SOY CUBA

The weekend festival organised by the Latin American Association of Swansea (ALAS) got underway in the Dylan Thomas centre on Friday evening with the iconic black and white film Soy Cuba (I am Cuba) released in 1964 just 5 years after the Cuban Revolution, in which freedom fighter (or terrorist according to your viewpoint), Fidel Castro with the backing of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara overthrew the hated regime of General Batista and formed the socialist state which this year celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. Ironically General Batista was opposed by the US government who helped the rebels by withholding spares for warplanes, Wikipedia says the CIA may even have given financial support to the revolutionary struggle. Nevertheless within two years of the formation of the Marxist state President Kennedy tried a US invasion of the island in the Bay of Pigs fiasco, followed soon after by the Cuban Missile crisis. From then the new state has been subject to almost unceasing opposition from the USA in the form of a trade embargo by itself and associates. An attractive enough island however to serve as a US naval base and as the site of Guantanamo Bay!

Not comfortable viewing, but gripping throughout with a fine use of visual techniques especially when transmitting the feeling of chaos. It started by portraying the crazy jazz age high life in the luxurious clubs of Havana where wealthy American males went to have fun, but left the upbeat side behind by showing the degradation of the poverty of the ordinary Cuban and the consequential slide of the attractive bar girls into prostitution. Showing graphically how a hard working small scale tenant farmer lost every thing, his living and his home, and was driven to suicide, when the land owners sold out to a giant United Fruit Company. How students supported the peasants in this revolution and how a student leader and an ordinary peace loving farmer were gradually drawn into the armed struggle as a reaction to the atrocities of those in power.

A film with a visual and moral impact that I will never forget.



Emrys Roberts from Cymru Cuba (joint organisers with ALAS) gave a notable introductory speech which reminded me of the widespread support for the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War in his undimmed enthusiasm for socialism and Cuba in particular. He drew a strong link between the Welsh political champions of socialism and that displayed against all odds in Cuba, and contrasted Cuba's success in providing good health care and universal schooling in a country which had not previously enjoyed these essential rights against a background of the failure of both communism and now capitalism.

I look forward to this afternoon's discussion and a film to show how Cuba survived the oil shortage and of necessity developed a sustainable organic agriculture and way of life. No doubt I will return to this theme before completing this posting.

EMAIL ADDRESSES
I failed to assign the correct email address to just 10 members who included their email addresses with their membership applications. There could be various reasons such as a subsequent change in email address or even insufficient legibility or precision (computers are totally unforgiving in this respect! The following people will not receive this blog but if any of you know them perhaps you would arrange for them to sent me the briefest of emails thus confirm their actual address on

becorbett@ntlworld.com

Marie Cairns
Gill Paramore
Gyneth Gittoer
Ken Dorman
Ron Strawford
Sharon Giltinan
Yvonne Greenleaf

It would be helpful if the correct address was sent to complete the Swansea U3A contact records in a way of increasing importance in the immediate future. The U3A have held this information but I doubt it has ever previously been verified by actual use. So far just 4 members (out of over 250) have asked to be deleted from my blog reader list, which I am obligated and happy to do. Thankfully that number is minuscule in comparison with the thanks and expressions of interest which I receive daily.

MOTO
A group of which is progressing very well with many enthusiastic members and many new ideas. Janet Eileen Jones and Pam Williams decided to go on a short cruise and are attracting a fair bit of interest as they encourage others to join them. Janet, janeteileenjones@hotmail.com , sent me the following details.

Mini Baltic cruise from Stockholm to St Petersberg from £695 for two sharing inside state room (cabin) or £995 for single occupancy. Six nights in total.
Fly Heathrow to Stockholm and spend 2 nights there
Then Royal Caribbean Shipping Line ship 'Vision of the Seas'
Choice of 4 start dates, 6 and 22 June, and, 4 and 16 July 2009

Janet and 3 others have booked for 6 June, they will travel to Heathrow by National Express and stay overnight as flight leaves at 11am 6 June. Others, singles or couples, would be welcome, but should make their own bookings etc. You need to find a partner to share a cabin in order to qualify for the £695 each rate.

For further information phone and booking phone Travelsphere on 0800 112 3329 quoting the reference numbers for this special holiday CE1X/ORSS/09 and orvsp.



SUMMARY OF THIS WEEK'S NEW GROUP ACTIVITIES

MONDAY 2 March
CHESS GROUP and ITALIAN GROUP sharing the Craft room from 10am.
CONCERT GOERS on Dvorak symphony 8 in Civic Centre at 2pm
CLIMATE CHANGE meet at 10am in The Waterfront Museum on the topic 'Our Environment'. Note the new Venue, Date and Time for this group.

