Of course, that's each individual's prerogative. Speak whatever language you like. But if you've been here for a few years and you don't speak a word of it, something's wrong. You know why? It's not that hard.

If you speak Spanish, Italian or French, you should be able to pick up some Catalan in weeks. I'm not talking about nivell C, but you should be able to understand a school teacher if you've been here for a few years. You just should. If you don't, you're either incapable or unwilling. What's it to be?

I'm happy to talk about language policy etc, with someone who can speak Catalan (like Trevor at kalebeul). But if you've made no effort to learn it - and it's just NOT THAT DIFFICULT - then your opinion means nothing to me. Make the effort, then you're entitled to your opinion.

==

*It is surely a coincidence that many of these people are given to a weird sort of anti-immigrant casual racism which is as unpleasant as it is illogical. Guys, you are immigrants. So am I. Do you lack all self knowledge?!

/rant

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In the meantime, I've learned to love many things about the country in which I've made my life. There are some things which just have to do with growing up, like food: I wasn't the biggest fan of mushrooms or olives before I moved here. Now I love rovellons, and have respect for the noble arbequina (among many others). I'll say things like "This coffee tastes burnt," and do things like pour olive oil on my bread or chill red wine.

In short, I'm now a dago, or catalufo, if you prefer. It's a great feeling.

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Among the people writing about Catalonia in English, there seems to be little consensus as to what we call the place. I always use the English form 'Catalonia', Jeremy uses the Catalan 'Catalunya', Graeme at South of Watford uses the Spanish 'Cataluña'... doubtless someone out there (Trevor?) uses the archaic 'Cathalunya'.

My reasons for using the English form are fairly simple: firstly, consistency. In my guise as a sort-of-managing-editor, I spend plenty of time making sure that everyone writing for our website writes as consistently as possible. That is, we have a house style which should always be applied. So we write in American English, generally try to avoid jargon - sometimes a difficult task when writing about technology, and use the same naming conventions when referring to organisations, places or people. The idea of consistency in such writing is that a reader should never have to trouble themselves as to why we're suddenly using a different word to describe something. I use 'Catalonia', 'Spain' and 'Seville' because I'm attempting to maintain some sense of consistency in the way I write (though a quick search shows that I have used 'Sevilla' a few times!). I feel that the majority of news organisations and works of reference would agree with me when I say that as a rule, toponyms ought to be written in the same language as the rest of the article.

The second reason I prefer the English form of the name is that when I'm writing in English, I'll use an English word wherever possible. This has nothing to do with any kind of linguistic conservatism: though my 'trade' involves the constant use of English, I'm the first to proclaim that one of its great strengths is the lack of an Academy that protects it from foreign influence. I do, however, broadly agree with George Orwell's Six Rules for clear political writing. As far as I'm concerned, 'Catalonia' is a perfectly decent English word that has been in use for hundreds of years and, like 'Spain' does the job admirably well. So why opt for the Catalan version? To me, it sounds like an affectation, particularly when this exception - this break in consistency - is applied only to 'Catalunya', and not to 'Spain'.

Jeremy makes a couple of points when explaining why he prefers the Catalan form. He's right to say that using 'Catalunya' hardly makes a piece of writing harder to understand. Pretty much anyone reading either of our blogs would be perfectly comfortable with the Catalan toponym. He also talks about the fluidity of English and its willingness to absorb words from other languages and cultures - something I mentioned above. But he does rather cloud the issue I thought we were talking about: whether there's a correct way to name the place in English. He also introduces something of a red herring: street names and people's names. To me, calling Joan, 'John' is incorrect... and calling the Plaça de Catalunya 'Catalonia Square' just aren't the same thing as calling Catalunya, Catalonia.

But I may be wrong. Jeremy has promised that he'll change and start using the English form if that's what most Catalans say they prefer. I'm not going to change the naming conventions I use, no matter what you say. But I am interested in hearing what you think. So the question is: when writing in English, what's the correct way to refer to the place? Catalonia, Catalunya, Cataluña, or something else entirely? As always, vote early & often to the right >>>

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Curtis's documentaries focus on the political and social history of the 20th century, criticising much of the psychological methods of power employed during those years. In The Power of Nightmares, Curtis illustrated how governments learned that the best way they could explain their worth to us in a post-cold war world was by building a new culture of fear directed at enemies which could never be defeated. The Trap investigates the various definitions of freedom and how these contrary views impacted on societies.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It Felt Like A Kiss is instantly recognisable as a Curtis film (the Helvetica typeface, the often shocking archive footage, the powerful soundtrack). But it is significantly different to those I mentioned above. Detailing "how power really works in the world", IFLAK eschews any narration beyond occasional visual prompts. The film is instead a tapestry of powerful images played over a soundtrack of some fantastic music from the 50s through to the 90s. Like some kind of amazing, extra-long pop video.

