...the interview with John Banville is now available here.

I've been meaning to giving a nod to this entertaining article in LA Weekly describing Michel Houellebecq's alcohol-fuelled sojourn in southern California. Among other things, it reveals that:

"Perhaps There Is an Island, Houellebecq’s forthcoming novel about cloning, will be published in France at the end of the summer. [...] de Brunhof [a literary agent based in Paris], who believes that Platform was written too hastily, said Island is by far Houellebecq’s most serious book and his masterpiece. (When she wrote to Houellebecq saying as much, he replied, “Yes, I know.”) Parts of it, she said, are extremely moving, and the ending is both romantic and melancholic. “Some people who read the manuscript were mesmerized.”

It seems that on this side of the Atlantic, the translation of the original title (La possibilité d'une île) is more faithful, as you can see here. According to the Amazon blurb, "Houellebecq's dazzling new novel, which moves between Paris, Andalucia and Lanzarotte, is a thought provoking, sometimes shocking, and ultimately moving examination of the modern world, the trials of old age and the death of love."

For anyone who has read H's previous novels, it's beginning to look like that Houellebecq is as loyal (chained?) to his recurring themes of cloning and pornography as P.G Wodehouse was to Bertie Wooster and Blandings Castle.

I'll still read it, of course.

In the wake of the London bombings, I've been wondering why the "respectable" political class (i.e. MPs who are not George Galloway) has been so emphatic about the absence of any link between terrorism in Britain and the invasion/liberation (tick according to your credo) of Iraq. If the Labour Government is certain of the righteousness of what is going on (partly) in Britain's name in Iraq, shouldn't it actually be stressing the connection between the London attacks and policy in Iraq? A true believer in the cause would be driving home the argument that the terrorists are trying to undermine the experiment in democracy unfolding there by trying to intimidate British public opinion into calling for a withdrawal of troops, one of the main props of civil society in Iraq.

But according to the mixed signals being sent, Iraq can both be on the frontline of the Global War on Terror and entirely irrelevant to the fundamentalist Islamic threat.

To busy/lazy to provide the usual verbosity. Instead, I merely offer a link to a document that will be/should be discussed a lot over the next few days: The Iraq Body Count's "A Dossier of Civilian Casualties in Iraq 2003–2005."

It contains the following disturbing breakdown of responsibility for civilian deaths, numbering around 24,865 and counting:

* US-led forces killed 37% of civilian victims.
* Anti-occupation forces/insurgents killed 9% of civilian victims.
* Post-invasion criminal violence accounted for 36% of all deaths.
* Killings by anti-occupation forces, crime and unknown agents have shown a steady rise over the entire period.

It makes you question, if you needed an incentive to question, the balance of media coverage of events in that benighted county. I had assumed that zombified jihadists filtering in from Saudi Arabia and Syria from responsible for the bulk of deaths over the past year or so. Shows you how much a self-confessed news junkie knows.

And expect the report's credibility to be challenged by the usual suspects in the near future.

Much as I inexplicably loath the entire Harry Potter phenomenon, I think the actions of this guy are a little excessive. Indeed, in some ways his behavior is as anorakish as those he annoys the hell out of.

Link via the cornucopia that is blogdex.

Remember “disintermediation”? It was a polysyllabic buzzword much beloved by Internet gurus during the height of the dot.com bubble. It basically meant cutting out the middle man, those retailers, agents, and, well, intermediaries that stood between the customer and the product they wanted. It was clear what disintermediation could deliver—the “Information superhighway” would pave over the old turnpikes of commerce, and in the process demolish those piddling little toll booths, each demanding its pound of flesh. And it’s worked to an extent, and mainly at the expense of travel agents. Fifteen years ago, booking a holiday using a computer meant asking a travel agent to enter your details into the Sabre system. Now we all have access to those databases.

But not all pointless intermediaries have collapsed into pillars of salt. Anyone who has gone through the rigmarole of buying a house knows that estate agents are far from extinct. And what is odd is that whereas travel agents, who are going the way of the Dodo, in fact provided a tangible service (albeit low-level data entry), it’s not clear what estate agents, who are spreading like fungi after a rainstorm, actually do. Apart from giving you a brochure and telling you that the owner has just received an offer that is €25,000 in excess of the price listed in the brochure they’ve just handed you, what factor ensures that they do not just survive but thrive? Maybe it’s the fact that a robot hasn’t yet been developed that can open front doors, distribute glossy leaflets, and repeat the phrase “It’s surprisingly close to the Luas.” (The Japanese, however, seem to be making great strides on this challenge)

However, and this is where I arrive at the heart of my argument, there is one group of middle men who make even estate agents seem like neurosurgeons. And over the past six months, after taking redundancy from my last employer, I have had enough dealings with them to last a lifetime.

