Martin Amis on the good effect of in-migration

Martin Amis wrote of the good effect of in-migration here:

"As England becomes more like America in the sense of more like an immigrant society people like that are going to have a bit of play for a while. It’s not going to be smooth that switch. It’s much to be desired I think. [It’s] a very complicated issue but in principle it would do England nothing but good to mix it even more."

Christopher Hitchens left England in part, because of the Libel Laws

We have a great tradition in this country. It goes back a long way; the classic statements of which are in John  Milton's Areopagitica, and in John Stuart Mill's essay On Liberty where it is said (Christopher Hitchens paraphrases):

"However discredited an opinion may be, to ban it would still be a huge mistake; because otherwise there would be no way of finding out if you yourself had made a correct point. If you had no opponent; if you silenced them there would be no opponent. There would be no measure of your own articulacy or your own willingness to argue."                                             (At 56 minutes 40 seconds of video above)

Hitchens adds his take:

"Thus, it must always be the case that any opinion, no matter how unpopular must be at the front and centre of the argument."

Christopher Hitchens then said that Rosa Luxemburg put it even better:

"Freedom of speech is meaningless unless it's for the person who thinks differently."

Member of the audience then asked: "do you believe in the laws of libel and slander?"

Christopher Hitchens replied:

"No. I left England partly because of the laws of libel. It makes journalism almost impossible. Because again, it's a matter of her feelings (lady beside him). The person bringing a law suit in Britain (many of them tried it on me when I was here) has only to prove that their reputation has been damaged or that their feelings have been hurt. They don't have to prove what I say is not true."

He then added a real shock and awe statement which if you think about it, does kind of ring true. Hitch said:

"There you have it again: it's a secular form of a blasphemy law."                                                 (At 57 minutes 25 seconds of the video above)

Powerful stuff. YouTube video in full here.

My previous posts on Hitchens on Northern Ireland here, on segregated schools here, on Vaclav Havel here, on Northern Ireland's "barbaric, sectarian leaders" here, on the US First Amendment here, on the US as an empire and clas-based society here, and on how to succeed here.

Eventually the relationship between words and money will be reconfigured, Ctd

Libby Purves wrote in The Times here:

"We are living through a technology-driven hiccup in which this obvious truth is blurred, as an online generation grows up with the erroneous belief that music, films, streamed TV and news should be as free as air and sunshine. Ironically, this same generation includes an unprecedentedly large proportion who fancy media careers. What do they plan to live on? 

My theory is that by 2020 robust online paywalls will be the norm (probably with micropayments per view) and people will look back at us wonderingly, as we now look back at slavery or the days before driving tests. 

National papers are commercial enterprises with proprietors and shareholders. They can each work out their own destiny, whether by erecting paywalls or through aggressive advertising and data-mining."

Will Self spoke to the same effect on Radio 4 here when he said that, "eventually the relationship between words and money will be reconfigured."

The artist's journey and combinatorial creativity Ctd

 

Adam Wagner - Human rights law can help settle Niqaab question

Adam Wagner has it here and cites the presiding judge HHJ Murphy who said:

"No tradition or practice, whether religious or otherwise, can claim to occupy such a privileged position that the rule of law, open justice, and the adversarial trial process are sacrificed to accommodate it. That is not a discrimination against religion. It is a matter of upholding the rule of law in a democratic society."

Adams also notes here:

"The real human rights fight over niqaabs is still to come, when the European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber assesses France’s ban on niqaabs in all public places (case details here)."

Adam Wagner's personal take is that we should leave it with the rules of the ECHR. He said:

"Whatever your own gut reaction to the niqaab, I suggest that the human rights approach is the best we have available to resolving this complex issue. It allows for the needs of different individuals and groups to be fed into a balancing framework, evolved not from gut instinct or populism but from past experience of dealing with similar issues. The decisions this generates may end up pleasing nobody, but that can also be seen as a success rather than a failure where interests do not, and cannot, entirely coincide."

Conformity and convention is over-rated

Sarah Green wrote in the HBR here

"Americans love to give lip service to creativity, celebrating imaginative artists and innovators and calling for "out of the box" ideas. Yet when we encounter creativity in real time -- before we know whether an unusual or outlandish idea will pay off -- we’re all too quick to reject it, argues Jessica Olien. She runs through a litany of evidence that becomes more and more depressing, but she comes to a surprisingly optimistic conclusion, thanks to research out of Cornell that shows being rejected leads creative people to conclude that conformity is overrated and thus liberates them from the need to fit in. True, this often doesn't lead to happiness -- but it does lead to more creativity. "To live creatively is a choice," Olien concludes. "You must make a commitment to your own mind and the possibility that you will not be accepted. You have to let go of satisfying people, often even yourself." I find those words oddly comforting. But maybe I'm just being creative."

My blog post on the Dilbert creator and my Dilbert moment here. Timothy Ferriss, prolific author, speaks in similar terms. As Tim Ferriss said in the Four Hour Work Week:

"The common sense rules of the real world are a fragile collection of socially reinforced illusions."

