U3A GROUPS
GARDENING
Following a recent episode in hospital with her heart problems Margaret Massey is not going to carry on as Convenor for the new year starting October 2010. The group was advised of this at last week's meeting but there were no indications that a member of the existing group, who have been together for a very long time, was prepared to take over. Stressing once again the vital importance of keeping movement in the membership of groups.
Perhaps a newer member, ideally an active gardener, would put themselves forward to run a Gardening Group. Anyone interested should contact Margaret Massey on 205028 to discuss the task without any compulsion. As Group's Co-ordinator I too would be prepared to help.
OUTING TO STRATFORD Wednesday 7 July
Barbara Garnham 0781 1728 184 is organising this trip. She is considering cancelling unless about 10 vacancies on the coach are reserved. She also needs people to pay her the £14.50 fare in advance so she feels confident enough to book the coach.
HISTORY GROUP OUTING Friday 28 May
They are visiting the National Trust property Llanerchaeron House in Aberaeron.
There are still a few places available so please contact Rob James if interested on 882508. By this blog I am asking him to include Joan and I on the list.
GEOLOGY VISIT TO CALDEY ISLAND
Joan thoroughly enjoyed this outing though she returned home very stiff after a comparatively easy ramble. King Eric was also there. Not so long ago we regularly attended their monthly visits to sites of interest. The next of which is to the Llandovery area on 17 May 2010 led by Dr Robert Owens, meeting at 10.30 at grid reference SN767342, see OS map sheet 160.
WEDNESDAY LECTURE 5 May
Please note the change of speaker to Garethe El-Tawab the Curator of Swansea Museum. She will be speaking on 'Carry on Collecting'
SPECIAL U3A DAY at LLANDOVERY 19 May
Keith Richards, former Chairman of Third Age Trust will be speaking on 'U3As, Past, Present and Future'. If interested contact Mary Mac Gregor by tomorrow 1 May on 01550 720182 or mary@macmyddfai.demon.co.uk
THEATRE
Last week I was pointing up the similarity between the pioneering work done with theatre in the cultural desert of Stoke on Trent to the current tasks facing National Theatre Wales, and in particular to the work of Peter Cheeseman, Stephen Joseph (who died of cancer at the age of 46 in 1967) and Alan Ayckbourn in the early 1960s. I was amazed to open today's Guardian and find the featured obituary was for Peter Cheeseman, who died two days ago. He directed theatre in Stoke until retiring in1998, by which time the 600 seat Victoria Theatre had been built specially designed for theatre-in-the-round.
I was struck by the similarity of aims with National Theatre Wales to set up theatre which built on the local community, and was anxious to find the few programs I kept from that initial era. They start, like the obituary, from the touring Studio Theatre Ltd. of Stephen Joseph and a 1961/2 performance of 'A Doll's House' with Alan Ayckbourn in the leading male role. The Victoria Theatre (that name obviously pre-dates the New Vic as it was known later before returning to the original name with the purpose built theatre) had its first season in 1962/3. A season from which I have programs for The Rehearsal by Jean Anouilh directed by Peter Cheeseman and The Caretaker by Harold Pinter directed by Alan Ayckbourn.
A program from 1964 was for Look Back in Anger by John Osborne, but the program missing from that year was The Jolly Potter, a locally written musical staged during pantomime season as I recall, which told the story of the Potteries town which was still manufacturing a very high percentage of world's quality china - manufacturing now sadly virtually entirely transferred to Asia. To my chagrin we had decided to miss that iconic play, a fitting reward for the snob I still was! That was evidently the first of a whole series of productions featuring the concerns and history of the local community, and that is the real link with the aspirations of National Theatre Wales.
To convert the abandoned Victoria cinema into a theatre-in-the-round venue apparently cost £5000 (the price of two good houses in Stoke at the time), affordable and incredibly good value for money, yet provided the platform which together with outstanding artistic talent set theatre in Stoke off to the real success it was to become.
The other performance we remember from that era was a production of Hamlet, a play particularly powerful in 'theatre in the round' format as demonstrated superbly a couple of years ago at The Tobacco Factory in Bristol, with a performance directed by Jonathan Miller.
Theatre to Peter Cheeseman to quote from the Guardian obituary 'meant a permanent company of professional actors living in the town and making theatre that "springs from our contact with this community".'
Stephen Joseph (son of Hermione Gingold) left Stoke in 1966 and returned to Scarborough, the base of his touring Studio Theatre Ltd, and soon opened the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough with Alan Ayckbourn as Artistic Director, which is still active to this day. Like me he had first become an enthusiast of theatre-in-the-round in the USA in the 1950s - another program I found was a memorable Off-Broadway production of The Crucible by Arthur Miller in an upstairs room of the Martinique hotel in New York City in 1958.
In April 1966 I left English Electric-Leo-Marconi in Stoke to further my career with The Steel Company of Wales at Port Talbot.
Apologies to Newcastle-under-Lyme which might lay claim to the theatre, but like it or not it is physically part of Stoke, which in any case consists of five towns according to Arnold Bennett author of The Five Towns - though I remember it as six, Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Longton, Fenton and Stoke.
ELECTION
So the final TV debate by the candidates for Prime Minister is over. A series of three debates which for me began so engagingly ended disappointingly without exposing the plans of any of the parties for dealing with the UK's debt crisis. It was far too repetitive. If I hear again of the £6 billion pound immediate cuts ( sorry for earlier error) by the Tories or the proposals of the Liberals to exclude everyone earning under £10,000 from Income Tax (in the wrong direction), or the National Insurance Increase (in the correct direction but delayed) of Labour, then I will wretch - as for differing reasons I so nearly did during my presentation of last Wednesday's lecture! All are minor changes in the face of the cuts to come, whoever wins the election. I tend to agree with the commentator who said 'it is a good election to lose', for I feel that whatever the result a decade of austerity lies ahead.
As for the election Nick Clegg seems to believe the result in this election is to be judged as though proportional representation is already in place (ie by the number of votes cast nationally rather than the number of seats won), and if Labour come third in votes (looking likely according to the polls) he is going to work with the Tories. Well that was the situation at the last posting of this blog, but since then he has rowed back from that position and said he could work with Labour but not with Gordon Brown, no doubt in part from the pressure of so many left-leaning colleagues. In effect his price now would be to appoint a replacement leader of the Labour Party (very democratic, I don't think!).
If this were truly an election conducted on the proportional basis, which I have long favoured, if only to enfranchise voters in all seats, then I would be voting Liberal, who for me have got the best and most explicit policies. But I doubt that the Liberals can win the majority of seats under the current 'first past the post rules'. I also feel a Tory-Liberal coalition would fly apart on fundamental policy differences but that a Labour-Liberal coalition would be much more secure, since in the most important areas like the economy they are singing the same tune. Many of the liberal values of the Liberals ought in my view never have been ditched by the party of Blair and Brown. I believe there will be plenty of Labour MPs who think likewise.
I think it salutary to remember to be very thankful that Gordon Brown was at the helm during the eye of the 'credit crunch crisis'. The Tories were all over the place at that time. Vince Cable was perhaps ahead of Gordon at times but then he did not face the responsibility of making the decisions and he did not face the obstacle of returning his party to the policy Nationalisation. In the going Full Nationalisation was avoided when that would have been the best mechanism to alter bank behaviour in the long term (including salary and bonus for senior employees), instead of which we are left with a running sore. The Liberals want to break up the banks - but will they ever be able to do this from here.
As for Gordon Brown's temperament I don't find it attractive either, but I as I think anyone who has worked in high pressure industrial environments will have come across managers with volatile tempers to say the least, but on reflection will remember them also as being passionate and effective, if not pleasant to work for. Being Prime Minister is a high pressure occupation at the best of times, during a world crisis of the scale he encountered must have been very hard, fainter hearts may not have coped. That crisis is not yet over, the current problems faced by Greece are a pertinent warning.
So how to vote. If you want to see a Tory Government then vote Tory, or Liberal as the positive way to a Tory-Liberal coalition.
If like me you want to see a Labour-Liberal coalition then there is no doubt you should vote Labour. It will not occur if the Labour vote falls further than now predicted by the polls.
JAZZ
Don't forget the 'Mumbles Mostly Blues and Jazz Festival' this weekend from 7.30pm Friday 30 April, from 1pm to 11.15pm Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
If you want to hear good jazz then I suggest Saturday 1 May at the Conservative Club to hear the Oliver Nezhati Quintet at 5.30 for £6 or my choice Simon Spillet with the Dave Cottle Trio for £10 at 8.45pm. If you enjoy Saturday then think about attending the fine concerts on Sunday.
Oliver Nezhati, a saxophonist from Llandeilo, is currently a student at Trinity (music college) in London and his band will be of similar ages. The audience for jazz in Swansea may well be long in tooth but there are many great young UK musicians coming through and many appear at Jazzland (St James Crescent, Uplands). The stand-out example is Welshman Gwilym Simcock who is already entering the higher echelons of world jazz, and like so many of his era was classically trained to the highest level.
Jazzland have just issued their May-August program. On Wednesday 26 May singer Tina May will appear with the backing of the Dave Cottle Trio. Last year that partnership, with the addition of London based saxophonist Mornington Lockett, gave, on May Day Holiday, perhaps the most enjoyable concert I have ever heard. Though that occasion owed something to a glorious weather on the seafront at Mumbles and the 'Great American Songbook', although not helped by motorcyclists making as much noise as possible.
Next Wednesday 5 May at 8.30pm guitarist Fabian Farnandez will appear with his trio £8 but only £6 for members. Arrive early for a better choice of seats.
