As a citizen of Ireland, Northern Ireland or whatever you want to call it, I live in the west of the world.
This entire side of earth is often described as “Western civilisation”, and used as an example to developing countries as where they would eventually like to end up, but living here do we really appreciate the benefits?
Indeed, what exactly are the benefits? Well I have noticed a few things about the West that have altered my own opinions on living here. Firstly, last year I went on holiday in Poland. In Krakow, when we were exploring the city I discovered a world that I thought existed only in Dickens novels and to the right of the entrance in Disneyworld.
Firstly, we are talking about a city which has suffered the worst effects of two world wars, extreme poverty and only recently revealed from behind the Iron Curtain and yet, the beauty of the surroundings, the variety of art and architecture, the personality of the speciality shops and cafés, the respect of the people for natural beauty and the general psychology of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” was unbelievable.
We found shops that you just wouldn’t see in Derry, including an entire shop devoted to thousands upon thousands of painted eggs, and cafes in which every item on the menu was presented like an Oscar, and each was as picturesque as the next. Returning to the rich West, even the ad campaign for M&S didn’t seem quite as appealing.
Once again I was alerted to an intoxicating sense of Déjà vu as I visited a few other cities nearby. Belfast is the number one place in Northern Ireland for shopping, and yet you can now get most of the same clothes, music and variety anywhere you go.
This, I thought, was a good thing, but looking at somewhere like America where people can literally spend their whole life in the one place, I am starting to wonder whether this blessing will end up with cities full of people who will never need to expand their horizons, streets that look the same as a thousand others, a Starbucks on every corner and a McDonalds handy wherever you are in the world.
I began to wonder if local young people felt the same way, so I talked to a few and found out their opinions. Michaela Duffy, a 16 year old pupil at St Cecelia’s College, told me that the most interesting place she had ever been was to Verona in Italy. I asked her what attracted her to it, and she replied simply, “The old buildings and monuments.” When asked if she would like to return in ten years time she told me, “Yes, to see if it had become more developed… I would hate that, because the whole atmosphere would be ruined for me. That’s what I loved about the place. It felt original.”
So is this what we want…? The personal touch, passion for our work, individuality and beauty replaced by ugly practicality wherever we go? A world where a trip to Iraq is no different than a trip to Florida? A world in which the closest we get to a story is, “That time when that girl in Burger King charged us for a double whopper with cheese and all we got was a freakin’ whopper and about 30 sachets of ketchup!”? …
In other news, a shopping centre in Derry has just opned a new pioneering “Food Court”, including a Starbucks outlet for your overpriced Skinny Frappé Double Raspberry and White Chocolate Mochalatte available to give you your fix any time of day!
Super.
This article was written by Headliners Foyle member Luke McEvoy.
