People freezing to death

HUNGER OR HEAT

SCOTS COUNCIL FIGHTS FOR 365

FREE SCHOOL MEAL DAYS

By Stephen Wilson

 

'Coal all spent : the bucket empty : the

shovel useless;the stove breathing out

cold ;the room freezing: the leaves outside

the window rigid, covered with rime: the

sky a silver shield against anyone who

looks for help from it. I must have coal;

I cannot freeze to death ; behind me is

the pitiless stove , before me the pitiless

sky, so I must ride out between them and

on my journey seek aid from the coal

dealer '.

The extract comes from Franz Kafka's

short story called 'The Bucket Rider'

which captures the desperate plight of

a man freezing to death because he

can't heat up his own room. The story

has an unreality about it in the sense that

the man attempts to maintain his fragile

dignity by flying on a bucket to beg for a

free piece of coal from a coal merchant.

The story captures many of the sharp

anguished emotions of a poor person.

Kafka was from Prague but readers can

be forgiven for believing that he was

Scottish. For every year more old

people die in Scotland from the cold than

in the whole of Siberia ! The reason is

because they can't afford central heating.

What strikes the foreign visitor is how

cold many houses are in Scotland. It is

not uncommon to witness some couples

watching television huddled under a

blanket. As a student at university I recall

I studied in the library during the winter

because it was warmer. My mother told

me: "It does not matter how much I heat

up this house. It still feels very cold. I wish

it would get warmer."

One great plus about living in Moscow is

how warm it is. The pipes are bursting with

warmth and the heating is relatively cheap.

According to some reports, Scots cut

down on healthy eating in order to heat

their homes. Frank McNally an education

convener for a Lanarkshire council stated;

"It is horrendous to think that in the 21st

century Scotland children are coming to

school malnourished , but it is a sad reality

that some families face the choice of

heating their home or feeding their

children". 

An April 2017 survey by the National Union of Teachers found that 80% of teachers noticed 'holiday hunger' with as many as a 1/3 of pupils showing signs of malnutrition. Teachers are rightly concerned as this hunger impairs their school kids' performance by negatively

influencing concentration and cognitive

abilities.This is why Lanarkshire council is

going to introduce a new pilot scheme,

titled "Food 365" , at Easter, in Coatbridge

where children can take free meals

every day including the holidays . The

proposal costs an estimated 50,000

pounds. Many teachers support

extending this scheme on a nationwide

basis, but the British government hell

bent on their austerity program,

predictably opposes it.

After almost thirty years of austerity, in

Britain, which has included cutting

social benefits off completely should

an official deem it proper, has led to

a mushrooming of 'food banks' where

poor people queue up to obtain free food

from charities! It is a real indictment

of the British system of government when

their own people now feel hungry and

often have to choose between heat and

hunger. The Bucket rider might as well

have been written in the 21st century

Scotland.