Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘Mainstream Media’ Category

Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann Offers CoronaVirus Unnecessary Deaths in Ireland – North, South, East and West

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Professor Gabriel Scally came to the attention of many people in Ireland because of his no-holds-barred examination of a Cervical Smear Scandal in the Irish Health Service. https://www.thejournal.ie/scally-review-outsourcing-labs-4677380-Jun2019/

Scally assesses the behaviour of Stormont Government Health Minister Robin Swann (recent leader of the Ulster Unionist Party)

Robin  Swan n Must  Go!
Robin Swann Must Go!

Professor Gabriel Scally writes :

Ridiculous assertion on BBC from N Ireland minister @RobinSwannMoH

“the RoI has worse #corvid19 position than N Ireland.”

The South has more cases. But that’s because they have 32 community based testing stations. The North has ZERO and stopped testing in communities last week https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1240923430318456832

Here is A Sharp Comment

Siubhán O’Connor@siubhanoc·Replying to @GabrielScally and @RobinSwannMoHSwann is so utterly blinded by his bias…ppl in the South with NO SYMPTOMS are getting tested where they are deemed ‘at risk’. Our maintenance man has COPD & has been referred for test. 2 day wait. NI is in serious trouble

The Irish Examiner Reports “Public health specialist Dr Gabriel Scally, Honorary Professor of Public Health in Bristol University, has described the UK’s policy on Covid-19 as “way out of line” with the rest of Europe and advice from the World Health Organisation.

Dr Gabriel Scally
Dr Gabriel Scally

“I think it’s dangerous. Their view really is let this fire burn and they will try and damp it down where they can and spread it out over a period of time. 

“But we know from elsewhere in the world that if countries and communities act fast, this can be kept under control and knocked back.”

The UK approach is similar to the old adage: “Everyone is out of step with our Johnny”, he said. 

“If the UK has got it right, then the rest of the world has got it wrong. And I don’t think that’s likely.

“I think it’s displayed by some of their appalling science that they’re talking about, using herd immunity. 

They are reliant on mathematical modelling but this is not a mathematical modelling issue.

Dr Scally said that if there was one threat to how things are being handled in the Republic of Ireland, it is the UK’s position. 

People in Northern Ireland need to be demanding better from their leaders and they themselves need to do a better job.

“They’re following along blindly this notion that somehow all of the wisdom is emanating from Number 10 Downing Street and we know that to be wrong. 

“Even the United States is taking a more proactive approach than the UK.” https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/closing-borders-would-make-things-worse-says-disease-prevention-and-control-expert-988199.html

Readers should also note from the Irish Examiner report that Public Health Experts Oppose the Closing of Borders

“Dr Agoritsa Baka said that given there is already community transmission of the virus in European countries, “we need to collaborate to make sure everyone can deal with the virus in a coordinated way.”

Closing borders would make things worse, she said and would negatively affect the function of healthcare systems, as was seen during the Ebola outbreak in 2014.

Dr Baka said that if, for example, Germany closed its border “everything, like food supplies, personal protection equipment cannot move around Europe, and it would be a disaster.”

Let’s Get Real – Swann Must Go! The Stormont Health Minister has already guaranteed unnecessary death and illness in the North of Ireland – and, because so many people travel daily across the Irish Border in both directions, Swann has guaranteed unnecessary death and illness in the South East and West of Ireland.

Coronavirus has sparked a perfect storm of nationalism and financial speculation – Yanis Varoufakis, Former SYRIZA Finance Minister in Greece – THE GUARDIAN

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Here is a fresh warning about the toxic combination of two different phenomenons – the CoVid-19 Health Crisis and a Financial Money Markets Storm, similar to the 2008 Crash.

The author is Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek Finance Minister sacked from a SYRIZA Government before it surrendered to the Austerians.

See also https://tomasoflatharta.wordpress.com/2020/03/06/coronavirus-is-not-responsible-for-the-fall-of-stock-prices-international-viewpoint-online-socialist-magazine/.

When the air is replete with inflammable materials, any given spark can cause a financial explosion, at any time.

Éric Toussaint of CADTM examines a worldwide stock market collapse.

Eric Toussaint is a historian and political scientist who completed his Ph.D. at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège, is the international spokesperson of the CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt) , and sits on the Scientific Council of ATTAC France. 
He is the author of Debt System (2019), Bankocracy (2015); Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to the Present, Haymarket books, Chicago; “Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank, Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers”, Monthly Review Press, New York, 2010. He has published extensively in this field. He is a member of the Fourth International leadership.

