UK tour starts in less than a month…see you soon on the road #jmjelectronica #electronicatour pic.twitter.com/R3AF1mZ4Qk
— Jean-Michel Jarre (@jeanmicheljarre) September 7, 2016
(Thanks Rory)
Author Archives: Admin
This afternoon.
Outside the Iranian embassy at Mount Merrion Avenue in Blackrock, Dublin.
A group of academics from Dublin’s major universities gather in full academic garb, to call for the release of anthropologist and Irish citizen Homa Hoodfar from prison in Tehran and to highlight what they claim is the Irish government’s lack of action.
Homa has been in prison in Tehran for the past three months and, a week ago, her family and friends received the news that she has been hospitalised.
In a piece recently published in The Guardian, Tariq Ramadan wrote:
As a Muslim scholar, I am deeply troubled by the unlawful and unjust detention of professor Homa Hoodfar, an Iranian-Canadian scholar who was detained in March while visiting friends and family in Iran. Members of the Revolutionary Guard raided her home, confiscated her personal belongings and passports, summoned her for interrogations, and finally imprisoned her in Tehran’s Evin prison without access to her family or a lawyer.
Her treatment violates principles of intellectual freedom, justice and fairness that are central to the Islamic system of morality.
Born in Iran and now a Canadian and Irish citizen, Hoodfar is a senior anthropologist who has devoted her academic career to studying the family as well as the duties and rights of women in various Muslim contexts.
A renowned scholar, she has taught at Concordia University in Montreal for the past three decades. Her research on Muslim women’s struggles – both in the Middle East and in the west – is balanced and characterised by respect for those about whom she writes.
Her extensive work on Muslim women living in the west and their veiling strategies has been a particularly important contribution to challenging colonial images of the Muslim veil, while at the same time helping to address Islamophobia in the west.
Since she is neither a political activist nor part of any political movement opposing the government of Iran, she never hesitated to visit the Islamic republic to see family or conduct historical research.
While Tehran’s prosecutor recently announced indictments against Hoodfar – along with several other dual nationals – the charges she faces remain unknown. Semi-official reports in newspapers with links to the Revolutionary Guard, however, accuse her of “dabbling in feminism” and fomenting a feminist “soft revolution” against the Islamic republic.
Hoodfar’s treatment demonstrates the extent to which her work has been misunderstood by the Iranian authorities. Her research poses no threat to Iran’s government or its people, and her arrest is deeply disturbing for anyone who values academic freedom and independent scholarship.
The detention of Homa Hoodfar is unjust and unIslamic. Iran should release her (The Guardian)
Pics: Emer O’Toole
Desperate for a house?
Don’t forget your shovel.
Niall Martin writes:
Homegrown Home Co-Operative is interested in hearing from anyone who would like to build their own home under expert tuition. You must:
1) Be on the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council housing list
2) Have the staying power to stick with a construction project that will take a year to complete.
3) Be available to work on a construction site from 8am – 4pm Mon- Fri , or have a family member(s) who can stand in for you when necessary
No experience necessary , social welfare payments not affected. Applications welcome from families with a member with a disability , or those from ethnic minorities .This is a not for profit project .
We are looking for five committed families who will work together to attain the goal of building five homes that they will own .For an information pack contact myhomegrownhome@gmail.com
Above: drawings from architects Claire McManus and Dominic Stevens who are both working on the Homegrown project.
Starbusks
at
From top: Starbucks, Thomas Street, Limerick; The spat with Steamboat Music
Starbucks on Thomas Street, Limerick seeking a little of the post-pub live music pie, asked for local musicians to come in and play for the casual audience
But were they willing to pay for their slice of said pie?
Apparently not, looking as they were to “showcase their venue”.
This drew a rise from Steamboat Music, local instrument/record shop, who invited Starbuck’s to “showcase” their coffee for free in their own establishment, before telling them where to go.
A truce had subsequently been made between the two parties, with Steamboat offering to help the local Starbuck’s in their musical affairs, ahead of Steamboat’s post-HMV expansion into records, movies and graphic novels in October, until a customer of Steamboat’s came to them bearing bad tidings…
So we thought we had come to a friendly arrangement with (manager of local) Starbuck’s over his attempt to exploit musicians, but like his employer’s coffee, he’s full of… sugar.
