It is of no surprise the recent headlines that Croatia versus England football match witnessed another bout of racist chanting from the home supporters. The official body has decided to set up yet another enquiry and as time passes so it will have slipped down the priority to do something about out of the public gaze. It will be forgotten.
There are similarities here with Germany where migrants mainly Turkish people were often targeted and still are by the far right groups. These racist attacks resulted in serious injuries and in some cases horrific deaths. The decent Germans would join with Turkish people and others in candle lit vigils in the local neighbourhoods whilst those in authority did next to nothing.
Last weekend saw yet another fatal stabbing of a young person witnessed on the streets of London bringing the number to total of 27 dead this year alone. This at a time when London is coming out on to the streets to show that enough is enough and there is an urgent need to take control of what is happening with knife crime amongst the youth. This takes the issue to heart of the promises made to the public by the current London Mayor, to tackle knife crime. These promises seem to be hollow words in the ears of those people who marched in central London over the weekend.
The experiences in Germany and those in Britain are being repeated day in and day out. This pattern of behaviour continues unabated and in some quarters it is gathering pace with the inability of mainstream politicians to address local concerns. The evidence of this is the rise of the far right groups into respectable positions such as the London Assembly and the European Parliament.
The key point that clearly needs to be understood is that whilst all this goes on Europe and now the New Europe with a group of 27 nation states (from a diverse set of ex-soviet block countries who have formed the enlarged European Union) have to tackle the racist and xenophobes in their midst. The European Union policy makers have come up with a striking idea to help and cope with these challenges.
How many people have come across the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (EUICD) 2008? The answer is likely to be almost no one other than those associated with the fanfare or those who may have accidentally stumbled across it. The title seems incomprehensible and inaccessible to those it is intended to reach. ‘What does it all mean?, was the response of a weathered individual who is well versed in these affairs. If one tries to dissect the language associated with the EUICD then it slowly tries to make some sense. If someone shine a little more light the reader may understand that it is about ‘jaw-jaw’ rather than ‘war – war’ in the old currency. Put another way it is an opportunity to get together and talk, work, learn through our differences and to build trust.
Whilst mostly minority ethnic young people increasingly become victims & perpetrators of knife crime on the streets of London; migrants on the whole in the UK are targeted by vested interests of politicians as political fodder. The EU initiative such as the year long ICD becomes even more important. Sadly, like so many EU initiatives the ideas behind their conception may have been right but they fail to touch the lives of ordinary Europeans through the media or through the political leaders. The leaders remain distant and the media in the UK has given next to no public exposure to the ICD to date.
The associated activities with the ICD apart from individual states have been largely confined to events in Brussels in the form of debates held since March and likely to end in November with a debate on the Media. The cast list of speakers, at these events, has largely been Brussels based politicians – some argue these are events where politicians are talking largely amongst themselves. This may not be a bad thing as at least the officials and politicians are taking the time to reflect on the complex and sensitive issues, as well as talking and working through cultural differences. There is some hope that they may act on their new enriched experiences and learning’s gained from the ICD debates.
More significantly, it is good to see the excellent Glaswegian comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli leading the list of EUICD UK ambassadors with musician Nitin Sawhney. Artists from the world of Art seem to provide a good channel for communication and to get the message broadcast across a broad set of stakeholders. One has to admit that there has not been much publicity or promotion to date and it may happen as the year draws to a close. In the eyes of many, this is an excellent initiative and without a doubt the premise of talking and working through the respective cultural differences needs to be applauded. Open serious debates such as those being held in Brussels can only lead to destroying misconceptions and ignorance and to a better London, EU and ultimately the World. What is clear is that this responsibility cannot be surrogated to the EU or the politicians. There is an onus to all in the public realm at an individual level, local level and in the neighbourhoods to undertake a few small steps in fostering trust between different cultures and people.
The alternative is to face the ongoing doom and gloom and the status quo. There is an urgency to wake up to the realities of London. The knife & gang culture in London is real, the suicide killing of young people of Turkish origin is real as was the bombings of the Tube network in July 2005. There is also another imperative as the economies of the western world along with the EU take a nose dive of historic proportions; the bigots and the right wing press will waste no time in blaming their misfortunes on others. Historically, this has been characterised by high levels of unemployment and general weaknesses in the economy, at such times the migrants and minorities are targeted with even more verosity. This is no time for complacency and in the face of these impending challenges, people need to be proactive and resilient. There promise to be some good set opportunities on the horizon at local and national level to engage.
What better than to work through and learn about other cultures in one of the best cities of the world – London. ICD must not be a one off EU led initiative. What is required here is more celebrations of the diverse nature of the EU residents and especially to celebrate what makes the people of EU different and what unites them.
This is the essence of any good civilisation as encapsulated by Gandhi, ‘the measure of any civilisation is how it treats its minorities’.
Copyright Semra Eren Nijhar – All rights reserved
Semra Eren-Nijhar 