Published originally in Spanish. Ricardo Dudda. El País. In 1965, the Barcelonian newspaper El Noticiero Universal commissioned fifteen articles from the philosopher Julian Marías on Catalonia, which became a book called Consideration of Catalonia. Marías does a remarkable exercise in Francoism: seeing Spain from Catalonia. He observes that Catalonia feel distanced from Madrid, or Castile […]
Categoría: In English
Catalonia, after St Crispin’s Day: the heroes of the blunder
Published originally in Spanish. Ramón González Férriz. El Confidencial. In the world, foolishness and blunder are far more common than coldly calculated evil, not to mention heroism. Life has more to do with that what happens in a comic of “Mortadelo and Filemón” than with the great feats which take place on the movie “Braveheart”. […]
Strange defeat
Originally published in Spanish. Daniel Capó. The Objective. Political failures are usually a consequence of intelligence errors. This is the thesis put forward by historian Marc Bloch in one of his most lucid books –Strange defeat- and it is unavoidable in these moments of civil unrest we turn our attention to it. Strange defeat is […]
Where is the Disproportion?
Originally published in Spanish. Félix Ovejero & Alejandro Molina. El País. It is unconceivable that someone could describe as “error” or “ineptitude” that law enforcement agents, with a court order prohibiting the “referendum”, complied precisely with their duty. Where is the error? In the employment of force? Look: anti riot police agents are not word-thinkers […]
Chonicle of the 1st of October – the revolution of the middle class
Published originally in Spanish. Ricardo Dudda. Letras Libres. In the Pere Vila school, on the Paseo de Lluís Companys in Barcelona, several young people are watching a garden fence. With the sun just up, it starts to rain. The only people on the street are immigrant workers opening shops. There’s the grafitti left from past […]
Pacific
Originally published in Spanish. Aurora Nacarino-Brabo. The Objective. “We are firing two Spanish employees this week. We are not hiring people from your country anymore. Bye, Spain”. I’m asked not to pay attention to some tweet. Alright. I’m not going to do so, not even to the friends that these days are telling me that […]
Peace, Law, Force
Published originally in Spanish. Arcadi Espada. El Mundo. The Spanish democratic government drew yesterday a red line. This is a hackneyed image, but still has some colour left. Red lines are sometimes drawn with blood. However, Spanish police’s exemplary work made possible that only a little were needed to draw that line. Their work yesterday […]
Guy Verhofstadt speech on debate “Constitution, rule of law and fundamental rights in Spain in the light of the events in Catalonia”, 4 October 2017
I am a big admirer of the Spanish democracy. Especially since that dramatic date of the 23rd of February 1981. The day colonel Tejero attempted his coup d’état. Javier Cercas in his famous book “Anatomía de un instante”, describes how under the threat of Tejero’s pistol, three Spanish political leaders stayed upright in their seats, […]
No man’s land
Published originally in Spanish. Isabel Coixet. El País. I find myself in a silent place where there are many people and no hymns or screams make a sound, where the air only moves white flags. My face burns as I write this. Not with shame but with anger. Two people with the estelada flag tied […]
The Gangrene of the State
Originally published in Spanish. Tsevan Rabtan. Today is a sad day. Not, as many people think, because of the images of police charging against those who broke the law or dragging them out to prevent them from hampering their ability to enforce court orders. The police can sometimes mess up and find themselves overwhelmed. Reality is like […]