Is TV3 the anti-Catalanista channel?

At least three people think so.

Personally, I'm not sure whether the event in Sabadell merited much more coverage or not. But it probably could have replaced '1,000 march in Mallorca against corruption'. 3Cat24 is, after all, supposed to be about news in Catalonia.

March 5, 2010 | Filed Under Spain | 1 Comment 

thebadPoll: The worst place in Spain

This is a slightly different way of running a poll. I'm not going to offer any choices. Instead, I'd like you, gentle reader, to nominate the municipality, region, village or other place which you consider to be the worst place in Spain*. Maybe it's hideously ugly… maybe it's just utterly tacky. Share your loathing!

What's more, if you can't narrow it down to one, you'll get bonus uselessPoints(TM) for naming and shaming multiple places!

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*And for the sake of clarity, 'Spain' means whatever the Spanish government in Madrid says it means. So yes, you can choose Barcelona if you like.

February 27, 2010 | Filed Under Polls, Spain | 12 Comments 

Why are PP members so effin' rude?

The other day, our esteemed former Presidente del Gobierno – and honorary president of the PP, José María Aznar, visited the university of Oviedo in order to sell some of his FAES stuff. The students of said academy responded to the man's visit by waving banners and calling him a war criminal. Señor Aznar's response was that employed by all gentlemen of the world: he gave them the finger ('the bird', as our American friends would have it).

Aznar salutes the students of Oviedo

Aznar salutes the students of Oviedo

Now, if you've ever read this blog before, you may have determined that there's very little love lost between your humble host and that twat, Aznar. In case you need convincing, here's my analysis of the man: He's a slimy, post-fascist scumbag who did nothing for Spain other than bring about our current economic situation; a small, disgustingly self-important, right-wing tosser with a shit-eating grin and a ridiculous moustache.

But this isn't just about Aznar. It does seem that Spain's right wing are just generally rude. Look at the 'king', with his "Why don't you shut up?" diplomatic manoeuvre. Then there's Esperanza Aguirre and Ignacio Gonzalez, a right pair of hijoputas. What's wrong with these people? It all lends support to my theory that the most impolite people you'll generally encounter in life are right-wingers. We on the left generally opt for more intelligent criticism.

February 20, 2010 | Filed Under PP, Politics, Spain | 11 Comments 

A Congressional Gold Medal Don't Come For Free

Now, this is just hilarious: former Spanish PM (and generally, like, my #1 favourite guy), José María Aznar, is under investigation after a group of lawyers alleged that his government spent public money lobbying for him to be awarded the USA Congress's Gold Medal. The allegation has been around for about four years but only now is the Spanish judiciary really looking into it.

Aznar's quest for gold failed, incidentally. He did, however, manage to arrange for the Spanish people to pay for his daughter's wedding. Well, someone had to, I suppose.

February 7, 2010 | Filed Under PP, Spain | 3 Comments 

In Support Of The True Fiesta Nacional

One of Spain's greatest and oldest cultural traditions is in danger of dying out completely because of EU legislation. The European laws, designed to protect citizens' 'liberty' were introduced without a moment's thought about the impact they'd have on this crucial feature of Spanish culture. I am, of course, talking about Spain's true Fiesta Nacional.

Ever since the 1st century BCE, Spaniards have enjoyed the spectacle of gladiators locked in combat, fighting until one (or ideally all) of them dies a heroic death. Indeed, recent evidence proves that a Spaniard was himself the very bravest of Rome's gladiators – he killed a nasty emperor and temporarily saved the empire from something.

But all this is now under threat – because of a bunch of killjoy lawmakers obsessed by destroying Spanish culture. EU legislators introduced so called 'human rights legislation' many years ago, but it is these laws that might now be used to stop us from enjoying one of the great cultural pursuits this country has to offer. And the sad thing is that this could all be prevented if the do-gooders understood that live gladiator fights aren't really about men killing each other for the enjoyment of a crowd of baying monsters. You see, gladiator fighting is about so much more than that.

For those who haven't yet had a chance to enjoy the spectacle of a gladiator fight, I'm going to explain a little of what makes it so special. First of all, there's the amphitheatre it's held in: these grand stadia have their roots in Roman architecture and are designed so that wherever a viewer sits, they can see the action. Amphitheatres used to litter Spanish cities like discarded sunflower seed shells, but now only a few remain. It's worth remembering that Barcelona had loads of the places, while Madrid (which didn't exist when the Romans occupied Spain) had none. Why that's worth remembering, I'm not sure… but remember it, OK?

