Through gaps in the trees
I can see the church tower
Reminds me I’m here
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
The freedom to shop (without the freedom to say the government is wrong)
“A reoccurring argument is that under-developed countries [such as China] do not need democracy. According to this argument, an authoritarian regime will promote the economy of a poor country, imposing a discipline …not hampered by the legal niceties of democratic states where there is respect for rights and freedoms.” [CÉSAR ARJONA writing in El Periodico de Catalunya.]
The article actually begins with: “Millions of people have escaped poverty in China – a country where there are no freedoms…”
Except of course, the freedom to go shopping…if you have the ‘economic freedom’ to do so.
The question must be asked: “Is it progress when millions have become wealthier, (creating a new middle class) and at the same time countless other millions have been plunged into deep poverty at the same time?
I don’t call that progress.
And it is a false version of progress when it does not come with the right to criticise a dictatorial regime that makes new wealth only for some of its citizens, while the ranks of the unemployed and the exploited grow like tropical bamboo plants.
The article actually begins with: “Millions of people have escaped poverty in China – a country where there are no freedoms…”
Except of course, the freedom to go shopping…if you have the ‘economic freedom’ to do so.
The question must be asked: “Is it progress when millions have become wealthier, (creating a new middle class) and at the same time countless other millions have been plunged into deep poverty at the same time?
I don’t call that progress.
And it is a false version of progress when it does not come with the right to criticise a dictatorial regime that makes new wealth only for some of its citizens, while the ranks of the unemployed and the exploited grow like tropical bamboo plants.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
A Spanish voice of reason on Islam, clothing and schools
"Islamophobia, the successor to our centuries-old tradition of anti-Semitism. In short, the rejection of the other…
One of the most commonly heard arguments these days runs along the following lines: if progressives want to remove crucifixes from classrooms, how can they accept the presence of female pupils wearing hijabs? What this question overlooks is that the classroom is a public space, paid for with taxpayers’ money, and run by the state, and where teachers and pupils of different faiths meet. The state is supposedly secular, so there can be no official use of religious symbols.
But wearing the hijab, the kippah or a crucifix is a personal decision, and should be seen along the same lines as wearing a particular team’s soccer shirt, or a t-shirt with a band name on it.”[ Javier Valenzuela writing in El Pais.]
My own logic would also suggest that unless there is a bigoted slogan on a t-shirt or depicts acts of violence then it should be allowed… (Or unless a student is half-naked) I see no reason to bother with them.
The enormous amounts of time and energy spent in schools (and recently the media) discussing and dealing with the subject of student’s clothing is ridiculous.
And why is this such a popular subject? Mainly, because it is a tangible subject. You can see it. It therefore suits the small-minded. It is easier to deal with than bullying, racism or the reluctance of many parents to be involved in their children’s education. So it gets the most attention, even though it does not deserve it.
One of the most commonly heard arguments these days runs along the following lines: if progressives want to remove crucifixes from classrooms, how can they accept the presence of female pupils wearing hijabs? What this question overlooks is that the classroom is a public space, paid for with taxpayers’ money, and run by the state, and where teachers and pupils of different faiths meet. The state is supposedly secular, so there can be no official use of religious symbols.
But wearing the hijab, the kippah or a crucifix is a personal decision, and should be seen along the same lines as wearing a particular team’s soccer shirt, or a t-shirt with a band name on it.”[ Javier Valenzuela writing in El Pais.]
My own logic would also suggest that unless there is a bigoted slogan on a t-shirt or depicts acts of violence then it should be allowed… (Or unless a student is half-naked) I see no reason to bother with them.
The enormous amounts of time and energy spent in schools (and recently the media) discussing and dealing with the subject of student’s clothing is ridiculous.
And why is this such a popular subject? Mainly, because it is a tangible subject. You can see it. It therefore suits the small-minded. It is easier to deal with than bullying, racism or the reluctance of many parents to be involved in their children’s education. So it gets the most attention, even though it does not deserve it.
Friday, April 23, 2010
CONGRATULATIONS!
1st anniversary of the Casal Popular Okupat [squatter’s workshop] in Vilafranca del Penedès.
I talked to a spokesman, took a few photo’s and wrote this article on their activities when they had just started a year ago.
I talked to a spokesman, took a few photo’s and wrote this article on their activities when they had just started a year ago.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Nights & days in Spanish Africa
Children sleeping in rubbish bins, illegal people-trafficking, police drugging and torturing immigrants, 10km of barbed-wire fence, plus routine murder and a thousand other atrocities – all with tacit European Union approval. Welcome to Melilla!
