a myopic, ineffectual, ecological disaster of a strategy thought up by a State sanctioned body w/a horrendous environmental record. canalising rivers costs more money long term, both on site & downriver than proper, thoughtful management of a catchment area.
& this isn't a 1 time deal, see my tweet from August 2018. that was after months of the same, middle of the river construction. this will be a normal event in Bandon now, since rivers with no banks & dredged bottoms require constant upkeep.
this is because creating a canal increases both the flow speed & water volume during storms, increasing flooding risk & damage downriver. the removal of banks & river beds also increases sediment rise which will need to be frequently cleared out, costing millions every year.
This picture is from the River Bandon, taken in July 2018. It’s grey from both concrete dust & silt runoff from the amount of spoil taken from the river bed. The locals call this “the mountain.”
this flood scheme benefits "the boys." another, common sense strategy that doesn't make a canal out of a river would benefit the town, the economy, the rivers catchment area, communities downriver, the environment & the wider ecology by maintaining & restoring multiple habitats.
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Recently @JohnSimpsonNews wrote about when he went to cover the trial of Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon. He was interviewing a man Barbie had arrested and he asked ‘How did Barbie know about you?’ ‘My neighbour betrayed me.’ ‘What happened to him?’
‘He’s still my neighbour.’
50 years later, and the neighbour was still listening in from his garden and only ran inside when they turned the camera on him.
In the last week, I've been appalled to see just how many "neighbours" there are in Ireland, the UK, the US, Australia, France, Germany, and all across the West.
I still think about the large number of QTs on the @NWCI's thread about the dangers of prostitution from self described leftists railing against the demonisation of sex work. There were absolutely excoriating and severe in their denouncements of the NWCI and their abandonment
of the "true" feminist ideals; the ideals that "TWAW and Sex Work is Work," both an affirmation and catechism requiring a suspense of reality, and they were tarred with the bigot brush.
The NWCI, the same group who penned and signed a letter with @AmnestyIreland calling on the Media and Politicians to deny legitimate representation to those in Ireland-mostly women-with a belief in biology, and concerns and/or objections to the GRA and Self-Id.
The idea of diversity is negated when thoughts aren’t allowed to differ. Inclusion can never be achieved when societal discussions that should be broad in orientation & scope are replaced with those that are narrow. Inclusion does not mean open; it means involvement, engagement.
It's hard work because true inclusion requires the greatest effort to be as right for everyone as possible. It requires dialogue, examination, debate, fact, convincing. It requires the kindness that Conor so woefully and lazily misplaces here.
It also requires humanity. & I think humanity is less about having empathy for those with whom you agree, but rather having empathy for those with whom you disagree. It also requires a grounding in empathy and reality to realise that the kindest thing to possibly say is that:
They have no escape anymore; in sports, in school, in the spaces in life that they had to fight to carve out for themselves in order to give them places of safety, opportunity and confidence. They are constantly facing social pressures to conform to a hypersexualised
version of femininity in an abuse-porn addled age, where boys & Social Media are placing impossible expectations on them while telling them that they're not enough, or that they should be more. Or that their merit as a human being is determined by their compliance.
A great indicator of the moral or ethical veracity of an idea or movement is in how it deals with those who disagree. 🧵
Classic Liberalism cherishes diversity of thought. Differing voices are important in order to do the hard work of building a common world in which we can live together amidst our real and important differences. It values rationalism, reason and science. It seeks to uplift.
It is democratic and loving. Diversity of thought is Classic Liberalism's strength. Protest is peaceful, non violence is absolutely necessary, because true and lasting success lay in strength of ideas and in the power of words to effect change in order to improve the world.
Misogyny takes many forms, from dismissal to gaslighting to censorship to verbal and physical harassment/assault. All forms are despicable. Also shameful is the complete negation of a woman by speaking directly to her "man" about her as if she were a subclass of human.
Today I a message request from Martin Howard the owner and CEO of @KeyPropertiesU1 in my FB Messenger from the end of Feb. Martin had an interaction with my wife that he didn't like, because she rightly called out some really problematic things he was saying about
women and young girls. The original post was about period products and aimed at teenage girls. Martin, ever the funny fellow, decided to post this.