Comments on The Pensive Quill: Breadwinner

John, 'If the Muslim Brotherhood achieves its...

2011-03-22T20:31:54.676Z

John,

'If the Muslim Brotherhood achieves its aims then it might not be such a good thing.'

No religion getting state power is a good thing

Nuala It is always nice to have books at home. I ...

2011-03-18T21:40:19.127Z

Nuala

It is always nice to have books at home. I read from an early age but discovered that I could get quickly bored by it. That lasted up until the blanket. Even in the cages I read a lot but would find myself going off it for a week or two. Because of the deprivation of the blanket that all changed. I read voraciously after that. Not so much these days because of time constraints. To your Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen I would put Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Loved that – dark and brooding.

PS – at the Patrick’s Day parade in town their was a Children of Lir float.

Finishing Eoin O Broin’s on Left Republicanism at the minute.

Antoin not being pugilistic, just recon equality e...

2011-02-03T10:42:07.553Z

Antoin
not being pugilistic, just recon equality equated with an oportunity for sadly too many women to go 'to war'.

I'm all for equality, but legally too. I wasnt around to give my great granny torment, i sure aint payin for it either.

Ta grain agam ar Thacther fos. =I still hate Thatc...

2011-02-03T09:10:23.533Z

Ta grain agam ar Thacther fos. =I still hate Thatcher...

2011-02-03T08:05:55.007Z

This comment has been removed by the author.

2011-02-03T00:51:13.038Z

This comment has been removed by the author.

Antoin Mac C, "If the Muslim Brotherhood ach...

2011-02-02T22:20:38.551Z

Antoin Mac C,

"If the Muslim Brotherhood achieves its aims then it might not be such a good thing."

'Agreed{it's a miracle says john}.'

Sooner or later we had to agree on something :)

It seems to be a conflict between the rich and the poor.Nothing more.Nothing less.

But if you check out this source, (yes, I know it is BBC, no doublt if I look I could find others).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12313405

This seems to show that it is the Muslim Brotherhood who are the main opposition and who are formenting things behind the scenes.

Antoin you've obviously never been through a d...

2011-02-02T21:07:21.489Z

Antoin
you've obviously never been through a divorce mate. The laws may still be Victorian but there aint too many shrinking violets in the courtroom.

Women can do what they like these days. It's not 1912.

many men in Derry would gladly have worked.

John McGirr Said... If the Muslim Brotherhood ach...

2011-02-02T14:01:58.417Z

John McGirr Said...

If the Muslim Brotherhood achieves its aims then it might not be such a good thing.

Agreed{it's a miracle says john}.

John,a cara,nobody had an objective other than the youth in tunisia who set himself on fire in protest at the injustice he received at the hands of the authorities.It seems to be a conflict between the rich and the poor.Nothing more.Nothing less.I would certainly hope that a dictatorship is not replaced with a theocratic dictatorship.ie. mubarak for the muslim brotherhood.

A revolution is based on three things 1)motive 2)objective 3)result.The Tunisians and the Egyptians were motivated by their material,or lack of,i should say,conditions.It's a simple law of physics,that when matter heats up,it expands,it's an historical law that dictates the demise of all dictators,and the survival of people,nobody can change this,not
even the americans fundamentalists.
The motive is poverty.The objective is an end to poverty.The result,for the moment,remains to be seen.....

Nuala said...

Women remain grossly under-represented in politics, which sadly means women's issues remain grossly under-represented. Politics remains very much the stomping ground of the males, maybe that's why it remains so mucked up?

You said it,not me.The breadwinner in my home as a child was my mother,the breadwinner before her was my grand-mother.The
breadwinner in my daughters life is her mother.As Connolly said,the irish are slaves,and the women are the slave of the slave.The women are the ones who know from head to toe who the masters and slaves are in this country.They've had to live like slaves,while at the same time being ruled by the master of the house.

Graycrow, My son was the product of an all male Ca...

