Jun 252015
 
Zachariah Raja with the brick he laid as part of the ongoing Masjid Alhikmah project in Aberdeen. (3)

Zachariah Raja with the brick he laid as part of the ongoing Masjid Alhikmah project in Aberdeen.

With thanks to Paul Smith, Citrus Mix.

Community support for a landmark development in the heart of Aberdeen has been set in stone during a fitting ceremony to mark the latest stage of construction.
The Masjid Alhikmah, on the city’s Nelson Street, will feature community and youth facilities as well as prayer halls for north-east Muslims.

On Friday, June 19 families gathered to play their part in the build process when they took the opportunity to lay bricks in the foundations of the three-storey building.

The event coincided with the start of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting.

Each of the bricks had been sponsored during a fundraiser for the development earlier this year, with the Alhikmah Foundation continuing to work towards hitting its £1.7million target. More than half of that sum has already been donated, with the effort aided by the donation of the site.

Recent events included a sponsored expedition to Snowdonia earlier this month, with 12 intrepid participants, and next on the agenda is the latest in a series of fundraising dinners on July 1 at the Hilton Treetops in Aberdeen. Full and half tables for the Iftar dinner are available.

With costs being met entirely by community fundraising, the dedication of the project’s supporters has been welcomed by foundation committee members. The organisation’s annual report for 2014 has recently been published, outlining progress to date.

A spokesman said:

“Masjid Alhikmah is a community focused facility and we are incredibly grateful to all who have contributed. The sponsorship of the foundation bricks is an excellent example – with many families quick to support that initiative. We are delighted to welcome everyone to the site to set their bricks, a very symbolic part of the project.

“Every penny spent on the project will come from fundraising by our supporters and the response has been excellent. There is still a great deal of hard work to be done to realise our vision, but the energy and the commitment of the many people who are fundraising is an inspiration to everyone involved in the project.”

Masjid Alhikmah will feature space for worship, funeral preparations, dedicated women’s facilities and a family community centre. There is an active Muslim community living in and around the city of Aberdeen and the facility is designed to help create unity and foster a sense of harmony between Muslims and fellow north-east residents. The name chosen for the new centre stems from Arabic. Masjid translates as “a place of congregational worship” and Alhikmah as “wisdom”.

CHAP Group’s construction division is the main contractor for the structural and external aspects of the scheme. Work began in January, with the structural steel frame of the building now in place and the exterior due to be completed by August. The second phase will include all interior work.

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Jun 112015
 
Aberdeen Train Station May 2015

Aberdeen Train Station, May 2015, This may be the first view of the city to meet a visitor’s eye.

Victoria McAleer writes to Aberdeen Voice of her disappointment regarding how Aberdeen presents itself as a tourist destination.

I have lived  in the city for 18 months  now (after living in the shire for 8 years)and I’m well aware of it’s history and main focus on the oil and gas industry.

It seems the city has been buffered by the economic buoyancy that the oil and gas sector provided, compared to other cities in the UK.

I am also aware that at present there is a downturn in the sector and many people have been made redundant.

My native Liverpool, like many other cities, especially in the Northern half of the country was without such an industry and in the 80’s and 90’s unemployment was rife.

The city looked at what it had to offer and the groundwork was done to regenerate the Albert Dock area, spring boarding a total revamp of the city centre and more focus was paid to tourism and welcoming people to the city.

It’s proved invaluable. The city has gone from strength to strength and attracts people from all over the world.

Orrel Road Station Liverpool May 2015

Orrel Road Station Liverpool, May 2015. A cleaner, more welcoming environment.

It is of course helped by having attractions such as The Tate Gallery, The Beatles Museum, The Slavery Museum, The Walker Art Gallery, to name but a few and by other attractions such as the historic waterfront ferries and football.

This has all been achieved by hard work and the determination of people who were proud of their city, because, believe me it was not a place you would have spent a weekend in the 80’s.

It seems to me that Aberdeen tourism is a half hearted affair, probably because Aberdeen has never had to rely on anything else but oil and gas.

Which is a great shame.

The basics are already here. Great beaches and architecture.

What is missing though is a proper museum/gallery.

I know Aberdeen is of much smaller population than Liverpool, but this population is swelled greatly by all the oil and gas employees who live in the city during the week and use the resources, infrastructure and so forth.

Why couldn’t one of these multi billion pound companies sponsor a new museum/gallery and give something back to the people of Aberdeen from whom they have taken so much ?

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Oct 182012
 

Steve Bothwell tells Aberdeen Voice about an exciting initiative about to be realised.

All the while  campaign group Common Good Aberdeen  were lobbying  hard in the fight to save and enhance Union Terrace Gardens, they were organising and running events in the city centre park such as the Christmas party and children’s art competition and Jubilee Tea Party.

They have continued to liaise with Aberdeen City Council  officials and councillors, progressing  a number of initiatives which will soon bear fruit.

Common Good Aberdeen are over the moon having achieved their goal of raising £15,000, in less than a week, to install play equipment in Union Terrace Gardens.  

