Despite being generally divided on the issue of multilingualism, the parliament apparently approved a PSOE-CiU-ICV-PNV-EA amendment that removed references to parents’ rights to choose the language in which their children are taught. Protecting the range of languages in some countries (like Spain) was described as ‘essential’.
So that’s the end of that debate, I imagine.
It’s a lovely sunny day here in Cerdanyola del Vallès, so I’ll probably spend it doing some of my favourite things: installing Ubuntu ‘Jaunty’ Alpha 6 on my netbook, playing Empire Total War, writing performance reviews for my team at work… and reading about how Zapatero’s suffering with the ‘Kosovo problem’.
The problem, in case you didn’t know, is fairly simple: Spain refuses to recognise Kosovo as an independent state because this would signify acceptance that small nations may break away from supra-national states like Serbia or… Spain. You see where this is going, don’t you? Because of this tricky diplomatic choice, Spain has now announced that it will withdraw its armed forces from the NATO peacekeeping force which polices Kosovo. This has upset the United States, and effectively dissolves any credit Zapatero may have had with the new regime in Washington DC. The American response was an expression of “deep disappointment”, according to El País, with State Department spokesman Robert Wood saying that the US “neither understands nor agrees with” Spain’s move. Zapatero claims that Spain’s NATO allies were aware of the planned exit, but other sources suggest that all this came as something of a surprise.
So basically, Spain pulls out of the Balkan state in an attempt to prevent the ‘Balkanisation’ of Spain.
Personally, I’m not really that fussed about Spain losing some grace in Washington DC, or with NATO: neither the US government nor their SEO agency in Europe operate with anything like the moral clarity that I’d like to see. But many Spaniards do worry about these things… indeed, some bloggers used to spend nearly all their time monitoring Zapatero’s approval ratings in the Bush administration (a bit of a waste of time, that). The Partido ‘Popular’ have been quick to label this as ‘another disaster’ for the Socialist government, though typically they offer no alternative solution.
And that’s because the solution to the problem, for all the PP’s crowing, would be unthinkable for any Spanish government. The solution is simple: recognise Kosovo. It’ll have to happen eventually anyway, so why not get it done now and avoid all this hassle? To me, Zapatero seems to have reacted to the PP’s rhetoric about a ‘Balkanisation’ that almost certainly won’t happen. The reason it won’t happen is that there just isn’t enough public support for independence in the two most troublesome ‘nations’ within Spain: the Basque Country and Catalonia.
If referenda were held in 2012 in the Basque Country and Catalonia, I’m pretty sure that the Basques would vote in favour of staying part of Spain, and so would the Catalans (although the Catalan result would probably be closer). What Zapatero risks with this childish insistence on failing to recognise Kosovo’s independence is that people will start to take the concept of Spain’s constituent nations breaking away, seriously. The bolder (though obviously slightly more risky) move would be to recognise Kosovo and then say “referendum on Catalan independence? BRING IT ON!”.
That the Spanish state is so afraid of a referendum threatens to make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Another faintly ridiculous article from the LiC blog here, claiming that Carod Rovira is determined to destroy the Spanish language. The reason behind this claim is that the Generalitat have apparently invested €1m in helping the Ecuadorian government protect its indigenous languages and to promote bilingualism. You can find more information about this program from the dineib agency of the Ecuadorian education ministry.
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.
Last weekend, thousands of Catalans demonstrated in Brussels, demanding the right to hold a referendum to determine whether Catalonia should be independent of Spain. Holding such a referendum would currently be illegal under Spain’s constitution.
I imagine that practically everyone who took part in the protest actually supports independence. But this poll addresses the aim of the Plataforma pel Dret de Decidir (Platform for the Right to Decide), namely: should Catalonia be allowed to hold a referendum on independence? (N.B. the question is not “independence, yes or no?” but “referendum, yes or no?”).
Results:
Should Catalonia be allowed to hold a referendum on independence?