TUESDAY
LITERATURE GROUP at St Mary's vestry 2pm

WEDNESDAY
JIVE GROUP in Monkey Cafe at 10.30
St DAVID'S DAY LUNCH at Pennard Golf Club (ticket only)



THURSDAY
FRENCH GROUP at Hazel Court 10am. Photograph 'Rupert, Son Jouet Favori' the topic of the week.

FRIDAY
TAI CHI in Hazel Court 10.30am, numbers are still growing leading to thought of a second group.

GARDENING GROUP
Joan tells me there was a particularly big attendance of around 45 for the lecture last Thursday on 'How does Your Garden Grow' in which the lecturer dealt with important matters like the choice and use of fertilisers and soil quality. She considers I would have been very interested, and I am sure she is right for I would like nothing better than to turn my vegetable garden into a real success - which it is not yet. But Thursday afternoon is when I do my taxing homework and think about a topic for free conversation ready for my early evening Spanish class at Tycoch - something has to give and I sometimes fear it will be me.

BOOK GROUP 4 will share the Craft Room with ITALIAN on Monday 9 March.

POLITICS and CITIZENSHIP
Meet at 2pm a week Tuesday, on 10 March in the West Cross Community Centre with the subject of 'What should be the qualifications for British citizenship?' with Delyth Rees to lead the discussion.

CREATIVE WRITING 2
Also meet a week Tuesday, 10 March, in Hazel Court Craft Room at 10.15am
CARDS FOR PLEASURE at 11am in Taliesin bar/restaurant

St HELEN'S BRIDGE
Keith Roberts belongs to a group petitioning Swansea Council to oppose the cancelling the Right of Way across this bridge. They see it as the first step to demolishing the stone pillars. They want a new span installed of modern design, maybe the third sail bridge in Swansea. His contact details are
keith.roberts3@sky.com

CUBA AGAIN, Saturday in the Dylan Thomas Centre
I was rather confused by the program and not at all certain of the point of the afternoon session, which was a great shame for I think it would have been of interest to many members of the U3A discussion groups, particularly Climate Change, Politics and Civilisation, and maybe Roly Govier's Discussion group. It all goes to show the importance of organisations explaining their activities properly. In the event it was left to the Italian Group to represent the U3A for Mervyn was also there, and I know tutor Carolina was very disappointed at not to be able to attend Sunday's poetry reading in English and Spanish.

I had not realised that the huge challenge the Cuban nation faced included surviving many years with a minute oil supply. I was aware of the trade embargo lead by the USA and friends from 1962 which would in itself have lead to major supply problems, but I had not realised that in consequence of that embargo they depended on Russia for 80% of their trade, and particularly for supply of oil and oil/gas based products. When Russia collapsed economically in the late 1980's and early 1990's Cuba was left in crisis, with frequent electricity outages of twelve hours or so a day, lack of reliable water supplies, without the fertilisers and insecticides on which they were then dependent. They were suddenly unable to feed their population adequately. It was said the average citizen lost 20lbs of body weight during this period, and one speaker related that even in a good tourist hotel in 1992 they could provide only a starvation diet. Several speakers emphasised the magnitude of the Cuban achievement, as the only left wing government to survive in Latin American in the face US and CIA pressure.

Part of the solution was to turn much of the waste ground in urban areas like Havana into intensively and organically farmed allotments of green (above ground) vegetables. The state provided the seed and helped with the production of compost and small plot farmers, due to the warm climate, could grow four or five crops a year. They had to sell 80% at a fixed price to the state for schools and hospitals etc, but were allowed to sell the rest in their own shops, thus providing an entrepreneurial incentive to the plot holders.

The government provided households with free pressure cookers and imported tens of thousands of bicycles from China to help reduce the oil demand for cooking and transport. Small scale power generation was encouraged from wind, solar panels and biomass. Slowly they adapted to a life with very low oil consumption.

What they did have was a population with the second highest rate of literacy in the world, with one of the lowest rates of infant mortality, a large well educated population with such an oversupply of doctors so that they were able to send twenty thousand doctors to help Chavez with his reforms in Venezuela in return for a regular supply of oil. They are said to have the finest Health Service in the world, with near zero waiting times.

Part too of their success, I surmise, came from encouraging tourism and setting up a two tier currency, thus attracting foreign currency for trade on international markets. That has now bred real problems in that a taxi driver earns more in the tourist trade than a Consultant earns in the Health Service. Equally a motor mechanic earns more by cultivating a plot as an entrepreneur than from pursuing his own trade.

