Culture, what culture?

The week past included an interesting radio show where Jason Mohammad asked the question "what is culture in Wales"

I think the question could have been set slightly different by asking the question :

What is culture ?

Wiki gives a good toe in the water idea with :

Culture is a modern concept based on a term first used in classical antiquity by the Roman orator Cicero:

"cultura animi", cultivation of the soul.

My first reaction to the question was a text to the radio show, the last to be read, it said:

Culture is today, every part of our daily life it is the rise and fall of songs, literature and language, yesterday is history.

I seem to be at odds with current thoughts ....

Cicero, I believe, would have agreed with Hoebel who described culture as having two distinct parts, the physical artefacts, material culture, and everything else, those intangibles such as language and customs.  My guess is that Jason Mohammad, and all those that spoke on the show, consider culture to be restricted to those intangibles, and in Wales it seems that the minority language, that is under threat from extinction, is considered of greater importance than all else on the cultural agenda.

Architecture, including design, choice of material and spacial impact would be considered material culture, separated from the other side of the cultural coin, the intangibles.

This simple example demonstrates the weakness of the traditional description of culture, how do we separate the material from the intangible when language develops as a response to our material world, if the intangible is inextricably linked to our material world, then our current use of culture as a reference to support political ideas is fundamentally flawed because it is partial, it is incomplete.

Going back to Cicero, are we cultivating our soul by failing to embrace the material culture that is today's culture, do we need to consign much of culture to history and embrace today and tomorrow as our true culture.

In Wales "The Mabinogion" would become a curiosity of cultural literature, does "Dylan Thomas" affect our perception of culture in the 21st century, and finally as a point for further consideration, the 2013 "Cardiff International Poetry Competition", link here .....

First Prize, Geoff Lajbrok from Cambridge
for his poem The Goose in the Suitcase

Second Prize, Rosemary Shepperd  from London
for her poem My Milkman comes from Sarajevo and has beautiful hands

Third Prize, Valerie Laws  from Northumbria
for her poem Hitting the Road with Frida Kahlo

Five equal runners-up
- Penny Ayers  from Cheltenham
- Charity Novick from Cambridge
- Pascale Petit  from London
- Judith Taylor from Aberdeen
- Anna Wigley from Cardiff

Is our culture "of Wales" or might it be "of everywhere" .......

... thinking of poverty.

David Cornock's blog had an interesting comment today,

Comment No. 45. by  paul80  "Poorer parts of the UK should receive more funding. Makes sense. The UK is a sinlge country after all."

I don't think he is right, "why should a poor part of any country receive government funds because it is poorer than other areas ? "

Two questions, both linked, spring to mind, "who would receive the funding, and, who would decide how it would be used ? "

If, for example, it can be demonstrated that an area has such poor literacy that its inhabitants are unable to attract good, well paid, employment, then government might address educational needs of the area.

If, for example, health issues can be linked to poor sanitation, then government can intervene, much like London of the 19th century.

With this in mind, should Westminster fund various regions of the UK as it does, should Scotland receive more per head than Wales, should Wales receive more per head than the East of England, per head ?

I don't think so, funding should be equal across the UK as a whole, based upon population, but a new approach to funding societies deficiencies wherever they are found.

We fiddle whilst Varteg ...

... becomes Farteg !

What point changing the "V" for "F", the answer is of course there is no "F" in the welsh language, but in Wales we have two languages, English and Welsh where above 80% of people speak only English.

The story was reported hereand here.

Myself, I think the village might change its name ....... to "Meri's Folly" or "Foggy Bottom", but seriously how a place is named should be the choice of the residents, and there should only be one name  !

... free lunch ?

Cash drain

Begining to back peddle.

I'm not wrong, but

Do our politicians ever sit down and think things through ?

When they ask us to approve Income Tax powers we might ask the question..

"are they are up to it" .... because we all know the piper has to be paid eventually, there's no such thing as a Free Lunch, unless you might be an education minister !

... taxes, what taxes ?

It's all to play for in Wales with devolved taxes.

... or is it a dastardly plan to derail political Wales ?

Could Cameron be right ...

... when he described "the bubble [politics] in Cardiff as being completely obsessed with assembly powers but voters had other priorities such as the recovery of the economy and the health service".

