Shame has switched sides

Below is the editorial in The Irish Times yesterday.

A journalist on Channel 4 last evening asked the question was this a specific French problem. It sounded and was an absurd question.

The Gisèle Pelicot obscenity is beyond words. Fifty one men, and they were the ones who were identified on video, there are many more who have not yet been identified.

On BBC’s Newsnight last evening it was agreed that the word ‘upskirting’ does not in any way express the evil of the  offence Dominique Pelicot committed. It was that evil act that led to his arrest.

Have many men’s organisations or groupings commented on this 

The editorial

Women in France and around Europe owe a profound debt of gratitude to the unconquerable spirit and resilience of Gisèle Pelicot. Her determination to go public, waiving anonymity, to expose the unimaginable violence she faced and to challenge traditional male impunity for rape has been vindicated in a court in Avignon. Her courageous stance will surely help many other women to break through the veil of shame and personal humiliation which has too often surrounded the reporting of rape.

The shocking case, which has attracted worldwide attention, should set a new benchmark for bringing to account those responsible for violence against women.

It was “a trial for posterity”, MEP Manon Aubry posted, “one that should make us think about the attackers, the treatment of victims, and the notion of consent, in a country where the overwhelming majority of victims never obtain justice”.

The court sentenced her husband, Dominique Pelicot, to 20 years, the maximum sought by prosecutors, on charges including aggravated rape over a nine-year period from 2011 in the village of Mazan, Provence. 

He had admitted to drugging her repeatedly, offering up her unconscious body for sex to dozens of strangers from all walks of life he had met online, and filming the abuse. The abundance of video evidence combined with his guilty plea made the result almost inevitable. The court also found 46 other participants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault. There were no acquittals.

Sentences for the latter fell short of the maximum demanded by the prosecution, but varied from two to 15 years. In total, the prosecution had requested 652 years’ imprisonment for the 51 defendants, who were ultimately sentenced to 428 years behind bars. Romain Vandevelde (63), a former forklift truck driver who raped Gisèle Pelicot on six occasions over six months between 2019 and 2020, knowing he was HIV positive at the time of the alleged rapes, was sentenced to 15 years.

Although the Pelicot children and crowds of supporters outside the court have understandably criticised the sentences as “mild”, they represent a unique and important step in the history of accountability for rape, sending a powerful message to abusers .

The face of this remarkable woman, a quiet 72-year-old grandmother, now stares out from posters on the sides of buildings across France and from the placards of supporters. She is a formidable icon whose case has rallied a new generation of women. Now no longer a victim, one of her lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau, says, Gisèle Pelicot has become the physical expression of the fact that “ shame has switched sides.”

Concerns about issues in education in Ireland

The article below is from

the front page of The Irish Times yesterday. It is written by Carl O’Brien.

The current issue of the free-sheet Alive carries an advertisement for teachers (right).

The advert includes the sentence: “Teaching qualifications are not necessary”.

Where is the school and who manages the establishment?

The Irish Times article:

School attendance among pupils has dropped significantly since the pandemic as large numbers of children miss classes for extended periods.

More than 25 per cent at primary school, and 20 per cent at second level, missed 20 or more school days in the 2022/2023 school year.

This is up significantly from 11 per cent for primary school pupils prior to the pandemic and 14.5 per cent for students at second level in 2018/2019.

There is even greater concern over high levels of extended absences in areas with the highest levels of social disadvantage.

Some 42 per cent of primary school pupils and 30 per cent of post-primary students in schools in these areas missed 20 school days or more.

The data, in the Department of Education’s Inspectorate report for 2021-2023, notes school attendance internationally has been significantly and negatively affected by the pandemic.

“In the UK, researchers have argued that the pandemic has altered the social contract between schools and society fundamentally, and that one of the most notable casualties of this has been regular school attendance,” the report notes.

“These concerns are reflected in Ireland in the most recent data provided by Tusla’s Education Support Service.”

The report notes that the Irish education system has been proactive in addressing the issue and has conducted campaigns to boost school attendance among at-risk groups.

These include promoting a “learning friendly” environment and offering rewards such as prizes for attendance. Inspectors, however, said some younger people reported the limited value of these incentives.

“It is not yet apparent that strategies to promote attendance, particularly in schools where the attendance of children and young people is a cause for concern, place sufficient emphasis on the critical link between high-quality, responsive, teaching and consistently good school attendance,” the report notes.

