South Belfast Diary

I-dentity

2008-06-30T20:43:00.003+01:00

When I first arrived in Belfast, I thought it was charming that so many people were interested in where I came from and where I lived, and why I’d moved here, and exactly what was so great about their part of the world that I had chosen to settle here. But after eight years I know better. The following exchange is the most recent of many:

Him (recently introduced, in a social setting): So where do you come from?

Me: Belfast.

Him: No, no, that’s not a Belfast accent, I mean, where are you from?

Me: Well, it depends how far back you go…..

Him (getting irritated): Where were you born?

There are a number of assumptions made by people who meet me for the first time. They are: that I’ve not been living in Northern Ireland for very long; that I don’t intend to stay; that I couldn’t possibly prefer Belfast to London, or to anywhere else on the planet for that matter; and that I know absolutely nothing about Irish history, geography or politics.

I accept that some of these assumptions could be the result of experience. In particular, I think it would have been very arrogant to come and live here without trying to understand Northern Irish society, although hanging around North Belfast for a year doing research for a PhD in community participation might appear to some to be a little extreme. I can understand that if people I meet have had negative experiences with other English people, they would be too polite to say so.

But I think the response is more likely to be based on a couple of other factors.

Firstly, Northern Ireland is still not used to immigration. People are suspicious of outsiders because they can’t understand why anyone would voluntarily come to live here. There is a remarkable sense of inferiority about the place and a failure to appreciate its beautiful location and scenery as well as the many strengths of its people. Of course this is the legacy of the Troubles, which I don’t want to minimise, but more confidence please, people!

Secondly, immigrants don’t fit into the ‘placing’ discourse. Where you live, your name, and where you went to school, are meant to identify you as Protestant or Catholic without the question having to be asked directly. Once this is established, people know the topics to avoid or treat circumspectly, in order not to give offence. To be outside this structure creates anxiety and sometimes hostility. In addition, some do have particular issues with the English, which I respect and tend to defer to, whether it’s Cromwell, the Black and Tans or the Anglo-Irish Agreement – none of which I was personally responsible for, by the way.

So for everyone who knows me, or who might meet me in future, here are the answers in advance:

· South East England.
· Belfast.
· Stranmillis.
· Eight years.
· Not at all, we love it.
· Yes, my father’s family come from here.
· No, I managed to find it with no problems, I’ve been here before.
· I did know that, actually.

Dreams from my Father

2008-06-29T21:03:00.004+01:00

Barak Obama’s autobiography Dreams from my Father was first published in 1995 and reissued in 2004 to capitalise on Obama’s increasingly high profile, but it’s a book that would still be worth reading if he were toiling in obscurity for life. This is because, whatever else he does or doesn’t achieve in future, Obama can write, and he has a story to tell.

The first paragraph describes where he was living when he heard his father had died:

‘The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn’t work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle.’

It sets the scene perfectly for an emotional and riveting memoir. The childhood in Hawaii, brought up by his white mother and grandparents after his Kenyan father went to Harvard to do a PhD and never came back. Then to Indonesia with his mother and a benevolent stepfather; return to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and get an education, joined again by his mother later when that marriage ended; a vibrant and fascinating account of community organising in Chicago; and finally a journey to Kenya after his father’s death, to meet to his extended family and find out more about his African heritage.

I’m sure many readers will enjoy the Kenyan section the most. Obama understands the complexity and richness of family and neighbourhood connections and how they form the bedrock of most people’s lives. He also understands poverty, and the dilemmas of identity in the modern world where attachments to more than one country are increasingly common.

But my favourite chapters were the Chicago years. The account of community organising in a housing project, in a disadvantaged area within a racially divided city, helps us to understand why Obama went into politics. He describes the soul-destroying attempts to find common issues, to mobilise impoverished people, to lobby the Chicago Housing Authority and local politicians. The limitations of that job drove him to Law School and subsequently into the Illinois Senate. It now looks as if he’ll end up in the White House, with a background unlike any previous president – and I’m not just talking about race.

Finding a balance

2008-06-19T07:42:00.002+01:00

I have trouble with the phrase ‘work – life balance’. It implies that work is something separate from the rest of ‘life’, and that something called ‘life’ is more important than work.

And what is ‘work’ anyway? For some it means paid work only, and for others it includes household chores or caring responsibilities, or attending a dinner party when you’d rather stay at home and watch Big Brother. In other cases, there are people who love their jobs, sometimes for the social contact rather than for the work itself, and don’t consider their employment to be ‘work’ at all.

As I get older I find I balance my working time instinctively. I’m a last-minute person, so I tend to oscillate between spending long hours on something urgent and more leisurely periods of reading, filing, catching up on e-mails and of course preparing for the next crisis, which wouldn’t occur if I worked at a more consistent pace. But luckily I have a lot of control over my time, and out-of-hours access to my office, and so I get by.

So where does that leave ‘life’? – all those other keywords such as relationships, friendships, reading, music, politics, socialising, travelling, cooking, and even blogging? Well again, for me a lot of this takes place in the very grey area between work and the rest. If I read a book on Irish history it’s interesting in itself but can also help me with my research. I’ve met many of my good friends through work, and sometimes when we meet up we talk about our jobs. I use examples from my travels when teaching, whether or not the trip was funded by my employer.

