canisgallicus

2020 New Year

Quotations selected from books read; youtube speakers and selections of quotations via Google.

“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.” ~ Erich Fromm

“Consistency is the playground of dull minds.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“A primary justification for a basic income is social justice”.  – Guy Standing

“Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” ~ Erich Fromm

“I love information.  I can never get enough.  I get bored easily.”  ~ Eric Topol

“Medicine is still all about treating populations, not people – one-size-fits all treatments and diagnoses.”  ~ Eric Topol

“Wars are times of intense technological transformation, because societies invest – sometimes with extensive borrowing – when and where matters of life and death are at stake.” ~ George Friedman

“One of the great famines in human history took place during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. [At the same time] Western journalists were reporting how marvelously Chinese society was working. We know so little [about what happens in China].” ~ George Friedman

“Anger does not make history. Power does. And power may be supplemented by anger, but it derives from more fundamental realities; geography, demographics, technology, and culture.” ~ George Friedman

“The thing you have to remember is, oil and gas are commodities, and the more we use them the more the price goes up, like any commodity. Solar, wind – they are technologies, so the more you use them, the more the price goes down.” ~ Thomas Friedman

“The threat of environmental crisis is the ‘international disaster key’ to unlock the New World Order.” ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

“Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences.” ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

“When future generations judge those who came before them on environmental issues, they may conclude “they didn’t know”: let us not go down in history as the generations who knew, but didn’t care” ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” ~ George Orwell

“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.” ~ George Orwell

“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.  ~ John Steinbeck

	“I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions–poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed–which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished.” ~ Howard Zinn
	“Governments like it that way. They want their people to see war as a drama of opposites, good and evil, “them” and “us,” victory or defeat. But war is primarily not about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death. It represents the total failure of the human spirit.” ― Robert Fisk, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
	“Journalism can be lethal” ― Robert Fisk, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East   do not think that war is always wrong: sometimes it is necessary to stop a dictator, prevent massive human-rights abuses, or expel an invader. But I have also seen that in the modern world, civil wars are the greatest threat to humanitarian security. Jonathan Powell Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/jonathan-powell-quotes

“A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.  They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themseles an unrecorded, unanalysed thought.  And that’s a problem because privacy matter, privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be”.  ~ Edward Snowden

“Richard Nixon got kicked out of Washington for tapping one hotel suite.  Today we’re tapping every American citizen in the country, and no one has been put on trial for it or even investigaged.  We don’t have an inquiry into it.   ~ Edward Snowden.

“Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.” ~ Aristotle

There is a saying that if you get something for free, you should know that you’re the product. It was never more true than in the case of Facebook and Gmail and YouTube. You get free social-media services, and you get free funny cat videos. In exchange, you give up the most valuable asset you have, which is your personal data. Yuval Noah Harari
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/yuval-noah-harari-quotes

“The last thing a teacher needs to give her pupils is more information. They already have far too much of it. Instead, people need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and above all to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world.”  ~ Yuval Noah Harari, 21 lessons for the 21st Centuary

“In 2012 about 56 million people died throughout the world; 620,000 of them died due to human violence (war killed 120,000 people, and crime killed another 500,000). In contrast, 800,000 committed suicide, and 1.5 million died of diabetes. Sugar is now more dangerous than gunpowder.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow

“Nothing captures the biological argument better than the famous New Age slogan: ‘Happiness begins within’.  Money, social status, plastic surgery, beautiful houses, powerful positions – none of these will bring you happiness.  Lasting happiness comes only from serotonin, dopamine and oxtoycin.”  ~ Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens, A brief History of Humankind

We are all living together on a single planet, which is threatened by our own actions. And if you don’t have some kind of global cooperation, nationalism is just not on the right level to tackle the problems, whether it’s climate change or whether it’s technological disruption. Yuval Noah Harari
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/yuval-noah-harari-quotes

“Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt, they can’t afford the time to think.” ~ Noam Chomsky

“That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.” ~ Noam Chomsky

“A lot of the diagnosis and monitoring functions will be done through little devices – smartphones – by the patient with computer assistance. So it’s a real big change in the model of how we render healthcare.” ~ Eric Topol

“I have had my genome fully sequenced and have learned a great deal about which medications I would respond to and which might or would induce major side effects, along with knowing many medical conditions for which I’m particularly susceptible.” ~ Eric Topol

