You will detect a certain bias – in favour of the trams – but this is not a simple party political matter.  Perhaps the strongest and most detailed case for the tram is put by a former SNP MSP, Christopher Harvie.

The Greatest transport disaster since the Tay Bridge, Harvie’s tram chronicle on the Scottish Review blog, is  well worth reading. With equal vigour, he lays into media, city council, motorists, bankers and shifting government policy.  The great unanswered question is always, why it went so badly wrong. Whatever the reason, Harvie makes a killer observation for the dire consequence of failure: not just for Edinburgh but for the Scottish economy.

Whether or not the tram proceeds, possible investors in Scotland’s renewable energy technologies will require convincing that the skill and industrial intelligence to succeed in systems installation exists.

Ross Martin’s Scotsman article The tram network just needs a driver makes a forceful case for an elected mayor (does Edinburgh possess a Ken Livingstone?). Strong and visionary leadership, he says, could have driven the tram project to completion long ago.

In the great European cities …from Barcelona to Venice, from Dubrovnik to London, an elected mayor, call them provosts in Scotland if you please, drives the development and regeneration of their cities. They lead them in times of trouble and they set out their stall to deliver growth

And what about Leith?  Action needed now to repair damage done to Leith a passionate polemic on Greener Leith blog urges immediate investment in the shopping streets of Leith

What is urgently needed is not more pie in the sky, but a coherently worked out investment plan to kick start the sustainable, resilient, regeneration of Leith

A similar point is made by Mark Lazarowicz, MSP for Edinburgh North and Leith, in his latest blog Trams: Practical Action Needed Now.

Let’s not forget the people of North Edinburgh and Leith where the tram was originally meant to have gone. Traders and residents along Leith Walk and Constitution Street in particular have suffered years of disruption – it’s been ‘all pain, no gain’…whatever happens in the future, there needs to be much more substantial help now to support businesses and economic activity in Leith Walk and Leith.

Of course that won’t be the last word…

Just about to sign off for a couple of weeks break so here’s a post in the holiday spirit. Vic Galloway meets Scottish bands at SxSW the legendary rock festival in Austin Texas.  Ok, it’s a long way from Leith, but local bands often play there – not least our very own FOUND in 2009.   Woodenbox were invited this year but other commitments kept them at home (never mind they are playing all around Scotland). No doubt about local talent but wouldn’t it be great to have more live music venues for them to play outside the festival?

So that raises an interesting problem.  Does Nick Lowles (the Hope not Hate campaigner who happens to be a man) undermine his cause by applying the word shrill to the tone of reporting in The Star?

Not sure.  We support the campaign because we believe the media plays an often destructive role in the public perception of ethnic minorities, asylum seekers, refugees – in fact minorities of all shapes, sizes and sexes.

But yonmei does raise a very good point about the power of words to confuse and distract attention from the cause itself (the Hope not Hate campaign is fundamentally about words and the way they are used by The Star and other papers).

This is a debate that erupts everyone now and then and may be a good sign – women are ever so gradually becoming more visible in public life and politics. A quick Google (“is shrill a sexist word”) produces thousands of blogs. To pick just one, the first on the page , US blogger Tom Watson, asks if he was sexist to accuse Hillary Clinton of ’scolding’.   The assumption being that men never scold (shrill, shriek or scream).

Ironically, Lowles could have used the word shrill even if The Star’s editor was a man, though of course he would not necessarily have avoided being called sexist.  The Oxford dictionary definition of shrill is, “piercing and high pitched in sound”, and, ok,  that is more easily applied to a woman than a man. (As yonmei also points out the mean of words lies in use as much/more than in their dictionary definition) But there is a colourful description of the sound in the 1913 Webster’s Dictionary which describes, the “shrilling of a cock”.  and “his voice shrilled with passion”.

Anyway,  Hope not Hate is worth supporting and we will return to the subject of the media again soon.

We need more poetry in politics.  For a few wonderful moments at the monthly full council meeting Ron Butlin lifted the tone inside Edidnburgh’s city chambers.  The Makar, or poet laureate, of Edinburgh opened the session with a poem in place of the usual prayer.  

But it was the wisdom of a 10-year-old girl that he invoked when he urged councillors to look inside themselves, to make the world  a better place.

