RADIO REVIEW: RODNEY RICE is the right side of affable, missing bland by the skin of his chinny-chin-chin. (But aren't we all? Or so we'd like to think.)
On Saturday View (RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday), according to the RTÉ website, he and producer Noelle O'Reilly "sniff the political winds" to pick the most important stories of the day. It's a little too much of a canine-related expression for my liking. If I were them, which I know I'm not, I'd change it.
In his opening, Rice cited a "sinking economy", which seemed a bit over-perfumed, "a Taoiseach in denial", which didn't, "ministers in the Amazon", and asked, "Have we wasted the Tiger? Does our government know how to save us? Even from ourselves? Or were we ever a deeply spiritual, cultural, thoughtful, racial collage? Are we just a greedy bunch of modern materialists?"
Must we be one or the other? Can't we be a bit of both? Rice introduced his panel as follows: Séamus Brennan, Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism; Frances Fitzgerald, the Fine Gael leader in the Seanad; Brendan Keenan, group business editor of Independent Newspapers; Gina Menzies, a theologian; and Sabina Wasik, "one of what we call, though without thinking what it means, the New Irish. She's a Polish-born graduate, now a freelance journalist with the Polski Herald, having previously been a waitress and a tour guide".
Isn't she a grand girl all the same? Firstly, I don't think you can be born a graduate. Secondly, Rice was informing us that Wasik has a degree, and found her feet after she first arrived here nearly four years ago. Are Brennan, Fitzgerald, Keenan or Menzies graduates? And do we care? Thirdly, who gives a fiddler's figroll what Wasik used to be? Fitzgerald used to be a social worker. Menzies is also a mother. We weren't told that.
In his previous life, Brennan used to be Minister for Social and Family Affairs. He didn't get a St Patrick's Day junket this year, but had a €1,650 per night Italian hotel room last year, which he blamed on the Embassy. "I regret that," Brennan said. Rice said he would know a €1,650 hotel room if he saw one. Brennan added, comically, "I was only there for two nights."
Fourthly, as for the New Irish tagline, unless Wasik has decided to take Irish citizenship, it's equally unnecessary. I lived in the UK for five years and I didn't want anyone to take ownership of me in one big collective cuddle, squashing the life out of my own citizenship, calling me the "New English", even as a precious term of endearment. "Sabina Wasik, Polish writer" would have done just fine.
Rice asked Wasik how many Polish wanted to stay. Citing the cost of living, she quoted a study saying 50 per cent want to return and said immigrants follow work. Brennan asked - "Sabina, isn't it?" - if she knew how many go home and don't come back. If our own ministers - Séamus, isn't it? - don't know such basic facts about immigration, it explains a lot. And does he think she stands in Dublin Airport counting them?
Voice of America is a US government-funded broadcaster that first went on air in 1942 and claims 115 million listeners worldwide (you can listen on voanews.com). On Monday, Dorian Jones reported from Istanbul on Islamic headscarves, which have been banned in schools and universities since the 1980s, though Turkish president Abdullah Gül approved reforms on the ban, which looks unlikely to go silky smoothly.
About 98 per cent of Turkey's population is Muslim and up to 70 per cent of women are covered, Jones said. He spoke to Huand Gokcen, who travels to Como to buy brightly coloured scarves in snazzy patterns by Fendi or Chanel for her rich, and religious, clientele. Despite some scarves costing €400 to €500, it apparently doesn't contradict the modesty these scarves are supposed to promote. Yes, folks, guess what? Turkish women like fashion too.
Western style was a topic on Today (BBC Radio 4, Mon-Fri). On Thursday, Paul Wood recounted his time in Basra to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraqi invasion: "Over the past year, over 100 women were murdered for wearing make-up or Western dress in Basra. Some were left in the street with their eyes gouged out for a warning. Those with money have fled, the middle-class feel betrayed. That is the legacy we leave in Basra."
Major General Barney White-Spunner, senior British commander in Basra, was asked if the city's chaos was fuelled by the army's behaviour there and the disbandment of the Iraqi army. "I wasn't here when the Iraqi army was disbanded," he said. "My experience is of a new Iraqi army, a new Iraqi peace service. I don't really see the value of raking over past decisions." Hmm . . . I think we can take that as a yes.
He didn't exactly agree that Basra is a place of lawlessness and violence either. "That's a bit gloomy, to be honest," he said. "Basra isn't Godalming and Guildford. We don't pretend it is. The phrase I hear among my friends in Basra is they want to be Dubai, they don't want to be Mogadishu. I don't want to pretend it's perfect. It is improving." For someone who still has his eyes, that's quite an observation.