Journal Live - Journal Culture Central

There are so many myths about a multicultural society

2008-07-04T09:01:05Z

During the course of my work for the last thirty years I had to dispel many myths that floated around.

A large number of people truly believed those myths and as a result their attitude towards our multicultural society hardened.

I recall one occasion, we organized a meeting for young people from all communities. We had very useful session.

After the session we were having general discussion with some of the participants. A group of four young people started to make comments about the state of multicultural society.

They had heard about certain myths such as, "these people have taken over jobs," "they should go back to their country". I saw that one of the boys in their group was a young person from Afrocarribean background.

When I said that you want everyone from the BME communities to leave this country. What about that young man? I pointed at the young man of the Afrocaribbean background, all three said that they did not include him, he was our friend.

So that shows that people get carried away without really understanding the issues. As time passed, people began to acquire real understanding about our community.

We now agree that multicultural society is an asset and not a liability.

Police and youngsters can work together

2008-07-01T08:46:56Z

I recall another interesting event. In 1985 we decided to organise a weekend camp for young people and police officers.

We invited 8 police officers from the Northumbria Police and 8 officers from the Yorkshire Police Authority. They were all from Sheffield. We also invited 8 young people from the BME communities from Tyne & Wear as well as Sheffield. Both groups had included girls.

The venue was Derbyshire, Youth Camp. We arrived there in the late afternoon. After supper we brought everyone together and discussed the programme with them. We noticed that Police Officers from the Northumbria Police sat together, the BME group sat in another corner. The Sheffield groups separately. We didn't mind.

On Saturday after breakfast, we sat then off to four different activities which were canoeing, rock climbing, archery and full walking. Each group had to participate in all four activities.

At about 10 o'clock we went round to see how they were doing. We saw they were communicating with one another. In the afternoon they were all working as a team and helping one another. We saw the Asian girls who had never taken part in activities of those types were actively taking part. These girls tried rock climbing with the support of the other friends.

After supper we brought them together and saw that they had mixed up quite well.

On Sunday we set them off to take part in group activities. They came back and had lunch. After lunch we had the planning session. We invited comments from the participants.

One young woman police officer said that they were happy about the programme but she said she learnt something which was very important. She realised that young people are young people. They are all capable of reaching great heights provided they were given the opportunity. This weekend had been a great lesson for all of them. They went home making friends. Many of them maintained contacts with one another.

This stay highlights the fact that if a young person irrespective of his/her background or culture is given an opportunity to progress, he/she will definitely achieve success.

Trust between all communities is key

2008-06-27T11:00:11Z

From 1974 to 1994 I had established strong links with the European cities and had great opportunities of sharing ideas with one another.

I recall my visit to Meinheim. We were invited to share some of our experiences with the race workers there. We spent five days there.

Our programme included meeting key people in the city. One of our meetings was with the Mayor of the city. We have a very interesting discussion with him. He was very much interested in finding our how we work with faith communities.

I explained how we had established trust between all the faith communities. He said that there was going to be a council meeting that evening as they were going to decide whether permission should be given to the members of the Turkish community to build a mosque in the city.

He asked me to speak to the council members for about half an hour. I was delighted to accept his invitation. The mayor introduced me to the Council and asked me to speak.

I gave detailed information about our relationships with the Newcastle Mosque and how we all worked together at all times. After my talk members asked me few questions.

After that they continued they continued with their agenda. When the item about the Mosque came the Mayor said that there was so much to learn from the Newcastle experience.

The debate took place and at the end members voted. The decision to approve permission for the Mosque.

There were a large number of Turkish people sitting in the balcony. They came out and hugged us and thanked us for their support. They persisted me with the model of their mosque. I was very pleased that we were able to help them.

Small steps will get us there

2008-06-26T07:01:03Z

The initiative 'Newcastle City for Peace' will provide every member of the city with an opportunity of making useful contributions.

Sometimes people think in terms of big projects which are important. But every small step counts.

We need to create peace. It does not happen automatically. The process involves bridge building between individuals between organizations and between neighbourhoods.

In order to provide opportunity to people of faiths in the Chapel House area, we decided to organize Interfaith Service once a month.

We had the support of the wardens and with the help of the vicar, we held the first service and invited members from the main faiths to recite appropriate prayers from their respective scriptures.

After the service we had refreshments. We were very pleased with the response we had received.

We decided to repeat the service again. We had a reasonably good attendance. As time went on people became used to the service and began to enjoy the occasion.

In 6 months, people became very good friends and whenever they met in the street or at the shopping centre, they stopped and chatted with one another.

We have been organizing Interfaith service for about 4 years and everyone looked forward to meeting one another and learning about different traditions. This idea can be used in different parts of the city to create a service of one community.

Some hospitals didn't understand different cultures

2008-06-25T07:13:47Z

In the 70s people working in the health service had very little understanding about BME communities and their culture.

I recall an incident one morning I had received a telephone call from one of the hospitals asking for a meeting.

A meeting of senior staff was annoyed. One member said that she failed to understand why a large number of people from an Asian community visited hospital every time someone from their community was admitted to hospital.

I explained to them that it was their custom. It is expected of every member to visit their member in hospital at least once to give moral support to the patient.

