Blogging from the Bog

   What started out as school project a few years ago has grown into an international effort of creativity, forward thinking, and co-operation among individuals and groups with a view to the future.  Not satisfied with the rhetoric of government, big business, or doomsday theorists these visionaries are proactively making a concerted effort to prepare their communities for the inevitable.  They are not passing judgement, they are not getting entangled in spurious debates or mudslinging, and they are not promising miracles.  They are creating Transition Towns.

   In 2005 Rob Hopkins was teaching a class in the world’s first two-year program of permaculture at a college in Kinsale, County Cork a seaside community on the southern coast of Ireland.  Permaculture, in theory and practice, is the idea of sustainable living and as part of his lecture series Hopkins showed the movie The End of Suburbia to his class.  At a time when the price of oil was still around the $35 per barrel stage the implications of peak oil were not lost on the students and a proposal was drafted designing the Transition Town concept.  The cleaner, greener, community based initiative was adopted by the Kinsale Town Council as proposed by student Louise Rooney and the project was underway.

   The Transition Town concept is becoming more and more relavent, as the price of oil is now $135 a barrel, and deals with how communities will adapt, adjust, and flourish despite being faced with declining natural resources, rising fuel and energy prices or shortages, and climate change.  There are currently 50 towns actively participating in this project and hundreds of others contemplating the idea of getting involved.  Is your town or city considering the prospect?  Check this list of communities around the globe.

   A quote from Rob Hopkins’ website reads, "We are communities, a society, a world in transition, and to do that we need a culture of transition, but also we need the tools for manifesting it."  Indeed we do Rob, indeed we do.

Rob

   What is all the fuss about?  What is there to know about the Lisbon Treaty referendum?  The answer to this Euro-riddle is as plain as Irish stew!  And for all the eejits out there having a great auld chinwagging session on the pros and cons of our future economy, neutrality, or our small voice in the greater European scheme of things answer me this one question will ya?

   Why, if voting yes for this treaty will make the EU 27 a more democratic union, are they not allowing all citizens to vote in a democratic electoral process throughout the member States?  If this passes in June do you think they will ever allow us to vote on anything again?  Why should they?  For Heaven’s Sake people wake the feck up will ya?

   Only a flock of bloody sheep would vote yes for this shite.  Off ya go!

   View this video, posted by Jazz Biscuit, before you vote!

   If there hasn’t been a conspiracy going on in the house building industry these past few years then at least some evidence of collusion is becoming apparent.  There are too many faces looking at the plans and architectural drawings, too many architects, engineers, and tradesmen with their fingers in the pot, too many solicitors, auctioneers, and of course the developers, with a lot to gain, or lose, for the sorry excuse of the so-called "quality home" in Ireland today, and to have the finished product go unnoticed and unchallenged?  Remarkable!

   The developer hires an architect that will put as many dwellings on a piece of land as is feasible and still get planning permission.  The Planning Crowd cannot be scrutinizing the individual house drawings very carefully!  The developer next gets the cheapest builder he can find, who then subcontracts the work, where possible, to save himself even more money.  When it comes right down to it nobody knows what the lads with the tools are doing and as long as "progress" is being made, no one cares.  Progress is defined as speed and profit in the building industry, otherwise known as best practice.  Every shortcut, whether safe or not, is used to speed up the works, and put more money in the pockets of those involved, and there are no inspectors monitoring the workmanship along the way to check for potential hazards or structural integrity.

   The concept of square, level, and plumb is unheard of on the jobsite.  Each tradesman has to contend with the previous dodgey craftsman and has little or no time to correct those mistakes to leave his own work looking right.  "Leave it to the painter", they all say!  There are Building Regulations on the books, if any homeowner cares to check them out, and if you follow this link you can read for yourself that, "Building Regulations are set out by the government to ensure that each house built in Ireland is to a minimum standard…", and minimum is exactly what you get, not even mediocre, minimum!  But then again what else would you expect?

   More than 95% of what is in the Regulations gets covered up during the actual construction.  If you think the rigid insulation was put in between the cavity blocks with care think again.  Roof rafters and collar ties, floor joists (often too far apart which is unsafe), door and window frames, and all other woodwork is installed with a very high moisture content (wet), and will warp, bend, and twist.  You can see the effects in your own residence: ceiling and wall cracks, doors don’t shut properly or open fully, gaps between the skirting and walls are all evidence of the haste in which these structures are put up.  Not to mention exposed water pipes and electrical wiring, gaps at the wall on stair landings, mis-shapen architraves, and what kind of wood butchers put in the kitchen and bedroom presses? 

   Thomas and Deidre paid a lot of money for a house that will have to undergo major renovations, not because they want to, but because they have to.  From the faulty plumbing to the dodgey wiring, bring on the kangoes!  They can hear their neighbours bounding up the stairs and even the flushing of the toilet next door, when they are home that is, Thomas and Deidre have to work all the hours God sends in order to pay for the pleasure of this high maintainence nightmare.  They had hired an "engineer" to snag the property before they took possession, €600 worth, and he inspected absolutely no engineering of the structure, he couldn’t, it is all hidden in the walls and ceilings!  He spotted a few wall scratches and rough untreated wood under the windows boards and ran away to cash the cheque!  The builder claims best practice and won’t return their calls, he has no one competent enough to sort the mess, and besides the bank owns it now, Thomas and Deidre are just paying for it.  Thomas claims his name is an acronym for the plight of many: The Home Owner Must Always Suffer, Deidre of the Sorrows needs no further explanation.

   Most of the sloppy workmanship doesn’t lend itself to pictures very well; however two scary representations of dangerous wiring are included here.  Electric wiring and the proper installation thereof is critical considering it is potentially lethal, have a look see at the two pics and ask yourself  "Is this best practice?"

   The one on the left was an undercounter appliance installed before the house was purchased, on the right is the handywork of a RECI electrician who replaced a one year old faulty boiler, 3 years ago, and won’t come back to sort it out!