Of course there are other times when what I do has nothing to do with work, and I’m glad of the chance to switch off for a while. But my point is that sometimes it’s just not realistic to seek balance between different aspects of our lives in the short term because they are so intertwined – and I would argue that short-term and carefully managed obsession with one thing can be a creative and productive approach.

Perhaps the best we can do is to try to achieve balance over the course of a lifetime, and to make time for the things that matter to us.

Rights and the Right

2008-06-16T22:34:00.003+01:00

I’ve been away for the weekend and was thinking about David Davies’s extraordinary decision to resign and contest a by-election on the issue of 42-day detention for terrorist suspects, and apparently also on ‘the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this Government.’

He is of course correct about both 42 days and the general sense of erosion of civil liberties through such matters as extensive use of CCTV and the introduction of ID cards. It’s been one of the most disappointing aspects of New Labour governments that they’ve taken on the agenda of strong state control without much question, and it needs to be challenged.

There’s only one problem. The man’s a Tory.

Both the Right and the Left of British politics have a problem with civil liberties, of course. For the Left, the dilemma is about the extent to which individual freedoms should be limited in pursuit of the common good. For the Right, it’s about how to ensure the continued production of surplus value (directly or indirectly) while also allowing us enough autonomy to stave off a revolution.

However, as a working person, I find it useful to take the view that if a Conservative appears as if he is going to act in my interests then I should be very very suspicious indeed. Thanks to the magnificent TheyWorkForYou, it’s possible to look up Davies’s voting record. For example:

· He did, of course, vote for the Iraq war. So much for the civil liberties of the Iraqi people, but perhaps foreigners don’t need them;
· He voted against the hunting ban, but again perhaps animals don’t have rights;
· He voted against the equalisation of the age of consent, against the repeal of section 28, and was absent for votes on civil partnership; but gay men and lesbians don’t need rights either.

And there’s even a slight glitch in his speech explaining why he resigned, with a reference to ‘so-called hate laws’: well, I’m sure they come in handy if you’re being harassed on grounds of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or religion, none of which are likely to apply to Mr Davies. To be fair, he voted against ID cards and also against the introduction of student top-up fees, but both will affect his middle class constituents. On the other hand, the Independent reports that he 'supports the death penalty for premeditated murder'. Which probably won't.

It was surprising to see Liberty appearing to welcome his stance. If I can dig up a few disturbing items from half an hour on the internet in my spare time, I would have thought their staff could have made some more extensive checks before allowing their Director to state that: ‘…democrats from across the spectrum care passionately about rights and freedoms. MPs of all parties hold courage and conviction about these values and few more so than David Davis.’

Davies is in favour of civil liberties for people like him. And the by-election stunt should be treated with the contempt it deserves.

….. but not if you’re gay

2008-06-09T21:31:00.003+01:00

The Iris Robinson ‘gays can be turned’ row has inspired more comments on Slugger than anything else I remember, and of course bloggers have been posting away like mad on it. The most sickening thing about all of this is that Mrs Robinson obviously feels she has done nothing wrong.

I’m not sure her husband will agree, however. No matter how much he backs up the little woman in public, does he perhaps remember the Programme for Government for which he is now responsible? Let’s look at some extracts, along with a sneak preview of Iris’s next Nolan Show comments:

‘We have much goodwill and support both at home and abroad – including from the United States and the European Union – to help us realise the opportunities and address the challenges we face. We will seek to build on this goodwill and support to create a confident and vibrant region that plays its full part in North/South and East/West relations……... Working together we can build a shared and better future for all – a society which is at ease with itself and where everyone shares and enjoys the benefits of this new opportunity. This is our commitment to you.’ (p.4).

Except of course if you are gay. And if you foreigners out there think that supporting us means you have the right to criticise that, then you can just get right back to where you came from. Nobody has loved us for years and we still don’t care. And you can take your Foreign Direct Investment with you.

‘As an Executive, we will support business, and create the conditions in which enterprise can flourish. We will work to grow the economy and private sector to generate high value jobs. This will include, amongst other things, a focus on increasing private sector investment in innovation and on improving the strength of our tourism sector. This will require investment……..to create a region which offers a high quality of life to those who wish to live and work here……This is essential if we are to retain our young people, our existing highly skilled employees, and attract the people and investment required to drive the increasingly knowledge-based economy.’ (p.9)

But not if you’re a gay entrepreneur, and heaven forbid that you might be ‘coloured’ as well! We don’t want gays on high value jobs either, even if you are the best in the world and for some reason you want to come and live in our wee country. And tourists – forget it! Take your money to London or Dublin! And if you were born here and happen to be gay, we’ll be glad to see the back of you no matter how good your degree is. Competing in the global economy has its limits, don’t you know.

‘We must also continue our efforts to address the divisions within our society. Progress has been made, but at a time when our society is being transformed, sectarianism, racism and intolerance are still too evident. They mar our reputation, blight our economic prospects and have a corrosive effect on our society.’ (p.12-13).

