where are the cow-pies of yester-year....?

Y Sessiwn Fawr

2004-07-17T08:32:00.000+07:00

We're a funny people, we Welsh. A Rock Concert in a small town in north Wales, called Dolgellau, stair-rod rain as per usual; a few thousand people in the audience having partaken of various forms of recreational aides - liquid and tablet.

On stage, the headline act.....Cerys Matthews, ex-Catatonia, now in acoustic and maternal mode, but still with that unique, child-like quality to her voice. She 'WOWS' the crowd....finishes her set, but is called back....does two more numbers - one a traditional Welsh folk song set in the locality.....the other? A Welsh hymn...the crowd join in....harmonising as the Welsh do, and the gig becomes a Cymanfa Ganu!! Could only happen in Wales.

Roots.

2004-07-15T06:36:00.000+07:00

I've mentioned before, I think, that I'm originally from Mid-Wales which is a deeply rural part of the country....it is a part of the world in which, even today, a life style that I love and envy continues to be the order of the day. Next week, the annual celebration of that lifestyle takes place with the holding of the Welsh National Show, and I've booked a day's holiday.....and all being well, I'm going. This year it is the hundredth anniversary of the Show, so it'll be quite an event...these days it is held on a permanent ground show, with wonderful facilities, but for most of its early existence it was peripatetic, travelling from North Wales to the South in alternate years. I remember two - the one in my home town of Machynlleth which was blighted by the wettest period of weather imaginable, even for that part of the country.....that was in 1954. I also remember being inspected as a member of the Red Cross, by Princess Alexandra at the Show in Aberystwyth, again in the 50's.

Usually I attend on a Wednesday, which is the day on which the Welsh Cobs are shown.....invariably, I shed a tear at the magnificent presence of these creatures, which every year seem to have such a rapport with the gathered enthusiasts....and appear to put on a special show for them. Unfortunately, I can't go on the Wednesday this year and intend going on the Monday, and so I shall catch the Shire Horses....another magnificent spectacle.

I'm not really a 'horsey' person, by the way....I prefer dogs - but it is impossible not to be in awe of both the Cobs and the Shires .......and the former are very much the "galacticos" of the Show, even to the uncommitted watcher. I remember, again in Machynlleth, a local breeder winning the Section D (Cob Stallion) class, and most of the town turned out to meet him when he returned home.

In similar vein and of similar vintage, although I cannot remember being involved, my parents used to tell me of the town turning out 'en masse' in the early hours of the Sunday morning,following the Saturday of the National Eisteddfod, when it was being held in North Wales. The reason for this annual nocturnal practice?....it could only happen in Wales!! The National Eisteddfod is the cultural equivalent of the Welsh Show and is held in the first week of August....it continues to be to this day, a peripatetic festival, and in the 50's started on Monday and finished the following Saturday. The last competition on the Saturday was the Chief Male Voice Competition and most of the premiere choirs were from South Wales....they used to travel up on the Saturday, book a Chapel vestry in Machynlleth for a last rehearsal and continue their journey. These were the days when Treorci, Pendyrus, Morriston Orpheus and Pontarddulais used to compete and on the way home to the South, the victorious choir would stop in Machynlleth by the Town Clock in the centre of the Town, where the crowd would be waiting for them, and they would give an impromptu concert. Nowadays, alas, only Pontarddulais occasionally compete......

Anyhow...news of my visit to the Show, next week.

An eerie sky

2004-07-08T06:15:00.000+07:00

There was something strange about the sky tonight....about 2130 hours, it was getting dark...... but there was a rainbow high in the sky and in the west there was the most evil, lowering, smouldering sky that I have ever seen. It was the sort of vista that gets you running about shouting DOOM.......still, three hours later and we're still here.

Talking of doom and portents of disaster.....................

