Have you ever read a newspaper article and felt a bit stupid because you couldn’t understand it? A number of people pointed me in the direction of this article yesterday and it took me a good three attempts to get the gist of what Tony Humphreys has to say about autism, or “autism” as I’m sure he likes to call it. After my third attempt, I decided I couldn’t understand the article not because I’m thick, but because it’s the biggest pile of steaming excrement I’ve ever read on the subject.

The gist, as I understood it, is that there’s this clinical psychologist with a book to sell who has decided to call into question the very existence of autism and that for those who are diagnosed with autism, the mammies are to blame for a) not resolving their own ‘emotional turmoil’, b) rearing boys differently to girls and c) living “predominantly in their heads and possess few or no heart qualities”.

So, Tony, my mother clearly showered me with love and affection, nurturing me more than my twin brother and , obviously reared him differently because he’s a boy, therefore he’s autistic and I’m not. Easy.

Ma, your unresolved emotional turmoil is responsible for my twin’s autism. Scarlet for ya. The only emotional turmoil my mother suffers is muttonheads implying that it’s all her fault because she didn’t hug him enough as a child. The fact is, my twin is more loving and openly affectionate than anyone else in my family – he’d make a show of you in Tesco shaking hands with the men and hugging the women on the tills! Is that because he doesn’t get enough love at home? Come on now, Tony, get real.

Ma, you know the way you reared me and my twin totally differently, just for the craic like? Well guess what, it made me twin autistic. You were obviously bored, having reared your first three children in the usual way and decided to have a little experiment when your twins came along. I don’t blame you Ma, it was the days of only two channels and sure you had to make your own fun.

Missus, your child is autistic because you lack heart qualities. What does ‘heart qualities’ even mean? Compassion, patience, love? I don’t know about you Tony, but I’d say watching the same episode of Postman Pat 20 times a day because it makes your autistic child happy demonstrates quite a lot of ‘heart quality’. But then, I’m not a clinical psychologist.

Parents and teachers force children to go through the process of being assessed and diagnosed with autism because it’s easier than facing their own inner turmoil. Seriously? This nonsense got past an editor at the Irish Examiner? Have you ever tried having a child assessed when you don’t have the means to pay for private psychologists? Camping outside the headquarters of the then Eastern Health Board to shame the state into providing decent services for your child? Sure that’s a great distraction altogether from all that inner turmoil. I’d highly recommend it.

Shame on you, for taking a cheap shot at the dedicated, hard-working, loving and often exhausted parents of children with autism. Shame on you for upsetting mothers for the sake of some publicity for your book. Shame on the Irish Examiner for publishing this contemptible, self-serving diatribe.

Nearly broke business man writes a book. Shots of him in his businesses. Plug Plug Plug.

But PR honchos hope so and voila bored news editors think it is.

(Original and really interesting article on the new found love of the arts from the Political classes and business tycoons here. )

]]> http://www.mamanpoulet.com/dermot-desmonds-cultural-odyssey/feed/ 2 http://www.mamanpoulet.com/jobbridge-the-real-questions/ http://www.mamanpoulet.com/jobbridge-the-real-questions/#comments Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:26:32 +0000 Maman Poulet http://www.mamanpoulet.com/?p=6696 RTE broadcast two features on news programmes yesterday on Job Bridge.  The first was an interview on Morning Ireland and the other was a  report later in the day on RTE TV saying that the Government was now going to review eligibility criteria for the scheme.

The interview with the employer on Morning Ireland set the news agenda – he wanted to recruit someone for a position in a start up – but as the person he wanted to recruit was on a FAS course they could not take up an internship position.  The interview  was very interesting as it was all about why the company needed the intern and not what they could do for the intern.  Breaking the UK market was even mentioned as being a crucial reason about why they wanted to take someone on.  No question was asked about if this person was so perfect for the role why the employer didn’t hire him as an employee?

It is clear from the reviews of adverts and  descriptions that I and others have been doing for the past few months that many companies seeking interns are far more interested in what an intern can do for them as a form of labour substitution and not about what they will be doing for the interns job prospects and training.  Remember this company that is so anxious to recruit does not have to pay one cent to the intern for 9 months.  No money is available or expenditure required for training or upskilling of the interns or job search preparation service available.

Last night it was reported that the Government is going to review the conditions to make it easier for people to take up positions.  The report did not mention reviewing the many adverts which clearly don’t meet the criteria or have been withdrawn or rewritten after being pointed out as farcical.

In order to balance the situation employers should be paying some of the interns costs,  mentoring and supervision should be monitored by a independent human trained in employment support and not by a self reporting form from the company and intern.   The unions should remember where their brains are and closely examine where internships are being used as employment substitution. The National Internship Scheme should provide a whistleblowing service giving support and protection to interns who disclose abuses of the system.