I can cope with Catholics having rights, as long as they don’t want a united Ireland, but I draw the line at…. You know what I mean, Stephen?

The hell of marking

2008-05-13T19:24:00.002+01:00

I would love to be blogging tonight on Alistair Darling’s spectacular failure to get it regarding his compensation for making poor people poorer by making a lot of other people a bit richer too, so that we’ll all shut up and keep on voting Labour (except those of us in Northern Ireland, of course). Or I’d like to be writing about how the most appropriate advice for Caitriona Ruane right now is ‘when you’re in a hole, stop digging’. I’d like to be writing a book review, which I haven’t done for a while, or sharing my summer travel plans, or posting yet again on democratic socialism in Northern Ireland.

But I am stuck in the hell that is marking. Every academic I know agrees it’s the worst part of the job, and I feel incredibly guilty for letting out the secret. I have eighty essays to mark and am just over halfway through, and have to get them all done by Thursday morning. That’s eighty checks on subject matter, structure, spelling, references and so on; and eighty sets of meaningful feedback to give.

And that’s why I feel guilty. When I was a student I would have been furious to think that marking my work was a chore, after I’d put so much effort into it. And for all the cynicism about students nowadays, and the odd one who obviously can’t be arsed, most do try hard. They deserve my best attention, to make sure they get a fair mark and also some useful feedback. And of course discovery of the odd gem does keep me going. So back to work, feeling refreshed by the break…..

If Boris is the answer, what was the question?

2008-05-03T09:56:00.005+01:00

It’s hard for those of us who don’t live in London to understand why Londoners chose Boris Johnson for their new Mayor – and I write from the place which is run by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness. Are the bendy buses really that bad? But every politician should be as generous as Johnson in their victory speech, and it was particularly appropriate for him to acknowledge Livingstone’s leadership after the bombings on 7th July 2005.

It appears that a number of issues contributed to the result. There was an inner/ outer London divide, with the outer areas going for Boris. Personally I find outer London utterly depressing, but there’s no doubt many of the run-down suburbs need more public investment. Do voters really think they’ll get that from the Tories?

There may also have been a racist element, and it’s also alarming that the BNP gained a London Assembly seat. Perhaps some voters genuinely felt that Livingstone was too close to Islamic extremists, but despite the overall success of London’s multiethnic society there is still a small-minded element around who were able to attach themselves to Johnson, without his approval I’m sure.

Other London-based issues which could have been influential include the slight hint of patronage around Livingstone’s administration, and the old ‘time for a change’ argument put forward by the politically illiterate. Well, be careful what you wish for. More seriously, crime and anti-social behaviour are obviously of concern and perhaps people thought Johnson would be able to run the police better than Ken. But in that case why didn’t they vote for Brian Paddick?

There is of course the possibility that there was a protest vote based on the Government’s record, and in particular on the abolition of the 10p tax rate. But it was the more affluent boroughs that won it for Boris, and in any case it must have been widely known that Ken didn’t support the change and has been a maverick both inside and outside the Labour party for his entire political career. Also, there was a low turnout and so if it was a protest vote it was not very effective. The abysmal 45% turnout, albeit higher than London’s previous two Mayoral elections, shows there was little confidence in any of the candidates. That less than half the voters should bother to turn out says more than anything else about the state of democracy in one of the world’s greatest cities.

P.S. Keep an eye on Boris with BozzaWatch...

Political support and voting in Northern Ireland

2008-04-26T22:29:00.002+01:00

Recently I wrote a paper with the snappy title ‘Political identity and support in Northern Ireland politics 1998 – 2006’, on behalf of Labour's Northern Ireland Constituency Council, for the Labour Party Commission on Northern Ireland. It’s an updated version of statistics from some work I did in 2005 at QUB’s Institute of Governance. I applied for funding for an action research project to try to bring together people from the different ‘third space’ political parties (neither nationalist nor unionist) in order to try to develop this aspect of Northern Ireland politics. We held a well-attended seminar at which there was clearly a lot of support for the project, but we didn’t succeed in getting any cash for it.

I recall a visit from an English charitable trust to which we’d applied. Their staff member, who dealt with all their Irish applications, asked some very pertinent questions and was clearly very aware of the issues. He was accompanied by an Englishwoman from their board of governors, who kept on asking why we needed money to get people to talk to each other. Put that woman on the Community Relations Council right now, I say.

Here are the summary points from the report, which covered the years 1998 - 2006:

· A substantial proportion of people, ranging from 30 – 40 per cent, do not describe themselves as unionist or nationalist. The proportion is increasing slightly over time.
· Over the same period, when asked which party they support, many people either support no party (between 11 and 26 per cent over the years) or don’t know (5 – 18 per cent).
· During the period 1998 – 2006, support for unionist and nationalist parties combined reached a low of 56 per cent in 2006 and never rose above 69 per cent.
· In elections, the 30 – 40 per cent of the population who do not support the communal parties reduces to a band of generally around 5 – 7 per cent who turn out to vote.
· There may be many reasons for this and turnout is not unusually low compared with other parts of the UK and with the Irish Republic. We cannot assume that they point exclusively to the possibility of a gap in the electoral ‘market place’.
· However, in 2005, 41 per cent of respondents had a lot of sympathy with the statement from non-voters that ‘I would have voted if there was a strong non-sectarian party’.
· It would be reasonable to conclude that at least some of the missing voters cannot identify a current political party they wish to support.

