49 years ago a on Friday October 21, 1966 , approx 9.16 a.m shortly after school assembly many tons of collier rubbish (slag heaps) swept down the sides of a Merthyr Mountain above the town of Aberfan after several days of heavy rain, Liquified and pouring down this black tidal wave would engulf everything in its path in this catastrophic tragedy.
Following Monday's post about Tryweryn, another tragic memory from Wales's turbulent living history.
Aberfan was to many a result of a conflict of financial interests, which would see the death of 144 people, including a 116 innocent children, many of whom were between the age of seven and ten along with, five of their teachers, in what is now known today as one of one of Wales worst mining disasters in it's history, not forgetting Senghennydd which I've written about previously when in 1913 over 400 were killed.
By the time the landslide stopped, it had demolished Pantglaas Junior School and 20 houses, severely damaging the Secondary School.
The sores and wounds of this disaster are now forever stored in the memories and feelings of the people of Wales because of the whole collective loss of a generation that was wiped out. So today again we try not to forget the children and adults who died, this human tragedy, that many say could easily have been prevented. The National Coal Board (NCB) were repeatedly warned to move the slag heaps to a safer location, because they were also close to natural underwater springs. Did the NCB have the decency to acknowledge their blame, to bow their head in shame, like hell no, but we were to learn sadly far too late that the NCB was ostensibly a capitalist organisation more concerned with profit than lives. A report by the government at the time said " Blame for the disaster rests upon the National Coal Board. The legal liabilities of the National Coal Board to pay compensation for the personal injury ( fatal or otherwise) and damage to property is incontestable and uncontested." The Government of the day was also extremely insensitive to the victims families, and people whould have to wait for years, for compensation.
So today we remember the people of Aberfan, a community that still profoundly affected by this disaster, one in three survivors still suffering from Post traumatic stress, nearly 50 years after this tragic event took place. People felt guilty that they were left alive, they did not feel like survivors, cases of children not being allowed to play in the street, in case it upset other parents.
Let us hope that lessons learnt from this incident can be learnt for tomorrow, and remember that this bitter legacy still continues, what with continuing social and economic problems in the South Wales valleys still being wrought because of successive governments who have made lives a continuing source of discomfort. Combined with the failure of responsibility by the relevant authorities and the appalling behaviour of some parties in the aftermath of the disaster.
Today, however there is very little to remind visitors of this tragic path, just an abstract memorial garden in the village and the childrens section in the graveyard.
Repost of this song PJ Harvey released this powerful song in 2013, to highlight the ongoing detention of last British resident held inside the US prison at Guantanamo Bay. Harvey recorded the track to help maintain pressure to help Shaker, whose family live in South London, to be released back to to Britain. Saturday 24 October will be Shakers 5,000th day in Guantanamo. First sent to the notorious camp in 2002, but subsequently cleared for release in 2007, proving that the US authorities had no intention of bringing him to trial for the last 7 years or so. This Friday will mark the end of the 30 day notice period to the US Congress that he is to be released and returned to his home , here in the UK. On the following day Sunday 25th October, Shaker should be free and on his way home. The US must keep their promise to Shaker and the world, a man who has endured all these years with much dignity and fortitude, 13 years imprisoned without any charge or trial, 13 years without ever getting to see his son. At present he is on hunger strike in protest at his continual detention and the appalling conditions in which he and his fellow detainees are held. In retaliation, he has been beaten, confined to a tiny cell and forced to spend long periods in solitary confinement. Many of his supporters are now also fasting for 24 hours in solidarity with him. Shaker must be freed and get the justice he deserves and the much needed treatment for his failing health,riddled with arthritis, combined with other medical problems, that no man should ever have to put up with. There should be no further delay to this injustice, time to bring Shaker home immediately. His eventual release will be a source of comfort and joy to the many people who have campaigned so hard for this moment to take place. There will be a protest outside Downing Street this coming Saturday 2-4 to highlight Shaker's case one more time. Shaker Aamer No water for three days I cannot sleep, or stay awake. Four months hunger strike. Am I dead, or am I alive? With metal tubes we are force fed. I honestly wish I was dead. Strapped in the restraining chair. Shaker Aamer, your friend. In Camp 5, eleven years Never charged. Six years cleared. They took away my one note pad, and then refused to give it back. I can't think straight, I write, then stop. Your friend Shaker Aamer. Lost. The guards just do what they're told, the doctors just do what they're told. Like an old car I'm rusting away. Your friend, Shaker. Guantanamo Bay Don't forget - PJ Harvey 2013
Michael McClure, the fantastic poet playwright turns 83 today, so hats of. Best known for his participation in San Francisco famous Six Gallery Poetry reading where Allen Ginsberg first publicly read Howl and his friendship with the band The Doors, he was to become a prominent figure in the Beat movement, writing poetry and plays. His 1965 production The Beard faced obscenity charges, but were subsequently dismissed.
