Worth a Thousand Words

The History of Emotion

I’ve just put up a post on Cedar Lounge Revolution discussing some thoughts by Eric Hobsbawm on writing the history of emotion should anyone be interested.

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

New post at Cedar Lounge Revolution

I have just put up a post discussing an article by Toiréasa Ferrris on the problems faced by her party in the south should anyone be interested.

More At Cedar Lounge

Just a quick link to a post I’ve put up on Cedar Lounge with some personal thoughts on the attempt to extradite Seán Garland.

Massive Social Problem in Ballymena Area

No, it’s not heroin. Nor indeed fundamentalist Protestantism. Both of which are massive social problems in the Ballymena area. Instead, it is an unholy alliance of Catholic and state grammar schools setting their own transfer test. And what has the Incompetent for Education got to say about it?

Ms Ruane said in a statement: “I am still working to achieve agreement which could allow schools to apply to use the department’s test during a three-year transition period.”

Well that’s just dandy then. I’m so pleased to see that as per usual, she – and her party – have done precisely nothing to address this situation beyond empty rhetoric. But not surprised in the slightest. So once again, the children of Ballymena get the short end of the stick. I’m glad I’m from Belfast.

US ELECTION RESULT

Tweedledum beats Tweedledee. Or was it the other way round?

Cuba an Oil Giant?

The Guardian is reporting that Cuba has discovered oil reserves potentially as large as those of the United States. If this is confirmed, then the situation in Cuba could be transformed, with the country becoming not only self-sufficient in oil, but an exporting country. However, the oil is difficult to extract, and the US blockcade prevents access to the most up-to-date equipment to extract it. Nevertheless, this is excellent news, and potentially the key to raising the living standards of the entire Cuban people, as well as adding extra strength to the bloc of Latin American progressive governments. It is possible that the oil might cause the US to soften its attitude to Cuba, or step up its efforts against socialism there, with the type of shenanigans familiar to us from Cuban history, and recent developments in Venezuela.

I heard the Cuban Ambassador to Ireland Noel Carillo talk about the devestating effects of the recent hurricanes on Cuba, and of the rebuilding efforts that are taking place there. Let’s hope that the oil reserves provide the resources to transform the country.

Beginnings

So, after a long time commenting on other sites like www.sluggerotoole.com and http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com I’ve decided to start my own blog. I’ll talk about things of interest to me, like (mostly Irish) politics, history and culture. As will be obvious from the absence of proper hyperlinks, this won’t be the most technically sophisticated blog in the world either. Nor is it likely to be updated that often. Or be read by very many people, or anyone at all. Oh well.