Minister must explain how he will pay for water and sewage investments

Today I have welcomed ; the completion of the Belfast Sewers Project and called on Minister Conor Murphy to spell out how he proposes to fund water and sewage investment here in the future.

This project has caused considerable disruption throughout the city over the past five years and we hope the new sewers will transform the quality of life of many across Belfast who have had to live and work in fear of flooding.

 Many in communities like the Lower Ormeau will hope sewage will never again run along their streets.

 Most of the major projects which are now being completed were commissioned before the DUP/Sinn Féin coalition came to power.

The reason we have such an unacceptable funding model and the threat of water charges hanging over this region is because of the DUP and Sinn Féin’s inability to provide devolved government during the 2003 – 2007 period. This allowed direct rule Ministers to change the RRI and propose the entirely unacceptable introduction of water charges.

Many of us remain concerned with the poor water and sewage infrastructure, the unacceptably high levels of leakage and the continuing concerns about pollution of our major waterways. 

The Minister for Regional Development and Northern Ireland Water are in perpetual crisis and stasis, unable to provide the leadership which is so badly needed.

Vote for the dinosaurs and make history this May

Local politicians are not the only ones facing a big vote in May. The Ulster Museum needs your support to become the first local institution to lift the prestigious Art Fund Prize.

This is the most prestigious award in these islands. It has never been won by a NI museum/gallery and this, the experts believe is the best chance we’ll have for many years to win it.

The aim at the moment is to get on the shortlist of four which will be announced in mid May. The online poll closes on 7 May.

Whether you are green, orange, red or blue surely you can manage a quick click for Takabute, the big dinosaur and the Spanish Gold in the Botanic Gardens.

Vote here.

Do pass the word around.

North – South drink cut and crabs that pinch less then an inch

Moves are underway to harmonise drink driving limits across the island. Great to see a Belfast DUP environment minister in ongoing contact with Dublin about tackling this border-less problem.

Elsewhere on the island the crabs are pinching much less then an inch. The Irish Times reports that Irish scientists are experimenting on the use of extracts from crab and shrimp shells as a treatment for obesity.

Crabs and shrimps may not realise it quite yet, but their protective cover may become as valuable as their meat on world seafood markets. That’s because a compound in their shells, chitosan, may help to tackle the developed world’s major illness – obesity.

Buzz Lightyear returns to earth after 15 month mission

The world’s favourite space ranger, Buzz Lightyear, returned to earth safely last week after a 15 month mission aboard the International Space Station. His time on the orbiting laboratory will celebrated in a ticker-tape parade together with his space station crew mates and former Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin on Oct. 2 at Walt Disney World in Florida.

The news was celebrated by Naoise McDevitt (aged four) and millions of children around the world who had been worrying about their heroes fate in orbit.

While in space Buzz supported NASA’s education outreach program station,  — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, by creating a series of fun educational online outreach programs. Following his return, Disney is partnering with NASA to create a new online educational game and an online mission patch competition for school kids across America.

Lance Armstrong rides in Dublin

Lance Armstrong Tweeted the following this morning:

Good morning Dublin. Who wants to ride this afternoon? I do. 5:30 pm @ the roundabout of Fountain Rd and Chesterfield Ave. See you there.

At 5.30pm there were over 3000 cyclists waiting for the legend to arrive. The reports are he has brought the Park to a standstill. That’s the power of social media and proof that Lance Armstrong can ignite online debate. He is what we call in the business a ‘Mega Hub’.

I just wish I could have been there. But I was on my own bike at 5.45pm navigating the streets of the Northern Capital instead. Ride on!

Significant glacial melting reported

Gulkana Glacier, Alaska

U.S. scientists monitoring shrinking glaciers in Washington State and Alaska reported this week that a major meltdown is under way.  Just another inconvenient fact for Sammy Wilson and the rest of the climate sceptics to ponder this summer.

CNN reportson the Gulkana glacier in Alaska, one of three glaciers considered a benchmark by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Since 1959, the U.S. Geological Survey, which published the study on its Web site, has been tracking the movements of the South Cascade glacier in Washington State and the Wolverine and Gulkana glaciers in Alaska. The three glaciers are considered “benchmarks” for the conditions of thousands of other glaciers because they’re in different climate zones and at various elevations.

“These changes are taking place in Washington State and Alaska in three different climate regimes,” said Edward Josberger, the lead researcher on the study with the USGS Washington Water Science Center in Tacoma, Washington. “So we feel it’s definitely something going on, probably on a global scale, and of course, if you look at other such measurements around the world and put it all together, yes, glaciers are retreating and retreating rapidly.”

Earlier this year the USGC reported the rapid meltingof Antarctic glaciers.

Call the doctor or click online?

When a minor ailment afflicts your home do you call the doctor on reach for the PC?

Research discussed this week in Weber Shandwick’s Journal 33 & A 1/3 shows that the Internet (aka Doctor Digital) is now the go-to resource for health and wellness related information over and above the family doctor.

Figures show 59 per cent of adults turn to internet-based resources versus 55 per cent who go to their doctor and 29 per cent who talk to relatives, friends or coworkers.