Well Carwyn and chums are going to prove Cameron wrong, in the Assembly today ...

the Active Travel Bill will proceed to the next stage.

... at a price of £12 million, is it what we have asked for, is it good value ?

Information: 

This year the Aneurin Bevan Health Board has a drug budget shortfall of £10 million, and there are another 6 health boards in Wales, our politicians prioritise cycle track maps over medicines.

But its democracy, we did vote for maps over medicines didn't we ......... with devolution !

.

L.Wood ... such a gift

 ... what a Postal Prat

... Welsh not British produced the original, I'm sure opponents of Plaid can carry on the theme at the next election.

Such a gift, Leanne "one's foot in one's mouth" Wood.

It's almost time ...

... to hand over for good.  The last six months have been busy, to busy to write, busy preparing to hand over the warehouse to J.J., next Friday I cross my particular Rubicon into retirement, a life no longer governed by the clock, the timetable, the rota .... instead there will be ... time !

My early upbringing taught me not to waste time, use every second of it, and starting early my first shot is across the bows of Caerphilly CBC.

The story .... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23801990 ...

... not the involvement of Pickles, but the table at the end of the report entitled "Councils which allow blogging and filming of public meetings"

Caerphilly does not allow democracy into Public meetings, there can be little justice where dissent can be silenced, so to begin a tiny skirmish I sent an email to the leader of the council Harry Andrews, to-wit :

 I read with interest, BBC web, that Caerphilly CBC do not allow blogging or filming of public meetings.

What plans and timescale do CCBC have to extend democracy in the borough by following the example set by both Monmouthshire and Anglesey ?

Kind regards

John.

 It's quite possible that CCBC have plans to democratise our local authority, a grand scheme, but somehow I doubt it, politicians prefer not to share power and influence with the electorate.
.
 

To have and to hold in Wales, ...

... but not as much as in Scotland or Ireland:

Westminster plans to spend an extra £531 million in Scotland this year, boosting that department’s Expenditure Limit by nearly 2%. It plans to spend an extra £327 m in Northern Ireland, boosting the Limit by 3%. It plans another £107m in Wales, a rise of 0.7%.

Two questions ....

...why is Wales receiving a disproportionate increase compared with Scotland, proportionately the amount should be £189 million (per head of populatin ?

more importantly ....

... why the extra spending at all when so many have tightened their belt in the extreme ?

... I wonder how Jack would read this ?
 

Language dilemma for ...

... Meri Huws the Welsh Language Commissioner.

Westminster has decreed that EU doctors coming to work in the UK from April will have their language and communication skills tested by nominated senior doctors.

In Wales we have the Office of Language Commissioner who may do anything she (currently female) considers appropriate to:

• Promote the use of Welsh
• Facilitate the use of Welsh
• Work towards ensuring that the Welsh language will be treated as equally as English.

This includes promoting opportunities to use Welsh and encourage best practice in the use of Welsh by people dealing with other persons, or providing services to other persons; a recent Investigation report published into the implementation of Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board’s Welsh Language Scheme (NHS in Wales).

The difficulty I envisage is satisfying the commissioner and the public in need of the NHS in Wales, as all our doctors are registered with The General Medical Council (charity registered in England
GMC0002 and Wales (1089278) and Scotland (SC037750)) and as there is no requirement for language skills other than English ...

... what is the point of our Welsh Language Commissioner.

The Western Mail asks ...

... the very simple question

How far does the Welsh Government want to take devolution?

... a more searching, much more relevant question would be

How far do the peoples of Wales wish devolution to be taken?

... an adjunct question would be

Does devolution need to be developed further, for whose benefit ?

Devolution, like Pandora's box, is opened never to be closed, unlike Pandora's box of mythology the contents are not evils, but mediocrity, the task at hand is to demand that politicians and their parties introduce "quality" into the workings of governance.

Only when the Welsh Assembly can be described as a Quality Institution should the Western Mail question be answered.

No, but, yeah, but, no, but...

... sums up politics in Wales, where the Health Ministers' plan for ground-breaking organ transplant legislation in fact changes little !

Not for the faint hearted, confused in the extreme ...



...It becomes apparent that ...

... nothing is in fact going to change.

