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 "

Fauna

DISCLAIMER: as fas as I know, humans are animals. If you want to know why am I pointing this out, read the note at the end of this article.

You can see three animals in the picture below. In the background, an elephant lies dead after being shot in head. On the left, there's another animal that thinks that killing elephants is fun and lucrative (yeah, he's wearing ridiculous clothes). And on the right, there's yet another animal that has the particularity of living at the expense of other animals (the Spanish citizens, me included). This individual is Juan Carlos 1st, the king of Spain.

The Spanish Royal Family are a handful of people that nobody really knows what they are useful for. They were established by the fascist dictator Francisco Franco and they use to spend their time in sailing, hunting, attending to parties and official meetings. It turns out that the King Juan Carlos recently said in one of these meetings that he can't sleep at night because he can't stop thinking about the young people that are unemployed. Well, provided that the Spanish monarchy costs, at least, more than €10 million per year of public money, I can understand why the king is worried about unemployment: who the hell will keep on supporting the Royal Family in the future?

Now, while Spain is sank in a deep economical crisis, while many people are resigning themselves to accepting spending cuts, the Spanish king spends, at least, 60,000€ in travelling to Botswana for hunting elephants. I say "at least" because that's the prize the man of the funny clothes in the picture charges for that: logistic costs for moving the royal family are not included. The funny thing though is that during this bloody safari the king has broken his hip.

Some people are beginning to talk about the "annus horribilis" of the Spanish Royal Family. Some months ago, the king's son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarín, was accused of siphoning of millions of euros in public funds from a nonprofit foundation he ran. And some days ago, the king's 14-year-old grandson, Felipe Juan Froilán, accidentally misfired into his right foot during a target practice.

The worst thing though is that debating whether Spain should keep on being a monarchy or turn itself into a republic is still some sort of taboo among the main Spanish political parties.  This is Spain, again: a country plenty of experts in sweeping the problems under the rug.

DISCLAIMER NOTE: Spanish laws are quite archaic as for freedom of speech, and they forbid Spanish citizens of mocking the Royal Family. Many TV programs and magazines have been censored several times for having sarcastically criticized the king, the prince or any other family member. So, one must be careful when publishing something about the king. 

'Libération' wonders: Catalonia, mirage of independence?

The French newspaper 'Libération' has recently published an article in which it wonders how independentism is growing in Catalonia due to the unfair treatment it receives by the Spanish state. In the newspaper's own words: "Catalans pay too much and Spain, their stepmother, does not compensate them. [...] It's true that in this region of Spain - which is one of the richest regions and represents the 20% of the Spanish GDP - the smell of independence is more and more intense".

'Libération' points out that the largest national Catalan party (CIU), which has always had a moderate point of view towards independence, is now changing its mind due to the "discontent of the Catalan society towards the appeals lodged by the Spanish conservative party Partido Popular against the Catalan Statute". Actually, the French newspaper remembers the demonstration taken in Barcelona on July 2010, when more than one million people complained to the Spanish government for having cut the Catalan statute voted by Catalans in referendum.

CIU knows it has the power to make Catalans aware of needing independence from Spain. However, as 'Libération' also asserts, Catalonia's President and CIU's leader Artur Mas is still too ambiguous which makes independence a tangible goal though distant.

Samsung Mobile vetoes Catalan language

I purchased a Samsung Mobile phone with Android some months ago. One of the things I was disappointed with was that the phone didn't come with the Catalan language package. I thought it was due to the early existence of Android-based devices and I expected future devices would fix this issue. However, Samsung Spain has deliberately vetoed Catalan language again on new devices running Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), which includes Catalan by default. EbreAndroid (the first Catalan blog about Android) asked Samsung for telling the reasons for this veto, and the South Korean company replied they are not responsible of the decisions of local offices regarding to the languages shipped on devices sold in their regions.  So, EbreAndroid is urging Catalan Samsung Mobile users to ask Samsung Spain for including our language on their devices. Requests are being performed through Twitter by using the hashtag #androidcatalà in different Samsung accounts (such as Samsung Mobile Spain and Samsung Spain) for sending this letter (in Spanish).

I like Samsung devices and I'm planning to purchase a new device in few months. I would like them to be in Catalan language for then. Meanwhile I'll have English on my mobile phone.

"The Best Oil In The World"

Yesterday I went to "Les Borges Blanques", a village in Lleida (Catalonia) of about 6000 people located at approximately 1.5 hours from Barcelona, if you travel by car. The reason I got there was to visit "La Fira de Les Garrigues", a fair that takes place every January in this village to show different traditional gastronomical products that can be found throughout Catalonia, although the most prominent product shown is the Olive Oil, which makes the Fair to be also known as "La Fira de l'Oli" (the Oil Fair). The region of "Les Garrigues" joke about themselves to produce the best olive oil in the world, which holds a Protected Designation of  Origin. Although they make this assertion in a joking way, I can confirm the variety of oils this region produces are all excellent, and if you don't trust me, go there and taste it for free!

Below there are some pictures of the event, which is ending today, January 22th. And if you plan to visit it the next year,  I strongly recommend you to have lunch before, otherwise you will be tempted to buy all the products the exhibitors offer you for tasting!!

(click on the pictures to enlarge them)

The village of Les Borges Blanques

"Coques de Recapte"

"Embotits" (cold meat)

Cheese

Beautiful botle with olive oil

Different varieties of olive oils

Spain is different... Again.

Everybody knows the sentence "Spain is different" in the sense of how Spanish people often perform in a messy or inefficient way (lack of rigor, laziness,...) and also in the sense of having some sort of primitive behaviour (bullfighting, the believe of having the biggest balls in the world, ...). But Spain is also different in its way to understand democracy because Spain has another hateful tradition: to pursue the union of its territories by the force. Franco was the last of the Spanish dictators that attempted to unify all countries in Spain under a single national identity and language, by anihilating all other national identities and languages throughout what we know today as "Spain".

Now Spain has shown (again) that it is different to the rest of the developed countries in the world. Whereas many democratic countries chase and sue dictators and their right-hand men, Spain allows them to live until death with total impunity. Yesterday January 15th, Franco's minister Manuel Fraga Iribarne died at age 90. Fraga never regretted being the right-hand man of Franco to achieve the fascist dictator's goals. In Fraga's own words:

“One must say Spanish, not Castillian! Spanish is everybody's language. It has become Spain's language (...). I will always do my best to prevent the destruction of the national unity. Because Catalonia was conquered by Philip IV; Philip V defeated it; Catalonia was bombed by general Espartero, who was a great revolutionary; and we occupied it in 1939 and we are ready to occupy it as many times as needed, and so I am ready to pick up the rifle again.”

So everybody with just a little bit of democratic spirit can see that Fraga's way to achieve Spain's union is quite fascist.

Today, Fraga's legacy is the right-wing Spanish party Partido Popular (PP) a party that adopted Franco's principles of a unified Spain, although this union has NEVER been decided by people but by kings and dictators. United Kingdom has demonstrated to be a mature democratic country by allowing a referendum for Scotland's independence. As I could figure out from English media, citizens from UK may not like Scotland to leave UK, but they accept such decision if it is made by a democratic referendum. Talking about referendums for Catalonia's independence in Spain is a complete taboo... "Referendum" is such an advanced concept that is impossible to be understood by many Spaniards. They simply think "Catalonia is Spain, and that's it". Perhaps it is necessary to wait for 30 more years to let Franco's legacy to weaken in favour of a real, UK-like democracy.

Fraga's fascist salute	Recent picture of Fraga