Summer of 69

I said already that for passing from the Republican area to the Unionist one, I had to make a kind of "U" as the Peace Line was closed.

When you arrive to the Unionist area, around Shankill Road, and if you come from the Republican area of Falls Road, then the impact is significant. You have the impression to be completely in another country, no matter if actually you are in the same city and just few km away.

British flags waves everywhere, from building and across roads...with more showiness (under my point of view) than the Irish ones in the area around Falls Road.

Hopewell Avenue, Belfast, 2015

The summer of the 1969 was the beginning of the Troubles, as consequences of tensions amongst Republicans and Unionists based mainly on inequalities in housing allocation and problems in voting systems.

Conflicts and attacks on homes saw the displacement of several Catholic and Protestant families. This mural remembers that period.

Remembering Glasgow - the Divis Tower

Divis Tower, Belfast, 2015

At the time I was in Belfast I decided to shoot this building as it remembered me the big tall buildings in the Glasgow area close to the University. Once I visited one, when I was looking for an apartment, and I remember that the feelings were not nice. These big housing towers are far from the skyscrapers that one can find in the rich financial districts.

These are mainly poor housing build probably with the aim to accommodate a lot of people at low cost.

And each of these building brings with them the sadness reflected in their style....well the Divis Tower is much better than the Glasgows's ones....

This one in Belfast - the Divis Tower - was built in 1966 as part of the now-demolished Divis Flats complex. The tower has 20 floors (oh my God, I remember taking the small lift in the tower of Glasgow and the floors never ended....and then you are up there, but no, no nice view, you are in this small flat and I really felt uncomfortable) and it is 61-metre tall.

The housing complex had 850 flats and was housing 2400 residents (well, and average of almost 3 people per flat...)....the name was given due to the nearby Divis Mountain.

Due to the IRA activity in the area, British Army constructed an observation post on the roof in the 1970s and occupied the top two floors of the building. During the Troubles, access to the post was possible only via helicopter. In that period, the tower was the location of conflicts between Republicans and Unionists.

When the IRA declared to end the armed campaign, the Army decided to dismantle the observation post. Now the post has been converted in residential properties.

Interesting video of the Divis Tower with interview of the architect Frank Robertson, some old photos and more info here.

The Peace Line #2

"We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society"
Angela Davis 

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"

Frederick Douglass 

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed" Steve Biko

  

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy" Abraham Lincoln

Northumberland Street, Belfast, 2015

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others" Nelson Mandela

  

 "The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave" James Connolly

  

 "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on other innocent brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Muhammad Ali

  

 "I HAVE A DREAM...black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!..." Martin Luther King

The Peace Line

There are still walls which divide people.

Walls built in name of a religion, or of a political state, or to avoid people entering those that we believe being our own territories....

I remember  the 9th of November 1989 so well: the day when it was decided to open the Berlin Wall. After few days I would have been 14: thinking to the past, I am surprise how much this event touched me...I still have the journal article of that day.

Belfast is still divided.

"Peace Lines" were begun to be built at the end of the 60's, when the beginning of the Troubles increased the tensions between Catholics and Protestants, respectively pro and against Northern Ireland independence. The aim was to decrease the violent attacks between the two parts.

In West of Belfast, the "Peace Line" separates the area of Falls Road, where the catholic Republicans mostly live, to the area of Shankill, where the Unionists of protestant religion live.

The walls have gates (sometime controlled by the police) which allow the passage from one to the other side. They are open during daylight but closed at night.

All the murals shown up to now here are Republican and located in the area of Falls Road. I arrived at the Peace line at 6:30 pm.: the gates to pass to the Shankill area were closed...I had to come back almost to the centre of Belfast to make a kind of "U" route for arriving to the other side....

Discussion on the removal of the "Peace Lines" began in 2008, but a study carried out in 2012 by the University of Ulster showed that the majority of the residents believe that the peace walls are still necessary because of potential violence. In May 2013, the Northern Ireland Executive committed to the removal of all peace lines by mutual consent by 2023 (read the news).

More about the "Peace Lines" in Wikipedia.

I HAVE A DREAM

Northumberland Street, Belfast, 2015

"...And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

          Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!..."