Hostilities were suspended briefly on Thursday morning when Ron Butlin introduced a touch of humanity and humour to the more usually adversarial space, sharing the good news that his wife has very recently beaten the cancer that was diagnosed just as his appointment began in June 2008.  [Ron is pictured right and below at the launch of the Poetry Garden in St Andrew Square in August 2008]

Since then The Makar – novellist, poet and one time barnacle scraper on a Thames barge – has brought a distinctive personal style to the post with his poems about Edinburgh and Scotland: affection for the city never gets in the way of gritty and pointed realism.

Perhaps only a poet can get away with asking politicians to be their best selves.  Ron Butlin presented the line produced by a young schoolgirl in one of his poetry workshops – then he suggested the world would be a better place if politicians could find the bigger person inside themselves.

Jenny Dawe, the council leader, thanked him warmly – truly Makar means a builder with words –  then the council got down to business as usual discussing the cuts and the cost of the tram.  If anyone was searching for the bigger self inside they were not letting on.

What is an active citizen?  If I was being very flippant I would say it is the kind of person who comes out on a Saturday morning to talk about the big news stories of the day.  No, not just talk.  Active citizenship in the ACTive Inquiry sense means moving, listening, looking, feeling and doing.  At one point I found myself crouching on the floor connecting with the lives – and deaths – of people thousands of miles away. 

Don’t let that image put you off.  The Newsgroup – the inspiration of Gavin Crichton of ACTive Inquiry – is an extraordinary experience, by turns moving, humbling and liberating. I must admit on that particular Saturday morning I had second thoughts as I rushed through breakfast to get to Pilmeny Youth Centre on time.  By lunchtime I couldn’t believe three hours had raced by.

The workshop combines drama techniques with open space process.  So this morning’s group – aged 16 to 60 and representing people from Japan to Joppa – begin by choosing the most pressing news story of the moment and end by discussing what active citizens can do about it. In the process we begin to build a picture of Jo (or Joe) the active citizen. (see Ben Stollery’s notes below).

We choose Haiti (other topics on the list were bankers, Murdoch’s media domination, surveillance by satellite, and the Iraq inquiry). Although at times I feel uncomfortable – what right have I to imagine how it feels to live or die through that devastating earthquake – it is much more than a dramatic exercise. I am left with a lasting connection which makes each news story  more real, more relevant, more personal (though of course writing this some weeks later, Haiti has already dropped from the headlines). [See Mercy Corps for latest]

Perhaps everyone should join a Newsgroup, not least  every politician and every policy maker – anyone whose decisions shape other people’s lives. It is a wonderfully stimulating,  liberating and humanising way of looking at the world.

If the idea appeals to you, why not come to the next Newsgroup workshop on Saturday 6 March at Pilmeny Youth Centre on the corner of Buchanan Street and Dalmeny Street.

We’ll come back to the subject of active citizenship in future blogs.  Right now, here’s Ben Stollery’s notes from the January workshop.

BUILDING A PICTURE OF JO / JOE

We considered the situation in Haiti after the recent devastating earthquake, particularly in regard of the impact of the country’s international debt. What could Jo/e do?

• Learn about the country
• Not to feel guilty about not knowing very much about the country’s situation already
• Learn about any involvement our own country has had in creating the context for Haiti’s situation (foreign policies, holiday industry etc)
• Examine what our on-going stake in this situation is; ie what are the long-term/institutional policies (such as aid, trade, exploitation of raw materials) that have influenced Haiti’s situation. Learn the difference between ‘emergency’ and other types of aid
• Learn what other organisations are already doing to address the debt issue eg. Jubilee Scotland
• Improve our communication (with one another)
• Be wary of rushing to intervene before reflecting on all of the above

It’s not just an exercise.  Ben adds “I thought you might be interested in this update on Haiti’s debt situation (good news!) on the Jubilee Scotland ”

This is an ‘Open View’ from Fay Young, co-ordinator Leith Open Space website and Opening Doors Shadow Scheme. Your views are welcome.

At 9.30 am there is only one film showing at the Vue cinema in Ocean Terminal. Sunshine beams across Leith while people stream into the warm dark for the first screening. Parents, teachers, community leaders and local politicians have turned out in force to see an extraordinary celebration of local life. But the red carpet is reserved for the kids starring in Hold the Fort.

