It is odd how life goes on even though there’s turmoil in the streets, and the most senior politicians ‘big vision’ does not stretch to agreement on putting a job advert in the paper.. Ho hum… It’s in this context however we want to talk about the future of Belfast today at what will the of a new series of Digital Lunch hangouts… So today we want to talk about Belfast in 2020… or rather not so much that (as …
On Nuzhound this morning there are two stories one above the other, which demonstrate the problem of trying to manage Northern Ireland’s (and Belfast in particular) problems from the sidelines. John Simpson makes the blindingly obvious statement that integration is the key to Belfast’s woes. In many older parts of Belfast the population is too crowded. Victorian (or even post-1945) housing sits uneasily alongside the demands of improved living standards for space, amenities and services. In too many parts of …
Now, this is an online ‘event’ that was originally scheduled to take place in December. In fact when I look back at the first one we did on the subject of #Belfast2020, it looks somewhat quaint given what was to follow under the flags dispute. We already have some concrete themes for tomorrow’s debate. I’ve sketched some of the main themes out here on this debategraph (You can contribute your own insights if you register at: http://debategraph.org/belfast2020): We’ve picked 2020 …
I had a phone call earlier asking me what a digilunch was… Before I could answer the reply was, a colleague asked me and I told her it sounded like a bunch of people sitting at their computers banging on and eating sandwiches… To which my response was, yep that’s pretty much it!! Going live now… Today’s starts at 1pm and is the first in a two lunchtime session which will consider the future of Belfast over a relative medium …
Katheryn Torney’s excellent interviews in the Irish Times today asks some searching questions about the past. Daniel Jewesbury’s remarks are particularly revealing where he notes that over the last ten years “we have spent a lot of time hitching ourselves to the wrong horses.” In part, I suspect this is an inevitable downside to the post conflict society where there is little agreement over the longer term destination of the local population. And not least, though not exclusively, the political …
On Friday we’re holding the first of two #DigitalLunch sessions in partnership with the social enterprise, Artemis, in advance of an event they are holding in Stormont next week, which in part will show case some of the work they’ve been doing in Belfast schools. The purpose of Friday’s #DigitalLunch is not to have yet another infertile argument about policy or political instruments or even arguments about whether we ought to be following the shared future or separate but equal …
