Source: Urban Abandonments and Dereliction. Jonathan Swift quote ‘Give Vision to the Visionless’

Source: Urban Abandonments and Dereliction. Jonathan Swift quote ‘Give Vision to the Visionless’

Source: Nietzche ‘He who has the why to live can bear almost any how’

MENTAL HEALTH and THE WORKPLACE:

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

TRINITY HORIZON PROJECT 1997 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/project-to-help-depression-1.113363

My sequence and processing of thought is not ordinary.  Prior to my traumatic brain injury, it was a highly organised (executive functioning brain) but thereafter it was forgetfulness and muddling, craving structure like before.  The opportunity came and I was interviewed by Dr Margret Fine Davis, Centre for Women Studies https://www.tcd.ie/cgws/research/, Trinity College Dublin, Dr Mary McCarthy, Trinity College Dublin and Professor Pat McKeon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHGTuqiaAYw representing Aware https://www.aware.ie/help/education/aware-monthly-lectures/ which at the time was linked to St Patrick’s Hospital, Dublin 8.  I was selected as one of the first 15 women to be researched.  The funding, similar to now with the Horizon 2020 https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/Researchers/…/Horizon-2020.html funds, was Horizon also ie the EU involvement in the research.  I must add at this point the significant contributions made by my psychiatrist Dr Jim Maguire, EHB Consultant of Psychiatry (RIP) too young, and Sean Collins, Psychologist.

Ironically Dr Margret Fine-Davis is now my neighbour.  I want to document this so that anyone who wants an alternative to the revolving door visits of people consumed by mental health can access the research and maybe the system went off on a tangent and maybe its time to look at an alternative to helping people with mental illness or brain injury or addiction.  I was asked by Dr Fine-Davis in the year 2000 to speak on the subject to a host of people associated with mental health, including psychiatrists and psychologists and many other related areas.  This is what I said then.  Now it is January 2015 and personally I believe little progress has been made.  Opportunities are there.  TedX talks; TedMed talks; Charlie Rose and Nobel prize winner Eric Kandel – the Brain series have surpassed my attempts by attending each month the lectures at St Patrick’s Hospital, Dublin 8, by Consultants in Psychiatry and the quest for knowledge and the reason why?  As necessity dictates with significant memory deficits in fact groundhog day living, I used my prior skill ie typing and compiled details of all lectures I attended at that time.  Education is essential to mapping your way out of The Brain Crisis attached to traumatic brain injury, bipolar, anxiety, depression, exhaustion causing chronic fatigue.  The historical basis is detailed in March 2015 entries on WordPress.com.  In 20 years who would have thought that we could access data from our home computers and be so well informed.

MONDAY, 13TH MARCH 2000

Hosted by:

Centre for Women Studies
Trinity College Dublin https://www.tcd.ie/

As Participant of Project

Speech:

Michelle Clarke, Trinity College, Undergraduate in Business Economics and Social Studies Faculty.

I always wondered how people had the courage to speak to a group and here I am, just about to find out. My approach is to talk as within the confines of our Trinity Horizon group some of whom I can see. Hopefully, what I have learntedwill enable me to talk openly. By this time in the afternoon, you will have a very good appraisal of the objectives of the Programme which was namely a Training and Research Programme to facilitate the entry/re-entry of women recovering from depression to the workplace. The Trinity Horizon Project aimed to build up women’s self esteem and self confidence, to remove us from the social isolation that pervades during a depressive episode, to build back a structure to our day – these being some of the residual or ongoing effects of the illness. The conclusion of the Report states that the most positive aspect was probably the content and structure, the provision of routine and individual counselling and that the fact that it was a proto-type gave people an added incentive to participation.

Women and Society, Creative Writing, Drama Workshop, Personal Development, Women and Health, Computer Training and Career Planning – each in its own way enticed out an untapped resource building up self esteem and confidence penetrating the social isolation that haunts the depressed.

