An inspiration to us all

This morning I attended the Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Salome Angelina Vijayakumar in our local Methodist Church.

Salome lost her battle with leukaemia on New Year’s Eve at the age of 20, leaving her parents, Elizabeth and Vijay and brother Deepak devastated and our congregation feeling bereft.

After all, this was a beautiful, bubbly, intelligent and personable young woman full of life who only a few months ago, was singing in front of us in the church choir and was heavily involved in most church activities (the photo slideshow played during this morning’s service bears testimony to that) and yet 7 months later here she was, taken away in such heartbreaking fashion.

I may not have shared many moments with Salome apart from being her fellow Methodist congregant, but amidst all the grief and sadness, the excerpts read by Rev John, from the diary she kept in her final weeks, as tear-jerking as it all was, was quite inspiring and left a remarkable imprint to all who were present.

In one of most touching excerpts read from a diary – which was exclusively directed at her parents and brother – Salome assured them that she knew what was coming and was at peace with her impending death.

Having thanked them profusely for being the best parents she could have ever wished for and, Deepak for being a wonderful and amazing brother, Salome’s only deep regrets were the heartbreak her illness had caused them, the grief they would suffer when she was gone and that in some regards she felt that she had not been a worthy daughter (sorry to disagree with you on that one Salome, but I’m certain all who knew you would also disagree).

She was that kind of person.

In fact, such was Salome’s dignity and calmness in her last days, that according to one of our parish pastors who visited her in her last days, the psychiatrist who had been brought in to prepare her for what was coming, was somewhat unprepared for her fortitude and resoluteness even as life was ebbing away from her body.

She is an inspiration to those she has left behind.

Rest in eternal peace, Salome and may your family find great comfort in the life you lived.

A politically correct holiday season greeting!

Got this from an Aussie friend....

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the summer solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all ...

And a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2011, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Australia great, (not to imply that Australia is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "AUSTRALIA" in the southern hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.

- DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTABILITY -

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for him/her or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. 

This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher :).

Banging about in Bangkok

I am in Bangkok for a few days and I must say, the place's certainly grown on me and has definitely caught the imagination. Even though it is my first time in this part of the world, I have felt  much closer to 'home' (Africa) than at any time spent that I have spent living and travelling extensively in Europe. Perhaps, it is the lovely and welcoming Thai people that I have met or maybe the blast of heat in my face when I step out the doors of the hotel (quite a pleasant contrast from the freezing cold I left behind in Dublin) or the food. Perhaps it's the teeming hustle and bustle of life in this vast city that brings life to even the most staid and boring individual, but dodging tuk tuks, scooters and bright pink cabs certainly has its exhilarations. It is certainly more than enough to make one to momentarily forget the dreary weather, depressing politics and economic malaise back in Dublin.

Breaking News: Ethiopia to hold charity concerts for Ireland

Vladimir Putin recently hosted a summit where a gradually dwindling number of countries where tigers are still to be found discussed a plan to save the endangered species from extinction.

Well, Mr Putin is several weeks, or some would say, a couple of years too late to save at least one erstwhile prominent Tiger – that of the Celtic variety.

I am no economist (Ireland’s new ‘celebrities’) and I wont even attempt to chronicle how Ireland’s previously much touted ‘Celtic Tiger’ boom years (aka property bubble) have dissipated to the extent that the country is at the mercy of the dreaded IMF and EU technocrats. I would leave that to this almost concise summary of how Ireland came to be where it finds itself now.

This spectacular fall of a country that only up until two years ago was held up as poster boy of free market neo-liberalism is manifesting itself in many ways – record unemployment levels, increase in mortgage defaults and home repossessions, drastic cuts in public and social spending, the dreaded return of mass emigration and as yet an unleashed fury at the political and the banking elites.

However, as someone who grow up in a developing country and worked as a journalist and saw first hand real poverty, despair and hopelessness, some sense of perspective is certainly needed right now.

There comes a time when all the hand wringing in the world will only result in painfully dislocated wrists and nothing else.

Indeed, it is absolutely disheartening and heartbreaking to see families lose their homes, see bright young graduates and the economically active being forced to emigrate or poverty levels rising.

However, this could be the chance for Ireland to reform its shambolic political system, clean up its financial regulation systems and perhaps even recover some of that community camaraderie that pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland was better known for and emerge with a more equal society.

I would like to think that we are not yet at that stage where Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu Astatke will feel obliged, after seeing harrowing images from Ireland, to arrange a series of charity concerts in Addis Ababa.

Although judging by the headlines, you would be forgiven for thinking that Mulatu is, as I write, currently rounding up Africa’s A-list musicians to produce a charity single, Éire Aid just in time for Christmas. 

The 'Third World' does not need you, Minister

So when I read this morning that the current Minister for Justice and Law Reform, who presides over amongst other things, the immigration system, announced that he is quitting politics and that he would be ‘extremely interested in doing some work in or associated with the third world in the future’ I just laughed out loud!

Yes LOL!

I mean this is the same Minister whose officials have previously deported a mother back to Nigeria without her baby (child remained in Ireland and was placed in care – thankfully that child only just recently reunited with his mother).

The same minister who is currently trying to rush through an immigration bill that would allow for summary deportations, would stop foreigners marrying EU citizens because they might ‘use marriage to circumvent the immigration system’ and is refusing to acknowledge in that same bill that vulnerable children who are come to Ireland seeking protection should be given extra protection as accorded to them by international conventions. Really, the list goes on.

Basically, here is a minister whose Department’s unwritten rule is basically ‘Keep as Many of Them Out As Possible’. And I don’t need to tell you who ‘Them’ are! Yet it is the same ‘Them’ that he is extremely interested in working with in the future.

Yes, you could argue that this is par for the course for any immigration minister especially in Fortress Europe, but this particular one has shown a particularly mean streak which in turn has been reciprocated by his subordinates who carry out his edicts.

After one particularly robust exchange at a parliamentary committee stage hearing of the aforementioned bill, which I attended, one opposition (TD) member of parliament whose very reasonable proposed amendments had been routinely ignored, remarked that the minister could start an argument (I would even suggest a brawl) in a convent full of nuns.

So you can understand why I laughed out loud at the brilliant irony of it all!

I suppose the more charitable amongst us could give him the benefit of doubt and proclaim he is embarking on his Damascus conversion, à la Saul, but this to me is akin to sending King Herod to run a Montessori creche!