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Second Menie Course: Less Than 7 Days To Respond

Aberdeenshire, Articles, Featured, Information 22 Responses »

Aug 212013

Residents, supporters, and Aberdeen Voice contributors attended the Trump International Golf Links Scotland exhibition of its proposed Macleod Course on the evening of 20 August, 2013. For now, let’s just say the red carpet wasn’t exactly rolled out to welcome them. The most important issue is that you now have a chance, whatever side of the bund you sit on, to voice your opinion on the proposed second course – a course that apparently will be directly adjacent to Balmedie County Park. Suzanne Kelly reports.

Suzanne Kelly fights her way through the hordes.

The venue for the exhibition of the proposed second course was the temporary marquee adjacent to the temporary clubhouse in the
not-to-original-spec Trump parking lot, bordered by the high bunds, which were never approved in their current form, and are now
higher than before, near Leyton Farm Road.

Trump’s parking lot wasn’t exactly filled with visitors when we arrived around 1900.

The most shocking feature is that this course is apparently going to border Balmedie Country Park. How this will work in practice environmentally, or take into account the safety of park users who don’t wish to be knocked unconscious by flying golf balls, seems to still need some consideration.

Local residents I spoke to were shocked, and believe their neighbours will be too.

In a forthcoming article we will cover the treatment meted out by those who were on hand to answer questions, but right now, Voice readers are encouraged to examine the contents of the presentation and submit their comments as soon as possible. ‘The deadline for responses is 27 August 2013’ reads the two-page Exhibition Feedback Form.

Whether this means by midnight on 26 August, by the close of business on 27August, or by midnight that day, is not clearly stated. Those who wish to make a submission, therefore, should do so as soon as they can.

The room had a number of round tables, adorned with golf magazines, Trump writing paper, pens, and the feedback forms. Sarah Malone was there, as was a bouncer who towered over my 5’11” height, and a dirty-blonde woman who emphatically refused to identify herself.

She did, however, look strikingly similar to Ann Faulds to some visitors, best known perhaps, for apparently feeding Dr Christine Gore of the council with advice and opinion when planning permission for the complex was initially sought. Details of this are in past issues of Voice and in other news sources. Also present was a man, presumably Hawtree, the course designer.

Comment forms and photos of the presentation boards can be found at http://suzannekelly.yolasite.com/

Proposed layout of the new course

There will be a wider consultation in due course, the Shire council taking comments and objections when these plans are submitted, but putting your thoughts on record now with the Trump Organisation is strongly advised for those who have an interest.

No comment will, in all probability, be counted as ‘no objection’. I urge everyone to make themselves heard.

Anyone wishing to see the exhibition for themselves should take note. It is not accessible via public transport, unless you are willing to walk from the bus stop for at least 20 minutes to get there.

There is no good reason for the consultation to be there; you can’t even see the site from where the consultation exercise is situated.

Is this deliberate? The low key publicity and the low budget nature of this exhibition and consultation exercise suggests to me they would prefer if people did not visit and ask questions.

Why was it not held in town? The public could have seen what happens when you ask questions, like the sniggering when we were there between Malone and Faulds (if it was Faulds), the Faulds-lookalike shutting down any answers, and Malone’s behaviour; the public also may have wondered why a huge security guard was required.

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Where The Wild Things Aren’t

Articles, Environment, Featured, Opinion 4 Responses »

Aug 092013

Mike Shepherd examines social and economic changes which can been seen to have a wide reaching environmental impact from the rain forest of Borneo to the toads of Bishops Loch.

In May this year I returned from Borneo after working there for nine months.

I was living in a city slightly larger than Aberdeen, and although located in Malaysia, over half the inhabitants there are ethnic Chinese.

My hotel apartment was in the Chinese district and I found myself one of only a handful of westerners living there.

The Malaysian people pride themselves on their scrupulous racial tolerance and never at any time did I feel uncomfortable living among them.

I soon made several Chinese friends and found myself quickly immersed in their way of life. I’ve been told that the Chinese of Borneo have preserved more of their age-old culture than is the case on the Chinese mainland, where modernisation and globalisation are changing things rapidly.

I felt a lot like a modern age Marco Polo as I learnt with great interest about subjects such as Taoism, Feng Shui and numerology. My Malaysian Chinese friends were pragmatic, extremely business focussed, and yet the most superstitious people I’d ever come across.

One morning in Borneo, I woke up smelling wood smoke. I looked out from the 17^th floor of the apartment block where I lived, and saw smoke billowing over the low ridges to the east of the city. Billowing smoke is a common sight in this part of the world, and is the result of scrubland being burnt off in preparation for the laying out of palm oil plantations, or land for crops.

The scrubland is what remains after tropical rain forest has been chopped down. The tropical forest is disappearing in Borneo: one estimate puts the rain forest cover at less than 50%. The tropical hard wood is sold to countries such as India, and it’s a highly profitable business.

The sight and smell of the wood smoke upset me greatly. It’s a sign of how the tropical rain forest is dwindling and it’s also a health hazard. The smoke is carcinogenic, yet none of the authorities would do anything to stop it from drifting over the city. A taxi driver told me that on occasions the smoke in the city would become so dense that it would be almost impossible to drive safely.

Singapore was similarly affected in June this year.

On the day that I first smelled wood smoke, I mentioned this to my Chinese friends over a beer in the evening. I made some comment about how sad it was that we should have to tolerate the toxic smoke, in the full knowledge of the loss to humanity of such a valuable resource as the tropical rain forest.

