Tuesday 26 July 2011

THREE LETTERS TO WESTERN MAIL ON THE WINDMILLING OF WALES ISSUES AND RESPONSES TO THEM.

Three of my letters have, recently, been published in the Western Mail and two of them must have 'really annoyed' pro wind turbine lovers as they responded with a lot of 'hot air' which, of course, provided me with a wonderfiul opportunity to respond and to reveal some further facts as to why we must fight against the 'windmilling of Cymru'.



See sequence of letters below. beginning with letter no 1 from me then a response. Then, a response to the response from me. followed by another letter of 'attack' and a final letter of response to that attack from me.  


Sir - Congratulations to the people of Trefaldwyn for their deserved victory in getting Powys County Council to finally realize the folly of the windmills of mass destruction of our countryside. Let us now hope that the rest of Cymru also sees sense and follows the guidance of Powys and that our ‘so called’ government in Bae Caerdydd acts as a ‘true’ government should and refuses to participate in Westminster’s latest strategy of colonial exploitation in Cymru.


The ball now is firmly back in the court of the Welsh Assembly Government and it is they, along with the Welsh MEP’s, MP’s and Welsh Lords, that should be opening up the “2nd front” in London whilst Anti Wind Farms groups in Cymru must unite in order to continue with the campaign to rid our nation of this scourge once and for all. Towards achieving this end, we must awaken our people to the horrifying truth in regards to what effect the TAN 8 strategy will have on our countryside; we must awaken our people to fully realise what is being done to our motherland in the name of green imperialism and eco colonialism.  


Siân Ifan
CEO Embassy Glyndŵr



SIR – There is so much wrong with the sentiments expressed in the letter from Sian Ifan of Embassy Glyndŵr (July 5) that I scarcely know where to start.
Firstly, the outright opposition to wind farms. I can only say to Sian, wake up and open your eyes. Fossil fuels are running out – a report in The Ecologist (June 28) indicates that peak oil is coming even sooner than was thought.
Like so many wind farm opponents, Sian utterly fails to consider that the current provision of our energy is unsustainable or to recognise that alternatives need to be found and soon. I do not say that wind farms are the only solution, but we need renewable sources to provide a much greater proportion of our energy in the very near future.
Secondly, Sian wants to protect natural beauty and I’m in full agreement there. But if Sian wants to see “mass destruction” then look at the tarnished earth website (tarnishedearth.co.uk).
The pictures are also on show in St Mary Street in Cardiff and they show the utter desolation being created in Alberta as oil companies lay waste to our planet in a desperate attempt to scrape the bottom of the oil barrel. Compared to that, wind farms and pylons are a small price to pay.
If Sian is happy for other parts of the world to be devastated just to maintain the status quo a little longer, this is nimbyism of the highest order.
Lastly, the attempt by Sian to use anti-English sentiment to play a political game over energy supply is utterly cynical and revolting. We need energy from renewable sources; to reject any way forward that will take Wales to an even worse economic situation than it is in now.
MARTIN RENDLE

