In my last two articles, I addressed the issues of racism in a rather radical manner. The idea was not for black people to take up arms to fight white people. My intention was to show readers how ugly racism is. It so happens that the examples I used were of white racists but there are black racists that are just as cruel. Take the case of my President, Robert Mugabe. After all those murders of white farmers did he improve the lives of black people? No! We are now in England running away from our black leader. My idea was to make people see how cruel people can be and to ask us all to try to love one another and live with each other without thinking of race and colour.

One area we need to work together in Bradford is in the area of mental health. Here is a paper I presented to the Ethnicity, Health and Well Being Conference on Tuesday, 15 June 2010.

 Let me begin this paper by paying respect to the people that have researched and written extensively on mental health in the West Yorkshire region. Among these is a research paper done by NHS Bradford and Airedale in conjunction with the University of Central Lancashire entitled Outcomes and Commissioning in Mental Health Services for BME Communities, Asylum Seekers and Refugees. , March, 2009.I also must mention the 2008 report done by the Centre for Research in Social Inclusion and Social Justice, University of Hull entitled Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants in Yorkshire and Humber 1999-2008.

Both these reports and others, state that the numbers of refugees in the Bradford area is not known, which means no one knows the exact level of the mental health problem in our community. There is therefore urgent need for research on the true figure of people with the mental problem. We, at the Bradford Refugee Forum, have drafted a proposal for this research and are currently looking for funding.(If anyone knows any organisation that can help fund this project please get in touch with Abraham ,the Bradford Refugee Forum coordinator on 07824707458)

This report will therefore limit itself on the research that has been done and the problem that has been faced.

THE PROBLEM

Mental health issues have been found to be prevalent among refugees and asylum seekers because many asylum seekers experience severe trauma from persecution that may include rape, genocide, ethnic cleansing and violence mainly in countries of origin. Difficulties are worsened by separation from families and the failure to secure basic needs on the asylum journey and even at the destination.

At the destination many face language problems, a barrier that can cause frustrations. Poor English can affect diagnosis of the problem, first by the receptionist and later the medical expert. There is need for improvements in social services for trauma and counselling of mental patients. There are almost no personnel who understand the cultures of the mental patients, that have knowledge and information, appropriate information about the refugee communities. There are virtually no interpreters. The use of families as interpreters for discussing sensitive issues is known to be problematic and inappropriate.

UNDERSTANDING ENTITLEMENT

Mental health patients have a problem in understanding entitlement to health care and there is no clear guidance for health professionals to assist them. Secondly, lack of understanding of institutions and systems among asylum seekers prevent asylum seekers from accessing appropriate care, and exacerbated by language barriers and apparently poor cultural understanding among medical practitioners.

There is the problem of disbelief and rejection associated with asylum case refusal and constant fear (or experiences) of detention and removal. These leave asylum seekers exposed to intense anxiety and vulnerable to sudden and traumatic rupture in social relationships.

There are numerous other fears associated with mental illness: fear of being labelled mad (nuts); fear of the loss of status; the erosion of personal confidence; the difficulties of communicating the problem to others.

POLICY ON ASYLUM SEEKERS.

Mental patients often do not know how much access they have to essential services. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work and this often leads to homelessness and destitution.

Then there is the problem of denial of secondary care owing to health care professionals checking immigration status, promoting a perception among immigrants that they may not be eligible. I am told that it has been routine for secondary care to be denied, or refused asylum seekers to be billed and this is worrying and helps confuse mental health patients about entitlement.

POST TRAUMATIC STRESS

Often the early signs and symptoms are not recognised by the mental patients. In cases where asylum has been refused, the mental patient has no access to refugee community organisations. He has to grapple with negative government policy on social/economic issues, on housing, rights to work, education and health care. In the end the patients become withdrawn. There is loss of confidence, hypertension, depression and even aggression.

When I wrote about racism at the beginning of the week, I was discussing OVERT racism. This was a racism where the white communities of the world chose to classify the black people of the world as human minerals and went to Africa to ‘mine’ black metal labour.

There are theories which argue that white slave owners went out of their way to torture slaves for fun. I do not buy that theory. There were obviously some who sexually abused slave women and were cruel masters. But abuse for the sake of abuse is outside the economic theory. Yes over rally the living conditions were inhuman because slaves were not regarded as human. Yes, dead slaves were thrown into the sea or were not given proper burial. Yes, they were bought and sold. And yes, they were beaten and punished, just as you shape metal to suit your purpose. I will support a theory which argues that slaves were fed to be strong, male slaves were turned into “oxen” because bulls are not as strong and they spend their energies elsewhere.

