Joerg's Ramblings – Page 28 – A Foreigner in Ireland

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

21 September 2017Written by Joerg Steegmueller

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 Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland, ASAI, catholic, Condoms, contraception, Don't mention the war, Fawlty Towers, Lidl ad, old

Is this a business or a joke? Ryanair will cancel up to 50 flights a day for six weeks!

15 September 2017Written by Joerg Steegmueller

The “This is Odd!” section of the Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events) is a place where I highlight a whole variety of odd things that happen around us. Usually (but not always) there is some connection with Ireland, considering that the 24,000 subscribers, 21,000 web app users and 30,000 website visitors are mainly Irish, living in Ireland or have a close connection with Ireland. I also prefer to vary the topics across all aspects of our lives and it is very rare that the same small areas will be covered two weeks in a row.

This is, however, an exception and for the second week it is Ryanair that wins in the “odd” competition. You seriously have to wonder if they are running a business or if this is a – very profitable – joke when you find out what they now are up to.

We are used to their total disrespect for customers when it comes to seat allocations and baggage charge changes and refund policies and to be honest, we endure a LOT under the excuse-umbrella that without Ryanair we would pay hell of a lot more for air travel and that after all they are a commercial company whose job it is to maximise the revenue.

Until now, though, we thought that they know what they are doing and that they might be – in our eyes – mean spirited and customer friendly, but that we at least can rely on their professionalism when it comes to their core business, which is bringing people from A to B safely and reliably.

But on Friday it emerged that Ryanair will cancel up to 50 (!!) flights per day for the next six weeks!! Maybe you think 50 is not a lot, considering that they undertake 2500 flights per day and a Ryanair spokesman quickly already pointed out that only 2% of flights are affected. But I don’t care how many percent of flights are affected if I am the one beings stranded. On Friday (15 Sept) 82 flights were cancelled and on Saturday (16 Sept) a total of 80 flights will be affected. That is a LOT!

What happens if this one little flight is the feeder flight that brings you to an airport from which you plan to take a flight to South America? You miss that and your whole holiday is gone! – Or what if that little flight was the ONE flight that will bring you to your weekend away in Spain? It’s not good enough that you can fly a day later if you only had planned a weekend away.

And even worse! Ryanair didn’t even have the decency to explain why 82 flights were cancelled until Friday evening!

And the reason? Holidays!! They don’t care in the slightest about your plans because they have to accommodate Ryanair staff holidays. And why was that not anticipated? Because Ryanair changed – without any need or emergency – the holiday year from April to March to a new January to December system. Knowing how inflexible they are with all their rules when it comes to check-in and luggage, you can bet that they are the worst when it comes to holiday flexibility with their own staff.

So in the end Ryanair created this mess themselves and we as customers have to suffer for it.

You really wonder if they are running a business or if this is all a joke to them?

Society, Tourism flight cancellations, Ryanair

Ryanair is upsetting customers again: Now hand luggage will cost money

09 September 2017Written by Joerg Steegmueller

We all know that we need Ryanair because without them, Aer Lingus and others would immediately increase their prices. (Mind you, Ryanair prices are not low anymore either, but still lower than Aer Lingus or BA ever would have liked to go.) But at the same time Ryanair ALWAYS ensures that we HATE their guts as well by constantly pushing and moving was once usual practices.

Ryanair started with the intent to get checked in luggage reduced as much as possible. Checked in luggage was charged separately where before it was included. Then they increased the prices for it. Then they lowered the weight from 20kg to 15kg and now all will change again! We were told that we should ONLY bring hand luggage and that we won’t pay for that. We did what we were told! BUT as human beings do, we tried to push the limits.

New much smaller dimensions were specified, but only sometimes enforced. The weight limit of 10kg was introduced but usually not checked and so passengers started bringing bigger and bigger and heavier and heavier bags on board. So much that there was no room in the overhead bins anymore and Ryanair was forced to take the rolly cases that were within the limits but still used a LOT of room from people at the plane.

Now ALL will change again!

