Scéal Pete Teti

Pete Teti's Story

by | 2024/03/06 | Opinion

Steve Lopez has long been a first-rate journalist and writer. He started working as a columnist for the 'LA Times' in 2001. He has won national journalism awards, as well as an award for creative non-fiction. Steve wrote a book when he was in his late sixties, entitled: "Independence Day: What I Learned About Retirement from Some Who've Done It and Some Who Never Will." He continued to work part-time as a weekly columnist for the 'LA Times', a job he still holds, now in his seventies. He started a new column at the time called 'The Golden State' and it's a column exclusively about seniors, something I haven't seen in any other newspaper, and not often in other media either. I love his column, and read it every week, without fail. I learn a lot of significant and important things there, and it is also a source of inspiration for me, without a doubt. One recent column Steve wrote really impressed me. This is a summary of that story.

Teti’s Story

Tá Pete Teti ar an mbóthar ceart más iad gluaiseacht agus géinte maithe bunús an tsaoil fhada.  Cé go bhfuil cónaí ar Pete i gcathair Los Angeles, tá sé in aice le Griffith Park, páirc iontach atá beagnach trí huaire níos mó ná Páirc an Fhionnuisce i mBaile Átha Cliath. Baineann Pete lántairbhe as, mar téann sé ar shiúlóid i nGriffith Park gach re lá.   Casann Pete lena chairde in aice le ‘Griffith Observatory’ agus siúlann an dream beag suas go barr ‘Mt. Hollywood’, agus ar ais. Tá an tsiúlóid timpeall 4 ciliméadar ar fhad, agus is gá dul suas (agus ansin teacht anuas) 150 méadar in airde. Babhta traenála atá i gceist, is cuma d’aois, agus bogann Pete ar aghaidh ar an gcosán ar luas mear. Tógann sé sos beag ar an tslí agus suíonn sé ar feadh tamaillín ar bhinse páirce atá ainmnithe ina onóir! Seinneann sé an t-orgán béil le linn a shosa bhig, roimh leanúint ar aghaidh ag siúl.  Níos faide anonn, síneann cathair mhór na nAingeal amach ó na sléibhte go dtí an tAigéan Ciúin.

“Fágann siad a bhfadhbanna go léir sa chathair,” arsa Teti, ag bogadh gan stró chomh héasca le fear i bhfad níos óige.  Beannaíonn sé do dhaoine go minic, mar tá aithne aige ag go leor de na siúlóirí sa pháirc. Stopann Pete arís tamaillín, agus seinneann sé port eile ar a orgán béil. Ceapann fear darb ainm Jay Miller, atá 20 bliain níos óige ná Pete, go bhfuil Pete ar tí teacht anuas, ach níl an ceart aige.  Ar aghaidh le Pete suas ardú géar i dtreo mullach an tsléibhe, agus a chomrádaithe á leanúint.

Dar le fear eile ar an tsiúlóid, Tom McGovern, b’fhéidir nach bhfuil Pete ag siúl chomh tapa anois agus a bhí sé blianta ó shin, nuair a chasadar le chéile ar dtús. “Dá aois, bogann Pete ar luas lasrach!” arsa Tom. “Luas maith d’aon duine é sin, is cuma cén aois iad, i ndáiríre.”

Chas Nancy agus Mark Kristol le Pete le linn na pandéime, agus iad go léir ag siúl sa pháirc.  D’fhorbair caidreamh faoi leith eatarthu de réir a chéile, agus iad ag casadh le chéile go minic. “Is rud iontach é casadh le Pete suas anseo, mar tá gean ar leith aige ar an sliabh agus tá sé in aon sruth leis a thimpeallacht nádúrtha,” dar le Nancy.  “Tearmann ó ghleo agus ruaille buaille na cathrach atá i gceist san áit seo, leis an bhfear iontach seo.”