Not only were our lungs being assaulted but the “lung” that provided oxygen to the world was being destroyed piecemeal.

The biodiversity catastrophe taking place would impoverish the whole of humanity and not just the people in Borneo.

These comments were received in stunned silence.

Then one of my friends spoke in an angry tone:

“YOU PEOPLE. How can you come here and say things like that?”

I was immediately alarmed, a subject of extreme sensitivity had clearly been broached. Not only that, the vehemence of the reply was totally out of place in a culture where there is a taboo against displaying strong emotions in public.

What followed was an explanation of what had upset them so much and I write here the gist of what they said to me.

The logging industry and palm oil plantations are major sources of employment in the area, together with the oil industry and a little bit of tourism. There is no manufacturing industry in Borneo; it’s too far off the shipping lanes to have got caught up in the tiger economy of Southeast Asia. Jobs in logging and palm oil provide income for the locals.

The alternative is the poverty that is all too visible in parts of the city. Although Malaysia is relatively prosperous, you can still find illegal shanty towns or ‘kampungs’, which are typically where immigrants from Indonesia and the Philippines live. The week after I arrived, an epidemic of cholera had broken out in a kampung in the neighbouring city; a sign of the very poor sanitary conditions in these places.

My friends had told me on other occasions about poverty in Southeast Asia. For example, the poor of Indonesia sustain themselves with what they call “second-hand rice”. This is boiled rice left over from cafes and restaurants which is treated by being left to dry in the sun. The rice is then broken up and bagged, ready to be sold very cheaply to those who can’t even afford fresh rice.

perhaps both sides of the argument are perfectly reasonable

As we sat drinking Tiger Beer in the local Chinese café, they asked me “Would you want us to be that poor by denying us jobs?” The subject was quickly changed and we found something a lot more jolly to talk about. Social harmony is highly valued in that part of the world.

In the final analysis, most people reading this in Aberdeen, I would guess, will probably agree with me; whereas most people in Borneo would take the opposing view. My take on this is that perhaps both sides of the argument are perfectly reasonable. It’s an example of how you can frame two distinct and opposing statements that are both equally valid and show impeccable internal logic.

I would still strongly concur with what I said, and yet I would also agree with my Chinese friends. I wouldn’t want them to suffer the deprivations of Asian poverty. Not them, not anybody.

How do you solve this dilemma? The region of Borneo I was working in, Sarawak, has a population of only 2.4 million. This is less than half the population of Scotland, yet Sarawak covers a large area. Perhaps it might be possible to achieve a sustainable economy that would provide work for the local population and still preserve what is left of the tropical rain forest?

Alas, this was not a topic for serious conversation in the Chinese café, it was just too naïve a suggestion to make in that part of the world. Rich and powerful people are making big money out of logging and they couldn’t care less about the environment. The mentality of exploiting any resources you can, to make money, is at any rate embedded in the local way of life at all levels, and few see any problem with that.

The threat of ever-present poverty is a big driver for this attitude. Borneo is a simple case history that shows that without international effort to achieve a sustainable solution for the world’s environmental problems, the situation will only carry on until everything is gone.

What’s happening in Borneo is a story that is being repeated all over the tropics and elsewhere in the world. Let’s not be too smug: closer to home, it’s not too difficult to find similar examples of catastrophic loss of biodiversity.

One example I know about comes from the Bishops Loch in Parkhill near Dyce. Bishops Loch is about 9 acres in area and is named after the now ruined Bishop’s Palace located on the north bank of the loch. The Palace, in reality a small house- sized building, was owned by the medieval Bishop of Aberdeen.

The loch used to be well known for its large population of toads which could be heard croaking on a summer’s evening. However, the introduction of the oil industry inadvertently wiped out the entire toad population.

The toads would overwinter in Parkhill Wood, a behaviour that involved migrating from the loch and crossing the adjacent B997 road.

This was not that hazardous a trip in the 1960s, but when oil company offices and warehouses opened up in Dyce in the 1970s, the B997 became a much busier road. It was being used as a popular rat run to get from the Bridge of Don to Dyce. The toad population started to plummet as more and more were run over by cars during their winter migration across the road.

A local resident contacted the then Grampian Council at the end of the 1970s and asked for a tunnel to be built under the road as a means of preserving the toad population. This was not taken seriously. No doubt the council officials felt they had better things to spend ratepayers’ money on than an escape route for toads. Economics tends to win out over the environment most of the time.

The world is living an unsustainable ‘jam today, bread tomorrow’ way of life. Our current standard of living is at the expense of an indeterminate future. Here in Scotland, our municipal authorities have a combined debt of £11 billion and it is increasing fast, year-on-year. Loading debt is the only way they can manage their budget obligations.

It will be an unwelcome legacy to our children and grandchildren, who will just have to cope with it if they can. Likewise, we are unsustainably exploiting the environment and for those of us who don’t eat second-hand rice, we are doing reasonably comfortably out of it so far.

The wild things are going fast, be it in Borneo or Bishops Loch. Academic biologists actively discuss the idea that we are currently heading for a man-made mass extinction event.

There are too many people in the world. Our planet has coped with 7 billion people on the planet so far, and the numbers are increasing fast. Four babies are being born every second: 200,000 additional people are being added to the world’s population every day.

Modern technology and transport have allowed humans to cope with these enormous numbers; they would be impossible otherwise. As a species we are coping after a fashion, albeit with enormous stress on an environment that hasn’t quite collapsed totally, not yet anyway. However, we are on our way to eating everything that can be eaten and stripping everything else bare too.