“There is,” as Fort Primary headteacher Moira Heatly says in her welcoming speech, “much more to the Fort than sometimes meets the eye.” The short films that follow prove the point over and over again. Local people of all ages tell their stories to the camera leading the audience from the wartime past when the Fort was occupied by soldiers, through the development of the 60s when new flats “with bathrooms and running water” housed more than 150 families.

And so to the present. Compared with grainy black and white images of the past, 21st century pictures of Fort Primary and Community Wing are full of colour. There are clubs of all kinds for people of all ages: the Wednesday girls, the Monday art club, the Polish drop in centre Swietlica, the badminton group.

At the heart of all this is the primary school and it is open for a breakfast club before classes begin until the after school club closes at the end of the day. Pupils conjure up dreams of fame and fortune with the aid of computer animations – and then they get to grips with real life: there are projects to get rid of bullying (FAB stands for Fort Against Bullying), to promote road safety and to learn how to live without wrecking the planet.

The documentary – which took six months to make with the help of £10,000 from public funds and charitable sponsorship – takes an affectionate look at the community without being sentimental. No-one pretends life is easy. Perhaps the most moving and revealing part of the film comes at the end, when parents remember their childhoods and express their hopes of providing a better future for their children.

“This project shows the real spirit of community,” Moira Heatly told many of the community at the first screening. Outside an even bigger crowd was already gathering for the second screening. And the red carpet (organised by Councillor Gordon Munro) was full up.

Hold the Fort will be released on DVD in 2009 and available in local libraries.

The project was directed by Martin Ayres of cagedbeastie.com and funding came from Edinburgh city Coucnil, Leith Neighbourhood Partnership, Youth Link Scotland, the Lottery and Growing Confidence.

Harvest time in Persevere Community Garden

The sun was shining through the window and there was a pot of tea on the go. To be honest, I could have been tempted to stay at home last Saturday but I am very glad I didn’t. The open day at Persevere Community Garden was a great way to spend a day off. There was hot soup, a blazing bonfire, great company and to our amazement, there was a good crop of potatoes growing beneath the weeds in our plot. Hard to believe that just six months ago this ground was so hard we had to use a pick axe to get into it.

Before and after a lot of digging…

What a difference a growing season can make. Back in April the walled garden surrounded by tall flats was a fairly daunting sight. But last weekend it was full of people enjoying the results of their hard work: raised beds of Upward Mobility have produced a fine crop of flowers and vegetables; Persevere Community Flat grew a great mix of veg including beetroot, carrots, and kohlrabi; and Greener Leith and Leith Open Space dug up a very respectable 8 kilos of potatoes.

Enthusiastic helpers surround Charlotte beside Upward Mobility produce – they were rewarded with bags of tatties and lettuce to take home.

Teamwork: Fay, Linda, Charlotte and Dawn enjoy a well earned cuppa…

We enjoyed that cup of tea but won’t be taking it easy for long. Our plot has been planted with blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries and spring bulbs. But the weeds will always be trying to make come back so we will be covering the ground with carpet and woodbark…

Then there are plans to dig a pond and encourage wildlife (other than the two legged kind) into the shady area at the end of the garden. And that sunny corner full of rubble by the gate is just waiting to be transformed into a place for sitting and admiring a good day’s work.

Come and join us. It really is a great way to spend a few hours. Ask Flossie.

[This open view posted by Fay]

“This isn’t political, it’s humanitarian.” Jane Frere.

Each one is different. You can’t be sure of course, it would take a long time to study each of the 3,000 figures suspended from the ceiling of Patriothall Gallery. But although it’s the mass of humanity that you notice when you first walk into the gallery, I think it is the individuality of each small figure that makes Return of the Soul so very moving.

Return of the Soul: the Nakbah Project symbolises the exodus of 750,000 Palestinian men, women and children displaced by the creation of Israel 60 years ago. The wax figures were made in Bethlehem and the West Bank and in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon. The workshops were led by artist Jane Frere who taught her students how to make the figures and at the same time she recorded their stories and memories triggered by deceptively banal questions such as, “What were you wearing the night you were evicted from your home?”

