18 minute read
Marianne Heron
Why women don’t want to be the same as men
AS I SEE IT
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MARIANNE HERON
With International Women’s Day coming up on Tuesday, March 8 it seems a good time to ask what do women want?
Generally we — that is men and women — want the same things. It might be more appropriate to ask what women don’t want. ey don’t want the things that are unfair or that put them in danger.
It’s not fair for instance that women – and men too — should have to pay the equivalent of a hefty mortgage repayment each month for childcare. We are in the Top 10 of Europe’s richest countries where two thirds of married women work. And yet there are no tax credits for working parents, no Government subsidies for childcare as there are in other countries. If parents can nd care that is, what with high insurance costs and low wages are pushing creches and minders out of business.
Unless grandparents are willing to step into the breach (and a fth of over 70s spend over 40 hours a week looking after the little darlings) parents are likely to be snookered with typical costs of around €900 a month for an infant and €800 for after-school care. at’s €1,700 a month, a big factor together with high rents that push home ownership out of reach.
Women don’t want to su er the epidemic gender- based violence either within their homes by partners or by attackers outside. ese will be among the issues raised at a rally organised on Saturday outside the Dail at noon by the National Women’s Council with the theme ‘No Woman Left Behind’.
Research shows that around 15% of women and 6% of men in Ireland have experienced severe domestic violence from a partner and that most women who were intentionally killed in Ireland were killed by a current or former intimate partner. e rate of abuse rose sharply during the pandemic, highlighting the inadequacy of refuges for victims where nine out of 26 counties have no refuge.
Personally, I am not sure that refuges are always the answer, rather than have the abused partner and children ee maybe there should be sin bins for the perpetrators with obligatory counselling. at and classes in school which promote respect between the sexes. e way that women shoulder the burden of caring can be unfair too. Studies show that women still shoulder as much as 80% of work within the home, dubbed the nal frontier of feminism.
Perhaps that one needs teasing out a bit: do women collude a bit here, taking on things they have learned from mothers?
Is there a frontier of masculism too when it comes to looking after cars and DIY? Maybe the situation will be resolved with helpful domestic robots but who is going to x them when they go wrong? Pay in caring work – childcare and elder care – is female dominated with low pay. It needs to be valued more.
Looking back 52 years to the six demands set out in ‘Chains Or Change’ by edgling women’s lib. that time seems like the Dark Ages. eir aims were equal rights in law, equal pay and the removal of the marriage bar, justice for widows, single mothers and deserted wives, equal education, contraceptive rights and one family, one house. at was then and, with the glaring exception of the last demand — given the current housing crisis — much has been achieved. But much still needs to be done. Would this happen more quickly if we had more women in the Dail and in Government? Probably. Just 36 out of 160 TDs are women are there are four only in Cabinet.
Women don’t want to be the same as men, they want things to be fair. After all, we are the Fair Sex.
What’s new for menopause?
CLAIR WHITTY
THERE are lots of supplements to help the journey from perimenopause to menopause and beyond. We have had a couple of new ones in and I mentioned I would tell you about them. is week it’s NORVIA® Menopause and it is proudly produced in Ireland. NORVIA® Menopause is a proteinrich, plant-based, powdered nutritional formula designed to support active women who are experiencing hormonal imbalance and uncomfortable menopause symptoms. It is so easy to take, vanilla avoured and tastes delicious. In a shaker simply add one sachet to 100 ml of water, shake well, drink, and you are ready to go. It’s perfect for those who cannot or do not like to take capsules or tablets.
New research by NORVIA® Nutrition shows that 40% of women living in Ireland in perimenopause and menopause are exercising less due to fatigue from lack of sleep. I think a lot of you will relate to tiredness from lack of sleep. It’s a vicious circle, you can be too tired to exercise, but exercise may help you feel better and perhaps help you get a good night’s sleep. With this in mind, NORVIA® are encouraging you to stretch, exercise and move more because they know that even gentle forms of exercise can improve some of your symptoms. Other factors noted as reasons for not exercising include; weight gain and bloating (19%), changes in mood and feelings of anxiety (10%) as well as aches, pains and sti ness in their joints (9%). I think we can relate to these too. ey are just some of the 40+ common symptoms of perimenopause and menopause.