Fund Raiser Steve Bothwell said:-

“‘I am truly heartened by the generosity of people who have dug deep to assist in this wonderful cause.  There is lots of information that inform us of the importance of health, well being, happiness and interaction for children.

“Common Good Aberdeen listened intently to people who inform us of their wish list and what they consider to be beneficial to them and what they would like to see in Union Terrace Gardens.

“There are 4 main things: A café, disability access, toilets and play park facilities.  Common Good Aberdeen has already set the ball rolling on all four  initiatives.  We have already secured planning permission for the Co Operative Café and await the tendering process. Once the Café is open, we have over 60 people registered to volunteer with all proceeds going directly into a garden fund for improvements.

“The play park will appeal to so many families and therefore increase the footfall in the gardens, thus providing more customers for the Café.  When the fund increases, we will then hopefully instigate a ‘Disability eco path’ that will allow wheelchair users unassisted access into the gardens.

“When all of these initiatives are started, Common Good Aberdeen will then concentrate on purchasing a high quality automated toilet to ensure the public have an essential facility and use the gardens more.

“Providing there is enough money in the fund to deliver the above initiatives Common Good Aberdeen will begin planning events for the public to enjoy for free.

“We believe these initiatives are truly embracing for all the public and we are looking forward to their fruition.”

Further information, donations:  commongoodaberdeen@groups.facebook.com

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Dec 012011
 

Old Susannah looks back at the week that was, who said what to whom about what, and wonders what Saint Andrew would have made of it all.

Happy St Andrew’s Day! Old Suz is having haggis and whisky, or ‘swishky’ as the man at the next table is calling it. St Andrew’s Day reminds us of our national identity, more on that later. I read that Aberdeen is climbing up the list of ‘best places to live in the world’ and has reached the dazzling height of No. 52.

Well done everyone! And that’s before we get our glowing stadium at Loirston or our giant glass worm. We’ll be number 51 in the world before you know it.  Apparently factors like our low crime level feed into how the ratings are calculated. Congratulations to us all for living in this desirable paradise.

These statistics may or may not include the small minority of people who aren’t rolling in dosh like most of us are. The statistics on crime may or may not be being ‘massaged’ – after all, the top brass get nice bonuses if the crime levels are low. How could I think such a thing? Well, the newspapers this week may have something to do with it.

We’ve had a charming man just sent to prison; he kicked a four-year-old child in the head. Fair enough, they had been having an argument apparently.  You know what these toddlers can be like.

Another similar humanitarian’s gone down for 3 years for robbing children of their pocket money and jewellery, threatening to ‘slash’ some of them. The fact the victims were boys, girls and an autistic person just show that this particular thief was running his business in a non-discriminatory way.  He should be congratulated really. To be even more inclusive, this particular robber tried putting on a ‘Scouse’ accent.

Perhaps his career is inspiring to young people – a nine year old’s been caught stealing a car as well.  You’re never too young to learn.  I wonder if he at least brought a child safety seat on the job with him?

We’ve had older people robbed, conned and abused. Yes, in our 21st Century world, Aberdeen is the 52nd best place to live.  I’d say ‘safe as houses’, but we’ve had burglaries and fire-raising in the news as well.  Still, statistics don’t lie, and if there are experts who say we’re no. 52 in the planet, who are we to question it.

I heard something about some disruptive elements holding something called a ‘strike’. I just hope this won’t affect our place in the world quality standing. I can’t for the life of me see why anyone in such a highly-ranked city would have any reasons for unhappiness, although frozen salaries, cut pensions, closed schools, closed recreational facilities, cut school lessons, cut services and cuts to care homes might play a small role.

Someone should look into this.  Maybe if we just all looked at the brand new festive lights on Union Street, the rest of it wouldn’t matter so much.

That nice Mr Jeremy Clarkson had a solution for these ‘striking’ workers – he apparently said on air that he’d have them all shot in front of their families.  He thinks they get great pensions.  Please be a bit patient and don’t judge Mr Clarkson too harshly.  He’s got to work for a living, and probably only has a modest pension to look forward to.

It is not like him to be intolerant of other people, and as it’s the season of good will (or is it the season of ‘buy one get one free’ – I can never remember), let’s let Jeremy off the hook. We should be more tolerant, like he is.

Perhaps it’s time for some definitions.

Nationalism: (noun), The belief that a person or thing’s national origin is its most important and most defining characteristic.

Incidents of racism and nationalism are on the rise – not just in the UK at large, but here in 52nd best city, Aberdeen. Still, it’s important to remember just how important a person’s nationality is. If Donald Trump hadn’t reminded us that he has a granny from Skye, we might not have given his development the wink and the nod.

Pretty soon we’ll have the number one golf course in the world near the 52nd greatest city: it will be like paradise on earth. Believe it or not, on my mother’s side I can trace my direct ancestry all the way back to King Duncan, King Alexander and St Margaret of Scotland.

Armed with this information, I intend to ask Alex Salmond to give me privileges as well.  Maybe someone will even sell me some land in Westhills for a fraction of its value. National origin is where it’s at.