I’m a lot more cautious about the results than I was in 2005. As I say above, there may be many reasons why people in NI don’t vote - describe themselves as unionist or nationalist, or support a political party. One reason is the possibility that they don’t tell the truth to survey interviewers, a subject which is not treated seriously enough by social researchers. Still, there is a gap and that means there is potential for a new political party to gain support and votes.

What does it mean to be Labour?

2008-04-22T22:55:00.006+01:00

Since I moved to Northern Ireland, there have been times when I’ve been very glad not to have to decide whether to vote for the British Labour Party, and never more so than when following the ‘10p tax rate’ arguments this week. I was astonished to hear the announcement of its abolition last year, but given there wasn’t an outcry at that stage from Labour MPs, let alone from the voluntary sector and the trades unions, I thought I must have misunderstood.

But of course the issue resurfaced as soon as the measure actually came to be implemented and it transpired that 5.3 million people across the UK would be worse off. Out of 351 Labour MPs, 39 are backing an amendment to the Finance Bill to compensate those who will lose out. So 312 Labour MPs care more about their careers than about the low paid.

Those of us who are democratic socialists know that compromises have to be made from time to time. That’s the difference between being a revolutionary socialist with no chance of ever making anyone’s life better, and having the chance to use the mechanisms of the state to the advantage of working people. It’s a tricky balancing act and one which New Labour seem to have had a lot of trouble with, to put it mildly. Some of their decisions which were wrong in hindsight appeared to be perfectly reasonable at the time, or at least to be arguable.

But this time the decision strikes at the heart of what being Labour is all about – a redistributive philosophy, from each according to their ability and to each according to their need. The tax changes will penalise young people without children, those who retire early, and part-time workers – and higher earners will gain, adding insult to injury. In the days when I lived in England and was able to vote Labour, I did so expecting to be taxed more highly as my income increased, and that if my income fell, I would pay less tax. In those days, it was the Tories who bashed the poor. I also accept that as someone who has chosen not to have children, my taxes should contribute towards services for families, for the general good of society. But I don’t see why a person on minimum wage should be put in that position.

If Labour MPs have any political compass left, they must join the opportunists in other parties, who are doing the right thing for the wrong reason, and vote for Frank Field’s amendment.

Update: the following day, Gordon Brown announced there will be a compensation deal and the amendment was withdrawn. By that time it had 46 signatories, so I apologise for over-estimating the spinelessness of the PLP by, um, 7.......

Further update: Looks like the rebels have been conned.

Want not, waste not

2008-04-19T17:40:00.005+01:00

There’s been some press coverage this week on rising food prices, as part of which Newsnight looked at how much food we buy and don't eat.

The Love Food Hate Waste campaign says that in the UK about a third of the food we buy is thrown away – more than potato peelings and the odd piece of rotten fruit, in other words. The site is full of good ideas about how to shop more carefully and recipes to use up leftovers, all very laudable. It’s part of the UK WRAP initiative, which covers a wider range of initiatives to reduce waste and recycle more. Compost Awareness Week starts on 4th May, folks.

But how on earth do people manage to amass all this excess food in the first place? A couple of years ago, I worked away from home and lived on my own during the week, and I admit that a few things did go off, mainly fruit and milk. Now, when cooking for the two of us, I plan menus and take a list to the supermarket - interestingly, I rarely see anybody else with one. I don’t always stick rigidly to the list, but I can say honestly that we eat everything except peelings – I have to confess that we don’t have a compost bin.

An example from last week: I cooked too much egg fried rice with leeks one night, the leftovers went into baked potatoes the following evening, and a half tin of baked beans that got shunted out of the potatoes ended up in a vegetable hotpot which did us for the next two days. So why doesn’t everyone do this? Being vegetarian probably helps, as I don’t worry about reheating ingredients. One of the best parts of Christmas is mixing together all the vegetable and potato leftovers on about the day after Boxing Day, adding leftover cream and Stilton, and baking for about 20 minutes. It’s really not that hard.

I just have one niggle about Love Food Hate Waste. It’s funded mainly by the government, i.e. my taxes. Usually I’m all in favour of the nanny state and telling people what to do, not enough of it around. But surely in this case it’s more appropriate for Love Food Hate Waste to be a charity and to raise funds from the private sector which is benefitting from selling us all this unnecessary food in the first place?

Jobs across the border

2008-04-14T22:22:00.004+01:00

An interesting news item today about the possibility of up to 5,000 jobs in financial services being created in Northern Ireland as a spin-off from investment in the South, without firms losing their Southern tax exemptions.

The deal was struck by the two Finance Ministers on this island, soon to be the new Taoiseach and First Minister. Peter Robinson is quoted in the Tele as saying: ‘For years people have been talking glibly about cross-border co-operation that is to the mutual benefit of people in Northern Ireland and the Republic. This is what it looks like.’ And he is absolutely right, because he’s going to make it happen.

