Help Haiti… Artists For Haiti Cork Arts Theatre 4 & 5 March at 8pm

Cork Arts Theatre is proud to present an evening of music and drama on March 4th and 5th at 8pm nightly in aid of Haiti. All proceeds from the ticket price are going to the Cork charity Haven. Haiti was devastated by a major earthquake in January 2010 which has cost the lives of over 200,000 people. The charity Haven, already involved in building homes for the poverty stricken country, has appealed for much needed funds and volunteers to rebuild the ravaged country.

Leslie & Carmel Buckley founded the Cork based charity Haven in late 2008. Leslie is a successful businessman and co-founder of the Digicel mobile phone company. His business interests brought him to Haiti for the first time in 2004 and he was really horrified by the level of poverty on this island in the Caribbean. He decided to do something to help and set up Haven with an initial donation of one million euro.

Artists for Haiti runs on the 4th and 5th March at The Cork Arts Theatre and includes Cork drama and musical stalwarts such as The Star Gazers, Snatch Comedy, ITSA Theatre Company (The Irish Canon Abridged), Kate McSweeney O Rourke, Marie O Donovan, CADA Performing Arts, Vanessa Hyde, Fionula Lenihan, Alma Kickham, Elena Hostetler, Cuan Walsh, Eavan O’Leary, Frank Twomey and Pakie O’Callaghan ( On The Beach ) and Irene Kelleher. Tickets at The Cork Arts Theatre for Help Haiti are priced €20, (€12 for students and unwaged) and the total price of the ticket will be donated to the charity Haven. Show is 8pm nightly call 021 450 5624 or log onto www.corkartstheatre.com for more details.

There was a great meeting in the Opera House on Saturday about saving the Kino Cinema in Cork (see the end of this post for more info if you hadn’t heard about the Kino closing), the most important item I took away was the fact that the public reaction had given Mick Hannigan a renewed energy to try to ensure the Kino remains open.

It must have been an extremely difficult time for Mick in the run up to the public announcement that the Kino was to close, and the fact that he is now fighting for it’s existence again is fantastic news for the city.

In a very open statement of the situation, it was made clear that saving the Kino will be no small feat, however the pledges of support from the community, the city, and government ministers have given hope to the situation.

It is vital that we ensure this renewed energy for the salvation of the Kino is allowed to be channeled in the right direction, and as such I think it would be a good idea if the priority of the current steering committee that was formed out of Saturday’s meeting would be to identify the core skill sets that Mick needs in order to a) organise fundraising to tackle immediate debts and b) put together a business plan that can save the Kino long term.

By identifying these skill sets, and mapping them to the committee, a push could be made in the media to lobby some pro bono time from accountants, architects, people with experience putting together successful business plans & successful funding applications, and whatever other necessary skill sets are needed in order to fill any gaps in the committee and to really power forward with the initiative.

I hope also that Minister Micheál Martin, Fine Gael TD Deirdre Clune, Labour TDs Kathleen Lynch and Ciarán Lynch, and Senator Dan Boyle (all of whom attended the meeting) will all be kept involved and that the questions are put to them as to what precisely they may be able to do to help the Kino, and what they feel the best course of action is.

While we all have our own ideas of how the new Kino might be and how it might be set up etc, it really has to be Mick’s vision that gets renewed here because it is Mick who can, and will, keep the Kino open for us. As such we need to ensure that the right kind of support is available to him and do our utmost to buoy him up at this vital point in the lifetime of the Kino.

If you’re on FaceBook you can join the Group “Save the Kino”
Irish Times on the Kino Closing
Irish Examiner on the closing of the Kino
Irish Times on the Save the Kino initiative

For anyone in Ireland who is still trying to decide about Lisbon, I recommend watching the Prime Time debates via the RTE website.

Update: Podcast of Declan Ganley debating Eddie O’Connor (Chief Executive Mainstream Renewables) available from NewsTalk site. (thanks Alan for the link )

Why I’m voting No:

• I am concerned that the Lisbon Treaty may embrace a more right wing approach to business and capitalism than I would like for Europe
• I am uncomfortable with the move to a unified military force in Europe and what that means for our future
• (updated) I am concerned that the Treaty might allow for decisions in the EU, and for further changes to the EU to be brought about, with less democratic input than occurs now
• I almost fell prey to economic scaremongering, but crises happen and recoveries happen and Lisbon has a much further reach than our immediate recovery. Will a No vote have the economic repercussions being implied by our government? The Wall Street Journal does not think so (update – an article in the Financial Times seems to also think a No vote is not dangerous for Ireland.
• The French and the Dutch voted No to the European Constitution, but “most European leaders acknowledge that the (Lisbon) treaty preserves the main substance of the constitution”. (BBC News) – is the Lisbon Treaty essentially the constitution brought back in such a way that no country other than Ireland would have to vote?
• Ireland voted No to the Lisbon treaty already – so is this the third time a vote is being sought on what is basically the same thing, already rejected twice?
• We are now being asked to vote again on the Lisbon treaty – and it has not been changed, we have received “assurances”
• With so many experts arguing over what the Treaty means for Europe and Ireland, doesn’t that highlight the need for a better, more explicit document?
• I feel strongly that a new document needs to be developed and all of Europe needs to vote on something of this importance

Also worth reading:

The Irish Times reports (october 2008) on a European Union meeting on getting a second Lisbon Referendum in Ireland: “The meeting and dinner heard how Ireland’s ‘intellectual mediocrity and lack of political courage’ led to the rejection of the Lisbon treaty and included discussions of how to ‘cuddle and pamper’ the Irish voter ahead of a new vote while at the same time ‘making pressures on them’.” (thanks Kate for that Link)

Update: An article from Lawyers Against Lisbon highlighting democratic issues and how voting No to Lisbon is not voting No to everything.

Update: Vincent Browne on reasons to vote no.

Nice video highlighting why it’s so hard to decide whether to vote Yes or No – nobody agrees on what the Treaty means:

Question
Does anyone know, has there been any research into what the people in other EU countries hope the result of the Irish Lisbon Referendum will be – and if not, why not??

So apparently there is some kind of problem with the global economy, the capitalist beast is staggering around bleeding all over the place wondering where the flaw in it’s greedy little plan was, but hey – everybody needs t-shirts right?

Get yours here.

On April 15th, 1989 96 Liverpool fans went to watch their team play Nottingham Forrest in the FA Cup Semi-Final. They never returned…

The search for justice continues today!