Spain: a matter of pride

We are living exciting days in Catalonia since the demonstration that was taken in Barcelona the last September 11th, in which 1.5 million people flooded into the center of the Catalan city to claim the independence of Catalonia from Spain. After just a couple of weeks since the demonstration, and after the Spanish government has rejected any improvement of the Catalan fiscal policies, the president of Catalonia, Mr. Artur Mas, has called elections. The goal of CIU (the party Mr. Mas belongs to), and of other parties of the Catalan parliament is to celebrate a referendum for the independence of Catalonia, in a similar way Scotland will do in the UK. This has extremelly annoyed the Spanish government, which has insisted that such referendum is illegal. Furthermore, during these days the Spanish parties and media have counterattacked the independentist movement "in the Spanish way", this is, by threatening. Statements such as "Catalonia would crash if it were independent" or "Catalonia cannot live without Spain" have been present on TV and newspapers. These statements are nonsense because nobody has really worked hard on studying the process of independence. Furthermore, threats go beyond the weak arguments and people like Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a member of the ultra-right-wing party "Partido Popular" (PP) - and also a member of the European Parliament-, has said that Catalonia should be military intervened if a referendum were to be celebrated. So why does Spain threaten and forbid Catalonia deciding its future? Why does Spain prevent Catalonia of being independent if Catalonia is supposed to be so mediocre? What is the REAL reason Spain cannot naturally accept a referendum as UK accepts for Scotland? (notice that UK doesn't mind whether Scotland succeeds or fails as an independent nation).

If one knows some of the history of Spain, one will notice that since the 19th century, the Spanish Empire has continuously been losing territories, being Cuba the last one so far.  Many Spaniards feel that Spain is a glorious country and they are proud of it. However they are using the wrong tense: they should use the past tense, not the present tense. Today Spain is a mediocre country. Period. However, the pride of many Spaniards makes them to be sticked in the past, when people rights didn't exist and when conflicts were easily solved by the force, by declaring wars and by setting dictatorships. Times have changed and today Spain belongs to NATO and to the EU, and it is supposed to be a democratic and pacific country that rejects wars and avoids conflicts. So, the only force Spain can use is threatening people with apocalyptic messages. Alicia Sánchez Camacho, leader of the delegation of PP in Catalonia, has recently said: "the independence of Catalonia will arise tensions and confrontations in the Catalan society". Notice that Sánchez Camacho is implicitly saying that Spaniards who live in Catalonia are violent and intolerant by nature! Why? Think about it: people living in Catalonia would be the same either it becomes independent or not, so if today there are no tensions nor confrontations is due to Catalans independentists to be tolerant. But, according to Sánchez Camacho, if Catalonia were independent, tensions and confrontations would arise, which means that Spaniards living in Catalonia are intolerant. Sánchez Camacho's words are simply nonsense: they are yet another demonstration of the helplessness of the Spanish politicians towards the growing will of Catalonia to become independent.

Finally, the next October 12th Spain celebrates its National Day (again, a revival of those past glorious times). PP and "Ciudadanos" (an anticatalan party) are in the background of a demonstration that is to be taken in Barcelona as a reply to the huge independentist movement. People from Spain and Spaniards that live in Catalonia will go to this demonstration, in which fascist groups will likely participate, as in many other times happened. We hope this demonstration will be as pacific as the independentist one, which gathered 1.5 million people and in which no noticeable incidents occurred.

Fascist demonstration in October 12th 2011
(source)

A dream that is getting closer

The day before yesterday, September 11th, a huge demonstration was taken in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia. A crowd of 1.5 million people coming from all the country gathered to wave pro-independence catalan flags and to claim independence from Spain. The demonstration was so massive that it couldn't escape from the focus of attention of the Spanish and international media. Only the Spanish ultra-right wing newspaper "ABC" treated the event as incidental. It has undoubtedly been a show of strength of the independentism in Catalonia since the restoration of democracy in 1977.

Spanish politicians and media have hurried to say the reason of the demonstration was a reaction to the social cuts Catalonia is suffering due to the Spanish economical crisis. Moreover, the same politicians and media point out that Catalonia has a big debt qualified as "junk" by Standard & Poors. However, they forget several crucial points to understand the growth of Catalan independentism:

1. If Catalonia owes a big debt is due to the unfair fiscality Catalonia has been suffering for many years: Catalonia represents the 20% of the Spanish GDP, but it gets back less than the taxes it gives to Spain. It turns out that one of the most productive regions of Spain, open to the Mediterranean sea, and whose territory is connected to the rest of Europe has the worst infrastructures of all Spain. The most recent grotesque case is the "Mediterranean Axis", a railway that connects Europe with Africa along the Mediterranean coast. The European Union has stated that this infrastructure is essential for Europe for two reasons: number one, it connects Europe with Africa and, number two, it passes through Barcelona's port, which is becoming the most important port of the Mediterranean Sea (luxury cruises, cargo ships, ...). But Spain insists on building another railway that would pass by Madrid (at the center of Spain) and would reach Europe by making a tunnel across the Pyrenees mountains; Europe has said that it's crazy. So the money Catalonia generates is used for building useless or underexploited infrastructures around the unproductive regions of Spain, where politicians and heirs of old royalty members have lands to exploit. 
2. Catalonia is plenty of tolled motorways. It is OK: motorways need maintenance and people that use them should pay for it. BUT, it turns out that, in Catalonia, to go from A to B you need to pay the motorway, but in Spain you can go from A to B for free: don't worry, Catalans pay it with taxes. Have you ever seen two parallel motorways going from A to B, one of them tolled and the other one free? I did, and I checked that people didn't use the tolled one (obvious). The graphics below show the difference between Catalonia and other regions of Spain (Madrid, Andalusia and Extremadura) with regard to free (in blue) versus toll motorways (in red):
   
3. In 2006, Catalans voted in a LEGAL referendum (approved not only by the Catalan Parliament but also by the Spanish one) for a law called "Statute", which updated the old Statute of 1979. Catalans decided to accept the new Statute but in 2010 the Spanish Constitutional Court, built up of members belonging to political parties, rejected the law. This decision made Catalans to go on a huge demonstration in 2010. This demonstration was a mix of feelings: some wanted independence, some simply wanted respect.
4. Due to the Statute rejection, Spain started a campaign to destroy the linguistics policy in Catalonia (approved by the European Union) and attempted to remove prominence to Catalan language in favor of Spanish. Hopefully the Catalan government has been able to stop these attacks, but the Catalan society has got them as an insult. Furthermore, Spain continuously attempts to eradicate the Catalan culture and language by telling all sorts of lies. For example, in Catalonia a child that doesn't speak Catalan is supposed to be ignored by adults when he says he's dying for a pee. Funny, isn't it? Well, after several childish lies like this, one gets fed up.
5. Spanish military men have obsession in bombing Catalonia. We are recently being warned by a Spanish military general to not try to leave Spain; otherwise we would be swept. However we Catalans are peaceful and the past demonstration gathered 1.5 million people and no noticeable accidents happened. Our pacifism irritates some Spanish politicians because they cannot use the argument of Catalans to be violent or terrorists. Anyway, we are fed up of so many threats. We are fed up of being treated as donkeys that work for Spain and have nothing back. And we are fed up of having to be Spaniards "in the Spanish way", that is, rejecting our identity, culture and language. 

All these reasons and more are the ones that made many people to convert to independentism. Belonging to Spain is a bad deal.

Before I finish this article, I'd like to expose a funny argument used by the Spanish media to discredit the demonstration: "Catalonia has a 7 million population. Provided that 1.5 million went to the demonstration, it means that 5.5 million Catalans reject independence". According to this, all the Norwegians that didn't attend to the demonstration against the murders Anders Breivik committed are potential killers. Yes, some Spanish media and politicians suck balls.

So far there should be a lot of stuff written about the demonstration, so I finish this article with some pictures of the event.

The crowd seen from a building of Gaudí

Author: Wikimedia Commons

 Author: Albert Gea (REUTERS) 

 Author: David Ramos (GETTY) 

Author: Gustau Nacarino (REUTERS)

Author: Marcel·lí Sáenz

Author: Lluís Gené (AFP)

Author: Marte Pérez (EFE)

Catalan poetry, sung

During the last months I've been listening to a song that is continuously played on the radio. After some research I've come up that this song is actually a Catalan poem written by the young poetess Maria Cabrera, and the woman who has composed and sings the music is Sílvia Pérez Cruz, both from the province of Girona (Catalonia).

The original poem's title is "Salm i paràbola de la memòria pròdiga" ("Psalm and parable of the prodigal memory") and Sílvia adapted it (as well as the lyrics) to create the song, "Pare Meu" (Father of Mine"). What I like the most is the beautiful voice Silvia has, which makes the words from Maria to stick deep into your soul. The song could be a great tribute to one's father.

Gibraltar: Spanish or British?

This stupid question is the one the Spanish government is currently setting out to distract people from the real problems Spain is buried in, i.e. the economical, political and social crisis. Some people still believe in the dead "Glorious Spanish Empire" and cannot bear Gibraltar does not belong to Spain, but to UK.  Under the terms of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in perpetuity, and it seems Spain is still attempting to regain this southern region of the Iberian Peninsula.