They not only visit the patient but keep in touch with the family. When I explained the situation, they were all very pleased and agreed that it was a good tradition.

In order to help members of staff to understand cultural differences, we organized a number of training sessions which were held at a regular interval.

Today there is very good understanding about all the ethnic minority communities and their traditions and values.

We've helped set up playgroups

2008-06-24T08:08:18Z

People think about peace only when their basic needs are met and free from tension.

Soon after I took up my post as the Director of the Racial Equality Council, I discovered that one of the most areas that needed immediate action was in the area of pre-school education.

There were many playgroups as well as nursery classes available for children under the age of five. But a very few parents from the BME communities took advantage of the facilities that were available.

Many parents believed that education began at the age of five because compulsory education began at that age. These parents thought that there was no need to take action.

In order to help parents to understand that education began even before a child was born, our REC set up a playgroup and communities to send their children to our multiracial playgroup.

Our playgroup was one of the first multiracial playgroups in the city. Soon parents came to know about our playgroup and took advantage of the facilities.

The other playgroups and nursery schools established contacts with our playgroup and learnt a great deal about the needs of children from other cultures. We used our playgroup as a model playgroup and used our experience to train colleagues about different cultures.

We also helped in establishing a stronger link between social services and education departments in the city. Today most parents like full advantage of preschool facilities.

A simple idea has really helped us

2008-06-23T06:52:21Z

Some five years ago, I thought of an initiative which proved very successful.

That was to publish a supplement. I made an appointment with the Editor of the Journal.

We discussed a number of ideas and one of them was to publish a supplement entitled "Living Together".

The purpose was to highlight, through stories, contribution being made by individuals and organizations and thank them for making difference to the quality of the people in the region.

It was agreed that the supplement should consist of three sections, stories from individuals and organizations, messages from the prominent figures in the region and third section article from the sponsors.

The first issue was sponsored by a number of individuals and organizations. The supplement, first of its kind in the country, was a great success.

It was agreed to publish the supplement three times a year. We are able to thank a large number of individuals and organizations who are making positive contribution to the life of the community.

Often we take things for granted and forget to acknowledge people's contribution. Through the supplement we are able to demonstrate commitment the leadership has for the diversity in the region.

We are able to demonstrate very strong partnership we have developed with our leading regional paper the Journal and the Evening Chronicle which have played a very important role in developing a strong community in the region.

These are some of our initiatives which have encouraged us to declare Newcastle, City for Peace.

People can be misunderstood when they try to help

2008-06-18T11:50:34Z

I recall another incident which shows how a person's intentions can be misunderstood.

One morning many years ago, a member from the Asian Community rang me and said that he had received a letter from the council saying the residents in Fenham have complained that he kept his shop open till 10.00pm.

When I saw him, he explained that he kept his shop open to help his friends, the residents. He said that people didn't do bulk shopping late at night.

But if a person forgot to buy a bottle of milk or a loaf of bread, he or she knew his shop would be opened and he was pleased to serve people. He also said if the shop was closed and if anyone knocked at the door he would come downstairs and serve the person.

When people learnt that some people had made a complaint, some 200 people signed a petition saying that he was rendering service to the community and thanked him for his help.

The council was helping and the shop keeper continued to serve the neighbourhood.

From this incident we learn that even good intentions are often misunderstood. Therefore, good lines of communication are very essential in breaking down prejudices.

All these incidents taught us to understand our people. The result of all our work in the declaration Newcastle as City for Peace.

The Chronicle has been a great help

2008-06-17T09:31:31Z

One of my closest partners is the media. My partnership goes back to 1974.

One of the first things I did was to establish good working relationships with the media.

I requested a prominent friend of mine to introduce me to the editor of the Evening Chronicle. He spent one full hour with me and discussed ways of working today.

In those, a number of problems had arisen because of misunderstanding. Generalisation was the order of the day. We knew that media could play their part to dispel myths.

I suggested that if the editor could identify one of colleagues who I could keep in touch with and if ever I needed something to report, I could contact him.

Through this arrangement I was able to report about important issues on a regular basis. The other idea we had to organise seminars for the people who work for the media.

At those seminars everyone agreed that the reporters should report issues in a balanced manner. It was agreed to develop sensitivity in reporting incidents and stories.

We can see how very pleased we are with our colleagues. We have not had a simple occasion when we had to express our concern.

The editor and his colleagues take great care in reporting race. We enjoy this partnership which is quite unique in the country.

Marriages and integration

2008-06-14T12:38:39Z

At a time when the second Race Relations Act was being discussed in the Parliament, the Nation was also considering whether we should go for integration or assimilation.

It was a very important issue and ad the end majority of people went for integration.

As time went people realized that it was a good decision.

The term integration meant that people from different cultures retain their values but play their full part in the life of the community.

The assimilation means encourage mixed marriages. In those days there was little understanding about people's traditions.

Marriages are for life. In the Asian community marriage is not between two souls but between two families. Those who got married without understanding different cultures experienced a great deal of pressure and some marriages did not succeed.

As time went on, people started understanding about different values.

A number of young people these days are choosing a partner from another culture and a large number of marriages are happy and successful.

These days young people are choosing their partners after giving careful consideration. I believe it is the right thing to do.