Martin Luther King - Washington, 28th of August 1963

Salvador Allende

Placed in a historic transition, I will pay for loyalty to the people with my life.  And I say to them that I am certain that the seeds which we have planted in the good conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled forever.  They have force and will be able to dominate us, but social processes can be arrested by neither crime nor force.  History is ours, and people make history.

Colocado en un tránsito histórico, pagaré con mi vida la lealtad al pueblo.  Y les digo que tengo la certeza de que la semilla que hemos entregado a la conciencia digna de miles y miles de chilenos, no podrá ser segada definitivamente.  Tienen la fuerza, podrán avasallarnos, pero no se detienen los procesos sociales ni con el crimen ni con la fuerza. 

La historia es nuestra y la hacen los pueblos.

Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile, 11 September 1973

(ref:http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2006/allende110906.html)

On the 11 of September 1973 the Chilean coup d'état took place during the Presidency of Salvador Allende. When the troops surrounded the presidential palace, Allende gave his last speech to the Chilean people with a phone call to a local radio station. Later that day, he killed himself, according to investigations conducted by a Chilean court with the assistance of international experts.

The speech is the inspiration of this mural. At the centre of the mural is the portrait of Allende, and behind him is the symbol of the Unidad Popular coalition with whose support he was elected in November 1970 President of Chile. He has been the first Marxist to be democratically elected as president of a South American country.

Northumberland Street, Belfast, 2015

Climate change affects everyone...but not equally

Today we leave for a while the Irish-British conflict and we treat another subject, that it is also very important and to which I am very attached...

Climate changes...

I believe (and I hope ;)) that I do not need to tell you what is the "climate change" ...but ...just a summary for the laziest ones! ;)

The cause of climate change is ...well is us...decades of industrial activities, burning fossil fuels to produce energy, smog, pollutant releases from cars, etc...resulted in an high increase of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Greenhouse gases act like a blanket around Earth, preventing the natural exchange of solar energy from and to the space. The energy is kept in the atmosphere and causing it to warm. Part of greenhouse gases are needed to ensure the temperature in the Earth needed for the life: however, an increase of them is increasing the temperature at levels which can be dangerous to humans being and to the entire ecosystem. (http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/)

The current global average temperature is 0.85ºC higher than it was in the late 19th century. Each of the past three decades has been warmer than any preceding decade since records began in 1850. "An increase of 2°C compared to the temperature in pre-industrial times is seen by scientists as the threshold beyond which there is a much higher risk that dangerous and possibly catastrophic changes in the global environment will occur". (http://ec.europa.eu/clima/change/causes/index_en.htm)

But which are the main consequences of climate changes?

• extreme weather conditions, resulting in floods, droughts, or intense rain, as well as more frequent and severe heat waves
• melting of ice caps with the consequence of sea rising, which then leads to flooding and erosion of costal and low-lying areas
• oceans are warming and becoming more acids.

It is expected these conditions to be worsen in the next future.

References: http://ec.europa.eu/clima/change/consequences/index_en.htm, http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/

All the World is affected, but many of the developing countries are the most affected.

Now, I have a problem of understanding the mural below. Either the artist made it wrong, or it is me who does not understand it. In the balance it seems that the developed world is the most affected part, when in reality it is not the case.



Northumberland Street, Belfast, 2015

Developing countries are amongst the most affected as they have few resources to cope with the changes in the climate. Most of them already suffer from water scarcity, and an increase of drought periods can seriously impact their health and sanitary conditions. On the other side, episodes of extreme flooding events, with often tragic consequences, are not rare.

"Climate change affects us all, but not equally.

Those who suffer first and worst are those who did least to cause it: the poor and most vulnerable members of society.  While they did not do much, they are effected much more severely than developed world. Of course, they do not have any means or resources to mitigate and adapt to this changing situation.

Around the world, I have seen how floods, droughts, rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms are causing terrible harm, and prompting families to migrate, often at great peril."

UN Secretary -General Ban Ki-moon's Remarks at Workshop on the Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Development "Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity" Vatican City, 28 April 2015.

It is up to each of us now to stop all of this. We due this to ourselves, to the populations that were not so lucky as us to born in developed countries (and that often have to face also political and religious conflicts), and to the future generations.

What we can do:

http://ec.europa.eu/clima/citizens/tips/index_en.htm

http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/