“The IP system is an artificial construcct that excessively rewards ownes of intellectual property, granting them monopolies over inveentions and ideas, that in many cases, are the product of generations of thinkers and/or publicly funded research”.  ~ Guy Standing

Across Europe, not just in the U.K., the old Beveridge and Bismarckian variants of the welfare state have been dismantled.  In their place has been erected a mish-mash of means-tested, behaviour-tested social assistance, with a growing tendency to force young unemployed into workfare schemes, which are helping to depress real wages.  ~ Guy Standing

“I don’t see basic income as a panacea, but we must have a new income distribution system.  The old one has broken down irretrievably.  ~ Guy Standing.

“If I care for an elderly relative without payment, it is not work, it is not counted in national income, and, as it is not labour, it is not counted as work.  Should my neighbour pay me to do precisely the same tasks, it would contribute to economic growth.”  ~ Guy Standing

“What distinguishes a commons is that it is not private property, does not have a price, and is oriented towards ‘use value’ rather than ‘exchange value.’  It does not exist to generate profits.”  ~ Guy Standing

“The word “collective” is not so often used because it has been basically used by socialists and communists and has a different history. The word “cooperative” means the workplace itself is organized cooperatively, rather than in the conventional capitalistic, hierarchical form.” ~ Richard D. Wolff

“Poor people, especially those of color, are worth nothing to corporations and private contractors if they are on the street. In jail and prisons, however, they can each generate corporate revenues of $30,000 to $40,000 a year.” ~ Chris Hedges

“It is the cult of self that is killing the United States. This cult has within it the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance ; a need for constant stimulation; a penchant for lying, deception and manipulation; and the incapacity for remorse or guilt.” ~ Chris Hedges

“A society without the means to detect lies and theft soon squanders its liberty and freedom.” ~ Chris Hedges

“The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.” ~ Erich Fromm

We were saddened to report on the death of 13 much-loved vendors this year

Source: In tribute to The Big Issue vendors we lost in 2019

Boxing Day or as some call it St. Stephen’s Day, the day of the Leopardstown Races, I was walking through what I call my smart urban village, called Upper Baggot Street, which had shed its clothing of Tech workers and elites for those people who have lived their lives in this area.  There is always a story to be heard.  The Waterloo was open to business and I sat down with a few people for a chat about life and their lives.  The management in the Waterloo, because of the day that was in it, made the kind gesture of a free Americano.  Thank you to them.  I started talking about my dream for the Royal City of Dublin hospital (Upper Baggot Street) https://canisgallicus.com/2019/11/23/royal-city-of-dublin-hospital-founded-1832-advertised-for-sale-in-2015-local-people-would-really-like-to-know-the-plans-letter-by-ian-thompson-irish-times-23rd-november-2019-homelessness-is-all/ only to hear of yet another story of hardship.  This woman lives in a “flat” in a Georgian house which has offices – she is at the top of the building so she is a very good example to a Taoiseach like Leo Varadkar who puts great emphasis (swimming in the Forty Foot, rather than visiting the homeless) that here is a person who is fit both mentally and physically; she has worked her entire life and yet she is to be evicted from her home of 78 years.  Where is the Justice?  Where is the action?  I am writing to the usual people for help.  My preference is always Fr Peter McVerry and Alice Leahy.  Then I will write to Dermot Lacey, Councillor in the area.  Eoghan Murphy is next on the agenda and then of course there is a person I consider an actor rather than a procrastinator and that is Jim O’Callaghan, Fianna Fail.   

Let me take you back to 2006 because it looks like I was writing about the same type of evictions then and the big question to be answered is what has been done to provide solutions?

 

Thank you Alice Leahy and those who work along with you.  You wrote to me over the Christmas referring me to Threshold.  We now know this woman has moved to an apartment and is happy there.  Michelle

 

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Evictions, the vulnerable in Dublin 4.

There is a very saying. Come progress, come poverty.

During the last census in Ireland, it was spoken about in the Joe Duffy Liveline. It outlined the wealth and the illusion of the everlasting Tiger but people doing the census forms told Joe Duffy of the poverty they experienced in many houses on their rounds.

Two weeks ago I was walking with my dog on the Canal, off Baggot Street, when a lady in distress sitting on a park bench crying – I stopped spoke to her and listened intently to her story. The lady told me come October 10th 2006 at 10.00 p.m. the Sherriff was coming on behalf of the landlord with an order of ejection.