As I often say, Silicon Valley is less a place and more a mindset. That's why we need to think like Maria Popova and Matthew Syed here and Sir Ken Robinson here, and totally re-evaluate the educational experience and education's relationship with industry.

In a new world with a new and exciting economy, we need to think and act anew. If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got.

Agency and activism - Mary Robinson

Change demands action, agency and activism. It requires the young and free minded to challenge every accepted norm. As Fareed Zakaria said here, there is nothing inevitable about the continuance and rise of liberal democracy. I wrote of Mary Robinson's agency and activism on Eamonnmallie.com here:

"Northern Ireland needs the modern, functioning, internationalist youth to push back against discriminatory holdouts.

We should look to the foresight of Mary Robinson, who in 1967 at the age of 23, used her inaugural address as auditor of the law society in Dublin to speak on law and morality and take on every sacred cow. She took on the authoritarian and repressive influence of the Catholic Church, fighting for contraception, women’s rights, divorce, abortion and gay rights."

History has show that sacred cows make the juiciest burgers. Mary Robinson's first piece of legislation aimed to overturn the ban on the import, distribution and sale of contraceptives. In response to this action condoms were posted through her letterbox and she was denounced from the pulpit by the bishop of Ballina Cathedral. She also worked as a legal advisor for the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform with future Trinity College senator David Norris (my blog post on David Norris here).

As Christopher Hitchens said: "That's one definition of corruption, is indifference." Judge Alan Mahon said the same in the 2010 Tribunal report when he said: "Ignorance and apathy are both corruption catalysts [because] the pathways of corruption are ever changing." As Tom Hayden said: "A silent majority and government by the people is incompatible."

Mick Fealty said here: "If you don't vote that's as good as an approval, albeit a lukewarm one." The same figures for silence, indifference and neutrality on violence and economic vandalism.

Read my blog on Peter Tatchell and on the need to provoke and even offensive here. My blog post on the Heroine of Hackney who spoke out against the rioters in London in 2011 here.

When it's cool to be dumb, Ctd "Gay panic"

Andtew Sullivan wrote here:

"A 2006 study found that, out of all Americans, white heterosexual men have the fewest friends. Lisa Wade blames the conditioning boys undergo in their teens: 

[M]en are pressed — from the time they’re very young — to disassociate from everything feminine. This imperative is incredibly limiting for them. Paradoxically, it makes men feel good because of a social agreement that masculine things are better than feminine things, but it’s not the same thing as freedom. It’s restrictive and dehumanizing. It’s oppression all dressed up as awesomeness. And it is part of why men have a hard time being friends. 

To be close friends, men need to be willing to confess their insecurities, be kind to others, have empathy and sometimes sacrifice their own self-interest. “Real men,” though, are not supposed to do these things. They are supposed to be self-interested, competitive, non-emotional, strong (with no insecurities at all), and able to deal with their emotional problems without help. Being a good friend, then, as well as needing a good friend, is the equivalent of being girly.

Katy Waldman thinks it’s also about gay panic:

Wade doesn’t mention the rainbow elephant in the room, but I wonder whether men are less afraid of girliness here than homosexuality. In many ways, it’s a distinction without a difference, since homophobes tend to imagine gay men as effete. But if a man ever is allowed to relax his stone face, it’s around his romantic partner. Being open, communicative, vulnerable—all of these behaviors evoke love relationships. It makes a sad kind of sense that boys trying to assert their masculinity would steer clear of playing the “boyfriend” around other guys."

My earlier posts in the 'When it's cool to be dumb' series can be accessed here, here (UDA prisoner), here, here, here, here, here, here and here. On the Huffington Post UK here.

Christopher Hitchens - "It's my life, the First Amendment..."

Christopher Hitchens said at 19 minutes here and above that the First Amendment of the US Constitution was his life:

"I don't make my living from the First Amendment, though I do, it's my life the First Amendment. I hope I don't sound exagerated, it's my life the principles of that Amendment. And I have no right to betray it and it's not to be handed off to the first bunch of clerical bullies who come round to the office. And that's what happened without a struggle."

Panel - Social media, politics and protest

I had the great pleasure of featuring on the panel event, Social Media, Politics & Protests at University of Ulster on social media and civic change on December 10 2013, organised by (@ornayoung). Alan in Belfast (@alaninbelfast) covered the event on Slugger here. Alan in Belfast also has audio here and here. Images from the day here.Tweets from the day via Storify here.

The TCD Social Media panel which preceded this event in October 2013 can be seen here. See my discussion with Sharon O'Neill of UTV on social media law here.

Below is a paraphrased account of my presentation from the UU event:

1. Overview of social media and the rule of law:

"In the last decade we've seen a creative technological explosion. Technology is ubiquitous. Technology has penetrated into every corner of life. It's power lies in the freedom it gives people. The freedom to build and maintain new and old relations, create businesses and overthrow tyrannical governments. 

