Friday, August 8, 2014
Barry Clifford: The Businessman
On today’s Irish Independent, a story splashed across its
front pages that one would hope does not define what good journalism is
about. Written in a way more suited to The National Enquirer in
style and substance that a reasonably respected national newspaper that claims
to out sell the rest, it begs credibility.
Its banner headline read: Gang boss burns out garda
sergeant’s car while he plays football. It continued that Gardai launched a
major investigation after a car, a Toyota Corolla, belonging to a ‘popular
sergeant' was burnt- out in a grudge attack linked to gangland thugs. I suspect
it was more about the football game than anything else if one was to dismiss without
prejudice the ground breaking journalism that Ken Foy attempts here. Ken must
be in love with this anonymous Sergeant/ victim for he then describes him as a highly –respected officer. Not so for the anonymous/ fictitious/businessman/men/perpetrators.
The gang leader apparently is called ‘The businessman’
except perhaps when he is not doing business. He was easily irritated,
according to Ken, when detectives were putting their nose where they shouldn’t
into what that was, as in drugs of the illegal kind. You see the gang have
being doing it for years, burning cars that is, and it is their modus operandi if they do not like
you, and being innocent has nothing to do with it. They must not have heard
about third party, fire and theft insurance yet.
The businessman is also ‘suspected’ of murder, the theft of
29 firearms and that his crime domain stretches from the east to the south of
the country. How does the Gardai and Ken know all this? ‘A source’ whispered in
their ears, or his newspaper by mitigating circumstances should this story blow
up over the lot of them. The source also told them about that football game
that happens with mind numbing and boring regularity every Monday evening.
Aside from the burnt out car, only wounded pride was lost in
the match, but like any feisty team, the Gardai have considered this attack as
‘just not cricket’ and have declared it not as a criminal act but a
“declaration of war.” (Now there is no need to get personal) ‘Sources’ also say
that the Gardai, as team players of course, intend to clamp down heavier on the
anonymous gang/businessmen as well.
What I write here can be construed as an open letter to the
Businessman: I suspect that either the Gardai are all on the drugs you are
selling, or there is a fit-up on the way. Proceed with caution. The business
suit you are wearing today may
well be replaced by one with stripes tomorrow. In the meantime, watch out for
your own car at football matches, make sure it has fire and theft insurance,
and you are not in it when it goes up in flames. Second thoughts, get a
bicycle.
Barry Clifford
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Barry Clifford: Want To Stay Green And Clean?
The domestic and indeed the commercial kitchen does
more damage to the environment collectively than almost any other. What
trickles from the home and into our sewers on it’s way to the ocean is a
pollution tsunami on a daily basics, and almost all of it coming from toxic domestic
cleaning agents. But if one is serious about doing their bit in trying to help
within the confines of their home and surroundings, doing it differently is being
aware of the alternatives.
The bananas skin inside layer is good for cleaning leather, and Cola,
that contains acid, is great for cleaning toilets. Like any detergent, just let
it sit for about 60 minutes and it will do your dirty work.
Mayonnaise is great for removing marks off wood.
Leave it on the marks for a little while then remove with a clean cloth. Tomato
ketchup works very well on brass and silver, and like any cleaning agent, rub
it in and leave awhile then clean it off.
Brazil nuts is a good scratch remover by cutting it
in half and sanding over the affected area. Soon, it will smooth down and the
scratches will be gone.
Grapefruit a limescale remover: using the same method
of cutting it in half and then sprinkling it with salt. Scrub the affected area
and rinse with water and it will vanish.
For odour remover in the fridge: Place ground coffee
into a small plastic tub with holes in the lid. After a short while the odour will be gone.
A cautionary note: One time I was given an old penny
found on a building site in Dublin. The markings looked faded and I could not
even make out the date. So I got the penny and put it into a bowl that had a
mixture of coca cola and red sauce in it. I stirred it around in there for
about ten to fifteen minutes. When I took out the old penny it looked almost
new and I could clearly see the date: 1668. It also had the shape of a harp
with a crown on top stamped on it’s face, clearly symbolizing British rule over
Ireland.
Afterwards, I thought then and now, that if these two
popular items made for human consumption can do that to an old penny, what is
it doing to our internal organs over time. These two items for cleaning agents,
yes, but for internal consumption for me is a resounding NO.
Barry Clifford
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Barry Clifford: No Land Is Unfettered
In 2013, Dairygold, that butter making company we all
love, and whose turnover is over €780 million a year, was only fined €12,000
for ‘accidentally’ killing over 20,000 fish in the Kiltha River in east Cork. A
mere irritant as a fly on a hot day for them and so the poor precedent of penalties for severe
pollution goes on in this country.
Within the past two weeks in Ireland two instances of
severe lake pollution has happened and both by two red neck farmers that carry
low moral character and very high ignorance in equal amounts. Farmers, so they
often tell us, have a love of the land, they are in harmony with it, it is more
than a job, it is a vocation and all that load of bolox; I’m afraid that love
of ‘The Field’ does not extend to our countries lakes, rivers, inlets, and seas
by many other farmers.
In Limerick last week, 650 salmon and trout died in the River
Loobagh. The farmer who was the cause of this destruction dumped a lorry load
of slurry into it. One fisherman said that it was the worst fish kill by
deliberate pollution that he had seen in 37 years. There was a lot more to come around the
corner.
More than another 1000 fish that included trout,
sticklebacks and roach are among the dead in the Oona River in Co. Tyrone since yesterday, and
this was also caused by another thick farmer, otherwise called an “agricultural source”
by the environmental agency, and they have as much say as a fish and as much teeth in
the matter as a set of plastic dentures.
When and if these two ‘thickos’ are ever called to
the bar of justice, the most that they will face is 3 month’s in prison or the
fine of €25,000 (which is about 25 cows on a bad day) which stretches all the boundaries of optimism that they would actually face such a penalty. The reality is that these ‘thickos’ know the law is an ass and because of it they are encouraged to
pollute with impunity as concern or conscience has nothing to with their state
of mind. It is only when you hit their state of pocket with more severe
penalties going all the way up to confiscating their land, and without
compensation of it’s loss, will fear and doubt stalk their future attacks on
our rivers and of the land itself.
No land is unfettered and these ‘red necks’ are not
immune from the law and not even ‘the law of the land’ should be their defense
of ignorance. Take away their ‘fields’ and you take away the problem.
Barry Clifford
Photo Minute: Colman's Mustard in the 1800's
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Barry Clifford: PEBKAC
Dialling 999 is the phone call that no one would wish to make
and today it is more likely to be made by a mobile phone. The problem for many
it is the mobile phone that had caused the emergency in the first place, and
for others it has the power to
kill or save a life.
With features on our phone today that would have been the
envy of many a space station just a few decades ago, makes the trusty cellular
phone a must have with ever more demand for something even better, and just
when it seemed that it could not be any more sophisticated along comes a new
app or feature to boggle the mind. It has become an old friend, our book club,
an instant messenger, and an irritant if you do not want to be found but cannot
bring yourself to turn it off. And Facetime might not be a good idea if you are
having an affair or down in the pub when you had promised to bring your partner
out for that special dinner. Still it is something that we want to live and love
with that be without.
When the cellular phone came out first it was comical to see
people talking into a phone when there was no one else at the other end of it.
Others stared at it with a telepathic hopefulness that it would ring, and when
it did not they felt that they were unloved or less of a person or just plain
lonely. In Columbia people drove around in their cars or bicycles with their
mobile phones to their ears, except these devices were made of wood. It was not
a breakthrough technology just a clever veneer imitation of a mobile phone such
was the wish to look cool or rich.
Today mobile phones can be included as a freebie if you
order an extra portion of French fries or two large size pizza’s instead of
one, and often the reception is better with these than the sleek lined
expensive designer brands. The latter carry Facebook to make us feel loved with
hundreds if not thousands of friends online at any one time even though it
suspends reality that you would be lucky if you have just one. Caring is
sharing or so they buy into, and yet it drives teenagers on the cusp of living
to despair when acceptance seems the most important thing in life and anything
less can mean death by their own hand.
Texting has taken the well crafted words of the ages handed
down by learned scribes, artists, and writers to the level of the short
utterances of uneducated apes. The energy it takes to write ‘you’ replaced by
‘u’ underlining the hurry in going nowhere fast and the texting acronym for ‘Problem
exists between keyboard and chair’ is PEBKAC makes the English language beloved
by Shakespeare and his fan club all but dead. Where will it all end?
Barry Clifford
Monday, August 4, 2014
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Moments
“Nothing is permanently perfect.
But there are perfect moments and the will to choose what will bring about more
perfect moments.”
Mary Balogh
“There are moments in life when it
is all turned inside out--what is real becomes unreal, what is unreal becomes
tangible, and all your levelheaded efforts to keep a tight ontological control
are rendered silly and indulgent.”
Aleksander Hemon
“It's only natural to feel lonely
after the enjoyable moments pass. But as you experience new joys those feelings
of sorrow will start to fade.”
Mizu Sahara
“I think humans are only capable of
small moments of honesty. Then they get tired and back away. It's something to
foster, this ability to keep it for longer. How to keep being honest and
aware.”
Laura Pritchett
Use this day to do something
daring, extraordinary and unlike yourself. Take a chance and shape a different
pattern in your personal cloud of probability!”
Vera Nazarian
“Not having money to spend doesn’t
mean we can’t have well-spent moments every day.”
Sarah Ban Breathnach
“Every moment is the paradox of now
or never.”
Simon Van Booy
“We must try to remember
everything, every movement, every stretch, every convulsion that made us how we
move as we readily grow in our outer body that encompasses the planets, the
suns and the moons in every other body that we touch, in every other mouth that
we kissed, in every other language that we try to comprehend; for they are not
the outside of a stranger, nor are they just images of our psyche, but the very
being of ourselves, the dimensional levels of our very existence weaving
colours in the tapestry of creation, yet the very non-existence of the template
is proof of consciousness, of ascension, of Life.”
Aaina Ridz
“I think that dying is the easy
part of life; for in waking each day and living in every moment, therein lies
the challenge”
Jeremy Aldana
“There are times...when we are in
the midst of life-moments of confrontation with birth or death, or moments of
beauty when nature or love is fully revealed, or moments of terrible
loneliness-times when a holy and awesome awareness comes upon us. It may come
as deep inner stillness or as a rush of overflowing emotion. It may seem to
come from beyond us, without any provocation, or from within us, evoked by
music or by a sleeping child. If we open our hearts at such moments, creation
reveals itself to us in all it's unity and fullness. And when we return from
such a moment of awareness, our hearts long to find some way to capture it in
words forever, so that we can remain faithful to it's higher truth.
...When my people search for a name
to give to the truth we feel at those moments, we call it God, and when we
capture that understanding in timeless poetry, we call it praying.”
Mary Doria Russell
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