This week’s international news post has an interesting twist today, as we’re looking back over the week, but also projecting a bit into the future…
Read on to find out about:
- The guy who was arrested for stealing a glacier in Chile
- The CEO of Qantas (who’s Irish) telling Australia that their pro-Australia Bill won’t actually help the Australian flag-carrying airline, aka Qantas.
- The furore in America about funding breast cancer screening that somehow got intertangled with the national abortion discussion
- The elections that you should be looking out for in 2012 and why
Chile: Man arrested for stealing glacier ice
You know, I’ve heard of gourmet restaurants, even gourmet burgers, but gourmet ice? That’s a first….
The BBC have reported that a man has been arrested in Chile on suspicion of stealing ice from a glacier. The man’s truck was stopped in the town of Cochrane, near the Jorge Montt Glacier and five tonnes of ice was discovered in the back, worth $6,100. The suspected destination for this ice was the Chilean capital of Santiago to be sold into the upmarket bars and restaurants as ‘gourmet ice’, which tourists allegedly love.
The consequence of this is not only a higher priced drink but a glacier that is retreating faster than any other in Chile. There is a tenuous Irish connection (and we love our connections, as tenuous as they are) – the Jorge Montt Glacier is found in the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park.
Yes, you guessed it – with a name like that, good ol’ Bernardo has an Irish connection. He’s from the famous O’Higgins from Chile and was the illegitimate son of Ambrosio O’Higgins, the 1st Marquis of Osorno. Ambrosio hailed from Co. Sligo who later went on to become the governor of Chile and viceroy of Peru. Bernardo didn’t do badly himself – he is considered on of the founding fathers of Chile, hence the national park being named after him.
Australia: Qantas chief says that the pro-Australia airline bill could put them out of business
Another story with an unusual Irish connection – both for people and for profits and patriotism.
The Australian parliament is currently considering a bill that is going to have a major effect on the Australian airline business.The Still Call Australia Home Bill 2011 would force Qantas to keep its main operations – heavy aircraft maintenance, flight operations and training – in Australia. This comes at a time when Qantas has been expanding extensively into Asia, announcing their plans to set up a budget Ryanair-type model in Japan.
The head of Qantas Alan Joyce appeared in front of the Australian senate to say that these new rules posed a major threat to the company, would impact negatively on profits and could result in them selling one of other airlines that they owe. According to Joyce, both this bill and another proposal law which would require Australian airlines to offer the same salaries to their staff abroad as their team at home, “would strangle our capacity to run our business.”
Before we get into the substantive points, just had to flag some ‘lighter’ points about this story:
- What a fantastically titled Bill. The Americans and the Australians really use this to great effect, titling their proposed laws something really nationalistic that all sound like lines from the national anthem. We really don’t do that here in Ireland – in fact, we try to bore people to death with the titles.
- This bill has been proposed by Senator Xenophon, which sounds like either there’s been a rip in the time/space continuum and he’s joined us from Ancient Greece or else he’s a mate of Senator Palpatine and sits beside him in the Galactic Senate in Star Wars.
Now, to the more serious stuff.
This is a great test case for us to see the financial consequences of ‘going national’. Many people in Ireland talk about us effectively drawing up our borders and making sure that we take care of ourselves first. Well we are going to see a country to do this, to prioritise its country over globalised profit. This is a great test to see if this law does pass and the consequences, good and bad, on Qantas if they do have to implement this law. Is it just private sector posturing or will be have negative consequences on the company, causing job losses. One to watch.
Another thing to note is in fact that Alan Joyce is Irish. Born and raised in Tallaght, studied in DIT and Trinity and worked in Aer Lingus before heading out to Australia to work for Ansett and then Qantas.
Between him, Willie Walsh and Michael O’Leary (and supposedly one in Mexico and Singapore), Irish people have a serious role in the airline business. Why are we so good at running major international airlines? Click here to find out more if you are interested.
USA: Cancer charity does major U-Turn on Planned Parenthood funding cut
Great story to show how this the issue of abortion (especially in an election year) gets into every topic, including breast cancer screening funding.
If you ever doubted the power of social media, check out this story:
Susan G Komen is the leading cancer society in America which last week announced that it was changing its rules for applications for funding – they would no longer fund organisations that were ‘under investigation’. Fair enough, says you, the law is the law.
The thing is – this one rule change had a major effect on one organisation in particular, Planned Parenthood, which has ongoing congressional inquiry into whether Planned Parenthood was illegally using federal funds to pay for abortions. So that meant that Planned Parenthood was no longer eligible for the $600,000 it gets from Susan G Komen for breast cancer screenings. The situation smelt of politics, for as we all know, abortion is a fraught dividing line between Democrats and Republicans and even within the two political parties. And this an election year too. It looked like people’s position on abortion was going to affect women’s ability to get screened for cancer.
As news spread, stickers started to appear on Facebook images saying ‘I’m sticking with Planned Parenthood’ at an incredible rate and there were some awkward interviews for Komen to handle, including Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC, a keen supporter of the charity who herself was diagnosed with breast cancer. Four days later, and after an explosion of media attention, Susan G Komen reversed their decision, stating that Planned Parenthood can continue to receive their funding.
The kicker here is – in the four days of the contraversy, Planned Parenthood five times the $600,000 that it stood to lose in grant funds including $250,000 from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
So why this one story? Planned Parenthood has had their funding cut by states and other outfits for their support of abortion, so why did this story explode the way it did this week?
According to this excellent analysis in Time Magazine, the issue was less about Planned Parenthood and more to do with an anger at Susan G Komen. There was a sense of betrayal that this cancer charity had somehow overnight turned into an anti-abortion establishment. While the issue of abortion is polarising, playing politics with breast cancer is not – and whether they deliberately meant to or not, Komen felt that wrath this week, facilitated by the power of social media. And while Planned Parenthood have their funding sorted, it remains to be seen the damage done to Komen.
Elections to look out for in 2012 & why
I’d understand if the International Foundation for Electoral Systems may not be top of the list for websites you may review every morning, but it’s one that if you are in any way interested in elections and what’s happening around the world, you should take a look at.
For electoral anoraks, it’s a must-see – and during the week, they posted this brilliantly clear and simple article about the elections we should be keeping an eye out for this year and why. (We should be looking at Yemen, Russia, Burma, Mexico and Kenya in case you were wondering.). Please do click here and read this – it’ll make you look fierce smart to your boss/work colleagues/people down the pub you might want to impress.