A shocking article: “Europe’s dirty little secret”. In El Mundo (Spanish:) “El sucio secreto de Europa.”
A shocking article: “Europe’s dirty little secret”. In El Mundo (Spanish:) “El sucio secreto de Europa.”
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Photo: "Holy week" parade in Barcelona
For an amusing photo click here.
[Like the costumes? (They look somehow familiar, don’t they?)]
[Also see my previous blog: The Barcelona buses that confront god.]
[Like the costumes? (They look somehow familiar, don’t they?)]
[Also see my previous blog: The Barcelona buses that confront god.]
Saturday, April 3, 2010
What Franco knew about The Final Solution
New documentary evidence, written in 1943 by Ángel Sanz Briz, a young Spanish diplomat, strongly suggests that the former Spanish dictator must have known many details of the horrors of the Nazi’s Auschwitz death camp.
“This shows that Franco knew the exact dimensions of the massacre. There is no room for doubt,” according to Bernd Rother, a German historian and author of a book on Franco and the Holocaust.
To read more (in Spanish) click here.
“This shows that Franco knew the exact dimensions of the massacre. There is no room for doubt,” according to Bernd Rother, a German historian and author of a book on Franco and the Holocaust.
To read more (in Spanish) click here.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Seeing past the left and the right
If a writer gets unjustly sent to a forced-labour camp or a government persecutes homosexuals anyone with a voice, a pen (or nowadays a computer) should condemn it.
And these crimes against basic human rights should be condemned publicly whether they were done by leftist governments or right-wing governments.
This seems to me to be the reasoning put by Spanish writer Antonio Muñoz Molina and I find it difficult to argue with.
Also quoted in a different editorial the usually left-leaning El Pais newspaper he sets out a number of relevant examples of Western European intellectuals failing in their moral duty, maintaining that:
“A regime, a guerilla movement, need only proclaim that it is on the left — then it is treated with every kind of indulgence by French and Spanish columnists who don’t have to live with it; or with the romantic sympathy of well-intentioned, earnest people in England and Scandinavia, who are capable of shedding tears over a starving stray cat, but can be hard as flint at the sight of human blood on the TV screen.”
If we don’t insist on complete intellectual honesty and we make excuses for someone because of their supposed political positioning we are allowing the kind of cowardly doublethink that George Orwell described so well in Animal Farm.
And these crimes against basic human rights should be condemned publicly whether they were done by leftist governments or right-wing governments.
This seems to me to be the reasoning put by Spanish writer Antonio Muñoz Molina and I find it difficult to argue with.
Also quoted in a different editorial the usually left-leaning El Pais newspaper he sets out a number of relevant examples of Western European intellectuals failing in their moral duty, maintaining that:
“A regime, a guerilla movement, need only proclaim that it is on the left — then it is treated with every kind of indulgence by French and Spanish columnists who don’t have to live with it; or with the romantic sympathy of well-intentioned, earnest people in England and Scandinavia, who are capable of shedding tears over a starving stray cat, but can be hard as flint at the sight of human blood on the TV screen.”
If we don’t insist on complete intellectual honesty and we make excuses for someone because of their supposed political positioning we are allowing the kind of cowardly doublethink that George Orwell described so well in Animal Farm.
Justice is a game
At this moment in Spain there are 96 Africans in prison for selling pirated CD’s on the street.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
The past is close behind
Some Spaniards are returning to their Jewish ancestral roots: a fascinating piece by Global Post’s Paul Ames.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
In Barcelona: Let there be light!...(when it's needed)
"Think of all the electricity that's wasted by city lights that stay on when no one needs them. To solve this problem, one Barcelona neighbourhood is using a system of Endesa LED lights, controlled wirelessly, to provide light exactly when, and where, it's needed. It keeps the streets safe while saving the city money."
Video: click here.
Video: click here.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Barcelona bookseller jailed for selling Nazi literature
Denying the Holocaust is not a crime in Spain, but as a Pedro Varela re-discovered this week, the sale of writing that argues for Jewish genocide will still get you time in prison.
Varela, who owns a bookshop in Catalonia’s capital, is already notorious for being the first person to be jailed for similar crimes in Spain following the reform of the Penal Code in 1996. On that occasion, he received a five-year sentence, reduced to six months on appeal to the Supreme Court.
This time, Judge Estela Pérez Franco was able to bring the full weight of the law to bear on Varela, ordering the confiscation of all the books implicated in the crime and other neo-Nazi materials including a bust of Hitler, an iron swastika and military paraphernalia.
