. The quote fits that mood perfectly:

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

Moral Absolutes

The trouble with absolutes is they can never be agreed upon. You can take all the moral stances you like on anything from abortion to slavery and there are advocates for each side, unwilling to concede to a judgement on human actions. Reconciling the inconsistencies presented to us when we look at the big picture is a battle. Free will and choice scrap it out with fate and natural order and no matter how much time we give to these issues, this conflict ultimately goes on inside your head with life having no intention of waiting for you to choose its design. There are contexts to filter through, and we live in an age over flowing with information where the word ’fact’ has been reduced to a misnomer. We are confronted with a battle of civilisations, one of frighteningly polarised views and stark consequences, where what seems the nadir of human behaviour is justified in the mind of others as serving a greater cause. Any sanctity you can find in the idea of moral absolutes is lost the greater the number you try to group within a belief system, whether it be an a la carte Catholic neither following nor obliging the guidance set out by the Church, a young woman being primed to look an unsuspecting suicide bomber or a pan European governing body. So much disarray can offer little hope for a single guiding compass. I still can’t be a cynic in the midst of all this and choose to believe in a proportion and ideally a majority having a primordial trigger that helps us choose well and lead well. All we have is what we do. The unique eye of each beholder and the world around us leaves us construct very few absolutes, yet we can still proceed with a resolve to arm ourselves with informed views and act accordingly.

The Dossing Times DVD of the Month

DVD for October: 'Hidden' ('Cache' - French with subtitles)

There is a strange muted-ness to the performances in ‘Hidden’. The whole film seems an exercise in observation rather than one engrossing us in the world of the film. Cary Grant and Eva Saint Marie scaling Mount Rushmore in ‘North by North-West’ came to mind - even as they are hanging precariously to their lives, they manage somehow to maintain their poise. Just as Hitchcock’s eye for style means we don’t necessarily grow an attachment to the enigmatic everymen and ice cool blondes in his movies, the detachment from the characters here as played by Daniel Auteil and Juliette Binoche so too is a creation of a distinctive delivery. The view of their world seems that sent to us by a camcorder positioned on a stand, with characters walking off screen and overall minimal movement, so that you can‘t help but feel like the peeping tom of the movie they are threatened by. The distinction between when we are watching video tape and when we are following events of the film is blurred throughout and neither is there any score, a masterful touch, which adds to this idea of watching a recording. Some mention is due of course to the characters, with Auteil and Binocche, both French acting royalty, playing intellectuals, living comfortably in a monotone apartment shared with their son. They already seem emotionally muted before the events of the film cause further strain in their lives, again adding to the sense we are watching rather than empathising.

The absence of the score is a touch that intrigues me. I have come across this omission of a score only twice before (from what I can remember) - in an episode of ‘Buffy: The Vampire Slayer’, dealing with the sudden death of her mother and also in the original version of ‘The Stepford Wives’. The omission in both was to add a strange sombreness and unease to the images on screen and worked very well, and I feel it added immeasurably to ’Hidden’. As well as complimenting the shooting style, you are left unsure as how to feel, there is a greater sense of nerve at all points, you can only pick out recurring themes or make an impression of a character based on their words and actions not based on a score added in the editing room to create dramatic effect. The heart of the film still beats, finding a rhythm in the story.

Said story dapples briefly in politics - the supposed motives for the stalkers actions stemming from the killing of Algerian protesters in Paris in 1961, and indeed the director interviewed in the extras this is the type of film that could be set in any country, as our histories each have skeletons shadowing them. The film is just as successful watched purely as a thriller, as a web of lies and a sorry past come to bear consequences. I don’t doubt this film will divide opinions and in fact I chose to review it because I heard such polarised views. I am more than impressed with the finished product. I don’t want to be spoon fed stories and answers, I want to see innovation on screen. For many the chance to appreciate a film fully is curtailed so much more than the time we can give to a piece of music or a piece of writing. Pressing repeat is another 2 hour commitment. ‘Hidden’ for its two hours challenges and delivers, with singular scenes littering hints of deeper mystery and letting the audience be the judge of events. I will be re-watching this movie.

I'm Not There

If you haven't heard of this movie its a Bob Dylan biopic, with the musician being portrayd by 7 different actors. The trailer lists the cast, a mighty eye catching one. This film will be an oddity and garner some sort of cult following if nothing else.

