Paying homage to the Catalan singer Serrat

An interesting new musical release this week, some of the biggest names in flamenco have collaborated to honour the great Joan Manuel Serrat.

"Cantares" (You will sing) gets it's title from one of the most emblematic songs of this singer-songwriter and includes such luminaries as fellow-Catalan Mayte Martin, Jose Mercé, Carmen Linares, Josemi Carmona, Tomatito and Enrique Melcho.

A new prize for creativity in Catalunya

The First Year of the WALTER BENJAMIN MEMORIAL INTERNATIONAL PRIZE, PORTBOU:

The Exile Memorial Museum (MUME), in collaboration with the Democratic Memorial of Catalonia, is holding the Walter Benjamin Memorial International Prize. The prize, based on the cross-disciplinary nature of the German-Jewish author’s intellectual work, has two main objectives.

On the one hand, given Walter Benjamin’s consideration of the creative act in general, the aim is to foster artistic practice in the fields of the visual and audiovisual arts. On the other, it is to support the theoretical task undertaken by professionals associated with the study of art, photography, architecture, city planning, cinema, philosophy, history, literature and sociology. In both cases, priority will be given to projects that incorporate questions concerning the history and memory of the 20th century. The prize will be held every two years.

Read more here.

"The skin of a bull" by Salvador Espriu

Sometimes it is necessary and right
for a man to die for a people.
But a whole people must never die
for a single man:
remember this, Sepharad.

Keep the bridge of dialogue secured
and try to understand and love
the different minds and tongues of all your children.
Let the rain fall drop by drop on the fields
and the air cross the ample fields
like a soft, benevolent hand.

Let Sepharad live forever
in order and in peace, in work,
and in difficult, hard-won
liberty.

"La pell de brau" by Salvador Espriu (1913 - 1985)

Three thousand "thank you's!"

Today this blog just had its 3,000th viewing (this time, by someone in Russia, a special Спасибо or "Spasiba" to you) and last month alone had more than 500 hits!

Since its beginning in May 2009, about 30% of visitors to the site have been (surprisingly to me) from the United States, then Spain, Australia, Germany, Russia and Britain.

Also, somewhat unexpected was finding that there are plenty of readers of this blog sitting in South Korea, France, the Ukraine, the Netherlands and the Ukraine.

Up to this point in time, the most-read blog entry (285 pageviews) was this one I wrote about Islam and Sharia law (in Catalonia) from December 2009.

Again, I want to say that I greatly appreciate all visitors to this humble blog and invite you to comment and/or “come back again ‘real soon!”

2011 is becoming 1968

With the Spanish national election tomorrow almost certain to throw up a government from the right-wing of politics, we can only brace ourselves for greater social unrest.

Mainly because of 20% unemployment and extreme budget cuts to vital public services, we are seeing increasing numbers of protests with increasing numbers of protesters.

Yesterday, one of Barcelona’s main boulevards (Diagonal) was occupied by about 10,000 students. The road I use to get to work (B-30) was also cut off by a different group of students from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB).

Other student protests included throwing coins at the entrance to the stock exchange students and a short sit-in at the headquarters of the Santander bank branch at Plaza Catalunya.

Personally, I am very happy to witness students getting involved in public issues. (In the last 20 years in Australia, almost the only thing university students ever got animated about was the issue of student higher education fees.)

A Rajoy government will cause more people to get out in the streets and some of it will certainly get violent.

The institution called the extended family has been the glue holding society here together but this cannot stick tight for all seasons.

1968 was a high-point of student activism in the USA, France, and even Japan. Co-incidentally, it was the year I was born in.

It may prove better to have been born then. At least better than having children in this coming decade of discontent.

When the Hendrix-loving, French born Cornellá-raised half-Gypsy comes to town

She is Ginesa Ortega and she is doing her musical thing in Vilafranca del Penedès next Saturday night (19 November) at the Auditori Municipal. We will be there to enjoy this hybrid of flamenco, jazz, Billie Holliday and Dulce Pontes.

Japan in Barcelona

The Japan Photo Project is launching its new book, simply titled “Japan” at an exhibition at the Private Space tomorrow night (Thursday, the 10th of November) at 7.30.

(Excellent follow-up reports here and here.)

Another interview with Australian national radio

The other day I was interviewed again by ABC radio for their Overnights program and, amongst other subjects that I have blogged on, I talked about:

How Barcelona and dozens of cities united in world-wide protest

The stealing of children in Spain (compared to Australia's Aboriginal
"stolen generation")

Doctors at a Barcelona hospital offering to perform free operations on
cancer patients

"Catalan Footprints" exhibition in Australia recently

The economic crisis in general here (ie. More than one in five people
in Spain now live below the poverty line.)

Link to MP3 recording of the interview here.

Taking the time to live well

Just in-land from the Costa Brava, Catalunya officially has two towns, Begur and the friendly-sounding Pals, in the extraordinary world-wide Slow Cities movement.

