Spanish
life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
-
Christopher Howse: A
Pilgrim in Spain.
What Women Want in a
Man. Age 20
- Handsome
- Charming
- Financially successful
- A caring listener
- Witty
- In good shape
- Dresses with style
- Appreciates finer things
- Full of thoughtful surprises
- An imaginative, romantic lover
- Nice looking [prefer hair on his head]
- Opens car doors, holds chairs
- Has enough money for a nice dinner
- Listens more than talks
- Laughs at my jokes
- Carries bags of groceries with ease
- Owns at least one tie
- Appreciates a good home-cooked meal
- Remembers birthdays and anniversaries
- Seeks romance at least once a week
- Not too ugly [bald head OK]
- Doesn't drive off until I'm in the car
- Works steady - splurges on dinner out occasionally
- Nods head when I'm talking
- Usually remembers punch lines of jokes
- Is in good enough shape to rearrange the furniture
- Wears a shirt that covers his stomach
- Knows not to buy champagne with screw-top lids
- Remembers to put the toilet seat down
- Shaves most weekends
- Keeps hair in nose and ears trimmed
- Doesn't belch or scratch in public
- Doesn't borrow money too often
- Doesn't nod off to sleep when I'm venting
- Doesn't re-tell the same joke too many times
- Is in good enough shape to get off couch on weekend
- Usually wears matching socks and fresh underwear
- Appreciates a good TV dinner
- Remembers your name on occasion
- Shaves some weekends
- Doesn't scare small children
- Remembers where bathroom is
- Doesn't require much money for upkeep
- Only snores lightly when asleep
- Remembers why he's laughing
- Is in good enough shape to stand up by himself
- Usually wears some clothes
- Likes soft foods
- Remembers where he left his teeth
- Remembers that it's the weekend
- Breathing
- Doesn't miss the toilet
If that's not heavy enough for you, here's a message from a Catalan columnist working in London. Clearly not a fan of Sr Rajoy:-
I was Catalan, Spanish
and European. But Mariano Rajoy has changed all that: Irene Baque
On Sunday , I
watched innocent people being beaten up, pulled by their hair and
thrown down stairs – just for trying to express their opinion in a
ballot – people back home in Catalonia who could easily have been
neighbours or school friends. I was glued to my screen for 12 hours
with tears in my eyes, sitting in my room in London.
As a Catalan living in
the UK while the EU referendum played out, having seen the false
promises made in favour of Brexit, I could not support the idea of
independence. I respected the idea of a referendum – we live in a
democracy and people should have a right to decide and I understood
the frustration of many Catalans – but I did not think independence
was the solution. That was before Sunday. But having seen the way the
Spanish government decided to use force to fight the will of peaceful
citizens, where does that leave me?
After six years in the
UK, I know how it feels to be rejected from the place I now call
home, and have learned that separation, borders and flags are rarely
the answer. While trying to come to terms with where EU citizens like
me sit in the divided country I now live in, a feeling of division is
also growing back home.
The division comes from
both sides, though. Spain does not want to see Catalonia leave, but
it is certainly going about preventing it in the wrong way. Early
last week videos appeared of hundreds of people in the south of Spain
seeing off police cars leaving for Catalonia to help the central
government, shouting “Go get them!”, while waving Spanish flags.
It said it all. It felt as though we were back in the Spanish civil
war. At a cafe in Madrid, on referendum day, my brother overheard a
group of women saying: “These Catalan people just need a couple of
slaps to learn they have to stay.”
As the Catalan
journalist Jordi Évole said: “Many Catalans had already left Spain
mentally. Yesterday Rajoy got a few more. Yesterday many citizens
against independence felt a huge repulsion for what they saw.” I’m
in that last category – I still don’t think independence is the
solution, but I don’t want to be represented by a government that
uses military tactics to deal with a dissatisfied region.
Just as many Brits do
not feel represented by Theresa May, Mariano Rajoy does
not represent all Spaniards – many feel ashamed of their
government’s actions against their neighbours. Many took to the
streets in Madrid to show solidarity.
