Sony’s workshop on drugs. Pictures by Nick Gardner

So, what’s like to be young in Leith? Drugs, drink, gang culture and nowhere to go were main topics of discussion in The Citadel that Friday afternoon.  At first sight all the media stereotypes of youth are there on flipcharts at our Open Space event for young people. Listen to workshop discussions and you find plenty of surprises.  Here’s some for starters:

1. Cannabis is the most common drug but most drug overdoses come from prescribed medicines in the family cupboard
2. parents are often part of gang culture
3. sport breaks down territorial barriers
4. young people like boundaries and agree that 10.30pm is a fair bedtime on school nights.

But a common theme runs through all the discussions: young people need more places to go. At the end of the afternoon, of top five concerns, most votes went to Steph’s group plea for ‘cheaper leisure activities for young people’.  Next came alcohol and peer pressure to drink. Gang culture and territorialism won 4^th and 5^th places.   But perhaps a surprising third place went to the ‘need to be brave’ about individual identity – how to develop a real sense of who you are in a world where media often reflects a distorted image of young people and their place in the community.

Local amenities for young people closing down making it easier for drug dealers to target young people

Leith Open Space organised the event on Friday 20^th May in partnership with The Citadel Youth Centre  (coincidentally celebrating its 30^th anniversary). The invitation asked: What is it like to be young in Leith? In planning meetings we hoped at least a few young people would be there to tell us. And they were!

“We need more things to do”: MSP Malcolm Chisholm hears the message

On the day, the opening circle included around 30 people aged 13 to 88.  To be fair, some of them were a captive audience – on Friday afternoons The Citadel runs a popular intergenerational group (a surprise in itself) – but on a sunny day many of them opted to stay for the discussion instead of joining the organised outing.

Gang members have a sense of belonging.

The result was an intensive few hours revealing pressures and problems  – peer pressure encourages drinking in a society where our legal drug of choice is often far cheaper  than events and activities organised for young people.

Alcohol is part of national culture – it’s legal therefore less of a stigma (than legal drugs)

What next?  Leith Open Space and The Citadel will make sure key decision makers get the message spelled out loud and clear by young people. We will produce a printed report to send to all relevant organisations.  But first, as some of you  were not able to join us on the day (some youth groups had clashing events and commitments) we are inviting you to add your own comments on the top discussion points.  Meanwhile, we are looking forward to exploring some of these ideas when we meet Leith Neighbourhood Partnership at The Citadel on Wednesday 15^th June.

The Top 5 Issues

1. Cheaper leisure choices
2. Peer pressure to drink
3. Need to be brave about your identity
4. Can youth clubs / agencies work together to break down territorialism
5. Policing and policy on gangs

Our thanks to Maggie Havergal for facilitating our fourth Open Space event with great skill and good humour as always. And thanks to Nick Gardner for the pictures – you can see more on Nick’s website Leith and North

Maggie Havergal reads out the winning Action Points

One of a series of skateboard designs by Tommy Perman

We are delighted to be holding this event in partnership with The Citadel who have just celebrated 30 years of working with young people in Leith

This is a tough time to be young – jobs, training, college places and affordable housing are all hard to come by. The stereotypes of youth in the media don’t help either. But you only have to walk into The Citadel building to see the fantastic wealth of creative work produced by young people.

Throughout North Edinburgh and Leith, community groups and youth centres are making heroic and inspiring efforts to overcome obstacles. On low (or even no) budgets and often beneath the radar of publicity there are terrific achievements in music, art, drama, film and discussion groups.

A YouTube snapshot of the wonderful samba band, Pulse at the Place

So let’s come together to share ideas and experience at The Citadel Youth Centre on 20^th May from 1pm to 4.30pm.  In Open Space there are no key speakers and we won’t know the agenda until you turn up. The event will be facilitated with Maggie Havergal of Open Futures but what we talk about is decided by the people in the opening circle.