• Government takes control of the deceased
• then hands back to the family final consent
•  ... and friends of the deceased
• no matter what decision the deceased had made
• any uncertainty will halt the process.

 We arrive at the 30 minute point and the committee introduces the concept of "Trumping" into law, could this be a first for WAG, we have a law that seems to be designed to confuse, by the 43rd minute trumping becomes an established expression .....




Although this legislation manages "no change", having said that, if a convicted prisoner is moved to Cardiff Prison from Bristol (44 minutes into the recording), he becomes eligible for the virtual organ transplant programme, will the Secretary of State for Wales seek a judicial review to give prisoners a green exemption card, or will WAG use this perfectly useless legislation as a first step on the road to the separation of England and Wales criminal justice ?

Carwyn will ask Noddy (David Cameron) ...

... for permission to police Wales with ...

... no discernible idea as to how the peoples of Wales will benefit from another devolved power.

... further separation that cuts the ties Wales has with the UK by another notch.

And the reason Plaid ...

... decided to ditch their traditional support in favour of courting the Lefty vote of Wales ...

... the two colour map of Wales !

... the Grey of no overall control (dominated by dissent, disagreement and cultural dreams), and the unambiguous red of the Labour Party.

Plaid thinkers and policy makers believe the only way to power is via the valleys of the South, fortunately for political Wales Amazon is subverting nationalism, other casualties of this subversion include the high street and out of town shopping !

Is this an example of economics controlling politics ?

Adam Price, ...

... one-time politician, separatist, adviser [to Leanne Wood] who likes to talk a great deal, had much to say this Christmas.

... but when the blue smoke is driven away by the breath of sanity, and the Plaid mirrors covered with a cloth of reality, there is very little substance remaining.

It is where he is reported as saying :

"As a nation we lack self-confidence because of the weakness of our economic position."

... it begins to unravel, much like a woollen thread caught on a briar.

... the only lack of self-confidence is with our lack-lustre politicians.

... he continued :

"Nations that lack self-confidence do not tend to back independence."

... over optimism here, with only a few percentage of the population interested in separation he could have written :

"People who realise separatism only changes the face of government, do not tend to back independence."

Not content with boring the pants off readers who might stumble on his particular politics he goes further, presumably to send people to sleep :

Wales is the only one of them [ the regions of Catalonia, the Basque Country, Scotland and Flanders ] where independence isn’t realistically on the current agenda, for a combination of historical, economic and demographic reasons.

I'm afraid Mr Price needs a reality check, its not a combination of reasons we choose not to join the separatist movement, its straightforward, we feel more at home with Britain than a

 "Price-Wise Wales" !

The 3 C's, ...

... complain, challenge and Carwyn.

I should, as a taxpayer, complain about the monumental folly of  North Wales seabass,or more to the point, complain to the administrative party who were firmly in charge.

I should, as a taxpayer, challenge the current administration to publish the business plan and advice that has been used in the formulation of its plans to nationalise Cardiff Airport.

... and Carwyn might like to answer the complaint and challenge, he is, after all is said and done, the First Minister of our Welsh Assembly Government, who else should answer ....

.... or might I just lie back like the majority and let events fly over my head ?

Should the past be a burden to bear ...

... or should tomorrow be our only concern ?

Thursday last Wales Online letters to the Editor, a heartfelt submission...

The price of identity

SIR – Your report on the demise of the Welsh Language in the 2011 Census is alarming (“Language is in crisis, says Cymdeithas, as proportion of Welsh speakers falls to 19%”, Dec 12).

I was born and brought up in a Welsh speaking mining valley, couldn’t understand or speak a word of English before the London evacuees of 1940s arrived; and pretty soon we had converted them to Welsh Speakers.

Following the discovery of anthracite coal, migrants had arrived not only from many Welsh counties but from England, too, but the language sustained its position. Primary school was Welsh speaking – but as the “scholarship” paper was mostly English we had to learn it, and then all lessons (apart from Welsh!) were in English, but the language outside was Welsh.

Our forefathers built grammar schools to ensure their sons didn’t follow them down the pits, but when “children” qualified for universities, most couldn’t find professional posts in the country and had to migrate to the open arms of England. Most never to return to Wales, their parents’ homes sold – very often to migrating English.

