The Obama Effect

“I must admit that even the attitude (of) immigration officers at the airports has changed … not every black person is a desperate coming to the West for greener pastures.”

So says Deo Ladislas Ndakengerwa, the Policy and Campaigns Officer for the Irish Refugee Council, when asked about the effect of having a US President-elect of colour. “He is the most living and REAL inspiration to each of others especially to the next generation.”

This sentiment is being echoed back and forth and around the globe as arguably the most important election since the founding of the United States concludes. But the question has to be asked: Will this have a lasting motivational effect on the involvement of ethnic minorities in public life or is it simply a flash in the pan?

Here in Ireland, we are no strangers to controversial campaigns, having elected the first female president in Europe in 1990 with the inauguration of Mary Robinson and breaking yet more new ground when Mary McAleese was elected as the “first woman president having succeeded another one … in history”.

The effect that having female presidents has had on Mná na hEireann is debatable. When Robinson first came to the Áras, it was during a time of general female emancipation in Ireland and there was a growing trend already for greater political awareness and activity among Irish women. The National Women’s Council of Ireland had been in existence for nearly two decades, the Good Friday Agreement was proving pivotal in cross-border cooperation between women’s groups and there had been a surge in the number of female candidates standing for election to the Dáil from 8.5% of the total of those running in 1982 to 13.9% in 1987. So perhaps the time was ripe for a lady president. Added to this general ground-swell of female activism, ill-timed misogynistic comments by a government T.D. only added fuel to the fire and assured her of a sweeping victory.

During his election, the situation Obama faced States-side was not that dissimilar to Robinson’s election. On the one hand, Obama as a candidate of minority representation generated hot support from the black population. On the other, being put under direct threat by the Klan presented a powerful incentive to the populace to protect and support the (apparent) underdog.

But was the ground-work already laid for a coloured US president just like the path was cleared for a female president here? The growing body of Americans of colour attaining precedence in their fields of endeavour and making their mark on history, from musicians Sammy Davis Junior and Snoop Dogg to sportsmen Jesse Owens and Arthur Ashe, from Bond-girls Rosie Carver and Halle Berry to scientists Benjamin Banneker and Marjory Joyner, might say, yes, the foundations had been dug from aeons past. A coloured president was perhaps not so far out after all. Also, with the rise of Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice to preeminent positions in the US administration, it is perhaps less and less surprising that a man of colour should be about to sit in the Oval Office. After all, standing on the shoulders of giants is a time-honoured way to reach the top and glass ceilings have been cracking in this manner though the generations.

According to Dr Maryann Valiulis, Director of the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies in Trinity, when Mary Robinson came to the Áras, she made a point of visiting and encouraging women’s groups and community groups, started up women’s studies courses and was very supportive of women’s issues in general. On one occasion, she invited the entire editorial staff from the Irish Journal of Feminist Studies to the Áras for lunch, which was a move guaranteed to impress watchers both national and international and it was one which gave women’s and community groups in Ireland a legitimacy heretofore largely unknown. However, as Dr Valiulis points out, in practical and real measures the representation of women in public life has remained to a greater or lesser extent static, stagnating in or around 13%. It may therefore be argued that a female presidency did not have a revolutionary effect on the motivation of women to partake in public life and was instead simply a welcome bright spot on a longer journey. But was it a necessary shot-in-the-arm to the women’s movement here in Ireland? Would the drive have faltered without President Robinson’s feminist priorities and does President-elect Obama have the same focus on colour-issues in US?

Unlike Robinson who wore her gender like a badge, stating in her inaugural address “As a woman, I want the women who have felt themselves outside history to be written back into history”, Obama only owned the issue of his colour towards the end of the race, acknowledging it almost grudgingly, almost reneging on his early commitments to not play the race card during the election. While Mary Robinson wanted to be elected as a Woman, Barack Obama did not want to be elected as a Black Man, but simply as an American. While understandable, this may prove crucial to those who wish to use him as a mascot for change.

A number of questions need to be answered. Will Obama’s personal ambition be translatable into a desire and impetus for representation beyond Obama and his immediate supporters? In other words, will his mere existence be powerful enough as a mascot or will he need to be an active and driving force behind the ethnic minorities’ movements to see lasting change in our governments worldwide? And will the euphoria being witnessed by ethnic minorities in general and black communities in particular translate into real changes in public representation? All this remains to be seen.

Perhaps Mr Ndakengerwa sums it up best. “After the election of the most intelligent and smart black living (sic) at the moment, it feels like impossible is nothing. But it also has demonstrated that nothing comes easily- you need to earn it.”


