The folks who live on the Hill

The folks who live on the hill

The only people who visit now are the Jehova's Witnesses

Cymdogaeth?

"Never eard of it mun,

Is that near Aberystwyth"?

This village has always been this way

strip town on the way to nowhere

retirees in white bungalows with private gardens

He shouts at her because he can't hear

She communicates with him through a plastic toy microphone because the NHS standard hearing aid is shit and whistles all the time.

The GP cannot find anything wrong.

neighbours?

live away, too young, families, busy

Hen Bobol? Ych a fi!

time to tread water

The folks who live on the hill watch

Pobol y Cwm 

and rely on their mentally ill son.

Cardiff?

That's a long, long way away.

Is, Was, Now & Ever More shall be!

Recent Sad News Literature Wales is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of three Fellows of the Welsh Academy, John Davies, Meredydd Evans and John Rowlands. Dr John Davies (1938 - 2015) Dr John Davies was an eminent Welsh historian, academic and writer. John is the author of Hanes Cymru (A History of Wales), one of the most comprehensive and important works on Welsh history. He was co-editor of The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. To read a tribute to John Davies by Lleucu Siencyn, Chief Executive of Literature Wales, click here.  Dr Meredydd Evans (1919 - 2015) Dr Meredydd Evans was an academic, campaigner, composer, performer and an expert on the history of Welsh-language folk singing. He was the head of BBC Wales light entertainment for ten years during the 1960s and 1970s, and was a prominent figure in Welsh culture.  Professor John Rowlands (1938 - 2015) John Rowalnds was a writer, lecturer and literary critic. He was a Professor of Welsh Literature at the University of Wales Aberystwyth until his retirement in 2003. He greatly influenced many of Wales’ contemporary writers. He was co-editor of Taliesin magazine with Gerwyn Williams during the 1990s.  We extend our sympathy to the families of John Davies, Meredydd Evans and John Rowlands. Interesting to me, that the above 3 'Greats' of Welsh Cultural Life are referred to as 'was' as if their lives and achievements are in the past tense. They may no longer exist in the physical realm but their legacies live on in the present.

This too shall pass

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!

Stand down, stand easy! Dear West, you now need to keep a low profile. Britain does not rule the waves. The Empire is over. The American Empire is slowly imploding from within. We in the West have had our two centuries. Call it 1800 to 2000. Don't be greedy! A war of attrition with Putin is not an option. We have to change our culture! We need to find a way to regain our self respect as a people, one based on co-operation and not on competition.  Greece could be our guiding light.  A group of left wing organisations coming together to create a large block and now negotiating with Europe/The West. Putin is a strategist, he is a chess player.   Obama is on a hiding to nothing with the Jewish Cabal and the Republican Party pulling the strings. Why do I care? Well I'm out of work. We all know, unless we are incredibly stupid that we are on the cusp of something major in world affairs. A major shift that will involve ISIL and Russia or a combination of both. The attacks in Paris and Copenhagen have hit at the heart of Europe. What we saw as free speech, 'they' saw as a hate crime. British Values needs to be re defined because British values for the Upper Middle Class and the Prime Minister are very different to those at the bottom. We will not be united and 'they' know that, the eponymous terrorist who are only standing up for their values. A critical mass of people are now alienated and have nothing left to lose, it just so happens that they live in the Middle East. If 'they' stop the beheading and the 'barbarism' would America and Europe consider negotiating with the Islamic Caliphate or are they intent on a scorched earth policy. That didn't work too well in Vietnam if I remember rightly. I think we in the West have to stop thinking that we are right all the time. A little bit of humility and diplomacy would not go amiss instead of the saber rattling. Talking of rattling, Putin has got us rattled and he knows it. The Islamic State has got us rattled and they know it. The Ebola Virus has got us rattled and it knows it. The people who don't know that we are rattled are us ourselves. We just keep on keeping on! Instead of having a referendum on pulling out of Europe, instead of having a General Election, we need to consult with each other on our fears, our goals and our motivations and if those are out of step with everybody else then we have to modify them for the common good instead of this blind acquisitiveness. I don't think we can keep on keeping on unless you take everyone with you and that is what is meant to happen in a democracy but democracy for those in the West minster bubble is a General Election. That isn't democracy in my book! Voting in the best of a bad bunch. There is too much at stake at the moment to vote incompetents in. Here endeth the lesson. 

