Racism on the Tram

this week a video on youtube has swept around the web and caused uproar among people everywhere. the video shows a woman on public transport in England who starts ranting and shouting about different races and people of different ethnicity and how they ruined britain, etc. the woman is directing these comments at other people that were on the tram who were africaan, asian as well as others, she seemed very angry and uttered an number of racial slurs which offended a number of passengers, some of the passengers then confronted her about it and she became even more irate and abused people further. this woman just goes to show that even though in these times where we have grown to accept the people of different cultures that live and work with us there are still some very backwards views about race still sticking with some people..!!

Death of a legend

Gary speed, former premier league footballer and wales national team manager was found dead in his home at the weekend. Speed who was famous for his time at Newcastle United, was only 42 at the time of his death was an influential figure at all the premier league clubs that he played for and was responsible for the huge turnaround in the fortunes of the welsh national team.police who investigated said that they found a man who had hanging who was later identified as the former footballer, police also said that they are not treating it as suspicious and believe it was suicide. it was a sad day for football everywhere after the news broke with some footballers playing on sunday like shay given, irish international and former teammate not able to hold back his emotions during the game. speed is a man who will be missed throughout the football world, may he rest in peace

Harsh budget

Over the past few days there has been uproar around the country over proposed plans in the budget which is due in December. Enda Kenny has proposed to raise the level of V.A.T by 2% up to 23%, making everything we buy even more expensive than it already is, this move is by the government is a ridiculous that is going to cause serious unrest with the voters in this country. Many people are struggling to pay for day to day items as they have lost their jobs due to the recession and are on social welfare, another area looking to be cut. The 700 million euro that the government are looking to cut is being taken from the most vulnerable people in society, those who sometimes cannot afford to feed themselves and their children, buy books or clothes for their kids and who are living in poverty. Although there are many claiming social welfare who are not in such dire circumstances or even the few who are defrauding the government, a better way of dealing with this situation rather than cutting it is to properly investigate the system to see who needs it and who is defrauding the government and this should lead to a noticeable reduction in the costs involved. the same should be done with child benefit rather than cutting it find out who really needs it and who is using it as 'an extra few pound' and run the system properly rather than hurting the already poverty stricken family's around the country..!!!

'Keane' Investor

Any one who follows soccer, or more specifically the Premiership will surely be aware of the outrageous amounts of money that players get paid every week to train 2 or 3 times a week and maybe play for ninety minutes on a Saturday or Sunday if they are lucky enough to get picked. these weekly wages, yes weekly can range anywhere from 20 or 30 thousand anywhere up to quarter of a million pounds, PER WEEK. Although these outrageous amounts are only paid to the top talent many footballers are investing their wages in financing Hollywood blockbusters. Robbie Keane, an Irish football legend is one of these people who have been investing in movies, he has been involved in financing Avatar, the highest grossing film of all time which made over 2 billion euro around the world, also the company which he has invested in has been involved in financing films such as x-men, Austraila, The A-Team as well as many others. Although Keane is a professional footballer who may not have any business experience in the past, his investments in these companies have surely paid off hugely for the republic of ireland striker as well as many other premiership footballers.

Berlusconi to run again?

In Italy this week the government were set to vote on a number of economic reforms in the country including public spending cuts and other methods to reduce the country's almost 2 billion euro debt. Berlusconi, the prime minister who frankly acts more like an out of control teenager than a head of state vowed that he would resign if the legislation was passed. On Saturday the parliament voted in favor of these measures and Berlusconi was forced to resign, late that night he met with the president to hand in his resignation but was greeted by thousands of angry protesters furious at how he handled the economic crisis and was forced to make an exit out the back to avoid these protesters. Even after all that has went on belusconi has hinted that he may even run again by aying on saturday that an election may be the fairest way of deciding the new prime minister a position he had held for 17 years, but in all honesty if it were to happen and the people did vote him back into office then Italy deserve to be in the situation they are in..!

