Thugs stay free after giving kid w/ autism a life sentence

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Everchanging
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27 Mar 2008, 6:51 pm

I live near Glasgow and this story isn't giving you the full picture (hardly surprising - the Evening Times always likes to present as positive an image of Glasgow as it can, despite whatever evidence to the contrary, and largely glosses over the city's dire problems). I think I need to provide additional context here for those outwith the UK.

Glasgow has a serious problem on it's hands. A serious scum problem. The city and it's outlying areas are dotted with council estates (known locally as 'the schemes' - an inhabitant of which is known as a 'schemie') that provide some of the poorest quality housing in the developed world, and frequent renovations do nothing to solve the problem as even recently renovated areas very quickly fall back into shambolic disrepair. Watch this to get some idea of the scale of the problem.

Now, I know what question you're asking. How can this happen? Can people be so devoid of pride that they would actually live like this? And I would say: welcome to the Glasgow Schemes.

  • Of the 20 most deprived areas in Scotland, 16 are in Glasgow (one of the other 4 is in neighbouring Renfrewshire)
  • Life expectancy: as low as 64 in places - lower than 40 years ago
  • Almost half the population smoke - including nearly a third of pregnant women
  • More deaths from heart attacks, strokes or cancer than any other city in EUROPE
  • Suicides 50% above the UK average (which tends to be more a Scotland-wide trend, but Glasgow is highest in Scotland)


I could go on...The point, though, is that personal pride is all but extinct in many areas of Glasgow. The aforementioned health crisis (I neglected to mention the bad diets, alcohol abuse, drugs and lack of exercise, but I think you'd already got the picture by then), high unemployment, a toxic culture of religious sectarianism (it could take me all night if I try to explain it so just trust me - it's not a good thing), and lately an epidemic of teenage pregnancy have all taken their toll. Throw in the mass mind-numbing effect of the media and increasingly vacuous popular culture, and each subsequent generation is wedged a little bit further into the gutter than ever before. Hence the living conditions you just saw in the video clip, and the subsequent social consequences. Incredibly, the Glasgow metropolitan area has as many teenage gangs as the London metropolitan area, which has 7 times the population.

I thought I knew everything there was to know about Glasgow and it's problems, until last weekend when I had to go into the city's notorious Parkhead area (which I think is the area in the video at the 1:30 mark but I'm not 100% sure) to make use of the retail park there. Now the houses, as badly in disrepair as they were, didn't particularly shock me - hey, seen them before. But what I hadn't really been paying attention to before, was the local people and the toll their environment is taking on them. It was actually, physically noticeable. I'm 5 foot 9 - which I don't consider "tall" for an adult male. So you can imagine that when there are all these men in their late teens/early 20s, and not all but a lot of them are only hovering around the 5-foot mark, it makes me wonder. And you can see it in their facial features as well. Just by looking at them, you can tell their gene pools are seriously, pitifully deficient. The great great grandsons of the city's famed shipbuilders look as if tying their laces is a big ask. I shudder to think what another 3 or 4 generations of poor quality breeding is going to do to the city - assuming there isn't some drastic eugenics program in the near future - it might come to that, actually.



Last edited by Everchanging on 29 Mar 2008, 1:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.

TLPG
Veteran
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29 Mar 2008, 5:20 am

OK if we're talking low self esteem we have to go into why. Bullying isn't necessarily a reflection of that - but it might be.

The bottom line is that if the above is right (and it probably is because it makes sense) my guess would be that these people have been let down by the system and are fighting back against it the wrong way. Hence the reason I asked "why" - and one answer is not THE answer.

The trouble is the fix is not short term - and there has to be one to protect the community. That's where somehow the bit has to be taken between the teeth on protection.



Carole
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
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29 Mar 2008, 8:51 am

ya they sould set laws that can give a teen offender life sentice or somthing like that. i have been attacked by a teen a few years ago and i am still afraid to go anywere alone