Saturday, 4th July, 2009.
July 4th, 2009Wales And The World
Suddenly – or so it seems – the land of Wales is being noticed throughout the world.
This week, the Pontcysyllte aqueduct was declared a World Heritage Site, which puts it into the same category as Stonehenge and the Taj Mahal.
It will bring tourists to our land, and give the world a greater appreciation of our nation. I’m pretty sure that Thomas Telford and his pal William Jessop had no idea what their construction would do for Wales two hundred years on! But thanks, lads!
Also this week, Wales and its culture has been at the forefront of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC. In a Radio Wales news report, some of our cousins in the States told of their Welsh roots. Welsh people settled in great numbers in places like Ohio, for instance - even though Welsh emigrations are hardly known compared with those of the Irish and Scots.
Of course, all of those mass emigrations were made by economic migrants. But, though there are Scottish and Irish celebrations all over the States every year, there seem to be no Welsh ones. The question must be asked – “Why?”
Even Mother England Notices
On BBC Radio 4 the other evening, our own Sian Pari Huws, an excellent broadcaster, presented a programme about Rhayader, Powys.
If you’ve never been there, it’s a lovely place to visit: one of those warm, cheery, walk-round-in-half-an-hour little towns of which we in Wales are proud.
Sian discovered that Rhayader has lots of charitable people who volunteer to help out many good causes. To present such a programme to the entire population of these Isles on a radio station based firmly in London must have educated folk to the fact that Wales still has that elusive quality “community”.
Well done, Sian; and well done BBC!
Democracy And Open Government
Our Senedd has published, online and for all to see, the expenses claimed by our AMs. I have checked the claims of my local AM, and they seem to be on the modest side.
But you need to check your own AM’s expenses! We must keep an eye on our elected representatives in Cardiff Bay, and ensure they don’t end up in a cheating fiasco like the Westminster crew. So have a look at http://www.assemblywales.org/allowances
Great Joy!
This very week, we celebrated – and how! – the fortieth anniversary of the investiture of Charles Windsor as “Prince of Wales”. Street-parties abounded, there were festivals all over Wales, and thousands of our people sent congratulatory greetings to Charles on his wonderful achievement all those years ago . . .
Er . . . hang on . . . sorry – I dozed off while watching film clips of the investiture. Had the Media not mentioned the anniversary, I reckon very few of us would have noticed it.
Indeed, I have never met anyone who lived in Wales at that time who voted for Charles to be their Prince. Such is the nature of democracy, I suppose!
The clips showed his Mam wearing a funny hat, him wearing a crown, and both of them using an outdated and strange form of the English language. The ceremony was then, and is now, an outdated form of whatever it is a form of.
We in Wales would like to choose our own leaders, thank you very much. All Charles Windsor did to get the job was to be born.
Archie Lowe