The George Square tragedy brought out the best in Glaswegians

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/28/glasgow-george-square-tragedy-city-at-its-best

Version 0 of 1.

I’m not really sure there’s much to be gained by asking why Glasgow has suffered two major human tragedies in the space of little more than a year. For those of us whose friends and relatives are not among the 16 killed in the Clutha bar last year and George Square last week, these tell us how fragile and precious life is and why, perhaps, we ought to make the most of it while we are yet spared. That doesn’t mean, though, that those of us who live and work in Glasgow can’t reach out and tell those who lost their loved ones that we are standing with them and are thinking about them. All their Christmases now will be tinged with the pain of loss and at these times they will be at their most vulnerable so that is when the city can help in the healing by being what it is: big and warm and compassionate.

You are tempted to say that Glasgow doesn’t deserve to have suffered in this way. That, after a year in which it revealed its humanity and all of its charisma like no other year, it deserved to have had the chance to look back over the past 12 months or so with pride and with something approaching satisfaction. The city had delivered the most successful Commonwealth Games ever, where the generosity of its citizens and the warmth of their welcome to visitors almost certainly rescued the event. Many were beginning to feel that these Games had been rendered obsolete as international sport now rewarded not just the fittest and the strongest but also the greediest and most capitalistic. Glasgow 2014, where the para events occurred and unfolded within the framework of the “big” events, showed the world that friendliness and appreciation of sacrifice and effort as well as ability still had a place in top-class international sport.

And you are tempted to ask why a city that consistently sets the gold standard in looking out for others has been visited by these two major tragedies at a time of the year when the pain of loss is rendered even more poignant. Gordon Matheson, the leader of the city’s Labour administration, should have been able to reflect on a year in which he and his colleagues demonstrated how socialism can be made to work in the 21st century, when we are always told that only an economic model based on the idolising of profits and the survival of the fittest is valid. Glasgow, though, has given the world an alternative: using what influence it has as an employer to encourage firms to treat employees not merely as fodder for shareholders but as valued, long-term participants in making the business a success.

That the bin lorry tragedy last Monday occurred in George Square, the city centre’s heart and lungs, daily breathing life into the rest of Glasgow, seemed particularly cruel. This was the place nearly a century ago where workers gathered in 1919 in an early show of mass human solidarity to protest about inhumane working conditions and slave wages. So spooked was the British establishment that tanks appeared on the surrounding streets.

But it was far too late for them; change was on its way and things soon would never be the same again. One street beyond Queen Street, where last week’s tragedy unfolded, is Nelson Mandela Place, named after the great humanitarian leader in a square where the South African consulate then resided. Glasgow was the first city in the world to honour Mandela while he languished on Robben Island.

But to ask why Glasgow appears to have been singled out for special pain at this time of the year is to diminish the year-round suffering that occurs in parts of western Africa and in the drug-infested, inner-city hell of Mexico City and other such places where it seems that all light and humanity have been extinguished. And let’s not make too much either of the fact that ordinary Glaswegians caught up in this tragedy, as they were at the Clutha Vaults last November, immediately ran to the afflicted to offer assistance, thinking nothing of themselves and their personal safety but only of the stricken.

That this occurred was not proof of a higher level of humanity, compassion and bravery possessed by Glaswegians. Rather, it showed simply that tragedy, when it strikes randomly and without warning, brings forth in ordinary people their innate goodness and generosity of spirit.

Glaswegians share this with the citizens of many other big cities who, similarly, are buffeted by disproportionate levels of unemployment, ill health and economic injustice. We have always shown solidarity for those in other countries who have needed our help. What we saw last Monday and on the night of 29 November last year was the physical manifestation of this.

Newspaper columnists are curiously reluctant to praise the work of colleagues on other publications in print. But here I must pay tribute to Catriona Stewart of the Herald who found herself caught up in the events of George Square. Her report and her conduct bore witness to the reserves of quiet heroism and nobility that human beings possess and made many of her colleagues in the trade very proud.

Glasgow will recover from this tragedy and Glaswegians will help to bear the burden of grief being suffered by the relatives of the six who died at George Square. Gordon Matheson’s office looks directly on to the path the bin lorry took as it claimed six lives. The constituency office of Nicola Sturgeon, new first minister of Scotland, lies just a mile or so south of the city centre. Each of them, showing proper leadership, spoke with dignity and compassion in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and this was part of the process of healing too.

It’s still been a great year for Glasgow, my city, and there were elements of that greatness in the response to tragedy on George Square last Monday. For the six who died last week and the 10 whose lives were claimed last November, Requiescat in Pace.