IT: Ireland Most Globalised country- Still ranks low in re: Internet

b20uvkft6m5xwg

We are now officially the most globailised country of the western world (1 out of 62), but still rank 24th on Internet usage. Alhough it does acknowledge things are improving. Just think how ironic the whole thing is that we still have this piss poor level of comms but still continue to score high in these kind of surveys.

If you have an Irish Times sub on the web you can see it here...
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2003/0108/3580958693HM8GLOBAL1.html but I have attached the full text as well.

In other areas the Republic scores less well. The survey measured Internet users, Internet hosts and secure servers as a measure of technological globalisation. Here Ireland scored less highly, particularly on Internet users where it ranked 24th. Internet use has continued to grow over the past year and Ireland's international interconnectedness has improved through the major Global Crossing project. However, the high cost - and in some cases lack of availability - of high speed Internet connections is a major block to progress in this area.

pork99

most globalised country of the western world = white-collar sweatshop for multi-national corporations

I'm sure Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Baltic States etc will be challenging this position soon. (The Czech Republic has the highest standard of Maths education in the world apparentely and I get the impression that there is a big emphasis on science and technology in those countries' education systems generally)

I saw some stats somewhere that put Ireland way down the league in tech innovation, patents applied for etc.

LFCFan

sure didn't our forward thinking government scrap Science in primary schools eons ago in favour of Irish and also force kids to learn everything through what was basically a 'foreign' language. It's no wonder the countrie's as bad as it is.

MDR

did I not read that kids coming out of Gaelscoils are usually better edumicated ... ?

pork99

sure didn't our forward thinking government scrap Science in primary schools eons ago in favour of Irish

Don't forget Cathecism!

(dont know how old you are LCFFan but I went to primary school here back in the 70s and benefited from learning Catholic doctrine off by rote. Made me what I am today by God!)

DadaKopf

We're the most globalised in that we're more dependent on foreign investment and commodities than any other country in the world.

It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with broadband access in spite of reinvented Ireland's economy being primarily built on high technology.

It's not a good place to be, to be honest.

Calibos

Posted by Pork 99
Don't forget Cathecism!
(dont know how old you are LCFFan but I went to primary school here back in the 70s and benefited from learning Catholic doctrine off by rote. Made me what I am today by God!)

A devout atheist I'd wager!:D

Atheists of the world unite!!

pork99

Originally posted by Calibos
A devout atheist I'd wager!:D

Atheists of the world unite!!

well yes

but lets not underestimate the benefits of pointlessly grim experiences on the young and impressionable

its character forming!

like the nun in high infants - I was about 5 or 6 y.o. - who told us to always say our prayers at night before bed because if you forgot and then you DIED in your sleep you could go to HELL

But to get this back on topic; in this country the received wisdom is "Irish education, the best in the world, all the big companies come here to hire our wonderfully educated young people".

I think this is smug and complacent which is a dangerous mentality to have nowadays. I do not think we will be well served in the future by schooling which gives such a central position to medieval Catholic superstition and dead languages (I had to do Latin as well as Gaelic). Its a system which is good at producing obedient corporate drones not the inventive self-reliant people future developement will require.

Perhaps I'm "misunderestimating" (copyright G W Bush) the education system, perhaps its changed radically since I were a lad (back when harvesting were done by hand and Haircut One Hundred were on Top of the Pops)

LFCFan

I bet if there were more athiests then Catholics the country would be in a much better position. I also had to do Latin and of course Oirish. Schools need to start emphasising the point that computers/science/business/languages are the way forward, not Religion/Irish/Latin/Classical Studies. I was talking to a few of my brothers classmates and none of them want to get into business/computers/sciences etc. They've no interest in it and they said it's because the teachers they have for those subjects are assholes who are more interested in giving out and being a bastard then actually teaching the subjects. Best edumacation system my arse. The leaving cert needs to be radically changed too.

MDR

It is possible to do well at both

me <--- Computational linguistics

Most academics from home and abroad I speak to feel that we get a much more rounded education. Its not healthy to concentrate on any particular subject.

The Irish are good scientists, but we historically have leaned more than most towards the arts, look at the number of world class musicians/poets/novelists etc we produce.

There is no need to fight this, it is who we are, of course that is no reason to slack off on science etc ... but to be honest I don't feel that we are ... the LC in general has a few rough corners, but after spending time in both British and French academic instutions ... I think we are doing fine ...

you worry to much ...

SkepticOne

Originally posted by LFCFan
They've no interest in it and they said it's because the teachers they have for those subjects are assholes who are more interested in giving out and being a bastard then actually teaching the subjects.

Sure, isn't that just shocking. Someone should tell them to stop giving out.