SIR – I am very aware we need to find suitable renewable energy for Cymru (“A small price to pay”, Letters, July 12) but churning up every acre of our nation so gigantic and next-to-useless wind turbines can be stabbed into the earth of our motherland is definitely not the answer as has been proved in other European countries that took the lead with onshore wind.
Let us take Denmark as one example, a country that has 6,000 turbines for a population of five million people. They have ceased to support new on-shore wind developments because they have learnt the hard way that wind is unreliable.
Too much wind means that the turbines have to be switched off as wind cannot be stored; then no wind means that they’re totally useless but, subsidies are still paid to wind farm developers and in Denmark’s case, businesses and consumers, since 2005, have paid more than £620m in subsidies through their electricity bills which are the highest in Europe.
Why should our nation, again, have to pay the price with capitalist exploitation of its communities and expropriation of its resources.
We have, continuously, for centuries, had to suffer the “rape of our fair country” by the likes of Anglo-Norman lords such as the Beaufort land-grabbing family and the copper, Iron, coal and slate masters.
We already have more than 400 turbines in Cymru with planning applications for many more being placed before Cymric councils by large wind farm developers through their Welsh collaborators. I, for one, am not prepared to stand by and watch an “absurd” and worthless strategy turn our beautiful nation into a wasteland of cemeteries for these expensive and useless turbines and their pylon infrastructures just so a few capitalist parasites can become billionaires on the backs of the “Gwerin”.
The Gwerin will, again, be footing the cost of it all for years to come through continual rises in their electricity bills – while the Duke of Beaufort will get £7m a year in subsidies for having 19 turbines on the 4,000 acres of Land that his Anglo Norman ancestors gained around Swansea.
And no, I am not “happy for other parts of the world to be devastated” either Mr Rendle. And they needn’t be – any more than Cymru need be. There are better choices of renewable energy available and as Joel Rawson from the Centre for Alternative Technology has argued, these other and better choices need to be explored in more detail – and I would add, adopted as “wiser” strategies that would benefit indigenous peoples everywhere.
I always find it puzzling when Western liberal environmentalists living in Cymru can empathise and sympathise so much with communities in danger of being destroyed in other parts of the world but cannot see the same dangers in regards to the nation they’ve chosen to live in.
I don’t think it’s me who needs to wake up and open my eyes, Mr Rendle.
SIÂN IFAN
CEO Embassy Glyndwr



Windynimbyism
 SIR – Has Sian Ifan ever had a Lee Enfield pushed into her face or starved on a rubber plantation (Letters, July 16)?
Probably not – but then those who oppose wind farms seem to have no problem using words like colonialism, imperialism , rape and holocaust with no idea or experience of the reality of these things.
The planet is heating up because of the CO² we are putting into the atmosphere and the oil is running out. If Ms Ifan can’t see that then I suggest she enter a process called “growing up”.
If she is so concerned about the landscape and wildlife why just wind farms, why not opencast mines and factory farms?
Those who oppose wind farms want to use energy but can’t face the consequences of doing so.
She can of course give us all an alternative that she is prepared to stick by and champion when it comes to opposition but one thing is intrinsic to windynimbyism: despite many requests no alternative is ever forthcoming.
Let’s make Wales a sustainable society by building the turbines and other renewable technology here where we can address the issues of poverty and climate change at the same time.
Green collar economy or rural la la land (propped up by EU subsidy) – easy choice to make methinks.....
NIGEL BAKER
Cardiff


My Reply to the  above when  published in the Western Mail of Saturday 23 July had been shortened to suit but I would like you all to see the full version that was sent for publishing, as follows.


Sir - Re letter by Nigel Baker (19 July 2011) entitled 'Windynimybism'.
No, Mr Baker, I do not know what it's like to have had a Lee Enfield stuck in my face or to be starved on a rubber plantation? But I can honestly state that my whole life has been an experience of colonialism, imperialism and rape of my nation, can you state likewise?


I am the daughter of a quarry worker and the granddaughter of a coal miner. Many of my friends are also from slate or coal mining backgrounds and our families have suffered over three centuries of English ‘slate masters’ as well as native Anglo-Cambro coal capitalists. Both my grandfather and my father died in their early fifties, one of silicosis, the other of emphysema. They worked hard in dangerous conditions for poverty wages and there was no ‘compensation’ for their families when they died; so I think I have more experience of the “reality of these things”  than a 'Green fascist' blowing enough hot air that can only add to Global Warming not help decrease it?
  
If you seriously care about the effects of the CO² that is being put into the atmosphere, then you should consider the enormous C02 emissions that is being generated as a result of the constructing of these turbines through the mining and the smelting of the metals used for their construction, through the carbon-intensive cement needed for their huge concrete foundations, and through the building and widening of roads needed to take them on site - not to mention the releasing of immense quantities of CO2 from the peat bogs where many Wind farms are built.  Yet, the English government intends to spend £100billion on the construction of 10,000 or more of these turbines in the next few years plus another £40billion on connecting them all to the national grid to ensure that we hit the 15% renewable target by 2020.


