So…Our beloved Kevin Myers has done it again. Once every two or three months the now world-famous Irish Independent columnist writes something controversial in the national newspaper in his weekly column. This time he chose to target the Africans, Ethiopian in particular. He claimed that nothing good ever came out of the Africans and that there’s no point of us wealthy and well-off western people to help them as they won’t ever make anything good out of it.

Unsuprisingly, the article resulted in a flood of letters to the Independent’s HQ and numerous comments in webpages all over the world. Many people, Western and African in utter disgust demanded Myers to be hung or sent to prison for his careless words.

Since I came to Ireland I’ve made a habit of reading Indo as often as I can. I’ve become familiar with dear Kevin’s style and his unbeatable desire to cause controversy with his often single-minded and racistic opinions. He’s indeed a very unlikable person and obviously enjoys the hassle he causes.

What I often wonder is the motive behind all this tabloid-style, often childish behaviour filled with fancy words as to make a stupid idea sound better. In this particular case, what came of it was a huge amount of disagreeing letters but also a few supportive (and signed!) letters backing him up. When reading those even more horrible letters I hoped that maybe, MAYBE, by writing something so disgusting and unfair in a major media outlet, he also wanted to highlight the issue of the still very high amount of likeminded people among us. Unfortunately the likelyness of that is nearly nonexistant.

When discussing the article with some people, I compared Myers to Madonna. Both have managed to claim a remarkable status in their industry, thus being able to publish pretty much anything they want, whether it’s good or bad, unintelligent or brilliant. In their world of fame, Madonna can have a no. 1 hit with barely any talent put into it and Kevin Myers can have a weekly column for his childish mood swings

Ilkka Kanerva, the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs resigns due to a text message scandal involving a 20-something exotic dancer.

Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach (PM) of Ireland announces his departure following a controversy and a national tribunal over his personal finances 

Sometimes I have serious doubts about my future in this country. Week after week I read the papers telling us how the autistic children’s needs still haven’t been recognised, the health care is getting worse and some horrible mistakes have been made when treating patients.

It’s not always easy to live in a country where the ministers and Taoiseach go on luxurious holidays (or promotional trips, as they like to call them) while the country is still struggling with an enormous drug and crime problem.

This week I have been out of water, without a working mobile network and paid 50 euros to see a doctor for a straightforward ten-minute check up.

A country where people elect a corrupt party leader to run the country for another season, a decision in which you had no say, is giving me a hard time.

To wash it all off my head for at least one night, I head out to my local. A stress-free night soon turns into a disaster. I end up in the middle of a relationship drama as yet another lonely middle-aged husband and father of three decides to try his luck while the wife’s eye is not watching. I did not ask for this.

In a country full of hard-working immigrants, I hear a story of a young man who after years of horror in his home country finally has a place where he can bring his family, or what is left of it, to live. A year later I see him dealing drugs next to the corner shop. Integration ey?

Yes, this is a rant. Yes, I should just shut up and deal with it or leave. Before any of that happens, I’d just like to know where the country I fell in love with went?

“Man, I’ve been in this business for 14 years, I know what I’m talking about”, says the greasy-haired, scruffy looking man while drinking his pint of cheap lager in the corner of your local pub.

The 40-year-old rock star can be spotted in your local music venue every night (and day) sharing his considerable knowledge of…well, playing in your local pub. He himself, of course, believes that his great wisdom doesn’t stop there: he considers himself the god of music and the wiz of all things audio.

And why shouldn’t he? After all he has performed ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and ‘Foxy Lady’ approximately 13,567 times and spends most of his social welfare money on maintaining a rather impressive record collection. In addition to that, he NEARLY made it to the top: if only Johnny hadn’t left to do a science degree in college all those years back, his band would have been the legend of the country.

While at first the 40-year-old-rock star can be quite a charming individual, his true nature will soon reveal itself. The usual characteristics include raging alcoholism, a pile of failed relationships (and in most cases a 20-something look-alike son named after a 70s rock star), depression and an ego size of an elephant.

Having said that, the failed rock star can be an interesting participant in a conversation. He’ll never run out of things to say and is always available and more than delighted to share his professional opinion on any matters of music. At his best he can be a true mentor for a young musician looking for encouragement if he only manages to stay sober enough to help.

One should however be careful while dealing with the 40-year-old-rock star. One should never criticise his musical skills (both practical and technical) or make fun of his favourite rock bands. Failure to do so might result in a nasty verbal or even physical attack and a lifelong hate situation.

The main role of the 40-year-old rock star in the community is to maintain stability. While times change and people move on to other things, it’s comforting to know that whenever one should return from their travels, this significant member of the village will always stay in his spot, in the local pub.

