"Mothers protest at homelessness" says the placard at a demonstration in Edinburgh. I wonder: At what point do we all say, enough is enough??
No longer can we, should we, must we accept raving inequality - not just the inequality of finances but also the inequality in life experiences and life chances. Surely there must be a reckoning about the gaping and growing divide between the Global North and South, and between those with and those without in each country, even in the 'rich' Global North countries.
With 85 people owning the same wealth as 95% of the world's population, with two billionaires trying to out do each other in a personal space race, with global health services - malaria, polio and now dementia - being developed at the whim of other billionaires, with businesses geared up to 'personalised shopping' where the antennae of the shop's recognition systems pick up who you are even as you walk in the door ... All this and so much more whilst two thirds if the world's population strives to find water, food and the stuff of basic living.
At what point do we say, we DON'T need and DON'T want personalised recognition at the shop doorway, we don't want health to be at the whim of Internet billionaires, we don't want our world to separate catastrophically into not just haves and have nots, but those with the essentials of adequate human life and others as a sub species.
The UN has created 17 Sustainable Development Goals to try and address the immense problems we live with every day. From NO Hunger and NO poverty, through Quality Education, Gender Equality, Climate Concern, to Secure and Just Institutions.
But that's at a political and diplomatic level. We need to address issues of inequality, immoral decisions and unethical approaches to decision making here at local civil society levels. That's why grassroots organisations are so important. We need to make a difference not only because we care but because we 'can do' change.
That is our mission and goal - to collaborate and communicate to ensure we make a contribution to the implementation of the SDGs in practice in Scotland.