Depression is the leading mental health problem in the world today. By 2020 figures are projected to double. In Ireland, it is estimated that 200,000 people suffer from depression i.e. one in 20 workers, 3.5 % of the population. Of these 0.5% will commit suicide. Only 20% of these will consult a doctor. A recent article by Dr. Patricia Casey, Psychiatrist placed a strong emphasis on the new Mental Health Legislation and the importance to de-stigmatise mental illness. Inequity of funds given to psychiatric services compared to General Hospital Services is highlighted and she puts it to psychiatrists to become advocates for their patients. Psychiatric resources must be as advanced as those in general medicine. The challenge put by her to her fellow psychiatrists is that they too stand charged with collusion.

Depression is no respecter of status, intelligence, class or race. I would put it to those present who can to utilise the research and findings of this project to do something. Our Minister, Mary Harney is abroad seeking immigrants to work in Ireland yet so many with a need for an input to their recovery, are here. They just need support, understanding and reassurance.

My personal experience. I can fully relate to the description given by Spike Milligan. When I move to the socially withdrawn stage I find it increasingly difficult to carry out routine functions, feelings of futility, worthlessness abound and my inner mind engages in the argument of why not suicide. The argument is mainly contained by the concern of not passing such hurt to my family – I know only too well what this hurt is about. Sensitivity becomes extremely acute at low times, and I am very easily hurt, the perfectionist characteristic makes it easy to engage in the procrastination characteristic of someone who is depressed. Lethargic, apathetic, disinterested and a deadening of sensation is what the new person becomes. Those nearest to you are the people you move away from. Since my teenage years I have battled with depression. My Father a doctor, acknowledged a problem but because I was his daughter he did not want to see me go through what he had known by personal experience. Perhaps he was right.

I knew the problem but work became the outlet and without having to mention it, I overworked. In London, I was funded to sit my Law Degree while working in Corporate Finance for the Chairman of Prudential-Bache Corporate Finance. The recession resulted in my husband and I both being made redundant, remaining without any work for 6 months, in a dormitory town in Hertfordshire, with a negative equity property, and a high mortgage. This was when my first severe breakdown occurred. The only work available for my husband entailed moving to Zimbabwe where we remained for four years during which time, as a result of a horse-riding accident I fractured my skull, losing my hearing in my right ear and my sense of smell. My husband, unknown to me had difficulties with the marriage and as soon as he met the right woman he asked me to leave repeatedly. I didn’t, I thought I could work it out, I broke down and ended up in hospital in Harare.

Prior to my accident, I had started voluntary work with two marvellous people, Sr. Noreen and Sr. Margaret at Mashambanzou. This changed my view of life, i.e. the life that is not consumed by a depression. They accepted me in my debilitated state. I played with the little children some of whom were HIV positive and whose mother’s, HIV infected, worked in the cooperative set up to support them while at the same time allowing them dignity. I managed to type letters thanking people for donations and requesting funds. I spoke to people who came to the drop-in centre. These nuns along with friends came to my support. They organised for my brother to take me back to Ireland. My mother cared for me, the broken person that I was. Being a doctor it facilitated non entry to hospital. This was 1996. By 1997, in the midst of yet another depression, I battled daily to the Trinity Horizon Project in Hatch Street. All I can remember is the support. I was clinging on. I was fighting to remain in reality. All I knew was that I had to keep going. By January – “I” had returned. “I” thought the place had been painted, this really is true. It hadn’t – my mood had changed.

