SPIEGEL ONLINE - September 13, 2005, 03:17 PM
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,374475,00.html
SPIEGEL's Daily Take
Belfast Burns
A toddler hit on the head by a rioter's rock has become a rallying cry to end Protestant riots in Belfast. Plus, martial arts legend Bruce Lee transforms into symbol for peace in Mostar and academics puzzle over the true meaning of David Beckham.
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AP Protestant rioters are wreaking as much damage as they can in Belfast. |
Less than six weeks ago, the IRA announced it was ending its armed struggle and the world cheered. Today, Northern Ireland is again aflame, torn by violent sectarianism. Amid all the gunfire and reports of violence, British and Irish newspapers have found a human face for the tragedy --22-month-old Caleb Finnegan, who needed 12 stitches after a brick hurled at his parents' car by angry Protestants hit his head. Caleb's parents are Protestants, but say they don't condone the fighting. The Mirror's, weekend headline over Caleb's bloodied and bandaged face reads, "The baby rioters tried to kill." The paper insists that "the heartbreaking picture of bruised and battered Caleb Finnegan should make every loyalist hang their head in shame."
Still, the fighting goes on. Monday marked the third night in a row that crowds of Protestants blocked streets in Belfast, rioted and let loose long-felt frustration over Northern Ireland's peace process. Close to a dozen police were injured in confrontations with rioters. Over the weekend, at least 50 other officers were wounded as protestors fought against riot police and British troops by shooting machine guns and launching grenades. It's the worst Protestant violence to occur in a decade. And it all came about over British authorities' decision to reroute a march planned for Saturday by Northern Ireland's 50,000-member Protestant brotherhood, the Orange Order, by 100 meters to keep marchers away from Catholic homes. When officers tried to stop marchers from what they claim is their annual path on Saturday, violence erupted.
"This is a moment of choice for everybody," Peter Hain, Britain's Northern Ireland secretary said in Belfast Monday afternoon. "Whose side are you on? Are you on the side of law and order, applied fairly and equally to every citizen? Or are you against law and order, siding with those firing bullets at the police, throwing petrol bombs and blast bombs at police and attacking them?" Both Hain and police commander Hugh Orde say they believe the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defense Association were behind the most brutal attacks. Police are even speculating that the two groups -- both of which are supposed to be obeying cease-fires in support of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord -- used the march as a pretext to create mayhem. Hain said he would issue a policy statement within the next few days, adding to widespread expectations he may revoke Britain's recognition of the UVF-UDA cease-fire of 1994. The truce has been repeatedly broken over the past decade, but rarely so brazenly as now.
Among Orangemen, there seems to be some disagreement about how to proceed now that the rioting has gotten so out of hand. On the one hand, Orange Order Grand Master Robert Saulters has asked loyalists to end the violence, saying "It's time to stop because it's only our own people who are suffering." But, in Monday's Irish News, the headline blares, "I don't condemn anything" -- a direct quote from Belfast's leading Orangeman, Dawson Bailie. On its editorial pages, which unfortunately are subscription only, the paper calls Bailie's "point-blank refusal" to criticize the rioters and armed mob "chilling." Meanwhile, the Belfast Telegraph offers up the most inciteful commentary of the day, describing how the conflict did not just come from nowhere, but is the result of long-term tension and inadequate policing.
"Belfast is a city, after all, where the police cordon off streets and thoroughfares and re-direct traffic so rival hordes of youths can busy themselves throwing stones at each other until they get tired or are called in for their tea," the paper writes. Anywhere else, the mobs would be broken up. But not in Belfast, where policing is so "sensitive". Sensitive to everybody, that is, except the public who want to live their lives and go about their business.
Indeed, for years, it has been something of joke among the public and press just how untouchable the loyalist bosses seem to be. Nicknames such as "the Egyptian" and "Doris Day" have passed into common usage, as these glorified thugs take on something of the status of urban myths. These characters occasionally get arrested, then are released. We are told how difficult it is to pin charges on these glamorous Scarlet Pimpernels of Belfast.
