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Are Estate Agents important celebrities?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Are Estate Agents important celebrities?

The answer is a pretty simple and very clear NO! But it seems that there sense of their own importance is coming to a different conclusion. But let me go back a few steps:

I get regularly fliers, A5 cards, letters or brochures from estate agents in my letterbox. They either want to offer me some of their properties or – and that is even more often the case – want me to sell my apartment by using their services. They won’t get anywhere with me, because I am renting my apartment and therefore won’t have anything to sell, but let’s leave that little “oops” aside for now and assume we had something to sell.

What do you think would be important information that I would be interested as a potential seller? Maybe their success rate? Maybe an estimate how much money I would get? Maybe an estimate how long it would take to sell? Maybe the amount they want from me in fees? Maybe their experience? I guess it would be some or all of these!

The A5 card that I found in my letterbox last week had four pictures of houses on them. three were for sale and one was sold and for all the price was specified, so the message of the pictures was “We want to sell a property to you!” but then the two line service description suggested that they will give me a free valuation for my property and a free “unique” report about what’s selling in my neighbourhood. So clearly THAT message was “We want to sell your property!” Sounds like mixed messages to me!

But then you turn the card around and all you see is the mugshots (portrait photos) of 18 (!!) people and I have to guess that they are the company’s employees. Just mugshots and names! No information about their experience, area of responsibility, just a picture. … Is this probably the least important information I need about my estate agent? Do I really care how he or she looks? – I absolutely do NOT care! If I was a potential client, I would just want them to get me the max amount of money!

So why do they show the mug shots of 18 people on that card?

I can only conclude that Estate Agents think they are big celebrities where seeing their picture will make me nearly automatically buy their product!?

There are professions where the face/picture is a big part of the brand and is needed for their self-advertisement. A model, a singer, a sports person and even some politicians need to be recognised to do effective marketing. But an estate agent?????

This was the promotional card from just one estate agent, but this is no exception! All four or five last fliers etc that I got from the same profession in the last few weeks had pictures on them. Odd!!

 

Dublin, Irish, Odd, ,

National Maternity Hospital – Get the religious orders out!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
National Maternity Hospital – Get the religious orders out!

It is puzzling to the highest degree how Irish politics – even in 2017 – still colludes with religious organisations. Sure there was a long history of influence and there are still plenty of politicians who still don’t understand that no church or religious organisation should be allowed to interfere with the state, but do we have to wait until they are dead before things will change?

The newest scandal is the fact that the Sisters of Charity, an order of Catholic nuns, will own the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) next to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Ballsbridge. They will not just have some shares or get a percentage of the profit, no, they will OWN the hospital. You might wonder if they will build it or buy it because if you and I own something, we usually have to pay for it? No! They won’t have to pay for it! The fact that they are owning the land on which the National Maternity Hospital will be built seems to be enough to give them ownership. That is shocking!

The Sisters of Charity were one of the religious organisations that proved in the past that back then they were NOT able to look after the welfare of mothers and children. And after the swamp was cleaned, regrettably the Sisters of Charity didn’t provide the compensation payments that they had promised to the “redress scheme”. For many, this is the reason why they are totally against that religious order to own the NMH. I agree that that definitely can’t be ignored, but for me it is even a bigger problem that the separation of church and state should just never allow such intermingling.

Keep the interests separate from each other and you won’t get into dodgy or tricky situations when certain treatments could interfere with religious principles. The Department of Health claims that they are in charge and won’t let anybody interfere, but there can’t be any guarantee for that.

The solution? Buy the land from the religious order! I think the Sisters of Charity should pay what they owe regarding the compensation that they are due, but at the same time, the state should fairly then pay for and afterwards own the land the NATIONAL Maternity Hospital stands on. There is NO other option!

Catholic, Dublin, Health System, Irish, , , , ,

Did Supermac’s really invent the Snackbox?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Did Supermac’s really invent the Snackbox?

Last week Mr Supermac’s Pat McDonagh announced on radio that he will fight McDonald’s because they have trademarks registered that will interfere with Supermac’s ability to carry out their business. He was asked to give some examples and he mentioned “BigMac”, the “Mc….” Prefix and “Snackbox”. He claims that Mc Donald’s is sitting on trademarks that they have no intention of using just to make business difficult for Supermac’s.

I have to admit that I have no personal affinity to Supermac’s at all. When I first came to Ireland, they appeared to me like a cheaper, lower level Burger place. I had no specific reason for thinking that, but we sometimes make judgements that are not necessarily based on facts. I guess the appearance of the Supermac restaurants did appear worse than other burger places. I also should say that I am not a big fan of McDonald’s either, but I have been a McDonald’s customer and I have never been a Supermac’s customer.

So with that “admission” out of the way, let’s have a look at the three examples that McDonagh gave for trademark hogging:

He is unhappy with the fact that McDonald’s is claiming the Big Mac name for themselves and he thinks this is not just. Hmm, the BigMac has its own Wikipedia Page and there I learnt that it was introduced by McDonald’s in 1968. The first Supermac’s Restaurant was opened in Galway in 1978. Now you could question if a name like that should be protectable at all, but if it is, then I think Supermac’s rightly doesn’t get to use the trademarked phrase. 10 years!

