What a headline…
There’s a movie in there somewhere. Has to be.
Don’t all kind of images spring to mind? It’s so evocative. I can just picture these shady Mexican lads stuffing bags of coke into sharks’ mouths and sending them off like lethal carrier pigeons on a drug run.
When you read the story it becomes slightly more normal and less surreal, but still.
It goes like this… Read the rest of this entry »
A world gone mad…
This is a photo I took on the way home from work yesterday of a huge queue at St Stephens Green. Four or five people deep, it extended as far as the eye see could see. So must’ve been a couple of thousand people all told. They all had envelopes or sheets of paper in their hands.
I genuinely thought it was an auditions queue for a Dublin-set Bollywood movie of some sort. Or at the very least another crappy talent show type thing. But no.
Turns out in those envelopes and on those sheets of paper were Curriculum Vitaes.
There were some jobs going in a couple of newsagents so hence the CVs. But a line that long for open interviews? Who would’ve predicted that 6 months ago? Not Brian fucking Cowen that’s for sure.
I spoke to a couple of people who were queueing. “It’s all that’s going nowadays” was the concensus. But still, a queue of applicants that long? Naïve perhaps, but I was genuinely shocked.
How quickly things can change eh?
Enough already…
This recession lark has well and truly kicked in and it’s only going to get worse before it gets any way better. I’ve tried to ignore it as much as I can. I’ve been reluctant to post about it as I feel the more we all talk about it the worse it’ll get.
It’s everywhere. I’d swear the news organisations (print TV radio) invented it because they’ve nothing else to hype up. No real war; Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan are so dated now. Global warming is boring. They got so much milage out of Obama already so something new, something global was needed. And bad news sells. Nothing like a bit of doom and gloom to boost circulation and ratings.
Yesterday the Irish Independent had a recession special. The Late Late Show was dominated by it. Prime TIme have been creaming themselves all week with the doom and gloom. Etc etc etc. I’m sick of it.
And all they do is make it worse. It’s like the Gremlins. Add water and the fucker goes wild.
The thing about recessions is they are man made. Completely. Obviously. They are driven by fear. And most of that fear is propagated by the media. It’s a vicious cycle and it’s all completely inorganic. It defies logic in fact. If we all turned around tomorrow and decided that we didn’t want a recession. Bang there’d be no recession. But that’s not going to happen, collectively, is it?
Employers are using the recession to cut back. Often flouting labour laws and trade union agreements. Just because in the current climate they can, and everyone is afraid to say boo because we all have to be grateful, humble servants. It’s crazy.
And it all has happened so quickly. Only Bertie saw it coming and now he’s on crutches, karma anyone?!?
Now I’m not trying to bury my head in the sand. I know it’s serious. Australia is gonna be full of unemployed Irish plasterers, architects, electricians, everything, very soon and that’s a scary prospect. All because here in Ireland we are rudderless. Our government haven’t the balls or the smarts to deal with the situation at hand and the people are like lost sheep without a shepherd. Basically we’re fucked. And that’s just shit.
A friend of mine has set up a recession club in work. They go out for pints every Monday night now and anyone who utters the “R” word has to buy a round. Now that’s the spirit. More of it.
Funderland meets Ryanair
Saw an interesting story here. It goes like this…
An elderly woman misunderstood instructions while checking in at Arlanda, Sweden’s main airport and was whisked down a baggage chute after she placed herself instead of her luggage on the belt.
The 78-year-old woman, who was not named, was preparing to fly from Stockholm to Germany on Tuesday when she lay down on an unmanned baggage belt in the belief she was following check-in instructions, a local daily reported on its website.
She was quickly swept off to the baggage handling centre, where staff members helped get her back on her feet.
The woman suffered no serious injury and caught her flight as planned.
I wonder is Michael O’Leary getting any ideas from this? I suppose if you can charge for priority boarding just so people can have the pleasure of sitting on a Ryanair flight longer than everyone else, then maybe people would pay for some thrills and spills on the way? Funderland meets Ryanair, coming soon to an airport near you.