But this is a two-pronged freedom. Social media gives the freedom to do great good. Social gives the freedom to do great bad. By that formula, social media is both a criminal weapon and a weapon of mass reputational destruction.

Ian Knox - Lifelines and Deadlines

Above is Ian Knox at the opening of his exhibition, 'Lifelines and Deadlines'. You can read my preview on Slugger O'Toole here. Also see my blog post with pictures of Ian at work here. Pictures of Ian and I drawing together here. Another blog post on Ian Knox's cartoons on loyalism here. The Irish news reported on the exhibition here and said:

Irish News cartoonist Ian Knox was last night praised for his "gift of finding the perfect illustration" as an exhibition showcasing decades of his life's work was launched in Belfast. His "original way of seeing things" has seen him produce works of art spanning several decades and last night his drawings went on show in a rare solo exhibition. From newspaper cartoons to material featured on TV, as well as book and magazine illustrations, a wide variety of his original work is on display for the first time. 

The 'Lifelines and Deadlines' exhibition opened at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast last night and was attended by a host of artists, journalists and politicians. The month-long exhibition showcases the 70-year-old's award-winning work, spanning several decades.

Guest post - Wifeless

Jason O'Rourke giving a reading in Belfast city centre

I am waiting outside Botanic Station. I had been in Bangor earlier, playing some music for a charity event in a bar near the seafront. It was hosted by a TV sports journalist with a face made for Widescreen; it was, unexpectedly, even flatter and broader in the flesh than it looked on the news. I thought you were supposed to look bigger on the telly, not the other way round. He was very friendly and professional. I did my bit, got paid, and cleared off. Despite the offer of free pints, there would be no drinking for me – my wife and I had made plans for the afternoon, and soon she would be coming to lift me in the car.

It is busy outside the station, with ones going into the hairdressers and cafés, students getting carryouts from the off-licence, and music-lovers going into the second-hand record store over the road. I love that shop; it has a great selection of vinyl LPs and cassettes as well as CDs, and it’s not too pricey. Next door is a brilliant place that has an array of mops, clothes-pegs on cardboard, buckets, rubber washing-up gloves in packets, step ladders, laundry baskets, and all manner of other useful stuff, suspended and stacked around the door. The entrance entices with promises of an Aladdin’s Cave of plastic goods inside. I vow to go in and explore when I have a minute.

Alex Massie - Causing offence has become the greatest sin imaginable

Alex Massie (@alexmassie) featured on Ask Andrew Anything here and above and said of the British and American press and wider culture:

"Causing offence has become the greatest sin imaginable in modern America and to some extent in Britain also as well where we so often follow American cultural leads."

My blog post on self-censorship as the worst form of censorship here. The student culture of censorship here. My blog post on the urge to censor in Northern Ireland here.

John Major - Loyalism's "phantom fear"

John Major said of the loyalist flag protesters here.

"I think it's a phantom fear... It's perfectly clear from the Downing Street Declaration and everything that for so long as Northern Ireland wishes to remain British, so long as the people of Northern Ireland wish to remain British, they will remain British. 

No-one is abandoning them, no-one is pushing them to one side. If you look at everyday life in Northern Ireland it is incomparably better than it was 20 to 25 years ago. Incomparably better for the people who are currently dissatisfied and for their children and for the future."

BBC report in full here. Mick Fealty had earlier said:

The flegs crisis is an unnecessary elevation of the trivial to a cause of crisis, which typifies the limited vision of the OFMdFM ‘partnership’.

Peter Robinson said:

"I fear the real danger for Unionism lies not in what our opponents would seek to do to us but in what we do to ourselves."

Art is theft, Ctd

Michael Ramirez in 2006 above and here. Morten Morland repeated and remixed in 2010 and 2012 below: 

The two worlds of Northern Ireland, Ctd Pale orange and green

Pete Shirlow of QUB wrote here:

"With secularisation there is a growing ‘1690 what do you mean’ group that is similar to the ‘1916 what do you mean’ group in the South... There is a growth in people who feel politics is too sectarian or too nationalist. They are operating a civic-shared identity through their lifestyle. They will socialise together, intermarry, go to gigs together. They are in many ways – but not completely – sectarian blind, or tradition blind... It was primarily within the unionist electorate but from my observations it is starting to grow within the nationalist community. It is neither unionist nor Irish, it is identity-less, at most pale Orange or Green."

Read me blog on professor John Brewer who said that the silent majority needs to reclaim the peace process here. My blog on Fionualla Meredith who said people need to speak up and pound the streets here. My blog following Richard Haass comment that a majority want peace is here. My previous posts in "The Two Worlds of Northern Ireland" series here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Books should be articles

"Most books shld be articles, most articles shld be blog posts, most blog posts shld be tweets, most tweets shld be retweets." -@thestalwart
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) November 27, 2013

Newton Emerson on the right to protest

Newton Emerson explains three points of law in the Sunday Times here:

Two weeks ago, the Apartment Bar opposite Belfast City Hall received a letter from Stormont’s Department of the Environment. An advertising banner inside the bar’s front window constituted illegal signage under the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991, the letter warned. Failure to remove it within 14 days would incur a fine of £2,500 (€3,000) plus £250 for each day thereafter. 