It was from the Trinity Horizon that I applied to Trinity. I had resolved throughout the course that my future path in life would be one of openness about my illness. I attended the aptitude test. I was then called for interview by two members of the Economics Department. I was granted a place in BESS and moreover I passed first year. The system in Trinity involves the appointment of a tutor and similar to a mentoring system, they act on your behalf. The concept of disability allocation is new and it takes a University of Trinity’s reputation time to come to terms with the needs of those so classified. Suzy Byrne, a student, is involved in Disabilities and it was she who directed me as to what was available. I understand that a full-time disability officer is employed so this will make the environment for people with disabilities more proactive. I entered Trinity first year in yet another depression but I managed, with the support of others – especially family and friends to get through it. Unfortunately, in second year I was not quite so fortunate and last year was almost 5 months in hospital and had to have 15 sessions of ECT and a change of medication. It was a difficult year but I am back in Trinity, the new medication is suiting me better and I can confirm that one becomes a person among people. My fellow students are a great support. I can ask them clearly if something I am thinking about is ‘sane’ and Stephen even goes so far to ask me if I am down from Planet Lithium yet. You see people see me not the illness. Not alone have I the genetic factors affecting the illness but also there have been quite a few stressful life events which can result in recurrence. Trinity is an experience I would recommend to anyone – not alone is it an academic education but moreover it is an education in life and about people. The interaction can be a two-way exchange – a means of humanising the myth.

Recommendations:

• Awareness. Acknowledge mental illness, try to understand it, educate oneself about it. Let the media address it. 4 years ago – I was overwhelmed, to watch a TV advert in Zimbabwe. It showed a young African man attending an interview and filling in the relevant form. The question that was highlighted was ‘Did he suffer from ‘Mental Illness’ The Message was – Don’t Discriminate. This is a Third World Country as far as the West is concerned. Can we learn anything?

• Vicarious compensation. A person handicapped in one way excels in another. My cousin, unfortunately now deceased, first became ill at the age of 19. It did not hinder becoming him becoming a Barrister/a High Court Judge/a writer. Ironically, being a Judge was less suitable to his illness. A Barrister can manage it more successfully – the flexibility exists.

• The Human Resource person(s), if not office management and Academic staff in Universities, should be sent on 2 day courses specifically geared to psychological training. The benefit of this would not only relate to those with mental illness problems but would deal with other crises e.g. alcoholism, marital breakdown. These too severely impact on productivity. An Investment in Human Capital is essential. Adam Smith rated people as the Wealth of Nations and there are economists seeking its recognition as a contributor to economic activity.

• The option of community work is essential. I was very impressed with Mr. Norbert Tietz, Director EX+JOB, Wunstorf, Germany. The 6% compulsory allocation of employment quota and the 200 mark fine which goes towards the fund for those in rehabilitation from a mental illness is a good example for our policy people to follow.

• Mentoring programmes also provide ideal opportunities to assess a potential working relationship.

This is about Mental Health and the Workplace – What are my ambitions? The truth is to live each day as it comes because as yet I haven’t had a sufficiently long period without depression to be assured that I can commit but I am working at it and I will make it there – I hope. I am presently enjoying the company of Aristotle, Plato, Machiavelli and enjoying the opportunity given to me.

Thank you to Aware for sending the application form, Dr. Fine-Davis, Dr. McKeon and Mary McCarthy who interviewed me and decided to provide a much needed ‘stepping stone’ to the other side of the lake. The solidarity, in particular of a core, within the group has created a synthesis of women who have shared empathy. We will I hope be forever a support to each other, when possible, and moreover true friends. I would also like to thank all others involved in the Project, my family, my friends, my Psychiatrist and his team.

I really hope that someone will recognise this research work and provide the funding to ensure that the Project continues to assist people who suffer from a mental illness. They really need help – untapped capability exists, put aside the stigma and examine the reality.

Michelle Clarke
email: miclarke@tcd.ie

Depression which is disabling and debilitating should be distinguished from a milder depression ‘soul loss’. strong correlation between depression and social support. Traumatic brain injury can lead to depression. There are many pathways to depressive illness. 10 to 15% of depressed patients will eventually die from suicide. It is long known that depression worsens a physical disability. 25% of marriages break up when one partner becomes depressed. Those who are depressed have to take responsibility for it. They need to learn as much about it as possible.

