Never trust an asteroid

Published on March 2103 in Catalonia Today magazine

Cheliabinsk, Russia, February 2013

Space just can’t be trusted. While everyone was expecting the asteroid 2012DA14 to pass very close to Earth (so close that many artificial satellites orbiting the planet do so at the same distance of about 28,000 kilometres), not even Nasa, the ESA nor the extensive network of observatories scattered around the world picked up the presence of its little brother. Just 15 hours before the asteroid was due, a meteorite of more than respectable proportions slammed into the Urals region of Russia, causing 1,500 injuries, damaging 3,000 buildings and releasing the energy equivalent to 20 times the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. How this visitor escaped detection by the space agencies with their vast resources leads us to believe that there is something wrong in here.

Obama's Dance

Published on Feb 2013 at Catalonia Today magazine

Washington. 21/07/13. Foto: P.MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AFP

Since WWII, the Americans have used the influence of mass media and showbiz on public opinion. Since then, the staging of the power in the US is always perfect, from George W Bush declaring that the Iraq war was over on the deck of a warship, with soldiers as a backdrop, to the traditional inaugurational dance of a new presidential term. Take a look at the picture. The Seal of the President of the United States is a giant carpet for Obama’s dance. A huge audience doesn’t ruin the couple’s sense of intimacy. It is a rehearsed demonstration of humanity with a message: Power does not affect the humanity of the leader.

A Catalan Christmas' Best Friend

Published in Catalonia Today magazine - December 2012

Reus, December, 2012 - Photo: Elisabeth Magre

For every child (and many adults too), December might be the best month of the year. Christmas means celebration and family reunions. Around the world, Father Christmas visits homes to reward boys and girls with presents. Actually, not every home. Catalonia is not generally on Santa’s route, because there is another guy in charge. He’s called the Tió de Nadal, or Christmas Log. Popularly called Caga tió (crapping log), it is a character in Catalan mythology related to a widespread Christmas tradition. Beginning with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8), one gives the tió a little to 'eat' every night and he is usually covered with a little blanket so that he won’t get cold.

On Christmas day or, depending on the particular household, on Christmas Eve, one puts the tió partly into the fireplace and orders it to 'crap' (the fireplace element of this tradition is no longer as widespread as it once was, since many modern homes do not have one). To make him 'crap', one beats him with sticks, while singing various songs about the Tió de Nadal.

The tió does not drop larger gifts, as those are usually brought by the Three Wise Men. What he does leave are sweets, nuts and torrons. Depending on the part of Catalonia,he may also give out dried figs. When nothing is left to 'crap', he drops a salted herring, a head of garlic, an onion or even 'urinates'. What comes out of the tió is a communal rather than an individual gift, shared by everyone present.

The Tió is not as glamorous as Father Christmas, but Catalan kids love it. Merry Christmas!

Armstrong’s footprint

Published in Catalonia Today magazine - November 2012

Girona, October 2012 - Photo: Oriol Mas

In this lovely street in the old quarter of Girona, built over the ancient Roman road of Via Augusta, Lance Armstrong bought a house to live in while training a few years ago. Since then, several cyclist from different teams have decided to settle in the beautiful city of Girona, with its great weather and good roads with mountains nearby that are perfect for preparing for big races, such as the Tour de France or the Giro d’Italia. Girona quickly became one of the hubs of professional cycling in Southern Europe, and Armstrong was praised as a hero. When he was stripped of his titles by the US Anti-Doping Agency, the reaction here was one of incredulity. People in Girona simply could not believe it. They didn’t want to. At the end of the day, the International Cycling Union confirmed the accusations and banned Armstrong for life, erasing from the book of records his seven Tour de France titles. Girona

– and Catalonia – is in shock. Armstrong is no longer a hero, but his legacy is still alive in the city through the many professional cyclists who have settled in the town.

The next state in Europe?

Published in Catalonia Today magazine - October 2012

When a demonstration of 1.5 million people takes place in the capital city of a country of seven million inhabitants, you can bet that something big is going on.

Add to that the fact that the marchers were demanding "Independence", and you come up with a very strong cocktail. That cocktail is called "Catalonia, the next state in Europe", and the main problem is that Madrid and Brussels don’t want to try it. However, it seems that democracy will eventually force them to take a sip, as the Catalan people expressed their will in the streets of Barcelona last month and will also no doubt do so in the polling booths in the next Catalan elections,. Then, the political options will be polarised between two choices: to remain part of Spain or become an independent state, regaining sovereignity lost 300 hundreds years ago.