The report found scope for improvement across a significant proportion of schools in how students are assessed, as well as the need to boost inclusion of students with additional needs.

Overall, the department’s chief inspector, Yvonne Keating, said inspections showed significant strengths across the Irish education system.

Inside the Vatican’s secret saint-making process

An interesting read. It’s informative and seems to tell it as it is with no agendas attached.

From the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/dec/03/miracle-vatican-dicastery-secret-saint-carlo-acutis-pope?CMP=share_btn_url

In the previous 24 hours this blog was read in Hong Kong, Singapore, United States, Ireland, UK, Brazil, Italy, Australia, France, South Korea, Portugal, Russia, Uzbekistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Turkey and 133 unidentified countries.

Paris-Berlin express toots its climate credentials

It’s popular these days to rubbish Deutsche Bahn.

This must be the journey of a lifetime for all train nerds, indeed, for all sensible travellers.

Think of it, 320 km/h (190 mph) Berlin Paris direct. Eight hours to travel 1,100 km. No queueing, bring what you will, city centre to city centre, the finest cuisine. A combined DB SNCF project.

Derek Scally in The Irish Times yesterday.

The 1,100km journey takes eight hours with stops in Strasbourg, Karlsruhe and Frankfurt

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A new era in European rail travel began at 9.55am yesterday with the inaugural daytime rail connection between Paris and Berlin.

The 1,100km journey takes eight hours, with stops in Strasbourg, Karlsruhe and Frankfurt, four hours less than the average driving time. With a promise of no security queues, free wifi and a full dining car, the French and German rail companies are selling standard tickets from €60.

And at Paris-Est station yesterday, they threw down the green gauntlet to European airlines – in particular Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary.

“Our route generates 100 times less carbon dioxide than the flight from Paris to Berlin, we’re offering Europe’s most climate-friendly travel,” said Anja Schöllmann, production director of Deutsche Bahn, the German state rail company. “We have great passenger rights if something happens, the comfort on board is second to none and there are no luggage limits. It’s a totally different experience to budget airlines.”

The spotless grey-and-red ICE high-speed train left Paris on the button and was soon racing at 320km/h through the French countryside.

In the first-class carriages, beaming rail executives mixed with journalists and excited rail video bloggers, the 21st- century trainspotters.

Among them was Matthew Tam, a London-based quantum computing scientist. “There’s definitely a market for a daytime connection like this and eight hours is probably the limit,” he said. “The carbon footprint is effectively none and night trains can be difficult to run economically.”

The new Paris-Berlin express is part of a wider renaissance of European cross-border rail travel that has in effect killed off many flights, such as from Paris to Stuttgart and Frankfurt.

“We’re very happy with the bookings so far,” said Andreas Fuhrmann, Deutsche Bahn deputy transport spokesman. “What we’ve noticed is that 75 per cent of tickets sold have been for the entire Paris-Berlin connection.”

Yesterday’s train journey offered a second premiere with the first-ever direct connection between Berlin and Strasbourg, seat of the European Parliament.

The new route is part of a wider co-operation agreement between Deutsche Bahn and SNCF, the French rail network. Last year, they transported 30 million passengers across the Franco-German border. Links are growing, too, with Swiss and Austrian rail operators. A year ago, Austria’s ÖBB launched a Paris-Berlin sleeper service.

As yesterday’s day train neared Strasbourg, Kristin from California’s Bay area sat in the bright dining car with her husband and three daughters. “It’s so wonderful to get around Europe this way, see the countryside with no stress,” she said.

At a time of growing unrest and tighter border controls in Europe, the bilingual Franco-German train teams conductors were bursting with pride on their inaugural journey.

SNCF chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou described the new route as the right symbol at the right time. “We know France and Germany are the engine at the heart of Europe, and this connection strengthens that engine.”

Those with money and power always come out the winners

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

The success of RTÉ’s Toy Show was mainly measured by the amount of money it collected for charities.

Of course it is great news that charities  benefited from the programme. But the more I heard about the millions that had been collected the more I found myself asking has everything  to do with money. I suppose you can add power to that. Is it the monied and powerful who are the controllers of our lives. Should it be that way? Are there other possibilities?

The day after the Toy Show Notre-Dame cathedral was reopened in Paris. I watched the ceremony on BBC NEWS television. It is remarkable that such a job could have been done in little over five years. 

