Paul

One of things for me about Scotland is –

I’ve been here
about four-and-a-half years –

that it’s very welcoming to people
from other communities,

from other parts of the world,

whether they be Eastern European;
whether they be from Asia;

whether they be from Africa.

And it’s great that Scotland has that.

And there is somewhat
of a multi-cultural feel,

particularly in areas like Glasgow,
and also in Edinburgh and Leith.

My hope for Scotland would be that
we move onto the next stage,

which is interculturalism,

because what we can end up in Scotland,
is parallel community.

So, you have
the Eastern European community,

you have the Asian community,

some have been here for many years
and some are the new refugees –

side-by-side – parallel,

and these strong communities
have their own identity,

but how can we actually, sort-of,
bring them together?

And my hope is, one of the ways
it would be seen, is like a fruit salad.

So what you have is apples and oranges
and bananas and strawberries

and all these different fruits,
and you could bring them together

and you could liquidise them, right,
and bring them into one.

So that’s one thing you could do,
and people then lose their identity

and you bring those communities together
in Scotland,

Or the other is,

you cut them up in small pieces
and you put them in a fruit salad, right,

And everybody can actually see
the fruit salad,

they can see the distinct between, say,

the strawberries, the bananas
and the apples and the oranges, etc.

And each community in Scotland
has something to contribute

And I think that’s my hope and future,
that we keep our identity, but we are,

in terms of multi-cultures
it’s a beautiful thing –

and we celebrate one another’s culture,
music and dance, and food and the taste,

but each one has something distinct

and my hope for Scotland
is that we welcome that,

we embrace it and we celebrate it,

but we also learn to,
in terms of interculturism,

and how we can blend those two together.