I think we all respect excellence, in one form or another, although most of us would laugh if it were suggested we aspire to it in our own lives. However,I suspect we all, at least to some extent, think we do some, or even one, thing better than most people.
What is it which attracts us to a painting which we believe that no one, other than the artist could ever have painted so well. Is it because we believe that somewhere absolute perfection lies?
Why is it that people want to "make something of themselves"?
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
More About NATO
Georgia is a snall, rather remote, country, physically the size of the Irish Republic, nestling between the Soviet Union, Turkey, and Iran. Why would NATO be so anxious to extend membership to this country?
I suggest that first we have to recognise that NATO has come a long way since Western Europe cowered under its umbrella. Few, if any, Europeans feel threatened by Russia, or anybody else, so that I suspect that they do not really have any great notion of it, except as some amorphous group which acts in a protective fashion. I think that it is always unfortunate when ordinary citizens allow themselves to lose sight of why their governments are doing certain things, and of the devices, or institutions, they are using. I think that the reason Georgia is being wooed as a prospective member of NATO is not because the West is threatened by Russia anymore, but because of its need for natural resources.
Western Europe has a great need for oil and natural gas, much of the gas coming from Russia, which maximises the price, and sometimes can act in an apparently capricious manner. Kazakhstan, a former Russian republic, east of the Caspian Sea, has vast reserves of natural gas, which it is ready to supply to the West. This gas could be supplied through Russia, which would add stiff premiums, or it could be shipped by pipeline through Georgia, and this is the current intention.
I have no problem with people making money, and no desire to pay more to heat my home than is necessary, but I think we should be aware of what our leaders are doing, in our name, and why they are doing it. There is one additional aspect I would like to address another day. It is the effect on the people who live in these areas of contest.
I suggest that first we have to recognise that NATO has come a long way since Western Europe cowered under its umbrella. Few, if any, Europeans feel threatened by Russia, or anybody else, so that I suspect that they do not really have any great notion of it, except as some amorphous group which acts in a protective fashion. I think that it is always unfortunate when ordinary citizens allow themselves to lose sight of why their governments are doing certain things, and of the devices, or institutions, they are using. I think that the reason Georgia is being wooed as a prospective member of NATO is not because the West is threatened by Russia anymore, but because of its need for natural resources.
Western Europe has a great need for oil and natural gas, much of the gas coming from Russia, which maximises the price, and sometimes can act in an apparently capricious manner. Kazakhstan, a former Russian republic, east of the Caspian Sea, has vast reserves of natural gas, which it is ready to supply to the West. This gas could be supplied through Russia, which would add stiff premiums, or it could be shipped by pipeline through Georgia, and this is the current intention.
I have no problem with people making money, and no desire to pay more to heat my home than is necessary, but I think we should be aware of what our leaders are doing, in our name, and why they are doing it. There is one additional aspect I would like to address another day. It is the effect on the people who live in these areas of contest.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Tribute to a Lady
This week our Father took a lovely member of our family to himself. Elizabeth had struggled for many weeks with the results of the latest heart procedure she had undergone. At last, when the doctors conceded they could do no more, her face was peaceful and contented.
Elizabeth had always lived with a heart deficiency, and she underwent various procedures, including major surgery more than once, but she never craved attention, nor let it stop her trying to live as normal a life as she could. She was an inspiration to us all in her Stoic acceptance, and determination not to let it deny her an iota of enjoyment and achievement from her life. Elizabeth was, and is, an inspiration to all of us, especially when we carp at trifles, or complain that life is unfair to us.
Enjoy your happiness, Elizabeth, because we know that you are enjoying happiness that we cannot begin to understand. We miss you: we always will, but we trust our Father that he has every intention of bringing us all together again, and that there will then be no more partings, nor sadness.
Au revoir.
Elizabeth had always lived with a heart deficiency, and she underwent various procedures, including major surgery more than once, but she never craved attention, nor let it stop her trying to live as normal a life as she could. She was an inspiration to us all in her Stoic acceptance, and determination not to let it deny her an iota of enjoyment and achievement from her life. Elizabeth was, and is, an inspiration to all of us, especially when we carp at trifles, or complain that life is unfair to us.
Enjoy your happiness, Elizabeth, because we know that you are enjoying happiness that we cannot begin to understand. We miss you: we always will, but we trust our Father that he has every intention of bringing us all together again, and that there will then be no more partings, nor sadness.
Au revoir.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Getting to Kimmage Road
Last Thursday Maura and I were once more exploring how to get to Kimmage Road. this time we wanted to find a bus which started in the centre of the city, near Connolly Station, where our DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) trains leave us off. Our reason for doing this was because Dublin public transportation is geocentric: it starts with the premise that everything has to go through the centre of the city, so if you can't beat them you must join them.
I had various data. Bus maps from Dublin Bus' office in O'Connell Street, printed routes, and timetables for various bus routes which I had downloaded from the Internet. I wasn't making much progress, because the route information on the timetables was quite cryptic. I decided to access Google's maps, and I started out with the map of the United States, and moved my pointer across the Atlantic to Ireland, and then kept focusing on Dublin, getting a more detailed map all the time, until I had Kimmage Road. It didn't really help, because the route information on the timetables did not mention Kimmage road. I kept studying the Google map, for no apparent reason, because it did not address bus routes. I noticed cyphers by a large intersection, and wondered what they signified. I focused the poimter, and clicked, and, what do you know, it was the number of a bus. I tracked along Kimmage road to the cypher nearest 105, the address I wanted, and pointed again, number 15a. I was more alert by now, and noticed in the margin some notes, including "To" and "From". I clicked "To", and I got a response,"Where do you want to go?" I responded "105 Kimmage Road" The response this time was a line on the map which started at the nearest cypher, representing the nearest bus stop, and finished at 105 Kimmage Road, adding that it was a distance of half a kilometre.
