‘I don’t have a wife or kids. The choir is my new family’
PROVIDING A LIFELINE TO PEOPLE WHO WOULD OTHERWISE HAVE LITTLE SOCIAL INTERACTION
NAWROZ Oranari has enchanted audiences around the world with his stunning voice.
But the 59-year-old’s musical gifts mask a story of hardship and extraordinary heartbreak. As a teenager growing up in Iraqi Kurdistan, the young singer was forced to flee his homeland to escape the violence of Saddam Hussein’s rule – and the threat of execution. His only crime? Being accused of singing songs that were critical of the regime.
“I was arrested and, together with my father, had to sign a pledge that I would never sing again – not even at home with friends. If I did I would be executed,” he says.
Only 17 when he left his family behind, Nawroz spent the next nine years in exile in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, before finally settling in the UK. Now a British citizen, the 59-year-old is one of the soloists with the National Lottery-funded Citizens of the World Choir, which he joined in 2018. This multiracial group of refugees and asylum seekers was started by a British music teacher to promote healing through music, and greater understanding of people displaced by war, famine and persecution.
HARDSHIPS
But the sadness remains. After leaving home, Nawroz saw his parents only briefly on two occasions before they died – his mother as an indirect result of Saddam’s infamous chemical attack on the Kurds – and he has lost contact with his two sisters. “I don’t have a wife, don’t have kids, don’t have that many friends – I don’t even have a dog! So the choir is like my new family,” he says.
No fewer than 28 different nationalities are represented among the choir’s 53 members. And many of them, like Nawroz, have extraordinary and often harrowing stories of the incredible hardships and dangers they faced after being forced from their homelands to find a better life elsewhere.
Founder Becky Dell, a 41-year-old classically trained musician who runs her own music academy in Greenwich, south east London, says: “I have been totally floored many times on hearing what some of these people have been through.”
She and some friends established the choir with the help of Liberal Democrat peer Lord Roberts of Llandudno. “Attitudes towards refugees and migrants can often be distressingly negative, intolerant and dehumanising,” Becky says. “Lord Roberts was very keen to do already in the UK that would help to counteract that by showing them in a different, positive light.”
After the word had been put out through refugee and migrant charities and social workers, 30 people turned up for the first rehearsal in 2017. “At least half of them had never sung before and some of them came from countries where singing is banned,” says Becky. “There were no auditions and no one has ever been turned away – I didn’t want people who had already been through all sorts of trauma and stress to have to validate themselves to be in the choir.”
Prior to the first lockdown, the choir was doing around 15 gigs a year. They sang at the late UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s memorial, and have appeared at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament and on the BBC’s Sunday Morning Live. “Although we obviously haven’t been able to do any gigs in person, we’ve managed to keep going throughout the pandemic – thanks mainly to the £20,000 we received through The National Lottery,” Becky says.
The choir is one of many projects that have benefited thanks to National Lottery players, who have raised £1billion to help people across the UK during these unprecedented times.
“It enabled us to buy secondhand devices and data packages for those members in need, allowing us to carry on with online rehearsals.
“For people like Nawroz, alone in a strange country, the choir has provided a lifeline. It is rewarding for us to know we have helped to improve the lives of people who might not otherwise have much social interaction.”
We have no auditions – no one has ever been turned away
BECKY DELL
CHOIR FOUNDER
PLAID Cymru has admitted that it has let down the Jewish community by not having tough enough procedures to deal with anti-Semitism in the party.
But a controversial activist who has admitted making anti-Semitic comments on social media in the past will not be removed as a party candidate in May’s Senedd election.
Plaid leader Adam Price ordered a review following complaints about Sahar Al Faifi, who will be a regional candidate in South Wales Central.
Ms Al Faifi apologised, acknowledging that some of her previous posts were anti-Semitic, but said she had undergone training by the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The Board of Deputies has said that it doubts the sincerity of her apology, given the content of some of her subsequent posts.
A report released last December by the Campaign Against Antisemitism expressed concern about statements made or endorsed by seven present and former members of Plaid, including Ms Al Faifi and ex-Plaid leader Leanne Wood.
Plaid’s review was undertaken by its Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts, who said: “Plaid Cymru’s complaints procedures and structures in relation to anti-Semitism are insufficiently robust and cannot command the confidence of Jewish people in Wales. This report acknowledges that in full and provides positive recommendations to put our own house in order. My recommendations provide a basis to create a new, durable and consistent approach to complaints relating to anti-Semitism, as well as other protected characteristics.
“They provide a framework for a communication code for public-facing representatives of Plaid Cymru, to ensure standards of due diligence. They also provide a way towards establishing a culture that does not tolerate anti-Semitism and ways of sustaining that culture change.
“I am confident that my party will implement the recommendations of my report in full, which I hope will provide confidence to the Jewish community that Plaid Cymru is a safe space where all racism and hate speech are treated with utmost seriousness.”
The review considered all complaints associated with anti-Semitism during the last five years investigated
by Plaid’s Membership, Disciplinary and Standards (MDS) Committee.
Former Plaid chief executive Gareth Clubb told the review that historic complaints could not legitimately be reopened, as they had been considered under the Standing Orders which were current at the time.
The review considered all disciplinary hearings since 2016. No complaints related to anti-Semitism were received before 2019. Anti-Semitism complaints led to seven disciplinary hearings between 2019 and January 2021: these constituted 8.2% of the total number of concluded complaints received over the last five years.
Ms Saville Roberts makes a series of procedural recommendations, including one that involves giving training to those who consider complaints as members of the MDS Committee.
