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Brexit: No hard border to Northern Ireland – Is that really possible?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Brexit: No hard border to Northern Ireland – Is that really possible?

For weeks this issue is in the media and it is/has been a big hurdle for the Brexit negotiations. No matter what some might WANT, Northern Ireland is part of the UK and the fact that it once was part of Ireland or the fact that it is located on the island of Ireland does not change that. Valid treaties are in place and unless they change Northern Ireland will remain to be a part of the UK. And if the whole UK leaves the EU, then this will also mean that Northern Ireland will leave the UK.

I am well aware that the population of Northern Ireland is divided on their allegiances and many would prefer a closer relationship or even a “re-unification” with Ireland, I am also aware that nobody would want to get back to the situation before the “Good Friday Agreement” from 1998, when terrorist organisations on both sides and highly questionable official forces made life hell for everybody.
But being from a border area elsewhere, I also am well aware that a border or even border controls is not the biggest problem in the world. Sure, we would all prefer a borderless world, but we have on one hand no problem causing a huge amount of in-humane problems to non-EU citizens who want to visit us in the EU, but on the other hand, many think that a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland would be the worst possible scenario.

I don’t agree that borders are a problem. When I grew up we regularly went to France, which was only 20 minutes away and it was never a big problem. Two countries, two set of laws and rules and a border made some sense. The EU states worked hard to break down the borders, but if one state decides to leave, I can’t see how it will work not to have borders again.

Nevertheless, it was announced on Friday that after long negotiations it was agreed that there will be NO hard borders between Northern Ireland and Ireland. So no border controls! But nobody seems to know yet how that will work in reality.

UK government said that they will ensure that there are no barriers to trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. So, there won’t be a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK and there won’t be a border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. BUT there might be completely different tax rules. Do you see the problem?

Have a look at the agreed document here. It says nothing and leaves a lot to Phase 2 negotiations and at the same time the agreement says a lot. Clause 49, for example, more or less implies that Northern Ireland might stay in the EU Customs Union and in the Single Market. And Clause 50 promises that there won’t be any barriers between Northern Ireland and the UK, but this is then probably only possible if the UK also stays in the EU Customs Union and the Single Market. :-O

Either that agreement is not worth the paper it is printed on OR the UK just has abandoned Brexit in large parts. Odd!!

Brexit, Irish, Odd, Politics, Taoiseach, , , , ,

Minister of Finance’s “Me Me Me Me!” at Budget Speech

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Minister of Finance’s “Me Me Me Me!” at Budget Speech

On Tuesday the Budget 2018 was announced by the Minister of Finance Paschal Donohoe. He was talking for about 1 hour about the state of the country, the future of the economy and about all the changes that 2018 will bring regarding taxes, charges, social welfare, minimum salary, subsidies etc.

It wasn’t an exciting speech and it is certainly not an exciting budget and since most aspects were already “leaked” beforehand, there were very very few surprises. As it seems, everybody will get a bit more money, but it is a tiny amount of money so no big parties!

Richard Boyd Barrett from People Before Profit is not someone I usually agree with, but in this case he was spot on. He said “This is a budget of crumbs.”

The only thing that got my blood boiling, but I will write about that another time, is the nonsensical sugar tax that will be introduced in April 2018.

Today, though, I want to point out another odd thing. Why is it that all Finance Ministers suffer from an ego-syndrome when they announce the budget. The current minister is not the first one that constantly talked about “I will….”, “I have decided…”, “I am increasing…”, “I am allocating….”, “I am providing….”. What is this nonsense?

No Minister of Finance makes these decisions on his own. He needs to agree them with the Taoiseach, other ministers, coalition partners and in the current government even with the Fianna Fail opposition and before all that, the whole work was done not by the Minister but the employees in his department. So would a “we” not be more appropriate than the constant “I, i, i,….” or “me, me, me, me” focus?

Politicians are odd animals anyway and nearly all are power hungry beasts, but the budget speech is a special ego trip every year, it seems.

I know you will not click on this link. ;-) But in case you want to read the whole speech, you will find it here.

 

Odd, Politics, Taoiseach, , , , ,

Don’t mention the war!! – Mentioning Condoms in Ireland is maybe even worse

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Don’t mention the war!! – Mentioning Condoms in Ireland is maybe even worse

The brilliant comedy “Fawlty Towers” from 1975 had a quote in its sixth episode that survived decades and even today is still known by many – even younger generations  – although they often don’t know where it originally came from. The episode was about a military drill in Fawlty Towers Hotel when Basil Fawlty insults a group of Germans with lots of references to the war despite his own mantra “Don’t mention the war!”.

You can read the whole plot here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Germans

I remember when I was in Germany the first time and some friends had invited a group of friends for an evening of “Fawlty Towers” screenings. They had forgotten about the quote and were hugely embarrassed (because of my presence) when the “Don’t mention the war!” episode was screened. I wasn’t embarrassed in the slightest (or insulted!). In fact, I find Fawlty Towers hilarious and loved that episode.

Anyway, why am I mentioning this? Well the war was this unspeakable thing that must not be mentioned or someone would be insulted.

Until 1980 (!!) contraception was illegal in Ireland and only from 1985 (Imagine!) condoms were allowed to be sold in Ireland without a prescription. That was shockingly late, but Ireland was anything but liberal at that time. Luckily a lot has changed in the 32 years since. …or has it??

Breaking News reported about complaints that were submitted to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) and one of the complaints was about a Lidl ad in which a (real) mother and her two grown up (real) sons go shopping in Lidl. They buy lots of different things and at some stage, the mother asks her sons “Family pack of condoms?”

