PR professionals need to change the way they appoach social media

Shel Israel, well known blogger, author and social media consultant warns PR professionals who wish to engage in online

Fr. Mick Sinnott – a Real Tonic and an example for all of us

With all the doom and gloom around including the seemingly endemic lack of responsibility and culture of impunity at leadership levels in so many sectors  that has unnerved so many of us  across the country,  I thought the self-effacing honesty, lack of ego, forgiveness  and strength of  the 79 year old priest Father Mick Sinnott following his release from kidnappers in the Phillippines during the week,  was uplifting  and a salutary reminder to all of us about the real values of humankind and what being Irish should be all about.   This is a value, a leadership example  and a strong communications message worth holding on to.

'They won't kidnap me again, I'm too old, perhaps somebody younger'

Government’s media strategy keeps public eye off NAMA

If I was asked to sum up the one definitive power the Government / Cabinet holds over all others, it is the power to set the national agenda. And events over the past two weeks only go to prove this.

As the NAMA debate raged in the Dáil chamber, the FF/Green coalition’s diversionary media strategy swung into action with Noel Dempsey’s proposals to bring Irish alcohol/blood ratios in line with our European counterparts causing apoplexy among who?  Why government-supporting Fianna Fáil backbenchers, of course.

Stop Press – Social Media overtakes Porn on Web?

Here’s a quirky video advertising the Digital Media Awards which take place on the 25th February 2010 in Dublin. The vid claims that, among other interesting stats,  social media has overtaken porn as the number one activity on the web. Now we’re talkin’!

Hey Bulldog!

One of the few last occasions when Lennon and McCartney seemed to be enjoying themselves. Always liked this song.

Geoff Emerick, the Beatles’ engineer, would subsequently claim this was the last song the band recorded that featured a team dynamic with enthusiasm from every member. The song popped up on the Yellow Submarine album.

When the group reconvened in the studio in May 1968 for the The Beatles sessions, their group cohesion had already been undermined by the business, artistic, and personal differences that would culminate in their eventual breakup.

There’s a well known band that plays in Mallorca, the Pa Amb Oli band that do a version of this song.  I was reminded of it the other day. You can listen to a rough live version of Pa Amb Oli playing it here.

 

Fine Gael need to concentrate on banking sector purge and reform… (and not Seanad abolition because voters know turkeys, including FG ones, don’t vote for Christmas)

If Fine Gael continues to direct its ‘law and order’ agenda in the direction of the financial institutions, as Finance spokesperson, Richard Brution intimated in his address to the Irish Banker’s Federation national conference last Thursday, they will be doing us all some justice.

Bruton said Fine Gael’s reform package could include:

• The breaking up the biggest domestic banks so that they were no longer considered too big to be allowed fail;

• The introduction of clear banking offences with massive penalties;

• Making reckless lending unenforceable in the courts

• Measures to ensure that the taxpayer will in future only underwrite the good elements of banking.

Question:  ‘Why aren’t the Govt. doing this right now?

 

Some excellent articles in latest edition of The Village Magazine

 

Excellent articles in latest edition of The Village Magazine

In an earlier post ‘How can we create a new vision and value system for this country?’ I mused on the paucity of leadership from senior politicians,  senior public servants, financial institutions and others, including the lack of detailed analysis and explanation from our fourth estate.

So interestingly, may I suggest you go out and buy the latest edition of The Village magazine.  There are some extremely well-written observations on the state of our governance.

Wilco – Ashes of American Flags

Sat up last night and watched Wilco’s ‘Ashes of American Flags – a videomentary of the band on tour.

I really like this band.  A real musical touring band that can pack a punch.

Watch them perform the title song here:

10:10 Campaign launched in Dublin this week

“Oh no”,  I hear you say,  “not another one”.  But please folks, this campaign may just be the difference we have been waiting for.

Launched in the UK last month by film producer Franny Armstrong, he of The Age of Stupid  fame, the 10:10 campaign is about individuals and by extension, organisations putting their names on the line to pledge to reduce CO2 emissions by 10% by the end of 2010  – its a lifestyle change, a behavioural change.

By signing up to 10:10 you are not just promising to reduce your own emissions – you become part of a national drive to hit an ambitious goal country-wide. In homes, workplaces, schools, hospitals, sports clubs and universities, it’s a support network that backs each other to take the first necessary steps on the road to becoming a low-carbon society.

Read about the UK campaign here.

John Gormley launched the Irish version last Thursday, Oct. 29th

How can we create a new vision and value system for this country?

The values many might aspire to promote – values of cooperation, team-playing, treading lightly on the earth, a ‘fair deal’, outlining vision and leadership are constrained by the systems we have put in place and by the systems powerful vested interests resist at all costs.

Our senior politicians by their actions reduce themselves to game play and fighting battles rather than outlining clear vision and leadership while our senior civil service is ivory-towered, protected and totally risk adverse.

We have allowed those in positions of power to venerate the sacredness of institutions and to hide behind them – examples of this are clerical sex abuse and the Government compensation ‘deal’ allowing immunity and anonymity, the Government’s present reaction to the distasteful, unethical and grossly criminal behaviour of the financial institutions and their ‘leaders’ and the most recent Ceann Comhairle debacle, are all symptoms of a deeper malaise. Social partnership anyone?

It may make us uncomfortable to think so but we are a tiny country with a vested interest mentality and with an electoral system that promulgates this culture .  Of course,  we  eventually plotted our own downfall when we engaged in hubris and started to believe our own Celtic Tiger hype.  Many but not all have been guilty.

Identifying a suitable channel for this ‘values’ debate in Ireland is perplexing. There are numerous media outlets hosting programmes which engage in crass debate, point scoring and moan fests where vested interest opinions are proffered yet a complete dearth of channels for any rigorous adn in-depth analysis and explanation.

A new value system will involve a dismantling and restructuring of our institutions but right now our senior politicians and our institutions are engaged in a cosmetic mopping up exercise. We have a vacuum where politicians, public servants and key institutions are shorn of any vestige of moral authority. Nobody appears to have the will, the leadership nor the sheer guts to turn off the tap and re-shape this country with values and vision.