Mike Jenkins - Welsh Poet & Author
  • Mike's Blog
  • New Book!
  • About Mike
  • Contact
  • What's the point?
  • The Climbing Tree
  • The Fugitive Three
  • Publications
  • Red Poets

HOW REAL IS MY VALLEY?

3/23/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture

   'How Green Is My Valley?' was the predictably cliched title of one of BBC Wales's programmes in the Real Valleys season.
   'How Real Is My Valley?' might have been more apt, since the two presenters chosen to debate the state and fate of y cymoedd were Jonathan Adams from Caerleon (architect of the Millennium Centre) and Prof. Dai Smith, historian, writer and Chair of the Arts Council of Wales, who has long lived on Barry Island, though is a 'bachgen bach o Bontypridd erioed, erioed.'
   The controversial starting-point of this discourse was Adams's theory that up to 250,000 people would need to be 'moved' from the Valleys (especially the Heads) and into the cities ( or 'city regions' as they are now termed).
   Adams's reinforced his argument by showing us what has already happened in two north Wales communities.
   He showed us the former slate-mining community of Treforus - now an Ozymandias ruin - as a warning and then a huge former slate mine tourist trap with wires and underground trampolines.
   Adams believes tourism is the way forward and turning hubs of population like Merthyr into market towns like.....well, Caerleon.
   I was expecting him to suggest that Merthyr FC's pitch should be dug up and the Roman remains there opened to the public at a price.
   There are serious problems with this contentious vision.
   How are you going to persuade at least 100,00 people to up sticks and move to Cardiff when property prices there are nearly double those in the Valleys? Moreover, there aren't even jobs to accommodate those kind of numbers, even apart from the dictatorial actions required.
   The notion that we aren't already embracing the 'new tourism ' is absurd, with a large Climbing Centre and Mountain Bike tracks close to Merthyr.
   These can create employment, but hardly enough to compensate for the thousands of jobs lost when works, mines and factories have been closed.
   To Adams and his supporters the Valleys are treated with too much sentimentality and are a 'predicament' rather than place.
   Dai Smith found all this infuriating and argued forcefully that neo-liberalism  had failed the Valleys.
   He used ex-Burberry workers and a project called Valley Kids to show how the co-operative spirit still existed and creative artists like writer Rachel Tresize and photographer Paul Cabuts to show how they drew on the unique people and places for inspiration.
   The problem with Smith's theory is that he made a sentimental journey back to his past.
   He was filmed chanting alongside Ponty rugby fans, who would never be sucked into the city to support Cardiff Blues.
   This, to Dai, was a symbol of Valleys camaraderie and resilience.
   Yet, he used stereotypes to reinforce his views.
   The male rugby fan may be a part of the present, but most people are just as likely to support football teams and there are many families who have moved here to get away from city life: a middle class only touched upon by Tresize.
  'We need a poet's answer!' declared Dai.
   He never asked one, so I'm providing mine.
   Although I find Adams's blueprint frightening, I did see some glimmer when he stressed the need for 'a sense of hope'.
   The most telling comment came from one of the ex-Burberry workers, when she stated that 'the Government needs to fetch some work up here for the kids.'
   Prof. Smith nodded and agreed.
   However,  what she said perfectly illustrated our enduring colonial mentality, which has made dependence so integral to our lives.
   While Smith propounds the case against neo-liberalism from an Old Labour perspective , he totally fails to analyse our history as a neo-colonial one.
   In this respect I think of the Labour MP for Ceredigion at the time of the 1979 Referendum. Elystan Morgan was, with Newport's Paul Flynn completely isolated within the Labour Party in Wales as a strong advocate for their own policy of devolution.
   Devastated by the 'No' vote he condemned the Welsh people for their inferiority complex.
  He was duly ostracized.
  He was also absolutely right.
  With the ensuing 'Yes' vote and our own Assembly that 'inferiority complex' has been gradually denuded and replaced by a growing confidence, indicated in the Arts and especially in rock and folk music.
   Yet it remains, because we still expect so much to be done for us.
   Despite the inspirational example of the Tower Colliery workers, we're conditioned to wait for the 'powers that be' to provide.
   Prof Smith , with his Old Labour loyalties, is as much part of the problem as the aloof planning of Jonathan Adams.
   This dependence comes from being abandoned when our raw materials and cheap labour were no longer needed.
   It comes from our subservience to a foreign monarchy and, of course, from the Thatcherite mentality which has destroyed society and left the individual to cope on their own.
  But crucially, it comes as well from the very Labour Party which Smith sees as a solution( though he didn't take a party line on the programme, it must be emphasized).
   Apart from totally embracing neo-liberalism and giving the bankers free rein, they now carry out and support austerity measures just as the ConDems do.
   Their running of this country - from Senedd to Council - represents their adherence to Stalinist attitudes, based on 'We know what's good for you' ,rather than ' You decide and we'll support you'.
  To my mind, the future of the Valleys lies neither with Adams's  totalitarian vision or Smith's harking back to a past that was full of union and rebellion, but also of a macho and chapel-narrow society. 
   We must build our own industries producing sustainable goods and base them largely on crafts and high technology. Though communications must be improved, a hi-tech future doesn't need to relocate to any city.
   Above all, we need a political solution which rids us of this neo-colonial situation once and for all ; we need control of our own lives in every institution, from school to factory.
   Smith is right when he says we are 'slaves of capitalism'. But as misguided as Adams in his analysis.
   We need encouragement for co-operatives to be set up and a Welsh  bank owned by the nation which can support them.
   We are slaves to more than capitalism. We are slaves to an 'Ich Dien' ( I Serve) tradition, worn on every Welsh rugby shirt. 