You Wear it Well

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-31486442

You wear it well

Your mask of normality & respectability

"We did it in the name of Science"

Your name?

Victor Frankenstein

authorised by the University

"My students must come first, you understand, before the needs and feelings of the 'patients, the clients, them, the other"

We understand perfectly Herr Doktor

May we ask "Did you watch too much Dr Who as a child?

Have you ever seen 'a patient' that actually looks like 'them'?"

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the same must be said for ugly.

You see us as ugly Herr Doktor?

Human Beings displaying 'natural' human emotions like sadness and grief and non-conformity are medicalised, chemically coshed and now forced to wear a mask!!!

Whatever next?

You'll be telling us that you know best!

These Boots were made for Walking

Cerdded ar ôl Deuddeg

My House, the Coffin

My house is a coffin shaped house

It's a Mausoleum

Oh, here he goes again, moping, feeling sorry for himself

Do you know how many people haven't got their own homes?

People would kill for a coffin shaped house like yours.

Well kill me then

cos

I don't want to live in my coffin shaped house no more

in a dead end street

in a working class area.

Treading water

Learned Helplessness

I return every day after being out

I always return

One day I never want to return to a coffin shaped house 

in a dead end street

in a working class area

but I can't escape

because I've got no job

cos 

I've got an history of Mental Health

that goes along with me.

It's my shadow

Screw down the lid,

lock the front door.

Auction this house

so that the poor 

can be beaten

by a property developer 

to the bargain of the century.

Bad Name

Some Men give All Men a Bad Name

Some Women give All Women a Bad Name

Some Muslims give Islam a Bad Name

Some Christians give Forgiveness a Bad Name

Some Politicians give Honesty a Bad Name

Some Bankers give Money a Bad Name

Some Bad Names are not All Bad

All Old people don't complain, just Some 

Some young people are not All young people 

They may appear all the same but they are not all the same

It is your mind playing tricks on you

or rather the television set flickering its sick.

It is your All or Nothing thinking,

Your Confirmatory Bias.

Wouldn't life be so straightforward

if it was all or nothing!

Please Embrace

Your wider shade of

Grey

Hitler navigates the A487 from Aberaeron to Aberystwyth

Wales v England

In 1977 I went with my old man to see Wales v England at the Cardiff Arms Park when a rugby stadium was a rugby stadium not that Millennium monstrosity, that cold, concreted, unwelcoming carbuncle in the middle of town. When everyone else will be rubbing red roses on the three white feathers I will be in hiding. Long gone are the days when I care what happens at this game. It used to be the game, as Kelly Jones of the Stereophonics sang "As long as we beat the English, we don't care". This might come as quite a shock to some, as one who writes loosely about Wales in this blog but I like England. 
Pardon? 
I like England! Dwi'n hoffi Lloegr! I like the English side of Offa's Dyke, Hereford and Shrewsbury, Shropshire is luverly. I like London, that's England isn't it? London is exciting. Liverpool and Manchester are interesting places to be. Wales is dull, dull as dishwater, everything is slow here, there is no sense of urgency. Born here, live here, die here! Only individuals and mavericks travel and stay away. Perhaps it is a matter of familiarity breeds contempt, Wales is so familiar, that I have become contemptuous of it and it of me. Bristol is nice, It has gravitas! It is so nice that Cardiff and Newport want to become part of it. The great Western Conurbation. I think if this happens, then Wales will have to let Cardiff go. We're going to have to have another Capital City because Wales is a wasteland in comparison to Cardiff. Cardiff is the Gold standard for Welsh towns and nowhere comes near but if economists and business bods want to cosy up to Bristol what happens to the rest of Wales then? Does it become poorer? What about the white elephant down the bay? The National Assembly with it's tin pot, trumped up, party political poseurs pontificating on £60,000 a year. This forthcoming General Election is not eagerly anticipated because people are more concerned with what is going on in the Middle East and West Africa. Our own political popinjays can take a running jump in comparison with these pressing global issues. Good old 'Bread & Circus' on Friday will anaesthetise us for another year. Roll on Saturday.