His writing reflect his Bhuddist practice and his appreciation of the natural world using elements of typographical expression, with an exquisite sensibility. I like his work a lot, so thanks Michael, and happy birthday.
ACTION PHILOSOPHY
THAT GOVERNMENT IS BEST WHICH GOVERNS LEAST. Let me be free of ligaments and tendencies to change myself into a shape that's less thanspirit. LET ME BE A WOLF, a caterpillar, a salmon, or an OTTER sailing in the silver water beneath the rosy sky. Were I a moth or condor you'd see me fly! I love this meat of which I'm made! I dive in it to find the simplest vital shape!
21st October marks the anniversary of the opening of the controversial resevoir in the Tryweryn valley to supply drinking water to the residents of the city of Liverpool, it will be marking a day of grave injustice.
The battle began in 1955 when the City of Liverpool were seeking a new water supply. In the summer of that year Liverpool'sWater Committe announced its intention to drown the valley of Dolaneg, where the shrine of Ann Griffiths, the Welsh saint and hymn writer, stands. This of course, provoked uproar.
Magnaminously Liverpool bowed to Welsh demands and said they would flood the Tryweryn valley instead. This proved to be a carefully planned scheme to hoodwink the Welsh into thinking they were dictating where a resevoir could be built.
In 1956, a private members bill was put before parliament seeking to create this folly. The bill was bought forth by Liverpool City Council, which allowed them to by-pass the usual criteria for planning permission to the relevant landowners in the area. It would involve disrupting railway lines and road links, and at the heart of it, the flooding of the village of Capel Celyn. This one of the last bastions of Welsh speaking settlements, which had its own school, the site of Wales first Sunday school post office, a chapel, cemetery and a number of farms and homesteads, it was a community in every sense of the word.
Feelings were naturally instantly aroused to fever pitch as the notion of the English drowning out the Welsh, made the symbolism of the creation of the resevoir even more potent. But to members of Liverpool council, the farms that they were drowning were no more than convenient stretches of land along a remote valley floor that could be put to a more convenient and productive use to supply its own citizens with water, but to many was just an arrogant misuse of power, a flooding used primarily as a way of boosting profits.
Capel Celyn
It would be fiercely opposed, such was the passion aroused, on November 21, 1956, the people who had supposedly given Liverpool permission - in fact the entire community of Capel Celyn including their children, marched with banners through the streets of Liverpool protesting against the plan. It would also see a number of individuals being compelled to take direct action against the plan, between 1962 and 1963 there were attempts to sabotage the building of the resevoir, in acts of desperation, since previous passive demonstrations had failed. On Saturday September 22nd 1962, two men were arrested attempting to destroy the site, and then on February 10th 1963 an explosion took place at the site. It remains to this day, the greatest symbol of the struggle of the Welsh language, a way of life destroyed on the whims of Conservative Government without consultation by Welsh authorities, its people, or the support from Welsh M.Ps, who were to wage an 8 year battle against it. Opposition to the scheme received the backing of the vast majority of the Welsh people, with the backing of trade unionists, and cultural and religious groups.
Control over its own water became and has remained an inflammatory issue here in Wales. The political parties were to be united in their opposition to the scheme because it was considered such an affront to the people of Wales, because such valuable resources were being stolen away from the country. The agricultural value of the land was rich compared to some land that could have been considered. A feeling of great sadness because a community was being shattered and families who had lived in the area for generations were being forced to lose their homes.
Shortly after the flooding a piece of graffiti appeared on a piece of wall, just outside the village of Llanrhysted, on the way to Aberystwyth. The graffiti read "Cofiwch Drwyweryn " "Remember Tryweryn" it is still to be seen, many years later.