Of course if someone’s not Scottish, it’s OK to discriminate against them and you can always tell someone’s national origin by looking at them.

We know what a pure Scottish person looks like because of their Scottish characteristics. These Scottish traits come from the Egyptian princess Scota (for whom the country may be named). They also come from the Phoenicians who sailed here, the Celts who came here and the Vikings, Danes, and Norsemen who raided now and then. These pure Scottish traits also come from the Picts, and the Romans (whatever they may have done for us).

Later on continental settlers from travellers and sailors to kings and queens came from the continent. St Colomba came from Ireland, and the movement of people between Ireland and Scotland was massive. So yes – be proud you’re Scottish. After all, it’s not like a Scot is some kind of foreigner or something.

We could learn a lot from that nice lady on Youtube who had a wee bit of a go at foreigners coming over here to live.  It’s only been going on for three and a half thousand years or more as far as I can tell.  The lady in question is now helping the police with their enquiries.

St Andrew, for those who didn’t know, came from Galilee, and was Jewish-born convert to Christianity.  He had this crazy idea of preaching his religion (something to do with ‘turning the other cheek’, loving one another, and so on) to people in every country he could manage to travel to.

He travelled extensively in Europe and is also revered in half a dozen countries and the Greek Orthodox Church.  No doubt he’d be proud of the nationalism that seems to be taking hold of a few people here.  What he’d say to the giant worm or the monolith plans for Union Terrace Gardens is another matter.

Aberdeen Citizens Party: (noun) A facebook site with some 35 friends.

A wide range of rather strong opinions can be found on this site.  The Citizens Party is against Halal slaughter of animals (so am I).  It is all for capital punishment, and says that since 80 percent of people (really?) want the death penalty brought back it should be done.  I guess if a few innocent people get killed like happens in the USA, then the families can be given some kind of compensation payment. Fair enough.

This page is apparently run by one Patrick Wight; I’m told he has some form of hilarious act wherein he pretends to be a camp homosexual hairdresser named ‘Patrice’.  I really must catch that some time (perhaps around the time I want to define ‘tolerance’ more fully).

Old Susannah was surprised to read this on the Citizens page:

“Lets hope that a campaign of direct action can save Union Terrace Gardens and prevent the environmental damage which is to be inflicted upon it by Ian Wood and his yes men. The right to protest peacefully is a fundamental part of our society. We tend to forget that many of the human rights we cherish today are a direct result of protests by ordinary people who were prepared to go onto the streets ..”

I of course don’t want anything to stand in the way of Stewart getting his much-needed parking spaces, and Ian getting his eventual statue.  However, I found the above just a little bit of a contradiction to what a Patrick Wight wrote to Aberdeen Voice:-

“Message:
Not affiliated to any political party?
Your having a fcuken (sic) laugh!
Your promoting the day of action rally by the political left and the unions who want to wreck economic recovery and cause public misery across Britain.”

So – a protest is fine, but not a day of action rally by the unions.  I can’t quite work out why we have unions anyway, since we’re number 52 in the world.  It might have had something to do with workers in the past not having great rights (or any rights).  It might have something to do with the infamous New York City sweatshop fire in the Triangle building–  all the workers had been locked in and none escaped the fire.

But that was then and this is now.  Public sector workers have ‘gilt edged’ pensions; Jeremy Clarkson said so.  Let’s all get behind the Aberdeen Citizens Party and protest against the gardens, but complain about unions having a day of protest.  Makes sense to me.

Next week:  more definitions, including ‘slacktivist’ – someone who likes the idea of supporting a cause, as long as it doesn’t mean doing anything much.

Nov 122011
 

Aberdeen Sports Village, a partnership between the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen City Council and sportscotland, has been short-listed in the category of “Newcomer of the Year” at this year’s prestigious National Fitness Awards.  With thanks to Dave Macdermid and The Big Partnership.

The Awards were launched last year to honour operators from across the UK in the health and fitness industry.  The category of Newcomer of the Year is aimed at facilities who have been operating for less than 2 years (as of March 2011), and who have made their mark within the industry in terms of facilities, services and innovation.

The Sports Village has been nominated in this very closely contested category, against new sports facilities, health clubs and gyms from across the whole of the UK.  They impressed the judges, not only with the impressive facilities on site, but also with the numerous high quality activities and services available to everyone in the community.

Jan Griffiths, Sports Development Manager at Aberdeen Sports Village, said:

“The Sports Village strives to be at the cutting edge regarding all aspects of sport, fitness and health, and we are passionate about everything we do.  The local community have really embraced the ethos of the Village, and we are privileged to be able to support and educate our customers in such a welcoming environment.”

The winners in each category at the National Fitness Awards will be announced on Friday 25 November at their Awards Dinner at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham.

Aug 062010
 

Aberdeen Voice reader Jeremy Millar sees history repeating itself in the city.

In a recent bout of clearing-out, I came across a letter I wrote to the local paper in 1986.

“Dear Sir,

It appears to me that the stream of letters expressing dismay at the inefficiency of Aberdeen district council’s new computer booking system is but an ongoing symptom of an ongoing identity crisis afflicting the council.

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