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

Just one of hundreds of images of the Pakistan floods, the YouTube series by Islamic Relief

An email arrives confirming our donation.  The World Kitchen in Leith evening at Out of the Blue raised a total of £288 towards the Pakistan Flood Relief Appeal.  It seems a very small contribution towards relieving some of the suffering in a disaster which shows no signs of letting up.

Pakistan estimates it could cost £10 billion to rebuild the areas devastated by flooding. But our donation is just one of many and it is good to see that the Disasters Emergency Committee has praised the UK response.

It is often hard to know where to start. We sent our donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee, a collaboration of 13 humanitarian aid organisations including Action Aid, Oxfam, Islamic Relief, Red Cross and Tear Fund.

Their mission – according to their website – is to get effective relief quickly to the people who need it most and it is worth taking a look at  a few of the hundreds of films online to get an idea of the scale of that task.  Some of the videos are just seconds long – one of them is a close up of a human face simply saying “I am so sorry” over and over again – others are professional reports by the BBC, ITN, AlJazeerah, South Asia News.  Together they probe into corners we do not often see on the nightly news bulletins.

The film at the top of this post is one of a series by Islamic Relief, charting the spread of the flood waters and the impact on people whose lives may be changed for ever – villages that have disappeared below the water, displaced people crammed into refugee camps.  As the Scottish comentator starkly observes, the  reality of life in the camp can be summed up with the simple arithmetic: two toilets to 8,000 people.

Haven’t got the T shirt – yet – but we are preparing to be part of the Festival

OK, this is the Festival of Politics and yesterday the chamber was occupied by people who had come to hear Annie Lennox, Martin Bell and Mark Thomas discuss Power of the People. It was Mark Thomas who put the ideas to the vote: “Can I be a little cheeky?” he asked. And how was deputy presiding officer Alisdair Morgan going to refuse the man who has toured Britain collecting some wonderfully progressive ideas for his People’s Manifesto.

So anything can happen in the Festival of Politics. And on Day 5 – Saturday 21st to be precise – we are about to find out what lies in store when you invite people to bring the news stories that are making them mad to an experimental drama workshop.

Leith Open Space is joining ACTive Inquiry, the radical theatre group, to present News Group, a drama workshop exploring topical issues. The idea is to encourage people to take an active part in events rather than passively consuming all the media throws at us 24 hours of the day.  (In the monthly workshops we have grappled with the public sector cuts, the global response to the Haiti earthquake, and the Big Society.)

News Group uses drama techniques to analyse current affairs but it also employs Open Space democratic processes and everyone in the group is equally important. The Open Space process began with Harrison Owen, an American consultant who has specialised in mediation work with large and diverse groups. His work in Africa taught him that people communicate most freely when they sit in a circle where everyone has an equal chance to talk and listen.

Interestingly, at yesterday’s discussion in the debating chamber Mark Thomas also commented on the significance of the seating arrangement; the chamber’s  semicircular plan deliberately encourages consensus in contrast to Westminster’s  confrontational layout.

On the way out of the Parliament we took a quick peek in the Education Centre where the News Group takes place on Saturday.  It can fit a maximum of 30 people so it will be a tight circle if the room is full. But it will  expand to accommodate a world of news.  And who knows what will happen.

Alice and Mridu in the kitchen, lots more pictures by George Lamb and Euan Wheatley on Flickr

Altogether it was a great experience. But  the night before the event we emerged from the kitchen slightly terrified. When it comes down to it, The World Kitchen in Leith is just a bunch of amateur cooks getting together for the fun of sharing food.   Under the careful coaching of Drill Hall Arts Cafe manager Chris Askham, I think we all realised for the first time the true scale of the task we were facing.

Head waiter, Ellie Casson [Picture by Gordon Peters]

Basically we needed to prepare, cook and dish up 60 meals and then get them out to the tables –  and with the right  food on the right plate!  That’s five cooks in a smallish space and lots of potential for getting it wrong: Gordon Ramsay’s worst nightmare could have been waiting to come true. But somehow it all worked like a dream.

We all had a lovely evening and the food was delicious.
Please pass our thanks on to everyone involved in making it such a great event.
We look forward to the next evening.
All the best
Dianne

So here’s our heartfelt thanks to Isi (Isabel Lohss), cafe training manager, who kept a smooth flow between kitchen and tables. Thanks to Stewart Blaik, our masterly Maitre D (and chair of Leith Open Space along with lots of other local bodies), who met and ushered guests to their tables in style.

