Poverty Archives - Page 5 of 7

In-Tent On Action Against Bedroom Tax – Aug 24th

Aberdeen City, Events, Featured 8 Responses »

Aug 122013

By Renee Margaret Slater.

The ‘In-Tent On Action Against the Bedroom Tax in Aberdeen’ at Union Terrace Gardens event is to highlight the plight of those faced with paying the Bedroom Tax in our city. We want the event to emphasize what may happen to public parks when tenants are faced with eviction due to housing debts.

The Bedroom Tax has been brought in by statute to charge people who have spare bedrooms, who are on Housing Benefit and reside in social housing.

Those people in such properties will have money deducted from their benefits – 14% for one bedroom and 25% for more than one.

This legislation discriminates against those disadvantaged through low wage and those who are unemployed. ‘In-Tent on Action Against the Bedroom Tax in Aberdeen’ will highlight what could happen when those who cannot afford to pay the Bedroom Tax are evicted from their homes.

This government wants tenants in Housing Associations & Council Housing (i.e. not private) who are on Housing Benefit to downsize to smaller properties. There aren’t the smaller properties for families to move into. This situation is common throughout the UK. One of our members in Aberdeen Against The Bedroom Tax has acquired information from ACC on the actual waiting figures regarding one bedroom properties in the city.

The number of people on the waiting list for one bedroom properties is 3,855. The number of one bedroom properties available to rent is 89.

Something is definitely not adding up here. This situation is repeated throughout the UK.

In-Tent on Action Against the Bedroom Tax in Aberdeen is supported by a large group of people directly affected by the consequences of the legislation, plus Aberdonians not affected but disgusted by the effects of a government that has no concern about the outcome of its benefit cuts on the poorest sections of our community.

Unlike the poll tax that affected everyone – this Bedroom Tax legislation only affects those on housing benefit residing in Social Housing.

Moving To Other Premises: One of our members who has an autistic son – has been told by Aberdeen City Council that she must leave her 3 bedroom house in Torry to move into 3 bedroom premises in Manor Avenue. There is no logic here. Apart from the massive upheaval it will bring for her and her child, she still has to pay the bedroom tax, only it will be without family and friends’ support.

We have one major obstacle to overcome. We are faced with government propaganda machine that brands ordinary people on benefits as scroungers. They have a ‘Jeremy Kyle’ attitude to claimants that assumes that ‘everyone is on the take’.

Discretionary Housing Payment is to help those who have paid for the Bedroom Tax from their general benefits – money that is used for food, clothing, travel etc. Discretionary housing payments are worth only a small fraction of the total cut in housing benefit and are often only temporary, meaning problems can go unresolved. In Aberdeen, the City Council has decided not to repay the money to people affected but to add the cash to their Council Tax.

Many people who have to pay the Bedroom Tax are now in arrears with their rent. Once tenants are in arrears they are excluded from the exchange list and therefore cannot move to smaller properties. A vicious cycle ensues, forcing tenants into making painful choices.

This legislation has forced people to juggle paying rent and buying food for their children. Many have resorted to food banks.

We wish to ensure that ordinary citizens in Aberdeen are not fooled by a Coalition Government which accuses friends and families of ‘ripping off the taxpayer’. For every so-called scrounger there are 9 others suffering from this insidious Bedroom Tax. The In-Tent on ‘Action Against the Bedroom Tax in Aberdeen’ – in UTG’ is an opportunity for Aberdonians to see for themselves what may happen when we begin to see our parks occupied by ordinary people who have been evicted due to arrears.

Our protest is a message to both Aberdeen City Council and the UK Torry LibDem Coalition – Do not be complacent – your legislation WILL force families onto the streets!

Those expected to turn up on Saturday 24th August are people already paying Bedroom Tax, Those In arrears due to Bedroom Tax and supporters who see their friends and neighbours suffering from this insidious legislation.

This will be a peaceful and symbolic gesture from the people of Aberdeen in support of those affected by the Bedroom Tax. Similar actions are happening in over 30 cities throughout the UK.

We request that people be peaceful & to keep the park clean. We expect tents, gazebos, food parcels soup kitchen & some musicians. There should be speakers explaining the effects of the Bedroom Tax on the population. There will also be stalls with information..

‘In-Tent on Action Against the Bedroom Tax in Aberdeen’

Union Terrace Gardens, Aberdeen

24th August 2013

12 noon – 8.00pm

Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.

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.

Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.

