03 November 2002

Happy Birthday, Karis Hunt DELGANY, Ireland -- Karis Hunt turned 32 today. Like many who read Mick and Keith by Chris Salewicz, I wonder how much support her father (Mick Jagger) actually provided her. Her mom, writer Marsha Hunt, put up with a lot of hassle for the trickle of money Mick actually sent. It's a story I write in my own mind whenever I see Marsha thumbing through book shelves in local shops.

Ireland Needs a Green Card System DUBLIN -- I have long wondered why Ireland does not have a work visa system, where the visa is owned by the employee, not the employer. Actually, you can get an Irish work visa. The Sunday Business Post reports that nearly 5,000 work visas were issued in Ireland in 2001. Current Irish legislation for immigration dates back to 1935, which means that Ireland has no immigration system. It only has programmes for handling aliens.

Eliminate the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland Kilkenny, Ireland -- Talk around the pub is about television advertisements that got the ax from the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI). The watchdog group recently upheld complaints against ads for Levi's jeans in which young adults fully clothed in denim looked suggestively at the camera. The tagline was "rub yourself." The complaints committee also pulled a Carlsberg ad featuring a female construction worker happily displaying her builder's bum to a group of male Carlserg drinkers on holiday. In 2000-2001, the number of complaints made about offensive ads was just over twice the number made about misleading ads, 192 and 93 respectively, according to ASAI figures. The ASAI will pull an advertisement based on the number of complaints. That guideline has allowed a puritanical brigade to regulate advertising in Ireland.

Gerry Sighting: Busy on the Lecture Circuit Sunday Business Post -- Adrian Weckler explained that Nua founder Gerry McGovern has "reinvented himself as a star of the technology lecture circuit." He is also close to launching a new product: a corporate scorecard for companies with large websites.