Tagged: Equality RSS

  • Levee 9:12 pm on October 18, 2006 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: Employment, Equality, , Race   

    Fair Employment In Northern Ireland 

    As many of you know, I’m in the process of looking for a new job. I’m currently breaking out in blotches at the sight of application forms and trying to ‘tweak’ my history to fit the job I’m applying for.

    Anyway, I’ve been filling out another application form this evening, and the Equal Opportunities/Fair Employment declaration has me cornered from all sides. Basically I’ve got to get off the damn fence and identify myself as a Protestant or a Catholic.

    First off, I’ve got to choose from five different shades of white. Of the two that are applicable, I’m either Irish White or British White. Right, I can understand racial profiling to a degree, but isn’t that splitting hairs a bit too much?

    So, on the basis of technically being a UK resident, I choose British White. But it doesn’t feel right. Nor does Irish White for that matter. They’re both…well, they’re both a bit foreign….

    Anyway, on to the old question of religion. Am I a Prod or a Taig? Neither, I answer with confidence, having shrugged off the God factor a long time ago.

    But wait! What’s this extra question? They want to know what primary school I went to? For God’s sake leave me alone! I just want to be an ordinary white (Northern Irish White, thank you) athiest bloke. Why do they want to bring my primary school into it?

    So, even though I’ve tried my best to be good ol’ neutral me, this form is insisting I take a side. I don’t want to take a damn side, I’ve avoided it all my life so far! Well, Saint Patrick’s Primary School might be a bit of a give away, but what choice do I have?

    Anyone else think Irish White/British White is a step too far in the campaign for equality of employment?

     

    • beano 3:11 am on October 21, 2006 Permalink

      Completely agree Levee. Complete load of tripe. If White/British and White/Irish don’t feel right, tick other, it’ll only serve the bastards right.

      Is it against the law not to answer a fair employment question like the one about your primary school?

    • Sandra 6:41 pm on October 21, 2006 Permalink

      St Patrick’s? Do we know each other?

    • Mr. Levee 8:55 pm on October 22, 2006 Permalink

      Sandra: In Ballycastle? Do you know anyone who went there?

      Beano: Not sure. Not answering puts you in the league of ‘difficult’ employees, doesn’t it?

    • Sandra 2:38 am on October 23, 2006 Permalink

      Ah, no, the Waterfoot one. So near and yet so far. *grin*

    • mark 3:01 am on October 24, 2006 Permalink

      They have a book with every Primary school listed (the Equality folks not employers) and a definition of it’s perceived religion. If you don’t give a defining answer to the religion question they assign one based on your school. I’m an atheist like you and refuse to be tarred by anyone especially as my strange house church (freaky evangelists) parents sent me to a catholic school in the hope I’d be a missionary to the heathens or some such nonsense.

      I write on the monitoring form in large letters – This is none of your business and I refuse to provide the information requested. I have had 5 jobs in my life and have only applied for 6. No one ever challenged my refusal to fill in the form.

      Just ignore the pigeonholers.

    • beano 8:56 am on October 24, 2006 Permalink

      Levee: If it’s on an equality form, isn’t it supposedly anonymous anyway?

    • Laura 10:18 am on October 24, 2006 Permalink

      My employer goes a step further and issues everyone with a letter telling them how their religion has been ‘determined’. On principle I don’t provide details
      of my non-existent religion, and my primary school was co-ed integrated.

      Imagine my surprise when I was told that I was ‘a Roman Catholic’! Apparently
      this was on the basis of a modest qualification in Irish.

      I didn’t bother correcting them. What’s the bloody point?

    • Mr. Levee 4:56 pm on October 24, 2006 Permalink

      Beano: Good point, but one of the applications I completed recently had to be emailed in in its entirety. Even if it was to a seperate ‘monitoring’ address, my email address is a dead giveaway.

      Laura: Nice to get a letter dictating your religion every now and then, isn’t it? And on the basis of speaking a bit of Irish too! Sure no Protestants can speak Irish so by process of elimination you must be a nun!

    • El Matador 6:01 pm on October 29, 2006 Permalink

      Bit of a nuisance having to fill it in, and perhaps some of the pigeon-holing is a bit contrived, but

      a) isn’t it to ensure that companies have a good reflective make-up of employees in their workplaces, and to identify if certain sectors of society are under-represented, and

      b)the list obviously isn’t going to be exhaustive, so at times some people may feel their answers aren’t wholyy representative of their personal position.

      Overall, filling out this form is really a form of social duty- it’s to help ensure that jobs are made available to the widest possible pool of suitably qualified people, thus ensuring as far as is possible that the best person is hired and that suitably qualified people are not missing out on at least applying.

      As far as selecting a candidate is concerned- no, they don’t look at this form. It is merely used to give an overall picture of who is applying for jobs at the workplace in question, and personal views should be pushed aside as your info merely becomes a general statistic in the overall monitoring programme.

    • aileen 1:18 am on November 2, 2006 Permalink

      “isn’t it to ensure that companies have a good reflective make-up of employees ”

      If they use it to “ensure” then apart from the PSNI, that is actually illegal. They should be used to see the degree to which the the owrk force relects society as a whole and where they need to put effort in the future.

