A meander through the thoughts of Stephen Spillane
So ahead of tonights We The Citizens event in the Clarion Cork tonight I decided to a Video Blog!
Its mainly about the reactions I have gotten to bringing up the We the Citizens event and around citizens involvement, oh I hate cynical viewpoints!
Do let me know what you think!
PS Don’t forget I will be tweeting from the event tonight! So do follow me on twitter!
This is an excellent video from Belong To on Homophobia and bullying. Do watch it.
Irish anti homophobic bullying advertisement, created as part of BeLonG To Youth Services annual Stand Up! LGBT Awareness Weeks. The campaign promotes friendship amongst young people as a way to combat homophobic bullying.
For more information on the campaign please see: http://www.belongto.org/campaign.aspx
Written & Directed by Anna Rodgers & Aoife Kelleher
Produced by Zlata Filipovic
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrJxqvalFxM’]
There are talks that an LGBT Awareness week will be happening in Cork in the lead up to the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO). When details emerge I will of course blog them.
Conor Lenihan who yesterday called on Brian Cowen to resign, got a bit passionate on Vincent Brown last night. Car crash TV. Enjoy.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHtOp8gBFmc’]
How long till he resigns? Its going to be a fun election campaign!
Hattip: Cedar Lounge Revolution
Fine Gael have today have “stood down” the party website for 3 to 4 weeks and replaced it with a crowd-sourcing site to ask the people of Ireland their view on what the Parties policies should be.
In an email to members launching the “new” site leader Enda Kenny had this to say:
Fine Gael want to invite people from all walks of life to join with us and help build our plans and ideas for the country. We are particularly interested in your ideas on how we can clear the barriers to employment and how we can get people back to work.
To help this process Fine Gael has decided to set aside the Party website for three to four weeks and replace it with a facility for the public to contribute their ideas and thoughts on jobs, the economy, politics, the health service, and other issues.
Too often, political parties and politicians talk too much and don’t listen to what the people have to say. It is important, now, more than ever, that the political system and politicians listen to what the Irish public have to say.
Therefore, Fine Gael will spend the coming weeks of the New Year listening to your ideas ahead of the General Election. Please visit the website at www.FineGael.ie to share your thoughts and views with us, and spread the word to your friends, family, and anyone you think would like to share their views.
I am not sure what to make of it. The party has recently released loads of policies and they now void? Also the character limit of 250 characters is a bit low considering what you are asking people or should “txt spk” be used?
There is of course a video to go with it!
Enda Kenny from Fine Gael on Vimeo.
I wonder where they will go for here? And how will this work in Ireland? Its going to an experimental election I think.
PS the old website is still here
The Taoiseach and other Government Ministers can say what they want, but Stephen Kinsella posted this video up which may jog some memories. They certainly saw this coming and the ERSI was not alone in warning us about the fact that we were in for a hard landing.
Ye are fooling no one lads. Its time to change the record on that one.
I know this blog has been very quiet over the last few months. There are various reasons for this. Mainly I have been involved in a few things which have kept me busy and of course work is there also.
One of the things that has kept me really busy in Freaks N’Gleeks (formerly Cork Glee Club). We are a bunch of friends who have come together and put on a show revolving around dancing and singing. Its great fun. With Freaks N’Gleeks I have danced in Cork and Waterford and last Wednesday we qualified for the Semi-finals of Chambers Got Xtra Talent. Heres a video of our performance! We danced to “Take it Off” by Kei$ha and “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga. We are currently working on something for the Semi’s! Should be fun!
We also took part in Waterford Pride this month, which was great fun. The weekend before Pride we performed for the Prideathon to raise money for Pride. We also performed after the Pride Parade. We did “Can’t Be Tamed” by Miley Cyrus, “Africa” by Toto and “Waka, Waka” by Shakria. That was an interesting performance as the video will show!
Im looking forward to performing again!
In the mean time check out Freaks N’Gleeks page on Facebook!
I have been meaning to post this for awhile but I didn’t know it had been posted on youtube yet. I saw this at the Alliance Francaise Symposium and I loved it and I hope you will too. Very informative!