These commercially oriented slave owners made up the majority of the class that even went to the extent of taking up arms to defend their property. They are what I want to call the OVERT slave owners. When they lost, they abandoned the slave oriented economy. Some even helped to remove slaves from their properties to Africa or the Caribbean Islands. Some even chose to keep slaves as paid labour. I think that this category of former slave owners is the group that has changed although I do not think they have yet reached the stage of accepting black people as fellow human beings or as equals.

But it is what I call the COVERT type former slave owners that form the majority racists today. These people may not be scientists but they accept the Darwin theory of evolution. They believe that black people have biologically not yet evolved to reach the level of white humans. They fear that associating with black people would have negative effects on their evolutionary development. So they as much as they can avoid eat with blacks, living near blacks, worshipping with blacks and so on. These are the hard core racists. Behind their minds they know that it is bad to associate with black people but they do not know why! These are the people that strive to collect negative stories about Africans, Africa ,African rulers, African worshippers, African shoppers, African time keeping[African puntuallity], African food, Africa everything. These are the people that see asylum seekers as people only from Africa who must be returned to Africa.

OTA BENGA

Mr Ota Benga

When some people read what I write, they think I am a racist trying to use the past to justify the present. But what do you think of the story of Ota Benga, which happened just before World War I. In 1904 an African explorer, Samuel Verner went to river basin of the then called Belgian Congo, now DRC to hunt for African pygmies because Americans wanted to see a real pygmy.One of those captured was Ota Benga.In 1906, he was put in the Bronx Zoo[New York Zoological Park] with his ‘ancestors’ monkeys,chimpanzees, a gorilla named Dinah and an orang-utan named Dohung.The 4feet 11 inches Ota Benga[named Bi which means friend] had been married had been married twice;both his wives had died but he was referred to as a boy.

The Director of the Bronx Zoo, Dr William T. Hornadgy believed he could read the zoo animal thoughts. He “apparently saw no difference between a wild beast and the little black man”. Every Sunday some 40 000 visitors visited the zoo to see the pygmy.”Nearly every man, woman and child of the crowd made for the monkey house to see the star attraction in the park-the wild man of Africa. They chased him about the grounds all day, howling, jeering and yelling. Some of them poked him in the ribs, others tripped him up, all laughed at him.” Finally after fabricating a small bow and arrow and shooting at the obnoxious park visitors he had to leave the park for good. But people could not leave him alone. One day he managed to borrow a revolver and shot himself in the heart ending his 8 years of torture in the United States.

The story of Ota Benga may be an extreme example but you will be surprised how many people we live with here in the UK think we are different, we are unusual, that we are strange, that we are foolish and that we underdeveloped. Black people therefore have a duty to educate their neighbours that they are not different. They have a duty to fight racism positively. We have a duty to make white people trust and have confidence to live next to us.

INTRODUCTION

One of the major election issues last month was the ‘problem’ of immigration, yet one of the main preoccupation of the Labour Government was legislating against immigrants. Never in the history of the UK was were so many laws passed against Third World asylum seekers as in the 13 years of Labour Administration. As a result, over 80% of asylum applications were/are turned down mainly because they couldn’t/can’t meet the threshold placed by the Labour Party on top of the United Nations RC 51 definition of a refugee/asylum. Consequently, the number of people that managed to apply for asylum went down from 92000 a year in the year 2000 to just above 23000 in 2008. Yet both the Labour and Conservative parties could not stop pouncing at asylum seekers. Asylum seekers were blamed for taking British jobs, even though the law does not allow them to work! They were accused of taking council houses from the British, even though failed asylum seekers are forced out of Government accommodation. Failed asylum seekers have been forced into destitution; some have been forced to take up illegal employment doing the dirty jobs the British are too proud to do-cleaning of toilets, care for the elderly and disabled; dangerous security jobs; off-loading trucks at night and in the cold; nursing and many similar tasks. Some asylum seekers have worked secretly for government officials that talk against during the day.

But while most asylum seekers were refused entry, the same Government allowed East Europeans to flow in unconditionally, even where there isn’t the slightest chance of being employable for so many of them. As a result, between the year 2000 and 2008, the number of East Europeans immigrants rose from around 500000 a year to around 600000 a year. The argument is that they are a part of the EU family. In other words people of the Third World from whom the slaves and slave labour that enabled the Industrial Revolution to take place; people from whose countries most of the minerals that made industrialisation to be a reality; people that fought on the side of the Allied forces and people whose Governments have allowed EU countries to invest in their countries are not members of the family. How then is this family defined? Is the family based on economic interdependence? Is this a political family? Is it a religious family? Or is this not just a form of racism!

ECONOMIC FAMILY?

