to move up and down
‘Billion-euro home’ built out of shredded bills in Ireland
An unemployed Irish artist has built a home from the shredded remains of 1.4-billion euros ($1.82 billion), a monument to the “madness” he says has been wrought on Ireland by the single currency, from a spectacular construction boom to a wrenching bust.
Frank Buckley built the apartment in the lobby of a Dublin office building that has lain vacant since its completion four years ago at the peak of an ill-fated construction boom, using bricks of shredded euro notes he borrowed from Ireland’s national mint.
“It’s a reflection of the whole madness that gripped us,” Buckley said of what he calls his “billion-euro home.”
“People were pouring billions into buildings now worth nothing,” he said. “I wanted to create something from nothing.” (Photos: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)
Rugby World Cup
A combination picture shows fans of 15 out of 20 World Cup teams with patriotic face paint. STF/AFP/Getty Images
Joe O’Connor: Young Air India victim not forgotten
Bina Bhatt wanted to be an astronaut. She wanted to reach for the stars.
She was 15 and, like me, had just finished Grade 10 at North Toronto Collegiate Institute, a school where mostly white, mostly middle- and upper-middle-class teenagers went about their days without a care in the world.
Bina was different. She was the kid from India with the big glasses and the long black hair. Bina had a bindi. She was quiet, and shy and smart.
And I barely knew her.
It was June, 1985. Summer was all around. Friends were signing friends’ yearbooks, saying goodbye, and saying see you in September.
But we never saw Bina again.
On June 23, the shy girl with the big glasses fell from the sky off the coast of Ireland, a victim, along with 328 others, of the bombing of Air India Flight 182.
Photo: Bhatt family names on the Air India Flight 182 Memorial at Toronto’s Humber Bay Park East. (Peter J. Thompson/National Post)
Gary Clement’s Week in Review for May 22 to 28, 2011
Blue Oprah Cult: Scott Stinson on Oprah’s finale fervor
Mladic ‘too sick’ for extradition, lawyers argue
Canucks hope to put bad luck behind them
‘Long lost cousin’ Obama visits Irish village
Jonathan Kay: I want to support Israel, but Netanyahu is making it difficult
The Auditor-General’s Top 10
Graphic: Volcanic ash concentration
About 250 flights to northern Britain were cancelled on Tuesday over concerns about the ash cloud spewing from an Icelandic volcano, but British and Irish officials dismissed fears of a mass shutdown of airspace.
Photos: Icelandic volcano erupts
Survey says: Canada is second happiest country in the world
Are you happy? According to a new global wellbeing survey from Gallup, 69% of Canadians rated their lives as “thriving” in 2010 — putting the country in a tie with Sweden for second place in the rankings. The top spot belongs to Denmark, where 72% of residents are feeling pretty great about life. Who could be sad in the country where meatballs are plentiful?
Respondents had three options to choose from: “thriving” — where they classified their lives as ” a 7 or higher and their lives in five years an 8 or higher,” “struggling,” or “suffering.
Here are the top 10 countries:
1. Denmark: 72%
2. Canada: 69%
2. Sweden: 69%
4. Australia: 66%
5. Finland: 64%
5. Venezuela: 64%
7. Israel: 63%
7. New Zealand: 63%
9. Netherlands: 62%
9. Ireland: 62%
Here are the bottom 10 countries:
1. Chad: 1%
2. Central African Republic: 2%
3. Haiti: 2%
4. Burkina Faso: 3%
5. Cambodia: 3%
6. Niger: 3%
7. Tajikistan: 3%
8. Tanzania: 4%
9. Mali: 4%
10. Comoros: 4%
Update: Now with a snazzy map!
A new wave of young Irish workers head for Canada
“So you have all these young, educated, highly skilled people in Ireland who are suddenly in a situation where there are very few jobs. They’re looking around and they see how Canada has come through the recession and they see more opportunity here.”
The Irish government is on the brink of collapse, even as it managed to secure loans to cover a banking and budget crisis. See all of Clement’s cartoons.