Pete started walking up Mt. Hollywood more than twenty years ago, when he noticed that he was putting on weight. Today he is a thin man, in his prime, not only physically but also intellectually. He never stopped learning, even when he retired as a teacher after 50 years in that role. His friend, Jay, said that Pete has made two violins, is an artist, is currently creating animation, and is always learning physics, chemistry and math. When Steve Lopez met Pete at home, Pete showed him a gazebo he built, made of stained glass, and tiles he laid in the back patio. Pete has a studio in the house, overflowing with books, computers and abstract paintings.

On his most recent birthday, he joined his friends near his bench, for whom this tribute was written: "Pete Teti: Mouth organist, avid hiker, artist, teacher and World War II veteran." Then, those different people went on a celebratory walk up Mt. Hollywood, under the leadership of Pete Teti, who has reached the age of one hundred! What a role model Pete is, leading us all by example!

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Eisimircigh

Emigrants

by | 2024/02/28 | Current Affairs, National News

Emigrants

There is a lot of negative public discussion about immigration these days. When a building is set aside to shelter immigrants, there are those who think it is a good idea to burn that building to the ground. Isn't that terrible? Especially when you look back at our own history. For example, there is a lot of information about emigration from our own country on the site: https://www.ucc.ie/en/emigre/history/. When John F. Kennedy was on his Presidential visit to Ireland in June, 1963, he said: Most countries export oil or iron, steel or gold, or some other crop, but Ireland has only one export and that is its people. .”

Ireland is the country in Europe most affected by emigration in the last two hundred years. In total, approximately ten million people emigrated from the island of Ireland from 1800 onwards. In the late eighties, more than half a million Irish people (~16%) left their own country. 70,000 people left in 1989 alone – a few years before the arrival of the Celtic Tiger. Then, the economy collapsed in 2008, and another 630,000 left the country between 2008 and 2015.

However, our emigrants are now almost forgotten, I think, and instead the emphasis is strongly on immigration - both legal and illegal. That is a great pity, in my opinion, and I think it is a good thing to always have both things in mind - immigration and emigration. Otherwise, we will not learn what we should do about immigration policies, when we already know it from our own history.

Long before the time of the Celtic Tiger, many people were coming across the southern border in Mexico to America in search of a new life there – and still are. It has been a bone of contention for a long time here between the political parties. Everyone agrees that there is a big problem to solve, but there are big differences between the approach of the Democrats and the Republicans in America. We saw Trump's brutal approach on behalf of the Republicans, and 5,500 children separated from their parents because of his immigration policy. Many of the parents were imprisoned, and the rest were deported to their native land. The children were taken into protective custody by the government. That is disgraceful misconduct, and a violation of human rights, no doubt. Hundreds of children are still without their parents, as a result of that brutal policy. Things are not so bad in Ireland regarding immigrants, but they are too great at the same time. If the hatred and resentment fueled by extremists against immigrants is not curbed, there is a great risk that things will get worse and people will be killed before long. What kind of solution is that? The government has an obligation to bring security matters under control without delay.

Our story

There are many Irish people who are emigrants – including my wife and myself. We didn't know in 1986, when we first went to America, that we would stay there forever. My employer in Ireland at the time – IBM Ireland – gave me a short-term job in California. It was for two years, but after a year, I was asked to come home. To tell the truth, we weren't ready to come home at the time. Sinéad was working on her PhD dissertation at the university (UCLA). So I got another job with another company. All went well! One year passed and then another, and bit by bit, almost without our knowing it, we put down tentative roots. Over time, the roots grew stronger and then we had a child. We bought our first house! Sinéad completed her studies, obtained a PhD in archeology and then got a job. I myself graduated with a master's degree in electrical engineering. It was abundantly clear to everyone else that we weren't coming back to Ireland anytime soon. Eventually, it also became clear to us that we would spend our working lives in America. Don't touch it if it ain't broke, so to speak. We were able to visit Ireland every summer for a month and finally we were able to buy a house in County Kilkenny. As we are both retired now, we are able to spend a good while in Ireland every year. Going through the immigration process was quite difficult, but the government treated us fairly. We were never discriminated against in America either, and we had the same opportunities as anyone else. I strongly believe that America has given us great opportunities, and in return we have given much more money to the government than we have received from it.