Bibliotherapy, quotations have provided many answers while in a state of  turbulence.  Today I recommend the book Why am I afraid to tell you who I am, because if I tell you who I am, you may not like who I am, and that is all that I have.

Quotation
Tennyson ‘I must lose myself in action, lest I wither myself in despair.

Work-life Balance and Social Inclusion in Ireland: Results of a Nationwide Survey Work-life Balance and Social Inclusion in Ireland: Results of a Nationwide Survey National Flexi-work Partnership work-life balance project: Team Margret Fine-Davis; Mary McCarthy; Grace Edge; Ciara O’Dwyer;  December 2005

Acknowledgements The National Flexi-Work Partnership, a collaborative venture between the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies, Trinity College Dublin, FÁS, the Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation (IBEC), the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), Aware, and Age Action Ireland, carried out survey on work-life balance and social inclusion in the context of a broader project on Work-Life Balance. This Project was funded by the European Social Fund through the EQUAL Community Initiative, administered through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Their support is gratefully acknowledged and particularly that of Tommy Murray of the Department and his staff, Kathleen Glackin and Brona Deegan. The members of the Steering Committee of the National Flexi-Work Partnership are: Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies, Trinity College, Dublin: Dr. Margret Fine-Davis, Senior Research Fellow & Project Director, Mary McCarthy, Deputy Project Director, Grace Edge, Researcher and Ciara O’ Dwyer, Researcher;  Aware: Geraldine Clare, CEO and Julie Healy, National Co-ordinator IBEC: Maria Cronin, Director of EU and Social Policy, and Catherine Maguire, Social Policy Executive ICTU: Anne Speed, Branch Secretary, SIPTU FÁS:Mary Beggan, Manager, Equal Opportunities and Social Inclusion; Age Action Ireland: Robin Webster, CEO and Lorraine Dorgan, Deputy CEO.  The Steering Committee would like to express its great appreciation to two former members of the Steering Committee for their contribution to the conceptualisation and development of this project: Jackie Harrison, former Director of Social Policy, IBEC and Denise Hanrahan, former Family Friendly Co-ordinator, ICTU. We would also like to express genuine appreciation to the Working Party of Employers, who have contributed to the design of the Project and collaborated in various elements of it over the course of 4 years: ∑Arup Consulting Engineers: Grace Grennan, HR Co-ordinator ∑Bright Horizons Neil Brown, General Manager, Ireland, ∑Martina Murphy, Operations Manager, Ireland ∑Cadbury Ireland: Eoin Foster, Industrial Relations Manager ∑Campbell-Bewleys: Catriona Ferriter, Group Human Resources Manager ∑Cantrell and Cochrane: Sharon Dunne, HR Manager ∑Citigroup: Cecilia Ronan, HR Manager

