Murder of Linda Evans Christian appeal renewed on 8th anniversary of body find
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RTÉ News
5 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Three dead, hundreds rescued after Indonesia ferry fire
Three people have died and more than 500 others were rescued after a ferry caught fire off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, emergency officials have said. Passengers jumped overboard with lifejackets after the fire broke out yesterday at the stern of the KM Barcelona 5, as it sailed to Manado, according to the Indonesian coast guard. A video released by the Manado rescue agency showed a coast guard vessel spraying water on the ferry, which was emitting black smoke. Indonesian authorities previously reported five people died in the accident, but later revised the death toll to three. "Until now, the joint rescue team is still conducting the search and rescue operation because the data is still developing," Manado rescue agency head George Leo Mercy Randang said. "Our post is still open 24 hours a day, in case families want to report about their missing relative." At least 568 people were rescued from the ferry and water while three others were found dead, the national search and rescue agency said in a statement. The ferry's log had only registered 280 passengers and 15 crew on board. Local media reported that the ship had a capacity for 600 people. Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in the Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, in part due to lax safety standards or bad weather. The fire came just weeks after another ferry sank off the popular resort island of Bali due to bad weather, killing at least 19 people. In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person. And in 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world's deepest lakes on Sumatra Island.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Unusual activity by Russia's shadow fleet off coast of Ireland
Locals in Dungloe have nicknamed a local abandoned housing estate as "the Titanic", as it has been sinking since being completed in 2007. Video: Joe Dunne
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
You can win at life by being a good loser
We all screw up. Failure is part of life. But not all of us can brush it off easily. A society that divides people into 'winners' and 'losers' amplifies the cost of failing. Through our smartphones and in our daily conversations, we're constantly reminded that there's always someone else doing better. How should you deal with failure? And how do I resist that niggling sense that, deep down, I'm a loser? Krzysztof Rowiński, a lecturer in cultural studies at Trinity College Dublin , is part of an international network of academics researching our understanding of failure. They met in Dublin a few weeks ago for a conference titled Fail Worse – a subversion of Samuel Beckett 's famous quote: 'Try again. Fail again. Fail better.' Some of their initial findings can be distilled into four general points: READ MORE 1. 'Redemptive' failure narratives may be part of the problem 'If you look at library catalogues there has been an explosion of books that explore failure as a form of success – self-help books, coaching books, business books,' Rowiński tells The Irish Times. 'I saw that as a larger outgrowth of our optimistic culture where paradoxically failure narratives are on par with success narratives. But it's only because those failure narratives are redemptive failure narratives.' Examples of the genre come from tech bros such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk , who love to talk about the failures they experienced before becoming obscenely rich. 'If you're not failing, you're not taking enough risks,' says Musk. Rowiński tracked the use of 'fail better' as a phrase in public discourse. 'In late '80s you see a moderate interest and then it blows up in the '90s.' This coincided with the rise of the positive psychology movement and, more importantly perhaps, a drift internationally away from holding the rich and powerful accountable for their failures. 2. Political corruption and extreme inequality means some people can avoid any cost from their failures There is a recognition of failure in corridors of power 'but always with a sense that we can overcome it with technology, or therapy, or some intervention', says Prof Debbie Lisle, of Queen's University Belfast school of history. Another member of the 'failure studies' network, she believes many of the world's biggest problems are exacerbated by 'toxic positivity'. When it comes to war, the migrant crisis or climate change , 'the normalised dominant responses are all about this myth that we will overcome our failures and everything will be fine. Like climate change: 'It'll be fine; don't worry about it because we will use technology and adaptation; it's going to be amazing' ... and no it's not'. We need 'a different vocabulary', she says. 'We're f**ed!' is her starting point. 'I start there and I make no apologies about that – but I'm not depressed about that. I'm like, let's be modest and humble and realistic about what's achievable, how we can create solidarities however temporary, probably dissonant, to try to do something.' 3. In other cultures everyone is a loser – so cheer up Ireland is heavily influenced by the capitalistic, Anglo-American view of success and failure. Contrast this with eastern European countries. 'In our part of the world, the perception of failure is different,' says Adriana Mica, a Romanian-born sociologist who set up the Failure Lab at University of Warsaw. 'Failure is something like a skin but nobody treats it too seriously ... You see this in post-communist countries and postcolonial countries; they don't trust failure. They think failure is something politicians use as a rationalisation.' This is not entirely healthy from a political viewpoint. It results in a situation where 'we are suspicious of success' and cynical or dismissive about failure. 'We did some research about Covid policy failures and people were saying: 'What policy failures? Covid was a scam.' So it's completely different.' Her research is looking at why students drop out of education, and whether it is due to 'failure deprivation', or because they had 'no taste of failure', before reaching college. This may be a greater problem in more affluent societies. In countries such as Romania and Poland, she says, 'I think we still remember the hardships ... but it can change very quickly.' 4. You're a winner in God's eyes In her latest book The Genius Myth, journalist Helen Lewis explores our understanding of 'natural talent'. Questioning the common perception that people 'deserve' their success, she draws attention to the relationship between capitalism and forms of eugenics. In previous centuries, financial rewards were distributed between 'superior' and 'inferior' races. Today there's a movement, tacitly supported by powerful figures in the United States, to rank human value by IQ score. Speaking to Hugh Linehan on The Irish Times Inside Politics podcast , Lewis said, 'as someone who was raised Catholic and is now an atheist', she was 'surprised' while writing the book 'that I began to feel more warmly towards Christianity as a kind of social operating system because of [its] teaching that every one of God's children has a worth in his eyes – and that no one is better than anyone else'. [ Justine McCarthy: We need to talk about why we're all so angry Opens in new window ] But you don't have to bring God into the picture to realise you're a winner. Keeping a sense of perspective is key. The truth is you can 'win' at life by being a good loser.
