Categories
Uncategorized

Marriage Referendum – own your prejudices

I’m writing this post in response to “GAA Star” Ger Brennan’s op-ed piece in the Irish Independent explaining why he intends to vote No in the upcoming marriage referendum in Ireland. This piece has attracted a lot of commentary on social media, most of it negative. This was picked up the journal.ie

Mr. Brennan added the following comment

“Coupled with the antagonizing view from the ‘Yes’ campaign that if you are even slightly ‘No’ or even thinking about it, that you are a homophobic and that you are anti-gay, which for me is not the case.“

So with due respect to his athletic abilities, I’d like to point out why I think Mr. Brennan is in denial about his prejudices. Nobody is suggesting that Mr. Brennan isn’t entitled to his opinion but, by writing an article about his opinion in a national newspaper, he is setting himself up as a spokesperson for the No side. He’s also advocating for the no side and, therefore, trying to convince others to vote No rather than simply defending his position. So he should absolutely expect that he’ll face criticism for his comments.  I sincerely hope nobody attempts to harass or intimidate Mr. Brennan but he must expect criticism, much of it harsh. 

Continue reading “Marriage Referendum – own your prejudices”
Categories
Uncategorized

To avoid regrets

Life can be complicated, joyful, sorrowful, depressing & ecstatic. Sometimes, we experience these emotions in the space of a few hours as events intervene. We have little control over events such as accidents & illnesses that can negatively impact our lives and the ones we love. One thing we do have some control over, is having a sense of regret about wasted time and energy. Regret is one of the most common emotions that we hear in mediation. It’s not just confined to families, it can apply to workplace mediation also.

If there’s a piece of advice I’d give to reduce regret, it’s this:

  1. Try to treat people with respect.
  2. Don’t waste your time on people who don’t treat you with respect.

These points seem too simple at times and too arduous to follow at others. We ask ourselves, “how can I leave this person?” or “how can I leave this job?” while forgetting that life will go on and could even get better 🙂

Continue reading “To avoid regrets”
Categories
sport

What Louis Van Gaal is doing wrong at Man Utd

I haven’t written a post about football before because it’s more contentious than religion or politics 🙂 The arguments are bitter, nasty and vindictive.  I refrained from writing about Utd last season during the Moyes debacle because I honestly felt it was a blip and this seasons would be much better. In a sense, there has been improvement but there’s also been much frustration. The biggest frustration watching Utd now is the sense that the players are better than the performances suggest. A manager’s job involves maximises the performances from the talent at their disposal and as a long time Utd supporter (since the 80s) it has been many years since I’ve seen such disjointed performances and sloppiness. Indeed, Utd haven’t been so poor since the late 80s. The players deserve some blame, and some may have rode the coattails of the great players of the Fergie era, but the manager is not immune from criticism. Here’s what this fan thinks he could do better.

Continue reading “What Louis Van Gaal is doing wrong at Man Utd”
Categories
philosophy politics psychology

Meedya is the muddle

Pondering the following quote which I saw on Facebook today. The irony of that sentence isn’t lost on me 🙂

“All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.” – Marshall McLuhan.

It puzzles me that many otherwise intelligent people argue that the Internet has democratised media and so the above could not be true in the current age.  In reality, media companies are aggregated and conglomerated like never before – they are owned by rich media czars. It’s certainly true that the mechanisms for news distribution have been democratised and are now much more affordable thanks to social media and web publishing software. However, what people talk about is determined by mainstream media. We retweet, repost, add colour to and debate the topics that we’re encouraged to believe are important. Whether’s it’s “shirt gate” or Adele not singing on Bandaid30, it’s all such rubbish. Often mesmerisingly trivial banalities dressed up with complicated ideological arguments to suggest it’s something more important.

Continue reading “Meedya is the muddle”