May Week.

 

      Continuing with their May Week celebrations, Red and Black Clydeside's bring you a great poetry and music night at Red Rosa's 195 London Road Calton Glasgow. Some well known Glasgow poets and some from further afield, with some music thrown in for good measure. A night not to be missed, so mark your diary.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info 

The Dear Green Place, Mired In Poverty.

      I was born in the slum of Garngad in Glasow in 1934, "The dear green place" and have lived in the city for most of my life. During that quite long spell I have seen a lot of changes in this city. However, one thing that persists is Glasgow's poverty. The once "Second City of the Empire" has known poverty from its inception right up to today. For a large part of my life I lived in Springburn, once known as a railway town in its own right, and for a while it held the dubious prize of having more children living in poverty than any other ward in Scotland, 52%. It has now lost that accolade and the prize now moves to Calton. One reason why the percentage has fallen in Springburn, is probably due to the inclusion of Robroyston a developing slightly more affluent area, not that the circumstances of the poor have changed dramatically.  
       Within the city as a whole the child poverty rate is approximately a 37% of all children, this is a crime against a vast section of the population, stunting health and potential. What makes this an even more devastating crime is the fact that the number of children living in poverty, in the city, is expected to rise by roughly, 50,000 over the next two years. Saying more than a third of children in Glasgow are living in poverty does not highlight the vast differences between one district and another, some districts are above that 37% figure.

      This chart from  Evening Times shows the disparity as you move from district to district in the city:

    
       Glasgow holds lots of prizes, some we can be very proud of, some that should have its citizens rising up in anger. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, hosts the highest rates of poverty in Scotland, why?
        Chart from Understanding Glasgow:

 
    Aberdeen is the only city in Scotland that has shown a decrease in child poverty over this period. But we are told our GDP is growing, another crime against the system. Another damning statistic is that Edinburgh is the only city in Scotland where child poverty is below the national average, again Glasgow is top of the list.
      Chart from Understanding Glasgow:

     The number of millionaires in the country is growing, the number of children in poverty is growing, surely this must call into question the basic structure of our economic system. Every child in poverty is a life of stunted growth in health and a lost opportunity for a child to blossom to its full potential. These are unforgivable crimes in a very rich country where a pampered few live a life of opulence at the expense of the many. Where is your righteous anger?

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

My Little Patch Of Deprivation.

      Maybe it's my age, or maybe it's just my personality, but I get irritated by the increase in "The only way is----". I suppose this is due to the weird popularity of a certain TV program. On Facebook we have "The only way is Maryhill" and "The only way is Gorbals" will these be followed by "The only way is Garngad", "The only way is Calton", "the only way is Bridgeton" etc., etc. I call this an insular policy, tribalism and petty patriotism, just a precursor to "The only way is Great Briton". It is as though each of these districts were the only slum in Glasgow, and some people wear it like a badge of honour, but let's not forget, Glasgow was a slum. As was Liverpool, Birmingham, Belfast and all industrial cities in this landmass called Great Britain. Instead of looking inwards and focusing on our own little bit of this industrial capitalism created slum, we should be looking outwards towards each other and coming together to free ourselves from the ever increasing threat and distinct possibility, of a return of the modern slums. Let's not describe ourselves by our own little patch of deprivation, we are much bigger than that. We can come together and without the burden of our political ballerinas and "entrepreneurs" ensure we see the last of "The only way is my little piece of deprivation" and the creation of "The only way is the people's world".

 Maryhill.

 Garngad.

 Gorbals.

 Bridgeton.

Calton. 

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Quality Of Life = Length Of Life.

       If life expectancy is an indicator of quality of life, and it is, then we in Scotland can be worried. Scotland has the lowest life expectancy levels in the EU. Men in Scotland have a life expectancy of 76 and women 80, but in the most deprived 15% of areas in Scotland, (2007/08) it is 57.5 for males and 61.9 for females. Whereas the European average is 79.7 for men and 84.8 for women.

In that very low average for Scotland, Glasgow languishes at the bottom as the lowest in Scotland, with 71 for men and 78 for women.

 Cartoon by Frank Boyle:

         Of course across Glasgow that average rises and falls as you move from the more affluent areas to the more deprived. The area with the lowest life expectancy is the Calton district of Glasgow, with a life expectancy of 54 for males. While not many miles away just on the outskirts of Glasgow we have Lenzie with a male life expectancy of 82. If we move south of the Scottish border to the London district of Kensington and Chelsea, we have the highest life expectancy in the UK with a figure of 89 for males.

        These vast fluctuations are an indictment of a system that not only tolerates such wide variations in quality of life, but fosters and perpetuates a grossly unequal society. Why should one person expect to die younger than another born just a handful of miles away? These variations in life expectancy also show the callousness and injustice of the raising of the pension age to 70. What does that mean for those living in the 15% most deprived areas in Scotland whose life expectancy is in the 50's?

        There is no democracy, there is no justice in the midst of such disparity in quality of life, and we can't expect a band of millionaire parasites to put matters right. It would be against their own personal interests. We will have to do that ourselves.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk