This may be because you seem to have to link your Facebook page to Wales Online and I for one am not going to claim I like this, or give the impression I approve of their crap newspapers.
But those comments that were there did contain the usual Anti-Welsh trolls and most were reasonable.
One comment interested me however
John Nicholson who seems to have a bit of a thing about welsh Language Education and appears to live in the Bangor area
At last it seems that we are beginning to open a public debate on this important issue. For years the agenda has been controlled by the Welsh Language lobbyists, and it is about time that the whole population of Wales were asked their opinion about the spending of public funds on promoting the Welsh Language.
It may be that this was not a very well run poll, but what we need are some proposals for a good way to measure public opinion on how (if at all) the use of the Welsh Language should be supported.
I am sure that very few people would object to a principle that nothing should ever prevent any two people from communicating in a shared language. The right of Welsh speakers to use Welsh must not be inhibited. However, do Welsh speakers have a 'right' to demand that all services must be provided to them in Welsh - regardless of the cost - which all of us must pay? It is not just the cost of teaching and translating between languages, it is also the cost to society of lower standards of service because top professional will not take up jobs in Wales if their children are then forced to learn Welsh. In the health service most good professionals are now neither English or Welsh. The quality of our health service will be very much reduced if only Welsh speakers must apply. The same applies to all forms of public service.
There's a joke amongst Black people in America that
In the Racist South they didn't mind Negroes getting close as long as they didn't get uppity.
Whilst in the "Liberal" North they did..t mind Negroes getting uppity as ling as they didn't get
close.
Mr Nicholson seems to believe people can use Welsh in private but not in public
He finishes with the usual I'm not a Nationalist argument.
"I have no time for nationalism at a time when we should all be striving towards a more unified and less divided world, where people can properly share the world's resources in an integrated way. Spending significant public funds supporting minority languages is not helping to achieve a sustainable economy upon which we all depend".
Does he me a World with only one language and Culture ? I wonder which one?
The Welsh Language enriches us all even those (like myself) who don't speak it.
I don't know Mr Nicholson politics but Left or Right its the usual"I'm not a nationalist I'm a Internationalist" mostly from the left guff, that usually ended at Dover.
Or those who would support the rights of indigenous people throughout the World when faced with colonial pressures and believe that whilst their culture should be persevered Welsh should be allowed to die and we all embrace English.
I am a Nationalist and Wales is my Nation, but I also an Internationalist and want to see a World where people can speak to each other as equalls and unite against the scourges of War,Hunger and now climate change.
And we can start contributing to the World through our language and culture as one of our greatest politicians Henry Richard did.
 |
| Henry Richard Nationalist and Internationalist" |
A man who in the 19th century was the first to champion the Welsh language in Westminster but also was prominent in the Anti-Slavery campaign and was one of the foremost advocated for Peace through Reconciliation in his day
Although the argument for Henry Richard was a Welsh Nationalist may not be proved he was an Inspiration for those that followed.
Maybe its time we revive his memory.
.
4 comments:
I think S4C should be reported to what was the CRE.
The issue here is not that a discussion on funding for Welsh language (and all other provisions) shouldn't be had. But the BA4 programme didn't offer that discussion. People may very well be against any provision in Welsh but the BA4 didn't give the facts - and this is what a documentary programme should do.
The programme didn't tell the pubic polled how much was spent on each heading - health, roads, education etc etc. The public were asked to compare two different budgets - education, which would be around 40% of a local authority's budget, and 'Welsh language' (however you'd define that) would be in region of 0.15% (to take the Welsh Assembly's budget).
These are two totally different budgets. The public were also asked to make a choice, where they weren't given the facts not a full choice. Why not spend on 'recycling' or, in WG's case, Keep Wales Tidy which gets about 5 times more than the Welsh language? Why not include expenditure on taxis and hospitality, which, I'd guess is more than the spend on the Welsh language.
Would S4C air a programme which gave the public a straight choice of cutting funding to education and health and then 'Muslim Groups'? No.
Why, because the funding is so miniscule and so imcompatable to the other budges and they know full well has absolitely no effect on the over all budget of any council. They would not broadcast an item of that sort because it so blatantly points out one part of society with no context and will lead to illinormed illfeeling.
The BA4 programme, by lumping Welsht with education and health gives the impression that expenditure on Welsh is similar to these bugdest.
I will be making a formal complaint to S4C and asking what sanctions they will take against Byd ar Bedwar for inciting racial hatred.
John Nicholson’s comments are typical of this group who continually snipe at the Welsh language and highlights the hysteria that surrounds this perceived overspending on the language.
The same old arguments are spewed out to show how the Welsh language holds back Wales and will spell the end of civilisation as we know it if allowed to develop and thrive as a modern European language.
His grande finale,
“I have no time for nationalism at a time when we should all be striving towards a more unified and less divided world, where people can properly share the world's resources in an integrated way. Spending significant public funds supporting minority languages is not helping to achieve a sustainable economy upon which we all depend"
is a classic example of this distorted mindset.
John Nicholson and his ilk should look at the money the British and other governments’ waste on prosecuting illegal wars and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Then perhaps they’ll realise that improving the lot of ordinary people in this world will take more than cutting the minuscule spending on the Welsh language.
Well said Glyn.
People like John Nicholson just like to sensationalise their objection to all things Welsh and thus seize on every opportunity to ‘sound off’.
If we could all pick and choose what we want our tax pounds spent on, then I imagine you’d get some interesting suggestions.
Here’s mine …. ‘should the monarchy have a 'right' to their civil list payments regardless of the cost - which all of us must pay’
Post a Comment