Vi3W

Vi3WBIRMINGHAM

CULTURE INDUSTRYRELIGION

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Vi3W Birmingham

from the outside

I D E N T

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Vi3W Designed by three ‘foreign’ students, Vi3W looks

at the different aspects of Birmingham in comparison to those of our own citie’s and countrie’s. These topics, the

pro’s and cons of Birmingham aswell as other findings will be documented through the use of pen, camera and

computer.

We hope you enjoy an outsiders Vi3W of Birmingham.

Matthew Lynch - Illustrator- Cork, Ireland

Sarita Lowton - Designer- London, England

Agata Luczyna - Photographer- Rybtnik, Poland

How do you measure Multi-Culturalism?

Is Birmingham a Multi-Cultural city?

Occupy Birmingham

Religion

Religious indiffernces

‘Completely unspoilt by Progress’

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P.20-21

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Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q

Q Is Birmingham a multicultural city?

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‘HOW DO yOu M E a S u R E MuLTICuLTuRaLISM’

?Does a city become multicultural simply through the presence of several cultures living in the same place, a lot of people I asked in Birmingham thought so… ‘Look around’ there are people from all over the world living side by side. True, In fact one, third of Birmingham’s population are considered to be part of an ethnic minority according to the census and when you walk down any street in the city centre this is evident.

On a purely statistical level, yes, Birmingham is very much a multicultural city. However, to label a city as multicultural, personally I feel that you are implying much more than hav-ing residents from various cultures. To me a multicultural city would be one in which people from different cultures come together, sharing their ways of life, experiencing new things, weather it be food, clothing, music, and learning from each others cultures. after living half my life in London and half in Birmingham, I would say that on this level Birmingham

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by comparison is a far from a Multicultural city. Though this my own opinion based on personal experience, when you ask around about weather people in Birmingham from different cultures really do mix everyone has a different angle on it.

In the end I think that multiculturalism is something that lives with the individual not the whole, its too much of a subjective matter. When we carry out our daily lives, we make choices, and weather we decide to embrace or reject the different cultures around us is a matter entirely down to us. So I’ve changed my question to can you have a multicultural experience in Birmingham if you truly wanted it, and of course the answer is, yes, just look around.

‘‘Multiculturalism is something

that lives with the individual.’’

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‘HOW DO yOu M E a S u R E M u LT I C u LT u R a L I S M ’

afro Carribean communities.

Asian communities.

?

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Yes, I’m English, I’ve found a lot of asian friends, mainly Indian. I re-ally like the different foods I’ve tried.

yes, I’m English and my wife’s family are Jamai-can and I’ve definately expereinced a lot of new food and music.

yes and no, Birmingham does cater for people of many different races. alum Rock has a big asain community, obviously theres chinatown and an ever growing Polish comunity here. I’ll mix with anyone, but not everyone does. People will come together for things like work in the city centre, but not in there home and personal lives.

Is Birmingham a multicultural

city?

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yes, I like the mix in Birmingham I used to live in

North london, there were people from different cultures there too, but it felt a bit more

segregated than here.

yes, I live out in Redditch and theres not really a good mix of

culutures there so when I get into the city centre you instantly notice

the mix of different cultures here.

yes, I mix with West Indian, Indian and Pakistani people, our cultural back-grounds are different, I’m Irish, but when you get to know people you realise you have loads in common, family values, ideas about parenting, theres more common ground there than you may

yes, if you want a good curry go to Ladypool Road, chinese food has to be chinatown, and there are some quite good Italians dotted around.

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INDUSTRY Birmingham is renowned for its industries, once called ‘The Workshop of the World’ the city has now succumb to more contemporary trades in retail, services, and tourism. although a few factories remain producing minor pieces of jewellery and steel components the industry has been hijacked by the behemoth that is retail and tourism. Birmingham alone now has four major shopping centre’s one of which, The Bullring, is the busiest in the uK. Birming-ham is also responsible for 42% of Britain’s tourism and conference trade, with huge venues such as the ICC and NEC hosting regular conventions.