Immigration is, in fact, the lifeblood of the economy, and overall immigrants strengthen their new country in a number of ways. That is not to say that any country should have open borders, but it should not only have reasonable policies but also a welcoming society, which treats people trying to enter, and immigrants living in Ireland already.

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Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh!

Happy New Year to You!

by | 2023/12/27 | Personal, Opinion

Happy New Year to You!

It is our custom in this column to say goodbye to the year that is about to die and to welcome the New Year that is coming! My father fulfilled that solemn duty for many years when he was alive, and I therefore thought it appropriate to republish a column of his in his memory at this special time of reflection. This is what he wrote.

Another Christmas gone from us through the eye of the bridge of time. And although it is a time of celebration and fun, I hope, at the same time, that you have looked back over the years we have spent, until now, traveling with us on the great and difficult pilgrimage of life. It is also a time to remember the friends who have been lost, along the way. But, I am directed not only on that, this go round, but I am looking in front of me on the year that is stretching ahead of us now, while she waits on the threshold of the house, ready to meet us, and I pray the old prayer to you again, one more time. "Happy New Year to all of you, and may each of us live a better life, a year from today." Now, as we stand on the brink of the new year, shouldn't we, first of all, say goodbye to the old year as it now pursues death, itself, as it swims with it, on all fours, into books of history. What can we say about it before it leaves us? We can't go over the top praising it, and given that it wasn't the best year we have ever encountered, at the same time, it wasn't the worst! It is true that political matters here and abroad were not any great shakes during the year that is now on its deathbed, but at the same time shouldn’t we be grateful, blessed, that we are still alive, while we are plowing full steam ahead in the tumultuous field of life.

New Year's Resolutions

I used to, over the past years, make new year's resolutions, around this time, every year, pretending that I had to be a saint on earth in the new year! Did I succeed in taking action according to my words? You are raving mad ! Indeed I did not succeed! As I would have broken the same resolutions in short order. I am not suggesting now putting a stop to making those same resolutions, as that they are good for some people, that is, for people who want to head in a completely different direction, and in that case, usually, man who made the resolutions succeeds. And again, I'm not claiming that I don't have to change anything about myself, with the coming of this new year. No, indeed! For, truth be told, I have decided to continue writing these pieces, for the Kilkenny People, as long as the learned Editor of this great newspaper is willing to provide space for me, and add to that, that I am now determined on speaking out more boldly and forcefully than I have done up to now. I have also decided to keep a close eye on language matters, and on political matters, on the whole, in the coming year.

Wandering Memories

I needn’t say that my memories go wandering back through the years that have elapsed through the eye of the bridge of time, at this time of year, back also to the customs we used to have while I was growing up in Iorras na n'Iontas, yes and I also have memories of the people I knew who have passed on. May they all have a bed among the Saints. And since my Dad and his companions spent a period of time slaving away in Scotland, they brought home to Ireland Scottish customs such as the "First Footers", as the first person to come over your threshold on New Year’s Day was called. Yes, and the "Haggis" stories too. I often walked with them, in their stories, through the streets of the "Gorabals" as they called that city district in the city of Glasgow. But that's enough for this trip. All I have to do now is to wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year, and may we be alive at this time next year.

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Nollaigí le linn laethanta óige m’athar!

Christmases during my father's childhood!

by | 2023/12/20 | Personal

Christmases during my father's childhood!

 

My father Peter Barrett passed away two weeks before Christmas, four years ago. The Christmas season was a special time for him, in terms of faith and tradition. He had wonderful Christmases growing up in Irrras in County Mayo - all magical occasions. Fortunately, he put pen to paper and shared with us his own memories of Christmases during his childhood days. Here is a piece he wrote in which he shared some of his memories with us:

When I think now of Christmases long ago, the memories come to me slowly, vaguely, at first, but after spending a little time fishing in the deep lake of the years, the same memories come back to me then in a clear, accurate outpouring. A flood of memories that makes the soul dance on a slab inside my heart.

