Author: davidspeck

A NASA Astronaut and A&E consultant has shared insights into creating safer working systems with NHS staff across Wales,

in a online seminar organised by 1000 Lives Plus.The WebEx Seminar Series, Operating in High Risk Environments, uses the safety culture of space flight to investigate what makes a ‘high reliability organisation’, and applies it to healthcare situations.

The presenter was Canadian NASA astronaut and A&E consultant, Dr Dafydd Williams.The session was attended by individuals and groups across Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland and the USA.

Dr Dafydd (Dave) Williams is an A&E Consultant, astronaut and aquanaut, He is the only Canadian to have lived and worked both in space and in the deep ocean, and is exceptionally proud of his Welsh heritage (his father emigrated to Canada from Bargoed).

Dr Williams holds an Exceptional Service Award from NASA, and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal and served on two shuttle missions, in 1998 and 2007, when he was mission specialist on the space shuttle Endeavour and took part in three of the four spacewalks.

 

http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Health&F=1&id=21902

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-14179419

Canada is being lined up as the latest target for Welsh lamb exports, which are currently worth more than £111m to the UK economy.

Meat promotion body Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC) claims there is a growing demand for lamb from Canadians and immigrants to the country.

The HCC launched its initiative at the Royal Welsh Show in Powys.

It said export restrictions in Canada on Welsh lamb after the BSE crisis had been lifted.

A trade mission to the country is planned for the autumn.

At last year’s show First Minister Carwyn Jones and the HCC held talks with a trade delegation from the Chinese Embassy in London.

The HCC said it was attempting to broaden the market for Welsh lamb.

“Our market research has identified Canada as a potential new market for Welsh lamb and it is now up to us and our partners in the processing companies to work together to turn this dream into reality,” HCC chairman Dai Davies will tell a breakfast reception at the Royal Welsh Show on Monday.

Earlier this year, HCC asked the Canadian authorities to give Welsh processing plants the authority to export Welsh lamb to the country.

“There is a growing appetite in Canada for lamb as an alternative to other red meats, currently led by demand amongst immigrant groups from South Asia, Africa and the Middle East,” said HCC’s market development manager Laura Dodds.

“In addition, long-standing Canadian citizens with a traditional taste for lamb have combined with new immigrants to create a steady rise in demand.”

The HCC said the latest available figures showed that in 2008, Canadians consumed 34m kilos of lamb of which just over half – 17.5m kilos – was produced domestically with the remainder imported.

The Canadian market currently relies on imports of lamb from New Zealand, Australia and the United States.

But with worldwide demand for lamb rising, Canada finds itself under served by the amount of lamb that is available to its consumers by its current suppliers, said the HCC.

This means that there is an opportunity for Welsh processors to fill the gap.

Deputy Minister for Agriculture Alun Davies said: “Welsh lamb has long been heralded as the best in the world and I would welcome any move by Hybu Cig Cymru to prove to the Canadian market just how good it really is.

“Food is also an excellent way of selling a country to tourists, so tapping into foreign markets will not only benefit farmers and processors but it will hopefully encourage people to visit Wales to sample the excellent produce we have to offer.”

 

OWS members might be interested in logging on to this website where there is an article posted on ‘The Hidden Welsh of the Ottawa Valley’ by Carol Bennett McCuaig.

The web address is http://anglo‑celtic‑connections.blogspot.com/2011/06/hidden‑welsh‑of‑ottawa‑valley.html

A $6.5 million museum opened its doors to the public on Saturday July 9^th.

The Wales National Museum of Art inCardiff, opens a new West Wing of six integrated contemporary galleries covering 8,600 sq feet highlighting the museum’s world-class collection and making the museum one of the largest venues for public art in theUK, outsideLondon. The buzz inWalesis that the museum will rival the successful Tate Modern gallery inLondon.

40,000 treasures which include outstanding European Old Masters and an inspiring contemporary collection will be housed for the first time under one roof.

The museum is renowned particularly for one of the most important collections of Impressionist and Post Impressionist paintings outsideParisand these will be newly displayed.

“We have a world class collection and this will be a world class display for it,” said David Anderson, the director general of theNationalMuseumsand Galleries of Wales. Mr Anderson said he hoped the art museum would help boost the profile ofCardiffas a European capital andWalesas a cultural destination. He expects to have more touring exhibitions.

Americabenefited from the two-year construction period because during that time treasures from the Wales National Museum of Art toured theUSA. The exhibit called ‘From Turner to Cezanne,’ was a stunning collection of 53 works spanning Romanticism, Naturalism, Realism and Impressionism.

In 2012-13, the museum’s “The Image of the British Landscape” exhibition will tour theUnited States.

