Masquerader
Member
So. Here's a quick disclaimer that I couldn't fit in the title: This isn't a positive article.
Now that that's out of the way, allow me to be the first to say that yes, there has been improvement in this country over the past few years. I admit, I'm too young to know for sure, but it's definitely improved. We no longer have bombs going off everywhere, the army are no longer shooting random people, and everyone's less dead as a result.
That said, this doesn't stop it from being what is, in my opinion, the disgusting tumour of the UK. Indeed, all of Western Europe.
Here are some lovely articles as the many examples that I make my case with:
]Voted against gay marriage in 2014
NI's leader says homosexuals are 'abominations'
We've got lots of racism, too.
Here's some more accounts.
Sounds like a few isolated incidents? Not when the leader of the country is racist as well (the apology's a load of shit, for the record).
And now, a right to discriminate law is being proposed (thanks to 'Cakegate', no less).
So, why is this country the way it is? Well, mainly religion. Catholicism and Protestantism have hated each other for the past hundred years, and now they've been told to be nice to each other by the UK. So, why are they allowed to disobey basic human rights? It's starting to piss me off, because I can't seriously fathom why the issues have not been solved, nor why outside influence has been little to nonexistent. Is it right to allow this country to continue to dicriminate against anyone who isn't straight and white? Because sitting here in it as a second-class citizen forced to largely hide his sexuality, I'm starting to get the impression that it is.
Here's another thing: Peter Robinson is 63. 63. If David Cameron was 63, he'd have to be the best world leader ever to have existed to stay in. Yet amidst Robinson's age, homophobia, racism, squandering of money, ineptitude, hatred of other religions, and general all-round awfulness, how the HELL hasn't he been sacked? It's just baffling. In any other western country, he would be.
Anyone else in the UK tired of NI's general bullshit?
Now that that's out of the way, allow me to be the first to say that yes, there has been improvement in this country over the past few years. I admit, I'm too young to know for sure, but it's definitely improved. We no longer have bombs going off everywhere, the army are no longer shooting random people, and everyone's less dead as a result.
That said, this doesn't stop it from being what is, in my opinion, the disgusting tumour of the UK. Indeed, all of Western Europe.
Here are some lovely articles as the many examples that I make my case with:
]Voted against gay marriage in 2014
Particularly appalling was the behaviour of our Unionists. The Ulster Unionist Party permitted their members to a 'conscience vote' which served merely to decentralise accountability away from the party leadership. Unsurprisingly, of course, the Democratic Unionist Party were against the motion from the beginning. In one of their most repugnant moves yet, they tabled a petition of concern to ensure that they could veto the Assembly's decision. Petitions of concern were instituted by the Good Friday Agreement to ensure that communities could be protected through voting based on weighted majorities. The DUP subverted this consociationalist mechanism to their own prejudiced ends, serving to nullify the debate before it began. But then, I don't suppose we could've expected much more from the party whose members have sought to prevent gay men giving blood, suggested gay people be 'cured', conflated homosexuality and paedophilia, and who wished to 'Save Ulster from Sodomy' in 1976 by campaigning against the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
NI's leader says homosexuals are 'abominations'
The First Minister told the BBC Northern Ireland Hearts and Minds programme: It wasnt Iris Robinson who determined that homosexuality was an abomination, it was the Almighty.
This is the Scriptures and it is a strange world indeed where somebody on the one hand talks about equality, but wont allow Christians to have the equality, the right to speak, the right to express their views.
We've got lots of racism, too.
According to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), in the 12 months to June 2014 racist incidents rose by 36%, from 830 to 1,132. In the same period, racist crimes increased by 51%, from 525 to 796.
Most of the increase is concentrated within Belfast, where on average a racially motivated offence takes place at least once a day.
Here's some more accounts.
Her husband said the racist bullying of one son got so bad he had to take him out of a local Catholic secondary school. "I couldn't believe this was happening in a Catholic area where I wanted the family to settle. It was near to work, close to the city centre, not far from the university district and some good schools. But after all we have been put through we are seriously considering moving out to another part of Belfast," he said.
His wife said the children of the family behind most of the intimidation called her sons and daughter "monkeys" and told them to go back to Israel. "They bullied a single Polish mother and her children out of the same area and I know for a fact they are putting pressure on an African lady who lives in the same street. Yet the police up until very recently were not prepared to take action against these people," she said.
Rima stressed she had "many, many good friends" among the locally born population in the Lower Ormeau but believed neighbours were terrified of their tormentors. She added: "In a strange way I could cope with this better if it was happening in a loyalist, Protestant area. At least they are upfront and open about the way some of them in that community treat foreigners. In this area, among people of the same faith, it is more a case of being smiled at to your face and then stabbed in the back."
Sounds like a few isolated incidents? Not when the leader of the country is racist as well (the apology's a load of shit, for the record).
And now, a right to discriminate law is being proposed (thanks to 'Cakegate', no less).
So, why is this country the way it is? Well, mainly religion. Catholicism and Protestantism have hated each other for the past hundred years, and now they've been told to be nice to each other by the UK. So, why are they allowed to disobey basic human rights? It's starting to piss me off, because I can't seriously fathom why the issues have not been solved, nor why outside influence has been little to nonexistent. Is it right to allow this country to continue to dicriminate against anyone who isn't straight and white? Because sitting here in it as a second-class citizen forced to largely hide his sexuality, I'm starting to get the impression that it is.
Here's another thing: Peter Robinson is 63. 63. If David Cameron was 63, he'd have to be the best world leader ever to have existed to stay in. Yet amidst Robinson's age, homophobia, racism, squandering of money, ineptitude, hatred of other religions, and general all-round awfulness, how the HELL hasn't he been sacked? It's just baffling. In any other western country, he would be.
Anyone else in the UK tired of NI's general bullshit?