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Bread – The drama!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Bread – The drama!

I never thought I would write a “This is Odd!” piece about bread, but this week’s events certainly warrant a story about odd behaviour and bread and more,

When this week the end of the world was announced because there could be a storm and snow, people went into panic mode. The Red weather alarm is flagged up the second time. The first time, Dublin wasn’t really hit by Storm Ophelia in the way it was predicted and the snow and “live-threatening Blizzard conditions” this time? I wouldn’t say it was a RED condition, but, hey, I am no expert on bad weather.

Back to the bread though: As soon as Yellow and then Red warnings were announced, people RUSHED to super markets and bought bread like there will be no tomorrow. First it was only bread, but then it also spread to ALL sorts of meat and eggs (!!) and bananas!

Interestingly, the tins and pasta and all other durable foods, that are normally suggested for disaster preparation, weren’t in the same demand. It either suggests that people were not thinking OR that they didn’t really expect the weather apocalypse to last THAT long. The “not thinking” part refers to the quite short shelf life of bread. Unless you freeze it (Just lop it into a bucket in the backyard in weather like this!?) you will not enjoy the bread for long. But there is also the other question WHY do they all want to eat sooooo much bread? I don’t eat that much bread, so I wouldn’t know, but do people think that bread is the most important nutritional item in the home? They MIGHT not be able to buy it for one or two days. If they consequently buy three loafs to make up for it, does that mean they buy bread normally EVERY single day? Wow!

I think the best “get rich quick” scheme in Ireland might be to open a bakery! ;-)

Irish, Odd, , ,

Ageism or a genuine question? – Are we too non-discriminatory?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Ageism or a genuine question? – Are we too non-discriminatory?

If you are looking for a boy-friend/girl-friend/husband/wife/partner or a person for ANY other role in your life (e.g. baby sitter, chauffeur, pool boy ;-), cleaner, butler etc), you have a certain type of person in mind. You might have an idea if that person should be male or female, you know what skills that person should have and without a doubt you also think about that person’s age.

It is extremely unlikely that you will select a male baby-sitter that is 80 years of age if he applied for the job and if you are looking for a life-partner you DEFINITELY have an ideal age range and lots of other “parameters” in mind.

This is normal and everyone would agree that it makes sense. However, if a company is looking for an employee, they are NOT allowed to make a decision based on age. EVEN if the applicant is 64 and the other 20 people in your company are all under 25 you are NOT allowed to rule someone out because of age. Do you have to employ the 64 year old who will retire in one year? No! But if the reason for not hiring him is age, it could cost you a LOT. So what do you do? You INVENT reasons for rejecting him or you lie about your reasons. So making things up is ok, but being honest is not? Yep, that’s the world we live in.

The background of the story is this: The State’s further education and training organisation “Solas” was looking for an Assistant Manager for its Limerick Training Centre in 2013. Someone who was an employee in Solas already applied for the job and he was coincidentally 60 years of age. If that person had the skills and all other pre-requisites then the age shouldn’t be much of a problem, but Solas doesn’t allow you to work after 65, so in this case the employee only had 5 years left and maybe the company would have liked to get some more years out of this appointment.

A question was asked that referred to the age of the applicant. The applicant claims he was asked “Do you not think at this stage that you should be taking it easier?” and Solas claims they asked “What motivates you to take on this role at this stage in your career?”. No matter what the wording was (and we will never find out!), the question was about the age.

The poor applicant felt that an assumption was made about his ability to do the job based on his age and he couldn’t sleep that night because he felt unfairly treated. So he sued Solas and the Labour Court (officially: Workplace Relations Commission) sentenced Solas to pay him 20,000 Euro. Not because he should have got the job and didn’t. Not because he was fired, because he wasn’t. No, just because the FELT that injustice was done to him.

We don’t know if he got the job, but what is your guess: Would he have sued Solas if they had given him the job? I’d say he would have happily taken it and suddenly would have much less unfairly treated.

And do we think that age was the only problem? Well, if he was supremely suitable and another candidate was less suitable but was younger. It would be odd if the employer chose the less suitable candidate. And if two candidates were exactly evenly suitable, but there is only one job than SOME criteria has to be found to make a decision. And should it then not be permissible to use ANY criteria?

Sure, we will all feel a little miffed when we get older an start feeling pushed out of the areas in life that we would like to be in. But who do you sue if you are 65 and the 20 year old man or woman that you adore doesn’t want to marry you because you are too old? Ageism? Nonsense!

There is NO justification in awarding someone 20k because in an interview a question about his age was asked. Political correctness or non-discrimination is definitely gone mad!!

Oh and by the way, do you think that the 20k punishment will stop the employer next time to make a decision based on age? Not in the slightest, they will just not ask the question anymore and will instead PRETEND that the decision was based on skills/aptitude/attitude etc. Result: The 60 year old applicant will still not get the job, but he will never find out why. Well, that is a a good improvement, dear Workplace Relations Commission.

 

Irish, Odd, Society, , , , , ,

Are Irish judges idiots??

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Are Irish judges idiots??

It seems that there is no end to astonishing decisions by judges in Ireland. This could be a case where drunk driving gets a little slap on the wrist or where the theft of social welfare money will be “rewarded” with the thief getting away with no punishment at all.