Yanis Varoufakis, Former SYRIZA Finance Minister in Greece

Nationalism and speculation have seldom had a better opportunity to combine forces as the one riding today on the coattails of Covid-19, known as the coronavirus. When Covid-19 leapfrogged from China to Italy, even ardent Europeanists normally appreciative of open borders joined the deafening calls to end freedom of movement across Europe’s national borders – a longstanding demand of nationalists. Meanwhile, the money men speculating on government debt are performing a classic flight from Italian to German government bonds, seeking the financial safety that only the continent’s hegemon can offer during any crisis. As if in a bid to remind us of the great contradiction of our times, Covid-19 is illuminating gloriously the freedom of money to transcend a borderless financial universe while humans remain as fenced in as ever.

Coronavirus has sparked a perfect storm of nationalism and financial speculation – THE GUARDIAN

https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2020/03/09/coronavirus-has-sparked-a-perfect-storm-of-nationalism-and-financial-speculation-the-guardian/
— Read on www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2020/03/09/coronavirus-has-sparked-a-perfect-storm-of-nationalism-and-financial-speculation-the-guardian/

Coronavirus is not responsible for the fall of stock prices – International Viewpoint – online socialist magazine

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When the air is replete with inflammable materials, any given spark can cause a financial explosion, at any time.

Éric Toussaint of CADTM examines a worldwide stock market collapse.

Eric Toussaint is a historian and political scientist who completed his Ph.D. at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège, is the international spokesperson of the CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt) , and sits on the Scientific Council of ATTAC France. 
He is the author of Debt System (2019), Bankocracy (2015); Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to the Present, Haymarket books, Chicago; “Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank, Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers”, Monthly Review Press, New York, 2010. He has published extensively in this field. He is a member of the Fourth International leadership. Read the rest of this entry »

Dubai ruler organised kidnapping of his children, UK court rules | World news | The Guardian

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The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, is an international criminal. Perhaps he will be the next monarch visiting President Michael D Higgins of Ireland in the Phoenix Park. It is time to stop grovelling to Royal Parasites. Read the rest of this entry »

Coronavirus in Ireland: challenging misinformation and offering solutions – Independent Left

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Donald Trump, for example, has twice explained to the world that the threat of coronavirus will ‘go away’ in April with warmer weather. He’s said that life will return to normal after the spike and that the media have been exaggerating how dangerous the virus is.

And in their own way, the caretaker Irish government have been failing us. Their theme is ‘don’t panic’. Well, yes, panic wouldn’t help the situation. But is it panicking to want to know where the virus has been present and what measures are being taken to prevent it spreading? As the case of the student from Scoil Chaitríona shows, Fine Gael have a strategy of keeping detailed information out of the public domain as much as possible and assuring us that no special measures are needed.

This approach is creating panic rather than ending it. The less we know, the more we speculate and rumours (not without foundation in respect to the Mater hospital, but made up in other instances) of other possible cases fly around social media. Crucially, too, lives will be lost if the message goes out – as it did this morning on RTÉ’s panel discussion – that public concern about the coronavirus was massively exaggerated and we should carry on as normal. We shouldn’t even cancel travel plans to centres of infection like northern Italy.
— Read on independentleft.ie/coronavirus-in-ireland/

This is a very useful article.

See also :

https://tomasoflatharta.wordpress.com/2020/02/27/coronavirus-2019-ncov-or-covid-19-in-france-medical-information-thoughts-and-practical-advice-international-viewpoint-online-socialist-magazine/

In Italy, the Racist Far-Right is using the CoronaVirus Crisis :

David Broder, the European Editor of Jacobin and a historian of French and Italian Communism, Explains :

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Ireland’s abortion standoff – Al Jazeera Coverage

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Ireland’s abortion standoff

A link to Al Jazeera’s coverage is here :

http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/irelands-abortion-standoff-0022407

Written by tomasoflatharta

Nov 21, 2012 at 12:13 am

Global Coverage of Savita Halappanavar’s Avoidable Death in an Irish Galway Hospital

