Helicopters Overhead

Why?

Because nearly everyday there have been security alerts in Belfast, ever since the Monday about two weeks ago when they began burning cars and hijacking buses all over North and West Belfast, including off the Suffolk Road, which is just up the road from me. That day, all branches of the number 10 bus line stopped running up the Falls Road into West Belfast. Those of us who live there were left only with the black taxis, as there was no guarantee that privately run taxis would take the risk of driving up the West. I've never seen the line for the taxis so long. It took me nearly a half an hour to get a taxi, and even then I had to take a Glen Road taxi instead of one that goes up the Andytown Road, so I still had to walk a ways from where I was dropped.

Ever since that, there have been helicopters circling over West Belfast, droning on incessantly over the noise of the TV, watching people move, watching people stand still, watching the movements of life in areas of 'dissident' activity. They have not yet passed into the back of consciousness, like they did for people in the Troubles, when the drone of the helicopters became like birds chirping or the wind blowing - white noise in the background of every day. No, I still notice their noise, still feel under the microscope when I look out my living room window to see one hovering almost directly above my apartment. I still wonder who they're looking for - whether they're right that that person lives in my neighborhood; maybe I've seen them? Who are they? Why are you watching them? What gives you the right?

The anti-terror laws in Britain (as well as in the Republic) are some of the most draconian laws in the Western world, and, I would argue, given the recent reports of violence at the G20 protests in London, the United Kingdom is one of the most violent societies in the world. And yes, I know that there is genocide in Africa and car bombs in Iraq and Pakistan. But the violence of the British state against its citizens is shocking, and shockingly covered up. It is normalized. Expected. And yet, when a Downing Street aide writes a nasty rumor-filled email about political rivals, all hell breaks loose and suddenly, the wrath of 'the British people' comes down upon him. Where is the wrath against the beatings of peaceful protestors, the oppressive laws, the strangling of people's voices and the inability and unwillingness of the media to tell true stories? Where?

Whether it's violence with guns and batons or violence of words, society here is filled with it. People who used to believe the same thing are now throwing the full weight of their violence at each other, condemning each other for losing 'the way,' no one listening, everyone shouting, no one loud enough to be heard above the din unless they pick up and gun, and that's why people do it. To be heard. It's so hard to be heard.

Politics. Politics is violence.

written by  ebienelson on April 14, 2009 from Belfast, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: "She is the Belle of Belfast City..."
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