Old Susannah No. 116 – Black April

Opinion, Satire and Humour No Responses »

Apr 052013

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

Spring has sprung; all is well; everything is vibrant and dynamic in the Deen and elsewhere. (If you don’t have any benefits or are on a low income – then welcome to what the media has dubbed ‘Black April’. Maybe this means we’re all going to be in the black soon?)

First of all, I had the most wonderful weekend in years – if not ever – down in Chichester. Willows Animal Sanctuary and Mount Noddy animal centre were charity beneficiaries of a benefit concert featuring four bands. If we had things like this here, we’d be the undisputed chief city of culture.

The opening act, Basis, was very impressive: not least because they were aged 12 – 15. They were all fantastic, but the leading vocalist was great, and the girl on bass was quirky, talented and had serious stage presence for someone so young.

If people their age are writing rock music like this, then rock lives. They were followed by a jazzy duo called Acoustic who were again highly talented.

I didn’t know what to think in advance of the next act up, Deborah Bonham.

I always disappoint myself for expecting impossibly high standards from some performers. By the time her set was finished, I felt as if I’d been emotionally clobbered, totally uplifted, enlightened, made tearful and joyful on a wild roller coaster ride at warp speed.

She is undoubtedly the sister of the late, great, unequalled John Bonham. Deborah Bonham is also undisputedly a performer with a spirit and strength completely of her own making. There is a new album out, Spirit. Buy it. And whatever you do, go see her live. She should be in Kinross on 5 May. Expect a proper album review from me shortly.

Then there was a set from Paul Rodgers.

I’d seen him in Bad Company in the 70s, in a few mega concerts in Madison Square Garden in the 80s and 90s with the Firm (Jimmy Page, Tony Franklin and Chris Slade). The voice is still note perfect, and I genuinely think he was having a great deal of fun.

The audience was wild. The entire place was singing ‘All Right Now’ – the final encore. Rodgers’ duet with Bonham was astounding. Money was raised; awareness was raised.

The real backbone and driving force behind the night was undoubtedly Cynthia Kereluk, Paul’s wife. I’m reasonably certain she was in two places or more at any given time – on stage doing the main auction; running the silent auction; taking payments for items won, socialising and making sure things ran smoothly. It should be noted that a main reason that Paul and Cynthia are involved is none other than local girl Sandi Thom, who grew up near Willows, and is a long-term supporter of this great charity.

these people are all committed animal lovers who gave up their time, money and possessions happily

Let’s just say Old Susannah had the time of her life while helping in some small way to help Willows and Mount Noddy. Believe it or not, it is possible to throw a great musical event without backing dancers, 27 costume changes or artists flying around the space on wires. You just need talent.

You may well wonder why a concert for Willows was taking place at the opposite end of mainland Britain; fair question. The answer lies with Willows patrons, Paul Rodgers and his wife Cynthia Kereluk. The Chichester concert is a yearly event, but now with the new Willows patrons on board, the artists involved graciously decided to raise funds for them as well.

Many of the auction items were the artists’ own treasured personal mementos; these people are all committed animal lovers who gave up their time, money and possessions happily. Again, this old cynic was moved.

A lovely lady named Hazel knitted a legion of beautiful scarves and gifts; her husband ensured everyone (including me) had transport to wherever they needed to be. The audience were treated to a fantastic evening, and responded with great generosity and enthusiasm.

I am still overloaded with positive feelings; it is only the behaviour of Iain Duncan Smith and the ConDems and the plight of Blaikiewell’s horse sanctuary that can bring out any satirical writing in me this week.

Blaikiewell horse sanctuary may be turfed out without a new home or suitable financial help to aid the construction of the AWPR. More on this unacceptable development to follow. Thanks to those politicians and others who are starting to look into the solution: I am confident one will be found.

Time for a few definitions stemming from this week’s current events.

Black April: (modern Eng. compound noun) term given to welfare benefit cuts to be rolled out in the UK.

I hope you’ve not all got too comfortable and cosy with your high living standards, because things are going to change around here (well, for most of us anyway). The ConDems have decided that simply put, there isn’t enough money to go around.

First, there are the bankers we’ve had to bail out over sub-prime mortgage and LIBOR rate fixing scandals (A National Audit Report indicates bankers still owe us now, after repayments, fees and interest a mere £456.33bn, per http://www.guardian.co.uk/credit-crunch ).