But years of external pressure and adversity have left a population with strong sense of national service, of unity and pulling together across the population, to add to the Caribbean way of doing everything with a smile, enjoying life' s diversions of rum, rhythm, music (Son) and salsa. Perhaps we should make it the U3A way!!

The afternoon's discussion was well chaired by Kate Bennett and led informatively and passionately in turn by, Plaid MP and socialist Adam Price, Dr Fransisco Dominguez a London University economist with an impressive grasp of Latin American politics and economics, Steve Garret who has studied the urban growing in Cuba, and finally by a documentary film 'How Cuba Survived Peak Oil' introduced and discussed by Wendy Emmett from the Cuban Organic Support Group. Peak Oil being the point of maximum possible production after which world oil supply inevitably diminishes, something we shall all have to come to terms with - perhaps sooner than we realise. For decades I have had the feeling that we were the lucky western generation, the one that lived through the peak of prosperity in Britain.

Sunday confirmed the confusion spread by the enigmatic program and Joan thought she was going to see on the Condor, a bird about which she raves, but in fact it was a two hour documentary on Operation Condor, the co-operation of South American military dictatorships in the 70's, backed by the USA, to eliminate by mass torture and assassination the promoters of socialist ideals, and the overthrowing of popularly elected governments like that of Salvador Allende in Chile when General Pinochet seized power. For me it also emphasised for how long our governments, of both major parties, have turned a blind eye to torture. It showed how all the countries except Brazil have brought the perpetrators to trial and achieved some sort of closure.

ALAS started these festivals six years ago in the Dylan Thomas Theatre as a weekend film festival. This one was focused on the politics, past and present, including the friendly cooperation between the newly emerging left wing governments across the region. It finished with a session of Cuban poetry, and a piano recital. Saturday evening was a Salsa Party, which unusually we did not attend.

GRAPE EXPECTATIONS

With apologies to Lyn Holt for steeling the title of Wednesday's lecture, I decided to leave this Freudian slip on the basis that we both worked with the stuff. I am envious but almost glad that I can't pen such a witty title, because I would find it impossible to live up to the billing. Follow that Lyn!
NB This lecture is in the Faraday Lecture Theatre in the Engineering building, since the Grove is unavailable.

Friday night fifty of us enjoyed his latest, one of the best, in his series of 'Taste Of' dinners. This time the theme was the American Confederacy, an Aperitif of Rum Punch with Jambalaya, a thick soup of rice, ham and shrimp, Cajun style swordfish and chicken (Cajun being smokey spices), then Key Lime Pie or Pecan Pie for desert. I heard nothing but good about the food, but several remarked on the echoing acoustics which make cross table conversations almost impossible.

HISTORY GROUP
They meet on the 4th Friday of the month at 2pm in the Dolphin Hotel. This weeks meeting, Friday 27 February, will be talk by Diana Mason and Marie Davies on 'Wales and the Industrial Revolution'.

ITALIAN GROUP will be meeting at 10am in Hazel Court tomorrow Monday 23 February. New members welcome, and a welcome back to Jan Williams after her tedious month's sojourn in France. Serve her right!

CARDS FOR PLEASURE will meet in the Taliesin restaurant on Tuesday 10 March at 11 am. They will meet on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of month. Contact Lawmary on 299828.

ASTRONOMY GROUP will be meeting in the Faraday after the Wednesday lecture.

LITERATURE GROUP now lead by Lawmary Champion will be meeting on the 3 March in St Mary' Church Vestry at 2 pm for the very first discussion of their new book 'Gone to Earth' by Mary Webb. It would be a perfect session for new members to join and new faces would be welcome to join in the refreshing this group under its new leader. I intend to be there. They meet on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month

GARDENING GROUP will meet at Ty Bledau (Singleton Park) on Thursday 26 February for their monthly meeting.Stephen Hopkins will speak on How Does Your Garden Grow.

CHRONICLE SUBMISSIONS I am now informed that pieces should be handed in by Wednesday 13 May. For details of topics suggested by Jill Govier please scroll back to the previous posting of this blog. Submissions can be handed in at any Wednesday lecture to Helgi Opik, Derrick Jenkins or Jill Govier, the alternatives being to email them or send by conventional mail to Derrick.

Julius Caesar at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol was reviewed in yesterday's Guardian by Lyn Gardner and given 4 stars (5 max) which is a good rating. The action is set in 17th Century London (the time the play was written) when the political issues were as relevant as they are today or were in Roman Times, that's the everlasting virtue of Shakespeare he writes about essentially timeless issues, or is humanity his main theme? Joan seems disappointed by the change in timescale, on the other hand she positively enthuses about the rave revues for The Tempest at Stratford which has been transported to today's Africa. I am still puzzling about the illogicality of women, even after all but fifty years of marriage. In a couple of weeks you will have true feedback from Bristol.