There is a theory -- it may not be true, but it is persuasive -- that the authorities are quite content to stand by and watch rival gangs execute each others' members. What is certainly true is that those gangs themselves seized on the opportunity of the Whiterock re-routing to cast themselves as the Defenders of the Protestant People of Ulster.
...The fact is, though, that the inability (or unwillingness) of the PSNI to do what was necessary to stamp these groups out much earlier, and start arresting the people who have been engaging in internecine murder over the last months -- as well as the sectarian murders they have been linked with -- has now come home to roost. Once you allow the UVF and the LVF and the UDA to attempt to control each other by use of arms and intimidation and firebombs, you are paving the way to the kind of explosion which occurred at Whiterock, and has continued since then.
(2:35 p.m. CET)
New Honor for Bruce Lee
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AFP "The Dragon" may soon be a peacemaker. |
Kung-Fu movie star Bruce Lee has been called many things: "the Dragon," world's greatest martial artist, China's most lethal hero. But a symbol for peace? The ethnically divided Bosnian city of Mostar has had trouble agreeing on one symbol that unites its diverse population, but recently settled on a statue of Lee, who is beloved by Muslims, Serbs and Croats alike. A group of fans came up with the idea in 2003, on the 30th anniversary of Lee's mysterious death at the age of 32 from swelling of the brain and now the idea will soon be realized. "We plan to erect the statue in November in the center of the city," Veselin Gatalo, a member of the Urban Movement organization, told Reuters. "This will be a monument to universal justice that Mostar needs more than any other city I know."
From 1993-1994, Mostar was a scene of intense fighting between Muslims and Croats and the still-war scarred city badly needs a symbol of justice and honesty to help it heal. More than any other politician or religious leader, the sinewy Chinese-American star of such flicks as "Enter the Dragon" and "Fists of Fury" apparently fits the bill. Mostar has been slower than other Bosnian cities to heal and only last year, the city's Old Bridge was finally reconstructed, reuniting Muslim and Croat communities separated by the river. The bronze statue will cost €5,000, will be designed by a local sculptor and will show Lee in a typical fighting pose, complete, hopefully, with those famous washboard abs. It will occupy a place of honor in central Mostar. (12:15 p.m. CET)
The "Meaning" of David Beckham
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DPA A 21st century Christ or a pointless personality? |
Academics are famous for coming up with esoteric and arcane topics of little interest to a mass public and which, in all honesty, serve no practical purpose. Which is why the news out of Paisley University in Scotland is so refreshing. For once, academics from around the world are meeting to discuss a topic of great importance to everyone: the meaning of David Beckham.
That's right, university lecturers have been gathering since Monday for a three-day conference to discuss -- among other celebrity-laced subjects -- the symbolism of the tattoo-covered British soccer legend. The Becks-a-thon is part of the first-ever global conference on "Celebrity Culture" and looks at the roles of celebrities in contemporary life.
In his paper, University of Paisley sociologist Carlton Brick will hail the 30-year-old Becks as a modern Christ. (What, in God's name, does that make Posh?) Meanwhile, Mick Jardine from the School of Cultural Studies in Winchester, will dub Becks a 21st century King Arthur who represents the dominant male heroic idea. Brick has titled his paper, "Father, why hast thou forsaken me? Post-modernism, desire and dissatisfaction: A case study of David Beckham's meaning" and insists Beck's life is chock full of Christian symbolism. "Redemption, resurrection, and salvation are the narratives that tell his story," he will tell his colleagues. Becks and his wife, Victoria, aka Posh Spice, even named their third son Cruz, Spanish for cross.
Other steamy topics at the conference will include the impact of reality TV and shows like "I'm a Celebrity Get me Out of Here" and "Celebrity Love Island" as well as the relationship between celebrities and politics.
Even if it may be a welcome loosening up in the ivory towers of academia, one has to wonder about their choice of celebrities to focus on. British viewer's of Channel 4's "the Death of Celebrity," this week just voted Posh as the nation's most pointless celebrity. Her husband came in a close second. (11 a.m. CET)
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