Then there is Trident and other completely essential military defence expenses (around £39 billion per year, according to a recent BBC piece – http://www.bbc.co.uk/21271670 ). Old Susannah admits we need to spend lots on defence. At present, we only have the capacity to blow the planet up a few times over, and we need to defend all of these spare bedrooms that invading armies will covet.

Then there are those deserving multi-millionaire individuals and companies which are having a hard time sheltering money from the tax man abroad (Vodaphone apparently avoided paying £700 million in tax (best to read Private Eye for more on that story); the amount of money Ian Wood is thought to avoid in tax by moving some employees’ payroll offshore is about £15 million per year).

Then of course, there are the people who are on benefits; this costs around £207 billion pa (according to the bbc article above). This last group is of course the largest group and the most impoverished. Of all the above groups, someone’s going to have to start paying their fair share. Well, it wasn’t going to be the bankers, the military or the rich, was it?

If we don’t protect the Wood Group, Vodaphone, Trident and so on, things might get bad for the economy, as opposed to how great things are now. Here’s how the ConDems are going to solve our problems.

Bedroom Tax: (modern Eng. compound noun) – a newly-implemented tax whereby benefit claimants in the UK will pay extra tax for having more bedrooms than they ‘need’.

Is there a housing shortage? This seems likely – many wealthy people can’t have more than a few houses in the countryside and a few pads in big cities because of the demand for housing. Are you one of the selfish scroungers stopping the rich from owning more homes? Well, your hour is at hand.

A mere £14 pounds per week as a penalty for this waste of space will come out of your benefits to penalise you for your luxurious extra bedroom. Too right. I was speaking to the friend of an elderly woman on a bus this week; she had been assigned a council flat with two bedrooms (and in luxurious Tillydrone as well).

At the time she was told to take this great flat or go to the bottom of the waiting list. She foolishly took the flat, not anticipating this logical, fair tax would come in. Finally, we’re getting her and people like her to pay up. The country should be back in the black in no time.

Of course there are some factors to consider: are you sharing custody of a child who will stay with you sometimes? Are you recovering from illness and need a sick room and extra facilities? Maybe you are disabled and have a spare bedroom used for equipment/rest/carer needs? Well – who cares? You’ll all be stumping up the extra tax.

Old Susannah thinks this logic should be extended. Why have separate bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms at all? Should older or smaller people have any big spaces at all? Couldn’t children just be kept in hallways, or perhaps we could all go back to sleeping, eating and living all together in one big (but not too big) room? Horses can stand sleeping up; perhaps we could build some human stabling. The Japanese have very trendy sleeping pods for commuters; I’m sure we could do something like that here.

I think there are more savings to be made, and I’m sure as soon as Iain Duncan Smith gets his vintage car parked at his mansion, he’ll have time to think of more great money savers. But you have to admire his greatest concept of all…

The £7 per day budget: (modern political compound noun). The idea floated by Iain Duncan Smith that it is possible to live on £7 per day – if you have to. Why wouldn’t we take budget information from a government which spends about £46 billion a year on interest payments? Read on…

Are you tired of trying fad diets that don’t work? Well, the government does want us all to avoid obesity and avoid smoking and alcohol. All they’re really doing is making it easier for us to live healthier lives; I can’t see what’s wrong with asking some people on benefits to live on £7 a day. All you’ll need to do is get a bit imaginative, and that also is a good thing.

It’s important to remember that almost everyone on benefits is some kind of a cheat, wastrel or scrounger. Sure there are some retired people who have had to spend their life savings on care/medical treatment; there are people who have been disabled from birth or from accidents. Still, it’s best just to treat everyone equally in today’s society, and it looks like Iain Duncan Smith (IDS to his friends, if any) wants to treat all on benefits equally. Seems reasonable.

I also know of a person who lost a limb. At a recent ATOS assessment, and despite their doctor previously spelling out the situation completely, they were made to undress to prove that they weren’t hiding an extra limb.

Obviously doctors can get things like that wrong, and the guy could have grown his limb back and therefore be fit for work and just shirking. Can’t be too careful at these assessment centres, and if such assessments are just a little bit degrading or humiliating, or if they deem people fit for work who really aren’t, well I guess no system is perfect.

Anyway, here are some helpful suggestions; you’ll never go back to spending as much as £7 a day again. IDS says he’s already had to do just that, and that he could do it again. Of course he could.

If you have a pet, best to just abandon it somewhere

Work out a budget. £7 a day is a massive £0.29 to spend each hour. If you don’t mind sleeping say 16 hours a day, you’ll wind up with £0.87 per hour.

