Political philosophers need to become public intellectuals once again. Book review by Joseph Mahon.

Political philosophy may be defined as a rigorous analysis of the concept of the good society. In this connection, philosophers sometimes distinguish between a good society and the good society.

A good society has at least some, and perhaps many, of the things one would want any society to have; for example, a good health service, a good education system, and good public transport. But the society in question might also be marred by high levels of unemployment, and inadequate access to the arts.

The annual report for 2010 of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a leading establishment think-tank, raises the prospect of a shift in western policy in Afghanistan. By Paul Rogers, cross-posted from OpenDemocracy.net

Annabel Lyon has managed to write an historical fiction that rings true in modern times. By Clare Lanigan.

Writers of historical fiction face a unique dilemma – that of language. When writing from the point of view of ancient cultures speaking in forgotten tongues, how do you make the dialogue sound 'right' – in keeping with the time and culture, yet not groaning with pseudo-Shakespearian archaisms? Some, like Mary Renault, succeed; some, like too many Hollywood scriptwriters to name, resort to an unbearable Lord of the Rings-style portentousness that ends up sounding all the more fake for its efforts at authenticity.

The idea that tighter regulation will prevent a repeat of bank failures is naive . . . We have to detoxify the culture of inequality, whereby there is a class with wealth and power and then everyone else, writes VINCENT BROWNE

 

The vast majority of Irish people believe the Irish government should spend more than it currently does on overseas development aid (ODA). A new survey shows high support for meeting Ireland's ODA commitment of 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI), even among marginalised groups. Ireland currently contributes 0.54% of GNI in ODA. By Malachy Browne.

The findings were published today by Dochas, the umbrella group for Irish non-governmental development organisations. The survey, conducted by MRBI Ipsos, sampled 1,000 Irish people over 15 years of age. 

The scariest thing in Ireland at present is the sound of Eamon Ryan waffling on RTE’s Morning Ireland, avoiding every question asked of him, with that trademark condescending verbal smirk, pretending he and his Green colleagues have even a smidgin of understanding of what is going on.

 

Scuffles between Gardai and protestors broke out today at a rally against Tony Blair in Dublin (see video below). Four men were arrested and later charged with public order offences at to Store Street Garda station. By Sean Carroll. Additional reporting by Malachy Browne

The protest took place this morning outside of Easons bookshop on O'Connell Street where Mr. Blair was promoting his recently published memoir. Gardai closed off the street and erected steel barriers around the shop. Abbey street was also closed; those hoping to have their book signed lined the street.

Journalist James Brabazon's recollections of his exploits in the war zones of Africa in the company of the infamous mercenary Nick du Toit make for some exciting if occasionally gut-wrenching reading. By Edward O'Hare.

James Brabazon should be dead. In his ten years as a war correspondent he has seen more carnage than most of his colleagues ever will. A man with an unquenchable thirst for danger, he was the only western journalist to report on one of the most violent episodes in recent African history, the civil war in Liberia. This led to his involvement with one of the world's most infamous mercenaries, Nick du Toit. In My Friend the Mercenary Brabazon records his unlikely friendship with du Toit from their introduction in April 2002 up until the crazed, frantic days that preceded the failed plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea in March 2004.

Ireland has guaranteed the assets and liabilities of a large part of its banking system. Parts of this banking system are, to use a technical term, dead. That is, these parts of the banking system will no longer provide credit (for a profit) to the real economy (plumbers who need overdrafts to pay their workers and buy materials). These banks ran up huge losses in a classic property bubble, now their debt is our debt.

Those who have ruined the country came through a mostly Catholic schools system without any sense of being part of a society

IN HIS speech in Rimini last week Diarmuid Martin said: "School catechesis, despite the goodwill of teachers, does not produce young Catholics prepared to join in the Christian community. Sometimes, after 15 years of catechesis, young people remain theologically illiterate." He might have been referring to me.

 

Action needed to counter inequality if we are to exit economic recession. By Siobhan O’Donoghue.

Irish society remains deeply unequal despite massive wealth creation during the Celtic tiger years. It is estimated that a mere 5% of the population hold 40% of the wealth in Ireland. 

Discrimination as experienced by women, black and minority ethnic people  including travellers, older people, young people, lesbian, gay and transgendered people, lone parents, carers, people with a disability, people from minority religions, and people who are socio-economically disadvantaged continues to be a reality. At the height of the boom it was reported that 12.5% of the adult population reported experiencing discrimination.

Perhaps we in Ireland are now contemplating “God’s afterlife” in a supposedly post-religious world. Book review by Emer Nolan.

Many key writers among the Western intellectual and artistic elites lost their faith in God at a time when the mass of people were still believers.  In his poem “Dover Beach” (1867), the English poet Matthew Arnold described the “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” of the “Sea of Faith”. However, as Pericles Lewis writes in this study of religious experience in the modernist novel, that “roar” would continue to sound in Western literature for a century or more. As he argues, many philosophers and authors would seek to provide replacements for religion “in the wake of a God whose announced withdrawal from this world never seemed to be quite complete”.