Meanwhile on the internet, plans were being laid for a flag protest at the front of City Hall that would involve 1,000 people illegally obstructing the road, before illegally marching into east Belfast, and sparking a riot. None of the organisers, who can be readily identified through their Facebook pages, have so far been threatened with fines for breaching the Public Processions (Northern Ireland) Act 1998 or the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993, which ironically bans “obstruction” and “unauthorised advertisements” in the same section. 

When flag protesters began blocking Northern Ireland’s roads seven weeks ago many complaints about the policing response focused on the difference between loyalist and republican demonstrations, specifically the contrast with North Belfast last summer when republicans sat down in the road to block an Orange Order parade and the PSNI promptly dragged them off. 

In fact, there is no right to protest in either domestic or European law. The concept is inferred from the rights to free assembly and free expression — which are secondary to public safety, the prevention of disorder or crime, the protection of the rights and freedoms of others and the preservation of a democratic society. 

Flag protesters have rode roughshod over all these concerns and it is irresponsible to indulge any notion of their “right” to do so. The intimidating daily pickets of Alliance party offices in east Belfast, for example, are breaking the Human Rights Act rather than exercising it. They are also breaking the Protection from Harassment (Northern Ireland) Order 1997."

In full here.

Alex Kane - Sinn Fein greatest hits tour

Eamonn Mallie wrote of Sinn Fein here:

"Opinion poll after opinion poll indicates that support for a united Ireland is falling rather than rising among small-n nationalism. There is no appetite south of the border for unity anytime soon. Yes, Sinn Fein may be able to nibble at the heels of unionism/loyalism on some issues, but the Union itself looks stronger than ever. Put bluntly, a united Ireland looks no more likely now than it did in August 1994, or July 1997, or April 1998, or March 2007. 

All of which explains why those dissenting from the Adams analysis are growing in number and now seem determined to make the case for a return to the tactics of the ‘armed struggle.’ And it poses a very real problem for Sinn Fein, who are not capable of pointing to much in the way of progress and so have to revert to a strategy which is best summed up as a ‘greatest hits tour’ in which martyrs, prison escapes, key events and ‘victories’ have to be celebrated on an almost weekly basis. And if it annoys the hell out of the unionists, then so much the better."

Why does everyone want to go to law school? Ctd

The Lawyer Magazine wrote here:

"With 14,000 students chasing 5,000 places, recruiters are rethinking the selection routine. Anyone hunting a training contract should note the endless queue. University graduates see law as a relatively safe option in a rocky jobs market, but in 2009/10 there were 11,370 full-time and 3,140 part-time LPC places compared with just 4,874 newly registered training contracts."

Drawing Edwin Poots

Check out my drawings of Edwin Poots above and below. See my Slugger O'Toole cartoons of Edwin Poots here, here and here.

Myth, misrepresentation and misinformation in Northern Ireland

The amount of myth, misrepresentation and misinformation, and plain misuse and abuse of language and emotion in the debate in Northern Ireland is shocking. The idea that young Catholics had no option other than to join the IRA is kicked around with absolute abandon - it's reckless, absurd, outrageous and preposterous.

Fintan O'Toole said in 1998 in The New York Review of Books:

"Most of the current leadership of Sinn Fein is made up of men who were, in the 1960s, angry young Catholics."

Angry young catholics are doing the same in 2013. I wrote about this generational cycle of extremism here. Young men with over-sized adrenalin glands. Anyway Here's Tom Kelly setting Gerry Kelly's IRA narrative straight in the August 19 edition of The Irish News:

"Gerry kelly recently said young people like him in the early 1970s had no choice but to join the IRA but that is simply not true. Back then as now they had choices. The Sunningdale Agreement in 1973 was actually stronger in nationalist terms than either the Good Friday or Saint Andrews Agreement. The vast majority of young nationalists did not join the ranks of the IRA. Had they, the Maze would have been five times the size it is."

Newton Emerson said in Slugger:

"I didn’t say the IRA started the Troubles. I said Sinn Fein is advancing an anti-discrimination ‘fight for equality’ narrative as a consistent explanation for why the Troubles began and ended." 

He continued: 

"During the Troubles the vast majority of the nationalist electorate pointedly rejected IRA violence but since the ceasefires a reassessment of that violence was necessary and warranted by ‘unionist misrule’ has crept into the nationalist mainstream.  

By extension, as Mr Kavanagh seemed to imply, a ‘discriminatory’ special advisers bill threatens to take us back to where we started. In fact, there is no risk to peace from this minor inconvenience to Sinn Fein’s party machine. 

A far greater threat is pretending the entire 30-year span of the IRA campaign was justified, its violence was successful and victims like Mary Travers were an accidental aberration. A clumsy law may be a small price to pay to remind ourselves that this was not the case."

