Archive for the ‘Society and culture’ Category

Reducing US spending? Cut the military budget

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

From Just Foreign Policy: FCNL has established a toll-free number: 1-877-429-0678. Urge your Rep. and/or Senators to press the Supercommittee to end the wars and cut the military budget. In talking to your Rep., urge support for the Lee-Campbell bipartisan letter to the Super Committee on cutting military spending.

Austin Airwaves seeks support for its Borneo project

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

Jim Ellinger of Austin Airwaves does great work supporting community radio near and far. Their most recent project involves supporting the establishment of community radio on the island of Borneo. They're looking for donations of equipment and cash. Check here to see if you can help.

Marking Bloomsday

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Two different suggestions today from Labour politicians about appropriate ways to mark Bloomsday. Joe Costello notes that Ireland has one of the lowest numbers of public holidays in Europe (9 per year, only exceeding the 8 of England and Wales) and suggests that making the day a holiday could provide ...

A tale of two news stories

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

Compare and contrast: There are fears of (more) deaths, particularly of pensioners and the homeless, as Ireland undergoes below-freezing conditions. (That's not a metaphor for the economy!) Local authorities are struggling to keep roads gritted, with limited budgets available for this purpose (and effect still being felt from repair costs after ...

Communicating in a crisis – what the Irish government did wrong (part 1 of 80-180 billion)

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

When I talk with my students about PR I explain that the first rule of crisis communication is to 'fess up - get out in front of the rumours and claims, admitting the truth (in order that you can have a say in framing that truth). This week the Irish government ...

Intersecting regulatory structures

Monday, May 24th, 2010

For broadcasters, there can often be several different regulatory structures governing the same set of activities - which adds, of course, to the complexity of decision-making by managers and others. I was reminded of this today when I saw this tidbit from Inside Radio (the story itself is behind a pay-wall): AG: ...

Drink driving in Ireland

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Fianna Fáil backbenchers have been predictably reactionary in their response to the proposal to reduce the drink driving limit in Ireland. However, there have been some interesting suggestions from the head of Macra na Feirme (the young farmers' association), who has largely supported the change, while looking for policy changes ...

Carfree day

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Le sigh! World Carfree Day 2009 (today), would fall on the first rainy day we've had in a while here in Cazenovia. So, rather than biking in - as I usually do - I ended up getting driven in to work. It's a short enough journey (under a mile) that ...

War declared! (kind of)

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Well this could be awkward. (Are we expected to cut off all communications?) The EU is threatening a visa war with Canada, because of its withdrawal of visa waivers from visitors from the Czech Republic. That decision, in turn, had been prompted by a large number of applications for asylum ...

Misleading headlines in the Irish Times

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

People 'fed up' with negativity of Opposition So goes a headline in tomorrow's Irish Times. Intrigued when it showed up in my daily email bulletin, I clicked through. Had there been a survey showing annoyance on the part of the public? Were the opposition failing to strike a chord with the ...