NORVIA® Menopause was formulated by Dr Lars Høie MD PhD, Dr Philos and contains unique soybean properties including soy iso avones plus B Vitamins, Vitamin D3, Vitamin K, Magnesium and Calcium. NORVIA® Menopause contains Vitamin B6 which contributes to the regulation of hormonal activity and psychological function, vitamin B12 and magnesium which contribute to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, and calcium which contributes to normal muscle function and the maintenance of normal bones. It’s dairy-free, yeastfree, gluten-free, crueltyfree, non-GMO, contains no arti cial colours or preservatives, no MSG and is suitable for Vegan and Vegetarians. Each pack contains 28 one-a-day sachets.
Call in for more advice and information about this interesting new supplement, made in Ireland. Natural Health Store, Market Cross Shopping Centre Phone: 056 7764538 Email: info@ naturalhealthstore.ie Shop online at www. naturalhealthstore.ie
MORE than 50 years on, the son and namesake of Robert F. Kennedy, the New York senator, attorney general and Democratic presidential candidate assassinated on June 5, 1968, has become an unimaginably polarising gure in this tight-knit political family.
Once a top environmental lawyer who led the charge to clean up the Hudson River in New York, the third eldest child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy has emerged as a leading voice in the campaign to discredit coronavirus vaccines and other measures being advanced by the Biden White House to battle a pandemic that was, near the end of February, killing close to 1,900 people a day.
“ e minute they hand you that vaccine passport, every right that you have is transformed into a privilege contingent upon your obedience to arbitrary government dictates,” he told a cheering crowd at a rally against vaccine mandates in Washington last month. “It will make you a slave.”
Kennedy’s rise as the face of the vaccine resistance movement has tested as never before the solidarity of a family that has for decades remained resolute in the face of tragedy and scandal. It has rattled the Hollywood and entertainment circles that he inhabits, while showing how the vaccine debate is upending traditional political alliances.
And it has left the Kennedys and his friends anguished and mysti ed about the dramatic turn in the often troubled life of a man who was a pallbearer at his father’s funeral when he was 14.
And who emerged from drug addiction to become one of the leading environmentalists in the country and who is regarded as among the most politically gifted Kennedys of his generation.
Kennedy has e ectively used his talent and one of the most prominent names in American political history as a platform for fuelling resistance to vaccines that could save countless lives.
His conduct “undercuts 50 years of public health vaccine practice, and he’s done it in a way I’ve never see anyone else do it,” said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “He is among the most dangerous because of the credibility of who he is and what his family name has brought to this issue.”
Blake Fleetwood, a writer who calls Kennedy “an inspiration” and has been a friend and skiing companion since 1971, said he could not understand why Kennedy was “risking his whole life” of activism by “taking on this crusade.”
“Why is he blowing his whole life’s work?” he asked.
Kennedy, 68, began inveighing against vaccines well before the arrival of the coronavirus, contending that they cause autism — a notion that has been soundly rejected by medical experts. But the tenor of his attacks intensi ed with the arrival of Covid vaccinations and brought new scrutiny not only to Kennedy’s positions on vaccines, but to other unorthodox causes he has gravitated to over the years.
Kennedy now says Sirhan Sirhan did not kill Kennedy’s father and has urged California parole commissioners to free him. He has repeated a popular conspiracy theory that 5G high speed transmission towers are being installed across the nation “to harvest our data and control our behaviour.”
In a best-selling new book, he claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser for the coronavirus pandemic, and Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, were in cahoots with the pharmaceutical industry to pro teer o dangerous vaccines. He has amassed a signi cant following on social media, where he circulates what is often false information on the coronavirus and vaccines.
Last year he was barred from Instagram, where he had 800,000 followers, for pushing misinformation on the vaccine. His Facebook page, with more than 300,000 followers, remains online, as does his Twitter account, with over 405,000 followers.
Kennedy declined a request for an interview, saying he was busy in a trial about vaccine damages in Jackson, Tennessee.
