Week 4 for the blogs...

Manchester Derby (The day to forget)

Right I know the point of these blogs is to write about current affairs but we are supposed to write about news that matters to us personally. This is the deal in my family we are all born and bred United supporters. If your not United find somewhere new to live as my father once put it to me. Today was derby day in the city of Manchester. It was a day United will forever try to erase from their memories. United were comprehensively beating 6-1 was by City "Noisy Neighbours", as Sir Alex likes to call them. The reason for this?? Well a lot of people think Sir Alex has started to lose the plot with his squad selection and stuff of that caliber. In my opinion this is a small reason of why they were beaten today, the main reason you may ask? Well the United players are just not up to scratch anymore. They have the strikers in force but their mid-field is so lacking its actually quite shocking. The likes of James Milner and David Silva made United's mid-field look like children in a school yard today. They swept through and demolished the United back line then.  A lot of the blame can be laid on Johnny Evans the United centre back getting sent off for being last man back and pulling Mario Baletelli to the ground. After United were down to 10 men it was going to be an uphill battle anyway. United fell apart basically and now City fans will remember this day for the rest of their lives. The funny thing is City fans are all saying "the league's in the bag now". Maybe they should get a grip!! Its only the end of October for Christ sake. There's another 29 matches to go, the league is a long way from over. City may have the laugh and boasting rights's today but every time United are bet by a team they come back bigger, badder and stronger. I'm predicting at the end of this year that United will be having the last laugh and the Premier League trophy to go along with it...

Turkeys Earthquake

An earthquake of 7.3 magnitude has hit eastern Turkey, it is feared up to 1,000 people could lie under the rubble and tonight it was confirmed 70 people are dead so far. The earthquake hit Van a large city in the east populated by mainly Kurds. Earlier reports did not mention casualties but many were feared to be trapped under collapsed buildings. The country are distraught with the extent of the damage. At least 50 people with serious casualties were taken to a hospital in Van. Around 50 huge buildings have collapsed including college dormitories. The most serious damage happened in Ercis a heavily populated region. Many people are expected to spend the next number of nights sleeping outdoors with the temperature expected to be around 3 degrees Celsius.The army are sending in search and rescue teams as soon as they can it is believed. Tents, medicine and food are being sent in 6 helicopters to the area. The after shock of the earthquake was measured at 5.6 magnitude. The tremors of the earthquake were thought to have sent panic through the hit cities and people are thought to have been in sheer terror. The Irish government has pledged aid to the Turkish community and all our thought rest with the poor people who's lives have been changed forever.

Libya's "Liberation"

Libya have declared the liberation of the nation after 42 years of one man rule by Muammar Gaddafu. His end came with his capture and death during last week. The African state is now on course for a transition towards democracy. An official for the Libyan government said "we declare to the whole world that we have liberated our beloved country, with its cities, villages, hill-tops, mountains, deserts and skies". Crowds gathered to listen to Libyan music and they waved the tri-colour flag of their country. Gaddafi's death was described as "humiliating" and tributes to all those that died for liberation was wide spread. Gaddafi's body is to be handed over to his extended family after consulting with them on the secret location of his burial. His immediate family will not get the body as they cannot be found in this moment of time as they are still on the run with some of his millions. Gaddafi died due to a gun shot wound it is said by a doctor who gave his body an autopsy. Supposedly Gaddafi was captured alive and there are to be inquiries into how he died if he was a hostage. The UN and other international councils are to be involved in the investigation into his death also. This is a great new beginning for Libya so hopefully they will embrace it with open arms and make a bright new future for themselves.

Week 3 "Hard to find good news these days"

Apple "Generation 4S"

The newest Apple iPhone went on sale in the last few days across the world. This is the final Apple product to be unveiled during Steve Jobs' lifetime. A lot of customers are buying the iPhone 4S as a tribute to Jobs. Of course Apple are loving this as their sales figures are shooting through the roof. As per usual with the release of pretty much any new Apple products their was people queued around city blocks in cities such as Sydney and Tokyo. Whats new about the iPhone 4S from the previous iPhone 4 you may be asking yourself? Well the models look quite similar but the 4S has an upgraded camera, faster processor and new voice-activated software which quite incredibly allows customers to ask it questions! Hi-tech I know!