The DUP have little patience with publicly funded all-Ireland agencies, and of course boycotted them in the early years of the Assembly. They want to increase private investment in NI and have been very strategic about building links with both the Irish Republic and Scotland to this end. But this has nothing to do with the peace process, community relations, cross-border love-ins or anything at all other than cold hard economic facts.

Fairly obviously, Northern Ireland gains through achieving a massive chunk of the Programme for Government target of attracting inward investment for a minimum of 6,500 jobs, 85% to be above the median wage. The Republic gains by finding a way round Dublin’s skills shortages and keeping firms on the island at a time when no country wants to lose foreign direct investment. Firms gain from lower wages and running costs, and keep their state subsidy through tax breaks. Individuals in Northern Ireland will get jobs, although feelings will be mixed in the South – as they were when Aer Lingus moved to Aldergrove at the expense of Shannon.

But it’s all in the context of an economic downtown and tough global competition, in which jobs can go just as easily as they can arrive. There is a new investment dynamic developing on the island and it’s a challenge for the trade unions and the parties of the left.

The importance of getting published

2008-04-11T23:18:00.004+01:00

Kim and Zhan have an excellent post on the HSA blog. ‘Getting published, getting known: some advice on writing for publication’ provides essential points for early career academics.

The publication of papers in peer-reviewed journals is a little-known part of the job outside academic circles and I find an explanation of the process usually inspires a mixture of incredulity and mirth. It goes like this, at least in the social sciences:

· Spend at least a year carrying out and writing up a research project, in between teaching and administrative duties
· Then start writing papers for publication from the research findings
· Send a paper to an academic journal, plenty to choose from but needs to be a balance between the journal’s ‘impact factor’ i.e. how influential they are, and how confident you are that they will accept it - it’s not done to send a paper to more than one journal
· The editor send the paper to at least two other academics to review anonymously
· They provide comments which allow the editor to decide whether to accept the paper, to reject it, or, most commonly, to invite a resubmission with often quite substantial changes which can take months to do
· The paper is then resubmitted, unless you give up. Sometimes the editor’s decision is to reject it (after all that work), or to ask for further work to be done, or to accept the paper for publication – hurrah!
· It can then take a year or so before it appears in print.

The process for books and book chapters is less rigorous and so they are not so highly prized as outputs for the UK Research Assessment Exercise. Again it’s hard to explain that books, which might have a wider readership or even be a valuable teaching resource, are less valued than an 8,000 word essay in an obscure journal available only on expensive subscription.

Every job has its quirks, but even so…..

My excellent blogger awards

2008-03-25T19:53:00.005Z

A timely notification from Gesa, which allows me to get back to emphasising what’s good about blogging and bloggers.

Here are my top ten, in alphabetical order so as not to offend, although I don’t know why that should concern me any more:

Asylum: John Self’s Shelves: How does he do this and have a job as well? Fantastic literary resource.

Cedar Lounge Revolution: This was my nomination for best blog in this year’s Irish Blog Awards. It’s a serious group political blog including a fantastic Left Archive, written in complete sentences with no swearing. Of course it was never going to win.

Democratic Centre: Against bigotry wherever he finds it - a voice for change in Northern Ireland.

Draw Breath: Ciarán and Isabel’s blog and photoblog. You never know what’s going to be next but you know it’ll be interesting.

Nickhereandnow: Nepotism rocks! But so does his blog so that’s OK.

Paint and pastel: Many academics are very boring, but Gesa has an entire other life as an artist, as set out here. And she’s excellent at both.

Slugger O’Toole: Still an indispensable part of the morning news check.

Splintered Sunrise: Another one where I wonder how he finds the time. This is where to keep up with the 57 different varieties of the Left, past and present, as well as a huge number of other subjects.

The Other Side of Sixty: Politically spot on, well written and passionate. A role model.

Your Friend in the North: Well-argued and thought-provoking posts on a wide range of subjects, and he usually agrees with me too! Who could ask for more?

Y'all feel free to nominate your own top 10, now.

If you think PC is a computer, please log off now

2008-03-24T12:22:00.004Z

I’ve been participating in a short debate about ‘political correctness’ over at Grandad’s and Nick’s. It’s left me wanting to make some points at greater length than is possible in a comments box, both about political correctness and about blogging.

First, ‘political correctness’, a term nowadays used only by people who are against it. I remember the English right-wing media hysteria of the mid-1980s about baa baa black sheep, black coffee and personhole covers, none of which were true. So I had a sense of déjà vu when I read Grandad’s post. What strikes me is how each side of the debate talks about tolerance. Those who think political correctness is the work of the devil just want to go on calling people what they feel like calling them. Those for whom political correctness is about respect for others ask that we should try not to hurt their feelings.