On the IRA delivering rights for Catholics, it was said:

"I don’t know what equality measures were achieved as a result of violence. Five of the six demands of the Civil Rights Movement were achieved very early on before violence got going, the Housing Executive was a Hume idea, fair employment legislation was put in place in the teeth of Provo violent opposition and the Provos opposed every aspect of the 1985 Anglo Irish Agreement."

Another:

"The main reforms took place in 1968, nearly 2 years before the formation of the SDLP, directly as a result of the actions of NICRA. Of course, some members of NICRA went on to prominence in the SDLP.  

Not only did the Provos not achieve reforms, they didn’t actually want reforms – having a single entirely different objective in mind: a united Ireland. Judged against their sole aim, their achievements were nearly 2000 deaths and no actual progress."

Eamon McCann said:

"So for the time being a fractious alliance held together. And it seemed to be getting some results. The civil rights demonstrations which took place throughout Northern Ireland, but most frequently and dramatically in Derry, in the weeks after 5 October forced concessions from the Unionists. On 8 November a specially requisitioned meeting of the Corporation accepted a Nationalist motion setting up a three-man committee to allocate houses. Alderman Hegarty and two Unionists were elected to the committee. Shortly afterwards O’Neill announced a five-point package of reforms. These involved a plan to abolish Derry Corporation, universal franchise, and a promise that sections of the Special Powers Act would be ‘put into cold storage’ (but not so cold as to prevent rapid re-heating when the occasion arose)."

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/crights/mccann93.htm

The reality is that the civil rights marches achieved 80% of their aims a full two years before the PIRA started its campaign of violence.

The artist's journey, Ctd Deane's wall painting #2

Check out how I went from brief to final product in the images above and below.

The artist's journey, Ctd From Deaneos Wine to Horse Meat

Maria Popova writes about combinatorial creativity and networked learning in the 'about section' of Brain Pickings here:

"The core ethos behind Brain Pickings is that creativity is a combinatorial force: It’s our ability to tap into the mental pool of resources — ideas, insights, knowledge, inspiration — that we’ve accumulated over the years just by being present and alive and awake to the world, and to combine them in extraordinary new ways. In order for us to truly create and contribute to culture, we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these ideas and build new ideas — like LEGOs. The more of these building blocks we have, and the more diverse their shapes and colors, the more interesting our creations will be."

This is my experience of being an artist.

Live Drawing - #DUP13 Conference

Sluggerotoole caricaturist brian john spencer will be at arts council stand over lunch. Come along #dup13 pic.twitter.com/jmb59Y9BaW
— ArtsCouncilNI (@ArtsCouncilNI) November 23, 2013

The Arts Council Northern Ireland asked me to come an draw DUP politicians and delegates at the DUP Conference 2013. See my drawings at the Arts Council NI workshop day at W5 in the Odyssey Belfast here.

Douglas Murray - Self-censorship is the worst form of censorship

Douglas Murray wrote in The Sepctator Magazine in 2011 here:

"Self-censorship is the most invidious and successful type of censorship – not just because it is self-reinforcing but because once it is people invent reasons to cover for themselves. So the worst thing that any British journal can imagine doing today is to run a cartoon of Muhammad. Not because – as they all say in public – it is insensitive, or provocative or offensive. These are all names and things that journalists rejoice in getting called. It is simply and solely (as they sometimes admit in private) because they know that they will be at some degree of risk if they do."

Nick Cohen wrote that censorship is at its most effective when no one admits it exists here: 

"Censorship is at its most effective when no one admits it exists."

Dominic Cooke said something similar in 2008 in the same magazine here:

"Many liberals, out of a fear of appearing racist, and with shared sympathy for many of the political causes that also motivate those with a fundamentalist agenda turn a blind eye to such intolerance." 

Wilbur Smith is known for saying: "Quite frankly, I think political correctness is the worst form of censorship." Al WeiWei has said also: "Censorship is saying: 'Im the who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine."

Christopher Hitchens on how to succeed

At 6 minutes 20 seconds, Christopher Hitchens explained his move to Washington here:

"I think my life changed when I moved to Washington because I became a really hard worker. A person of almost iron self discipline. I built my own workspace at home. I never went to an office anymore. I didn't hang out with people at lunch. Got on with it. If I wasn't reading, I was writing. It's 'cause there are no distractions in Washington DC. Washington was like taking my vow. It was like becoming a friar. I can't recommend the vow of monk-hood or friar-hood too highly if you want to get on with doing some real work."

This echoes the quote by V. S. Pritchett who wrote in an essay about the English historian Edward Gibbon:

"Sooner or later, the great men turn out to be all alike. They never stop working. They never lose a minute. It is very depressing." 

There's also this famous quote made by unknown:

"Successful people aren't born that way. They become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don't like to do. The successful people don't always like these things themselves; they just get on and do them.”

