11th April, 2002
Notice
Board
MALICIOUS PHONE CALLS - The Bureau
Malicious Calls
Bureau
The Bureau was launched by Telecom Eireann (now called Eircom) in
April 1998. The Bureau works with the Gardai to help and advise
victims of nuisance calls. Staff are trained to deal with
situations where customers may be distressed or upset.
The Bureau stays in contact with the victim until the case has
been resolved. In many cases the Bureau recommends changing to an
unlisted
number; this solves the problem in most instances. In more
serious cases, it advises the customer to report the problem to
the Gardai. The Bureau sends a 'Call Logging Sheet' to the
customer as a reminder to keep manual records of any unwelcome
calls received. After examining the ease, the Gardai can request
that Eircom trace calls made to the customer's number. Before
this can be done, the customer needs to sign a form giving his
consent allowing Eircom activate call tracing.
The Malicious Calls Bureau makes a report based on this
information and sends it to the Gardai. It continues to liaise
with the customer throughout this procedure.
Becoming ex-directory
The Bureau may offer you the choice of becoming ex-directory.
This can be done immediately. The service is free of charge if it
is being requested because of a malicious calls problem, and in
these cases the caller is assigned a new number.
An unknown problem
It is difficult to assess the scale of the nuisance phone call
problem, as so many cases are never reported. Eircom's Malicious
Cal Is Bureau deals with around 30,000 complaints a year Most
cases are resolved through advice from the Bureau on bow to deal
with nuisance callers, or through changing to unlisted numbers.
The Bureau estimates that around 15% of cases go on to more
serious action.
In 1998 complaints were from 57% female customers, 41% male and 2%
were businesses. Around 44% of complaints come from the 01 area
alone; 56% are from the rest of the country.
There is also a variation in the types of calls complained about:
58% were threatening or abusive, 31% were silent, 9% were hoax
calls and 20% were electronic errors. The most common of these is
where a fax machine has been mistakenly programmed to
continuously call a domestic phone number
Penalties
People convicted of this crime can receive tines anywhere between
€1000 and £50,000 a prison sentence of up to 5 years, or a
combination of booth.
This concludes our articles on Malicious Phone Calls.
You can contact the Malicious Calls Bureau at freemen 1800 689
689.
... IN THE DOG HOUSE
... Continued from last week
The animals were upwards of a year old, but it
was unlikely they had ever been allowed outside their cages-for
dogs are sold by weight, and exercise means that they lose
valuable body fat.
Noticing that I was a foreigner, the salesmen eyed us
aggressively. But one burly butcher was unconcerned
and continued his grisly work: burning the fur from the rigid
corpse of a recently-killed dog with a blow torch, then holding
it up by the leg and hacking it into quarters.
How much for a whole dog, he was asked. 'That depends,' came the
suspicious response. 'Maybe 250,000 won for a live one weighing
around 25 kilograms.' He sharpened his knife. 'But 350,000 won (€
190) if you want me to process it for -you.'
We attempted to extract more information, but the dog-traders
don't care for small-talk with outsiders. So we travelled 200
miles south to Daegu, where fewer westerners venture and the
people are less cautious.
The city will play host to four world Cup matches, but just a 20-minute
drive from the stadium is Daegu market.
Viewed from the outside, it is a colourful spectacle, crammed
with exotic fruit and vegetables and all manner of fresh fish.
But inside, in the labyrinth of narrow walkways, it is a vision
from hell.
First, we come across the butchers' stalls, neatly laden with the
upturned carcasses of what appear to be very small dogs or
puppies then we find countless cages of dogs and cats.
MOST of the dogs were yellow ones, but one cage contained about
eight English bullmastiffs and another had a straggly haired
border collie, which looked about 12 years old.
Unlike in Seongnam, the barking and yelping here was frenetic.
Kyenan said this was probably because most of these dogs were
pets that had been sold, discarded or stolen.
So much for the Korean Embassy spokesman in London, who assured
me that 'Koreans do not eat pet dogs, only dogs that have been
farmed specially.'