These arguments were covered in more detail during the debate and I won’t repeat them here. But there’s another angle, as far as I’m concerned. The way we address people is linked to the way we think about them, and that’s about power. In order to justify slavery, the inferiority of the black person over whites had to be socially constructed, or how could you justify owning another human being? Equally, the stereotype of the stupid Irish person justified colonialism, including leaving them to starve during the Famine. I could go on. If we think people are inferior, it’s easier to deprive them of their rights. Ireland is rapidly becoming a more liberal and multicultural society, and we have those issues to come. I’m sure that’s why the debate is less familiar here and why many people still think that words do no harm.

I want to end with a few comments about blogging. I have no objection to a well-argued, serious post against political correctness, and I would disagree in the same vein. However, Grandad’s post was a tirade ending with: ‘And if you are offended by any of the above, then fuck off. You snivelling little cry baby’.

Of course it’s up to him what he puts on his blog, and he was nowhere near inciting the kind of violent hatred which would justify a ban; nor were any of the comments in this category. But notice the little blue splash on the right-hand side. Yes, he was one of this year’s winners in the Irish Blog Awards. If you are a well-known and, presumably, often-visited blogger, I would suggest that you do not bring Irish blogging into disrepute through such intemperate posts.

See also Wise Webwomen's great post on the same subject

Wise councils?

2008-03-13T22:08:00.002Z

There were never going to be seven new councils in Northern Ireland once the Assembly was reinstated. It’s been a long road since the first Review of Public Administration consultation document in 2003, when the question of rebalancing NI’s unique mixture of overgovernment and democratic deficit was first raised.

The councils aren’t by any means the whole story of the RPA, but today’s announcement of an 11-council structure by 2011 was the best we were going to get and was certainly better than the 15 preferred by the NI Local Government Association. The reason is simple. Councils need a critical mass of finance, competent staff and good quality councillors to deliver services efficiently and to become the democratic focus of their area.

Details on the transfer of powers will be announced to the Assembly after Easter. This meant the press coverage today concentrated on the political make-up of the new councils rather than on what they would actually do. We had Fred Cobain bleating about Belfast turning green, when what he should be thinking about is who Northern Ireland’s new communities are going to vote for, and why it probably won’t be the UUP.

The new powers will include ‘aspects of planning, as well as rural development, the public realm aspects of local roads functions, urban regeneration and community development, a range of housing related functions, and local economic development and tourism’. The Minister made an interesting point on Hearts and Minds tonight when pressed by Noel Thompson on when these powers might be devolved. She said that both trust and capacity were needed first. So we could be waiting a while yet.

The NI Executive press release contained the usual guff about ‘strong, dynamic local government creating communities that are vibrant, healthy, prosperous, safe and sustainable and have the needs of all citizens at their core’. Who writes this stuff? The emphasis on community planning is important, though. Successful community planning can bring together service delivery and democratic decision-making, but if done badly it’s a great job creation scheme for bureaucrats. There will be a lot more to say on all this.

Public Meeting: A Right Wing Budget?

2008-03-10T19:40:00.005Z

Debate on the Northern Ireland Executive Budget 2008-11

When introducing the Executive’s Budget on 22nd January, Peter Robinson announced to the Northern Ireland Assembly: ‘It is almost 40 years since a Finance Minister elected by the people of Northern Ireland presented a budget in a stable political environment.’

But what kind of a job has he made of it? What does the budget say about the vision of the Executive for the future of Northern Ireland and about how they intend to pay for it? Who gains and who loses?

Come along to the open meeting to listen to speakers from three political parties and debate the issues.

Thursday 20th March, 7.15pm

Grosvenor Conference Centre, Glengall Street, Belfast
(opposite the Europa Bus Station)

Chair: Mary McMahon

Speakers:
Mark Bailey, Green Party
Stephen Farry MLA, Alliance Party
Mark Langhammer, Labour Party

Organised by the Labour Party’s Northern Ireland Constituency Council

ALL WELCOME

Budget text and associated documents available here

All stressed out and nowhere to go

2008-03-07T19:23:00.003Z

Over the years I have become very good at dealing with stress at work. I think domestic stress is much harder to deal with – less agreement on how to behave and much harder to walk away.

At work, nothing would get done without a degree of stress, but the worst kind is outside our control, often the result of managerial incompetence.

So if the pressure’s on, here’s how to deal with it.

1. It’s not you, it’s them. You were perfectly all right before all this stress came along and you’ll be all right afterwards. This is a temporary situation.

2. But it’s up to you to make sure it stays temporary. If the stress is likely to be long-term, such as a restructuring with new job responsibilities, get cracking and start using the words ‘trade union’ and ‘rights’. And if you’re not in a union, don’t expect me to feel sorry for you.

3. On the other hand, short-term stress that’s under our own control can be exhilarating. If you’re given a new piece of work that’s going to stretch you, for example, try to make sure that you can get on with it without interference, or work in a team with colleagues you respect (er, you do respect at least some of the people you work with, don’t you? – if not, see 7).

4. Nowadays, flatter management structures and budget restrictions mean it’s not easy to delegate or outsource to help with the workload. But if you have too much to do, there’s no point in creating a bad atmosphere by moaning about it to colleagues who have no power. Talk to the person who can resolve it or keep quiet.

5. Distraction has its place, but don’t let it get out of hand. The odd glass of wine, bar of chocolate or night out on the town may help in the short term, but don’t go for a major avoidance exercise. Instead, book a holiday for the week after your deadline.

