Al Jazeera :
It was once dubbed Europe’s murder capital, but this year it was voted the world’s friendliest city.
Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city and home to one of the most bitter football rivalries, has rarely lacked drama – and this week will take centre stage as the host of a highly anticipated summit seen by many as the last chance to avert a global climate catastrophe.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, will begin on October 31 and last for 12 days when the likes of the United Kingdom, the United States, China and India are expected to thrash out plans to reduce carbon emissions.
By its conclusion, this city of contrasts will either be hailed as the scene of a spectacular success or lamented as the place where dreams of a better tomorrow were extinguished.”For me, COP coming to Glasgow is a huge deal and I am excited, but also nervous,” resident Lorna Celnik told Al Jazeera.
“Excited because the eyes of the world will be on my home city, and nervous about how the city will be portrayed and how delegates will rate their experience,” Celnik, a human resources director, explained.
“Excited because of the potential that world leaders might actually make significant commitments to help mitigate the climate crisis, but nervous that they might not reach agreement or that commitments will fall short of the change that is actually required to make a difference.”
The fact that Glasgow, home to about 600,000 people, will host such a significant event should be of no surprise to those who know the city well.
Ever since the 1707 Act of Union, which saw Scotland and England unite to form Great Britain, Glasgow has been making international waves – for good and ill.
Indeed, when Scotland gave up its sovereignty – albeit not its nationhood – in the early 18th century, its highly educated workforce – it had four universities to England’s two – quickly exploited the transatlantic slave trade, with Glasgow among its dubious beneficiaries.
The 1935 novel No Mean City depicted Glasgow as a den of razor-wielding gangs – and this status appeared to have little changed 70 years later when the World Health Organization referred to Glasgow as the “murder capital of Europe”.
Yet a way out of the crisis was found. The formation in 2005 of Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), which sought inspiration from the US, saw knife crime treated not simply as an issue of policing but one of public health. Soon Glasgow’s streets became safer as homicides across Scotland plummeted within 10 years.
Glasgow’s 1451-established higher education establishment – the University of Glasgow – is currently ranked the 86th best university in the world.It is responsible for educating some of the most famous figures on the planet, such as economist Adam Smith, television pioneer John Logie Baird and Scotland’s current First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Nicola Sturgeon.
While in recent times the city has been forced to face up to its past links with slavery – which saw it grow fat off the proceeds of human misery – other more modern concerns have been preoccupying Glaswegians.Among them was the city’s reputation as a hotbed of violence and thuggery.
