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Snobbery in Dublin stops people from getting lower priced groceries!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Snobbery in Dublin stops people from getting lower priced groceries!

Once upon a time I was forced to buy my groceries in Superquinn. That was even before Tesco was in Ireland and before Aldi and Lidl arrived. Then I remember the week the first Aldi in Parnell Street opened. There were queues outside the shop and inside you couldn’t use a trolley because we had to walk through the shops like ducks in a row because there were soooo many people inside.

Nearly every Aldi and Lidl in Dublin (and there are MANY now) is busy and the market share of the two shop chains keeps growing, but there are some people who still think that they are too good to shop in Aldi and Lidl. But this snobbery is crumbling when you experience the high quality goods for SIGNIFICANTLY lower prices than others charge.

Oddly, though, when it comes to setting up new shops, some parts of Dublin are still totally against an Aldi or Lidl in their neighbourhood and I don’t believe for a minute that this is because of the dying village centres (they are already dead since Centra, Spar and Starbucks took over) or because of the REAL traffic increase. Maybe the PERCEIVED increase and this always reminds me of the stupid idea that Fingal County had when they limited the opening hours if Ikea near Ballymun and tried to force the shop to charge for parking during peak hours to avoid that looming traffic chaos that would bring the M50 to a stand still. Nothing like that ever happened and Ikea luckily was able to change the Fingal County rules.

So it is either a total misjudgement regarding traffic OR it is snobbery and I think ultimately it is the snobbery that is the reason for the NOs in Castleknock and Clonsilla that is described in this article www.thejournal.ie/lidl-2-3201010-Jan2017/

By the way, both Aldi and Lidl have managed to create pretty and very well integrated shops in some areas, so the look of the shops is not a good enough reason anymore to reject them.

 

Dublin, Economy, Odd, Society, , , , ,

ALL American Ambassadors are gone!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
ALL American Ambassadors are gone!

ALL American Ambassadors have been removed from their posts and consequently the USA is right now without ANY representatives outside of the USA. In a very strange and definitely unusual move, Donald Trump informed all US Ambassadors around the world tha they will have to have left their post before he became president.

US Ambassadors are usually political appointments and it is not unusual that they change when a new president takes office, but normally there is a grace period to get things organised, to give the existing ambassadors some time to get back home and to appoint the successors. Not this time! And to make things even more harsh, the order was sent to all ambassadors around the world just two days before Christmas on 23 December.

Kevin O’Malley, the most recent US Ambassador to Ireland, who is an Irish American attorney from St. Louis was in a plane on Inauguration Day to get back to the US as ordered. He was nominated by Barack Obama on 05 June 2014.

Ireland being at the lower end of the priority list for Ambassador appointments (The position was left vacant for nearly 2 years from December 2012 until September 2014!) might have to wait a while to get the next ambassador.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI0IJplzPqg

Dublin, Elsewhere, Odd, Politics, ,

Irish Life – How to screw your customers!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Irish Life – How to screw your customers!

Have you seen the big Irish Life posters everywhere in town that promise free Multi-Trip Travel Insurance? Sounds interesting, right? Well, I was an Aviva health insurance customer and when Irish Life took over the Aviva health insurance business I became an Irish Life health insurance customer. I wasn’t asked, that just happened, but I could have changed it afterwards if I had wanted to.

My renewal was in October and the price that they quoted me for the renewal was EUR 5 more per month than before, but I think I am on a good plan, so I stayed with them.

When I saw that Irish Life health insurance customers will get Free Travel Insurance, that sounded really good and I was impressed by the company’s care for me. ;-) But then I checked it out and found a different picture.

Yes, there is free Travel insurance, but ONLY for people that renew or move to Irish Life in January or February. If you are already a customer and if your renewal date is by coincidence outside of the time frame of January+February, then suddenly Irish Life is not in the slightest interested in giving you a free Travel Insurance. Not even for half the time or for a quarter of the time. No, you are told to f*** off with your wish to be rewarded in the same way for being with the company as the people that renews in Jan or Feb.

I find it shocking that companies do stuff like that! Why? Well, what do you think I (and probably many others) feel now? I had a good feeling about Irish Life when I heard about and saw the MANY posters of the free travel insurance. The company really went up a few notches in my judgement. But imagine how I feel now after finding out that I am not worthy of getting this bonus because my renewal date is 80 days outside the bracket? My opinion about Irish Life didn’t just drop to where it was before, but it went FAR below my previous opinion and consequently I am now determined to look for another insurer as soon as my renewal date comes up. If a company has customers, they always should reward loyalty at least as highly as new business and in this case, they should find SOME sort of an arrangement for all customers independent from your renewal date.