Next up is the sense of ceremony that surrounds the whole event. The gladiators are held in a sort of pen just before they're released into the arena, and when they appear in their beautiful costumes, you can almost believe you're watching ballet rather than deadly combat. Actually, I'm not sure about that: ballet exists as a way of interpreting violence, passion and the human experience by way of dance. Gladiatorial combat interprets violence by way of goading men to murder each other. But it's still quite full of movement, I suppose.

The deaths, while certainly not the focus of gladiatorial combat, are really cool! Some of the best gladiators can make a rival's suffering defence last for up to an hour, drawing the process of killing their opponent (which is not the main focus of the fight at all) into what seems like a true fight between equals. Of course, the truth is that the professional gladiators always win because their competitors, dumb and useless beasts that they are, are often drugged, underfed and tortured prior to the main event. Well, you wouldn't want the star to die, would you?! Anyway, the death isn't even the most important bit.

The most important bit is… everything. Of course, everything is geared in a way that it climaxes in the death… but that doesn't mean it's just about killing. You can buy an ice cream from the little man who sells them… and if he stands in the way of a good killing, just tell him to get the fuck out of the way. Because the death, while not the most important bit, is a moment so wholly Spanish – so ancient and lovely – that you really shouldn't miss it. Yes, the death is not the most important part of the gladiator fight. It's the killing.

Oh and, before you bring it up, no we really don't see the killing as cruel. I mean, most of these guys are losers and criminals anyway. Sure, they're doomed to die terrified but imagine how they'd feel if they caught lung cancer from second hand smoke. That'd be a much worse way to go… so you see, they're really the lucky ones.

Can we really afford to lose this ancient, lovely and cool spectacle? To me, it seems self-evident that gladiatorial combat is above silly modern notions like 'humanity' or 'law'. Clearly, amendments should be made to this legislation to ensure that future generations can enjoy the killing with their own eyes? As has been pointed out, these fights exist: it's up to the opponents of gladiators killing each other to prove why it's suddenly wrong.

So, dear reader, I call on you to join with me in defence of this noble pursuit. Together, we can preserve barbarity in these perplexing times.

February 6, 2010 | Filed Under Spain | 8 Comments 

Less than 30% turnout in today's Catalan independence 'consultations'

TV3 is reporting that of the 700,000 people eligible to vote in today's referendum/consultations, 200,000 voted. If that number is correct, the turnout stands at just under 30%.

What does this mean for Catalonia? There are several points to take into consideration (which affect any interpretation of events in various ways):

It remains to be seen what effect these consultations in the form of a referendum will have on Catalonia's political future. My bet is that whatever the result, ERC, CUP and the CdC will claim it as a vote in favour for an official referendum within the next two or three years.

Barcelona, if it ever manages to hold a similar consultation, will always be the decider.

December 13, 2009 | Filed Under Catalonia, PP, Politics, Spain | 8 Comments 

13D: Some of Catalonia votes for independence tomorrow

This weekend, 700,000 people in Catalonia are eligible to vote in the region's first ever referendum on independence from Spain.

Or at least, that's how the BBC has it. Tomorrow will be interesting because the turnout will give everyone an idea of how far CUP, ERC and even CiU can run with independence as a vote winner. But Barcelona and the more 'Spanish' suburbs (like Cerdanyola) aren't taking part. As I've pointed out elsewhere: we all know that if it were up to Vic, Catalonia would have declared independence years ago.

I'll be watching tomorrow's results with some interest. But I'd rather they had a proper vote, and we could all be done with it.

December 12, 2009 | Filed Under Catalonia, Politics, Spain | 1 Comment 

Guardia Civil is the new arbitrator of jazz

It's not clear whether the Guardia's elite Jazz Investigation Unit was sent out to Sigüenza or if they simply consulted its Contemporary Arts Bureau.

For what it's worth, I don't like genre labels as they always end up being exclusive rather than inclusive. Here's hoping that the Anti-Folk Brigade don't get called out to tonight's Jeffrey Lewis gig in Barcelona.

December 10, 2009 | Filed Under Music, Spain | Leave a Comment 

thebadPoll: Working in Spain

This poll was inspired by a brief conversation I had with a couple of other expats over at another website. The discussion started as a debate about January 6th being made a 'new public holiday' – which made little sense to me as Magic Kings' day already was a holiday.

