I just read a thread on Micro.Blog that I started to reply to and then it got too long - so decided to publish it as a post - and then it got even longer! Sorry.

The conversation was started by @patrickrhone and responded to by @dazeend

It was a short thread. A nice thread. Started by Patrick about Northern Ireland, where Patrick posted this.

Later, in a replied comment to Charles, he referenced a piece from The Independent in the UK … and so to my response referenced at the start.

”Northern Ireland has now been without a government for two years.

Ben Kelly

”The devolved executive and assembly which have powers over the region collapsed in January 2017 owing to ongoing disagreements between the DUP and Sinn Féin, and all attempts to restore power-sharing have since failed.

Ben Kelly

and concluded that :

”The region currently holds the world record for the longest period without a sitting government, which it passed after 589 days.

Ben Kelly

I am bound to ask what Ben Kelly thinks about England.

Northern Ireland is actually governed by the British Parliament, just like England - BUT - unlike Northern Ireland was not granted its own assembly / parliament in 1999/the early ‘oughts’ when Scotland, Ireland and Wales each found themselves with some kind of autonomous government.

In fact …

”There has not been a government of England since 1707, when the Kingdom of England ceased to exist as a sovereign state.”

… which beats a couple of years quite significantly.

But There’s More

As of 2017, the House of Commons comprises 650 constituencies. Just 533 of those are English. To put it another way, 18% of the government that control the laws of England are MPs from a foreign country. (At least if you use the logic of Ben Kelly.

In fact between 2007 and 2010, the Prime Minister was a ‘foreign national’ - again according to the logic Ben uses.

I wonder if that is what the Brexit calm of ’taking back out country really means?

And Then The Irish Question

According to Ben …

”Mr McGuinness then resigned in January 2017 and Sinn Féin announced they would not be replacing him. This stripped Ms Foster of her title as First Minister and collapsed the executive.”

To remind Ben what is own newspaper has to say about Sinn Féin in the past (and yes - one person’s ‘freedom fighter’ is another’s ‘terrorist’ ) - have a read of this

Meanwhile - The Washington Post in 2005 …

”I am talking about the sympathy for the Irish Republican Army that persisted for decades in some Irish American communities and is only now fading away. Like British Muslim support for Muslim extremist terrorism, Irish American support for Irish terrorism came in many forms. There were Irish Americans who waved the Irish flag once a year on St. Patrick’s Day and admired the IRA’s cause but felt queasy about the methods. There were Irish Americans who collected money for Catholic charities in Northern Ireland without condoning the IRA at all. There were also Irish Americans who, while claiming to be “aiding the families of political prisoners,” were in fact helping to arm IRA terrorists. Throughout the 1970s, until Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher asked President Ronald Reagan to stop them, they were the IRA’s primary source of funding. And even after that they were widely tolerated.

”I concede there is one major difference: The Irish terrorists were setting off their bombs across the ocean and not in New York or Boston, which somehow made the whole thing seem less real. But in Britain the explosions were real enough.

American’s funding terrorists on the other side of the world? I wondered where that idea came from?

But let’s just get back to the DUP and Sinn Fein a moment. (The two parties that squabbled causing the devolution of the Northern Ireland assembly).

The DUP is of course the reason the Conservatives even have a majority in the British House of Commons.

Sinn Fein also have elected officials who are in their rights to assume positions in the Houses of Parliament. But they choose not to because to do so they would need to swear allegiance to the Queen. Something of course that doesn’t exactly sit well with them.

They are also opposed to the UK leaving Europe. DUP seem to be all for it - why else would they continue to support a Prime Minister hell bent on exiting the EU?

And yet - should the UK leave the EU - I think it is highly likely that Northern Ireland will exit the UK and so Éire will be united once more.

Previously pieces by yours truly that relate …

Happy St. George’s Day and Brexit - It’s About Freedom Choice and Democracy.

↩️ politics

August 27, 2019

Following Your Passion. Finding Your Purpose

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‘Real Stories | Real People’ is a new occasional series that will start to appear on this blog in the not too distant future. But that’s not the point of the newsletter. The point was first to share the story of Richard Montañez.

The second was to ask you to think about success. What is it. And more importantly - is it uner your control. It isn’t as clear cut as you might think.

Newsletter passion purpose real people real stories success ted talk archive.pf.business

August 22, 2019

The Pain Of Boiling An Ocean

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Sometimes the task in front of me seems to be so large and never-ending that I get despondent. And then I read something like this and I just tell myself to shut up and get on with it.

