Archive for Uncategorized

St. Patricks Finglas Riot

Was listening to a discussion on the way home tonight about the riots in Finglas and wether the police were to blame for taking, essentially, six hours to mobilise. For anyone that hasnt heard about the riot, 200 thugs stole cars and then burned them out all afternoon to celebrate St.Patricks day. One old man was literally dragged from his car and badly beaten before then burned his car out. Then in came the police and reportedly beat anyone that made an easy target, including a man who was holding his child at the time, reportedly.

What struck me was the lack of foresight and the everyones focus on poor us, its beyond our control. Like the thugs are running the country. Granted they seem to have control of one area and intimidate the police there, but the problem with thugism by its nature is there not really that smart.

I work in Finglas on a weekly basis and i can honestly say the vast majority of people are absolutely lovely there. Its really sucks for them that in this current house market collapse (yes i did say collapse – its truely done for the next 10 years) that this one event will shave 10k of the price on every house in that area. Who wants to move to Berry Field now? Which really sucks for the young couples who put there life savings into getting their first house.

But i’m not really one for harping on whats happened, i’m more interested on what can be done going forward. First of all, lets quit this pussy footing around attitude that these things get treated with. The country need to invest some money and resources to send a message that this isnt acceptable behaviour. Spend now, pay the interest save the expenditure over the long run. It sounds crazy but some of these kids really dont know any better and have no idea that theres any consequences to their actions.

Here’s some poor quality footage Jazz Biscuit found:

So what should be done. First of all – make a public announcement that this is not acceptable and any participation in such mob mentallity will be given extra hard consquences. Then make the police accountable too, if for no other reason that to stop the “innocent bystandards” calling foul and creating further anomisity towards the guards – and lets face it there are some ego tugging bully type guards who love giving a good dose of power tripping and the occasional elbow… The riot gear needs to be updated to include cams on each helmet with voice recording. These videos should be used to track down every last one of the offenders and fine them at the pre tax / pre social welfare / pre child allowance – yes do blame the parents, if your not looking after them then why should we pay for you to look after them. Then there should be serious community service orders, lots of hours – real hours. If it takes two hours to paint a graffitied wall and the person on community service takes 4 hours – then it should count as two hours, go be slow in your own time, if nothing else it’ll teach em to be efficient. Like wise if they learn to be good at painting walls and do it in one hour, then that counts as two and they should be given more of the work they are good at so they get through to work / service quicker. Welcome new contributor to society.

BEFORE the riot police go in the should announce with big loud speakers that everyone should disperse and anyone insisting on sticking around will be considered an accessory to the problem. If your there your not innocent. Its a mob mentallity, even the most hardest criminal doesnt pull an old man out of his car and beat the living day lights out of him for no reason – the guy did it because he got caught up in the moment and wanted to impress his peers by being extra hard.

If its a trouble stop, CCTV the trouble out of it. Make tampering with a CCTV camera as criminal as the offense that wasnt prevented because of its lack of functioning. Make a clear message, this isnt ok, you are being watched, you will get done for it. Have lots of mobile cameras guards can put on top of their cars etc. Name and shame if needs be, upload videos on a website and ask the public to annomously suggest who that person is. These people aren’t faceless.

And lastly this bull about guards being afraid / not bothered to go in and deal with riots. Too many thugs get away with violence toward guards. I remember seeing a male shoplifter swinging for a female guard (i and at least three other bystandards were willing to step in to assist her except for the fact that this tough cookie could handle herself better than all of us put together and didnt need it); but i did think at the time if there was a gang i would have hesitated – which made me feel ashamed, but there you go. Anyway there should be a really hard line taken with this kind of thing, if your proved to have assaulted a member of the force entrusted to protect the people – there has to be real consequences. You should have severe clout behind you if someone purposely endangers you when your doing your job. I’m not taking just a sentence, im taking manditory imprisonment untill sentencing, you want SKY TV???? Keep dreaming yourself to sleep, have the sentences shorter but the prision experience more memorable and the community service experience even longer lasting…

Follow me on Twitter

Just a quick post to say i’m now on twitter and you can find me twittering away at http://twitter.com/ronanob

Some Estate Agents have no idea how to sell

One good thing about the property crash is that free-loaders who got rich with the skills and dedication of a piece of wood floating down the river are gonna get a wake up call. Not saying all estate agents are bad, i’ve met a few good ones, but several really bad ones. So here’s some advice for estate agents:

*If you can’t fit a bed in it, don’t call it a bed room, your not fooling anyone.

*If someone tells you what there looking for don’t just show them what you’d like to sell unless it matches their needs. It wastes both your time and mine.

*Visit the properties yourself before you bring a client there. Its so off putting when the person showing you around has no idea of whats in the house and can’t tell you a single feature with it being blatently obvious. “Lets see whats behind this door, oh this must be the master bed room. And this is the ensuite… oh no wait its a walk in closet”.

*If someones in the market for renting do not utter these words (yes this really happened!) “Don’t suppose you’d wanna buy one of these houses im selling them too.”

*Dont cancel meetings within minutes before your due to meet up saying the property was rented earlier. Cause you should have let the person know before they left to go view it. Find an alternative, even if its a colaboration with anyother estate agent or firm.

