Wings of Desire
by Niall Shanahan

In yesterday's Sunday Business Post, head of Dublin City Council had some pretty strange things to say about the effect of providing homeless services in the city, which has understandably drawn criticism, most recently from Focus Ireland's Mike Allen on RTE's Morning Ireland this morning. It featured in yesterday's edition on the front page and page two. The full interview is available from the Communications Unit upon request.

 

The Indo leads with news from a survey of graduate pay: Teachers top the pay league for new graduates but gender pay gap remains. The Higher Education Authority's (HEA) survey confirms that average starting salaries hit €38,701 for graduates from education courses.

 

This morning's front pages are a mixed bag, while the FlyBMI airline is the latest Brexit casualty

 

Elsewhere, and not pulling its punches, a "devastating" parliamentary report denouncing Facebook says the company deliberately broke privacy and competition law and should urgently be subject to statutory regulation. It describes Facebook's executives as “digital gangsters”.

 

Your moment of Zen today comes again (it's Monday after all) in two portions.

 

I was very fortunate to attend Neneh Cherry's phenomenal Dublin show in Saturday night. Her sell out European tour is to promote her latest (excellent) album Broken Politics, which she recorded with Four Tet's Kieran Hebden. For a taste click on the blurry image montage I took at the gig (above) to see the video for Natural Skin Deep.

 

Your second portion of Zen marks the departure of the gifted Swiss actor Bruno Ganz. More recently he's dominated the internet for his explosive monologue as Hitler in Downfall, humourously subtitled to capture all manner of outrage (a trend which had the actor's firm seal of approval).

 

His performance in that film was extraordinary, but anyone who has seen his work with German director Wim Wenders (montage below taken from The American Friend) will know he was an actor of subtlety and grace. Here's a taste of Wenders' mid-80s classic, Wings of Desire, in which Ganz's empathetic angel brings comforting words.

 

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