JAZZLAND
The Oliver Nezhati sextet drawn from top South Wales jazz musicians. It's the second year I have heard this group of young student musicians and it's great to see they are rapidly getting better and better from an excellent base. Drummer Dewi Young from Cwmbran dropped out in favour of a chance to record for the X-Files, the stand in did well. I should have noted their names but it was a first time I had heard the first year Trinity College student play string bass, in itself a rarity these days, he drove the group with an excellent base line, though he did not take a single solo. The other four, trumpet, saxophone, electric guitar and keyboard improvised for extended solos throughout.
The second set was much calmer and more reflective, in touch with the direction jazz is now taking. Oliver playing alto sax gave a wonderful ninety second introduction to Body and Soul playing absolutely alone and making no reference to the melody of the best known jazz standard. They also played one of his own compositions and as an encore played a jazz rock original by Laurence Cottle, a London based session guitarist on a wide range of top pop and jazz recordings who was in the club that night with his brother. They will both be in evidence at the Mumbles Jazz Festival

This Wednesday 25 February the star is Simon Spillett, described as a uncompromising hard bop saxophonist after the fashion of Tubby Hayes, who plays with Dave Cottle and the house trio. Tubby Hayes was in his heyday when I was at college in London but I was a blinkered follower of Traditional jazz in those days, especially at 100 Oxford Street, which still goes on but without my favourites of the day Humphrey Lyttleton, cartoonist Wally Fawkes, Bruce Turner and Ken Collier.

CONCERT GOERS GROUP will be meeting a week tomorrow 2 March in the Civic Centre for a presentation on Dvorak 8th Symphony which will be performed in the Brangwyn Hall the following Friday.

LATIN AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF SWANSEA. It's their weekend festival at the Dylan Thomas Centre starting this Friday evening 27 February with a guitar concert and a 1964 film at 9pm Yo Soy Cuba (I am Cuba) £3. There is a full program on Saturday afternoon of speakers and films about the revolution and survival of Cuba in spite of fifty years of embargo from the USA. including a Cuban Live Music including dance demonstrations and a disco Salsa party till midnight all for £5 . The program restarts at 11am on Sunday.

For the parochial amongst you St David's Dragon Festival will be held in Mumbles on the very same weekend from Saturday 28 February. Perhaps we are the last to know about it because again the news reached us from yesterdays Guardian. Further details on links to
http://www.visitswanseabay.com
http://www.visitwales.co.uk

Seafood Festival, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain for first two weeks of October. Pontevedra close to Santiago del Compostella is for my money much the best of the two destinations. We are already on the lookout for travel possibilities.

ENERGY and CLIMATE CHANGE

ENERGY and CLIMATE CHANGE
Should interest all of you who hoped to wave goodbye to cold and snow and ice!! It's facile to think we shall become a Mediterranean country overnight. Weather is well known as an example of a chaotic system in which small disturbances can create major effects. It is thus very risky to predict the weather by mathematical model, as the BBC know to their cost, or finger in the air techniques. The chaotic variability of weather has always been with us, but what we are dealing with here is the effect of a continual increase in carbon in the atmosphere, driving the slow but remorseless warming of our planet earth.

This is one of the big challenges of our age (I might have said 'only' until the Credit Crunch came along) . Finding efficient ways of generating electricity to reduce the lifetime release of carbon into the atmosphere (in manufacture of the generating plant as well as its operation). Winning this battle is vital to ensure the sustainability of our high energy way of life, which few of us would willingly give up, and to which the less developed world will quite reasonably aspire.

This week on Wednesday the Swansea U3A make a two pronged attack on this issue.
First up the lecture by Ian Masters from 'The Marine Energy Task Group for Wales', at 2.00 for 2.30 back in the Grove this week, who will speak on 'Turning the Tide - Marine Power along the Welsh Coast'.

Then after this lecture Mike Wiseman's Climate Change Group will take their second successive session on energy and he has called it simply 'More Energy'.

It is now several weeks since we all received the last U3A magazine accompanied by the January 2009 publication of 'Sources'. You may recall that, with windmills on the frontispiece, this issue was dominated by considerations of Climate Change, a topic close to the heart of the Chairman of the Third Age Trust Jean Goodeve and her husband Graham. Our Climate Change group leader Mike Wiseman had a full page piece entitled Climate Change and Sustainable Development in which he reminded us all to think of our generations poor stewardship of this planet and to reflect on the legacy we were leaving for the following generations, not least the prospect of a shortage of fresh water.