I had various data. Bus maps from Dublin Bus' office in O'Connell Street, printed routes, and timetables for various bus routes which I had downloaded from the Internet. I wasn't making much progress, because the route information on the timetables was quite cryptic. I decided to access Google's maps, and I started out with the map of the United States, and moved my pointer across the Atlantic to Ireland, and then kept focusing on Dublin, getting a more detailed map all the time, until I had Kimmage Road. It didn't really help, because the route information on the timetables did not mention Kimmage road. I kept studying the Google map, for no apparent reason, because it did not address bus routes. I noticed cyphers by a large intersection, and wondered what they signified. I focused the poimter, and clicked, and, what do you know, it was the number of a bus. I tracked along Kimmage road to the cypher nearest 105, the address I wanted, and pointed again, number 15a. I was more alert by now, and noticed in the margin some notes, including "To" and "From". I clicked "To", and I got a response,"Where do you want to go?" I responded "105 Kimmage Road" The response this time was a line on the map which started at the nearest cypher, representing the nearest bus stop, and finished at 105 Kimmage Road, adding that it was a distance of half a kilometre.
Friday, September 5, 2008
The Removal
Maura and I went to a removal the other evening. It wasn't a house removal, it was the removal of a corpse, one of Maura's cousins, from the funeral home to the church. We did not start at the funeral home, as many would have done, constituting a long procession across country from Kilcock to Moynalvey in Meath. We were late, trying to locate a place which had taken the Internet's resources to locate, and at last we were looking for the final turn, after the Hatchet public house, and the Gaelic football field, when we saw a Guarda car parked by the side of the road. Of course! Brian was a Guarda Siochana!
"We are late for Brian O'Sullivan's removal, can you help?"
"Sure, that's why we're here. Take this turn for half a mile."
A quarter of a mile, and the cars were littered all over the place, and scores of people were just standing by the road, waiting for the hearse to arrive so that they might fall in behind it.
More Guarda, frowning this time, implying, "You don't expect to park here?"
"I have an elderly lady with me, I need invalid parking."
"Sneak in there to the left, sir."
Right beside the church, a beautiful little, cut-stone country church in the middle of nowhere, which would have to have been three or four times as big to house everyone, so I stood outside, and listened to the prayers on loudspeakers, while Peggy and Maura wheedled their way inside.
Then we all jostled our way inside, as those inside left, after filing past the mourning family, and expressing their condolences, so that we, in turn could express our sorrow for the family's loss.
Later Maura told me another cousin asked her to apologise to me because she had not acknowledged my presence personally. There is a hierarchy at Irish funerals: the older you are the more reverent people are to you.
"We are late for Brian O'Sullivan's removal, can you help?"
"Sure, that's why we're here. Take this turn for half a mile."
A quarter of a mile, and the cars were littered all over the place, and scores of people were just standing by the road, waiting for the hearse to arrive so that they might fall in behind it.
More Guarda, frowning this time, implying, "You don't expect to park here?"
"I have an elderly lady with me, I need invalid parking."
"Sneak in there to the left, sir."
Right beside the church, a beautiful little, cut-stone country church in the middle of nowhere, which would have to have been three or four times as big to house everyone, so I stood outside, and listened to the prayers on loudspeakers, while Peggy and Maura wheedled their way inside.
Then we all jostled our way inside, as those inside left, after filing past the mourning family, and expressing their condolences, so that we, in turn could express our sorrow for the family's loss.
Later Maura told me another cousin asked her to apologise to me because she had not acknowledged my presence personally. There is a hierarchy at Irish funerals: the older you are the more reverent people are to you.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
NATO
I have found myself thinking of NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation,in connection with various violence around the world.
As the second world war drew to a close, there was substantial concern over the future of Western Europe. Northern Italy was very strongly inclined to communism, and there was a real concern that the Russians fighting the Germans might join up with the Italian communist partisans. This concern was avoided, partly because of the sudden surrender of the German forces in northern Italy. However, the communist parties in France and Italy were so strong that for years there was concern about these countries' political future, especially that of Italy.
In 1949 America guaranteed Western Europe's future by creating NATO, which brought much of western Europe together under the guarantee of United States military support, an action which pushed into history America's pre second world war isolationism. Europe has thrived under the NATO umbrella, and the original need of it may have disappeared. It still exists, however, and is used for what appear to me to be quite different purposes from those which justified its creation.
I intend to explore some of these situations periodically.
As the second world war drew to a close, there was substantial concern over the future of Western Europe. Northern Italy was very strongly inclined to communism, and there was a real concern that the Russians fighting the Germans might join up with the Italian communist partisans. This concern was avoided, partly because of the sudden surrender of the German forces in northern Italy. However, the communist parties in France and Italy were so strong that for years there was concern about these countries' political future, especially that of Italy.
In 1949 America guaranteed Western Europe's future by creating NATO, which brought much of western Europe together under the guarantee of United States military support, an action which pushed into history America's pre second world war isolationism. Europe has thrived under the NATO umbrella, and the original need of it may have disappeared. It still exists, however, and is used for what appear to me to be quite different purposes from those which justified its creation.
I intend to explore some of these situations periodically.
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