6. Don’t assume health problems experienced during a stressful time are psychosomatic. Get your doctor to examine the possibility of a physical reason for your symptoms. Inoperable cancer will play havoc with your holiday booking.

7. Know when to take the money and run.

Ulster says goodbye

2008-03-04T23:57:00.007Z

I’ll leave people who have lived in Northern Ireland for much longer than I have to tell their stories about the Big Man now that he is to stand down as First Minister and party leader - an iconic figure for unionism, more famous for saying ‘no’ than anyone else on the planet, and one of the few Northern Ireland politicians to be recognised widely outside the place. There are different views about his own prejudices, and a recognition that he works hard on an individual level for all his constituents, but there’s no doubt that over the years his comments have been used by others to justify sectarianism and bigotry.

Whatever about the history, he led his party into the St Andrews Agreement in 2006 and onwards to a remarkable coalition at Stormont last May. We’ll probably never know what was said to them by Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern – perhaps ‘it’s the end of the road’ would be the most likely – and therefore why the deal was done. Paisley himself said it was to prevent the Dublin government having more power in the North, so presumably he was convinced that the alternative was joint authority.

But once it became clear that the Assembly was going to last, Paisley’s role became less clear. The DUP is being honed by Peter Robinson and others into a neoliberal, right-wing party which puts the market first and community background second. An all-Ireland agenda is welcomed if it’s good for business, and a ‘shared future’ means economic prosperity for all. Although it’s still a party which values Christian religious belief, Paisley’s departure also means a stronger separation between church and state. The DUP is having to confront the contradictions between nationalism and the free market, and is coming down on the side of the market. The DUP and Sinn Féin have developed a symbiotic relationship in government, which has raised questions about the role of the other parties in the Executive and the future of the mandatory coalition model. These governmental debates left Paisley on the sidelines, as the need for a demagogue declined – at the same time as (alleged) ordinary decent corruption reared its head in his family. It's the right time to go.

With thanks to Mary who happened to ring while I was writing this

And to the New Statesman for picking it up

A new housing agenda?

2008-03-02T11:44:00.006Z

Last Tuesday’s announcement by the Minister for Social Development was the government’s response to last year’s Semple Report on affordable housing. As such, it’s disingenuous to bill it as a ‘new housing agenda’. It’s a populist statement which, although not without merit, promotes access to low-cost home ownership and social housing without mentioning issues such as provision for unpopular and expensive special needs groups, or local opposition to new developments.

Plans include:

· Building at least another 5,250 units of social housing in the next three years;
· Making co-ownership (buying part of your house and renting the rest) easier;
· Establishing a Mortgage Rescue Scheme;
· A new form of co-ownership for social housing tenants;
· Action to reduce the number of empty homes;
· A long overdue requirement for developers to provide some social and affordable housing in new private developments;
· Measures to improve the sustainability and energy efficiency of new social housing.

Although the social housing commitment is welcome, it’s less than the Housing Executive’s housing need calculation of 2,500 new homes a year. However, the biggest problem with social housing targets is programme delivery, not funding. Otherwise, policy is all geared towards home ownership – and of course some of the new social housing will end up being bought by tenants as well.

It’s understandable that people want the security of owning their own home as well as the equity gain which is an increasingly important addition to earning power in helping to determine life chances. But at a time when the economy is faltering, is it responsible to encourage even more people to take out a large mortgage? Even with a ‘mortgage rescue’ scheme to pick up the pieces?

There are a couple of other specific proposals, each of which would have merited a separate statement as they are extremely significant in policy terms: an ‘Eco-village’ of 350 ‘mixed tenure’ homes on the site of the Grosvenor Barracks in Enniskillen; and £7m for housing improvements in the Village area of South Belfast. The Enniskillen scheme ticks all the right policy boxes; however, the evidence for the success of planned ‘mixed tenure’ developments is itself rather mixed.

The long-awaited funding for the Village regeneration makes an important statement about the government’s role in areas which are still prime targets for developers. Public money is still to be used to keep them residential and to some extent affordable, rather than to allow the market to take over and turn areas like Sandy Row and the Village into an extension of Belfast City Centre. Personally, I think this strategy is only sustainable if these areas become ‘mixed’ in the Northern Ireland sense, including welcoming immigrants which I understand they are starting to do. That’s the reality of the vacuous Ministerial quote that ‘more sustainable homes will lead to more sustainable communities’.

So although there’s a lot to commend in this announcement, it’s far from a new housing agenda for Northern Ireland.

How to survive your PhD

2008-02-29T20:08:00.004Z

There’s a good post by Rowland Atkinson over on the HSA blog on how to get a PhD without going mad or becoming a complete recluse. He quite rightly emphasises the role of partners in the process as PhD study involves becoming obsessed with the details of an obscure topic and it’s no fun living with someone in that state. As for the few months of ‘writing up’, it’s best to forget about it afterwards, rather like childbirth I suspect. Now that universities are performance driven, the days of students spending years on their PhD are gone. You have to produce your thesis in four years or it counts against your department’s future funding for postgraduate research.