The biodiversity catastrophe in the world today is very real and it could easily lead to human catastrophe as well. Without awareness of the issue, and concerted action, we could all share the fate of the toads in Bishops Loch.

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Lockerbie: Lost Voices

Articles, Information No Responses »

Jul 052013

2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Scotland autumn tour for the 25th anniversary of the Lockerbie tragedy. Contributed by Duncan Harley, and reproduced with permission.

The play gives voice to six hypothetical characters grappling with their conflict between accepting the unacceptable and having the courage to stand up for their personal truth.

Their conflicts unfold on board Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988: a mother and her stepdaughter engage in a power struggle and a retired couple disagree on priorities – family versus personal dreams.

The third couple, a USA intelligence agent and a Scottish investigative journalist, face their profound fear of the consequences in speaking truth to power. With humour, love and courage each couple discovers a surprising insight into their relationship.

In the last of three scenes, “A Chorus of Angels,” the six dead passengers join together in presiding over their own funeral. They speak from the neutrality of death in bearing witness to the investigation unfolding on the ground — the care and effort of not only those trying to uncover the truth, but also those deliberately trying to hide and manipulate it.

In poetic language and original choral music, they shed new light on the worst terrorist attack in the UK.

Directed by Corinne Harris

with James Bryce (pictured).

Source: http://www.the-elements.org.uk/productions/lockerbie-lost-voices/

Flood-battered Charity Carers’ Service Fights Back

Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Articles, Information No Responses »

Jul 012013

With thanks to Claire McBain.

On Friday 28 June 2013 VSA, the north-east’s largest charity and the country’s biggest city social care charity, held an open day for carers and professionals to officially launch its new Stonehaven Carers’ Centre following two notorious Stonehaven floods that left the former building ruined.

VSA’s Stonehaven Carers’ Centre covers Portlethen to St. Cyrus and inland towards Deeside.

Moira Hurry, senior carers support and development worker at VSA’s Stonehaven Carers’ Centre, said:

“I’m pleased to say that despite the difficulties we faced we continued to provide a valuable service to existing and new carers throughout south Aberdeenshire.”

The former building, in Arbuthnott Place, was severely damaged by the flood three years ago and again last December. Before securing the new office in Evan Street, Moira worked from home and VSA headquarters but heavily relied on support from local organisations:

“Thanks to kind support from the Belvidere Hotel in Stonehaven, the Care Management and Community Learning and Development teams in Portlethen I could continue with meetings, like monthly carer groups and one-to-one sessions.

“The open day is an opportunity for people to find out about the range of support available to adult unpaid carers, meet fellow carers, enjoy some well-deserved pampering and explore special interest groups, like the art workshop.”

Kenneth Simpson, chief executive at VSA, said:

“I want to personally thank everyone in the community who rallied round to support VSA at this challenging time. I’m delighted that we were able to keep the service going throughout and can now launch an exciting new centre for local carers.”

VSA’s Stonehaven Carers’ Centre shares its office with PAMIS, an organisation that supports people with profound and multiple learning disabilities across Aberdeenshire city and shire.

What A Mighty Long Bridge

Articles, Opinion No Responses »

Jun 212013

By Duncan Harley.

A major world city was in lock down this week and rush hour was cancelled. For possibly the first time in over 15 years, the city and its surrounding countryside was filled with security barriers and checkpoints.
Snipers on the rooftops, razor wire around public buildings and surveillance drones flying overhead all added to the air of unreality.

Thousands of police and troops lined the streets and the government brought in a 30 ton water cannon along with an extra sixteen judges equipped with special emergency powers in order to process anyone deemed a threat to law and order.

The local river was closed to the public, with police speed boats and frogmen on hand to deal with any waterborne threats and a local 5 star hotel was surrounded by nearly 5 miles of razor wire.

In a seemingly unprecedented move, the central government deployed undercover teams of armed Ghurkha soldiers in the belief that the fierce dark skinned, kukri wielding Nepalese warriors would blend in well with the local population.

This was not Kabul, Basra or even Damascus. This was Belfast, capital and largest city of Northern Ireland.

A city boasting a population of over 280,000 largely peaceful inhabitants and the fourteenth largest city in the United Kingdom. Birthplace of the Titanic, world snooker champion Alex “Hurricane” Higgins, Bobby Sands and CS Lewis amongst many others.

The Obama Show and G8 had come to town. In a rousing speech to over two thousand people, mostly young students, at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall Obama told the people of Northern Ireland:-

“For those who choose the path of peace, the United States of America will be with you every step of the way.”

The G8 summit meeting (G8 being of course an elite club comprising France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and the United States) was seemingly held in Northern Ireland because

David Cameron hoped that it would send a clear message to the rest of the world that the peace process has worked and normality has returned to the streets of Belfast.

the summit went well with seemingly only a handful of protesters taking to the barricades

Many commentators however pointed to the security measures which accompanied the summit as being a sign that all is not well in G8 land. Some folk even wondered if the barriers and razor wire were to keep the protestors out or the keep the G8 leaders in.

All in all though, the summit went well with seemingly only a handful of protesters taking to the barricades. Indeed some reports put the protester numbers at less than 200 overall. There had been a larger turnout the week before however with around 2000 protesters.

