Dragon’s Glen – Pitchers Notes
“In today’s global village, Scotland is not just a country of 5‐
million people. It is a community of 40‐million people. Sell me a
plan which brings them together for their mutual benefit.”
Below are notes from the Pitchers who took part in the Dragon’s Glen at the Scottish Diaspora Forum:
Lesley Riddoch’s pitch
1.Much of the pain, hurt and depopulation that led to mass emigration and the creation of a
diaspora occurred on Scottish islands.
2.Since then, Scottish islands have had a mixed track record – but with or without oil almost all
are facing depopulation.
3.On the other hand, Scottish islands are natural repositories of Scottish, Celtic and Nordic
heritage ‐‐ musically, culturally, archaeologically, and linguistically. Importantly – Scotland’s
islands are not museums – they are centres of living heritage. The mother‐load for the 40 million “Scots” around the world.
4.Islands are small enough to work together and work quickly on new ideas. Whether it’s
Orkney Islands with renewable energy, Eigg with land deals for young house‐builders orEishken on Lewis with plans for a state of the art old folk’s home with the proceeds of their
wind farm.
5So here’s a plan to make Scotland home for the entire Scottish disapora – thanks to the
massive renewable potential of its islands.
6..scot is a new suffix that will be available to companies and individuals whose servers and
data centres are based on Scottish islands – and powered by their Green tidal and wave
energy.
7. Why? The volume of data is growing almost exponentially around the world.
8. Scottish Islands have major advantages when it comes to data storage
‐ Cool climate
‐ Renewable energy
‐ Local engineering expertise (IBM, CISCO, NCR etc created highly skilled Scottish ICT
w/force)
‐ Safe and stable ‐‐ geologically and socially
9.Scottish islands currently can’t get their green energy out. The solution is to change the way
we’re looking at the problem ‐‐ – don’t get energy out, get the world’s data in.
10.It’s cheaper to lay fibre optic cables than power cables /more efficient to run and no energy
is lost in transmission. Biz wants data stored away from its main operating centre. Safe in
Scotland. Safe on Scottish islands.
11.What do Scottish islands get – jobs, esteem, population, purpose, and international profile
with the server business and the .scot domain.
12. The jobs will be in construction, engineering and design for fibre optics,
maintenance/operational jobs, ICT, servicing the .scot domain, marketing and R&D into
marine energy and server system plus long term energy jobs (with dependable door‐step customers who are not reliant on Ofgen’s unfair pricing regime to get going)
13.Free energy for all islanders will be a byproduct – the hot air and hot water from cooling the
server racks can create district heating systems.
14. What does the disapora get? The chance to make Scotland home without moving an inch.
The chance to trust Scotland with its most precious things – knowledge and memory. The
chance to transform Scotland’s island communities into viable, knowledge‐based societies.
The chance to benefit directly as learning is rolled out to wider geographies throughout
Scotland and other “remote but energy rich” diaspora hot spots across the world – perhaps
using the Globalscot network to access world‐class diaspora expertise.
15.The past, present and future of the disapora will be stored where its heritage, language and
memory have always been stored – in the Scottish islands. And to show that they’ve made
Scotland home – diaspora Scots will be able to use. scot.
16This can happen. Next spring .scot becomes a tradable suffix. The Scottish government
should buy it and aim for having three disapora firms to trial tidally powered servers and
data centres on Orkney by the end of 2011 – Scotland’s Year of Islands. By 2015 ‐‐ Scotland
should be able to become home for thousands of disapora businesses.
17.To do this Scottish islands will have to be freed from the appalling bureaucracy that blights
progress on the mainland. So in 2011, all of Scotland’s islands should be given Special
Development Status to let them pursue a future of green server provision and data storage.
18.Witness the transformation – with the help of the disapora from places of sorrow to
inspiring centres of fresh thinking.
19. .scot. Making Scotland home for the world.
Jim Hunter’s Pitch:
For hundreds of years before that interloper Andrew muscled in, Scotland’s patron saint was one of our own people.
Well, one of our own people in a way.
