By Maureen McKendry, Media volunteer
Happy Burns Day! Today is a special day for people living in Scotland and honourary Scots around the world.
Recently voted the greatest Scot of all time, our love for Robert Burns is as strong as ever.
As well as a celebrated poet, Burns was a humanitarian who often addressed class and gender inequalities in his work and pushed the boundaries for social change.
Far from home
Take a look at his poem “The Slave’s Lament” which was written in 1792 as he pondered travelling to Jamaica to work as a bookmaker for a slavetrader.
The lines “It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthrall ……Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more,
And alas! I am weary, weary O!”
Over two hundred years later, as refugees arrive in Scotland fleeing persecution from their home countries they will likely never see again, those words are still as relevant today.
His poem “Address of Beelzebub”, written in 1786, takes a look at the immigration of Scottish people living in the impoverished Highlands who were preparing to move to Canada for a better life.
Power or freedom
Once the noblemen of London learned of their plans, fearing economic loss and a threat to British security, they immediately raised the cost of the journey, resulting in overcrowded townships and miserable living conditions in the Highlands.
In the damning poem, Burns writes from the perspective of the devil, congratulating the lords responsible for the actions.
“What right have they’To meat, or sleep, or light o’day/ far less to riches, pow’r, or freedom/ But what your lordships PLEASE TO GIE THEM?”
I wonder what words Rabbie would have to add to our destitution campaign – www.stopdestitution.org.uk – which highlights the hundreds of refugees in Scotland who are living with no food, money or shelter?
So tonight, as we tuck into our neeps and tatties, let’s remember the wise words of the man who so passionately promoted human right for everyone.
“That Man to Man, the world o’er, Shall brothers be for a’ that.”
