Student Fees Protest Update Barnaville Print & Graphics Ltd
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CIT Students’ Union Magazine Volume Twelve, Issue 4 STUDENT • All the latest CIT news • Top tips for relieving stress FEES • Prepare yourself for Christmas PROTEST • Quit smoking... get the facts • You think you have problems? and much more... December CONTENTS 4 FEATURE STORY Celtic Tiger is dead... long live the IMF 6 SU EXEC NOTES CIT Students’ Union, Rossa Ave, Bishopstown, Cork, Ireland. 8 PREPARING YOURSELF FOR CHRISTMAS Telephone: 021 433 5274 Fax: 021 454 5343 10 OVERCOMING DEPRESSION Email: [email protected] 11 CIT NOTES Web: www.explicit.ie Seasonal advice expliCIT Production 13 TEN TIPS FOR BEATING Keith Brown, Philip O’Reilly STRESS CIT Students’ Union 14 QUIT SMOKING President - John Lane Get the facts and you will quit! ([email protected]) 15 PHOTOS 21T SPOR Vice President Education - Chris Scanlon Recent events captured Soccer and Sports Bursaries 2010 ([email protected]) 22 PROBLEM PAGES Vice President Welfare - Vicki Fitzpatrick 17 MUSIC FEATURE Ever get the feelin you’ve been cheated so, you think you have problems?! ([email protected]) in the 00’s? Projects Officer - Niamh Hayes 24 CLUBS AND SOCIETIES NEWS ([email protected]) 18 What’s Christmas likE in othEr CountriEs? 25 HEALTH Communications Officer -to be elected the importance of breakfast ([email protected]) Q&A with three of our International students Entertainments Officer - Gordon Forbes 26 GAMES ([email protected]) 19 ÉIRE RIP Great prizes on offer for successfully photo collage of the student fees pro- completed entries delivered into the students’ union office Entertainments Manager - test held on 1 Dec Mick O’Mahony ([email protected]) Print Student Fees Protest Update Barnaville Print & Graphics Ltd. ‘Our message was clear, our behaviour immaculate, and our resolve unending’ Advertising Opportunities On 1st December, despite the severe weather conditions CIT and UCC students took CIT has almost 17,000 full and part-time students the streets to protest against a rise in the Registration Fee, cuts in payments Mainte- with over 1,500 staff. Why not use expliCIT to promote your business to this large audience? nance Grant and the lack of jobs available for our graduates. CIT students assembled in the Student Centre and Courtyard, to hold a rally and then marched from CIT to UCC. Copy deadlines, advertising rates and technical From there they gathered with students from all over Munster, and together, marched specifications are available from our website in solidarity towards the city centre. This peaceful protest drew media attention from www.expliCIT.ie or upon request from the both local and national newspapers and television. The protest was an overwhelming Publications Office. success; we had an absolutely massive crowd, estimated at €3000 students. expliCIT magazine is published monthly by CIT The protest was completely peaceful, with the Gardai commenting on the professional Students’ Union. The views expressed in the nature of the protest and the amount of stewards present. magazine are those of their authors and are not necessarily those of CIT Students’ Union. All Every single student who attended can be proud, and I would like to take this opportu- articles and pictures are the property of their nity to say a hearty thank you to all the lecturing staff who attended and supported our respective owners and should not be reproduced cause as well a surprising amount of secondary school students. Likewise, I would like without their permission. to thank the parents who came on the day. This showed clearly that this was not just a student problem and the media picked up on this also. Well done! WE NEED YOU! Send us your thoughts, articles, advice and pictures. If you would like to contribute anything to expliCIT Magazine, please contact Keith in the Publications Office, 1st Floor, Student Centre or email: [email protected] 3 The Celtic Tiger is dead, long live the IMF he last fifteen years resembled about this for a long time to come. an epic party. The nation of Ireland was like a playboy, lots The IMF came into Dublin last month, drank, did drugs, paid high class call looked through the public financ- Tgirls and consumed only the finest es, and agreed that the Government beers, wines and champagnes. Many needed to cut spending, increase tax- drove fast cars and led the rock and es and plan for the future. What they roll lifestyle. Then, we woke up in didn’t point out is that we needed to 2010 with the mother of all hango- make long term