Friday, 30 April 2010
Sunday, 25 April 2010
GEOLOGY LATE CHANGE, TRAVEL, THEATRE and ELECTION
GEOLOGY URGENT DATE CHANGE
Because of the state of the tide the Geology Group have at the last minute changed the date of their visit to Caldey Island. The trip will now take place on Tuesday 27 April. Meeting 10.30 am PROMPT in Butts Field, the main TENBY car park on the A478 heading from Saundersfoot towards the Tenby town centre (grid ref OS sheet 158 SN132 011). Allowing just sufficient time to catch the boat scheduled for 11am. You are advised to take a packed lunch, though there is a cafe on the island. Return boat fare about £10 each. Only a leisurely 2 mile walk around the island is entailed.
A SLOW BUS THROUGH CHINA, Wednesday Lecture 28 April
It's a hard job to reduce the number of slides portraying a 60 day trip to a reasonable number, in fact it seems impossible. My lecture a couple of years ago Patagonia totalled 110 slides, this time it will be 95 out of a possible 1200, which I still count far too many. What I can also do is to save lecture time by explaining a little more than I will have time for on the day, about the way Joan and I travel and the way our style evolved.
When we started this form of travel in 1989 we were still both in full time work. I had finished a few months of heavy unpaid overtime during a blast furnace rebuild at Port Talbot and was offered a four week holiday for the first time. We decided to go to Nepal which had for long been top of our wish list. We talked about it with young friends who had just returned from an umpteenth trading trip to Nepal to buy clothes and jewellery in bulk for resale. They advised us to go without any pre-booking and play it by ear and laid down a challenge we could not refuse. 'If at our (young) age we can do it you then with all your experience you surely can'. A few weeks later we stood with some trepidation in the queue at Heathrow for the initial direct flight London-Kathmandu by Nepal Airlines, to be piloted by their King's newphew. Thin 144 page Lonely Planet (LP) in hand, 'Kathmandu and the Kingdom of Nepal', giving all the information we actually needed, Even budget class passengers were served champagne that day!
Ten hours later we emerged from the airport terminal to be greeted by the colour and squalor of Asia for the first time. A hundred or so hungry touts each offering to take us to suitable accommodation with the motto 'looking is free'. As is still normal we opted for a quiet life and ducked out of the crowd and onto the local service bus heading for the city centre. But young Kim was not willing to lose a potential customer so he jumped on after us, sat on the engine and talked. He persuaded us to at least come to look at the place he was suggesting, it was in Thamel the area recommended by the LP, so we agreed. Our first footfall in Asia was truly an immense culture shock. We wondered, 'How could anyone survive in such filth and poverty?'
But Nepal Peace Cottage offered a big but basic en-suite room, with breakfast on the roof overlooking a single paddy field and the surrounding city for the attractive sounding price of 10$ per day for two. So we set out to explore Thamel on foot and ended up in the Narayan Restaurant packed to the gunnels with backpackers seated at large bench tables, where we ate the most delicious quiche/pasta/salad and made friends immediately, including with an American, a decade or so younger than us, who said his style was to stay in a good hotel but eat with the backpackers in the evening for lively company and tasty food. That is a scene long since gone, overtaken by western affluence, the gap-year phenomenon, and 1000 page LP guide books. It was a hang over from the days when Kathmandu was one of the world's favourite destinations for 'hippies'. The LP recommended Kathmandu as one of the very few top destinations in the world for tasty food.
Heaven knows how, for we could neither speak the language nor read the destinations in Nepali script on the front of the twenty buses parked at the bus station, but we caught the correct buses for day trips to the likes of Patan and Bhaktapur, the outlying towns
The owners of Nepal Peace Cottage invited us for dinner one evening and sold us the idea of taking a 15 day trek around Annapurna with a guide and two porters, all we would carry was our two small day-rucksacks. Regrettably our ability at that kind of hard mountain walking is now well past, my only regret is that we didn't opt for the 21 day trek Annapurna Round. We went to Muktinath (3500m) virtually the half the distance since we first headed to Annapurna Base Camp, making it 10 days out but only 5 back, but avoided the tough 5400m trek over the Thorung La pass. Fitter and fitter after 15 days of altitude training I knew I could have walked the full round with something to spare, and will always regret not having done it. It would have been touch and go for Joan in spite of many many weeks of circuit training in Swansea YMCA gym.
When we returned to Kathmandu it was like coming home, no longer needing to exist on asking for sweet cup cha didi (cup of tea big sister) and dahl baht (lentil curry) generous helping of rice with only a desert spoonful of curry. If you left any it wasn't thrown away, it was fed to the children. Then we started listening, the other backpackers were paying a dollar a day not ten like us.
For the next holiday we lived like true backpackers for less than we could at home for a three week holiday including the air fare. We chose Thailand because evertone in Kathmandu had raved about the food and found ourselves in Bangkok in a guest house on Khao San Road which doubled as a Chinese laundry, with a sign which said 'no Chinese girls upstairs' as the owners defended the morals of their own race. But Thai girls were a different matter as was all too clear from the sounds emanating from the adjacent rooms without windows but separated at height not by walls but by netting, so as to allow for air flow.
Twenty years on after several years of ill health, in which Joan developed rheumatoid arthritis shortly after retirement and had to have both knees replaced in order to walk at all and I had written off a hip doing too much heavy building whilst restyling three sides of our house on a hill, we have changed our method somewhat. We now use 3/4 star hotels or equivalent rooms in residential blocks and eat the best food we can find, and always stay centrally so we can explore on foot, by tuk-tuk or rickshaw, usually armed with a modicum of their language, using our eyes rather than guide books to choose between their restaurants and using their scheduled public transport (bus, train or shared taxi/minibus) to move around. But spending less all in on a leisurely 60 day holiday than many spend on exhausting 15 day package flying visit tours, which check all the boxes.
Such a style we used successfully in China from 1 September 2006, with say 200 words of spoken Mandarin but without ever once getting on the wrong bus, and only once in 60 nights putting up with less than adequate accommodation, and that because it was almost midnight when we arrived in town. Nothing was booked ahead except flights London-Beijing return and Beijing-Kashgar one way, Holiday Inn in Beijing and two nights in a new business class hotel Wen Zhuo in Kashgar, all booked by Internet. All in cost Swansea - Swansea of £3258 for, flights, visas, travel, food, drinks (little - it's not Asian culture), purchases (few), nearly half (£1422) on flights.
THE SWANSEA ASSEMBLY, NATIONAL THEATRE WALES
Around ten of us from the Jive Group took part with a fifteen minute demonstration including getting newcomers to join in order to kick-start the evening with the first of several short performances, the rest being cabaret singing and theatre sketches. The walls were hung with a collection of excellent enlargements of photographs taken of us at our Jive Group practising the previous day.
The space was divided into four tables equipped with nibbles, wine and olives, and each new arrival was assigned to one of the colour coded groups. Four leaders were assigned to the groups to lead discussion on Swansea, Facilities, ideas for Swansea Town Planners, supporting Asylum Seekers, supporting Teenagers Leaving local authority Care. A pile of bricks were on each table and members were asked to chalk comments on in chalk to remind them of key points in the discussion. Each group had about 6/8 participants, the groups stayed put every twenty minutes or so the leaders rotated after a break for a short theatrical performance.
Following the order my group followed
FACILITIES (my term). Lead by Senior Labour Councillor and Chairman of Volcano Theatre, David Phillips
The least successful of the groups because leader and participants were finding their way. The main observations were the absence of good shops, whereas years ago Swansea was the equal of Cardiff. My beef was the lack of good public entertainment when my family and grandchildren were on holiday for one or two weeks in their Christmas or Easter holidays. My advocacy of Jazzlands which equals or exceeds any jazz venue in Cardiff, to which for most of the year I would add Taliesin.
'Swansea was the End of Ambition' for several of us, but we had stayed for positive reasons in my case associated with the superb natural environment of Swansea Bay (winter exploration, sailing and swimming in summer), Gower and Brecon Beacons for mountain walking.
More should be made of the Grand Theatre. Why shouldn't it be a centre of excellence in theatrical terms like the Royal Theatre in Bath?
TOWN PLANNING
Sorry I forget the architect's name but he was advocating preserving the castle with a large overhanging roof as a way of enabling it to become a distinctive, visited, feature at the centre of the city
Them he went back to the plan which would have given Swansea a new 'heart' around the Grand Theatre. We both remember the publicity around the recent architectural award for the new library in Lewisham, but it was news to me that this was the design originally developed then rejected for Swansea's Year of Literature. (A missed opportunity equivalent to the rejection of the prize winner for Cardiff's Millenium Centre). Instead of which we got a restoration of what is now the Dylan Thomas Centre, highly desirable in itself, without moving towards unification of the city centre and with nothing like the long term use that the library would have given us.
To me that makes all the more attractive the other plan he reminded me of, the idea for the main Oystermouth road being an underpass to free up pedestrian access across the city centre, which day by day becomes ever more dispersed, with the library being relocated to the Civic Centre, Dylan Thomas Centre, Industrial Museum, original museum (Royal Institution of South Wales as was) all near the sea front, Whereas shops, central bus station, railway station, theatre and castle are dispersed in the more tradition centre.in the.
He also presented a plan for a mini barrage around Swansea Bay as an amenity ring with the added advantage of generating electricity from tidal movement. Remember though that electricity cannot be stored and without large scale water storage the generation would be as cyclic as the tide and bear no correlation with demand.
I know Joan found this the most interesting group discussion of all.
CARE LEAVERS
Describing the huge problems facing young people leaving care in this country, housing, very low income (£50 Job Seekers Allowance), no aspiration, no qualification. It was an almost insoluble burden for those trying to help people find their way in the world, no wonder many turned to drugs.
ASYLUM SEEKERS
Another discussion leader trying to grapple with a very difficult task
of helping them through the legal battle to prove they were genuine asylum seekers rather than illegal immigrants, made almost impossible because they were allowed only 5 hours free consultation with a lawyer.
The secondary school teacher in the group said that school leavers, let alone the population at large, did not understand the huge moral difference between asylum seekers who faced persecution or even death if they returned to their own country, and economic migrants who also arrived by illegal means hoping for a better life.
