socialgandhi

If you didn’t already, it’s worth getting a look at the front page of this morning’s Bel Tel.

Two headline stories that should make us all think about what’s happening in our society as Peter and Martin go across to meet Gorgeous George to plead our case ahead of October’s spending cuts announcements.

The Lost Generation – one in five of our young people can’t get a job read the lead story as the paper covered the release of a report by the Equality Commission on the impact of the economic downturn. Shockingly half of our unemployed are aged between 18 and 24; youth unemployment is now running at 20%, more than double the figure four years ago and three times the overall unemployment rate and four times the rate for older people.

Speaking at the launch of the Report, Evelyn Collins the Commission’s Chief Executive said, ‘We need to make sure that young people are not left behind to a lifetime without work or full involvement in society’. Here, here Evelyn!

For a copy of the full report go to www.equalityni.org

Contrast this story with the feature picture on the front page of the Telegraph of two secondary school students from North Belfast, one Catholic and one Protestant, as they read out an agreed statement dealing with the area’s troubled past and its hopes for the future at a candelit ceremony of remembrance and reflection at Duncairn Gardens, organised as part of the North Belfast Respect Programme by the Ashton Community Trust.

As one of the girls Nicole O’Rawe said, ‘This ceremony brings us all together. We should never forget the past, but look to move on towards a better future’. Here, here Nicole.

Let’s hope Martin and Peter don’t let you down at Westminster today.

For details of the North Belfast Respect Programme go to www.ashtoncentre.com

Just saw a recent suggestion on Nick Clegg’s Your Freedom website mentioned in my blog post on 1 July 2010.

Latest idea under ‘Restoring Civil Liberties’?

Conscription for delinquent youths!

http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/restoring-civil-liberties/conscription-for-delinquent-youths

What a brilliant idea…and so simple.

Young people on the streets in Ardoyne, you’ve been warned!

For more brilliant ideas, go to www.yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk

There is some priceless stuff on there but having read some of the suggestions from ‘the people’ on laws they’d like to repeal and how they’d like to restore civil liberties, if I was David Cameron, I’d be having a serious re-think on the whole concept of The Big Society.

“I think we’re onto a really big idea, a really exciting future for our country”.

David Cameron today launched his “big society” concept in Liverpool of all places, with among other things a suggestion that community groups should be able to run post offices, libraries, transport services and shape housing projects.

He also announced radical plans to use dormant bank accounts to fund projects, in what he said would be a “big advance for people power”.  Hundreds of millions of pounds apparently will eventually be available in start-up funding through a Big Society Bank, to be matched by private investment.

While reducing the budget deficit was his “duty”, he said giving individuals and communities more control over their destinies was what excited him and was something that had underpinned his philosophy since he became Conservative leader in 2005 and had also been a central theme in the Conservative’s general election campaign (but did anyone really had a clue (or care) what it meant or how it would be delivered?)

We’re all for people power, but seriously David, give us a chance!

Followers of this blog won’t need to be told, least of all by David Cameron, of the potential of people power to change things around them. It’s one of the reasons why this blog was set up and we have consistently highlighted the great work of organisations and individuals across Northern Ireland using technology and new thinking to make a difference in our community. It is our ‘passion’ and it is the passion of thousands of people like us. People power is not a big Cameron idea; it is a reality that he needs to deal with and it won’t be hijacked by any politician or any government.

That’s why it is very interesting that Eric Pickles said the government’s schemes would represent “the biggest, most dramatic redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the man and woman on the street”.  With the most swingeing cuts to public spending in most of our lifetimes looming over us; unemployment set to rocket; pensions under threat; house prices stagnating; and our education system and health service about to be dismantled…‘on the street’ is where more and more of us are going to end up!

Although maybe Cameron’s Big Society concept will help keep the recreational rioters off the street in Ardoyne in future. Let’s see.

To read more, go to www.thebigsociety.co.uk or to get involved in the conversation, go to the blog at www.thebigsociety.net

In the meantime…here’s a short film:

Have you seen these buses flying round Belfast City Centre over the last couple of days. Think they’re part of an anti-sectarianism/anti-social campaign from Belfast City Council/OFMDFM/DSD.

Say no to sectarianism.

Say no to crime.

Keep safe this summer.

Don’t know how many buses made it as far as North Belfast, but the campaign’s obviously working?

Summer has certainly arrived…and it could be a long hot one.

With all that’s going on in Ardoyne, some good news in today’s Belfast Telegraph.

Under the headline: ‘Amid the ruins, a community spirit triumphs over disaster’ Belfast man Simon Brown describes his work as part of Irish charity GOAL’s mission to support earthquake-hit Haiti.

