Blogging from the Bog

   A passenger, on the One-Two-Go Flight OG269 from Bankok to Phuket, Thailand which crashed today at 15:35 local time, 08:35 GMT, only identified as an Irish citizen named "Sean", has survived with serious burns.  According to the RSOE Disaster website he made a statement, from a hospital, that he heard a loud "bang" just before the crash.  Heavy rains and a slippery runway have been blamed for the accident which has claimed more than 80 lives.  Updates are given on the RSOE site.

      Come all ye, come all ye, come all gather roun’,

      For to hear the scandal from our Dublin town.

      Ten years in the waiting, near a billion in price,

      To end the corruption, sure wouldn’t it be nice.

      Our Taoiseach, our leader, bold Bertie Ahern,

      In front of the Tribunal will take his turn.

      Suitcases of cash, no-one knows the amount,

      For the Minister of Finance had no bank account!

      On Thursday morning the entertainment begins,

      Will he whimper and whine or confess to his sins?

      Will he reasonably and rationally explain his role?

      Or try to blow smoke up Judge Mahon’s hole?

   Ireland can claim many "firsts" to it’s credit, among them the coining of the word boycott, the world’s first submarine, and the original smart bomb the guided missile, all three of which will be with us for a long time.

   One particular long lasting and durable product necessary to Ireland is cement.  Now, although the credit for inventing cement may lay elsewhere, an Irishman, by the name of Donal O’Riain and founder of Ecocem, has come up with an environmentally green cement.

   The manufacturing process in cement production generates huge quantities of CO2, which Ireland creates far too much of to meet, or even get close to meeting, our Kyoto and EU obligations.  And, seeing as cement is the world’s premier building material and reducing carbon emissions a priority, it looks as if Mr. O’Riain is on to a winner with his carbon neutral cement.  Ecocem should be spelled €cocem by this pioneer and his company!

 Boyne Bridge built with green cement.

   The first real attempt at transparency that I’ve seen from the Health Service Executive was the A&E Activity link on their site.  Now it is gone!

   When I wrote about Shona Just’s dilemma on the 27th of August the Emergency Department link was added into the post as it was up-to-date, informative, and believable.  But now the data has been altered, corrupted, and put into an archived file where only some of the links work.  Those that do work give repetitive statistics that do not reflect the activity on the dates selected.

   Is this a cover-up? or just bad IT management?

   We are surely blessed with the governments concern for our health and well-being.  So concerned are they that yet another bureaucratic elephant has been created in the Health Act  which came into effect in May 2007.  The new Health Information and Quality Authority, whose functions include "monitoring health care quality", seems to be slightly redundant.  They have free reign to create further red tape and there is no hiring freeze with them!  Don’t we have enough organisations monitoring the pathetic state of our health care system?

   The HIQA is supposed to "set standards" and "monitor healthcare quality", and will be the "new accreditation body" for hospitals, the CEO is Dr. Tracey Cooper (who appears to have been hired for her role a full nine months before the creation of the Department!) and engineer Pat McGrath is the newly appointed Chairperson, and they report to the Minister of Health, who will do SFA.

   Apparently Minister Mary Harney has no confidence in her other reporting agencies such as the Department of Health and Children, which is meant "To improve the health and well being of people in Ireland", the HSE "to improve, promote and protect the health and welfare of the public", the HSE’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre "surveillance of communicable disease", the Health Research Board "Improve people’s health through research and information", or the Institute of Public Health "providing health information and surveillance".  All of these groups funded by the Department/us.

   Hell of a lot of surveillance going on! 

   Is it any wonder no one has any confidence in the health care system?  As an example, one of the leading health insurance companies, the VHI, has actually used HSE data to report that Ireland has the lowest rate of HCAI’s (as compared to Northern Ireland), when in fact the Irish Health site, the Irish Times, The Post, BioQuell, and even the HSE’s own subsidiary the HPSC all report that MRSA is "endemic in our hospitals" and "highest" in Europe.   Incredible!

  Dr. Tracey Cooper, CEO HIQA

   There is a power vacuum in this country.

   One thousand years ago Brian Boru, the last King of Ireland, understood the need to fill the vacuum that existed in his day.  Were he alive today he would recognize the same kind of void in our present political psychosis.

   The only thing that Bertie Ahern leads is a bunch of stumbling bumbling incompetent ne’er do wells, who scramble around trying to make excuses for one crisis after another in a vain attempt to justify their wage packets.  If it wasn’t so tragic and embarrassing it would be laughable.

   Week after week we are inundated with extraordinary stories of just how mediocre, or worse, our public services are in this time of plenty.  The healthcare system, education, transportation, housing, natural resources, inflation, the environment, take your pick, we are in a deep mess and there is no leadership to steer us out of this quagmire.  Not one of them have the mental capacity or vision, not one will take the responsibility, to tackle the issues that confront us.  Elected officials must earn their keep just as everyone else does, why do we put up with their buffoonery?

   John Gormley, Green Minister of the Environment, another incompetent boob, could not, with all his highly paid advisors, come up with an angle to find a halt to the destruction of the Lismullen archaelogical treasure.  Luckily for us the European Union is making attempts to accomplish this, though it may cost us a bundle for this government boobery; but, what else is new?

   Bertie’s government is befuddled and bewildered about the Aer Lingus scandal and cannot get their heads around the fact that they are going to be cornered by men with real leadership abilities when it comes to a shareholders vote.  And yes the vote will happen.  Getting caught between Mannion and O’Leary is going to be a eye-opening experience for Mr. Ahern and should show us what he is made of, Bertie is no Boru.

   The list of Fianna Fail foibles is too long to contemplate, one disaster supplants the next in the public debate, and yet the government shuffle continues on.  We can only hope that if the current vote of no-confidence in Bertie groundswell subsides that the Mahon Tribunal will sort this all out when Bertie is hauled in next week.

  Brian Boru where are you?