Tag: Belfast

  • UK: ‘Don’t dress like Kim Kardashian’ says Queen’s University Belfast

    UK: ‘Don’t dress like Kim Kardashian’ says Queen’s University Belfast

    Queen’s University in Belfast has been given a dressing down for advising women not to style themselves like Kim Kardashian West at graduations.

    According to BBC an article on its website said women should “think Grace Kelly, not Kim Kardashian”.

    It also said “short skirts and cleavage” are “out of the question”.

    An email to Queen’s, reported by the Belfast Telegraph, said the advice was “like something that would be handed down in a convent”.

    It said: “Are we not a bit more mature than making cleavage out to be ‘bad’ or even ‘sacrosanct’? I feel massively condescended to and genuinely offended to be offered this advice.”

    The article, which offered advice to both men and women, is not currently on the Queen’s website.

    The university has said it is a “dynamic web page which is constantly updated” and that the site “includes news, tips, and information for graduation students”.

    Queen’s does not have a compulsory dress code for graduations.

    Kardashian West, who is married to rapper Kanye West, became a household name following reality TV series Keeping Up With The Kardashians and has also previously been a model.

    The style advice was written by Queen’s graduate Thom Dickerson, who runs a private tailoring company.

    The article begins with advice to men and said that they should stick to “leather and dark shades” when it comes to shoes.

    It added: “A tie should be worn, not bow tie. If you have represented the university at sport and received a club tie for hockey or rugby, I would recommend you wear this. Stick to a Windsor, four in one hand or Trinity knot.”

    The article goes on to state that the “biggest mistake I see at graduation is girls treating the event like a night out”.

    “A graduation is a formal event and the dress code should match this.

    “Short skirts and cleavage on show are totally out of the question.

    “Think Grace Kelly, not Kim Kardashian, at least until the day is done: you can always change before heading out.”

    The Belfast Telegraph reported that an email sent from a postgraduate student said the advice “gives legitimacy to the stereotype that university education is for the middle classes”.

    “As a woman, however, the part I find utterly deplorable is the way in which it advises how to dress.

    “Being told what to wear, being judged for our attire and being told certain attire says certain things about you as a woman is still a daily occurrence.”

    The email added: “Looking to the comparisons the university has made here, it’s pretty degrading.

    “The reserved, conservative Grace Kelly is the example of ‘good’ while the ‘louder’ more ‘risque’ Kim Kardashian is ‘bad’?

    “Isn’t that the same old, same old we’ve been trying to rally against for years now?”

  • Car Bomb Left Outside Belfast Police HQ

    Car Bomb Left Outside Belfast Police HQ

    A car bomb has been left outside the Policing Board headquarters in Belfast, though it has done no serious damage.

    Police HQ

    The 400lb car bomb partially exploded and the back of the vehicle caught fire, with two men seen escaping.

    Chief Constable Matt Baggott said: “It does appear to be a device that has partially exploded, around 400lb.

    “It is a reckless act not just in doing damage but also the potential loss of life.”

    A car was found burned out nearby in the staunchly Republican New Lodge area of the city and police are investigating whether there was any link.

    Mr Baggott added: “This attack is an attack on the well-being of everybody in Northern Ireland, this is not about an attack on policing or the Policing Board, this is an attack on young people and young people’s future.”

    Meanwhile, four people have been arrested after police exchanged gunfire with suspected dissident Republicans in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.

    The incident took place close to the border with the Irish Republic in Garrison. It is understood that the incident was an attempt to kill a police officer who lives in the village.

    Mr Baggott said that officers fired two warning shots, which are being investigated by Police Ombudsman Alan Hutchinson.

    He added that his officers had been fired at during the exchange.

    Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Goggins said: “When attacks like these happen it brings people together with the strong message that these dissidents will not succeed.

    “Policing will continue in Northern Ireland and progress will continue.”

    The Policing Board is made up of independent members of the community and politicians who hold police to account through regular public meetings.

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  • UK, Racism; From the streets to the courts

    UK, Racism; From the streets to the courts

    a6A mini-pogrom in Ulster has shocked Britain. But a legal battle with the far right is brewing on the mainland.