It intrigued me that the word ‘EVICtion…..is not being used now. I took some particulars off the lady and made no promises. Two days later I met a barrister friend of mine. He asked me how long she lived in her flat. I said 27 years. He replied she has rights under the 1980 Act section 17.

I made some more enquiries. The lady has mental health problems and phobias e.g. she will not open her post. She has no electricity for 5 years in the heartland of Georgian Dublin 4.

I ask tonight where are the government agencies to support this lady who is vulnerable in relation to mental health. Who protects the Vulnerable?

On a Wednesday evening I phoned 4 government agencies and in this I include Threshold, Social Services, Citizen Rights Bureau….The answers were all similar….it is too late we cannot help. But what intrigues me most is that nobody mentioned the 1980 Act?

I then phoned the solicitors on behalf of the Landlord – I spent a long time negotiating the cancellation of the Ejection Order which was to happen in 4 days. They lady now has a reprieve until the middle of January. The Ejection Order was cancelled.

Herself and her little dog have a roof over their head for Halloween and Christmas.

They got the Ejection order because this lady feared opening her post for two years.

Where is the new Disability Bill? I ask this question tonight to Enda Kenny, to Pat Rabitte, Joe Higgins, David Norris, and above all Bertie – of Course and also to Minister McDowell who represents this Constituence and is Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform?

What really saddened me was the week before her ejection she was full of anxiety and stress. In tears she tried to access a Government Agency, on a Tuesday evening, but she was refused by the door porter because she simply did not have her PRSI number or ID.

I am not a lawyer but could someone out there clarify this lady’s rights in January 2007. Many houses are being revamped in Dublin 4 – progress, greed and money but morally this lady has rights above all these things within the terms of the Constitution of Ireland.

Quotation

Ignoring history
This quotation to me personally goes back to our Famine, our emigration, our coffin ships, our civil wars and the conflict in the North of Ireland. Now we have wealth and the illusion it will never end……

‘Those who do not remember the past, are codemned to repeat it’
George Santayana 1803-1852
Spanish Born Philosopher

This story had a happy ending thanks in the main to the assistance of Ruari Quinn and a team he worked with.   It is hard to believe that nearly 13 years going forward there are still elderly people, who have paid taxes all their lives, living the life of sadness because elderly people are facing the threat of eviction at a time in their lives when they are most vulnerable.

Michelle Clarke, Social Justice and Ethics

To: <ehobbs@indigo.ie>

Subject: Paper by Prof Quinn ‘From Charity to Rights’ and attitude of what I refer to as the ‘Ignorant Educated’

Date: Sunday, September 04, 2005 5:28 PM

 

5th September 2005

Eddie Hobbs

Question for you.  I recognise your tick box only too well, it is about langauge descriptions and areas related to finance concerning work related funds and wealth management.  I can understand this but I am one of the category that are out in Limbo.  I say Limbo because I am the in-between, I used to work, I used to participate and then it stopped one today when I was 32.

What about the Disabilities Bill that lingers as a carrot to be used by FF at the next election?  A Prof. Quinn wrote an excellent paper several years ago ‘From Charity to Rights’.  Foolishly, having lived outside Ireland for a number of years and having been ill, I naively wrote in detail to him, to receive no response.  This is not the English way but then I suppose they left the South in 1921 en masse……..

Presently I am greatly enjoying  Nick Leeson’s  with Ivan Tyrrell book [Back From the Brink, coping with stress’).  I experienced the Corporate Finance days of London – ‘Book my flight Tuesday scenario because Concord goes Tuesday and returns Friday….Every Friday was about Magnums of Champers and the odd policeman incident to keep the men on their ‘macho image platform’.  All fun and high power.  Many interesting clients and ideas!

Eddie.  Ireland is full of committees, research, and ongoing research.   The NDA (National Disabilities Authority) is across the road from me.  My personal experience is that without an advocate and when you are a person with disabilities as result of an accident in later life, you are the outsider looking in and they just don’t seem to be able to offer you the advice or assistance you need.  I have gone to the NDA and other so called service providers several times and written many emails but I seem to keep missing what they provide for people mid life who end up having to face many house moves, divorce, the Church providing an annulment to my former husband without my sanction (the Church had a letter from my psychiatrist to say ‘Halt’ but to them I was a shattered person who deserved no respect.  I am doing well now when you consider my husband left me in a psychiatric hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe.  I returned to Ireland and I fumble as a bipolar with anxiety.  This does not take account of my horse fall; unconsciousness; fractured skull, 100% deaf right ear and laterally discovered considerable damage to my right. 

