Some random news bits

A COUPLE of news items have caught my eye this week all for different reasons.

Our Taoiseach, one of the highest paid leaders in the world described himself as 'poverty-striken' in relation to other country leaders. Given his larger than the industrial wage payrise alone the turn of phrase is an absolute disgrace to those who, despite our affluence, are living in poverty in Ireland today. Having felt a couple of quid away from poverty at one stage in my life, the ignorance of what it means to be in that situation is astounding. And that is our country's leader. And yes Bertie you will be waiting a long time for someone to write about how poverty stricken you are. Shame on you.

The arson attack on a family in Omagh which went today from the worst fire tragedy in the North to murder. The descriptions from people outside who tried to help are etched in my head and the family's screams should forever haunt the perpetrators.

What started off for me as an incident I heard on the morning traffic news causing delays became more real for me as I passed the carnage of a truck which drove onto the middle island on O'Connell Street. Then I heard the news later and that a teenager was hit by the truck and then read John's blog and his account of nearly being hit by the truck. A pal of the guy who was hit has commented on the post and it was good to read that despite some appalling injuries and surgery he will be okay, in time. You can see my photographs on Flickr.

Then the Herald ran a piece today about a landlord who has been found guilty of bugging her tenants. Charming. It also begs the question, why? One of the main reasons I can think of was control. I once lived in one place where the landlord because it was physically his house, believed he could walk in when he liked, tell us that we could not have visitors, complain about our belongings, you name it he thought it. My belief was that he may own the house, but as I paid rent it was my home and no longer a place he could just walk into as he pleased. The court ruled in favour of the tenants and now the landlord, Edel McKenna and her mother Rita have been ordered to pay 10 tenants €115k. I don't think the award was enough. You can read the story on the BBC site.