Handing down the sentence, Franco said Varela’s literature “blames the world’s ills on the Jews; claims that black people are inferior; says that the best way to respect races is segregation and that mixing races will bring about the end of civilization.”
This case comes after a recent rise in anti-Semitism in Spain, as I wrote about in a previous blog here.
Varela, who owns a bookshop in Catalonia’s capital, is already notorious for being the first person to be jailed for similar crimes in Spain following the reform of the Penal Code in 1996. On that occasion, he received a five-year sentence, reduced to six months on appeal to the Supreme Court.
This time, Judge Estela Pérez Franco was able to bring the full weight of the law to bear on Varela, ordering the confiscation of all the books implicated in the crime and other neo-Nazi materials including a bust of Hitler, an iron swastika and military paraphernalia.
Handing down the sentence, Franco said Varela’s literature “blames the world’s ills on the Jews; claims that black people are inferior; says that the best way to respect races is segregation and that mixing races will bring about the end of civilization.”
This case comes after a recent rise in anti-Semitism in Spain, as I wrote about in a previous blog here.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Listening to the "Lives of Others"
An excellent English translation of a newspaper article about the people who work in Spain as surveillance officers involved in interpreting and transcribing illegal activity by foreigners.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
How the world of work has invaded the private sphere
“One example is the way many companies give their employees free mobile phones and computers, purportedly to help them work. In reality, it is so they can take their work with them.
That is the starting point for the conflict between the individual who gives orders and the body that obeys […] If the body is pushed too hard, it breaks like a machine that’s been asked to do too much.”*
It’s uplifting to read someone else in the media who shares your own opinions, especially about a problem that has hardly been publicly recognised as a problem.
Over a decade ago I first noticed this new feature of work life creeping quietly into outside work time on trains in Japan, a country where use and misuse of technology is often quick to happen. It was startling to me in the late 1990’s to see phones and computers so obviously being used to “extend worker productivity.”
(*Sidi Mohamed Barkat, an Algerian-born philosopher, professor and researcher at the Department of Ergonomics and Human Ecology at the Sorbonne, in France, quoted from a recent speech at CCCB, the Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture, entitled “The Future of Labour.” [From an article by J.M. Martí Font in El País.])
That is the starting point for the conflict between the individual who gives orders and the body that obeys […] If the body is pushed too hard, it breaks like a machine that’s been asked to do too much.”*
It’s uplifting to read someone else in the media who shares your own opinions, especially about a problem that has hardly been publicly recognised as a problem.
Over a decade ago I first noticed this new feature of work life creeping quietly into outside work time on trains in Japan, a country where use and misuse of technology is often quick to happen. It was startling to me in the late 1990’s to see phones and computers so obviously being used to “extend worker productivity.”
(*Sidi Mohamed Barkat, an Algerian-born philosopher, professor and researcher at the Department of Ergonomics and Human Ecology at the Sorbonne, in France, quoted from a recent speech at CCCB, the Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture, entitled “The Future of Labour.” [From an article by J.M. Martí Font in El País.])
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Thumbs down to democracy
“Let the state perish so that the markets can live.” A true statement of our times: Cartoon from El Roto in today's EL PAÍS newspaper.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Spain's heroes and Poland's heroes
A Polish blogger posts an enjoyable rant and rave that expresses so well the completely understandable outrage with a place of great culture and history being used as nothing more than a background for ignorant tourists to treat with indifference. A new statue in Krakov of Michael Jackson? (An (unpunished) child molester who could once sing and dance very well and is even respected by some (younger) people here in Spain.)
The Polish blogger provides a picture of semi-undressed "girls in Zywiec T Shirts." An image that reminded me of those living human mannequins in Kubrick's awful "Eyes Wide Shut" film: ready to serve as fleshy robots. In the town where I live not far from Barcelona there is even a cinema named in Kubrick's honour! The world picks some strange people to make heroes of.
The Polish blogger provides a picture of semi-undressed "girls in Zywiec T Shirts." An image that reminded me of those living human mannequins in Kubrick's awful "Eyes Wide Shut" film: ready to serve as fleshy robots. In the town where I live not far from Barcelona there is even a cinema named in Kubrick's honour! The world picks some strange people to make heroes of.
Barcelona: capital of protest
The act of publicly demonstrating in the streets is alive and well in Catalonia’s biggest city. There is an average of four protest events every day in Barcelona, one of the highest in the world.
Although there were 1,300 officially-noted rallies in 2008, 60% of these were illegal as their organisers did not ask permission from the police.
Freedom to protest in community space is one encouraging indication of the level of democracy in a country.