References:
Websites:
http://www.terra.es/personal2/monolith/00women2.htm
http://www.nwci.ie
http://www.cleveland.com/moviebuff/index.ssf/2008/11/female_bonding_from_ursula_and.html
http://blog.spout.com/2008/11/12/5-bond-girls-who-died-after-wearing-a-bikini/
http://afroamhistory.about.com
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmpeople6.html
http://www.cmgww.com/sports/ashe/
http://www.lehigh.edu/~incntr/publications/perspectives/v19/Patterson.PDF
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/new_hibernia_review/v012/12.3.hardy.html

Email:
From Deo Ladislas Ndakengerwa (Deo@irishrefugeecouncil.ie) to Anne-Marie Curtin (a_m_c_29@hotmail.com) on the 19th November 2008, 16:09:32

Telephone conversation:
With Dr Maryann Valiulis, Director of the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies in TCD on the 7th November 2008

Books:
Politics in the Republic of Ireland, 4th Ed. p272-302; ed. Coakley, J. & Gallagher, M.; pub. by Routledge in association with PSAI Press 2006

Newspapers:
Obama’s victory speech, transcribed in p4, The Guardian, 6th November, 2008

Rubing the Crossicon

Here is an email which has been sent to the City Manager as I am running out of steam on this.

Dear Cork City Manager,

I am writing about the new pedestrian crossing signals that are appearing in both City and County (I have spotted them as far afield as Castlemartyr), which are silent.

I started enquiring about these on a basis that was purely curious at teh end of June last but have been unable to get a clear answer (indeed, any answer at times) to my queries. These are Green Man crossings that used to be audio-visual (at least where I have personal experience of them) but are now silent, or visual only.

I have had a range of 'clarifications' from the City Council (after sending information requests for over a month, including emailing Ian Winning, form whom I received no response at all, and finally turning to the City Councillors for help), from 'we're adding audio signals later' to 'they are provided with a vibrating touch pad' to 'they were never audio so they will not be now'.

These are all mutually exclusive responses - which one is it?

The signals I have used personally WERE audio signals and do not now have vibrating touch pads. So these responses seem to be a nonsense. And how a vibrating touch pad is going to help a visually impaired person across the road, I have no idea.

This flies in the face of the NCBI's best practice guidelines for Green man crossings. It also appears to contravene the Equal Status Act 2000 (Sections 4 & 6).

I am flummoxed to know how the City Council will be able to pay the (inevitable?) court fine when they are taken to court under the Equality Act or Equal Status Act as providers of a public service which is not usable by all. (See April 2007 when Dublin City Council were taken to court by a citizen in conjunction with the Equality Authority for turning off the audio signals on some pedestrian crossings on O'Connell Bridge.)

The particular crossing that caught my eye is the dangerous junction where High Street, Southern Road, Douglas Road and Capwell Road meet. It is so bad that the cars themselves are restricted from turning right from Capwell Road onto Douglas Road. How is a visually impaired person supposed to cross here without audio signals?

Can you give me any kind of concrete answers?

Such as:
Why have these signals been changed?
How much did it cost?
How does a visually impaired person cross this junction?

Thanks and regards,
Anne-Marie Curtin

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

OK - let's look closely at these photos. They were taken today on the public street of a sign for an established educational establishment in Cork - St. John's Central College. Now, if I were going to pay money, any amount of money, to someone or some group to provide me with a service, any service, especially education, I would want them to be able to handle basic constructions in their native tongue without falling at the first hurdle. A college of St. John is written St. John's College, not St. Johns. The random absence of apostrophes in their signage is lamentable and sloppy.

But the real, gobsmacking and, frankly, insulting mess here is that they either a) cannot spell or b) don't care enough to cast even a cursury spell-checking glance over their publications. You see, when this sign went up, they proudly displayed that they are 'St. Johns Central Collage". Putting aside the total lack of the necessary apostrophe, a house of learning, which cannot spell the word 'college', is one to which I do not wish to entrust my education. And one, which, when they eventually realise their error, do not bother to re-do the sign but simply scrape off the offending 'a' and turn it upsidedown, is one indicating an absolute lack of care and pride in their product.

Have a look for yourself and make up your own mind.

By the way, grammar is very important. To borrow from and paraphrase the great Lawrence Durrell, there is a great difference between the following two sentences.

"Lady Chalmsbury has cast off clothes of all descriptions and is inviting inspection."

"Lady Chalmsbury has cast-off clothes of all descriptions and is inviting inspection."

ID

Crossing the Rubicon, Part 3

Here’s an update on the pedestrian crossing situation.

After getting no response or as good as no response from the City Council, I went and contacted the local City Councillors. Here are the responses so far:

21/8/’08 Cllr. Mary Shields: “Dear Anna Marie, I will consult with my colleague-Councillor Terry Shannon in relation to this problem. He is the ward Councillor for the area in question and I know he will be very anxious to make sure this problem is addressed. We have a meeting of Roads Cimmittee on September 1st and I believe this is an ideal opportunity to bring up the problem and discuss it with Cork City Council Officials.”

22/8/0’08 Cllr. Mary Shields #2: “Dear Anna-Marie, I promise I will revert back to you after our meeting of Roads Committee on the evening of Sept 1st and I agree with your sentements but must hear the reasoning behind the move to obliterate the audio sounds at pedesrtian crossings from the officials.”

