Jennifer Wilson
Though not a strict vegetarian, out of choice I do not eat much meat. The three reasons Robin Downie cites are well-founded. But what I wanted to say is that I have experienced directly the horrors of a battery chicken farm and a meat market.
During a visit to Japan in 2005 when we stayed with Japanese friends in a small town 100 miles north of Tokyo, we went for a walk in the countryside around their house. We heard this strange, persistent noise. As we drew nearer, a most unpleasant smell entered our nostrils. We saw a series of long, low buildings and, out of curiosity mingled with a sense of horror, crept up close.
Without restriction, we were able to peer through the windows at thousands of baby chicks all crammed together and trampling over each other. The noise of their screeching was unbearable and the smell overpowering. I did not want to see a piece of chicken for a long time afterwards and that memory has lingered vividly.
The meat market was in central Athens last year. As we entered the meat hall, we were faced with rows and rows of stalls piled high with animal flesh in various stages of dissection as well as live chickens and other poultry. The smell was pungent and the vendors’ overalls were smeared and spattered with blood from the recent slaughter. It was like a scene out of hell, a Hieronymus Bosch nightmare. I could not wait to escape into the polluted air of the busy Athens street.
Norma Allan
Today’s banner
Children playing, Monifieth, Angus
Photograph by
Islay McLeod
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Sectarianism 1
Boardroom to playground
Richard Benjamin
There was nothing to warm the cockles in the behaviour surrounding last week’s Old Firm ‘football’ match. Fixtures between the two teams serve up a regular reminder of the extent of Scotland’s social malaise – a focal point for prejudice, conflict, aggression and all that is regrettable about our failure as a society to get a grip on these challenges.
I did, however, find Kenneth Roy’s article on the subject (SR, 4 March) reassuring and refreshing. To shine a light on the reality of these problems represents a rare and welcome glimmer of light in what I consider to be a murky pond of denial and blame.
I’d like to add to the dicussion through some of the insights I gained as the sole employee of Nil by Mouth, Scotland’s anti-sectarianism campaign, from 2006 to 2008. Media interest in sectarianism in Scotland experienced something of an all-time high during my time at the charity, fuelled mainly by the unprecedented efforts by Jack McConnell’s government, the sport itself, and a scattered collection of others to address the problem. The campaign benefited from regular opportunities to comment in broadcast and print media, championing its message of tolerance and encouraging action to promote change.
On reflection, to say that Nil by Mouth ‘benefited’ from the coverage is perhaps disingenuous. The reality was – and still is – that the Scottish media’s coverage of the subject is never consistent and frequently ill-informed. Volunteers at Nil by Mouth generously gave their time to help the cause in different ways – one being the archiving of press articles on the subject. One of our major frustrations was the shocking imbalance our archive revealed. Football was the focus of about 85% of all articles and parades around 10%, with only the paltry remains left for All Other Business Sectarian. So are we to believe that sectarianism is almost exclusively a problem of football and public processions? Anyone with the most basic grasp of the reality of Scotland’s relationship with sectarianism would choke at the mere suggestion.
Conversely, Nil by Mouth only spent about 10% of its time focused on football-related sectarianism. The rest of our resources were channelled into lobbying policymakers for stronger action in education, employment and enforcement, engaging with the public through training and events and delivering an education programme that reached thousands of young people in schools and youth settings across Scotland.
Sectarianism is not merely ‘religious’. It is a deep-rooted prejudice borne also of cultural, social and political conflict. From the boardroom to the playground in every region of our nation this prejudice prevails with toxic consequences.
Despite this, we would regularly stand accused of being obsessive in our pursuit of the Old Firm clubs. And I never could blame anyone for making this assumption when all they had to go by was the warped nature of the media’s coverage of the issue. At Jack McConnell’s second and last summit on sectarianism I was amazed to see a number of powerful media figues at the table, publicly professing the need for sectarianism to be challenged. As they basked in the limelight, these people of considerable influence presided over an empire that cashed in on sensationalist articles that exploited the divide, ignored the reality and nurtured a dangerous culture of ‘Them’ and ‘Us’.
