tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478225.post1472289874143900717..comments2024-03-29T08:46:07.883+01:00Comments on Life in Culebrón: Saying nothingChris Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15157237713117339719noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478225.post-47707493323470516142017-10-07T18:50:52.600+02:002017-10-07T18:50:52.600+02:00Hi. You wrote a quite complete collection of event...Hi. You wrote a quite complete collection of events here. I liked it. But I'll add a few more things if you let me. People in Catalonia have been brainwashed for the last 35/40 years. They started with the linguistic police (they fine restaurants for having the menu in Spanish and not in Catalan, etc) and the biassed education (the last 3 generations of students are pro-independence, Spain-haters). TV3, Canal 33, etc are 100% Catalanist propaganda (last week, the former PSOE vice-president of Spain Alfonso Guerra described it as “disgusting”, although his party didn’t do anything when they could either). Also, most Catalan newspapers are getting money from the Generalitat. So you have to read the (neutral?) international press to know what is happening over there. <br />Franco happens to have given some special benefits to Catalonia. The rest of Spain suffered a lot more during his dictatorship. That’s why Catalonia prospered as an industrial region and that is why hundreds of thousands of people from the South emigrated to BCN in the 50s and 60s. <br />These emigrants have been despised by people in Catalonia because during the last 35-40 years every child in the school and every person in Catalonia has learnt to see Spain as a tacky place full of illiterate rednecks. Usually, the cleaning woman was Spanish, never Catalan. At the University, for example, they have been cleaning up the staff with Spanish surnames, or making their visitors give their lectures in English (instead of Spanish, if they didn't speak in Catalan). All has been very subtle, slowly, drop by drop. Also the different governments since the dictatorship ended have treated Catalonia as a favourite. And Catalonia has been functioning as an independent country in some way, doing what they wanted, because the Spanish State never showed up. Until now!<br />As you say, if many of us were over there during the manifestations, we would be part of the craziness as well, because it is sort of contagious! And then we will be even more unable to see the wood for the trees. They call themselves "peaceful people", but everybody knows the effect of a mob holding flags and chanting... Everything but peaceful.<br />Most people stays at home. While many people is fighting for invented reasons (https://politica.elpais.com/politica/2017/09/24/actualidad/1506244170_596874.html), many friends and families EVERYWHERE in Catalonia are now confronted. Because everything is so mixed up. And people against independence are treated as jews during the nazi era. <br /><br />About the no-answering from the Spanish administrations…. What can I say? <br /><br />One, two, three, four, make them sweat outside the door.<br /><br />Five, six, seven, eight, it always pays to make them wait.<br />–Reginald Perrin<br /><br />This is not Sweden. Ask for a revision. If you sent your appeal 30 days or more after you received the notification, they won't answer. Maybe it is something like that... But you still have other options.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478225.post-72866756007314784822017-10-06T00:53:11.479+02:002017-10-06T00:53:11.479+02:00Thanks. I think one of the advantages we have is t...Thanks. I think one of the advantages we have is that we sometimes don't have the background to really know what's going on so it's easier to be a bit chill about things.Chris Thompsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15157237713117339719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478225.post-89224081974761284432017-10-05T22:00:19.852+02:002017-10-05T22:00:19.852+02:00Good article chris, enjoyed reading it and learnin...Good article chris, enjoyed reading it and learning a bit of the history also. I think one has to be a bit chilled out to live in spain happily and go with the flow.ARMShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07891224893298453090noreply@blogger.com