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Vi3WBIRMINGHAM

CULTURE INDUSTRYRELIGION

vi3w Birmingham

from the outside

Q Q Q Q Q

Q Q

Q Q Q Is Birmingham a

multicultural city?

‘How do you m e a s u r e multiculturalism’

?Does a city become multicultural simply through the pres-ence of several cultures living in the same place, a lot of people I asked in Birming-ham thought so… ‘Look Around’ there are people from all over the world living side by side. True, In fact one, third of Birmingham’s population are consid-ered to be part of an ethnic minority according to the census and when you walk down any street in the city centre this is evident.

On a purely statistical level, yes, Birming-ham is very much a multicultural city. However, to label a city as multicultural, personally I feel that you are implying much more than having residents from various cultures. To me a multicultural city would be one in which people from different cultures come together, shar-ing their ways of life, experiencing new things, weather it be food, clothing, mu-sic, and learning from each others cul-tures. After living half my life in London

and half in Birmingham, I would say that on this level Birming-ham by comparison is a far from a Multicultural city. Though this my own opinion based on per-sonal experience, when you ask around about weather peo-ple in Birmingham from differ-ent cultures really do mix every-one has a different angle on it.

In the end I think that multi-culturalism is something that lives with the individual not the whole, its too much of a subjec-tive matter. When we carry out our daily lives, we make choic-es, and weather we decide to embrace or reject the different cultures around us is a mat-ter entirely down to us. So I’ve changed my question to can you have a multicultural experi-ence in Birmingham if you truly wanted it, and of course the an-swer is, yes, just look around.

‘‘multiculturalism is somethingthat lives with the individual...’’

‘How do you m e a s u r e multiculturalism’

afro carribean communities

asian communities

Yes, i’m english, i’ve found a lot of asian friends, mainly indian, i re-ally like the different foods i’ve tried.

Yes, im english and my wifes family are jamaican and i’ve definately expereince a lot of new food and music.

Yes and no, Birmingham does cater for people of many different races. alumn rock has a big asain community, obviously theres chinatown and an ever growing Polish comunity here. i’ll mix with anyone, but not everyone does. People will come together for things like work in the city centre, but not in there home and personal lives.

Is Birmingham a multicultural

city?

Yes, i like the mix in Birmingham i used to live

in North london, there were peotple from different cultures there too, but it felt a bit more

segregated than here.

Yes, i live out in redditch and theres not really a good mix of

culutures there so when i get into the city centre you instantly notice

the mix of different cultures here.

Yes, i mix with west indian, indian and Pakistani people, our cultural backgrounds are different, im irish, but when you get to know people yourealise you have loads in common, family values, ideas about parenting, theres more common ground there than you may realise.

Yes, if you want a good curry go to lady poole lane, chinese food has to be chinatown, and there are some quite good itallians dotted around.

the movement of Industry.

During the Industri-al Revolution Birmingham would be seen as a special-ist city in the motor indus-try, producing all kinds of components, more promi-nently for Aston, Jaguer and Dunlop all of which were founded in the city. With the modernization of the city all the manufacturing plants have moved out city areas. Dunlop Rubber’s old factory ‘Fort Dunlop’ has even been converted into of-fice and retail space as more modern forms of industry have gradually taken con-trol of the city. To compare Cork also had a large motor industry producing compo-nents for Ford and Dunlop which were easily exported through the port. Like Bir-mingham these trades have now almost, or completely vanished. In comparison to the industry of Birmingham, Cork City takes the majority of its industrial income from less modern, more special-ized professions. For instance Corks leading employer at

Birmingham is renowned for its industries, once called ‘The Workshop of the World’ the city has now suc-cumb to more contemporary trades in retail, services, and tourism. Although a few fac-tories remain producing mi-nor pieces of jewellery and steel components the indus-try has been hijacked by the behemoth that is retail and tourism. Birmingham alone now has four major shop-ping centre’s one of which, The Bullring, is the busiest in the UK. Birmingham is also responsible for 42% of Britain’s tourism and confer-ence trade, with huge venues such as the ICC and NEC hosting regular conventions.

But it is these indus-tries, the potential that there is so much to succeed with in Birmingham, that have brought me here. Originally from Ireland I moved to Bir-mingham a few year’s ago after my family saw Birming-ham as a city lacking in con-temporary apartments. So it could be said that I owe my current position in life on

the moment is pharmaceuti-cal company Phzier, which specializes in producing Vi-agra. In contrast smaller family run companies are still popular producing fish and other meats and vegetables at the English Indoor Market.

