On the 15^th December last year a new law was passed that gave people suffering with mental health issues important rights in regard to receiving treatment. The central plank of this law is that all those who receive hospital treatment will get a proper care plan tailored for their specific needs. It is a measure that has received widespread support among those who work in this sector – one leading mental health charity re...

Broken nations form a part of the rich tapestry that is our world and the consequences of that brokenness – in conflict, war, poverty and injustice – are among some of the greatest problems facing our world today. One way of understanding that brokenness is to realise how the empires and colonisers of this world have added to that state – or even caused it – through their destruction of indigenous people’s identity....

How much harm has the European church caused the indigenous peoples of North America? According to the paper I have been sharing with you recently the answer is a great deal. The American Indians (as the paper refers to them) were not without a deep spirituality when the first Christian missionaries arrived among them to preach the Gospel. But in this life at least this Gospel became for them very bad news as their culture ...

The damage caused to the indigenous peoples of north America by the European colonisers who took their lands is substantial. But since it is deep, emotional pain it is not always readily recognised. One area in which national pain is seen on the surface is in the levels of substance misuse, especially the misuse of alcohol. Drinking rates are significantly ...

Do indigenous peoples suffer more physical and emotional health problems than the colonisers who have subjugated them? The answer is a big, fat yes. And to add to the depressing nature of that finding, it is also clear that Christian missionaries have also played their part in the problem. In an academic paper published in 2002 under the less than catchy title ‘Subst...

Empires come and empires go; they rise and then they fall. Unfortunately, their damaging effects are with us long after their disappearance. Two current news stories reflect some of the effects of the British Empire – one very close to home, the second on the other side of the world.

The future of S4C

On Saturday morning a crowd of some 1,500 people gathered in central Cardiff to protest about the British government’s p...

Rod Liddle and the hair some Welsh people dislike

Rod Liddle is a journalist. There, I’ve begun with a positive comment about him. Down hill all the way now, I’m afraid. No, not really. But I do feel like giving him the blogging equivalent of a good slap. It’s all because of some of the comments he made on his Spectator blog about the Welsh and our TV channel, S4C. According to Liddle we are a bunch of ‘miserable, seaw...

We find it easy in Wales to blame others for any harm done through colonisation of other countries by the British or other European Empires. We can paint a picture that is very black and white, charging the English or the Spanish say with imperialistic crimes while absolving ourselves of any culpability. The truth, however, can often be more subtle and when we begin to scratch the surface of history we find that we too, at ...

Can a society ever recover from the wounds of imperial power that have created deep bitterness and resentment? Can a community torn in two by national and religious differences ever be made whole, where both sides feel accepted, valued and equal? What role does justice and the pursuit and punishment of the guilty have to play in ensuring this wholeness? These are the deeper questions raised and as yet unanswered following t...

The ethnic tensions and violence in Kyrgyzstan is becoming a feature on our news bulletins. It is yet another example of nations struggling to conduct their lives following the gaining of independence from colonial powers. One sad feature of this pattern is that people of different ethnic, religious, or some other backgrounds turn against each other – an indication, perhaps, of the effects of that old colonial t...

Should we abolish the practice of celebrating patron saints of countries? Today is ‘St David’s Day’ here in Wales. Across the nation little girls will go to school wearing what is deemed to be the national dress; people will wear daffodils or leeks on their breast; societies will gather for a meal and a celebration. But apart from the fun, is there any real point in any of it and has the time come for us to...