Come with me, then, back to the end of the twenties, to the beautiful land of my youth, to Iorras na n'Iontas. The memories that swim to me now, on that wave of memories, are of bare, desolate fields. On the screen of memory, I see bright candles up through black, brittle clay of Iorras, as we used to spend our pre-Christmas days as boys chasing the wren - and I have to admit now, that we used to find not many wrens in those same desolate fields. I used to think that the wrens of Iorras would go into hiding at that time of year, just in case! Other birds used to be quite plentiful, starlings, sparrows, cranes, and the like. Rarely, then, did we manage to find a wren, in time for Stephen's Day, and in the end, we had no choice but to go out with a lantern, on Christmas Day night, to catch a sleepy old sparrow, in the eaves.

Sparrow or Wren?

Is soiléir a thagann cuimhní an ullmhúcháin do Lá an Dreoilín chugam anois. Aighthe fidil á ndéanamh agus á ndathú. Bataí, boscaí, agus buataisí á gcuardach. Amhráin, ranna, agus damhsaí á gcleachtadh. Ó, sea, agus gúnaí, hataí, agus bibeanna ár ndeirfiúracha, á dtógáil ar iasacht, do Lá draíochta an Dreoilín!

Bhímis ar ar gcois le moiche na maidine, agus bóthar buailte againn sula mbeadh deis ag gasúir eile na háite, airgead, uibheacha, nó ollmhaitheas, na comharsanachta a bhailiú chucu fhéin, mar chreach Nollaigiúil. Bhíodh tús bóthair againne orthu, agus bhímis sásta i gcónaí lenár gcreach, i ndeireadh an lae thiar. Nach ait an scéal é, ach i scannán sin an Dreoilín, ní airímse aon fhuacht, nó sioc, nó sneachta, riamh. Boige, úire, agus Earrachas, a shníonn chugam isteach ar thonn na cuimhne anois, i gcás an Dreoilín chéanna sin.

But let's drop it as a story, and let's return to those Christmases of memory, Christmases of dreams, because it was on them that I drew the story, in the first place. When I think of them now, I think first of the Christmas Season. That season, for us, began on the first day of December. On that day, we started with an old Irish custom, the ‘Áibhéanna’ custom. We believed that the one who said five thousand "Aibhés" between then and Christmas Day would get his wish. We were saying them everywhere, at school, at home, on the road and travel, yes, and we would give that wish as a gift to Mom, on Christmas Eve, when she was tired, exhausted, after buying and dressing the Christmas for us.

Memories returning

Other memories that come to me now are:-

•  The Great Christmas Fair in Belmullet on the 15th of December.

•  Margadh Mór na Nollag, ar an Satharn roimh Nollaig, ’chuile bhliain.

•  The Big Fire of Christmas, it was the big fire that was lit on Christmas Eve.

•  Christmas cakes, the cakes that Mom used to bake and cook for Christmas, cakes that contained raisins, spices, and other nice things, to lift our hearts, in the blessed season of Christmas.

•  The heat of the kitchen, decorations, charity, and above all, the big colored Christmas candle.

•  Us children also had another little habit in Iorras, at that time. We would get small tin boxes, and we would clean and wash them, then Mum would give us a small bit of dough from her big Christmas cake, and we would bake those bits for ourselves in the oven. That way, we used to have our own little Christmas cakes!

Merry Christmas to all our Readers!!

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SBF!

SBF!

by | 2023/12/13 | Current Affairs, International News

SBF!

I am surprised that more has not been written in Irish about Sam Bankman-Fried, who is known as SBF for short, and who is one of the worst fraudsters ever! As that is a significant oversight, here is my attempt to correct that problem!

Who is SBF?

Sam Bankman-Fried was born in California in the United States to two Stanford Law School professors in 1992. After attending secondary school in California, he graduated in physics and mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014.

