Wave Change Participants

Over the 12th and 13th of November I spent time in the Cork School Music on the Wave Change  programme from Social Entrepreneurs Ireland which I blogged about here. Over the two days there were speakers, such as Bill Liao and Myles McCorry of Bike Pure.

We also had workshops on online and offline communication as well as some activities to get us thinking and learning about our skills.

There was also a great opportunity to brain storm our ideas and help each other with our projects. A lot was learned during these sessions!

The weekend was extremely enjoyable and the fact that everyone there was there to take part and learn meant that we all took something from the weekend.

This weekend sees the Dublin weekend happens and in Galway on the 21st and 22nd of January.

Check out Wave Change. Wave Change is a new programme being launched by Social Entrepreneurs Ireland for 18-25 year-olds who believe that they have a role to play in building the Ireland we all want to live in and who want to have a stronger voice in society.  The programme provides training, development, seed funding and networking opportunities to help make this a reality.

They are kicking off the programme in November 2011 with Wave Change Weekends in Cork (November 12&13), Dublin (November 26&27) and Galway in mid-January 2012.

If you like what happens at the weekend you can apply to join a group of 30 for a 10 month programme beginning in February 2012. Which will include:

Image via Wikipedia

On Wednesday I found this post by a parent of a child with disbilities trying to get people to stop using the “r-word” on twitter. It documents the responses she got, some make fun, but others take her point. We need more people like her! That post brought a tear to my eye. I rarely use the word, and now I will endeavour to use it less.

Then while going through my news feeds I discovered this story on the Irish Examiner, its sub heading was “HE won gold in the Special Olympics but is classed a “lunatic”.”

This post was about our legal system and how it classes people with mental disabilities as a “person of unsound mind”. How demeaning is that? How old fashioned is that? Why do we allow our legal system to still use terminology like that? Why is the Lunacy Act 1871 still in force?

Can we not move on with the times and treat people with disabilities with respect and allow them to represeneted fully in law.

I hope the new government will take on board this and attempt to change how we refer to people with disabilities within in our legal system as that may help  change how the rest of society treats people with mental disabilities. It baby steps, but every little helps.

Related articles

• Unequal Under the Law (irishexaminer.com)
• A mom asks people to stop using the word retard (sfgate.com)

Volunteering is very important in many Member States. Across the EU 92 to 94 million adults are involved in volunteering in the EU. That is 23% of all Europeans over 15 years of age. But is that enough?

Also it varies widely among the member states. In Austria, Netherlands, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom have volunteering rates of over 40%. In Denmark, Finland, Germany and Luxembourg volunteering is between 30%-39% of over 15 year olds. Estonia, France and Lithuania have rates between 20%-29%. In Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ireland, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Romania, Sweden and Spain it is between 10-19%. And in Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Latvia volunteering is at less then 10%.

While each country does have different definitions of volunteering and some have legal definitions, the disparate figures go to show that volunteer in most member states could do with a helping hand.

This is especially important in our current economic times as volunteering can add to GDP. For example, volunteering accounts for between 3% and 5% of GDP in Asutria, Netherlands and Sweden. In Ireland it contributes between 1-2% of GDP. This is a resource that we can build on and may help us overcome some of our difficulties.

There are a number of websites out there to highlight the year,

• European Year of Volunteering 2011
• Volunteer! Make a Difference”: European Commission launches the European Year of Volunteering 2011
• EYV 2011 ALLIANCE
• Interview with Marian Harkin

So get out there, and volunteer. Help make a difference to someone else’s life and your own!

The Irish Left Review picked up on an EU survey by GlobalIrish.ie on emigrant voting rights. Ireland is the only country in the 20 surveyed to have to voting rights for Diaspora or plans to bring it in. Greece is being forced to bring it in after a ruling by the ECHR. Will an Irish emigrant bring a case to try and force Ireland to change? Shouldn’t we change anyway?

