There is something on my mind for a long time that I would like to share with anyone who cares to read or listen…

I have travelled a lot over the years and have seen many different cultures. What’s right in one place is completely wrong in another. There are a few basic human traits that I have noticed everywhere, and I can only put them down to human nature, which seems to me to be the common language, and which is stronger than any culture. It’s a higher level of understanding which surpasses all cultures and religions, as I understand it. When you get to this level of understanding, life becomes a little bit easier, or has done so, in my experience. Be very careful of what you read here because this is just my opinion and it could be complete shit, but it’s based on what experience (or lack of it!) I have of life.

The main point which I want to make is that across all cultures and religions greed, selfishness, dishonesty and jealousy are the roots of everything that goes wrong in this world, regardless of one´s intelligence (or lack of it).

If we could only control these conditions in the human being, what a great party we could all have! To control these human conditions takes effort, but it leads to a much better result than not to.

Sometimes greed is expressed through ego, sometimes through material things, but it’s still all greed, whichever way you look at it, same as is jealousy.

Like everyone else, I have been as guilty as hell but I spend a lot of time trying not to be. I can’t stand anything that separates people, and I love anything that brings people together, regardless of nationality, culture or religion. I’m always trying to find the common ground and not the uncommon, but I don’t always succeed.

If you look at capitalism and communism, you quickly understand that communism is fantastic on paper, but capitalism suits human nature much better. I have lived in the former USSR for a period and all of the older folk would much prefer to have communism back. They felt safe. They didn’t have a lot by Western standards (materially), but they had a lot more than the Third World. They didn’t know this as they were kept in the dark, but they will tell you that they went to work, they had their apartment, a Lada car and a holiday every year. They had enough. The truth of it is that this system may well have lasted, only for the fact that the USSR engaged in the Cold War, which cost billions of any currency you wish to choose, and ultimately ended with the fall of the USSR.

One of the saddest things I have ever witnessed in my lifetime was the collapse of the Russian Rubel – not because a currency collapsed, but because there were hard working people who had saved for their pensions all their lives and they lost everything in a week.  When you meet highly educated or intelligent (not always the same) hard working people begging in cold train stations in their 60s +, it makes you sick to the bone.  You listen to their stories and it would kill you.  I have lived with these people in the same house and got to know them.  The lucky ones had sons or daughters who got out to the West and sent money back home so their parents had a comfortable living.  The unlucky ones… you don’t want to know.  Again, the whole lot of this human suffering was caused because of greed or pride/ego.  Will we ever learn?

To be half fair, in the Russian situation they seemed to me to be more on the defensive after the Second World War, after what Germany did to them, and wanted to make sure that it never happened again.  I know there were desperate atrocities carried out by the Russian establishments long before the Second World War against the Russian people as well (which is a different story), but again leads back to the same thing:  control caused by greed, ego etc etc.

I feel that no human being has the right to determine where another lives or not.  Forget communism and capitalism for the moment.  If everybody in this world was able to travel and trade free, we would come to a situation where every human being had at least an equal opportunity to share in the World´s wealth.  Who the f*ck do we think we are to tell another human that he cannot go here or there because of his colour/nationality or culture?  Open your minds and your doors, don’t be afraid and the results will surprise you.

I have today read two things in the papers that caught my attention and are very relevant to this topic.  The first I read was about a tribe of 240 people called the Zoe (I think, I put the magazine in the bin and when I went back to check the name someone had put more waste on top of it and I wasn’t willing to dig through it to get the name right!).  This tribe are and have been living in stone age times and are protected by the Brazilian government.  They have no contact with the World as we know it.  They have been watched and studied, just like wild animals would be for a documentary.  They don’t wear clothes, they kill only what they need to eat, and no more.  They have straw built tents and they sleep in anyone they want to, with whoever they want to.  They have no crazy man invented rules, and they share everything automatically.  Disputes are solved by tickling – whoever laughs the first loses.  They know f*ck all about religion, never mind penalty points or traffic lights, and yet they live in perfect harmony in their ignorance – or maybe it’s our ignorance.  Back to basics, and this is as close as you would get to human nature at its best before we were corrupted by all kinds of rules and sh*t.

The second thing that I read today was that the English government want the English flag displayed much more and have lifted old rules which say that the flag can only be flown at half mast with the consent of the Queen.  So now it is OK to fly the flag at half mast if a local (good person) dies in the community, without the permission of the Queen.  They want to fly the English flag from every government building in the country and they are encouraging people to fly it from their homes as well to get back their identity, regardless of whether it’s England or anywhere else!  Did you ever hear such f*cking bullsh*t in your life?!  Anyone who has to identify themselves with a flag is as insecure a human being as you will meet on any road.