Video interview with Hitchens in full here and further below. He also said in an interview here:

"The main thing I keep saying, never tire of saying is, to keep testing yourself against other writers who are better than you. That's what qualifies one as a writer I think, as permanently running the risk of having to say, 'I don't know why I bother.'"

He also said:

"The essential thing for being a good writer is being a good reader." 

He said in an interview here at 22 minutes that a writer can never really stop.

TCD Social media panel

On Friday 18 October the Political Studies Association of Ireland hosted a conference in Trinity College Dublin which included a panel looking at new media and new politics and their influence on conflict transformation in Northern Ireland. Chaired by Niall Ó Dochartaigh (NUI Galway), I featured alongside Alex Kane (Journalist), Paul Reilly (Uni. of Leicester) and Alan Meban (Political blogger). 

Alan in Belfast covered the event here. See my images of the day and of the event above and below.

#WhitePaper - What's the case for a united Ireland?

@chrisadonnelly @brianjohnspencr nats. have the best of both worlds in the UK - SF in govt + UK exchequer + NHS + BBC - all lost in a UI
— Comrade Stalin (@TovarichBelfast) December 9, 2013

In the spirit of Whitepapers (i.e. Scotland's Future: Your guide to an independent Scotland) I'm asking: What's the case for a United Ireland? What would a United Ireland look like? This is a rolling "White Paper" series I'm kicking of right now. Why? Because nobody else is doing it. Because nobody - again I say nobody - is able to actually make a reasoned case, or actually tell me what a United Ireland would actually look like, save that partition is an abomination, the original sin and that unionists are illegitimate colonists. When Salmond et al. came out with his considered and thought out proposal which he has put to the people of Scotland, I muttered, jeez if I were a nationalist/republican I'd be writing a White Paper pronto.

Well I'm pre-empting that. Doing that with my "White Paper" blog series which will make the case for not having a United Ireland. I submit to you that this is timely development and I ask you to join me in this mission.

To get things moving I think it necessary to understand the current state of affairs in the Irish republic. The usual criticism is the €200m public debt. That's a bit cheap. I want to hear more. So, what's the story of the Republic of Ireland right now and in recent history?

Let's begin by looking at The Growing Up in Ireland study which began in 2008, the same year Fianna Fáil implemented their No Bondholders Left Behind policy. The nation-wide study is following a representative sample of 11,000 children as they grow up in the post-Celtic Tiger Ireland.

Ironically since 2008, a great many children in Ireland have been left behind. Fintan O'Toole outlined a few startling facts in The Irish Times here. His headline was that "The gap in health between the best-off and worst-off children has doubled in the three years after the bank guarantee." Here's his main points:

One:

"One child in every four is living in a home where nobody at all has a job (In 2010, 22 per cent of all Irish households were jobless; the next highest proportion in Europe – the UK – was 13 per cent)."

Live Drawing - St Joseph's Craft Fair

Less sweaty, stinky, lumbering politicians. More nice, polite little children. On Sunday 8 December I was doing live drawing at Saint Joseph's Primary School in Crumlin. As you can see from the picture above it was like being trasported back to my primary 4 class of 1994/1995 - Lots of kids enjoying the euphoria of a good cartoon!

I lost count of how many cartoons I actually produced. Tried to take a picture of every piece but missed a few. Click below to see a sample and selection of pieces from the day. Enjoy.

Live Drawing - Thriftway 2013

Mukesh Sharma asked me to come along to the Thriftway 2013 Christmas party at the Crumlin Road Gaol. Above and below you can see a selection of cartoons I did of the attendees during the proceedings.

Fintan O'Toole on the Mandela-Martin McGuinness comparison

In the New York Review of Books here, Fintan O'Toole wrote in February 1998:

"That journey is treacherous because, though Irish republicans would like to think otherwise, the analogy between themselves and Kenyatta or Mandela is not in fact valid. The IRA’s campaign has not been a war of national liberation, waged on behalf of the majority against an oppressive minority or a foreign power. Its enemies have not been illegitimate regimes but two liberal democracies—the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland—and the majority Protestant population in Northern Ireland itself. The end-of-empire ritual of an old flag lowered at midnight and a new one raised at dawn will not be played out in Belfast, whatever the outcome of the talks. Sinn Fein’s leader, Gerry Adams, may have made the transition from terrorist to politician, but he and his comrades are not about to take over the state. The question on which the future of Northern Ireland depends is whether, without the reward of power, an undefeated paramilitary army can be persuaded to trade the epic certainties of violence for the unglamorous ambiguities of peaceful politics. One of the most resilient and fearsome of terrorist groups, which has withstood all the efforts of the British army and the local Northern Irish security apparatus to destroy it, is being asked to settle for something far short of its goals. And for this incorporation into a liberal democracy of an armed conspiracy to overthrow it, postwar history offers no precedent."

