Omaniblog has gone to Biarritz until 6 July
I won’t be logging on. The mobile phone will be off. This is a complete break.
Instead of writing, I’ll be painting.
Enjoy the silence.
Writing on “Good Corporate Governance” for Goodbiz.ie
Are you bored by "corporate governance"?
Would you willingly read an article about it?
Is it one of those things you know is important but never urgent?
Have you ever thought about it for long enough to have an idea you’d call your own?
If I present you with a short article about it, will you flick on to something else?
Is there any chance you’d be grateful for a plain English explanation and exposition?
A few facts to start you thinking:
(1) All the media stuff you’ve been reading & listening to about the economic crisis: that’s what this is about.
(2) People chasing bonus, lending to high risk customers, that’s it too.
(3) Shareholders losing all their savings, without having any say in the matter
(4) Business confidence and reputations crashing,
(5) People losing their job & business, destruction of the economy
Interested in "corporate governance" now? Of course you are. Unless you’re interested in these topics, you have no interest in business, your job or the future of your family & friends.
"Corporate Governance" is jargon. But it means everything important about how business is directed and managed.
I wonder if that’s convincing enough? Could it even be overkill? Who are the audience for this Goodbiz.ie article. It goes out in the newsletter of the Goodbiz.ie business association, but it’ll be read by many who are not yet members.
I wish I knew more about their starting point.
Yesterday I interviewed several people (including some I met while subbing at Cork City Chapter of BNI) on what they thought about "corporate governance".
They all looked bored and uncomfortable about the question. They certainly didn’t have a position they wanted to rattle off in response. They didn’t use the question as an opportunity to persuade me of anything.
When I ask people what they think of relations between business, banks, government, employees, customers, suppliers, it’s hard to change the subject.
Let’s be practical: 12 questions for you to consider…
I’d like to produce a check-list that’s useful and can be used for auditing the business. Key issues that need to be got right and continuously improved.
It’s all about continuous improvement.
You don’t ever reach a point where you can say
"I’m satisfied we have good corporate governance in place: I can relax now."
The outside world keeps changing. New challenges are round every corner. Survival is not guaranteed.
I think the article is finished. I’ll need to edit it and put in hyperlinks, but first draft is done. Very useful to have a place like this where I can think out loud. I hope my editor will be satisfied.
NSUE Election Manefestos : Users Speak
[I began this post but never finished it… It’s notes towards a piece I left behind as I ran out of time before going on holidays.]
Looking at election manifestos for 8 NSUE candidates, the overwhelming emotion is relief.
I am so relieved the election has attracted so many fine-sounding candidates. The manifestos are so good that I’d be proud to see them up on the NSUE website. I know the NSUE election is an internal affair to members of NSUE, but the manifestos are so good that they give a great impression of the world of mental health.
I’ll be away, out of the country, on election day.
But there is a procedure to cover this: I’m casting my vote early because I asked for an early ballot paper. And one was sent to me in the post. I have to remember to post it back before leaving on Sunday.
manefestos.
I don’t care who wins. For me the most important thing is that the election should be a
voice is not yet properly heard at any level. But it’s being heard more than before.
most important voice, at every level: national policy making right on up to your GP
by mental health professionals.
Tipperary
I’ve read each manefesto several times.
I’ve picked out a few quotes from each person, quotes that appealed to me.
treatment, that we still have along way to go…"
south east because, in addition to being a service user of mental health service in the
problems, which is nearly fullly complete, has given me not only an insight into menatal
unique into various issues which people with nental health issues experience, for example
She hi
(work in progress… )
Interesting & inspiring stuff happening over in UK : a campaign called "Time to Change.
Reminds me of "Mad Pride Ireland".
But I can’t find any "Mad Pride Ireland" stuff from 2009 - though I know it happened in Cork recently.
Igor Stravinsky on when & how he learned
I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes
and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom
and knowledge.
*** Igor Stravinsky ***
For more information on this quotation and the author:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/X00063A76/
I get an email every Monday, Wednesday & Friday from Gurteen.. It consists of a quotation. I keep the ones that move me. Delete the others. I now have good collection.
The collection began as a private resource. Then I saw my stupidity, and began sharing.
In an age where the tools for sharing have been invented, developed and made freely available, keeping things to myself seems stupid.
Why does this one move me?
I’ve answered this question over on listowelwritersweekfringe.com.
Does it move you?
I’ve been commissioned to write an article on "good corporate governance" for Goodbiz.ie.
Another great opportunity to think and communicate with members of the Goodbiz Association.
I’ve already twittered to say that I’d like help. I would like people to inundate me with suggestions on how I could approach the subject.
Any chance you’d like to help by chucking in a suggestion or challenge? Obviously I can’t write the definitive treatice in 550 words.
(1) You know all about corporate governance. You’re the victim or beneficiary of it, whether you know it or not. There one angle.
Now what are the other angles?