John Steinbeck

I wouldn’t normally link to something like this - at least not on this blog - but this morning I also happened to catch Rob Long’s Martini Shot Podcast … a ‘shot’ in the arm over a few minutes. It’s the one dated August 21st that I want you to listen to. Sage advice and not far off from what I was writing about in this week’s newsletter and then seeing this … well ‘put up or shut up’ as they say.

“I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this.”

John Steinbeck [efn_note]Steinbeck is one of the four John’s that I constantly reference and have read ‘everything’ that they have written.[/efn_note]

He was talking about The Grapes of Wrath, a tour de force that he wrote in 100 days in 1938. It was published in 1939. One Hundred Days.

Read The Guardian Article Here

“It isn’t the great book I had hoped it would be. It’s just a run-of-the-mill book.” A year later, it won the Pulitzer prize. Eighty years on, it’s sold more than 14m copies.

The Guardian

Bottom line. Get on with it John. (This John that is).

john steinbeck People First the grapes of wrath writing archive.pf.business

August 22, 2019

Questionnaire

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It a little more political than the usual People First fayre - but the fact is everything … everything … is becoming political in these times. So, why not.

How much poison are you willing
to eat for the success of the free
market and global trade? Please
name your preferred poisons.

For the sake of goodness, how much
evil are you willing to do?
Fill in the following blanks
with the names of your favorite evils
and acts of hatred.

What sacrifices are you prepared
to make for culture and civilization?
Please list the monuments, shrines,
and works of art you would
most willingly destroy.

In the name of patriotism and
the flag, how much of our beloved
land are you willing to desecrate?
List in the following spaces
the mountains, rivers, towns, farms
you could most readily do without.

State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes,
the energy sources, the kinds of security,
for which you would kill a child.
Name, please, the children whom
you would be willing to kill.

Wendell Berry

The amazing Maria Popova and her Brain Pickings site is the source for this poem. She is writing a lot more about it over there. But if I were to tell you that it includes a live reading of the poem by Amada Palmer - would that convince you to click through?

amanda palmer People First poem politics questions wendell berry archive.pf.business

August 22, 2019

Employee Experience and Motivation

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At Booming Toptal, No Stock for Employees or Investors

I mean none - 100% owned by Taso Du Val and I assume none by all the rest on this page.

As Toptal’s Chief Executive Officer, Taso manages Toptal’s core team of hundreds of team members distributed throughout the world, with a focus on innovation. Since Toptal was founded in 2010, Taso has led it to become the largest high-skilled, on-demand talent network in the world. Taso serves on the board of multiple organizations, advising on talent strategy and innovation for Fortune 100s and nonprofits. Taso has guest lectured at Harvard Business School, Wharton, and Oxford on talent management and entrepreneurship.

Toptal’s Web Site

Anyway, what he does and how he runs his business is - well - his business. But it got me to wondering … what he is advising those other companies to do when it comes to employee engagement? Employee motivation?

From where I sit, these words resonate;

What a shitty situation for employees and seed investors:

Founder (CEO) raised $1.5M seed round in convertible notes

Notes convert IF the company raises additional funding

Employees were promised stock IF the company raises more money

The company is profitable ?

The founder has no intention to raise more funding ?

Employees and seed investors own 0% ?

Founder owns 100% ?

Employee contracts and notes should include a clause to convert in the event of liquidation or change in ownership.

Kai Gradert writing on Angel.co

Yes - shitty indeed - but VCs and Angel investors should be covering themselves .. no? Likewise staff? I mean why would anybody agree to join a start up with zero options?

No. It might seem unfair - but this is a case of needing to look before you leap. Promises mean bugger all. BUT …

But, what I do worry about is that advice. he’s giving. Are we going to see more of this?

employee experience value Work archive.pf.business

August 21, 2019

‘Fitting In’ Might Be All Bullshit

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It’s easy enough to carry a Legal and General umbrella in a sea of ‘bankers black umbrellas’, it’s a very different proposition to take a more meaningful stand against the status quo.

Newsletter summary archive.pf.business

August 21, 2019

5-512 5-512

🎵 So is Just Good Music a project we should continue?

Does it add meaningful value to the Micro Blog Community?

@justgoodmusic and @johnphilpin thinking aloud.

🎧 🎵 archive.justgoodmusic

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