Crystal clear

The Spanish general election results showed a huge success for the Spanish nationalist Partido Popular (PP). The conservative party headed by Mariano Rajoy is now in control of both the Congress and the Senate in Madrid, and needs no alliances to govern the country or pass new laws.
However, happiness is not complete for the PP. They may have won in every corner of Spain, except for Catalonia and the Basque Country, not surprisingly the two regions whose population would vote 'yes' in a referendum to secede from Spain, according to the latests polls.
The media reflected the results of the elections with the traditional headlines explaining who won and who lost, but no one did it in such a creative way as El Punt-Avui newspaper. The cover page for November 21, with the headline "Catalonia is not Spain", in English, was commented on radio stations and TV networks around the country and became an instant hit in the social media, with thousands of web surfers sharing it through Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Well done!


Published in Catalonia Today magazine, December 2011

The satellites that can cause divorce

If you want an example of globalisation in the modern world, how about this? A Russian rocket launched from French soil in South America that is carrying a European satellite that can even cause you to divorce your husband or wife.
The Russian-made Soyuz rocket is carrying the first of two satellites for the European GPS Galileo system, which has been made to challenge the supremacy of the American GPS satellite network. We would never have imagined, even 25 years ago, that Russia and Western Europe would cooperate to do something like this. Welcome to the new globalised world. And in such a world, owning a GPS device has become a must.
Some years ago, when technological collaboration between both sides of the Iron Curtain (if you remember the Iron Curtain) was simply unthinkable, as GPS was secret, high-tech equipment reserved exclusively for armed forces and intelligence services. Nowadays, GPS has become a daily – and even mundane – part of our lives.
It is hardly surprising that the luxury of a disembodied voice in our car, telling us where to turn and where to stop, has become such a hit with drivers. GPS, apart from making our trips more comfortable, also saves us from those acrimonious discussions that used to arise with our co-pilots, hunched over paper maps, telling us to turn left after we have already gone sailing past the turn-off.
However, the dark side of GPS technology was also on display recently, when Apple introduced a new application for its new iPhone 4S, called 'Find My Friends'. This app allows iPhone users to see where the people in their contacts list are via the GPS chips in their phones.
Only a couple of days later, a man from New York posted on a popular social network site the following message: ''Divorcing wife. Thanks iPhone 4S and Find My Friends''.
Europe will be launching a whole bunch of satellites to build the Galileo GPS network; let’s hope it doesn’t make things even worse.
You have been warned!


Published in Catalonia Today magazine, november 2011

The tiny language that threatens an empire

Val d’Aran is a very small area in the Pyrenees that has been linked to Catalonia since 1175 when the Catalan King Alfons signed the pact of Emparança with the inhabitants of the valley. In 1313 the king agreed to concede to Aran a bill of rights called Queimònia. This ancient link with Catalonia does not make the people of Aran Catalans. In fact, the Aran valley is the only county in Catalonia not facing the Mediterranean sea, but rather the Atlantic. Aran is on the other side of the Pyrenees. The people of Aran are proud of their ancient heritage, their own culture and their language, Aranese, a variety of the Occitan tongue spoken in a large area of southern France and northern Italy.
They may be proud of their language but the Spanish government doesn’t like anyone to interfere with the tongue of the Empire: Spanish. A few month ago, the Catalan parliament passed a bill recognising the Aranese language as the language of the valley, giving it protection and preferential status in relationships between citizens and the administration and schools of the valley. The Spanish government immediately asked the Constitutional Court to suspend the Catalan law, arguing that the only preferential language within Spain is — and must be — Spanish.
It doesn’t matter that we are talking about a tiny language spoken by less than 5,000 people. It’s hard to imagine how the Aranese language can be a threat to another language spoken by 400 million people around the globe. The lack of tolerance towards diversity is part of the DNA of the Spanish state. One nation, one culture, one language. This unitarianism was born with the Bourbon state that conquered and assimilated all the kingdoms in the Iberian peninsula — with the exception of Portugal, which fought back and won — and the rulers of Spain that followed, from Franco to the elected governments of today, weren’t and aren’t keen to change this. The result of this intolerance could be the breakdown of the country in the near future.

Published in Catalonia Today magazine. October 2011.

