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These are regular editorials
produced alongside the corresponding issues on Nonviolent
News. |
Razing racism
How we can ‘raze’ or ‘erase’ racism rather than ‘raise
racism’ is a question which comes to mind following the forced departure of a
hundred or so Romanian Roma people from Belfast due to intimidation and
threats. It is noticeable that those charged in relation to these incidents are
aged 15, 16, and 21 years old; young men who may have felt that what they are
alleged to have done was all right by their own standards, these incidents show
how difficult it is to support people who are threatened and feel threatened. Once
a credible threat is issued it is very difficult for it to be ‘undone’; even
the community and public support which weighed in on behalf of these people,
the poorest of the poor in Europe, and members of the most discriminated
against large ethnic group, was insufficient. It some ways it harks back to the
early days of the Troubles; if you are feeling vulnerable, particularly with
young children, you are not going to hang around to find out the level of
credibility of a threat, you are going to vote with your feet and get out. In
this case most of these people decided to get out of Northern Ireland
altogether.
There are things which can be done for those feeling
vulnerable. Obviously sympathetic and responsive policing is one partial
answer. Monitoring by civil society groups on a well-organised basis is another
possible response but the problem is that the monitoring has to be 24/7, or at
least at likely flashpoints and flash times, on a very regular basis if it is
to be of any value. Citizen support in situations where someone is being abused
– for racial or any other reasons – is another important aspect of showing
people that such behaviour is unacceptable; this requires courage by us, as
citizens, to act immediately there is an incident. But another specific point
is that there should be no second class citizens; in this case the victims were
entitled to be resident in Northern Ireland and ‘self employed’ but they were
not entitled to any benefits, rehousing, or anything else, due to the deal for Romania entering the EU. If they had been entitled to such benefits they could and should have
been rehoused somewhere they felt safe in Northern Ireland, if they wanted.
Education, awareness, and supportive government policies are
the main ways to tackle racism. If people are already acting on racist beliefs
it is difficult to stop them because they have the advantage of surprise and
choosing their moment to act. If someone reaches adulthood with racist beliefs
then there has been a failure along the line; this may be a failure by a
mixture of parents, schooling, peers and cultural norms – for which we are all
responsible - but a failure it is. The education system needs to be thorough in
dealing with issues about, and appreciation of, difference, and in particular
an emphasis on the similarity between the experience of Irish emigration (whether
Catholic or Ulster Scots) with immigration to Ireland today. People arrive on
our shores for identical reasons to emigrants departing these shores (and these
reasons are varied but universally include the desire to work to build a better
life for themselves and perhaps for their family).
Churches and NGOs played an important role in supporting
those Roma people forced out of their homes in Belfast. However churches could
play a larger role in the education of their flocks, and a resource to help
them do this is mentioned in the news section in this issue. Welcome and
inclusion are obviously not uniquely Christian values but, despite practical
evidence to the contrary, it is difficult to conceive of a rooted Christian
response which does not welcome the stranger.
Ireland has undergone a remarkable transformation in a
decade or two. The advantage of this, in the Northern Ireland context, is, in
Colum Sand’s words, “to learn to count higher up than two”, in other words to
realise that the Catholic/Protestant divide is just one aspect of difference
and that difference is something which can be appreciated rather than derided.
There is no going back to mono- or even duo-culturalism, and for that we must
be profoundly grateful. The context of the Republic has been changed beyond
recognition, and there have been very considerable cultural and economic
advantages for it. There is a huge big world out there and racism has no place
in our society. But without further efforts by civil society and by
governments, racism remains a real threat, and politicians pandering to their
electorate at election time can exacerbate it. The Irish Government’s
destruction of a dedicated body like NCCRI, admittedly when harsh economic
winds blew, does not indicate the level of support that there should be from
government.
Paramilitarism and militarism
The ‘mainstream’ (if you can use such an absurd term)
paramilitary groups on the loyalist side in Northern Ireland are at last decommissioning
their weapons. It looks like the UVF has actually finished whereas the UDA has
some way to go yet. It being almost four years after the IRA finished its
decommissioning process it is certainly ‘about time too’.
But a number of questions remain. One is certainly about how
the state connects with working class communities, Protestant or Catholic, so
that people feel they have a stake and involvement in society. This is not
about window dressing, or should not be about window dressing – which is what
many governmental ‘consultations’ are about, nor should it be about bribing
paramilitaries. It is about ways to address deprivation, ways to promote social
inclusion, and ways to build a more equitable and democratic society. Ireland, North and South, is a socially divided country or, if you prefer, socially divided
jurisdictions, where politics does not have a good name (though currently, and
remarkably, politics in Ireland, North and South, have a slightly better
profile than in Britain).
