Human Rights

Our first correspondent today is Bethie Stein:

“Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.”
~Robert Ingersoll

Greetings! Today was a great and insightful day. This morning we were able to sleep in because we had a later start on the day. We walked down the street to Saint Bridget’s Church where we had another unusual mass. This time the liturgy itself was not bad at all, what was odd to us was the fact that there was no music. The mass was lacking some liveliness but other than that it was well done.

After the mass, we were given free time because our activities for the day were not going to start until 1 o’clock. Emma, Morgan, Eileen, Bill, Brian, and I headed over to a local café, Maggie May’s, for breakfast. Although an unusual mixture, we all ordered milk shakes along with French toast. It was delicious! We then rushed back to our Queen’s campus because we thought we were going to be late. Fortunately for us, our activities for the day were pushed back another hour. After the hour passed on we jumped in the cabs and headed over to a Human Rights Workshop at the Castlereagh Community Group.

When arriving to their local Recreational Center, we walked into their auditorium to find chairs formed in a circle. There were about a handful of youth from their community, and then the 16 of us. At first I thought this would not be a successful workshop due to the fact that there were so little of them there. In actuality it turned out that their representatives were extremely vocal and active in the activities. We started off by playing an icebreaker. The woman in charge of the workshop gave us all nametags and told us to write the name of someone famous on them. We then were told to put the nametag on the back of someone in the group to which they had to try to guess who was on their back by asking questions. After that icebreaker we played a game where every letter of the alphabet was placed on the ground. When a question was asked, we all had to stand by the letter that was the first letter of your answer. Questions included our favorite color, food, etc, all of which showed the separation between us and the youth from Northern Ireland. Then we were all asked what was most important to us in our lives. It was incredible to see that nearly two thirds of us went to the letter “F” for family (with a few stragglers for FIFA). Regardless, it was really cool to see that we all have a common ground.

Once we finished with the icebreakers, we all sat in our circle and named off our human rights. The right of food, shelter, love, and freedom were all examples of what our group brainstormed. After naming off those rights and discussing them, it became clear to all of us that no matter our social class, religion, or race, we all deserve these basic rights. The quote above exemplifies these realizations. Our social class or religion does not make us better than others by any means. We were all created equal which means we should all have the same basic rights as those people around us. After discussing our rights, we were split up by nationalities. The people from NI were asked to name five issues of teenagers in the United States, and vice versa for us. Our group came up with education, safety, political representation, employment, and sectarianism. The people of NI nodded to our answers in agreement and said we were spot on, but when it came time for their turn we quickly realized that although they had valid problems for people in the United States, they were not problems for any of us.

After that activity, we broke up into smaller groups consisting of two people from Northern Ireland and four Americans per group. Bill, Brian, and Emma were in my group along with two teenagers from NI. We were asked to pick a problem in society and make up a plan to solve it. Our group picked the topic of education. In Northern Ireland their schooling is broken up into four districts rather than one like in the states. This causes families to pay more in taxes and the government to spend more money. The four districts include Catholic, Controlled (Protestant), integrated, and Irish language. The students within these schools are required to a take test at the age of eleven (The 11+ Test) which determines the quality of schooling they will receive in the future. Those who pass the testing go onto Grammar School and ultimately University, while those who fail go to a much lower level of schooling. The test has been an issue in Northern Ireland because many say the age of eleven is too young to determine the rest of these children’s lives. Because of the separation of school districts and the 11+ Test, our group decided those two issues would be the way we would solve the issue of education. When we were trying to figure out how to solve them, we asked one of the teenagers from NI about the difference between the Grammar schools and the schools those who fail attend. She replied that she knew nothing about Grammar schools because she failed the 11+ Test. At the moment in time, the situation in NI became very real to me. I realized how easy I have it and that I should appreciate the opportunities and education that I am continuously receiving. Today was a real eye opener.

Our second correspondent today is Kevin Gibbons:

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
~ Viktor Frankl

The workshop was a great way for Americans and loyalists to interact with each other and get to know each other better. We played an ice breaker game in which we stood on letters of our favorite food, or what meant most to us in our lives, etc. This was a great way to get the two sides integrated and talking to each other. After the ice breakers we sat back down in a big circle and discussed some of the bigger issues that surround Irish history.

The first activity was for the Americans to pick out 5 big aspects to the problem in Northern Ireland. It was really exciting to see the locals in the group nodding their heads and saying “Spot On” as we presented what we thought the big points were, because it showed that our immersion had given us a very real look into the conflict. A number of our teachers would later express their pride in how insightful our answers had been.

After this activity, we were again broken into small groups and asked to pick one of these issues and come up with a “game plan” for solving it. Most of the groups, with the help of some of the staff of the workshop, came up with reasonable plans of action. But the more interesting thing to see was how the group with two locals, Sammy, and Gareth, had structured it. They had fielded questions from the Americans on the issue, and had advised whether certain strategies would work. From this, the entire group gained further insight into the problems they faced.

Following the workshop we were taken to a Protestant bonfire. The locals building the fire said it was a short one, but it was twenty feet high. We were not allowed to climb up to the top of the fire pit because it was leaning and the teachers did not want us to get hurt. Tomorrow we are going back to the same place for a food festival. It was interesting to see just how little sense of history the people making the bonfire had, especially coming from our background. Having studied the bonfires from an academic point of view Dr. Gordon Gillespie, we always had an underlying sense of meaning. However, the people constructing it didn’t really seem to think of it as much more than a bonfire for the 12th. This was an interesting thing, and it made us more excited to see how they would act at the bonfire itself. Plus, the promise of lots of different food is pretty exciting for all of us. Afterward we returned to Elms, had reflection, and went to bed for a good nights sleep in preparation for the fun on the 11th.