At the end of the day with your help we will produce a list of action points. Then we will share the outcome with Leith Neighbourhood Partnership, our MP, MSPs and local councilors, and other relevant groups and organisations.

The event is free and open to people of all ages. But please book first ( Willy Barr of the Citadel is kindly organising a free buffet lunch) so we know how many to cater for. Looking forward to seeing you there.

To book a free place or for further information

Telephone: George Lamb 0131 555 9329 or email lamb769@btinternet.com

In no particular order, food, news, drama and politics played a big part in the Leith Open Space calendar of events for 2010.  Come to think of it that is the right order. 

Food brought us together in the wonderful World Kitchen in Leith festival night (see the picture above). News became drama at our Newgroup drama workshops with a special event in the Festival of Politics.  And once again Opening Doors shadow scheme connected local people with the political process through another great programme of activities in the Scottish Parliament.

None of it would have been possible without you so, while saying a very warm thank you to all our friends and supporters, we are nurturing hopes and dreams for 2011.

In the heat of the kitchen at our 2010 festival event in Out Of The Blue

Food is high on the list again as World Kitchen in Leith hopes to team up with local charities and community groups to cook up some exciting fundraising events.  The dream is that one day we might help to organise a World Food market in the heart of Leith.  (And we know just the place to make it happen).

Newsgroup drama workshop at the 2010 Festival of Politics

Newsgroup returns in the New Year in collaboration with ACTive Inquiry – and of course their very creative director Gavin Crichton has many more drama projects up his sleeve and we will be helping to spread the word about those very soon. The dream is that between us we might organise a Forum Theatre at the Scottish Parliament involving MSPs before the election campaign takes to the road.

And Leith Open Space will also be working on our core activites – a new Open Space discussion event on a very topical subject and Opening Doors shadow scheme brings another opportunity to meet the people whose decisions affect our daily lives (In the picture: David ng Hop shadows Sarah Boyack).  It’s a two-way process which encourages mentors to learn from their shadows.   The dream is that we might entice some business leaders and bankers into the scheme.

But of course Leith Open Space only comes to life when it is full of friends so once again thank you for your help, encouragement and support. Here’s wishing you all the very best in what we hope will be an energetic and productive new year.

This recipe more or less invented itself on a cold night when the tomato soup seemed to call out for a little extra zing.  Chilli and ginger weren’t quite reaching the spot but a splosh of vodka worked like magic.

Serves 2 or 3

1 tin plum tomatoes
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
teaspoon cumin seed
small piece fresh ginger
chilli (fresh or dried)
vegetable stock cube
water
oil

heat spoonful of oil in saucepan, when hot add cumin seed and when they start to pop add chopped onion and cook until soft.  Stir in garlic, chopped ginger and chilli.  Add tomatoes,  and pour in roughly 500 cl (pint) of water with crumbled stock cube.

Stir, bring to boil and cook for 10 to 15 mins.  Blend and add shot of vodka.  If you heat it again there is no alcohol left but the booze adds a nice clean edge to the taste.

Cheers!

“For me …politics had always existed in some virtual world far away where politicians meted out decisions that affected people’s lives either positively or negatively.” Celina Mbwiria records her reactions to a first full council meeting.

Meet Celina Mbwiria one of the first people to take part in Opening Doors Shadow Scheme in October 2006.. Since  Celina wrote our first Journal of the Week Phil Attridge has retired from the City Council and grown a beard but he still works as a bus driver in Edinburgh. And Celina’s perceptive comments are still so relevant we are delighted to publish them again to celebrate our fifth anniversary of Leith Open Space. Now read what Celina discovered about local politics…

Thursday 26th October 2006
A lovely autumn morning. I woke with a purpose and a spring in my step. My colleague and I were to visit the City Chambers in Edinburgh, to observe for the very first time, the workings of a ‘full council meeting’.

