The National Library of Wales has started digitising records of the Welsh Army Corps and other materials about Wales in World War One with a view to commemorative ceremonies between 2014 and 2018.

The information will be available in all the partner institutions and everywhere online from June 2013, according to National Library of Wales.

Project co-ordinator Rob Phillips said the work started in February and will take until October 2013 costing nearly £100,000.

Mr Phillips told the Wales Wave: “The project is a collaboration between the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth University, Bangor University, The University of Wales Trinity St David, Swansea University, Cardiff University Library, the Archives and Records Council, Wales and The People’s Collection Wales.

“We are going to be digitising over 190,000 pages of material which will reflect the experience of Welsh people during the war, including newspapers, archives and manuscripts, audio and audio-visual material.

“Our aim is to create a virtual unified archive, freely accessible via the web of the experience of Wales during the war, rather than as a military story.”

Part of the project is alongside others supported by Digitisation and Content programme in Joint Information Systems Committee during 2011 to 2013 and it costs £ 987,916.

The Joint Information Systems Committee is an “advisory committee” to the higher education and further education funding bodies across the UK, according to Higher Education Funding Council for England. All the UK post-16 and higher education funding councils are paying for its projects.

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UK’s smallest town, Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys, Mid Wales, is hosting the World Alternative Games.

Have you ever experienced backward running competition? How lovely could it be when lots of people running backwards for a gold medal?

Inspired by London winning the Olympics two years and a half ago, the town decided to expand its tradition for staging wacky sporting challenges in the hope of attracting more tourists, both locally and internationally.

Man versus horse marathon has been held annually since 1980 and the route is a little shorter than a standard marathon—it is 22 miles rather than 26 miles.Players need to finish seven miles in a team of three.

The opening ceremony was on August 17 and the event runs to September 3.

Roger Williams, MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, said the town had a long-time tradition of alternative games and the tourism strategy was holding these special games.

“Tourism is the major industry alongside farming and excellent food such as Welsh lamb and beef in the area,” said Mr Williams. “The tourism here is designed according the landscape and there is a seasonal factor…the peak of tourists is summer.”

An Alternative Games spokesman said: “Tourism is important to Wales and we keep organising these to improve the economy. Local people are contributing as volunteers.”

The event is partly funded by the government and this year’s event is sponsored by OneOneOneOne charity, a UK based fundraising organisation.

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A company wants to build a motor racing Circuit of Wales between Brecon Beacons National Park and Blaenau Gwent.

It claimed that a 3.5 mile racetrack would be built and the circuit would be able to host international racing sports events including MotoGP, World Superbikes, World Motocross and World Touring Car.

In addition to the main racing circuit, there would be two motocross and a karting track, a business park and two hotels in development.

Mr Sebastian Barrett, the spokesman for Heads of the Valleys Development Company, which has planned this project for nearly a year, said the new racetrack would generate more than £50 million per year.

The company said the project “will provide significant sustainable local employment opportunities both skilled and unskilled, resulting in approximately 6,000 new full time jobs in a broad range of sectors including: track stewarding, security, catering, retail, hotels, B&Bs, restaurants.” And there will be approximately 3,000 jobs for construction.

BBC said the project would cost more than £250m and the investment should be about £300m. “Part of the money is coming from banks and other equity partners doing work on-site such as hotels and other estate developers.” Mr Michael Carrick, head of the company told BBC.

“We have a section of environment which is making sure there will be no harm to the environment,”said the spokesman.“This is a big project. There will be consultation from August 20 to 31 to hear from local residents, and until now the feedbacks are all positive.”

Roger Williams, MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, where the national park near Ebbw Vale is located, said if industrial projects were suitable depended on reputations and traditions and he was optimistic about this one.

“We are a sporting nation,” Mr Barrett said.

The Heads of the Valleys is a Private Limited Company registered in 2011.

The company said they would give the proposal to Blaenau Gwent council in the next few months.

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Cardiff City football team has met big anger from its fans after it revealed a proposal including changing home kit’s colour and the Bluebirds badge on Tuesday.

