Ah it's grand.
Sure.

It’s interesting to see the amount of buzz food is generating within Ireland again, in particular people taking an interest in cooking again. I’ve always found cooking to be something very relaxing and as it turns out it’s a great way to get a sense of being home again after travel (I’m over and back to Lebanon quite a bit at the moment). What’s inspiring is how many people are taking it on as a casual interest and sharing the experience. You just have to look at the number of blog and twitter posts to see this. Not to mention how much attention the likes of lookandtaste.com is getting. Are we going to see a return to dinner parties as people move away from hitting the pubs? They’re certainly a great option for the dark economic times we face, a way to socialise and be creative rolled into one without the unfulfilling expense of hitting the town. We’re also very fortunate with a lot of very accessible and high quality ingredients. In the way that Open Coffee Clubs have taken off here I wonder if Open Dinner Parties might become another event?

Had a good laugh this morning (via Redmum):

http://redmum.blogspot.com/2009/03/tax-dodging-365.html

I guess a food post every now and again doesn’t hurt. Lebanese food is extremely tasty and an excellent social occasion, one of the most well know and celebrated dishes is the shwarma.

The popular choice for the best in Beirut and possibly Lebanon as a whole is the expansive Barbar on Rue Spears in Hamra. Definitely an experience not to be missed their food is really fresh, high quality (the chicken in the shwarma is a joy, succulent and leaner than many other shwarma places). Easy to get to by taxi and essential eating if you’re interested in sampling Lebanese cuisine. They do an excellent falafel as well!

In what was a decision probably not recommended by our travel safety advisors/risk consultants, us hard working souls ventured into downtown Beirut. Specifically, for a look at the February 14th commemeration of the assasination of Rafik Hariri which ultimately led to the so-called Cedar Revolution.

It was mainly curiosity on our part to see what this rally entailed but one couldn’t help draw parallels to politics back home. What was most striking about this rally was the jubilation and sense of unity among all the people that we saw out on the streets. Above all hope stood out, as tangible as an emotion can be. It was given weight by the number of people there in a complete state of empathy. Politicians gave speeches (which we decided largely to skip) that had the crowds cheering; even those who followed currently allied parties but would normally not make easy bedfellows. You had to wonder why we are stuck with such a feeling of hopelessness in Ireland these days. None of our politicans inspire confidence or trust but worst of all they inspire no hope in any generation. When our politicians discuss their positions while various suggestions of resignation come along because of their incomptency or dishonesty, there is never a mention of how they kill the hopes of so many in Ireland. We’re a long way past our own expulsion of unwelcome guests and civil; why did our sense of hope die? Hope shouldn’t be an unrealistic desire for a people, should it? Should we consider Irish hope to be our modern day ‘Romantic Ireland‘ stolen away by those who had their greasy fingers in the till all these years?

Tis surely hard to find anything nice to say about our government at the moment. Just as disheartening is the state of the opposition which offers no hope through change. As much as the economic system is broken, we surely cannot ignore the state of the Irish political system. The number of financial irregularities emerging on a day to day basis shows a government completely out of touch with how business is being conducted in this country nevermind internationally. Minister Lenihan and his ilk have been desperately exposed as neither domain experts within their ministries nor effective managers of those who are specifically hired in the civil service to deliver this function. Never more have we been so exposed by a lack of preparation and competency. Will enough people consider this come the next election?

This isn’t even a well composed picture but I do love being able to combine Roman Ruins, a Mosque and a Church all in one pic:

This time last year I was busy complaining about the state of recruitment agencies here in Ireland. Of about 8 or 9 different agencies only one came through for me with professionalism and they also managed to place me with my current company. It turned out to be a good match so obviously I’m pleased with. So when I got a mail recently asking if I knew of anyone with a similar background to me I thought I might as well give it a push. The agency is Eolas and the lady who worked with me was Nollaig. Her colleague Lorraine is looking to fill

This was just running through my head this morning so I thought I’d let my opioniated side out for a bit. Didn’t spend a lot of time thinking this through so I’m open to criticism and alternatives. Probably also be done before, so humour me.

5. Twitter. Sort out IM. IM is powerful and not difficult, what’s going on @twitter?

6. Dopplr allows flight schedule driven trip planning. I like Dopplr but I’d love to be able to enter flight numbers and dates, a trip generated and the ability to drop in alternative travel plans to see how everything lines up.

   
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We’re all watching the carry on over the FÁS expenses and obviously everyone is outraged. No doubt lots of people will be going on about the government and civil servants ripping us off. What will probably be missed is that corruption like this is inevitable when we as a culture celebrate ‘pulling a stroke’. A pleasant and humourous euphemism for corruption. The lads at FÁS were tearing the arse out of it because they were ripping off the abstract figure of the government. No harm, no one is getting hurt? Apart from every Irish citizen. How do you eradicate this? Well you can legislate and investigate but it remains inevitable given the endemic support for this type of corruption.

Given the scale it all seems pretty distant from us so I thought I’d mention a recent experience.

Baalbeck

Apparently there are people who are reluctant to come visit Beirut. I probably wouldn’t have come here had it not been to work on a project but coming here was something I was certainly looking forward to. In Ireland we laughed at people in the USA who were afraid to come to Ireland because of the terrorism, largely associate with Northern Ireland. Yet today we’re exactly the same in our views towards travel to places like Beirut. So here it is, my attempt to convince people that they’re missing out by not coming here.

We all know security can be a worry and Beirut has had plenty of turmoil with explosions to go with that. Yes, it can go to the brink of chaos and descend into the horror of conflict that only deep historical loathings and hatred can give being to.