The age of the chapels’ domination is also history; before television, the car, and Sunday opening, it was colleges, religion, entertainment, where poorly educated older people gained knowledge and language from the pulpit, Sunday School, choir singing and all in the one language Welsh.

Apart from The Western Mail, Wales on Sunday, local papers and Y Cymro, the English media really ignores Wales. The constant drip-dripping of their editions is Anglo influential as is television: Coronation Street, Emmerdale, drown out Pobol y Cwm. Similarly the English radio programmes Radio Cymru, their prolific influences controlling to a large degree an Anglicisation of news and events leaving Wales to a great measure in a poverty of Welsh/Celtic aspiration retaining it in talk and thinking and behaviour and we’re too idle to realise how our thinking to a large extent is accustomed to an Anglian perspective.

Until we awake to change and revival, this power will continue to influence our non Welsh thinking.

Destroy one’s culture and language and you destroy a nation’s pride. Too often, sadly, one doesn’t realise the value of something until it’s lost. One’s language is part of one’s culture. Lose that and how do you know who you are! You don’t destroy a nation’s pride!

The price of identity is eternal vigilance. The same must apply to one’s literature. To honour this one must understand this: Silences are the allies of enemies, detrimental to democracy.

The past can be a heavy burden to be sure, but it is heaviest of all when hindsight told you what had to be done and you did nothing.

ADRIEN JONES of Llandeilo,  Carmarthenshire

The writer pens with a certain passion, a passion that holds dear his need to protect the Welsh language, he also assigns language to culture, an integral part indeed, and finally tells the readers of Wales Online that the culture that is Wales is dependent on the Welsh language for its very survival.

I'm certain he is not correct, Wales is as multi-faceted as the UK as a whole, as diverse as the USA, we have a multitude of nationalities settled in Wales, even youth culture is an illusion with so many subcultures.

Culture has been displaced by society, and the question Adrien of Llandeilo should ask is "can his passion ever be embraced by the majority of society that have rejected the language"?

There is a company in North Wales, The Snowdonia Cheese Company, that fills a niche in the cheese habits of the UK, this is the future of Wales, doing business with the world in a language shared by the world ... there is only English writing on this particular wall ....

If it's and but's were candy and nuts ...

... we'd all have a merry christmas !

In Wales, it seems that a handful of people, a few hundred at most, will dictate that for every 100 people 19 will receive positive discrimination, a positive discrimination that will disadvantage the other 81 people, these few hundred people will dictate a particular evolution for society in Wales, the majority who look for employment in the public sector will be required to comply with a simple diktat, comply or accept 2nd class citizenship or move to England ..............

... and this diktat is :

... become fluent in the Welsh language, in the face of linguistic evolution that is marginalising the language year on year.

It doesn't matter to the "old elites" of Wales that an overwhelming majority live their lives without the Welsh language.

It doesn't matter to the "old elites" of Wales that an overwhelming majority are indifferent  to the Welsh language.

It doesn't matter to the "old elites" of Wales that an overwhelming majority prefer Hollywood to the Welsh language television.

It doesn't matter to the "old elites" of Wales that an overwhelming majority do business without the Welsh language on the international stage.

... I prefer a free society, it doesn't have to be pretty, I prefer it to be multicultural mess reflecting the reality of society in the 21st century.

So it might be time to say "No More" to the re-inventors of a Wales that died a century or more ago, did it ever exist I wonder ?

So it might be time to send a message that we favour "more freedom and less government"...

to experience the hideous vision of Wales read the Welsh language group's 'manifesto' call after census

... there is little freedom and much more government accompanying the proposals, a charter for a dictatorship of "old elites", for an example of reality try the link to NY, this is probably the way Welsh will go, time to create a mausoleum for the scholars of the future, then there is Manchester.....

... are our children disadvantaged by Welsh ?

A letter in today's Western Mail raises issues that need to be addressed ....

