Hunger Games

I recently watched the Hunger Games movie, only to find out afterwards that there had been some backlash at the casting of black actors in certain roles. People never cease to amaze me.

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Here are two interesting articles about the issue: Racist Hunger Games Fans Are Very Disappointed and I See White People: Hunger Games and a Brief History of Cultural Whitewashing.

Annual Human Rights Conference

On Friday I attended NICEM's annual Human Rights Conference. Held in Belfast with speakers from the UK, Ireland and Switzerland, the conference focused on the relation between the European Convention of Human Rights and the Strasbourg Court.

The full programme and notes from the speakers' presentations can be accessed here. I particularly enjoyed the presentation by Gabrielle Toggenburg, programme manager at the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, on the Lisbon Treaty.

Plus it turns out you can get an app for the Charter of Fundamental Rights of The European Union. Check it out here: fra.europa.eu/charterapp

Racist Comments

I just read this article by Field Negro about why he doesn't delete racist comments from his blog. And trust me, some of those comments are impressively racist.

"Those trolls could be your neighbor, your co-worker, or even the person you set next to in church . . . far too many of you so called progressive thinking people have been fooled into thinking that A-merry-ca is this forward thinking place full of enlightened people . . . The real A-merry-ca is a place filled with the kind of folks you see commenting on this web site on a daily basis. The real A-merry-ca is full of envy,hate, and "color aroused" angst brought on by ignorance and prejudice . . . me blocking their comments won't change how they feel in their hearts or how A-merry-cans, in general, feel about you and me."

A bee in my bonnet

There are a couple of things on the news these days that make me yell wildly at the tv, ranting like a crazy person.


The story of Trayvon Martin, the black teenager, unarmed except for a pack of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea, who was shot by neighbourhood watch capitan George Zimmerman. Zimmerman claims that he shot Martin in self defence and has yet to be charged, the authorities in this case failing to realise that self-defence is an argument to be made in court after being charged, not an argument to prevent being charged in the first place. The dearth of reporting on this case in its first few weeks is appalling. It is only now that the FBI are getting involved that the news is hitting the mainstream media, despite the incident happening in February.


The other story that gets my goat is the new legislation around abortion and mandatory trans-vaginal ultrasounds in the American South. Nothing says it better than these Doonesbury cartoons, which have been banned by some news outlets. Similarly I get enraged when I hear arguments as to why women working for Catholic institutions in the USA shouldn't be entitled to free contraceptives as part of their insurance package. What has happened to women's rights?


Women "have settled for a cheap, knock-off version of gender revolution. Instead of equality at work and in the home, we settled for "choice", "flexibility" and an exciting array of badly paid part-time work to fit around childcare and chores." This article hits the nail on the head, explaining why we should get angry, fight back, take a stand.

Friday Fling - The Best Articles I've Read This Week

Just one link this week, but it's a long one! Check out this New York Times article on How Companies Learn Your Secrets. Creepy yet interesting.

Wanderlust

I have to say that I have no desire to see the movie Wanderlust starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, however I was very taken by this article at cultureby.com.

The old career path was simple.


Fix on the objective. Commit body and soul. Keep your eyes on the prize. Stay at it.


No experimenting with other options. No idle curiosity. No putzing around. In sum, no career wanderlust.


Make a choice. Stick with it.

It is no surprise that this article stuck with me. I'm in the midst of a (rather difficult) career transition, from legal executive to (hopefully) policy advisor working with ethnic minorities. Yes, I had a good career, yes, I could have stuck with it. But was it fulfilling? Did it make me happy? Did I want to do it for the rest of my life? No way. It took me a long time to figure out what I really wanted. And it will take me a long time to get exactly where I want to be. In the meantime I am checking out my options, learning as much as I can, and moving forward.

Friday Fling - The best Articles I've Read This Week

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted one of these - for some reason I haven't found much of interest on the tubes recently. Could I be looking in the wrong places?

Anyway, on to a few articles I've enjoyed this week:

• Anthropological theories on human nature over at Living Anthropologically
• And an interesting look at domestic violence from pop-culture site Mamapop

Equality And Diversity Training

I have just completed a course for Equality and Diversity training run by NICEM. The course explored the dynamics of racism and equality on an individual and organisational level, and looked at anti-racism legislation, ways of challenging discrimination in the workplace, and even looked at formulating action plans, both personal and for our chosen organisation.

It was only a 2 day course, but managed to cover a fairly extensive range of topics in that time. The aim was for practical the application within the workplace, and how to encourage a diverse and equal working environment.

Exploring Engagement Seminar

I just attended one of Belfast City Council's free lunchtime Exploring Engagement seminars, organised by the Good Relations Unit. Held in the City Hall on the first Thursday of each month, this was the first of the seminars that I have attended.

The speaker was Madeleine Leonard, Professor of Sociology at Queen's University in Belfast who has been working on a recent project on teenagers' perceptions of Belfast, the peace walls, and the city as a divided or shared city. The talk was extremely informative, and I was interested to hear of the way in which teenagers viewed Belfast, and particularly their views on whether or not the peace walls should remain. For more information, I thoroughly suggest reading Bringing Down the Walls: Young People's Perspective of Peace Walls in Belfast, Leonard, M and McKnight, M (2011), International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 31, 9/10, 569-583.

Weird or Just Different - TED Talk

I came across this excellent short video on TED today. Take a look.