Slow cities are characterised by a way of life that supports people to live slow. Traditions and traditional ways of doing things are valued. These cities stand up against the fast-lane, homogenised world so often seen in other cities throughout the world. Slow cities have less traffic, less noise, fewer crowds.

When words do no justice

A brilliant cut-up job on the political manipulation of The Word “austerity.”

"In the Spanish case, the ideology of austerity has some background music: the song about the inefficiency of the public sector, and of the regional government system as a machine for waste. Any new trial balloon or proposed cutback is accompanied by verbose rhetoric about the incompetence of the public sector, the frivolity of its spending criteria, the uselessness of its investments.

It matters little that in this country, private debt weighs far more heavily on our economy; and that the uncontrolled leverage of many companies and the irresponsibility of the financial system, cheerfully giving away money, have resulted in company closures, mass layoffs, unemployment and a throttling of the supply of credit necessary if the Spanish economy is to get back on the path of growth."

[Spanish journalist JOSEP RAMONEDA in the English language version of El País.]

Barcelona and dozens of cities unite in world-wide protest

140,000 people came together in Barcelona today, according to El País.

This, under a banner reading "De la indignación a la acción. Toma la calle" (From indignation to action. Take to the streets.)

A lot of good in Olot

My partner (wife) Paula bought me a lovely jumper the other day and instead of some logo or a picture of a skinny model on the label attached to it there was a large photo of a (smiling) older woman sitting at a sewing machine.

This impressed me.

But what impressed me also when I had a look at the company’s website, was that they have created and are maintaining jobs for women over 40 and are continuing the rich tradition of the textile industry in the Catalan town of Olot.

They also claim to spend half of their profits on supporting environmental or social projects.

It turns out that the original idea of their first jumper was called The Marcelino Camacho, in honor of the well-known politician and trade unionist, whose trademark was this type of zipper-jumper.

I almost never plug products but this one is something to crow about (and of course I am not being paid in any form for this endorsement.)

The stealing of children on opposite sides of the world

Australia had its own “stolen generation” (Aboriginal children who were permanently taken from their families, as recently as the 1960’s) and it is now coming to light that here in Spain a systematic practice of baby stealing also occurred.

Enrique Vila, a Barcelona lawyer who specializes in adoptions, estimates there might be as many as 300,000, about 15 percent of the total adoptions that took place in Spain between 1960 and 1989 [fitting into this disturbing category.]

Read more here.

The kindest cut

Doctors at Barcelona’s Bellvitge Hospital this week offered to perform free operations on cancer patients.

A group of surgeons there have stated that they will work overtime without pay to lessen the impact of recently slashed health services budgets.

[Source: www.ara.cat]

Chocotourism

Atlas Obscura, which calls itself “the definitive guidebook and friendly tour-guide to the world’s most wondrous places” has now recognized Barcelona’s Chocolate Museum as one of it’s world wonders.

"Upon entrance to the museum, guests are greeted by a massive white chocolate ape named Snowy, along with their own chocolate bar as part of their admission. As they gnaw down the confectioner’s chocolate, guests walk past glass-covered sculptures made entirely of chocolate. The sculptures include some famous cultural icons such as Minnie Mouse and Louis Armstrong. However, the bulk of work focuses on Spanish architecture, proudly featuring Sagrada Familia, one of Gaudi’s famous houses and creatures from Parc Guell."

BarcelonaCultura.bcn.cat

...is a great little site for keeping up with the dizzying range of festivals, concerts, shows, and general event-mania that is the Catalan capital.

Available in three languages, it even has a "last-minute" ticket offer section and another link to rental spaces available for hire at the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona.

Ticket to read

This week the Catalan publication El Punt Avui featured an article on a new joint venture by Catalonia Today magazine and Abacus bookshops: English language groups that discuss a different novel every month.

Along with (amongst others) Peter Law and Anne Adamson (below left and centre) we are co-ordinating and chairing a number of groups across Catalonia and into Valencia. The response from the public has already been very strong and my own meetings in St. Cugat, L'Hospitalet and St. Boi begin next month.

"The Catalan Footprint in Australia"

...is an on-line exhibition presented at The Immigration Museum in Melbourne (Australia) this month. It presents stories and images of the Catalan pioneers in Australia and the human side of this migratory movement.

[Source: The Australian New Zealander Catalan Society.]

"That smell of wet ash and tiny particles of decayed flesh"

"There were no EL PAÍS correspondents there at that particular moment. Elvira and I had arrived in New York just 10 days earlier with three of our children..."

Great Spanish writer Antonio Muñoz Molina recalls how a day meant for sightseeing was transformed by the imperative need to document the horror caused when two planes were flown into the twin towers.

Wise words on immigration in Catalunya

Journalist Germà Capdevila has some very thoughtful things to say in this article about the place of immigrants and religion both here and in the rest of Europe.

I couldn't agree more with what he wrote. His point that "an extra effort is needed" makes good, humane sense. Equally, it has to be consistent that no religion "has more rights than another."

I fear that increasing numbers of people all across the planet believe that just being born in a particular place or worshipping the most popular god gives a special privelege that newcomers should not have.