Because this person was an immigrant; an economic migrant; indeed – being on the run from those in charge where he’d been born – he was, you might say, an asylum seeker.
His name was Colm or Calum; Colm Cille; Saint Columba.
And the community he set up on Iona became a centre of learning, culture, creativity of Europe-wide significance.
Latha Chaluim Chille, this asylum seeker’s saint day, is June ninth – a date we should bring back to prominence.
We’re a tiny country of five million.
But out there in the wider world are many times that number who know, believe or feel themselves to be of Scottish background.
That these folk are out there is, in some ways, our tragedy.
In that so many of our people had to leave to find the opportunities this country for so long denied them.
I’ve spent some time among this overseas diaspora, and I’ve come to share their pride in what our emigrants achieved.
Pride in the way that folk of Highland background – traders, politicians, railway-builders – practically invented Canada.
Pride in all those pioneer settlers, from the Carolinas to Otago, who made the American Dream, or its equivalents, for them at least, come true.
But our diaspora are in no way Scots or Scottish.
They’re Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders of, as they’d say themselves, Scottish heritage.
If they choose to celebrate this heritage by doing things that most of us don’t do, like joining clan societies, that’s their business.
But clan societies and the like, for people here in Scotland, have no very great appeal.
Not least because, in today’s Scotland, this sort of stuff means nothing to, indeed excludes by definition, an awful lot of Scots.
That’s because, while our people were emigrants once, we’re beginning to be an immigrant society.
The most famous Scot of recent times is Sean Connery.
Nothing about his name is indigenous to Scotland.
And neither, incidentally, are the Devines a weel-kent clan.
This century, many Scots, perhaps eventually a majority, will be of English, Polish, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, African, Irish or some other ancestry.
They won’t, and can’t, connect with our diaspora, in the way we think of and relate to that diaspora – the way of clans, and chiefs, and gatherings.
But they could connect by way of something far more basic. Shared experience.
The experience of the economic migrant quitting 1950s Glasgow for Toronto; or coming here today from Bucharest for the same reasons.
The experience of a Highland family fleeing clearance; or a Darfur family fleeing things that are much worse.
The experience, the universal immigrant experience, of making a new life among strangers.
So let’s have one day annually in Scotland when we reach out to the diasporas here among us as well as to our own diaspora far away.
This day, for reasons stated, should be Latha Chaluim Chille, Saint Columba’s day, the ninth of June.
A cheerier time of year, by the way, for a holiday than poor old Andrew’s day at the dreich, wet, dark and dreary tail-end of November
Gus Noble’s Pitch:
The core themes of my “pitch” will be ENGAGEMENT and EXCHANGE.
Over the last couple of months, I have asked selected members of the Scottish American community to send me their views, so that I might be able to represent community perspective as well as my own. I have summarised and incorporated some of this input into my pitch. Appreciating that I only have 5 minutes, I will concentrate on the some of the following key points (though some may be better suited to coverage/expansion during the discussion session) and make some practical suggestions for action:
1. SCOTTISH IDENTITY – I will cover the mission of the Illinois Saint Andrew Society – “to nourish Scottish identity” – and, by explaining that we welcome everyone who is Scottish by birth, by heritage or simply by inclination, will recognise that multiple Scottish identities can exist and that, as a result, will argue that a mutli-faceted approach will be required to engage with Scots in the manner(s) of their choosing. I will make the point that increasingly, people will claim a variety of cultural identities and will focus on the relevance of Scottish identity by highlighting key values. I will mention that this Saint Andrew’s Day, Azeem Ibrahim will accept our Society’s Distinguished Citizen Award.
2. SCOTTISH (AMERICAN) HALL OF FAME & POTENTIAL MUSEUM OF SCOTTISH DIASPORA – The Illinois Saint Andrew Society has established the Scottish American Hall of Fame to recognize the contributions and accomplishments of Scots in USA. Until now this has been published as a book and as a physical collection of plaques mounted on a wall at our Society’s Scottish American Cultural Centre. I will propose that we develop this Hall of Fame to include an induction ceremony (induction will be based upon an individual’s accomplishments that reflect core Scottish values). I will suggest that the Hall of Fame be expanded to other areas of the world with input/nominations from Global community of Scots and that a web presence be developed as an educational tool for teachers and international Scottish cultural organisations. The Scottish Hall of Fame may also be expanded more broadly as a “Digital Museum” of Scottish Diaspora (or a network of actual, physical museums) to tell the stories of Scottish achievement and experience from around the world – this will lead my third point.