City’s Malaysian sponsors wanted Cardiff City to play in red shirts, black shorts and red socks with a blue away kit from next season, with the cash injection of £100 millions which was proposed to “wipe out all debt as well as fund a state of the art training complex, stadium expansion to 35k and an increased playing budget”, according to Cardiff City Supporters’ Club. The new badge has a red dragon, with the words “Cardiff City FC, est.1899”. The bluebird will not be on any replica kit or official badge any more.

Cardiff, known as Bluebirds, has managed to reach the Carling Cup final and the Championship play-off semi-finals before losing to West Ham on Monday.

The plans was explained to City Supporters’Trust chair Tim Hartley, vice-chair Tracey Marsh, board member Keith Morgan amid fans representatives from independent travel groups and message boards, by Alan Whiteley, chief executive of the club, on Tuesday night in a meeting at Cardiff City Stadium.

Vincent Tan and other Malaysian investors wanted the changes to represent “the fusion of the two cultures of Wales and Malaysia,” which, Mr Whiteley, said would lead to new commercial and retail opportunities in Asia.

The club said in their statement that they “will communicate any decisions made as quickly as possible, but it serves no interest to comment in depth at this time until those decisions have been taken.”

The club also said they anticipate that the review will be concluded within the next week.

Trust chair Tim Hartley said: “We are grateful to the Malaysians for their continued investment in Cardiff City. But I would urge them to think again and respect some of the central traditions of what Cardiff City has been and is.”

The Trust has called on a meeting at 3pm on Saturday night at the Municipal Club in City Road, to discuss the future of the team. Letters have been sent to MPs and AMs to invite them to attend and all fans are welcomed.

“Cardiff City Football Club belongs to supporters and their families who have supported it through thick and thin,” said in a Trust’s statement.

Cardiff’s Assembly Members Vaughan Gething, Mark Drakeford, Julie Morgan and Jenny Rathbone said:“ To strip away the club’s identity without proper consultation is an insult to thousands of loyal supporters who follow their beloved Bluebirds around the country week in week out.

“Cardiff City Football Club is the lifeblood of the local community and the fans deserve a say over its future.

“We all want to see a successful Cardiff City Football Club on and off the pitch but we cannot stand back and let such a radical proposal go through without the fans’ blessing.”

Sports and heritage minister Huw Lewis AM said the investment should be welcomed while the tradition should also be respected.

Former Cardiff City captain Jason Perry thought the home shirt should remain blue, according to BBC.

Whereas minority attendees of Tuesday’s meeting were “happy to accept the change to guarantee the future of Cardiff City”, said Cardiff City Supporters’ Club.

Dr Yiannis Kouropalatis from Cardiff Business School, whose current research activities include based strategy, strategic competitive reasoning said there would be short-term impacts and long-term impacts.

He said this big change could be a discomfort for the football fans who had associated with the brand for a long time and it could make them disappointed. “The shirts with brand on them contain their perception of how good the team is,” he said.

“If the team does really well, people will accept the new logo finally…dragon has lots of national importance for Welsh and more power in people’s minds. It indicates a country and the brand identity will shift. It will not be just a Welsh team but one with a Welsh flag.

“Red colour is good luck in some Asia countries and it also have some significant for the Welsh football team…but it depends, if it is a part of the bigger strategy and if they have decided to attract more.

“The name [Bluebirds] also has to change. People find it difficult to like it but in the end it will be ok,” said Dr Yiannis Kouropalatis, and he thought the change of brand identity needed more measures in public relations, which should “create an awareness” to the fans.

“Lots of communication should be done. They should give explanation why they do this and maybe free T-shirts with new logo to make fans feel welcomed by the new brand. Long-time fans may feel they own the club and they may feel their team taken away by the new brand. Communication strategies should be done to make them feel embraced by the new brand and rewarded, associating with a quick victory.”

The npower Big Dribble event, which is for backing British hockey teams, came to Cardiff on Monday afternoon amid all stops in its whole road show touring the country.

In front of St. David Hall on Hayes Street, teenagers were dribbling the balls to get it through or across obstacles on the way. With raindrops falling continually, kids were pushing balls though a streaming route and they were just so happy in the game, even in the rain. They forced the ball using hockey steaks, and would press a big red button to account for the whole distance after they finished a circle.

One lady said his grandson was playing there and she was happy with his skill. She said she also liked playing hockey.

