Growing Fears for Greek Exit of the Euro

The office of Greek President Karolos Papoulias has announced that his country will be forced to hold a second general election after the parties failed to agree on a plan to enter a coalition. Talks are currently being held in Athens to form an interim caretaker Government until the next vote likely to be held in the middle of next month.

Fears are growing across the Euro zone that the Greeks will be forced out of the euro following the increasing lack of stability in their political class. There is also an expectation that it will be the extreme-left parties that will benefit most from the forthcoming elections following 5 years of harsh austerity and rising unemployment. . These parties have to various degrees been threatening to undermine the austerity model imposed by the EU and IMF under the terms of the country's bail outs. The election of such leaders and subsequent disputes with the EU could likely precipitate a withdrawal of Greece from the Euro.

Weekend Randomness: The Domino Mattress World Record

Usain Bolt is crazy jelly!

Since the dawn of time people have worshipped at the altar of their favourite sports stars, from the great legends of folklore to modern sporting icons such as Christiano Rinaldo or Usain Bolt. Every one probably has one moment in their lives where sport played a major roll, where you watched mouth open as the worlds most impressive athletes shaved a few precious seconds off of that world record, claiming a gold medal and glory for the nation. 

The people who I am writing about today are not those kind of people yet they did manage to smash a world record this past weekend in New Orleans. 850 Americans broke the world record (as approved by an on site adjudicator from the Guiness World Records Group) for the longest chain of mattress dominoes. The preious worldrecord was 550 which had been achieved by a group in Belgium last year. The donated mattresses will now be given to various charaties.  A video of the group can be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCVi6JjVaaA . 

Russia Goes to the Polls

Mr Putin -Not to be Messed With 

Today the worlds largest nation elects its President. The hot favourite is the omnipresident Vladmir Putin who polls suggest is likely to romphome with over 65% in a 5 man race. The country is spread across 11 time zones and there are 110 million people eligible to vote. Mr Putin had been President from 2000-2008 however, constitutional rules meant he could not run for three consecutive terms.

In previous years Russian elections have been dogged by claims of corruption and it appears this year shall be no exception. By midday in Moscow there had already been 1,000 independent claims of corruption, including such claims as bussing groups of supporters to different polling stations so that they may vote a number of times.

Racism and the French Football Federation

Laurent Blanc

In one of the most shocking stories I have happened upon since starting this blog, a tape was uncovered this week outlining plans held to introduce an ethnic quota in the French national football team. This has spurred the Football Federation into action organising an inquiry into the origins of such a tape.


The tape implicates people as high ranking as the French national coach Laurent Blanc and François Blaquart, National Technical Director in charge of  youth coaching strategies. The investigative website Mediapart initially broke the story and transcribed the story for the media.

Opinion: In Protest Against the Royal Wedding

*sigh*

To many people in this world of ours, the impending nuptuals of Prince William and Kate Middleton will mean precious little. To me these people are what could be described as mentally sane; for fewer things in this world irritate me more than the coverage of the wedding between one man and one woman, one of whom happens to have been born into an overpaid, underworked family.

I think it is fair to say I am not the greatest supporter of the British monarchy, or indeed any monarchy for that matter. The very idea of handing over millions of pounds to a group of people based solely on their bloodline is in many ways the most ugly manifestation of the human condition Ihqve ever zitnessed. We should celebrate talent and achievement and protect our societies most vulnerable not commend its most henious decadencies.

Weekend Randomness: The Georgian Woman who Brought Down the Internet

Hayastan Shakarian - Could you trust this woman?

In my time away from the  blog (and at the library) I've been missing my weekly randomness section quite a bit s today makes its triumphant return with a brilliant story about a  75 year old Georgian pensioner, Hayastan Shakarian,  leaving the internet browsers of bot Georgia and Armenia without access for 8 hours last week.

Shakarian was searching for scrap metal near her home in the village of Ksani, Georgia when she came cross the fibre optic copper wire with as a Georgian minister put it "a view to stealing it". Taking into account her age she has been released pending  further investigation, however, she may face up to three years in prison if properly convicted in the future.

Homosexuality and the Case of the Quiet Footballers

Anton Hysen

While thralling through the CNN website I came across an interesting piece on a professional footballer named Anton Hysen.You are unlikely to have of him before, playing as he does in the 4th division in Sweden, however, a recent interview with him has caused his name to rocket to the back pages of many major news wires on this side of the Atlantic. The reason, Hysen is gay.

Few sports are known to have such a masculine and tough image as that of football, at least in the British Isles. While the stamp out racism in football campaign has had some success and the recent backlash against Andy Gray and Richard Key's rather ignorant comments against a female line judge shows that sexism is being seen as unacceptable in the sport also. However, I know from my own experience that homophobic insults have their own place in the soccer stands, just as they do in playgrounds up and down the country.