But it is these industries, the potential that there is so much to succeed with in Birmingham, that have brought me here. Originally from Ireland I moved to Birmingham a few year’s ago after my family saw Birmingham as a city lacking in contemporary apartments. So it could be said that I owe my current position in life on the movement of Industry.

‘Completely unspoilt by Progress’

Birmingham is renowned for its industries. Once called ‘The Workshop of the World’ the city has now succumb to more contemporary trades in retail, services, and tourism. although few factories remain producing minor pieces of jewellery and steel compo-nents the industry has been hijacked by the behemoth that is retail and tourism. Birmingham alone now has four major shopping centre’s one being The Bullring, Britains busiest shopping centre. Birmingham is also responsible for 42% of Britain’s tourism and conference trade, with huge venues such as the ICC and NEC hosting regular conventions.

But it is these industries, and the potential that there is so much to succeed with in Birmingham, that have brought me here. Originally from Ireland I moved to Birmingham a few year’s ago after my family saw Birmingham as a city lacking in contemporary apartments. So it could be said that I, like many others, owe my current position in life on the movement of Industry.

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During the Industrial Revolution Birmingham would be seen as a specialist city in the motor industry. Producing all kinds of components, more prominently for aston, Jaguer and Dunlop all of which were founded in the city. With the modernization of the city all the manufacturing plants have moved to outter city areas. Dunlop Rubber’s old factory ‘Fort Dunlop’ has even been converted into office and retail space as more modern forms of industry have gradually taken control of the city. To compare, Cork also had a large motor industry producing components for Ford and Dunlop which were easily exported through the port. Like Birmingham these trades have now almost, or completely vanished. although in comparison to the industry of Birmingham, Cork City takes the majority of its industrial income from less modern, more specialized professions. For instance Corks leading employer at the moment is pharmaceutical company Phzier. In con-trast smaller family run companies are still popular producing fish and other meats and vegetables at the English Indoor Market.

Cork and Birmingham always seemed similar to me. Both cities are strong and more than capable of looking after themselves. Likewise both are the second city or their respective countries and seem to have an un-definable work ethic. Neither city is one where someone goes to retire and relax, each is constantly alive, working and progressing to better themselves and their economy.

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“Working, progressing to better themselves and their economy.”

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Occupy: - To fill up (time or space). - To dwell or reside in. - To seize possession of and maintain control over by or as if by conquest.

Birmingham: - A city of central England northwest of London. A major industrial city and transport hub.

OccupyBirmingham.

Occupy Wall Street began September 17th, 2011 as a demonstration to protest the corporate greed of large organizations as well as economic inequality. as the demonstrations gathered interest, sparking similar protests throughout the rest of the world’s major cities they eventually had to come to Birmingham.

I took a trip down to visit the ‘Occupy Birmingham’ protest one day during the month of October. I wanted to speak to the protestors and gather a ‘feel’ from their environment. Seeing as they were protesting the heads of our corporations I thought it would be an appropriate topic to include in the industry segment of ‘Vi3W’. unfortunately no protesters would speak to me about their protest, but I was able to gather a lot of information from their signs surrounding their ‘base’.

The signs featured at the protest followed the same iconic saying as those on Wall Street “We are the 99%”. The 99% referring to the fact that in recent years those in america’s top 1% owned 34.6% of the countries wealth. although it carrie’s the same point the slogan becomes inaccurate in Birmingham. In america the ratio of pay from CEO to an average worker is 475:1, however in Britain the number is drastically less at 22:1. The point still stands that there is some corporate greed in Britain, but those in the 1% do not have as much control over the countries wealth as those in america.