A surprising fact to me was that the majority currently seeking asylum in Swansea were mainland Chinese, who had run into trouble with the Chinese state for trade union or other political reasons.
PRESENTATIONS
Finally each group was asked to find two people to present via microphone and video camera a two minute summary of their group's key observations.
Emma was keen to put forward her views from my group, whereas I was happy to opt out until it was obvious that someone had to help her with the presentation. In the event like the other groups we made a joint presentation for Emma's choice (bearing three bricks) of the Care Leavers and Asylum Seekers. My contribution was to say that I considered that the major problem with care leavers was caused by the complete failure to deal with their problems whilst they were in care. Since they were leaving care without qualifications, without aspiration, and in consequence with little likelihood of finding jobs it was hard to see a satisfactory conclusion.
As regards Asylum one key reflexion was that secondary education leavers needed to understand and be able to evaluate moral values. In the past we may have relied on the churches to teach such issues - but as an atheist I recognise it as vital part of the armory of good citizens.
Steven Allen
As one of the very latest to join Swansea U3A, attracted initially perhaps by the activity of the Jive Group and intended to be part of our display on the night, it was interesting to see him seized for a role in one of the theatrical presentations. He has obvious talent in that direction, so it looks as though we have another valuable U3A new member.
We jivers all stayed to enjoy the whole meeting and the feedback I got from our members towards the meeting was entirely favourable. The vibes from the National Theatre Wales group were likewise. One suggestion from me is that the Discussion Leaders ought to have worn name tags with an indication of affiliation.
The second observation is that I thought the event was inadequately served by the publicity I saw. Not until the night did I understand the real form of the occasion with the key objective being to create discussion, the jive being a way to break the ice and theatrical presentations being the means chosen to break the evening up and showcase some of the issues to be discussed. I know this was a first off for National Theatre Wales and no organiser could be expected to know how it would turn out, but with a more complete prior understanding I would have been able to publicise it better to U3A members, and a number of them would have been keen to contribute, even though the event clashed with the second prime ministerial debate on TV.
SHELF LIFE
Having discussed with David Philips, the poor review in the Guardian, by Lyn Gardner who is normally particularly supportive to new theatrical ideas, I decided to change my original decision not to go and Joan and I just squeezed into a nominally full house at the last minute on Saturday evening. Not myself a past lover of Volcano Theatre, who I saw murder a Shakespeare play in the Grand a couple of decades ago, I must say we both found it an enjoyable evening and one we are pleased not to have missed.
I found the presentation unfocussed but with some excellent moments, though without doubt innovative and therefore very interesting. I personally prefer text based theatre, with a strong message which leaves you thinking, and found many of the physical theatre aspects both pointless and distracting (not that I object to distraction by naked young women!). The use of space, outside, in the store room, and around a circular dinner table in the beautiful old library building, was excellent, but we are still unsure what the message was.
Readers of this blog will be aware of my love of 'theatre in the round' - what better venue could there be than this circular library room with its glass dome! Thinking as I do of how to develop theatre in Swansea I see this as the rich man's alternative to Bristol's Tobacco Factory. We lived in Stoke-on-Trent during the inauguration of their Victoria Theatre (in the round) in the early sixties by the now famous trio of Peter Cheeseman, Stephen Joseph and Alan Ayckborn, who was then an actor. If they could do it in the cultural wilderness of Stoke we could surely do it here and put Swansea on the theatrical map. Whilst we are here how about the Grand Theatre emulating the quality theatre of Royal Theatre Bath. We could not emulate Bristol's Old Vic without a theatre school.
ELECTION
'A week is a long time in politics.' A week ago I was enthusing about the TV debates and now I am concerned about the presidential form of this election and by the overwhelming media role of analysing polls and the opinion of groups of 'uncommitted voters', rather than the issues. It has become a case of waiting for the big mistakes of the leaders and Nick Clegg made one for me on today's Andrew Marr Show.
Over forty five years now as a Swansea resident I have voted Labour and Liberal several times, and Plaid Cymru too (though not I think in a General Election). I guess that qualifies me as a floating anti-Tory voter.
I want to see proportional representation and I favour many of the Liberal's policies in this election but above all wish to see realignment on the left of politics, all of which over confident Blair failed to deliver a decade ago when it would have been so simple.
Currently I would regard the following outcomes as probable.
1) That the Tories will get more votes than Labour as they have done even in winning recent elections.
2) That the Liberals will get more votes than either or both the other main parties without a commensurate gain in seats.
If so when Nick Clegg said he wouldn't prop up Labour if they were third in the popular vote in real terms he was saying he would join a Tory led coalition but not a Labour led one. So he is in favour of a realignment on the right but not the left of politics - thus confirming my original feeling that Clegg was a right leaning opportunist (Blairite) politician. From my point of view it was a pity he beat Chris Hulme, who is clearly on the left of the party, in the recent election for leader of the Liberal Party. I doubt either Chris Hulme or Vince Cable, and possibly other leading Liberal MPs, are too happy about the commitment Nick has just made, which emphasises the presidential nature of the current election contest.
Will that position change in the next 10 days? We will see.
Because of the state of the tide the Geology Group have at the last minute changed the date of their visit to Caldey Island. The trip will now take place on Tuesday 27 April. Meeting 10.30 am PROMPT in Butts Field, the main TENBY car park on the A478 heading from Saundersfoot towards the Tenby town centre (grid ref OS sheet 158 SN132 011). Allowing just sufficient time to catch the boat scheduled for 11am. You are advised to take a packed lunch, though there is a cafe on the island. Return boat fare about £10 each. Only a leisurely 2 mile walk around the island is entailed.
A SLOW BUS THROUGH CHINA, Wednesday Lecture 28 April
It's a hard job to reduce the number of slides portraying a 60 day trip to a reasonable number, in fact it seems impossible. My lecture a couple of years ago Patagonia totalled 110 slides, this time it will be 95 out of a possible 1200, which I still count far too many. What I can also do is to save lecture time by explaining a little more than I will have time for on the day, about the way Joan and I travel and the way our style evolved.
When we started this form of travel in 1989 we were still both in full time work. I had finished a few months of heavy unpaid overtime during a blast furnace rebuild at Port Talbot and was offered a four week holiday for the first time. We decided to go to Nepal which had for long been top of our wish list. We talked about it with young friends who had just returned from an umpteenth trading trip to Nepal to buy clothes and jewellery in bulk for resale. They advised us to go without any pre-booking and play it by ear and laid down a challenge we could not refuse. 'If at our (young) age we can do it you then with all your experience you surely can'. A few weeks later we stood with some trepidation in the queue at Heathrow for the initial direct flight London-Kathmandu by Nepal Airlines, to be piloted by their King's newphew. Thin 144 page Lonely Planet (LP) in hand, 'Kathmandu and the Kingdom of Nepal', giving all the information we actually needed, Even budget class passengers were served champagne that day!
Ten hours later we emerged from the airport terminal to be greeted by the colour and squalor of Asia for the first time. A hundred or so hungry touts each offering to take us to suitable accommodation with the motto 'looking is free'. As is still normal we opted for a quiet life and ducked out of the crowd and onto the local service bus heading for the city centre. But young Kim was not willing to lose a potential customer so he jumped on after us, sat on the engine and talked. He persuaded us to at least come to look at the place he was suggesting, it was in Thamel the area recommended by the LP, so we agreed. Our first footfall in Asia was truly an immense culture shock. We wondered, 'How could anyone survive in such filth and poverty?'
But Nepal Peace Cottage offered a big but basic en-suite room, with breakfast on the roof overlooking a single paddy field and the surrounding city for the attractive sounding price of 10$ per day for two. So we set out to explore Thamel on foot and ended up in the Narayan Restaurant packed to the gunnels with backpackers seated at large bench tables, where we ate the most delicious quiche/pasta/salad and made friends immediately, including with an American, a decade or so younger than us, who said his style was to stay in a good hotel but eat with the backpackers in the evening for lively company and tasty food. That is a scene long since gone, overtaken by western affluence, the gap-year phenomenon, and 1000 page LP guide books. It was a hang over from the days when Kathmandu was one of the world's favourite destinations for 'hippies'. The LP recommended Kathmandu as one of the very few top destinations in the world for tasty food.
Heaven knows how, for we could neither speak the language nor read the destinations in Nepali script on the front of the twenty buses parked at the bus station, but we caught the correct buses for day trips to the likes of Patan and Bhaktapur, the outlying towns
The owners of Nepal Peace Cottage invited us for dinner one evening and sold us the idea of taking a 15 day trek around Annapurna with a guide and two porters, all we would carry was our two small day-rucksacks. Regrettably our ability at that kind of hard mountain walking is now well past, my only regret is that we didn't opt for the 21 day trek Annapurna Round. We went to Muktinath (3500m) virtually the half the distance since we first headed to Annapurna Base Camp, making it 10 days out but only 5 back, but avoided the tough 5400m trek over the Thorung La pass. Fitter and fitter after 15 days of altitude training I knew I could have walked the full round with something to spare, and will always regret not having done it. It would have been touch and go for Joan in spite of many many weeks of circuit training in Swansea YMCA gym.
When we returned to Kathmandu it was like coming home, no longer needing to exist on asking for sweet cup cha didi (cup of tea big sister) and dahl baht (lentil curry) generous helping of rice with only a desert spoonful of curry. If you left any it wasn't thrown away, it was fed to the children. Then we started listening, the other backpackers were paying a dollar a day not ten like us.
For the next holiday we lived like true backpackers for less than we could at home for a three week holiday including the air fare. We chose Thailand because evertone in Kathmandu had raved about the food and found ourselves in Bangkok in a guest house on Khao San Road which doubled as a Chinese laundry, with a sign which said 'no Chinese girls upstairs' as the owners defended the morals of their own race. But Thai girls were a different matter as was all too clear from the sounds emanating from the adjacent rooms without windows but separated at height not by walls but by netting, so as to allow for air flow.