There remain other questions which we have addressed at
length in previous editorials (e.g. NN 167) about ensuring the spectre of
paramilitarism does not re-emerge. As paramilitarism heads increasingly over
the hills, there remains the spectre of militarism per se and recruitment to
the British Army which assists the British state’s absurdly violent and
destructive ventures in Afghanistan and Iraq – and wherever next a British
prime minister feels might be advantageous to invade.
Northern Ireland has largely thrown out the dirty bathwater
of paramilitarism (though it is interesting that a report at the start of May,
‘Irish News’ 1/6/09, indicated the INLA has never been approached by the IICD
decommissioning body). However it has not thrown out the dirty and destructive
receptacle which held it – the ‘bath’ of militarism. Paramilitarism is not an
aberration, it is a subset of militarism. And militarism needs to end up on the
scrap heap as well. Because the state is doing the killing should not be
considered a justification – in the case of the British and US states and Iraq
there were hundreds of times the numbers killed by them as by all sides in
Northern Ireland in the Troubles. Let us judge militarism and paramilitarism by
the same measuring stick.
Eco-Awareness Eco-Awareness
Larry Speight brings us his monthly column:
The long evenings, warm weather, blossoming gardens as well
as the statutory holidays many enjoy make the summer an important book reading season.
With this in mind, I suggest you add the following to your summer reading list:
‘You Are Therefore I Am’, by Satish Kumar, Green Books. This book is available
from www.greenbooks.co.uk, and Amazon.com, or you might ask your local library
to order you a copy.
This easy to read book is not only informative but could
prove to be transformative for many. Its subject is the philosophy of how we
perceive our place in the world. Satish Kumar was born in India in 1936 and at the age of nine became a Jain Monk. Jain teaching holds that all species have a
right to life, and that humans do not have an absolute right to subjugate other
life forms.
While a monk Satish Kumar became interested in the life of
Mahatma Gandhi and at the age of eighteen gave up his monkhood to campaign for
world peace on the premise that human beings are not self-contained entities
who can obtain salvation / realization / a place in heaven whilst ignoring the
plight of other humans, non-human beings and that of the Earth as a whole.
In explaining Gandhi’s philosophy to his mother Kumar says:
“For Gandhi ... spirituality is no spirituality which does not bring an end to
injustice, exploitation and social divisions. That love is no love which does
not embrace the untouchables, the slum dwellers, and the artisans. Love of God
and love of people cannot be put into separate compartments.”
Satish Kumar also writes that Gandhi held that: “We need to
liberate spirituality from the monasteries, caves, and religious institutions
and bring it to all people. Spirituality needs to be a part of everyday life.
Non-violence and truth is not something special to be practised by special
people. We need to bring non-violence and truth into politics, business,
agriculture, and into our homes.” (p. 62)
The idea of wholeness and interconnectedness underpins
Satish Kumar’s philosophy, as opposed to the one dominant in society today,
which is that of division and separation as found in Descartes’ famous maxim “I
think, therefore, I am.” The validity of the idea of wholeness and of
non-violence is borne out in our ever-increasing understanding that sustained
economic wellbeing is dependent on respect if not reverence for the natural
environment.
The connection between economics and the destruction of the
environment is illustrated by our heavy reliance on meat in our diet. Seventy
percent of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest is due to cattle farming. Scientists
believe that the incremental loss of the rainforest causes draught in the United States, which will in time lead to a collapse in its ability to produce the grains
and other produce that help feed a world population of 6.7 billion human
beings. The equation is simple: no healthy ecosystems = no food = no economics.
If the philosophy of wholeness and interconnectedness were
widely embraced, we would become more discerning and caring in how we live. We
would not negatively stereotype others, as some did recently in South Belfast with regard to the Romanian members of our community; we would also aim to
support our local farmers, buy Fair Trade, reduce, reuse and recycle.
Aside from references to Mahatma Gandhi, Kumar outlines his
philosophy of life through retelling his encounters with some of the key
non-violent thinkers and activists of the twentieth century. These are Vinoba
Bhave, J. Krishnamurti, Bertrand Russell, Martin Luther King, and E.F.
Schumacher. ‘You Are Therefore I Am’ is a book that will cause you to
ponder, if not change how you perceive yourself in relation to others and the
environment.
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