“Join celebrities, Great Britain hockey stars, local communities and thousands of others in an attempt to set a record for dribbling hockey balls 2012 km across Great Britain,”according to the event’s website.

A staff responsible for media recording told our newspaper that it was ok whether the weather was good or not. She said they met with small rains in Edinburg and Wrexham. She added that it was really a fun to do the sport though.

A giant hockey ball was placed behind the finishing line, and it was designed to wish Britain’s hockey teams good luck ahead of the Olympic Games with signatures on it from the public.The ball will be presented to the teams in the end of the event.

The event has reached 22 cities since its starting on April 15, to keep the Olympic countdown. Next city will be Exeter and other 10 cities are also on the visiting list for this week. The event was supported by npower and ran by WellChild, which is “the UK’s national charity for sick children and is part of Great Britain Hockey’s Hockey Nation program”.

Volunteers were recruited and registered online. Two students from colleges, who said they majored in science, were there with other volunteers to make the process quicker, as the schedule of the tour involving 40 cities is tight as the torch relay is coming.

The proposal to introduce same sex marriage in England and Wales completed its consultation in May 2012. Feedback was received from different groups including those who insisted civil marriage and religious marriage are the same.

Currently civil partnership has a lower status than marriage in both law and culture. At present, same sex couples can't legally have a civil or religious marriage. As is said in the Civil Partnership Act 2004, “a civil partnership is a relationship between two people of the same sex”, opposite sex couples can't have a civil partnership. Campaigners for a change in the law believe that this is discrimination. But what do others think of the proposal?

Kevin and Steve in Cardiff have been together for ten years. They thought there were more things in a marriage like responsibilities, tax and religious issues which made it too heavy. They said there was no need for them to be married and they were living separately but happily. Steve said: “There are many recipes for a relationship – marriage is just one. It doesn't suit everyone.”

Could they be hand in hand in the daytime on the street without being noticed and talked about? Why should they keep a low profile?

Ten years ago The Telegraph printed an article Vicars bless hundreds of gay couples a year. Could LGBT people including same sex couples, as minority, get equal rights eventually rather than being “tolerated” and “accepted” by the majority? The issue is still controversial.

Legislation

The proposal, Equal civil marriage: a consultation, talked about marriage, civil partnership and gender recognition. The current position of legislation is, according to the proposal: civil partnership and marriage are in two totally “separate legal regimes”, which means the homosexual and heterosexual couples are treated differently in legal practice; marriage is required to be blessed by words while civil partnership is not when it is registered; they are not same when dealing with pensions, adultery as well as “non-consummation and courtesy titles”; prohibiting civil ceremonies from occurring in places of worship seems to limit their value for those who want a religious ceremony.

A teacher in Cardiff Law School suggested Family Law written by Professor Jonathan Herring from Oxford Law School, in which Professor Herring said: “As has been repeated several times, there are very few differences between spouses and civil partners.” The differences, as he said, are in the “formalities at the start of the relationship”, “the non-consummation grounds and venereal disease”, effects of adultery on ends of relationships, and “assisted reproductive services”.

Must a marriage have the purpose of children? In the Marriage Act 1949, there is no definition. Is marriage without children still more valuable than civil partnership? Is civil partnership with adopted children still inferior to marriage?

Academic debates

“Order C4M petition forms and SPUC briefing to save real marriage” proclaimed posters displayed in Cardiff's Metropolitan Cathedral of St. David. It said people “must protect real marriage because it protects children in the womb”, “children do better conceived and brought up in real marriage” and “real marriage recognises the difference between men and women”, showing a picture of a baby in womb.

“Why...no,” Dr Katherine Shelton laughed when she heard claims that if same sex marriage was legalised the rate of abortion would go. Dr Shelton is responsible for social relationship in Developmental Science in Cardiff University. If babies created outside marriage are adopted by same sex couples, they could escape from abortion.

Professor Michael E. Lamb, the Head of the Department of Social and Developmental Psychology in Cambridge University, when asked to comment on this issue, sent his research article as his opinion, in which he concluded: “Numerous studies of children and adolescents raised by same-sex parents conducted over the past 25 years...show they are as successful psychologically, emotionally, and socially as children and adolescents raised by heterosexual parents.” Dr Shelton also said: “There are always ways to attack others. It is with the person who does the bullying...the prejudice harms more than just having same sex parents.”