I am Irish (culturally) and I am proud of it, but not nationally.  I see the Irish flag as a sign of “welcome”, whereas the English (and only the English that would support this shit, which is not all English, by any means) see this as a defensive measure.  They feel they are losing their identity and need to get it back in this stupid way.  I also know that there are many Irish that think we should not let any foreigners into Ireland, but they too are the greedy, trying to protect what they have and not share with other fellow human beings because of their own insecurities.

As far as I am concerned, anyone who is willing to pull their weight should be welcome in any society.
If I ever go missing, I will be with the Zoes in North Brazil, but I don’t expect that they would accept me after being so corrupted by all kinds of organisations making rules of how I should and shouldn’t live.  Where will I go then?  I will be simply f*cked if the Zoes don’t accept me!!!!

Murphy

It’s so easy to write a blog post about George Bush – it’s called “Bush Bashing” – and it’s simple because it’s easy to pick on a donkey.  But here are a few of my thoughts.

How responsible is George for the state of the World today? You could say that he fucked the World up economically and humanly better than anyone else could have done, and you would be right.  Was he responsible on his own for this? No way.  But who *was*?

The stupid people of the United States were. Ok, they elected him the first time and it was a mistake, which we are all entitled to make, but not the second time!  Then you will hear folk say that the second election was rigged, but as far as I know, it was only rigged by 1 or 2%. How did he even get that close? You, the people of the United States who voted the moron in the second time are every bit as guilty as him for the huge amount of human suffering that you have caused, and the economic wellbeing of the whole f*cking planet. Your money has been spent on killing innocent human beings and you *voted* for this.

Is an army democratic or is it the case when you sign up to an army you lose the power of your actions?  If there was a secret vote taken by the troops who are in Iraq and Afghanistan, what would the outcome be?  If the outcome was that this was a wrong war to be fighting, would they have the freedom to leave Iraq without losing their jobs as soldiers which they use the income to provide for their families?

Any decent human being, in my opinion, has a right to earn an income as a soldier, to defend their country or fight against right and wrong in the human race, but they were led into battle under the pretence that Sadam had the power to take out England and the States with nuclear power.  The fact is he hadn’t the power to even take out Iraq and when the Allied Forces realised that, should the soldier on the ground not have the power to decide to go home without facing court marshall, or the threat of losing his job?  He was sent there under the pretence of protecting his people, which is why he signed up to the army in the first place.

I remember watching live TV of the invasion of Iraq and thinking to myself “what is going to happen here”? I, like everyone else, thought that the Allies were really up against it and that anything could happen to the whole World, with all this nuclear power.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when, not long into the war, I was watching the US troops pulling down a statue of Sadam in Baghdad and then putting a US flag on top of it, which was the real feeling amongst a lot of the US troops on live television.  Obviously someone realised quickly that this was wrong and the flag only lasted about 30 seconds.  I won’t forget that 30 seconds ever.  It made a huge statment to me.

It’s also my humble opinion that Bush should face a court for his *war crimes* and that he be imprisoned accordingly.  I also feel all those who voted for him should pay the price as well, even though they already are, in as much as US citizens are welcome nowhere now and are looked upon as, at the very least, very stupid, arrogant people.  This of course is not true of all of them as there were an awful lot of them who did not vote for Bush the second time around, or even the first.

The Irish side to this story was highlighted on Paddy’s Day when Bertie Ahern was pictured smiling like a Cheshire Cat giving Bush a bowl of shamrock, which is now flushed down the sewers and has ended up in some waste facility in Washington.  We all know how much the the American economy contributes to the Irish economy and that without that support we are doomed – but let me tell you now (as Ian Paisley used to say) that the companies and their MDs in the States that have manufacturing facilities in Ireland are not stupid, and they know that this war is ridiculous.  When Bertie goes and looks so comfortable with Bush, I hope he knows first of all that he is not representing 99%of the Irish population, and second of all, that he is not fooling the people who really matter in the US, as far as the economy goes.  Bertie, if you smile and mix with a fool, you could very easily become one.

Us Irish have great connections in the States and a lot of good connections with very honourable people.  We should not promote or be seen to endorse the a*seholes over there who believe that this war is justified, because then the decent US citizens won’t have any regard for us – and rightly so.  On the other hand, when we are so reliant on the US, I can understand the way of thinking “let’s stick with Bush, as there are only 9 months of the moron left anyway”.  I think my first point stands up better.  It would be much better for Bertie to say to the citizens of the States that we are 100% behind the States in any way that is correct, but regardless of how much we depend on ye, we will not endorse a stupid war like this.  I feel we would command a lot more respect from the real people that matter in the States just by being honest, and for our honesty long after Bush is gone and hopefully locked up.

Finally, I do believe that Bertie also thinks that this war and Bush are a disaster, but he feels that it would be the wrong thing to come out with it. I could be very very wrong here presuming so much, but I doubt it.

