Brian Carroll is a journalist who has reported on economic and political issues from several locations in Europe and Africa. He founded Concept 21 Commissions and has experience reporting for Irish newspapers. The document provides snippets of Carroll's reporting from Iceland on its economic crisis; Kenya on famine conditions in the Dadaab refugee camp; New York on Occupy Wall Street protests; Spain on austerity measures; Berlin on German views of Ireland's bailout; and Helsinki on the rise of a far-right party opposed to European bailouts. Contact information is provided for Carroll and links to read more of his dispatches.
2. contact: +353-86-83825982
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Brian Carroll
is the founder of
Concept 21
Commissions. He is
a former
investigative feature
writer with the Irish
Daily Mail and Mail
on Sunday, and a
former deputy
editor, news editor
and security
correspondent of the
Irish Examiner. A
UCD Law graduate,
he holds a Masters
in International
Journalism from
City University
London and has 20
years experience as
a journalist
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contact: +353-86-83825983
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AT 3am in the jazz bar off Laugavegur, Iceland's
Grafton Street, Finnur Steinnsson is trying to convert
me to Jesus. Finnur, 30, used to be a mason in the
building trade. Now he has joined the Mission, doing
volunteer work, and spreading the word of God in a
country of lapsed Lutherans.
During Iceland's boom years from 2005 to 2007, Finnur
would drink sometimes until 7am, partying hard as the
construction money flowed. He has an eight-year-old
son who lives with him, and he still knows how to
party, but something has changed in the heart of
Finnur, and the heart of Iceland too.
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contact: +353-86-83825984
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Dadaab, Kenya
Brian Carroll
reported from
the world's
biggest refugee
camp under
armed protection
from Al Shabab
militants. His
letter to Osman,
a seven month-
old boy whom he
helped to bury in
the camp,
prompted a joint
newspaper and
radio fundraising
campaign, after
which 12m was
raised by four
Irish charities
working in
Dadaab.
To read samples
of all Dadaab
dispatches click
above the mouse !
http://tinyurl.com/
p3u9ojo
Dear Osman I helped to bury you last Saturday.
You were seven months old. You starved to
death. We buried you in Bula Bakti, the Carcass
Dump. A twig on a mound of earth marks your
place among the scores of other children buried
beside you. When we finished, some children
played a game of chase through the graves.
Life goes on.
5.
contact: +353-86-83825985
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New York
Brian Carroll
reported from
the Occupy Wall
Street protests in
Zuccotti Park,
sleeping out with
ragtag
trustafarians and
the genuinely
disaffected, as
well as with Irish
emigrants in the
caged rooms of a
homeless centre
in Chinatown.
I take the R train uptown to Chinatown to my lodgings in the Sun
Bright Hotel. The hotel is neither sunny, nor bright, and two of the
six floors are occupied by homeless people. Floors five and six are
filled by tourists sleeping in 6ft-by-4ft cubicles, with a wire mesh
overhead, and above that, a communal roof. Three bathrooms are
shared between 40 people. I meet Mike from Listowel. He's 37 and
he's been staying here two weeks, looking for work as a labourer.
To read
Manhattan
reports click
above the mouse!
http://tinyurl.com/
py3p44o
6.
contact: +353-86-83825986
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Spain
Brian Carroll
reported from
Madrid on the
impact of
austerity,
interviewing a
lawyer reduced
to eating date-
stamped food
discarded by
supermarkets.
As the plaza fills, the crowds spill up Calle de La
Montera, a pedestrianised boulevard of caf辿 bars,
restaurants, legalised prostitution and strip clubs, before
turning right on to Gran Via, Madrid's main thoroughfare,
and down the long-winding road to Plaza de Cibeles, now
the traditional destination point for victorious Spanish
teams. Cibeles is the Goddess of Bounty, and, in sport,
Spain's many cups runneth over.
To read Madrid
reports click
above the mouse!
http://tinyurl.com/
mv7rwgf!
http://tinyurl.com/
mv7rwgf
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contact: +353-86-83825987
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Berln
Brian Carroll
reported from
Berlin on
German attitudes
to Ireland's
bailout and
enforced
austerity.
To read Berlin
reports click
above the
mouse!
THE 15m tall mural opposite the Bellini Lounge
on Oranienburger Strasse asks 'How long is
now?' Below the mural, a man with a crucifix
around his neck fends off the prostitutes, who
assail him every few minutes. Pointing to his
cross, he tells them gently that he is a man of
God and Jesus loves them.
A flash-mob of tourists and young Berliners
winds its way through the drug dealers, the
street vendors and artists, into and out of
subterranean bars, some of which stay open until
6am. Those who make it to AM-PM, the 24-hour
bar at the end of Oranienburger Strasse arrive on
a continuum of drunkenness. With no concept of
time or now, they straggle from the bar at dawn,
each appearing more strange and inebriated than
the last, like watching a Darwinian progression in
reverse. Here in Berlin's bohemian district, an
island of bacchanalia in a country of regulation,
time is both of no importance and of the essence.
How long is now? For the German taxpayer, now
is now. The moment of reckoning is here.
8. contact: +353-86-83825988
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Helsinki
To read Helsinki
reports click
above the mouse!
http://tinyurl.com/
qzaql7a
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Brian Carroll
reported from
Helsinki on the
rise of True
Finns, a Far
Right party
opposed to
Ireland's bailout.
As word gets out that a journalist is asking about the True Finns, we are
descended upon. An ageing rocker appears, wearing a studded leather
jacket and sporting a rather enthusiastic mullet, in the style of Bono circa
1980. Then a reporter for YLE, Finland's equivalent of RT, appears
wearing a morning hat and cravat.