AIDS/HIV and STD awareness campaigners would be thrilled with the smart mother who can openly advise her sons and is “brave” enough to suggest that they should use condoms, not so a viewer of the ad. He or she thought this was “inappropriate” because the advertisement was broadcast at a time when children may have been watching.

WTF? How do kids get damaged by that question? I hope that viewer is old (and catholic) that would be the only half-acceptable justification for such nonsense and for taking the time to send a written complaint about this non-story.

Luckily (and rightly so) the ASAI rejected the complaint, but it shocked me that they didn’t say that the complaint was ridiculous, instead they said because the ad was not broadcast before 19:00 it was not seen in or around children’s programming. And they also said that they did not consider that the advertising “had addressed children either directly or indirectly” and they were of the opinion that the question at the time specified was “inappropriate”.

This reply is more shocking than the complaint! Because it implies that if the sentence had been asked BEFORE 19:00, then it would or could have been inappropriate. What a mad idea!

Irish, Odd, Society, , , , , , , ,

Dangerous Brazilian Au-Pair???

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Dangerous Brazilian Au-Pair???

An unbelievable story emerged on Thursday about a 24 year old Brazilian ex-Au pair that wanted to visit her former host family and instead was put into prison.

Paloma Aparezida Silva-Carvalho from Sao Paulo was in Switzerland to visit her boy friend and then had planned to come to Ireland to visit her former host family in Galway. She had worked here before as an au pair for 18 months in 2015/2016 and now intended to come back to stay with the family for 2 months. Immigration officers at Dublin airport, however, were convinced that she wanted to enter the country to work illegally and therefore arrested her and out her in prison where she was strip searched and locked in a cell overnight. :-O

The host family was contacted and confirmed that she was expected to come for holidays, but the immigration officers still decided to send her to prison and told her that she would be sent back to Switzerland the next day.

Now the information in the newspapers doesn’t seem to be fully congruent and the Independent and the Irish Times have told the the story in slightly different ways and have changed the story during the day, but here are some details that were reported:
1) Brazilian citizens do not need a visa to visit Ireland as long as they will stay less than 90 days
2) Paloma had a booked return flight and had EUR 1000 cash with her, so there was plenty of money and clear intention to leave

The EUR 1000 was not mentioned anymore in a later version of the Irish Times story. Also in an earlier version the Irish Times reported that the former Au Pair had decided to leave Ireland immediately once she got released from prison with a permission to stay for just 10 days. But a later version explained that the family actually did collect her and the 10 days reference wasn’t there anymore.

Sooo, we don’t know all the details by the looks of it and even the newspapers don’t really seem to know, but what must have happened there?

A young woman arrives from a foreign country. She worked here before and now came without a work permit. But she planned to stay for a relatively long period of time (2 months) and school holidays are also that long, so there is a possibility that she will look after the kids of the host family during that time. And there is a possibility that the host family will give her some pocket money or even pay her some proper salary. Yes, all this is possible, but it is also possible that food and bed would have been the only pay OR that she was not expected to WORK.

Let’s assume for a moment that the arrangement was that the girl will look after the kids and will get a bit of money for it. Yes, strictly speaking this is work and she needs a work visa. But come-on, are we THAT petty about it now? That girl would not have damaged the Irish economy nor would she have taken another person’s job, not would she have to pay any taxes because over the year the bit of money would have been to low to get her in the claws of the revenue commissioner. So I really think the immigration officers totally overreacted because there is the definite possibility that no employment or formal work was planned.

Sure rules are rules and an immigration officer doesn’t have the power to interpret the rules, he/she just has to apply them. But let’s be honest, they INTERPRET rules every single day and in this case they interpreted the rules unnecessarily strict.

I hope Paloma Aparezida Silva-Carvalho will have a good time in Ireland and I hope she will get a nice bit of pocket money from the family when she leaves and if she looks after the kids. But I think we should apologise to her for a totally unreasonable treatment and the responsible immigration officer should be sent on a humanity training course!

P.S: And here is another story that was reported on the SAME day: A 24 year old guy met an 18 year old Spanish girl in town. They spent some time together, but later he allegedly held her against her will and repeatedly raped her on the former Irish Glass Bottle site near Irishtown over two days. The guy is already on bail for some serious public order crime awaiting a trial, but after he was interviewed by the police, they released him with no criminal charges brought against him, but inquiries will continue.

So a totally harmless and innocent Brazilian girl who wants to visit an upstanding family will be thrown into jail because she MIGHT work here, but a guy that might have raped a girl and who is awaiting trial for a serious public order offence is free to roam the streets. WTF!?!?!?!

 

Dublin, Justice, Odd, Tourism, , , , , ,

You have screwed up badly..become our Prime Minister,Theresa May!!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
You have screwed up badly..become our Prime Minister,Theresa May!!

Theresa May, the current Prime Minister and head of the Conservative Party thought that she could turn a small majority in the parliament into a huge majority by going back on months long promises of NOT having an election and called a surprise election in the UK just two years after the previous one. The result was that she LOST a number of seats, lost the majority in the Parliament and now has to enter a coalition of forms with another party.

Most would agree that this is a SERIOUS screw up, so sizeable that most other self-respecting politicians would hand in their resignation. Not so Theresa May. To pretend that all is good after such a huge error of assessment is quite astonishing. Odd!!!

 

Elsewhere, Odd, , ,
 
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