As French president Emmanuel Macron said, it was a sign of what can be done when people work together for a great cause. President Macron during his opening speech never mentioned once how much it cost. He did thank all those around the world who had pledged financial support. 

Side by side with the magnificence of the work done and the otherworldly atmosphere in the newly restored cathedral it could not have been done without money, lots of money. 

In attendance was the US president-elect Donald Trump, who is a convicted felon. If I were found guilty in the Irish courts of a crime, even the slightest misdemeanour, I would not be granted a visa to enter the US. And to make the situation even more laughable, it is Donald Trump who would insist that I should be expelled if I had managed to get there illegally.

When I saw kings, queens and presidents of the world smile, laugh, shake his hand in Notre Dame on Saturday and treat him in such an obsequious manner, again I began to think what money and power can do.

How does it fit in with the Christian message? I’m currently reading Derek Scally’s ‘The Best Catholics in the World’. 

At the beginning of the book he relates how the then archbishop of Dublin placed great interest in collecting money for the parish church in Dublin’s Edenmore. Scally recalls the methods the archdiocese used in collecting money, money from people who had very little to spare. 

The Archdiocese of Dublin engaged and paid a US-based professional fundraising outfit but gave the impression to the people that the local fundraising campaign was grassroots.

Money does make the world go round, anyone who says otherwise is talking nonsense. At least that’s how it works on this planet.

The Russian revolution tried to change it, alas it didn’t work. More irony, probably some of the wealthiest people in the world are to be found in the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, which still flies the Red Flag.

As always, I’ve no answers but I’m reminded of Shakespeare’s lines in Hamlet, ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’.

Is it simply the way of the world? It would seem so.

A significant day in the history of the Red Army

On this day, December, 16, 1942 the Red Army launched Operation Little Saturn in the last weeks of the battle at Stalingrad.

It was an attempt to break through the German Army on the River Don. In the initial stages the Soviet attack failed. The German Army was made up mainly of Italians and were outnumbered nine to one. Three days later, December 19 the Red Army broke through.

Less than two months later, February 1943 Friedrich Paulus’ Sixth Army surrendered to Georgy Zhukov on the River Volga. Paulus was the first ever German field marshal to surrender.

Archbishop Farrell on commencement of 34th Dáil

Below is Archbishop Dermot Farrell’s words on the beginning of the new Dáil.

"On Wednesday next, December 18, the 34th Dáil Éireann will assemble, and our country’s elected representatives will begin to seek ways to realise their vision of a shared future for all who dwell in our land. 

We know that it may take some weeks before the shape and focus of a new government becomes clear, but at this moment it is appropriate to give thanks for the blessings of living in a society where differences are addressed through public debate, and power transfers peacefully on the basis of the rule of law.

Politics—for all that we say about it—is, in the end, ‘a lofty vocation and one of the highest forms of charity, inasmuch as it seeks the common good’, to cite Pope Francis. While wise political leadership and good government is necessary in every age, our age, with increasing political polarisation across the globe, with greater inequality between—and within—rich and poor nations, and with the deepening climate crisis, is in profound need of wise and prudent governments. Therefore, it is right that should pray for the members of Dáil Éireann, as our TDs begin to exercise their political office.

Even if our land is experiencing a time to unprecedented revenue flows, our expectations of politics and government must be tempered with realism. That said, we can expect from our politicians a commitment to the highest standards of public life, a sincere commitment to serving the common good and a prioritisation of the needs of the most vulnerable. 

Further, and especially at the beginning of a period of government, we need to draw attention to those long-term, strategic projects, vital for the flourishing of our land, and for the wellbeing of all who live here. 

Few of these are “vote-getters”—water, transport infrastructure, sustainable healthcare, the security of our nation, the ‘green transition.’ Even if they are not always to the fore of political debate, that does not render them any less vital for everyone in our country. 

Gan amhras, tagann na Teachtaí Dála go dtí Teach Laighean chun fadhbanna a gcomhludair áitiúla a rêiteach ach guímid go mbeidh leas an phobail i gcoitinne an tosaíocht is mó acu.

For our own part as Christians and as citizens, this is also a moment to reflect on our own responsibilities to support what is right and assert what is good. 

Active citizens in a flourishing civil society are no less important than the institutions of government in securing the well-being of the people.