*Know what unoccupancy cost rate is and value it, have the ratios worked out in advance. There’s more to a deal than price and price negotiation has many varieties.

*Never reject an offer outright, always counter offer – even if the counter offer doesnt budge on price – counter with some small value add. Discount on Wireless with an agreed supplier; discount on SKY (everyone can get 75 quid for a refferal); discount on the local gym joining fee; restaurant voucher; the list goes on and on and on. Reason for this is an intelligent person in a market with excess supply will never offer asking price, but if you reject out right its human nature not to say ok then if you wont negotiate then i’ll give in.

Eight million Americans admit they send themselves Valentine’s Day gifts

Heard this today from Reuters – Eight million Americans admit they send themselves Valentine’s Day gifts — they may feel lonely and unloved but at least they will get something nice!

Tesco Have No Heart!

Called into two Tesco’s this evening trying to get Valentine Cards! Someone there really dropped the ball in the product department because they had NO CARDS!!! So you gotta ask yourself where is the love?

Valentines Cards have such a high return that it’s over 50,000% ROI. I ended up in a shop that was charging from 4.99 to 8.99 for the card(s) that i bought. But it’s not just the ROI that Tesco and other Supermarkets are missing out on, when your there you’re highly likely to get some spontanous transactions (chocolate etc).

Can anyone think of any reasons why they wouldnt sell the cards??

Max Roam

Get a MAXroam SIM and Enjoy Global calls at local prices

Max Roam pull it out of the bag with thier latest upgrade to their service. As well as knowing some of the Team and holding them in the highest regard, I use my Max Roam daily – and can vouch that it works great.

Key Features of the update include:

· Full LIVE billing

· Local number list expanded, reductions on cost on local numbers

· Free call forwarding of your MAXroam numbers- zero cost roaming

· Send global SMS from your MAXroam account for only 5c

· Sales are 120% over targets for first Qtr.

· 5 new global carriers interconnected

· Connectivity running at 81% for QTR

· Full customer service hub opened

· Large upgrades planned for next two Qtr’s

· Appointment of Mr Christopher Kennedy as platform manager.

· Alliance with Global roaming, new group has 80,000 subscribers

There’s always loads on the blogsphere about max roam with several great bloggers, independant service companies such as Hotel Express and ofcourse my good friend Pat and the maxroam team all reporting good things. The reason for this chatter is that a small Irish company came along and gave the big bullies in the industry a slap in the face. That was just over a year ago and it now seems that with the latest upgrade, this company is no longer a small kid in the play ground, rather they’re giving the bullies reason to question their cartel. It’s is a success story worthy of any MBA studying.

Hey Pat, when your done any chance of writing a book???

ISPCC Breakfast ’07

Just a quick thanks CEO Ashley Ballbernie and all the staff at the ISPCC who organised the “Childline Breakfast ’07”, i had the privledge of being the Entertainer (DJing for the kids) in Dublin Zoo yesterday alongside, clowns and Celeb guest Don Conroy from RTE’s the Den.

Great day out and very worthy cause!!

Avenue Q in New York

So i’m new york at the moment and the other night i went to see Avenue Q on broadway. I’ve been wanting to see this show for ages and it was everything i had hoped for – i sat in the theater with the biggest grin for the whole thing. Check out this flash box, it’ll cheer up your day!

Simon Fun Run

Signed up today for the Simon Fun Run to raise funds for the Simon community which does great work for the homeless here in Ireland.

Running with me is Steve Cooper (Q102), Ray Shah (ex Big Brother and nightclub DJ), and Alan McQuillan (2fm). If you wanna join us or make a donation feel free to get in touch the more the merrier. And if we Die before the finnish line we’ll refund your money. Come on its for a good cause.

Subsistence rates

Had a conversation today with a friend who told me how “great” his accountant was, he thought because he didn’t pay that much for the accountant / book keeper (which is really what the guy was) that he was getting value for money!!!

When it comes to this type of thing in my opinion cheap is rarely cheerful. The guy saved a few hunderd quid in fee’s and showers out multiples of the fees in unnecessary taxes. Since he hadn’t given the accountant / book keeper his milage and subsistence hours he wasn’t recieving all his entitled tax breaks! Below are the main rates but ISME has all the relative explanations for them.

Overnight rates

Class of allowance__ Normal Rate__ Reduced Rate____ Detention Rate
A Class____________ €140.44_______ €129.48________ €70.21
B Class____________ €132.18_______ €113.05________ €66.12

Daily Rates

Allowance 10 hours or more
€41.55

5 hours but less than 10 hours
€16.95

I. Class of Allowances
The rate of allowance depend on the grade of officer. The approximate grade levels, and present minimum annual salaries, are broadly as follows:

Class A:
Assistant Principals, comparable and higher grades. €50,698

Class B:
Executive and higher Executive Officers and comparable grades €28,285

For individuals who are obliged to use their car in the normal course of their duties:
Motor Cars effective from the 1st of July 2006

Official Motor Travel in Calendar Year Engine Capacity

________________________________Up to 6437km________6438km and over
up to 1200cc______________________52.16 cent___________ 26.97 cent
Engine Capacity 1201cc to 1500cc____61.66 cent___________ 30.96 cent
Engine Capacity 1501 cc and over_____78.32 cent___________36.65cent