Yesterday on TFC (The Filipino Channel) reported on the latest racist attacks on Filipinos in Northern Ireland. Not a surprise to me but now my parents have a really bad impression of the place, and have been asking weird questions if HopAlong's family is prejudiced because they are Protestant. Well it's obvious they aren't because they wouldn't invite me into their home if they were. At least my parents finally know why I came back and decided to get married and live in America instead of over there...
Racist attack in N. Ireland targets Filipino family
JERRIE M. ABELLA, GMANews.TV
A Filipino family in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has expressed fears for their safety after racist attacks in their Whiteabbey town on Tuesday left a part of their house and a Filipino neighbor’s car scorched.
The Philippine Embassy in London said Ishis Calungsod and his family were targeted in a racially motivated arson in their street, which involved the burning of a car owned by Arnel Verzonilla, another Filipino.
“The Embassy has been in touch with Mr. Calungsod and Mr. Verzonilla, and they and their families are safe," the Embassy said in a statement posted on the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) website.
A report by Belfast Telegraph stated 30-year-old Calungsod and his wife were sleeping with their two children, aged four and six, when Verzonilla’s car, parked at the front door of their house in Fernagh Avenue, went up in flames.
Verzonilla lives in the same building several doors up.
Another car parked on the same street, owned by an Indian family, was likewise torched, the report said.
The report said the Calungsod family learned of the fire only when firefighters broke into their house to rescue them.
Local police have ruled the burning of the cars as racially motivated, following at least three similar incidents also in Belfast recorded a day before, based on the report.
The Philippine Embassy condemned the dastardly act of hate and discrimination committed against a Filipino family and individuals belonging to other ethnic groups. It added that Embassy has made representations with the Police Service of Northern Ireland urging them to undertake action to identify and punish the perpetrators.
“Such hate crimes should be eradicated and the root causes addressed to ensure that these acts do not undermine the cross-community successes in Northern Ireland in recent years," the Embassy said in a statement.
According to the Belfast report, Calungsod moved to Northern Ireland five years ago to work. “We didn’t have any problems before but now we are thinking of moving again. We moved here because our friends live here. They said it was a nice, quiet street, good for our kids. And it had been. But now we are all scared," Calungsod was quoted as saying in the report.
Showing posts with label Racism in Northern Ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Racism in Northern Ireland. Show all posts
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Dear Racist Morons in Belfast,
If you're going to advertise racist slogans, please learn how to spell IMMIGRANT! What a bunch of knobs!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Jack The Racist
This morning I got a lift to work with Jack, The Racist. He had a lot to say about the unfortunate Romanian situation in South Belfast, "They shouldn't be here. They're all dirty gypo bastards. They're taking our jobs and our benefits! Serves them right. Serves them right."
I just nodded and paid no attention.
I tried to change the subject and said, "Jack, look at that car!" The car ahead of us had their indicator signalling to the right and it made a left turn.
Jack said, "Aye, must be a bloody Fenian. Fuckin' bastards."
He hates all the managers.
He hates the people he sits beside in the canteen eating lunch (those unfortunate enough to have to sit with him).
He hates all the eastern European temp workers or "Polish Bastards" as he likes to refer to them regardless of whether or not they're from Poland, Slovakia or the Czech.
He's just a grumpy fucker who hates everybody.
I just nodded and paid no attention.
I tried to change the subject and said, "Jack, look at that car!" The car ahead of us had their indicator signalling to the right and it made a left turn.
Jack said, "Aye, must be a bloody Fenian. Fuckin' bastards."
He hates most of the people we work with.
He hates all the managers.
He hates the people he sits beside in the canteen eating lunch (those unfortunate enough to have to sit with him).
He hates all the eastern European temp workers or "Polish Bastards" as he likes to refer to them regardless of whether or not they're from Poland, Slovakia or the Czech.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
"A Caring Side of Northern Ireland"
Wow, 20 families fled from their homes as result of the racist attacks? To suddenly target 20 Romanian families is very suspicious. This is starting to look like it was orchestrated by the "powers that be"...if you know what I mean. What the heck are the PSNI doing?
From BBC:
A five-day-old girl is among 115 Romanian people being put up in a church hall overnight after fleeing their homes in south Belfast.
They said they left their homes in the Lisburn Road area after suffering racist attacks for almost a week.
The church offered to help after about 20 families tried to take refuge in a house at Wellesley Avenue.
Church officers said the Romanians may stay as long as they need to and police are patrolling the area.
'Threatened verbally'
The families said they were tired and frightened but that the help of the church had shown them a positive side to the people of Belfast.
Jolena Flett, Racial Harassment Adviser for the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, said they had been threatened verbally and then three properties were attacked on the same day.
"There has been an issue about the families feeling unsafe in the properties they were attacked in. What we are trying to do is provide them with alternative accommodation," she said.
Malcolm Morgan, pastor at the church, said they were happy to help.
"It's a sad indictment of our society, but hopefully we can show them a different side to Northern Ireland and a caring side of Northern Ireland," he said.