      I get stroppy about filling in this sort of thing on ny form. I am told that a lot (whatever that actually means) of NI people put Shi ite Muslim on their census form for religion. I think I might be tempted to put “shopping”

    • Parnell 11:34 pm on November 3, 2006 Permalink

      Just turn up for the interview. If the interviewer is as good as the rest of us he/she/they, if they are from the North, can tell one from the other anyway. But just to confuse them into thinking you realy are some studious academic, bring the “Newsletter” and the “Irish News” with you. lol

    • Parnell 11:38 pm on November 3, 2006 Permalink

      P.S. Maybe its cause youse Black.

    • beano 5:18 pm on November 27, 2006 Permalink

      Social duty? Don’t make me scoff. As far as I’m concerned the best way to ensure you don’t get discriminated against on the grounds of your religion or “ethnicity” is not to tell them in the first place (where this is feasible obviously).

  • Levee 8:30 am on April 21, 2006 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: Equality, ,   

    Irish Republicans: What's Not To Like? 

    I took a hard line yesterday on the language of Republicanism, the talk of continuing struggles and so on. Chris took some offense at my position, which I still feel is justified.

    Looking To The Future

    Now, Chris Gaskin is an intelligent fellow. As a student of law, he is no doubt aware of some of the ridiculous laws that were created generations ago. Laws that are unrealistic and do not apply to society today.

    And, if last centuries’ notions of Protestant/Unionist supremacy are subject to ridicule today, why are other historical events like the Easter Rising beyond scrutiny? They shouldn’t be. We cannot uphold principles from the past century if they do not apply to society today. These things need to be questioned.

    What is the compelling reason for a United Ireland? Why should we consider it? Who will benefit from a United Ireland? What about the Unionist/Loyalist population – and people like myself who just want a normal society without the labels? What relevance does the Easter Rising have for modern life in (Northern) Ireland?

    Common Ground – Social Problems

    Republicanism – yes, and Loyalism – are movements which serve to separate the population by convincing their respective followers of an irredeemable gulf exists between them. But strip those people of their political identities and they are virtually the same. They suffer the same problems: education standards, unemployment, housing, teenage pregnancy, medical care, disenfranchised youth.

    I’ve spent quite a bit of time on both the Falls and Shankill Roads over the years, and both are bustling, thriving working-class communities. If both of those neighbourhoods worked together to their mutual advantage, there’s no telling what they might achieve. They have so much in common.

    Where are the bold politicians willing to tackle social problems on a truly equal basis? They simply don’t exist.

    And that, my friends, is my problem with Republicans. And also with Loyalists. And with anybody who pushes a one-sided political agenda instead of focusing on the issues our society is crying out to resolve. They spend all their time sitting in little cliques, convincing themselves that their narrow viewpoints are correct, churning out outdated slogans (British oppression my arse – who’s paying your benefits?) and conveniently ignoring the ‘other’ culture.

    Let’s face it, Northern Ireland – illegal Orange statelet or not – is not immune from 21st Century social problems. Disenfranchised youths, for example, are everywhere. On the mainland, they’re chavs. Over here, they’re spides and millies. They are not the unique by-product of disadvantaged Unionist areas, Dr. Paisley!

    I don’t think a United Ireland is some kind of silver bullet solution. It won’t stop teenage pregnancies, stem the suicide rate or stop the joyriding problem. It certainly won’t ‘cure’ sectarianism.

    So, which is the more pressing issue? Hooking up with the Republic and filling our wallets with Euros, or dropping the agenda and starting to tackle social problems and sectarianism?

     

  • Levee 11:30 pm on April 19, 2006 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: Equality, Ireland, , ,   

    Republican Struggle: Now And Then 

    I’ll make this short.

    I’m tired of hearing about Republican ’struggle’ and British oppression and occupation. I can honestly say that not once in my life have I felt oppressed or discriminated against on the grounds of my religious background. I have not been held back from getting gainful employment, nor buying a house, nor living to a relatively decent standard.

    While I have little knowledge of the background to the Easter Rising, and subsequent events in Ireland, I am coming to the conclusion that certain parts of our history on this island were inevitable. This is courtesy of Mr Joe Cahill, whose biography I am reading at the moment. It really is food for thought as to how we might have reacted in the same circumstances.

    However, we are not in the same circumstances. Northern Ireland has changed. Nobody here is an ‘oppressed people’, except for the daft prejudices that rattle around inside their heads.

    This post is in response to Mr Gaskin’s Official Easter Address To The People. I have nothing against the celebrating of the Easter Rising, but don’t bang on about the injustice that is British rule. Especially not when trying to espouse Liberty and Justice for all where all of the children of the Nation, when Sinn Fein (Mr Gaskin is a proud member) have shown absolutely no interest in the welfare or rights of the Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist population here. That just stinks of hypocrisy.

    All this talk of comrades and struggles reminds me of that Give My Head Peace episode where an old Republican who’s been hiding in an attic for years comes down thinking the Republicans are still fighting.

    Ah, who cares? The only Easter Rising I was interested in last Sunday was the one I woke up with… ;)

     

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