Top 6 Friday: Great Reads

1. Hound of the Baskervilles

I picked up this book, part of a set of 5 I was given as a present, without even knowing it was a Sherlock Holmes story. If ever I was unable to put down a book it was this. Never a moment set aside to see what proportion of the bulk of pages I had made my way through or sense of reading a book I wanted to get to the end of (a bad habit I have developed recently). The story, the pace, the wit and logic of Holmes inspiring me. There is so much to be said for rooting out the source material for the characters that have survived the ages – Dracula, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde or even Bond and meeting them as originally intended. Holmes is a classic example of a character, who's name entered the vernacular, is readily recognised by attire we all associate him with but the fact is this is very far removed from the man on the page. Not unknown to dabbling in drugs, evading the rigours of the law and thining himself incapable of love, Holmes was the original and best at pulling a rabbit out of a hat to reveal to the comfused faces all around who had dunnit'.

2. To Kill a Mockingbird

The death of Tom Robinson, disrupted every convention I knew as to how a story should progress. Writers aim to shock with twists, there is an inevitability to them with so many of the stories told today. The build up to Robinsons trial, Atticus Finch ably defending him as the black people of the town watch segregated from the public gallery overhead and the unjust verdict were harpooned with the sudden news of Robinsons botched escape and killing. Boo Radley's reveal paled into significance to this. I still remember where I was sitting the day I read the line.I know it is an injustice to the book to highlight this moment, out of the countless rich characters and perfect descriptions throughout but this stays with me.

3. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

There are those small little moments of realisation that can destroy you. They can come from nowhere, a passing remark, an awakening to a situation you never realised, a reality check on yourself or someone you know. Stephen Dedalus has one of these. A great feeling of vindication he felt on having a dean confront a bully of his, while in secondary school in Clongowes Wood, something great time is given to in the book to enshrine its importance in his mind, is taken away in an instant. The dean in conversation with his father tells him he essentially laughed at the boy behind his back underining in such a subtle moment of devastation a truly important moment to him. So much achieved with such insightful writing.

4. Hamlet

The leaving cert play, it can never be appreciated for what it is. At that formative age when learning by rote was my chief concern, the moment where Hamlet meets the Norweigan Prince Fortinbras, whose undoubting resolve to head to war over a barren piece of land is the example I bring to bear when I want to get perspective on things. For Hamlet this adds to his questioning of his inaction over his fathers death, when this king is willing to fight and give up lives for a piece of worthless land. Hamlets comparison of himself to the neighbouring prince leads to him finally taking action. It is an important, smart tangent, often left out of adaptations (mistakenly I think) triggering the events of the final drama.

5. The Road

This book I finished just last night and was the reason I wrote this list. It is simply written but has imagery and poetry laden in every line. There is a lyrical essence to the book, a quiet tragic story with more meaning and impact than the most densely written tomes. One moment where the father and son of the story are sitting in dense blackness, has the father about to lose his temper waiting for the sons agreement only to realise that the boy has been nodding, unknown to him in the pitch dark. There are so many great touches like this and paragraphs of beautiful description you feel a life's worth of writing couldn't produce but have here.

6. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

I went through an Agatha Christie phase and John Grisham phase in quick succession. Neither are fine art, but Christies work I appreciate more, if for nothing else than her great ideas. People in her world come up with the most elaborate and precisely timed and consructed crimes, motivated more often than not by money they go to great extents, consructing new identities involving years of plotting. The final pages see some impecabbly dressed yet highly dysfunctional people gathered in a drawing room as we wait for the pieces to come together and read the logic appear on page. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is still the subject of discussion, for how it treats the reader and the type of information it provides. An unprecedented plot twist sees the storys narrator and Hercule Poirots assistant revealed as the murderer. Immediately you feel cheated, the murderer has been telling the story. Christie explained afterwards that everything the narrator had told us was true, he had however failed to include some vital information!The truth of course is that there are plenty of clues for those who chose to see them, which I did, on the second reading however.

Dempsey to answer Aer Lingus questions at 4.15

Noel Dempsey, clearly has had coaching from Michael Martin on how to push blame onto nameless civil servants, in an attempt to explain how on his second day in the transport portfolio he was not informed of the news of the Aer Lingus decision to stop flights to London from Shannon. Hopefully someone will raise that minor detail of 'ministerial responsibility' at an extended question time in the Dail at 4.15 today (Thursday). Read more here.