Stupid move, Irish Life!

Irish, Odd, , ,

Bad bad 2016!? – Celebrity Deaths

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Bad bad 2016!? – Celebrity Deaths

In 2016 a relatively large amount of celebrities died. There was David Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman, George Michael, Muhammad Ali, Gene Wilder, Leonard Cohen, Carrie Fisher and many others that unfortunately left us in this year. Some died of illnesses other of other health reasons and others again because they had reached the age where their bodies decided to pack it in.

Importantly there was absolutely no link between the deaths, but oddly many Twitter and Facebook users and even some “news websites” tried to “blame” 2016 on it. With common statements after another death like “2016 you can f*ck right off” and similar.

Yes, it was a relatively large amount and there are good reasons for it, but the reactions were just nonsensical bordering on stupid.

If people switched their brains on and thought for a second, they would realise a number of things:
+ We know a much higher number of “celebrities” than any generations before us. That has to do with the Internet, with our global media outlets and with the fact that it is a lot easier to become a “celebrity” in the last 20-40 years than ever before.
+ Many of the celebrities we grew up with are – surprisingly – ageing like us. So if we get older then they also get older. With increasing age the risk of illnesses increases and – oddly – the risk of death is much higher for old people than for young people.

What does that mean? It means that the dying will continue! 2017 will probably see a similar high number of deaths. When will it end? When the end has reached us! I know that sounds brutal, but I see it happening with my parents, for example. They are at a funeral for people that they knew well during their life nearly every week and bit by bit, the friends and family get thinned out and you feel the unavoidable end coming closer and closer.

A very morbid tone for the last This is Odd in 2016? Yes, it is dealing with death, but it is something we will all need to deal with at some stage and stupid statements like “Stop that 2016!” are not facing up to facts about life.

So how should we react? The best approach is always to appreciate the fact that the people that pass away have been with us. To remind ourselves what nice memories we have and to accept that life is terminal. Only that way you can properly deal with it. Grieving is fine, even for someone that you have never met. Some celebrities, like George Michael, really were part of some of our lives. So keep the memories and stop the blaming on a year or other non-related entities and circumstances.

www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-year-in-review/look-back-all-famous-figures-who-died-2016-n698791

Elsewhere, Odd, Other,

President Higgins’ visual impairment!?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
President Higgins’ visual impairment!?

Visual impairment is no fun in most cases. It is certainly not a choice and impacts the life of every affected person in a HUGE way. “Normal” seeing people expect that they have a field of vision of a good bit more than 180 degrees (including peripheral vision). So, imagine how it would affect you if out of 180 degrees a massive piece of that semi circle was missing. Blacked out or so hazy that you can’t make out what is there.

No severe medical condition regarding his eyesight is known about Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland. But it seems that the piece of that semi circle that he can’t seen can easily hold between 10,000 and 100,000 people. Because that’s the number (10,000-100,000) that were killed by the state in Cuba. At least 78,000 are estimated to have died trying to flee Fidel Castro’s dictatorship. (see www.quora.com/How-many-deaths-was-Fidel-Castro-responsible-for )

Fidel Castro was a brutal dictator in Cuba! Yes, there are some good things that he did in the areas of medicine and education, for example. But any absolutist leader will achieve SOME positive things and wil help SOME people. Even Hitler and Stalin did some positive things.

But how can you completely ignore the oppression of the people of a whole country, the killing of up to 100,000 and the fact that in all Castro’s years in power, he didn’t allow a single free election? How can you be soo blind that you talk of Fidel Castro as a leader “whose view was not only one of freedom for his people but for all of the oppressed and excluded peoples on the planet”. Freedom of his people!?!?!?!? He killed 78,000 who were prepared to risk their lives to get away from that freedom! He did give his people so much freedom that they weren’t allowed to vote once in nearly 50 years? And Fidel Castro the dictator, the oppressor allegedly cared about “all of the oppressed ..on the planet”?

No big problem, if Mr Higgins (or Comrade Higgins) has that opinion. Still wrong, but who cares about his ideology. But it was an absolutely shocking statement by a president of a democratic European country.

Irish, Odd, Politics, President, ,
 
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