Brian Greene

dark days for abbey theatre

Does this Govt. support the national theatre? While the Abbey gets cuts in funding from the Arts Council 25 jobs are to be axed if the director of the theatre gets his way. And what does the minister for the arts have to say? all spin spin spin.

Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism says, “I welcome this exciting announcement today from the Abbey Theatre. I am delighted that the National Theatre productions of the calibre of ‘Terminus’ and ‘Ages of the Moon’ will now be seen by audiences in more venues both in Ireland and internationally, – building Ireland’s international cultural profile in the cities of Melbourne and New York during its 2009/2010 season. Touring productions of the highest quality also brings enormous cultural tourism benefits. Additionally, these tours will provide opportunities for Irish actors, writers, directors and crew to raise their international profile and gain major performing opportunities in key cultural markets. I wish the Abbey Theatre every success with its tour of these two shows which I am sure will continue to build on the high international reputation of the Abbey, our National Theatre.”

I do not read that the Abbey is to scale back its productions, so if the 25 axed workers are not the skilled staff to work on future planned Abbey productions where are the skills to come from? the answer is most likely via outsourcing as the arts race to the bottom.

Cullen “these tours will provide opportunities for Irish actors, writers, directors and crew to raise their international profile” so they can put them on their  CVs? Watching this developing story closely.

[first posted here 22/April 2007] Dublin People Group website has been polling for seven months on the question

“Should Bulgarian and Romanian citizens be allowed work in Ireland when their countries join the EU”

Over 2300 web respondents are voting 3:1 yes

full details here
Our Government don’t think the same! there are extra restrictions in place for visitors from these countries.

Bulgarians and Romanians will be required to have a valid work permit to take up employment within Ireland, and will continue to be subject to a labor market needs test.

Fascinating article by Colin Murphy in Le Monde Diplomatique titled “If you ever go across the sea to Ireland“

the tale of Polish construction workers in Ireland. the boss is quoted as saying

“There’s payslips here if they want them,” he said. “If they were being paid as badly as that, why didn’t they leave?”

7 million people are in second life

1 million plus workers in Ireland are members of a trade union already.

isn’t time for a second siptu (www.2ndsip2.ie)

my oh my the logo need  not change (that much)

Now Brian Goggin earned almost €4m last year
last June 23rd 2006 I wrote.

Aertel p132 reports….
BOI CHIEF EXECUTIVE WAS PAID E2.5M

The chief executive of Bank of Ireland, Brian Goggin received a total remuneration (pay plus bonus and pension) of in excess of E2.5m for the financial year 2005/2006.

This is a 31% increase on the E1.9m he received the previous year.

In addition to his basic salary of E1m, Mr Goggin received a E900,000 bonus and a E380,000 payment under a separate incentive programme.

He also received a pension payment worth E168,000 into his defined benefit scheme.

–

why have sinn fein dropped all /any calls to nationalise the banks… ?

Obscenity has several connotations. Obscenity and its parent adjective obscene take their derivation from the Greek terms ob skene, which literally means “offstage”. This is because violent acts in Greek theatre were committed off stage. It then descends into the Latin word obscenus, meaning “foul, repulsive, detestable”, (possibly derived from ob caenum), literally “from filth”. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obscene

Dublin People Group website has been polling for seven months on the question

“Should Bulgarian and Romanian citizens be allowed work in Ireland when their countries join the EU”

Over 2300 web respondents are voting 3:1 yes

full details here
Our Government don’t think the same! there are extra restrictions in place for visitors from these countries.

Bulgarians and Romanians will be required to have a valid work permit to take up employment within Ireland, and will continue to be subject to a labor market needs test.

Fascinating article by Colin Murphy in Le Monde Diplomatique titled “If you ever go across the sea to Ireland“

the tale of Polish construction workers in Ireland. the boss is quoted as saying

“There’s payslips here if they want them,” he said. “If they were being paid as badly as that, why didn’t they leave?”

€5 per hour at domino pizza [rte video deeplink]

from the socialist party cllr. that blew the GAMA scandal; Mick Murphy has again uncovered a massive underpayment scandal in Irish life.

Founded in 1960, Domino’s Pizza is the recognized world leader in pizza delivery. Domino’s is listed on the NYSE under the symbol “DPZ.” Through its primarily franchised system, Domino’s operates a network of 8,238 franchised and Company-owned stores in the United States and more than 50 countries. The Domino’s Pizza® brand, named a Megabrand by Advertising Age magazine, had global retail sales of nearly $5.0 billion in 2005, comprised of $3.3 billion domestically and $1.7 billion internationally.

[march 06] Recently two economists said that “increased volatility of employment may be necessary” – in other words prepare to be laid-off, possibly hired somewhere else but then laid-off again, possibly in quick succession. They went on to say this “is undoubtedly costly for those individuals who lose their jobs”. Is this the future for people in this day and age – casual jobs?

Increasingly the choice that capitalism is giving workers will be: either work for poverty wages or don’t work at all. The trade unions should fight re-locations and closures. These companies made billions off the backs of the workers and it is not acceptable having robbed people of that wealth, that they are allowed rob them of a decent future. [source www.socialistparty.net]

o to own a house that needs a stairs like this. from Art Francais

these guys are blogging out of Drumshanbo, Co.Leitrim where they have bypassed a website and gone direct for rss blog cms fuzzyness that makes one wonder why have a website at all. disclosure: doop.ie had a hand in the design & blog training. Art Francais are part of leitrim county enterprise board’s Innovate programme.

in 1999 i bought a personal organiser (palm Vx) from the Indigo Shop (i got it for £60 less than the high street with free delivery & leather wallet)

On telling my good friend denise cox [denisecox.net] that I had obtained a personal organiser, she asked me.

d_c. “does it work?”
bhg. “of course it works; its new!”
d_c. “no i mean does it work, are you more organised?”

the penny drops. nice one denise. i am the most disorganised person I know(i also write long paragraphs like this one). so why do i achieve so much. disorganised chaos. In 2006 a few things helped me continue my disorganised life. WebCal became standard in doop, I began to exclusively telework and I sampled collaborative document sharing via google docs. I get my news fix by RSS, I cut down my podcast subscriptions to the bear essentials, and I have almost cut out all TV except for motorised satellite feed searching, podcasts replaced my radio listening in 2005, and I don’t do gaming (never have). But all this help gives me more chances to say “yes” to people, when I should say “no”, also teleworking needs its discipline… but I will take a bit of indiscipline versus commuting.. I have worked out I am saving 20 days on zero commute, (24hr days or 60+ business days saved) thats TWELVE weeks a year for a 2 hour commuter. Attending meetings that are not via VOIP like real F2F meetings that aren’t sales, well to me that’s not commuting, its a travel expense… so if workers are in control of their business and can telework, then there is a 16% plus time bonus available.

So if I can realize the new time expansion what will I spend it on? “agitate educate organise” or more like organise, educate, agitate. to be continued.