We arrived at the City Chambers at 10 am and my mentor (Councillor Phil Attridge) took us to the café area to meet other Leith councillors while a lady with a register came in and out checking which councillors had not yet arrived – like school roll call. The atmosphere and the banter were relaxed and helped relieve any anxieties we may have had about participating in such a venture.

For me the whole experience was a momentous one as I had never done anything like it before. Politics always existed in some virtual world far away where politicians meted out decisions that affected people’s lives either positively or negatively. And while I have most times exercised my democratic right to vote, I had never thought deeply about how such things affected my personal life. Through programmes such as this, I am stimulated to question things more, which I think is a very good thing.

In the public galleries, I was quite surprised to see so many ordinary people come to observe such proceedings. My colleague and I were the only people from the BME communities there and only because we are in this programme. This brings home to me the importance of programmes like this in raising awareness within the BME communities and encouraging them to come and witness decisions which affect them.

Heated debate

Below us sat all the councillors with the Lord Provost chairing the proceedings. Labour councillors were furthest away, Conservatives just in front of us and Liberal Democrats just underneath us. The acoustics were quite bad and it was hard to hear what was being said. Issues of great interest were discussed and I could catch one word here and there – I made note of these: a heated debate about council money being inappropriately spent; housing affordability; inequalities and reducing the gap; carbon emmissions, global warming and parking charges. My mentor gave me a copy of the report and that helped to a certain degree.

Some time was spent discussing the furnishings of the chamber – whether to buy new chairs or refurbish existing ones. This is the only debate I could follow because we could quite clearly hear the Lib Dems and the Conservatives as they made their argument for restoration of the chairs to preserve them for posterity against Labour’s case to replace them with more storage-friendly ones to reduce mounting storage costs.

Gender balance and BME representation

It was clear from the start that great gender imbalance existed in the chamber and there was only one councillor visible from BME communities. In fact I could only count three female Labour councillors and two Conservatives and I was informed that there were four female Liberal Democrats. Of 56 councillors present there were 9 female councillors – equivalent to 16%. Clearly there is a big gap here and I can’t help but wonder why this is so. When I later inquired from our host I was told that there was a time when women councillors were labelled the Knitting Club, a term women took in their stride and turned to their advantage. Still, it’s sad to see the glaring gender imbalance and I hope something can be done about it. As regards to BME communities, there is great need for programmes like ‘Opening Doors’ to inform and encourage BME communities to become more involved and claim their rightful place in the national politics.

Lunch with councillors

Over lunch we had a chance to talk with Leith councillors about issues that affected us individually or as a community. Later our host took us to see the office he shares with another councillor, with many pictures and photographs on the walls. Two pictures stood out for me. A South African one showing a tiny black man being kicked about by four burly uniformed white men – the other was of a dessicated body of a human victim of hurricane Katriona hanging on a barbed wire fence like a ragdoll. Seeing these pictures was poignant for me because they clearly indicated what the powerful few are capable of doing to the majority poor who have no voice.

Is the developed world as civilised as it claims to be?

At the end of the day, the whole experience was worthwhile and I enjoyed it all immensely and would encourage others to take part in such projects. I would like to thank the organisers of the project and my mentor for organising the activities and for looking after us through the day

Celina is one of six ‘shadows’ taking part in the Opening Doors programme to encourage black and minority ethnic representation in local and national politics. For more about Celina see the Local Heroes section of this website.

“The media has a major role to play in our multi-cultural society. It also has certain duties in ensuring responsible reporting on issues of asylum, refugees and immigration.”  Paul Holleran Scottish Organiser National Union of Journalists

Flashback to 2005. The top action point, the one that gathered by far the most votes at our first Open Space event was about the role of the media in shaping public perceptions of minority communities. It is interesting to look back at the response (or lack of it) we received from newspaper editors and wonder how much has changed?