Twenty years on after several years of ill health, in which Joan developed rheumatoid arthritis shortly after retirement and had to have both knees replaced in order to walk at all and I had written off a hip doing too much heavy building whilst restyling three sides of our house on a hill, we have changed our method somewhat. We now use 3/4 star hotels or equivalent rooms in residential blocks and eat the best food we can find, and always stay centrally so we can explore on foot, by tuk-tuk or rickshaw, usually armed with a modicum of their language, using our eyes rather than guide books to choose between their restaurants and using their scheduled public transport (bus, train or shared taxi/minibus) to move around. But spending less all in on a leisurely 60 day holiday than many spend on exhausting 15 day package flying visit tours, which check all the boxes.
Such a style we used successfully in China from 1 September 2006, with say 200 words of spoken Mandarin but without ever once getting on the wrong bus, and only once in 60 nights putting up with less than adequate accommodation, and that because it was almost midnight when we arrived in town. Nothing was booked ahead except flights London-Beijing return and Beijing-Kashgar one way, Holiday Inn in Beijing and two nights in a new business class hotel Wen Zhuo in Kashgar, all booked by Internet. All in cost Swansea - Swansea of £3258 for, flights, visas, travel, food, drinks (little - it's not Asian culture), purchases (few), nearly half (£1422) on flights.
THE SWANSEA ASSEMBLY, NATIONAL THEATRE WALES
Around ten of us from the Jive Group took part with a fifteen minute demonstration including getting newcomers to join in order to kick-start the evening with the first of several short performances, the rest being cabaret singing and theatre sketches. The walls were hung with a collection of excellent enlargements of photographs taken of us at our Jive Group practising the previous day.
The space was divided into four tables equipped with nibbles, wine and olives, and each new arrival was assigned to one of the colour coded groups. Four leaders were assigned to the groups to lead discussion on Swansea, Facilities, ideas for Swansea Town Planners, supporting Asylum Seekers, supporting Teenagers Leaving local authority Care. A pile of bricks were on each table and members were asked to chalk comments on in chalk to remind them of key points in the discussion. Each group had about 6/8 participants, the groups stayed put every twenty minutes or so the leaders rotated after a break for a short theatrical performance.
Following the order my group followed
FACILITIES (my term). Lead by Senior Labour Councillor and Chairman of Volcano Theatre, David Phillips
The least successful of the groups because leader and participants were finding their way. The main observations were the absence of good shops, whereas years ago Swansea was the equal of Cardiff. My beef was the lack of good public entertainment when my family and grandchildren were on holiday for one or two weeks in their Christmas or Easter holidays. My advocacy of Jazzlands which equals or exceeds any jazz venue in Cardiff, to which for most of the year I would add Taliesin.
'Swansea was the End of Ambition' for several of us, but we had stayed for positive reasons in my case associated with the superb natural environment of Swansea Bay (winter exploration, sailing and swimming in summer), Gower and Brecon Beacons for mountain walking.
More should be made of the Grand Theatre. Why shouldn't it be a centre of excellence in theatrical terms like the Royal Theatre in Bath?
TOWN PLANNING
Sorry I forget the architect's name but he was advocating preserving the castle with a large overhanging roof as a way of enabling it to become a distinctive, visited, feature at the centre of the city
Them he went back to the plan which would have given Swansea a new 'heart' around the Grand Theatre. We both remember the publicity around the recent architectural award for the new library in Lewisham, but it was news to me that this was the design originally developed then rejected for Swansea's Year of Literature. (A missed opportunity equivalent to the rejection of the prize winner for Cardiff's Millenium Centre). Instead of which we got a restoration of what is now the Dylan Thomas Centre, highly desirable in itself, without moving towards unification of the city centre and with nothing like the long term use that the library would have given us.
To me that makes all the more attractive the other plan he reminded me of, the idea for the main Oystermouth road being an underpass to free up pedestrian access across the city centre, which day by day becomes ever more dispersed, with the library being relocated to the Civic Centre, Dylan Thomas Centre, Industrial Museum, original museum (Royal Institution of South Wales as was) all near the sea front, Whereas shops, central bus station, railway station, theatre and castle are dispersed in the more tradition centre.in the.
He also presented a plan for a mini barrage around Swansea Bay as an amenity ring with the added advantage of generating electricity from tidal movement. Remember though that electricity cannot be stored and without large scale water storage the generation would be as cyclic as the tide and bear no correlation with demand.
I know Joan found this the most interesting group discussion of all.
CARE LEAVERS
Describing the huge problems facing young people leaving care in this country, housing, very low income (£50 Job Seekers Allowance), no aspiration, no qualification. It was an almost insoluble burden for those trying to help people find their way in the world, no wonder many turned to drugs.
ASYLUM SEEKERS
Another discussion leader trying to grapple with a very difficult task
of helping them through the legal battle to prove they were genuine asylum seekers rather than illegal immigrants, made almost impossible because they were allowed only 5 hours free consultation with a lawyer.
The secondary school teacher in the group said that school leavers, let alone the population at large, did not understand the huge moral difference between asylum seekers who faced persecution or even death if they returned to their own country, and economic migrants who also arrived by illegal means hoping for a better life.
A surprising fact to me was that the majority currently seeking asylum in Swansea were mainland Chinese, who had run into trouble with the Chinese state for trade union or other political reasons.
PRESENTATIONS
Finally each group was asked to find two people to present via microphone and video camera a two minute summary of their group's key observations.
Emma was keen to put forward her views from my group, whereas I was happy to opt out until it was obvious that someone had to help her with the presentation. In the event like the other groups we made a joint presentation for Emma's choice (bearing three bricks) of the Care Leavers and Asylum Seekers. My contribution was to say that I considered that the major problem with care leavers was caused by the complete failure to deal with their problems whilst they were in care. Since they were leaving care without qualifications, without aspiration, and in consequence with little likelihood of finding jobs it was hard to see a satisfactory conclusion.
As regards Asylum one key reflexion was that secondary education leavers needed to understand and be able to evaluate moral values. In the past we may have relied on the churches to teach such issues - but as an atheist I recognise it as vital part of the armory of good citizens.
Steven Allen
As one of the very latest to join Swansea U3A, attracted initially perhaps by the activity of the Jive Group and intended to be part of our display on the night, it was interesting to see him seized for a role in one of the theatrical presentations. He has obvious talent in that direction, so it looks as though we have another valuable U3A new member.
We jivers all stayed to enjoy the whole meeting and the feedback I got from our members towards the meeting was entirely favourable. The vibes from the National Theatre Wales group were likewise. One suggestion from me is that the Discussion Leaders ought to have worn name tags with an indication of affiliation.
The second observation is that I thought the event was inadequately served by the publicity I saw. Not until the night did I understand the real form of the occasion with the key objective being to create discussion, the jive being a way to break the ice and theatrical presentations being the means chosen to break the evening up and showcase some of the issues to be discussed. I know this was a first off for National Theatre Wales and no organiser could be expected to know how it would turn out, but with a more complete prior understanding I would have been able to publicise it better to U3A members, and a number of them would have been keen to contribute, even though the event clashed with the second prime ministerial debate on TV.
SHELF LIFE
Having discussed with David Philips, the poor review in the Guardian, by Lyn Gardner who is normally particularly supportive to new theatrical ideas, I decided to change my original decision not to go and Joan and I just squeezed into a nominally full house at the last minute on Saturday evening. Not myself a past lover of Volcano Theatre, who I saw murder a Shakespeare play in the Grand a couple of decades ago, I must say we both found it an enjoyable evening and one we are pleased not to have missed.
I found the presentation unfocussed but with some excellent moments, though without doubt innovative and therefore very interesting. I personally prefer text based theatre, with a strong message which leaves you thinking, and found many of the physical theatre aspects both pointless and distracting (not that I object to distraction by naked young women!). The use of space, outside, in the store room, and around a circular dinner table in the beautiful old library building, was excellent, but we are still unsure what the message was.
Readers of this blog will be aware of my love of 'theatre in the round' - what better venue could there be than this circular library room with its glass dome! Thinking as I do of how to develop theatre in Swansea I see this as the rich man's alternative to Bristol's Tobacco Factory. We lived in Stoke-on-Trent during the inauguration of their Victoria Theatre (in the round) in the early sixties by the now famous trio of Peter Cheeseman, Stephen Joseph and Alan Ayckborn, who was then an actor. If they could do it in the cultural wilderness of Stoke we could surely do it here and put Swansea on the theatrical map. Whilst we are here how about the Grand Theatre emulating the quality theatre of Royal Theatre Bath. We could not emulate Bristol's Old Vic without a theatre school.
ELECTION
'A week is a long time in politics.' A week ago I was enthusing about the TV debates and now I am concerned about the presidential form of this election and by the overwhelming media role of analysing polls and the opinion of groups of 'uncommitted voters', rather than the issues. It has become a case of waiting for the big mistakes of the leaders and Nick Clegg made one for me on today's Andrew Marr Show.
Over forty five years now as a Swansea resident I have voted Labour and Liberal several times, and Plaid Cymru too (though not I think in a General Election). I guess that qualifies me as a floating anti-Tory voter.
I want to see proportional representation and I favour many of the Liberal's policies in this election but above all wish to see realignment on the left of politics, all of which over confident Blair failed to deliver a decade ago when it would have been so simple.
Currently I would regard the following outcomes as probable.
1) That the Tories will get more votes than Labour as they have done even in winning recent elections.
2) That the Liberals will get more votes than either or both the other main parties without a commensurate gain in seats.