By contrast when G8 came to Scotland’s Gleneagles Hotel in 2005 over 200,000 folk demonstrated in Edinburgh and the in 2001 Genoa G8 resulted in more than 300 people being injured in riots with a 23-year-old protester being shot dead by police.

The late Michael Marra wrote a quite poignant song about the US General Grant’s 1877 visit to Dundee. “General Grant’s visit to Dundee” it is called. The General called past Marra’s home city at the end of a two year world tour which had included visits to most European capitals plus those of the Middle East and Burma, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Seemingly however the only thing anyone could remember that the American General and his entourage had said during his visit was “What a mighty long bridge for such a little old town” with his wife commenting “what well trained little orphans.”

For reasons best known to himself the good general chose not to visit Aberdeen.

What, some wonder will history remember of Obama and his wife’s stirring speeches when the time comes to review and recall the events of this week in Belfast?

Perhaps Obama’s quote from Yeats “Peace comes dropping slow” will be remembered in a hundred years or so and from Michele:-

“you young people are some of the most important people we meet on these tours.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Sources

Belfast on wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfast
General Grants tour: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/grant-tour/
Marra on Grant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7dV_8bqjBk

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Old Susannah’s Journal No 124 – The Shame Of It

Articles 17 Responses »

Jun 212013

Voice’s Old Susannah takes a look over the past week’s events in the ‘Deen and beyond. By Suzanne Kelly.

Tally Ho! Summer time and the living is vibrant and dynamic. Race for Life takes place in a fortnight; Duthie Park will reopen in style on the 30th; Willows is holding an open day on the 22nd, the Portsoy Boat Festival runs all this coming weekend, and much more is going on.

As soon as time permits, I’ll write about the RGU degree show held last Friday. Visitors and staff alike were impressed at the quality of the work.

With the BrewDog Annual General Meeting days away, I can barely concentrate for excitement.

They are also releasing more shares, and no doubt my purchase of another two shares will throw my moralistic critics into a tailspin.

Not only that, but I have accepted my first ever ever gift from someone I’m writing about.

The piece should be in today’s Aberdeen Voice, and I am sure it will do as much to restore your faith in our police as it has done for me.

Anyway I initially refused the gift, but not wanting to upset my contact, I acquiesced and accepted it. Readers will have to decide on their own how corrupt this makes me and how biased and obligated to my source I am. I have accepted, as a gift for writing about something, a tiny piece of macaroon, and an (unopened) packet of popping candy.

I intend to share this at the Aberdeen Voice anniversary party; more on that eventually from our editor, Fred.

Suffice it to say Aberdeen Voice is now virtually 3 years old. I shall wait by my mailbox for congratulatory letters and telegrams from old and new friends, from Neil Fletcher and Kate Dean to Stewart Milne and Donald Trump. I keep trying to convince editor Fred Wilkinson to either marry one of the Trump children or open an erotic publishing arm to boost our standing and income, but he seems a little less than keen.

So Alas! We won’t be in the same league as Aberdeen Journals anytime soon. Still, I live in hope.

My BrewDog and journalistic freebies euphoria as been tempered by the surprise announcement that Aberdeen did not get further with its City of Culture bid.

You’ll never guess the suspected reason, so astutely pointed out in unbiased fashion by the 20 June Press & Journal. They are 100% certain we’d have won this prestigious award if only we’d built a granite web over Union Terrace Gardens. I’m sure the culture judges simply didn’t do their homework. I just hope they didn’t get distracted by our little hiccoughs regarding culture.

we shot our 70 year old herd of harmless roe deer, bulldozed their meadow

Did they care that we allowed the Foyer to close? It provided structure and support to young people with problems while allowing established and fledgling artists to show their work with openings attended by many sections of Aberdeen society.

Did the culture judges care that in a town of billionaires and multi-millionaires no one would rescue – for a mere £5k – Limousine Bull? Bull provided affordable studio spaces in Torry for new artists, held art classes, ran exhibitions, and improved the cultural life in Torry.

Did the judges care that while ‘transforming’ Aberdeen we shot our 70 year old herd of harmless roe deer, bulldozed their meadow which was home to many species and turned it back into a barren rubbish tip, studded with saplings destined to die? Did they care about how we closed services to young, old and people with special needs and abilities?

Of course not – like the rest of the world, they wanted us to borrow £90 million, rip out the only city centre green space without tombstones on it, and build a bunch of ramps that went up and down. And that’s why we lost. I hope you feel as ashamed as I do.

This devastating loss of a prestigious award, which saw giant spiders in the streets of Liverpool costing only a million pounds or so is crushing. Still, we live on.

Thankfully we are being castigated over the loss by arbiters of good taste, John Prescott and the Press and Journal.

Some folks suspect the P&J had a vested interest in supporting their advertisers’ granite web dream project. Others still think the P&J and its sister the Evening Express contrived in subtle ways to gently, subliminally convince the public the web was the answer to our prayers, but I can’t find any examples of any such behaviour.

Where did our culture bid go wrong? We had a guy painting himself different colours and sitting in the window of an independent record store that couldn’t afford to keep going. We took web saleswoman Rita Stephen and put her in charge, ostensibly because she knows how to sell things like, er, the idea of a web.

John Prescott wants Barney Crockett to be ashamed

We have missed our one and only chance to be a city with webs that people want to live close to. As the P&J suggests, we should ‘Hang Our Heads In Shame’.

And on that note some definitions.

Shameless: (Eng. adjective) to fail to, or refuse to acknowledge or display remorse, guilt or regret when conditions merit it.

