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SO the world thinks we are racist, homophobic and sectarian.

The Equality Commission brought out a report to prove it.

Esther Rantzen says that as a people we are conditioned to being angry and addicted to violence.

Let’s leave Esther the Ego for now.

First and foremost, let’s be clear – the recent attacks on the Roma community in Belfast were totally wrong. Photographs of frightened children being carted away to a church hall is an unnerving stark reminder of the children who were ethnically cleansed from the Balkans or worse still Nazi purges against Jews.

The people who carried out the attacks are not Nazis; they are ignorant, stupid, bigoted ‘guilpíns’ but they are not a unique Northern Ireland phenomenon.

They are just as likely to be found in the American bible belt or the industrial cities of Europe. In most cases they are rarely politically motivated; they don’t have the intelligence to be that politically aware. That’s not the same as saying that some of those who are politically aware don’t exploit them as cannon fodder or use them to carry out the less edifying aspects of extreme political expression such as petrol-bombing or brick-throwing at minority groups or anyone they don’t like.

Of course, Northern Ireland does have more than its fair share of bigots ever too ready to rise to the occasion.

Unlike other parts of the world much of that bigotry has been spawned through our mainstream political parties and not the fringes. The fact that some of those parties have used these grass-roots idiots for what the police describe as recreational violence which is turned on and off by political representatives to demonstrate their control of the streets means that the peace process has left some of these eejits redundant.

Denied their usual targets of the police or the other side, they rummage around for the next legitimate target. Unfortunately the brunt of those attacks is now being felt most acutely by many of the migrant communities living in Northern Ireland.

Most immigrants who come to Northern Ireland live happily within their host communities whether Catholic, Protestant, unionist or nationalist. Outrageous and unjustified as the attacks on minority communities are, the outpouring of moral indignation and self-righteousness which gushes all too freely from within that section of our society that is least impacted by the migrant communities is pure self-indulgent liberalism.

Unless of course they are talking about the exposure they have to the Latvian hairdresser putting in their rinses or the Turkish waiter pouring their cappuccinos.

Where is the social and shared housing scheme planned for the north Down gold coast or Malone Road? Residents in these areas don’t mind moralising over the fate of ethnic minorities providing they don’t have to live with them. Their residential areas are as exclusive and as narrow as the high moral ground they take when hectoring working-class communities about intolerance. Look how exercised they got at the thought of Balmoral golf club becoming available for housing which was hardly likely to be social or affordable.

It’s all too easy to point the finger of blame at so-called intolerant communities who are finding it difficult to share their limited social space. While it’s not politically correct to say it when the indignant liberals are on full speed on their crusading bandwagon or Malone tractors, the truth is that many ethnic minority communities are by choice or circumstance introspective and inward-looking. The level of social interaction between host communities and migrants can be limited and that can create a mutual sense of fear and suspicion. Ironically many of the migrant communities do share our values about families, community, industriousness and the virtue of hard work. The particular problems faced by the Roma in Northern Ireland are faced by the Roma throughout Europe. Theirs is a tragic history of seemingly belonging nowhere and one which is not helped by the widely held perception that they are involved in organised criminal scams and extensive street begging involving the exploitation of women and abuse of their children rights. Northern Ireland has problems but those problems are no better or worse than other places, proving that we are not unique as we like to claim. Multiculturalism is good for Northern Ireland – we just need to believe it.

As for Ms Rantzen, some think that she is a nauseating, publicity-seeking pensioner but I would not want her as my neighbour. And, if that’s racist, so be it.