He started his career in 2013 as an intern at Jane Street Capital – a trading firm with expertise in exchange traded funds – where he got his first work experience. He went to work full-time with the same company after graduating. In November 2017, he co-founded the quantitative trading firm Alameda Research with Tara Mac Aulay of the Center for Effective Altruism, where he briefly worked as director of development. Effective altruism, founded by two philosophers at the University of Oxford in 2009, is a philosophy in which people earn as much money as they can, so that they can donate more money to charity. That philosophy had a great influence on SBF, especially after he met their co-founder, William MacAskill. MacAskill is said to have convinced the brilliant mathematician SBF to maximize his influence by taking a high-paying job and giving away a large portion of it. It was because of this that SBF chose a permanent position with Jane Street Capital on Wall Street. He donated half his salary to charity while he was there.

Sa bhliain 2019, bhunaigh SBF an malartú cryptea-airgeadra darb ainm FTX.  Bhog Bankman-Fried ceanncheathrú a dhá chomhlacht go dtí na Bahámaí ag deireadh 2021 agus bhog sé é féin agus roinnt dá bhaill fhoirne isteach in árasán dín a cheannaigh sé ar $35 milliún. Faoin am seo, bhí SBF ar cheann de na daoine ba shaibhre ar domhan, agus an ceann ba shaibhre níb óige ná tríocha agus glanfhiúchas $26.5 billiún aige! Bhí luacháil FTX timpeall $40 billiún ag an am.  

Sins of SBF!!

In 2019, SBF founded the cryptocurrency exchange called FTX. Bankman-Fried moved the headquarters of his two companies to the Bahamas at the end of 2021 and moved himself and some of his staff into a penthouse he bought for $35 million. By this time, SBF was one of the richest people in the world, and the richest under thirty with a net worth of $26.5 billion! FTX was valued at around $40 billion at the time.

No other customer was allowed to maintain a negative balance. That negative balance meant that Alameda would be able to borrow FTX customers' money, without the knowledge of those same customers.

SBF and FTX also gave Alameda another advantage. FTX fulfilled any trade submitted by Alameda faster than other customers. That gave Alameda a big advantage, because in that business, time is money!

SBF also received personal loan money from Alameda – about $1 billion! And he borrowed $2.3 billion for his company 'Paper Bird'! FTX employees Nishad Singh ($542 million) and Ryan Salame ($55 million) also borrowed money from Alameda.

Also, SBF and FTX created their own cryptocurrency, named FTT. They kept most of it as collateral in FTX and when Alameda borrowed from FTX, often FTT tokens were used. Because FTX and Alameda had the majority of FTT tokens, FTT did not have a real exchange rate, as neither FTX nor Alameda would be able to sell many FTT tokens, without reducing the same rate. Therefore, FTT's token holdings were not realistic collateral, especially if they had to sell those holdings!

Catastrophic failure!

In November, 2022, the site 'Coindesk' published a report claiming that Alameda was heavily dependent on FTT. Therefore, the company Binance, which competed with FTX, and had a fair amount of FTT tokens, said that they were going to sell them all. That started the panic sale of FTT, and its value fell badly. FTX was short of money, and Alameda was unable to repay what they had borrowed from them. FTX was missing $8 billion and had to declare bankruptcy.

SBF was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States. He was accused of seven criminal charges, including electronic fraud and money laundering. He was found guilty of all charges. Other FTX and Alameda employees were also arrested, including Caroline Ellison. Those employees testified against SBF, so that they would receive leniency in their own cases.

Conclusion!

This is a foreboding story, no doubt. SBF may have started out full of good intentions, trying to practice 'effective altruism' to help others. But before long, all that was visible was his selfish predation. And finally, as always happens, the whole thing fell apart. SBF will be back in court next March, when he could be sentenced to up to a hundred years in prison.

A little verse to conclude:

The decline of the SBF empire

The world laid low and the wind blew like a dust,

Bankman-Fried, Ellison, and their co-conspirators;

FTX is grass; and look at how it stands with Alameda,

SBF will wake up in a prison cell every day.

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