Kayaking Ballisodare Falls

 

Stop Panicking: stop panic buying, and stop stockpiling food!

Stop Panicking: stop panic buying, and stop stockpiling food!

To anyone who, before now, didn’t fully understand the concept of “the tragedy of the commons”, look around you to what is happening in Ireland during the spread of Covid-19, which the World Health Organisation has recently classified as a pandemic.


It sounds scary when something is classified with a word as powerful as “pandemic”. Add a tense movie-thriller-sounding qualifying word to pandemic, such as Covid-19, and there is plenty of reason to let your thoughts disappear down a movie script dystopian style rabbit hole of horror scenarios.

The irony of the situation is that the only horror that is likely to occur form panic-driven stockpiling of food and (bizarrely) toiletries will be to the old, sick and vulnerable in society, who are the ones that we must surely try our hardest to protect. They are after all the ones most likely to suffer most during the pandemic.

Storms, Surfers, and Peculiar Irish Nannyism: A national discourse of alarmist paternalism

By Nick Doran

"Discourse" (a word with many meanings) - for the purposes of this article I am taking it to be a general societal viewpoint or understanding, activated and maintained by, and through, language within a particular socio-historical context. It is viewed as social action and is instrumental in maintaining and creating power in social relations. Concepts, both experienced in reality and experienced through language and discourse, have been shown to activate the same areas of the brain pointing to the power of language and discourse in creating social and political realities and structures.

In South Korea most of the population cannot swim. This is a fact. So when on the beaches of South Korea, if you wander in past your waist, the lifeguards will charge you down, quite aggressively, to bring you back in from the brink of disaster. It doesn't matter what credentials or skill you display. From a societal perspective you need to be protected. Following from this, 55 million South Koreans must adhere to the lowest common denominator of water sports capabilities under the weight of society's collective cognitive predisposition towards paternalism. Regardless of whether one can swim or not, policy dictates that you must not. There has been little critical thought put into the attendant policies. Undoubtedly, South Korea's recent history, and psychological legacy resulting from massive human loss and suffering during the Korea War plays a role in this societal drive towards paternalism or guardianism. The culture of guardianism is driven by a developmental ideology rather than critical understanding. This ideological stance is so pertinent in South Korea that a friend, who sea kayaked around South Korea some years back, was followed by a Coastguard escort the entire way around the peninsula for 3 weeks.

Irish Times Letter to the Editor: Banning Cluster Bombs (2008)

Letter to the Editor: Irish Times 2008

Madam, - Dermot Ahern (March 6th) writes a prolix defence in reaction to Nuala Ahern's article of March 4th and Margaretta D'Arcy's letter of March 5th, both of which question the Government's actions regarding banning cluster bomb munitions.

Mr Ahern cites his contacts with Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, and with the National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission, "with a view to ensuring that no public funds are invested in any company involved in or associated with the production of cluster munitions".

After this woolly statement, the Minister goes on to say he is "proud that Ireland is leading efforts to combat cluster munitions and passionately hope that a convention will be agreed here in May".

The question remains, however: does Ireland have investment in companies which produce cluster bomb munitions? - Yours, etc,


NICK DORAN, Sandyford Road, Dundrum, Dublin 14.