Cork and Birmingham always seemed similar to me. Both cities are strong, capable of looking after themselves. Both are the second city or their respective countries and both seem to have an un-

definable work ethic. Neither city is one were someone goes to retire and relax, each city is constantly alive, working and progressing to better them-selves and their economy.

Industry

‘‘we are Here Because we No loNger accePt a

corruPt system tHat rewards

greed’’

Occupy Wall Street began September 17th, 2011 as a demon-stration to protest the corporate greed of large organizations as well as economic inequality. The demonstrations gathered interest, sparking similar protests throughout the rest of the world’s major cities. Eventually they had come to Birming-ham.

I took a trip down to visit the ‘Occupy Birmingham’ protest one day during the month of October. I wanted to speak to the protestors and gather a ‘feel’ from their environ-ment. Seeing as they were protesting the heads of our corpo-rations I thought it would be an appropriate topic to include in the industry segment of ‘VieW’. Unfortunately no protest-ers would speak to me about their protest, but I was able to gather a lot of information from their signs surrounding their ‘base’.

Many of the signs featured at the protest followed the same iconic saying as those on Wall Street “We are the 99%”. The 99% referring to the fact that in recent years those in America’s top 1% owned 34.6% of the countries wealth. Although it carrie’s the same point the slogan is inaccurate in Birmingham. In America the ratio of pay from CEO to an average worker is 475:1, however in Britain the number is drastically less at 22:1. The point still stands that there is some corporate greed in Britain, but those in England’s 1% do not have as much control over the countries wealth as those in America.

With the protest’s inaccuracies aside the main focus of the group seems to be the greed and ‘control’ certain higher powers have over the city. One sign reads “We are here be-cause we no longer accept a corrupt system that rewards greed”. With this in mind it must be questioned, who are they speaking of? The UK’s wage for CEO’s in comparison to their average worker’s is much lower then that of America. They wouldn’t speak to me when I asked for an interview. Is there truly something wrong with those who control the UK’s industries’. Are they corrupt? Or are the protesters, like many others, jumping on the bandwagon to complain about the government at any given opportunity?

‘‘we Have just eNougH religioN t0 make us Hate,

But Not eNougH to make us love oNe aNotHer’’

Birmingham is be-lieved to be multicul-tural and multi-religiosity city, but IS IT REALLY?When I first started to walk around town, I’ve seen lots of different people which I wouldn’t meet in my coun-try, so my first answer was `yes, it is`. Although, giving my experience and research, I was forced to reconsider it.In different Birmingham’s wards you could meet spe-cific religions and cultures, which separate themselves from the rest of society or, should I say, each other. In everyday life we pass our-selves on the streets without even noticing that distance, or maybe we just pretend not to see? Everyone is different – skin colour, character, ap-pearance, morals and beliefs – all of them make us IN-DIVIDUAL. But nowadays, being ̀ individual` means be-ing `outsider`, so we try to

find bigger groups of people with the same views – such as worships. That’s just how society works. But the one thing I cannot understand is why can’t we accept each other and being one big multi-religiosity society? Why does religion makes us hate? And why is it still so important in modern world? It is still a taboo for most of people, which is funny since religion affect almost every aspect of our lives. If you look for a simple answer about multi-religiosity, I guess you’ll never find it, but I hope it makes you think about yourself and your environment.I have to admit that I’m a part of this as much as the people I’m writing about. I’m Polish girl, who came to this country four years ago, but to be honest most of my friends here are Polish as well. It’s the greatest example of what I’m thinking, but before this article I haven’t even noticed it. Why? We all look for something stable in our environment and when you are far away from home, it is especially important to save a bit of your origin. I know my country and culture and I feel safer this way. It looks the same with religion – we just stick to something we know.My country – Poland, is known as one of the most religious counties in

Europe. You could think there are lots of different creeds, but the truth is 96% adhere to Christian faith. I would never call my country multi-reli-giosity. I think Poles are not ready yet to accept other religions, because we were raised in deep faith and conservatism, with regard to our history.When I compare Birmingham to Poland and my town – there’s a huge differ-ence in appearance of different religions, but it doesn’t matter if I’m here or there, I can honestly say that we live together as a society but apart as a humans.We are all different, but we have one thing in common – love, which should act upon all of our actions. Instead criticising something we don’t know, we should accept the differences and learn from each other! Let’s `make love, not war`.

BIRMINGHAMBIRMINGHAM






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