When our betters tell us to be filled with shame, we would do well to obey. When our conscience tells us we have done wrong, we should admit it and show remorse.

The Press & Journal want us to be ashamed for not building the web. John Prescott wants Barney Crockett to be ashamed – Crockett suggested Aberdeen was edged out of the all-important Culture contest in part for being a rich city compared to the other contenders.

Who should know more about shame than Prezza and the Prezza and Journal?

Prescott, when not confessing his infidelities with his secretary, doing television programmes about ‘class’ and beating egg-throwing protestors, seems to have a new string to his bow – criticising his own party members. As to the affair, his wife Pauline decided to stand by him after he admitted two years of cheating with one of his secretaries (which was OK, because it wasn’t love, so that’s all right).

Pauline Prescott stayed with her husband for the sake of the book, which earned a few pennies here and there.

It recounts John’s romantic marriage proposal (to the wife, not the secretary), which was delivered in a train toilet (hopefully one of those larger train toilets rather than the small ones). So if anyone is qualified to tell Crockett and the web-resisters they should be ashamed, then it is Prezza.

Quite what the City of Culture judges saw in Dundee is a mystery

Also without sin and eager to cast stones is our own Press & Journal. By now Old Susannah readers know about the cosy relationship between its editor Damian Bates and Sarah Malone Bates, face of Trump golf in Scotland.

Bates’ faultless love life conduct and professional bearing dictate the editorial policy that allows him to use the P&J to tell us to be ashamed. And that, as they say is a Result.

Quite what the City of Culture judges saw in Dundee is a mystery – they have an arts centre with programmes for all ages to create, discuss and view art, socialise and engage with each other. They have embraced their old buildings and, in Brownfield sites created new spaces for the arts.

They have turned their waterfront not into an extended industrial harbour as is proposed for Torry’s remaining unspoilt coast, but instead created a pleasant, social meandering walk from restaurants and bars to historic sailing ships. (If you haven’t visited the Unicorn or the Discovery, I recommend you do so).

Their shops are in part filled with small designers and local merchants who can afford the rates. They must have bribed the judges. And not a web in sight.

I can think of one other cultural crack in our granite culture bid. That is our disappointing crime culture. The guilty know who they are – because the police shamed them in the P&J issue of 18 June.

Guilt: (Eng. Noun) responsibility, culpability for an event, problem or issue.

This car crime that plagues Aberdeen – the police know who’s behind it, and they’re doing something about it. No, they’re not re-establishing the Facebook page ‘Aberdeen Stig Boy Racers’. You may recall this website which operated under the watchful eye of our police – over 400 people bragged about / supported/ joked about car theft, including posting ‘how to’ schematics.

Of course this was in no way a problem; the police never criticised it at all. Perhaps they were using it as a handy way to detect crime.

It’s not the thieves who are at fault

Some might think preventing crime by having police doing the rounds, or by not allowing people to glamourise crime might have been a better idea, but there you go.

These Stig theft fans were only engaging in harmless banter. The real culprits should hang their heads in shame. According to the P&J 18 June:-

“Police blame careless owners for car thefts.’

Yes that’s right. Those selfish, greedy, careless people who don’t lock their cars 100% of the time and/or who keep keys in their kitchens or near their front doors are guilty as sin. They’re asking for it.

It’s not the thieves who are at fault; it’s the people who want to think their belongings shouldn’t be stolen from their garages or their homes. Of course in terms of violence against women, the idea that women are ‘asking for it’ has been deemed offensive and inaccurate.

When it comes to car owners though – fair enough for the police to say they bring it on themselves. That is what we call progress.

I’d like to ask everyone who’s ever not locked their car, everyone who keeps keys in their properties which could be seen by a thief innocently casing the joint and pressing their nose to the glass to do the right thing. Turn yourselves in.

You can’t expect the police to be out on patrol everywhere (or indeed anywhere); they have some really dangerous people to deal with. I don’t mean ‘one man crime wave’ Mad Max Milligan who at 17 has stolen over £15k’s worth of goods He had a troubled background, and we need to cut him some slack. I mean the really dangerous people.

Guilty as charged is one hardened criminal, a Mr. X. I won’t name him for fear of reprisals.

He was given a lenient £300 fine for his first offence – although a custodial sentence would have been more appropriate.

I only wish they had cordoned off streets at the time and tasered him.

This man, seemingly a mild-mannered engineering graduate with no criminal record was spotted by eagle-eyed police camera operations at Christmas time walking our city streets with – a small corkscrew.

The offensive weapon, still in its plastic wrappings, was deemed to be an a massive security threat, and worthy of the fine imposed. I only wish they had cordoned off streets at the time and tasered him.

I suppose the guilty party would have got off with a lesser fine, but he invented a ridiculous story, and claimed he won the corkscrew in something called a ‘Christmas cracker’. Ridiculous. If any of you out there are carrying nail files, corkscrews, pointy keys, knitting needles or hair pins turn yourselves in now, you too may get off lightly.

However, if you feel like walking into the £1 shop next to Moulton Brown and buying an air pistol and some pellets, the police are happy for you to do so, as long as you’re over 18 years old and are then obviously completely mature.

I’m just glad to know that somewhere, someone high up in our esteemed police force is deciding who to target, and the judicial branch is responding with appropriate sentences. We can all sleep easier tonight – as long as there is nothing valuable in our kitchens, downstairs rooms or cars.

Next week: more law enforcement news, BrewDog AGM, and more.