ii∑Creative Labs: Celine Maguire, HR Specialist ∑Darndale Belcamp Integrated Services: Kelda Barnes, Centre Manager ∑Eircom: Gráinne O’Boyle, Employee Relations Manager ∑ESB: Niall O’Connor, Equal Opportunities Officer ∑FÁS: Frank Boyle, HR Manager ∑Irish Biscuits Ltd: Roisin Down, HR Specialist ∑Norwich Union International: Barbara Owen, Head of Human Resources ∑Price Waterhouse Coopers: Annmarie Rogers, Senior Manager-Human Resources ∑St. Andrew’s Resource Centre: John Fitzsimons, Director ∑Trinity College, Dublin: Louise Power, Personnel Officer ∑Walsh Family Foods: Patrick Walsh, Director.  We would also like to acknowledge the valuable contribution made by the members of our Advisory Committee on Work-Life Balance and Mental Health, whose ideas contributed to the study of Mental Health and Employment: Promoting Social Inclusion in the Workforce, which is a separate publication of the Project. These ideas also contributed to the formulation of the questions on mental health in the present survey. This Advisory Committee included: Padraig Allen, Carol Ball, Michelle Clarke, David Cooney, Alan Cosgrave, Sean Daly, Alan Fisher, John Lamb, Ann McGuckin, Reg McCutcheon, Marie Madden, Madeleine Maxwell, Dr. Gerald Morgan and Sean O’Reilly.  The Steering Committee also wishes to thank the following individuals for their contribution to the research and/or the project as a whole: Prof. James Williams, Head, Survey Unit, Economic and Social Research Institute, and his staff, Sylvia Blackwell and Shirley Gorby, for overseeing the data analysis in this survey and in the three other pieces of research carried out by the Project. We would also like to express our thanks to Dr. Dorothy Watson, of the Survey Unit who oversaw the fieldwork in this study. Two of our former staff members, Mairéad O’ Sullivan and Keeley Wynne, are also deserving of great thanks for their major contribution to the project in all aspects, including design of the questionnaire used in the present study. We are also indebted to Hilary Clarke and Florence Craven for their design of tables in the report. Special appreciation is expressed to Gwen Daverth who contributed to the literature review and to the final preparation of the manuscript. We would also like to express our thanks for the continued support and guidance of the EQUAL Technical Support Structure, WRC, throughout the course of the Project: Tony Tyrrell, Manager and Tony Ward, Finance Officer and Ciara Monaghan. The study would not have been possible without the participation of the 1,212 respondents who agreed to be interviewed for the nationwide survey reported here. We wish to record our sincere appreciation to them here. We hope that we have done justice to their views in interpreting them.

iii  Finally, we would like to express our warm appreciation to the children who contributed the paintings and drawings illustrating this report. These children were from two childcare centres that participated in the Men in Childcare element of our Project. The drawings express the children’s portrayal of their concept of ‘work-life balance’. Cover design and layout by Design Matters Catherine Bodey

iv  Table of Contents Page Acknowledgements i 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background to the Work-Life Balance Project 1 1.2 The Effects of Flexible Working on Work-Life Balance and Social Inclusion 1.3 Men in Childcare 1 2 1.4 Mental Health and Employment: Promoting Social Inclusion in the Workplace 3 1.5 The Current Nationwide Study – Aims 3 1.6 Review of Previous Research4 2 Method 17 2.1 Sampling and Final Sample 17 2.2 Re-weighting the Data 18 2.3 Data Collection Procedures 19 2.4 Questionnaire 20 2.5 Data Analysis Procedures 23 3 Results 25 3.1 Demographic Characteristics of the Sample 25 3.2 Living Arrangements and Caring Responsibilities 27 3.3 Attitudes to Gender Roles 39 3.4 Commuting 51 3.5Work Characteristics of the Sample 56 3.6 Work and Work Arrangements 59

v  3.7 Attitudes and Experiences of Non-Employed Respondents 73 3.8 Attitudes to Working Arrangements 77 3.9 Demographic Determinants of Attitudes to Flexible Working 82 3.10 Older Workers and Retirement Issues 90 3.11 Attitudes to People with Mental Health Problems 102 3.12 Work-Life Balance and Well-Being 109 3.13 Relationships between Work Characteristics, Work-Life Balance and Well-being 120 4 Summary and Conclusions 124 References 143

===============================================

Source: Urban Abandonments and Dereliction. Jonathan Swift quote ‘Give Vision to the Visionless’

National debt of Ireland illustrated in a clear and friendly way so that everybody can understand. Mobile Friendly for iPhone and iPad.