Ramadan

This photograph could have been taken in any Muslim country around the world, or even in places with strong Muslim communities, such as Britain or France. Yet, as you can see above, this photo was taken in Barcelona, and is an image that is here to stay. Muslims are part of Catalonia again, centuries after they were expelled along with the Jews, in an attempt to 'purify' the Kingdom of Spain of its non-Christian population.
Catalonia has been a land of integration since the Phoenicians arrived in Empúries and came across the Iberians already living here, followed by the Greeks, and then the Romans, the Franks, the Goths, and then the Occitans, the Spanish, and now the Africans, the Latin-Americans or the Asians. Immigration is part of the of the Catalan DNA. However, we can’t deny that tensions and conflicts always appear when any country in the world has to deal with newcomers that produces an increase of 20 per cent of the population in less than a decade. Fear of difference is a natural reaction in human beings. That means that an extra effort is needed when our neighbourhood changes with the arrival of people who dress differently, speak differently, who eat differently, and who even pray to a different Lord.
Local authorities around Catalonia are facing the demand of the Muslim community for permission to build mosques and prayer centres. In almost every case, politicians do not want to pay the electoral cost of allowing the construction of a mosque, while tiny xenophobic and racist parties try to make the most of the tension, blaming immigrants for any robbery, any increase in unemployment or, it sometimes seems, a change in the weather.
These people are residents of Catalonia, they are Catalans now, and they have the right to their own temple, as does any other confession in the country. If a local authority denies them this fundamental right, they should also close churches and other temples. There is a saying in Catalonia that fits perfectly in this situation: O tots moros, o tots cristiansNo historical or cultural reasons could be argued to sustain the idea that one religion has more rights than another in a free and democratic country.

Let’s go clubbing!

Companies usually employ marketing teams to come up with strategies for building bonds with their customers. These strategies are almost always top-down. However, sometimes something special happens and the bonds between provider and customer develop spontaneously, bottom-up, helping to create a community of shared interests around the service or product in question.
This is what is happening now at Catalonia Today, as a process that began some months ago comes to fruition. The thousands of interactions through our web site, our podcasts, our Facebook page or our Twitter account suggested that something special was going on; a community of people linked by the English language was growing around our magazine.
The result of this interaction was that the readers and subscribers began to put forward new ideas for enriching this community that was developing. One example was the initiative to convince the managers of the Ocine cinemas to schedule films in original version in differents places around Catalonia. This idea came from the community and we at the magazine supported it and helped make it happen. Another example was when a group of readers and subscribers from the Escola Oficial d’Idiomes, who had been meeting in reading groups for a while, suggested that we spread their idea and help create more reading groups around Catalonia.
Ideas like these are what planted the seeds for the ECClub, the first English Culture Club in Catalonia, which was officially launched last month in Barcelona by its Honorary President, the English writer, Tom Sharpe. The presentation was in the huge Acabus bookstore on carrer Còrsega. We are delighted to have Abacus on board, the largest cooperative in Catalonia, with more than 750.000 members.
ECClub is now up and running and we hope it snowballs to offer ever more events and resources in English to its membership, all based around the ECClub Reading Groups. We want all our readers and subscribers to take advantage of the club, so don’t hesitate to visit http://www.cataloniatoday.cat/ or www.abacus.coop/catalonia-today and learn how you can be a part of this growing family.

Listen and learn

He is a record holder already. He won several titles as a player, and now he is demolishing statistics as a coach. So far, Josep Guardiola has won all three Spanish league titles that he has competed for as a trainer. When Barça bet on this rookie coach to replace the successful Frank Rikjaard to lead the team, only a few believed he could do it. He had never managed a team before, but from the very beginning, Guardiola showed that his leadership as a captain on the field was transferable as a coach. He is a great motivator, no matter if his men are little more than boys taking their first steps in professional football or international stars with massive egos. Guardiola has shown that he knows how to handle a group of top-level football players.
However, this season, after winning the Club World Cup, the Champions League and two La Liga titles in a row, everyone expected less from his group of Barça warriors. However, something happened that helped Guardiola to motivate his team to even greater heights, in the process making him the very first coach to win three La Liga titles in his first three seasons. This 'something' has a name: José Mourinho. Shaming the world of football and even some Real Madrid fans, the Portuguese legend began playing a dirty campaign with the aim of winning via the media what he has largely been incapable of winning on the field.
Guardiola stood strong against every attack, every accusation, every blow below the belt. When needed to motivate his men, he answered with strong words through the press, and like a practitioner of judo, used his aggressor’s strength against himself.
As a result, Barça found the motivation needed to keep the team on high alert, an attitude that helped them to win another La Liga title and an appearance in another European Cup final at Wembley.
The image that accompanies this column was taken two days after winning La Liga. It is amazing how Guardiola manages to keep his men fully concentrated, as they listen to him in silence. Look at the faces; there is only one leader in this group: Josep Guardiola.