26/8/’08 Cllr. Mick Barry: “Dear Anne-Marie, Keep the pressure on the local councillors for your ward. There are Council elections next summer and you will find them all eager to please at this stage in the electoral cycle. If there is no change by mid-September it might be no harm to get the Disability Federation of Ireland to contact the Council and remind them of what happened in Dublin. Good luck.”

I have still not had a response from the NCBI so this must be chased but in addition the idea about contacting the Disability Federation of Ireland is good and will be followed up.

29/8/’08 Cllr. Lorraine Kingston: “Dear Ann-Marie, in response to your query I contacted Paddy O’ Neill in the traffic dept. he was aware of the situation and remembered your phone call. Unfortunately they only replaced like with like in other words audio tones weren’t put in.
Now he suggested if you contact Ian Winning he is the Senior Executive Engineer in The Traffic dept. and make a request for High Street to be installed with audio-visual there shouldn’t be a problem.
I will then follow that request up to be sure it happens.”

The problem here is that this is a nonsense. I have no idea what lights Mr O’Neill thinks he is talking about but the lights in question were originally audio-visual so they are patently not replacing like with like. So the options are that either this is an example of confusion or simply that it is a fob-off, to not mince words.

In addition, Mr Winning has been made aware of this by email on the 2nd, 14th & 28th July and has made no response or even acknowledgement of the correspondence yet.

I will keep you posted.

Crossing the Rubicon, Part 2

Well, after giving up on the written word, I contacted the City Council by phone and got a return message from a Mary on Thurs 31 July in the Traffic division who had asked Aidan the engineer who said that the audio signals would be installed once all the visual signals are in place, in a couple/few weeks time.

Now, that means that, since I first noticed the signals being changed and asked about them on the 28th June, and it is now August, and there will be an undefined number of weeks yet before audio signals are added, a busy road (Douglas Road) is virtually impassible by those of us with impaired/no eyesight and many points along the route.

Q: Is this fine and dandy?
Q: Could the original audio signals have not been left in place until the new audio signals were installed?
Q: Could audio-visual signals not have been installed in the first place?

?

Crossing the Rubicon

The City Council are making improvements, or simply changes, to the locality, which are including the replacement of pedestrian crossing signals - new for old. Now this would be all well and good (assuming that the old signals were on their last legs and it's not just spending for the sake of it) except for the small but at the same time huge fact that the old signals were both audio-visual while these new ones are completely silent. And the problem is? Well, try knowing when to safely cross the road at a silent pedestrian crossing with your eyes closed.

According to the National Council for the Blind in Ireland (NCBI), there is best practice for pedestrian crossings. See point #2 below in particular.

*Pedestrian Crossings
1. Crossings should always be at right angles to the street.
2. NCBI Policy states: “Where a green man crossing signal is provided for pedestrians, it should be accompanied by an audible signal for the benefit of blind and vision impaired people” Modern Push Button Units (PBU’s) all come equipped with tactile as well as audible signals. People with hearing loss as well as sight loss can use the tactile signal to verify that it is safe to cross. Push buttons should be consistently located at a level of 900mm - 1,100mm above ground level.
3. At traffic light controlled crossroads, and all major junctions, provision should be made for a safe time period and safe crossing points for pedestrians. If this is not possible, pedestrian crossings should be provided at safe but convenient distances from the junction.
4. Textured surfaces should be provided on the footpath to indicate where crossing points are. If possible, a textured surface should be laid across the road to help the person with vision impairment to maintain a straight line of travel while crossing. (Ref. Guidance on the use of Tactile Paving Surfaces).
5. Where road crossing entails negotiating a central island, this should be clearly identifiable by means of a raised section of pavement with barriers. Separate, readily distinguishable signals for both crossings must be provided.
*Source:
http://www.ncbi.ie/information-for/architects-engineers/guidelines-for-accessibility-of-the-built-environment

I have written to the Cork City Council on two occasions in the last few weeks but have recieved no clarification, just an acknowledgement of receipt of query. So they can hear me knocking but...

Hopefully the NCBI will be able to clarify further.

See also:
http://www.ncbi.ie/news/press-releases/2007-04-03_dublin-city-council-settles-equality-case-on-audible-pedestrian-crossing-signals

http://www.pwdi.ie/news_events/newsletter/cumhacht9h.htm

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:_tvfya1v9GcJ:www.equality.ie/getFile.asp%3FFC_ID%3D392%26docID%3D690+pedestrian+crossings+law+audible&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=ie

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!

I've decided to put one together to vent all of those little things that can really, really get you wondering and, if not off-loaded in a safe & controlled environment, can lose you your friends through boredom and cries of 'will you just shut up and stop going on about it??!?'. Altogether now.........aaaahhh!

So, like it says on the tin, it's probably going to be lecturing, hectoring invective and mostly about Cork & Ireland but, you never know, it may even entertain & inform. We can but see.

ID