Last week another amazing story made it from the courts into the newspapers. The court decision that is absolutely unbelievable is already from 2013/2016 and the reason why it is appearing now again is because thankfully the losing party has appealed the decision to the High Court and I can only hope that the 2016 decision will be overturned.

According to an article in the Irish Independent, this is what happened:

A guy entered a pub in Rathmines one evening in April 2013. He ordered a pint and put EUR 10 on the counter. The barman picks up the EUR 10 note and says that this note is fake and possibly 10 other people in the pub heard that. The customer claimed that he got the note from the post office and therefore the note was not fake. Then the customer claims that he went to the Rathmines Garda Station, the note was tested and he was told that it is perfect. He then returned to the bar and told the barman what the garda said. The next day the customer went to his solicitor and sued the pub for defamation.

Sounds like a simple story, but I am still waiting for where the customer was defamed. The Circuit Court was totally on the customer’s side and awarded EUR 5,000 to the customer.

This is a super odd case, so keep reading, it gets a lot more interesting.

But let’s look at the definition of defamation first. A defamatory statement is one which tends to injure a person’s reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society. So if the pub had been empty, the customer would not have been awarded a cent. But because there were some people in the pub that MIGHT have heard that the barman stated that this was fake money, it could be defamation. But it is ONLY defamation if the statement “injures a person’s reputation”. With the huge amounts of fake money going around, I think a lot more people than we know have handled fake notes. And if we assume that you might get a fake note as change and because most of us do not check every note we get, I think it is not certain that a person’s reputation is automatically damaged if somebody thinks that the money you have is fake.

We can all FEEL to be defamed, but that doesn’t mean our reputation actually did suffer!

But it continues!! Oddly, it turns out, that the customer did NOT go to the Garda Station in Rathmines and NO Garda confirmed that the money was “perfect”. The two gardai on duty that night said that nobody came with a potentially fake note and that they also don’t have a machine to check money. Wow! So did the the customer tell a big fat lie?

Could that also mean that he did not get this note from the post office? Not that getting a note from a post office is a guarantee that it is not fake, but possibly the money was NOT from a source that is perceived to be reputable. Allegedly he told the barman that he got it from a “bookies or a shop” but in court the customer claimed that he said he got it from the Post Office.

Looks to me that the customer’s statements might not be the most reliable? How can the Circuit Court in a situation like force the pub to give him EUR 5,000?

Was that Circuit Court judge asleep? Odd!!

Dublin, Justice, Odd, , , , ,

One more silly rule is gone: Alcohol on Good Friday

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
One more silly rule is gone: Alcohol on Good Friday

On Thursday the Dail approved a change to the Intoxicating Liquor Act, that will remove the ban that stopped pubs, restaurants and off licenses from selling alcohol on Good Friday. It was an outdated law from 1927, from a time when Ireland was still VERY catholic, but it is a clear example where the Catholic Church still had a bigger impact on the state than it should have. This is the one and only reason why – in my opinion – this law change is a good change.

We don’t need a nanny state that tells us what to do based on church rules! No, I am NOT suggesting that now you should have alcohol on Good Friday! You should drink or not drink based on YOUR preferences, not based on a state or church rule (but if you prefer not to drink because of a church rule that is important to you, that is also 100% fine!).

Yes, too much alcohol is consumed in the Irish society, but a ban on Good Friday will not solve that problem and picking on that one day doesn’t make sense. I am totally in favour of strategies that reduce the consummation of alcohol through education, but not through a nonsensical Good Friday ban.

There is now only one other day left when the selling of alcohol is forbidden and that is Christmas Day. Some think if the selling of alcohol was allowed on that day, then suddenly pubs and restaurants wouldn’t give their staff a day off anymore. But if that is the driver. then we should have a law that regulates if pubs, restaurants and off-licenses are allowed to open or not, not a regulation “through the backdoor” via an alcohol selling ban.

I will continue to stay away from alcohol on Good Friday (not for religious reasons, but just because I don’t drink much anyway), but I am 100% in favour of a lifting of the ban. Is it this time me who is odd!?!?! :-)

Irish, Odd, Politics, Society, Tourism, , , ,

Supermacs announce six new outlets – A foreigner asks WHY? ;-)

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Supermacs announce six new outlets – A foreigner asks WHY? ;-)

As you know, I didn’t grow up in Ireland and never lived in the countryside, maybe that is the reason why I don’t get Supermacs?

They announced the creation of 400 jobs (Great!) and the opening of six (!) more outlets, which will bring the number of outlets in Ireland to a whopping 114! That is a great achievement, but I just don’t get how and why. Now I have to admit that I only once ate in Supermacs, so what is it that gets people excited about them?

To me, they seem like an odd mush-up of McDonalds, KFC, Subway and your local (Italian) chipper and I then wonder if it is a “Jack of all trades and master of none” scenario or if their food is better than the one from the mentioned competitors.Why would you go to Supermacs and not go to the others?

Three (!!) stores will open in Cork, and the others are in Balbriggan Co Dublin, Donegal town and Naas, Co Kildare. So maybe only country (especially from Cork) people get it? ;-)

Irish, Odd, Society,
 
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