Who is saving whom? Meandering through Cuba and Cymru.

I was enjoying an evening eating outside during the current heatwave (yes it sounds so privileged), accompanied by the music of Buena Vista Social Club (1996). They were brought to the World's attention by one Ry Cooder. At times his trademark slide guitar complements the music; at other times it detracts, I'm sorry to say. While pleased he brought the traditional music of Cuba to a global audience, his guitar sometimes dominates and dilutes the purity of the sound.

While pondering this, the warm evening was punctuated by the siren of the Coast Guard/Beach Patrol. This is almost a daily occurrence as ”those” get out of their depth in the rising tide, whether in their cars or on foot. Despite the large, clear and bilingual warning signs. Some of these are the same people who believe they are doing everyone a favour by being here. Those Entitled visitors who believe the area would be a barren wasteland without their injection of holiday cash. Sadly some local proprietors have fallen for the rhetoric too.

Little acknoweldged in the lands beyond, there are so many  businesses that happily rely mostly on local custom, evidenced by their growth before and after the recent Plague and associated lockdowns. They meet the dietary, social and cultural needs of the local population. Now that's what I call sustainability. Indeed, much of the Visitor Pound would not dare be spent in these premises. There are more than 25 such cafes across the Llyn Peninsula despite a population of only 20 thousand, and other cafés more orientated to visitors. Many of these visitors would sadly run a mile to avoid hearing that strange local tongue, and rush instead to support multinational corporations such as CostaFortune or BarStucks coffee shops. If only they knew it would have been the language of their ancestors 1500 years ago: west of a line drawn roughly from Isle of Wight to Strathclyde. From Ynys Wyth to Ystrad Clud, where they spoke the Brythonic tongue that became Cymraeg. Some would perhaps choke on their Skinny Lattes with indignation at the mere suggestion. Indeed I have seen them do so. Extra shots of history lessons needed.

What has all this to do with Ry Cooder and Buena Vista? While I listen and ruminate, a song on the CD corresponds in perfect tempo and in tune with the siren of the Beach Patrol. Perhaps I had too much sun, or maybe wine, but a connection was evident at that moment. It may of course be just a strange variation on synaesthesia, in which, for example I hear the song “Pure” by the Lightning Seeds every time the oven-timer beeps [“bee-beep; bee-beep” etc]. I may be unfair to Cooder being placed as the White Saviour of ethnic Cuban music, as his involvement is usually described in terms of his reverence for so many genres of World Music. Nevertheless, future blog posts will consider the dangers of Cultural Appropriation in World Music and maybe World Cuisine too.

So who is saving whom? Instead of saving [the music of] Cuba, maybe Cuba can save us. Digressing into a current news item about electric vehicles, there seems to be a rising tide of rejection, given the questionable exploitation of resources in manufacture, customer dissatisfaction with their claimed range, shortage of charging infrastructure and lack of affordability for the many. I predict fisticuffs at the charging points before long. If the sale of new ICEs is indeed banned in just seven years, we may have to follow the example of Cuba, where for many years pre-1959 vehicles have been, through necessity, adapted, repaired and cannibalised to keep them on the road.

Now that's a thought, even through rose-tinted glasses.

Welcome to Cornwall! Please don’t ruin it for us local people | Natasha Carthew | The Guardian

I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped | Rowan Atkinson | The Guardian