THE new Omicron subvariant can reinfect people who’ve previously had omicron, although it doesn’t appear to be all that common, according to Danish scientists. ey also agree that it’s more contagious than the original version of Omicron, BA.1, which is still widely circulating around the world. But it’s surprisingly not driving a second wave of infections. Globally, Covid cases have plunged 21% over the past week. It’s now the top variant in at least 18 countries and rapidly spreading, representing 35% of all new cases that have been genetically sequenced worldwide, up from 10 countries and 21% of cases the week before, according to new data from the World Health Organization (WHO). e scientists have con rmed that the new subvariant can reinfect people who’ve previously had Omicron, although it doesn’t appear to be all that common. ey also agree that it’s more contagious than the original version of omicron, BA.1, which is still widely circulating around the world.
But it’s surprisingly not driving a second wave of omicron infections. Globally, Covid cases have plunged 21% over the past week — subsiding in every region except the Western Paci c — while deaths have fallen 8% over the past week, according to data from the WHO.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said the global health agency is closely monitoring countries that have detected BA.2, but so far the subvariant hasn’t caused a fresh surge in cases.
“As we’re seeing that decline in cases in countries, we’re not seeing an increase again with BA.2,” Van Kerkhove said during a question-and-answer session streamed on the WHO’s social media platforms. e WHO’s Covid variant advisory group looked at South African and Japanese studies, among others, before determining BA.2 should remain classi ed as omicron rather than designating it a separate variant of concern. is suggests the WHO doesn’t currently view BA.2 as a greater threat to global health than omicron in general. e original omicron BA.1 strain demonstrated a substantial ability to escape antibodies induced by the vaccines, leading to many breakthrough infections during the recent surge. Danish scientists found that BA.2 is better at evading vaccine protections than BA.1, according to an earlier study.
A Kennedy’s crusade against vaccines leaves family hurt
What we know now about the new variant
St Luke’s ‘back to bad old days’
NURSES’ representatives have hit out at rising hospital overcrowding, including St Luke’s, as “back to the bad old days” after Covid. e latest gures show there were 9,689 people left waiting on trolleys in hospitals during February. e count from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) is the highest since 2019, before the pandemic hit, when there were 8,500 waiting on trolleys in February 2019.
The worsening situation was sharply criticised by the General Secretary of the INMO, Phil Ní Sheaghdha.
And Sinn Féin spokesperson on Health David Cullinane called for the Minister for Health to ensure that the Emergency Department Taskforce was reconvened.
He said insufficient funding from the Government was fuelling the crisis.
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said: “It has been an incredibly difficult month in Irish hospitals with consistent overcrowding in all parts of the country.
“Our nurses and our midwives are under severe pressure, as they are dealing with huge numbers of Covid and also with non-Covid patients presenting at emergency departments coupled with inadequate staffing levels.
“We are once again back in the bad old days of hospital overcrowding, with numbers of patients on trolleys now exceeding pre-pandemic levels,” she said.
“The INMO has been sounding the alarm on this situation for too long.
“Our members are sick of apologising for the state of our health service to patients who have been waiting an unacceptable amount of time to be treated.
“ is isn’t an issue that is con ned to one part of the country, aside from the top ve overcrowded hospitals, we have seen signi cant overcrowding in St. Vincent’s University Hospital (585 patients) St Luke’s General Hospital, Kilkenny (519 patients), Tipperary University Hospital (216 patients) Midlands Regional Mullingar (266 patients).
“ e Saolta Hospital Group alone makes up for 30% of overcrowding in February.
“Plans to tackle overcrowding in each individual hospital are now badly needed.
“We know that if a patient is on a trolley for more than ve hours it can have a signi cant knock-on impact on their health and indeed their mortality.
Communities take pride of place at local awards night
KILKENNY County Council’s Annual Community Awards Night was held in the Parade Tower in Kilkenny Castle recently where Cathaoirleach Fidelis Doherty hosted an awards ceremony to recognise and acknowledge the contribution of local communities for their endless dedication to projects and to their towns and villages. e Cathaoirleach said: “Community organisations play a key role in driving the overall prosperity and wellbeing in every city and town in every county across the country. Kilkenny has a strong tradition of community co-operation and collaboration. It is important to recognise and reward those communities who come together to work with the Local Authority and state agencies to contribute to this prosperity.
