Saturday, 18 June 2011

Facebook and the Northern Ireland Piece Process

Would You Adam and Eve It?

Does Stormont Employ Interns?

Oh Yes, Minister!! Come on in; the water's lovely.


Free Falling lyrics
Songwriters: Petty, Tom; Lynne, Jeff;
 
She's a good girl, loves her mama
Loves Jesus and America too
She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis
Loves horses and her boyfriend too
Well, I've recently stumbled on a young American lady amongst my political and media friends on Facebook, the internet social networking site, who is just plumb crazy 'bout - our MLAs and councillors. She's even slipped under the radar of some of our more seasoned journalists and bloggers!

A little deep-dive research - in the interests of political sociology - revealed that there was rather more to the young lady, including the use of more than one name - or less, depending upon your point of view - than her alleged attendance at a Christian university would suggest. Some might think that the escapade is very innocent, a minor distraction for our (mainly male) public servants; others might be concerned that a 'honey-trap' operation is in progress, that the compiler of the Facebook page isn't the young lady in the photographs.
Politicians, journalists, police officers
Are free, free fallin'
Oh - bad boys, bad boys!
Added 13 September 2011

 Anyone can be a Facebook member and can post whatever photos and other stuff that appeals to them. Should politicians and journalists (and others) be more discerning in their choice of Facebook friends? I have a broad spectrum of Facebook friends, including politicians and journalists, so I was somewhat surprised to see the names that appeared on Facebook pages labelled 'Nisha *******' and, more recently, 'Mary ******'. The individuals who appear in these webpages may well be unaware that their photos are being used in this way.

Added 18 November 2011

Nisha and Mary have now been joined by Reena. They - if it really is they - seem to have a particular interest in Northern Ireland politicians, particularly Unionists, and political journalists. The surnames, in no particular order, are Janka, Parrish and Rankin.