CHESS
The next meeting is tomorrow 16 February at Hazel Court from 10.00 onwards. Joan and I will be there to welcome you. We are hoping for a good turnout. Member Theo Joannides is suggesting cooperation/amalgamation with the Mumbles Chess Club who meet in the Ostreme Hall at 11am on Saturdays. I would be interested in your views either added as comments to this blog or emailed privately.

TOBACCO FACTORY, Bristol
If I am to express my interests in the Arts, top would come high quality theatre (which we have only occasionally glimpsed in Swansea in 40+ years). I am a devotee of 'Theatre in the Round' in which a small audience surrounds the 'stage' (and can almost touch the actors). There is no scenery, just a few props maybe just benches. A form which relies entirely on acting skill. I first came across this style in New York in the Off Broadway movement of the 50's, very often performed in a public upstairs room of an hotel. When we returned to the UK we lived in Stoke on Trent where directors Stephen Joseph (now famous for his theatre in Scarborough) and Peter Cheeseman started, they became the driving force behind the movement in the UK for decades, whilst Alan Ayckbourn practised acting as well as some directing.

Last year we discovered the Tobacco Factory because of the rave reviews for a production of Hamlet with Jonathan Miller as director. That performance Joan and I rate the finest theatrical experience of our life. Recently I read a review in The Guardian decrying the fact that the production failed to get to the West End for lack of a TV star in the cast, itself an indictment of commercial theatre. Incidentally I speak as someone born in Warwick in easy cycling distance of Stratford who as a young grammar school boy attended many productions in what was then called The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. A golden period from the late 40's and when John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson were amongst the actors,though I have no idea whether I saw them. Anthony Quayle was director at the time.

This year the Tobacco Factory are performing Julius Caesar from 12 Feb to 21 March followed by Anthony and Cleopatra from 26 March to 2 May. There is a performance every day but Sunday, with a matinee on Saturday (£15). A matinee is our choice since it allows either go and return in a day, or more enjoyably a hotel and good meal following the theatre. The production is unlikely to reach the heights of last year, but I notice the Bath newspaper acknowledge the high standard of the Shakespeare season over the decade The Tobacco Factory has been re-used as a centre for the performing arts.

YOUR CHRONICLE NEEDS YOU
Jill Govier on behalf of Derrick Jenkins and co. (the producers of the annual Swansea U3A publication THE CHRONICLE) is issuing a call for Articles, Life Stories or Poems on any subject but provides a few pertinent pointers.

We are growing rapidly as an organisation, and occupying an increasingly important and rather articulate section of the population, so written matter should be flowing in - but it is not. I have willing confessed that I was a fellow traveller for several years before discovering the rewards of commitment. Now all of you know that given a typewriter a pen or a computer I can go on a bit!! Please join in and make the most of membership.

It's news to me but to stimulate a few ideas Jill is reminding us that
2009 is the Year of Science
2009 is the Year of Homecoming for the Scots, so why not the Welsh or the Irish. Who wants the English to go home and Why? Because we can outscore the Welsh in tries at least!!
2009 will lead to a new set of Honours. Who would you nominate and Why?

The Homecoming is particularly to celebrate Scotland's great contributions to the world, but leads on to wider thoughts of Nationalism. Why did you choose Swansea for your retirement, was it a home coming or a home leaving?

Many have been investigating their genealogy. Are you willing to share your discoveries and think aloud of the implications?

The Old Topics are always welcome: Travellers Tales, The Time of My Life, Let me have My Say

Contributions, hand written, typed or computerised, can be handed to Derrick Jenkins, Helgi Opik or Jill Govier at any Wednesday Meeting

emailed to joyce.jenkins@ntlworld.com

or posted to
Derrick Jenkins
122 Belgrave Road
Gorseinon
SA4 6RB

Time is of the essence because the completed Chronicle is mailed with the notices ahead of the AGM in June. Please participate in the success of your own 'self help' organisation.

LATIN AMERICAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL
My interest in Latin America is well known and stems from our extensive slow, in depth, travel there in the past few years. It is a melange of fascinating, vibrant cultures, not least in music and dance. Brazil and Mexico like China and India will soon become the dominant economies in the world.