What is going through
Rajoy’s mind? Was it total incompetence, being caught off guard by
a momentum that not even Catalonia’s president, Carles
Puigdemont, expected? Or, has Rajoy done the political maths and
decided that actually, those women in the cafe in Madrid who think
the Catalans deserve a slap to bring them in line are representative
of enough of the electorate? [See my comment yesterday about the probability that his party would increase their share of the vote if a snap election were held soon]
Regardless, Rajoy has
turned what should have been just another unofficial poll that went
largely unnoticed outside the country into a referendum on having a
referendum that has shocked the world. And the answer is a resounding
yes.
While almost 900
Catalans bear the wounds of police aggression, the Catalan
government is still negotiating what will happen in the next 48
hours, and the king of Spain is yet to be seen. [He's now made a - counterproductive? - televised appeal to the Catalans]
The People’s party’s
deputy leader, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, seemed to have been
watching a different TV channel to me when she said: “The policemen
were only fulfilling the orders of justice, acting with
professionalism and proportionality. The objective of their acts was
never the people, but the electoral material.”
Rajoy’s incompetence
cannot be overstated, but Puigdemont cannot be absolved of
responsibility. Both are playing Russian roulette with a young nation
struggling with deep structural issues. Brinksmanship is common in
politics, and has become more so in recent times, but purposely
pitting citizens against each other, forcing them to decide which
flag to hang from their balcony, takes reckless politics to a new and
terrifying level.
I fear Puigdemont’s
impulse to declare independence would only result in Spanish tanks
entering Barcelona’s La Diagonal, just as happened 78 years ago,
witnessed by a generation who did not expect that to happen again in
their lifetime. The suppression Catalans lived with during the Franco
dictatorship has remained in people’s hearts, and has been
transmitted to my generation. My friends and I, born in the 1990s,
grew up feeling that Catalan culture and history is part of our
identity. We didn’t dance flamenco, we didn’t support
bullfighting. We had our own traditions.
I am Catalan, feel
Catalan, was educated in Catalan. I am also Spanish and European. Up
until recently, these sides have been easy to reconcile. It feels as
though something has changed. My initial instinct was not to vote,
and to let the people who have something to say say it.
But in the week leading
to referendum day, the Spanish government’s reaction changed my
mind. It felt like this was no longer about nationalism but about
democracy and free speech. Had I been at home over the weekend I
probably would have taken to the streets in support of my fellow
Catalans, voting blank as Barcelona mayor Ada Colau did.
This is about having a conversation and opening dialogue.
Those Catalonians who
wanted to vote for independence were united by the desire for
self-determination, regardless of age, social class or political
ideology. Now I wouldn’t be surprised to see that group grow,
united behind a message of democratic rights.
Whatever is next for
the independence movement, one thing is sure. There will forever be a
before and after 1 October in both Spanish and Catalan history.
• Irene Baqué
is a Barcelona-born journalist and film-maker
And here's a dialogue - from The Real News - between 2 observers who know what they're talking about:-
And here's a dialogue - from The Real News - between 2 observers who know what they're talking about:-
Can the Spain-Catalan
Crisis Be Resolved?
AARON MATÉ:Tens of thousands are protesting across
Catalonia today following the Spanish crackdown on its referendum.
Spanish forces injured hundreds who took part in Catalonia's vote for
independence, which authorities say received over 90% support. Today
in Barcelona, a massive crowd marched on the Spanish National Police
regional headquarters. The Spanish government says the referendum was
illegal and their standoff with Catalan leaders is said to be Spain's
worst constitutional crisis since the country became a democracy four
decades ago.
SEBASTIAN FABER: Professor of Hispanic Studies at Oberlin College: Today, there's
been a general strike declared all over Catalonia with a high
percentage of following. Barely any public transportation ran, roads
were blocked, freeways were blocked. And the streets of the cities,
especially Barcelona, filled with people either marching in silence
or singing songs and kind of performing what has been so far the
collective attitude of the Catalans as they are fighting for their
right to self-determination. That performance has been a performance
of peaceful protest, civilized dialogue, democratic, the performance
of democratic aspirations, really.
