I have never been a HUGE fan of politics. While I have my opinion on US politics, I've never been one to really research much and often times can be guilty of having an opinion yet not knowing the facts to back it up politically. Hopefully, I generally have the wisdom to say that I don't know enough to have a full out debate. But here, I feel like politics are inescapable.
The past few days have been busy with conferences and rain. Yesterday I went to a meeting at Belfast Exposed, a community organization that works to engage the community in photography projects and training. It began when the community in a Nationalist area of West Belfast became annoyed with the media capturing their lives in the midst of the troubles, while they themselves having no means of documenting their lives. Belfast Exposed was formed and has continued to grow since then. I went to this conference to build some connections in hopes of some guidance with the Castle High School and St. Patricks Academy photography club that I theoretically work with, although we have only met once.
The most interesting part of the meeting came with the presentation by the Belfast Arts Council on a new set of grants that are available to community groups. The Re-imaging programme is to be awarded to communities who wish to change the face of their community using art. The project must make the community more inclusive and inviting, and seeks to remove all paramiliary influence in the country. One man who had made it known that he was from the Shankill, voiced his opinion that the programmes whole goal was to remove all the murals and the cultural identity. The tension and arguments went back and forth and it was interesting to watch. I think that the man representing the Arts Council made it very clear that the goal was not to harm cultural identity but to remove offensive paramilitary murals. While Mom and Anne were here, Doug took us on a car tour, where we saw a mural on the Shankill that had recently been repainted, covering paramilitary propaganda with an Andrew Jackson mural oddly enough. I think this programme is a great idea and will be a positive thing for Nireland.
One of the former projects that Belfast exposed has worked with and shared with us, which I thought was super amazing, was a project called BriX. A group of youth wanted to do an exhibition on youth in Belfast, capturing the variety from the posh to Goth. Instead of trying to capture all of these faces of youth themselves, they created a scheme to have youth send in their own pictures using cameras on mobile phones. They passed out advertisements, with a phone number to text pictures too. The texts automatically were posted to a website where all youth could then go view them, forming the online exhibition. While the pictures are not all that stellar, the idea is very cool in my opinion. Feel free to check out the pictures (www.brix.org.uk)
Today, I spent my Thanksgiving Day at the annual Community Relations Council conference, called
Living Issues. Overall, the day was very entertaining. The main speaker was Mari Fitzduff. She has traveled the world working with peace processes in tons of countries. She even mentioned Joseph Kony by name, although she said he was from the DRC not Uganda. But it was still pretty exciting. She talked about moving forward in Nireland, how we need to have construction, not reconstruction, which implies recreating what there was before, which is not what we want.
She talked about changing attitudes by changing behavior, which I thought was particularly interesting and applicable to the Partnership who seeks to get children from both sides together for events. By allowing them and encouraging them to play together and be in community, we can in turn change their attitude towards the other. Mari talked about justice and peace and how often these goals come into conflict. She gave the example of Rwanda, and you know how I feel about Africa. In Rwanda, the prime minister may be charged with causing a plane crash, however, if he is charged, the peace established within Rwanda is in danger of falling apart. There is a hard decision to be made, whether to seek justice or ensure peace.
Another big point that she made which I liked a lot about forming a shared future was about forgiving and forgetting, and how we are better to remember and change. She explained that we can't make ourselves forgive and often cause guilt when we can't forgive and that forgetting can mean letting go of those lost during the troubles. Instead she explained that the people should remember and change, so that no one else would feel as they have and suffer as they have. She used the term ghettoization, which just made me laugh, and oddly enough mistakenly said US for UN, only to quickly correct herself. I watched eye brows around me shoot up. And I was particularly aware of her mistake. She is Irish, and has been living in Boston for a period of time which I am unsure about. Regardless, it was interesting.
For my workshop, I went to the youth crime and anti-social behavior workshop. It was interesting to hear all about resorative justice, which a main practice of the Partnership. Restorative justice, or practice as we like to call it, is a process where all the people involved in a particular offense come together to resolve a situation collectively and how to deal with the aftermath of an offense and its implications for the future. In this workshop I learned about the youth conference service, which Northern Ireland has put into place. Northern Ireland claims to be leading the world in youth restorative justice, integrating this program making a big step. The courts will order youth to participate in a conference, rather then just sending them to prison or giving them community service. The conference is a time for the offender to say sorry and make amends with the victim. It is a chance for them to really see the effects of their offense, and for together, the offender and victim to make steps to keep this person from offending again. An example given was the case of a youth who stole to support his drug habit. He faced the shop owner and the plan consisted of paying for the items he stole as well as drug treatment. I thought the idea was really cool, as I have always been a big fan of the dollar a day punishment so that the offender had to think about what he did every day (if you don't know what I am talking about, ask!) If you want more information, here is the website http://www.youthconferenceserviceni.gov.uk/
I know this is long.... bear with me, this is where it gets even better. The final session consisted of a panel addressing the question "what does a shared future look like?" The panel included a representative of both Sinn Fein and the DUP. The Sinn Fein representative was an IRA bomber in the past and spent 13 years in prison for the Brighton Bombing of 1984. Rosemary told me this, hush hushed and told me that most people would not know for what she was imprisoned. In her first speech, this politician blatantly attached the Community Relations Committee (CRC) who had asked her to speak. She claimed that the CRC excludes the Republicans, forgetting the origins of the conflict, and said that the British need to claim there involvement in the origins. She claimed that the CRC was the chief cheerleader for Britain and never questioned the role of the British in the conflict. By British she meant England, not the Protestant community. Although I know this explanation is kinda frazzled and you might not understand I am trying to go by memory and my chicken scratch notes. Regardless, she set a very bitter tone towards the CRC and made no attempt to talk about a shared future. The DUP speaker came next, with similarly a tunnel vision approach, talking about how Protestants have been forced out of North Belfast, thus resolving the interface problem, in a negative way. He made slight comments towards a shared future, claiming that segregated education is not sustainable. I will still left with a feel that no one had addressed what they were asked.
We then had table discussion, in search of a question for the panel. My table consisted of solely loyalists, who were unhappy with the address given by the Sinn Fein rep. They failed to see the tunnel vision of the DUP representative as well. It was interesting to hear their comments. They began to discuss why she had been in prison, where Rosemary immediately leaned over to me and discreetly said, "don't let on..." I knew immediately that these people would not tolerate her if they knew she had been an IRA bomber. What followed was back and forth attack and defense of each side, from politician to politician. I was very surprised, as I assumed the speakers would have been better at tolerance and come to seek the purpose of discussing a shared future, not detailing eachother negative involvement in education on the Shankill and Jerry Adams spending on Education. I was shocked that the Sinn Fein Rep would agree to come speak at a CRC conference, only to attack them. She is also the current Director of Unionist Engagement for Sinn Fein, meaning her job is to interact with members of the other side, yet she couldn't come to this exploration of shared future and not be vengeful. hmm.
Overall, the whole day was very interesting. My comment was that neither answered the question, even after the question was re-addressed. The attack/defense method of the politicians made it just so obvious how much further these parties have to come. Progress has however been made, as I was assured that 10 years ago people would not have even been able to sit through the afternoon. As well, the CRC is trying to focus on the more diverse society, not just the two sides. By Bringing in the controversial political representatives, they made people question the idea of two sides.
Tomorrow is the deadline for having two elected officials or England and Ireland take control indefinitely, if the deadline stands. Tomorrow will be interesting. The future for Northern Ireland is bright. But it is slow work in getting there.
While there are random other things to share, I will save them and spare you more reading. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had Grilled cheese. I will make up for it this weekend though.
