David Higgins

Last night saw yet another head shop vandalised and destroyed. The attack on the store in Sligo town is just the latest in a series of attacks on these new businesses.

The Gardaí arrested two men shortly after the incident. These men are aged 21 and 31. We need to ask ourselves who is leading the charge against these shops. Is it angry vigilante citizens who cannot wait for the government to legislate? Or, is it rival drug dealers?

While much anger has been expressed about the establishment of these shops, I do not believe that ordinary citizens are taking the law into their own hands. People claim that these shops are having a negative impact on their lives and their towns, however it has hit no one else harder than ordinary Joe Druggy. He has been hit with a larger recession than anyone else in this country. Recessions are generally a time when countries experience a rise in drug use and drug related offences. In Ireland, the rise in head shops has taken business away from violent drug dealers.

Drug dealers are frustrated, so they are now retaliating by destroying head shops and making people unemployed in the process.

In my previous post Off with the Heads!?! I highlight the positive aspects of head shops. I argued that drug dealers would lose customers and I have now been proven correct. If drug dealers and criminal gangs could compete with head shops then they would have no reason to risk arrest and prosecution by attacking them!

Keeping these shops open keeps the drug dealers out of business!!!

This past month in Irish politics has been one of the most interesting the nation has seen since its foundation. The resignation of four high profile politicians in the space of three weeks shows how fragile our system has become. Both George Lee and Déirdre de Búrca had the guts not only to leave their positions but to leave their seats. On the other hand Willie O’Dea and Trevor Sargent still remain in their Dáil seats even though they are both accused of serious crimes.

To be fair, it must be said that Sargent showed honesty and integrity in his resignation. When the news broke of his wrongdoing he immediately knew that the game was up. By the same evening he had left his post as a junior minister and this reflected well on his character. In sharp contrast Willie O’Dea had to be dragged kicking and screaming from office. Only after Fine Gale tabled a motion of no confidence in him and after Dan Boyle withdrew his support via twitter did the Minister decide to resign.

Now, Willie O’Dea is whining and complaining about his fall from office in the media. In numerous interviews he has talked about how he is a victim of the political process? The simple reality is, Willie O’Dea is only a victim of his own actions. He was the one who slandered a political opponent, he was the one who lied to the High Court and he was the one who misled the Dáil on this matter.

I have no sympathy for him and the people of Limerick shouldn’t have either. Irish Politics is renowned for local favours where high profile ministers will bring investment to their constituencies. In 2007, nearly 20,000 people voted for Willie O’Dea but what good has he done to deserve so many votes? Gangland crime is still a pandemic in the city and job losses from places like Dell have made the city an unemployment blakspot.

As far as I’m concerned, Willie O’Dea is an embarrassment to politics in this country. He is nothing but an arrogant and tactless parasite who I am glad to see exterminated. However, Willie O’Dea is still a TD and it is very likely that he will contest the next general election.

Why is it, that a minister can act this way, resign, and then continue to represent the people as a TD? The simple fact is, that the government needs their support in Dáil votes, otherwise the government will fall. In order to keep itself in power the government will accept any low standard of ethics even if it means accepting support from two TDs who are accused of committing crimes.

The Celtic Tiger saw a splurge in easy money. If you wanted a loan, you got it! For a car, boat, house, or TV, it was a free for all. Now the banks are out of cash and everything we bought is worth nothing!

The principal of credit is an admirable one. It allows people to get what they want and pay for it later.

However it does not come without a price. Interest is usually applied on a loan but there can be greater consequences.

For some weird reason Shakespeare knows our world better than we do! He saw these consequences quite clearly and many of his great plays detail them.

In 3rd year we studied The Merchant of Venice. This entire play revolves around a loan. The Jew, Shylock, seeks his revenge over Antonio by causing him to default on his loan. Today in Ireland you get sent to jail for this (in the most extreme of cases), but in those days you were removed of a pound of flesh!

Shylock is like a relentless bank that will stop at nothing to get its money back. At least in those days you knew the forfeit of the loan. During the Celtic Tiger the bank told you nothing and the government said that prosperity would last forever!

Even in Hamlet, which I now study in 5th year, the writing is on the wall that loans are to be avoided at all costs.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

It ruins marriage, you lose friends, and most importantly you can lose everything you own!!!

This crisis has been the wake up call us Irish need.  China, who’s population save a large % of their income, is much better placed to deal with recessions like these. Thankfully some of us are taking the message seriously.

40% of adults are now debt free

This good news story shows that Irish people are beginning to save, but for how long?

If we see a boom again will personal spending rocket and will the loan cycle begin again?

It needs to be stopped and people need to realise that living within their means is the best way to live.

The Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan is furthering plans to create a new nationwide Postcodes system for Ireland. This week he has opened up the tender process for a contract to implement the new system.

This means that we will say goodbye to the old Dublin Postcode system. It’s something that all of us know and it will be missed in many ways.

D4, a slang term born out of the Celtic Tiger will be no more. I should take this time to note however that the area of Dublin 4 doesn’t even begin to cover the area that would be considered “posh” in South Dublin. I don’t know why this area caught on as being more posh than anywhere else. My own area of D16 is casually termed D4 squared

Another custom this new postcode system will end is the class warfare style reference to the even and odd numbered Dublin Postcodes. The Northside has odd numbers while the Southside holds the even numbers. This led to certain connotations to certain postcodes.

