Time never stops.....last blog was in those cold months of January/February time and here we are back in December with a New Year approaching fast.
This year has been an interesting one and it'll be fascinating to see how it is interpreted by the long view of history? Terrorism and migration have been strong themes and you have to fear the lurch right with a narrow, selfish form of politics that always protects the haves against the have nots.
For me this year has included highlights of a few book releases including a more adult orientated volume of poetry and another four picture books for younger readers

It's February 2015 already, so January passed me by without comment.  A cold, post-Christmas, unwanted, lonely month.  I rue your passing January 2015:

'Alas for those that  never sing,
but die with all their music inside them'

This week I watched Keith Allen's film ' Unlawful Killing' about the death of Princess Diana. I'm not sure how I stumbled upon it although I've been interested in the way the Royal family have been desperately trying to silence free speech with recent issues  over  letters to MPs and  documentaries being cancelled. The film played  into the hands of my love of conspiracy theories and my fierce republican sentiments.

I say 'fierce' republican sentiments at a time when freedom of speech is very topical following the terrible Charlie Hebdo murders in France. I 'fiercely' believe anyone should be able to say anything they want to in  a free and democratic society (if I was in Saudi  Arabia I would get 100 lashes just for the opening paragraph of this blog that  is vaguely anti royal).

Let's explore this further...for  example if a I were to state  the belief that:

'I believe all women should be subservient to men'

That is  blatantly sexist and should be easily ridiculed and no danger to society at large (some  could justifiably claim that women are still very much subservient to men  as the demeaning Page 3  debate is only just being resolved by a supposedly  grown up  society!)

But if my ramblings were taken as influential or, worse still, as the words of a prophet (praise be to god) would I then be guilty of inciting people in the direction of domestic violence? And could I then attract interest from the law and be arrested for stating my views?

Freedom of speech??

Surely we have to be allowed to state any views no matter how hateful, no matter how bigoted (there are laws that cannot be transgressed regarding discrimination or threats to murder etc). We must leave it  to society and trust in people to democratically and sensibly reject the most outrageous views  on offer and denounce them with coherent and cogent arguments about peace , love and understanding.
After all the nationalist bigots who advocate  all migrants should be  denied entry or returned home are in one sense advocating murder because it is known that for some asylum seekers a return home is tantamount to a death sentence..........and  if we take a world view and you are unlucky enough to live in desperate conditions in developing countries then why on earth wouldn't you want  to live  in a more affluent society that offered  better quality of life  because of an accident of birth???

The life expectancy in Japan is  85 years for a man and 87.3 years for a woman
In Sierra Leone (pre ebola outbreak)  it is  37 years for a man and  39 years for a woman.

Human beings have always migrated and will always  migrate it's part of the human condition (says the Englishman in Nantgarw!)

It's not rocket science is it?

Talking life expectancy and health as we are......if we cherish the NHS (and I'm talking about the original  premise of  a comprehensive and free service that meets  everyone's needs and there is no pernicious  private profit milking  an  apartheid health care system) then surely we should be working towards every country having one and investing world energy in that rather than  a multi trillion pound arms industry......everyone's health needs around the world  should get  equal treatment shouldn't they?

While we're on private let's throw in schools too! Surely a grown up society should not allow  people  to buy educational privilege that so  divides a society. Shouldn't there be a comprehensive model on offer  around the world that is  free to everyone? Those Labour politicians who send their children to private schools are hypocrites however it gets dressed up...Let's set the bar high on principles and accept  there will be occasions when we struggle to  maintain ourselves...the bar should still be high  on any society  with integrity.

In Spain yesterday and in Greece last month people are on the move to end corruption and privilege that is sucking the  marrow from every nation's health.

Some would sneer and say this is the politics of envy....but people want equality don't they? A level playing field, a bit of common sense, a bit of collective action....

Liberty, equality, fraternity....

So we're back to  the  Royals and women and religion. Back to divisions and beliefs that  separate  and  can advocate subservience, inequality and  death.
I'm not sure if these are 'fierce' views  or  just food for thought.....I'm not trying to incite  religious or class  war...but as I write Wales Online have just this minute  rung me on a Sunday afternoon to ask about a councillor who has given the view that library closures are a middle class issue .......it is a view I would vigorously rebut.....libraries need to be there for everyone...like the health service, police and  schools....run by  professional librarians who can save the world  with reading...

Knowledge is power

Je suis  Charlie

Nous sommes dans le meme bateau


ps  have a look at Keith Allen's film Unlawful Killing it's on Youtube...see what you think.......