The opening display in July 2011 – “I Cannot Escape This Place” – of 44 works will include leading British and international artists such as Lucian Freud, David Hockney andRachel Whiteread as well as Welsh artists.

Entry to each Museum is free thanks to the support of the Welsh Government.

Canada’s top blues act with Welsh heratage will be playing at the Ottawa Blues Fest on July 7th

Ticket Details below:

http://www.ottawabluesfest.ca/performance/675

Will and Kate paid tribute to the nation’s war veterans with a visit to the Canadian War Museum, where they met with veterans and war brides spanning several generations.

The couple was at the museum to help unveil a 40-foot wide painting titled “The Canadian Opposite Lens” (by the Welshman Augustus John) which depicts soldiers on Vimy Ridge against a chaotic backdrop of trucks and bursting shells.

“This impressive work of art, with connections to Canada and Great Britain, portrays part of the experience which helped define Canada as a nation during the First World War,” the president of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation Mark O’Neill said in a statement released ahead of the ceremony.

The painting was intended to be the centrepiece for a Canadian war memorial art gallery that was never built. Instead, the piece sat in John’s studio in London, England where he worked on it sporadically until his death.

While moving through the museum, the Duchess of Cambridge continued to impress royal watchers with grace and elegance.

Standing in front of an unfinished painting by celebrated Welsh artist Augustus John in Ottawa, Kate demonstrated an ease with officials and regular Canadians at the Canadian War Museum, royal watcher Bonnie Brownlee told CTV News Channel on Saturday.

“It’s almost as if she was born to be living the life that she lives right now,” she said.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_John

http://ogov.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2011/02/c2910.html

 

 

 

Join the Ottawa Welsh at the Ottawa Jazz Festival 2011.

Robert Plant will be playing on Thursday June 23 at Confederation Park, Ottawa.

For more details and tickets, visit http://ottawajazzfestival.com/

Welsh mythology also forms a basis of Plant’s interest in mystical lyrics. He grew up close to the Welsh border and would often take summer trips to Snowdonia. Plant bought a Welsh sheep farm in 1973, and began taking Welsh lessons and looking into the mythology of the land (such as Black Book of Carmarthen, Book of Taliesin, etc.) Plant’s first son, Karac, was named after the Welsh warrior Caratacus. The song “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp” is named after the 18th Century Welsh cottage Bron-Yr-Aur owned by a friend of his father; it later inspired the song “Bron-Yr-Aur“. The songs “Misty Mountain Hop,” “That’s the Way“, and early dabblings in what would become “Stairway to Heaven” were written in Wales and lyrically reflect Plant’s mystical view of the land. Critic Steve Turner suggests that Plant’s early and continued experiences in Wales served as the foundation for his broader interest in the mythologies he revisits in his lyrics (including those myth systems of Tolkien and the Norse).[18

A PENSIONER did not discover he was adopted until he was 66 – even though his children and fellow villagers long suspected it.

Desmond Williams never had any idea he might not be related to the loving parents who had brought him up. But in a recent row with his wife she blurted out: “You want to find out who your father is!”
Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/06/19/pontrhydyfen-man-s-adoption-shock-at-66-91466-28901450/#ixzz1Q3V8uvhS

Hello All,

I was reminded this morning that the musical Home Child is coming to Ottawa at the end of the month.  I believe I mentioned this at a committee meeting last fall after seeing an ad in a theatre program.

The musical is based on the story of a Welsh family who had three or four of their children sent to Canada as part of the Barnardo orphans/Home Child program.  It is being presented by the Goya Theatre group at Centrepointe on May 26-29.  Tickets are $27.50 each.  Showtimes are 8 p.m on the 26, 27 and 28, and 2 p.m. on the 28 and 29th.  Further information is on the website www.homechildmusical.com

I think it would be good for us to mention this to our membership (email blurb) and also to advertise at the event.  I don’t know if it is too late to put an ad in the program booklet, or if we can insert those colourful flyers that Gareth made for March 1st, but I think we should ask.  I do not have time to do that so I would suggest that someone else on the committee check into it and follow up.

Please keep in mind that the Merched Dewi are coming up that weekend and that a concert is organized for Sunday afternoon, the 29th.  Some of us are hosting as well and will be busy Saturday night, but I plan to suggest to my guests that we go see it as part of a Welsh weekend, if they arrive on Friday.

Myfanwy

The Welsh in an Australian Gold Town, Ballarat, Victoria 1850-1900 (University of Wales Press)
By Robert Llewellyn Tyler.

This book provides an analysis of the Welsh immigrant community in the Ballarat/Sebastopol gold mining district of Victoria during the second half of the nineteeth century. The author was born in Newport in SE Wales and read History at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Copies of the book can be ordered through Amazon.com.