European Country – Vote at national elections?
AUSTRIA – YES
BELGIUM – YES
DENMARK – (YES) but with many restrictions
ESTONIA – YES
FINLAND – YES
FRANCE – YES
GERMANY – YES – but only within countries of Council of Europe
GREECE – NO (subject to change following recent European Court of Human Rights decision)
IRELAND – NO
ITALY – YES
LUXEMBOURG – YES
SPAIN – YES
NETHERLANDS – YES
POLAND – YES
PORTUGAL – YES
ROMANIA – YES
SLOVAKIA – YES
SWEDEN – YES
SWISS – YES
UNITED KINGDOM – YES (Voting right is lost after 15 years abroad – this time limit is being challenged by a Spanish-based UK citizen.)

Being one of the only countries in the EU not to offer this right to its citizens, means we are not treating our emigrants with the respect they deserve.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Irish influence in the EU (stephenspillane.com)
• Over 100,000 Irish workers expected to leave country before 2012 (guardian.co.uk)

A lot of the talk surrounding the Civil Partnerships Bill is concentrating on the aspects concerned with the rights of gay partners. For a change it is the consequences for hetrosexual (and homosexual may I add) of the other part of the bill to do with cohabitation is being largely ignore.

Carol Coulter had a very good analysis is yesterdays Irish Times about this. It is well worth reading.

This bill will affect more peoples lives then you think. I personally know plenty of people that this act will affect. Make sure you know what it does.

Relationships are about to get more legalistic. Is that what we want?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Ireland’s Evangelicals Support Civil Partnerships for Gays (lezgetreal.com)
• Cork Info Night on the Civil Partnership Bill (stephenspillane.com)
• Civil Partnership Bill Debate begins December 3rd (mamanpoulet.com)

There is a very large elephant in the room in Irish politics. It is a very important issue and it cause fierce tensions and divides, but not only in Ireland.

I blogged a few years back that Ireland needs an Abortion Act and recent events are making that point more necessary!

The recent poll in the Irish Examiner showing that “60% of young people want abortion legalised here” shows that young people do care about this issue.

Todays report by Human Right’s Watch, A State of Isolation, which calls on the Government to decriminalise “all abortion for women living in Ireland” (Full list of recommendations)

Abortion is a polarising issue in Ireland. At the moment it is unresolved. Ireland has two choices. We can amend the Offences against the Person Act, 1861 to take account of the constitutional rights. Or we have a new referendum on Abortion and try and introduce the freedom to have an Abortion.

(The right to an abortion is something I am not sure of, so I refrain from using that terminology)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Rights body calls for legalised abortion (irishexaminer.com)
• Summary of the Irish abortion legislation report (guardian.co.uk)

2009 saw 240 people killed on Irish Roads. This is down (a record!!) 39 on last year. It is still a high figure.

Among those killed were:

• 40 pedestrians,
• 7 cyclists,
• 128 were drivers
• 38 passengers
• 27 bikers.

Road deaths can effect anyone. They leave devastation behind. My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those killed this.

Here’s hoping that there will be less this year.

So buckle up, don’t speed, don’t drive while tired and wear a high visibility jacket when walking.

For all our sake, take care on the roads. Especially with the cold conditions we are experiencing at the moment. Please follow the RSA’s advice for the festive season.

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• Weather outside to remain frightful (irishexaminer.com)

I know the blog seems to be obsessed with Strikes at the moment, but they are a big part of whats going on with me at the moment! Between asking you what you think of crossing pickets to my teachers going on strike its time that I decided what I am going to do about the strike at Boots.

I have talked to a few friends about this and teachers about my predicament and everyone acknowledges the predicament I am in. I have some suggestions, such as calling in sick during the strike to just plain cross the picket.

So I have decided.

As I am a part time worker on a temporary contract, on this occassion I will be crossing the pickets. I need the hours, basically I need the money. I think the full time union members will appreciate these facts and there will not be hassle with me ducking the picket line, if there is one when I am working.

Oh if only life was easy!

Now this wouldn’t bother me much except next month I have two exemption exams in December which I must pass to get into 2nd Year of my course. One of these is in Criminal Law and on Tuesdays I have two classes of this subject and now I am missing out on it!! Its very annoying.

The announcement today brought me back to 2000/2001 and the ASTI teachers strike when I was doing my Junior Cert, now that didn’t bother me much back then, but now I am loosing out on a day when I could be doing projects on software I dont have at home, but have to use in college. Its fair annoying!

Unions seem to be out to get me!