ALAS Swansea's Latin American organisation have for years run an annual Festival at the Dylan Thomas Centre. This time it will feature Cuba in the fifty years since its revolution, in a festival running over the weekend from 27 February to 1 March. As usual it will feature a broad program covering film, photography, art, poetry, a Salsa Party and Latin American music. As an organisation they raise funds for charities.
Tickets are already on sale. For more details visit the Dylan Thomas Centre or their website
http://www.alas.org.uk

TAI CHI
The second meeting was as successful as the first, again with a turnout just over twenty members. More could be accommodated in the large room at Hazel Court. If you want to join the sooner you do so the better, we are nearly all absolute beginners so far. The Group meets every Friday at 10.30, the tuition is excellent and pleasant, the exercises ideal for those who give importance to retaining flexibility, precise control of movement, and memorising of sequences. From now on the subscription will be £3 a week for the rest of the initial six session period at least. I feel it should develop into another regular Group activity. Michael Edmonds writes to give me the name of a second tutor should expansion of the group or a choice of days be needed.

AGE CONCERN myfriendsonline

http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/myfriendsonline

This year from 16 to 20 March there will be a international week long campaign to interest older people in social networking. Outdo your grandchildren, join the Facebook generation.

No doubt there will be more to say nearer the date. Our own Publicity section are preparing a presentation to the public in a 'Life begins at Fifty' event at the Leisure Centre on 26 March.

CADW
Angela Brunt writes to say that in celebration of St. David's Day on 1 March that CADW are offering free entry to all of their sites, and that there will be storytellers at many of them. She also informs that anyone over 60 can get a free Pass giving free entry at any time to any of their sites. An application form is on the CADW website.

CARDS for FUN
After a disappointing lack of turnout before Christmas Lawmary reports that nine turned up for their second session on Tuesday at the Taliesin Cafe. It seems as though another group is up and running. Next meeting 24 February.

JAZZLAND, St James Crescent
Come and hear a young, exceptionally talented, saxophonist Oliver Nezhati from Llandeilo. He plays with a sextet of youngsters drawn from old friends (pianist Mitch Jones from Pontadulais and Dewi Young from Cwmbran) and some friends from his studies at the famed Trinity music school in London. I first heard him in his mid-teens play the last half of the set with Bruce Adams, one of Britain's best jazz trumpeters, who remarked jokingly how dispiriting it was to have to play with someone so young and so talented.
For further details of the club program visit

http://www.swanseajazzland.co.uk

BREAK THROUGH FOR BLOG

BLOG
This Blog is not an Official U3A Committee Publication. It is written solely by me and the opinions expressed are therefore not necessarily those of the committee, nor is it restricted solely to U3A matters. However I write it primarily to progress my job as Groups' coordinator by publicising and giving a flavour of the Swansea U3A activities, particularly this year's new groups. Keeping my readership content is a prime objective.

I like to think this Blog has been an important step change on inevitably less frequent and expensive postal mailing shots. To date I have been reliant on the Internet addresses that I have been able to collect personally, starting with about 30 obtained trawling around the conveners at the Open Day in the Dolphin to about 120 in January. I have now received the full set of email addresses held by the U3A for the purpose of passing information to members. This means that future Blog Update email messages will in future go to around 250 members, out of a total membership of 650, a proportion I am sure will increase rapidly as broadband becomes every one's communication medium of choice.

I take that release of addresses as a vote of confidence. Although I do mass mailings the email addresses of recipients does not appear on them, unless by error - just one mistake so far in over 50 mailings.

TAI CHI
This is clearly going to rival JIVE and MOTO as the best supported new Groups, since no less than twenty three members turned up for the inaugural session last Friday. I personally expect an increase in numbers as word spreads of just how successful that session was, and how suitable Tai Chi is for our age group. In addition to which 30 members signed the original list and some would undoubtedly have been put off by the snowy weather. Thanks go to Bob Hughes who received the original contact from Mike Hart and rapidly turned it into action. He has also provided the pictures.

Mike Hart demonstrated that he is a skilled teacher of the discipline but also that he conducts the sessions in the pleasant, relaxed, way which is the hallmark of the U3A Groups. He had offered to do the first six sessions for free, but being aware that teaching Tai Chi is his living and clearly wanting it to remain a U3A Group activity, we are proposing to do only the first two sessions at £1.50 but thereafter to raise the subscription to £3 a session so that we are in position to offer him payment.

Group charges are an issue because, whilst many of us can easily afford the charges, we have also to think of those who live on standard pensions. Charges mount up for active participants, a consideration I have heard expressed on several occasions. We will reassess once we have a better idea of the numbers attending on a regular basis.

ITALIAN and READING 4 will share the Craft Room at Hazel court on Monday 9 February.
The Italian class starts at 10am and would welcome additional members. We are conscious there is a difference in levels, but we are determined to make the class suitable for keen beginners, which was not done at the last session with Carolina, whilst providing an opportunity for those of us who studied the language in the past to strengthen our knowledge of the basics. The Convenor is Pat Carpenter 519997

The Reading group start at 10.30am. The books being discussed are Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks and No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay. Any particularly interested should attend as a taster but we appreciate demand may be high enough to justify setting up yet another reading group. The Convenor is Dorothy Little on 511127

CREATIVE WRITING 2 also meets at Hazel Court on Monday 9 February but at 10.15 and in the Exercise Room. In future it will revert to Tuesday meeting at Hazel Court in the Craft Room.