And in It Felt Like A Kiss, it's the music that I most adore. Ranging from Roy Orbison to the Velvet Underground to the Phil Spector-produced title song, Curtis selects a phenomenal playlist of well known and more obscure pieces. The soundtrack reminded me of how much I loved some long-neglected albums, and finally got me to listen to a ton of 'Wall of Sound' records, many of which are of unimpeachable quality and beauty, however mad their producer is.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The film cannot currently be obtained legally, so you'll have to download it. I'm hoping that Curtis will release his documentaries on DVD some time soon (a box set of those would be fantastic). If you'd rather not download a film illegally, you can listen to much of the soundtrack on this Spotify playlist.

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You won't hear many Catalans spouting this kind of crap (though I know 'charnego' still gets chucked about sometimes by the knuckle-draggers and mouth-breathers). So why would a dodgy English blogger from a two-donkey village outside Barcelona* try to get away with it?

Note also the smooth practice of closing comments on a post when you've been proven wrong continues as if it'll never go out of fashion.

__
*No relation.

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So that's the end of that debate, I imagine.

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In the comments on the blog (my tip is don't bother leaving a comment: he'll likely delete you or change your words), Mathew points out that this move has nothing to do with Carod Rovira or the president's department of the Generalitat, providing the link I used earlier to dineib. Jeff/Steve/whoever it is that runs LiC's response was priceless:

My dear Mathew, I do love your sense of humour. Far from being utterly ridiculous, the article was a direct translation from the noted newspaper ABC, I don’t know if you read the news in Spanish by the way.

Now, for those of you who are as yet unblessed by contact with the ABC newspaper, this would be something like a British blogger saying "Not my words, Mathew. The words of the Daily Express!". OK so it's not a perfect comparison (the ABC is far stuffier and more traditional than the Express) - but the point (that citing it as a reliable source on any story, let alone one concerning the Catalan government which it is duty bound to despise, is ridiculous and shows a complete lack of understanding of the subject), stands. And never mind the fact that the article was 'a direct translation' without citation.

He goes on:

Yours is a typical example comment from a “wannabee [sic] radical Catalan” and most people with a “sufficient level of intellectual cohesion in English” would poo poo your delirious ideals.You’ve spent far too long in this region my friend.

Now this is a particularly interesting method of attack coming from someone who has frequently used the riposte "Come back when you've lived here for ten years, then we'll see" as his stock response to logical argument and accurate criticism. Incidentally, this "wannabee radical Catalan" line is eerily close to the email another commentator received from said 'admin' which included the memorable line "What are you? Some little Catalan loser who leaves snide remarks like Tom and Rab over people's blogs because you can't face the truth." and went on to call him a "silly cunt".

Add all this to the roll of honours LiC has already claimed (stating that the nivell C certificate is 'the same' as forced tattooing in Nazi death camps; deleting comments which attempted to correct him; posting fake comments; trolling this site; nicking content), and we can see that not only is LiC not a blog worth following, it's not even worth criticising.

At least Iberian Notes had a brain. All LiC has is a bit of SEO, some clumsy, amateurish SEM and a dearth of decent content.

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Now, this isn't a poll about whether you agree with the Generalitat's language policies or not... maybe I'll do that next. The question is simple: Have you ever had problems with Catalan speakers refusing to serve you in Spanish?

As usual, you can answer to the right >>

...but if you want to expand on your answer, just leave a comment.

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In the nazi concentration camps the prisioners had to have a number printed on their skin - for being considered a genuine catalan you need to provide your catalan certificate in order to work. Could anyone tell me where are the differences?

Yeah, seriously. Or perhaps I'm the crazy one.

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The Constitutional court in Madrid is deliberating on potential changes to the Catalan statute of autonomy, approved by referendum here about two years ago. One of the clauses that might be removed is the bit that says that people living in Catalonia should know Catalan. It's basically copied from the Spanish constitution, which makes a similar demand in support of Spanish.

So my question is simple: in your opinion, should people living and working in Catalonia be able to understand Catalan? You can vote below in this post, or at the top of the sidebar to the right >>>>

UPDATE: By the way, I'll try to run at least one of these each week, so it'll be a regular feature. Of course, as well as voting, you are more than welcome to comment on the question or your response using the traditional comments system. Let me know if you have any problems voting, too.