The next piece I want to bore you with has to do with why wars happen anyway, in my opinion, and the human condition that causes them.

Another day.

Murphy

P.S. George, if by any chance you still have that bowl of shamrock, shove it up your anal passage until it reaches your false teeth.
Lots of love from the Irish on Paddy’s Day!

Beauties and professional models Aoife Coogan (Miss Ireland 2005) and Jenny Lee Masterson were over earlier this week and they were such lucky girls to get to pose with me….

We would like to apologise for the behaviour of some of the PRs and some of their employers on the steet outside of Centro Atlantico.  Despite the many times that we rang the police, they (the PRs) keep re-appearing, as the police cannot devote so much time to this issue, understandably. (For those of you who don´t know what PRs are, they are those annoying young men and women who hassle the crap out of you on the street to get you to come into their club/bar. )

When we re-opened Charlies one and a half years ago, we didn’t want to have any PRs on the street, as we understand they can be a pain in the a*se, annoying people. We then had to put PRs down there because the others were telling customers that Charlies was closed/Charlies doesn’t open until 12, when we actually open at 9 etc etc.

We were very careful to choose intelligent, friendly PRs who are not “in your face” to protect our interest on the street.

Some of the other PRs will offer two drinks for the price of one etc etc etc.  Any reasonably intelligent people would know that you would only have to do things like that if you had a sh*t pub with nothing going for it and you had to give away cheap drink for nothing to get people in.

We don’t want the type of people that want cheap free drink in Charlies anyway, apart from the fact that some of the bars charge twice the price for the third drink and put up the prices again after a certain hour when people are a little looser, and they are welcome to those idiots that can’t see through that…

We take a lot of pride in our live music/staff and the atmosphere in Charlies, and wish to apologise again for some of these a*seholes on the street – but there is nothing we can do about it.

Once you get up the steps and into Charlies you won’t be bothered by anyone from then on – unless you want to be!!!!!!

This is a touch of absolute genious of the highest order. They MOVED Paddy´s Day from 17th to15th March!!!!

I want to commend Brian Cowan(Minister for Finance) for having the ability to think outside the box. His toughts: the building industry is f*cked, we are down on stamp duty and capital gains tax. so if the bastards (the public) won’t buy houses, they will buy drink!!! Let’s have TWO paddy’s days! Cute Irish f*cker, but did he ever think of the national and international concequences?!

First of all the snakes will come back to Ireland with the small little green men (who, by the way, for you other nationalities are nearly extinct and are now a protected species) will multiply again and they will head for Leinster House to chew the a*se off Brian Cowen first, after eating all the cob webs out of his wallet!

Can you imagine the turmoil in Japan and the States, let alone with our new Polish residents! Nobody will know what day of the week Paddy´s Day is anywhere and the Chinese walking around in a daze scratching their heads of green hair.

Shergard will probably reappear out of a tin of dog food, ridden by Princess Di and not Lord Lucan.

People back home, will be saying “sure, I met you in Charlies on Paddy´s Day”. Paddy’s Day…. which one???

The whole world is fucked up and confused to get a few quid in to the government´s hands. Now jesus won’t know when to die and when to reappear, not to mind when to celebrate his birthday, which in turn will fuck up Santa Claus and the kids of the world.

Our friends in the North won’t know the start or the finish of the marching season and the starting date of the Olympics will be 2 days late, or is it early in 2012???

Flights will be missed all over the world by millions for evermore as the clocks fly backwards and we all get jet lag without moving anywhere.

I´m dizzy, I´m spinning, the world is all confused. Help help help, I need to hold on to something…

AH!!! A pint of Guinness in the only consistent place in the World – Charlies in Lanzarote!! Thank God.

Jesus, easy on the sauce next year, Brian!

I would like to know what the customers of Charlies think re the smoking ban.I get mixed views from people coming from Ireland and the Uk, both smokers and non-smokers. I was talking to a lady from Macroom in County Cork about this in Charlies the other night and we both agreed, being smokers, that too much smoke isn’t pleasant regardless of whether you smoke or not. We also agreed that smoking a cigarette outside Charlies is no problem because it’s warm in Lanzarote and there is a terrace with seats there. We also agreed that a lot of the craic is now *outside* the pubs in Ireland because you get to talk to people that you wouldn’t have otherwise met. But the weather is shit at home and you freeze!

I came up with the idea that maybe when the Charlies inside gets too smoky we should announce from the stage that for the remainder of the night we would appreciate if people could smoke outside.

Let´s hold a poll with the following questions:

1) Are you a smoker or non-smoker?

2) Should we ban smoking in Charlies completely?

3) Should we run with my idea?

4) Or should we leave well alone as is?

Right, I’m off to Charlies now for a pint and a smoke, adios!