Internships that involve unskilled roles in hotel and catering, retail sales, cleaning, packing boxes, warehouse duties, the care of vulnerable people etc. should be excluded from this programme.  Companies that don’t specialise in an area should not be recruiting staff to work oh for example on their website if they can’t teach someone about the business of web design because they are a furniture removal company.

I completely understand that people are desperate for employment and for experience and that well run internships are very good ways of gaining experience and skills and making contacts.  But the companies that are recruiting and their reasons for participating need to be about employment support for the interns and not about supporting startups, multinationals and sole traders to make money.

I now would be very reluctant to use the services of a company that uses people on JobBridge to provide services and make profits for their company.  I’m not comfortable supporting companies that do 9 month job interviews.  A company that supports people to develop skills should be paying something towards the person’s wages even in a trainee role.

From the debates I am observing online many others are thinking the same.   I am particularly interested in observations of those who work in industry and are experts at their crafts and don’t usually do politics but know a lot about business. This post on the work of an instructional designer (sounds a fascinating career area by the way) and the potential for exploitation points to other areas of concern in how this scheme is designed to make profits from those not being paid for their labour.

Maybe politicians and journalists can now begin ask the real questions about Job Bridge and the purpose of internships and not some puff piece for a company who wants free staff to break the UK market.

What you may not have known is that the brand’s PR company are sending crates of the stuff to media organisations all over town so that the more people talk about it the more the presenters, researchers etc. are rewarded with free product.

Bias and ethics eh? Has anyone sent it back?

Me, I’m drinking Finches from now on if I bother and no I don’t want any of it for nowt thanks very much.

(More please Adam and Sean!)

I’m hearing that a paywall of sorts  is going to go up at the Irish Times again. (They took the last wall down in 2008).  Pressure to monetise the online content is coming from losses in 2009 of €27.9m. Shortly after the publication of these results Irish Times Online Editor Hugh Linehan’s requested suggestions for online content from readers, it seems that many in Tara Street are desperate to make some money. The €50m that they paid for Myhome.ie must hurt the board each time they think about it, though the company claims that the property site will be in the black by the end of the year.

Linehan has openly admitted that the online product needed to improve but how are they going to make people pay for access to the paper and the website, blogs and breaking news content? Especially when we have sites rolling out news (and possibly original conent?) like The Journal.ie and several others in gestation. Competition from RTE’s online product is frequently referred to by independent broadcasters and print sources as being unfairly advantaged, however the broadcaster has indicated that the online content is not funded by the licence fee.

The Irish Times have recently launched an epaper product and claims that there are 1,500 daily sales with 30,000 ipad application downloads.  The launch of the e-paper earlier this year meant it was more difficult to use the website to access the online content however e-paper subscribers could pay to read the paper online in an easier format.

So would you pay to access the print content of the Irish Times? Maybe if they included some original online content, liveblogs, blogs etc.?

Hosted by the Galway Green Party the panel will debate the relationship between old and new media and politics and given garglegate last week and #simoncoveneysfault promises to be very lively. (It was planned before the hangover/hoarseness)

Naoise Nunn the founder of Leviathan, Robert Cassidy a political consultant, Senator Ronan Mullen and myself will create the hot air to be channeled by the chairperson Senator Niall O Brolchain. I look forward to taking part and maybe some Galway bloggers might attend?

What else can we garner from last nights Freefall other than the programme makers love shots of traffic and big buildings and dramatic music?

If Brian Lenihan’s trip to the races in Gowran Park on September 27th 2008 was news to you well Shane Ross documented it in his book The Bankers.

Lenihan was working the 30 tables of Fianna Fáil supporters, each of whom had paid €200 for the privilege, when he received an urgent telephone call. It was not a tip for the 4.30 race. It was the personal assistant to Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank. The minister was advised to expect an urgent message from the governor of the Irish Central Bank, John Hurley, later that afternoon.

The minister headed for the Gowran Park manager’s office and rang Hurley. Trichet had been in touch, warning of banks in trouble all over Europe.

The next morning, Sunday, 28 September, Lenihan slipped quietly into the Central Bank’s Dublin Dame Street headquarters to meet Hurley in his top-floor office. Hurley relayed a grim message from Trichet. European banks were in crisis.

The other thing we learnt from the programme is that there are no women in Irish life, journalistic, political or financial who can be interviewed in a ‘talking heads’ programme on the banking crisis.

The three female interviewees were based abroad- the French finance minister Christine Lagarde and Gillian Tett from the US office of the Financial Times and Pamela Woodall from the Economist. The other female voices present was footage of Eileen Dunne/Anne Doyle telling us about the chaos as it unfolded and female callers to Liveline. I didn’t keep count of all the male voices, but there were at least 15 of them.

Now if you have not read it already go read June Caldwell’s excellent post on the women who forgot to ruin Ireland.

Next week’s episode (yes there is more of it!) features Bertie saying he was told not to worry about the issues which led to the crash of the banks. Can’t wait! (pfft)

(apologies for that rather awkward screen shot of Mme Lagarde – I was not watching Freefall again online to do another prt scr)