What Jumps Out: Belfast Thoughts

Chaos reigns in my adopted Colombia with yet another foreign minister leaving amidst an ongoing spat with the US. That said it isn’t difficult to get on the wrong side of Donald Trump’s peanut gallery. Some ugly rhetoric on both sides but no doubt it will calm down soon enough. Away from that a fairly quiet news week thus far.

I am currently traveling and find myself in Belfast, where thoughts of Colombia, violence, and peace processes are never far away.

“Are you from around here ?”

The gruff voice set me back on my heels as I came out of the café – I even hesitated to answer as a Brit who isn’t entirely sure where the divide between East & West Belfast lies.

Northern Ireland’s 1998 Good Friday agreement is now 27 years old and still hasn’t brought full peace & tranquility – hence the hesitation. However, while there is still violence around the fringes at the same time, there is also tolerance across the province, which stands as a lesson for Colombia, which continues to tear itself apart. The peace agreement of November 2016 was never going to be the end, but instead the start of the process, and we quite clearly have a long way to go before local politicians understand that.

Polarization is the preferred direction of travel on both the left and the right. They appear to care not that it stifles Colombia’s progress – it is all about them, not the 99.9999% who don’t occupy a seat in congress or the senate.

The political class, in turn, with their divisive rhetoric, creates the worst example for the rest of the population, and when run through the poisonous prism of social media, violence and hatred are the result. Against this backdrop Gustavo Petro’s attempts at ‘Total’ peace were always doomed – unquestionably there are also those who prefer the status quo of conflict.

The future of both Northern Ireland & Colombia remain in doubt but the citizens of both deserve to sleep peacefully at night. Last week at Glastonbury, I witnessed firsthand the Kneecap performance, the ongoing demand for freedom, and anger towards the British government. It was vitriolic and uncomfortable but ultimately a passive demand for change using a microphone and balaclava. The optics might be ugly to many, but the optics in Colombia are many, many times worse, with multiple militias roaming the country, pretending to have political ends, which are to cover up nothing more than the millions they make from narcotics.

As I end this note I’m sat on a bus from Belfast to Dublin. Who is catholic ? Who is protestant ? Who cares ? Just a peaceful coach trip between two cities.

Let’s hope for more peaceful nights soon.

Regards.

Roops.

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The Peace For All statue is located a couple of hundred meters south of the Republic/Northern Ireland border. Photo credit: Hywel Williams/Wikipedia.