Just before it steals itself away let's deal with December. Ugly things are happening in various parts of the world (is it always so?).

So let's try and remain hopeful.....

Rhydyfelin Library was once more in the news. This time a few of us were interviewed on BBC Radio 4 on the five o'clock news. The piece raised the issue of volunteer run libraries and that is something we will vigorously oppose.  
 I don't mean to disrespect volunteers but being a librarian is, for me, a highly skilled profession. I want dynamic, passionate,thoughtful librarians who are at the heart of their community. The volunteer agenda seems to denigrate and disrespect the profession. Would you want volunteers running schools and hospitals? 
Without wishing to repeat earlier blogs on the subject it is proven that reading for pleasure is the key that unlocks education for all of us. 
It was interesting to work in another prison this month too and I was again struck by the men's honesty in their approach to writing and their passion for their prison library.

The photo here is  performing in a pub in Newport in aid of Stow Hill Library.  

In January next year I've been asked by a local authority to become their Ambassador for every child being a member of libraries. I'm looking forward to it....never had delusions of grandeur and not going to start now....but me!! .......an Ambassador....whatever next?

Which brings me neatly on to books. December saw the launch of the latest book I've been involved in and it's a collaborative affair with many agencies. I was asked to work with a group of parents and help them to develop a story that could be turned into a picture book for children. We had a lot of fun over a few weeks and came up with 'Petra the Penguin'. I gave this to an illustrator friend of mine (the fantastic Rachel Tudor Best) and we now have a wonderful book that is selling like hot cakes. I might be biased but it is a wonderful story. Here's a couple of pictures from the launch event......if you get the chance please buy it!!

And if you're near the Three Horseshoes pub in Frampton on Severn in Gloucestershire tomorrow night I'll be there so please come on down for a great night of poetry and song...starts at 7.30pm be great to see you.......
 

And so November is off and running and almost half way through already...where did that go?
It began with a talk to a wonderful group of Headteachers in Cwmbran and last week was an interesting day with the Bridgend Libraries team launching library cards for all. I got to work with  Dr Rhys Jones (he'll always be Indiana to me). ...who held what seemed like the whole of Bridgend and Maesteg with stories of snakes, dinosaurs and a mongoose with challenging behaviour.  

He also told me that it would be relatively easy to create a woolly mammooth using available DNA we have plus a willing elephant and a bit of jiggery pokery (don't worry we're not about to do it but the technology is out there....scared the life out of me....although I could probably be recreated again).

This is from the event at the Millennium Centre this week  and Save the Children's worthy campaign to get youngsters reading.....thousands upon thousands of children seemed to keep arriving every hour (mostly from Tonyrefail!).
Really enjoyed it and worked with a bunch of lovely people from all over the place. I think the photo will go bigger if clicked on. In the middle is CBBC star Alex Winters who never tired of photo calls from children and parents....he also kept adding to his intro for me until it became ' Do you want some more of crazy, mad, bonkers Mike?' ...................what can I say?

This month's blog can only really be about Rhydyfelin library............I know you might groan and claim you've heard it all before but this is different. This is not preaching about the library cause this is a cause for celebration.

And the celebration takes place this week at Rhydyfelin library. After the fight we had to keep the library open we are now holding our first ever 'Festival of Literature and Laughs'.
On Thursday and Friday (2nd and 3rd October) we are holding workshops for local schools with Martyn Geraint, Catrin Collier and myself. These are not open to the general public but thought I'd tell you about them anyway.
On the Friday night (this is where you come in!) the 3rd October at 7.30pm we are holding a 'Variety Night' at the library......and for only £2 entry...... we have the wonderful Rhondda based band 'The Watermelons' (lead singer Paul Rosser is well known on the music circuit and was once with the Racing  Cars ('They Shoot Horses Don't They').....joining him will be a few choice spoken word artists....Welsh Book of the Year winner and Red Poet Mike Jenkins.....Cardiff Comedy Poet Mab Jones  (fresh from the Edinburgh Festival working with Phil Jupitus)....and provocative and powerful poet Patrick Jones (who has worked extensively with the Manic Street Preachers and Billy Bragg).........all this and a bit of punch and hot dogs thrown in.......how can you turn it down??

On the Saturday afternoon (4th October) at 3pm we have a 'Meet the Author' session with successful local author Catrin Collier who has written many books and had them turned into films (if you want to know more come and ask her about them and her inspiration for writing them)

On Saturday night at 7.30pm there is 'An Evening with Roy Noble' the well known broadcaster and writer who will be telling many tales along with a fabulous buffet provided by our local Sainsbury's store.