Eat healthy. Water is free; make the most of it. Water is a great drink and makes a great soup. Add dandelions and other plants from the roadside. Don’t boil the water though; that will cost you. If you have a pet, best to just abandon it somewhere. They won’t wind up injured, dead, starved, or run over, and you’ll have a delicious selection of their leftover food to eat.

Avoid the bedroom tax – get someone to take a sledgehammer to your interior walls so you just have a studio flat.

Go to shopping malls. You’ll be warm, you’ll get to look at the latest fashions. You can try the goods in the mobile phone and computer shops so you’ll be up on the latest technology. Watch televisions in electrical goods shops – saves on energy at home. You’ll save on heating as you stay in the mall moving from bench to bench. You’ll be able to forage for food leftovers, too.

So, you’ll have food, somewhere warm to be, and entertainment. Bus fare could be a problem though, so best walk anywhere you need to go.

Ensure that your clothes don’t need replacing; stop using personal grooming products to save more money, and remember – newspaper makes great insulation under your clothes.

Supplement your income – do you have any extra gold or silver to sell? Tooth fillings perhaps? Get to a pawnbroker and get rid of any family heirlooms. Organ sale might not be legal here, but you can still get money for participating in medical experiments.

Better yet, or if you are IDS: fill up the Morgan classic car before you have to go a week on £7 per day. Get one of the staff to lend you some money. Go stay with a rich friend. Go on a trip representing the ConDems and get all your expenses paid. Submit expense claims for your parliamentary work.

You see? It’s really going to be easier than you think.

Next week: How to either live on £7 a day, or instead demand your elected officials show a spark of human compassion towards those in need, close tax loopholes, and stop participating in a pointless arms race.

Crisis In Care for the Elderly

Aberdeen City, Opinion 2 Responses »

Feb 142013

This article by Jonathan Russell is dedicated to Bill Knight, relentless campaigner and founder and Chair of Grampian Senior Citizens Forum, a great example to us all. Bill Knight died on February 7th aged 92.

The crisis in care for the elderly is a national one, both at UK and Scottish levels.
Aberdeen has a particularly worrying situation due to high employment and a high cost of living which means that there is a shortage of the low paid staff who do this outstanding and highly undervalued work.

We have an increasing ageing population. Policies like free personal care – though good in themselves – have led to an increased deficiency in other resources to support the elderly.

Aberdeen used to have a home care service which was second to none but what has happened here, as in all parts of the UK, is that the majority of services have been outsourced to private companies who pay less and often provide poor support to their workers.

To have 13 companies providing care is also highly inefficient in covering a city the size of Aberdeen. We have a situation where all these companies are trying to provide services across the city. This is madness. The culture has changed from one of providing services to rushing round to find services of any kind.

The introduction of individual budgets, again aimed at cost cutting, will further complicate this process. We have to ask ourselves: do we value the elderly in our society and the staff who care for them ? Are we willing to increase taxation to pay for services that provide good value not only in terms of money but in terms of care?

We need to create a management culture and direct service culture which is about service and services that are localised rather than spread out around the city. More localised services allow greater flexibility in terms of need and less time would be wasted in the form of travel.

The problem is primarily a national one and has been avoided for much too long. Aberdeen has extra challenges and no doubt local politicians and staff do their best but without increased money and a change in the way we are providing services we are heading for an ever increasing problem with disasters on the way.

Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.

Belmont Films For Human Rights

Community, Featured, Information 1 Response »

Feb 142013

With thanks to Alison Cram.

Next week you have the chance to catch a screening of two powerful, and ultimately life-affirming, films that capture the strength and dignity of the individual human spirit.

The film screenings have been organised by the Aberdeen Group of Amnesty International, in collaboration with the Belmont Cinema.

On Monday 18th February (at 6.00pm) you can see the documentary film Waste Land.

Filmed over nearly three years, Waste Land follows renowned artist Vik Muniz from Brooklyn to his native Brazil to work with the “catadores” – people who pick recyclable materials from the world’s largest rubbish dump, Jardim Gramacho, just outside Rio de Janeiro.

Muniz’s collaborative project with the catadores, as they create photographic images of themselves out of garbage, reveals both the spirit and dignity of the people and the power of art to express their plight.

Waste Land was the winner of the Amnesty International Human Rights Film Award 2010 and of the Audience Award for Best World Cinema Documentary Sundance Film Festival 2010.

On Thursday 21st February (also at 6.00pm) is another chance to see Persepolis – a beautiful animated film version of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about growing up in Iran, as the country moves from the Shah’s regime to fundamentalist Islamic state.

Events are seen through the eyes of Marjane herself, a rebellious teenager, who chafes against her lack of freedom and expression.

“When I tell people it’s a lo-fi animation, largely in black-and-white, about Iran, they put their heads in their hands and make a low groaning sound. But I’ve seen those same people bounce happily out of the cinema after seeing it as if they had had some sort of caffeine injection.” – Peter Bradshaw, Film Critic, The Guardian, April 2008

The Group will also have a small stall in the cinema lobby prior to each film, so if you want to ask any questions about what we do or find out more about Amnesty International, now’s your chance!

So in the chilly days of February, why not treat yourself to a thought-provoking and inspiring trip to the cinema?

Tickets for films can be booked in advance through the Aberdeen Amnesty Group. To book a ticket for Waste Land, please e-mail: alisoncram@madasafish.com. To book a ticket for Persepolis, please e-mail doughaywood@yahoo.co.uk.

Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.

One Fair Wage To Help Fight Poverty

Aberdeen City, Featured, News No Responses »

Oct 042012

Following meetings with Dame Anne Begg MP and Kevin Stewart MSP, members of the Scottish Youth Parliament for Aberdeen have secured support for their latest campaign, ‘One Fair Wage’, which aims to create an equal living wage in Scotland. With thanks to Kenneth Watt.

Kris, Megan and Ashleigh in the Scottish Parliament.

Kristian Chapman, Megan Lukins and Barry Black who all represent the north-east on the national youth forum met with the parliamentarians and plan to attract signatures from councillors and other representatives. The MSYPs’ work is part of a national campaign calling on politicians, businesses, councils and charities to pledge their support for a Scottish Living Wage.

The pledge states:

“I pledge to support the One Fair Wage campaign. I believe everyone in Scotland, no matter how old they are, should earn at least a Scottish Living Wage based on how much it costs to live.”

Kris Chapman (Aberdeen South and North Kincardine) said,

“SYP believe everyone in Scotland deserve to earn at least enough to live on. We believe it’s obscene for people to be working whilst still trapped in poverty. We believe a Scottish Living Wage can make a real difference to half a million low-paid Scots.

“In particular employers paying a Scottish Living Wage can make a real difference locally in Aberdeen. Higher wages mean workers have more money to spend which they will do in local shops, helping the local economy.”

Barry Black (Aberdeen Central) said,

“One Fair Wage will also make a difference on Union Street. Higher wages mean more money to be spent in local shops. That’s why One Fair Wage is good for workers, will help fight poverty, and will make a real difference here in the Granite City.”

Grant Costello MSYP, SYP Chair, added,

“Scotland’s young people today launch a campaign to tackle one of the root causes of poverty – low wages. Far too many workers are being paid wages which are far too low to live on.

“It’s unacceptable for poor workers to be reliant on food banks and charity. It’s unacceptable for young workers to be paid as little as £3.68 an hour. It’s unacceptable for the children of working families to be living in poverty. A Scottish Living Wage can make a huge difference to their lives.

“This is not a campaign about political process. It’s about organisations making a moral and economic choice to pay their workers a Scottish Living Wage.”

Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.

Aberdeen Author’s Debut Novel Reviewed

Aberdeen City, Articles, Featured, Information No Responses »

Sep 072012

David Innes reviews TONY HOGAN BOUGHT ME AN ICE CREAM FLOAT BEFORE HE STOLE MY MA, by Kerry Hudson. [ Chatto & Windus, 266pp, £12.99]

Hands up who’s heard of Kerry Hudson? One would think that even if the author herself hasn’t been picked up on the local media radar so far, at least the eye-catching Fiona Apple-esque novel title would generate some curiosity

Kerry Hudson, you see, is one of ours.

Her formative years were spent in a series of hostels, down-at-heel council estates and caravan parks in Aberdeen and its environs, as well as in other parts of the UK.

Her debut novel draws on this background to depict a grim picture of life for the growing underclass of the 1980s. Thankfully, ‘we’re all in this together’ during the current crisis and there will be no return to those bleak hopeless days where families subsisted on meagre rations in dank accommodation between Giros…

Whilst the background Hudson vividly paints is grim and stark, this is overridden by the resilience, affection and family solidarity obvious in hero Janie Ryan’s narrative.

