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Greetings. I am a Welsh-British person living in Finland. I was born in 1968 and grew up in a small place called Llantrisant in South Wales, which is about ten miles from Cardiff, the Welsh capital city. I attended school at the Welsh language school Ysgol Gyfun Llanhari. When I left school I worked at Hensol Hospital in South Glamorgan, -which is for people who have a mental impairment- as a nursing assistant and student nurse. I especially worked with people with challenging behaviour. In 1991 I left Hensol to attend Cardiff University. Since graduating I have variously been, unemployed (one of the most depressing periods of my life), a student again twice (Masters and PhD, though I rapidly discovered that I am not interested in academic research). I met my wife at the University of Huddersfield in 1998, where she was an exchange student and I was an unhappy research student. I am currently working at the University of Helsinki as a research assistant, and have discovered that having a relatively stress free job has made me inordinately happy and given me the freedom to do other interesting things. I enjoy baking bread and occasionally brewing my own beer.
My politics
I suppose that on a political level I could be described as a libertarian socialist as I have strong views in favour of labour and social welfare, but equally strong views on personal liberty. I would describe myself as a radical, anarchism especially mutualism strongly appeals to me. I view the ownership of the means of production (ie capital) as little more than theft and think that a true "free market" can only be achieved by the abolition of private property, especially intellectual property, because it creates a monopoly. I think M$ Windows (monopoly) compared to Linux (numerous distributions lots of choice, a free market) and MP3 (proprietary, relatively poor codec) compared to Ogg Vorbis (free, excellent codec ) are good examples of this. All forms of nationalism are anathema to me as I see nationalism, xenophobia and racism as all facets of the same exclusivist ideology. Welsh independence in the form of decentralist socialism, as Plaid Cymru proposes appeals to my anarchistic tendencies, the question is how much decentralising of power? I think this quote form the anarchism article sums up my beliefs well ..a harmonious anti-authoritarian society that is based on individual self-determination and personal involvement. In place of what are regarded as authoritarian political structures and coercive economic institutions, anarchists advocate social relations based upon voluntary association of free individuals in autonomous communities, mutual aid, and self-governance, and the concept of balanced reciprocity.
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