Thanks to our fantastic waitresses – Ellie, Ashley and Asha – who kept orders coming and food going and made sure everyone was happy, along with help of cafe trainee Tammy McCormack and staff member Jodie Boswell Out of the Blue.  Thanks to Anny and Dougal from Radio Magnetic for bringing the world music to the World Kitchen. Thanks to Tommy for designing the menu and invitations.

A special thanks to our room full of guests who really entered into the spirit of the night (a meal is only as good as the folk who eat it!). And not least, thanks of course to the cooks: Alice, Celia, Meena, Mridu…and from me, thanks to everyone for a really great experience.  Recipes will follow soon both here and on Out of the Blue website.  World Kitchen will be back again soon – and there is always room for more cooks in WKiL so if you would like to join us just get in touch.

No F words! Going clockwise round the table: Celia, Mridu, Fay and Ashley

]]> http://www.leithopenspace.co.uk/headlines/out-of-the-blue-your-invitation-to-the-world-kitchen-in-leith/feed/ 0 http://www.leithopenspace.co.uk/headlines/turning-a-new-facebook-page/ http://www.leithopenspace.co.uk/headlines/turning-a-new-facebook-page/#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:22:22 +0000 fay.young http://www.leithopenspace.co.uk/?p=1420 Phew!  It took two attempts and then a bit more trial and error but Leith Open Space finally has a Facebook Page – with thanks to Dougal Perman and Anny Deery for support and guidance, Ally Tibbitt of Greener Leith for setting a great example, and to the good friends who are already joining the page.  Looks like it is going to be a very good way to spread the word about our new adventures in catering and drama…

Flashback to last year: World Kitchen launched during the wet, wet Leith Festival Gala. This year we are going undercover!

There are moments in the early hours of the morning when we wake up and wonder how we got into this but after a good strong cup of coffee we are raring to go again.  First of all, World Kitchen in Leith promises to be a really exciting project during the Fringe, with lots of support from Out of the Blue Drill Hall Cafe.  But more of that after tomorrow’s planning meeting with the rest of the World Kitchen team.

And then a little later in August there’s the News Group drama workshop in the Festival of Politics.  Leith Open Space is really delighted to be working with ACTive Inquiry on a very different kind of event in this year’s varied programme at the Scottish Parliament.  Chris Berry the director did say he was hoping to encourage participants to blog on the Festival of Politics website, so we might just take him up on that.

So that’s us on Day 5 at 10.30 am in the Education Centre on Saturday 21 August.  News Group is a drama workshop – created by ACTive Inquiry in partnership with Leith Open Space – using drama techniques to dig below the surface of current issues.

It’s free and no acting experience is necessary. You just need to be willing to have a go. Instead of ranting at the telly, as Gavin Crichton artistic director of ACTive Inquiry puts it, this is an opportunity to explore how we can become active participants rather than passive consumers of non-stop news.

The News Group began last November and since then monthly workshops in Pilmeny Youth Centre have explored stories such as the war in Afghanistan, the Haiti earthquake, the BP oil disaster and the UK budget cuts. And who knows what the headlines will be during the third week in August.

ACTive Inquiry invited Leith Open Space to take part because there is a strong link between the community activism which is an essential element of their work and the community engagement of the Open Space discussion process.  Both   encourage people to take positive action and that   fits beautifully with this year’s Festival of Politics theme ‘Changing Politics’ ( if you are familiar with the work of ACTive Inquiry you will know that change has been very much part of the discussion in this year’s productions).

There is a special buzz around this year’s Festival of Politics with 47 events in the five day programme covering some of the most challenging issues of the moment. And in the Scottish Parliament too which gives a nice twist to discussion about the politics of ageing, football, food, human rights, climate change and much, much more.

Many of the events are free and the top price for tickets is only £6  if you book to see one of the stars – Annie Lennox talking about the Sing campaign fighting HIV/AIDS in South Africa, Mark Thomas on public involvement in politics or John Prescott on a life in politics.

“It’s never ending”, says David Ng Hop, describing the work of an MSP.  David had asked to take part in the Opening Doors shadow scheme because he wanted to see every aspect of what it means to be a member of the Scottish Parliament.  Here is his report…

I spent four days with two very different MSPs, one a shadow minister the other an opposition back bencher. The four days allowed me the opportunity to see the variety of work which is done day to day through Parliament and also within the constituency office.  I discovered one thing very quickly – this is not a 9 to 5, Monday to Friday job.  The work of an MSP is never-ending.