It is a tradition in Spain to impose rather to negotiate (Catalans know this very well since they suffer from this behaviour since the 18th century), and following this tradition the Spanish government is not wondering whether Gibraltarians want to stop being British or not. Instead, they claim for Gibraltar to become a region of Spain for the Glory of the Country, because they think that being Spanish is the best thing that could ever happen to a person in this World. No, I'm not kidding. This is a common belief the Spanish media often inculcate to people, for example, by means of the national sports teams. 

Catalonia cannot celebrate referendums for its independence from Spain. However Scotland can do it in UK. See the difference? In the referendum celebrated in Gibraltar in 2002, the 98% of Gibraltarians chose not sharing sovereignty with Spain and Britain. Do you know what did the Spanish Minister of Foreign affairs, Ana Palacio, say about this referendum? She described it as illegal !!!! Oh my god!!! These are the same words used by the Spanish governments every time Catalonia claims for a similar referendum! 

SUMMARIZING: In Spain, the freedom to decide for oneself is illegal,  so Gibraltarians: keep on rejecting being Spanish because if someday you become a region of Spain, you will no longer be able to leave from it!!

A picture is worth 1000 words

On the left: Catalonia
On the right: Spain

Click to enlarge

Why you should not invest in Spain

WARNING - THIS ARTICLE SHOWS A PICTURE AT THE END THAT MAY OFFEND YOUR SENSIBILITIES.

Either if you are planning to invest in Spanish bonds or you are thinking about the possibility of setting your company in Spain, please, stop and think for a while! Are you sure? Should you invest in Spain?

This study sets out a simple question: do educated leaders matter? By analizing data on more than 1000 political leaders from 1975 to 2004, the study tries to find out the relationship between the level of education of politicians in a country, and its economic growth rate. The conclusions reached are:

1) When a leader having a university (degree or postdegree) education is substituted by a leader without such education, the country's growth rate decreases.

2) When a leader with no university education is substituted by a leader with such education, the country's growth rate increases.

3) When a leader with no university education is substituted by a leader without no such education neither, the rate keeps unaltered.

4) When a leader with university education is substituted by a leader with such education too, the rate keeps unaltered.

5) Democratic leaders tend to have a higher education than the dictatorial ones.

In Spain there is plenty of politicians that are suspicious of having poor education, but I'd like to extend this study to their way of thinking: I mean opinions, likes and behaviours. It turns out that, in Catalonia, bullfighting was forbidden by the Catalan Parliament some months ago. Some people think it was forbidden because it is an insane, old-fashioned tradition. Others think it was forbidden because it is a Spanish tradition. Whatever, to me the most important thing is that bullfighting was forbidden. Now it turns out the Spanish government is attempting to declare bullfighting as "Protected National Fiesta", which would force the Catalan Parliament to abolish the prohibition and restore "corridas".

The problem though is not whether Spain is governed by PP (the right wing party) or PSOE (left wing). The problem is that both, the biggest parties in Spain, agree in protecting bullfighting!!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Most of the members of the Spanish Parliament THINK bullfighting is glorious! So:
1) What can you expect from these politicians?
2) Do you think your company will be safe in a country with laws made by such ill minds?
3) Do you want your product to be manufactured in a country with such traditions?
4) Moreover, are you sure you want to buy Spanish bonds taking into account that Spain cannot even pay the debt it owes to Catalonia?

And you may wonder: well, is bullfighting such a terrible tradition? Judge for yourself. The picture below was taken yesterday April 29th in Seville. During a "corrida" the bull can be stabbed by people riding horses. Since the bull desperately tries to defend itself, it attacks everything in its path, even those horses. The horse in the picture died after spreading its guts on the floor. What a beautiful tradition...Isn't it? Fuck!

T'estimo

English speakers have the verb "to love" so they can say "I love you". We, Catalans, do not have a usual equivalent for "to love": we say "T'estimo". The verb "estimar" literally means "to esteem, to respect". So, when you are saying someone "T'estimo", you are saying that you appreciate, respect him/her. Beautiful, isn't it?

In Catalonia today is a great day to say "t'estimo": this is Saint George's day ("Sant Jordi"), a day in which men give a rose to the women they love, whatever they are girlfriends, wives, sisters or mothers. On the other hand, women give a book to men (actually men also give books to women, besides of the rose). If you have the chance to walk around the cities and villages of Catalonia, you'll  be able to buy books and roses in the street markets that are specially set for today.

Happy Sant Jordi!

Saint George, a dragon and a rose as a single being, and the princess.
Illustration by Xavier Salomó

You can read the article about Sant Jordi 2011: " When roses and books fill Catalonia with color and culture "