investments in our vers. We reached for our wallet (the future so as we start earning money banks) and it was empty. We had sold again. The minimum wage is to be all our engineering firms and compe- cut, all social welfare payments bar tencies for a rock of crack cocaine at the Old Age Pension. There will be What's the difference some stage during our binge. Now we tax increases and property tax intro- realise we haven’t got much left and ductions, you name it, they’ll want to between a million, a billion, our recovery will be a slow one. Roll screw us with it. The European Com- a trillion? on 2011 and lets start on the road to munities now are advising a three- recovery. tower approach over the next few years, cut spending, increase tax in- A million seconds is 12 days. The last week of November 2010 was A billion seconds is 31 years. a week when Ireland finally lost con- A trillion seconds is 31,688 years. trol. It had been coming for a while, A million minutes ago was – 1 year, 329 the property bubble burst three years The Celtic Tiger, much days, 10 hours and 40 minutes ago. previous , the Celtic Tiger was assas- A billion minutes ago was just after the sinated a few weeks later, car sales like a unicorn, was a dropped, un-employment was rising, time of Christ. and finally the banks went bust. The “ mythical creature. A million hours ago was in 1885. Celtic Tiger, much like a unicorn, was Everyone heard of him, A billion hours ago man had not yet a mythical creature. Everyone heard walked on earth. of him, but only a few ever really saw but only a few ever him. The greed of a few led to his de- really saw him A trillion Euros is so large a number cline and ultimate death, and that was that only politicians the beginning of the end. The Celtic Tiger, now just a vague memory and can use the term in conversation... utterly pointless for the up and com- probably because they ing young twenty-something’s, is seldom think about what they are really like the Great Elk that lived in Ireland takes and create more jobs. Very easy saying. Here is some perspective on long ago – a national treasure that we to say, maybe not so easy to do. TRILLION: didn’t appreciate until it was gone. ” Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000. They do, however, have an invested Ireland has not existed for a trillion What is at the forefront of our minds interest in us recovering, because the seconds. now is the IMF. No longer are we Irish, EU and IMF do want their money back. They also should be after learning Western civilization has not been around (we are not even European delete). In essence, we are German. Outside par- from the Greece bailout where the IMF a trillion seconds. ties will now decide how our economy were asked in, but Greece are far from One trillion seconds ago – 31,688 years is run and who will benefit and who performing to expectations at pre- – Neanderthals stalked the plains of will suffer. In all fairness though, the sent. So now they’ll hopefully won’t Europe.....and they’re still there on Germans aren’t too bad… anymore. In make the same mistakes with us. For Kildare Street. a nutshell, we are getting about €85 this reason at least, we do have a light billion – BILLION! From the IMF. For at the end of the tunnel. The IMF don’t Million: 1,000,000 those of you who can’t picture this, want us to just pay the loan back, they Billion: 1,000,000,000 that is: €85,000,000,000. That is the need us to succeed as we share a cur- most sickening figure that I have ever rency. It is now in everybody’s inter- Trillion: 1,000,000,000,000 seen. To make it worse, we have to est we succeed. But the people of this Quintillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 pay it back. We do. The citizens of country need to get their act together. Sextillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 this country. We weren’t this highly We need to start thinking wisely as to Nonillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 in debt in the 80’s. Most young peo- what we buy and who we buy it from. ,000,000,000 ple never lived through a recession I tried explaining this to a (clueless) Centillion: 1 followed by 303 zeros or tough times. Well, if you were to friend of mine not so long ago, that live through one, this is the one to go we now need to start buying Irish. We through. I think we could be talking need to keep our money in Ireland. We 4 FEATURE STORY The Celtic Tiger is dead, long live the IMF need to borrow all this money because This is how the Celtic Tiger flourished we were buying foreign products and – no one saved.