Damien Mulley

Karlin, without naming me, it is obvious that I am the clueless whinger you are talking about in your latest blog post. You seem upset that I called you an apologist recently on this blog:

Fortunately there are people who have a far more nuanced understanding of the problems and continue to work, as many have for decade, to make things change. The funny thing is how some of the projects and behind the scenes work that here and there were the previous targets of the whingers are actually those that have most contributed to bettering the situation here. This is recognised on an international level, and by analysts, and by businesses, but not often at home, by the whingers

Karlin, can you confirm on this blog or on your own that I am one of these whingers?

Karlin you seem to think it is hypocrtical to praise you when you manage to get something right and be brutally frank when you suck up to Eamon Ryan, yet I think doing the opposite is the hypocrisy:

However, one thing you learn very quickly as a journalist is that some folks love you when you exactly confirm what they want to hear — a type of ‘praise’ that is pretty transparent at the time because it is too enthusiastic. Take any view other than that, and you, personally, get attacked. Not just your ideas. Not the issues themselves. It’s that old, sad strategy of the ad hominem attack.

Karlin, the consensus from even the most objective people of your performance on Monday on the Right Hook was that you were far from being a journalist. It was in fact embarassing for everyone that listened in.

You seem to think because I am outside the tent pissing in, that I have a skewed view but you and those on the inside know better. You say the majority of people don’t want broadband, yet the vast majority of those using the net in Ireland want broadband. We’re talking broadband demand, not Internet demand. That’s a different issue. Just because in your estate people don’t want broadband or the Net, does not mean that the rest of the country do not. This whole “majority” crapola isn’t helpful. Using that you could say most Americans do not want broadband or most of the UK, Spain, Italy, Greece, the Czech republic and so forth. There are 100s of 1000s of people who do want broadband in this country and telling them the issue is demand is bollox, even eircom are saying the issue is a supply issue not demand. Are they too whingers like me?

You seem to think what I did was not productive yet in some frank and off-record conversations with people in Government and industry, we were told without all the whinging we would be much further behind. I don’t give a damn if it was childish, it worked and all the crawling in the world wouldn’t have made the same impact.

In my blog post I pointed out that this 90% coverage stat is a lie. Please show how I am wrong. Point out exactly how there is actually 90% broadband coverage in Ireland.

But on to the main bit, I’m challenging you on your next Right Hook slot to ask people in Dublin to text or email in where they are and ask them for their problems with getting broadband. You get George to remind people of your request each day for the rest of the week. Then collate them and see how many in the Capital City of the Celtic Tiger cannot get broadband. Just Dublin. Surely if the issue is demand, you will get a tiny amount of people because of the vast amount of choices in Dublin when it comes to broadband. The issue IS demand for those that want to use broadband to surf the net and yeah, they are in the minority if you add in those already on broadband to those who do not want broadband but that actually does not mean the issue is a demand issue.

Also, can you please reference these surveys that show all these businesses who do not want broadband and all the people as you mentioned here:

They simply DON’T see any advantage to having broadband at home, and neither do many Irish businesses; this comes up on survey after survey.

EDIT: Oddly enough other comments on Karlin’s blog post are being left through but the one I left is not showing up, though it is showing up in my cached view. I hope this is fixed.

Further update: Karlin suggests comments that are personal attacks are not left through. This was my comment, which was not left through. Is this a personal attack?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 10:50 pm and is filed under blogs, irishblogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.