No focking way I’m going into Dublin 15 roysh!!

A New European style Postcode system will end all this and it will make deliveries to our doors much easier. Let’s see someone try and slag off D1467 . I can’t be certain that’s what the new codes will look like but I imagine it will be similar to other countries.

In France they have a simple 5 digit number code like the US zip codes (e.g 90210), while in the UK it is a 6 or 7 character combination of numbers and letters. In Belgium it is only 4 digits and this is probably because they are a small county. I would envisage a similar situation here.

We may see more spam through our doorsteps as businesses have an easy way to address our houses however I don’t mind. I actually enjoy when pizza coupons and menus come through the door!!

Yesterday Ireland’s largest ISP Eircom announced that they would start blocking the website The Pirate Bay from September.

Pirate Bay, the file sharing site is to be restricted on Eircom only and UPC (my faster and more reliable ISP) is defiantly opposing attempts by Music organizations to restrict the site on its network.

In a statement UPC said that there was no obligation on them under Irish law to restrict access to any website and that they would fight in court to protect their position. UPC and BT are due before the courts soon to adopt a 3 strikes rule on peer 2 peer downloads.

This move by Eircom surprises me as The Pirate Bay is due to become a legitimate content site in the coming weeks. I understand that this may not go ahead however what if it does, will Eircom lift its ban?

Also what about other sites.

Mininova is another prominent file-sharing site and to only ban The Pirate Bay would just move users to alternate sites such as this one. Thousands of torrent tracker sites exist and if one is shut down or blocked, another one will just take its place.

Then there’s the general file sites. Places such as Rapidshare and Megaupload are used for illegal file-sharing however more than half of its use is for legitimate and legal files such as free software and documents. Sites like these would be used regularly by businesses and law abiding citizens. Will these sites be blocked too???

And then there’s YouTube! The world’s largest video sharing site also contains millions of songs. Whether in music video format or just the song with a slideshow or album cover the selection is just as wide as on Pirate Bay or Limewire. Simple websites and desktop software can take the YouTube video, extract the audio and then convert it to MP3 format. This is just as effective, if a little more complex however it just shows that file-sharing is unstoppable and to challenge it is a waste of time.

Will the ban on Pirate Bay stop illegal file-sharing? NO!

The American dream is quite simple. It’s only complete if you own a house. Renting is inferior and there’s no greater feeling than paying off your last mortgage payment in your 50s. The Kids have moved out and you and your spouse can enjoy retirement in peace with no financial worries.

The Celtic Tiger born Irish dream was quite similar. It also required that you own a house and renting was a frowned upon immigrant activity. Funny how things had changed from the days where up to 10 Irish guys would rent out flats in London during the 1980s.

As a result of this ‘own a house binge’, people paid huge prices for houses they couldn’t afford. They took out 40-year mortgages that they will be paying back long after they’re retired. Now most of these properties have devalued and many people find themselves in negative equity.

Today it was announced by property site daft.ie that rent prices nationwide have dropped by 15-20%. The highest drop was in Dublin of 20%. This compared with a fix rate mortgage is a huge saving and compared with a tracker or flexible rate it is still a substantial difference.

During the Celtic Tiger rents were high due to the lack of demand however it surprises me that people didn’t do so in order to avoid dangerous mortgages. People knew the property market was going to the wall yet people still threw fuel on the fire. It would have made perfect sense to rent in the past 5 years as all indications were that the prices would eventually go down.

Agencies like the Financial Regulator not only failed in “Regulating” the banks but their personal finance ads made famous by the quote “I don’t know what a tracker mortgage is” failed in advising consumers about the impending implosion of the property market.

This drop in rents is good news for consumers and a welcomed bad news for landlords who made millions on rents during the celtic tiger. The drop is due to greater competition and an increased demand for renting. It’s also good for those wishing to find accommodation for college and for those getting their first house or apartment.

However it a slap in the face for those conned in the so called prosperity of the past few years.

I actually can’t believe how easy this was to make. I did it within an hour.

I went to Google and found the image of this Dun Laoghaire College ID. I copied it to my photo-editing software for Mac, GIMP and got to work.

The image was easy. I just found a simple background and put myself in front of it to take a photo with my built in webcam. I cropped it and then pasted it over the existing image.

Next was the text. Starting with the bottom it originally read “Sept 1999 – August 2000. 2009 was simple to achieve as all I had to do was paste the 9 from the Date of Birth on top of the last 0. However 2008 was a problem. The number 8 looks quite amateurish as I had to manually shape an 8, it wasn’t easy. However with a pre-made 8 it was no bother to just change the date of birth from 79 to 89. This now reads that I am 19 going on 20 which most people agree I look!

Finally but most tricky was the Name. Erasing the existing name was easy but I had to use the title text to replicate my name. The letters D-A-I-H-G-N are all found in the title text however V and S were not. For the V I turned the A upside down and erased the middle of the A. Then for the S, I took the S from Sept and coloured it blue, kind of.

A paper print out of this should get me a student ticket at the cinema tonight. I’m going to see Inglorious Basterds with Jack and Niall.