Around Town
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llit THE BEST EVENTS, TALKS AND SPORT
* The Big Wheel It's Bike Week 2005 so cycle along the canals of central Scotland. from Edinburgh or Glasgow to converge on the finish line at the Falkirk Wheel. Your efforts will go to raising money for the Waterways Trust. Worry not — buses back to your city of choice. Meet at Kelvingrove Park or Edinburgh Quay, Sat 77 Jun
5i! The Sunday Afternoon Philosophy Club Give your mind more of a workout than watching the HoI/yoaks omnibus by joining Richard Holloway. author. broadcaster and chairman of the Scottish Arts Council. in a discussion entitled Going with the Flow. looking at the model of reality with which we have grown up. The Tryst. Cresswe/I Street, Glasgow, Sun 79 Jun
* Happy Birthday Aung San Suu Kyi Bring a candle and a cup cake to make a birthday wish for Burma’s people. Hear Burmese speakers and party with local bands as part of Refugee Week in Scotland. Parliament Square, Edinburgh, Sat 78 Jun
* Not Haggis Lasagne! Italy and Scotland have some of the richest larders in the world and this cookery demonstration aims to show the wonderful things one can create by combining them (probany not deep fried pizzas though). With celebrated foodies Sue Lawrence and Mary Contini. Va/vona 8 Croila, Elm Flow, Edinburgh, Tues 14 Jun
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REFUGEE WEEK provides a cultural welcome for those coming to Scotland to flee persecution abroad. Mark Fisher reports.
I will not be remembered as one of journalism‘s finest moments. 'Asylum Seekers Ate My Donkey.‘ screamed the headline in The Daily Star. You might have thought it was justified. except there was no donkey. nothing got eaten and the people concerned were not asylum seekers. It took l8 months to get a correction — plenty of time to further stoke the
fears of the Great British population that a deluge of
dangerous immigrants was only round the corner.
Fortunately. the experience of Patrick Evans. who is organising the third Refugee Week in Scotland for the Scottish Refugee Council. is that people are a whole lot brighter than that. His event has grown from little more than a dozen happenings in 2003 to this year’s programme of over 80 concerts. talks. plays and exhibitions across the country. Last year 40.000 people attended a programme that was half the size. a sign that not everyone wants to be associated with the xenophobic attitudes of the far right.
‘There is a cultural welcome that exists as well as the culture of hostility.‘ says Evans. ‘The people who have organised the events represent a cross-section of society and they’re working to build a better Scotland. They‘re offering ‘10().()()() Welcomes' [the name of one of the schools projects] to everyone. The reason people decide to spend their time and energy on Refugee Week is to respond to the culture of hostility. It‘s people who are doing something to reverse the relentless negative publicity that surrounds the asylum issue.
The theme of this year‘s Refugee Week is
persecution — a key part of the l‘)5l (ieneva Convention‘s definition of refugees. l'nder political. racial. religious. sexual or social pressure. millions of people are forced to flee their homes every year. Only a tiny portion of those seeks asylum in the 1K.
Few better illustrate the theme of persecution than Aung San Suu Kyi. the leader of the Burmese opposition who has been kept imprisoned or under house arrest in Rangoon for over 2500 days. Edinburgh (‘in (‘ouncil is bestowing the honour of Freedom of the City on the Nobel Peace laureate who won a landslide victory in l‘)‘)(). only to be refused power by the military junta. Similar abuses of human rights have led to around 1.5 million Burmese refugees fleeing persecution.
The launch event on Saturday lb’ June will be an Aung San Suu Kyi birthday party. featuring a tree- planting ceremony in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens and a rally on the Royal Mile. Later. on Tuesday 2| lune. l.i/. l.ochhead. Iain Banks and Sarah Boyack MSP will read from the letters of Aung San Suu Kyi at Edinburgh’s National Library of Scotland.
‘We're using the city's award as a way of illustrating what persecution is.‘ says livans. ‘We‘re here to support the right of people to claim asylum under the terms of the l95l convention. Refugee Week is a celebration and we‘re hoping to put across positive educational messages to counter fear and ignorance.‘
Refugee Week in Scotland, various venues, Mon 20-Sun 26 Jun. See listings for details.
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