Apple are worried about competition from the arch-rivals Samsung electronics. The Samsung smart-phones are powered by Google's android software. Samsung expect to overtake Apple as the leading smartphone provider in the third quarter of this year. Apple understandably are unhappy about this. Supposedly the main reason people are shelling out their hard earned cash for the 4S is because of the rave reviews about its "Siri" voice activated software! The launch of the new product was also smeared by the complaints by Apple customers about not being able to download the latest Apple mobile software. Most customers who purchased the 4S were already existing Apple customers and were loyal to the brand but how loyal will they be in the future with Jobs' not alive to make revolutionary changes to future products? Apple may have had their moment in the limelight, in my opinion without Jobs' Apple are on a boat without a paddle.

"Irish digital revolution"

Ireland's analogue television network will be switched off from next October it has been announced to the Irish community. The country is finally making the change to a new national digital TV network. The date set is the 24th of October 2012. Northern Ireland's analogue networks will also be getting switched off on the same day. This leaves the everyday Irish TV viewer with the free-to-air digital terrestial television (DTT) service Saorview system for subscription- free TV services, which RTÈ launched in May of this year. The switch over to digital has a number of advantages for Irish TV viewers such a additional TV and Radio channels as well as new informational services and high definition Television. The change is being made because the old analogue stations take up too much radio spectrum and this will be greatly freed up by digital TV becoming compulsory. In turn the new space will hopefully be used to speed up mobile broadband connections across the State something which has far to long been on the cards for the Irish citizens especially the students.

A huge amount of Irish households rely on an aerial to watch TV. Sorry to break it to the people but the government even in a recession are trying to still put the squeeze on broke Irish families. For you see these people will need to "invest" in one of a few options all which cost money may I add. These include;  buying a Saorview set-top box, move to a pay TV service such as Sky, UPC or Ntl  and finally having to fork out to buy a new Television with an integrated Saorview receiver. For the cash strapped residents of this republic, things are looking bleak, shame if they cant afford it they wont be able to see it on their television sets come October!!

Alright mate? "Australia's cheeriness"

As everyone knows Australians are generally cheery and kind natured spirits that are the essence of soundness. Is that the way you have been portrayed  to view them? Well think again they are money hungry grabbing back stabbers that are all "me, me, me". Australia have one of the most prosperous economic climates in the world and are they happy with it?? NO THEY ARE NOT!! Australian's generally moan and complain about the English but now they themselves have become the even bigger complainers! Last week the Australians were asked to look at there own carbon consumption to help the world global warming crisis and do you know what they said? "We're only a small country, we cant make any difference to climate change". Are they actually serious? Every country no matter how big or small count! They in fact emit 28 tonnes of carbon per person per year. One of the highest per capita levels in the world! They say refugee's and asylum seekers should all be sent back to their own country's as well. Who do the Australians sound like? Oh yeah, us the IRISH. When things are going good economically we want to keep all the work for ourselves and not share it around. Maybe it'l be good when the Australians bubble bursts. Maybe, just maybe they'll come crashing back to reality like we did!!

Second Blog of the year (09/10/2011)

Steve Jobs, "The brain of a century"

Steve Jobs co-creator of Apple was born in 1955 and died in 2011. Throughout his life he was known as a visionary to most people in the public eye, in his private life he was a man who loved and adored his family. The man was many things, a creator, marketing genius, innovator and a hugely successful business man. Steve Jobs is the reason Apple is what it is today, one of the most valuable business's in the world. He returned to the company when it was near bankruptcy and turned the companies fortunes right around with his brilliant ideas. Steve died of a rare form of pancreatic cancer but this has been known to the world for the last number of years that his death would be sooner rather then later. He embraced this and said knowing he had so little time to live made him cherish each day more then the last. Many people figured out that he was incredibly sick as he did not appear at the launch of the iPhone 4S on Tuesday just gone. Two days later his death was announced by Apple. Almost immediately tributes from public figures and business leaders started to flood in about the man. Bill Gates described working with the man as "an insanely great honour". While Barack Obama called him a "visionary". Apple stores around the world were made to be places of tribute to the grieving Apple community. 

Apple made Jobs a multi-millionaire before he was even 25. Jobs and his associate Steve Wozniack helped influence the future generations of computers from one of their first inventions the Apple II. One of their best known inventions was the Apple iPod. It was not the first or the last music player on the market but it was by far the most successful ever. Again the iPhone was not the first smart phone but I can tell you one thing I never heard of a smartphone before the iPhone started being mentioned. Now most people carry smartphone`s, it may not be the iPhone but it is a type of smartphone. Apple, thanks to Jobs and lets not forget Wozniack has revolutionized the way we obtain and consume media and the way the music industry has evolved.

In 1985 Jobs was forced out of Apple, he then went into one of the most creative periods of his life. He created Pixar one of the worlds best known studious for animated films such as Toy Story, Wall-e and Small Soldiers. He also created a company called NeXT. Apple ended up buying NeXT and Jobs eventually became CEO of Apple.