“It has been a very di cult two years for all but despite this it is great to see communities continue to do great work in Kilkenny. e Community Awards event gives us the opportunity to pay tribute to you — groups and individuals — who make a real di erence and a valuable contribution, who go the extra mile and provide example and inspiration to others. We congratulate you, along with all other community groups within the county,” he said. e very popular Kilkenny County Council Grants Booklet was also launched on the night by the Cathaoirleach. is is the council’s fth edition of the booklet, which is available to view online where you can access grant details on mobile phone, home computer and other remote devices. is year’s booklet once again summarises the key elements of the county council’s grants with relevant contacts and the types of works eligible for funding.
Kilkenny County Council’s Chief Executive Colette Byrne also made a presentation on the night giving an overview of projects that were completed and underway throughout the county. Ms Byrne also congratulated all the groups for all the great work in their local communities and for those who also assisted on the ground in helping the most vulnerable during the pandemic.
Pharmacy plan is turned down
Plans for a new pharmacy in Kilkenny city have been rejected by the local authority.
Lou Investments Healthcare Kilkenny Ltd had applied for the planning permission for a change of use for a ground floor unit at the Newpark Primary Care Centre.
It sought for a change of use from a ‘general medical practice’ which was previously granted planned permission to be replaced by a new pharmacy retail unit.
The council declined.
County council looking to invest in your star-up tech ideas ...
THE inaugural ‘Ideas Kilkenny’ competition will open for entries from Monday, March 8, during this year’s Local Enterprise Week. e competition is open to people in Kilkenny with a tech-related business idea or in the early stages of trading (less than 18 months).
If you have an original and innovative idea within the technology sector (eg. agri-tech, AI, e-commerce, ntech, gaming, healthcare, ICT, IOT, robotics, etc.) and intend setting up a business in Kilkenny ,or already in the early stages of development, check out this competition. e initiative will involve a series of business workshops and one-to-one mentoring culminating in a nale comprising of an investor ready pitch for an investment fund worth €10,000 (€6,000 in the Startup Category and €4,000 in the Ideas Category) .
At the launch of the competition, Cathaoirleach Fidelis Doherty said: “ e Local Enterprise O ce is the rst stop for any entrepreneur who is looking to start or grow their business. is competition aims to encourage and support people starting out on their entrepreneurial journey.”
Also speaking at the launch, John Duggan, Founder and Director of Kilkenny based Fintech company Loanitt, now the largest nancial intermediary in Ireland and which started its journey with the council’s Local Enterprise o ce just three years ago, said: “We learnt a lot through Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur Competition in terms of re ning the business proposition and developing an investor ready pitch which helped to prepare for future funding applications.
“ I would encourage anyone with a tech related business idea or start-up to get involved,” said Mr Duggan.
Apllicants can submit their entries via an online application form on www. localenterprise.ie/kilkenny.
Closing date for entries is Wednesday, March 23.
Participants will then be supported to re ne and nalise their business proposal and the winners will be announced at the end of May 2022 following a competitive pitch process.
Our 281 among latest WIT graduates
MORE than 2,500 graduates of 2021 will be conferred with academic awards up to doctorate level over three days of online ceremonies.
Graduates of 2021 possess all the capabilities to become the next generation leaders in their chosen profession, the President of Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) said as the rst of more than 20 conferring ceremonies begins. e conferring of academic awards ceremonies for the WIT’s classes took place on l,ine in the rst week of this month. e ceremonies are livestreamed at www.wit.ie/ conferring.
Of the 2,534 graduates of 2021 being conferred this week 785 are from Waterford City and County (31%). However, WIT graduates hail from all over Ireland with 335 from Wexford (13%), 281 from Kilkenny (11%), 259 from Tipperary (10%), 72 from Carlow (3%), 194 from Cork (8%). In total, 68% of the class of 2021 were from the south east counties of Kilkenny, Waterford, Carlow, Wexford, and Tipperary.
Pro esor Willie Donnelly, President of WIT in his conferring address highlighted the impact of smart technology on career paths.
“ e emergence of the digital society mainly driven by the internet and smart technologies is transforming all aspects of our life to the bene t of society as a whole. No matter what your primary degree and chosen profession it is clear that technology is having a profound impact on your profession. e rate of change in technologies and the emergence of new and exciting career opportunities opens a world of endless career opportunities and job satisfaction,” he said.
“I am con dent that you will embrace these opportunities and that you possess all the capabilities to become the next generation leaders in your chosen profession.”
