April 24th- May 2nd

The world keeps moving on and here we are in the fifth month of the year, May. Not a lot has happened, if I’m honest,  since my last post but there are a few issues to talk about.

PARKLIFE

Something that we enjoy doing on a Saturday morning is going to the park. This Saturday was no different although it was only the two of us as Licety was busy with her new business.

On Saturday afternoon we went to an Easter party and didn’t come home until late in the evening. All in all, it was a good day.

HINODE

Talking about Licety’s business, Mother’s Day in Peru is coming up on 12th May and Licety is offrering gift packs at the reasonable price. I suggest you click the following links to find out more.

Mother’s Day Packs from Hinode

LIVERPOOL

I went to my local Irish Bar here in Lima with my friend Serita and two James’ to watch the Semi-Final 1st Leg of the Champions League, Liverpool v Barcelona.  One thing I like doing when I go there is to get the big breakfast so I had the breakfast as lunch as I had breakfast at home around 8am. (The kick-off time in Peru was 2pm) Needless to say I was disappointed with Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat but C’est la vie.

3-0 😦

VENEZUELA

Everyone throughout the world have been reading about the crisis in Venezuela. This is a fluid situation and of great concern to many people in Peru. There are a lot of Venezuelans here and they are, in the main, very nice people.

Venezuelan Crisis

 NO PHONE

Unfortunately I am without a smartphone at the moment so I will have to go back to the old means of communication. It’s not the end of the world however and I think I will survive without it.

LOCAL ELECTIONS IN NI AND GB

Today 2nd May is local election time in England and Northern Ireland. The English use the simple First-Past-The-Post System in local elections which means that there is one council seat available in every ward and whoever gets the most votes wins.

In Northern Ireland we have the Single-Transferable-Vote system which is different as wards are bigger and there are multiple candidates elected for each ward.

As English Election results are generally announced in the early hours of the morning, it is compelling prime-time viewing with a cup of tea and a biscuit here in Peru.  I personally hope that the Green Party do well as something needs to be done to improve the enviroment and Caroline Lucas is an excellent MP. We need more Green politicians in positions of power.

As far as Northern Ireland is concerned my focus will be on the Council of Derry and Strabane. My local council ward is the Sperrin Ward, and I am friends on Facebook with a few of the candidates.

I haven’t lived in Ireland since 2011 and for me I can’t get used to seeing Strabane as part of Derry council. Many Strabane people are not happy with the new super-council and there is a Strexit campaign against the amalgamation. Council election developments can be followed here.

That’s it for another week, see you soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eurovision 2019 -Why I won’t be watching

Growing up in Ireland during the 80s and 90s Eurovision was our thing. People took great pride when Johnny Logan won in ’87, when Linda Martin won in ’92 and when Niamh Kavanagh won in ’93. After the 1994 success we got a bit suspicious that the Europeans just wanted us to pay for it every year; everyone remembers the Father Ted episode. Still, there is huge disappointment every time we fail to qualify for the final.

Ireland is a country that has gone through a lot of pain and suffering. Our independence in the first part of the 20th century motivated other nations to follow suit so now we should have some empathy with the suffering of the Palestinian people.

It saddens me, what is happening in Palestine. People murdered, towns and villages bulldozed and why? It is because one nation believes it is superior to another and has the right to murder its people and take its land.

What’s saddens me too is that the international community are unwilling to uphold UN Resolutions and find a solution to this problem. Any legitimate opposition to the state of Israel is regarded as anti-semism.

So should people dismiss those who oppose Israel’s ethnic cleansing as anti-semites? Of course not. Firstly people shouldn’t confuse a state with a religion and secondly there are a great many Jews who oppose the state of Israel.

They say too that the Eurovision is not political or is not used as a propaganda tool. Why did Spanish dictator Francisco Franco buy votes for Spain to win the 1968 contest pushing Cliff Ricard’s Congratulations into second place? There has always been a political element to it.

I know Eurovision is very important to many people. It is a cultural event upon which people organise parties around; but I’m hoping that people will come to their senses and switch off this year, in respect for human rights and intetnational law. Let’s see what happens.