    RACIST bogeymen leered out of newspaper pages in both Britain and Northern Ireland this week. On the mainland, the far-right British National Party (BNP), which won its first two seats in the European Parliament earlier this month, was given an ultimatum by Britain’s equality watchdog to step in line with non-discrimination laws or face legal action. Separately, white thugs in Ulster hounded more than a hundred Romanian immigrants—mainly Roma gypsies—out of their homes and, in most cases it now seems, away from the province altogether.

    The attacks in south Belfast were of the sort that Northern Ireland hoped had died with the Troubles. Over several nights crowds stoned the homes of immigrant families, smashing windows and posting extracts of Mein Kampf through letterboxes. Tension between locals and east European immigrants had simmered since football hooligans clashed at a match between Poland and Northern Ireland in March. When the intimidation reached a peak on June 16th, the Romanians were moved to a church hall and then to a leisure centre. On June 23rd Northern Ireland’s government announced that most had decided to return to Romania.

    Northern Ireland elected no far-right politicians to the European Parliament in the polling on June 4th. Nonetheless, many in Britain reckon that their neighbours over the water are a more prejudiced bunch than they are themselves. Socially, Ulster leans to the right: civil partnerships, greeted with a shrug by most British Tories, attracted protests in Belfast when they were introduced in 2005; abortion is also more restricted than on the mainland.

    It may be that these conservative attitudes extend to scepticism about outsiders. A survey published on June 24th by Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission, a statutory watchdog, found that nearly a quarter of the population would be unhappy if a migrant worker moved in next-door. People were even more hostile to Irish travellers, sometimes called gypsies (and often confused with Roma). Just over half said they would mind having travellers living next to them.

    Comparing these results with the rest of Britain is hard because surveys produce different answers according to how a question is worded. Across the United Kingdom, less than a tenth of whites say they would mind having a black or Asian boss (though nearly a third admit to being at least “a little” racially prejudiced). But the trends on the mainland and in Ulster are in sharp contrast. British hang-ups about minorities have fallen pretty steadily over the past 20 years, according to the British Social Attitudes Survey, a big questionnaire. By contrast, Northern Irish dislike of travellers is up by a quarter from 2005.

    Yet sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland are relatively low. Only 6% now say they would mind having a neighbour of a different faith. One theory goes that the fizzling out of the old disputes has helped to stoke other ones. “The attitudes that facilitate sectarianism may find new outlets in new times,” suggested Bob Collins, the head of the commission. Immigrants are not the only victims: anti-gay sentiment, falling across Britain, has gone up by more than half in Northern Ireland since 2005.

    Glass houses

    The election of a man with a conviction for inciting race hatred to represent northern England in the European Parliament spoils any pretty notion that all is well on the mainland. But the selection of Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, and his colleague Andrew Brons, a former National Front chairman, has provoked a legal challenge from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), a mega-watchdog.

    The EHRC wrote to Mr Griffin on June 23rd that it believed the BNP fell foul of the law in its race-based membership policy, its hiring (which appears to be restricted to party members) and what the EHRC interpreted as hints that the party would not provide an equal service to constituents of all races. Unless the BNP changes its ways by July 20th, the watchdog will seek a court order to force it to; if the party held that in contempt it could face fines, imprisonment—and publicity.

    Why pounce now? First, the EHRC was born only in 2007. Its predecessor, the Commission for Racial Equality, lacked the power to pursue this sort of independent legal challenge. Second, the law has been clarified: the law lords ruled in November 2007 that certain functions of political parties are indeed subject to the Race Relations Act of 1976, which had been in doubt.

    Most obviously, the action was triggered by the electoral success of the BNP which, coupled with talk in Westminster about voting reform likely to benefit small parties, has made it harder to dismiss as a sideshow. Others have moved against the BNP since the election: the Royal British Legion, a veterans’ group, publicly called on Mr Griffin to stop wearing its poppy emblem; the government is pondering banning BNP members from teaching, just as they are already banned from the police and prison services. A forthcoming bill on equal opportunities is expected to include a clause explicitly to stop the BNP and its ilk from insisting on race-based membership.