Live Drawing - Pub guys

A doodle of some guy I met in the The John Hewitt bar in Belfast. More doodles of his mates below:

Quentin Blake on his relaxed style

Quentin Blake is one of our most popular illustrators. Best known for his collaboration with Roald Dahl hid work is immediately recognisable and is full of joy and happy chaos. Quentin's father worked as a civil servant, his mother was a homemaker. At 14, he began sending drawings to Punch. At 16, his work was accepted by Punch. Quentin also produced work for The Spectator. 

Appearing on Desert Island Discs with Kirsty Young here, he was asked: "If we were to leave through some of those 1949 editions of Punch, would we recognise those drawings as notably Quentin Blake?" Quentin Blake responded:

"You might do. They were quite economical but. You might recognise them. But that way of drawing, that people now recognise, happened really when I was 20-something. Gradually I relaxed and in fact if you draw relaxed you draw much better. You're thinking about what that is, what that gesture is that that person is making. You're not thinking about, am I going to spoil it which is the important thing."

In a 2008 interview with The Telegraph here he said was asked about his idiosyncratic use of line to convey depth and movement. On that style he was asked: "is this because you're relaxed when working?"

"Not really. I remember someone saying I’m deceptively slapdash. Well, thank goodness for the deceptively. I think I’m relaxed in a way that is focused."

During his Reith lecture series here, the cross-dressing potter Grayson Perry spoke of the need for "relaxed fluency" and of the need to break away from "the crippling effects of self-consciousness."

2006 interview with Kirsty Young on Radio 4 here. 2008 Telegraph interview in full here. My blog post on Grayson Perry and "relaxed fluency" here.

The artist's Journey, Ctd Deane's Painting #1

See the image above, the images below explain how I travelled from brief to final product.

A tiny minority makes us all look like loosers

A commenter from Northern Ireland, now living in America responded to a guest blog I produced for the Loyalists Against Democracy blog here. He said of the flag protests:

"I am currently studying Politics in The United States as part of a BA international from University College Dublin. An American Student asked me this question the other day. 'The guys in Belfast marching about the flag are Protestants ya?' I said yes they are. He then asked me 'Why do those people always behave like such freaks?' I said its only a tiny minority, he replied, 'well that tiny minority makes them all look like a bunch of losers dude' - This conversation sparked a discussion in my class (I am studying in California, where the majority of the students are American or of European decent, only one with any Irish connection) I was genuinely shocked by the discussion. They all had such a terrible view of Unionism, undeserved in my view. But the point is that unionism is being destroyed at home and abroad by these idiots."

Richard Haass has said here that the riots and instability has scared off international investors.

Live Drawing - Civic Conversation in Belfast

The above pencil and pen sketch with colour is my interpretation of the below:

Religion no longer - Identity is the new sacred

Ed West writes in The Spectator here:

"But now that identity, whether of race, religion, class, sex or sexuality, is the new sacred, hate crime laws have become blasphemy laws in all but name. The things that will get someone arrested, investigated, shunned, boycotted, made unemployed or end their political career – all relate to the blasphemy of identity."

Live Drawing - Peace Journalism

I had the enjoyment of attending the Peace Journalism workshop during the day of Friday November 29, covered by Alan in Belfast here. He wrote on Slugger O'Toole:

"The phrase “peace journalism” was found wanting by organisers and delegates alike at today’s workshop in Belfast. Partly because the journalistic ethics that apply to conflict equally apply to peace (and every other situation), and also because Northern Ireland may be on a transition between conflict and peace, but it’s definitely not yet altogether post-conflict. 

The main speakers (Deaglan de Breadun, Mike Gilson, Jane Morrice and Malachi O’Doherty) and panellists (Laura Haydon, Alex Kane, Lyra McKee and Julia Paul) all had differently nuanced articulations of the role of individual journalists (and media organisations more generally) in covering conflict and peace, and differing notions of what constituted truth, justice and public interest."

Check out my cartoons from the day above and below:

Art is theft, Ctd Peter Brookes

@Blowercartoons ....and here's one I did earlier! pic.twitter.com/gdvqLmPCpR
— Peter Brookes (@BrookesTimes) July 5, 2013

Live drawing with Ian Knox

I had the great honour of drawing with the Northern Ireland treasure Ian Knox at the Black Box Belfast during the Belfast Comedy Festival. My blog post with photos of Ian Knox here. Check out above and below some images of me drawing with my great cartooning hero Ian Knox!

Ian Knox & Brian Spencer hard at work on our wall comic strip. Looking good pic.twitter.com/Ldj2yVedLE
— Belly Laughs Belfast (@BellyLaughsB) October 6, 2013

Deaneos wine

                       

Check out my drawings for Michael Deane's wine label which I helped to produce. More images below.

Live Drawing - Belfast Friday Night Mashup

On Friday 29 I had the opportunity to do live drawing at Belfast's inaugural Friday Night Mashup, held at the Titanic Pump House in Belfast. Clair Weir covered the event in the Telegraph here. She said:

"It's a networking event with a difference and there isn't a pinstripe in sight. Northern Ireland's bright new tech start-ups and potential funders now have a new way in which to meet, mingle and hopefully, make money. 

