Archive for July, 2007
Welcome to summer news from Leith Open Space Group including details of an interesting programme of activities organised by Leith Community Involvement Project (see Summer in the City). There is lots more to come from Leith Open Space too and we will be contacting you again with plans for another Opening Doors shadow scheme and an exciting new Open Space event in 2008. We welcome your thoughts so don’t hesitate to get in touch or post a comment with your news and views.
in case you need reminding, this really is the summer!
July 14th, 2007
What exactly does democracy mean? The Leith Community Involvement Project has organised a ’summer school’ so local people can take part in a thought-provoking programme to stimulate debate about the connection between democracy and the lives of ordinary people.
The programme begins in August with drama in the Scottish Parliament (the theatrical kind rather than political debate!). A trip to Holyrood provides the chance to see a performance of “The Journey of Jeannie Deansâ€? following Jeannie’s journey from Edinburgh to London in an attempt to win the freedom of her sister who, she believes, has been wrongly accused of murder.
The summer school ends with a showing of Ken Loach’s film “Land and Freedomâ€?, about the questions raised by a young woman’s discovery that her grandfather fought in the Spanish Civil War.
All activities are free of charge. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT JACKIE MEARNS ON 554 9951 OR 07732471660 – she will be on holiday for two weeks from July 13.
• Friday 24th August 5pm – 6.30pm
“The Journey of Jeannie Deans� performed at the Scottish Parliament. Set in the decades following the Act of Union, this play takes Sir Walter Scott’s “Heart of Midlothian� as its basis, and documents the human drama of sisters Jeannie and Effie Deans, following Jeannie’s journey from Edinburgh to London in an attempt to win the freedom of her sister who, she believes, has been wrongly accused of murder.
• Tuesday 28th August 10am – 3.30pm
A day trip to New Lanark. This trip includes a guided tour around this beautifully restored 18th Century cotton mill village, entry to the visitors centre and a presentation on the life and philosophy of Robert Owen, the mill manager whose ideas were 100 years ahead of their time - abolishing child labour and corporal punishment, providing decent homes, schools, evening classes, free health care and affordable food.
• Friday 31st August 6.30pm – 9pm :
A showing of Land and Freedom directed by Ken Loach. A young women discovers her newly deceased grandfather, David, fought in the Spanish Civil War. But his idealism was tested as comrades were killed and the alliance disintegrated. The old man is buried. Was his struggle in vain?
The Leith Community Involvement project is funded by the Community Voices Fund and City of Edinburgh Council, Community Learning and Development.
Further events are in the pipeline, including an introduction to the Scottish Parliament and how to lobby MSPs, a women’s event and a European themed evening. Further information about these will be sent out soon. Jackie will be on annual leave from Friday 13th for two weeks,
July 14th, 2007
During Refugee Week Fay Young of Leith Open Space Group joined an information session organised by Edinburgh Refugee Centre. This is the first part of her report.
We sat at tables in small groups grappling with questions. What exactly is an asylum seeker? Where do most refugees come from? What is a migrant worker? Can there be an illegal asylum seeker?
The words matter. Dispelling myths was one of the aims of the Information session organised by Edinburgh Refugee Centre with the Scottish Refugee Council during Refugee Week. There is a lot of fear and confusion surrounding words like asylum seeker and refugee.
We were a mixed bunch – from voluntary organisations and public bodies, including two uniformed police officers – who met in St Georges West Church in Edinburgh to gain accurate information about rights and entitlements of asylum seekers.
But first the definitions. Across the table from me is a young man who turns out to be a psychologist. He spends much of his time treating traumatised asylum seekers, many of them suffering from the added anxiety of HIV plus the uncertainty of not knowing whether they can stay in Scotland. Perhaps not surprisingly his definition of asylum seeker is pretty much spot on: ’someone who has arrived in the country, made themselves known to the authorities and exercised the legal right to claim asylum’.
A refugee, therefore, is a successful asylum seeker – someone who has been granted the right to stay either first time round or – since 80% of applications are refused at first – after appeal. A migrant is someone who has come to this country on a visa to work. And, as Jamie Spurway of the Scottish Refugee Council name makes clear, there can never be any such thing as an ‘illegal asylum seeker’ – when he sees that term in a newspaper he knows the rest of the story is not worth reading.
Many of the people at today’s workshop are refugees. I am sitting next to a woman from Palestine who helps me name the countries on the map where most refugees come from (to name but five: Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Iran and Iraq). And why. Civil war, rape, religious persecution, ethnic oppression, political repression, tribal conflict, government corruption – these are the main causes why people are forced to flee their native land.
In such a complicated world it is increasingly difficult to fit 21st Century refugees into the definition laid down by the United Nations in 1951 – a refugee is someone unable to return to their country because of a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”. Rape as a weapon of war is not included.
A morning’s workshop doesn’t answer all questions but the interest and concern in an Edinburgh church hall is heartwarming. We leave with news of many more information sessions to come.
For more information about future workshops and training courses visit the Scottish Refugee Council website.
July 5th, 2007