The characters to whom she introduces us are steadfast and lovable or feckless and despicable. Janie’s ma, Iris, is a poor judge of partner but fights fearlessly and unstintingly for her children, has a healthy disdain for bureaucratic authority and displays almost unflinching smeddum in piloting her loved ones through crisis after crisis.

That she succumbs to middle age too soon and her spirit is ultimately almost quenched is one of the book’s frequent moments of great pathos.

The nominal Tony Hogan is a violent, drug-dealing psycho from whom flight is necessary more than once. Janie’s Uncle Frankie is a well-meaning but weak figure who succumbs to the drugs he runs on Hogan’s behalf. Baby sister Tiny is a bundle of love and reconciliation. All credible, when a less-able author would allow them to become one-dimensional stereotypes.

Hudson’s skill in articulating, often hilariously, the family’s hand-to-mouth uncertainty through the eyes of a child from birth to late teens recalls Roddy Doyle’s best conversational triumphs where the narrative sprints along like a screenplay. Drawing on contemporary 1980s and 90s cultural ephemera to illustrate the small material escapes which offer comfort to a child and adolescent fixes the novel firmly in its time.

The tone darkens when mid-teens Janie realises that she is on the same path as her downtrodden and spirit-crushed mother as he shuts out life’s increasing desperation through drinking and casual sex. A growing realisation that she has ambition, a love of literature and a fear of becoming Iris, sees her take off to escape the fate she sees looming.

That the novel’s final words are ‘the beginning’ leaves the reader to hope that a character in whom we now have an affectionate interest will mature and prosper and that Kerry Hudson will write again to let us know how Janie’s getting on.

The Most Immoral Trade of All: The Arms Trade

Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Information, Opinion No Responses »

Apr 062012

At the next meeting of Aberdeen CND on Monday 10th April, Jonathan Russell, Chair of Aberdeen CND and also a member of Campaign Against the Arms Trade, will be leading a discussion on the Arms Trade. The meeting will take place at 7.30pm on the Top Floor of the Belmont Cinema, Belmont Street, Aberdeen.

The arms trade is a deadly, corrupt business. It supports conflicts and human rights abusing regimes while squandering valuable resources which could be used to deal with the many social and environmental challenges we face here on Planet Earth. It does this with the full support of governments around the world, in particular the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: the United States, Russia, France, China and the United Kingdom.

These are the very countries which are meant to be our global custodians, but are in fact the very countries which are feeding global insecurity and conflict.

While very few countries sell large volumes of weaponry, the buyers are spread across the world. Other than to the five permanent UN Security Council members, the largest buyers are in the Middle East and South East Asia. The arms themselves range from fighter aircraft, helicopters and warships with guided missiles, radar and electronic warfare systems, tanks, armoured vehicles, machine guns and rifles.

The common misconception is that it is the illegal trade that is damaging, while the legal trade is tightly controlled and acceptable. However, the vast majority of arms sold around the world including those to human rights abusing governments or into areas of conflict are legal and are supported by governments. In 2007 the value of legal arms around the world amounted to 60 billion dollars. The illegal market is estimated at 5 billion dollars: many illegal weapons end up as legal weapons.

The arms trade exists to provide weapons to those who can pay for them. What the buyers do with the arms, what political approval the sales signify, and how money could be better spent appears irrelevant to the arms companies and our governments. The UK Government’s 2010 Human Rights Annual Report identified 26 countries of concern. In that year the UK approved arms licences to 16 of these.

There’s a sense that in the past we were embarrassed about supporting defence exports. There’s no such embarrassment in this Government.

David Cameron was in the Middle East on a high-profile mission to sell arms when the democracy movement started in the Middle East. Selling arms to a country in conflict whether internal or external makes the conflict more deadly and longer lasting.
If there is tension between countries or within a country, then arms purchases are likely to increase this tension and make actual conflict more likely.

Even when conflict has ended, arms, particularly small arms, may remain in large numbers (as in Libya at present), fuelling further conflicts and/or criminal activity.

Every year the UK Government authorises the sale of arms to well over 100 countries. This is hardly surprising given that it is Government policy to vigorously support arms exports. Peter Luff, Minister of Defence Exports in the present UK Government, has stated that:

“There’s a sense that in the past we were embarrassed about supporting defence exports. There’s no such embarrassment in this Government.”

Arms companies and Government are inseparable when it comes to selling arms. The Government’s UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) department is a vital element of UK’s arms dealing. In 2008 the Government opened the Defence and Security Organisation which promotes weaponry on behalf of arms companies. There are 158 civil servants in the Defence and Security Organisation while other non-arms sectors have137 staff. This is despite arms accounting for less than 1.5 Percent of UK exports.