The media should be showing the positive images not always negative images thereby causing “scare-mongering”

We sent letters to every newspaper in Scotland and to radio and television too.  We invited them to share their thoughts and describe their approach to reporting issues of immigration and multicultural stories. We got three replies – perhaps significantly none from an editor of a newspaper.  Replies came from

Jeff Zycinski, then head of BBC Radio Scotland

Paul Holleran, Scottish organiser for National Union of Journalists

Mark Meredith, at that time a senior lecturer in journalism at Napier University

In brief ….

Jeff Zycinski said: As for non-news programming on BBC Radio Scotland, I can assure you we have a pro-active policy of cultural representation both on air and in terms of our recruitment of programme makers.  It is my belief that this kind of cultural diversity makes for richer, better and more interesting programmes that become more relevant to the changing audience in Scotland.

Paul Holleran said the National Union of Journalists started to campaign for greater accuracy in covering multicultural issues following a series of articles about asylum seekers and refugees in the Daily Record in particular.

He pointed out that the NUJ  produce a guide for journalists to improve accuracy and raise awareness of cultural differences.  They also sponsor awards for journalists who have written outstanding articles on the subject.

Mark Meredith, said the subject of ethnic issues came up frequently on his course with students from Pakistan, Indian, Cameroon and Nigeria.

“We look at how editors choose subjects that will be relevant to their readers and often, alas, these are issues which respond to some of the wrong instincts such as racism and sectarianism.”

Then he concluded with an interesting point

“My feeling is that ethnic minorities should not set out to change the established media but be creative in finding other channels and other ways of presenting information about themselves to raise public awareness and diminish harmful stereotypes”

In 2007 Oxfam published an updated version of Fair Play, Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Scotland, a guide to journalists.  Although legislation is constantly changing the key points of the report are just as important.  Worth noting: the latest immigration figures show a continuing reduction of applications because of tighter border controls in the UK (and every other major industrialised country) rather than a reduction in human rights abuses.

We have learned a lot since that  first meeting on a cold November Saturday afternoon. On the fifth anniversary of Leith Open Space (though we didn’t call it that right away) it is good to celebrate the achievements without forgetting how much more needs to be done.

First a brief flashback:

We invited people to take part with a question ‘Can we listen to each other’. The answer came on Sunday 20 November when over the course of four hours around 50 people came to take part in a day of discussion – and a buffet lunch – in the open space at the top of Ocean Terminal.

Together we symbolised the rich diversity of cultures in the Leith area – Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, African, Caribbean, Polish, Irish, English, and Scottish. Some came as private individuals; some represented the arts, health, education, and police; many came from voluntary organisations providing information and social support for different minority ethnic groups. In large circles and small workshop groups everyone in the room showed willingness to listen to each other – even when the discussion covered difficult ground.

The top 7 action points were very clear

• stop media scaremongering
• welcome immigrants
• develop opportunities for multicultural relationships
• political parties to deliver on ethnic minority representation
• positive role models from the Islamic community
• to rediscover how to look out for each other
• and to encourage employers to see the competitive value of multicultural society

We followed up all those action points. Beginning with the media, which was an eye-opening experience.We sent letters to every newspaper in Scotland and got three replies – perhaps significantly not one from a newspaper editor  (we’ll come back to the replies another time ).

Our  best achievements so far are Opening Doors Shadow Scheme, getting into collaboration with ACTive Inquiry the community activist theatre group,  and our active involvement as founder members of  World Kitchen in Leith – the shadow scheme picks up that point about  ethnic minorities in politics; World Kitchen is simply about the fun we discovered at our first multicultural lunch. Everyone brought a dish representing their culture, it was definitely the best part of the day.

But many problems remain.  This summary from our first report is a reminder of the obstacles that may well harden in the new economic chill.

Frustration at wasted opportunities was voiced everywhere. Funding inequalities for multicultural arts events mean human talent cannot be exploited to the full. Many people said they want to see changes to benefits systems and immigration laws to enable skilled people to earn a living and contribute to the community they live in. Language barriers can be overcome through teaching but Scotland’s ESOL funding is half that allocated per student in England.

