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Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72

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Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72

#11

Post by prestonbriggs »

Andre607 wrote: post #10

What's striking is that nearly every one (with only a couple possible exceptions) of these photos show children and family occupants. Did single people (without kids) not live in these tenement blocks, or were in the overwhelmingly minority and these were mostly flats for housing family units? Or were singles just as common, but are not represented in the photographs?

At the bottom of the page are links to other pages of Hedges' work. There are a number (e.g., in London) showing single men living alone. Often pensioners (OAPs).

Perhaps your guess that the particular tenements in Glasgow were reserved for families is right.

Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72

#12

Post by andrepd »

beat wrote: post #5
trevyn wrote: post #2

Erm, most of the world is still like this.

It's changing rapidly, though. In 1997, 29% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, it's less than 9%. Stunning, but true. Or to put it another way... 50 years ago, people lived like that in Scotland. They don't anymore. Who's to say that places in the world that live like that today won't be as successful as Scotland has been in putting poverty behind them?

Hmm I'm always wary of those statements. The concept of "living in extreme poverty" is not a good way to measure progress in any sense. First because "poverty means earning less than x" implies that x needs to be updated and its not obvious how to do so; indeed it can be manipulated to push an agenda. Second because it reduces everything to money. You can make more money, but is your life actually improved? Sometimes yes, but surely not always. For example: millions of people have been relocated from the countryside to factories in China. They are now "lifted from poverty" according to that number. But now they live in smog-infested cities, stacked like sardines, working 12 hours per day, where before they had their homes and some sense of peaceful community. Have their lives improved?

In the end, you're judging the success of a system (capitalism) with a metric internal to that system. What does that tell you?

It's in fact so ridiculous a measure that a slave/indentured servant "earning" 5$ a day is considered a-ok in that metric.

EDIT: I'll just rememind that downvote is not a "disagree" button.

Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72

#13

Post by DanBC »

rbobby wrote: post #4

The book Angela's Ashes is a pretty solid read. Life in a poor area of Limerick Ireland.

The film Ratcatcher (1999) is about a boy growing up in tenements and dreaming of moving out to a new housing development.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171685/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The Scheme is a tv documentary about an estate in Kilmarnock. I don't like programmes like this, but it's not the worst of its kind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X6KfCYJx_g

Poor Kids (2011?) shows children living in poverty in the UK. It's pretty grim for one of the richest nations in the world. Note that austerity started only a couple of years before the programme was shown, and the "bedroom tax" and the benefit cap were introduced after this programme was shown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9aSp9bFmMg https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011vnls

Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72

#14

Post by grey-area »

andrepd wrote: post #12
beat wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's changing rapidly, though. In 1997, 29% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, it's less than 9%. Stunning, but true. Or to put it another way... 50 years ago, people lived like that in Scotland. They don't anymore. Who's to say that places in the world that live like that today won't be as successful as Scotland has been in putting poverty behind them?

Hmm I'm always wary of those statements. The concept of "living in extreme poverty" is not a good way to measure progress in any sense. First because "poverty means earning less than x" implies that x needs to be updated and its not obvious how to do so; indeed it can be manipulated to push an agenda. Second because it reduces everything to money. You can make more money, but is your life actually improved? Sometimes…

I agree poverty is a blunt measure, but literacy, infant mortality, poverty, life expectancy are all improving globally. By almost any measure life has improved dramatically over the last hundred years. It is no longer nasty, brutish and short for the majority, and the rural life people leave for factories is not an idyll, but instead often grinding poverty and early death with no way out. That's why they leave.

Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72

#15

Post by nine_k »

The photos have a striking similarity to what I've seen in Soviet Union as a child, in the end of 1970s. I can easily imagine myself one of these children on the photos, doing the same things.

Of course, not all parts of Soviet cities were as rundown, much like not all parts of Glasgow were as rundown.

Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72

#18

Post by michaelmcmillan »

andrepd wrote: post #12
beat wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's changing rapidly, though. In 1997, 29% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, it's less than 9%. Stunning, but true. Or to put it another way... 50 years ago, people lived like that in Scotland. They don't anymore. Who's to say that places in the world that live like that today won't be as successful as Scotland has been in putting poverty behind them?

Hmm I'm always wary of those statements. The concept of "living in extreme poverty" is not a good way to measure progress in any sense. First because "poverty means earning less than x" implies that x needs to be updated and its not obvious how to do so; indeed it can be manipulated to push an agenda. Second because it reduces everything to money. You can make more money, but is your life actually improved? Sometimes…

Read Enlightenment Now by Pinker!

Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72

#19

Post by arethuza »

Unfortunately, place like Maryhill are still some of the most deprived areas in Scotland:

http://simd.scot/2016/#/simd2016/BTTTFTT/9/-4.0000/55.9000/

I still find it shocking that in such a small country (6 million people) there can be a variation of over 10 years in the life expectancy of a newborn based purely on where they are born:

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2017/variation-in-life-ex...

NB I'm 53 so a contemporary of many of the kids in those photos - although I grew up in a fairly idyllic rural part of Scotland.

Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72

#20

Post by [deleted] »

andrepd wrote: post #12
beat wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's changing rapidly, though. In 1997, 29% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, it's less than 9%. Stunning, but true. Or to put it another way... 50 years ago, people lived like that in Scotland. They don't anymore. Who's to say that places in the world that live like that today won't be as successful as Scotland has been in putting poverty behind them?

Hmm I'm always wary of those statements. The concept of "living in extreme poverty" is not a good way to measure progress in any sense. First because "poverty means earning less than x" implies that x needs to be updated and its not obvious how to do so; indeed it can be manipulated to push an agenda. Second because it reduces everything to money. You can make more money, but is your life actually improved? Sometimes…

[deleted]
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