PUBLIC SECTOR PAY TALKS

Posted on by June 22, 2017

Public Sector pay talks took place recently and the negotiations were, as always, aired on the media, with both sides firing shots over the bow of the other.

“Our members have borne the brunt of the economic recovery and now demand blah blah,” shout the Unions. “The fiscal space is unclear at this time and any concessions will need to be met by more productivity,” purrs the Government.

It’s all fairly predictable stuff played out with boring regularity by much the same representatives of entitlement classes each time. But each time too I am puzzled by the productivity word. Productivity is defined as, “The effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input.” Given that this productivity thing is always the pivot on which everything else swings, it raises a few important questions.

So, when the Government demands more productivity from employees, are they demanding a longer working week? The answer is apparently not. So are they suggesting that currently these, (hundreds of thousands), of Gov. employees are purposely slacking off and not doing the jobs they’re paid for? Well, the best you can say about that is, ‘they wouldn’t dare suggest that.’ So what portion of the so-called personal productivity is lacking? Who is being unproductive and why aren’t they named and shamed? If they are not doing their job but still picking up the money anyway are they not comparable to dole cheats? Why aren’t these unproductive leeches simply fired, as happens everywhere else? If the Government can formally make such an accusation then surely they must have hard evidence to back up their ‘productivity’ claims?

Worse again though is the fact that the Unions seem quite happy to negotiate the amount of productivity their members are willing to offer. This is akin to saying, “We know/admit that our members are withholding their efforts in the workplace but we will get them to improve if you give us this, that and the other thing.” Can you imagine your Union Rep. sitting with your manager/owner and saying, “I know he only shows up three days a week but if you agree to give him ten grand more a year, I’ll get him to come in more often?” Oh! And very importantly, there is no monitoring of either party to this debate as regards their own productivity. And yet this productivity issue is the kernel of the national debate.

Or is it? Is this whole thing a sham, a game of poker with the taxpayers money where in the end, both sides emerge claiming victory?

UPDATE ON DEADLY SYRIA

Posted on by June 21, 2017

Hot on the heels of Russia threatening to shoot down anything that flies in their area of influence, Australia has suspended air combat missions over Syria

Let me just remind you that the Government of Assad in Damascus is the democratically elected Government of Syria. You might moan about the standard of their electoral process but then again, the same criticism might be leveled at any US election also. There is no doubt either that the US has been attempting to overthrow Assad’s Government for the last seven years and has been quite open in admitting so. But this flies in the face of international law and the United Nations Charters and is just another in a long line of unilateral actions taken by America because they believe they can get away with it. It bears repeating that the United States has absolutely no legal right to interfere in the affairs of Syria or any other sovereign nation, never mind becoming militarily involved in the overthrow of their legitimate Government on its own soil.

However, as the democratically elected leader of Syria, Assad is legally within his rights to seek assistance from Nations friendly to him and that’s what he did with Russia. He asked the Russians to help him take back the skies over his country as a major step forward in the fight against ISIS. When they showed up, Putin’s boys didn’t hang around either. In city after city and town after town, they blasted the shit out of the nut cases, so much so that many of their number gave up and slipped back into Iraq or Turkey.

With the above as the background, last week the target area in the war on ISIS was the town Raqqa. ISIS have been there for nearly three years and though the Americans have aircraft in that area, they never laid a finger on the terrorists. More then once in the last year, the Russians have publicly asked, “Whose side are the Americans on?” So, as is their right as a Nation, the Syrians moved on Raqqa with elements of their Air Force attacking ISIS positions from the air. What happened next is very odd.

The US said its planes had acted to defend US-backed forces seeking to capture Raqqa and that was their excuse for shooting down a legitimate military aircraft acting in the confines of its own country during a time of almost civil war. The presence of the Americans in Syria is utterly illegal and yet our western media never mentions that. Not only were they not asked to come in, they have had demands that they leave from the elected Government of that country many times.

It becomes even more strange when you learn that ISIS is funded, armed and trained by Saudi Arabia, one of America’s most important allies. You could understand therefore why the Yanks have turned a complete blind eye to ISIS since the beginning. Indeed, it is rumored that ISIS is a means to an end for Washington if they, (ISIS), succeed in turning Syria into the sort of basket cases that Iraq and Libya have become.

But back to last week in Raqqa. Col John Thomas, a spokesman for US Central Command, said there were no US forces in the immediate vicinity but that the SDF was under threat for more than two hours. Therefore American lives were not in danger and instead they were protecting the SDF. According to the Guardian, “The SDF, is an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters working alongside western special forces.” But Turkey is fighting the Kurds and the US & Turkey are in NATO together. If that wasn’t crazy enough, have a look at the list of all of the nine warring factions currently operating in Syria.

The Turks are bombing Syria along their border, the Iranians fired missiles into Syria last weekend, the Americans are on the ground there offering help to anyone who will fight to overthrow Assad regardless of their declared terrorist intentions towards the West and the Russians are there helping Assad to stay in power by retaking his country.

I am leaning towards support for Moscow in this regard as Putin has told the West several times that Russia wants ISIS defeated first, then it wants to see a ceasefire and after that they have Assad’s agreement to hold national (internationally monitored), elections so that Syrians can decide their own fate in their own country. Compare that to the stated American position where they want to see Syria broken up into warring factions, much like has happened in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. They would appear to be supporting absolute savagery where civil law and order is gone completely, the infrastructure of the country has been utterly destroyed and the citizens are at the mercy of the ruling warlord in their own area.

