BELFAST: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS PUT IN PLACE

RACISM AND VIOLENCE
1. Arson, spitting, stoning, human excrements on doorsteps, pipe bombs, ransack,g of houses with baseball bats and crowbars (Source 4)
2. Descrimination against ethnic minorities, such as Ugandans, Romanians, Muslims and especially Chinese (the latter is the largest minority in Belfast) (Source 4)
  1. THE STEWARTSTOWN ROAD REGENERATION PROJECT (Source 5): This project offers solutions to both the decay and environmental degradation at the road frontage, and the persisting tension between the Lenadoon and Suffolk areas. The project aims to provide a safe environment, where the population will feel confident and positive, and provides economic developments (shops and offices) and family facilities (play schools and crèches) and overall brings divided communities together. Experts say that this project has proved to be a "stable socio-technical constellation", and that projects such as this one facilitate friendly encounters amidst Catholics and Protestants, and therefore eases the tension at the interface of the two neighbourhoods.
3. Ku Klux Klan graffiti and swastikas (Source 4)
4. "One family was shot at through their kitchen window, a number of Muslims were stabbed, one was left in a coma after a beating, others had legs and noses broken" (doc 4)
5. Belfast has a majority of Protestant wardens (Source 3) and due to The Troubles, tension also persists between Catholics and Protestants
6. No mosque is provided for the Muslims, who are as many as 4.000 to 5.000 in Northern Ireland, and even if a planning permission is granted, the Muslim communities are too afraid of suffering the consequences of a mosque being built (Source 4).
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
1. The Troubles (political wars that started in the sixties, commonly misunderstood as wars between two Christian denominations, but in reality the contestants were more concerned about national self-determination, housing and employment. Essentially, a majority of Protestants were fighting to stay part of the UK, whereas a majority of Catholics were fighting to be independent. In the end over 3.000 people died, it was a period of extreme violence - there were bloody riots on the streets) resulted in a heritage of religious and ethnic tensions which explain the reasons and sources for most of the problems in Belfast today (Source 5).
2. Northern Ireland has only had a racial descrimination legislation for 10 years and society needs time to change "The situation now is what might have happened in Britain in the 1950's" (doc 4)
3. The population is accustomed to hate and violence towards other cultures (The Troubles)
PLENTIFUL ACCESS TO GUNS - INCREASE OF VIOLENCE AND ITS POSSIBILITY (Source 4)
POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT
1. British National party - in favour of feeling against tiny number of asylum seekers (Source 4)
2. White Nationalist party - threatening anti-racist activists (Source 4)
3. Loyalist Paramilitaries have not yet issued a statement saying attacks on minorities will not be tolerated, and they control "young lads" with "fear of punishment beatings. Furthermore,, anyone that participates in these vioent and racist attacks is linked to the paramilitaries (Source 4)
SEGREGATION
1. Protestant and Catholic wards in Belfast are separated by "Peace Walls" - it is a temporary establishment, that may protect the population, but also increases tension because the communities live closely amongst each other and narratives of past violence are transmitted on both sides, Therefore racism and hate regarding opposing communities can still be felt (Brendan Browne's article and Source 2)
  1. IN JANUARY 2012, THE INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR IRELAND LAUNCHED A 2 million pound INITIATIVE TO BRING DOWN THE WALLS AND PROMOTE CROSS-COMMUNITY CONTACT AND SHARED COMMUNITY SPACE (Brendan Browne's article)
  2. UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER STUDIES SHOW THAT 15 YEARS AFTER THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT IN 1998, 76 PERCENT OF THE POPULATION WANTS TO SEE THE WALLS COME DOWN (Brendan Browne's article)
  3. THE DEBATE ON THE PEACE WALLS IS COMPLEX : AT THE SAME TIME THEY SEGREGATE THE POPULATION AND BREED HATE IN OPPOSING COMMUNITIES, BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, THEY DO PROVIDE PROTECTION, AND THE PEOPLE LIVING CLOSEST TO THESE WALLS DO NOT WISH NEARLY AS MUCH TO HAVE THEM COME DOWN, OUT OF FEAR OF THE POSSIBLE OUTCOME WHICH IS RENEWED VIOLENCE (Brendan Browne's article)
IMPACTS OF SECTARIAN DIVISION IN BELFAST ON CITY PLANNING AND ORGANIZATION
1. Middle-class Protestant ghettos are more deprived than the Catholic ones, namely academically (Source 6)
  1. ATTEMPTS AT BLURRING SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, ETHNIC AND POLITICAL DIFFERENCES (Source 6)
2. More Protestants move to the outskirts, whereas the Catholics mostly stay confined in the city center, and if they move out, they move to the Western outskirts, away from Protestants (Source 6)
  1. STOP-LINE AT POLEGLASS: government provided housing where Catholics can move to in the outskirts of town, and feel safe - less confinement for them in the city center and ghettos (Source 6)
3. Sectarian patterns of living, schooling, shopping, working and recreation impact the transportation and planning of the city (Sources 6 and 3)

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BELFAST: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS PUT IN PLACE

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