This makes for a host of healthcare communication challenges and opportunities as a shift of information moves from the family practitioner to portals, pods, patient blogs and wikis.

Who Do You trust – Man or Mouse?

Despite the surge in online communication and healthcare portals as a go-to for information, trust is the biggest divide between Dr. Digital and Dr. Person. At the heart of every healthcare campaign Weber Shandwick proposes is a digital media component – we call this inline as regardless of medium, our message is consistently the same. At no point is it a substitute for seeing a medical doctor – we think of it as an adjunct that helps build the dialogue between patient and doctor that ultimately improves outcomes whether that’s faster diagnosis, improved knowledge of treatment options or patient support.

The latest edition of  33 & 1/3 is online now. You can read the rest of this piece as well as other interesting articles about public relations and marketing.

New nationalism now needed

What is obvious about Sinn Fein’s current woes and the SDLP’s stagnation is that a new nationalism is needed on the island of Ireland. You could of course argue a similar case to modernise British nationalism (unionism) here but ill dedicate this blog to the former. .

No major political party is seeking to recast the old nationalism’s which have shaped 20th century Irish politics into relevant expressions of identity and ambition fit for the 21st century.

As Belfast academic Richard English notes in his recent tome, nationalism remains one of the most succesful forms of political expression around the globe for good reason. It transcends, class and generation. It has the capacity to bridge creed and often provides a shared space for those of differing (left-right) ideological outlooks. Whilst Connolly said the cause of Labour is the Cause of Ireland,  it is also true for the very many of a ‘nationalist’ outlook on this island the cause of business or indeed the cause of science are also the cause of Ireland.

Unity is the central objective of Irish nationalism. The lack of agreement between the large nationalist parties on this island about what a united Ireland might look like is arguably the greatest threat to it ever achieving its central objective.  Because of the absence of an agreed vision of unity, it has become a party political issue with different nationalist parties seeking to ‘out green’ each other on an issue which should really unite them.

There is a constituency looking for a new Ireland.

Younger generations are disinterested in re-running the old battles of the past. Old ideologues are looking increasingly out of touch and old ideologies feel more and more irrelevant to the lives and challenges facing ordinary working people and families across this island.

The time has come for some positive and progressive nationalism. Credible on unity but not solely defined by it. Capable of speaking to working families, business people and international investors in language they understand. Strong on conversation and not confrontation, with sustainability at its heart and innovation in its DNA. A modern politics for a 21st century Ireland. in short a politics that can ignite conversations and unlock ambition in every county at the same time as being respectful and credible to unionism.

Before we can develop a stratgy fro unity we need a vision for this island not just in 2016 but in 2026 and beyond.

This is the great opportunity for a new generation of Irish politicians ansd civic leaders.

Let’s get creative about the economy

Can Northern Ireland become a creative economy and what is a creative economy anyway?

My boss and Weber Shandwick CEO in Europe, Colin Byrne, often refers to a great book by John Howkins in which he considers the contribution ‘creative industries’ make to the economy. He defines a creative industry as one which make money from ideas. Other economists have also written on this subject, most notably Richard Florida whose books include the Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class.

The interesting thing about these thinkers’ approach to creativity is that they define a creative economy is a much broader sense then you would think. Its not just writers, designers, actors and artists. It also includes lawyers, scientists and dare I say it PR consultants. Anyone who (should) thinks for a living. Creative economies are magnets for ’talented’ people from all over the world, they are places people will move to for work.  The Republic of Ireland has become according to a number of matrix one of the most creative economies on the globe. For centuries a place of artistic creativity it is now also a a major IT and scientific research centre, something that will grow its wealth as well as culture. Even in the face of this savage recession FDI by creative industries has proved resilient in the South. 

Florida identifies three common characteristics of creative economies:

1. Talent – they attract the smartest and most gifted to move their to work;
2. Technology – they have the infrastructure to allow people to work, and;
3. Tolerance – they must be able to accommodate many different types from the IT wizard, the research scientist and the radical artist and make them fell equally at home.

The south has come a long way in the past decade to meet the three T test. The North has the talent and the technology.

But will it transform itself into a tolerant place?

On that note Silicon Republic has a good interview with Cisco Ireland Vice-President, Barry O’Sullivan who says Ireland needs two univeristies in the Global top 50 to maintain its attractiveness for FDI.

“I have a 2:20:200 vision for this country. JFK declared in the Sixties how America would put a man on the moon. Ireland too needs targets that focus on deliverables. I don’t think it could be impossible that we could have two universities in the top 50 universities in the world. We could aim to have 20 companies listed on the NASDAQ and I think we could aim to have 200,000 people working in indigenous Irish innovation companies that include ICT and bio-pharma businesses.”

Out of this World News: Something big has hit Jupiter

There is a new large hole on the surface of Jupiter this week. First spotted by an amateur in Australia the New Hubble telescope snapped this shot.

NASA and the ESA are investigating. The New Scientist reports;

Fifteen years after Jupiter was pummelled by fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, the planet has been struck again, this time by an unseen object estimated to span several football fields….