Here in Daegu market, the dogs were kept in slightly better
conditions than in Seoul, but vet Dr lm said they were still
suffering terribly. 'You can see they are afraid. They have
almost certainly been beaten. But within one month, with proper
care and affection, they could again become loving family pets.'
Such care will never come, of course.
Taegun Yu, 67, has run his Kim Chun 'dog tonic' store for 18
years. It is a stifling little dog-processing den lined with six
spotlessly scrubbed pressure cookers and a variety of other
machines designed to turn his animals into juice. He became
friendly when I feigned interest in buying one of the six yellow
dogs. He said that in good times, he once sold more than 30 dogs
a month, which meant an annual turnover exceeding 120,000. Since
the financial downturn, he has sold only five or six, hut he
added: +AGA-Things are getting a lot better now the economy is
improving.'
Customers, he said, came from all walks of life - doctors,
teachers, businessmen, bankers. They would choose a dog and he
would then fetch the butcher to kill it.
THEN he would place the whole carcass into the pressure cooker
and boil it for six hours until even the
bones were reduced to mulch.
Finally he added various herbs, ginger and ginseng, before
straining it into small plastic containers. 'I never use a dog
under 12 months old,' he said, as if this were a virtue. Why,
then, was he also keeping puppies caged outside? 'Oh, they are
pet dogs,' he replied evenly. 'Nobody wants to eat them. They're
not meaty enough, and anyway they're not good for the male
virility. You can have one for 30,000 won (€16).' Declining
the offer, I asked him if he ever pitied his dogs. 'No, never.
I've seen so many. Sometimes they are good-looking or
particularly healthy, and I admire them, but only as meat.'
The arrival of Mr Yu's angry-looking wife brought our
conversation to a premature close. By now, we had been standing
near the cages for more than two hours and the experience had
left me feeling physically sick. My every instinct was to flee
and never return. But the image of one dog, in particular, was
lodged in my mind, and I knew that I had to go back. I found Mary
exactly as I had left her, with her nose pressed against the
rusty bars, and for €175 she was mine. The experience of
leaving her cage, perhaps for the first time since she was born
some 18 months ago, was almost too much. Her tail hung between
her legs, her back was hunched, and she was so confused that she
staggered dizzily. Within a few moments, though, she had gathered
her bearings and was able to walk with me for 400 yards to Dr
Im's veterinary van.
We agreed to take her to Sunnan Kum's animal sanctuary and gave
her a big bowl of food - the first time she had tasted anything
other than scraps. An hour later, when I gave her a pat and said
goodbye, her tail was curled upwards and she was starting to make
friends with some of the other 80 rescued dogs.
Two million dogs may perish in the cooking pots of South Korea
this glorious World Cup year. But Mary, at least, is safe.
NOTICES
Brothers of Charity
A Coffee Morning in aid of Bungalow 8 takes place on Friday 19th
April at 11 AM . All proceeds go towards the purchase of a new
Mini-Bus. Music will be provided by Steve Goodman. For further
information ring 4363867
Spring Meeting
The Ileostomy, Colostomy and Internal Pouch Support group are
holding their Spring Meeting in the Gresham Metropole Hotel,
McCurtain Street on Saturday 13th April; @ 1.30 PM. Further
information from Cepta Burke 087 6992916
Address
by John Cashell, President, Cork Chamber of
Commerce at the Chamber's 183rd Annual General Meeting on Monday,
8th April 2002 at
the Imperial Hotel.
Past Presidents, Honorary Life
member, members of the Chamber and members of staff I would in
the first instance like to thank my proposers for my renomination
as your President. It is my privilege and pleasure to accept your
invitation and you can be assured of my best endeavours on all
your behalf in the year ahead. The past year has been quite a
roller coaster for me but with the back-up of council, board and
staff the job got done. My sincere thanks to all those who
assisted me in carrying out the various functions of the Chamber
and who will continue to do so over the coming months or so. But
then that surely is one of the great strengths of Cork Chamber.
So where to from here.