The wealth of the World has, from known times, been defined in terms of its use of known minerals. This is why we have the Stone Age; Bronze Age; and Iron Age. But a major upset of this historical development when people of today’s EU decided to classify black human beings with energy minerals. For over 200 years people of today’s EU states went to Africa to mine human minerals. It is not true to argue that people of the Bronze Age did not know about iron. Similarly, it is not true that slavery did not exist before. These eras were given their names because the minerals they used became the main source human survival. The people of today’s EU states created the slave age. Like other minerals before slavery, technology moved beyond slavery but many people in the EU still look at black people as an energy mineral. They are unable to regard what they took for a commodity, like coal piled outside in the rain and taken into the oven to burn only when energy was needed into an equal.

Sadly for people of this mentality technology has not stopped moving. It has now moved beyond coal. While the UK, France, Poland, Germany and Belgium have large quantities of coal, coal is no longer the metallic mineral central to modern industrialisation. Coal included, these are the metals essential to industrialisation. The important point to note is that most of these metals are not found in Europe!

MINERAL                                            COUNTRY

Aluminium                                            Jamaica, Surinam, France, Ghana, USA, Russia, Canada, Germany, Norway, Hungary, India, Greenland.

Asbestos                                            Canada, Zimbabwe, South Africa.

Chromium                                          India, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Cuba.

Coal                                                      USA, Russia, China, Germany, UK, France, Poland, Belgium, India.

Copper                                                USA, Russia, China, Germany, Zambia, DRC, Spain, Mexico, Japan, Australia, India.

Gold                                                    South Africa, USA, Australia, Canada.

Graphite                                             Sri Lanca

Iron Ore                                              Russia, USA, Australia, Canada, France, Spain, India, China, Brazil.

Lead                                                      USA, Russia, Spain, Germany, Belgium.

Lignite                                                Germany, Russia.

Magnesium                                       India, Russia, Mexico, USA.

Mercury                                             Italy, Spain, USA.

Mica                                                     India.

Nickel                                                  Canada.

Petrolium                                          Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, UAE, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, USA, Russia, Indonesia.

Silver                                                   Canada, Russia, Mexico, USA, Australia.

Tin                                                        Malaysia, Bolivia.

Uranium                                           DRC, South Africa, USA, Canada, Germany, Czech, Slovakia, Russia, India.

Thorium                                          India, Brazil, USA.

Zinc                                                   Canada, Russia, Belgium, Germany.

Yes it is true that the EU countries, because of their colonial experience have industrial technology higher than most countries of the world, but the majority of the people that migrate from the continent to the UK do not have that technology. The UK does not allow them into the country therefore because they bring technology, if anything they bring them to take away ordinary British people’s jobs.

POLITICAL FAMILY?

Before the slave trade and slavery, black people were not looked at as a form of energy resource. They played their part in the societies they belonged just like anyone else. You may be surprised to read that a black man once ruled England. The Roman Emperor Septimius Severus[AD 193-211] was from North African Libya. Many black Roman soldiers were stationed in England to guard the Hadrian Wall. Many married English women and left children in England. Several Roman Emperors had wives from Africa and there was nothing unusual about it.

THE CORNERSTONE OF RACISM

The two main cornerstones of racism in the UK are the Church and the media.

THE CHURCH

 Although 3 Roman Catholic Church Popes were from Africa, the Catholic Church has not encouraged disclosure of it, and has in some situations argued that although the Popes may have come from Africa, they were not Africans. Pope Victor[AD189-199], the Pope who encouraged baptism with ordinary water where there was a shortage of holy water; Pope Miltiades[AD310/311 to314], the Pope who constructed the original Basilica of St John Lateran; and Pope Gelasius[AD492 toAD496], the Pope who inserted “Kyrie Eleison” (Lord have mercy) into the mass were Africans. But when it appeared like Cardinal Arinze of Nigeria would be likely to succeed Pope John Paul II of Poland, there was uneasiness in the Catholic Church.

The Church supported slavery and the slave trade. Church leaders, including Bishops owned slaves. Church institutions owned farms that generated money that has made Churches some of the richest institutions in the World. Church schools, colleges and universities were financed from slave labour. Many Bishops in America justified slavery from verses in the Bible. Up to today, the church has not yet come out positively enough in support of the black peoples of the world. What has the church said about the scores of immigration laws passed by the Government in the past 14 years? Children from Third World countries are still being detained in the UK today!

Present day EU countries when they colonised Third World countries often hand in hand with the church. The Church is partly responsible for colonialism. But the Church has not come out strongly against form of neo-colonialism taking place and resulting in many people coming to seek asylum in the UK.

THE MEDIA

But the greatest campaigner for racism remains the media. The media has deliberately obvious signs of negative race relations in British society. If you are black and you go into a pub, the first question you are asked is: Where do you come from? If you answer: Bradford, you are asked: Originally? If you think you solve the problem by telling him the name of a country. You are lectured on the evils of African leaders. If you carry on the discussion, you may find out that the man does not even know that Africa is a continent. If you see anything on television here in the UK on Africa, it will either be a documentary or report of starving Africans and their mother; or child soldiers in the “blood” diamond trade; stories of rape and torture; stories of life in slums; or tradition naked woman living among animals. Positive stories are of game wardens from Europe saving game from slaughter.