Are you interested?

I hope so......please come along and support our events...we are hoping this is the start of many varied cultural offerings and that our Festival will be an annual event that attracts many artists and appreciative audiences.

If you want more  information please leave a comment on this site and I will get back to you

Thanks and see you at the weekend

 

The issue of pacifism has long fascinated me.

When I first heard about conscientious objectors who gave up their lives rather than fight I felt they were people of real moral courage. 
A courage of strong belief. People of conscience and integrity.
Some would suggest they are cowards but I can't buy that. To die for an overwhelming  principle in non violence takes more guts than I might possess. 

Our moral values have often sprung from the world's religions and right now, in the current epoch of consumer capitalism, there is a battle between Islam, Judaism and Christianity for the soul of the world. It is a fight that includes rockets and bombs. Right now pacifism is unfashionable and seems to be getting a bit of a pasting.

I am a non believer in any religion but the stories of all the 'prophets' have also held a fascination for me. Great stories too, that offer riveting narratives that require exploration and rigorous critical thinking. The lives of Moses, Jesus and Mohammed are lives that illuminate our development of moral systems. When they are elevated to being the word of God I remain somewhat doubtful....were they the Gandhi's, Mandela's and Marx's of their day elevated through time and poetic licence? And where were the women? The line of development for human beings surely is towards complete equality and the male dominance of prophets and leaders has to change and involve women.  Perhaps  God is sexist....or maybe even more radical........ she's female.........the lack of a female presence in religious texts makes me even more sceptical of them being the authentic word of God.....or does God truly differentiate on grounds of gender! 

It's unfortunate that most 'religious' parents will usually indoctrinate their children with their truth. This deprives children of their own free will and starves them of opportunities for critical thinking. Surely such critical thinking is the spark for science that unlocks so much more understanding of our unique and, possibly quite insignificant, place in the universe?

And so

And so many children grow up with the religion and beliefs their parents hand on to them. This is evidenced by  the minority of children in very religious societies who are able to turn their back on religion.
How easy would it be for them to state they were converts to atheism (that should be a good barometer for a religion's strength).

Talk of crusades, jihads, infidels and sinners really makes a religion exclusive, bombastic and set on a course of violent collision with non believers, indeed, believers of other faiths too.

Pacifism, in a bizarre paradox, also invites conflict.

And yet

And yet where do the world's religions stand on pacifism? Is it ok to kill those who don't share your beliefs (that's pretty much what it always boils down to)?
Jesus is surely the ultimate pacifist isn't he? He gave up his life to demonstrate that passive resistance has a dignity and power way beyond the boot and the bomb.

But after 9/11 the 'so called' Christians Bush and Blair opted for the revenge strategy and the belief that might is right (what happened to turning the other cheek and the meek inheriting the earth?). Surely the days of brute force should be diminishing as we become more civilised....but it still seems to boil down to crusades against jihads.
Muslim theologians would have to advise me but it would appear to me that the Koran does involve battles and killing in the name of faith. Likewise the Old Testament and Judaism is saddled with 'an eye for an eye' but Gandhi's take on this is surely instructive....it will blind the world.

Those who disagree will point to the rise of terrorism unchecked without returning the violence in self defence (but the evidence is that more seem to become radicalised and violence escalates). Those who disagree will also point to the rise of Hitler in the face of appeasement.

I am not so naive as to discount the violence that dwells within all of us (I remember attending a Quaker Meeting once and someone stood up and said 'There's a Nazi in everyone of us'...it was provocative and has stayed with me from many years ago). There is violence that dwells within all of us and every individual has to resolve that as part of the human condition. Our 'fight or flight' response that we default to in times of real crisis and conflict.

Every individual has to learn self restraint.


The world does need policing and does need a strong force or army for good. But this should no longer be at the disposal of any nation state or terrorist group.
The United Nations is the only body that should have an army at its disposal. A well trained, well resourced and well paid force that holds all the world's weaponry and, for that matter, any of the world's nuclear capability.
I know I will be accused of being idealistic and simple minded....but until we allow the United Nations the genuine brief of policing the world's problems and conflicts we will remain stuck in the Dark Ages. Only then will selfish interests of oil,capital,religion and wealth begin to hold less sway in who fights who and a greater good will endure.
Our over reliance on capitalism and the market place has created a culture of greed and self interest. We need to fight back with collectivism a sense of world citizenship.
We need to fight back with a United Nations Army that can police and remains transparent to the world's scrutiny.
We need to fight back with ideas. Ideas of equality, fairness and human rights. We need a moral leadership devoid of wealth and religious bias.