2011-02-02T12:00:04.886Z

Graycrow,
My son was the product of an all male Catholic grammar and he has a quite mature and well balanced opinion on women's oppression.
Although, to be honest, he said it remains a mystery how women have endured centuries of oppression as he has never met one that would endure it for five seconds.
Women remain grossly under-represented in politics, which sadly means women's issues remain grossly under-represented. Politics remains very much the stomping ground of the males, maybe that's why it remains so mucked up?

Antoin Mac C, ‘The gospel of revolutionary social...

2011-02-01T17:04:20.591Z

Antoin Mac C,

‘The gospel of revolutionary social change has spread...come on the egyptians...come on the tunisians...’

If the Muslim Brotherhood achieves its aims then it might not be such a good thing:

“Allah is our objective; the Quran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.”

Anthony, I'm not sure why that happened, I wa...

2011-02-01T11:51:52.484Z

Anthony,

I'm not sure why that happened, I was uploading a video to youtube at the time and it took hours, I think my internet connection was a bit stressed.

Rory

'I won't change the world,but i promise yo...

2011-02-01T10:56:33.960Z

'I won't change the world,but i promise you this.Im gonna spark the mind that does'-Tupac Shakur.

Don't mean to be off key,but Roll on the Egytian revolution.The military so far seem to be with the people.The last israeli attache to leave said the revolution will spread.As Tunisian rap artist el general said-'Today Mr President i'm speaking on behalf of all the people who are suffering in 2011,there are still people dying of hunger who want to work,come down into the streets,
people have become like animals...we are living like dogs...Mr president your people are dead they are eating out of garbage cans and have nowhere to sleep....if their was no injustice i wouldnt be hear...

Bygod,are the americans panicking.
Too few men in too many places.What
happened in Venezuela when there was a popular revolution is that the CIA were sent in to shoot one or two protestors to cause divisions,but only served to re-ignite the passion of the people for change.The TVs were closed down.In Cairo,the net and the closure of phone servers,cant stop whats going on for the simple reason is that it has no central command structure.The gospel of revolutionary social change has spread...come on the egyptians...come on the tunisians...

Rory, a lot of the same repeated comment came thr...

2011-02-01T08:36:04.700Z

Rory,

a lot of the same repeated comment came through from you.

Fionnuala, Sinking out of my depth here, but must...

2011-01-31T23:08:46.069Z

Fionnuala,

Sinking out of my depth here, but must say that I have always admired Nell McCafferty as an advocate of working class women's issues.

As a product of an all male, catholic secondary school system, I don't really feel qualifed to discuss these issues.

Interesting fact, in my constituancy (Wexford) there will be NO women contesting the general election. There is a glass ceiling for women and it is pretty low, that's all I know.

Rory

michealhenry, flattered by that, thank you. Nice t...

2011-01-31T14:39:27.604Z

michealhenry,
flattered by that, thank you.
Nice to see there are men who actually think outside the box even if they are few and far between.

Fionnuala- Holy men and Holy woman declared God t...

2011-01-30T20:54:30.183Z

Fionnuala-

Holy men and Holy woman declared God to be white and male

" more woman die violently in our
white western cultivated first world than fall at the hands of the
taliban "
A brilliant statement about the truth-

There are a lot in the media who like to preach about others but will then go up the brit crowns ass
for 1 of their tit-bit awards

Males are first in line to the throne of sin even if they have a elder sister-makes them anti-female

Graycrow, I think misogyny is a univeral theme whi...

2011-01-30T20:14:26.774Z

Graycrow,
I think misogyny is a univeral theme which is woven into the fabric of most societies.
I seriously doubt if religion has any imapact on how women are treated in any given society.
True the Holy men have put the proverbial boot in.
However, the not so Holy men and women(shamefully) are equally capable of applying the boot.
Years ago I read a brilliant article by Nell mc Cafferty as to why women voted against divorce in Southern Ireland.
In her words they chose 'the fist so they could give their children the soup.'
In other word, the neo- liberals and all the do gooders had organised a referendum without putting proper financial provision in for women and children.
So while the Holy men were preaching against divorce the not so Holy rendered it impossible.