When on Thursday, October 21st, 1965, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool came to open Tryweryn dam ( built at a cost of £20 million) where every house and tree had dissapeared, he was to be met by a vast crowd of protesters, in 19 October 2005 Liverpool City Council finally issued an apology, but many thought it was just a worthless political gesture that had arrived far too late.
I hope that we have by now learnt the tragic lessons of Tryweryn and the reverberations that are still felt to this day. The place names like bells still ring out- Hafod Fadog, Y Ganedd Lyd, Cae Fado, Y Gelli, Pen Y Bryn Mawr, Gwerndelw, Tyncerrig, Maesydail. These bells now ring underwater and are heard by no one. An evocative image, forever stitched in time, which remembers the bells of Cantre'r Gwaelod and the loss associated with inundation. It would also feed the flames of a resurgent nationalism, re-igniting the imagination, peoples identity and defence of the language? Y iath, and would pave the way for devolution, and the strengthening and protection of the Welsh Language alongside the growth of Cymdeithas Y Iaith /The Welsh Language Society. Some would argue though that the Welsh nation is still being fobbed off, since the assembly that has been granted to them, has no real political power.
There is now a memorial on the side of the lake and a memorial garden and the grave stones from Capel Cemetry have been moved here.
At the end of the day it was not just a stretch of land that was flooded against the people of Wales's will, but a whole community of people, a culture and a language because of colonial arrogance and misuse of power. Tryweryn remains as a byword for shame and a grave injustice. Years later it would inspire the Manic Street Preachers to ask " Where are we going"?" in their song " Ready for Drowning, "
and the following much anthologised poem by R.S Thomas.
A tragic story that we must continue to share. Reminding us of our history and our land, and how it has been exploited to serve the interests of others.
R.S Thomas - Resevoirs
There are places in Wales I don't go:
Resevoirs that are the subconscious
Of a people, troubled far dwon
with gravestones, chapels, villages even:
The serenity of their expression
Revolts me, it is a pose
for strangers, a watercolour's appeal
To the mass, instead of the poem's
Harsher conditions. There are the hills
Too; gardens under the scum
Of the forests, and the smashed faces
Of the farms with the stone trickle
Of their tears down the hills' side.
Where can I go, then, from the smell
Of decay, from the putrefying of a dead
Nation? I have walked the shore
For an hour and seen the English
Scavenging among the remains
Of our culture, covering the sand
Like the tide and, with the roughness
Of the tide, elbowing our language
Into the grave that we have dug for it.
( following poem in response to actual event yesterday)
Autumn morning, playing in garden taking time out ,mooching about, cutting down brambles, trimming the lawn. In the undergrowth, resting in fallen fruit, a lone wasp waited, in flight carried poison, in pursuit, heading in my direction, released a direct hit above my eye, stuck its stinger beneath my skin. Now I sit, swollen and throbbing, mother nature, I've already thanked for leaving me, with this nasty surprise, at least I have a few remedies stored some love and affection, some healing balms the wasp simply flew off, somewhere else to face the imminent threat of death.
This incredible 2-minute animation by http://www.rightsinfo.org will tell you everything you need to know about your human rights and why they matter. I have the right I have the right to my own opinions to state what I believe to be the truth, I believe in freedom of thought I believe in freedom of speech, I have the right to be free from bondage to be free from chains and mental slavery, to choose what I want to be, where I need to go because this is my right to be free. I have the right to speak out this is my choice, this is my conscience, this is my right to freedom of expression this right allows me to speak out against oppression, this right allows me to stand against trangression, aggression, exploitation this right acknowledges that all born equal and free, everyone a unique individualistic form that all have a right to life and liberty, with dignity and pride, with the security of protection that allows us to cry, to love and laugh, remember that when justice is forgotten alternative paths trample down opposition, decency and justice, respect, and all that has been given so keep on fighting for human rights with no inhibition remember actions speak louder than words and what unites us is greater than what seperates
If this individual was carrying a knife,why did they need 10 men to shoot her? If Jerusalem was united, why does it's mayor call only on Jews to carry guns to protect themselves? What should Palestinians carry? Potatoes? If Israel feels unsafe among Palestinians, why build colonial settlements on stolen Palestinian land? 11,000 Palestinians have been forced out of East Jerusalem by deliberate Israeli policy., Are new checkpoints and concrete blocks at the entrance of neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, not acts of provocation? How many innocent lives have been effected by tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition? Should we not be alarmed about Israel's policy of extrajudicial killing aimed solely at Palestinians? Why is the collective punishment reserved exclusively for family members of Palestinian, but never against those in settlements? 800,000 illegal israeli settlers use more water than the entire Palestinian population of 3 million. Israel has demolished 15,000 Palestinian homes. 70.7% of the entire forest area in the West Bank has been destroyed to build settlements. 100% of illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law. Why are families not allowed to rebuild destroyed homes? As Israeli aggression against Palestinians continues the need for solidarity intensifies too. Does my empathy for victims, not simply make me human? Can their ever be peace when their is occupation?