Source: Ireland Debt Clock :: National Debt of Ireland

Source: SELECTION OF QUOTATIONS: HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016

Source: Royal City of Dublin Hospital for sale, War Memorial World War 1, history British Empire to Irish Republic, established 1832

“Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac”. Henry Kissinger

Source: SELECTION OF QUOTATIONS: HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016

Justice:

JUSTICE:

“No man can write who is not first a humanitarian”
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer and Nobel Prize laureate

“A just society is that society in which ascending sense of reverence and descending sense of contempt is dissolved into the creation of a compassionate society”
B.R. Ambedkar, The Annihilation of Caste  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNAdYLbGLKY

“We can and must respond creatively to the triple crisis and simultaneously overcome dehumanization, economic inequality, and, ecological catastrophe.”
Vandana Shiva https://twitter.com/drvandanashiva

“There is nothing more ancient than the truth.”
Rene Descartes

“Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum.
(English: “I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am”)
Rene Descartes

“Justice is truth in action”
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech, Feb. 11, 1851

HUMAN NATURE:
(Anger is about emotion and often involves blame: we can learn to change our attitudes)

“Anyone can become angry — that is easy. But to be angry with the right person,to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way; this is not easy.”
Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) Greek philosopher.

“Anger ventilated often hurries towards forgiveness;anger concealed often hardens into revenge.”
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) British politician, poet and critic.

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. poet, essayist and lecturer.

“He best keeps from anger who remembers that God is always looking upon him.”
Plato (BC 427-BC 347) Greek philosopher
.
“No one is as angry as the person who is wrong.”
Proverb

“The best fighter is never angry.”
Lao Tzu

“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”
Thomas Paine, Founding Father of the United States

“In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn than to contemplate.”
Rene Descartes

“But in my opinion, all things in nature occur mathematically.”
Rene Descartes

“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the Creator, there is no poverty
Rainer Maria Rilke

“There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.”
Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray

‘I pay no attention to anybody’s praise or blame.  I simply follow my own feelings’
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

THEOCRACY TO DEMOCRACY:

“Theocracy has been rightly abolished not because it is bad or that learned priests should govern ignorant laymen, but because priests are wicked men like the rest of us”
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

“Who are your favorite heroines in real life? The women of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran who risk their lives and their beauty to defy the foulness of theocracy.  Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Azar Nafisi as their ideal feminine model.”
Christopher Hitchens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sEcBzxoMB8

“Absolute virtue is impossible and the republic of forgiveness leads, with implacable logic, to the republic of the guillotine.”Albert Camus

“Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.”
Vladimir Ilich Lenin

“In a secular democracy, a person is supposed to be punished only when he breaks the law; never because he is evil. That is, after all, what distinguishes a democracy from a theocracy.”
ThomasStephen Szasz, Law Liberty and Psychiatry https://www.szasz.com/

“Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
Abraham Lincoln

“…I say, that Power must never be trusted without a check.”
John Adams, Adams-Jefferson Letters

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
Winston S. Churchill

“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
(Speech in House of Commons, 11 November 1947)” Winston S. Churchill Speaks: Collected Speeches in Peace and War, 1897-1963

“Democracy is in the blood of the Muslims, who look upon complete equality of mankind, and believe in fraternity, equality, and liberty.” Muhammad Ali Jinnah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAx3cxLVAI0

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?”
The Mahatma Gandhi

“Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.”
Bertrand Russell

“I believe in a relatively equal society, supported by institutions that limit extremes of wealth and poverty. I believe in democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. That makes me a liberal, and I’m proud of it.”
Paul Krugman https://twitter.com/NYTimeskrugman

“We do not want to live in a Theocracy.  We should maintain that barrier and government has no business telling someone what they ought to believe or how they should conduct their private lives”
Robert Reich https://twitter.com/RBReich

“We cannot build foundations of a state without Rule of Law”
Mahmoud Abbas https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/mahmoud-abbas

“Lack of rule of law is the main reason Pakistan could not join the ranks of progressive nations.”
Imran Khan https://twitter.com/ImranKhanPTI

ANTI-WAR:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States

“Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.”
George Orwell

“Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe. ”
Arundhati Roy, Public Power in the Age of Empire https://twitter.com/hashtag/arundhatiroy

“Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.”
Thomas Jefferson – Founding Father United States of America   and

“If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.”