16.45 - RTE report on calls for Dempseys resignation.

2004 Citizenship Referendum

Speaking at a conference on race and immigration hosted by the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, Mary Robinson spoke aptly about concerns she holds over the 2004 Citizenship Referendum. Feeling it was rushed into without due consideration, she also expressed concerns about our overall attitude to the issue of immigration, highlighting the issue of schooling and the EU Commissions reporting on our failure to tackle issues of racial intolerance. The impetus behind this referendum was narrow minded. I felt it had a very questionable motive of tapping into unsettling biases in the Irish population that need to be addressed.

This referendum as far as I am concerned fed on and encouraged these biases. The motive for the referendum stemmed from inconclusive evidence and the idea that our maternity hospitals were overloaded with pregnant asylum seekers. We didn’t know then and we don’t know the level of immigration into Ireland, and however much the number inflates, and impacts on the make up of Irish society that our first reaction is to seek to deny human rights to these individuals is a poor testament to the decision making of policy makers and the public opinion they feel they want to satisfy.

My understanding is that a significant number of children born in this country, no longer entitled to be termed citizens, could be denied the rights accorded to citizens by the Constitution. How is this not discrimination? Where have the legislative provisions been made to protect the vulnerable people living on the island? Our Constitution was disrespected, used as nothing more than a crowd pleasing tool, an add on to a troubled second go at Nice, set to please those who vote, not those who struggle.

Funding local government.

Michael Taft has been doing a series on how to raise taxes. One of the points he makes is that the tax take for local government is too low. To me the problem is local government.

Local government should be great it should be local people fixing issues on the ground with local know how, but it is not . For the simple reason that Ireland is Ireland. No on has any qualms about approaching a local cllr to ride rough shot over the local development. Can’t get your house built here, no prob have a word with the local rep. Now it might offer a model of politicians working for their constituenents which maybe a good thing, but it does go against any attempts for detailed planning. Also looking at the tribunels a lot of the issues come from the local councillors. In a small country where everyone is willing to do a mate a good turn. Local government just gets fecked.

But if we are going to have it, do we tax at a local level. I live in the UK and as such have to pay council tax. Council tax is paid based on the perceived value of your home, which is dictated by where you live. Thing is people’s income is not broken down by where they live, With the boom in construction many places many people now live in homes of great value which they could not buy if they had to buy them on their present incomes. So by treating area’s as uniform earnings area’s you are penalising many people for not selling up.

Tax should be progressive, the more you earn the more you should pay. This is one of the reasons I dislike VAT and carbon tax. They hit the poor the hardest in an ideal world all tax would be raised based on earnings. But we do not live in a ideal world. If we dropped VAT totally then how many retailers would reduce their prices to un VAT levels?

But if we do care about progressive tax, then we need not to introduce a council tax. Most forms of council tax be they local VAT rates or flat fees evolve regressive taxation Not something we should be pursuing. And if the solution is a local income tax. Why not just take it from income tax anyway.

EU Commission Legal Challenge to Tara Action

Today sees the beginning of a legal challenge to be taken by the Commission, which unfortunately will not halt construction at Tara, but seeks to highlight the poor legislative protections and haphazard approach we take to planning construction near archaeological sites. As well as the issues of Tara the challenge will look more broadly at Irish failures to ensure interactions such as those between pollution-control measures and the landscape will be adequately assessed and taken into account when making planning decisions. Read here a letter to the Indo, from a person likely to be disappointed at the benign nature of the challenge. Ultimately it is just one of 37 infringement challenges Ireland faces over environmental breaches. We are an embarassment.

Examine Campaign Contributions

I don't know how they got their hands on this information, or whether it is simply a smart tool which compiles information which is readily available in the States, but the Huffington Post have a search function which allows you view the contributions made by individuals to respective parties and individuals in the lead up to the Presidential primaries. You can search under 'name' terms or 'zipcode' which allows us snoop into how much celebrities contribute and Americans can see who in their neighbourhood is a party supporter. Search here.

Campaign For proper Soup

How often have you gone to a restaurant for lunch and looked forward to a nice hearty bowl of soup, a bowl of vegetable or Chicken, Mushroom or Leak and potato just to be disappointed when the menu board reads Carrot and Cumin, Chilli and Sweet corn, Stilton and pepper. "Soups" which are just not proper soup. We here want to return soups to the masses.

