(14) Reinforcing Powerlessness - CAIN - University of Ulster

way their church dominated ACE work. The Catholic church leaders wereaccused of being more interested in control rather than genuine economicdevelopment, and a few participants claimed that church schemes had knowinglyduplicated already-existing community-based schemes, with the result that neededfunds were diverted to the church schemes, completely undermining the strugglingcommunity ones. Many ACE jobs, including those run by the churches, were seenas purely cosmetic, designed to look good in the short term rather than createlong-term benefits. 6‘Maintaining a high standard’There seems to be no limit to the openings which can be created by professionals forthemselves. One has only to attend some of the conferences on community ‘themes’organised by the academic elite to realise that conference attendance is for some an endin itself, a means to self-advancement for others, or a useful vehicle to expound pettheories – with often very little about real issues apparent in the proceedings.Ironically, the lack of participation by ordinary people or community activists at suchconferences is not seen as a source of embarrassment, but readily justified, as the minutesof one organisation dealing in community relations made abundantly clear:Mr . . . suggested that a different audience could be targeted, since those atgrassroots level interested in community relations were not being reached. Thegroup, whilst acknowledging that the previous conferences were directed towardsa minority (mainly from academia), seemed to feel that this was justifiable inorder to maintain a high standard.‘Maintain a high standard’? What is it that these people are primarily interested in –with seriously tackling our communal divisions, or merely organising showpieces of‘intellectual’ debate? The Interface conference already referred to took place without asingle academic in sight, and yet got closer to the reality of ‘community relations’ thancountless conferences dominated by professionals.And if servicing the Northern Ireland situation did not provide enough careeropportunities, it seems that for many in academia the whole world is now their oyster, asthe media announced in January 1994:Northern Ireland is to become an international training centre for peace work. AUnited Nations backed centre, based at the University of Ulster, will train diplomats,academics, and help officials for humanitarian operations in the world’s warzones. The initiative, expected to cost £7m over the next five years, is beingfunded by the United Nations, the European Commission and the NorthernIreland Office. 7It will be interesting to see just who will provide the expertise which underpins thetraining offered by this initiative? Those grassroots activists who have been tirelesslyconfronting our communal divisions for years? Somehow I doubt that – their existenceis rarely taken under consideration by the academic elite, the documents they circulateabout their efforts not infrequently resurface in other people’s ‘original’ work, usuallywithout acknowledgement. Unfortunately, the measurement of expertise has all to oftenbeen shown to have little to do with actual experience at the grassroots, and more in16