I Wish They Would Read

AS I THUMB through the Sunday papers with a newsagent cheerfully greeting his weekend customers, I have to wonder why my third level college students don't feel obliged to catch up on current events by simply hanging out at a corner shop and reading the headlines of news they could use. If they read today, they would learn some things that could carry conversations for the week ahead. And they might find a DVD dropping in their lap, like a Talking Heads DVD ["Same as it ever was" in wavy form] inside the Observer.

1. They would learn more about the vibrating, rubberised, five-blade world of cutting-edge technology. My curiousity peaks at the check-out stand where a generous array of Fusion Power Stealth razors await my purchase. These razors are "the cumulative endeavours of biologists, physicists, polymer scientists, biometricisits and neurologists. Fusion Power Stealth has taken four years to appear from the initial prototype."

2. Tipperary man Tony Ryan is remembered throughout the weekend papers. He died last week, aged 71.

3. As is proven again and again, prominent politicians sometimes say the most interesting things when they depart from their scripts. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern did just that when he lashed out at high-paid hospital consultants saying they appear to be more interested in criticising the health service than actually working in it. The Taoiseach reflected on those matters when he departed from the text of his address after accepting the Charles E. Jacob medal for his contribution to social partnership.

4. "Work comes first." My dad's words and they fit a phrase that could easily roll off the tongue of Liz O'Donnell. She writes, "In three consecutive elections, voters have endorsed liberal economic policy with strong social supports funded by increased tax revenues. Most people now see that the best poverty beater is a job, that profit is not a dirty word and that our national wealth can deliver social justice and a better quality of life for all of us."

5. All ur tax are belong to us. The lead headline for The Sunday Times repeats a story from years ago. "Ryanair has pocketed as much as EUR 60m in the last year by not refunding charges such as government and airport taxes to passengers who book tickets but do not fly. Customers are entitled to get most of these third-party fees back."

6. Lonely Planet may have sold for GBP 70m, but printed guides could soon be extinct. Although I don't believe that's true, I also don't believe these are the best travel guides on the internet:
Times Online Travel
Green Traveller
Lonely Planet
Mr and Mrs Smith
Timeout

7. For those who wish to earn academic credit for promoting science and technology, check out The Sunday Times Magazine and Planets DVD this week. The cover story leads off with space and the magazine includes several interesting items about spin-offs of space exploration.

8. Britney Spears has crashed out from being one of the biggest global music stars ever. At the moment, she is caught cold in the middle of a nightmare. Elizabeth Day unpacks the fake virgin and teases Britney fans with a review of Britney's new album. "It's pretty good: a spunky and sonically adventurous collection of electronic pop tracks."

9. Could broadband on dormant spectrum shake up the Irish telecom industry? Could a mobile phone SIM card that automatically connected you to low-cost roaming by using international numbers disrupt mobile telephony the way we know it?

10. I keep stumbling upon people who have fallen in love with Ireland, in Ireland and then return regularly on pilgrimages or stay longer than a decade. There's a story about the quality of Irish food, the taste of the spud, the cream, the milk and the cheese that those who live here take for granted.

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1. Simon Garfield -- "Stubble Trouble" in The Observer Magazine, 7 October 2007.
2. Siobhan Creaton -- "Sy no limit for train driver's son" in The Sunday Business Post, News Focus, 7 October 2007.
3. Martin Frawley -- "Taioseach 'tired of listening' to hospital consultants" on the front page of the Sunday Tribune, 7 October 2007.
4. Liz O'Donnell -- "The best poverty beater is a job" on the Comment pages of The Sunday Tribune, 7 October 2007.
5. Jan Battles -- "Ryanair nets millions from no-show fliers" on the front page of The Sunday Times, 7 October 2007.
6. Anthony Sattin -- "Guidebooks: RIP" in The Sunday Times Travel supplement, 7 October 2007.
7. Jeremy Clarkson, Brian Aldiss, Rod Liddle and Richard Girling -- "50 Years in Space", a special souvenir issue of The Sunday Times, 7 October 2007.
8. Elizabeth Day -- "Can anyone save the little girl lost?" in The Observer Review cover story, 7 October 2007.
9. Damien Mulley -- "The Next Revolution Could be Telecoms" in The Sunday Tribune Business Section, 7 October 2007.
10. Conor McMorrow -- "Brigette Schorn from Eifel in Germany" in Tribune Magazine, 7 October 2007.

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Comments

[John Hannafin]

You ask why "third level college students don't feel obliged to catch up on current events"?. For the most part, they don't need to know about such events in order to live their lives. They feel powerless to change the "current events" being reported on. Most likely, the current events being reported on simply don't interest them. Mmmmm.... I feel like a third level college student.

[Greg Smith]

Bernie, they are no different to my PR students here in Perth, Australia ... and they are in communications. I can't even get them to bring in newspapers once a week. Then they say everything is boring. Extremely frustrating. I'm not exactly sure why they even bother to attend university - and they pay for it.