Jobs has been one of the main men behind the most successful products of Apple such as the iPod, iPad, iPhone and Mac series among other things such as the iTunes store. After his death it has been said that Jobs has left at least 5 years of Apple product ideas in the pipeline. I for one thank this man for everything he did for the world while alive, and everything he will do for the world after his death. This tribute is for Steve Jobs may he rest in peace and the world thanks god for the great man that was Steve Jobs, and the legacy he left behind.

Ireland...."A new third world"

Michael Lewis for all who may not know him is an American financial journalist and best selling author. He has also basically condemned Ireland along with Iceland and Greece. For we in his words are part of "the new third world". His metaphor for the global economic crisis is: what do people do when they find themselves in a dark room full of money? Well I for one know what I'd so try get as much in my pockets as quickly and as humanly possible. This is why I'm not running this country instead we have men who in the dark room together decided you know what we'l take all the money and just buy Ireland be damned. That got us to where we are now. Up s*** creek without a paddle!! Excuse my french of course.

Lewis's judgement on Iceland is that the "alpha males" ruined the country and that is why the country has its first lesbian head of state. The women of the country realized the men hadn't got a notion what they were doing and were highly dangerous with money in their grasp. Lewis says the US itself has behave like "a drug addict". Each level of  society is willing to sacrifice long-term interests for short-term wants. This cannot be sustained in the long run you will want and need certain things in life like health care, a car, a house etc.  He also talks about the state of California where he resides, he says it is "shifting its insolvency to local governments". A town in California called Vallejo is gone so down hill that there are no police to protect the people, the traffic lights don't work anywhere and the shops have put up signs stating they accept food stamps.

Lewis  blames America for the most part of the economics disaster saying american fingerprints can be found wherever a financial disaster occurs. He blames the citizens also saying all they do is want services but not the charge that goes along with them, the day of reckoning for this problem is fast coming he predicts. In relation to american fingerprints being found everywhere Lewis believes US president Barack Obama should have nationalised the banks instead of bailing them out. Obama cant believe the bankers he bailed out are now fighting regulation that is trying to be brought in so the problem never recurs again. 

Lewis believes Greece is already in the process of defaulting and German chanceller Angela Merkel and Greek prime minister George Papandreou will be forced out of office. He also believes Greece will leave the Euro and their creditors will take huge losses. When asked about the difference between Ireland and Greece he simply says "the Irish just have a greater talent for suffering". He is quite right in my opinion with the whole famine and oppression situations not to mention the hard recessions the Irish people have came through before. Lewis said if the Irish situation was happening in Greece "their would be someone shot". Well there hasn't been anyone shot in Ireland for this reason yet, so lets hope riots don't start breaking out because this would just mean more problems and misery for the Irish people and surely they have suffered enough?

Dublin..."The Twitter Revolution"

Dublin could soon become one of the silicon valleys of the world if multi-national corporations have their way with the city. Twitter is the latest Tech firm to announce they will be opening an office in Dublin in the future. Paddy Cosgrave who is the mastermind behind Twitter believes Ireland's graduates have the potential to make the city one of the greatest Tech cities in the world. While people may often say these kind of firms only come to Ireland due to our low corporation tax, Mr.Cosgrave says that couldn't be further from the the truth to why he picked Dublin for one of Twitters biggest base's. Ireland has a ready supply of workforce that are more then eager to get on the job front after they have their degrees from college.  Google know this also and employ an estimated 2,000 people in Ireland.

There are tax loopholes in most countries so Ireland cannot be blamed for taking investment just for the low corporation tax. as these countries could easily go elsewhere to set up business ventures.  Thanks to these investment companies Ireland have had a 49% increase since 2009 and have gained 6 billion in tax revenue. The companies that invest also spend an estimated 16 billion in direct spending. These companies like Twitter, Google, Amazon etc see Ireland as a village on the edge of Europe so a prime position for most of their European headquarters. Ireland do not want to be seen as a Tax haven and we are not breaking any EU laws as we are in correspondence with all of  them. Ireland's reputation is on the line and the future of the country. The US though do not like the way many American companies are investing in Ireland and setting their operation up over here as that is all off-shore money in there books. Ireland has the potential to become one of the most globalized economies in the world and this year for the first time in 4 years there has been growth in the economy. One of the main concerns for Ireland is to create sustainable prosperity throughout the country. If this can be achieved Ireland will be more then halfway towards the final destination....No more recession!