As I’m not doing much writing at the moment, I decided to publish this brainstorm in here. I originally wrote it for my other private blog but decided to publish it here as well. Enjoy!

Warning: contains bitching, self pity, sarcasm and gross stereotyping!

I’ve never been particularly wanted. When I was in school I had a crush on someone but they never responded to my feelings, mostly because I wasn’t one of “the pretty girls”. I remember crying some night because all my friends had admirers but no one seemed to notice the little me.

When I entered the pub scene, I didn’t get drunken men coming over to me, let alone the sober ones. Every once in a while I would meet someone half decent who’d like me but that was it. I doubt I was anyone’s subject of daydream.

It all changed when I moved to Ireland. I didn’t get any prettier and the other girls didn’t get any uglier, it was just a different scene with more outgoing people. I suppose there were cultural differences in what was considered beautiful and maybe I fitted into that picture better than I did back home.

At first I mistook the attention for pure friendliness and curiosity (being the only Finn many had ever met) but I was soon proven wrong. Men after men, unfamiliar and familiar, walked over to me to tell me how pretty I was and how lucky my boyfriend at the time was. All this attention was very flattering and being the Finn I was, very embarrassing.

For the first year I couldn’t handle it at all. I kept blushing whenever someone would say anything about my looks or promptly just told them they were wrong. After a while I started to ignore the praise. I would smile and say thank you and then tried to turn the conversation to new tracks. I didn’t get cocky, just hearing those things didn’t mean anything anymore.

Around this time I was in the spotlight even without all this attention, as I was going out with someone who was a celebrity of sort in the area. When we were out, there were people coming around to us (him) all the time to talk/encourage/praise the work he was doing. Without blaming him for any of that, my role became clear very quickly: my job was to stand, smile and nod. Look pretty and shut up.

In the beginning I’d try to participate in whatever was going around us but I soon gave up as it seemed no one was interested anyway. There were situations when after entering the conversation I would get a judging look from the people talking to my boyfriend, followed by these people ignoring me for the rest of the conversation.

Many of his friends would never get into a conversation with me because they assumed I was just a silly little groupie who had no other value than looking good by his side. After breaking up with the boyfriend and having a conversation of my own with his friends, they were genuinely surprised I wasn’t a complete idiot. It had never crossed their minds that I could be a nice and sensible person well able for intelligent interaction.

Nowadays I have learned to equally ignore and appreciate the feedback I get. I have learned to joke about those times when I was nothing but a pretty face and if I come across those situations I sometimes remind these individuals of my staggering brain activity being worth the praise, in a humorous way of course.

Never ever will I let anyone walk over my pretty face anymore and if someone tried I would simply walk away or tell them where to post their ignorance to. And while doing that I’ll hope that my date will notice how much effort I put into looking particularly nice tonight.

A few months back when the Jokela tragedy had shaken the Finnish nation, I wrote an opinion piece on it. It was published in one of the local papers in Finland which of course was pretty cool. I wrote a similar type of thing in English and just for the craic sent it over to the letters section in the Independent. Well, to my great surprise, it got published. I’ve attached it below. What was even freakier though, was the fact that a few weeks after that I received a letter from some woman in Carlow who’d visited Finland in the 70s. She went on about how she loved the country etc and how terrible the whole incident was. I guess I should have written her back but I just never got around to it.

A lot to be learned from Finn atrocity

Monday November 12 2007

THIS week, Finland is mourning after the Jokela school massacre that took place last Wednesday afternoon.

Candles are being lit for the victims of this terrible execution and everyone affected by this tragedy is left with only one question — why? Little by little we are starting to discover the cruel details of this young man’s mind and nature.

He believed he was a god-like creature and a level above anyone else.

He hated humanity, society and the surroundings he lived in.

He was an extremist, intelligent and well-educated, but a very frustrated and depressed young man.

His classmates have said that he was bullied. The media has portrayed him as a loony.

It’s been reported that he was taking anti-depressants and that he was alienated from his fellow high school students.

What many don’t see is that he was an unfortunate example of the suffering so many young Finns go through in their early days. Let’s put the daylight issue aside for a while. Let’s think back in time to other similar atrocities.

When a group of people involved in a cult brutally sacrificed their friend and later left his sliced body in wasteland in November 1998, the people involved were residents of a very similar area.

A few years later, a couple of teenagers murdered two people while high on toxic fumes in my home town, Kerava, 30km from Helsinki.

A young chemistry student exploded his homemade bomb in Myyrmanni shopping centre in 2002, about 20km from Helsinki.

Coincidence? I don’t think so. The towns that are big enough to live in, without having to go in the city for everyday things, but too small to have an open-minded, large population are the melting pots of these incidents.

