Daily Archives: June 17, 2009

Roma gypsies flee racist attacks in Belfast – but the underlying problem goes further

Posted by Wendy on June 17, 2009 27 comments

Once again the people of Northern Ireland have woken to a day of news that draws unfavourable attention to the country, this time highlighting the ugly issue of racism. Having lived here for six years I can honestly say that the people of Northern Ireland are the friendliest and most welcoming that I have met anywhere and what has happened over the past week does not represent the way these people are in general.

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A community of 100 Roma gypsies in South Belfast – they are not Romanians per say as the media have described them – have been enduring a week of racist abuse at the hands of a bunch of ignorant thugs. This past 24 hours the abuse turned into attacks – the Roma’s were driven from their homes and taken to a local sporting complex for safety.  Some of them are now considering leaving Northern Ireland and returning to Romania – personally I think they will head no further than mainland England – but I can’t really blame them. Small babies have been threatened, pregnant women have had bricks thrown at them…scum behaviour.

Right across the board these disgusting attacks have been condemned by the people here as the population are genuinely shocked. But at the same time you won’t go far here to find a person who has not looked at the Roma community with a fond eye. You also won’t go far, especially in Belfast, to find a street or location that does not have Roma women begging passersby for money. This tradition of theirs, and it is a tradition, has not made the Roma’s overly popular with the locals.

They are prolific in their activity; they stand beside you at ATM’s, approach you in carparks, outside shops, restaurants, nightclubs – one hand held out to you and the other clutching a mobile phone.  To be perfectly straight the people here do not like it or accept it. To see these women standing outside nightclubs in the small hours with very young children begging or trying to sell you a wilted flower is quite an affront to a society not accustomed to street begging.

The people of Northern Ireland lived through great austerity during and after the war, through the sixties and seventies – they knew very hard times and if you could not buy food you grew it…and you only ate what you could grow. I am told however that to go out begging, no matter how needy you were, was simply unthinkable. The people in those times were too proud to do so - and now to be constantly approached by these newcomers who boldy ask for money at every turn…?

This nation is still evolving and for a country that had little to no immigration for so long - until recently - it is a very tolerant society. While nobody condones those attacks on those people it would help the Roma’s case alot more if they understood that what they do on the streets of Belfast is not an example of ‘good integration’. If the Govt is going to allow unchecked immigration here surely it is good policy to ensure that these people are given a better understanding of the local culture – and that they are more than welcomed to share the best of theirs.

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

Why can scientists not find the ‘wrinkle gene’…?

Posted by Wendy on June 17, 2009 No comments

wrinklesI am sure that such a thing exists in human biology – most of us are prone to wrinkle at some later stage in our lives, but why is that some women (and men) have baby smooth faces sometimes into their nineties…?

Look at my little friend to the left; he is a shar-pei dog and has more wrinkles than Princess Diana’s wedding dress (wasn’t that a shock when she got out of that gilded carriage…?) That breed of dog have a particular gene that makes them like that and the more wrinkles apparently the better the pedigree – thank god such criteria do not apply to us humans.

It works the other way for people of course, especially for us women. If I had a daughter I would go out of my way to ensure she stayed out of the sun for as many years as possible – that is the only way to keep your skin relatively wrinkle free. Here in Northern Ireland I see ladies in their eighties and nineties with complexions as smooth as that of a babies due wholly to the fact that they have never lived in a hot climate and protected their skins from the harsh cold.

Take my friend for example - I will call her ‘Patsy’ in case she ever googles me and reads this – and how our skins differ. We both grew up living on the northern beaches area of Sydney and spent a great chunk of our teenage years at Freshwater and South Steyne beaches. I am fair with blue eyes, she was redhaired with blue eyes – I went brown as a berry in summer while she burnt raw and peeled. Today, quite some years later (but not that many), my skin is wrinkle free while she had developed deep creases in her face in her early twenties. I stopped sunbaking at eighteen, she continues to this day.

It makes a huge difference does the sun. We girls do all this damage and then freak out when the consequences start appearing; no wonder the wrinkle cream industry is flourishing. I buy a basic moisturiser and it does the job but do those expensive formulas justify their prices…? no they don’t as a rule. It is difficult to get honest testimonials but if you are looking for the best wrinkle cream the link will take you to a review site where you actually do get products that are criticised for not offering value for money. I laugh at the appearance there of ‘Athena – 7 minute facelift’  because I wrote about that product over a year ago as it was widely hyped and also widely panned by those who bought it.

Guess what…it is panned on that site too. Told you it was honest.

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.