We need Proper Soup. Join the Facebook group here if you think restaurants should server more real soups.

Halloween Movies

Feast your eyes over the programme for the Halloween weekend at the Irish Film Institute. Those guys can do no wrong in my books - four days straight of horror movies, new releases and classics.

Private Security role to to grow

Blackwater, the company under investigation for shootings of civilians in Iraq are lobbying to expand their role in other volatile area of conflict around the world. There is something deeply unsettling about private security forces. They just smack of black ops and a lack of accountability. Read more here.

Alabama 3 gig

A great night was had Thursday night at the Tripod, with Alabama 3 providing a great show, with equally good, if short-lived support from The Republic of Loose. The night belonged to distinctive voices, with the lead singers of both bands lending immeasurably to the unique sounds of their bands with their range. We went knowing little of Alabama 3 and my standard response to ‘who are they?’ was ‘the guys who sing the Sopranos’ song’. Other than this, and I was in the company of people who know their music, we were largely unaware of even their overall style of music, let alone any other tracks.

Well it was positive responses all round, a trio of lead singers - one with the deep trench of a voice we associate with the Sopranos’ ‘Woke up this Morning’, a nymph of a woman who could drown out the a gospel choir and a guy who seemed to deliver a rap chant type performance reminding me of Vincent Price, performed every song with adrenaline rising enthusiasm. The most dominant influence on their music is country and blues. At times there were riffs and indeed whole songs that could have tipped the balance in favour of Cotton Eye Joe hokey poke, at others there were songs laden with blues. At one point there even seemed to be line dancing going on but all the time the rocky edges to the music and energy earned them a respected niche of their own.

There were some angry themes running through their music, but not for a moment did the energy of their music lull and the Tripod, a nicely intimate yet accommodating venue, carried the sound well, every bit of me vibrating for a track ‘Soldier’ which was the tune of the night. And in a summer where I’ve seen some big names these guys outright did the best encore. So too, the Republic of Loose, delivered a great show but playing for only half an hour I was left feeling short changed. Especially as I had not even realised they were the support until late in the day, nevertheless it was an unexpected surprise as a great fan of their music. The unnecessarily long break between the acts only dissipated the good vibes of the Kilkenny bands performances. Don't let there be any doubt it was a great night all around. I posted Dave Matthews Band clips earlier in the year but the reality is that Youtube can't do justice to such great live music, instead I've linked the official websites below.

Cheers to the bouncer who sold my spare ticket for me. Links: Official Albama 4 website Official Republic of Loose website

Top 6 Friday: Biopics that should be.

6.Bill Hicks simply the greatest.

5.George Orwell. One of the greatest writers of all time.Geoffrey Rush could do him justice

4.Margaret Thatcher. Changed the course of British politics the Iron lady. Could see Helen Mirrian playing this role.

3. The rolling Stones. Need I say any more. Who to play them. I think Clive Owen could play Jagger he has the swagger. Colin Farrell has the hell rasing reputation could pull it off. Kieran Culken could play Brian Jones. I really like igby goes down.

2. Martin Luther King Jr. I am surprised that a movie has never to been made to my knowledge about this man. Certainly one of the most if not most important American of the 20th century. But who to play him? Personally it would have be an unknown. Otherwise it is someone else movie.

1. Meat loaf the movie. The part of Meat Loaf can only be played by one man. Jack Black.Watch the video and you will see.

Cat Stevens

For some reason Cat Stevens music has been popping up a lot lately in my movie watching. Most recently his song, Don't Be Shy, a song calling on its listeners to make changes, aptly closed out Michael Moore's 'Sicko'. His song Tea for the Tillerman, which I first heard in a magic scene from 'The Science of Sleep' but is certainly most associated with 'Extras'. I was pleasantly surprised then to discover it as one of the songs he provided on the soundtrack for 'Harold and Maude' which I reviewed a while back. Then I was plagued for a number of trips to the movies by the trailer for 'Year of the Dog' which appropriately showed clips to the sound of I Love my Dog. I've chosen 3 Youtube clips of Steven's music. Firstly Tea for Tillerman is a gem. I Love My Dog looses out to The First Cut is the Deepest becuase I prefer it, and I couldn't find Don't be Shy so instead we have Peace Train performed on 'Later with Jools Holland', the most recent clip so of course here he goes by Yusuf Islam.