My personal ten favourite blog posts

Well the six Nations kicks off today and I must admit that I'm looking forward to that. It seems pretty open so my prediction before it begins is that Ireland will win. Any takers?

Today's games, I guess dear old England will get the measure of Italy but I'm not sure about that. Ireland if they blow hot will defeat France and Wales should have the measure of Scotland.

Will know more about this after the week-end.

Let the games begin..

I remain slightly bemused by all of this. For the life of me I still can not understand how all of this occurred. It is against every principle that I was ever taught, yet the biggest perpetrators get away Scot free and to top it off they then get bailed out for their mistakes. Well I've got news for you, nobody ever bailed out the mistakes I made and so none of this sits very well.

Can anybody not think of anything new? Where are any ideas besides propping up something which has failed, largely due to imprudence and greed? I really think that if the financial crisis is to be solved it will not be along these lines.

Watching Sky news last night and all the hype about Michelle Obama. I once again thought to myself, whatever is the world coming to? Here we have a mother and the wife of a President and already people are trying to turn her into a fashion model. Without a shadow of a doubt she is a beautiful lady but I am against this and can not see where people are coming from.

It reminded me of Princess Diana and we all know what the outcome of that was. Why can't they just leave the First Lady alone and let her get on with being a mother and the wife of the President. In my opinion that is a big enough job already. Moreover so far she has shown excellent choice in her mode of dress and conduct.

I think we should leave well enough alone and it worries me. I'm wondering if there is anyone else out there who has the same views?

It's grey, dull and miserable outside today and typical Irish weather. Oh how I sometimes yearn to be back home in Zimbabwe and have some sunshine. Notwithstanding that their summer will be ending sometime soon. Still their winters are like a summer here in Ireland although that is a slight exaggeration.

Although this blog is still very new I will be expanding and improving it as well as I know how. Believe it or not I have actually led an interesting life and have lifelong experiences and would like to make this a place where I can post about common sense things and have like minded viewers add comments and reflect their feelings.

Sport, depending on the season, politics and many other things. You may not necessarily have to be from Africa, everyone is welcome. However it can be a bit depressing when you have no followers but time will tell. Having said that please be the first to follow. It is there on the right under the welcome.

Look forward to making many new friends.

Rarely have I been as saddened as after the terrible debacle of the Sri Lankan cricket team being fired upon by assailants unknown but obviously from some political sect. It goes beyond everything I hold dear. That innocent sportsmen representing their country should have to endure this, set upon by a bunch of cowardly thugs who now think that they are special because they hold an automatic weapon in their hands. Whatever will we come to next?

Cricket holds a special place in my heart. It always has and it always will. It is more than a game, it epitomises the best in all of us, or it used to? The important things are honesty, courage and good sportsmanship or more commonly because it is known as the Gentleman's game. I have many experiences of this in my personal life. You see I believe that sport bridges wide divides. I know this having lived most of my life in what is a sad, blighted country. However the best experiences I had nearly always came about from the fields of play.

I am reminded of a particularly poignant time in our countries history. It was a time when we were pariahs in the world because of the dreaded "R" word. Our sportsmen were banned from International play however rightly or wrongly is not for me to say, that's just the way it was. It is because of times like this that I have such strong views on how important a part sport plays in the grand scheme of things, or what I like to call, bridging wide divides. The other thing is that you have to look at things within the context of the times. Can any one remember the "Harlem Globetrotters?" Who can honestly say that if you happened to see them you were not mesmerised. More importantly, that is exactly what they were doing; bridging wide divides.

In 1970 we had a double wicket competition, which is the forerunner to today's one day and twenty twenty format of cricket. Players from all over the world were invited with dire consequences being threatened by various governments to any player who had the audacity to accept. Some great players accepted including the Chappell brothers Ian and Greg from Australia amongst many other famous players. However into this arena strode a true colossus. He went by the name of Gary Sobers.

This caused an International outcry. However they need not have worried because without a shadow of a doubt he mesmerised a country. He never said a word about the rights and wrongs of things, he just played cricket and he played it so superbly well. No breast beating here and at the end of his short stay in our country if there had been an election he would have won it hands down. I repeat, he bridged wide divides and he left an everlasting impression on one small boy. I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to see you play.

