Blog Action Day 2008 - Impoverished Glasgow East End: Where Do We Stand?

When I've decided to take part in Blog Action Day, especially with its POVERTY theme this year, I knew this post is not going to be about Africa, or poverty in the developing world; this post is going to be about the East End of Glasgow.



It is hard to wake-up in the East End of Glasgow to a harsh and shocking reality; where in the great nation of Britain and the free lands of Western Europe lies an impoverished community. A reality harder to accept if lived day to day by ordinary people, where decent health care, housing, affordable childcare, access to jobs and benefits have failed them in every way.

The governemnt is to blame, and so are the policies of health inequlities, and plummeting life expectancy rates in the East End.

Where do we stand when a report states that a shocking total of 98% of youngsters in parts of Easterhouse and Barlanark are living in poor families?

Where do we stand when we know that more than than 107,000 children in Glasgow live in poverty?

Where do we stand, and can we really just turn a blind eye on the dire social situation, the slums and the deterorating housing conditions. Is the re-generation that is taking place now, and which is part of the 2014 commonwealth games strategic plan going in the right direction and serving the right people?

Not much can be said, but a lot can be done, and desperately needing to be done.
And the only question left un-answered hangs on the doors of government officials, and policy makers and is written in big bold letters and reads as follows:

WHERE DO YOU STAND?