Thursday 11 june @2057
Only one person has offered me a thought on this : Aodan Enright of Smarter Egg.
Still open for thoughts and focus… after all this is not a thesis, but a punchy business article for stretched people…
How do I hold their interest?
The questions to ask yourself?
Aftermath of Irish Reign of Terror
Before the Christian Brothers, & other Irish religious orders, realised the error of their ways, they made arrangements to hide their assets.
They spirited assets away in the form of Trusts, and special instruments, designed to ensure they would be able to pass them on to future generations of religious orders.
The Irish branch of the Christian Brothers learned from the Canadian branch.
But ever since the Christian Brothers have been to confession, felt the full weight of contribition, they are renewing.
Now, supported by His Holiness the Pope, Cardinal Brady, and especially Archbishop Dermot Martin, the Irish religious orders are making ready to open their entire portfolio of materal assets to examination by the government.
They so realise that they tortured thousands of poor people directly (& indirectly by collusion with terrible sinners), that they all feel guilty, and truly repentant.
The Irish orders will show us all how sorry they are by handing over huge symbols of clerical domination to publicly elected representatives. The Mater Hospital & St Vincent’s Hospital are massive symbols of a deep intent to become examples of the mendicant Christ.
To do any less, to hold back, to show any trace of grudging, would be to be riddled with the whisper of Satan.
The Roman Catholic church has not survived as the most successful human institution in history without being willing to cleanse itself and return to a life of virtue, many times in history.
I sent a text to John Redican asking what I could do because I’ll be out of the country for the NSUE election.
You can get an early ballot paper - if you ask for it.
I want to vote, and also want the electorate to be as substantial as possible.
You can contact the NSUE easily.
Just log on to "NSUE.ie" and find out how.
The election is important for several reasons. It’s given people a chance to write their election case.
In my opinion the election case written by each candidate should be put up on the NSUE website for all to read - for all the public to read.
Not just members of NSUE.
You should read them: they are great. They show the quality of people working to improve mental health services in Ireland, giving voice to the users of the services.
And the voice of carers too…
though, as a user, I don’t get to see what’s going on in the election for the carers’ representative.
I intend to contact each candidate individually by email.
I’ll also publish extracts from each election statement on here.
Yesterday morning I went down to the primary school in Glanmire, Cork - to vote for about the third time in Ireland.
I’m not used to Irish polling stations.
But I love PR: it enabled me to begin by counting the candidates and giving number 12 preference to one of the Fianna Fail auctioneers. The other FF auctioneer I gave number 11 preference. So you can begin by voting against those you’d like to change most.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to allocate my multi-votes. It was fun working from the bottom-up and the top-down.
It was with disappointment I gave the Green man number 10, because, in ‘normal’ circumstances, I’d be giving a Green Party candidate, Dan Boyle, my number 1,2 or 3. As a natural re-cycler, committed to sustainable living, I’m the kind of person the Greens should be able to depend on.
But I’m also a moral person.
There was no way I could bend my conscience to support the insupportable manner in which Greens are keeping this Fianna Fail government in power. Politics is about power, not about good ideas. [That’s a bit stack and extreme. Just the way it came out.]
The tricky business in the voting booth was deciding how to vote between unknowns and Sinn Fein. I wondered if I wanted a doctor elected, thereby depleting the health service? What about a scientist? It was easier to give a low preference to a head teacher because we need those people working, don’t we? I think I changed my mind on that while in the booth.
I knew I’d give a high preference to Labour.
But it’s Fine Gael who’ll lead the next government… So there were dilemmas, good ones because I even thought I was doing Fianna Fail a favour by voting against them.
FF need a nice long period of backbench life to bring new types to head that party.
It’s so lost its way. My friend Tim Nelligan’s in there, fighting to change FF from within. I voted to give him time for his work.
As I listen to results coming in, I’m delighted to hear Maurice Ahern looks like losing every election and not have a job. Such a result might save us from the prospect of his brother Bertie Ahern running for election as mayor of Dublin.
The death of Ahernism…
RIP - after they’ve been interviewed for Purgatory, I trust.
For more information on this quotation and the author:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/L001911/
The trouble with Listowel Writers’ Week
Writers’ Week hooked me. Took me over. It’s made it hard for me to rejoin the rest of the world.
Like any passion, it obsorbed me.
It’s hard to disengage from "Listowelwritersweekfringe.com" blog, and come back here. This is where I normally live, and intend to stay. It’s my personal blog, where I write stuff that’s not focussed on a particular activity.
This is where I learned to blog.
This is where I’ve written most of my thought on mental health - though I’ve begun to write on the NSUE website.
I think I better watch it that I don’t get pulled in too many directions.
There’s a holiday in France coming up. Listowel was anything but a holiday; I’m still recovering.
I’d be doing myself down if I didn’t say the work we did there on the fringe of Listowel Writers’ Week was magnificent.
