Bowthorpe – Oliver Springate -Baginski
I feel increasingly frustrated by the dire political mismanagement and missed opportunities to improve the lot of our communities and environment, and sick of complaining I want to do something to change it.
I used to think British society was moving in the right direction and I should devote my motivation for social improvement towards the most deprived communities abroad and have spent 25 years working with rights-deprived communities in Asia. I work as a Associate Professor of Global Development at UEA, teaching, as well as researching and working on environmental policy and rural development (primarily India, Nepal, Burma).
Now, living in a relatively deprived part of Norwich I see there is increasingly urgent need to help here – with child and adult poverty, and consequent distress, environmental deterioration, and a loss of hope at the same time as rapidly growing inequality and wealth for a few – these are
unforgivable and demand urgent redress. Handing out leaflets a few weeks ago I was struck by the despair – a glum looking couple smoking fags first thing in the morning at their front doors declined – ‘no thanks, whoever wins we are always going to get screwed’. I tried to motivate them, but in vain. I want to help these sorts of
people, by being the sort of councillor that they and those like them might find some hope in, not to despair or give up the fight.