Tony Blair has said that climate change is the greatest single threat at the present time....I suspect that this is one he's got right. In order to address the problem he is considering the nuclear option, and is being encouraged in this by the USA - for those of you of a nervous disposition (most of us I imagine, when Good Ol' George and Tony get together!!) - I don't think they're going to save time and nuke the world. No, he's reconsidering nuclear enegy...this'll take around 10 to 15 years to come on stream and leaves the problem of storage, security and disposal of the resultant nuclear waste to succeeding generations.....the end of the world is not now 'nigh'.....it's a couple of weeks later.

And so to bed.....

Nos Da.

Simple Pleasure........

2004-07-07T06:19:00.000+07:00

.....took Del for a walk on the fields this evening.....the horse population is corralled in another field, so there are a couple of fields available to saunter in. The horses are quite friendly but Del is a sheepdog......her mission in life is to round up everything that moves, so I try to keep them apart. After a good chase around I sat underneath an old oak tree and just enjoyed the stillness, whilst she who had been doing the chasing around, sulked.

It was a glorious evening and although I do not live in the back of beyond it was a glorious rural experience - no noise intrusion, no traffic...no people. One of these days, when my ship comes in, I'm off home, I think, halfway up a mountain in mid-Wales.

Is it because I'm getting older that I feel that there are more negative developments in the world than positive ones - why does the population of Britain need an additional 150,000 4 X 4 vehicles during the last year.....why do we need an additional motorway between Manchester and Birmingham....why do we need 4 more houses in the village - the plots sold for between £75k and £100k - when there are already houses and bungalows for sale. The hidden cost of this particular development is the felling of some 12 mature oak trees.

I accept that progress is inevitable and people's aspirations have to be met. As a species, humanity has an innate drive to better itself, but why must this be at such cost to the environment and other species which cohabit this earth with us? Is it because we can? Some day we shall have a rude awakening......unless before that time somebody does something.

Perhaps, in these days of globalisation what is required is a global revolution, which will bring those national governments and those companies which ignore the plight of the world to their knees...in which position they might see the light. I am not suggesting a 'bloody' global war but rather a war that uses the technologies that facilitate the "bandit" nations and companies of this new century.

I've gone off on one again, haven't I.......sorry.

So....the end is in sight!!

2004-07-04T19:57:00.000+07:00

Is globalisation here to stay? Is this the final stage of capitalist development....world markets with a globally exploited workforce and ruthlessly exploited natural resources. The lessons of history would suggest that this is not the case....capitalism is an arch-innovator and will move on when the benefits of the current means of production have outlived their usefulness. Unless......

N, a friend of mine, believes that within globalisation are the seeds of its own destruction....however, I do not agree with her. She sees war as an inevitable conclusion of companies and nations competing for reducing reources, and global unrest as the exploited are unable to afford the products that they produce for their masters.

I cannot accept this standpoint, as the conditions described above have existed for centuries, albeit in the context of individual nations as opposed to a unified global state. There was an alternative from the middle of the nineteenth century and this alternative was Marxism.......however, the allegedly mightiest protagonist of this alternative, the Soviet Union, abandoned it in 1991 and has embraced capitalism to a significant extent. Currently, the only two Marxist (used loosely) states are China and Cuba. The former seems to pay lip service only, and all the signs are that it also is well on the way to becoming a devotee of the capitalist way.......Cuba remains loyal but does not, and is unlikely to, have a global impact....particularly as it is situated in the arch-fiend's backyard.

Marxism therefore is dead as an alternative to globalised capitalism. This I find strange, because it is based on a dynamic philosophical idea - the dialectic - and should not be rooted in a particular time or set of circumstances. It should be able to find a new synthesis for its current challenges....to my knowledge it has not.

The challenge for Marxists today is to modernise The Communist Manifesto, so that it can again challenge the established order, and bring hope to those who currently do no more than hold their begging bowls at the table of the rich.

The problems are the same...the shackles have still to be loosed....it is the methodology of achieving our aims that have to be different.

In the global economy, the clarion call "Workers of the World unite..." is even more appropriate.