The media has done nothing meaningful to educate society that black people are people like everyone else. Their only crime is poverty partly caused by rich nations’ support of violent methods of getting mineral resources.

LIVING IN THE PAST

The slave trade will never again be a viable industry. Technology has moved beyond the concept of using human beings as energy resource as if they were minerals. There is need to help the black people to regain their place in society. The British Government must move away from looking at immigration, especially asylum as a crime. The Church must ask Africans for forgiveness and educate society to love one another genuinely. The media must begin to go to Africa to write positive stories .What the UK forgets is that it needs the Third World more than any time in the past. Here are some of the reasons why.

1. Today’s industries are dependent on oil and gas. None of the EU states has oil and gas. The World Wars were fought because Germany was excluded from benefitting from slavery. She was not allowed by other EU super powers to trade in slaves; to control major rivers and seas of the world that were the main means of transport then.  Germany was therefore not able to control the ferrous metals, base metals and precious metals of the world. She found she could not compete others in the industrialisation race without these metals. Improvements in technology, changes in the Third World politics have resulted in the former major EU states to lose their dominance of the control of these base metals. The EU now needs the friendship of the former slave nations if they are to survive the economic battles of the future.

2. None of the EU states has petroleum, the most important energy mineral of the moment. Yes BP has control of most of the oil of the world, but as can be read from the language of the Americans, it would not surprise anyone if they started to demand control of the oils in their waters. In fact all the countries of the petroleum world currently are looking for ways to control their own minerals. Russia wants greater control of the Caspian states and oil and gas there. Iran is preparing nuclear weapons to control the Persian sea area, Canada is controlling the North Sea oils and the battle for such control goes on .The EU countries still control oils from Third World partly by helping to put and maintain in power governments that chose to trade with them. The result has been a lot of instability in them and a rise in the numbers of people from these countries that come to the EU states to seek asylum .People from oil-rich Algeria, Angola, Chad, Congo, DRC, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Tunisia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia,, Thailand, Vietnam, and others are being refused asylum here even though the troubles in their countries are partly caused by governments in the EU.

CONCLUSION

Racism is against UN human a right regulations .Racism is unchristian .Racism is inhuman. Economies that survived on racism are now history and will never again control the World. Violence used to be chef instrument for acquiring resources to support economies, but improvements in technology have shown that a third world war may be the end of the human race. As human beings let us revisit our laws, our cultures, faiths, relationship and identify racist issues and remove them. Let us help the state to create legislation that is not based on racism. Think about it and you will be surprised how many people of the Third World are dying because behind their systems of government and social life, there are entrenched forms of racism.

BRADFORD REFUGEE WEEK 2010 FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT

 Don’t miss this football spectacle!  In fact, no need to lose sleep if you cannot travel to South Africa for the World Cup!  An action packed football tourney in which 20 under-14 teams and 10 adult teams will battle it out for honours at Manningham Sports Centre and Goals Sports Academy respectively on Saturday 19 June promises a day of fun and excitement for the whole family. 

See flyer for more details

BRADFORD REFUGEE WEEK 2010 FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT FLYER

The “Sanctuary” tent at the Mela

12th – 13th June 12:00 – 17:30 @ Peel Park BD3

Launch Event

14th June 10:00 – 14:00 @ Carlisle Business Centre (Main Hall) BD8 8DB

Finale Event

18th June 12:00 – 14:00 @ Centenary Square outside City Hall

Refugee Communitirs World Cup

19th June 10:00 – 18:00

Youth Tourament @ Manningham Sports Centre BD8 8DB

Adult Tournament @ Goals Sports Academy by Hanson School, King Rd, BD2 1NR

Sponsored Walk

16th June 9:30

Centenary Square to Waterside Court, Leeds

BIASAN Party

17th June 18:00 – 20:00 @ Bradford Resource Centre, BD1 5DT

Please see linked “Refugee Week” Activities leaflet.

Refugee Week Bradford 2010

Please see our leaflet for our next Greet & Meet HEM Meeting Tuesday 08/06/10  from 1.15pm to 2.45pm held @ Holmewood Activity Centre (Broadstone Way – HolmeWood (bus 607)).

Joining us will be:-

• Education Bradford
• Mathieson immigration law
• Seniors Show the Way

Please advise anyone you can think of who will benefit from our group sessions as well as print to put on as posters.

HEM Flyer 8.06.10

Dont miss this – good music in Bradford Yeah!!
Check the website for details www.melamatik.co.uk/home