The response from the
central Spanish state has been, for the past number of years but
especially in the last weeks and especially last Sunday, has been
harsh and inflexible and repressive. On Sunday, we all saw how people
trying to vote were met with visored riot police with the billy
clubs, nightsticks hitting old people, young people, anybody who
tried to express their democratic right to vote.
The defense that the
Spanish state has given of its crackdown on what the Catalans are
trying to do is that it's merely following the law. The Constitution
of 1978 in Spain does not allow for referendums on
self-determination. It declares that Spain as a nation is
indivisible, and it limits the recognition of Spain's multinational
makeup really to the creation of 17 autonomous regions.
Catalonia has tried to
redefine its statute of autonomy, but in 2010, that redefined statute
was declared null and void by the country's Constitutional Court, by
Spanish Constitutional Court. Ever since then, so for the past seven
years, the push for self-determination and the push for independence
has been stronger and stronger. And everything indicates that the
state's response, the harsh response from the Spanish state has only
managed to increase the feeling that lives among many people in
Catalonia, which is that they don't fit, they don't belong to Spain,
Spain doesn't want them.
Just an hour ago, the
Spanish king came extraordinarily on television in a six- or
seven-minute speech to declare his position. Some people hoped that
he would sound a more conciliatory tone, a more sympathetic tone,
perhaps that he would mention that the police violence of last Sunday
was regrettable, but none of that happened. He did not mention the
violence. He didn't even use the word "dialogue" at all. He
talked about concordia, and he talked about Catalonia being a part of
Spain, but he also, in very harsh terms, condemned the politicians in
Catalonia who have been organizing the referendum and pushing for
independence. He said they were breaking Spain apart and they were
breaking the law. It sounded to me like the king was preparing the
ground for an even heavier intervention from the Spanish state, which
could easily take the shape of revoking Catalonia's autonomy.
AARON MATÉ: What do
you think was behind the decision to crackdown so harshly on Sunday's
vote? What was the calculation there?
S. FABER: Honestly,
it's really hard to say because from a PR perspective, from a
political perspective, from an international image perspective, the
crackdown was really bad for the Spanish state. This has been a
standoff between Madrid and Barcelona and both sides have tried to
rally public opinion both in Spain and abroad behind them. In that
game, in that competition, the Spanish state really shot itself in
the foot on Sunday.
The only justification,
the only political motivation that I can think of for this harsh
crackdown on the voters on Sunday could've been to please that part
of the Spanish constituency, the conservative voting block that
supports the ruling party in Spain and that part of that block that
really wants to see the Catalans punished for daring to even suggest
that they don't belong in Spain or daring to even threaten with the
breakup of a unified Spanish nation.
AARON MATÉ: What are
the key issues that undergird the Catalan desire of independence? And
is there anything that the Spanish government could do in theory, in
your view, that could bridge those differences, bridge that divide?
S. FABER: Yeah, I think
that the main underlying issue has to do with the fact that an
increasing number of people in Catalonia don't feel that Spain has
anything to offer them. What that means for people is different
according to the people. It's important to understand that the push
for self-determination or for independence has the support in
Catalonia both of the conservative Catholic right and of some of the
radical left.
Understandably, the
right has a different image of what an independent Catalonia might be
able to do than the radical left has. For the left, it's an
opportunity to found a progressive, independent republic that will
have an easier time implementing more just policies, better labor
conditions, more democracy than the Spanish state has. For the
Catalan right, the Catalan right is not anti-capitalist at all. It
wants to have a modern European nation, and it feels probably that it
can fare better economically when it's independent from Spain than it
does now.
There's also some
reason to believe that what's currently the PDeCAT, their right-wing
conservative Catalan party, which is pushing for independence, that
it might not really actually want independence. That all it's going
for is a more advantageous relationship with Spain in economic terms
and that the threat with independence has all this time really been
an empty threat meant to force Madrid to the negotiation table.
Yesterday, the current president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, said as much: "I will not yet declare independence. I'm
inviting Madrid to sit down and dialogue without any preconditions."
To go to the second
part of your question, I think that kind of dialogue would also be
really the only way to defuse the situation. I think the only way to
do that would be for Madrid and Catalonia to sit down and to
contemplate the possibility of a serious reform of Spain's
Constitution, which clearly is not working for Catalonia anymore.