The Moorhen - Gallinula chloropus in its Latin nomenclature or "Cearc uisce" in Irish - is a bird with large feet and an even larger presence in Ireland and abroad. By Niall Hatch.

A common sight on ponds, canals, lakes and slow-flowing streams, the Moorhen is found throughout Ireland. It belongs to the rail and crake family, though unlike most members of that group, such as the now-scarce Corncrake, it is not a particularly shy or secretive bird, often coming out into the open and permitting close approach by humans.

Merrill Lynch warned against the guarantees that the government provided the banks. By Vincent Browne.

On September 24, 2008, the government asked Merrill Lynch to advise on the options in dealing with the emerging Irish banking crisis.

At 6.43pm on Monday, September 29, 2008, the night of the bank guarantee, Henrietta Baldock, managing director of investment banking at Merrill Lynch - one of the few women in senior positions in the financial world - e-mailed another high-flyer, Kevin Cardiff, the then head of the Department of Finance’s Taxation and Financial Services division, and now Secretary General of the department. She attached the 24-page Merrill Lynch report in her e-mail.

The media extends itself chasing hares about sex crime and political corruption while it systematically neglects fundamental injustices. By Vincent Browne.

The focus on Ivor Callely, and on others accused of abusing public funds for their own gain, misses a big point.

The focus on the threat Larry Murphy, the released rapist, poses to society, misses another big point.

We in the media are good at missing big points; our livelihoods depend on it. For missed big points are often uncomfortable.

Brian Cowen should remember Ozymandias before his Newsweek listing among the foremost leaders of the world goes to his head.

Ozymandias, alias Ramses II, who ruled another legendary empire around 1,250 BC for all of 66 years, was the subject of the famous sonnet by the English poet Percy Shelley in 1818. It ended with the lines:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains: round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."

An incredibly subtle work which reveals much about the human condition, Adam Foulds's second novel about the poets John Clare and Alfred Tennyson is a tour de force of sustained imaginative power. By Edward O’Hare.

Love, genius and madness are the themes of Adam Foulds second novel, a work whose tender, delicate prose holds within it a galaxy of complex thought, powerful emotions and human truths. Set in the Forest of Epping near London around 1840, The Quickening Maze concerns the fortunes of Dr. Matthew Allen, chemist, phrenologist, philosopher, and the doctor in charge of High Beach Asylum, a shelter for the insane which Allen runs on his own enlightened, reformist precepts.

An autodidact with a vast, inquiring mind, Dr. Allen has become a wealthy and influential figure. He has built a fine home for himself and his large family. But he wants more. No longer finding attending to the needs of the insane a sufficient stimulant for his roving intellect, Dr. Allen conceives a new business scheme which he is convinced will make him one of the richest men in the country. Risking everything, he sets about developing a machine to change the very face of the earth.

Two weeks of floods have killed 1,000 people and displaced 20 million more in Pakistan. Food and water are scarce; houses and infrastructure destroyed. In parts, flood waters continue to rise. Even where the water has abated, health crises loom. The UN says outbreaks of cholera and other water-borne diseases endemic to Pakistan could happen, as the Al Jazeera video below outlines. Over 1.5 million cases of diarrhoea are predicted. 

In the video from Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) below, a doctor outlines some of the medical problems he has already encountered - injury due to collapsing houses, infections due to overcrowding and hygiene. Between 100 and 120 patients are seen daily at this clinic in Charsadda. Another MSF video shows the distribution of relief goods to Afghani victims of the floods at Kamp Khorasan. 

Today, the EU committed another €30m in emergency funding, bringing the total in EU relief aid to €70m. More is needed, say analysts. 

What is it about politics that so few people make lasting friendships through their work? By Vincent Browne.

Politicians are, in the main, nice guys (and girls).

Yes, there are some nasty people in politics, but in general, they are personable and nice. People who you’d be happy to have a drink with - and that’s the test, isn’t it? The reason is obvious: most of them would not have been elected were they not nice people.

Most of them are able, too. And most of them are genuine, seeking to improve things for their constituents and for the populace generally. It is not the integrity or competence of politicians that I think is the issue, but rather their politics - what they stand for - and what they do.

A group of Irish artists together with the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) have launched a cultural boycott of Israel. By Eamonn Costello.

At a gathering in Dublin's Temple Bar, creative and performing artists undertook to boycott Israel by refusing to perform, or to allow their work be displayed there.

The signatures of over 160 poets, writers, actors, playwrights, dancers, sculptors, musicians and visual artists were collected for a pledge “not to avail of any invitation to perform or exhibit in Israel, nor to accept any funding from any institution linked to the government of Israel, until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights”.