60% of Cymru is within the TAN 8 area and we know that there are planning applications for the construction of Wind farms put forward in areas than are not within the TAN 8 designated area so one can immediately envisage what Cymru will look like in a few years time if this ‘lunacy’ is allowed to continue.


Every community in Cymru has got more than enough in natural resources to provide the needed ‘green’ energy for its community, and If you would like to contact me Mr Baker, I can show you proof of how an individual in my home town of Blaenau Ffestiniog has been doing just that for the last thirty five years but no, our ‘London masters’ have dictated that our nation must be ripped apart, again, and every acre filled by gigantic turbines and their pylon infrastructures to provide electricity for the U.K.’s hungry national grid, and as has been the case with our water, they’ll take it and make the Welsh Gwerin pay for the development of it through hidden costs in their electricity bills just as we’ve had to pay the highest water rates in the U.K. for decades for our own water!


And if you seriously care about the effects of war Mr Baker, please wake up to the realisation that global corporate international capitalism really does needs a plentiful supply of ‘cheap’ energy to power its armaments industry. Yes Mr Baker, I’m referring to that armament industry that is currently supplying the bombs that is being dropped on three Islamic nations and that will continue to supply arms and planes to tyrants all over the Third World to enable them to further wars so they may continue to exploit native peoples of their natural resources.


Your response to my letter Mr Baker is just the sort of hysteria we expect to witness from such arrogant 'green fascism' as increasingly, the fallacy in regards to the effectiveness of wind farms is challenged and exposed world wide. Westminster is well aware of this fallacy which is why they are currently considering the advice of Centrica and other energy companies that 17 gas -fired power stations, at a cost of a further £10billion to the tax payer, will be needed by 2020 to provide electricity to back up wind power when the turbines don’t produce or when they over produce and have to be turned off!.


I am not a ‘nimby’ Mr Baker; I do not regard Cymru as my back yard but rather as a beautiful garden that I must assist to protect from the swine that will devour it so that it will survive as a legacy to hand down to future generations. And, for the record, I do oppose ‘open Cast mining’ and have supported Native Americans in their campaigns against ‘strip mining’. I support the campaign against badger culls and most certainly oppose factory farming and all forms of cruelty to animals and peoples where ever they occur.
Siân Ifan
C.E.O. Embassy Glyndŵr.


Friday 22 July 2011

BATTLE OF VYRNWY SITE REGISTRATION 2010 FOLLOWED BY 2011 DAL DY DIR - 'CAMP GLYNDWR' - VYRNWY ESTATE - CYMRWCH Y TIR YN OL 2011 - MAYBE?



2010 Battle of Vyrnwy 24 Mis Medi 1400 
Embassy Glyndwr Battlefield Registration.


BRWYDRAU GLYNDWR: May 2011

brwydrauglyndwr.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html - Cached
31 May 2011 – Information on Owain Glyndwr, his Generals and Captains. The Strategies... THE BATTLE OF VYRNWY 24 MEDI 1400: 'TARIAN GLYNDWR. ...

Following Battle Field Registration Embassy Glyndwr placed placards protesting sale of Vyrnwy Estate by Severn Trent.










Vyrnwy Estate Camp Glyndwr 24 Medi 2011?


A Field of Dreams - But Would Patriots Be There?


If no Camp Glyndwr we call upon Pobl Glyndwr to visit Vyrnwy Estate to place more protest placards about and place tributes at site of Battle. Pin Ivy Leaves with messages to Glyndwr Trail path sign and fence near by as a commemorative gesture.



Monday 18 July 2011

TARIAN GLYNDWR WINDMILL PLANTATION WATCHING NEWS AND INFORMATION UP DATE On Radio Cymru Interviews Today and Letters to Western Mail and Reply.