We need to fight back as pacifists.

This summer we've had the football World Cup. We've had a significant strike by people working in public services. We've had further awful atrocities in Gaza. And much more....

Time to ask....whose side are you on?........or is it right to take sides at all?

Palestine or Israel?......Left or Right?........Messi or Saurez?.......Sunni or Shia?......Welsh or English?...Private or Public?

Will we always be little more than tribal beings? So much in human behaviour and identity seems to boil down to tribal behaviour.
The search for a sense of belonging.

And of course 'we're all in it together'..........does that mean there's really just the one tribe? And yet, in Wales, Welsh speaking schools seem to out perform their English speaking counterparts. Why is that I wonder? Public schools obviously out perform their state school counterparts and provide us with our ruling elite. Is it division and tribalism again based on nationalism and money? I am opposed to private schools but are Welsh speaking schools attracting a better class of pupil, a better class of teacher? Or should the whole of Wales be Welsh speaking? 

When RCT closed libraries I joined the 'fight for libraries' tribe. The 'Libraries for all' tribe,

During the World Cup I was fascinated by the success of countries and their place in the world order based on population and GDP........great to see Uruguay do so well with such a small population (3 million compared to Brazil's 200 million)....even though they also provided the pantomime villain in Luis Saurez.....a street boy made good (or not)....but if you've read the earlier blogs you will know Uruguay also boasts a president who gives away 95% of his own income and drives a battered old VW Beetle, dresses in old clothes and grows vegetables.

Honesty and integrity surely trumps all forms of nationalism, tribalism and money?

Come on Uruguay!

Of course really we're all in this one tribe aren't we and all the borders and barriers are contrived nonsense..............imagine......

And yet I read this weekend that in London they have built new high rise super flats that also had to include some public housing element.......and they built them with two entrances....the side entrance with plastic panels for the poor to come and go.........and the plush front entrance with armchairs, plants and fountains for the super rich to come and go

Whoever said that apartheid regimes were dead and buried?

'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many - they are few."

Percy Shelley after the Peterloo Massacre



So whose side are you on?....I'm trying to be neutral and open minded....but it's not easy is it?

This post might just complete a series of links, rantings and blunt appeals on behalf of Rhydyfelin Library.........because RCT Council has made a significant U turn and withdrawn from the fight.....we have our library back and it re-opens on Monday 16th June 2014.

I'm not going to shout this from the rooftops or throw babies in the air but there is a great air of satisfaction in the local area of a job well done. All over the world there are battles of power...in countries, in boardrooms, in dressing rooms and in bedrooms....to say nothing of the rise of extremism that has dogged human kind through history.
We had to battle and, I suppose, toyed with extremism by chaining ourselves to book shelves.

So what lessons have been learnt?

Don't mess with the people of Rhydyfelin because they're hard??
Think before you inflict greater deprivation on an already deprived people (statistics tell us we're deprived)?
Or get to the compromise as quick as you can because anything else breeds deepening lines of conflict?

I don't know exactly what lessons can be learnt maybe you can work it out. I applaud the Leader of RCT Council and his decision. Whether he did it because he looked at a growing legal bill or whether he did it because he felt a great injustice had been done........I applaud his decision.

And so...

And so life goes on. After David slew Goliath life went on (did that really happen and did we really get our library back??)


People still grow vegetables and laugh.

Except of course many aren't laughing....I read this morning of more chaos and death in Iraq ( my memory might be failing me but wasn't there a war there to create stability and get rid of extremism?)
I read of women raped and hanged in India.

There are still many battles to be had.

But here are a few links to enjoy this moment for the good people of Rhydyfelin. It has been wonderful to be part of such a friendly, passionate and committed group of people who thoroughly deserve a moment to bathe in the light of this decision and this little victory for community.

From little acorns.......


http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/rhydyfelin-library-rhondda-cynon-taf-7200185

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/campaigners-joy-shock-u-turn-council-7246559

http://www.itv.com/news/wales/story/2014-06-10/controversial-library-closure-plan-overturned-by-council/#library-campaigners-celebrate-council-u-turn_371250  

 "Don't cut libraries!" Rhydyfelin library protest - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DMuCVnA0qXEE