Sunday 26 December 2010

Wisdom of the world - Week 132



Porcupines And The Coldest Winter Ever

It was the coldest winter ever, and many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realising the situation, decided to group together. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions even though they shared their heat with each other.
After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other to stop being wounded.
As they did this, they began to die... alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. This way they learned to live with the little wounds that were caused by the close relationship with their companion, but the most important part of it, was the heat that came from the others that enabled them to survive the coldest winter ever.

Saturday 18 December 2010

Wisdom of the world - Week 131

To the point

A century ago, a young student at Oxford University in England was taking an important exam in religious studies. The examination question for this day was to write about the religious and spiritual meaning in the miracle of Christ turning water into wine. For two hours he sat in the crowded classroom while the other students filled their pages with long essays, to show their understanding. The exam time was almost over and this one student had not written a single word. The proctor came over to him and insisted that he commit something to paper before turning it in. The young Lord Byron simply picked up his hand and penned the following line. “The water met his master, and blushed.”

Saturday 11 December 2010

Wisdom of the world - Week 130

The rabbi

One day a rabbi, in a frenzy of religious passion, rushed in before the ark, fell to his knees, and started beating his breast, crying “I’m nobody! I’m nobody!”
The cantor of the synagogue, impressed by his example of spiritual humility, joined the rabbi on his knees “I’m nobody! I’m nobody!”
The “shamus” (custodian), watching from the corner, couldn’t restrain himself either. He joined the other two on his knees calling out, “I’m nobody! I’m nobody!”
At which point the rabbi, nudging the cantor with his elbow, pointed to the custodian and said, “Look who thinks he’s nobody!”

Wisdom of the world - Week 129

Prayer and Devotion

This is the story a wise man tells of a conversation with his father in his youth: When I was a child I was a pious boy, fervent in prayer and devotion. One night I was keeping vigil with my father, the Holy Koran was on my lap.
Everyone else in the room began to slumber and soon was sound asleep, so I said to my father, “None of these sleepers opens his eyes or raises his head to say his prayers. You would think that they were all dead.
My father replied, “My beloved son, I would rather you too were asleep like them than slandering.”
Sufi

Tuesday 7 December 2010

GIY Inishowen Launch

 
Event Date/Time: 14.12.2010 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Host: Donal Doherty
Location: Harrys Restaurant Bridgend

Interested in growing your own food, but don't know how to get started or need a little bit extra help? A great solution is coming to Inishowen with GIY (Grow it Yourself) Ireland, a new not-for-profit initiative that is literally sweeping the nation.

Michael Kelly is the man behind the network that now has 80 groups around Ireland and helps almost 6,000 people grow their own food. The aim is to provide people locally with the practical skills they need to grow successfully.

GIY Inishowen will launch at Harry's Restaurant, Bridgend starting this Tuesday 14th December at 7pm. Regular meetings will take place to talk, learn from each other and exchange tips, produce and war stories. Regular expertise will be in the form of some of Harry's local experienced growers, Whiteoaks Organic Community Centre & An Grianan Organics.

"This is a perfect opportunity for people to get involved on a community basis & learn more about making the most of the space around the house & growing your own vegetables. It's great to see so many more polytunnels & enthusiasts around Inishowen, but there are so many more that would like to get started or share experiences & learn more. It is totally free to attend and it will be as practical and light hearted as possible. There will always be free tea/coffee & nibbles served at each meeting.

The timing is perfect as Harry's are just developing our own greenhouse & growing plans for 2011, so people are welcome to join while we learn too! It's great that Michael is travelling up for the launch, his expertise is second to none" says Donal Doherty, Manager, Harry's.

"I'm delighted to be coming to Inishowen and see the network of GIY expand into Donegal for the first time" says Michael Kelly, Founder GIY. "This is a great opportunity for people to become involved with talks, access seeds & seedlings, attend garden visits & meet more experienced growers in a relaxed environment. That produce from local growers are already used by Harry's makes a perfect fit and Harry's is very accessible from all over Donegal & Derry for anyone interested in coming along. I look forward to meeting everyone on Tuesday and sharing plenty of growing tips."

Thursday 2 December 2010

Privitising Coillte?

This is fascinating and I would like to forward it to some friends in the forestry sector. But who has put it together? I think that it should have an author/originator/contact at the bottom of the piece. I know that it has been forwarded by IOG – whose name should also appear on email too. Generally I don’t forward anonymous authored material.