POLITICS and CITIZENSHIP meet in the West Cross Community Centre at 2.00pm on Tuesday 10 February to follow up on their fascinating guided visits to the Jewish Synagogue and the Muslim Mosque, and to discuss the political changes to be expected in the USA now that Barack Obama has taken over as President.

CHESS
The next meeting will be the following Monday 16 February at 10am in the Craft Room in Hazel Court. I mention this today because Joan and I would welcome new members of any standard from absolute beginners to skilled players. Indeed we need increased support or we will lose our fine tutor Ken Huntley. I hope some will be forthcoming from the vastly extended circulation of this blog.

WEDNESDAY LECTURES
Esther Searle writes to remind me that the Grove is not available for the lectures on 11 Feb, 26 Feb and 11 March, all of which will be held in the ground floor Faraday Lecture Theatre in the Engineering Block.
She also informs me that Ian Masters cannot come on 18 Feb but that his colleague Miles Willis, from the Marine Energy Task Group for Wales, will substitute. There will however be a change of title and the paper will be more general in nature.

BRIDGE
Thanks to Chairman Bob for the photographs of this seemingly happy group! The regular readers will have read of my particular aversion to this game - but it certainly adds to the diversity of offerings from the Swansea U3A Groups and I welcome that above all.

ARMCHAIR TRAVEL
Last Friday Tony Searle took us round Southern Peru, featuring Macchu Picchu especially but also the Nazca Lines and the Amazon basin on the east of the Andes. The next talk will be given by Joan on our independent travel by colourful 'chicken buses' across Guatemala, though this will not be until April since the March meeting has been cancelled.

CONCERT GOERS - ELGAR VIOLIN CONCERTO
Over twenty turned up on an unpleasant afternoon for the meeting organised by Cecily last Monday in the Council Chamber of what was County Hall. We got a thorough and very enjoyable insight to this work with musical illustrations on his viola by Dr Bernard Kane from Cardiff. The remaining talks will be split between him and Clive John.

In the event the actual concert was poorly attended largely because of the weather conditions, though there was plenty of representation of the U3A. The concert itself by the National Orchestra of Wales was a big success with some wonderful violin playing by James Ehnes. I thoroughly enjoyed the work which, being musically more challenging than the Mendelssohn symphony which preceded it, held my rapt attention throughout.

JAZZLANDS the night before featured Dave Cottle's excellent house trio with Mark Bassey on trombone and Simon Savage on saxophone playing in the cool relaxed jazz style associated with the (USA) West Coast in 50's and 60's. It was an excellent evening which I enjoyed rather more than the bigger names a week earlier and it cost only £8, with a 25% reduction for members.

However I write about it now not because of the music but because of the inspiration of seeing someone overcome adversity. Thalidomide had left Mark Bassey without forearms or fingers and just one vestigial thumb. It wasn't immediately obvious as he was playing superbly, but Joan noticed first as he flicked with great precision through the pile of sheet music on his stand using his thumb and a steel hook on his right hand, which we assume he was also manipulating. Next we noticed the hook on his trombone hand which was clipped on to control the slide. Joan wondered if there was any other instrument he could have played.

For the encore he gave us an unexpected answer, the keyboards. He adjusted the hook on his right hand so that he could play chords with two notes (thumb and hook), he unscrewed the hook from his left arm, then pulled off the wooden forearm extension, which made it possible to play trombone, and proceeded to play single notes of melody with the ungainly stump. He chose Cjam Blues, the Duke Ellington tune, probably to avoid having to cope with black notes. Being a talented jazzman his timing was perfect and he wisely adopted the style of Thelonius Monk, who frequently played his strange harmonies with incredible spacing between notes. Anyone interested in the style should play his classic recording of his own tune Bags Groove made in the 50's with Miles Davies. Meanwhile Dave Cottle picked up Mark's trombone to complete the group (his party trick is to play jazz keyboard chords with his left hand and jazz trumpet with his right). I doubt that I have ever witnessed everyone on stage and audience grinning uncontrollably like Cheshire Cats. It was a truly uplifting display - and good lesson in simple modern jazz.