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“As the news of Halappanavar’s death was reported via newspaper front pages on Tonight With Vincent Browne on TV3, and across Twitter on Tuesday night, reactions almost uniform in their sadness, anger and outrage turned to organising demonstrations both in memory of Halappanavar and against the delay in legislating on the ‘X Case’, which international readers can learn about here. By Wednesday evening, protests had already taken place in Ireland, and Halappanavar’s death and the surrounding issues were being covered internationally.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/poplife/2012/11/14/savitahalappanavar/

 

Wikileaks, Julian Assange and a North American Torture-State (the President is Mr B Obama)

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Wikileaks, Julian Assange and a North American Torture-State (the President is Mr B Obama)

Lots of cowardly junk has been published in Mainstream Media Outlets about the Assange / Wikileaks case; the key feature is a determination to avoid resisting the North American torture-state offensive headed by its leader Barack Obama.

Susan McKay’s August 24 Opinion Piece in the Irish Times is typical of this worldwide trend :

The Assange affair is not just about WikiLeaks, stupid – Susan McKay 

McKay alleges :

Assange has not sought political asylum because of WikiLeaks. He is on the run from allegations of rape. These alleged crimes are defined as both serious and non-political. Political asylum is a hard-won human right – Assange has abused it. In doing so he has endorsed a real witch hunt – against the women who allege he sexually coerced them.”

Mocking the threat to Assange McKay tells her readers : Read the rest of this entry »

Have They Gone A Bit Mad in Cavan and Fermanagh, Ted? – Michelle Gildernew MP (SF) says Seán Quinn “is being punished for having the audacity to ‘buy the bank; and for being an ordinary man from Fermanagh”

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The Fall of the Seán Quinn Family Empire has angered many people in the bankrupt billionaire’s home county of Fermanagh and its near-neighbour Cavan, where a demonstration of over 4000 people assembled in Ballyconnell on Sunday July 29.

Supporters include the Sinn Féin Fermanagh-South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew :

 Even Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildernew has come out to defend the family, telling this newspaper that what has happened to Mr. Quinn was “wrong”.

“He has been treated disgracefully by the Irish Government. Had they not tried to strip him off all his assets, including his home, deny him the ability to function in business, and routinely try to humiliate him I believe he would have paid back every penny he owed to the Irish taxpayer.

“He accepted he had done wrong, but all our attempts to make the government show some comment sense were ignored. He is being punished for having the audacity to ‘buy the bank; and for being an ordinary man from Fermanagh who is hugely respected by his community,” she said.

The support hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Quinns who say they will be “forever grateful” to everyone in both Fermanagh and Cavan “who have stood by us as they have been doing for nearly 40 years now”.

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Stanford University California – Ex-Taoiseach Brian Cowen is a $58,000 student on a Six-Week Course

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The Irish Daily Mail is running a story on ex-Taoiseach Brian Cowen :

Link :

Who is paying ex-Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s $58,000 Fees for a 6 week course in Stanford University, California?

Brian Cowen at Stanford University

 

Let’s wait and see how this story develops.

The words “Stanford University” rang a bell here :

Reilly’s special advisor paid €160,000 for 80% of his time, works here ‘on average’ 2 weeks a month

Health Analyst Sara Burke reported about Mr Martin Connor on February 17 2012 :

Connor, a special advisor to Health Minister James Reilly, divides his time between Ireland and Stanford University, California :

Word was out in the health system that Martin Connor worked here just eight days out of 24 and was based in California. When I asked the Department of Health how much of his time was dedicated to his special delivery unit work and where was he based, I was told, ‘The time commitment is of the order of 80%. Dr Connor is currently completing a research fellowship in Stanford University. He is in Ireland for two weeks a month on average but also conducts work by teleconference on a daily basis.’ Teleconferences on a daily basis must be difficult given the time difference between California and Dublin.

Link :

Health Minister Reilly’s Special Advisor Paid €160,000; Studies at Stanford University California

In recent days mainstream Irish media outlets ran a story about an alleged “scandal” – 3 United Left Alliance TD’s travelled outside their Dublin constituencies to support the Campaign Against the Household Tax.

Link :

Smear Campaign Against ULA TD’s on Travel Expenses

Makes you wonder about the calibre of wealthy students at Stanford University California, Irish State Bodies Paying Very Expensive Fees, and Double Standards in the Main Irish media outlets.

Update 1 :

Link :

Enterprise Ireland not paying Brian Cowen’s Stanford University Fees of $58,000 for a six week course

John Meehan