We’ve been so busy with university freshers fayre’s over the past few weeks that I forgot to mention Cllr Colin McGrath has been continuing his weekly video diaries.

We covered the first 3 videos, but he’s now on his 6th. They are all available here but here’s the latest one:

Congratulations to Cllr Colin McGrath who has been chosen as Councillor of the Week on Slugger O’Toole.

Colin has been doing a fantastic job for Down District, working tirelessly for constituents, and producing weekly video diaries keeping us informed of his work as Chairman of the Council. He can also be found on Councillor.info where he answers questions like ‘How Much Does A Councillor Get Paid Then?‘.

(from http://thesdlp.bebo.com/ )

SDLP Cllr Colin McGrath has released his 3rd YouTube diary as Chairman of Down District Council. He certainly has been busy, and it’s the holidays!

He discusses youth issues, bank holiday Monday celebrations, a possible Velodrome for Downpatrick, having his house robbed and car stolen, SDLP meetings, constituency work and more.

Also, he has changed the music after some complaining from us and The Belfast Stoop. Congrats Colin! - We also like the shorter introduction. You’re becoming a pro.

(from http://thesdlp.bebo.com/ )

SDLP Cllr Colin McGrath, who was recently elected Chairman of Down District Counci, discusses recent events and council duties in Down District, in his 2nd YouTube diary.

(from http://thesdlp.bebo.com/ )

SDLP Cllr Colin McGrath, who was recently elected Chairman of Down District Council, has decided to produce a series of video dairies so he can update constituents on what work he is doing during his term of office.

I share the concerns of Cllr Niall Kelly that while it’s an excellent video, Colin must be a bit of a headbanger in his spare time.

I was lucky to have been selected by the SDLP to be the North of Ireland representative on a study visit to Pakistan to investigate the relationship between the Western World and the Muslim World, particularly in the wake of the 9/11 and 7/7 bombings. I joined six other young delegates from Labour, Conservative and the Liberal Democrats and set out on the long trip to the Far East.

During our stay we were to participate in five ‘Dialogues’ on different themes in each of the five principal cities in Pakistan. At each of the dialogues we, as a team of seven, would join seven local Pakistani people to discuss issues such as extremism and terrorism, the state of relations between the Muslim world and the West, Clash of Civilisations, democracy and finally the way forward - future relations.

I found each of the dialogues to be very interesting and the issues raised relevant. There seemed to be repetitive issues which were raised in each of the places we visited.

The following are highlights of the issues raised:

* Western Double Standards - support Afghanistan in the 1980’s, now fight them, support elections in Palestine - don’t like results - don’t support them. Like Iran, now do not like Iran. The Pakistani people do not sit easily with these perceived double standards.

* Problems with perceptions. We now sense and perceive the whole Muslim world to be against us and the Pakistani delegates took so much time to tell us that this is simply not the case. They have extremists and terrorists who carry out their actions with-out the consent of the majority.

* Religious differences. The Western Delegation took time to explain our fears of the Sharia law system and particularly its persecution of women, gay people and thieves. We could not understand a system that preached Human Rights but accepted these insufferable punishments as legitimate.

* We had discussions and reached a consensus that our world community has three elements - Westerners, Muslims and terrorists. This was a move on from the notion that we had terrorists (often suggested that they are state sponsored) and they had terrorists (a rogue element including the likes of Bin Laden). The premise that we both have terrorists and what they do should be condemned and not allowed to become the norm or socially acceptable was discussed and agreed by both panels.

* Poverty. The issue of poverty was raised. The fact that so many Pakistan people live in poverty causes problems. The poverty stricken community can become frustrated and turn to more extremist and violent means. An educated people can make more informed decisions and the lack of basic education must also be addressed.

There were many, many other issues discussed in the more than 25 hours of dialogues, and I recommend you visit the website of the organisers which will kept a track of the conference and all the decisions made. It is available on www.pildat.org

Some of the outcomes from the conference included:

* A call on governments to investigate and encourage student and youth exchanges between our countries to allow our young people the opportunity to explore each others cultures and traditions and to share them and remove any prejudicial fears we may have.

* A call on media watch-dogs to ensure that there is balanced reporting to prevent single incidents by small groups of individuals being reported as the viewpoint of an entire religion.

* A call for a UN Commission to explore religious interpretations of the Human Rights charter, and how to prevent this from being permitted.

* A call for continued work to eradicate poverty. To support and endorse the work of movements such as Make Poverty History campaign.

Like the discussions there were many more outcomes from all the dialogues and they can be viewed on the website.

On a deeply personal level I feel I gained a significant amount of confidence. By participating, contributing in debates, giving TV and radio interviews and speaking with the most eminent members of Pakistani life, it created a feeling of self-worth about ones contribution and to have my contributions appreciated by such eminent individuals further developed this sense of self-worth.

The process of the dialogue helped to educate me about the world of the Muslim. I have had limited exposure to the Muslim world or way of life, like most people in the North of Ireland, and when I contributed to dialogues and stated that we must educate our young to assist them to develop an appreciation for each other, my thoughts were being delivered with a sense of realism to me - as I did not know much about the muslin world, I was dubious of Muslim individuals, I had been sucked in by the very media I spent all week complaining about. My involvement has changed my perspective. I met with Muslims and thankfully these meetings challenged the perceptions I held.

I enjoyed getting to see Pakistan. It was pretty much as I expected it, although I was surprised that there was so much wealth. Maybe I was exposed to more of it than the poverty side of their society? I do feel like I missed meeting a whole layer of the Pakistani community and this would be the largest section - the ordinary Pakistani individual. What are their thoughts and views? What do they think about westerners? What do they think about events such as 9/11 or 7/7? What do they think about extremism and terrorism?

Maybe another group should visit and meet with these Pakistanis and gauge their thoughts?