For all flights from 01 November, you are only allowed to bring a handbag or Laptop bag on board (up to 5kg; 35cm x 20cm x 20cm). What was formerly the cabin bag now will have to dropped at the bag drop at the check-in counter (NOT at the boarding gate or at the plane anymore). So this achieves EXACTLY the opposite of what Ryanair tried in the past. Now more or less EVERY passenger will have check in luggage again! As long as it is not more than 10kg you will not have to pay for it. Not YET!!! I guarantee that in a few months there will be a new charge introduced. I will eat my (virtual) hat if that won’t happen!

The advantage for them of having less check in luggage is gone, but the advantage for passengers to get out of the airport faster if they only have hand luggage is also gone. BUT you are still allowed to bring your former hand luggage of 10kg IF you pay for Priority Boarding! The Irish Independent claims that this will cost EUR 5 per flight, but we have seen in recent months that that price can easily go to a high multiple of EUR 5 if seat selection is included and the selectable seats went into the higher priced category.

The checked baggage charge will drop from EUR 35 to EUR 25 and the checked luggage max weight is increased from 15kg to 20kg but again I am convinced that this is only a temporary measure and the price will very soon go up again and the weight down. Ryanair uses these tricks to tell us that we allegedly will pay less just to take it back again soon after.

How will they do all this? Wait for it! They will issue colour coded boarding passes! WHAT? Yes, that would possibly require that you don’t print your own boarding pass anymore because not everyone has a colour printer at home. OR your self-printed boarding pass will be replaced by the colour coded one at the baggage drop?

In the end it is just a way to force people to buy Priority Boarding. It seems that the cruel procedure of forcing people that have booked together on seats that are intentionally not next to each other didn’t achieve the increased buying of Priority Boarding that was expected.

Ohh and another thing changed underhand it seems: In the past you could print your return boarding pass up to a week before your return trip. Now this is not possible anymore. But it can only be printed 3 days or so before the return. That means that you can’t print both before leaving if your trip is more than 3 days long. Because while on holidays you don’t have access to a printer, this meant that people HAD to buy Priority Boarding for the return trip because THEN you are allowed to print the boarding pass already days earlier. Devious! But wait, you say, I use the Ryanair app and then I don’t need to print anything at all. You are smart! But wait for it: My predication is that VERY soon that will change and you will either have to pay to use the app or the boarding pass/check in option will be removed from the app or limited.

Ryanair want you to pay more and more and more. And because they are a commercial organisation I get that even if I definitely dislike it. But the temporary customer friendliness that Ryanair adopted about 2 or 3 years ago is DEFINITELY gone for good. They are UNFORTUNATELY now too successful to care.

The Irish Independent outlined the rules in an FAQ here.

Tourism baggage charges, hand luggage, Priority Boarding, Ryanair

ID Cards for Ireland? – Storm in a Tea Cup

02 September 2017Written by Joerg Steegmueller

There are passports in Ireland and most people have one, but for some strange reason some people in Ireland are totally and passionately against any type of ID Card system and currently there is a huge amount of panic amongst that group of people. I really can’t understand why that is! But then I read something that worried even me!

It all started with a report in the newspapers about a woman who’s pension was withheld because she didn’t agree to getting a Social Services Card. We are told that there are currently close to 3mio Social Services Cards issued to people in Ireland and with all children excluded and a population of around 4.7mio, that seems like a huge amount. The card was initially used to combat Social Welfare fraud, but it seems it is now unnecessarily also used for lots of other things and that seems to panic people.

The unnecessary uses of the card are in areas where it seemingly is used as an ID Card, for example if you want to do a driver theory test or if you want to apply for or renews a drivers license or a passport. There is NO need to use a “Public Services Card” in these cases. Instead it should be absolutely find to bring your passport as ID. (The worldwide joke of having to bring some other forms of identity to renew a passport is something I will write about another time. ;-) )

There is no obligation to have a passport AND there is no obligation to have a Public Services Card, but it seems without the Public Services Card you can’t get any services so there is a form of obligation.

But let me pick the pieces apart first:
1) Is an form of ID Card justified for people that receive Social Welfare? I absolutely think so. It helps fighting against fraud.
2) Should a Public Services Card be used for all the other services I have mentioned above? Absolutely not if the person has a passport instead. Sure it can be an option to ID yourself, but only ONE option.
3) Is the Public Services Card a National ID card? No! It isn’t and it doesn’t look like one BUT it is used like an ID card and therefore the principle of “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it most likely is a duck” will apply.