Away The Crow Road

Articles, Featured, Opinion 3 Responses »

Jun 132013

Hall Harper takes a few moments to contemplate the death of Iain Banks.

Like many others I was saddened this week by the news of Iain Banks’s death at the age of 59, only a couple of months after doctors had diagnosed him with gall bladder cancer and given him around a year to live.

I first became aware of his writing over 20 years ago when I found myself in Chelmsford with some free time between an early afternoon meeting and an evening dinner arrangement, and wandered into a local bookshop in search of something interesting.

Scanning the shelves, my eye was drawn to the name Espedair Street which, to someone born and brought up in Paisley, immediately brought to mind a road in the south of that town.

Standing in that booksellers in Essex, though, it seemed unlikely that this could relate to the same tenement-lined street of my home town, but a quick flick through the first few pages revealed that it was.

The result was that I bought the book and spent the next few hours totally immersed in a fascinating story that almost resulted in me missing my dinner date.

Over the intervening years I’ve read his varied output and was constantly amazed at the brilliance of a master storyteller whose diverse and quirky range of works were always intelligent, perceptive and witty. I must admit, however, that I haven’t explored the science fiction titles of Iain M. Banks, as I’ve just never been able to warm to science fiction as a genre, but that’s my problem.

But it was mainly the wit that I was always drawn to.

This week, I have heard many observers quote the wonderful first sentence of The Crow Road, “It was the day my grandmother exploded,” which, I would wholeheartedly agree, must surely be one of the wittiest and best opening lines in a modern novel.

Nevertheless, my first memorable encounter with Mr B’s wit was in the early pages of Espedair Street where he described one of the less-salubrious districts of my birthplace:

“Ferguslie Park lay in a triangle of land formed by three railway lines, so no matter what direction you approached it from, it was always on the wrong side of the tracks.”

Let me assure those who are not familiar with the area, aka ‘Feegie’ or ‘The Jungle’, that this is a description which says more than a 200-page dissertation ever could.

But wit was clearly an integral part of the man who recorded that his reaction to being diagnosed with the terminal condition which brought his life to such a tragically premature end on Sunday was, “along the lines of ‘oh bugger!’” and who later asked his long term partner, Adele Hartley, if she would do him the honour of becoming his widow.

Now that really is raising two fingers at death!

So while I mourn the passing of someone I believe to have been one of Scotland’s finest writers, I suspect he would have scorned any display of grief at his demise preferring instead that those left raised a smile and a glass to his memory.

So cheers Iain – thanks for everything!

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Aberdeen Voice Interview With Author Maggi Sale

Articles, Creative Writing, Featured 4 Responses »

May 092013

Voice’s Nicola McNally interviews writer Maggi Sale, and explores the fascinating background to her first book.

Nicola: Congratulations on the publication of Dying Embers and Shooting Stars, Maggi. You’re joining the ranks of Scots women authors such as Janice Galloway, JK Rowling, Carol Ann Duffy and Liz Lochhead.

Yet I feel your novel is more comparable with Aberdeenshire author Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song.

Your Dying Embers and Shooting Stars is alternately forthright and lyrical, haunting and challenging, and beautifully written with a strong narrative voice.

You introduce us to a captivating, resilient and increasingly self-aware character, Margo, a Scots lass like Grassic Gibbon’s Chris Guthrie, whose life also reflects the social, political and spiritual background in her country. So, what inspired the title of your novel?

Maggi: I wanted to convey that sense of circularity and interconnectedness of all things…. ‘out of the ashes, the Phoenix rises’. The book cover also suggests that notion of ‘looking through/beyond’ and hopefully conveys the concepts of space and wonder which are so lacking in our modern lives.

“Margo” is pretty close to home, of course, and there is no doubt that the reader is invited into her head, but I’d like to think that the situations and circumstances that she experiences are recognisable as being fairly universal. Yes, a lot happened to young Margo, but she survived to tell the tale! I write from the perspective of believing that what matters is not so much what happens to you, as how you respond to it!

I’m very honoured that you should link me with the likes of Grassic Gibbon. All I’d really written before this novel were hundreds of Social Background Reports on other people. My role as an inner-city Social Worker gave me the Statutory Duty, but also great human privilege, to ‘do a nosy’ into people’s lives.

This was usually at times of great crisis and I was both fascinated and humbled by the current ‘human condition’ and how different folk dealt with the challenges that beset them. Many were broken by them of course, but some seemed able to tap into something deeper and I would then really enjoy the task of writing fulsome Court Reports that would ‘bring them alive’, or so said the Sheriff! But he still sent them down.

I didn’t set out to write a Book as such. Things happened that I felt the need to record and I would print them out on the work’s printer. Colleagues would pick them up while I was out on a home visit and I’d return to clamours of “more”! They would usually be falling off their seats laughing in the tea room. We really are a heartless lot.

There is nothing quite like walking the length of the country to get the measure of the land and its people

Increasingly though, I was approached by individuals who were personally touched by the ‘story’ and I started to realise that it might have real therapeutic value. So I continued, while working full-time and also hosting a Global Exchange Group from India, and a “Book” was born in exactly five months. Sunday was the only day I could really put aside for it, so the lads cooked….or starved.

Nicola: It’s a real Scots novel, isn’t it, in setting and language, with a great emphasis on traditional Celtic hospitality, set in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and with a Peace March through Scotland via Aberdeen in the plot!