Election Time

As an ardent follower of politics, whether Irish or international I have been following the current general election in my country with significant interest. Billed as the most important election since the foundation of this state it is hard to argue with the analysts predictions that this is going to mark a monumental change in the face of Irish politics. 

As I sit writing this only 7 of the 165 seats up for grabs in the parliament have been filled.  Since the foundation of the Irish state the largest party in the country has been the centrist Fianna Fáil party with the largest opposition being Finne Gael who have experienced terms of Government in coalition with the State's third largest Labour Party. However, owing to Ireland's well publicised Economic Meltdown Fianna Fáil has seen its share of the vote decimated with a projected seat count of just 17, less than a third of the 70 they had in the last Dáil (Parliament). This meltdown in the party's seat count has lead to a surge in support for almost every other party out there. 

Weekend Randomness: The Bullet Sneezing Man

This weekends bizarre and wonderful nugget of random information comes courtesy of Darco Sangermano a 28 year old labourer from Italy. While in partying in Naples with his girlfriend on New Years Eve, Mr Sangermano was struck with a stray bullet which  entered into his temple. I know what you are thinking, this doesn't sound like the typical fluffy weekend randomness fodder. Read on.

Ireland's Economic Meltdown

While I was away from the site the major story making the headlines here in Ireland was the effective implosion of the Irish economy. For those of you who weren't following the story Ireland became the first country to enter recession in the Eurozone in September 2008 and it is suspected to be the last to come out of it.

The crisis came about as a mixture of a number of factors. The housing market in Ireland was big business for a number of years, with prices rising rapidly and the construction sector employing an eight of the entire population. Owing to the global economic slowdown of late 2008 the property bubble in Ireland burst and by the middle of 2010 house prices had plummeted 35% compared with the second quarter of 2007. Therefore the construction sector was also mortally wounded creating waves of unemployment and mass emigration. The pressure greater unemployment put on Government funds added to the national debt already soaring.

Shootings in Slovakia

The Slovakian capital of Bratislava was rocked today when  a gunman killed at least 7 people and injured a further 15. He then as often happens in these situations turned the gun on himself. He has yet to be identified by the police however, police have said he was in his 50's.

The shooting took place in a run-down neighbourhood, the Devinska Nova Ves. He shot dead 6 members of the same family, 4 women and 2 men. The other victim was a women who had heard the commotion and stepped onto her balcony. A young toddler was among the injured and a police officer was shot in the head, but not killed.   One of the injured is critical, 3 more are in a serious condition.

Environmental Disaster Grips Russia

Russia is currently gripped by some of the worst forest fires in the millennium long history of the nation according to top meteorologist Andrei Seltsovsky. It has resulted in a mass exodus from the country's capital as acid smog from fires 100 km away descends on Moscow.

The response from the central Government until recently  has been one of totally ignoring the existence of any problem. The results for the citizens have been devastating. The mortality rates in the city have almost doubled, rocketing from 360-380 a day on average to something in the region of 1,00 people. 1,300 of the 1,500 spaces in city morgues are currently occupied.Also 104,000 passengers, a record for this year flew out of Moscow on Sunday. The figure for the same day last year was 70,000.

Sarkozy's War

Recent times have been tough for French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Over the past number of weeks there has been mounting scandal in Paris over alleged illegal campaign funding cash given to Sarkozy in 2007. The cash was said to have come from the billionaire heiress to the L'Oreal fortune Liliane Bettencourt .

The claims came from Ms Bettencourt's former accountant who say that the Sarkozy campaign received €150,000 or $196,000 in 2007. The woman also claimed that she had been put under "severe pressure" to retract the claims and that Sarkozy's current Labour Minister and Treasurer of his Party Eric Woerth was the man who is said to have picked up the illegal donation. Liliane Bettencourt is also in trouble over claims she dodged millions in tax illegally. Woerth's wife was a former financial adviser to Ms Bettencourt.

Weekend Randomness: I can be people too!

Update: According to magical internet statistics last week's post on the penguin theft from Dublin Zoo  was pretty popular with you guys so I've decided to make Weekend Randomness a weekly feature. Tell me what you guys think in the comments section.

One of the suprising things you find while searching the web on the trawl for the best in international news is the sheer volume of random and brilliantly unique events that happen every day on this crazy planet of ours. But the story that particularly caught my eye this week was that of a pack of gorillas which began making the rounds on Wednesday.

