Standing in a Spanish Doorway: Ladino - "On what a dying language leaves behind" (Re-post)

Standing in a Spanish Doorway: Ladino - "On what a dying language leaves behind": "My grandmother’s mother tongue was Ladino—old Spanish, the language of the Sephardic Jews.  Like Yiddish, it’s a kind of pidgin l...

“Ugly Spain” – a book that provokes

 

"Why doesn’t the 1978 Constitution of Spain include the word “landscape”? 

Why doesn’t a Coastline Conservatory such as the French one exist in Spain? 

Why were more than 1,000 beautiful villages catalogued in 1967 in Spain, and now there are barely 100 are left? 

Why have democracy and the system of Autonomous Regions been seriously harmful to the landscape, and as a consequence, ruined in an irreparable manner the collective imagination?

España fea is a brillant study of the atrocities committed against the Spanish heritage from the end of the Franco dictatorship to today. 

With rigour and sensitivity it gives a detailed overview of all the absurdities undertaken on the Mediterranean coasts [from] the North, passing through “emptied Spain” and Madrid’s urban-planning disaster, and it analyses the causes that led to this cultural catastrophe. 

It reveals the strategy invented by ignorant and corrupt politicians and developers, with the complicit silence of a demobilized guild, that of architects, plus the indifference and ignorance of the intellectuals and the media. 

Nevertheless, the book also analyzes in detail some examples of a work well done, connecting with the best European tradition, in cities such as Barcelona or Santiago de Compostela, or in villages such as Albarracín or Vejer de la Frontera.

Starting from numerous interviews and uniting the journalistic chronicle, travel book and political essay, Andrés Rubio presents a truly original text full of nuances. Analyzing also the cases of France, Germany and Italy, it carries a Europeanist and progressive message in defense of the best qualities of the public, advocating for land-use planning as an essential weapon to affirm democracy."

Publisher's summary above found at Literary Rambles.

"Europe’s best countries to drive in"

"Switzerland is Europe’s best country to drive in, new research has revealed.

Spain comes in seventh place, with 627 cars per 1,000 people, low road traffic deaths with 3.15 per 100,000 people and a good road quality with a score of 5.7 all adding up to a driving score of 76.36 out of 100.

The study by the International Drivers Association analysed several factors surrounding driving in Europe and scored 33 countries based on how congested the roads are, the quality of the roads, petrol prices, and how safe driving is.

It found that Switzerland is the best European country to drive in, with the country scoring highest on the list for its safety, with only 1.71 road traffic deaths per 100,000 people..."

History under foot

​

"Here lived Damia Aleixendri Curto, born 1909, exiled, deported 1941, Mauthausen, assassinated, 25.3.1942." 

(My photo of a plaque I found in a street pavement in Vilafranca del Penedes, Barcelona prov. 2022.)

More details here (in Catalan:) https://banc.memoria.gencat.cat/ca/results/deportats/1575

"Greater than skaters" -- My latest article for Catalonia Today magazine

 

​A presentation at the design studio Casa de Carlota for creatives with special needs.

Climate change, habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, ocean plastics, food insecurity and the list goes on. What can one person do? 

That’s a question that John French has been asking himself for nearly four decades.

He moved to Spain over 10 years ago and says he has found an answer that came from a most unlikely place. John is an artist and teacher now based in Catalonia. He lives with his wife and two children in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona, which he calls “the street skating capital of the world.” He is coordinator of MOSS Foundation BCN and a board member of MOSS Foundation Australia.

John grew up in the 1970s in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city. About 15 years ago, a group of skaters who are now in their 40s and 50s (but still skateboarding) would meet every week to ride the city’s new skateparks. It became known as MOSS or Melbourne Old School Skate Sessions. They had a water project in Africa and would use any money they made from events, competitions or t-shirt sales to build installations to collect rainwater for rural communities in Swaziland, now known as Eswatini.

MOSS is a completely volunteer organisation: no one gets paid and there are no overheads, no office or admin costs and 100% goes to the cause. It connects one community – that of skaters – with communities in developing countries by heeding their calls for support. MOSS works to meet their basic need for safe drinking water by using the talent and imagination of artists in Australia, Spain and beyond. By pulling these strands together, MOSS has funded over 25 water projects.

John says: “Every few months I visit the local skate shops and collect old decks [the plank-like part that the skaters stand on] no matter how trashed they are. I cycle home with 10 or so boards strapped to my bike rack and they are stored and recycled at the Instituto Barri Besos high school near La Mina in Barcelona. The school director Oscar Tarrega has been fantastically supportive. I have also encountered wonderful people like Wagner Gallo Rodrigues from Al Carrer skate shop who escaped gang culture in his native Brazil through skateboarding and managed to make it to Europe. He feels so indebted to skating that he is keen to put something back. He helps out preparing boards for the artists. Sara Millan also plays an important role liaising with the artists and delivering the decks.”

The process is this: the old skateboard decks that would otherwise go to landfill get restored in the school’s woodwork room. Usually the decks are so trashed that they are covered with a canvas – this material is also recycled from the folding sun shades from the city’s café terraces – then, once covered, or sanded, the decks are primed with gesso, labelled and ready for the artists to use.

After the first BCN show last year at Urban Addict, things are now set for a larger event opening on November 25 at Barcelona street art gallery, Base Elements, in the Gothic Quarter. Despite the 12 hour time difference, the Barcelona show will coincide with the Melbourne exhibition with decks specially created by 150 international artists to be sold online using an app. Once the bidding starts it then takes part all around the world. Some decks will sell for as low as 90 euros while those crafted by more established names can sell for thousands of dollars.

A UN report listed MOSS as the principal organisation supporting people in Swaziland in their struggle to adapt to the climate crisis. “So,” John says, “it seems that we’re doing something right and that in itself is empowering.”

MOSS are on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin @mossfoundationaskaters. They respond to all enquiries.

(This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine (Nov. 2022) and was co-authored with John French.)

Video: "Chaos in the UK! with Yanis Varoufakis..."

"Rishi Sunak has taken over as British PM, the richest-ever person to hold the job. He’s already promising austerity for the poorest, with public services like the NHS in danger as never before.

Sunak’s appointment comes after the disastrous Liz Truss (who was outlasted by a lettuce at 44 days), and the scandal-ridden premiership of Boris Johnson. What can British people – and those around Europe – expect from this latest (unelected) Tory government? And with a Labour Party incapable of representing common people, should progressives be adding to calls for early elections? "