Maggi: There is nothing quite like walking the length of the country to get the measure of the land and its people. I’d like to think that the book reveals the roots of Margo’s sense of common humanity, by which she strives to live. I have no idea whether the images in my head have been conveyed via words on the page to the reader’s inner landscapes, but I’d like to think so.

I think it was the ten years that I spent in Africa that gave me a perspective on this wee country of ours that I might never otherwise have had. My children spent their early years in Zambia and the book gave me a chance to record those early influences that determined many of the values by which we live to this day.

As a Scot, I was often treated differently to my English husband, and I was amazed at the affection that was expressed for the Scots, who have a tradition of living alongside the indigenous people of Central Africa.

dying-embers-and-shooting-stars-book-cover

The book gave me an opportunity to express my gratitude for being part of the ‘ben-the-hoose’ hospitality that I experienced in my own Scottish childhood and in Central Africa.

There is a theme of water flowing throughout the book and that is no accident.

When you have experienced water-deprivation while trying to breast-feed your child, you never take it for granted again.

I have been very privileged to have lived in many diverse places and contrasting social conditions throughout my life, so let’s just say that I didn’t have to ‘imagine’ much when writing Margo’s story.

Nicola: So, was it your intention to present the often harsh realities of inner city life from a woman‘s perspective? And in contrast, the most beautiful and enduring aspects of the human condition from a woman’s perspective?

Maggi: Perhaps that’s what came through for you, Nicola, but that was not my intention. The main character is incidentally a woman, but the main thrust of the story is the pain and distress that results from denial, really. That can, and does, happen to anyone who is brought up in a culture of, ‘we don’t talk about that’!

I saw this so much in my professional life too, and it nearly broke me.

Another theme of the book is the help and support that comes from very unlikely quarters, and Margo’s growing realisation of the source of this as she faces many dilemmas. Confidentiality would prevent me from revealing the actual people concerned so the characters are composite and the situations are scrambled; but they reveal a human resilience in the face of adversity that often left me humbled.

I think we have lost our way as a coherent society in recent decades and the book certainly reveals the dark underside of lost generations who are turning to drugs and crime in place of a lost identity. But I hope it reveals their humanity too.

Nicola: There’s a humorous element to the book, in spite of the often painful subject matter. How important is this?

Maggi: Absolutely crucial! I was totally shocked when I first came to live in Glasgow and couldn’t believe it when the toddler would answer the door and call, “Maw! It’s the f…ing Social worker!”…and the reply would come, “Aye! C’min Hen! The kettle’s oan!” Coming from Edinburgh, via Africa and rural Dumfries and Galloway, I didn’t know what to make of it at first.

My colleagues were equally earthy and soon knocked me off my ‘professional’ perch. And really, when you saw some of the truly horrendous social situations and circumstances that we had to deal with, you either laughed, or you cried. And I cried! After four years, I suffered a complete mental and emotional breakdown and felt quite suicidal.

We have to accept that the FOSSIL AGE is OVER….or WE are!

But as is often the case, it was that total collapse that brought me face to face with myself, and the pretensions that held my own pain at bay! It was that earthy, and honest, Glasgow humour that got me back to work. I really learned to laugh, and I haven’t stopped since.

Nicola: The book is published by Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, and you have very generously promised the proceeds from your book sales to causes close to your heart. Will you tell AV about these?

Maggi: As a grandmother of nine creative young people, all of whom are gifted musicians, artists, performers and students, I have a huge vested interest in securing their sustainable future. We are living in very troubled, but dynamic, times and my work over the years with VSO Global Exchange has convinced me that we do indeed have a future; but only if we radically change our ways as a species.

I established a small group based on non-violent direct action principles called HOPE, or the Human Order for Peace on Earth. Over the years it has challenged nuclear waste dumping and nuclear weapons, and is currently challenging fracking, which is the chemical extraction of gas from shale, which threatens our very existence.

We have to accept that the FOSSIL AGE is OVER….or WE are! The choice is now water, or oil and gas! Scotland has the expertise, ingenuity and opportunity to seek and develop sustainable alternatives, and we must!

I also teach English as a Second Language to asylum seekers and refugees, and provide refuge and respite in my village home and practical assistance when they are given ‘leave to stay’. I’m a’ body’s ‘Auntie’ and they call me Bumma! We work on the basis of ‘Living Simply, that Others may Simply Live’…. and we are a’ Jock Tamson’s Bairns undivided by creed or culture.

I was also chosen as “Grandmother of the Burning Hearth” by the Grandmothers Circle the Earth Foundation. Their Hopi prophecy states, “When the Grandmothers speak, the World will be healed!” Perhaps my title of “Grandmother of the Burning Hearth” from GCEF had something to do with the ‘Dying Embers’ title of my book.

We now have a Council in Scotland and I’m the Granny of the Grannies, being the oldest at 70 in June! I have now used up all my savings doing this sacred work and any income from my book will allow me to continue.

Nicola: Thank you, Maggi Sale, for talking with us, and many congratulations on your book’s publication. Maybe it’s the first part of a trilogy, a Scots Quair for the 21^st century ?

Maggi: As an honorary Glaswegian, my reply to that is, “Aye! Right!”

Further information:

Grandmothers Circle the Earth Foundation is a non-profit organisation that brings together women of all ages and races, cultural, social, professional and spiritual backgrounds, to create practical and sustainable solutions to the most pressing issues they face today.

Its mission is to respond to requests for guidance, resources, professional expertise and administration in creating sustainable Grandmother Councils and culturally relevant Women’s Circles.

