International Politics

Sometimes I'm just stunned by how wonderful the internet is. It's terrific!

Browsing Magicmum this morning with Tweetdeck running George Lee's name cropped up everywhere all at once. It attracted me as I'd had a conversation with my Dad last night about him. I don't know much but here goes.

George Lee was an economic correspondant in RTE, Ireland's national broadcaster. In the economic recession of the last few years he was very busy and very well respected. Then he joined Fine Gael, the opposition political party. He was elected in Dublin south nine months ago.

So Dad was saying he'd been holding meetings and so on in the last while, but that he hadn't appeared to influence party policy in any way. Dad was wondering if Fine Gael was taking full advantage of his economic mindset.

Now lunchtime today, just in time for the one o'clock news, he resigned, not just from Fine Gael but from his seat in the Dail (Irish parliament). In double quick time he appeared on the 'News at One' on RTE, on Newstalk and currently he's getting an earful from a member of his constituency on 'Liveline'. Liveline is a national institution, hosted by Joe Duffy, it allows anyone to call in a make a comment on whatever is being discussed. And I could listen over the internet to all these interviews.

On Twitter he caused a terrible amount of confusion when the #Glee hashtag was taken over by Irish politics in place of an American high school musical.

But there were some fantastic one-liners:
@DeclanFlynn George Lee & Charlie Bird to star in new RTE reality show, Celebrity Big Baby. #georgelee
(Reference to another RTE reporter coming home early after a shorter-than-expected stint abroad)
@Padraig #georgelee is quitting over a lack of influence over the policy of a party that has no power to implement it.
@urchinette God, George Lee is such a ridiculous baby. Did he think that just cos he's famous he'd suddenly become a leading politician?
@RositaBoland Cover your ears. The sound of George Lee whining on the News at One right now might just blast your eardrums
@eoinpurcell How hilarious is it that the OPPOSITION is imploding when the economy is in the toilet?
@RositaBoland He's unstoppable. There is nothing #georgelee is not saying "I don't like your preachy voice"!! to the female caller on liveline!

And two new Facebook pages too:
Who cares if George left Fine Gael group
George Lee: Don't let the door hit you on the ass as you leave the Dail page

And he's been caricatured too Caricatures Ireland

So whether I think he should have resigned or not; whether it was ego or not; whether he's causing greater economic hardship by forcing a by-election; whether Fine Gael are right or wrong; whether Fine Gael will win or lose (again) the next election; or whether it's all a bit irrelevant to me (the hard truth of the long-term expat); I could still instantly access a range of opinions and facts and even hear the man himself.

Tweet, tweet!

I joined Twitter the other day out of curiosity. I don't really understand the concept, why limit yourself to 140 characters while trying to have a conversation. But it's not really about talking, it's about texting on a computer, and I have to admit I only ever manage short texted conversations, time delays and other things always seem to get in the way.

The Twitter website is a little obtuse to use. Setting up the account was easy enough, though living in the 'Rest of the World' meant I could sign up to send tweets from my phone, but couldn't receive any updates so I skipped that step. It's not easy to find people and it won't allow me to import any contacts from Outlook, though it will from web-based email providers. I started following Maryb without realising I had. And was pleasantly surprised to find that I gained a follower (thanks, Deborah!) without ever having tweeted.

Having browsed a bit it seems that most people use another application, either web-based or downloaded to your computer, to keep track of Twitter such as TweetDeck or TweetChat. Some make it easier to follow chats, where everyone puts a hashtag in their tweets so they are grouped together (as in #xxxchat); and replies, where you address your tweet to a particular person (as in @username). Perhaps it all becomes second nature but I'm not convinced. Still I'll take a gander at #litchat tomorrow as Anastasia is hosting a discussion about expat literature.

So between forums and email and Facebook and now Twitter I spend my time rattling around cyberspace trying to communicate, yet I'm terrible at keeping in touch with people. I miss face-to-face interaction in English and find all the substitutes lacking in some way. Skype or MSN should be better but unfortunately in this house they result in an authority vacuum, so as I try to have a serious conversation, my mother watches as the children cut their doll's hair, raid the kitchen presses and finally climb on my head. It's a little distracting to say the least.

Perhaps I should admit I'm looking for the impossible and accept the substitutes with their failings or maybe I should just get out more....