I did my PhD as a mature student and enjoyed the opportunity to stand back from what I’d been doing for a living and have a think about aspects of it I’d been taking for granted. The greatest shock to the system wasn’t the isolation but rather having to do everything myself – as a manager I’d been used to delegating, and suddenly this project was all my own. It was certainly worth it and in my case it led to a new career as well.

The luck of the Irish class

2008-02-26T22:35:00.003Z

I’m just back from my Tuesday Irish class, fresh from my very scary first attempt at the conditional tense. One of the benefits of working or studying at Queen’s is the chance to taker a language evening class for £10, and there’s a wide choice available. It’s tremendous to have such an opportunity on the doorstep.

But those of us in the Irish class appreciate it even more because we nearly lost it. We’re a mixture of staff and students, from different disciplines, but the one thing we have in common is that we’re all busy. So of course there were times in the first semester when we didn’t attend. Then, at the start of the second semester we received an e-mail cancelling the class as the number attending was now too small for the class to be viable.

I could understand why Queen’s felt the need to do this, as the classes are obviously heavily subsidised. But after an e-mail exchange between classmates, several of us decided to complain and ask that the class should be reinstated.. I really didn’t hold out much hope, but after a couple of weeks we were told our class was back!

So now no-one ever misses a week, out tutor didn’t lose his job, and I’m well on the way to a few complete sentences even though pronunciation leaves a lot to be desired. I think the conditional tense is going to have a wait a while, though…..

Oh, Delia!

2008-02-24T14:01:00.003Z

I was taken aback to see packets of instant mashed potato on display at my local Sainsbury’s yesterday, and then I remembered – it’s the Delia effect.

Delia Smith’s influence used to lead to the promotion of omelette pans or cranberries, for those who were inspired by her books to try some real cooking rather than living out of tins and packets. But her latest book, How to Cheat at Cooking, argues that nowadays we can buy good quality, nutritious packaged food and therefore it’s OK to produce a quick meal by just adding water.

In our time-poor society, who hasn’t been guilty of taking short cuts? – I’m not against that. I always use tinned beans, for example. But surely there are a few basic guidelines which can be followed even when we have little time to spare? For example:

- minimise intake of preservatives, including salt, and other additives
- eat less (or no) meat, and less fat generally
- steam instead of boil, grill instead of fry
- eat more fruit and vegetables
- eat less.

Delia’s latest should really be called How to Cheat Yourself Out of Good Food. And the great British (and Irish) public needs no help with that at all.

South Belfast Diary relaunched

2008-02-24T13:59:00.001Z

I’ve been very busy at work during February and so had to take a break from blogging. I did wonder whether to give it up altogether, but I do enjoy it and so instead here is the relaunched South Belfast Diary.

There’s a new design, which I’m pleased to see has already caused some dissent. There will be shorter, more frequent posts, although occasionally I’ll still get carried away, I’m sure. The politics content will continue, along with more arts posts. The recipes have been deleted and there will be no more. Sometimes there will be photos and personal items, but I’m trying to get away from the all too common sub-genre of blogging as therapy.

I’ll also post more work-related items in future, mainly about my research interests which are various aspects of urban regeneration and housing. The final change is that I’m going to blog under my full name, as I doubt the content will lead to my windows being put in.

So visit often, tá fáilte romhaibh.

Taking a break

2008-01-31T10:15:00.000Z

I'm taking a break from blogging for a while, back at the end of February.

P.S. Congratulations to Nick for being shortlisted for Best Newcomer in the Irish Blog Awards!

I’m Not There

2008-01-22T21:27:00.000Z

It’s a long time since I’ve seen a film which I didn’t want to end, especially at 136 minutes according to the QFT. Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There is ostensibly about the life of Bob Dylan, although anyone expecting a straightforward biopic will be disappointed – and obviously has been, if you look at the film review web sites. The film is an impressionistic montage of events in the lives of seven characters, some with different names, which are more or less connected to Dylan’s life or songs.

There were many fantastic performances, including Cate Blanchett as one of the Bobs (yes, really) and Charlotte Gainsbourg as the wife of (I think) two of the others. The complexity is easy to grasp as long as you don’t try too hard, rather like watching David Lynch’s films. The music, of course, was superb – mainly but not all Dylan – and prompted some wonderful set pieces. I particularly liked Ballad of a Thin Man, with a confused art critic as Mr Jones, and a Sixties party scene including an Edie Sedgwick character set, very appropriately, to the Monkees’ I’m Not Your Stepping Stone.

As I headed down Botanic Avenue towards my late night curry, I wondered why the film was so uplifting. Naturally the music helped, as well as the pace and complexity. But the film also asked us to reflect on the life of an artist who can’t explain what he or she seeks to express, won’t be tied down emotionally or politically, and whom others seek to understand and interpret simplistically, as well as to exploit. I’m Not There made connections between being an artist and being an outsider, exemplified by the scenes of the youngest and oldest Dylan characters riding the boxcars at the beginning and end of the film. There’s something life-enhancing about knowing such people exist, even if most of us wouldn’t want to be like that.