In Reply to: Re: Sign of the times posted by Good-Sight on September 06, 2006 at 20:40:22:

As one of those who came here only last year from India with my family after spending sometime in Great Britain i can say that racist attacks in the area of Bradford were commonplace, many of my family including myself have British passports, but we could understand the feelings of those who engaged with us on a day to day basis, racism can have many faces, the odd look the abusive remark, the hostility, all this comes from people fearing the unknown, before i came to Ireland the local community in Bradford got representives from the Indian and other communities together to tackle this head on, many meetings were held to get to know each other, to to their credit many of the ( white) population came, we move and look for work to provide for our families, i believe that Irish people did this as well down through the years, no doubt they probably were treated with mistrust as well by their host communities, but people get used to this, i can say in Castlebar there are some who would prefer we were not here it disturbs them, that is their problem, my talents were required here as were my sons and daughters, we are not here to live off the Irish people or the State, we are here to provide for our families, our chidren go to school here, they play with other chidren, we must let go of the mistrust it destroys communities, i have seen this happen elsewhere, people need to guard what they say, words and comments can be taken out of context and incite hatred, i sense Ireland is changing fast, ( rather like India) populations change and move, but all should be accorder respect and freedom from abuse, we have had abuse thrown at us my family as well on the streets of Castlebar, but we will not respond to it, as Martin Luther said " Here i Stand i can do no other"