With the protest’s inaccuracies aside the main focus of the group seemed to be the greed and ‘control’ certain higher powers have over the city. One sign reads “We are here because we no longer accept a corrupt system that rewards greed”. With this in mind it must be questioned, who are they speaking of? The uK’s wage for CEO’s in comparison to their average worker’s is much lower then that of america. Is there truly some-thing wrong with those who control the uK’s industries’. are the protesters, like many others, just jumping on the bandwagon to complain about the government at any given opportunity?

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‘‘WE HaVE JuST ENOugH RELIgION T0 MaKE uS HaTE, BuT NOTENOugH TO MaKE uS LOVE ONE aNOTHER’’

Birmingham is believed to bemulticultural and multi-religious, but is it really? When I first started to walk around town, I’ve seen lots of different people which I wouldn’t meet in my country, so my first answer was `yes, it is`. although, giving my experience and research, I was forced to reconsider it. In different Birmingham’s wards you could meet specific religions and cultures, which separate themselves from the rest of society or, should I say, each other. In everyday life we pass one and other on the streets without even noticing the distance.Everyone is different – skin colour, character, appearance, morals and beliefs – all of them make us ‘individual’ . But nowadays, be-ing `individual` means being an `outsider`, so we try

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to find bigger groups of people with the same views. That’s just how society works. But the one thing I cannot understand is why can’t we accept each other and being one big multi-religious society? Why does religion makes us hate? and why is it still so important in modern world? It is still a taboo for most of people, which is funny since religion affect almost every aspect of our lives. If you look for a simple answer about multi-religious, I guess you’ll never find it, but I hope it makes you think about yourself and your environment.I have to admit that I’m a part of this as much as the people I’m writing about. I am a Polish girl, who came to this country four years ago, however most of my friends here are Polish as well. It’s the greatest example of what I’m thinking, but before this article I haven’t even noticed it. We all look for something stable in our environment and when you are far away from home, it is especially important to save a bit of your origin. I know my country and culture and I feel safer this way. It is the same with religion – we just stick to something we know.

My country – Poland, is known as one of the most religious counties in Europe. you could think there are lots of different creeds, but is 96% adhere to Christian faith. I would never call my country multi-religious. The Polish are not ready yet to accept other religions, because we were raised in deep faith and conservatism, in regard to our history. When I compare Birmingham to Poland and my town – there’s a huge difference in appearance of different religions, but it doesn’t matter if I’m here or there, I can honestly say that we live together as a society but apart as a humans. We are all different, but we have one thing in common – love. Which should act upon all of our actions. Instead criticising something we don’t know, we should accept the differences and learn from each other! “Make love, not war”

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In accordance with the saying: "Man shall not live on bread alone" (Matt. 4:4) many people right after their arrival in the united Kingdom are seeking the church in order not to neglect one's spiritual condition. It is most often the same church, to which they belonged in their own country. However while searching for your ‘own’ religious church in the uK an oppurtunnity can arise to explore other religous buildings due to the uK’s broad religious attributes.

In Poland Catholicism the dominant religion (89% of the society). Followed up by various dennominations of Christianity including Methudist and Bapdist churchs. There is also a nominal amount of Budists and Muslims in Poland.

In great Britain the situation looks less uniform. Scarcely 14% of society profess Catholicism. However generally Christian religions (anglican church altogether with other Protestant) are shutting themselves away in the 71.6%. there is a 2.7% (about 1.7 m people) followers of Islam, three-hundred thousand Jews and 127 thousand Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Suddenly, the behemoth that was the Catholic religion in Poland is beginning to disapear. This diversity of religions in great Britain is putting the question, which was missed in the homeland: “why?”. Here we find it necessary to answer. alternately we can close our eyes, or stop thinking. However every thinking man, making deliberate, rather than mechanical choices in life, will set himself basic questions: “why I am a believer of this onem, rather than any other religions? Whether it is result of growing up in specific traditions, or the matter of my choice? How come there’s so many religions in the world and what would god say, who was supposed to be the only one after all?

RELIGIOUSINDIFFERENCES

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