Americans who wanted to ‘save’ Glasgow give up after backlash from Scots

You will have all seen the video circling the internet, which sees two American teens pledge to “save” Glasgow from poverty. 

The teens

They planned to volunteer in Glasgow’s “industrial wastelands” and wanted to raise $4000 for their trip, via a Go Fund Me page. However, angry Scots gave the youngsters a harsh reaction as most pointed out that Glasgow is not in need of international aid.

Aina Rivas, 19, and Ferrán Rivas, 17 wanted to visit Glasgow for two weeks as part of a volunteering group, Hope Scouts, to “clean” and “reconstruct” an industrial part of the city. They pledged that they would “participate with local youth” and share “a message of hope”.

After the backlash from furious Glaswegians and Scots alike, their video has been set to “private” and their funding page has been taken down, although someone has reuploaded the video to YouTube.

In the video, Ferràn, who comes from Fort Lauderdale where one third of children live in poverty, says: “The UK is one of the richest countries in Europe and would appear needless and self-sustaining, however Glasgow proves that wrong.

“You probably haven’t heard of the Glasgow effect. Scientists have tried to explain this saying that high levels of poverty, high levels of stress and a culture of alienation and pessimism could have led to this.

“It is alarming that nowadays one third of all children in the city are estimated to be living in poverty.”

The video also showed the teens pronouncing Glasgow as “Glass-cow” and one angry commenter mocked this by posting: “GLASS-COW!”

Another commenter said: “Aye come to Glasgow and we’ll set about ye. Bring that Trump f***y with yous.”