Now they’re back to their exploiting ways, a very young, talented customer of ours was offered a gig for the sweet, sweet nothing of “EXPOSURE”, and we can’t allow that. We started this fight for musicians and by god, we’ll end it.
We’ve decided, just out of pig iron, when we open our new superstore in October, we’re putting in a cafe upstairs with the CDs, DVDs, records & comics, and we’re going to have paid gigs for musicians and free coffee on Saturdays until Christmas.
All discussion, conjecture and side-taking to be had with hashtag #StarbucksvsSteamboat.
FIGHT!
Knight Rider
at
One of six motorcycles featured in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises – currently up for auction by the Prop Store.
The machine has Hoosier racing tyres, a 750cc Honda engine, a metal display stand and a starting price of $60,000 – $80,000.
This afternoon.
Labour’s Brendan Howlin in the Dáil during the debate on the Apple tax ruling.
“There seems to be a belief that Ireland, a small nation, should carry the reputational hit for correcting what is an issue – and that we’ve all agreed is an issue – we’re told this is an investigation under state aid rules yet the lion’s share of the commentary seems to be the announcement of the commission’s position has been about taxation levels.
“The same sort of commentary we heard for many, many years about corporation tax policy in Ireland.”
“It’s a dishonest charge levelled against us and all it seeks is to do us harm. And those who would be complicit in it do Ireland harm and the prospect of continuing, to be the success we have in attracting investment into this country.”
“But it is the mud that sticks, the mud that is thrown often enough. The truth is that this State collects higher than average revenue from corporation taxes.
“It implements, at a national level, an effective tax rate higher than other countries with bigger systems of relief that don’t seem to be the focus of the commission’s overview. A point made I think, rather effectively, in the case of France, by Deputy [Michael] Martin.”
“As Dan O’Brien and other commentators have pointed out, there’s a growing trend in the European Commission rulings to find against smaller countries but ignoring potential breaches elsewhere. That should give every member of this house pause for thought before automatically rushing to agree with the commission.”
Right so.
Watch proceedings live here
Previously: The Apple Deal Explained
Independent Alliance TD and junior minister John Halligan on Kildare Street, Dublin 2 this afternoon
Further to reports that Independent Alliance TD John Halligan has threatened to leave Government after an independent review didn’t support his calls for a second cathorisation laboratory at University Hospital Waterford…
And reports that the Independent Alliance is to hold an emergency meeting with Fine Gael later today…
Hopeless Surfer tweetz:
John Halligan shoots himself in foot with hospital report, then decides to get tough…
Halligan warns Govt could fall if WUH promise broken (RTE)
Pic: Jim O’Callaghan
Stephen Manning writes:
Sunday at Electric Picnic. Tucked away in the trailer park, two Irish beat boxers were brilliantly entertaining the crowd when the looked for volunteers. This cravat-wearing gent steps up and throws down some Class- A free styling rap. The subject of which was his cat, Eric.
Meanwhile…
STP writes:
Pink Moon Campsite, Electric Picnic, Saturday. Good times had, rainbows spotted!
After listening with mounting horror to the details of the “advice” from a so-called crisis pregnancy advice clinic, I was horrified to read that Minister for Children Katherine Zappone was merely “considering” regulation of these clinics and that Minister for Health Simon Harris and the HSE are powerless to regulate or prosecute, and must instead compete with these unsupervised agencies.
I hope it would be agreed by everyone that people in such vulnerable situations deserve accurate and unbiased information, and that the provision of blatantly false and harmful advice is unacceptable and reprehensible in the extreme. The time for acceptance of this inaction is long since passed, and these departments must act now to stop others from suffering.
Dr Mark O’Loughlin,
Clinical Lecturer,
Registrar in Histopathology,
Galway University Hospital.
Pregnancy counselling and regulation (Irish Times letters page)
Previously: Behind The Blue Door
Related: Women’s Centre may have broken the law, says Harris (The Times Ireland edition, Ellen Coyne)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0F_ArGMExQ
Last night.
Uploaded In full (above) BBC Northern Ireland’s second Spotlight programme – presented by Mandy McAuley – on Nama’s Northern Ireland property deal, otherwise known as Project Eagle.
The documentary includes a reconstruction (top) of Frank Cushnahan, then a member of Nama’s Northern Ireland Advisory Committee, receiving £40,000 – in bundles of two – from property developer John Miskelly.
Good times.
More as we watch it.
Previously: Spotlight On Noonan