Week
beginning Monday 28th November 2005
Most of Monday
was a constituency day – benefits, housing, anti-social behaviour,
preparing for Wednesday’s International Development afternoon at
Strathaven Academy, organising my Christmas Cards! Interesting meeting
at Glasgow University in the afternoon learning about ‘CRADALL’ –
Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelong Learning.
They have a particular emphasis on lifelong learning for social
justice, social inclusion and poverty reduction, both at home and
afar, and offer part-time degrees amongst other initiatives. Visit
their website on:
www.gla.ac.uk/centres/cradall/index.html.
Hairmyres Hospital in
the evening for the regular National Osteoporosis Lanarkshire Meeting.
We had an interesting presentation from PC John Watters from East
Kilbride Police Station on community safety initiatives. There’s some
good stuff happening on this front in East Kilbride – the ‘Safe as
Houses’ initiative which offers free to the elderly and vulnerable a
home security survey and recommended items provided by Care and
Repair. PC Watters also reminded us of the ‘Hands On’ project, a
voluntary organisation which provides basic practical assistance to
elderly, infirm, disabled and housebound people in East Kilbride. Some
of those at the meeting had benefited from these great volunteers
already.
PC Watters was well
received, however, as always, when the question and answer session
started, some folk’s experiences of dealing with the police seem to
vary considerably from the theory! Tales of never seeing the Community
Policeman, slow response times for incidents, action not been taken as
deemed appropriate by residents etc. I am dealing with a few
constituency cases currently on such issues, but I’m afraid they’re
too identifiable to relate here. I have had a couple of emails from
people asking for more constituency case detail – I know this is
interesting, but it’s a narrow line between talking generally about
the type of cases I deal with and breaching confidentiality.
Tuesday morning and
into the local printers, having at long last chosen the three winning
Fair Trade Christmas Cards from Sandford School. I’m really looking
forward to seeing the finished articles. I know it was hard for the
judges to decide from so many great entries. When I visited the school
recently to launch the competition, I asked the pupils what they
thought the prizes for the winners should be, and to my surprise and
delight they all thought that the best prize would be a trip to the
Parliament. The youngsters in Strathaven really enjoy their visits
(every year we have two children from each of the seven Avondale
primary schools – the winners of the Fair Trade Posters for Fair Trade
Fortnight). When people get despondent about young people not voting,
not being engaged with politics etc., I always try to be positive in
that, for the first time ever, youngsters in Scotland are aware of
their Parliament, can relate to MSPs and will surely grow up realising
that they are represented, can represent their own views straight to
their elected MSPs and can make a difference themselves. The growth of
the internet, including email, in schools can also ensure that even
those who live at a fair distance can participate.
Europe Committee in the
afternoon – a fairly short meeting, the Minister having postponed (by
agreement) his evidence giving session until the next meeting. On 20th
December we’ll be speaking with him on both Structural Funding and the
European Commission’s plans for Technology Institutes to be sited
across Europe – no reason why we shouldn’t make a bid for one in
Scotland as far as I can see.
Sped up the High Street
straight after the meeting to catch the launch of the ‘Scotland for
Sanitation’ appeal. This is an appeal created by the Scottish Homeless
International Action Group, along with Homeless International, and
aims to support community-led sanitation projects in Africa and Asia.
An excellent presentation from my old colleague John Kernaghan of
Perth HA who had visited Mumbai to see some of the community projects
there and was obviously deeply moved by the work of local people to
improve living conditions for their families and neighbours. In Mumbai
some poor communities have already built toilet blocks, with local
management teams collecting a small fee from each member of the
community regularly – this pays the caretaker’s wages and funds
general maintenance. All housing organisations in Scotland are being
asked to get involved in this initiative, and I hope as a start
Institute of Housing and SFHA members actively work to raise awareness
and fundraise. Over £20,000 has already been raised.
John accepts a cheque from
Albyn Housing Society in Invergordon
Relaxation time on
Tuesday evening with a welcome visit to the Parliament from Lilian and
Findlay Maclean, members of Kilmarnock SNP, and their daughter Linsay.
Smashing dinner too!
No you two! You're supposed
to argue with the Opposition!
The International
Development afternoon at Strathaven Academy on Wednesday afternoon was
super – it was for all the Fifth Year pupils and comprised
presentations from me about our own Parliament’s limited role and
general information about education in Tanzania and East Timor, from
Sandy Grant about Strathaven’s Fair Trade status and from Rose
Mackintosh of Mercy Corps about disaster relief. The pupils split into
groups after the talks and worked on exercises designed to make them
‘think in another person’s shoes’. I met a couple of the girls on
Saturday afternoon and they seemed to have found it really interesting
and worthwhile. Some of the pupils had known Amorin when he lived with
us in Strathaven, and although they knew he was from a place called
East Timor, hadn’t really been aware of what his life had been like as
a child until they heard some of the history of the country and were
able to look at photographs of East Timor life now. It certainly makes
you think differently about such issues when you either visit a place
so different from your own, or realise that there is someone you know
whose life has been very different from what you consider to be
normal. Amorin didn’t talk much generally about his experiences – his
stock answer when asked anything about his background or experiences
was “it was fine”, when actually it was anything but fine – one
brother killed, a sister having died of starvation, elderly mother and
father force-marched for miles, amongst many other things. Still, he’s
okay now – working in Dili on a United Nations Project about Human
Rights, historic and current/future. His family are generally well,
and the country is, if not prospering, at least peaceful. We fair miss
him though! Still, won’t be long until we visit again in the summer.
Off to Hamilton in the
evening for the Scottish Young Adult Learners Awards – well done to
all, with particular mention to Suzanne Rooney from East Kilbride.
Suzanne is really interested in politics so I hope she takes me up on
my offer to learn first-hand what an MSP does with his/her time.
Chamber on Thursday all
day – Criminal Justice/Health Services in Argyll and Clyde/Question
Time. In between meeting with the PCS Union representative, the
Committee Clerks and attending a Seminar run by the APBI on access to
medicines in the developing world. It was billed as
‘thought-provoking’ and it certainly was. One of the most interesting
short presentations was by International Health Partners, a charity
which began work only a year ago, based on a Canadian model, and which
links the UK medical community, pharmaceutical and medical supply
companies and Government, with organisations and individual involved
in providing humanitarian medical aid to the world’s most needy. They
act as the distribution channel for donated, quality, in-date products
to provide communities with the essential medicines and medical
supplies they need. In their short life they have already distributed
£12m worth of vaccines, medicines and supplies to 18 countries,
treating over 400,000 children and adults. Learn more from their
website – its really interesting:
www.ihpuk.org. I
hope they go from strength to strength. I was particularly interested
in the concept of medical packs – I remember one of the most
successful initiatives in East Timor was the supply of medical packs
(delivered by motorbike) to remote communities. The potential for
training local people to administer basic medicine by use of such
packs is immense, and often so much more effective than transporting
people to clinics or hospitals.
Friday came round
quickly this week – more constituency visits and catching up with
correspondence. Determined to finish the week on Friday night though
so that I could at least start Christmas shopping on Saturday and
Sunday. Managed it! Loads to start again with on Monday though.
Linda Fabiani:
12.12.05
Email Linda at
Linda.fabiani.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