From BBC:
A five-day-old girl is among 115 Romanian people being put up in a church hall overnight after fleeing their homes in south Belfast.
They said they left their homes in the Lisburn Road area after suffering racist attacks for almost a week.
The church offered to help after about 20 families tried to take refuge in a house at Wellesley Avenue.
Church officers said the Romanians may stay as long as they need to and police are patrolling the area.
'Threatened verbally'
The families said they were tired and frightened but that the help of the church had shown them a positive side to the people of Belfast.
Jolena Flett, Racial Harassment Adviser for the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, said they had been threatened verbally and then three properties were attacked on the same day.
"There has been an issue about the families feeling unsafe in the properties they were attacked in. What we are trying to do is provide them with alternative accommodation," she said.
Malcolm Morgan, pastor at the church, said they were happy to help.
"It's a sad indictment of our society, but hopefully we can show them a different side to Northern Ireland and a caring side of Northern Ireland," he said.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Coincidence? I Think Not..
I posted on the topic of racism this morning and this was on the news tonight...
From the BBC:
People from the area came to show their opposition to the racist attacks.
An anti-racist demonstration in south Belfast had to be halted for a time following trouble.
Residents were holding a protest on the Lisburn Road after a spate of attacks on immigrant families in the area.
A group of youths leaving a bar were heckled by demonstrators and ran into an alley where they threw bottles.
They ran off, but came back and threw more bottles. Protesters chased them away. No-one was injured in the incident.
Organiser Paddy Meehan said there had been continual attacks from Wednesday.
"People are absolutely livid about what has been happening here and it has to stop," he said.
"This protest has sent a clear message that people do not want this going on in their area and that this has to stop right now."
Demonstrators had shouted "Nazis off our streets" as the youths passed and the youths gave Nazi salutes.
One of the houses attacked
A gang smashed windows at this house in south Belfast
The Alliance Party's Anna Lo said that the trouble at the rally was a "disgrace" but that those throwing bottles were "a small minority".
"We are all here to show support for the migrant workers who have been attacked and have been hounded out from one street to another street," she said.
Earlier, two houses inhabited by a Romanian family were targeted in a racist attack.
A gang smashed windows and terrorised pregnant women and children in attacks on houses on Belgravia and Wellesley avenues.
Police have said they are investigating racist incidents and criminal damage in both areas over the last four days.
It was claimed that the people who attacked the house were shouting Combat 18 slogans and a letter containing text from Hitler's Mein Kampf was pushed through the letterbox of one of the properties.
There have been racial tensions in the area since trouble erupted at a World Cup qualifier between Northern Ireland and Poland at Windsor Park in March.
A number of migrant families subsequently decided to leave their homes.
From the BBC:
An anti-racist demonstration in south Belfast had to be halted for a time following trouble.
Residents were holding a protest on the Lisburn Road after a spate of attacks on immigrant families in the area.
A group of youths leaving a bar were heckled by demonstrators and ran into an alley where they threw bottles.
They ran off, but came back and threw more bottles. Protesters chased them away. No-one was injured in the incident.
Organiser Paddy Meehan said there had been continual attacks from Wednesday.
"People are absolutely livid about what has been happening here and it has to stop," he said.
"This protest has sent a clear message that people do not want this going on in their area and that this has to stop right now."
Demonstrators had shouted "Nazis off our streets" as the youths passed and the youths gave Nazi salutes.
One of the houses attacked
A gang smashed windows at this house in south Belfast
The Alliance Party's Anna Lo said that the trouble at the rally was a "disgrace" but that those throwing bottles were "a small minority".
"We are all here to show support for the migrant workers who have been attacked and have been hounded out from one street to another street," she said.
Earlier, two houses inhabited by a Romanian family were targeted in a racist attack.
A gang smashed windows and terrorised pregnant women and children in attacks on houses on Belgravia and Wellesley avenues.
Police have said they are investigating racist incidents and criminal damage in both areas over the last four days.
It was claimed that the people who attacked the house were shouting Combat 18 slogans and a letter containing text from Hitler's Mein Kampf was pushed through the letterbox of one of the properties.
There have been racial tensions in the area since trouble erupted at a World Cup qualifier between Northern Ireland and Poland at Windsor Park in March.
A number of migrant families subsequently decided to leave their homes.
Which Country is the Most Racist in the World?
Just the other day, I went to Tesco. On the way there, I always walk by a park where kids are playing. As I was passing by, two 6 year old boys were pointing at me making "Chinese sounds". I tried not to let it get to me since they were just little boys and didn't know any better. The people I should feel most angry about is their parents. You know that saying, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree?". And I'm sure if I walked over there and told those kids how to behave, their parents would run right over and I'd get a smack down. Not worth my personal safety.
An incident such as this isn't the first time this has happened to me. For example, here and here. In some places, I would get stared down and/or given the stink eye, be completely ignored, or assume that I don't know how to speak English (which also equates to being stupid). I try not to let it bother me but sometimes it does and sometimes it really makes me sick.