This video was created by the Irish delegation to the EU’s 60th Anniversary Celebrations of the Schuman Declaration held over the weekend of May 9th 2010. The first screening of the video was in Scy-Chazelles, Robert Schuman’s birthplace and it’s first public screening in Ireland was at the European Symposium in UCC on May 18 2010.
The video traces major events which linked, and continue to link, Ireland with the wider European Union with the content being split into the relevant decades. It begins in the 1970s and Ireland’s first years as an EEC member before going on to document events throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The end of the video casts an eye to the future and Ireland’s position within the EU as our membership continues to mature.
The events documented range from the political to the cultural but all are links that bind us to Europe in some manner. The music was specially chosen by the delegation during the editing process with it being exclusively Irish in order to show a further cultural linkage and the songs are played during the decades they were recorded.
For Ireland and the EU, this video is just an overview of a relationship that goes much deeper than ten minutes could possibly represent.
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While procrastinating I cam across some really interesting youtube videos concerning the UK Election. So I decided to post a few of them.
First up is a viral from the Independent. I really like and points out the faults with all three parties.
The Truth Behind the UK Election
I also enjoyed Yahoo’s look at what people on the street think of the election.
Total Politics put together a video encouraging people to vote. Its a fun video, I recognised a few people but not all of them
To end, and thereby not endorse any of the Parties, Vote For A Change are encouraging people to vote for a Hung Parliament in this short video
Hang Parliament: Vote for a Hung Parliament in the 2010 UK Election
Have you seen any good election videos?
After I finished my post last night, Cyprus and the Netherlands completed their selections for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010.
Cyprus went for Jon Lilygreen & The Islanders with “Life looks better in spring”. It is a nice gentle song. It doesn’t stand out for me though.
The Netherlands had all ready picked their song, ”Ik ben verliefd, Shalalie”, and was just matching it up with a band. They went with Sieneke. I am not sure what to make of the song, I will leave it up to you!
Armenia and Poland decide on their representatives this weekend.
As I am in a sort of Eurovision mood I felt like looking at the countries who have so far selected there entries for the Eurovision. Seven countries have picked their representative. Ireland will pick its entry on March 5th.
While Bosnia Herzegovina have announced that Vukasin Brajic will represent the country in Oslo with the song ‘Munja i grom’ (Thunder and Lightning), the song will not be performed before March 7th. So we will have to wait a bit longer for it.
Finland has picked its entry and it has chosen Kuunkuiskaajat to represent them with the song “Työlki ellää”. Its very different from there song last year! Its more folk, then modern. It could do well, depending on what everyone else picks.
Albania has also picked its entry. They are going with Nuk Mundem Pa Ty by Juliana Pasha. It is a pop song and very like a lot of modern music. It has a catchy rhythm.
Iceland has also decided its entry. It is going with “Je ne sais quoi” by Hera Björk. This song brings me back a few years and reminds me of Eurovisions gone by. Quick tempo and up beat. I could dance to this quite easily.
Denmark, a country who’s entry I always like, has gone for Chanée and N’evergreen who will sing “In a Moment Like This”. Yet again Denmark doesn’t disappoint me. This is a beautiful duet by two fantastic singers. I really like it!
Switzerland have picked Michael von der Heide to sing “Il Pleut De L’Or” in Oslo. It is a pop song. Its not a song that grabs me and reminds me more of elevator music.
The host country, Norway, has also decided upon its entry. Norway went for “My Heart Is Yours” by Didrik Solli-Tangen. This is a lovely ballad. I thought the days of beautifully sing male ballads were gone with Johnny Logan but Norway is bucking the trend! Fair play!
A number of countries have picked the singer or song, but haven’t them up yet. They include Turkey (maNga), Georgia (Sopho Nizharadze), Bulgaria (Miro), Ukraine (Vasyl Lazarovich) and The Netherlands (“Ik ben verliefd, Shalalie”).
The running order draw takes place on March 22nd, so all entries will be known before that.
