Category: Community politics (Page 2 of 3)

Power to the people?

The tenement tree

September 18, 2009 / fay / 0 Comments

tenement_tree_cars

Enlightened city had let you be

till Mammon’s grasp said ‘damn the tree’;

So far the trees are still there: a splash of green between grey buildings in a grey street. Otherwise only cars and traffic signs add colour to one of the posher parts of Edinburgh. Planning permission for a new building on the ‘unfinished’ edge of the tenement threatens the trees. I am printing a protest poem by Gordon Peters, one of the neighbouring residents, because it says so clearly what I feel: city life is also about what happens in the space between buildings. Why fill every gap? Continue reading

Can cafe culture beat Tesco in Broughton?

March 25, 2009 / fay / 2 Comments

Just for the record, I did write a letter to Edinburgh’s Head of Planning to register my concern over Tesco’s plans to open a new store at 8 Picardy Place. As it happens I wrote it the same day I went to see the Edinburgh premiere of the Age of Stupid. Make of that what you will. Continue reading

Stop Tesco destroying Broughton

March 11, 2009 / fay / 19 Comments

tesco-outrage2

Update March 26: Tesco is coming to Broughton, what will happen to local shops? See Broughton awaits Tesco Express

Can we stop Tesco dominating the landscape? I feel strongly that we can and must. But we will need to be quick. Letters to protest against yet another Tesco store in the Broughton area have to reach the council’s head of planning by 20 March. That’s just over a week to raise a campaign against wanton destruction of local character and independence. Continue reading

Rehearsing for reality

March 10, 2009 / fay / 0 Comments

ai_logo

Can art change society? Here’s news of an exciting new community theatre project in Leith which aims to get people actively involved in society by taking part in art. No theatre experience needed but an enquiring mind is useful. Continue reading

Food could save the planet – and the economy too

January 15, 2009 / fay / 5 Comments

cabbagecrop

Last night’s meeting at Out of the Blue was cold. Like everyone else Celia and I kept our coats on and held on to hot drinks as long as we could. But the discussion at the Food Summit was so heart warming it reinforced my hunch that food (or how we grow and eat it) offers the best way out of the mess we are making of the global economy and the planet. Continue reading

Between a rock and a hard place

April 25, 2008 / fay / 0 Comments

I took a second look, “That is plastic isn’t it?” The answer was swift and smart, “Yes, no man was hurt in the making of this display.”

Setting up my stall at the Student Festival of Learning in Edinburgh’s Telford College yesterday I soon realised that I was a bit short of merchandise. Thanks to Tommy I 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, damn it, they both had a much more interesting selection of freebies. Continue reading

Amnesty protest

January 11, 2008 / fay / 7 Comments

Well, Tommy, Nick and I didn’t get arrested but just for a few seconds I felt a flicker of what it might be like to suffer the real humiliation of Guantanamo as we were ordered to kneel in a pose of submission by a young man in combat gear: “I don’t want to see your eyes, look down, look down.” Even though I knew this was just for the sake of the cameras flashing outside the US Consulate, even though we were all wearing orange boiler suits specially provided by Amnesty for the lunch hour demo, the mere act of kneeling, head down was a humbling act. When my glasses slipped down my nose I wondered if the guard would shout at me again for looking up to stop them falling.

I couldn’t take the next, more dramatic picture outside the Edinburgh US Consulate because I was kneeling on the cobblestones with my head down. None of us were arrested but according to Aljazeera 81 protesters were arrested outside the US Supreme Court and could face up to 60 days in jail. Continue reading

Tunnel vision

November 14, 2007 / fay / 0 Comments

He’s a 40 year old policeman who is fed up having to move groups of young people away from street corners. ‘Where can we go Simon?’ they ask him.

Smuggling hope in and out of Burma

September 27, 2007 / fay / 0 Comments

“I spoke yesterday to my friends in Rangoon. They fear the worse but hope desperately for change. I make no excuse for pleading to you my friends on behalf of the Burmese people. This is their hour of need. Uncertainty, fear and just a glimmer of hope exist in that country. We can do something to support them, here and now.” Continue reading

Moving pictures from Burma

September 26, 2007 / fay / 0 Comments

It was raining in Rangoon in the first film I watched yesterday. Monks with bare feet and shaved heads walked through the street among crowds of people carrying umbrellas. Most of them looked very young and vulnerable, their wet clothes clinging to slim bodies. Even though I had just looked at a spectacular photograph of the monks spread across the centre pages of the Guardian there was something startling about seeing them moving across the screen in front of me right here in the safety of my Edinburgh home. Continue reading

Categories