  1. Pwysig: At 1:15 today 'Wythnos Gwilym Owen's Radio Cymru programme will have a discussion on 'Turbine Terrorism' with  myself and Lyn Jenkins opposing 'wind mill plantations' and Dr Iolo ap Gwynn (Chairman of CAT Trustees) who, throughout the item,  interrupts views opposite to his own 'turbine treachery', whilst Eryl Vaughan/Fychan chief Welsh collaborator of renewable - Cymru - Wind Power Wales was allowed to get away with recording his interview before the programme so that he could not be publically questioned as to his position in all this and, not least, into his 'corruption' of Welsh culture in interest of big business - Corporate Global Capitalism, an international menace hiding behind  a mask of 'friendly environmentalism' but which is, in reality, 'green Imperialism and 'eco colonialisn' in a weak and defencless Post Industrial Cymru.



    BBC - BBC Radio Cymru Programmes - Wythnos Gwilym Owen




    www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007rl7q - Cached
    Sesiwn arall o holi a stilio, procio a phryfocio yng nghwmni Gwilym OwenGwilym Owenwith his unique view of the ... Monday, 13:15 on BBC Radio Cymru ...

    You can listen to the discussion via the above link but should you miss it, you can access via ipod for the duration of the week.

    I have since, gone through the motions and complained to the BBC and to Ofcom about the blatant  'bias' in the aforementioned programme although, that won't have any effect of course and Gwilym Owen would not care 'two hoots' if it did as he was retiring that week with a big fat golden handshake no doubt!

    For further update re Embassy Glyndŵr's participation in this Anti Windmilling of Wales campaign, see below letters in Western Mail - and please add you reply to the debate:
www.walesonline.co.uk/.../western-mail.../tuesday-5-july-2011-914... - Cached
5 Jul 2011 – SIR – Predictably, a Western Mail poll shows a majority who believe the ... in the name of green imperialism and eco colonialism. SIÂN IFAN ...

www.thefreelibrary.com › ... › July 5, 2011 - Cached
5 Jul 2011 – Free Online Library: Green imperialism; & COMMENT DEBATE YOUR LETTERS TO THE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER OF WALES.(Letters) by "Western Mail(Cardiff, Wales)"; News, ... SIAN IFAN IFAN Institut Fondamental d'afrique Noire ...

Further comments and facts and figures galore for and against windmill farms might go on unabated but as far as Embassy Glyndŵr is concerned, this is a Welsh 'National Issue' and we look at and react from an anti - colonial position which rests on the platform and programe of that we seek to deny any oppression of our peoples, exploitation of our communities or any expropriation of our  land and its natural resources either by England or by International Global Coorperate Capitalism, be it by Green Imperialism and Eco Colonialism or whatever other form the new Cheque Book Conquest may take.

In the case of Windmill Farms, we further oppose their despoilation and devestation of our countryside and the desecration of our heritage in the landscape. This is not a matter of 'NIMBYISM'; as far as we are concerned,  all of Cymru is our beautiful and, in places, wild and dramatic 'precious garden', a garden sculptured by its rich history, to be protected and well cared for as a legacy to hand on to future generations.


STOP PRESS - BLADES OF FURY - See Below:

www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/ - Cached
Sunday TimesSunday July 17, 2011. Home Section Home · News Section .... Blades of fury. Matt Rudd. Look out of your window. Are they there yet, ...

Sunday 3 July 2011

Translation of letter published in Cymraeg in the Cymro on Friday last (July 1st) concerning Windpower Wales bribing the National Eisteddfod, the Urdd Eisteddfod and MYM.

The Cymraeg version is on the Galwad Glyndŵr blog. Here's a link:  http://galwadglyndwr.blogspot.com/2011/07/taflu-llwch-i-lygaid-y-cymry-cwmniau.html

Dear Editor,

The truth is finally dawning on countries within the European Union that dependency on wind power as an answer to future energy needs is as daft and futile as attempting to fill a bucket with water when that bucket has a gaping hole in it.