Personally, I’d prefer Assad, with all his faults!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOW YOU TREAT VISITING GUESTS

Posted on by June 19, 2017

Over the years we have not had many overnight visitors to Chateau-Mallon. This has more to do with the limitations on space rather than any unpopularity. A three-bedroomed house with four adults doesn’t lend itself to friends staying over.

However, I had a bachelor-flat once that hosted several visitors, some for long stays. Our family home before that saw many non-paying guests over the years and I have fond memories of all of them. But starting early in the nineties I do remember overhearing others complain bitterly about the antics of visitors to their home. Typical of comments at the time were the likes of, “We were good enough to take them in and feed them and then they left the place like a pigsty.” These observations became louder and nastier as we moved into the new century and people became less tolerant but more jumped-up during the Celtic Tiger.

Those thoughts returned to me today as I looked at images of the latest atrocities in London and Manchester. I have not written much about Islamic extremism because I am in two minds about who is most at fault for it. But the micro-analogy of guests in your home is relevant to the whole area of Muslim immigrants in the West, (or anywhere else for that matter).

I have recounted trips I made to the UK during the worst of the IRA violence in the seventies. I didn’t do any of it of course but I was, (sort of), guilty by association. I was 100 per cent Irish in a country was that was being bombed by Irish extremists claiming to be doing it in my name. But first and foremost, I was a visitor to the UK, taken in, feed and sheltered by them in return for money given to me by a UK company. It would have been second nature to me to behave correctly and respectfully even back then. Call it basic good manners if you will. I only misbehave at home among my own, (Tee-Hee).

But as an example, I was Catholic in a Protestant country but the sight of one of their chapels did not offend me, (do you see where I’m going with this?)” The cultural Britishness I encountered daily was not offensive to me either. I don’t remember saying to anyone over there that if they didn’t revoke their Britishness and become Irish then they must surely die like dogs. I suffered no desire to kill strangers while in London. Indeed, I cannot remember anytime in my life wanting to murder my hosts. It was and is, a ridiculous notion! I encountered kindness and a welcome in the main and reciprocated in kind. The odd time there was bitter indifference and I could only shrug at that.

But in the host/guest relationship there are duties and responsibilities on both sides. The average UK taxpayer might grumble that they don’t owe Middle-Eastern immigrants a living, particularly in the UK. But if they are now bank-rolling them then surely the least they might expect is that the guests would behave themselves and show a modicum of gratitude to their hosts. I do not think this is an unreasonable expectation.

For the immigrant, they have been, we are told, forced to leave their own countries due to persecution and even wars. Their wealthy Arab/Muslim neighbours refuse to take them in, as in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. But when the Humane European States take them in, feed and house them, pay them and offer them the opportunity of an education, they appear to deeply resent us. It is almost as if they would prefer the European Navies machine-gunned them and their families before they reached these shores. I don’t get it?

Before, during and after the Famine, Irish men and women in their millions became immigrants to countries all over the world. They were universally vilified and hated wherever they went. In several countries they were sold into slavery. Signs such as “No dogs or Irish,” were common wherever they showed up. Far from imposing their religion, language or culture, they had to struggle to even survive and hundreds of thousands of them didn’t. Fast forward to today and compare the Muslim immigrants in any of the EU countries by comparison.

Am I the only one here who senses a bit of irony?

 

 

 

A NEW AND DEADLY THREAT, (Just out today)

Posted on by June 19, 2017

The Middle East today is a complete mess, isn’t it? Many years ago I chatted with an old engineer who had spent the last fifteen years of his working career with the oil industry all over the Middle East. He spoke about the differences between the countries of course but insisted that what they all had in common was that Arabs were inveterate liars.

It is a generalization of course but what is true is that the first casualty of war is the truth. For several years now there has been a hot war going on in Syria and I have written before that what is most dangerous about this war is that the USA and Russia have forces on the ground and in the air in that country. The Russians are there at the invitation of their long time allay in Damascus and the Americans just went in, in contravention of the UN.

Yesterday, the Syrian Air Force attacked an ISIS stronghold using Russian-made jets. The Americans shot one of these jets down so
Russia today threatened to intercept any aircraft in its area of operations in Syria, according to official Russian news outlets.

According to this source, “The threat came a day after a U.S. warplane shot down a Russian-built Syrian army jet in the southern Raqqa countryside, with Washington saying the jet had dropped bombs near U.S.-backed forces and Damascus saying the plane was downed while flying a mission against Islamic State militants.”

As a result, the Russian Defense Ministry said it will consider as targets any flying objects in areas where its air forces operate in Syria, the TASS news agency reported.This includes aircraft and drones operated by the U.S.-led international coalition west of the Euphrates River, the Defense Ministry said, according to Interfax. The Defense Ministry said the U.S. didn’t use the communication channel with Russia prior to downing the Syrian plane.

Coincidentally, I recently watched a program on RT where a Russian Military Expert discussed the American proposal to make Syria a “No-fly Zone.” In Russia, a no-fly zone is defined as area where no aircraft of any kind are permitted in the air, even Russian aircraft. The American side view a no-fly zone as an area only they and their allies may fly in. You can see the problem here immediately. As of today, (19/6/2017), the Russians will enforce their no-fly zone meaning Russian surface-to-air missiles may be fired at US fighters and drones.

It is a deadly situation that could easily and quickly escalate out of hand.