3. DEVELOPMENT OF A “DIGITAL SPACE FOR CULTURAL EXCHANGE” - Key to this will be partnership between Scotland (Government, Public, Academic and Non-Profit Sectors, Cultural Institutions in Scotland and others) and the international community of Scots and Scottish cultural organisations. I will suggest that a web 2.0 platform be developed to permit social networking and degrees of management by all constituents. This digital space for cultural exchange will help engage with multiple Scottish identities, especially contemporary Scottish interests and issues.
4. A JOINED-UP APPROACH TO INTERNATIONAL SCOTTISH PHILANTHROPY – I will argue that engagement with Scottish global Diasporas should start in-country rather than be “pushed out” from Scotland and that in-country national leadership councils/governing boards must be developed to co-ordinate engagement with and support for charitable causes in Scotland – and, crucially, also for in-country Scottish causes. This being said, I will suggest that a body should be assigned responsibility for representing Scotland’s non-profits to Scottish global Diasporas (possibly Scottish Community Trust?).
5. APPOINTMENT OF IN-COUNTRY SCOTTISH “REPRESENTATIVES” – I will state that Scotland should identify and recruit representatives in target areas (countries/states) as specified by refinable Government strategies for Scotland’s global engagement. These representatives will meet Scottish Government Ministers and officials regularly to exchange agendas and pursue mutually agreed objectives.
6. ASSOCIATION OF SCOTTISH ORGANIZATIONS – At last year’s Scottish North American Leadership Conference the Chairs of the Saint Andrew Societies of Milwaukee and Detroit, and I discussed forming a working coalition of Scottish cultural organisations in the US Midwest to develop common and shared branding, (regional chapters – Chicago Scots, Milwaukee Scots, Detroit Scots…..I notice a similar concept in the “SCOTS in London” – being served by a National Association or Service Centre, the US SCOTS) and services (membership, communications, fundraising and events management). We have benchmarked other models of National Association-Regional Chapters in the USA. The leadership of regional chapters of this Association will form national Governing Board which will be able to:
· Receive and review nominations for induction into Scottish (National) Halls of Fame
· Co-ordinate joined up approach to International Scottish Philanthropy
· Serve as regional in-country representatives
7. PROFESSIONAL AND COMMERCIAL EXCHANGE – The Illinois Saint Andrew Society has established the Scottish Business Forum and the Scottish Law Society to promote professional and commercial exchange between US and Scotland. These can easily be replicated by Scottish cultural organisations in other areas/countries. I will highlight the potential of such groups to organise trade missions. I will also mention the Illinois Saint Andrew Society’s participation as a host to a Saltire Foundation Intern by way of emphasising that Scottish cultural organisations can help to nurture young Scottish talent and export best practicee back to Scotland.
8. COUNCIL OF SCOTTISH DIASPORA – I will reference the development of the Scottish North American Leadership Conference, highlighting our theme for the July 27 2009 Conference at Queen Margaret University “Scotland and Her Disapora – Partners for the Future”. I will offer and invite future collaboration.
9. ENGAGEMENT AND EXCHANGE – I will conclude by revisiting the universality of our Society’s mission “to nourish Scottish identity” and by urging for an integrated strategic approach by the Scottish Government and international Scottish cultural organisations such as the Illinois Saint Andrew Society.
Alan McFarlane’s Pitch:
I have worked in the global investment management industry for thirty years, mostly in Edinburgh with nine years in London. Today I am the CEO of Walter Scott & Partners Ltd, and Edinburgh based firm with 90 staff which manages approximately $25 billion in global equity portfolios for institutional investors globally.
What that means in plain English is that we are hired by some of the largest pension funds and charities from the USA, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia to invest their money to help secure people’s retirements or the funding work of the charities.
