2007 June

Darganfod un o lyfrau Murray Bookchin

Pleser cael ddarganfod un o lyfrau Murray Bookchin yng nghornel siop lyfrau ail-law ‘Pages’ yn Aberteifi…

Old Aberdare Town Hall

It looks like some one intends to develop the old Aberdare Town Hall building in the middle of Aberdare.

Location : The old Town Hall is situated opposite Aberdare Library, adjacent to Green Street Methodist Church, and on the road opposite Aberdare Constitutional Club.

Don’t forget …

There are thousands of Aberdare Photos in the Gallery

Guarding the Shop

This ’soldier’ was spotted guarding a shop in Cardigan (Aberteifi) in West Wales. What an unusual and attractive piece of street theatre… certain to capture the attention of passing trade.

Why can’t we see something similar in Aberdare ?

One Man and His Chainsaw

Sculpting wood with a chainsaw at the Welsh Game Fair.

Simon Hedger sculpture at the Welsh Game Fair 2007

Simon Hedger had a wonderful sculpture of a mermaid-like figure on display at the Welsh Game Fair this year. The Welsh Game Fair is an annual event held at Gelli Aur, near Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire.

He started his career as a sculptor at the 1996 National Eisteddfod held at Llandeilo.

Shepherd Sculpture at Royal Welsh Showground

This Ugly Wales

Caught in the act of tearing up the Welsh countryside! Here is a photo of National Grid’s gas pipeline near Llanigon, north of Brecon.

The photograph was taken in mid June 2007. It is an ugly site to behold. The gas pipeline is a giant industrial phallus imposed on Wales by planners in London. A few corporations will benefit from this project. It will do little good to resolve the peak oil crisis we face in the next few years.

But do we not accept all the noise and the pollution ? Do we not rejoice at the smell and smoke that remind us of our industrial might ?

Ralph Borsodi’s book This Ugly Civilization (1929) reminds us of how man accepts the ugliness of his own creation :

THIS is an ugly civilization. It is a civilization of noise, smoke, smells, and crowds–of people content to live amidst the throbbing of its machines; the smoke and smells of its factories; the crowds and the discomforts of the cities of which it proudly boasts.

The places in which the people work are noisy. The factories are filled with the recurring, though not the rhythmic, noises of machines and the crash and clatter incidental to their operation. The offices, too, are noisy with the rat-tat-tat of typewriters, the ringing of telephones, the grinding of adding machines. The streets on which the people move about, and around which they work and play, resound with the unending clatter of traffic–the roar of motors, the squeaks of brakes, the shrieks of sirens, and the banging of street cars. And even the homes in which they are supposed to rest are noisy because they are not only packed close together but built tier on tier so that the pianos, phonographs, and radios in them blare incongruously above, below, and on all sides of them.

The people of this factory-dominated civilization accept its noisiness. For noise is the audible evidence of their prowess; the inescapable accompaniment of their civilization’s progress. The greater the noise, the greater the civilization.

* * *

More photographs of the gas pipeline on Flickr.

There are many of Ralph Borsodi’s books available for free at the Soil and Health library.

The Unlicensed Hirwaun Landfill Site

Is there or is there not a new unlicensed landfill site in Hirwaun ?

We commented on this problem back in February. Since then the site at Hirwaun Industrial Estate seems to have grown even bigger with even more household and industrial waste.

Why is the Environment Agency turning a blind eye to all this ?

Retail Comedy

One bale of hay in Focus DIY store Aberdare… twelve pounds and seventy five pence. Pure retail comedy.