                           ABANDON THE VALLEYS


Let's all abandon the Valleys
so they can turn them into an industrial museum,
a theme park of past glories


they could drown every one
and it would make Tryweryn
seem a piddling puddle by comparison


they could leave it to the animals,
bring back the wolves and wild cats
and let the adventure- tourists loose


they could cultivate market towns
with lots of cutsy craft shops,
places peopled only by Groggs


let's abandon the Valleys,
they've outgrown their uses ;
let opencast prevail without protest


let all those wasted Valleys folk
move coastward to the cities ;
it'll be like one long Saturday


let's all abandon the Valleys
to the march of conifers and SAS training courses,
shift every building to St. Fagan's.



     
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.



    Archives

    November 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from johnharveypegg, Dai Lygad, joncandy, victoriapeckham, David Holt London, aeneastudio, fromthevalleys-, Metro Centric, andymag, David Bergin Photography, villunderlondon, @markheybo, joncandy, Martin Pettitt, Between the Shadows, joncandy, johnkell, olivia.barrie, villunderlondon, Lake Worth, MittenStatePhototog, frankieleon, robynejay, joncandy, mcaretaker, Thomas Leuthard, Knight Foundation, joncandy, Joybot, brownpau, Iburiedpaul, villunderlondon, amit_gaur, abegum, simonw92, beeveephoto, Aislinn Ritchie, Shannon Green Photography, joncandy, Nick J Webb, Vish Menon, AberCJ, gcoldironjr2003, joncandy, World Can't Wait, jonl1973, Watt_Dabney, petejam70, Kerndav, MJ Klaver, joncandy, Daquella manera, spratt504, joncandy, ashleigh290, Glyn Lowe Photoworks., afanatochka, r.nial.bradshaw, themendingnews, rikkis_refuge, Matthew Straubmuller, joncandy, onnola, final gather, funktionhouse, marioanima, joncandy, Dai Lygad, joncandy, Guttorm Flatabø, brittreints, garryknight, villunderlondon, wonker, Martin Pettitt, joncandy, tnarik, AJC1, simonw92, wardyboy400, joncandy, Bombardier, joncandy, Cargo Cult, joncandy, joncandy, SeanOConnor2010, Feral78, comedy_nose, Abode of Chaos, mkairishstudies, joncandy, avail, Jörg Weingrill, Gwydion M. Williams, Leshaines123, KiltBear, eisenbahner, Capt' Gorgeous, Francis Storr, New Chemical History, Matthew Black, jc.winkler, Gwenael Kere, Karen Roe