If so when Nick Clegg said he wouldn't prop up Labour if they were third in the popular vote in real terms he was saying he would join a Tory led coalition but not a Labour led one. So he is in favour of a realignment on the right but not the left of politics - thus confirming my original feeling that Clegg was a right leaning opportunist (Blairite) politician. From my point of view it was a pity he beat Chris Hulme, who is clearly on the left of the party, in the recent election for leader of the Liberal Party. I doubt either Chris Hulme or Vince Cable, and possibly other leading Liberal MPs, are too happy about the commitment Nick has just made, which emphasises the presidential nature of the current election contest.
Will that position change in the next 10 days? We will see.
Monday, 19 April 2010
MISCELLANY
LUNCHES GALORE, but not for me
Joan is deserting me to lunch at PA's with Dorothy Little's reading group 4. I missed the lunch of Mo's old established reading group 1 last week because of our Easter visitors, who donated the cough which is keeping me away from today's Italian class, the last until 7 June because Carolina will be in Italy. Jive are determined to count me out of theirs on 28 April at the Monkey Cafe knowing full well I will be sweating on my Wednesday lecture that same day - still they have assured me they will be there in time to swell the attendance.
SEASHORE
It's not only lunches I've been missing out on but also Michael Isaac's conducted seashore walk. I am grateful to Barbara Ellis for reminding me of the opportunity we missed with photographs to show others enjoying themselves. She writes 'On Wednesday 14th April 12 members went with Michael Isaac's to Oxwich Bay. This trip was a follow up to his Grove lecture. It was an amazingly informative experience. At low water we saw a wide variety of wild life in rock pools, under stones and in the sand and Michael gave much information about the sea life and it's adaptability to it's environment'.
I say missed opportunity because Jim (now late 40's) and family were here for the week. He and his brother Geoffrey were well known to Michael from their early primary school years when they were imbued with a love of such wonders by Michael and his father on regular walks of the young people's section of Swansea Museum. To show Jim has never lost the fascination for the natural world I add a photograph of a particularly long legged crab he found this Thursday on Oxwich beach.
We would have been there had I looked at the web site recently, so here once again is the link.
http://www.u3aswansea.org.uk/
PROFESSOR MAURICE BROADY
Maurice Broady died 15 April 2010 and the funeral is Thusday 22 April in Coychurch Crematorium, near Bridgend. He will be well known to the older members as a founder member and Past President of Swansea U3A. Thanks to Gabriella Suff for this information.
He will particularly missed by Margaret Hammond and her Research Group who did much of the painstaking study of archives behind the book he wrote on Swansea Stained Glass. They still have hopes the work will be published.
Outing from Barbara Garnham
NICK CLEGG
Joan is deserting me to lunch at PA's with Dorothy Little's reading group 4. I missed the lunch of Mo's old established reading group 1 last week because of our Easter visitors, who donated the cough which is keeping me away from today's Italian class, the last until 7 June because Carolina will be in Italy. Jive are determined to count me out of theirs on 28 April at the Monkey Cafe knowing full well I will be sweating on my Wednesday lecture that same day - still they have assured me they will be there in time to swell the attendance.
SEASHORE
It's not only lunches I've been missing out on but also Michael Isaac's conducted seashore walk. I am grateful to Barbara Ellis for reminding me of the opportunity we missed with photographs to show others enjoying themselves. She writes 'On Wednesday 14th April 12 members went with Michael Isaac's to Oxwich Bay. This trip was a follow up to his Grove lecture. It was an amazingly informative experience. At low water we saw a wide variety of wild life in rock pools, under stones and in the sand and Michael gave much information about the sea life and it's adaptability to it's environment'.
I say missed opportunity because Jim (now late 40's) and family were here for the week. He and his brother Geoffrey were well known to Michael from their early primary school years when they were imbued with a love of such wonders by Michael and his father on regular walks of the young people's section of Swansea Museum. To show Jim has never lost the fascination for the natural world I add a photograph of a particularly long legged crab he found this Thursday on Oxwich beach.
We would have been there had I looked at the web site recently, so here once again is the link.
http://www.u3aswansea.org.uk/
PROFESSOR MAURICE BROADY
Maurice Broady died 15 April 2010 and the funeral is Thusday 22 April in Coychurch Crematorium, near Bridgend. He will be well known to the older members as a founder member and Past President of Swansea U3A. Thanks to Gabriella Suff for this information.
He will particularly missed by Margaret Hammond and her Research Group who did much of the painstaking study of archives behind the book he wrote on Swansea Stained Glass. They still have hopes the work will be published.
Outing from Barbara Garnham
SPECIAL DAY AT THE U3A LLANDOVERY
Wednesday, 19th May 2010
At the Llandovery Rugby Club
Church Bank, Llandovery SA20 0BA
Llandovery U3A extends a warm welcome to all U3A members to a Special Day on May 19th 2010
The guest speaker will be Keith Richards, a former Chairman and currently Adviser of the Third Age Trust, who will talk on
‘U3As – Past, Present and Future’
Morning tea/coffee and a lunchtime buffet will be provided.
We invite visitors to bring along any information about their activities which can be displayed.
Those wishing to attend, please contact:
Mary MacGregor,
Penhill Lodge,
Myddfai, Llandovery,
Carmarthenshire SA20 0NQ
Tel: 01550 720182
Email: mary@macmyddfai.demon.co.uk
HUMAN RIGHTS
Following up on the last blog posting there was a superb couple of pages in G2 last week summarising the major human rights legislation including Magna Carta and the Beveridge Report which led to our Welfare State and NHS.
Of particular interest was the Slavery Abolition Act of 1883 which abolished slavery throughout the British Empire. Including the pertinent comment that, 'unfortunates enslaved in lands owned by the powerful East India Company were ignored by the legislation'. Giving extra credence to 'An Indian Take' as shown in the posters in the Madurai Gandhi Museum.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
The Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, will talk in Swansea about his experiences, with particular regard to Human Rights abuses in Uzbekistan. The talk will be held at 7.30 pm on 28 April in the Swansea Rugby Club.
All are welcome. Please note there will be no charge for entry assisted by the fact that the Rugby Club are making no charge for hire of the room.
Wikipedia says
Wikipedia says
'Murray complained to the Foreign and Colonial Office in November 2002, January or early February 2003, and in June 2004 that intelligence linking the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to al-Qaeda, suspected of being gained through torture, was unreliable, immoral, and illegal. He described this as "selling our souls for dross".
Murray was subsequently removed from his ambassadorial post on October 14, 2004.'NICK CLEGG
What a breath of fresh air he has given to the politics of this country by his contribution to the first TV Debate. He is forcing the two major parties to debate the issues, an entirely healthy outcome. I must say I had reservations about whether the Liberal Democrats had chosen right in their last leadership election (mainly because I saw it as a tactical move towards Blairism), but on the basis of what I heard and saw that night I changed my view. He debated from strongly held 'liberal' views and alone began to face up to the need for huge cuts in expenditure alongside a vision of a fair society. I saw the first such debate, Kennedy/Nixon in 1960, from nearby Canada, and I read recently that was 14 years before there was another - I don't doubt it is now a fixed part of scenery.
If only the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the parochial local party organisation had a similar breadth of vision. This very minute a totally negative bulletin is posted through my door headed (political) 'Crime Scene', blaming only Labour and the Conservatives for what is largely yesterday's overblown politician's expenses problem. No mention on Nick Clegg's positivity, issues or vision. The local party sent out a leaflet shortly before the European elections without mention of Europe, and one recently on why one should vote for their councillor. I despair of the quality of MPs who will be returned next parliament from all three parties after the big turnout including good ex-ministers like Purnell. Such is the paucity maybe the Liberal Democrats have as many potential leaders as any party, certainly few would argue with Vince Cable as Chancellor and several others have performed well on Question Time.
I just hope that Nick Clegg stays on principals, issues and vision in the final TV debates and brings each party's policies into the limelight. He needs to stress his beliefs especially on the need for an ultra positive approach to Europe, reminding us that our currency has devalued by 25% against the Euro as well as the US dollar during this financial crisis. They can't be getting everything wrong.
THEATRE
As part of our Jim's week's holiday we spent one day in Bristol, where he met his wife Anne-Marie, and we made our now annual visit to Shakespeare at The Tobacco Factory, this time to see The Tempest. We never expect to see a better one than at Bath last year in the collaboration between the Stratford Memorial Theatre and The Baxter Centre at Cape Town University, which was sublime. The poor review from Lyn Gardener in the Guardian further lowered our expectations. She expressed forcefully the view that the reading of the play with Caliban and Ariel played by a single actor and portrayed as two competing aspects of the character of Prospero did not work.
We too found that there was not the usual impact about this 'Theatre in the Round' performance except during the drunken comic scene. Indeed the production of scenery confused by emphasising the imaginary dinner that never was. It follows huge success with their first play of the winter A Midnight Summer's Dream which played to rave views and capacity audiences (not that there were any empty seats for The Tempest). Not either that Christopher Staines was unconvincing in the role of Caliban or Ariel, but there was no magic about Prospero (the magician) who directs the action. Even the ending lost its punch of freeing Ariel and giving back the island to Caliban.
THE SWANSEA ASSEMBLY
This venture is associated with National Theatre Wales which is also currently in Swansea with Shelf Life, a story about, and inside, the old Swansea Library.
The Swansea Assembly as I understand it is an attempt to get people to voice opinions about the future of Swansea. Our Jive group have been asked to take part in a performance scheduled for 7.15 pm this Thursday 22 April in The Monkey Cafe. They will be performing alongside DJs, performers, hairdressers, social workers etc. The objective I assume being to kick start a discussion to further National Theatre Wales involvement in local communities across Wales. Exactly how it will pan out is anyone's guess at the moment though three rehearsals are arranged before then to structure the evening. Entrance is free so why not come along and support our Jive group and a National Theatre Wales event.
Also in the Monkey Cafe on Friday and Saturday will be several Fringe Theatre Events including Forest Fringe Microfestival who hail from Edinburgh and its fringe. These events will last from 6 to 10 pm and the cost will be £3 for Swansea residents and concessions.
