X-mas interview on ABC Radio Australia

I was interviewed again on Christmas Day for an early morning radio audience in Australia. I told them how we do it here, how others do it here and how it isn't done at all.

Amongst a few other more important things, I mentioned the importance of volunteers and how hospitals are increasingly giving patients so-called "informative invoices" to show how much their 'free' operation would cost if it had to be paid for directly.

200,000 reasons to join the protests

The Catalan government continues to provide an ugly model for the new Spanish PP government when it comes to ways to cut services and public servants work conditions.

This week thousands of public servants took to the streets of Catalonia on Wednesday to protest upcoming cuts that will affect over 200,000 people and save regional coffers around 625 million euros.

These include pay reductions and fewer social benefits for workers, such as six vacation days for personal matters rather than nine, no more government contributions to the workers' pension fund, and no more restaurant coupons for personnel.

In the city of Girona, three of the fifty teritary students who confronted Catalan President Mas about university cuts were arrested.

If you are Spanish and reading this…then you are probably a man

Latest news: women in this country have better things to do (or at least other things) than using the Internet.

Read more here.

Mini-jobs for mini-pay

The faceless, unelected of the European Central Bank (ECB) have told the new Prime Minister-elect Mariano Rajoy what to do and he will happily do as they say.

The ECB wants wage cuts and the creation of "mini-jobs" to address the issue of youth unemployment in exchange for buying Spanish government bonds. These "mini-jobs" would pay salaries below the minimum wage, which in Spain is 541 euros a month.

Rajoy told union leaders that he would also use the letter from the ECB as a road map for policies aimed at ensuring that Spain remains in the vanguard of the euro zone.

Just the latest step in turning the Euro zone into a low-wage zone.

A hole in the wall for Barcelona’s unwanted babies

Up until only a few years before the Spanish Civil War of the 1930’s…





Hiding inconspicuously in the heart of El Raval is a small wooden inlet that was once attached to the House of Mercy. Although it looks like ornamentation, or a small shrine of sorts, the inlet was in fact a rotating wooden, turntable used to anonymously drop off donations for the church, including unwanted infants.

Originally founded in the late 16th century, the building at 17 Ramelleres became an orphanage in the 19th century. Like many other orphanages and convents at the time, a main feature of the building was its wooden turntable, which allowed the destitute to place their babies on it and anonymously spin them into the arms of a staff member inside the home.

Active from 1853-1931, the turntable saw hundreds of babies come through its portal into the orphanage. Other donations were occasionally dropped off including money and groceries, but mostly, babies were left by parents that did not or could not take care of them. Today, a small wooden inlet is the only remnant of Barcelona's walk-up orphanage and baby drop-off.

[Source: here.]

Spanish literature prize goes to 94-year-old 15-M protestors' role model

It takes two 90-year-old men to show the doubters that the protests across Spain and Europe are not just young people complaining.

A 94-year-old writer, economist and humanist...José Luis Sampedro is this year's winner of the National Literature Prize because of his defense of a "more human, more caring economy that is able to help develop people's dignity."

Sampedro, who says the terms "productivity, competitiveness and innovation" should be replaced with "distribution, cooperation and recreation," has turned into an intellectual and moral role model for the members of the 15-M movement (which inspired Occupy Wall Street and other social protests across the globe). The nonagenarian author and thinker gained recent notoriety among a younger audience by writing the foreword for the now-famous protest essay, Time for Outrage! by [Nazi concentration-camp survivor] Stéphane Hessel, also 94 years old.

[Photo of José Luis Sampedro by ULY MARTÍN, El País.]

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]