• Arms export jobs as a percentage of total employment: 0.2%
• Arms as a percentage of exports: 1.5 %
• UK Government Research Expenditure Spent on Arms: 27%
• UK trade and investment staff committed to selling arms: 54%

Research carried out for Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) by the Stockholm International Peace Institute assesses the level of subsidy by Government to the arms trade in the UK to be around £700 million a year. In 2010 the UK Government issued 10,850 arms export licences, refused 230, and revoked 14.

Half of the refusals related to proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, with a maximum of 76 being revoked on the grounds that they contributed to internal repression, internal conflict or regional instability. Foreign office embassies also promote the arms sales, as do the Ministry of Defence armed services. Arms fairs are common in the UK and around the world. The governments of host countries provides support for their arms firms.

Arms sales from the UK seem to vary from year to year:

• 2007 9651 million (particularly high because of sales of Typhoon aircraft to Saudi Arabia)
• 2008 4367 million
• 2009 7261 million also high as included Typhoon support services to Saudi Arabia)
• 2010 5819 million

Of the 16 countries identified by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute as locations of major conflict in 2009, the UK sold arms to 12.

Columnist Will Self – “War, the arms trade and the abuse of language”

BAE arms are the UK’s main arms company and has military customers in over 100 countries. BAE’s focus over the past few years has been on increasing sales to the US, specifically targeting equipment for conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, and supplying Euro fighters and other arms to Saudi Arabia. BAE routinely supplies countries which the UK Foreign Office considers as having ‘the most serious wide-ranging human rights concerns’.

The casualties of conflict are now overwhelmingly civilian, increasing from 50% of war related deaths in the first half of the twentieth century to 90% near the end of the century.

The arms trade affects development both through the money wasted on arms purchased and through the conflicts fuelled by arms.

A study in 2007 by Oxfam of the economic cost of armed conflict to Africa estimated that Africa loses around 18 billion dollars a year due to wars and that armed conflict shrinks an African nations economy by 15%.

As well as the direct effects of military spending, medical costs and the destruction of infrastructure, there are indirect costs on the economy and employment suffers ( this does not take into account the countless human misery caused by loss of life and sustained injuries effecting families and friends as well as the individuals concerned).

The study estimated that the cost of conflicts in Africa since 1990 was equivalent to the aid provided to them by major donors.

Even when conflict is not taking place money diverted to arms is a drain on government resources and takes away from vital spending on health education and infrastructure. The massive 1998 South African arms deals for aircraft, helicopters, warships and submarines cost the country over £8billion. Yet most of the population live in shanty towns and other poor housing and South Africans with HIV/AIDS were told that the country could not afford ant-retroviral medication.

Despite desperate poverty and its recent appalling history of armed struggle, the UK government is actively promoting arms struggle to Angola. The UK government not only approved arms exports to Angola it actively organised an “industry day’’ when HMS Liverpool docked in Angola waters and hosted Angolan political and military officials.

The arms trade causes countless misery in our world; it is a poor use of limited resources which should be used to make this world a better place. We need to question the thinking in the world that believes you only get what you want by force. The five members of the Security Council should start taking on their responsibilities and use conflict resolution rather than warfare to sort the many conflicts that take place both between and within countries.

Day Of Action Rally – Wednesday Nov 30

Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Events, Information, News, Opinion No Responses »

Nov 242011

With thanks to Brian Carroll.

Teachers, Local Authority Workers, Civil Servants, Community Organisations, Pensioners, Anti Cuts Alliances and members of the general public will be taking part in a Rally on Wednesday 30 November 2011 at 12 noon in the Castlegate, Aberdeen, as part of the National Day of Action.

It is expected anywhere between 2.5 and 3 Million Union Members will be participating in Strike Action against the Government’s Pension Proposals, as well as in support of Civil and Public Sector jobs and services.

This rally has been organised by the ATUC and is being supported by all Unions affiliated to the ATUC as well as by other organisations who support the ATUC.

Consisting of members from Unions such as Unite, Unison, GMB, EIS, PCS, CWU, UCATT and others, the rally will also have representatives from Community Organisations, Pensioners, Anti Cuts Alliances and members of the public taking part. This event will be the culmination of the National Day of Action in Aberdeen, with thousands of Union members having taken Strike Action and hundreds of Union Members having manned picket lines from 6am or earlier.