On going back home he was in tremendous trouble, but sudden storms are short and it is hard to be too cross with one of your countries greatest ambassadors. I see this great man ( now Sir Garfield Sobers )is still at it. I see his country Barbados is sponsoring Sky News Sports and I love the caption of him teeing of on a golf course and I think, how can he keep his arm so straight at his age?

I digressed a bit, but I was trying to get a point across and this is the reason why I am so saddened, disgusted and upset by the Sri Lankan incident. My hopes and prayers are with you all.

The world is not going forward here, it is going backwards.

Firstly my heartfelt sympathy goes out to Morgan Tsvangarai and his family at the terrible tragedy of losing his wife Susan in a car accident yesterday. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

This exceptionally brave man has now got to put up with one more tragedy. How one man can bear all this, is beyond my capacity to understand?

This poor, sad, blighted country has I believe gone through more than a largely indifferent world realises and it has got to stop, once and for all-full stop.

For me, something does not ring true with this accident and their is a history of mysterious happenings all to do with an almost unsurpassed quest for power by one man.

No doubt the world will once again turn a blind eye? Whatever more suffering does Zimbabwe have to take?

My mother was born in Ireland and she left to go nursing in England during the second World War. Whilst doing this she met my Dad who was serving in the Royal Navy and even then the talk was that the Navy was going to the dogs. Somethings never change.

They got married soon after the peace amongst much muttering from the Irish relatives, but love has it's own way. Very shortly after this they moved to Rhodesia where my Dad's brother had a tobacco farm and they lived the rest of their lives there. Eventually my Dad bought the farm after his brother passed away.

They had many trials and tribulations, what with international sanctions and a terrorist war and many other things, rift valley fever, drought, hail and all the complexities that life throws at you. However my mother never lost her Irishness and the greatest crime any of her children or her husband could commit was to forget, or not wish her, a Happy Saint Patrick's day.

My Dad lost the family farm in Mugabe's infamous land grab which is well documented and a Historical fact. More importantly, having served in a corvette in the second World War, mainly in the Atlantic and doing the dreaded Icelandic, Russian run, you could hardly call him a weak man. However losing his farm, broke his heart and shortly thereafter he died.

They had a little flat in a lovely little complex in Harare. On Tuesday March the 16Th. my Mum suffered a stroke there, at what time no one is sure. Eventually that night the security guards noticed that all the doors were open and alerted the groundsman who found her and alerted my brother. He arrived at 12.30 in the night with his wife and they did as much as they could. The ambulance arrived at 6.30 in the morning and my brother instructed the driver to take her to Saint Anne's, which is a Catholic hospital and where she would be happy. The ambulance driver took her to another hospital.

Trying to get hold of us here in Ireland became a major task as the country ( Zimbabwe ) is so well run that you can toss a coin as to when anything may be working, the electricity, the traffic lights, the telephones, the water supplies, no fuel are just a few amongst all else. Somehow my sister, trying to wish my Mum a Happy Saint Patrick's day, got through and a neighbour answered and filled her in whereupon she text messaged me.

Eventually I managed to get hold of my brother through e-mail and got all the sorry details. More importantly, after a lifetime of pinching and scraping to make sure she kept up to date with all her Medical Aid contributions ( for just such an eventuality ) I am informed by my brother that the Medical Aid company no longer exists and he is left to foot the bill.

This is not a post about feeling sorry for myself or wearing my heart on my sleeve, it has nothing to do with any of that. It is a post about sitting here being so helpless, angry and more importantly that this breakdown in humanity and common decency was all avoidable. A great American once said;

" With reasonable men, I will reason,
With humane men, I will be humane,
But to tyrant's, I will give no quarter."

Whatever happened to men like that?

Not only am I so angry at my Mum's circumstances, but the breakdown of what was once known as ' The Jewel of Africa.' So hang in there Mum and hopefully you can see Ireland win the six Nations rugby tomorrow and with a grand slam which will be the first in sixty one years. It will happen.

So today is the last day of the tournament and everything should go according to pat. What that means is, England will win and so will France which leaves Italy with the wooden spoon. I am often saddened by this as personally I believe they play a lovely brand of rugby and they have such a fine spirit. Unfortunately they have no depth in players so injuries and bounce of the ball often play a significant part in their demise. It happens to all Nations and I believe Italy will keep on getting better, watch out for next years surprises.