The next thing he has a problem with is the Prefix “Mc”. McDonald’s even own “McInternet” and “McKids”. I can see his point there, but really, if your business depends on COPYING the big competitor and you can’t run it without using their names then maybe something is wrong with your business. Let’s face it, when Supermac’s was founded (30 years after McDonald’s!), it is highly likely that the name “Supermac’s” wasn’t handed to McDonagh by Lady Inspiration herself, but that it was an intentional copy. So is the pot calling the kettle black here?

And finally the Snackbox, the term that intrigued me most. It is a good term and McDonagh claims that “McDonald’s has trademarked the SnackBox, a product that is synonymous with Supermac’s.” He is right that McDonald’s is not even offering Snackboxes and therefore shouldn’t get that trademark, BUT was it really Supermac’s who invented the Snackbox????? For me the “Snackbox” is synonymous with my local (Italian) chipper, NOT with Supermac’s. But maybe I am wrong. Who knows the history of the term “Snackbox”? Nobody should get that term, by the way!

All in all, you could think that McDonagh should focus on his own business and should lead instead of copy. That trademark row seems to be total nonsense.

Irish, Other, , , ,

The good people of Irish sports management? The winner is John Delaney! NOT!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
The good people of Irish sports management? The winner is John Delaney! NOT!

Every country has its fair share of questionable characters. Many are in politcs and mesmerize with their dodginess, a good few are in business, but for some reason, the third area is an area where we are even more amazed to find self-serving and dubious behaviour in the main protagonists and in the management of that area. This third area is “Sports”. Somehow we seem to hope that sports people are all honest, trustworthy and totally above board. But interestingly, from the performance enhancing doping of the gymnast or runner via the big crooks like Lance Armstrong or Sepp Blatter, Sports seems to be the field that is just riddled with dishonesty, cheating and personal enrichment.

But little Ireland is probably not THAT much affected, right? WRONG!! Remember Pat Hickey, the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI)? He has not been charged with any offence as far as I know, but there is some lingering fishiness around the Oylmpic ticket scandal that just doesn’t seem right. His deputy (Vice-president of the OCI) was or is John Delaney, who is also head of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). Unfortunately he never made any public statement about the ticket scandal.

At the same time he is reported to more than EUR 400,000 per year or at least EUR 360k, which is either way FAR above of what the Spanish or Italian heads of their Footbal Associations earn. And it is also SIGNIFICANTLY more than what the Irish Taoiseach or the German Chancellor Angela Merkel earn. According to this and this.

Last week the same John Delaney was voted onto the UEFA Executive Committee and the Irish Times suggests that this will come with a six figure salary and will require up to 100 days of his time per year, so in the end he will just do a half-day job for the FAI for his 360k. Here!

At the same time it emerged that the Irish Women’s Football National Team has to share their training clothes with others, are treated worse than amateur footballers and get no rewards for all their successes. The women went on strike and since then an agreement was found with them, but Delaney’s riches and their bad treatment just looks like one man pocketing big time for himself while treating others like “shit on his shoe”. www.bbc.com/sport/football/39502054

 

Irish, Odd, Other, , , ,

Trust issues – Is the Irish Police Force dodgy?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Trust issues – Is the Irish Police Force dodgy?

The An Garda Siochana, the Irish Police Force, is – like every other police force in the democratic world – the one and only enforcer of right and wrong in the country. They are not the judge if it is REALLY right or wrong, that’s what we have the judiciary (the courts and judges) for, but the police has to enforce the laws.

If you enforce the laws, however, you should also be obliged to stick to the laws. It increases your credibility tremendously and you set an all important example. If the rules don’t apply to the enforcer of the laws, then people behave like the children of parents that don’t stick to the rules they spout out. They become unruly and break the rules.

A small example: It is wrong for the Gardai to be allowed to use/handle mobile phones when driving, as long as all of us are not allowed to use mobile phones. And I think that EVEN if the mobile phone use is exclusively in the pursuit of their job….because we all know that it is NOT only in the pursuit of their job when they use the phone.

This is however a really small example and the Irish Gardai do it better:

1) Over the last few years they claimed that they carried out 1.9mio roadside alcohol test, but the Medical Bureau of Road Safety only knows of 1mio. How can there be a discrepancy of nearly a million? (RTE Report)

2) 14,500 people were prosecuted for road traffic offences and will have their convictions quashed because the gardai screwed up. They were brought to court without getting a fixed charge notice first. Not ok! (How come it took so long to come out?) The people that now get their money back and points removed because they drove 3km/h too fast (I got 3 points for that. Grrr!) are ok in my eyes, but what about people that committed serious traffic offences and who will also go without any penalty now? (RTE Report)

3) The Sergeant Maurice McCabe saga that is also called the Garda Whistleblower Scandal where Maurice McCabe lifted the lid on Garda corruption around the penalty point system and was threatened within the police force and a cover up was attempted is still not completely sorted. 5 years after it started!

4) This week it emerged that there are financial irregularities at the Garda College in Templemore. They had 50 (!) bank accounts for the college and used money for entertainment and presents that should not have been used for that. (RTE Report)

5) And now the Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan indicates that this might not be the only falsifications there are.

Can we really trust our Police Force? I am sure (and know) there are many Gardai that can be trusted but if there are soo many problems, there seems to be a huge systemic problem and if you need LUCK to get to deal with a “good” Gardai then that doesn’t instill confidence in the enforcer of right and wrong in our country.

Dublin, Justice, Odd, Politics, , , ,
 
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