Incidentally this Wednesday 11 February at 8.30pm they are featuring another hugely talented five piece group called Protect the Beat, led by Derek Nash (Jools Holland's saxophonist) and the second appearance in two weeks of Jim Mullen on guitar. They are expecting a big audience with probably a greater thn usual appeal for students, so thet advise early arrival. Entrance £12.

MUMBLES MOVIES
Member Laurence Hopes writes to say he will be showing 7.45pm Friday 27 February Very Annie Mary, a humorous look at life in South Wales, at Ostreme Hall. He advertises it as an alternative to the wall to wall Rugby for St David's weekend. Starring Mumbles actress Joanna Page, alias Stacey in TV's Gavin and Stacey.

ENGINEERING
I found huge ironies in the presentation by our President Professor Richard Davies last Wednesday. In his presentation engineering headed the list of the subjects which lead to the best career prospects, both in terms of salary and vacancies. Indeed he made clear the large demand for graduates of all numerate disciplines including Mathematics, Accountancy and Economics. He rated only Law in the same category of opportunity from what we used to call the Arts subjects.

Yet if my knowledge is still current then engineering is now amongst the least demanding university courses in which to enrol because the demand from potential students is simply insufficient. I am surprised to hear that in de-industrialised Britain there is unsatified demand from the workplace. At which point I should declare that he and I both started life as engineering graduates. The irony here is that now the poorest qualified students end up on the best career paths - that portends ill for the British economy.

When I left Imperial College in the mid fifties British engineering was still world class. If I talk specifically of the electrical industry, I know best, then think of the world ranking firms which have disappeared, British Thompson Houston (BTH) in Rugby where I spent my first summer vacation, or English Electric in Stafford, Rugby and Kidsgrove where I worked before coming to Wales, Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) and Metro Vick in Manchester, General Electric Company (GEC) in Birmingham, and many other medium sized and small companies.

I went for interviews at factories around the country and found little sign the firms had thought how best to use graduates. They offered the standard £550/annum to enrol on a 2 year graduate apprenticeship. Then Canadian Westinghouse came to college to interview and offered me their standard rate, more than three times the salary, to go on a well thought out one year graduate training. Hence I emigrated to Canada. A decade later that minute trickle became a flood to the USA and was head-line news as The Brain Drain.

When I returned in the early 60's those world names were still around, but not for long. British engineering firms were not performing well and accountants were taking the senior positions in industry. In particular Arnold Weinstock of GEC was bent on consolidating and asset stripping the electrical industry. One by one those firms disappeared as separate entities and he built up a huge firm and huge cash fund. What's left of them is now largely under French control in Alstom and Alcatel. The one British engineering company of that era, Rolls Royce (aero engines not cars), to hold on to top world rating was managed throughout by engineers. Though even they had to be rescued by government due to the huge investment needed to built their revolutionary and world beating RB211 engine.

By 1966 I came to work on the automation and computer control of the steel industry, mainly at Port Talbot. I was convinced that the British trained graduate engineers of my day given the opportunity to express themselves were first class - a confidence that never failed me - and we were able to design build and program very large and reliable control and instrumentation systems across the works from large British designed and manufactured sub systems. Computers from Ferranti with every single word of software written to purpose by a small in-house team at Port Talbot, one of the world's very first colour CRT based monitors from Serck and later using colour VDUs from Microvitec, Instrument and Control interfaces from GEC 'Media' and Transmitton giving way to the first digital three term controllers from Turnbull Control Systems and then GEC PLCs. All bolted together (as the jargon has it) by racks of purpose designed serial line communication electronics units from the Swansea based firm Digitrol.

At that stage Britain was still at the forefront of so called 'real time' computing, following on the lead gained in the war at Bletchley Park with the world's first electronic computer called Collossus. Firms like Ferranti, Marconi, English Electric and AEI designed and manufactured computers and software suited to industrial applications. Two decades later all those firms had virtually disappeared swamped by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) who set about designing high quality but slashed costs by selling and manufacturing in bulk. ICT and Lyons however were already dwarfed by the IBM 360 from the USA in the commercial end of computing (largely payroll at that time). Both American firms used secrecy to make their systems less approachable and more complicated than they need be, a policy pursued by MicroSoft to this day.

So what chance now to build a successful industrial economy with today's lower grade engineering graduates? Not so bad to be starting afresh so long as they concentrate on innovation and this time drive it through to really productive industry.

But it is not a question of numeracy or innovation alone, it is what that intelligence is directed towards that counts. Think who created the problems of Asset Stripping, Excessive Leverage (debt), ever more sophisticated International Tax Avoidance, Packaging Debt (including 'toxic' sub prime mortgages) so it could not be valued properly - but it could be sold across the globe. The Credit Crunch in short. These operators didn't lack numeracy.