I am talking about Recruitment Agencies

Remember that episode of the Simpsons, when Homer decides to set up an Internet business (CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet)? The company’s assets consisted of a few pens, an executive toy, and a copy of Internet for Dummies(Remedial Edition). One wonders if you need much more to set up a recruitment agency, assuming you replace Homer’s book with a tome entitled, say, HR for Dummies.

Throw in a telephone and a ropey web page and you’ve got the foundations of a modern Irish Recruitment Firm. I exaggerate (for strained comic effect) but from my dealings with these characters they don’t seem to add anything in the way of what might be called value. Apart from receiving your CV, squinting at it, and then passing it on the real hirer, what is their role? To justify their existence, they try to do more than pass on paper and this is where all the problems begin.

So to help them improve their "service", and, more importantly, to lessen the frustration of the poor sods who come in contact with them, may I present “Seven Tips to Make Irish Recruitment Agencies Marginally Less Crappy.”

1. Be courteous (Or Phone Back and Give The Candidate Some News, Even If They Haven’t Got the Job)

This is the usual routine:
The phone rings. Agent: (Enthusiastic voice, positively perky) "Hi, there’s a really good opportunity I'd like to tell you about, it’s a contract starting immediately”.

Me: “Fine, you can send them my CV.”

Days pass. I call. “Hi, I was wondering what happened with that job you were telling me about last week. Any news?”

Agent: (slightly confused, briefly unable to place me), “Oh, we’re still waiting to hear back from the company. I’ll call you back with news no matter what by the end of the day.”

The day ends. There is no phone call. Days become weeks. Then one day the phone rings, “ Hi, I’m just contacting you about a really good opportunity, it’s a contract starting immediately”.

What happened to the original job you applied for? Were you in the running? Was it close? Or did the company manager hurl your CV across the room in disgust? Did they even hire anyone in the end? You’ll never know and the recruitment agent sure as hell isn’t going to bother enlightening you.

2. Try to Know Something About the Job You’re Touting.

Ever have one of these conversations?

“The candidate they’re looking for needs to have 4-5 years experience in Web Services, Java, JavaScript, XML, XSLT, XHTML, WSDL, and SOAP. Do you know anything about SOAP?”

At this point you wondering how many people looking for 3-month contract work have five years experience with bloody SOAP. Part of you wants to say, “Well I’m familiar with the Palmolive Protocol 1.0” but you bite your lip. Until you can taste blood.

3. Listen and Act Accordingly
You’ve said that you want, for example, a tech writing job and you’re not willing to relocate from Dublin. You’re then phoned about a software testing job based in Mullingar. If you didn’t suspect that most of the people you’re dealing with in this industry have a memory span of a squirrel, you’d think that they’re trying to piss you off on purpose.

And recently, my inbox has filled with tempting “opportunities” in Scotland.

4. Read the CV Before You Talk to the Applicant
Do I need to explain why this is a good idea?

5. Make an Effort, No Seriously, Make a Bloody Effort
One time, the recruitment firm sent me a “background” document about a company before a potential interview. And what nuggets of info did it provide? Stuff on the level of “Read about the company before the interview. Visit their website.” and “Dress professionally.”

Thank you so much for those insights. All that was missing was a recommendation not to compulsively rub your crotch while talking with the interviewer.

6. Be Exclusive (If Possible)
Scrolling down a list of jobs in Monster, IrishJobs, or RecruitIreland, you might be consoled by the fact that the keywords you entered generated, say, 28 potential jobs. But don’t be fooled—-there might only be 4 unique jobs with each job represented by 7 agencies. This farcical situation means that if you’ve already applied for a job, but heard nothing back (see tip 1), your applications for at least six “other” jobs will be a waste of time.

It makes you wonder how these outfits make any money if they’re fighting over the same scraps. But I suppose as with H. Simpson’s CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet, what’s the overhead?

7. Finally, Try Remember What County You’re In.
This happened to me recently: An agent originally from England kept on telling me about his opinions on the IT jobs market in the “Yew Kay.” I was wondering why he thought I would be interested in the state of the British labour market. Then it dawned on me--he thinks we’re part of UK market.

And that guy never rang back either.

I’ve looked over the list and I realize that even if these tips were implemented, it still wouldn’t be enough to justify the soul-shrinking process of “walking through” your resumé with people who, in Morrissey’s words, “don’t care if I live or die.”

Plus there’s a very powerful agent of disintermediation out there, which allows you to avoid the whole recruitment agency Hell.

It’s called a newspaper.