United we will swim!

A good few years ago, when I'd first arrived in Glasgow, I had a lovely Wednesday evening routine. I would meet up with my friend and colleague who stayed locally from me and we'd go to the ladies night in our local swimming pool. It was a fabulous weekly treat, right in the middle of the working week. First we went for a swim in the wonderful Victorian bath, and it's dim lightening which so reminded me of traditional Turkish baths. Next up was a session in the Sauna, a dip into ice cold water, some steaming in the steam room too. There were always sociable and interesting people to chat to in the sauna, and it was nice and inclusive where everyone felt comfortable with everyone else. The evening was finished off with a yoga class. It was pure bliss.

And then they closed the pool.

I tried to keep up the routine at other locations, but nothing was the same, nor did the distance to travel do any good for having a weekly routine.
When the pool was announcing the plan to be closed, we were instantly gutted. Such a beautiful historic building, right in the centre of the maybe most densely populated part of Glasgow. It didn't make sense. While we were gutted, others were up in arms. On the day the pool closed, people chained themselves to the building so it couldn't close. It was then occupied for weeks. No, months. There was a vigil 24/7. I did but a couple of meagre day time shifts, but there were many who for months spent hours and nights in front of the building.

The campaign to save our pool made me think about what it was that I liked about it. I'd never rationalised it but the campaign bit by bit did. The inclusivity was due to it being right in the centre of a very diverse area of Glasgow, which traditionally is an area where people who come into Glasgow from other countries settle. It's an area not too far from the centre, with lots of local shops, a self contained part of the city, close to a wonderful park yet with house and rent prices that are affordable because the tenements of the area are old and not greatly looked after, with no gardens, so they are not the same quality compared to those nearby, partly because many aren't owner occupied. Lots of migration to the area meant that middle class folk preferred to move somewhere else. There were homeless hostels nearby and yet, the shops run by people from many countries provide all you can ask for, and having lived there, I felt safe and snug there. The pool was right in the centre of it, and its Victorian built meant that it was perfect for anyone who didn't want to display their body to the public. There are no windows and the changing areas and ways to the sauna were separate for women and men. I wasn't conscious of it, but admittedly being body conscious it must have played a part in my choice of pool. And yes, it was the one place where I had conversations with total strangers, some disabled, some of different skin colour, of different faiths and different backgrounds to mine. I didn't find it worth mentioning at the time, it was only later, in the pool of the neighbouring council, where the middle class population won't talk to strangers, that I noticed what was lost.

The campaign went on. A charity shop was set up, fundraising continued, the Govanhill Swimmers went around the neighbourhood in swimsuits practicing their swimming on dry land, i.e. the streets of Govanhill. There was a community garden. A local councillor was elected to push the case in the council. A singing group was established who penned songs about the pool and its closure to well known melodies. There were art projects too.

And so it went on.

On Saturday, 11 years (!) after the pool shut its doors to the public, it was once again opened to the community. It marked an extraordinary victory. And yes, victory it is. I hate to use words like that, but 11 years of relentless campaigning and the refusal to give in and continue to campaign for what we all knew was right paid off. As much as the powers that are had decided to take away the one community facility this empoverished yet vibrant part of Glasgow had, that decision was wrong and the pool is once more open to the community. Still dry, it has entered the first phase of being developed into a Wellbeing Centre. In maybe a year and a half or so we will hopefully be able to swim in it again, and I can show my girls where mummy used to swim. I so can't wait.

It was very emotional seeing the huge crowd who turned up for the opening, and being able to see the pool from the inside again after 11 years. It seemed like nothing had changed, yet so much had, so much effort for this moment to happen. Govanhill, for all that counts, is richer for having gone through this community campaign and stands as a glowing example what community power and persistence can achieve, even if the politicians have turned their backs on Govanhill.

Oh yeah, Peter Mullan and Nicola Sturgeon opened it. It's good to have some well known people support the baths and to get the launch into the news, but the work was done by the campaigners. So I didn't take there photo, sorry.

What were you born to?

Have you every asked yourself the question what you were born to?
It's a difficult one, isn't it. We are all complex human beings with lots of interests and passions, and nailing it down to just one is just a tiny gigantorous bit hard. I for one have never been particularly good at nailing the essence of who I am and what I am about onto the head. Stick me into any personal development course or session and I come out more confused than before.

Maybe I was born to write. I like to write and have always done some writing, without ever being ambitious about it. Honest, I know I'm not a poet, a novelist and that's fine. It doesn't mean that I don't enjoy expressing myself in writing. That's probably why I blog, and why I'm never pushed to find time for blogging, something many people find odd. It's something I enjoy, which relaxes me, just like reading and knitting does, or watching a good film or gigging.

The other passion I have is that for social justice and equalities. It's always been with me, I really can't tell where and when it started. I grew up in the height of the cold war and always thought it was ridiculous the way the "Russians" were portrayed as the baddies. I voiced my views loud and clear as a teenager and promptly got labelled a communist (which back then was a major insult - I shrugged and just said that they should check what a communist is first - and if you think that sounds rather petty, it wasn't at the time). I loved to discuss politics but I could and still can get angry when views extremely opposed to my sense of justice are put forward, it really upsets me which is why I wouldn't be any good as a politician, it would tear me up from the inside I'm sure.

Much safer from this bloggy corner of mine because, let's be honest, if someone reads this and doesn't like my views, they will mostly just not read again. Debate usually is within a shared understanding and without upset. A debate that I find challenges my views and lets me look deeper and develop. The kind of debate that's good and constructive.