Over the four days I spent two with Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central and two with Malcolm Chisholm, MSP for Edinburgh North and Leith.  In many ways their work is very different.  Sarah is the shadow Minister for the Environment while Malcolm’s main area of work is as a member of the Equal Opportunities Committee and the Finance Committee.

But their constituency responsibilities are similar. Both send out regular updates to people in their constituency, both get huge numbers of emails and letters every day and every single one has to be answered.

Inside the Parliament I had the chance of sitting in and listening to the Equal Opportunities Committee and from the gallery of the debating chamber I saw the vote on the Public Service Reform bill as well as general questions and First Minister’s Questions.  Following Sarah in her duties outside Parliament I visited the new Tynecastle High School (which was built under the last Labour-LibDem coalition in the Scottish Parliament) and sat in on a meeting with the Head Teacher.

I didn’t spend all the time watching. I also had the chance to help with work in the office, stuffing envelopes with letters replying to constituents campaigning against the cuts proposed by the council.

It was all very interesting.  I would like to thank both Sarah and Malcolm for allowing me to be with them over four days – and to thank their teams of Personal Assistants who all made me very welcome. I would like to thank them all.

David is a support assistant in the City of Edinburgh Council health and social care department. We would like to thank him for his enthusiastic support of the Opening Doors shadow scheme which aims to encourage ethnic minority representation in politics.

We heard about the event through an email from Nahid Aslam, a member of Leith Open Space Group.  The email says: “All the Edinburgh North and Leith election candidates will be present – but since this will be the only hustings meeting specifically on Afghanistan we hope people will attend from across the city.  The election candidates will be asked to make their position on the war in Afghanistan clear.  Come along and put your questions on Afghanistan, war and peace, human rights and the economic cost of war.”

Since the next leaders debate on Thursday focuses on foreign policy differences between the three main political parties this is a good week to be looking at local responses to global issues.

See also Penny Stone’s eye-witness account of life in the occupied Palestinian territories on Sunday 25th April –  Penny will be talking about her time in Jayyous a small village in occupied Palestinian territores where she lived as a voluntary Ecumenical Accompanier.

Sunday 25th April 7.00 pm in Hendersons @ St. Johns Princes Street, Edinburgh (the old Cornerstone Cafe).

Monday 10.15 am at the Scottish Parliament – we clear security and head ‘backstage’ to the MSPs offices where Sarah Boyack is printing out her diary for the week.  Since there is nothing confidential in there she lets us have a quick peek: lots of meetings both in and out of the parliament but the day starts with an inroduction to David Ng Hop. And that of course is why we are here.

I am very conscious we don’t have a big enough representation of people from black and minority ethnic groups in the parliament.

David is the tenth shadow to take part in the Opening Doors shadow scheme and he has specially asked  to observe the work of his constituency MSP, Sarah Boyack.  “I would like to see every aspect of the work of an MSP,” says David who is a support assistant in the City of Edinburgh Council health and social care department.  He is particularly interested in anything to do with environment, equalities and care of the elderly.

He has come to the right place.  For the first time Opening Doors is getting the benefit of shadowing two different MSPs doing very different kinds of work.  Sarah Boyack (representing Edinburgh Central), who is Labour’s spokesperson on the environment will provide insight into the work of the shadow cabinet while Malcolm Chisholm (representing Edinburgh North and Leith), will offer David the chance to see the work of committees – perhaps the most important and distinguishing feature of the Scottish Parliament.

This is a particularly busy week before parliament takes a break for Easter.  “The week before recess is always busy,” says Sarah, “Busy but good, it’s a good time to come and see what we are doing.”

We take another look at the diary  – today’s issues include fair trade, school meetings and cuts to care of the elderly.  In the evening and at weekends there are meetings with groups in the constituency about the impact of cuts on local services. And we have to ask: why is Sarah making time for the shadow scheme?

“I am very conscious we don’t have a big enough representation of people from black and minority ethnic groups in the parliament,” she says, ” I meet many people who are actively involved in their communities but they don’t know how to get involved in the political system.  I see this as a way of giving people a view into the parliament.”

By now it is time to let David get on with what sounds like a full and fascinating week.  We’ll be back to find out how he got on.