Eagles, Owls and Nightingales

2004-06-27T19:00:00.000+07:00

I've never seen an Eagle, nor heard a Nightingale......but I've marvelled at the buoyant freedom of our native Red Kite as it glides, soars and generally indulges itself in its unfettered freedom of the sky above the Welsh mountainsides. I've stared, through binoculars, at an unblinking Owl that is staring at me......and been under its spell, until suddenly, silently and inevitably, Death came to a smaller and more palatable victim: and I've realised the Owl was not really considering me at all. And as dusk approaches and I'm walking my dog for the last time that day.....I've been forced to stop by the Last Post of a blackbird, mellifluously bugling its gratitude for another day...and I could only whisper an Amen to that.

How many future generations will enjoy similar sights and sounds?

I was born and raised in the countryside and didn't really notice the wonder around me because it was always there.....I know that even in my part of Mid-Wales that things have altered a great deal by now.

I'm not even talking about the changes in the climate or in agricultural practices but rather the change in people's attitude. Since the beginning of time, what has happened in the natural world - the changing of the seasons - has been important to humanity. Now it appears that these changes and the seasons themselves are being superceded by new ones created by man, very frequently the product of consumerism.

Try these - Christmas - the time for spending really heavily on impractical and under-used gifts; April/May - the time for spending really heavily on non-native plants and never used gardening implements; July/August - the time to spend on holidays in exotic locations and doing, in most cases, precisely what you would have done at home....except that you can't really call it home, because you know nothing about it anyhow; October/November - possibly a second holiday period and a getting ready for Christmas period/certainly a moaning period - it's so dark and there's nothing on TV!!

And all the time the Red Kite soars, the Owl stares unblinkingly and the Blackbird is grateful for each day.

I've written a letter to The Guardian.

2004-06-26T19:22:00.000+07:00

Broken a habit of a lifetime in doing so...read plenty of articles which have made me think about doing so, but a recent article on the G's back page actually forced me over the edge!

The article noted that a Russian businessman who runs a tour company called Dula is going to exploit the Gulag and make it into a tourist destination....move over Disneyland.

I wonder if Vladimir Demidov is going to transport them in the same jolly manner as Stalin used to......great way of getting to know your fellow tourists.....packed into cattle waggons!!

A significant proportion of the Russian population are either unaware or choose to ignore what happened in the Gulag, and have never had to confront the inhumanity of what was done, in their name, by the Soviet regime - unlike the people of Germany, who have had to live with Hitler's atrocities over the past 60 years.....and now this idiot is going to trivialise their suffering and sacrifice.

I despair of Russia these days.....Mother Russia must weep for the lost soul of her country.

I'll be better tomorrow.

This Post has No Title

2004-06-24T06:33:00.001+07:00

Why not? quoth Jerome...are you trying to be mysterious? a la Captain Nemo; Mr X; Lobby Lud or The Man With No Name.

No, says I....It's just I can't think of one, and anyway I want to ramble.

Lobby Lud, now there's a name that brings back memories.....The News Chronicle, I think; he used to visit seaside resorts with a rolled up copy under his arm, and you received a reward if you identified him and used a correct form of words to him. I hate to think what mayhem a similar scheme would give rise to today, particularly if it was the Sun, and a case of mistaken identity......I had an instance of mistaken identity once, I was home on my Christmas vac from uni. At the time I was in WH Smith and had a roll of wrapping paper in my hand.......I thought I recognised the rear end of a female school friend bending over a book stand and duly whacked the said rear end. It transpired that it was a rear end that I had no knowledge of...in the nicest possible way.....and its owner was quite sweet about everything really....embarrassing or what?

The News Chronicle was a good Liberal newspaper and was the paper that my family took being a good non-Conformist, Welsh, rural family - it was never the same when the Daily Mail acquired it. I would imagine that its old proprietors must be spinning very rapidly in their respective graves when they see the political views that are now associated with it. When I left home, I took the Guardian....yes I could identify with its political views, but I also enjoyed the Crosswords - except for Bunthorne.