David with Sarah Boyack on the shadow scheme at the Scottish Parliament

“If nothing else it will be a learning experience for me,” says David. After taking part in our shadow scheme he  is under no illusions about the amount of work facing any MSP – or the effort it takes to get elected to the job in the first place!

Learning was one of the main reasons David joined the shadow scheme in March this year when he enrolled for a placement shadowing Malcolm Chisholm and Sarah Boyack. The experience gave him a close look at the work of MSPs both in parliament and in the constituency and he decided he would like to stand for election himself.

“I would like to stand on behalf of ethnic minority communities.  I have a particular interest in equal opportunities and issues of disabled people,” says David who is dyslexic and also has experience of the needs of others through working as a home help.  He now works for Edinburgh city council as an Admin Assistant providing services for the disabled.

A strong supporter of grassroots community activism (through Community Council work as well as Scottish Labour Party and Scottish Co-op Party membership) David is also a keen trade unionist, a former member of the STUC Black Members Committee and currently on the Unison  Disabled Members Committee.

Now David has joined the long list of aspiring candidates from all main political parties in Scotland.  If he is selected this autumn his name will be added to  the Lothian Regional List on the ballot paper next May.

The List ‘top-up’ system is one of the distinguishing features of the Scottish Parliament. This new way of voting is nicely described on the Scottish Parliament website but – trying to sum it up briefly – it combines two voting systems:  the old first-pass-the-post system and a form of proportional representation (the additional members system) which is designed to more accurately reflect the way we vote.

So we each get two votes.  One for the constituency MSP, the other to  reflect the proportion of votes cast for political parties.  As David puts it: “The Scottish system gives smaller parties a better chance of getting into power.”

All very topical given the planned referendum on changing the way we elect our MPs to Westminster. Interesting to see that  Mark Lazarowicz, our  recently re-elected MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, is offering a chance to debate the issues of alternative vote and constitutional reform at Stockbridge Library on Wednesday 22nd September at 6.30pm.

Every now and then a surprised face peered through the window: this was not business as usual in the Scottish Parliament, not even during the Festival of Politics.  For once the emphasis was on actions rather than words.  And actions can speak volumes.

The News Group drama workshop chose to work on a topical story very much at the heart of the Scottish Parliament – US reaction to al-Megrahi’s continuing survival a year after his release and how that is being covered by the media.

This was a special festival version of the News Group presented by ACTive Inquiry with Leith Open Space.  The event was a sell-out – at 10.30 am on a Saturday too – and perhaps half the group were regulars from the monthly workshop sessions that take place in Pilmeny Youth Centre.   New members added a fascinating range of skills and experience to the event in the Education Centre at the parliament.

Gavin leads a warm-up exercise

Without words the group arranged ourselves according to the distance we had travelled to get to the parliament (Gavin Crichton, director of  ACTive Inquiry, does a great line in warm-up exercises as you can see from the photo).  The shortest journey was just a 10 minute walk but Lorna had crossed water to get there from Argyll and Thom had driven from Carluke.

Once the workshop began we covered a lot more ground – back in time and across the world: from Lockerbie to Libya, from the Berlin nightclub to the White House, searching and sifting through the layers of a complex story rarely tackled in the media. In silence the group expressed questions leading to more questions in a chain reaction spreading across the floor.

It’s not over yet. The workshop ended – as it always does – with suggestions for the actions our Jo (or Joe) the active citizen could take.  The top vote went to an idea which could take the drama to a wider stage.  Instead of calling for a judicial inquiry, the group would like to see “ a theatre-styled  public presentation of the Megrahi case”.   It’s an ambitious idea – but it would be a very exciting development for the Festival of Politics.   We hope we will come back to it!

The Top Three Action Points

1. Create a theatre-styled inquiry
2. Research every source to find the truth
3. Make an amateur video (in Lockerbie) on the subject of innocence and victimisation