I'm not going to lie. I've thought about how much easier it would be to live here if I were Caucasian. At least I can blend in a crowd as long as they don't hear my American accent. This thought has never entered my mind before living in Northern Ireland. I've lived in two other countries, Ghana and Cuba, and I've never had this problem. They would be curious about me but they wouldn't blatantly insult me or make me feel unwelcome in their country because of the color of my skin.
All this made me wonder and got me sleuthing on the interwank. I typed in google, "most racist country" and surprise, surprise...
From Conde Naste (July 26, 2007):
The Most Racist Country in the Western World
Or homophobic, or xenophobic, or anti-semitic.
It's been said that industrialized nations are becoming more intolerant of foreigners, and a provocative new paper in the August issue of Kyklos tries to quantify just how bigoted Western nations are.
The paper's authors used responses from a question in the Human Beliefs and Values Survey -- a twice-a-decade survey of social and political attitudes around the world -- which asked respondents how they would feel about living next to: People of different ethnicities, Muslims, Jews, immigrants or foreign workers, and homosexuals.
The researchers used these answers as a proxy for bigotry in each country. (The survey took place in 1999-2000).
And the most prejudiced country? Drumroll please...
Northern Ireland with an estimated 44 percent of its population saying they wouldn't want to live next to one of the above five groups took the top "prize." Breathing down it's neck was Greece with 43.2 percent and at 37.6 percent Italy rounded out the top three.
The least bigoted nations were dominated by Scandinavian countries: Sweden (13.4%), the Netherlands (17.2%), Iceland (18.4%), Canada (21.5%), Denmark (21.9%).
(Germany joins the ranks of the most bigoted nations using an alternative measure based on how strong bigoted feelings were among those who had them, the researchers found.)
The United States was estimated to have a 30.4 percent level of bigotry.
On average, about one out of every three people in the 19 countries used in the study were bigoted.
By far the most hated group were homosexuals with an overall average of 19.6 percent of people saying they wouldn't want them as neighbors. Next up were Muslims with 14.5 percent, but since the survey was taken before September 11th, those results might be much different today.
Click here and scroll down for the drop down menu to look at how each country stacks up in the different categories of who didn't want there neighbors to be (a different race, Muslim, Jewish, an immigrant, or homosexual).
There was also research conducted by the University of Ulster, The Hidden Truth: Racist Harassment in Northern Ireland, which I found was a very insightful read.
An incident such as this isn't the first time this has happened to me. For example, here and here. In some places, I would get stared down and/or given the stink eye, be completely ignored, or assume that I don't know how to speak English (which also equates to being stupid). I try not to let it bother me but sometimes it does and sometimes it really makes me sick.
I'm not going to lie. I've thought about how much easier it would be to live here if I were Caucasian. At least I can blend in a crowd as long as they don't hear my American accent. This thought has never entered my mind before living in Northern Ireland. I've lived in two other countries, Ghana and Cuba, and I've never had this problem. They would be curious about me but they wouldn't blatantly insult me or make me feel unwelcome in their country because of the color of my skin.
All this made me wonder and got me sleuthing on the interwank. I typed in google, "most racist country" and surprise, surprise...
From Conde Naste (July 26, 2007):
The Most Racist Country in the Western World
Or homophobic, or xenophobic, or anti-semitic.
It's been said that industrialized nations are becoming more intolerant of foreigners, and a provocative new paper in the August issue of Kyklos tries to quantify just how bigoted Western nations are.
The paper's authors used responses from a question in the Human Beliefs and Values Survey -- a twice-a-decade survey of social and political attitudes around the world -- which asked respondents how they would feel about living next to: People of different ethnicities, Muslims, Jews, immigrants or foreign workers, and homosexuals.
The researchers used these answers as a proxy for bigotry in each country. (The survey took place in 1999-2000).
And the most prejudiced country? Drumroll please...
Northern Ireland with an estimated 44 percent of its population saying they wouldn't want to live next to one of the above five groups took the top "prize." Breathing down it's neck was Greece with 43.2 percent and at 37.6 percent Italy rounded out the top three.
The least bigoted nations were dominated by Scandinavian countries: Sweden (13.4%), the Netherlands (17.2%), Iceland (18.4%), Canada (21.5%), Denmark (21.9%).
(Germany joins the ranks of the most bigoted nations using an alternative measure based on how strong bigoted feelings were among those who had them, the researchers found.)
The United States was estimated to have a 30.4 percent level of bigotry.
On average, about one out of every three people in the 19 countries used in the study were bigoted.
By far the most hated group were homosexuals with an overall average of 19.6 percent of people saying they wouldn't want them as neighbors. Next up were Muslims with 14.5 percent, but since the survey was taken before September 11th, those results might be much different today.
Click here and scroll down for the drop down menu to look at how each country stacks up in the different categories of who didn't want there neighbors to be (a different race, Muslim, Jewish, an immigrant, or homosexual).
There was also research conducted by the University of Ulster, The Hidden Truth: Racist Harassment in Northern Ireland, which I found was a very insightful read.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