Talking of Crosswords, when I was at Aber, the Hall of Residence that I was in took a variety of newspapers in the Common Room. One of the guys used to hog the Times, each day and regularly complete it in about 15 minutes. This occurred each day until one morning when it was snaffled by one of the boys who had never been seen to read anything at all, unless it had pictures in it, and he was doing the Crossword. After about 5 minutes, he ever so languidly put it down, and left the Common Room. At that time we were amazed and astounded....now we would be gob-smacked....until we actually looked at the solutions he had provided - they bore no relation at all to the clues, and were merely words that fitted the available spaces.

The moral of this story? Always make sure the questions are answered and it's not a case of filling in the appropriate space.

Nos Da

Stop the Treadmill - I need to get back on.

2004-06-21T06:19:00.000+07:00

Just coming to an end of two days off.........I'm completely relaxed, but, alas, no nearer to finishing the greatest novel yet written in the English language.

It's been a good couple of days.......I should have attacked the lawns, but I didn't - the grass is not yet high enough to present a sufficient challenge, well that's my story anyway.

Finished Laurence van der Post's 'Journey into Russia' which was interesting - it was written in the Khruschev era, but could equally have been written in the Tsarist or Stalin eras; or now, in the time of Putin. Nothing seems to change a great deal in the way that Russia is ruled....the big central theme is that it is absolutely necessary to have strong leadership. From my interpretation of Russia history there appears to have been no development towards a popular democracy (in the western sense) over the millenium of Russia's existence - the only flirtation with such a system, being between 1907 and 1917.

My next book is the autobiography of Osip Mandelstam, by his wife Nadezhda - he is acknowledged as one of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century, who fell foul of Russia's greatest, self-appointed, literary critic - Stalin.

I have been a Russophile for many years, and although I fear for the country, and despite an unhappy marriage to a Russian....I shall continue to be one, for I love its variety. its literature and music, and the vastness of it all, where a Siberian city of three million people, like Novosibirsk, is but a village by the River Ob.

Nos Da

I wish I could remember Passwords

2004-06-19T06:53:00.000+07:00

I've forgotten another one....hence a new blog site.

How many times have I cursed customers for being unable to access the Internet/e-mail because they haven't noted their uids and password.....

This blog is called more conversations with Jerome because I can't get in to continue with conversations with Jerome, not that Jerome cares a monkeys....he doesn't exist, well he does - but only in my mind, I think. I think, therefore he is....anybody can be really. Please stay awake at the back there.

J was well impressed today....I wore a suit to work - first time in over four years......I was quite impressed that I actually managed to get into it.

It all has to do with the fact that the Call Centre that I work at has been outsourced, and there are rumours of a dress code....well I don't want to have to ring in and report that I'm not going to be coming to work because I haven't a thing to wear, do I.....so I had a dry run today. It felt OK. I feel good about the outsourcing as well - we're a technical support centre for Broadband Internet and we're going to an IT company which is very big...globally big. Dibble is unhappy because he thinks the company concerned had something to do with Adolf's extermination camps, and as such is not an ethical company.Dibble is built like a very substantial brick shithouse...he may well come from a long line of blacksmiths.....his forbears in fact could be the ones who sharpened the swords of the English, when they indulged in Welsh-slaying, centuries ago - but I don't think Dibble is unethical. By the way D is a real person...he doesn't exist in my mind: I am broad -minded but there are limits. Getting back to the outsourcing...I honestly think it represents an opportunity for the techie guys to progress, and to be understood and to be appreciated.

Change, however, in most cases is never welcomed with completely open arms.....some of the guys at work if left alone would probably have remained in the womb.

I've got to go to do my shopping now....there's more, but it'll have to wait....Jerome wants more about the Marxist take on globalisation (especially for N)....I'll tell you about my Team at work....oh, there's lots more, as long as I don;t forget my password!!