These bring together ceremonies, medicines and wisdom teachings of indigenous people from many nations, as valuable tools and bridges for addressing universal issues around the world, such as: Developing Community, Sustainability, Renewable Resources, Elder Care, Developing Youth Leadership, Domestic Violence, Business Development and more.

Voice readers can order a copy of Maggi Sale’s book ‘Dying Embers and Shooting stars’ online. It’s now available on www.amazon.co.uk in paperback and kindle editions.

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Benefits Cheat? Ask ATOS

Aberdeen City, Articles, Featured, Information 3 Responses »

Apr 182013

By Justin Smith.

3 years ago, I was a successful IT systems Engineer earning in excess of thirty thousand pounds a year and had been in continuous employment since leaving university.

On 15^th Aug 2010 I was in a road traffic accident that turned my world upside down. I was left in Critical condition in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary as a result.

According to RoSPA, 80,000 people a year are seriously injured on the road. So it could happen to anyone!

I had 3 major surgeries in ARI and 2 further surgeries including a total hip replacement up to December 2011. On the 9^th of May 2012 I was assessed by ATOS to be fit to work.

This was despite the fact I was on crutches and due to have my 6^th surgery in August 2012, on a leg I am fortunate still to have.

I had that surgery in August and there was absolutely no chance I would have been fit to work for several months even if everything went well. As it was, I spent most of September in ARI due to an existing infection in my leg. I needed 4 more surgeries as a result.

I was in no way physically fit to work for many months afterwards.

My consultant had said as much in a letter I had requested and that was presented at my tribunal.

In addition to my physical injuries, ATOS took no account of the effects of my head injury believing that my spending an hour at a time on FB was sufficient evidence that I could return to work!

Maybe if I worked for ATOS?

The WCA takes no account of my fatigue and the anger issues resulting from head injuries. I have since had my Tribunal – March 2013- and although they gave me 6 points, I was still judged to have been fit to work last may, at least according to the limited criteria of the WCA.

How anybody can reach the decision that I was fit to work in May 2012 and how the tribunal can confirm that decision, based on any form of reason is beyond me.

They said I was fit to work when they knew I had upcoming surgery that I obviously needed. Subsequent to that surgery I was in hospital for a month for 4 more surgeries, with a further 6 weeks of hospital visits to attend to open wounds.

Those wounds did not close until the week before Christmas 2012. That was 5 months and I was still recovering. In what way would I have been fit to work over that period?

I am currently on the Momentum pathways program for head injuries to prepare me for a return to work this summer. It has helped a great deal and I wouldn’t have been fit to return to work without it.

I plan to go back to work part time in May and build up my hours from there.

It was always a primary objective in my recovery to get back to work! If I, as a hard working productive member of society am treated like this when I need the help most, what is the welfare system for?

I am one of the lucky ones in having the support of my family and being able to get back to work. Other people aren’t so lucky and are dying or left destitute due to the actions of this government.

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Rodgers And Bonham Charity Success: Willows To Benefit

Aberdeenshire, Articles, Featured 1 Response »

Apr 122013

Paul Rodgers And Deborah Bonham. Photo By Noel Buckley

On Saturday April 1st, Paul Rodgers, Deborah Bonham and her band (along with special guests) returned to The Venue in Chichester to raise the roof one more time for animal charities including Willows Animal Sanctuary in Aberdeenshire.

Paul Rodgers and his wife Cynthia are Patrons of Willows which takes in a massive number and variety of welfare cases from cats to pigs to horses.

Currently they are home to 300 animals.

Deborah Bonham and her husband guitarist Pete Bullick have adopted both of her dogs from Mount Noddy which specialises in dogs and cats.

Cynthia Kereluk Rodgers and Deborah visited the Cat & Rabbit Rescue Centre near Chichester and were impressed with the care and handling of their two hundred cats! So a donation will be made to them as well.

Rock memorabilia were the hot items in the live auction with two Autographed Led Zeppelin Posters bringing in £500 ($763.00 ) and £850 ($1298.00 ).The highest grossing auction item was a Bad Company autographed guitar including tickets to a concert this summer in the US bringing in £1100 ($1679.00 ).

The biggest surprise of the evening was when Elaine and Chris Fairfax from Animal Friends Insurance handed over cheques to the tune of £15,000 ($22,888 ) to be divided equally between the three charities.

Jenny of Willows Animal Sanctuary commented:-

“We are absolutely over the moon to have such wonderful, lovely talented people supporting Willows Animal Sanctuary! It means so much to have dedicated Patrons. Paul Rodgers and Cynthia Kereluk Rodgers are such kind hearted and beautiful individuals and care so much about animal welfare.

“Our thanks go to all that helped with the fantastic concert: we know it took a lot of organising and many dedicated volunteers. Deborah Bonham and Peter Bullick are also amazing. Thank you both so much for all the time and energy you have put in to this concert. Everyone at Willows thanks you all from the bottom of our hearts.”

Deborah Bonham performed some songs from her new CD Spirit (limited edition pre release CD Digipak out now on tour ahead of the September CD, Vinyl and Digital release) during her 1 hour set. To the fans’ delight Rodgers played a 90 minute set of songs from just his Free catalogue, some he had not performed in 40 years!

Paul Rodgers said:-

“Once again the evening was a huge success. Our fans and friends come through every time- it’s quite amazing. Now Willows can breathe a sigh of relief as this funding will see them through July. Thanks to everyone from the fans, musicians, volunteers to all of the musicians and artists who donated items.”

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