All I tried to do re. Professor Quinn and others related to Disabilities was to provide them with the social capital of my experience.  The word Denial and a book by S. Cohen comforted me in their ‘educated ignorance’ which I now refer to.

I don’t know if you ever watched Bewitched in the 1960’s.  I loved it as a child but I sure did not think I would end up like the part played by Zaza Gabor (you see post brain injury and with medications thrown in, my neuro circuits are haywire so I appear totally dotty and as I tire easily, I stagger).

Point…..Simple.  I support totally the requirement for an Assessor of Needs for people with Disabilities.  Can we stop the meetings (based on the fact that some people are excluded from attending and have valid input) and can we just demand ‘Rights for people with disabilities’ and that the Rights can be enforced by the Courts and no less.  Protection is vital.  I can vouch that unnecessary stress hampers the life of a person like me.

I need a person to help me manage my affairs…..similar to what you do on the TV with people.  I used to deal currency now I can’t guage the value of anything.  I just work on the basis of spending as little as I can, that there will be enough in my estate to pay the balance.  You see I have a house rented out (My divorce solicitor recommended an agency to wholly manage my property in Castleknock); in the midst of being very ill two years ago, they totally left me dry…of money; of tenants; and just put the keys through my letter box…..It was such a nightmare for me.  I had nobody to help me.  Anything I do goes wrong.  From Church, to entering Trinity as a student with disabilities; to the Divorce courts (all they did is provide me with the capital I brought into the marriage in 1983 i.e the house in Castleknock and the capital provided by mother to me in shares when I had the accident albeit Joint Names)…..Only for medications, the answer is alcohol.

I live in an apartment in Wellington House.  I managed to retrieve my third share in the marriage settlement.  Again the Courts were loaded against me.  I held same with my brother and mother, one third equally and tenants in common.  Post divorce my borther sold out and my mother bought in but again there was no level playing field for me. 

This now reverberates with a situation in Wellington House.  The committee and management company have decided that I am a non person.  I am not entitled to correspondence.  Who is writing the rules in Irish society now?  I can’t work.  I write a little ‘social capital’ plus I have invalidity from the UK and some rent.  I just can’t work the way ‘work’ expects anymore.  However, I have unusual experience. 

I have strong reason to believe that the work carried out on the roof of this building on Wellington Road is highly questionable.  I have written to the management agents on several occasions to report the blatant inconsistencies in the work carried out to the roof; we had a cherry picker on site for nearly two months.  I asked for impartial advice from a Consulting Engineer.  He recommended a roofing contractor who gained access to the roof and confirmed what we suspected.  We provided copies of estimate.  It confirms the apathy in this country.  All I received in response was the judgment that my dog could not remain with me.

We need Rights for People with Disabilities.  We need proper Enforcement, Accountability and Transparency. 

Why did we lose John Fingleton from the Competition Authority?  Where is the efficient, effective regulatory systems to curb greed?

Well done to the work of the Tribunals but one point.  Are people in business so linked to their memory, arrogance and mobile that the concept of the written contract; retain by file method jettisoned.  I ask, at what cost?

I have several files of non answered queries particularly from Govt bureaucratic services.  We are all the people of the Island of Ireland, salaries paid ought not be the denominator of recognition.  John Hume speaks of ‘Diversity in Unity’ – let it be so.

Regards

 

Michelle Clarke

 

Amnesty 2001 – Mental Illness the Neglected Quarter

‘Amnesty is a worldwide voluntary activist movement working with human rights. It is independent of any government, political persuasion or religious creed……

Amnesty’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other International Human Rights Standards’

‘One in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives.

Around 450 million people currently suffer from such conditions, placing mental health disorders among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide.  Treatments are available, but nearly two-thirds of people with a known mental disorder never seek help from a health professional.  Stigma discrimination and neglect prevent care and treatment from reaching people with Mental Disorder….

Where there is neglect, there is little or no understanding. 

Where there is no understanding = NEGLECT