Dr. Davila Ross has a job that most of us would envy, and probably as rare as a social dialectologist. Dr. Ross is an expert in primates with specific focus on play and leisure. Over the past three years she has spearheaded a study into a simple game of chasing (or tag in American) between a group of gorillas in 5 different European zoos.

The Loosening Grip of the Catholic Church

Today marked the publication of the Catholic Church's newest legislation in the fight against its ongoing fight with child sex abuse amongst the clergy. This story made headline news in Ireland, a country that has been rocked by the abuse scandal more than most

Let me explain something about the Church and the nation of Ireland. the Church has been the greatest political influence on this country from its creation in 1992 up until very recently. At the foundation of the State the church  was in charge of most of the country's hospitals and education facilities (it remains in a majority today). It also lead to the banning of pornography, contraception and up until the 1970's had a "special position" in the very Constitution of Ireland. Indeed, up until the child sex abuse scandal broke (originally about 5 years ago) the idea of being an ethnically Irish person who questioned Catholic teaching was bizarre and even admonished by elderly people. now dissent rings out from many corners against the Church and the pain of abuse victims is strewn across every newspaper.

Weekend Randomness: Dublin on its Knees

I thought I should post this story because given the international readership of this blog it is unlikely that anyone outside of the Emerald Isle (ie Ireland) will ever hear about it. Of course being the blogger that I am and covering the type of material that I do I love anything with the faintest whiff of news or current affairs about it.

However, one major criteria for this is that it must not be Irish. Now this has nothing to do with the quality of Irish broadcasting. In fact for the money it receives i would be willing to bet the Irish state broadcaster does a fine job when compared to its international counterparts. Indeed for sports coverage Irish pundits are lauded in all major disciplines for being much much stronger than their British counterparts. The sole reason is that next to nothing ever happens in this country. That was until yesterday, Thursday the 8th of July.2010.

Solar Powered Plane in Successful Test Flight

In what the team are describing as a "milestone" for solar powered air transport a plane landed near the Swiss capital Berne this morning at 7am GMT after a 26 hour flight time. The plane had taken off from the same the same airport at 5 GMT, the previous day.

This is the longest length of time a plane powered by solar energy has stayed airborne for and reaching an altitude of 8,700m it is also the highest altitude reached by any such aircraft. The team responsible for the feat is called Solar Impulse and one of the team's co-founders is Bertrand Piccard who achieved the world's first circumnavigation of the globe in a balloon in 1999.

Ban on Burqa in France?

Today the French Government began a debate on the banning of Muslim-garments which cover a woman's face or  body. Such garments include the Burqa, which covers a woman's entire body and face and the niqab, which covers the face and neck. The vote in the French Parliament was called after the French Council of Ministers approved the measure in May.


This is only one step in a process that has been taking place over the course of the past year when a group of lawmakers recommended the ban and in May they passed a non-binding resolution which noted the full face veil was entirely contrary to the French Constitution.

Fury in France

I rarely, if ever take more than the slightest of interest in any soccer tournament, including the World Cup. However, I am always keenly interested in the relationship between society at large and sport. How, for example when the major debate of China's controversial choice as host nation of the Olympics and the talk of boycotting the games based on whether or not sports and politics a should be linked. Personally I was all for the boycott. Sure the athletes pour their heart and soul into training but many Tibetans have staked their lives on the pursuit of freedom. I recognise the capacity of sport to heal and unify (North and South Korea marching under one flag in previous Olympic games) but I also recognise how it can be used as a political tool and should therefore not be immune to political ramifications.

Although the topic I am talking about today is a far cry from the gravity of the 2008 situation in Beijing it does show how sport can capture the imagination of an entire nation and even lead to the political involvement of major leaders. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few days you will no doubt have heard about the abuse given by France's Nicholas Anelka to his team's manager during their clash with Mexico on Saturday. For those who have in fact being just that, I will provide a lose translation. Anelka told his manager after being replaced to " Go f*** yourself, you son of a b****." And thus the escalation of the story began.

Irish Politics in Mildly Interesting Shocker!

The first thing I do whenever I meet with my brother is discuss whatever is happening in the world. I had been away for a full week without a hint of news. Where I was staying was internet-less and Tv-less so i was hoping to be caught up with all the goings on in Gaza or if BP had fixed the leak. Imagine my shock and horror then, when it was the name of our very own dear nation that escaped from his lips.

Because let me explain just a little bit about the political system of this small island nation. We of course are a Republic and we use a Proportional representation system which has lead to a coalition being in power every year of my living memory. And it has been the will of the people of this nation in its 90 odd year history to make the centrist Fianna Fail Party the states largest since 1932. The states second largest party is Fine Gael and equally centrist party that has only formed part of 3 Governments since its inception in 1933.