Gwlad Ac Iaith Y Nefoedd?
Posted by dirty from Cardiff - Published on 16/10/2009 at 00:00
- Tagged as Creative Writing, Culture, History, Topical
“Patriotism� for rulers is nothing else than a tool for achieving their power-hungry and money-hungry goals, and for the ruled it means renouncing their human dignity, reason, conscience and slavish submission to those in power. Patriotism is slavery” - Leo Tolstoy
I wouldn't say that I'm proud to be Welsh, but in turn I wouldn't say that I'm proud to be part Pakistani, for that matter. Whenever nationalism occurs, it comes hand in hand with this ardent belief that your country is better than any other, the same goes for patriotism. This is when it gets stupid; I find it ironic that we're taught to be tolerant of other people and their races, but yet anti-English sentiment is rampant. My friend's father (who is a builder) was refused work because he wasn't Welsh speaking; if they had refused him, say if he had been coloured, that would be deemed racist.
Somehow, after a few pints, the real sentiments come out. “Always sh*t on the English side of the bridge” and all of these other songs that should be left in our shady past are resurrected. It's acceptable to discriminate against English speakers in some parts of Wales to a point where it actually becomes casual racism. I know someone whose mother was English, but went to a Welsh speaking school and was deemed an outsider; “The English Kid.” These ideas are still being circulated. Sometimes when I visit places outside of Cardiff, I've felt like I was an outsider on Welsh soil because I didn't speak the language of the heavens.
Speaking English in a Welsh speaking school is liable to punishment and the points that Welsh speakers will go to make their point is scary. Hijacking radio stations, Meibion Glyndŵr bombing houses of English dwellers in Wales between 1979 and 1994 and Pro-Wales graffiti is not something that I want to be associated with.
A part of me thinks that in every cynic, there's a failed idealist. I too was once in love with a Wales that would be free from English rule. It's never going to be free, the Assembly does nothing and the Assembly is in Cardiff� surely they realise that as well as devolution we need decentralisation?
Due to the Welsh Language Act, the Welsh language is not declining. The Welsh way of life is not declining, and I'm very glad of that. I'm glad that this country that was once stamped upon and whose culture was nearly eradicated hasn’t disappeared. I'm glad that any country who suffered what Wales did could recover.
Wales' history - just like any other - has skeletons that want to remain hidden. We're quick to point out the failures of the British government on “our” soil, but how much is there that we don't know about? The Welsh slave owners in America? The Cymdeithas yr Iaith (The Welsh Language Society who are all in favour of damaging businesses to advocate the Welsh language? By the way, you'll never catch them using their name in English, it's just not Welsh, is it fy cariad?).
How about the Welsh soldiers that we mindlessly accept as heroes despite the controversy of their gross misconduct in the Middle East and in Afghanistan? Admit it, everything Britain has done Wales (as part of the United Kingdom) has been a part of. But we won't mention that, in case we look anti-Welsh; slavery, colonialism, imperialism, the British Empire, manifest destiny, we participated. Divide and conquer.
I won't fall in love with the romanticism that's been bred out of the breathtaking scenery of Wales, the Mabinogion, the poetry of Dylan Thomas and the belief that the socialist Welsh proletariat will one day triumph. I'm sorry, but patriotism and nationalism has done more to stock the corpses in their million high piles in the past couple of hundred years than any other factor, including religion. Think of the killings of Bosnian Muslims by Serbians, the brainwashing of the post-Weimar German republic into Nazism, Mussolini and Stalin stoking it to new heights. Chairman Mao and Pol Pot, although both Communist were also highly motivated by patriotism.
Saint David's day, March 1st is a day of near-compulsory flag waving and nation-worship, no thanks, count me out. Spare me the puerile parades, please.
Nationalism and patriotism, just like religion, are just some of the many things that divide us and our beliefs as human beings. Nationalism is a dangerous thing and descends too quickly into an “Us against Them” mindset. Europe forgets her far-right wing past, national socialists and the Welsh Defence League.
I'm not anti-Wales; I'm anti-patriotism and the excrement that comes with it.
Sub-Ed Note: As with everything on theSprout, this is the author's personal viewpoint; we at theSprout get all Swiss and take a neutral stance on things. If you disagree with the article, leave a comment below (remember everything has to be moderated first, so it won't appear immediately) or submit a counter article to us.
