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

Google...not so smart...

The tag "#gogglecat" has become the Twitter 'trending topic' in Spain after Google Map users in Catalonia noticed that the names of several streets throughout the Catalan country have been translated into Spanish in a such ridiculous way. To get an idea of such piece of nonsense, imagine that a person using Google Maps in France reads street names in English translated into French. For example: "Times Square" would be "La Place des Temps"; "Broadway" would be "Le chemin large"; "Wall Street" would be "La rue du Mur"; or the "Westminster Abbey" would become "L'abbaye du la Cathédrale du Ouest".

Yes. Google programmers are not infallible and they also make mistakes typical of beginners!!

An example of a stupid translation: "Ronda de Dalt" is translated into "Ronda de Arriba"

Two Spanish MEPs jeer at the Catalan MEP Ramon Tremosa for not speaking in Spanish

Strasbourgh.- Today Wednesday, two Spanish Members of the European Parliament have jeered at Ramon Tremosa, a Catalan MEP, for speaking in English instead of Spanish. As Tremosa explains in his tweet: I have defended an oral amendment in the plenary, in English as usual. Some people shouted "hablas mejor español! [you speak better Spanish!]". 2011 or 1939?

Tremosa asks himself "2011 or 1939?" regarding to the dark times of Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975), during which Catalan was forbidden in Spain. The behaviour of the Spanish MEPs is just another example of the intolerance that politicians in Spain have toward Catalan language and culture. The funny thing though is that Tremosa was speaking in English during the plenary, not in Catalan. That's simply pure arrogance for believing that Spanish should be the leading language in the world. After all, the mean level in English skills in Spain are reduced to know what does "motherfucker" and mean.

Ramon Tremosa - MEP