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Welcome to Jamaica and an empowering lesson about credit unions;

Aristotle said that poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. I have just returned from Jamaica, a country steeped in more than its fair share of all three, during its turbulent history.

Built on the profits of slavery, as to some extent was Glasgow, much of the population ekes out a grindingly impoverished existence, living in shanties, little more than cardboard huts. Yet I couldn't help noticing not only the parallels with home, but the lessons that can be learnt about how to begin lifting people out of dire straits.

First, the sense of humour, the ability to laugh in the face of adversity. That is something shared by all Glaswegians.

I was struck by the similarity between Sam Sharpe, leader of the last and largest slave rebellion, which led to the abolition of slavery on the island, and George Loveless, leader of the Tolpuddle Martyrs in Dorset. Both were lay preachers, Sam a Baptist and George a Methodist, who advocated passive resistance to achieve a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.

Sharpe's passive rebellion which began at Christmas 1831, was usurped when violence broke out, colonial homes were burnt and 14 colonialists murdered. Retribution was swift. It is believed 1000 slaves were hung in the weeks which followed, including Sam. But he did not die in vain. British public opinion was so shocked by the slaughter, it speeded up the abolition of slavery.

British workers too were engaged in their own struggles at the time. Enclosure had allowed the rich to seize common land, depriving them of any means of subsistence. Combined with low wages, appalling conditions, unemployment, bad winters and poor harvests in 1829 and 1830 a great explosion of anger, fuelled riots led by the mythical "Captain Swing" in 1830. Throughout Britain, 600 rioters were imprisoned; 500 sentenced to transportation; and 19 executed, the most famous of which were the Tolpuddle Martyrs. They were sentenced to seven years penal servitude in Australia, on a fictitious charge, simply because Loveless was attempting to form an agricultural union to help them negotiate better pay.

Again the public outcry helped speed up the development of unions and the Labour movement. So what can we learn from the Jamaican experience? One of the beacons of hope on the island was the power of their credit unions. Even in the poorest of towns, credit unions are financially empowering those who would otherwise be deprived of normal banking facilities.

There is more we can do in Scotland to help the credit unions evolve, and push back the financial red-lining prevalent in some areas. There is no reason why our credit unions cannot become as significant as, for example, Montego Credit Union, just about the most prestigious building in downtown Montego Bay. Other initiatives, should be encouraged, such as the partnership between Bank of Scotland and Prospect Community Housing in Wester Hailes. Research revealed that nearly one in five adults in the area did not have a bank account.

Now the housing association and the bank have teamed up to establish Prospect Plus, a savings and loan scheme to be launched next week and which will be run from Prospect's Westburn Avenue offices.

It is hoped it may prevent tenants drifting into the hands of illegal money lenders and getting trapped by mountains of debt. People trust their housing associations and the hope is they may feel comfortable discussing their money worries with staff they know. Empowering people financially is essential to breaking the cycle of poverty and deprivation.

True, but why should the rest of us care? That's another lesson we can learn from Jamaica. Did I say it was a very poor country? Did I also say, it is simultaneously an extremely wealthy country?

Sumptuous houses and flash hotels litter the horizon, in a parallel universe behind barbed wire and armed guards. Despite the old British maxim of "divide and rule", a country divided is rarely at peace.