Wrafter Writes

I’m no expert in Egyptian affairs.

However, having watched 16 hours of live images from Cairo via Al Jazeera yesterday, I have come to understand some things.

One is the distinction between Egyptian protestors, undercover police, police, and army.

Today’s 150,000-circulation daily El Periódico de Catalunya led with a photo of an army vehicle rolling through the streets of Cairo with the caption “protestors confront Egyptian army on the streets of Cairo”.

Whilst it’s hard to identify undercover police because they look very much like protestors, there’s no difficulty differentiating the police from the army. Running battles did take place between protestors and police, but the people always viewed the army as potential allies.

The caption on El Periódico de Catalunya is patently incorrect. In the photo, the people are not confronting the army, they are cheering, they have arms raised in celebration, and at the moment the photo was taken, they are full of hope that the army will side with them, not against them.

This story is potentially as significant as the fall of the Berlin wall.

If the media gets this wrong, how much else do they get wrong?

Irish emigration in 2011 will be no worse than in the late 1980s, despite what appeared in today’s article in the Guardian, which was widely forwarded and retweeted across the net.

“Irish Emigration Worse Than 1980s,” the article by Lisa O’Carroll announces, noting emigration last peaked in Ireland in 1989, when 44,000 left the country. This time ’round – she quotes the ESRI – there will be 50,000.

Yes, indeed, 50,000 is a somewhat larger number than 44,000, but larger too is our population. In 1989 it stood at approximately 3,531,689 and when 44,000 left it gave us an exodus of 1.24%. This time we’re sporting a population of about 4,470,700, of which 50,000 only brings us to 1.11%.

How bad is 1.11% anyway? It’s but a smidgen. Imagine the local shop giving you 1.1% off a pair of trousers in a sale, you’d laugh at them.

Damn it, is it not our duty to explore the world and claim it as our own?

Good for the 50,000 souls who leave our shores this year, I say, may they take their destiny in their hands, visit wondrous places, meet open-minded and exotic people, gain new experience and learn new things, may they tan their faces in a land where the sun actually shines, or where the health care system actually works, or where there’s more to social life than watching X-Factor or sculling expensive pints. Good for them, I say, for there’s nothing better in this world that to travel and expand your mind.

In future, they may return, and with them they’ll bring riches in experience, stories to tell, and likely a jolt to our long-suffering gombeen gene pool, with foreign wives and husbands.

Those that don’t come back, they’ll remain as Irish in 50 years as they do today, and they will spawn a new generation of sons-of-Irish who will look fondly on their country, visit it, live in it, invest in it, talk positively about it. Damn it, is it not our duty to explore the world and claim it as our own?

Bring on the 50,000 a year exodus, I say, for there are opportunities in crises, and it’s only then you truly value what you have: your education, your health, your voice, your intelligence, and your long-suppressed desire for adventure!

My local cinema has changed the way it sells seats online. I am now unable to select my own seat when buying my ticket.

For me, that removes one of the two good reasons I always bought my cinema tickets online: buy before the screening sells out, and get a good seat while I’m doing it.

The charge is €0.90c per ticket for this service, which I figure is a fair price for the convenience it offers.

No longer. Arriving 10 minutes earlier than most other cinemagoers still gets me into the screening, and using the cinema’s own box-office still gives me some control over what seat I ultimately take.

By removing the small pleasure of being able to choose your own seat online, they’ve lost an additional stream of revenue (the convenience fee), and cost themselves more as they now need to provide extra staff to deal with the longer queues.

Further, there’s nothing better for a business than getting money up-front – especially fickle disposable income-type business, because if it rains in an hour’s time, I mightn’t end up going to the cinema after all, but they’ll still have the money I parted with earlier.

It’s a dumb move by the cinema company, and one they should have thought through better.