JAZZ and BLUES
I have only been twice to Jazzlands since getting back from India but both have been stellar performances. The first to hear Geoff Gascoyne (string bass), Jim Mullen (guitar), a fine Australian alto/soprano sax Graeme Blevins with Sebastian de Krom on drums. They stuck almost precisely their new CD 'Pop-Bop'.
I really enjoyed this one and though unfamiliar with the tunes most unusually bought a CD. The bass playing was very original and very melodic with Geoff featuring as the major soloist on one number at least. The drumming was also excellent but his only solos were two long sessions to finish off numbers, to my mind an excellent way to let the drummer have his head without upsetting the melodic flow of the front line soloists.
The big comparison between jazz club and CD was that in the former case the numbers were allowed to develop for over 10 minutes as opposed to 4/5 minutes on each CD track. The 'Stop that Train' track was reminiscent of Paul Desmond's playing of 'Plain Song' on Dave Brubeck's little known vinyl album 'Jazz Impressions of the USA' (my favourite!).
This Wednesday 21 April I will definitely go to hear one of my favourite British saxophonists Don Weller. He used to appear annually in the old days when Russ Jones was in the piano seat, like Bobby Wellins with whom he is often coupled he must be getting on a little. But Bobby played excellently a few months ago so I'm expecting Don to do my memories justice. They are often coupled because they were the outstanding jazz saxophonists of their era, but there the similarity stops, Bobby a small man with his frail build being the lyricist, whereas Don is a huge man in a black French beret and a delivery and tone to match.
Don't forget the Mumbles Blues and Jazz festival over the Spring holiday weekend, which this year is two thirds oriented to blues. I fancy the concert of bop saxophonist Simon Spillett and the Dave Cottle Trio 8.45 pm Saturday 1 May in the Conservative Club, and remember the tremendous concert last year of this trio with saxophonist Mornington Locket and the fabulous rendering from The Great American Songbook by Tina May on a glorious sunny afternoon. I'm glad they are no longer using the Ostreme Hall as last years appalling acoustics were not fair to fine musicians.
SALSA
Rita Read Jones sent me details of Nelson's salsa classes now that he is teaching in several new locations. She goes to the original full set of courses at the Dragon on Thursdays, Beginners 7.30 to 8.20, Improvers 8.25 till 9.15, Intermediate 9.20 to 10.10, Music until 11 pm. The others are:-
Tuesdays at Walkabout, Castle Gardens for Beginners and Improvers.
He also gives Beginners courses at
Coach House Glynclydach on Monday 7.30 until 8.30 pm.
The Pen y Cae Inn on Wednesday 6.30 to 7.30 pm
Cwmtwrch Welfare Centre Wednesday 8 till 9 pm
Anyone who went to the party at the Village Inn, SA1, as organised by Gerwyn before Christmas, will be in no doubt that he is an excellent and enthusiastic teacher.
www.salsatoday.co.uk
I just hope that Nick Clegg stays on principals, issues and vision in the final TV debates and brings each party's policies into the limelight. He needs to stress his beliefs especially on the need for an ultra positive approach to Europe, reminding us that our currency has devalued by 25% against the Euro as well as the US dollar during this financial crisis. They can't be getting everything wrong.
THEATRE
As part of our Jim's week's holiday we spent one day in Bristol, where he met his wife Anne-Marie, and we made our now annual visit to Shakespeare at The Tobacco Factory, this time to see The Tempest. We never expect to see a better one than at Bath last year in the collaboration between the Stratford Memorial Theatre and The Baxter Centre at Cape Town University, which was sublime. The poor review from Lyn Gardener in the Guardian further lowered our expectations. She expressed forcefully the view that the reading of the play with Caliban and Ariel played by a single actor and portrayed as two competing aspects of the character of Prospero did not work.
We too found that there was not the usual impact about this 'Theatre in the Round' performance except during the drunken comic scene. Indeed the production of scenery confused by emphasising the imaginary dinner that never was. It follows huge success with their first play of the winter A Midnight Summer's Dream which played to rave views and capacity audiences (not that there were any empty seats for The Tempest). Not either that Christopher Staines was unconvincing in the role of Caliban or Ariel, but there was no magic about Prospero (the magician) who directs the action. Even the ending lost its punch of freeing Ariel and giving back the island to Caliban.
THE SWANSEA ASSEMBLY
This venture is associated with National Theatre Wales which is also currently in Swansea with Shelf Life, a story about, and inside, the old Swansea Library.
The Swansea Assembly as I understand it is an attempt to get people to voice opinions about the future of Swansea. Our Jive group have been asked to take part in a performance scheduled for 7.15 pm this Thursday 22 April in The Monkey Cafe. They will be performing alongside DJs, performers, hairdressers, social workers etc. The objective I assume being to kick start a discussion to further National Theatre Wales involvement in local communities across Wales. Exactly how it will pan out is anyone's guess at the moment though three rehearsals are arranged before then to structure the evening. Entrance is free so why not come along and support our Jive group and a National Theatre Wales event.
Also in the Monkey Cafe on Friday and Saturday will be several Fringe Theatre Events including Forest Fringe Microfestival who hail from Edinburgh and its fringe. These events will last from 6 to 10 pm and the cost will be £3 for Swansea residents and concessions.
JAZZ and BLUES
I have only been twice to Jazzlands since getting back from India but both have been stellar performances. The first to hear Geoff Gascoyne (string bass), Jim Mullen (guitar), a fine Australian alto/soprano sax Graeme Blevins with Sebastian de Krom on drums. They stuck almost precisely their new CD 'Pop-Bop'.
I really enjoyed this one and though unfamiliar with the tunes most unusually bought a CD. The bass playing was very original and very melodic with Geoff featuring as the major soloist on one number at least. The drumming was also excellent but his only solos were two long sessions to finish off numbers, to my mind an excellent way to let the drummer have his head without upsetting the melodic flow of the front line soloists.
The big comparison between jazz club and CD was that in the former case the numbers were allowed to develop for over 10 minutes as opposed to 4/5 minutes on each CD track. The 'Stop that Train' track was reminiscent of Paul Desmond's playing of 'Plain Song' on Dave Brubeck's little known vinyl album 'Jazz Impressions of the USA' (my favourite!).
This Wednesday 21 April I will definitely go to hear one of my favourite British saxophonists Don Weller. He used to appear annually in the old days when Russ Jones was in the piano seat, like Bobby Wellins with whom he is often coupled he must be getting on a little. But Bobby played excellently a few months ago so I'm expecting Don to do my memories justice. They are often coupled because they were the outstanding jazz saxophonists of their era, but there the similarity stops, Bobby a small man with his frail build being the lyricist, whereas Don is a huge man in a black French beret and a delivery and tone to match.
Don't forget the Mumbles Blues and Jazz festival over the Spring holiday weekend, which this year is two thirds oriented to blues. I fancy the concert of bop saxophonist Simon Spillett and the Dave Cottle Trio 8.45 pm Saturday 1 May in the Conservative Club, and remember the tremendous concert last year of this trio with saxophonist Mornington Locket and the fabulous rendering from The Great American Songbook by Tina May on a glorious sunny afternoon. I'm glad they are no longer using the Ostreme Hall as last years appalling acoustics were not fair to fine musicians.
SALSA
Rita Read Jones sent me details of Nelson's salsa classes now that he is teaching in several new locations. She goes to the original full set of courses at the Dragon on Thursdays, Beginners 7.30 to 8.20, Improvers 8.25 till 9.15, Intermediate 9.20 to 10.10, Music until 11 pm. The others are:-
Tuesdays at Walkabout, Castle Gardens for Beginners and Improvers.
He also gives Beginners courses at
Coach House Glynclydach on Monday 7.30 until 8.30 pm.
The Pen y Cae Inn on Wednesday 6.30 to 7.30 pm
Cwmtwrch Welfare Centre Wednesday 8 till 9 pm
Anyone who went to the party at the Village Inn, SA1, as organised by Gerwyn before Christmas, will be in no doubt that he is an excellent and enthusiastic teacher.
www.salsatoday.co.uk
Friday, 2 April 2010
EASTER 2010
GROUPS
GARDENING
Joan came back from Thursday's meeting to say she had been talking to a gardener at Singleton who told her that everything, including their walled garden, was a month late this year. Looking back at last years blog I find my previous posting showed the few daffodils in our garden was the 21 March and there were only a few, last year it was 28 February.
ITALIAN
This group will miss Easter Monday but reconvene for 12 and 19 April before breaking due to Carolina's holiday until Monday 7 June.
POLITICS and CITIZENSHIP
Meet Tuesday 13 April at the slightly later time of 2.15 pm to give a little more time to those who come by bus.
The Discussion will be open to the floor, the topic 'Identify one issue you would want an incoming government to debate and act on'
HISTORY
A few years ago a large proportion of the groups held their meetings in The Dolphin Hotel. The History and Local History groups were two that remained there after the rates were raised but this year they had to move when the hotel was closed. The Local History group have relocated to the Grand Theatre and the History group to the upstairs room in Environment Centre, which for those who don't know is in Pier Street, the narrow street running down the side of the Evening Post monstrosity.
The Life and Times of Robert Clive of India was the topic at last Friday's meeting of the History Group, that's what attracted me for India is still foremost in my thoughts, and the opportunity to get the colonial period into better focus was too good to be missed. The previous lecture set the scene with an Overview of the British Empire by Professor David Howells, and continuing the same vein on 23 April with Catherine the Great and the Russian Empire by Dr Helgi Opik.
Marian Howells had carried out the research starting from the Charter from Elizabeth I which established what was to become known as The East India Company in 1600.