Catalonia is at a crossroads and the two paths to follow are dark and painful. On one hand, the cost of remaining part of Spain is poverty and assimilation. On the other, the costs of secession are very high as well. At the end of the day, though, the democratic will of the people will prevail, and that is something unstoppable.

Freedom for Catalonia

Published in Catalonia Today magazine, September, 2012.

Girona, July 29, 2012 - Photo: Manel Lladó

Catalonia wants to rule its own destiny. Polls made this clear a couple of months ago when more than 51 per cent of Catalans showed their support for independence. In Girona, a mega-concert, with dozens of bands and an audience of thousands, became a massive clamour for a change in the statu quo. Politicians are watching with concern as the people themselves push ahead without waiting for them to lead the process. Financial asphyxia from Madrid is bringing things to a head and some analysts are seeing a call for early elections in Catalonia that could become a referendum for independence avant la lettre. Stay tuned, because the best is yet to come.

Enjoy your olympic meal!

London, June 13, 2012 - Photo: SUZANNE PLUNKETT / Reuters

Are you planning to visit London this summer for the 2012 Olympic Games? Then you better get ready fto enjoy the best fo the local cuisine. A menu of oddly named and sometimes oddly tasting traditional British dishes awaits adventurous diners visiting London for the Olympic Games this summer. In this colourful picture you have a nice example: Crumble and custard (clockwise from top L), Bread and Butter pudding, Battenberg cake, and an Eton mess. Yummy! You may think that this is not the kind of menu that the elite sportsmen and sportswomen should eat at their olympic villages, but don’t worry, they won’t. This is only for visitors and tourists. The only sport they’ll practice in London this summer is, precisely, eating and drinking!

Published in Catalonia Today magazine - July-August 2012

Who cares about Gibraltar?

Photo: Malcolm Tredinnick - Wikipedia

One favourite strategy of governments around the world during a time of serious crisis is – instead of solving the problem – to offer the press and public a distraction. If peppered with a huge dose of cheap patriotism, all the better.
We saw an example of this recently with the nationalisation of the Argentine branch of the Spanish oil company, Repsol. We saw it again when the Spanish government protested the visit of the UK’s Prince Edward to Gibraltar, which led to the cancelation of the visit of Queen Sofia to England to participate in Queen Elisabeth II’s jubilee celebrations.
A great deal of Spanish pride emerged in the media, with the same old arguments against the British sovereignty over the Rock, and claims to do whatever is needed to see the red and yellow flag replacing the Union flag.
It is interesting to notice that the Catalan press didn’t join the party. In fact, Catalans have been linked to the British presence in Gibraltar since the very beginning. This picture of Catalan Bay is proof. The place has been called Catalan Bay ever since a battalion of 350 Catalans landed there to join the Anglo-Dutch army that seized Gibraltar in 1704. In that war, Catalonia lost its independence and became part of the Spanish kingdom, after the British crown failed to honour the Treaty of Genoa, which was supposed to guarantee enough support to keep Catalonia independent from Spain.
However, the footprints of the old friendship between the Catalans and the British remained in the name of the fishing village of Catalan Bay. And in the meantime, let’s hope our leaders ignore the distraction strategies and concentrate on what is really important, which is solving the problems we have today. After all, that’s why we vote for them, isn’t it?

Published in Catalonia Today magazine - June 2012

Run, Susi, run!

Yes, I know the following lines seem like a script by Groucho Marx, but you have my word that it’s true. Pictured is Susi the elephant, one of the stars of Barcelona zoo. In 2009, Queen Sofia of Spain wrote a letter to express how worried she was about Susi’s living conditions. Her husband, King Juan Carlos, however, is a well-known hunter and a few weeks ago he was secretly killing elephants in Botswana and taking pictures of himself with a smoking gun beside a dead pachyderm. The press and the public only took notice of the King’s safari trip because he fell and broke his hip. The hunting trip to Africa by the head of the state is just a little annoying when there are more than five million unemployed people in Spain and the county’s economy is struggling to avoid a bailout from the EU and the IMF. To make the story even more absurd, the king happens to be the honorary chairman of the Spanish chapter of the WWF. If I was Susi the elephant, I would run away as fast as I could from this crazy place.

