I enjoyed the songwriter night. Cold and wet, this Christmas. Few people about but I did meet a young girl from Wales - dressed for a summer which hasn’t eventuated as yet.
There are only four million or so Welsh - last time I looked. It’s lovely to hear the melodic accent again.
Driving cabs in Sydney decades ago, and I pick up an elderly woman whose accent was unmistakable.
It’s not hard for me to slip straight back into the accent.
“ From the valleys then, are you?” say I.
This is such a standard greeting which just requires “Yes” as a response that I burst out laughing when she replied very seriously,
“ No ...... further up.”
A bit of chat and she asks,
“ Been here long, have you?”
“ Oh .... about thirty years.” say I.
A long pause before she responded,
“ Thinking of staying, are you?”
The Welsh are the Britons of two thousand years ago. Like every tribe, we believed our land was inseparable to our people. Given by God, no doubt.
Makes you wonder about all the other tribes claiming ..... God given.
I think most of the Welsh are pragmatic and generous enough to accept both ‘God given.’ and ‘God taken.’
We no longer blame the Romans - or present day Italians - for starting the process of successive land grabs...... nor do we hanker after the lost lands of what is now England.
Wales - as a home for the remnants of the Britons - is a whole country. It has borders recognised by all.
If that were the case in Palestine.
Within my lifetime, that land has been incrementally divided in a process ongoing.
For any sane person, the images of Israel’s occupation and brutal repression of the present day Palestinians bears such an uncanny resemblance to the excesses of the Nazi’s as to be ..... an almost perfect fit.
True, the Israelis haven’t set up gas chambers but their complete control of every aspect of life for the Palestinians now concentrated into ghettoes and camps within which puddles of land, there is no hope for a viable existence let alone a viable State....... seems much the same as a big concentration camp.
It’s a loathsome state of affairs made worse by the threadbare Israeli defence of ‘poor bugger me.’ while they build ‘settlements’ in the high places overlooking the camps
There’s nothing anti-Semitic about this. It’s statement of fact and cannot be denied any more than can be denied the ‘one of many’ holocausts mankind has suffered.
It’s a great day for cricket. Doesn’t matter much to me who wins. The very fact that we can still enjoy such games whether Indian, Pakistani or Welsh is somehow a comforting reflection on the ability of us all to just appreciate and enjoy.
Forth test - Australia and England - and just like life, there’s lots of predictable, long slow boring bits - but not for those who appreciate the finer detail - followed by moments of high drama.