Speakers will be from Local Branches of National Trade Unions, representatives of various local community and anti cuts alliances and public service users.

Commencing at 12.30pm with people gathering from 12 noon, The Rally will end some time between 1pm and 1.30pm.

Everyone taking part has the common aim of working together to:

challenge poverty levels and campaign for the fair and equitable redistribution of wealth across Scotland and the UK
campaign to protect those hardest hit by service and benefit cuts
challenge austerity and call for investment in the UK economy which will create jobs, put Britain back to work, therefore boosting the economy and cut the deficit
protect pay, pensions, jobs and services of all civil, public and private sector workers
challenge the government to collect the £120 Billion tax gap of evaded, avoided and uncollected tax
get the banks working for the benefit of the country, to free up opportunities of investment, for them to start paying back the bail out money and to use the £850 Billion of banking assets the UK Taxpayer now owns for the benefit of the country as a whole.

They say that “we are all in this together” but the bankers and owners of big business are still getting their multi-million pound salaries and bonuses and the majority of the cabinet are millionaires.

The top 50 of the wealthiest people in the UK saw their personal worth increase by 35% in the last 2 years whilst middle and low income earners saw their income fall by at least 15% in the same period. It will fall by at least another 7.5% in the next year, if the Cuts agenda continues.

Jobs and services being lost now, will be lost forever !

Wednesday 30 November
Castlegate, Aberdeen.
Commences: 12.00 noon.
Ends: Between 1pm and 1.30pm.

Lets Be Thankful For Civil And Public Sector Employees

Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Articles, Community, Featured, Information, Opinion No Responses »

Nov 242011

Brian J Carroll, a long serving Aberdeen Civil Servant takes a look at the crucial role the Civil and Public Services play in our day to day lives and argues that this should be gratefully acknowledged.

Lets be thankful for Civil and Public Sector employees !

I have worked in the public sector for over 30 years and have reason to be grateful to the public sector for employing me but also have reason to be grateful for the services other civil and public sector workers provide to me, showing that they have a dedication, commitment and loyalty second to none, in the service I and others within and in other services deliver to the public on a daily basis.
Once these services are gone they will never ever come back again!

Lets hear it for all the hard working, dedicated, committed and loyal civil and public servants who have provided me and no doubt a lot of you with the services we need to see us through life from cradle to grave:-

My school teachers who taught me my letters and numbers, to read and write, english, arithmetic and maths, foreign languages, history and science
The nurses who came round and inoculated us against TB, mumps and measles
The Doctors and nurses in GP practices and hospitals who looked after me when I needed them
The air traffic controllers who saw to it that my holiday and work flights took off and landed safely
The benefit officers who helped me out when I was unemployed, skint and looking for a job
The registrar for doing their job in respect of births, marriages and deaths
The midwives who helped in the safe delivery of my nieces and nephews
The court officials, administrators and Procurator Fiscals who ensure that justice works on a daily basis
The radiographers who X-rayed me
Those at the blood transfusion service who helped me to help others
The firemen who put out a fire in a flat next to mine a number of years ago and the policeman who assisted in clearing the flats next to the one on fire
The gardeners who keep our parks looking nice
The refuse collectors, without whom we would be in a terrible state
The social workers who help and assist people daily with their problems and issues
The paramedics who answer our calls for help, day and night
The court officials who assisted me in dealing with my fathers estate
The physiotherapist who helped me after breaking my foot at rugby
The police officers who answer our calls for help day and night
The HMRC staff who assist with Tax Returns
The DWP staff who assist us in getting benefits and finding jobs
The librarians who provide a reading facility and library second to none
The museum officials who continue our learning of this country and the world
The grave diggers and others who give us a place to rest and a dignified send off

All these people are to have their nationally agreed pension rights cruelly slashed. The government says:

“They have to take the pain just like everyone else.”

Just because private sector employers who make billions of pounds of profit offer their employees such lousy pensions or no pension at all, does not justify underpaying public service pensions when they are affordable, fair and actually costing the country and the taxpayer less as time goes on.

The average public sector pension is £5600. The average private sector pension is £5800, The average company directors pension is £175,000 – they still have final salary pensions; that is the real scandal and rip off of pensions in Britain today.

Nobody joins the civil and public sector to get rich. They do it to serve the public. They have a public service ethos. We should value that and thank them for it – not vilify them at every turn on the back of government rhetoric and lies.

Older Entries Newer Entries