On gender role, Dr Shelton said: “Children living with same sex parents are a part of the community where there are men and women.”“Children and adolescents raised by same-sex parents also do not differ from those raised by heterosexual parents with respect to gender identity, which is an aspect of psychological adjustment,” Professor Michael E. Lamb wrote in his research.

A professor at Cardiff Business School said same sex marriage’s positive impact on the economy would be brief and not significant.

Opinions-mixed

Timothy Radcliffe OP, Catholic Priest and Dominican Friar of the English Province and former Master of the Order of Preachers from 1992 to 2001, gave a lecture Is all love divine? in Swansea University on May 16. He talked about loving “the people we are fond of, tied to and our loved ones”, with a brief explanation of loving “the strangers, the aliens, the poor and even the enemies”.

“He wants a women...no he doesn’t, he wants sex,” Timothy Radcliffe OP said. “Love is the gift to the beloved, is for he or she be herself.”“Jesus’ first question is always what I can do for you.”“When we love others, it is to detect what they need.” “It is wonderful that you exist.”“To marry somebody is to let yourself share a single love story for the rest of your life.”“We are all divined in one story.”

In an interview for our paper Timothy Radcliffe said “everybody searches for a meaning. Even if they are uninterested in religion, the question of the meaning in their lives comes back time and time again. And I think we have to find ways of expressing our faith.”

“I think at this moment we need to have a morality which we call virtuous. Often we think morality in term of community. Virtue is about who you are. Community is about what you do,” he said.

Revd. Andrew Morton, vicar of Llangybi, Monmouthshire, gave a lecture in City United Reformed Church in Cardiff in May, during which a debate was held among politicians. A Labour Assembly Member said government had done a lot. The Conservative’s Mohammad Asghar AM, who is a Muslim, and Lindsey White AM from Plaid Cymru said their parties were back the proposal.

Mr A, a Catholic who has been with his partner for 30 years, said marriage should be between one man and one woman. He said there was no need of marriage for the couples who had been together for so many years. He added “the churches only need to know there are gay people existing”. He agreed that the society had achieved a great deal in this field already, and he also said the UK was thought to be the best country for gay people. He thought people were asking for too much.

Mr X and his partner Mr Y, who has a 16-year-old child from his former marriage, have no plans for adoption and they do not want a child. Both A and X said gay couples in Cardiff were more likely to have no child. While Mr F, who was working in a bar, said the people who wanted marriage should have the chance.

Mr B, who comes from Portugal, was in Cardiff with his family. He is about 30 and his husband is about 50. They have been together for ten years and got married two years ago in Portugal. They want children. Mr B was very friendly; he asked our newspaper to have a video chat with him on Skype and took off his underwear after he accepted the video talk request. Not all people who want marriage also want sexual monogamy. It is not sure if they would like their marriage to happen in the UK and if they think marriage is better than a partnership.

Places-separate

Mr M, 26, from a relatively poor and religious country, is in Cardiff studying business. He knew nobody on arrival and wanted to find a place to stay. He went into a bar, talked with a man, and then went to his place. A while afterwards he fell asleep. The kind man came to him, asking if he could sleep with Mr M. Mr M was so scared he rushed out of the room. He said he wanted to call the police when telling the story in a Christian meeting.

There are men who have had slept with over 100 people with no shame, the older targeting at the younger, the younger targeting at the older, couples wanting threesomes, open relationships and cohabitation with several people, which is also true of heterosexuals. Not everyone wants marriage, and some of them think monogamy too restrictive. Polygamy, bigamy and forced marriage are no longer legal in most countries and accepted in cultures.

Are thousands of LGBT couples in healthy relationships? There seems much less prejudice and inequality than 20 years ago, has morality got better? The results of consultation and next steps from government are unknown now.

In the country said to have the best legal system, best respects for equality and humanity and under the policy of diversity, it seems an honourable and effective thing to make this small and admirable step to let others learn.

Leo Abse, who “was responsible for the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967”, “played the leading role in the reform of the divorce laws in 1969”, and “helped create the modern structure of adoption in the 1975 Children Act”, must be approved of and campaigned for same sex marriage if he was still alive.

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