Lotto for Haiti

Here's an idea.

How about for the next Lotto (Saturday's), we as a nation give the entire take to the people of Haiti? In addition to all prizes won. Should generate a good few million as I suspect that there will be a bigger contribution than normal.

As people will know that they are giving the money (and potential winnings) to charity, it would be a good test case to see if we are one of the most charitable countries in the world.

This example could serve as a very useful for all countries in the aftermath of a catastrophe.

Martin Cullen

I have a very strong disregard of Martin Cullen, at best he a classic example of an underachieving gombeen promoted above his station purely in his ability to garner votes in his own constituency.

He is a perfect example of what is wrong with this country where ability, competence and morals come way down the list in terms of boxes governments tick when they are looking for ministers.

In addition, his comments comparing his treatment to that of a rape victim were crass. I'm not sure if the speech was impromptu or rehearsed. If the latter, then clearly this ties in with my remarks above.

However, I do find myself in agreement that certain sections of the media, in particularly the 'Irish' Mail, were obsessed in their hounding of Cullen with regard to a perceived affair and favouritism shown to Monica Leech. His statement that his children were on the receiving end of bullying and had to move schools has a ring of truth to it.

Regardless of his ineptitude, nobody deserves to have their family subjected to that abuse if the source for which is media driven. He is relatively unique as a FF minister in being the subject of intense media intrusion, resulting in what appeared to be slander and lies. Cullen deserves our ridicule and bile based on his performance as a minister, but no more than that.

Time for Real change Mr. Obama

The premise of this is simple. Obama wants to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan as cleanly as possible, it's unlikely - hopefully - that the US will enter into a major conflict again during his tenure.

If Obama wants to wrest opinion in favour of the US and its foreign policies then I would suggest that they set up a couple of task forces on either side of the world to deal with any potential humanitarian crises. Haiti is comparatively lucky being so close to the US coast, but nonetheless, with so much manpower and logistics consumed in their current conflicts, the resources are just not there to expedite the rescue effort.

The US can use these task forces on a dual mandate of rescue efforts as well as regional stability. Rather than focusing on the regime change aspect and then getting bogged down in impossible democratic agendas, they could have for example, toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan and then left it to the tribal elders to sort things out.

It seems to me, that recently the level and scale of catastrophes in the world is increasing in scale and severity. I am well aware that the UN are supposed to provide the relief effort and logistics to combat disasters, but in reality, not much happens without the support of the US military.

Time for change.