Nil by Mouth itself suffered from a classic example of this some years ago now when the News of the World ran a front-page story claiming that Rangers FC had mowed the Ibrox turf in a style that gave the deliberate impression of an Orangeman’s sash. The photograph of the offending pitch was accompanied by a quote from a Nil by Mouth spokesperson condemning the action. This was the only evidence that gave the story credibility. The only trouble was that no-one at the charity had been asked by the News of the World to comment on the ‘story’. Four years later we were still receiving emails from irate members of the public who believed the comment to be genuine.
A more current example is that sectarian chanting and other behaviour continues at many matches, and not just those involving Rangers or Celtic. Yet you could count on a sloth’s toes the number of times sectarian behaviour is mentioned in the thousands of match reports churned out over a single season.
As Kenneth Roy highlighted, opinion pieces on sectarianism invariably feature aloof condemnation of faceless ‘fans’ or a ‘thuggish minority’. This tendency to lay the problem at someone else’s door reveals exactly why sectarianism remains a very real and unquestionably damaging reality.
Scotland’s laudable attempts to address the problem through the introduction of religious-aggravated offence legislation has ultimately failed due to the woolly nature of how the problem is understood and defined. Sectarianism is not merely ‘religious’. It is a deep-rooted prejudice borne also of cultural, social and political conflict. From the boardroom to the playground in every region of our nation this prejudice prevails with toxic consequences. Until we acknowledge this head on, we will always struggle to gain a foothold to progress.
Racism continues to present a significant challenge for Scotland. Yet the tide turned in our favour some time ago when the seeds planted by a courageous minority began to take root. The result of dogged campaigning and education in the face of massive adversity was that we began to wake up to the fact that while we were by no means all to blame for its existence, we were all responsible for finding a resolution.
If we are to achieve similar progress with sectarianism then a similar awakening must take place. The progress in tackling racism gives me faith that it will. I just don’t expect it to find its feet in the Scottish media.
Sectarianism 2
Saw no evil, heard no evil
Alex Cox
As a Scot I do not feel even slightly ‘blighted’ by the misbehaviour of footballers and their followers. Football attracts Granfalloonists; depends on them in order to prosper.
Criminality, no matter how base, can be excused by the simple wave of a scarf or the kissing of a club crest. Sentiments advocating forced expatriation of ethnic minorities and the massacre of innocents can be written off as ‘banter’, acceptable because it is expressed by tens of thousands en masse. And anyway, no matter the sins of your side, see that other lot? They are worse. Much worse.
I don’t feel blighted by this because I don’t go to matches, watch them on television or read about them in newspapers. In fact only a minority of Scots do. I accept it would be difficult for Alan Cochrane or whoever to rewrite his copy to read ‘Warring football factions are blighting Scotland…though not Alex Cox as he’s not interested, along with approximately another 80% of the country’.
What does ‘blight’ me somewhat are the sophistry practitioners in the media. You know, the people who are supposed to report facts and alert us to scandals, misdeeds and the like. Journalists I believe they were once called. It seems to me that the Scottish media in condemning the behaviour of last week are biting their own tail. With the notable exception of Graham Spiers I have rarely read a Scottish journalist in a Scottish newspaper condemn the Nazi salutes, the glorification of terrorism or the vilification of ethnic minorities which seems to be accepted here to be as much part of the ‘game’ as half-time Bovril.
We all know why. In a time when circulations are a fraction of what they were even a decade ago the bigot’s pound is king. Every Old Firm match report fails to say the same thing.
Nothing happened.
Nobody sang.
Nobody heard.
Nobody saw.
If something did happen, it was isolated. If somebody did sing, it was banter. If somebody did hear, they’re easily offended. And if somebody did see something what did they expect? Even if they play in t-shirts and short trousers, it’s not a boys’ game.
The women bruised and battered as a result of the massive spike in incidents of domestic violence are obviously the victims of a wider societal malaise, no doubt caused by the inefficiencies of politicians. Those who spent hours in A&E units in the night after the match were probably asking for it, and if they weren’t, well, somebody really ought to do something about knives, or alcohol abuse. Those politicians again. What are they like?
I wish Alex Salmond and the rest of those charged with improving our society well but by failing to condemn bigotry at every available opportunity and by writing hagiographies of those whose bottom line is dependent upon it, Scottish newspapers are far more guilty than the grandstand goons of whom we expect no better.
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