this beggars belief (3 Viewers)

[magicbastarder]

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern has been appointed chairperson of a forestry body, which is being financed by a Swiss firm that is a specialist in offshore banking.
...
The main backers of the fund are Helvetia Wealth AG of Switzerland and the Irish Forestry Fund, which plans to invest in trees in Ireland, the UK and Central America.


A spokesman for the fund said it would also consider an acquisition of Coillte, privatisation of which was mooted in the report of An Bord Snip Nua.

http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/jan/10/latest-ahern-role-linked-to-offshore-funds/

then...

The International Forestry Fund presents to the China Investment Corporation

A delegation representing the International Forestry Fund visited China in September to meet with provincial governors and their senior forestry officials. In Beijing the delegation visited the State Forestry department and learnt about the past challenges and current opportunities that exist in China's thriving forestry sector. Of special interest were the provinces of Hainan and Anhui and an extremely warm welcome was given to our visiting delegation which included Mr Bertie Ahern, Chairman of the International Forestry Fund along with fellow directors Mr. Trevor McHugh, Mr. Paul Brosnan and Mr. Ottmar Ruoff.

http://www.helvetia-wealth.com/the-...-to-the-china-investment-corporation,144.html

a company with bertie ahern as its chair, who have a declared interest in buying coillte, have been canvassing the chinese for money to buy coillte, brokered by the same bertie ahern.

coillte own land amounting to almost double the size of meath - 7% of the entire country. so that unspeakable prick is going to use the fact that he helped bring the country to the brink to feather his own nest yet again, and sell vast majority of publicly owned land in the country.

naomi klein wasn't joking when she wrote the shock doctrine.

 

[Anthony]

blood boiling

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Is it time for another Rising yet? It must be.

 

[Lili Marlene]

I'm not sure I quite understand all this

What public land is in danger here? Are we talking a "big hotel in the middle of the phoenix park" territory?

 

[magicbastarder]

mainly upland territory. lots of the wicklow mountains, for example. lots of mayo, galway, kerry, etc.

 

[mark]

fuck him. fuck all of them.

 

[nooleen]

mmmm, lots of mayo...

sorry, i know this is serious

 

[ann post]

i worked in coillte for a season planting trees way back when. we are talking about extremely isolated places all over the west - gorgeous places altogether. you'd be up on the hillside watching deer run about the place and the like, no houses visible for miles. locations near the blue stack mountains, the whole border territory from barnesmore gap to castlederg almost, swathes of land all over inishowen, ox mountains in mayobig areas between letterkenny and ballybofey... - thats only where i worked in one summer, the contractor i was with was still doing it in the west years later.

assholes.

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

i wish it did beggar belief but in all fairness i expect nothing less off that complete prick bertie.
i have never known how to feel about coillte,on the pro side they do allow pretty much unrestricted access to most/all of their land,the cons include the trees they grow allow no other life to flourish alongside/below them (ever tried to walk through a coillte forest outside the pathways?its impossible,the trees are so close together that your forced to crawl and very little light reaches the ground resulting in no life,only a carpet of pine needles) and their clear cutting of forests is extremely ugly.

who the fuck wants to look at that?

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

lots of the wicklow mountains

a lot of the wicklow mountains is designated as national park so i would pray that this area does not fall prey to this deal (assuming it goes ahead)

 

[Anthony]

So what you're saying is that they seem mismanaged. Bertie'll sort that out for sure...

 

[ann post]

who the fuck wants to look at that?

ugly yes - the policy when i worked was approx 2 metres between trees, with every 10th/20th being broad leaf (this was so that you had diagonal or straight patterns of borad leaf trees which would be thinned (cut down) at a certain age leaving tunnels for the forestry machinery to travel and as fire belts. thing is though - what is uglier, filling 7% of the country up with trees which can eventually be exported, used for fuel or a long list of other products, or filling up with ghost estates and industrial wastelands. its not pretty, but its a relatively clean factory and something to produce, they arent so bad.

 

[nooleen]

and the piney smell is nice
i have many fond memories of bleak, wintery childhood walks through boggy pine uplands

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

ugly yes - the policy when i worked was approx 2 metres between trees, with every 10th/20th being broad leaf (this was so that you had diagonal or straight patterns of borad leaf trees which would be thinned (cut down) at a certain age leaving tunnels for the forestry machinery to travel and as fire belts. thing is though - what is uglier, filling 7% of the country up with trees which can eventually be exported, used for fuel or a long list of other products, or filling up with ghost estates and industrial wastelands. its not pretty, but its a relatively clean factory and something to produce, they arent so bad.

see,this is why im so conflicted on the matter,it is not the worst thing in the world by any stretch of the imagination,trees are renewable etc,but i still maintain that the system used is unnecessarily ugly and leads to lifeless forests.a proper forest is full of life and diversity,coillte policy leaves only silence and uniformity.

 

[nooleen]

it just screams 'SILENCE'

 

[magicbastarder]

coillte have plenty of land to play the longer game and plant broadleaved forests - much longer to mature, but much less likely to find out in 20 or 30 years time that the tree you planted is now only good for making chipboard or matches. and broadleaves (well, native trees) are much more aesthetically pleasing and attractive to tourists.
i've heard €700m being bandied about as a possible price for coillte. that's about €500 or €600 an acre. i'd buy a few acres at that price.

 

[Anthony]

yea, sell it to the irish people. wait what?

 

[Space]

Just to add insult to injury, Coillte have been turning a profit which is pretty rare for a company with government involvement. SO yeah sell off a profit making compnay to Bertie Ahern and his mates.

 

[wild_cat]

The issue was raised in the Dail this morning but Coillte haven't heard anything back yet.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

WRT tree types, someone was telling me that in Nordieland they're moving back to planting indigenous trees. They "wrecked" much of West Tyrone with Forestry of the sterile Conifer type. I agree wholeheartedly with Ann Post though, the alternative is way way way way way way worse for the most part.