    If the EHRC’s complaint goes to court, it will not be the first time a case against a political party has tested race-relations laws. The 1976 act followed a House of Lords ruling in 1973 upholding the right of East Ham South Conservative Club to ban a Sikh because of his race. And the 2007 Lords’ ruling that has clarified the grounds for the EHRC’s current case was over a complaint by a Pakistani man—upheld by their lordships—against the Labour Party.

    Economist

  • Racist Terror Targets Romanian Migrants again second day in a row

    Racist Terror Targets Romanian Migrants again second day in a row

    a1Police are investigating an attack on the home of another Romanian family in Belfast.

    It follows the attacks by racists on around 20 families in the city, which forced more than 100 Romanians out of their homes.

    A spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said nobody was injured in the latest incident, which happened in the east of the city at around 11pm.

    “There was an incident last night of criminal damage to a property which is being investigated as a hate crime,” he said, adding that a window was smashed in the attack.

    Northern Ireland Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie said: “Very sadly we have seen another attack on a Romanian family in east Belfast last night.

    “All of this raises very fundamental questions about the type of society we want to develop and create in Northern Ireland some 15 years after the ceasefire.”

    She continued: “Northern Ireland is still deeply divided, deeply segregated. People in urban areas here in Belfast live in divided communities.

    “There is an urgent need for all government departments across the spectrum to develop a shared future that is an integrated society. The process of reconciliation and healing must start. And we must become a welcoming community.”

    Romania’s consul general is to hold high-level meetings in Northern Ireland over the attacks.

    Dr Mihai Delcea intervened when his countrymen fled to emergency accommodation in Belfast.

    A church hall and leisure centre were used to provide temporary refuge for those left homeless, while donated food and blankets poured in from members of the community.

    It is understood accommodation in the south Belfast area is being made available for one week.

    Dr Delcea will meet Ms Ritchie at the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.

    Police have said they do not believe paramilitaries were involved in orchestrating the attacks that were condemned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and local politicians.

    ITN

  • Racist Terror Targets Romanian migrants

    Racist Terror Targets Romanian migrants

    More than 100 Romanians have been forced out of their homes in Belfast by racists.

    Around 20 families were helped by police in the Lisburn Road area of the city and taken to a nearby church hall. They have since moved to a leisure centre that has been set up as a temporary shelter.

    Police, community representatives, politicians and officials from a range of statutory agencies are to attend an emergency meeting in the city to see what can be done for the families.

    The meeting at the Chinese Resource Centre on the city’s Ormeau Road will discuss an action plan aimed at making the families feel safe to stay.

    But many of the families have now vowed to leave Northern Ireland for good.

    Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined condemnation of the attacks and said: “I hope the authorities are able to take all the action necessary to protect them.”

    Police and community leaders had earlier condemned racism in the area which culminated in an attack on a rally in support of the east European migrants.

    Youths hurled bottles and made Nazi salutes at those taking part in the anti-racism rally.

    The men, women and children, including a five-day-old baby girl, first sought shelter in a house where they thought they would be safe.

    But the house was not big enough and a local church offered them the use of the church hall for as long as they need.

    Pastor Malcolm Morgan said the church was happy to help. “It is a sad indictment of our society, but hopefully we can show them a different side to Northern Ireland and a caring side to Northern Ireland,” he said.

    A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokeswoman said: “Police in the south Belfast area assisted several organisations in the temporary relocation of a number of families following consultation with community representatives.

    “Families moved to a near-by church and they are being cared for by the appropriate agencies.”

    Belfast Lord Mayor Naomi Long urged the south Belfast community to rally round their neighbours following the spate of racist attacks.

    One of the Romanians, a mother of two who is now sheltering at the Ozone centre, said the targeted families were still petrified.

    The woman said everyone was now adamant that they wanted to return to Romania.

    She said attacks had been intensifying over the last two weeks but culminated in the racist thugs breaking into her house and threatening her and her children.

    “We are OK, we are safe here now,” she said in the leisure centre.

    “But we want to go home because right now we are not safe here in Northern Ireland. We want to go back home to Romania, everybody right now does.”

    She said she wanted to leave Northern Ireland as soon as possible.

    “I want to go home because I have here two kids and I want my kids to be safe.”

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    ITN