There were a range of issues which I have referred to in the past
12 months which will still be issues of concern and issues for
attention in the year ahead. 5 such issues in no particular order
of importance are as follows:
Membership - I said last year that I wished to have 1000 members
by AGM 2003. We had 830 at end of 2000 and 940 by end of 2001.
This year will see difficulties for a number of companies but the
barrier will not be dropped and we will, by particularly
retaining our existing membership by good events and servicing,
achieve this goal by the end of this year.
Competitiveness At the last AGM I referred to our absolute need
to remain competitive. Subsequent events, unforeseen at that
time, only re-emphasise the need for this. Let us be realistic we
are in more difficult times. The returns for 2001 and first
quarter 2002 have been well short of budget. Ireland Inc. is
committed to ongoing day-to-day expenditure well in excess of
revenue. A little over 12 months ago we all were committed to
adding 2% to our PPF agreement because of a temporary blip in
inflation. But once this receded did we see it come back? No. The
loss of control of government spending in the last 2 years must
be a major concern to business so I intend to set up a group
shortly to review this area. The Chambers voice for the region
will be heard on this issue irrespective of who forms the next
government. We are also going to be facing the end of the current
PPF in October. The ESRI are among those of us who believe the
lack of built in mechanisms to allow for adjustments reflecting
changing economic circumstances made it inevitable that the terms
of agreement will be broken. We ourselves havemany member
companies who in the past 12 months have had to pay well over the
PPF to retain or recruit staff. While this may have changed
somewhat recently,the fact remains that some have and continue to
pay well over the odds while quite a number of others are
struggling to remain competitive and in business at the present
rates. Whether to enter another agreement or not is something
that we in Cork Chamber should have a regional view on and be
prepared to say so. Again my intention is to get a group to
prepare the groundwork on this vital issue.
Local Government Since last years AGM we have had the publication
of the Cork Area Strategic Plan 2020, the Cork Docklands Plan and
now the Cork City and County Development Plans issued or open for
discussion. These are major key plans and visions for the future
that will impact hugely on the members of the Chamber. The
cornerstone of the Chamber Support of the Cork Area Strategic
Plan was the upfront loading of infrastructural expenditure and
regular reviews. Realistically this much needed requirement for
all our local plans to be effective has to be closely monitored
and again I am committing your Chamber to doing just that and
being vocal on this issue in the months ahead. On this note I
again come back to the need for competitive broadband
connectivity. While we welcome the government's agreement to
support the 19 local urban broadband networks we are still
waiting for support for your Chambers drive for an international
consortium who would provide competitive international broadband
access and independence not only for this region but for the
whole Cork/Limerick/Galway/Dublin loop. Time is of the essence.
We have the consortium where is the government support?
Access Access continues to be and always will be key for this
region.Air We will continue to pursue an early start to the
committed new terminal and improved flight frequencies on
existing and new routes.Sea We commend support for the newly
purchased 11 months service on the Cork/Swansea route.
Road/Rail We will continue to press for the infrastructural
improvements which will be needed for public and private users.
We are concerned at the lengthy process of evaluation for the
changes so necessary in our road/rail links and will be pressing
hard on these issues in the coming months.
Waste Management Your Chamber has advocated best practices in
waste management and have taken important leads in this area in
recent months. Individually and corporately we are well behind
where we should be locally and nationally at reducing, reusing
and recycling waste items. Successive national governments, local
councils, urban and rural communities have been unwilling to
accept the need for change. This cannot go on. Equally let us be
quite clear where we stand on incineration. As the region
produces almost 60% of Ireland's hazardous waste, we cannot
refuse to support the establishment of a thermal treatment plant
in the region to handle this waste. We must have confidence in
the ability of the Health and Safety Authority together with the
Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that such a plant
operates as it should and that whatever additional monitoring or
personnel are required will be made available to them. There have
been immense advancements made with such plants in recent times.
There is no reason why we cannot and should not have the safest
and most efficient plant in Europe, which will help sustain and
advance our industrial base without compromising on our
environmental standards.
The year ahead is certainly going to be a busy and adventurous
period. I look forward to your continuing support, help, advice
and assistance.
Thank you.