‘It had been a while since I had any interaction with our beneficiaries, but recently I’ve been helping out on our cash-for-work programme in the Turgeau district of Port-au-Prince. With so much of the city still in ruins, removing rubble and debris to allow for the construction of shelters to accommodate those people who lost their homes in the earthquake is of paramount importance. By working through the local community, we are able to pay people a basic wage to help us clear the waste, which, in turn, helps to generate income for families.

I’ve worked at two sites.

The first had reasonable road access, so we rented a small digger to transfer the rubble. Sometimes we are able to use diggers to transfer the debris to the trucks, but they are very expensive and we cannot afford to hire them everyday. As well as that, some communities are so difficult to access that the diggers do not have room to manoeuvre. In these instances the rubble has to be manually loaded onto the dumper trucks which, as you can imagine, is a painstaking process.

Then there are other problems that can surface unexpectedly.

As we were on our way to the site, for example, we got a call that the digger had no fuel, despite the fact that our transport manager had reminded the rental company three times the day before to ensure that there was. Thankfully, we had a fuel container with us and we stopped off at a nearby petrol station to buy some diesel. We cut the bottom off a small plastic jerry can to act as a funnel and were able to fill the tank with about 60 litres of fuel when we arrived. The dumper trucks were waiting for us, so we were able to start loading them up straightaway.

Unfortunately, the road was quite narrow so the trucks had to gingerly reverse for a distance of about 300 metres to get to the collection points. We loaded the first truck with about 15 cubic metres of rubble and general waste in about 15 minutes. Once they are full, the trucks are then driven to the port where the rubble is being used in an attempt to reclaim some of the land lost in the earthquake.

Part of the port collapsed into the sea on January 12, 2010. It’s good that so much of the waste is being put to good use.

The second site was one of those cases where we just didn’t have enough space for a digger, even a small one, to move around. The guys worked their socks off loading the trucks manually. It was tough work. For the large pieces of rubble, they picked them up and threw them in the back of the truck. For smaller debris, they used shovels. It was a laborious process and it took about two-and-a-half hours to fill the first truck.

When I returned to the first site, I found that they had loaded seven more trucks in that time. It was encouraging to see the people working together with such a positive spirit. They toiled exceptionally hard, without complaint, in the hot sun. They are glad to be able to help their own communities recover from the damage of the earthquake and the salary that we pay them will help them to feed, clothe and school members of their family.

I was particularly touched when one woman kept repeating the word ‘merci’ over and over again. She was also speaking in Creyol, the native language, which I do not fully understand. Our field supervisor, Roudy, told me that she wanted to thank GOAL for clearing the debris from her street.

As she said it again, all I could think of to say was “De rien” (“You’re welcome”)’.

Community spirit indeed triumphing over disaster, amid the ruins.

Maybe we could all learn a lesson from Simon’s excellent work!

To  find out more about GOAL’s work, go to www.goal.ie or www.goal-uk.org

Who’d have though that Orangefest would have had such an impact this year in Belfast? (and don’t say the dogs on the street could have told you!) It certainly seems to have brought people out onto the streets over the last 4 nights and is fast becoming the festival that just keeps on giving.

EuroDisney for recreational rioting

Never mind Oxegen, the streets of the Ardoyne are where young people from all over Northern Ireland apparently want to hang out (some travelling up from the south and even some from Lurgan apparently wanting to join in the street party).

According to Holy Cross priest Fr Gary Donegan, the violence which has gripped North Belfast has transformed the area into a ‘EuroDisney for rioters’, with hundreds of ‘young thugs’ mostly from outside the local community treating the nightly riots and lawlessness as a party!

We had scantily clad girls, Olivia Newton John look-alikes, Riverdancers, the Milan catwalk and all sorts on view. Poor Fr Donegan didn’t know where to look: ‘Another girl had a long shirt on her but you could see what she had on was very skimpy underneath. It was like lingerie, something you would see out in nightclubs’.

The concept of ‘recreational rioting’ (another new term in our local dictionary found right beneath ‘community beating’) would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that it is devastating local communities; seriously injuring innocent people; and creating the sort of international headlines that Northern Ireland could really do without right now.

We’re in the middle of the biggest economic crisis that this country has ever faced; there’s rising unemployment; huge pressure on budgets for housing, health, education, policing, economic development… and in the meantime we’ve got a party going on in North Belfast that is costing us, each and every one of us, hundreds of thousands of pounds to ‘control’.

It’s pointless and mindless and thankfully all right thinking political parties of all colours and persuasions have come out together to condemn it.

It certainly isn’t party time for Northern Ireland. And Uncle Walt would definitely not approve.