Monday 21 May 2007

We have our General Election this Thursday coming in Ireland. Choosing my preferred representatives in national government is not an easy task. My constituency is a five seater (we have Proportional Representation - PR - in Ireland). None of the outgoing TDs (Members of Parliament) particularly appeal. One of the outgoing TDs is the leader of one of the two major parties (Fine Gael) and is potentially Ireland's next Taoiseach (Prime Minister) if all goes well for him. One of his policies is particularly family friendly, reducing the impact of "individualisation" as introduced by Fianna Fail's former Finance Minister (Charlie McCreevy - now an EU Commissioner). Fianna Fail (FF) are currently the main government party who are in coalition with the Progressive Democrats. Individualisation had the effect of removing the right from a "stay-at-home" spouse to pass his/her tax credits to his/her working spouse, thus discouraging "stay-at-home" spouses, mostly mothers, from spending the early years of their children's lives at home. I like the idea and it is the one policy that Fine Gael have which would entice me to vote for them. However most the leader's colleagues in the constituency do not particularly appeal, one sends cards to every family in the constituency on the occasion of every birth, death and marriage. I don't see how that is in the national interest! Another is a "parachute" celebrity candidate, manager of the county Gaelic Football team (who lost in the first round of the Championship on Sunday, talk about bad timing!) - I don't see the benefit of parachute candidates. The last I don't know much about and therefore don't feel I could vote for her.
The other alternative is for me to vote for FF. I personally know one of the candidates, he's young, business minded and professional. Their outgoing TD doesn't offer much, not sure how he got elected in the first place. I trust FF to manage the economy and provide some bulwark to liberal policies getting adopted - something that Fine Gael claim they will also prevent, but as their likely coalition partners are the left wing Labour Party I don't give them much chance to hold out against them for five years of government. I don't trust FF to build a better society for Ireland though, primarily due to their "lower taxes and the resulting rising tide will lift all ships" probable coalition partners, the Progressive Democrats (PDs). Of the other FF candidate, he's not what being political means to me so he may get a low preference vote. The PDs support embryo research which to me is a bad thing, so they won't get my vote either. As you can probably now tell I won't be voting for Labour and nor will I vote for Sinn Fein, who's extreme left views, couched in nice inclusive rights based terminology, would be disasterous for the nation. We also have an independent TD, a doctor, who focuses on the health side of things. He has done some great work for returning immigrants. However, he too, has liberal tendancies, having moved from supporting Connaught's Christian Independent MEP to its Liberal Independent one in the last European Parliament elections.
I am a firm believer that a TD should represent local views, but not necessarily interests, at a national level. Too much representation of local interests leads to clientelism and that is not a good thing in national politics. Perhaps at 166 there are too many seats in Dail Eireann (the house of parliament) and if there were fewer seats then there would be less time for the TDs to concern themselves with local issues (which should be dealt with by County and Town Councillors). I also believe that good government is Christian government, where God comes first, followed by love for others and ourselves. These beliefs will form the basis of my vote this week

Thursday 17 May 2007

Current career struggles

As a share-holder in a new retail outlet, a pseudo-franchise of an existing operation, life has its challenges. Weekend working, late evenings, lower sales than expected all lead to a "trapped" feeling at times. Head-office, whose business model I must implement, believe that if they were here personally then sales would be higher. Perhaps they're right. To that end they've hired a "Performance Coach" to work with me on my motivations, skills and performance. It has been an interesting process, allowing me question where I am, what's important to me, and where I want to go. He has asked me about my ability to commit, my response to under-performance and my attitude, in order for me to help me see myself as others might, a mirror to myself in essence. This is an on-going process.

The personal side of all this is that my wife and children want to see me more. My wife doesn't have a business background, either in her own experience or that of her parents, while I do. Therefore our expectations are different. I need to prioritise. God is first, wife second, children third, work fourth and self fifth. What does God want me to be, where and when? Questions, questions, questions.....

Tuesday 15 May 2007

Technology on the move.

Sending this from my mobile/cell phone gmail account. I'm trying to
prove to myself that in my mid-thirties I'm not past it when it comes
to using technology to get things done!

Christian Teaching on Anger & Honesty

Our teaching last night was on anger and honesty - two tough areas in my life right now.

1. If I don't deal with my anger it will a) eat me up and b) cause me to sin. Dealing with anger means praying for the person who angers you, blessing them and forgiving them from the heart. A good place to start is to list all those whom I have ever been angry with or who has ever been angry with me. Those closest to us are often the ones who suffer most.

2. Falsehood is not Christian - I must speak the truth in love at all times. We studied part of the last chapter of the Book of Revelation which brought it home to us.

We spent time in prayer trying to bring to mind any areas of anger that we have not dealt with. There was some discussion regarding the truth and honesty element - should we turn the other cheek to keep the peace - but if this conceals our true views on a situation then it could be false, and therefore sinful.

God bless