Now SHOULD there be a National ID Card? I definitely think so! It does make sense to have a form of ID (instead of having to bring two household bills!!) but the use of the information “behind” the ID Card has to regulated and should be limited and that is where even I have concerns about the ability of the Irish government and state to protect its citizens.

As you know, I am German. In Germany we have National ID Cards (called Personalausweis) since 1951!! And the requirement to always have an ID card with you was introduced in 1939 and nobody has a problem with this law. I never experienced any problem due to the fact that I had an ID Card or that I had to carry it with me all the time and even today in Ireland, I always have my ID Card with me.

So what is the panic? It seems that the panic is caused by the fear of how the authorities could do bad things to you if they know who you are. BUT they can arrest you anyway if you do something bad with or without ID Card and if you don’t do anything bad then they should not be interested in you, right?

Well, in Germany (and other countries) the system seems to work and you wonder if this panic is just a storm in a tea cup!? A panic about some imaginary risk that will never happen?

But then I read the article in the Irish Times about the person that found her car registration details in the records of the Department of Social Protection. Information that they should have NO access to because every department should only have access to the information they need for their own business.

And when you realise that most likely the Irish government WILL screw this up again and will share information across all departments even if they shouldn’t. Then suddenly you wonder if the worries of the panicking privacy defenders and ID Card opponents are maybe a lot more plausible than it should be?

Irish, Justice, Politics, Society, Uncategorized Department of Social Protection, ID Card, Passport, Personalausweis, Public Services Card, Social Services Card, Social Welfare

One of the biggest Boxing Fights … or just a scam?

25 August 2017Written by Joerg Steegmueller

On Saturday night/Sunday morning at around 05:00 a boxing fight will happen that is seen by some as the biggest boxing fight of the last 100 years or maybe of the boxing sport ever and for others it is just a big scam!

Your opinion probably depends on who you support McGregor, Mayweather or neither of the two and how much you have looked into the fight.

One thing is (quite) certain, there will be two human beings who will bash each others head in for their OWN enrichment. This is not an Ireland vs USA fight and it is also not a fight of Mayweather against McGregor or of MMA against the Boxing sport. It is also not a fight where either Floyd Mayweather OR Conor McGregor will win. No, the fight is a show that will make both opponents and their management a LOT richer than they are at the moment. McGregor is expected to get about 100mio and Mayweather will probably get from 300-400mio. Yes, the association of ringside physicians is VERY worried about the fight and severe damage of one or both opponents is possible, but I guess that’s not much different than at other fights and both seem to be happy to sacrifice their health for that crazy amount of money.

Cleverly they have created a hype that will make a huge amount of dosh for both and I would say they both don’t care that much about who will win. McGregor can always claim that this is not really his sport as a MMA fighter and he will double or treble his net worth with this one fight in the process and Mayweather can always blame his age as he is long retired and just came back for this one fight. He has about 25m to pay to the tax authorities, so the 300m will help with that. :-)

So all this weighs down on the “scam” side of the argument.

What about the two opponents? They both come across like egocentric, arrogant, brain-dead a**holes, but McGregor’s idiotic behaviour at the press conferences, his constant swearing and his seemingly out-of-control fits make him the much less likeable fighter.
Surprisingly though he seems to have a lot of support in Ireland and the UK if the press conferences are anything to go by, but I am not sure he cares. Maybe it is because he is the definite underdog but apart from that he has done nothing to endear himself to his fans as far as I can see. For me he represents the negativity of our society. He might be super smart and very clever but he hides that so well behind his insane posturing and peacocking that we have to wonder if maybe his smartness is the facade and not the insanity?

There are two camps in Ireland at the moment it seems. There are the people who LOVE McGregor and want him to win to “f*ck the Mayweathers”. And then there are the others who think the little wannabe McGregor should be taught a lesson and get a nice beating.
Both sides clearly fell for the facade and pretense that surrounds this whole fight and both sides are needed to drive sales and to get the opponents to laugh their way to the bank.

So in the end it seems the audience is being scammed and the two opponents are the really smart ones. Like at WWE (World Wrestling), we are the real dupes. Makes you wonder if maybe the outcome of the fight is also staged and – like in WWE – already known to the opponents?

Elsewhere Biggest Fight, Boxing, Mayweather, McGregor, MMA, scam, WWE