LFCFan

I agree that the arty subjects should be there etc but I think way too much emphasis is put on them and not enough on the practical subjects. I did Latin and classical studies and it did me no harm. I think the LC has a habit of leaving people behind. 6 years of schooling for one week of exams. What if you're having an off week? 6 years of schooling down the pan and you end up either doing something in college that you don't really want to do and end up dropping out or you don't get into college at all. Continuous Assesment should be introduced for 50% of your marks.

going off topic here for a sec but I was listening to 2FM yesterday and they were playing clips from interviews with kids at the Young Scientist Exhibition about their projects. One young fella came on with a real 'Dooblin' accent............'Oi studied basketballs and fowind tha the more air you put in da ball, the hoyer it bounces'. Classic!

LFCFan

Originally posted by SkepticOne
Sure, isn't that just shocking. Someone should tell them to stop giving out.

They must have thought Sarcasm at your school

MDR

Sure, isn't that just shocking. Someone should tell them to stop giving out.

I think the LC has a habit of leaving people behind. 6 years of schooling for one week of exams. What if you're having an off week?

But unfortunately that what life is all about, it sucks I know, but should we really insulate our kids for it. Do you get a second go at a job interview, does a marathon runner get another go ... well next I suppose ...

life is all about one day deciding the future, if we can't build our kids to perform well on that day, they have a very dark future ahead of em.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by MDR
But unfortunately that what life is all about, it sucks I know, but should we really insulate our kids for it. Do you get a second go at a job interview, does a marathon runner get another go ... well next I suppose.

And for those that fail...well, those burgers aren't going to flip themselves.

MDR

And for those that fail...well, those burgers aren't going to flip themselves.

want fries with that ?

JohnK

Originally posted by SkepticOne
And for those that fail...well, those burgers aren't going to flip themselves.

lol suppose every job needs doing

LFCFan

Originally posted by MDR
[BDo you get a second go at a job interview, does a marathon runner get another go [/B]

you can hardly compare exams that will shape your future against running a marathon or going for a job interview. And what about the kids that are ace at studying and exams and end up with 600 points but in the end can't get a job because they have no social skills and the kid who is great and the practical stuff that really matters, but crap at studying and doing exams, ends up with not enough points to be a doctor or whatever and ends up at a desk for the rest of his life. It's the points system that sucks more than anything.

zynaps

Originally posted by SkepticOne
And for those that fail...well, those burgers aren't going to flip themselves.

Hah, nice one

I failed the leaving cert twice... currently repeating for the second time....
You don't have to DIE, become an alcoholic tramp or work shovelling chewing gum off the road if you fail, you just have to go through a period of self-reflection and depression... twice, if may be :P
It's certainly not very emotionally rewarding to be back doing the leaving cert at 20, but it's not like our lives have a fixed schedule really...

zynaps

pork99

Schools need to start emphasising the point that computers/science/business/languages are the way forward, not Religion/Irish/Latin/Classical Studies

Nothing wrong with learning Arts/Humanities as long as its balanced by Science/Technology/Commerce, ideally one should compliment the other.

The Irish language policies in this country have been an utter failure. Like it or not my native langage is English but when you went to school Irish was thaught to you as though it was already geneticaly encoded in your brain and all they had to do was speak Irish at you and you would instinctively understand. Even in secondary school Irish grammmer books were in Irish?!? French grammers explained French through English and I now know far more French than I know Gaelic. Sadly I just feel ill now when I hear Gaelic spoken or see it in print which is a shame (well I was thaught from an early age to associate it with pain ).

You would expect that having a compulsory 2nd langauge from the start in school would have made us excellent at learning languages. But the compulsory Irish policy f*cks us there again - its a barrier to French or German people coming here to teach those languages in schools and as a result I think standards suffer and we are just as lazy about learning languages as the Yanks or the Brits, again thats a shame. (Read a news article recently that said that the number of first language Gaelic speakers in Gaeltacht areas is rapidly declining - another big sucess for our Irish language policies! )

What has this to do with the state of internet access here? I would say its indicative of an endemic lack of ability to sucessfully deal with reality in this country and we prefer to float along in a happy little bubble world bouyed up by fantasies of ecommerce hubs and Gaelic revivals.

MDR

It's certainly not very emotionally rewarding to be back doing the leaving cert at 20, but it's not like our lives have a fixed schedule really...

Life is all about living, nothing more.

you can hardly compare exams that will shape your future against running a marathon or going for a job interview.

Life is all about building up to certain moments. I don't really subscribe to the great at practical/crap at theoritical, or great at theoritical/crap at practical

In my expierence most of my friends were practically brillant software developers, but failed all their exams, not because they could pass the exams if they wanted to ... usually because they thought they knew it all, they never bothered their arse opening a book.

On the flip side, I also knew a bunch of peeps who always scored highily in exams but couldn't string two lines of code together ... usually because they have never tried. I don't really have a problem with exams ... life in general is all about having to perform in one moment, that changes your life in an instant, job interviews, marketing, art, music, whatever ... if you can'y perform at that moment, your dust ....

its sucks, its unforgiving, but thats the real world ...