WANT TO KNOW THE SOUL OF WALES? LISTEN TO HER MUSIC

Posted on November 16, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Perspectives and tagged Aled Jones, arts, Bonnie Tyler, British, Bryn Terfel, Catatonia, Charlotte Church, cool cymru, cwl cymru, cymru, Datblygu, eisteddfodau, featured, Feeder, Gorky’s Zygotic Mwnci, Gwenno, hiraeth, John Cale, Katherine Jenkins, mining, music, Pais Dinogad, pop, Rebecca Riots, rock, Shakin’ Stevens, Shirley Bassey, song, Stereophonics, Super Furry Animals, Thatcher, the Manic Street Preachers, tom jones, Trampolene, Wales, Wales Act, Welsh, Yma o Hyd, Ysgol Sul.

by Jonathan Lee

The oldest known song in the British Isles dates back 1,400 years and it’s written in Welsh.

Pais Dinogad was sung in Rheged, a kingdom of Yr Hen Ogledd (the old North), in what is now modern day Cumbria and the Scottish Lowlands. The song is a simple lullaby, telling a baby of his father, Lord Dinogad, who is out hunting in a time long before Anglo-Saxons or even Gaels had arrived in this part of Britain.

It probably wouldn’t be described as an absolute banger if we’re completely honest (although this lyre-wielding, tattooed, metal-head gives it a real good go). It’s nonetheless incredible that it’s still being sung at all today, and that its lyrics are broadly comprehensible to modern Welsh speakers.Continue Reading

DEEPGREY (9)

Posted on January 23, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged adblocker, bitcoin, blockchain, City, creative writing, cryptocurrency, cyberpunk, DeepGrey, drone, dystopia, featured, fiction, gaming, gender, internet, LRAD, meme wars, mining, police, prose, science fiction, scifi, serialised, sf, shop, singularity, social media, spam, specfic, speculative, street, suits, thug, virtual reality, virus, writing.

by Rob Harding

(Part 9 of a serialised prose fiction endeavour. Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8)

I stay hidden while Adil opens up again, rates the police on their app, and sends them packing. Once that’s done, Adil’s daughter nods to me. ‘You’re welcome.’ She says. ‘Now, if you don’t mind?’

I stammer my thanks and head out the front again. Adil nods to me and lets me duck under a shutter, and back out onto the street.

There’s no sign of the police, or the hijacked DeepGrey workers, or anything particular. A Community Security bot has rolled into place at the far end of the street, but if I don’t go near it it won’t ID me and do the digital equivalent of the staring-eyed pod person screech. I’ve long since resigned to having to work around the damn things, and these days I only vaguely keep track of the forum posters who fight a constant arms race with their glassy-eyed developers out in San Francisco or Vientiane, or wherever the fuck has the most reliably gullible investors this week.Continue Reading

IT’S GRIM UP NORTH: HOW THE NORTH OF BRITAIN HAS BEEN LEFT BEHIND

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged austerity, British Isles, City, crisis, divide, economy, Game of Thrones, george osborne, GoT, Great Britain, independece, industry, inequality, london, mining, North, Plaid Cymru, politics, poverty, recession, Scotland, snp, south, steelworks, the north remembers, UKIP, Wales, westminster.

by Pierce Robinson

The North – South divide in the British Isles is still one of the most controversial topics in contemporary UK politics and society. The economic and political differences between the two ends of the country have been a common characteristic of these islands for decades. If you live anywhere north of Birmingham, the signs that you have entered a different part of the country are clear, even just the fact that you would choose gravy chips over a kebab – but most importantly, the level of poverty increases dramatically. The United Kingdom has the highest level of inequality in Western Europe, yet with a capital city that continues to flourish every day, why are we not seeing the similar signs of fortune increase in the North?Continue Reading

ENVIRONMENTAL WARS: KILLED BY THE CORPORATE STATE

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged activism, Agua Zarca, Agua Zarca dam, assassination, Berta Cáceres, campaigners, clean water act, climate, climate change, corporate, corporations, corruption, deepwater horizon, environment, environmental activists, Environmental Watch, environmentalism, Global Witness, Goldman Sachs, Greenpeace, Gustavo Castro Soto, Heathrow 13, Honduras, international womens day, Lenca, logging, Mexico, mining, murder, NGO, police, police corruption, politics, pollution, Unilever, women, World Bank.

by Gunnar Eigener

“The army has an assassination list of 18 wanted human rights fighters with my name at the top. I want to live, there are many things I still want to do in this world but I have never once considered giving up fighting for our territory, for a life with dignity because our fight is legitimate. I take lots of care but in the end, in this country where there is total impunity I am vulnerable…when they want to kill me, they will do it.”

Berta Cáceres (2013)

In the early hours of Thursday 3rd March 2016 in La Esperanza, Honduras, an unknown number of assailants broke into the house of environmental and human rights campaigner Berta Cáceres and killed her. The only witness to the crime, Gustavo Castro Soto, a Mexican national, has been denied permission to leave the country with a 30-day immigration alert put in place against him. According to Global Witness, at least 109 people have been killed between 2010 and 2015 in Honduras, all with links to campaigns against a number of projects, including mining, logging and dams.

mining

WANT TO KNOW THE SOUL OF WALES? LISTEN TO HER MUSIC

IT’S GRIM UP NORTH: HOW THE NORTH OF BRITAIN HAS BEEN LEFT BEHIND

ENVIRONMENTAL WARS: KILLED BY THE CORPORATE STATE

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