Blog recommendation - Living Anthropologically

I have just discovered the (excellent) blog Living Anthropologically by Jason Antrosio, Associate Professor at Hartwick College. From interesting critiques of Jared Diamond to political and economic anthropology, this blog covers many areas of anthropology in an interesting and accessible way.

The articles are thought-provoking, well researched and backed up with interesting quotes from great-sounding sources (my Amazon Wish List is getting longer with each post I read). Definitely worth a look if you're after something reasonably academic but still readable.

Plus it contains this truly glorious quote from Michel-Rolph Troulliot: At the end of the day, in this age where futures are murky and utopias mere reminders of a lost innocence, we need to fall back on the moral optimism that has been anthropology’s greatest—yet underscored—appeal. But we need to separate that optimism from the naïveté that has been liberalism’s most convenient shield. We need to assume it as a choice—whether we call it moral, philosophical, or aesthetic in the best sense. We need to hang on to it not because we are historically, socially, or politically naïve—indeed, as social scientists we cannot afford such naïveté—but because this is the side of humanity that we choose to prefer, and because this choice is what moved us to anthropology in the first place. We need to assume this optimism because the alternatives are lousy, and because anthropology as a discipline is the best venue through which the West can show an undying faith in the richness and variability of humankind.
-- Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Global Transformations (2003:139)


I recommend starting with the 10 most viewed posts of 2011 and working your way through the archives from there.

Disclaimer: Living Anthropologically does not know I exist. I just enjoy the blog.

Friday Fling - The best Articles I've Read This Week

Here are some articles I've enjoyed this week:

• An anthropological look at the Paleo diet at 13.7
• Why the Chinese save from Foreign Policy
• Links between prejudice and intelligence over at Field Negro 

So, what have I missed?

Bayanihan!

Last Monday I attended a launch for new researched conducted by the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM).

The study is a comprehensive look of the small but growing Filipino community in Northern Ireland, and the ways in which this community is likely to be effected by the economic downturn. Perhaps most interestingly, the study sums up the immigration process for Tier 2 migrant workers in the United Kingdom and the challenges in obtaining (and keeping) these work permits.

At a time when anti-immigrant sentiment seems to be rising in the UK, this study helps to show that the negative propaganda spouted by some newspapers, particularly with regard to the immigrant's right to public funds, is misinformed.

Friday Fling - The best Articles I've Read This Week

Here are some of articles I've enjoyed most this week.

• Politicians stating the obvious over at Eurasian Sensation
• Inappropriate puns at Native Appropriations
• The benefits of Wikipedia at Savage Minds

Have you read anything particularly interesting? Feel free to share in the comments.

Immigration, Multiculturalism and British Future

In the wake of a recent report by think tank British Future, the UK media has been abuzz with articles on immigration and the role of immigrants in Britain. The report titled Hopes and Fears: The British Future State of the Nation Report 2012 makes some sweeping generalisations, but here are the key highlights in relation to immigration and integration:

• Many people wildly and worryingly exaggerate
  the scale of asylum, but believe that Britain is 
  a country where we welcome new neighbours. 
  Most of us think it takes less than three years 
  for “them” to become “us” when somebody 
  moves to a new area.
• We think that Britain 
  is less polite, as well as less racist. Black and Asian people are most likely to think race relations got better; relying more on the lived experience of everyday integration that the rarer flashpoints which inevitably catch headlines.
• The poll shows that we recognise benefits 
  and pressures from immigration. It won’t be enough to say that it has been great for food and football if people remain so concerned that impacts on jobs and housing aren't addressed. People want integration to work . . .  we don't want segregated schools in multi-ethnic towns but don't think which cricket team people cheer for is important.
• While 16% of the mostly retired 
  65 plus age group ranked immigration as their number one concern, half of that, 8%, of the 16-24s did, and only 5% of the 25-34 age group.
• Housing is where public fear impact of 
  immigration has hit hardest. Some 51% . . . support the idea that government should encourage mixed schools.
• Most people don’t do too badly when asked to estimate roughly how many people in Britain were born abroad - but they massively exaggerate the number of refugees in Britain . . . Four out of ten people believe that more that 10% of the population, six million people, are refugees. And one in 20 believe that most people in Britain today have been granted asylum.

The study touches on many other issues, such as the Tebbit cricket test and whether immigration has been good for British cuisine.

A couple of other articles well worth reading this week are this one on the link between unemployment and immigration, and this one on the future of anti-racism in Britain.

Street Art

I recently went to see the Street Art exhibition at the Ulster Museum. An excellent exhibition consisting of works from local artists such as KVLR and international street artists like Banksy, it got me thinking of the role art, and street art, plays in depicting a city. I find street art and murals particularly interesting where they crossover with politics and public opinion. When they make a statement. Banksy does this extraordinarily well the world over, combining recognisable pop culture figures with the imagery of war to convey a powerful message with striking visual vocabulary. Napalm is the best example of this that comes to mind.

Belfast is of course well know for its political murals, and while there are still many murals depicting men in balaclavas toting guns, newer murals trend towards a celebration Northern Ireland's cultural and social history without portraying the violence. In comparison to the gritty murals, Belfast does of course have its fair share of commissioned art out on the street. Pieces such as the Beacon of Hope and the recent sculpture Rise emphasise the positive changes in Belfast following the Good Friday Agreement. These do not have the immediacy of street art nor represent the public opinion. Instead they speak of what Belfast hopes to become.

To me, street art and art on the street seem to hold very different purposes. Street art is the message of the person on the ground, simply showing others how they see things while art on the street reflects how political figures hope to influence the way others view the world.

Edited to add: Speaking of art, check this out.