Free Radikal

Posts Tagged ‘Ireland’

When black teenager Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death in 1993 by what a British court called last week a ‘gang of racist thugs’ no one expected it to become the most notorious case of justice evaded, leading to the indictment of the Metropolitan Police by the MacPherson Inquiry as ‘institutionally racist’. Had it not been for Stephen Lawrence’s indomitable family, particularly his mother Doreen, and their supporters, the conviction eighteen years after the killing of two of his five murderers, Gary Dobson and David Norris, may not have come to pass. While the conviction was a triumph for justice, late as it was, questions remain as to why it took so long and what we can learn from this case. Would Stephen Lawrence’s murder have been left unresolved for so long had he been white? Read the rest of this entry »

I write this having learnt that taxi driver Moses Ayanwole, originally from Nigeria, and brutally attacked by a white passenger in Pearse street, has died of his injuries. I write this with rage not only at the senseless murder, but also at the refusal by politicians and the mainstream media to use the racism word to describe it. We heard nothing from the Minister of Justice or any other senior politician. And on RTE’s Morning Ireland the representative of the taxi federation spoke about the need to install CCTV cameras in taxis but not about the issues faced by black African taxi drivers, who experience daily racism from white colleagues and passengers alike. There was nothing about many taxi ranks carrying ‘Irish drivers only’ notices, or about passengers refusing to get into taxis with black drivers, not to speak of the litany of racial slurs and insults.

This murder puts further flames onto recent racist fires. In Naas we had mayor Darren Scully who made the decision to refuse representation to black Africans based on what he described as their “aggressive” attitude when making representations to him, but who insensitively argues that he ‘abhors racism in all its forms’, adding that he had many African friends (not realising this is one of the most common ‘I am not a racist’ but ploys). And in Athlone, a 16 year old black girl was raped by a group of white boys, including one white girl, in an attacked described by the Evening Herald a ‘race rape of girl (16)’ – at least they used the R word, but one wondered whether the reason is sensationalism or accurate reporting. Read the rest of this entry »

BNP's Nick Griffin gets pelted by eggs

As of now, the leader of the British National Party Nick Griffin is scheduled to debate the question of whether multiculturalism has gone ‘too far’ in Trinity College’s Philosophical Society on October 20.

I have written many times about the problems with policies of multiculturalism – which, let us remember (though called ‘intercultualism’ in this country), is the state’s knee jerk response to what it perceives as the problem of difference, brought about by immigrants. Multiculturalism, I have argued, is not about fostering and upholding ethnic pluralism, but rather about racial states legislating for national homogeneity and supremacy, accepting only what Alana Lentin and Gavan Titley call in their new book ‘good diversity’, one that does not challenge (white, Christian, settled) privilege.  Euro-multiculturalism is rife with contradictions. It speaks of integration yet limits immigration, legislates against veiled women and Muslims praying in public, outlaws what it considers harmful practices such as forced marriages, without providing protection to trafficked women or offering asylum to women whose children are in danger of female genital mutilation. Read the rest of this entry »

‘Behind the Walls’ was a two-part documentary series charting the history of Ireland’s psychiatric hospitals (http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/behind_the_walls.html) . Part one lifted the lid on this vast system - during the middle decades of the 20th century, Ireland led the world in locking up more of its people per capita in mental hospitals, ahead even of the old Soviet Union. Part two presented a series of testimonies by former inmates speaking of their bewilderment at being forcibly incarcerated, and often abused by unscrupulous psychiatrists. The leading body representing Irish psychiatrists, however, did not accept the series, suggesting that the documentary ‘was imbalanced and lacked objectivity in its portrayal of the mental health system’, (Irish Times, 17 September 2011). Read the rest of this entry »

Around the world popular protests are changing the political equilibrium. In Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and Tunisia, and in different ways in Syria and Libya people are taking decisions and protesting to overturn despotic regimes. In Israel, 3,383 tents have been erected on city streets by lower middle class and working class Israelis, mostly Jews but also some Palestinians, calling for social justice – , fairer incomes, social housing, better education and health provision in a country whose economy is powered by its military and by the occupation of Palestinian lands. The three weeks protests have been peaceful and creative with 300,000 people demonstrating for social justice. The police is now considering dismantling the tents (because of Tel Aviv residents’ complaints about noise in their leafy streets, but also in preparation for September’s Palestinian state declaration, which the Israeli army and police are preparing to subdue), but Prime Minister Netanyahu has pleaded with the police not to dismantle the tents – he is terrified of the consequences of not being seen to side with those whose demands he knows are justified. Read the rest of this entry »