But Clive was not born until 125 years later. He started as a clerk or 'writer' at Fort St George in Madras, the which we visited within 24 hours of arrival in India. Chennai (earlier Madras) is the fourth most populous city in India at 5.4 million. It seemed very close to the bus terminus on our map, as places always do in big cities. But it was not an easy place to find on foot, until we realised you have to cross the main dual carriageway south along the coast by a narrow, hidden pedestrian underpass; nor was it a memorable visit - though perhaps it is wise to make allowance for jet lag and tiredness on our first exposure to tropical heat in 2010.
The first impression was the scare of passing armed security to get into an area which now doubles as the Administrative Centre for the Government of Tamil Nadu and a tourist attraction - not a happy pairing except that it isn't much of an attraction.
We briefly entered the fusty museum nearby and uninspired promptly left, though it probably held much dating back to the period when it was the headquarters of the British. But the adjacent St. Mary's church where Clive was married was of far more immediate interest. The earliest Christian Church was founded in Kerala in AD 54 by St Thomas but St Mary's was the first Anglican church in India, built in 1678-80 it is the oldest British building in the whole country. It doubled as a military haven in times of siege, mainly by the French in nearby Pondicherry, and had to be largely rebuilt after the seven year war with the French 1756-63.
We remember the church also as the place Joan made our first purchase, four cards containing beautiful hand painting, typically of flowers butterflies and dragon flies on leaf skeletons, leaves devoid of chlorophyll, by young people under the trademark of TRPPAADAM.
Same technique but different subject
Google informs the Trppaadam Service Society was established in 1972 by the Bethany Mission of the Catholic Church and operates with help from Bharat (India) Aid. It works with the poorest villagers of Kerala, sponsoring education for children living at home and running a centre providing healthcare, education and jobs for hundreds of young women and caring for abandoned elderly and mentally handicapped people picked up from the streets.
We saw examples of the same card technique later in Kerala, which is on the opposite west coast, but of none of the same quality. We buy little when we travel because of the over-riding need to travel light, but Joan can never resist interesting cards. Examples of the hand painted batik ones we brought back from Sumatra more than a decade ago still hang as pictures on the stairway of our daughter in law in France.
To return to Clive, untrained as a soldier, his bravery and skill at soldiery almost immediately became noticed. In 1755 he became Deputy Governor of Fort St David, a little south of Madras, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. In this role he went to Calcutta and purchased Bengal for the East India Company. He left India for good in 1760.
Warren Hastings was Governor of Bengal in 1772 and a year later was Governor General of the Presidency of Fort William (Calcutta) in which capacity he supervised the rest of the East India Company.
It was not until Government of India Act was passed in1858 that the territories of the East India Company came under direct control of the Crown, and thus the incumbent Lord Canning became the first Viceroy of India.
But I felt uneasy at the idea of a benevolent British Empire and so I am going to explore how this stacks up with the Indian view of the East India Company and British period drawing on a series of 20 fascinating posters photographed in the Gandhi museum at Madurai - but difficult to read because of the reflections from glass. Those who followed my diary blog at the time will probably remember that visit best for a shitting episode.
Madurai Temple
Paragraph added 6 April 2010
At this point I should make it absolutely clear that what follows are not my opinions but largely a series of quotations of what appeared on 14 of the 20 posters in this museum, occasionally linked by my prose explaining the context of the poster. As such it represents only the view of the curator of that museum, though I think it is widespread amongst educated Indians (admittedly on scant evidence). The quotations in inverted commas are of course selected by me but I believe them to be a fair representation his intentions. The posters with few exceptions refer to the English rather than the British, which would be more correct.
AN INDIAN TAKE ON THE ENGLISH, MADURAI GANDHI MUSEUM
1) The first photograph sets the scene - 'In the 17th century the Whiteman came to India to buy spices, textiles, pearls, precious stones ... he found himself in a country ruled by Rajahs and Nawabs quarrelling amongst themselves'. 'In 1749 Mohammed Ali supported by the British and Chandra Sahib supported by the French fought for the throne of Carnatic. Mohammed won and became the Nawab but the British completely controlled him. ...... 'Thus began the period of British conquest and rule of India, a period of slavery and humiliation ..' Welsh take heart from now the oppressor is known as the English - my joke as a self conscious Englishman!
2) 'Here is the story of how this ancient but ever youthful land of ours lost her freedom and won it again'
Mysore Palace
3) English expansion in India met with the most challenging resistance from Tipu Sultan of Mysore who ravaged the Carnatic as far as Madras by 1784. The tables however were turned for he was forced to surrender half his territories, to pay 33 million rupees and hand over two sons as hostages to the English. Tipu regrouped with a modern army but was finally killed in 1799.
'The death of Tipu Sultan removed from the scene the most inveterate, the most implacable and the most fantastical and perhaps the most formidable enemy encountered by the English.' (John Marriot)
This is of particular interest to us because so far all the action is in southern part of India which we visited. We saw many paintings of the battles of Tipu Sultan, the prison cells of his English prisoners, and memorials (even the place where he died) on our travels around Mysore. We were told when looking at the fine paintings in The Summer Palace near Mysore that he was betrayed by one of his sons.
4) The Maratha and Sikh Resistance from 1775.
Between 1815 and 1849 the English attacked the Punjab and Rajastan and 'The English had already bought the Rajput Chiefs of Jodpur, Udaipur, Bikaner etc under their control.'
These were all places we had stayed in on our only previous visit to India just after retiring over a decade ago.
'Thus ends the period of English conquest, a century after the Plassey War, trumpeting about the old truth that united a people stand and divided they fall.'
5) Wages of Slavery.
'The East India Company raised the taxes to increase profits and to meet the costs of its aggressive wars'.
'The company even extorted forced labour from farmers in Bengal compelling them to cultivate indigo freely for the English on pain of torture or death.'
'Farmers unable to bear the burden, sold or mortgaged their lands. Farm production fell and famines spread.'
'The plunder of India made England industrially rich.
'To sell her goods in India the East India Company destroyed Indian industries'.
'The slightest protest by Indians was put down ruthlessly by the company's armies. Indians could be jailed indefinitely without trial or beaten to death.'
6) Indian Great Revolt 1857 and Queen Victoria takes over.
The Indians from different parts of the country and different faiths combined to take Delhi from the English at the start of the 1857 revolt but by 1859 the city had been re-captured by the English,
'killing 27,000 civilians alone. People fled from the city of horror.'
'As the people of India buried their dead, Queen Victoria by proclamation in November 1858 took over the administration, ending the East India Company's rule.'
7) Bombay 1885, The Birth of the Indian National Congress
'Indians everywhere were treated worse than slaves .... Dogs and Indians were treated alike in public places.'
'The English educated middle class were the first to speak up boldly for the nation's rights.' Leading to the formation of Congress with dynamic Englishman A O Hume as General Secretary and Banerjee as first president 'pleading for a greater share for Indians in the administration.'
8) The Partition of Bengal in 1905
'Both Hindus and Muslims rose up against the "divide and rule" of the English. Calcutta, the Capital of British India, set a pattern for a country-wide resistance.'
Spurred on by poet Rabindranath Tagore and Aurobindo Ghose founder of the Pondicherry Ashram.
Gandhi Statue in Pondicherry
9) 1915 The Gandhi Era Begins
'In 1915 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, an Indian Barrister from South Africa, returned to India with his wife Kasturba.
'The peasants of Champaran in Bihar were forced to grow indigo plants on their lands and sell it to the British at prices fixed by them. If refused, they were tortured. Gandhi rose against this inhuman system .... finally he won in the fight, by leading the farmers, without using violence.'
10) 1930 Salt Satyagraha, the 241 mile walk to Dandi
'Under the Salt Law only the British Government could make salt.' He led the non-violent march which was the centrepiece of the film Gandhi.
'Elsewhere, all over the country, people broke the salt law.' likewise.'
'The Congress appointed Gandhi as its sole representative in the Round Table Conference at London in1931.'
11) The Cripps Mission 1942
'Jawaharlal Nehru said "India will help England only as a free nation. Britain claims she is fighting for freedom and democracy. If that is true, let her first give freedom to India''.'
'When Singapore fell 45,000 Indian soldiers were handed over to the Japanese by the British Army.'
'The Japanese captured the whole of South East Asia. ...The British Government sent Sir Stafford Cripps to India to negotiate a settlement with her leaders in support of the War effort. The Cripp's Mission failed because it proposed self government for India only after the end of the War.'
'Gandhi called it "a post dated cheque on a failing bank".'
12) 'On 15th August 1947, India became Free
Nehru said, 'Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny and now comes the time when we shall redeem our pledge .... At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake in life and freedom. A moment comes ... rarely in history ... when an age ends, and the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting, that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the larger cause of humanity.'
13) 'WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political,
LIBERTY, of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship,
EQUALITY of status and opportunity:
and to promote them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation:
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.'
Which country can be said to live up to that standard?
14) GANDHI ASASINATED
I read in today's paper that India are embarking on a census, which will take 11 months, and which is expected to confirm a population of 1.2 billion. By far the world's biggest democracy, perhaps the world's most populous nation, but still with much to do match the high ideals of this constitution. An end to exclusion is still urgent for poorest 50%.
ART EXHIBITION till 15 May
I was asked to include this by Angela Blewett
GARDENING
Joan came back from Thursday's meeting to say she had been talking to a gardener at Singleton who told her that everything, including their walled garden, was a month late this year. Looking back at last years blog I find my previous posting showed the few daffodils in our garden was the 21 March and there were only a few, last year it was 28 February.
ITALIAN
This group will miss Easter Monday but reconvene for 12 and 19 April before breaking due to Carolina's holiday until Monday 7 June.
POLITICS and CITIZENSHIP
Meet Tuesday 13 April at the slightly later time of 2.15 pm to give a little more time to those who come by bus.
The Discussion will be open to the floor, the topic 'Identify one issue you would want an incoming government to debate and act on'
HISTORY
A few years ago a large proportion of the groups held their meetings in The Dolphin Hotel. The History and Local History groups were two that remained there after the rates were raised but this year they had to move when the hotel was closed. The Local History group have relocated to the Grand Theatre and the History group to the upstairs room in Environment Centre, which for those who don't know is in Pier Street, the narrow street running down the side of the Evening Post monstrosity.