A generally held view seems to be that the last thing Spain needs is more public holidays, but I couldn't quite establish whether the people who were espousing this POV were themselves employed in Spain, or whether they simply wanted to be able to go shopping whenever they wanted and sod the workers.

So what do you think? Do you work in Spain? How does your company treat you? Has Spain caught up with the UK in terms of worker exploitation modern labour practices? Is Spain a good place to work? As usual, you can select one answer from the list on the right >>> but it's your comments that I'm most interested in.

November 25, 2009 | Filed Under Capital, Spain | 3 Comments 

So who's the Nazi and who's the fascist? This gets confusing

South of Watford has a post today about an incident that I was planning to write about. Apparently, the British fascist party, the BNP, attended a meeting in Madrid on the 21st. Also present at the meeting were the Spanish fascist party, Democracia Nacional and the Italian fascist group Forza Nuova.

The meeting was nearly interrupted by another Spanish far-right group, the Movimiento Patriótico Socialista, 28 of whom were apparently arrested. The BNP issued a statement, claiming the MPS represents a 'neo-Nazi' agenda and are 'aligned to the English Defence League', a group of militant fascists which the BNP claims to disown entirely.

Now, on first sight, this might be a simple dispute between different factions of the far-right, doing a sort of 'People's Front of Judea' style bit of in-fighting. And that would be very amusing.

I'm not so sure that it's so simple. There are several problems here: first of all, it's very difficult indeed to find any information about the MPS. That's unusual because as any fule know, the very first thing any political group does these days is set up an atrociously badly designed and unusable website full of conflicting political statements. The MPS doesn't have one and they've been around since at least March.

Democracia Nacional claim that the attackers weren't the MPS but rather came from the Movimiento Social Republicano, a relatively well known neo-Nazi group (at least it is if you've ever spent any time browsing through fascist websites). MSR are in turn linked to the Italian fascist group Fimma Tricolore, which was in alliance with the Forza Nuova as recently as 2005.

The EDL themselves have been noisy this year, holding small-scale aggressive 'protests' in a few British cities, normally in the name of opposing 'Radical Islam'. The BNP has said several times that it doesn't support the bully-boy tactics of the EDL but at the same time various EDL organisers are known members of the BNP.

To me, this 'split' in European fascism could be one of two things: it's either a genuine split caused by a sense of dissatisfaction among the more openly violent factions of the far-right, who have decided to 'go it alone' and fight in the streets. Or it's a cosmetic split, designed to allow the 'mainstream' fascist parties to orchestrate street violence and then condemn it, satisfying their two main goals: appearing to be mainstream and beating up Muslims. And they all get press to boot.

November 25, 2009 | Filed Under Politics, Spain, UK | Leave a Comment 

Statistics of corruption in Spain

Franco's Little Helper* over at Kalebeul has an amusingly perverse analysis of how the two major political parties in Spain account for most of the local corruption investigations here. The great thing about proposing a new statistical analysis is that feeling of deciding the size of the goal. And where it will be placed.

*I'm sure Trevor won't mind me calling him that, given that he's an avowed supporter of the ultra-nationalist UPyD.

November 20, 2009 | Filed Under Politics, Spain | 2 Comments 

Are Spanish banks in trouble?

I'll be honest: except for Marxist theories about capital and exploitation, I generally eschew any discussion that covers banking and that huge, murky industry known as 'finance'. This is a weakness on my part, I'm sure: a true socialist should be well versed in the movements of capital and cash. And much as I hold the FT to have some of the best reporting about Spain that you'll find in the British press, I find it difficult to understand what its market journalists are writing about.

So it was with some dread and awe that I read this blog post concerning the state of Spain's two largest banks, Santander and BBVA.

Apparently, it's pretty obvious that these two large banks are hiding massive liabilities which, if suddenly exposed, could cause the Spanish economy to collapse. Ignore the bullshit on that blog about 'racial pressures' and you still have a coherent case that decries the secrecy behind the apparent miracle of Spain's two massive banking success stories. And it makes sense: how could it be that these banks could be 100% safe when their American and British counterparts have received billions of Euros in bailouts?

I therefore invite finance-minded readers of this blog to tell me just how precarious our situation here really is. Are we fucked? And if so, to what degree?

October 11, 2009 | Filed Under Capital, Spain | 2 Comments 

Spanish corruption news round-up

I've been off work for a few days due to a wicked cold, which has left me thinking that probably the last thing I need to do is spend more time in front of my computer. But all the same, there are a couple of stories developing in Spain which deserve something of a recap.