As we prepare for Christmas, the celebration of our Saviour’s birth, we take heart from the hope his birth heralds (see Eph 1:8), and the confidence of our God in “what his hand has made.” (see Isa 66:2) Each day we pray the Our Father; we pray each day for the coming of God’s Kingdom, a way of living in which ‘justice shall flourish and peace till the moon fails’ (Psalm 71(72):7). 

May we pray then that our civic institutions may be open to God’s Holy Spirit in their service of justice and peace."

The meaningless currency of a sudden viral sensation

Mark O’Connell’s column in The Irish Times yesterday. The heading tells the story. The preaching of the Gospel in such a world is certainly challenging.

Does it make sense using an outdated vocabulary to explain the Good News today?  

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The ongoing trajectory of Haliey Welch’s fame seems to offer, in its very triviality, the prospect of a deep insight into our present culture. You may (or may not) know Welch by the title conferred upon her by viral fame: as “the Hawk Tuah girl.”

Last June, Welch was on a night out in Nashville, Tennessee, when she and a friend came across a YouTuber interviewing people on the street. They asked to be interviewed. To one of the YouTuber’s mildly spicy questions – “What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?” – Welch gave the response that ensured her ascent to the viral pantheon. “Aw you gotta give him that hawk tuah! and spit on that thang, you get me?”

Her deep Tennessee twang, and her air of lascivious glee, invested the moment with a charming authenticity, even joyfulness, that makes it, even now, fun to watch. Welch was clearly several drinks deep into the evening and enjoying the reaction of her listeners, who were equally celebratory and scandalised; as a spectacle, it was remarkably free of calculation and cynicism, animated by nothing more than Welch’s irrepressible energy, and her own simple joy in getting a reaction.

The clip went viral for the reason such things so often do: because it was funny, and because it felt real enough to pierce, in a fleeting and incidental fashion, the endless banality of online content.

Extremely famous

It also made Welch very famous. (I am anticipating, at this point, a certain amount of objection to this latter claim, but I would hope that we can all by now acknowledge that you or I having no idea who a person is does not preclude that person being extremely famous. The distinction between “mainstream celebrity” and “internet celebrity” is now as conceptually void as that between the internet and what used to be called “real life”.)

In the months that followed, Welch succeeded in parlaying her memefication, in ways that felt both familiar and jarringly contemporary. She started an Instagram account, quickly gathering millions of followers; shortly thereafter, she started a podcast, called Talk Tuah– still, at time of writing, a going concern – in which she hosts a roster of guests, most of whose names you’d probably struggle to put faces to, but who are, nonetheless, also very famous. (The podcast is part of the Betr Media network, presided over by Jake Paul, the PT Barnum of the influencer era.)

Her most recent attempt to (quite literally) capitalise on her sudden fame, however, has proven problematic.

Last week, Welch launched a cryptocurrency called $HAWK, no doubt on the advice of the growing agglomeration of hangers-on and suckers-up surrounding her. $HAWK was the latest in a line of so-called “meme coins”: crypto-tokens representing viral moments, a market which has expanded since Donald Trump’s election win gave rise to anticipation of a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment in the US.

Even among some of the more bullish devotees of cryptocurrency, meme coins are seen as basically worthless monetary tchotchkes – “little more than frothy assets representing the market’s over-exuberance”, as a recent Financial Timesreport put it.

Pump-and-dump scheme

Within minutes of its launch, $HAWK’s market cap reached just under half a billion dollars, before almost immediately plummeting by more than 90 per cent of its total value. This led to allegations of the whole thing being a pump-and-dump scheme; in such scams, an unscrupulous actor artificially hypes up a worthless stock to create a buying frenzy, selling their own position at a large profit and tanking the asset in the process: see, for instance, the Enron scandal of 2001, or more recently, much of the entire history of cryptocurrencies.

The YouTuber Steven Findeisen, aka Coffeezilla, who specialises in investigating crypto scams, claimed that the launch was aimed at giving insiders an advantage. “Unfortunately with situations like this,” he said, “they’re not targeting crypto bros, they’re mostly targeting actual fans who have never been involved in the crypto space before.” One such fan claimed to have put $35,000 – their entire life savings – into Welch’s meme coin, before seeing it shrivel, within minutes, to $2,000.

Welch has denied allegations that her team sold any of the tokens they owned.

One reading of this would position Welch as a classic villain: an opportunist who saw a chance to get rich off her fans by scamming them, and grabbed it with both hands.