Ethical Considerations of Social Media

As i'm sure that most people nowadays are all pretty regular users of social media for instance if you have a Facebook account or post videos on YouTube you are all taking part in one way or another in the phenomenon that is social media, while it may all seem harmless and fun to socialize online there are some ethical issues to take into account when using these sites.

 Social networking sites like Facebook have a huge amount of personal information on 800 million of its users that is freely available to anyone who wishes to access it online for example, pictures that people put up on these sites can be copied and used freely by anyone who wishes, this in extreme cases can have implications in identity theft or even businesses using your image in advertising without your permission permission.

Also in recent years potential employers have been looking at applicants Facebook accounts before hiring a candidate. while what a person does in their social life does not really have an impact on their business life in some cases employers have decided not to hire candidates based on content posted on Facebook profiles.

So if your a party animal who likes putting up pictures of wild college nights out...think of possible implications down the line when you finish college.....if your potential employer likes to do some background research on candidates..you might just find it a little bit more difficult to find a job..!

Uproar At Aviva.!

With the imminent reduction of the workforce at Aviva in Dublin, Cork and Galway, the workers have decided to fight back. The workers are set to vote on possible industrial action next week, with the trade union UNITE being quoted in the national press as being "Sadistic" in their bid to cut the workforce. Out of the 950 jobs that are set to be lost at the company, the employees still have no idea when or where these jobs are going to be cut.

Not Enough Money in The Bank

Banks in Europe have been told they need to raise 2 Billion euro to boost their capital reserves. This comes after a recommendation from the European Banking Authority in an effort to try and stop another financial that crippled the worlds economies in 2008. this is a good idea however with banks still struggling in the markets they may find it hard to raise the capital themselves, therefore government support will more than likely be needed, this could be a huge problem for an Ireland that is already struggling to pay back the money we had to borrow during the financial crisis, on the face of this announcement it is a good move but in reality implementing these recommendations could prove difficult.

Is Apple Acting Fairly?

Computer giants Apple have won a court case in Australia banning one of their main rivals from selling there product there. Apple brought up yhis dispute with regard to their tablet pc the iPad which they claim there rival producer Samsung copied their technology in their Tag 10.1 device.

 However this isnt the only place where there is a legal battle between these two technology giants, apple also won asimilar case in germany also banning the sale of the Samsung device there. Also with Apple announcing last week the launch of the new iPhone 4s samsung have vowet to try stop the sale of these in some countries in europe under 3G transmission patents. In my opinion i think this is a under handed tactic by Apple to try and stop competitors selling a rival product and honestly there must be some infringment in competition law by this behaviour. Whether or not this behaviour will damage Apple's Reputation remains to be seen.

Death of An Idol

The world woke up to sad news this morning as Steve Jobs CEO of the Apple corporation pass away last night.




Jobs had been suffering from a recurrence of pancreatic cancer that he managed to beat once in 2005.....but sadly this time the cancer took its toll.
Jobs is responsible for bringing us tecnology that most of us today simply couldnt live without, such as the iPod, iPhone's Macbooks most of which are essential tools in business today. all this from a man who never graduated from college...Jobs really is an inspiration to our generation, a man that will never be forgotten and an example of where grit, determination and a dream can take you in life.

Back To Work Lads..!!

Builders laid off since the burst of the property bubble are set to get back to work with help from the EU.
The Eu has set aside funds in the region of 36 million euro to train and re-educate the huge number of unemployed builders in the country. The Irish government is also set to add to this figure to further help the scheme. Although the scheme hasn't been approved by the EU Parliament yet a move like this can only be good news for the struggling Construction sector.
Tom Parlon who is the Director General of the Construction industry Federation in Ireland was quoted in the Irish Independent as saying "over 170,000 direct construction jobs have been lost since the crisis began". My own brothers being among the numbers, personally I think that this is a brilliant idea to try and shrink the amount of people queuing outside post offices around the country and getting employment and this country on the way up again.