However, I don't see
the current Spanish government, the current Spanish leadership,
Mariano Rajoy, the current prime minister, I don't see them capable
psychologically or ideologically of taking that step. And I think
today's speech by the king, which fully endorsed the position that
the Spanish government has taken to heart, which is a zero-tolerance
approach and come down with the full force of the law as harshly as
possible on anybody who tries to go against what's formally in the
Constitution, I think the speech by the king has further pushed that
possibility of a negotiated solution farther into the distance even.
AARON MATÉ: The way
you describe it, it sounds like the struggle for independence has
very different meanings to the different political factions inside
Catalonia. What about inside Spain on the left? Podemos arose just a
few years ago against austerity, challenging right-wing policies. How
do they feel about the Catalan independence movement?
S. FABER: Their
official position for a long time has been that they support the
Catalan right to self-determination, so they are in favor of an
actual referendum held with the approval of the government in Madrid,
a binding referendum. At the same time, they have said that they
sincerely hope that should that referendum happen, that a majority of
Catalans will decide to remain in Spain.
They have also said
that they fully understand that Catalonia doesn't want to belong to a
Spain ruled by the current government but that they could become part
of an alternative government, a progressive government in which
Catalonia would feel much more at home and wouldn't have the same
issues that they have currently. That's been the official line.
That said, within
Podemos there is a wide range of positions, and the relationship
between the Madrid section of Podemos and the Catalan section of
Podemos, Podem, has been strained and has been complicated and has
caused splits actually.
AARON MATÉ: Do you
think that there's a credible case for the Spanish left to make to
the Catalan left to convince them to want to stay?
S. FABER: That all
depends on their actual options for government. If the Catalan left
believes that Podemos has a real chance of entering the government,
that might be the case. On the other hand, there's real suspicion and
distrust in Catalonia of any politician from Madrid, however left
they might be.
AARON MATÉ: In the
final minute we have, the key issues that you're looking at going
forward.
S. FABER: The keys
issues I think are, is this going to further escalate? Like I said,
it sounded me the king was making sort of preemptive excuses for a
further crackdown. The Spanish Constitution allows for the autonomy
of an autonomous region to be revoked if the autonomy poses a serious
threat to the country's interests. There's also an article in the
Constitution that charges the army with protecting the territorial
integrity of the nation.
So far, some people
have said before we know it, tanks will be rolling down the streets
of Barcelona. I've always thought that was a little bit exaggerated;
now I'm not so sure. I'm really worried that this will further
escalate, and I hope that the politicians that have been calling for
dialogue and for a diffusion of the tension among them, Ada Colau,
the mayor or Barcelona, I really hope that they'll have enough sway
to force the different parties to the negotiation table.
Finally . . . Fresh off the presses, here's DQ on the question: HTF did we get here?
Finally . . . Fresh off the presses, here's DQ on the question: HTF did we get here?
How Did Things Get So
Bad in Catalonia? by Don Quijones
Will Spain trigger
Article 155 of the Constitution?
Unless concrete
measures are taken to calm tensions between Madrid and Catalonia, one
of Spain’s richest, safest and most visited regions could soon be
plunged into chaos. With neither side willing for now to take even a
small step back from the brink, the hopes of any kind of negotiated
settlement being reached are virtually nil, especially with the
European Commission refusing to mediate.
Since Sunday the
Spanish government has even ruled out dealing with Catalonia’s
president, Carles Puigdemont, and its vice president, Oriol
Junqueras. In other words, the communication breakdown between Madrid
and Barcelona is now complete.
But how did things get
so bad in Catalonia?
The answer, to borrow
from Ernest Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises, is “gradually,
then suddenly.” While the standoff between Madrid and Barcelona has
been on the cards for years, it’s been brewing so slowly that many
people were caught off guard when riot units of Spain’s National
Police and the Civil Guard began using brutal violence to prevent
people from voting in Catalonia’s banned referendum.