Thus our client base is global and our investments are also global. Other firms in Edinburgh do similar things but Walter Scott is the purest example of the global clients / global investment model. We have no clients from Scotland and only in recent years obtained any from the rest of the UK.
It a straightforward matter of fact that, when we are competing for business toe to toe with the best from New York or London or anywhere else, our Scots identity confers in the minds of many if not all potential clients an assumption of competence. It’s by no means a guarantee of success, but it matters. This benefit would not accrue to, say, an investment firm based in Copenhagen because Denmark does not carry that impression.
We can – and should – debate how Scotland came to have that stature. Despite the traumas of the past year, that opinion of us has not been permanently damaged. It can have accrued only from two sources; first, the work of Scots financial institutions at home and in the wider world and, second, the work of expatriate Scots in financial institutions around the world.
Without getting too starry eyed, the assumed features of that imputed Scots financial competence are, inter alia, caution, intelligence, putting the client first, conservatism, a global perspective and the highest ethical standards.
It’s a recognition that the Scots are (or at least have been) good at business. The value to the Scots economy and for the Scots Diaspora of that impression and the reality that underpins it is immense.
As an aside, I looked at the various Irish Fund and other websites, and they leave me cold. Their history is not ours. Bluntly, Scots help make the Empire; they were not by and large its victims.
While we can bemoan the clearances and other unfortunate domestic impulsions to emigration, the plain fact is that Scots have a much bigger history of confident expansionism. Getting foreign Scots or the children of Diaspora to invest in a ‘soft’ fund for enterprise in Scotland is not something I would endorse. Indeed, to offer such a thing would, I fear, corrode others’ confidence in us. If there are great investment ideas in Scotland, why would we need others to help us find or fund them?
What do I have in mind? Well, it’s still being cooked, it draws on what I’ve set out above, but the thoughts are towards some means of telling our Diaspora that it matters to us, that we value it, that we want to promote our common good. It will lean towards education, it will lean towards engaging with the world as it is, and not through some misty-eyed hope that common ‘Scottishness’ is the thing that binds.
What binds now and shall in future is competence directed towards a common good.
Jim Naughtie’s Pitch:
This is an international challenge, so Scotland should look outwards, not inwards. The Diaspora should be drawn into an enterprise that springs from the best of our history – rigour and determination, free thinking, generosity of spirit, adventure. My idea is a simple one, for a Fund – a new source of money that is also a wellspring of ideas and a continuation of that history. We might even call it the Diaspora Fund.
It would be free from government, established by trust or charter, representing the best of Scotland in pursuit of two aims – the broadening of the minds of young Scots and our society as a whole, and secondly the recovery of some of the most elevated aspirations of our own Enlightenment.
Scots abroad and at home, individually and through organizations with which they are associated, would contribute to the Fund and create a very large source of investment.
First it would be used to help young Scots to travel, giving their talents and learning in turn, in a way that draws on the experience of such inspired ideas as the American Peace Corps and Voluntary Service Overseas. With particular emphasis on small countries they would be an export of energy and intelligence and they would bring back, as a consequence of their experience, a vast fund of knowledge and insight.
Secondly if the fund grew as quickly and as spectacularly as I think it could, I would envisage the establishment of a formal programme of study abroad on the lines of that pioneered by such schemes as Fulbright, Marshall and Rhodes from the United States. Such exchanges do exist, of course, but we could make a significant leap forward in what we could offer young students. This would be bigger and better than anything now on offer. It would require huge investment and professional and wise leadership. With a proper sense of purpose, that expertise and enthusiasm is available. This is an idea which could bring Scotland and Scots abroad together in looking to the future and not only to the past . I envisage it as a pillar of the educational structure in Scotland as far ahead as we can see.
There is another aim which I think we should consider. If the Fund were successful, it could be linked at home to the establishment of a series of awards for intellectual achievement in the arts and sciences which in the long term could rival the Nobel prizes themselves. Scotland’s history deserves no less.
Were we to ask Scots around the world to participate in this venture I think with the right effort we would find the doors swinging open.