Cometh the hero

He is Perry Freshwater, a.k.a. 'Aiguafresca'. He was born in New Zealand, but he played for the English national team in several Six Nations and Rugby World Cup games. He is about to retire from professional rugby, but last month he proved he still has something to offer.
Perry started his career in Europe with the Leicester Tigers in 1995. In 2003, he moved to Perpignan, the capital city of Catalunya Nord to play for USAP, the rugby equivalent of Barça in football terms. With USAP, he won the Top14 French Championship in 2009.
Last April 9, USAP came to Barcelona for the very first time to play their Heineken Cup quarter final game against Toulon. As you can see in the picture, the match was played in a real party atmosphere, where people from both north and south of the Catalan border got together to seal a brotherhood with roots in a common history, language and culture. More than 55,000 tickets were sold, a record for a Heineken Cup game, and it opened the door to a new tradition, that of USAP playing in Barcelona at least once a year.
The match was a tough one. USAP seemed astonished with the spectacular scenario of the Olympic Stadium filled with Catalan flags, and by the response of the fans, not only from Catalunya Nord, but from more than 15.000 followers in the south. Toulon, a team owned by a billionaire who signed lots of international figures, led by the English star Jonny Wilkinson, understood from the very beginning that Perpignan was the team that had to demonstrate their strength. It was not an easy task. The magical feet of Perpignan’s Jeroni Porical kept his team alive, but they saw the light at the end of the tunnel when replacement Freshwater appeared on the field. "Aiguafresca és al camp. S’ha acabat el bròquil!" said a fan in a Twitter message, which could be translated as "Freshwater is on. It’s all over now".
As if through prophecy, in a fantastic move, Freshwater followed Guilhem Guirado’s burst to score what proved to be the winning try.
Aiguafresca became the hero of a day that will be cherished in the memories of many present in Barcelona. It was a day when the brothers from Perpignan came to show us how to win a tough match.

The Centre of the World

La Gare de Perpignan, in the capital city of French Catalonia, or Catalunya del Nord, used to be a grey, forlorn train station on the very bottom rung of the French Republic, so far away from Paris.
Then, on August 27 1963, the Surrealist genius, Salvador Dali, went to Perpignan and made a proclamation that changed the reputation of La Gare: "It all became clear in a flash: There, right before me, was the centre of the universe", Dalí said.The painter publically declared that the Perpignan train station was el centre del món, the centre of the world.
Later, Dalí even created a painting entitled ‘L’Estació de Perpinyà’. The work of art is considered to be an exceptional example of the Surrealist movement. The piece, which features a small image of the train station amid figures of rural farm workers, is intensely symbolic of Dali’s obsessive concern with immortality.
Since then, the people of Perpignan have made Dalí one of their most beloved heroes, and the memory of his surreal words will no doubt live on there forever.
Almost 50 years after Dalí’s revelation, Perpignan inaugurated a new train station to receive the TGV high-speed train that connects the city with Catalonia. Aptly, the first trip on the new line was between Perpignan and Figueres, the hometown of Salvador Dalí.
The new station is a state-of-the-art building, with a large shopping area, an auditorium,12,000 square metres of business space and will soon also boast a spectacular sports area. One of its tasks is to boost the neighbourhood of Sant Aciscle, an area damned to the periphery until now that Dalí’s words have been made a reality. The new Centre del Món, a train station facing south, looks towards its sister of Catalonia on the other side of the Pyrenees.
In recent years Catalunya del Nord in general, and Perpignan in particular, have begun to realise that the answer to the neglect and contempt of distant Paris is to be found over the Pyrenees, where a market of seven million people share a language and a culture.