Well it's Christmas, that time of year when the retail wing of the corporate Mafia start to rub their sweaty hands in greedy anticipation. The babbling brook of bullshit, the media, has been singing songs of woe, on how the poor retail outlets have been having a hard time. This they blame on anything from the weather being too wet, too cold, or whatever, they always fail to mention that it is in fact caused by us being too poor.
Scotland's population is approximately 5.2 million, a relatively small country and a relatively small population. It is also a very rich little country with lots of assets including, whisky exports, oil, wind/wave and hydro-power to export. It has however, one big snag, its economic system, lots of wealth but in the hands of very few. The result of this insane economic system is that we have some of the worst poverty levels in Europe. From our small population we have over 220,000 children living in poverty, that accounts for more than 1 in 4 of our kids. We have numerous districts where the level of children living in poverty is over 30%. Aberdeen, recently listed in some poll or other, as the best place to live in Scotland, has a child poverty level of 35%. This is by no means the worst, We have Scotstoun coming in at 36%, Anderson at 37%, Govan at 38%, Drumchapel at 40% and it doesn't stop there. Coming in at the top of this indictable list of greed created poverty is Springburn, with a staggering 52% of the children in that area living in poverty. Trying having a Merry Xmas with these figures.
These are the figures behind all the shit about austerity, growth and retail problems. All the facts and figures banded about by the economic experts never manage to put the real misery lived by the people, onto their balance sheets. It's all numbers about debit and credit disguising malnutrition, health problems from lack of heating, stunted potential, and poisoned dreams. For it to be other, we have to get rid of this insane, unjust, system of exploitation that is sanitised by balance sheets and passed of as fair and the only game in town. Capitalism is not set in tablets of stone, it is a man made system that works for the benefit of the few. We can, if we have the real desire, create another system that is based on the needs of all our people, built on sustainability, co-operation and mutual aid. The first step has to be bring down this present system that depends on the rape of the planet and its people.