Regards


Stan McWilliams


Report by fisnua

Bertie Ahern in corporate takeover of Ireland’s Woodlands
Reclaim our natural Resources
Time for a new Land League


This is a short briefing to the ongoing privatisation of Coillte. It needs to be considered along with the takeover of our other resources, including but not limited to oil and gas, water, minerals, fish, seeds and various utilities. I have done as much research into it as I am able for the next few days. I hope others will be able to take up the baton and go deeper with a view to developing strategies to counter this.


Please pass this on in your networks.


The situation
According to information received from the Woodland League, from a trawl of Politics.ie as well as from private conversations over the last few weeks, a company by the name of International Forestry Fund 2010, in a joint venture with Helvetia Wealth AG of Switzerland and IFS asset managers Ltd have put in a bid to purchase Coillte the Irish forestry body that currently holds a land area in this country approaching 1.5million acres.



For further research and sources
http://www.woodlandleague.org/ - restoring the relationship between people and their native woodlands.

Big respect to them for all the work they have done on this topic


http://www.coillte.ie

http://www.forestry-fund.com/ - A British Virgin Islands registered company established in March 2009 as a joint venture between IFS asset managers Ltd of Ireland and Helvetia Wealth AG of Switzerland. () In Jan 2010 one Bertie Ahern was appointed chair of IFF

Dublin address; 43 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2


IFS assets; http://www.ifsam.ie

Helvetia Wealth AG; http://www.helvetia-wealth.com


http://www.politics.ie/current-affairs/119772-bertie-become-chairman-international-forestry-fund-13.htm



I have not seen direct proof of this bid but anyone who knows anything of the giveaway of our oil and gas resources during Bertie’s tenure will not need this spelled out to them.


It should be noted that when Bertie was minister of Finance in 1993 with 99 shares in Coillte he oversaw the establishment of Irish Forest Unit Trusts, a pension scheme set up jointly with Allied Irish Banks and Irish Life. Minimum investment in this fund was e100’000 and it was set up using £33million worth of state land. A community in South Galway were recently shocked to discover their local woodland of Chevy Chase being clear felled as part of this enterprise.

Attention should also be paid to the recommendations of the McCarthy Report last year that Coillte should be privatised.


“Consistent with the reduction in available Exchequer resources, the Group puts forward a range of
reductions in administrative costs and increased flexibility and recommends that D/AF&F should
conduct a review with a view to reducing administrative costs. In particular, we see significant
scope for the outsourcing of payment processing activities.
In addition, the Group has suggested exploring the following avenues which could provide once off
receipts for the Exchequer:
• dispose of non-essential land/property holdings owned by the State Agencies;
• sell surplus Teagasc assets; and
• review the operations of Coillte with a view to realising optimal return through
rationalisation, asset disposal and, possibly, privatisation.”



Coillte has form when it comes to disposing of this country’s forest assets.



Implications

If Coillte falls into private hands we will have even less control over a large chunk (an area approximately equivalent to 2 county Meaths) of this country’s land mass than we do already. The lofty sounding vision statement of IFF notwithstanding we may see the planting of GM trees, we may lose access to this land for walking, camping, firewood collection, fishing, water supply and other purposes.

This has huge implications for our access to water. If we lose access to that land we also lose access to a large part of our water catchment, purification and supply system which leaves us in a very vulnerable position.

The arrival of the IMF to these shores means that the stripping of this country’s assets and resources is being accelerated. We need these resources to continue living here. We also have a duty of care towards them and towards future generations that will have need of them.



Responses

People need to know about this. Please forward this info. Leaflets?

The scale of the problem demands a collective response.

The effective husbanding of resources is best left in the hands of those who use them and live locally.

This becomes a survival issue if factors like climate change and fossil fuel depletion come into play.

In the event of transport and supply interruptions we will be dependent on these local resources so we have a huge vested interest in ensuring our continued access to them.

If they are in the possession of vast corporations who are making us pay for what we have a right to, we have a problem. This threat needs to be removed.



Communities and individuals need to begin assessing the resources in their areas, examine their levels of dependence on them and be vigilant for any threats to them. This could be a key step in reversing the process of dispossession that history has wrought on us.

Time for a new Land League

Update from the Tribune

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