Total Voters: 52
The other night, 13 men were arrested in the Raval district of Barcelona and in Valencia on suspicion of fraud. Apparently, they were running a criminal gang that forged passports and Spanish ID cards.
But on the Catalan news yesterday morning, they were already being described as ‘jihadists’ and ‘suspected terrorists’. Channel 4 news in the UK this evening picked up the story and added drug trafficking to the rap sheet (this appears to be a similar combination as that reported in Público)
Now, I’m finding it difficult to track down the warrant that was issued for these men’s arrests. If anyone could help me out with this, I’d be very grateful.
Interesting to note that some comments in El País theorise that the story was used to ‘bury’ the large increase in unemployment in Spain, a story that broke the same morning.
The other day, Ben at Notes From Spain published a self-styled ‘rant’ about not being able to find a smoke-free restaurant near his house in Madrid. Ben, along with many other English commentators here, is firmly ‘anti-smoke’ and makes the case for a further tightening of anti-smoking legislation in Spain, partly because the current legislation seems to be so poorly enforced. Ben’s post soon attracted numerous comments including one from myself and several from some rather vociferous pro-smokers.
As someone who likes the odd smoke, I’m not really bothered by having a bit of it around when I’m eating. Obviously, the finest restaurants we go to don’t allow smoking inside – and this is also fine by me.
So the first poll of 2009 is about smoking in public. What do you think about it? As usual, you can answer the poll to the left >>* and feel free to leave a comment as well.
Updated: sorry, I forgot the link to Ben’s blog post.
Updated again: *And no, this was not some mind trick. I meant to the right, but I was thinking about the left sidebar. Too much smoking, perhaps
We returned from Australia on Sunday and have been busy relaxing and working since then. More on the trip at a later date.
Another heart-warming story about how mental Esperanza Aguirre is. It seems that the deputy mayor of Madrid, Manuel Cobo, and one or two other key PP officials in the Comunidad Autonoma have been spied on by a secret unit set up by Aguirre’s security ape, Francisco Granados.
Cobo was allegedly followed for six months by retired Guardia Civil officers who compiled complex dossiers on him and Aguirre’s deputy,Ignacio González.
The deputy mayor filed a lawsuit yesterday, seeking to identify who’s behind the surveillance. Meanwhile, Aguirre’s office is complaining that the allegations are nothing more than a plot to ‘attack and demolish’ Aguirre herself.
Call me biased but I’d be highly surprised if Aguirre (and possibly Aznar’s FAES) weren’t 100% behind this latest incident of shady PP politics. Aguirre’s campaign to be named the next party leader (even if it means splitting the PP in two) will apparently stop at nothing. Or is this just about Caja Madrid?
Oh, and Graeme has a story about El Mundo tricking another PP official into posing for a series of ‘seductive’ photos, and thus drawing criticism from within the party. Caution: highly explicit descriptions.
…that’s something worth celebrating and considering.
The most recent Spanish constitution was agreed by referendum 30 years ago today. Apparently, no one is boycotting anyone over the language clauses… I guess it’s a local thing.
Oh yeah, and while I’m here… When can we get rid of this royal family? Visca la republica!
There has been some controversy over recent weeks about the decision of a Valladolid judge to order that crucifixes must be removed from state school classrooms as their presence contravenes the Spanish constitution which declares that the state must be wholly secular.
Faith was arguably the most obvious divide in the ‘two Spains’ of the past, but most observers feel that the relevance of the Church in social and political issues has shrunk since democracy. What do you think? Should the crucifixes be removed or allowed to remain?
Today’s news of a senior commander’s arrest in France has brought ETA into the British press again, rasing as it always does the question of nomenclature.
It is standard for British media organisations to refer to ETA as ‘the Basque separatist group, ETA’, a title which seems perfectly logical to me but which clearly upsets some Spaniards. So this week’s poll considers the linguistics of terror and asks: how should the British press refer to ETA? Please feel free to use the comments section to explain why you picked what you picked.
UPDATED: Oops, forgot one of the choices.