P.S. There´s also a proper POLL that you can vote on re. this subject, on the front page of the Charlies website….

We spent about four hours getting the sound right in Charlies yesterday for the first Aslan gig, but my God, was it worth it!!!!

They came onstage at 9.30 and blew the place away. The power in Christy’s voice in such an intimate venue was unreal. You can see that it’s so easy for him because he isn’t singing with his brain, nor his voice – it’s all just simply coming from his *soul*. He, like the rest of the lads, looked so comfortable on stage and he was rising the crowd with banter in between the songs in a brilliant relaxed, natural way. They all made it look so easy, but the energy they play with is amazing.

All of them are so professional to work with and a great craic as well. I spent an hour with Christy the day they arrived and some of the stories he told me were so funny… but even more funny was the way he told them. That man is some survivor and a completely open, natural, honest human being – something you don’t meet too often these days.

The only thing we didn’t talk about was music. He was walking down the street last night and one of our PR´s that didn’t recognise him tried to get him to go to Charlies to see Aslan. Christy convinced the PR that Aslan were crap! What more can you say.

Aslan were followed by our own band “Skin & Hide” and Aslan´s guitarist Billy McGuinness got on stage singing with them and brought half the crowd with him, again creating a wild atmosphere.

From myself, the staff and Skin & Hide,we would all like to thank Aslan for coming to play at Charlies here in Lanzarote. We hope they will make this an anual event! It’s always great to mix with decent folk, both on and off the stage.

Now we look forward to their Tuesday and Thursday gigs. Tickets available at the door (30 Euros) and the doors open at 8.30 pm. Here’s to the long health of them all.

Another photo here (and many more in the Photo Gallery!!!):

I read this morning that sadly two Polish lads were stabbed to death in Dublin, because they wouldn’t buy alcohol for teenagers in an off-licence.

There is no point in me writing the obvious here, except to say that as a human being and an Irish person, I feel sick to think that this could happen but it would have probably happened if they were Irish as well. The sister of one of the lads was quoted as saying “she didn’t hate the Irish or Ireland because of this and that it could have happened anywhere in the World. This is a very kind statement for somebody who has been so devastated.

What really struck me about this article was that it was said, that some of the scum that did this came from dysfunctional families. I came from a pretty dysfunctional family myself growing up, had a few soft brushes with the law as a teenager which I am not proud of, but they were nothing serious. They were more serious to me than anyone else and still at times bother me. Everybody else forgave me, except myself.

I remember I was in big trouble when I was 19 years old (not with the law this time) and I went to my family for help. But I didn’t get help and I felt so alone. Then I was walking down a road in Cork feeling sorry for myself, when I thought that I had no business blaming anyone for the way my life was going anymore. The one and only person that was responsible for my life and the way I would live, was myself. “Forget the past” I told myself. Today is the day and it’s up to me and me only to shape that day. This was a big turning point in my life, and 24 years later I can still see, hear and smell that day walking in Cork as if it was yesterday.

The point I am trying to make here (probably badly!) is, who is resposible for these two lifes cut so short? If people cannot handle their children, should they not be imprisoned as well as the children themselves? It seems to me that if a parent has lost control of a child they should report it and be willing to testify against the child. In a lot of these cases the parents go and defend the child and that is when, in my opinion, if the child is found guilty the parent should do an equal amount of time.

The question is when is a child responsible for their own actions? If a child is allowed to hold a driving licence for a car at 17, that is probably the age when they should be responsible for their own actions without the parents being implicated. But there are people far better qualified than me to comment on this issue. I am only going by my own experience.

Despite that I came from a disfunctional family growing up, I could never see this as an excuse to stick a screwdriver in the side of somebody´s head – on the contrary, it made me love people more and accept love and friendship from anywhere it came, which in itself would leave you a little vulnerable at times, but you learn along the road of life as we all do. For sure, it is better to get hurt from love now and again than to be hurting others in the way that these scum finished the lives of the two Polish lads.

An interesting question is what would you do with whoever commited these murders? If you rehabilitated them properly to have a conscience, they wouldn’t be able to live with themselves anyway for what they did.

I believe that we should dedicate one of the islands off the coast of Ireland to be a prison for those who commit any violent crime of this nature. There should be no prison staff and the inmates should be given food and water until they die or kill each other, whichever suits them. We should not waste any state funds beyond what is absolutely necessary on these thugs. And, as i said, if they are kids, the parents should be put on the island with them if they are not going to testify against them and report them.

It was nice to read that the residents of Drimnagh were so strongly united with our politicians in supporting the families of Pavel Kalite and Marius Szwajkos, which is only what you would expect anyway from any decent human being.

It makes no difference to me what nationality these lads were. The bottom line is that they have passed away, leaving two families devastated, as well as many friends I am sure.
May they rest in peace.