Which leaves us with the grand finale of Ireland and Wales. Most people already know that for Ireland to lose the tournament, Wales have to win by more than thirteen points. It should be great and Wales will have home ground advantage and it often surprises me how telling a factor this is.

The big question is can Ireland achieve a grand slam for the first time in over sixty years? Will this be a factor on putting too much pressure on the players? I have to reiterate that I predicted Ireland would win the Six Nations pre- tournament and so I am going to stand by that. However will it be a clean sweep? My answer, Yes; because for personal reasons I wish it so.

So to all rugby fans, let's look forward to a great afternoons play and I hope the Irish contingent are not as nervous as I am.

It came out, it's done and dusted and it has achieved absolutely zero apart from finally convincing a battered public that we really are leaderless. This was the hardest budget of all time and considering it is only six months since the last one which was a farce as well, perhaps there will be another mini mini budget in two months time. Look lads we got to balance the books and all. Don't blame us, we had nothing to do with it. It's families and the middle class this time. Last time it was the old age pensioners and when they came out fighting, we had to box very clever and all. Look we are all in this together and we are (politicians) taking a ten percent pay cut and putting our pensions on hold. What more can you ask of us? Well let's just say that you average 100K a year so now you are down to 90K and that's tough living lads. Then there's the expenses and all, but times are tough, so let's just say 60K so all told that's 150K. Yurgh the times are tough, I may have to cut down on my make up. No that's not the ladies, that's the men. Look we never had an entertainment tent at the Galway races and all this year, we never flew in on our helicopters. Instead we came by car ( Mercedes Benz.)

So we upped tax between 2 and 6 percent, we doubled health levy rates, we increased the cost of cigarette's by 25p per pack and increased Diesel by 5p a litre. That will teach all you people buying SUV's and all while we are trying to save the environment. As to the fags, sure and all there isn't a government on Earth that doesn't use that as a sure fire winner. We reduced spending on school building and third level capital programmes by 54 million. No Xmas bonuses for people on welfare this year and we have introduced ( sustained applause ) a new retirement scheme for public servants over 50 years ( ageism ) old with no replacements for those who leave.

" We have been damaged by our rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. We must show our EU partners that we, who have gained so much from the European Union, want to remain at it's centre."
What that means is we don't say Yea to Lisbon II the government won't be able to borrow more again even though we already have overstepped our limits there.

Take a look at that photo at the top. That was once a great building build with workers hands, those self same folks who now have no jobs, no pensions, while daily having to listen to people who were so incompetent that they ran a booming economy into the ground and still have not got the guts to tell us where it all went. It certainly didn't go into school building programmes or the Health Service. Ask the people lying on cots in the hospitals. Ask the nurses who are run off their feet doing their best to serve these people while you are imposing levies on them. Enough.

Gentlemen, your time is up.

Well I see dear old England has just come out with a budget that has everyone up in arms as well. Perhaps it gives us all food for thought?

When I was young and first began to understand politics, it sure was a different scenario to today's game. By and large one had people who were successful in their own rights, be they agriculturalists, industrialists, authors, lawyers, architects ( you get the drift? ) and were persuaded by their friends or communities to serve the Nation as they were the best on offer.

Nearly all of these people carried on running their own businesses or they had hired people they trusted to keep an eye on things whilst they dealt with affairs of state. Consequently things and countries worked and they worked well as they had people in charge who were already successful and applied the life experiences they had obtained into running the country. The salaries they were paid for doing this was a pittance, but all agreed that they had to be paid a salary for running the country.

Into this scenario, now came a new sad breed of people, and I like to call them the serial politicians. They are taught from an early age how to be successful politicians, irrespective of any other attributes. What this mainly consisted of was; the insipid handshake, the cheesy grin, the nod and the wink. To be able to talk their way out of any question asked of them, without having to answer. Taking their cue from dictators who whilst busy running their countries into ruin and at the same time accruing vast fortunes for themselves by doing nothing but talk. How could this be?

Well they learnt fast and they followed suite. You don't believe me? Well look around you and see how much these people pay themselves just for a start. Lads, lads, lads it's a gas man and a sure fire way to a fortune. Although every now and again even amongst this lot there were some fine men and you all know who they are. Count your fingers.

Perhaps it is time for all of us who still consider themselves to have a democracy, to go back to basics and start choosing real men as they did in the past, before it is to late for all of us. I repeat, you don't believe me, look around you?