Fionnuala, I know that misogyny is rampant in the...

2011-01-30T19:39:16.113Z

Fionnuala,

I know that misogyny is rampant in the western world. I am aquainted with several choice mysoynists myself, some of whom like to think they are proper bleeding heart liberals.

But at least since we joined the EU the government in the south was forced to leglislate for equal rights for women.

Larry,

I'm convinced the US/UK & Co are in Afghanistan to control the world supply of opium, which is certainly being used to destroy the underclass. Eugenics.

Rory

It galls me to watch yanks and brits try to put Ch...

2011-01-30T18:24:28.264Z

It galls me to watch yanks and brits try to put China on the backfoot over human rights without even a blink of hesitation. Guantanamo, rendition, death row and ethnic inequalities throughout the states. Contemptible.

my mrs from manila recons tv is showing plenty of horrendous poverty abroad to condition people here that they're better off.

Always confuses me why USA/UK are so eager to use billion dollar bombs to shift a few sand dunes and goats about a bit. Why dont they stay at home in their media utopia?

Send their media to Detroit, New Orleans or the 'hood' in any major USA city. Surely theres plenty to be done there before they bring mcdonalds to bagdad and Kandahar??

Mackers, The first book I ever read or rather beca...

2011-01-30T15:03:00.677Z

Mackers,
The first book I ever read or rather because I was a daddy's girl had read to me was the 'Children of Lir'
We always had Michael Mc Laverty books at home and I remember reading 'Call my Brother Back' when I was quite young (maybe thats where it all went wrong)
Always loved Jane Austen's books Pride and Prejudice' was always my favourite.
Reading a very good book at the minute called 'Churchills Secret War' by Madhusree Mukerjee, this book sort of a makes a nonsense of a recent claim on the 'TPQ' that the Brits built up all the countries that they illegally entered.
Theft, corruption and the dismantling of an entire country and people was the British story in India, very poignant and a very good read.

Graycrow, we do still tolerate such repression, yo...

2011-01-30T14:31:10.544Z

Graycrow,
we do still tolerate such repression, you only have to re-read some of the comments on the 'Morning After Blog' to realise that the old misogynist mindsets are atill alive and well in Ireland.
Religion has very little to do with the stoning of women.
Misogyny had taken root long before the Holy men declared 'God to be in their image and likeness'
More women die violently in our white western cultivated 'First World' than fall at the hands of the Taliban.
Intresting, that a country who once produced scientific proof, that women and negroes had smaller brains than 'White Western men' are now seemingly distrubed about women's rights.

The taliban is a new media name for the mujaheden ...

2011-01-30T13:04:01.674Z

The taliban is a new media name for
the mujaheden

the mujaheden treat woman as second
class or third class

When the americans and brits give
weapon's to the sexist mujahaden
in the fight against the russians
there was no talk about the drug trade or womans rights on the t.v radio or papers

O'Neill, thanks. It is certainly the same the...

2011-01-30T10:44:27.310Z

O'Neill,

thanks. It is certainly the same theme if not the actual adaptation. Time permitting I will try to look at it

Glumdalclitch, interesting take. A bit like novel...

2011-01-30T09:33:41.903Z

Glumdalclitch,

interesting take. A bit like novels on the Irish conflict I guess, and they seem so far from what our own take is. But I don't buy into the notion that it is all a plot by the western media. Women are oppressed by the Taliban; people experienced repression under its regime and have the right to tell their story. 'Nothing is further from the truth' would indicate a non repressive society where any depiction suggesting otherwise is utterly false. I don't buy that.

It will be a shame if you do not find a publisher for your work which seems to challenge prevailing assumptions. But why would the publisher fear to dare? I am sure if the book is based on your experience and has something worthwhile to say, as it would seem to do, I think you will find a publisher.

Thoughtful post. Thanks for taking the time to send it.