The Life and Times of Robert Clive of India was the topic at last Friday's meeting of the History Group, that's what attracted me for India is still foremost in my thoughts, and the opportunity to get the colonial period into better focus was too good to be missed. The previous lecture set the scene with an Overview of the British Empire by Professor David Howells, and continuing the same vein on 23 April with Catherine the Great and the Russian Empire by Dr Helgi Opik.
Marian Howells had carried out the research starting from the Charter from Elizabeth I which established what was to become known as The East India Company in 1600.
But Clive was not born until 125 years later. He started as a clerk or 'writer' at Fort St George in Madras, the which we visited within 24 hours of arrival in India. Chennai (earlier Madras) is the fourth most populous city in India at 5.4 million. It seemed very close to the bus terminus on our map, as places always do in big cities. But it was not an easy place to find on foot, until we realised you have to cross the main dual carriageway south along the coast by a narrow, hidden pedestrian underpass; nor was it a memorable visit - though perhaps it is wise to make allowance for jet lag and tiredness on our first exposure to tropical heat in 2010.
The first impression was the scare of passing armed security to get into an area which now doubles as the Administrative Centre for the Government of Tamil Nadu and a tourist attraction - not a happy pairing except that it isn't much of an attraction.
We briefly entered the fusty museum nearby and uninspired promptly left, though it probably held much dating back to the period when it was the headquarters of the British. But the adjacent St. Mary's church where Clive was married was of far more immediate interest. The earliest Christian Church was founded in Kerala in AD 54 by St Thomas but St Mary's was the first Anglican church in India, built in 1678-80 it is the oldest British building in the whole country. It doubled as a military haven in times of siege, mainly by the French in nearby Pondicherry, and had to be largely rebuilt after the seven year war with the French 1756-63.
We remember the church also as the place Joan made our first purchase, four cards containing beautiful hand painting, typically of flowers butterflies and dragon flies on leaf skeletons, leaves devoid of chlorophyll, by young people under the trademark of TRPPAADAM.
Google informs the Trppaadam Service Society was established in 1972 by the Bethany Mission of the Catholic Church and operates with help from Bharat (India) Aid. It works with the poorest villagers of Kerala, sponsoring education for children living at home and running a centre providing healthcare, education and jobs for hundreds of young women and caring for abandoned elderly and mentally handicapped people picked up from the streets.
We saw examples of the same card technique later in Kerala, which is on the opposite west coast, but of none of the same quality. We buy little when we travel because of the over-riding need to travel light, but Joan can never resist interesting cards. Examples of the hand painted batik ones we brought back from Sumatra more than a decade ago still hang as pictures on the stairway of our daughter in law in France.
To return to Clive, untrained as a soldier, his bravery and skill at soldiery almost immediately became noticed. In 1755 he became Deputy Governor of Fort St David, a little south of Madras, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. In this role he went to Calcutta and purchased Bengal for the East India Company. He left India for good in 1760.
Warren Hastings was Governor of Bengal in 1772 and a year later was Governor General of the Presidency of Fort William (Calcutta) in which capacity he supervised the rest of the East India Company.
It was not until Government of India Act was passed in1858 that the territories of the East India Company came under direct control of the Crown, and thus the incumbent Lord Canning became the first Viceroy of India.
But I felt uneasy at the idea of a benevolent British Empire and so I am going to explore how this stacks up with the Indian view of the East India Company and British period drawing on a series of 20 fascinating posters photographed in the Gandhi museum at Madurai - but difficult to read because of the reflections from glass. Those who followed my diary blog at the time will probably remember that visit best for a shitting episode.
Paragraph added 6 April 2010
At this point I should make it absolutely clear that what follows are not my opinions but largely a series of quotations of what appeared on 14 of the 20 posters in this museum, occasionally linked by my prose explaining the context of the poster. As such it represents only the view of the curator of that museum, though I think it is widespread amongst educated Indians (admittedly on scant evidence). The quotations in inverted commas are of course selected by me but I believe them to be a fair representation his intentions. The posters with few exceptions refer to the English rather than the British, which would be more correct.
AN INDIAN TAKE ON THE ENGLISH, MADURAI GANDHI MUSEUM
1) The first photograph sets the scene - 'In the 17th century the Whiteman came to India to buy spices, textiles, pearls, precious stones ... he found himself in a country ruled by Rajahs and Nawabs quarrelling amongst themselves'. 'In 1749 Mohammed Ali supported by the British and Chandra Sahib supported by the French fought for the throne of Carnatic. Mohammed won and became the Nawab but the British completely controlled him. ...... 'Thus began the period of British conquest and rule of India, a period of slavery and humiliation ..' Welsh take heart from now the oppressor is known as the English - my joke as a self conscious Englishman!
2) 'Here is the story of how this ancient but ever youthful land of ours lost her freedom and won it again'
3) English expansion in India met with the most challenging resistance from Tipu Sultan of Mysore who ravaged the Carnatic as far as Madras by 1784. The tables however were turned for he was forced to surrender half his territories, to pay 33 million rupees and hand over two sons as hostages to the English. Tipu regrouped with a modern army but was finally killed in 1799.
'The death of Tipu Sultan removed from the scene the most inveterate, the most implacable and the most fantastical and perhaps the most formidable enemy encountered by the English.' (John Marriot)
This is of particular interest to us because so far all the action is in southern part of India which we visited. We saw many paintings of the battles of Tipu Sultan, the prison cells of his English prisoners, and memorials (even the place where he died) on our travels around Mysore. We were told when looking at the fine paintings in The Summer Palace near Mysore that he was betrayed by one of his sons.
4) The Maratha and Sikh Resistance from 1775.
Between 1815 and 1849 the English attacked the Punjab and Rajastan and 'The English had already bought the Rajput Chiefs of Jodpur, Udaipur, Bikaner etc under their control.'
These were all places we had stayed in on our only previous visit to India just after retiring over a decade ago.
'Thus ends the period of English conquest, a century after the Plassey War, trumpeting about the old truth that united a people stand and divided they fall.'
5) Wages of Slavery.
'The East India Company raised the taxes to increase profits and to meet the costs of its aggressive wars'.
'The company even extorted forced labour from farmers in Bengal compelling them to cultivate indigo freely for the English on pain of torture or death.'
'Farmers unable to bear the burden, sold or mortgaged their lands. Farm production fell and famines spread.'
'The plunder of India made England industrially rich.
'To sell her goods in India the East India Company destroyed Indian industries'.
'The slightest protest by Indians was put down ruthlessly by the company's armies. Indians could be jailed indefinitely without trial or beaten to death.'
6) Indian Great Revolt 1857 and Queen Victoria takes over.
The Indians from different parts of the country and different faiths combined to take Delhi from the English at the start of the 1857 revolt but by 1859 the city had been re-captured by the English,
'killing 27,000 civilians alone. People fled from the city of horror.'
'As the people of India buried their dead, Queen Victoria by proclamation in November 1858 took over the administration, ending the East India Company's rule.'
7) Bombay 1885, The Birth of the Indian National Congress
'Indians everywhere were treated worse than slaves .... Dogs and Indians were treated alike in public places.'
'The English educated middle class were the first to speak up boldly for the nation's rights.' Leading to the formation of Congress with dynamic Englishman A O Hume as General Secretary and Banerjee as first president 'pleading for a greater share for Indians in the administration.'
8) The Partition of Bengal in 1905
'Both Hindus and Muslims rose up against the "divide and rule" of the English. Calcutta, the Capital of British India, set a pattern for a country-wide resistance.'
Spurred on by poet Rabindranath Tagore and Aurobindo Ghose founder of the Pondicherry Ashram.
9) 1915 The Gandhi Era Begins
'In 1915 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, an Indian Barrister from South Africa, returned to India with his wife Kasturba.
'The peasants of Champaran in Bihar were forced to grow indigo plants on their lands and sell it to the British at prices fixed by them. If refused, they were tortured. Gandhi rose against this inhuman system .... finally he won in the fight, by leading the farmers, without using violence.'
10) 1930 Salt Satyagraha, the 241 mile walk to Dandi
'Under the Salt Law only the British Government could make salt.' He led the non-violent march which was the centrepiece of the film Gandhi.
'Elsewhere, all over the country, people broke the salt law.' likewise.'
'The Congress appointed Gandhi as its sole representative in the Round Table Conference at London in1931.'
11) The Cripps Mission 1942
'Jawaharlal Nehru said "India will help England only as a free nation. Britain claims she is fighting for freedom and democracy. If that is true, let her first give freedom to India''.'
'When Singapore fell 45,000 Indian soldiers were handed over to the Japanese by the British Army.'
'The Japanese captured the whole of South East Asia. ...The British Government sent Sir Stafford Cripps to India to negotiate a settlement with her leaders in support of the War effort. The Cripp's Mission failed because it proposed self government for India only after the end of the War.'
'Gandhi called it "a post dated cheque on a failing bank".'
12) 'On 15th August 1947, India became Free
Nehru said, 'Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny and now comes the time when we shall redeem our pledge .... At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake in life and freedom. A moment comes ... rarely in history ... when an age ends, and the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting, that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the larger cause of humanity.'
13) 'WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political,
LIBERTY, of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship,
EQUALITY of status and opportunity:
and to promote them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation:
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.'
Which country can be said to live up to that standard?
14) GANDHI ASASINATED
I read in today's paper that India are embarking on a census, which will take 11 months, and which is expected to confirm a population of 1.2 billion. By far the world's biggest democracy, perhaps the world's most populous nation, but still with much to do match the high ideals of this constitution. An end to exclusion is still urgent for poorest 50%.
ART EXHIBITION till 15 May
I was asked to include this by Angela Blewett
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