We are building a new world in our hearts red and black flags united against the system, with courage to demand nothing for us alone but everything for everyone else, following a map towards tomorrow developing our own journeys, both individually and collectively as we travel, exiting dark pathways.
We don't want to rule others and we will not be ruled, we have no masters, our thoughts are free we have removed the chains that bind us, demanding the impossible disintegrating capitalism, creating the world we want
with messages of power.
They try to reject us degrade us, belittle us, shame us and ignore us because together we are strong, but in unity we are fearless as we eradicate their consensus,
with revival of revolutionary spirit we grow wiser, move beyond obedience.
At the moment, our insides ache filled with emotions of love and rage, the daily delusionary shackles of greed living only now to feed our need, among widening circles that reach out across the world, believing in hope, not the detritus
fill our pockets with resistance, keep on building new worlds in our hearts.
The UK has become the first country in the world to be placed under investigation by the United Nations for violating the human rights of people with disabilities amid fears that thousands may have died as a consequence of controversial welfare reforms and austerity driven cuts to benefits and care budgets. They are expected to arrive in the country within days to begin gathering their evidence. Figures released by the DWP ( the Department for work and persecution) in August 2015 revealed that 2,380 people died between 2011 and 2014 shortly after having their benefits stopped. A further 7,200 people also died after having their benefits reduced and being dumped in groups to apparently help them prepare for a return to work. Leaving many without the means for daily living and the means to survive. This at a time when austerity has no moral legitimacy or indeed any other kind of basis for validity.The Tory's using the most vulnerable people in society for political and ideological gain, leading to suicides, hardship and much suffering.The work and capability assessments have been notorious for providing unreliable assessments of peoples fitness to work and failing to treat disabled people with respect. Disability rights campaigners have long argued that disabled peoples quality of life has declined immensely under welfare reform and government cuts to services. We currently have a right wing authoritarian government running amok, and destroying peoples lives, they must be challenged and be reminded of our basic human principles. We are all equally precious, each life has equal worth. But the Tory's want to tear these notions apart, surely a society that is not founded on these basic principles of decency, dignity and mutual respect is not worth tuppence. As I remember the Governments victims I hope this investigation will lead to the government being held for account and that Ian Duncan Smith finally apologises for what has taken place under his administration. Time for the persecution to stop.
Disabled protestors and activists on the streets of Manchester at the time of the Tory party conference
In the evening I try to resist, the strain of life I have become world weary, tired of the daily news and the hard truths, that leave me overwrought. So skip pass the headlines throw newspapers in the bin, turn of the T.V, uncork a bottle of wine open back door, to let moonshine in, allow my thoughts to step outside to stop them from being consumed from deep within. I roll myself a cigarette peppered with magic herbs, go outside where the air is clear find myself alone again, but with hope, peace and love my spirit sparkles in the night. I notice, the changes in the sky, clouds sweetly rolling on by, inhaling deep aromatic smoke into lung, on the stereo indoors, the release of singing tongues, my arms and legs, a little drunk, sway and dance this is my truth, my night vision stance. I am an outsider, looking far out an observer in the shadows of time, my mind is scattered and in fragments dispersing in thousands of pieces, until the morning turns, comes round again and news arrives of people standing up screaming, the modern world turning once more in abyss I give up my journey and rejoin the fight.
