"The Guardian" focussing on Catalonia

A few days before the Catalan parliamentary elections on Nov. 25, the British newspaper The Guardian offers four different items on Catalonia today: an article, an interactive guide, a video, another article on Artur Mas, and one on spreading separatism. And more coverage here.

The BBC on Catalonia

The link is here.

Quim Monzo: Oh! Europe

Catalan writer Quim Monzó published on Nov. 9 his daily column in La Vanguardia newspaper with the above title.

It reads more or less like this:

[The head of the regional government of Catalonia, Arthur] Mas went [this week] to Brussels to explain that Catalonia is an old European nation; that Spain, instead of dialogue it offers shouts; that, if we get to that occasion, "we will demand shelter from the European Union, appealing to the democratic values of its foundation;" and that, in the same way that "Catalonia in all of its history has never failed Europe, we hope that Europe will not let down Catalonia."

Oh, ingenious! It is exactly because a great part of Europe let us down three centuries ago, there happened what happened. Britain, Austria, Portugal and the United Provinces betrayed their accord with Catalonia and left it without protection and at the mercy of Philipp V. This disloyalty was so obvious that in 1714 the House of Lords held sessions in which it debated the situation in which it had left the Catalans. They even published two books on the affair: "The case of the Catalans considered", and "Deplorable history of the Catalans"; a manner of self-criticism of the treason that ended with the Treaty of Utrecht. That Europe is not the modern one, but I would not put a lot of trust in the latter one, either.

You can read more on the House of Lord's activities here. Google books offers this book.

Catalonia making international headlines

Normally, Catalan nationalism has been an Iberian affair without much international attention. The massive demonstration on 09/11, Catalonia's national holiday (in memory of the surrender of Barcelona in 1714 - War of the Spanish Succession), that brought 1.5 million Catalans to the streets of Barcelona behind a banner "Catalonia - next state of Europe" has changed this.
The Financial Times had this editorial, the International Herald Tribune had this article and this, the Wall Street Journal's slide-show is here. The New York Times informed on Sept. 20 here, The Economist in its Sept. 22 edition here.

This blogger's perception is that there is no general majority for an independent state of Catalonia but an accumulated frustration with the central government in Madrid; in such a situation, independence seems to be a viable solution. This frustration has the following background: whereas federal republics such as Germany put a limit to the transfer payments of richer states to the poorer ones ("national solidarity") to prevent the originally richer ones from ending up poorer in infrastructures and public services than the originally poorer ones, Spain's constitution of 1978 does not include such limits, and Catalans see a lot of their wealth going to the poorer regions of Extremadura and Andalusia, that have very high rates of both, unemployment and people working in public sector jobs (30% in comparison to 13% in Catalonia). This fact has been known for years but the general economic crisis of the last five years has made it more perceptible as government spending has been drastically reduced, and Catalans have seen this in the areas of health, education, and infrastructures. Adding to this, Catalans feel that the Spaniards accuse them of being selfish in their efforts to pay less and despise their language, while the Basque Country and Navarra have enjoyed a fiscal regime that lets them keep a higher percentage of the taxes raised in their territories for themselves without making them a target of criticism.
Already in April, the Wall Street Journal had this article on the unwillingness of the Spanish central government to change the situation - the Catalan press took until this week to become aware of it...

Québec Book Fair: Catalan literature as guest of honor (April 11-15, 2012)

This seems to be a strictly French-speaking event... the official website is here, the book fair's program here. Background information on the Catalan authors who will be present can be found here (French only).
Catalan nationalists often look enviously at Québécois nationalists who already managed to hold referenda on independence in the past - though they like to overlook that these always ended in favour of the union with the rest of Canada.

Burqa, no; T-Shirt, yes, please!

Strange times in Catalunya. More and more city and village administrations are introducing local ordinances that prohibit the wearing of a burqa or other face-covering Islam-inspired dresses inside public buildings. As if the streets were full of burqa-wearing women ready to storm city hall. The craze is such that even villages where there are no immigrants at all are thinking about introducing such a measure preventively in case a burqa-wearing immigrant wanted to move there. And parties on the political right are insisting that the words "burqa" or "niqab" are included in these ordinances; the prohibition of entering a public building with your face covered does not do it for them - pure knee-jerk populism in an election year (regional elections to the Catalan parliament in November 2010). Surveys say that a majority of the population would prohibit the burqa in public places, i.e. on the streets in general, but local administrations can only rule on public buildings.
Meanwhile the city of Barcelona has got a different problem at the same time: apparently a lot of tourists like to wander around Las Ramblas in the heart of the old town or use the metro with nothing on but a bathing suit or bikini; often not a nice view, and apart from aesthetics a potential public health problem. Therefore, the city will fine these "nudist" tourists, but first wants to raise awareness to the problem with an information campaign ("dress well") and stickers like the one pictured down here. We are living in strange times.

Political corruption

I don´t want to comment or to judge here, just to give testimony of a situation that I find noteworthy and troubling.
For quite a while now, the news on Catalan and Spanish television have been dominated by corruption scandals in various parts of the country. The party that comes off worst is the ultra-conservative Popular Party (PP). It all began with a spying scandal within the ranks of the PP in Madrid. Then came "el caso Gürtel" (Gürtel=German "belt"=Spanish "correa") around the corrupt relationships between a public relations firm (Orange Market) headed by a man named Correa and the Popular Party in Madrid and Valencia. Correa was a guest at the wedding of former Prime Minister Aznar's daughter to Alejandro Agag, another one involved in the scandal, at the El Escorial royal palace. In Valencia, the state governor was accused of taking suits in return for giving PR events to Orange Market, there headed by a name nick-named "Bigotes" for his spectacular moustache, but the case was ended inconclusively. In Mallorca, the former PP government is accused of financing the party by over-charging for a bicycle arena (PalmArena). And the latest case coming to light was around the Socialist mayor of Santa Coloma de Gramanet, a Barcelona suburb, who worked with a building firm and some intermediaries in money laundering and reclassification of land. This is the most notorious case of political corruption in Spain and it normally works like this: the municipality sells land not specified for building that it owns to a building firm on the cheap; a short time later the council decides to reclassify it, which increases its worth manifold, and the builder builds houses, shopping centers or whatever there. The builder makes a handsome profit and the municipality gets a nice tax revenue for the building, but nothing for the increased value of the land that originally was not for building. And the mayor and the others implied get a nice unofficial and tax-free bonus by the builder... These mentioned were only the most spectacular cases but it is like a national scourge. Part of the fault lies with the poor financing for communities who depend very much on building taxes. By selling the land in their property, they find a short-term remedy for their financial problems but sell the only "family silver" they have; and in the past they helped to create the real-estate bubble that burst about two years ago.