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ThatOne! (May be Photoshopped)

Continuing my policy of not commenting on the US presidential election, except where it touches on other topics I find more interesting, I couldn't resist taking a look at McCain's use of language in last night's 'town hall' debate. It's worth noting that Obama is widely seen as having won the debate, despite this 'town hall' nonsense apparently being one of McCain's big strengths. McCain has not seen the polling bounce he was looking for, so we can expect the negative campaigning to get worse.

What I really wanted to look at, though, was McCain's use of language during the debate. Firstly, his clumsy use of the salutation "My friends", a technique for winning votes which is not far removed from the door to door salesman's use of terms like "mate", "boss" or "darling". It won't work on enough people to swing any state and the sooner McCain stops trying to pretend he's not as aristocratic as Bush, the better. Bush gets away with it: McCain looks like he's terrified of getting caught out.

But the really interesting phrase that fell out of McCain's old, aristocratic mouth was when he referred to Obama as "That one", while refusing to even look at his opponent. While the BBC is reporting this phrase as making it look like "McCain wouldn't, or perhaps couldn't, say Obama's name", it seems to me that McCain wasn't just not saying something: he was obviously making some sort of point.

"That one" might sound simply rude the first time you hear it. But the expression actually carries some pretty nasty connotations. Some commentators on various sites have made it clear that "That one" is nothing less than an encoding of "That nigger", still in use in some southern states of the US. Therefore, it looks likely that McCain was using a code which will appeal to a certain part of his support base. Those who are as sick as he is of this "uppity" black man. How dare "that one" act like he can do whatever he likes?

The encodings that politicians use, especially in the build up to an election, are, I reckon, of great importance. Note how no one is capable of saying the words "working class" in an election campaign nowadays: everyone's been told they're midddle class now and they're damned if they're going to be relegated.

I actually think it would be hilarious if McCain and Palin won this election. What an indictment of the slavishly right-wing politics of the Democratic party it would be. And the chance of being there at the end of the world has to be something we could all be proud of. I mean, you've got to laugh, really. Right?

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Click here to view the embedded video.

My question: does the word 'split' always imply 'into equal parts'? Or does the presence of a couple of McCain supporters actually make the 'split' word accurate, if still misleading?

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Apparently, the mayor of pretty Montblanc in Tarragona province received a court summons for 'disobeying authority' after an incident with some cops over the weekend. Mayor Josep Andreu, of the left-wing Catalan nationalists, ERC, and a town councillor apparently came upon a police control point and approached the Policia Local and Guardia Civil officers in order to find out what was going on. The mayor spoke to the Guardia officers in Catalan but was told "This is Spain, you speak in Spanish". Not the sort of line that goes down very well with any Catalan, sounding as it does, very much like something out of the dark years of the dictatorship... and even more so if you happen to be a politician in ERC.

Anyway, some sort of row ensued with the mayor refusing to identify himself until he had the officers' names. Eventually, he showed his ID card and was allowed to leave, only to receive the summons a few days later.

Two things stike me as a bit mad in this story: firstly, I've been told that most Guardia Civil officers in rural Catalonia speak Catalan and are pretty jovial fellows, so long as you don't get on the wrong side of them. So perhaps Senyor Andreu has already had some sort of falling out with them which precipitated this incident. Either that or the Guardia in question is a complete prick... both are utterly possible. Secondly, what the hell kind of offence is 'disobeying authority' anyway? I can't help but think that it was inspired by one Eric Cartman of South Park, Colorado... or perhaps that should be the other way around?

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Photo from sfthqphotos, at Flickr

Tibet and its treatment at the hands of Chinese authoritarianism is an important issue. But 'One World, One Dream'? If the protesters had wanted to make a decent point, they'd have opposed the Oympic Games all together. 'One World, One Dream: Bread' would have moved me a lot more.

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Jaume Roures, speaking [link in Catalan] on the RAC1 radio station, said that he also hoped that the film might open this year's Cannes festival.

The story has been picked up on the wires, and is generally being used for a spot of Catalan-bashing (any excuse, right?). Several papers have also fished up the 'political pressure' story from a few months back, which seems to me to be without substance.

This doesn't appear to be a decision even remotely connected with the Generalitat. In fact, it seems that Mediapro (or perhaps Roures) itself is behind the decision, and I suppose they're perfectly justified in taking it, however foolish a business idea it might be. I kind of suspect that he was either speaking out of turn or angling for nationalist-love, and that the film will also be dubbed into Spanish.

A more daring move would be to screen the film with only Spanish or Catalan subtitles, and no dubbing. The reservoirs of Catalonia will fill before that happens.

Oh yeah, for those of you hoping for lots of Scarlett and Penélope girl-on-girl action (as has been reported in less salubrious joints than thebadrash), apparently the rumours have been 'greatly exagerrated'. Tough luck. Still, you're on the Internet so I'm sure you can find something else.

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