The Friday Night Mash-up is run by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs and provides a great opportunity to meet with other big thinkers, tech enthusiasts, investors and media."

Read more about the event here, here, here and here. See below for a selection of the cartoons I produced on the evening:

Let Me Tell You (with David McCann)

Little experiment with David McCann (@dmcbfs), building on the inimitable and esteemed If You Ask Me feature that ran for 16 years on BBC Hearts and Minds. Check out the cartoons featured in the video below. See the full compilation with audio from David McCann here. See the feature on Slugger O'Toole here.

Political cartoonists in the digital age

In The New Statesman here Helen Lewis asked: "can political cartoonists can survive in the digital age?" In a piece by the title, "Loss of habitat threatens cartoonist species" Andy Davey wrote on the matter here:

"I am a member of an endangered species; no, not just homo sapiens sapiens but a rarer and more endangered sub-species; the cartoonists. In fact, my small colony is a sub-sub-species – the few who actually (well, as I write) make a living from the practice. The fact is that habitat change is threatening us. I am extremely lucky to have made it through the Darwinian undergrowth to find this sun-dappled glade where I can reflect on how our small herd got here and to muse about the path ahead. If you’ll indulge me, here goes. Like the WWF, I’m aware of you, dear sympathy-fatigued readers, so in the following paragraphs I’m hoping to strike a bold, rakish balance between abject sorrow at the dwindling numbers of a once-majestic species and an uplifting message of feel-good hope about the future [extended conservation metaphor ends]."

He wrote here:

"The ever-eloquent Rowson always likens us to parasites who will find a host even in the most unforgiving of environments. Our forbears were hosted by Georgian coffee shops, pompous, dry Victorian magazines and eventually newspapers."

The reverse diaspora and Cloud cities

In The Sunday Times of December 1 2013, Balaji Srinivasan considered how the future could look. He said here:

"And we can’t know from today’s vantage point where that first reverse diaspora might assemble outside the US, or what those cloud cities or countries will be like. They could be countries formed by internationally recognised processes similar to the ones that created about 30 new countries over the past 25 years, a pattern noted by Marc Andreessen. They could be regions of the world set aside by global agreement for experimentation, as discussed by Larry Page. They could be floating cities in international waters as put forth by Peter Thiel, or one of the more ambitious 80,000-person colonies on Mars desired by Elon Musk. The specific location is still unknown; in a real sense it matters far less than the people there. 

What we can say for certain is this: from Occupy Wall Street and YCombinator to co-living in San Francisco and co-housing in the UK, something important is happening. People are meeting like minds in the cloud and travelling to meet each other offline, in the process building community — and tools for community — where none existed before. Those cloud networks where people poke each other, share photos and find their missing communities are beginning to catalyse waves of physical migration, beginning to reorganise the world. 

Will this ultimately end in a cloud country of our own, as Page, Thiel and Musk propose in different ways? We can set this as a long-term goal, like the kind of dream that propelled so many millions to exit and come to America in the first place, but it’s unclear what the future holds. We do know this, however: as cloud formations take physical shape at steadily greater scales and durations, it shall become ever more feasible to create a new nation of emigrants."

Rooting out bad teachers

Richard Lokier is working 12 hour days to motivate his pupils

The Sunday Times editorial of December 1 2013 said:

"The lazy tolerance of poor standards in teaching and teacher training has ruined the life chances of countless young people."

Sian Griffiths, The Sunday Times education correspondent asked: "What can we learn from the countries whose children are doing best in the Pisa tests (Programme for International Student Assessment)?" She responded here:

"One obvious answer is to hire the best teachers. Finland, which has traditionally done well in the tests, recruits its teachers from the top 10% of graduates."

She continued:

"In the past, Richard Cairns, the headmaster of Brighton College, one of Britain’s top schools said, heads sometimes resorted to writing good references for poor teachers to get rid of them. The poor teachers simply moved around from school to school, blighting children’s chances in a “dance of the lemons”."

More:

"One of the best weapons in the government’s armoury is an ambitious charity called Teach First. Inspired by a similar outfit in America, it recruits the brightest and best graduates to teach in tough inner-city schools for at least two years."

Sian Griffiths also cited Joan Deslandes, headteacher at Kingsford Community School, in Beckton, east London. She said:

"Teachers are not good at being self-reflective,” she said. “They believe they are being victimised, harassed, discriminated against. But we are professionals and I don’t think we should shy away from addressing problems in the classroom."

As WB Yeats said: "Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire." Also read about Michelle Rhee who shook up teaching standards in Washington, US here.

When it's cool to be dumb, Ctd

Sian Griffiths quotes Alison Wolf, professor of public sector management at King's College London in The Sunday Times of December 1 2013 here: 

"If you are growing up in Seoul or Shanghai, you go home from school to a family that cares desperately about education, no matter what its social standing is. British parents are simply not as aware of how important education is."

My previous posts in the "Cool to be dumb" series here, here, here, here,here, here and here. On the Huffington Post UK here.