Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

This is my second post of the day. Scroll down for the first . . .


Re-reading my first post – and reflecting on the fact there were more than fifty comments on Monday – I realised I was slacking in my duty of upsetting the Galician Nationalists who like to punish themselves by reading my blog - even if they have to resort to Google’s translation program to do so.


So . . . Here’s a letter from one of the national newspapers I read yesterday, translated by me, not Google:-

The Galician Anthem

In the 50s, in some schools – mine for instance – pupils were made to undergo a sort of military training and sing ‘Cara al Sol’ while making the Nazi salute. Now, those who were critical of Francoism are forcing us to speak in Gallego and wanting infants in nursery schools to learn the Galician anthem. I love my land/country and have lived in various parts of the Iberian peninsula and overseas. So, when some radical speaks to me in Gallego when I am speaking Spanish, I answer him in English or German. The English have an accurate saying – When you point the finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing at yourself. Differences are good but dictators are something else.


This letter was from one Manuel Careiro, who lives in La Coruña. The interesting thing is it was printed in El Pais, the left-of-centre paper which has otherwise said nothing on the this sensitive subject.


Of course, I doubt El Pais is really seen as socialist by many members of the Galician Nationalist Party. After all, the BNG did reject the EU Constitution as not being socialist enough.

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