Fury at negative video
The West Belfast-based Foundry Regeneration Trust has blasted a
promotional video made by the University of Ulster to gain
investment for North and West Belfast for projecting ``false
stereotypes'' of the areas and its people.
The video, Bridging the Divide, is primarily for circulation in
the USA and opens with a shot of a derelict landscape in the west
of the city. The Trust condemned this negative imagery and
objected to the derogatory narrative which refers to the populace
as an ``educational underclass.''
The social deprivation of these areas is portrayed as being the
fault of the residents alone. The war in the Six Counties and the
culpability of successive British administrations is ignored.
Instead the alleged ``mental barriers'' of the local people and the
inference that they are content to be dependent on state welfare
are declared to be the causes of the economic destitution.
The video also claims that the proposed Springvale campus in West
Belfast will deliver engineering and hi-tech courses; in reality
the campus will provide classes in the service industries,
hairdressing and catering, which are, generally speaking, lower
paid occupations with poorer working conditions.
The Trust has called on the University of Ulster to withdraw this
video and produce a more accurate version which reflects the real
reasons and socio-economic factors in these parts of the city.
One of the largest employers in West Belfast, the Black Taxi
Association, which was founded by local people, doesn't even get
a mention nor does the work of the West Belfast Festival. Both
groups have had a positive effect on the area yet the video
makers were content to focus on the negative image to the
detriment of any postive view of the area.
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