Now, what we have on
our hands is a full-frontal clash between two diametrically opposed
nationalisms that has roots dating back centuries. The most recent
tensions were inflamed in 2010, when Spain’s highly
politicized Supreme Court, at the urging of the now governing
People’s Party, annulled many of the articles of Catalonia’s
recently agreed Statue of Autonomy, effectively stripping the
agreement of any meaning. Gone was any chance of any fiscal autonomy.
That this happened just as the Financial Crisis was beginning to bite
in Catalonia hardly helped matters.
Since then, the Rajoy
administration has refused to offer greater fiscal autonomy for
Catalonia, or the chance to hold a legitimate referendum on national
independence. The argument is always the same: the 1978 constitution
forbids it from doing so and it can’t change the constitution,
although the Rajoy’s party voted to change the constitution to
enable Spain’s bailout of its savings banks while in opposition in
2011.
Catalonia’s regional
government, the Generalitat, in the face of such intransigence
and seeking to deflect public attention from the brutal austerity
cuts it was making, began to take matters into its own hands. Little
by little, disobedience became defiance, which gradually evolved into
open rebellion.
The Generalitat created
its own laws to allow it to hold a referendum on national
independence as well as declare unilateral independence in the event
of a large enough majority. It’s even set up a parallel tax
system that has already enabled 145 state-owned companies to pay
their taxes into Barcelona’s coffers rather than Madrid’s.
Now, the spirit of open
defiance is spreading to the general populace. Since Sunday’s
dreadful violence, local communities have begun locking out National
Police officers from the hotels they were lodged in. The Catalan
police and firefighters who fought under heavy blows to shield voters
from the beatings of Spanish police officers on Sunday are also being
applauded in the street.
On Tuesday, in protest
at the police violence that marked Sunday’s vote, the Catalan
government declared a general strike that brought the region to a
shuddering halt. Over 50 major roads were blocked, public transport
and shops were closed, fire-fighters and healthcare workers downed
their tools and millions of Catalans flooded the centers of towns and
cities.
As always, the
atmosphere was one of resolute but hopeful indignation. But as alone
in Europe as Catalonia is right now, there is little reason for hope.
And dashed hope can be a dangerous thing, especially in a region with
depression-level youth unemployment (35%).
Even after the brutal
attacks on voting stations by Spain’s National Police and Civil
Guard on Sunday, the cards remain overwhelmingly stacked against
Catalonia’s regional government. The EU refuses to mediate in the
crisis, insisting time and again that it is an internal matter.
Brussels must abide by the decisions of the Spanish government and
Spain’s constitutional court, says Jean-Claude Juncker, the
European commission president.
The King of Spain,
Felipe II, speaking in a televised address on Tuesday night, was no
more conciliatory. Rather than offering the Catalan government an
olive branch or even twig, he admonished it for its “inadmissible
disloyalty” and called on the Spanish state to restore
constitutional order in Catalonia.
The Rajoy
administration will be happy to comply. For years it has been
threatening to trigger Article 155 of the Constitution, which allows
the central government to force a region to obey laws when
disobedience “gravely threatens the general interest of Spain.”
In the next day or two, it will no doubt get the chance.
The article has never
been used and no one has a clear idea what its consequences would be.
One glaring flaw in the plan, however, is that Catalonia’s
government stopped obeying Spain’s constitution some time ago. Even
after King Felipe’s stern warning tonight, Puigdemont continues
to insist that he will declare unilateral independence in the
coming days.
As such, for Madrid to
unseat an elected regional government that no longer obeys it in a
region where it has alienated over half of the local population, it
will need a lot more manpower than it had on Sunday, especially if it
follows through on recent threats to arrest Puigdemont and other
Catalan politicians for sedition. And if the regional police force,
the Mossos d’Esquadra, allies with the pro-independence
parties, it will also need more firepower too.
And that could mean
sending in the army. In other words, the once unthinkable — the
sight of Spanish tanks rolling down Avenguda Diagonal and Gran Via —
could soon become a reality, in 21st century Western Europe. But
don’t worry: as the EU says, it will only be an internal
matter. By Don Quijones.
It isn’t just about
what happens on Sunday; it’s about the ensuing days and weeks.
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