Unfortunately, some the groups who organise demonstrations are doing so routinely because of a lack of success with their causes. The Black Workers meet on the 11th of every month at Plaza de Sant Jaume in a seemingly forlorn attempt to raise wider understanding of their plight.
A neighbours association in the Vall d'Hebron area of the city have got together every week for months in their campaign to stop injecting rooms being set up there. These efforts included trying to block one of the major roads in Barcelona, the Ronda de Dalt.
We can be thankful though that we live in a part of the world that allows public demonstration,…even if the results of protesting in the open air are not always what is hoped for.
Although there were 1,300 officially-noted rallies in 2008, 60% of these were illegal as their organisers did not ask permission from the police.
Freedom to protest in community space is one encouraging indication of the level of democracy in a country.
Unfortunately, some the groups who organise demonstrations are doing so routinely because of a lack of success with their causes. The Black Workers meet on the 11th of every month at Plaza de Sant Jaume in a seemingly forlorn attempt to raise wider understanding of their plight.
A neighbours association in the Vall d'Hebron area of the city have got together every week for months in their campaign to stop injecting rooms being set up there. These efforts included trying to block one of the major roads in Barcelona, the Ronda de Dalt.
We can be thankful though that we live in a part of the world that allows public demonstration,…even if the results of protesting in the open air are not always what is hoped for.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Payments to continue for unemployed
Spain's Zapatero Socialist government may at times deserve some criticism but they are (so far) not completely abandoning the unemployed.
News this week is that they "have agreed that all jobseekers whose dole money has run out will be entitled to the monthly payment of 426 euros promised at the end of last year."
This comes at a time when the country's unemployment (at almost 20%) is still higher than anywhere else in the European Union, and is the worst it has been since 1998.
News this week is that they "have agreed that all jobseekers whose dole money has run out will be entitled to the monthly payment of 426 euros promised at the end of last year."
This comes at a time when the country's unemployment (at almost 20%) is still higher than anywhere else in the European Union, and is the worst it has been since 1998.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Why I choose to live in Spain
Here are just a few reasons:
Unlike Australia for example, Spain has a strong history (and a lively culture today) of political and intellectual debate.
Those who use words as their business (including writers and media figures) are generally well-respected.
While, it is true that some of the debate of current issues can be predictably rigid along ideological lines, the fact that a healthy public discussion exists at all means that people (including the young) can and do become active in local movements and organisations.
The pride that so many adults and children have of their town and region means that they often take an active interest in defending it and being part of its collective life.
A lot less Spaniards move away from their home area than say, North Americans, which creates bonds of attachment to the people and places of they grew up with. In other words, adults and younger people “know their roots” here and have a fundamental respect for them.
Related to this point above is the fact that in Spain there are plenty of public open spaces that are not there just to be commercial.
The plazas are not shopping centres and the ramblas are not principally designed for trade. The parks are many and they are not “retail parks” for buying and selling.
The town square is not a “mall” but is instead reserved for festivals or protests.
All these places are for idling, strolling, gathering and talking, socializing and playing. They are social by their nature and they function as spaces for community activities rather than for simply spending money.
To someone like myself who grew up with the focal point of young life being a multi-storey shopping center, I am happy to know that my son and his friends (plus the students I teach) will not be spending their free time sitting around in a place where everyone is first and foremost a consumer.
Unlike Australia for example, Spain has a strong history (and a lively culture today) of political and intellectual debate.
Those who use words as their business (including writers and media figures) are generally well-respected.
While, it is true that some of the debate of current issues can be predictably rigid along ideological lines, the fact that a healthy public discussion exists at all means that people (including the young) can and do become active in local movements and organisations.
The pride that so many adults and children have of their town and region means that they often take an active interest in defending it and being part of its collective life.
A lot less Spaniards move away from their home area than say, North Americans, which creates bonds of attachment to the people and places of they grew up with. In other words, adults and younger people “know their roots” here and have a fundamental respect for them.
Related to this point above is the fact that in Spain there are plenty of public open spaces that are not there just to be commercial.
The plazas are not shopping centres and the ramblas are not principally designed for trade. The parks are many and they are not “retail parks” for buying and selling.
The town square is not a “mall” but is instead reserved for festivals or protests.
All these places are for idling, strolling, gathering and talking, socializing and playing. They are social by their nature and they function as spaces for community activities rather than for simply spending money.
To someone like myself who grew up with the focal point of young life being a multi-storey shopping center, I am happy to know that my son and his friends (plus the students I teach) will not be spending their free time sitting around in a place where everyone is first and foremost a consumer.
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