Young people who do not mix in with the regular crowd are often bullied and left with few or no friends. For them, the town is a symbol of despair and depression, even evil.

Some unfortunate teenagers, who grow up in these surroundings without a frequent contact to the outside world, grow to hate the place and the people inhabiting it.

I blame no one but the killer himself. I just wish he had had the chance to leave the place which was obviously making him sad and anxious.

I wish someone had heard his cry for help, even when he managed to hide it.

I wish that on those lonely, cold and dark nights there would have been someone assuring him that his life doesn’t necessarily have to end in a place like Jokela.

Instead, he found comfort online, among those who shared his despair.

He read books written by cynical human beings, watched videos full of hate and finally gave in to the idea of it all not being worth it.

He eventually saw no light at the end of the tunnel.

Reasoning all this is obviously pointless.

It will not bring all those innocent lives back.

This week, it’s time to cry and talk, and remember all of those close to us — make sure no one’s alone.

Tomorrow it’s time for parents, friends, relatives and authorities to have another glance at the things happening around them.

To make sure no one will ever slip to the wrong tracks again and that young adults growing up have all the right support they need.

Talk to them, ask them what they think.

Don’t trust in what you see, find out for real.

Sit down on a rainy Thursday night and ask them how life is treating them.

Be there for the weak and confused ones.

Find solutions, listen and encourage them in making the right decisions.

Most of all, show them all the beautiful things that there are in this world.

Remind them that there’s so much out there to enjoy and love.

Suddyn landed to Ireland in early 2006 and has since gained somewhat extensive support all around the country. The band which originally started in New York has since released two singles, both hitting the Irish charts.

The last time I saw Suddyn playing live was nearly a year ago. A lot has happened since. The debut single “Drowning Souls” has become one of the most popular ringtones around Europe and the band’s new single “Gravity” has been played extensively in the Dublin area.

What hit me the first time, was the boys’ undeniable commitment to music. Days are hard for unsigned bands but even when the venue is half empty and the few listeners seem to be more concentrated on their pints, Suddyn will still give everything to the audience. This year all the work has finally paid off as the band is currently one of the top-selling unsigned bands in Ireland.

The sound is still pretty much the same; big melodies in both guitar and piano and vocalist Alan’s mesmerizing voice still hitting all the high notes. Unlike some other bands that play around here, Suddyn’s performance was a pleasure to witness and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the lads when they sang and played their hearts out to a fairly ignorant audience.

If there was anything bad to say about these lads, it would definitely be what I like to call the ‘Keane’-syndrome. Many of the songs sound similar and in all their greatness after a while they start to wear one out. Also, it’s hard to get the same hype while listening to their music at home after the gig. That’s why Suddyn is best live and in small dozes.

Two new local publications are being brought out before Christmas in the County Wicklow area.

A new weekly newspaper called Wicklow News was first published today and is available in newsagencies around the county. The paper is said to concentrate on local issues and sports and it is available every Tuesday. The paper costs one euro.

"Wicklow Living" magazine is said to be launched very soon. The free publication will include the latest fashion tips, entertainment, DIY tips and lots of other articles that are of interest to the Wicklow residents. The glossy magazine will be delivered to households around the county and it will also be available in many business in the area.

The Minister for Transportation has been forced to postpone the planned ban for L-drivers driving on their own. The decision was made after both the public and the Gardaí questioned the new regulations and the timing of them.

The decision was welcomed with relief as hundreds of thousands would have been left without transportation.  

MORE than 420,000 learner drivers will be banned from driving alone from midnight on Monday.

Their insurance will be also invalidated if they crash, road safety chiefs warned last night.

If people flout the new law — announced by the Government yesterday — they face fines of €1,000 or jail terms of up to three years on a second offence.

Gardai last night insisted they would implement the drastic new measures which will put an end to provision licence holders, on their second licence, being allowed to drive without being accompanied by a fully qualified driver.

The Irish Independent reports

The Irish driving culture is something that has frightened me as long as I’ve been here. People, some who have never driven a car before are let to drive on the public roads after passing a THEORY test only. The law says they should have a full licence holder sitting next to them at all times, and that they are not allowed to use the motor ways. This has never stopped anyone from driving alone and even when stopped by the Gardaí, it’s very rare that you would actually get into trouble.

 I don’t know how these new regulations are going to work out in reality but if they are to start fining L-drivers driving alone, it will seriously make many people’s lives very difficult. The queues for the full licence test are ridiculous. Maybe instead of bringing the new order in all of a sudden, the government could have set up more places to take your test in and also, set shorter deadlines to complete it. At the moment, thousands of people are left without transportation as of Monday.