I’m inclined to see it in less morally stark terms. This is a woman who, last June, was working in a factory that produced mattress springs and who, suddenly and absurdly, stumbled into a very modern and very intense variety of fame. You could hardly blame her for trying to make some quick money, and maybe even some kind of lasting career, out of her ridiculous situation.

Careers in entertainment have been built on less, and sustained on less charisma. Become a social media influencer? Why not. Start a podcast? Sure, whatever works. Get that bag, as we now say. And if getting that bag involves minting a pseudo-currency tethered to t he dubious value of her own virality, then so be it.

Unmediated capitalist fever-dream

You can see how, having been presented with the idea by whatever avaricious crypto-booster had her ear, she might have been inclined to sign off on it. Don’t hate the player, as we also now say, hate the game.

But let’s not pretend that the game is not deserving of contempt. If the ride-or-die crypto-libertarians get the kind of unregulated market they want, this is, at scale, what it will look like: an unmediated capitalist fever-dream in a collapsing labyrinth of scams and swindles.

There is, in this sense, something strangely illuminating about the brief arc of Haliey Welch’s career and its culmination in the launch of a worthless crypto-token based on her own fame.

Our society is so heavily marketised and commodified, our culture so radically atomised, that it feels deliriously appropriate that everyone should now have the ability to issue their own personal currency.

This, perhaps, is where unregulated capitalism and radical individualism were always going to wind up. Endless meaningless currencies, briefly hyped and quickly dumped, imprinted with the dubious sovereignty of the self.

‘Events, my dear boy, events’ - Harold Macmillan

Apologies for no blog post from Thursday until today. This was due to a number of reasons. It has been many years since there has been such a break.

This blog began in June 2007 with occasional posts, hence the name. Slowly it developed into a daily posting.

The ways of the world are strange, indeed the ways of many people, institutions and organisations are  strange. We can easily be distracted and caught up in disparate events. 

Harold Macmillan was once asked what the most troubling problem of his Prime Ministership was. ‘Events, my dear boy, events,’ was his reply.

Derek Scally’s 'The Best Catholics in the World' is an excellent book. First published in 2021.

The book throws light on the Irish psyche and is most respectfully written. His book is about events.

Scally is The Irish Times correspondent in Berlin and has lived in the German capital for many years.

Staying silent and not taking action tells its own story

 Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.

 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The pencils, Hutch, a clueless voter, all part of democracy

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

I’ve been thinking about elections and democracies these last days. With all its failings democracy is the best system that’s been tried.

If you want to get an idea what it would be like to live in a totalitarian Ireland I recommend you read Paul Lynch’s ‘Prophet Song’. He won last year’s Booker Prize for his novel. It tells a frightening story of what it would be like to live in a dictatorship. 

Our system of proportional representation seems to me the perfect fit to get so many opinions represented in parliament. It’s certainly far superior to the UK system of first past the post.

But why did so many people not vote in this election? The turn out was below 60 per cent, which is worrying.

The day after the election I got chatting to a woman in her 40s. Subject matter turned to the election and she told me for whom she voted and I subsequently told her where my votes went.

When I asked her why she voted for that particular party she said she believed all politicians were corrupt and she wanted change. But she did not say that her candidates of choice were not corrupt. She was not able to mention one single policy of the party for which she voted. What does that say about democracy?

Why did the media give Gerry Hutch so much publicity? Marie Sherlock, who snatched the last seat from him, has been a hard working Senator and the media gave her little or no coverage. It was all the worst aspects of media soundbites. 

And then I had a discussion with a young man I greatly admire and like. He was or, indeed, still is convinced that pencils are supplied at the polling stations allowing wrongdoing to take place so that our votes can be tampered. To prove to him that is not so I voted with a biro and told him so. I’m still not sure he accepts my argument. What does that say about democracy?

And something else has me puzzled. I think it’s fair to say that most sensible people are now aware that climate change is a reality, the planet is in difficulty, and we can’t carry on pretending nothing is happening. 

The Green Party had the environment top of their agenda during the last five years and they certainly played their part in making us all aware of the importance of changing our ways. On a personal note, I have benefited greatly from their policies on public transport. What happens? They have one TD in the new Dáil. Why?

I thought commentator David Quinn’s comment that he was glad to see the ‘Greens decimated’ was most ungracious, nasty too. Nor did it make any sense.

Politics sure is a funny old game.  Congratulations to all who were elected and good fortune to those sitting in the 34th Dáil. 

May we have a decent honest government that will serve all the people and look out in a special way for the less advantaged.