This is the second guest post by Hilary for Sign for Scotland. You can read her first, Indie Dumping and Scapegoating, here.
Yes, poor darling had no answer at all. He was completely
flumuxed. Vision? What’s that?
So I ask myself the same question and suggest that we all do
that and post in our ideas.
What is my vision
for a new Scotland?
Firstly I see a new Scotland not reliant on weapons of
mass destruction, that is the real name of Trident. The name ‘Trident’ is a
pretty cover up. Alex Massey said in one
of the TV debates that Trident is a complete irrelevance. I like listening to
him in the same way that I liked listening to Malcolm Muggeridge and Boris Johnson. They are all very quick, very
sharp and can be very funny but in this instance I think Massey is trying to be
amusingly dismissive but is actually being superficial.
If you go out and buy a
gun and put it in a drawer and never use it , that is not an irrelevance. It
marks you out as a person who is or was prepared to use violence against
another human being and that is a very different thing from being someone who would never
dream of possessing a weapon that could cause harm . Therefore if we give up
weapons of mass destruction our psyche alters. In one way we are defenceless
against maniac nations but in many other ways we have alternative defences. We
develop alternative means of communicating rather than always having the great
explosives at our backs. We know that we have to keep good communications
going; we use trade, cultural and educational exchanges, twinnings; our
academics and researchers pool their findings. In other words we behave like
sensible adults not like cowboys and Indians.
I think this is important. There is no weapons-insurance
policy so we have to strive for secure friendships and be watchful over the
peacefulness of our state of mind.
It can be done. It is done everywhere except in a few power
mad lands.
Secondly I see
a Scotland
that is much fairer. How about us actually ‘loving our neighbour’? Who is our neighbour? Familiar stuff this. The neighbour is then anyone that you see or
know of who is lonely or in need. The difference between the wealthy and those
in real need is staggering in our country. In the aftermath of apartheid
Desmond Tutu suggested to the wealthy that they adopt a family and look to its
real needs. I don’t do that here but the idea is worth playing with. Let us,
collectivley look for ideas that can make a real difference. There is really a whole load of money being
flung around. The coffee houses thrive
on it. How we can redistribute money and make a difference and how we can make others who feel unvalued
feel valued I am not qualified to say. You will have better ideas than me. But
think we must.
Now this is crazy…! I
see a Scotland
where we remember Carnegie’s words ‘The man who dies rich dies disgraced’. I
would even enlarge these uncomfortable
words and make them even more feared: ‘The man who lives rich lives
disgraced’!! In the States it is
considered a good thing to be a philanthropist. It is ‘cool’. There’s a lot of
kudos to be gained in big giving and a lot of good feeling from those who
benefit. I have aired my views on this before and people immediately think I am
calling for more taxes on the rich. I am not doing this at all. Taxes are given
grudgingly. The philanthropist gives willingly and publicly. The ‘publicly’ is important. Secret giving
is fine and modest but the word philanthropy means ‘love of mankind’ . If a
rich man gives anonymously, in many ways, this is good but mankind needs to
know its rich people as friends and benefactors who will help in need. Money is not bad in itself. It can do
wonderful things but money kept, hoarded, far away from those in need,
rejecting them …that is bad. And it
breeds distaste towards the rich man, not envy but contempt and anger. This is
what we see so often in feudal Scotland.
But I knew a rich man in Ardross ,some years
ago, a Greek of Scottish descent, John MacTagart, an ill man. He was freehanded
with his money, he built a fine community hall, he allowed no fishing out of
respect for the fish and no hunting for pleasure on his estate. The deer were
managed and a certain amount eaten by the estate workers and the family and the
rest was left for the wild animals to feed on . I do not know if this is good
management but it gave a very good feel to the countryside and the community.
There was respect and responsibility towards all living things and people. But
he was only part Scot so the feudal path was unknown to him.
The philanthropist should, I think, look around at all those
bare areas in Scottish life and see how he or she can fill its many needs,
building hospices (which can bear the donor’s name), sports facilities, setting
up youth projects and so on and on and on. The rich man should love his country
and his fellow Scots, whatever their position in his world view! and should
give handsomely and he might then in
return be held in affection. Unfortunately, he keeps well away from the rabble
and does not appear to love the land, except in so far as he owns that part of
it. The Selfish Giants of Alba.
Land reform is thus necessary. The rich could to some extent
ward off the worst effects of this by openness and philanthropy but I am pretty
sure they won’t.
Thirdly I see a Scotland that,
even more than now, welcomes the immigrant. I do not mean those extremes examples
that are shown as the norm on salacious TV. At my first school my best friends
were a girl from Uganda
and a Polish girl whose family had managed to escape from Poland in the
war. Ever since then I have been excited by ‘the stranger’ and made countless
warm and lasting friendships. The immigrant has a lot to offer and a lot to
teach us.
The immigrants speak our language already or works hard to
do so. We are so useless that we often alter their names as it is too much
trouble to pronounce the foreign names correctly. Such imperial arrogance! They
also work hard, they dress properly, they arrive on time, they are polite and
good natured. Our young people who complain that the foreign workers are taking
their jobs could learn a lot from them. There was a radio 4 programme recently
and an English farmer said he tried to give the local English kids a chance but
they weren’t up to fruit picking. They arrived late, grumbled and didn’t pick
fast enough. A whole generation, maybe two have lost out on a good attitude to
work. The Me lot can’t do it. I suppose
‘They don’t deserve it!’
I understand therefore why lots of jobs are given to the
foreigners. They are reliable.
However I think the practice of shipping in loads of workers
from abroad and giving them jobs that are not even advertised locally, is quite
despicable and I hope this will be outlawed in our new land of peace and
plenty. I believe this happens at Walkers in Aberlour. If I am wrong then I
apologise immediately. I am repeating the local gossip.
In our new Scotland
I hope to be assured that asylum seekers will be welcomed. These are a
different category of homeless people. They have no safety in their homelands;
they have possibly witnessed their family members being murdered, raped or
tortured. They may have endured rape and torture themselves. They live in a
twilight hell and are haunted by nightmares.
Whitehall
has little understanding of their griefs and fears. Freedom From Torture
battles hard on their behalf but it is a hard struggle against beaurocracy. I
hope our Home Office will show itself compassionate and allow asylum seekers to
work and be rehabilitated more quickly.
I would like to see a Scotland where people begin to
speak languages again. Languages open up new friendships and cultures and other
countries are no longer seen just from the outside, as tourists. We should be
citizens of the world soon. But languages are a sort of taboo. The presenters
on radio Scotland
set the example by tittering in embarrassment if anyone so much as says
Bonjour! My family say ‘What’s the use of learning languages? They never helped
me!’ So our people don’t get the
interesting jobs abroad; they miss out and have an inferiority complex. What’s
wrong with English? Plenty if you don’t
respect other languages and people and mispronounce foreign proper names.
These three things – weapons of mass destruction, the gulf between the rich and the poor and emigration
are the big issues that I would like to see reformed and made good in a New
Alba.
Please write what you would like and get folk answering
Alec’s Oh so Difficult Question for You Know Who.
We at Sign for Scotland would like to say a big thank you to Hilary for writing a second blog for us.