Mundane details catch the eye: a basket, a walking stick, a shawl. Others catch something deeper inside: a tiny babe in arms; a dead body carried on the shoulder. The exhibition has a disturbing beauty which reminds me of images of other displaced peoples across the world so hauntingly documented by the photographer Sebastiao Salgado in his studies of ‘humanity in transition’.

People are on the move in their millions and wittingly (through our wars) or unwittingly (through the goods we buy) we all play our part in dislocating lives of other human beings. Like Salgado, Jane Frere leaves the viewer to look and think for themselves. This is not about politics, she says in newspaper interviews, it’s about people.

And one way and another her art involves a lot of people. The exhibition was hung with the help of many volunteers painstakingly attaching each small figure to transparent wires and then climbing on to scaffolding to suspend them from the ceiling. Among the volunteers was our own Leith Open Spacer Nick Gardner whose excellent website coverage of the exhibition is among the media reviews displayed on the gallery wall.

Each figure will have to be taken down with equal care and volunteers will be needed for that too. So if you happen to be free between 8 am and midnight on August 18-20, leave your name at the gallery or email returnofthesoul@gmail.com

Fay’s Open View

Sandwiched between Young Scot and Safe Sex, will Leith Open Space attract any interest at Telford’s Student Festival of Learning? Click ‘more’ to find out.

Setting up my stall at the Student Festival of Learning in Edinburgh’s Telford College I soon realised that I was a bit short of merchandise. Thanks to Tommy we had the biggest and boldest banner in the hall and I had put together a nice display of bright leaflets about intercultural arts events, voluntary work and community gardens. Then I discovered Leith Open Space was sandwiched between Young Scot and Safe Sex and it was obvious they both had a much more interesting selection of freebies.

“It’s all about give aways,” said one of the Young Scots sympathetically as a queue gathered in front of his stall to pick up some very smart triangular plastic markers. Then I looked to my left and saw a crowd of young women lining up to examine a rather different line of plastic give aways on the Safe Sex stall.

I sent a surreal text to family and friends. “Amazing”, Tom texts back, “take a picture”. So I did and got rather a good one of Ms Safe Sex sipping a pot noodle but sadly she told me they are not allowed to be photographed for publication. Mr Young Scot had no such qualms, “Just make sure it’s my good side.”

All in all, Telford’s Diversity Day was so interesting I stayed twice as long as I intended. With Mike Cowley’s help I even had time to sit in on a couple of workshops which gave me a glimpse of the extraordinary scope of further education. In Nil by Mouth a group of young men became seriously engaged in discussion about sectarianism in Scotland. Mike’s workshop on Rock against Racism provided a thought provoking exploration of the grassroots rebellion against the fascism of Enoch Powell and – would you believe it – Eric Clapton who made his millions out of black music. (I did not know that Clapton still believes that Powell was a brave man speaking out against the danger of black supremacy. The one black student in the room said something like: “what planet is he on?”)

Back at my stall, I found a few people lining up to find out about the Opening Doors shadow scheme I am helping to organise with Mike and the rest of the Leith Open Space Group to enable minorities to become more involved in politics. A group of Chinese students had already picked up a load of postcards advertising the extraordinary intercultural extravaganza Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo in the Botanics in June. So I didn’t need the plastic merchandise after all – but I wouldn’t mind getting hold of a few of those magic markers.

The show is over but the message lingers on. Thanks to Tommy for the banner!

Caught on CCTV: volunteers from Leith Open Space in Persevere Community Garden. “You’ve been working hard,” commented the concierge when we went to return the key to the walled garden. He’d been watching us on the screen.

This is a challenging piece of ground. After two hours of heavy digging with spade, fork and mattock (that’s the evil looking object you can see in the corner), we had covered one third of the plot we are sharing with Greener Leith. In that time we dug up several empty bottles and cans, a huge concrete block, lots of stones and two very optimistic worms (or was that the same worm twice?).

Never mind going to the gymn, never mind jogging: if you want to burn off a few calories this is definitely the way to do it. So if you want to help please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We might even lend you the mattock…

There’s lots of hard work going on. Congratulations to Greener Leith volunteers who have been hard at work since the opening – most of the spiky berberis bushes round the edge of the garden have been cleared away. Persevere Community Flat have got their plot dug already. And there are buds on all our fruit trees!

Posted by Fay