Published in Catalonia Today magazine, May 2012

My flag is not your flag

When it comes to symbols, the argument exceeds the scope of reason and intelligence. It’s very difficult to understand from an external point of view what is going on in many town councils around Catalonia. Many Catalans don’t feel the Spanish flag is their own flag, so they remove it from the Ajuntament building, to leave only the Catalan Senyera and the European flag. Spanish authorities feel that this is an attack on the identity and integrity of the state, and force the local representatives to put the missing flag back. Some town councils argue that the flag was sent to the laundry and never made it back, and on several occasions the battle ends in front of a judge.
In Sant Pol de Mar, as in other cities and towns, the people demonstrate against this imposition, because they identify only the Senyera as their flag, and they even use a ladder to climb and remove the Spanish flag. So the police have to come and put it back again.
It’s a funny situation somehow, but it’s another example of the rising tension between Catalonia and Spain. Divorce is getting closer by the minute.

Published in Catalonia Today magazine, April 2012

No more waiting

Spain is a strange country. It calls itself a democracy but many laws of the fascist dictatorship that ran the country for 40 years from the end of the Civil War to the death of Generalísimo Franco, are still in force, including the amnesty passed by the armed forces before they handed over power.
In Spain, a judge can close down newspapers, jail journalists, arrest dissidents without a reason, and even earn the condemnation of the European courts for failing to investigate allegations of the torture of detainees. The same judge can prosecute dictators from all over the world, from Chile to Cambodia, and yet still be prosecuted for daring to investigate the crimes of the fascist Spanish regime in his own country, because it’s still illegal to do that.
Spain is a democracy but a huge archive of documents confiscated by the fascist regime from town councils, associations, and even individuals, was archived in the city of Salamanca while the legitimate owners of those documents had to fight through the courts for years to get them back. The Spanish democratic government refused for decades to dismantle the archive and return the papers.
After years of legal battles guided by a citizen movement called Comissió de la Dignitat, the papers started to be sent back. A few days ago, a new pack of documents arrived at Catalonia’s national archive, where the families involved were invited to come and receive their documents. The woman in the photograph –Teresa Rovira– waited for almost 70 years to recover family documents that have no other value than as a symbol of the dignity stolen from the dissidents, the ones who lost the battle against the fascists who overturned Spain’s democracy. She has waited for almost 70 years but her patience is now exhausted and, even though the Catalan minister of culture is giving a speech during the ceremony, it is the documents and the restoration of her family dignity that interests her most.


Published in Catalonia Today magazine, March 2012

A job to die for

How we all love those cool modern gadgets with the half-eaten apple pictured on the back. Apple appliances have become a type of identification mark that certifies our belonging to a trendier and more techno world. It should not be forgotten, however, that the other side of the shiny coin of success that has turned Apple into the world’s largest stock-listed company hides a darker story: the factories of semi-enlsaved workers of the Foxconn company in China. The firm’s main client is Apple, but Foxconn also works for Microsoft, HP and Sony, among others.
Foxconn employs around a million people, in a working environment that bears little resemblance to Silicon Valley. Foxconn’s employees, mostly adolescents, live stacked on top of one another in dormitories of 100 beds, and their typical day can easily be summed up as follows: they get up, they eat a bowl of noodles with rice, they work for 15 hours straight, they return to their dormitories, they do carry out their ablutions and wash their clothes and then go to bed, only for the whole thing to start again the next day at 7am. For this they earn around 30 euros a month.
At the same time, Foxconn is an impregnable fortress, and the workers’ mobiles and cameras are confiscated when they first enter the factory. The featured photograph was taken with permission of the company, which does not make it difficult to imagine that the scene portrayed was set up beforehand. However, the serious expressions on the faces of the young people and – above all – the two supervisors walking the aisles, suggest quite a different story about the factory.
Not long ago, more than 150 of the company’s employees climbed up to a rooftop at the Wuhan plant with the intention of throwing themselves off. Individual cases of suicide have happened in their dozens in the past couple of years. Between 50 and 100 years ago, workers were exploited like this here, but it was not a pretty sight. Now we can exploit Chinese workers who, because of their distance from us, need not trouble our consciences.


Published in Catalonia Today magazine, February 2012

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.