She also recommends that hearing panels should commission independent expert advice in relation to all complaints associated with anti-Semitism.
The review also touches on the issue of entryism, where individuals with an ideology different from the party join it in order to change its policy agenda.
Mr Price said: “My party and I remain steadfast in our commitment to a zero-tolerance approach to antiSemitism. The report identifies areas where the party’s processes and structures need strengthening to ensure we are best placed to deal with any claims of prejudice or intolerance.
“I will now be recommending to our National Executive Committee that the recommendations are implemented in full and without delay.”
Board of Deputies of British Jews Vice President Amanda Bowman said: “This report has much to commend it. The test will be whether these changes are implemented.
“In the Senedd election, Plaid Cymru is asking voters to support a candidate that has repeatedly shared anti-Semitic tropes. We should simply not be in this situation.”
THE Cardiff Capital Region has published a new passenger rail vision calling for a huge investment in creating a turn-up-and-go integrated public transport network.
As well as supporting efforts of the Welsh Government to reach its net carbon emissions target by 2050, the city region, made up of the 10 local authorities of south-east Wales, said a new integrated grid of rail and bus services – supported by new transport hubs connecting communities across the region – should be delivered over the next 10-15 years.
This, it is said, would significantly reduce car journeys.
Drawing on earlier work and analysis it has been calculated that benefits of more than £4bn could be secured for the region over 30 years by combining traditional transport user benefits, with the potential wider economic impact from rail’s South Wales Metro, whose next phase is under way with electrification of the Core Valley Lines into Cardiff.
To deliver the planned network, underpinned by Metro plus projects, require an investment running into the billions of pounds.
While a collaboration approach would be needed, the city region said that after decades of significant investment in rail enhancement projects in Wales, the UK Government should look to provide financial backing as part of its much-vaunted “levelling up” agenda.
The vision calls for: a major upgrade of the South Wales Mainline (SWML) to form the backbone of the region’s public transport network through new stations and a mix of intercity express and local commuter services;
measures to address current rail bottlenecks to allow more services on the Ebbw Valley, Marches, Maesteg, Vale of Glamorgan, City and Coryton Lines;
upgrade of, and connections between, existing rail lines to create the proposed Cardiff Crossrail, circle and the north-west corridor extension to Rhondda Cynon Taf, with an extension from Aberdare to Hirwaun;
developing options for enhanced cross valley connectivity, both bus and tram-train; and
introduction of further new stations, in addition to those included in the Core Valley Lines electrification project, to connect more people and places to the Metro network.
It also calls the reconnecting of Caerphilly with Newport using the Machen freight line and tram-train services.
It also says on-street tramway capability could be introduced in Newport to avoid conflicts with the congested South Wales Mainline and support regeneration in Newport.
New stations on the line, with increased capacity, including through the use of relief lines, is seen as vital to increasing services between South Wales and Bristol Temple Meads, where there currently only two an hour.
Huw David, chair of the Cardiff Capital Region Transport Authority said: “Investing in our transport infrastructure is key to meeting all of our economic and social ambitions.
“It is critical to everything from enabling flexible working, regenerating town centres, meeting decarbonisation targets – and bringing the inclusive prosperity and wellbeing that everyone in our region deserves.”
Mr David said that progress will depend on collaborative working with key partners including local authorities, the Welsh Government, Transport for Wales, Network Rail and the UK Government.
Mr David, who is also leader of Bridgend County Council, said: “This is a moment in time we simply have to grasp and this landmark strategy can give us the connectivity we need and drive major economic regeneration in places that include Bridgend town centre and the Ford site, Cardiff Airport and St Athan, Cardiff city centre and the Bay, the Ebbw Vale Enterprise Zone, Merthyr town centre, Nantgarw, Newport city centre, Pontypridd town centre and Treforest – as well as inform the emerging plans for Cyfarthfa Castle and key hubs such Aberdare, Barry Town, Caerphilly and Pontypool.”
Mark Barry – Professor of practice in connectivity, School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University, who is credited with the vision for the Metro project – said: “This vision goes well beyond the Metro project that I first mooted in 2011 to connect Cardiff, Newport and the Valleys and enhances connectivity to and from the Cardiff Capital Region with the Swansea, Bristol and London. The climate emergency requires us to provide viable public transport alternatives to help reduce current high levels of car use.
“As importantly, the proposals can be a catalyst for post-Covid regeneration and sustainable economic development including measures to encourage the relocation of our carbased offices, retail, leisure and public services back to town and city centres right across the region.”
Apart from the Core Valley Lines into Cardiff, a project which is expected to be completed in late 2023 or in 2024, the rest of the rail infrastructure is not devolved with investment a matter from the UK Government via Network Rail.
Last week Sir Peter Hendy published his interim report for the Boris Johnson commissioned Union Connectivity Review. This confirmed £20m in funding to work up business cases for road and rail investments for the devolved nations aimed at improving connections to England.
This includes looking at improving capacity on the North Wales and South Wales mainlines, with the latter looking at the recommendations of the Welsh Government’s Burns Commission which in its report last year set out plans to significantly increasing public transport services and capacity after the decision of First Minister Mark Drakeford not to proceed with a £1bn-plus M4 Relief Road south of Newport.
The UK Government said it will work closely with relevant devolved administrations on working up business cases. Rail investment in Wales, outside of the now devolved Core Valleys Lines, is not a devolved matter.
Over the last few decades Wales has only received 2% of Network Rail funded rail enhancement projects, despite having around 10% of the UK rail network.