“My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.” –
George Washington  first President of the United States (1789–97)

“Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.”
Benjamin Franklin – Founding Father United States of America   and

“A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang.”  and

“I hope….that mankind will at length, as they call themselves responsible creatures, have the reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats…”

“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Russian https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/…/solzhenitsyn-bio.html

“The next war … may well bury Western civilization forever.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“The chain reaction of evil–wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We have guided missiles and misguided men.” –
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“War is the greatest plague that can affect humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind”
Albert Einstein

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”.
Albert Einstein

“It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”
Albert Einstein

“War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.”
George Orwell

“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.” –
George Orwell

“Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.”
George Orwell

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower

“The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower

“There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.” –
Dwight D. Eisenhower

ABUSE OF POWER:

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”
Lord Acton

“Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.”
Lord Acton

“By curious accident of history and geography, the world’s major energy resources are located pretty much in Shiite regions.  They’re a minority in the Middle East, but they happen to be where the oil is, right around the northern part of the Gulf.”

Professor Noam Chomsky https://twitter.com/daily_chomsky?lang=en

https://www.alternet.org/world/noam-chomsky-americas-empire-chaos

“Freedom and Pluralism of the media are crucial for a pluralist society in a member state respectful of the common values on which the Union (EU) is founded”  Financial Times 5th January 2016 (Mr Timmermans wrote in one of the letters delivered on the 3oth December 2015 and seen by the Financial Times. (Duncan Robinson and Peter Spiegel, Brussels.  Henry Foy Warsaw).

“Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind.” -Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“Knowledge is power.” – Francis Bacon

“In order to obtain and hold power, a man must love it.” Leo Tolstoy.

“The steps of power are often steps on sand”. Edward Counsel, Maxims

“Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac”. Henry Kissinger

“The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.” Edmund Burke

PEACE:

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?”
The Mahatma Gandhi

“There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” –
The Mahatma Gandhi

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
Martin Luther King Jr, Strength to Love

“The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor.”
Ronald Reagan  (say it often enough and US has come to believe the lies)

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.”
Virginia Woolf

John Hume SDLP – Peace Process to Good Friday Agreement; an architect of Peace in troubled Northern Ireland spoke of “Diversity in Unity” makes this current article about the fall-out of Christians (their birthplace being in the East) an interesting perspective. http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/culture/lebanons-female-pastor-and-her-struggle-to-keep-the-middle-east-a-land-of-diversity_37484

Links:  The Original Child by Cistercian Monk Thomas Merton thehealingprojectwebcast.blogspot.com/…/remembering-hiroshima-thom..

The Russell–Einstein Manifesto was issued in London on 9 July 1955 by Bertrand Russell in the midst of the Cold War. It highlighted the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflict.  https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/news/2015/jul/9/russelleinstein-manifesto/

The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement (Irish: Comhaontú Bhéal Feirste or Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta; Ulster-Scots: Bilfawst Greeance or Guid Friday Greeance) was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s.  https://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/Pdf%20files/NIPeaceAgreement.pdf

Tomas Young veteran of Iraq Afghanistan wars; his dying letter to George Bush and Dick Cheyne.  The content of this letter should never be forgotten.  https://www.commondreams.org/views/…/tomas-youngs-last-letter-bush-cheney

DETENTE:

“Detente is a readiness to resolve difference and conflicts not by force, not by threats and sabre-rattling, but by peaceful means, at the conference table.”As quoted in Brezhnev Reconsidered (2002)by Edwin Bacon, Mark Sandle, p. 99   https://coldwarhc.blogspot.com/p/detente.html

Happy New Year 2016

Michelle Clarke

Source: HOMELESSNESS IN DUBLIN IRELAND: ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH OF YOUNG MAN ADJACENT TO GOVT BUILDINGS