Some time ago, when I was still at school and uni, I worked as a freelance journalist, while I studied languages and politics. It became clear though that to be a successful journalist you needed more than a talent to write, it took a bit of elbows where I was and as someone who always waits their turn and is a bit on the shy side, it didn't feel right at the time to pursue this career. Of course I still wish sometimes I would have, it still is the one career that combines my two passions. Instead, I wrote a PhD, instead I now write reports and a blog. Which is pretty close. I still wish I was a more poignant debater/writer, and that I had the time to properly research the points I'd like to make, which is why I love reading posts by people who somehow manage to do this in their busy lives. You guys rule.

The bottom line though is that whatever I was born to do, I had the opportunity to explore and follow my dreams. The world was my oyster and I explored a lot of avenues, single road tracks, motorways, dirt tracks and dead ends. I'm one of the lucky ones. I even got a free third level education and only my parents nagged me about my choice of subject which they labelled a "brotlose Kunst" (breadless art, i.e. won't get you a job). Many children today are not born into such luck.

Save the Children have been working long and hard to launch a new campaign. I've known about it for a good while (after all I work for them) and I'm rather excited to see it all happening now and lots of bloggers sign up to it and spread the word. The great thing about this campaign is that it really engages with everyone, asking them what each of you were born to do. What's more, it links the international work Safe the Children does, which  is all about child survival, with the UK work on eradicating child poverty. The vision of the charity is for a world where no child is born to die, and where every child is allowed to live a life where his or her ambitions stand the possibility of being fulfilled, where they can life to their full potential.

And that vision applies equally to the developing and the developed world. In the UK, children born into poverty, compared to all other Western countries, are the least likely to succeed in school and to raise themselves out of poverty; giving rise to intergenerational poverty, low ambitions and a whole section of society who disengage because they know there is no real possibility to fulfil their ambitions. Crime and violence, or depression are the consequence of a generation growing up without hope, without the possibility of a brighter future. With living in poverty comes a poorer diet, poorer health and severe health inequalities (in some parts of Glasgow average life expectancy is around 65 years, while in other parts of the city it's 85).

With the cuts and the age of austerity this is set to get even worse. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, our society is breaking apart from the inside and we are denying our children the future they deserve.

It's time to do something about it, at home and internationally. Join Save the Children's No Child Born to Die Campaign.
If you are a blogger, blog about it and you may have a chance to win a ticket to a special blogging conference that Save the Children is running on 26th February 2011 in London. It's full of workshop sessions and a masterclass with best-selling author Melvin Burgess. I'd love to be there but I'm currently born to lactate, so maybe next year ;)

You can also help spread the word by:

• Getting a twibbon
• Posting the bloggers badge on your blog
• Following Save the Children on Twitter using the hashtag #bornto
• Like the Save the Children Facebook Page

So then, what are you waiting for?!

This is what makes it all worthwhile...

Have a look at this. Our new Global Panel member. And look at the comments of support, they made me almost greet. You know, like normally on such comment pages of newspapers, you get all kind of dafties saying stupid things. Not here, no no no. It warms my heart to see so much support and determination.

Go Gary go, we're so glad to have you on board!

Play Talk Read

It was with great interest that I got word of the new parenting campaign launched by the Scottish Government. Mindful Mum had been contacted and offered to come to the launch, and forwarded the invite on to me in case I was free as she was not. I wasn't either but followed it up requesting further information. I'm still waiting. It seems to me that possibly the launch was a media event and they were short of a few mums (and maybe even, just imagine, dads!) for the photoshoot. Or did they really try and target mummy bloggers who could get the message out about this campaign? If so, why didn't anyone get back to me?

Thankfully, I know how to use my eyesight and google. When I came across this picture I thought it may be related to the ominious parenting campaign. So I googled and found out that thi mysterious campaign was launched on 25th September and is called Play Talk Read. You can find the news release, read what the Herald has to say about it, and it's also been featured as a news story on Children in Scotland.

And the campaign even has a fabulous website, where parents can get bucket loads of advice, information. More than that, if you sign up, you can find local activities for your child, a forum to ask questions, you can find parents near you and even submit ideas for activities with young children. All good stuff, and really something that us Scottish Mummy/Daddy Bloggers should blog about to spread the message. In fact, check it out whereever you are, you don't even have to live in Scotland to get some good ideas from this great resource.

What I'm a bit worried about is that as with similar initiatives to get parents to read with their kids, it assumes parental literacy and access to the internet. Have another look at the advert that decorates Scottish billboards: great image, sharp message - but to find out more you need to search online for "playtalkread". Honestly, who is going to be bothered to do this unless they have a specific interest in this?

The message, though, is a really important one. To give your child the best start in life, play with him/her, talk to him/her, read to him/her. Simple but it makes a massive difference. It's the recipe to tackling inequalities in education and in later life, the recipe to transform society, no less, to make it a more equal and more just society.

Yet my worry is that an advertising campaign (only 14% of people take in advertising and act upon it) and a fancy website will contribute to further increasing the divide, a divide which is increasingly a digital one. I've blogged about this before. If you want to improve educational outcomes/experiences and life chances for children growing up in poverty and disadvantaged communities (and let's be clear, this is what this campaign is about) you need to consider access. Or rather lack thereof. Because many parents don't have the dosh to have broadband access, a computer, even a landline or a bank account needed to get a phone line. That's what poverty means in reality. Add to that parents who themselves didn't have a positive experience of education, may not have great literacy and who will certainly struggle with a very text heavy internet site.

So, just like bookstart, bounce and rhyme and rhyme time, I fear it'll be only those mums who'd be reading to their kids anyway who turn up at sessions, or use this lovely website.