The good spirit of hope and expectation generated by the reestablishment of the Assembly and Executive in 2007 is slowly dying. Whether or not it survives is anybody’s guess.
The current state of affairs although bitterly disappointing is hardly surprising. The political process has received repeated blows in recent years, becoming weaker and weaker as time has passed. When it seems to be just about back on its feet again it receives yet another hard knock. Those on all sides who really care about saving the situation, must see to it that those who would kill it off with malice aforethought do not realise their vain ambition.
I am somewhat of an outsider, but it seems to me that if things continue as they are, Unionists will look more than ever to London, Nationalists and Republicans to Dublin, and as a consequence Northern Ireland will be more divided than it has been in a long time, which can do nothing for the island as a whole.
I think that Unionists and Nationalists should have enough self-respect not to be for ever looking to other governments to sort out local problems when they have it in their power to deal with them.
The people deserve better. In particular the younger generation must have something to to which to look forward. What future has any country if it’s youth is without hope?
Bible-believing Christians have a role to play, Christ crucified reconciles man to his Maker, which, according to Scripture is the foundation for lasting reconciliation between man and man. If Christians took this to heart it would kill off the destructive negativity which has poisoned the atmosphere and would bury it in a Sadducee’s grave.
3 Comments
That’s all fine and dandy except this region depends on one of those governments to fund it and keep it economically viable, the truth being that it cannot sustain itself. This state is a false entity, which is perhaps why it’s politics are akin to something you might read in a fairytale. The real political argument should still be about the settlers settling, not conquering.
I don’t accept that Northern Ireland (which is the name I use to describe the place I live and call home) is a failed entitity because it’s expenditure exceeds the revenue generated locally. The same is true for many other parts within the UK and in other countries. The same imbalance of expenditure over taxes would exist if if there was a United Ireland.
There are a lot of things that could be improved in Northern Ireland and it still surprises me when I come across people from other parts of the world who now live and work here in preference to where they were born, for example a young girl I met from northern Spain who asked me fro directions at Belfast International. She haexplained that there was no work for the young in her region and even a job here cleaning offices was better than staying at home.
The world including this corner of it since the rise of nation states and/or empires. People who live here are not necessarily either direct decendants of english/scottish planters/conquerers or oppossed natives. I do not regard myself as either.
I remember the sense of optism that I and friends of mine felt when the GFA was signed and it is very disheartening to see the state local politics is in now. I think we can make the place I call home a better place for everyone but it seems too many regard gains for anybody outside their own preceived community means they have lost something.
If so called bible believing Cristian’s exist at all they are so far wedded to other ideologies that they fail to see religion as anything more than an accessory to their chosen Nationality. Religion has become another stick in the hands of many inclined to attack their neighbours. I hope some of a religious faith can see the harm being done. The growing conception is religion is too often used as a cloak for accessing wealth, sexual favours, political power.
On the way to heal the political woes on this Island I believe we are destined to drift closer to out right conflict as the demographics change. I believe a failure to implement previously agreed policies in relation to an Irish Language Act will allow those on the republican side undermine Sinn Fein’s argument that it’s possible to have your Irish identity cherished during the transition phase. On the Unionist side a failure to properly prepare their people for any change process has allowed chaotic micro protest to mushroom and its made more difficult by a lack of discipline in which too many spokes persons have used disparaging remarks about those of my community.
The fact is the Nationalist community is becoming a larger percentage of the total population of the North of Ireland and that will require changes many of which the Unionist population will not like, up to and including a referendum on the boarder.
The two governments must ensure parties here are able to deal with the challenges ahead in a political mechanism of some sort as the lack of a political path will result in a rise of paramilitary influence over both communities and we all know there is only one outcome there. I don’t buy the argument there is no appetite for violence as I can agree with Christians that violence begets violence. In other words it is self perpetuating!
I sincerely hope I’m wrong as a grandfather of three I dread the legacy of hate we are passing to our youngest.