Firstly, Gürtel. This case of corruption in the Valencian PP has moved on quite a lot since the courts ruled that it was unlawful to 'archive' the case. The PP itself has moved from dogged support for anyone and everyone connected with the party to a few pre-emptive and yet also belated amputations. Top of the list is Ricardo Costa, general secretary of the Valencian PP. President of the Comunitat Valenciana Fracisco Camps seems to have had his hand forced by PP head office and has announced that Costa will be out in a few days, all the while noting that he trusts and backs him implicitly. This is the first major head to roll in the PP but it likely won't be the last. Esperanza Aguirre, president of the Comunidad de Madrid has also forced the exclusion of three regional PP names, Alberto López Viejo, Alfonso Bosch Tejedor and Benjamín Martín Vasco – all linked with the Gürtel case.

Aguirre, suave political operator that she is, seems to be using this corruption case to make another push for control of the party. It remains to be seen how successful she is in this enterprise… but the idea of her leading the national party is slowly becoming a terrifyingly real possibility.

I wouldn't want to incur the wrath of Trevor by failing to mention the Palau de la Música Catalana case, here in Barcelona. This story, though nowhere near as politically damaging as the Gürtel case, is still serious enough to warrant a proper full-length blog post some time in the future. Essentially, the PMC case is a classic story of misuse of public funds (aka 'stealing a shit load of cash'). Boss of the Orfeó Catalan, Felix Millet, has more-or-less admitted that more than €3m of Palau funds went missing under his stewardship. He seems to have spent the money on himself (and his business partner Jordi Montull). It seems that among other things, the pair used some of the money to buy a building which they then sold on at a €1.5m profit.

The larger crime in the PMC case is that the bill for refurbishing the Palau a few years back was a massive €22m, even though it actually cost less than half that. So Millet seems to be willing to admit the 'smaller' crime in the hope that everyone will just forget about the other €13m that he nicked. Sadly, this could just happen: this case should have been in the courts years ago but for some reason only seems to have made it there now.

The political sides of this story are twofold: firstly, Millet is a big player in Barcelona's political-cultural axis. The position of head of the Orfeó/Palau is extremely prestigious and Millet also served on the board of FC Barcelona and was a recipient of the Generalitat's St Jordi cross. All that, and he seems to have donated about €500,000 to the Fundació Trías Fargas, a politico-cultural organisation which is effectively a part of the CDC, which itself is a constituent party in CiU.

The second controversy (and arguably by far the more important one) is that the courts in Barcelona received notice of presumed corruption, lots of €500 notes and various irregularities in the Palau, five years ago. It seems that they've done very little to prosecute the case since then, until now. Why? I suppose that would be the corruption.

October 11, 2009 | Filed Under Catalonia, PP, Politics, Spain | 3 Comments 

thebadPoll: Where to live in Barcelona?

RmdBcn

Gemma and I are beginning the process of looking for a new house. Our awesome little flat in Cerdanyola del Vallès was perfect as a starting point for our life together here but 7 years on, it's not getting any bigger. We're looking in Cerdanyola, because we like the area where we live. But we're also going to look at places in other parts of the metropolitan zone. This thebadPoll is really very simple: where would you choose to live in BCN if you could choose right now? Do you like the narrow streets of the Gòtic, or do you prefer the seaside charm of Vilanova i la Geltrù?

The list of options is not exhaustive, so feel free to recommend a place if you really think it needs a special mention.

As usual, you can vote on the right >> … but it's your comments I'm hungry for.

September 30, 2009 | Filed Under Catalonia, Home, Spain | 12 Comments 

What happened to Valencia?

This post could have been a kind of thebadPoll but in the end, I decided an open question suits the subject matter better.

Gemma and I watched the Granada TV (UK) 1983 documentary about the Spanish civil war this weekend. Among many other conversation points, it raised an issue I've never quite understood since the first time I read about the war: how did Valencia move from being one of the last bastions of the Republic to becoming the key PP stronghold it is today? I've heard claims that Valencia was 'settled' by Francoists in an attempt to break left-wing loyalty there, though I've never seen any evidence for this.

So what happened? Was there a concerted effort to change Valencia's demographics, and therefore politics, or did this shift occur 'naturally' because of changes in industry and other conditions there? Or maybe it was a mixture. Or maybe Valencia was never as socialist as I've been told. All opinions are welcome, but what I'd like best is some evidence supporting your position.

September 27, 2009 | Filed Under PP, Politics, Spain | 14 Comments 

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