Holland has already abandoned its EU renewable energy target, announcing that it is to slash its annual subsidy by billions of Euros; and France is currently reviewing theirs as UNESCO looks on with a keen eye as that body is, rightfully, concerned about heritage sites and their associated historical environment in France.

But when it comes to our small nation, Westminster has, arrogantly, stated that they have the right to set up Wind Farms on every acre of  Welsh land should they wish to do so, regardless of any historical, cultural or environmental attributes concerned. So, we can look forward to years of having to suffer our main and minor roads, towns and villages being blocked by these monstrosities as they are being transported to every part of Cymru before they are finally stabbed into the earth of our motherland at the sites of their new home.

There will be no end to this nightmare until every bit of open land has been ripped up and filled up by these alien monsters – and then, we are expected to live amongst them – and who in their right minds would want to – not to mention visit our motherland, that was before this current ravaging, still beautiful despite the ravaging of the past.

If this ‘absurd’ strategy is allowed to continue in Wales, in time, there will be no living Welsh communities left; who would want to live in them? There will be no sound of children playing and laughing in the yards of the closed down schools. There will be no bird song as there will be no birds - apart from headless ones, and hardly any wild life. All that Visit Wales will have as attractions on their promotion literature will be castles, drowned communities, hundreds of Wind Farms and an endless pylon infrastructure.

Yes, the picture for the future is both horrifying and sad – and one that could still be avoided if the Welsh Assembly in Bae Caerdydd had enough backbone to say NO!...ENOUGH IS ENOUGH –especially considering that even Westminster has now had to face the raw fact that wind power is totally unpredictable and therefore is totally ineffective, with the subsidies being paid out to the developers often amounting more than the energy being produced – and, if that isn’t bad enough, it has transpired that Westminster is now being forced to consider the advice of their own Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and energy companies such as Centrica (owners of British Gas) that 17 gas-fired plants worth about £10 billion will be needed by 2020.

It is intended for these  gas-powered stations to stand idle for most of the time, but to be there as a backup to the wind turbines at times when they just do not work and do not produce the energy they’re meant to.

What kind of madness is that? Of course,  It is us the taxpayer that will have to pay the cost of the necessary subsidies needed to keep these mostly idle plants on standby; even though we’re already paying towards the cost of the wind turbine development through hidden costs in our energy bills.
But, saddest thing about all this in regards to Cymru is that a ‘Cymro’, a past activist of the Welsh Language Society, is a wind farm developer that’s playing a leading role in this latest hideous ravaging of our motherland. Eryl Vaughan (aka Fychan) is the ‘Welsh face’ behind the development of these unsightly and useless wind farms all over Cymru and without any doubt, he and his company Windpower Wales knows exactly how ineffective they really are and, what long term effect they will have on Cymru.

The bad news does not end there. I have to sadly reveal that Eryl Vaughan and Windpower Wales is also busily at work bribing Cymric national institutions and that the National Eisteddfod, the Urdd Eisteddfod and MYM (the Cymric nursery school movement) have all already accepted a bite of their poisonous apple in the form of ‘sponsorships’. These ‘sponsorships’ make the Developers out to be  ‘good people’ eager to help Cymric communities but in reality of course, The Wind farm companies need to carry out this form of ‘bribery’ in order to win the support of the Cymry throughout Cymru for the times when they submit their applications to develop these wind farms all over Cymru. What’s really very ironic and sad is that institutions that exist in order to strengthen and promote the Cymric language and culture and Cymric way of life, are unwittingly ‘hoodwinked into taking a bite from the poisonous apple that is being offered to them, and by doing so, will undoubtedly, in time, contribute towards the destruction of those very elements of Welshness that they have protected and nourished for centuries.

Having been prewarned, let us hope that no other Welsh institutions or movements are ‘hoodwinked’ in the same way and that we will not witness the aforementioned institutions ever again biting from poisonous apples.

Siân Ifan