Foreign languages suffer from Welsh

 SIR – I was dismayed by the letter from Mererid Morgan of the WJEC (“Languages are a skill our jobseekers need”, Nov 7). I am astonished that this year only 25% of Welsh GCSE pupils entered a modern foreign language. In 2004 Estyn made a study of GCSE uptake in Welsh schools: the study found that GCSE entry by 15-year-olds had fallen from 45% in 1997 to 34% in 2003. Estyn also found that uptake was lower in Welsh Medium and  bilingual schools; 35% in EM schools and 30% in WM schools. In 2007 the Welsh Department of Education made a further study of Modern Foreign Language uptake; by this time only 28% of 15-year-olds entered a modern foreign language at GCSE and only 21 of those passed at A*-C. England at the same time entered 46% with 31% gaining A*-C. In England 40% of pupils took GCSE in a modern foreign language this year but the recent introduction of the “English Baccalaureate” has resulted in an increase in year 10 pupils taking languages. At advanced level Wales lags behind England in the main languages with 32% of English students gaining A*-A and Wales having 23% of students with an A*-A pass. Mererid Morgan is mistaken in thinking that bilingual Wales has an advantage in foreign language teaching, on the contrary, we have replaced foreign language study with compulsory Welsh lessons in all schools.In every survey of parents a majority say that they are against compulsory Welsh lessons and now even Simon Thomas AM for Plaid Cymru is questioning the utility of compulsory Welsh. Leighton Andrews needs to ask whether Wales is well served when we produce a workforce unable to communicate with the world outside Wales.  J.Jones, Ynys Mon.

WM link

So, could our children be disadvantaged by the teaching of Welsh !

... take note, the word of the future is "union", so said ...

... the president of the European council,

... who has intervened in the Scottish independence debate, claiming that nothing will be gained from breaking up the UK. Herman Van Rompuy, who would chair meetings to discuss if an independent Scotland could join the EU, said the move for separatism was a thing of the past.

Van Rompuy, who will still be president of the council in 2014, when the independence referendum is due to take place, was asked his views on Scottish independence during a recent Q&A session broadcast on YouTube. "Nobody has anything to gain from separatism in the world of today which, whether one likes it or not, is globalised," he said. "We have so many important challenges to take and we will only succeed if we can pool forces, join action, take common directions. The global financial crisis is hitting us hard. Climate change is threatening the planet. How can separatism help? The word of the future is union."

A source close to the president said Van Rompuy would not be campaigning against Scottish independence. "The president would never involve himself in a national dispute. However, Scotland will need to reapply for EU membership and he could chair the meetings where that is discussed," he said. Van Rompuy's term will finish at the end of 2014.

"I can imagine some nations would make that a difficult meeting – Spain, Cyprus and Belgium. His own view is that separatism is as described on that video. He voted, for example, in favour of devolution in Belgium, but not independence for Flanders."

The comments will be a blow to Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, and emerge after the UK government reiterated that an independent Scotland would have to apply to the EU to become a new member state.

Salmond has claimed that Scotland would not have to leave the EU and even erroneously claimed to have had EU legal advice on the issue. However, it has since emerged that no such advice had been sought and a former Whitehall mandarin has been asked to conduct an independent inquiry into whether Salmond misled Holyrood and so breached the ministerial code.

The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, entered the fray last week to declare that Salmond's statements on Scotland getting automatic membership of the EU "has no basis in fact".

Clegg said Scottish nationalists "don't want to face what might happen to Scotland's influence on fishing quotas or agricultural policy or the regulation of the banks. They don't want reality to bite. So they've gone into denial, preferring political assertion to legal advice."

Former foreign secretary David Miliband has dismissed SNP claims that an independent Scotland would automatically join the EU as "fantasy island". On a visit to Scotland, Miliband said leaving the UK would leave an independent Scotland "in limbo in Europe".

He claimed there would have to be "detailed and forensic negotiations" between all the current member states before Scotland could be admitted, adding that the addition of a new nation would affect the relative wealth of all other EU countries.

He also said it would have an impact on the voting weight for each country in terms of the relative influence of their MEPs – factors that would have to be reflected by an adjustment of EU rules.

"The final part is that you have to get agreement of all 27 countries, soon to be 28, of all ministers, and then it has to be ratified by each country," said Miliband. "France has said that any enlargement of the EU will require a referendum in France." (Source The Observer 4 Nov 2011.)

To the SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party and its by-blow Plaid Cymru), Herman Achille Van Rompuy has given a profound judgement on the separatist agenda (Salmond and chums), Europe doesn't want separatism in its march towards a united Europe ...