Toxic Masculinity must be defeated. Silence is not an option for any of us
Toxic Masculinity must be defeated. Silence is not an option for any of us Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, October 10th 2018 Hate seems to be everywhere in public life. This week Scottish Justice minister Humza Yousaf floated making misogyny a specific hate crime illegal, while in the previous week, the Scottish Government launched a high profile campaign against hate crime. Look around the world for numerous, state-sponsored examples - US President Donald Trump, the Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte with his rape comment after the killing of an Australian missionary Jacqueline Hamill that ‘the mayor should have been first’, and Brazilian
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What comes after Creative Scotland?
What comes after Creative Scotland? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 1st 2018 Festival time is upon us again in Edinburgh. The yearly jamboree of the various Festivals and Fringe take over our capital city, bring a select part of the world to our shores, and give a platform which presents a vibrant, dynamic Scotland on an international stage. At the same time all is not exactly well in the official world of culture in Scotland. Two weeks ago, the publically funded body, Creative Scotland, lost its second head, Janet Archer, in its relatively short history. Archer resigned after a
Loss is too important to be left to the hate mongers
Loss is too important to be left to the hate mongers Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 25th 2018 The bewildering nature of modern society – its incessant, demanding change, shifts in employment, remuneration and technologies, and a sense that big decisions are taken elsewhere – means that a feeling of loss is commonplace today in the UK and other developed societies. Yet such is the overwhelming nature of these changes and so deep-seated are feelings of confusion and dislocation that we don’t have time or inclination to stop and pause and understand the many facets of what loss is,
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In Praise of Gentleness
In Praise of Gentleness Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 28th 2018 Where is the gentleness in life? Instead - in too many places - we have a surfeit of anger, dislocation and frustration. For some the big issues of the day necessitate, even demand, such assertive and sometimes negative qualities. We live in times defined by corporate dishonesty, brazenness and theft, where the vast majority of us feel unheard, marginalised, alienated and silenced. Anger is clearly an understandable response, but can only take us so far, and too often blows itself out through exhaustion and disillusion. Too much of
Culture in Scotland in the midst of storms: A Call for Dangerous Cultures
Culture in Scotland in the midst of storms: A Call for Dangerous Cultures Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, March 16th 2018 Culture in Scotland is in difficult times: public spending cuts, the lost decade of stagnant living standards for the vast majority of people, limits to the Scottish Government’s largesse and devolution powers, controversy over Creative Scotland’s decision making and funding priorities resulting in the debate over the future of the Scottish Youth Theatre - and much more (with some questioning the continued existence of Creative Scotland). If you think these are dangerous waters you ain’t seen nothing yet. While some
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The Football Club That Refused to Die: The Tragedy and Beauty of Third Lanark
The Football Club That Refused to Die: The Tragedy and Beauty of Third Lanark Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 31st 2018 Glasgow’s history has long been the stuff of legend – the stories of Red Clydeside, rent strikes, the power of shipbuilding, the scale of slum clearance - and of course, football. In Scotland we seem to get too much football and too much bad football coverage. We get a narrow bandwidth of football which results in numerous stories, triumphs, tragedies, and moments becoming forgotten, as we surfeit on a diet of the stale Old Firm (cue a chorus from
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Living the High Life and Post-War Dream in Dundee
Living the High Life and Post-War Dream in Dundee Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 28th 2017 In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy tower blocks and social housing are everywhere in the news. Much of it has been ill-informed, instant commentary. People asserting that tower blocks aren’t suited to modern living or making sweeping statements about the failings of council and social housing, A large part of this seemed to be a displacement or discomfort of middle class opinion having to talk about a forgotten and neglected section of the country, and confront the living conditions of large numbers
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Scotching the Myths of Modern Scotland
Scotching the Myths of Modern Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 7th 2017 Cultures and nations live by myths. This has been so since the dawn of civilisation and has never been more apparent in recent weeks, in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London that have so dominated the first half of 2017 in Britain and the UK general election. The popular slogan invoking the spirit of the Blitz and World War Two - ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ - embodies how the British like to see themselves when under pressure. There is stoicism, a
Sorry seems to be the hardest word in Scotland
Sorry seems to be the hardest word in Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 17th 2017 Power and privilege seldom likes to have to openly reflect on its place in front of others. Instead, power likes to present its position as a natural state of affairs – to just be, manifesting and imbuing a sense of its own importance. This is how power exerts and expresses itself, from the City of London to senior bankers and the forces of international capitalism. The same is true of Scotland and in recent years this has been aided by, in significant areas, power
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When were the Swinging Scottish Sixties?
When were the Swinging Scottish Sixties? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 22nd 2017 The 1960s are referenced throughout the world as a period of immense change, hope, protest and turbulence. There were ‘the winds of change’ of decolonisation, Latin American revolts and rebellions, the Chinese cultural revolution, upsurges in Paris and Prague, Biafra, the disastrous American military intervention in Vietnam and resultant protest movement in the US and worldwide. What though did the sixties really represent? In the UK the sixties began with Philip Larkin and the trial of D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’; in the US they were augmented
