Archive for July, 2010

Turkeys vote for Christmas

Published July 7th, 2010 in report and quango watch. 0 Comments

The board of the Office of Tobacco Control (OTC) says it “welcoms the Government’s decision to merge the OTC into the HSE in 2011 as part of the Government’s ongoing rationalisation programme.”

The OTC’s Chairperson, Norma Cronin, said that this move will “ensure that Ireland’s ongoing work to create a tobacco-free society – in which Ireland is a world leader – will stay at the heart of public health.”

Well if that is the case why was the OTC established as a seperate entity in the first place?

Usually QUANGOs are established to take hot topics away from Government Departments, and thus shield ministers. For example the Road Safety Authority (RSA) is a QUANGO that performs tasks that were mostly previously performed by the Deparment of Transport.

Well who wanted to keep Tobacco at arms lenght when the OTC was established? Well everyone I suppose, its a substance that while being legal is most unfashionable.

Well the OTC now falls under the umbrella of the HSE, but its still ok for the Minister for Health, as the HSE - itself a QUANGO of sorts - it at arms lenght from the Department of Health.

But on a more serious note, in fairness to the powers that be…

“In March 2004, Ireland became the first country in the world to successfully introduce smoke-free workplaces legislation which has already conferred huge health and environmental benefits on the population as a whole. Many countries across the world have looked to Ireland as an example and have since followed suit.”

and that single decision, often forgotten, is a credit to the Government.

The Jennings Gallery at UCC

Published July 6th, 2010 in fort knox and ucc. 0 Comments

Just as we have gotten to grips with the marvellous Glucksman Gallery at UCC (University College Cork, Ireland) another one appears on the radar; The

The Jennings Gallery Logo

College of Medicine & Health
Brookfield Health & Sciences Complex
College Road
University College Cork

We must investigate this (not so) new development. The last time we went into the Brookfield complex we ended up at a magstrip reader for the plush library, and left in disguist, well one of our party did.

Poetry to our ears

Published July 6th, 2010 in crooners and music. 0 Comments

Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886 – 1918) was an American journalist, poet, literary critic, lecturer, and editor. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his religious faith, Kilmer is remembered most for a short poem entitled “Trees” (1913), which was published in in 1914. At the time of his deployment to Europe during the first World War (1914–1918), Kilmer was considered the leading American Catholic poet and lecturer of his generation, A sergeant in a U.S. Infantry Regiment, Kilmer was killed at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.

The text stated below is the original written by Kilmer.

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

There have been several variations on the text, including many parody texts substituted to mimic Kilmer’s seemingly simple rhyme and meter, and questioning the poem’s choice of metaphors.[37] Of the often repeated parodies, one of the most known is “Song of the Open Road” by Ogden Nash (1902–1971):

I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall,
I’ll never see a tree at all.[38]

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