tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83014440297780640482024-02-07T03:39:25.827-08:00catalon-ian politic-ianWishful thinking from someone who aspires to be, one day, a catalonIAN politicIANian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-44812478514514184012009-05-02T06:06:00.000-07:002009-05-02T15:37:42.225-07:00L'hora dels adéus (time to say goodbye)Four years ago, I started my first blog, <a href="http://ianllorens.blogspot.com/">Catalonia, Politics and Supply Chain</a> as a reaction to a New Yorker, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/01681196524762093142">Ale</a>, who trashed my city, Barcelona, in one of her posts when she still was Sempre Primavera.<br />These have been 4 very interesting years in my life, both personally and professionally. It has been, however, very difficult to combine my literary and political ambitions with my private and professional lives. In the last 8 months, this has become impossible. My new job required that I travel constantly (about 90% of my time) and I have to devote to my family the little free time I have left. Just as a reference, I will tell you my next 5 weeks schedule, Boston, Germany, Boston, The Netherlands, Boston, Ohio, Boston, Mumbai, Boston, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Boston.<br /><br />In addition to that, I may be moving to another country in North Europe in the summer to optimize my travel and try to spend a little bit more time with my wife and children.<br /><br />I want, however, end up this blog with a post that I would call, "Se'm cau la cara de vergonya d'ésser espanyol". It is really upsetting to see that Spain is governed by real idiots and that Catalonia is at the mercy of those morons. During the times of absolutism, it was somewhat logical to be ruled by idiotic monarchs. For instance, Charles II "the Hexed" DNA was more inbred than the average even for brother-sister matchings, his speech could barely be understood, and he frequently drooled (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_Spain">wikipedia</a>). But now, we elect those same idiots. It is not that they are imposed on us and we cannot do anything about it. No, we are masochists and we elect them. No one wants to invite our monolingual politicians anywhere, we have to beg every time to be invited to the G20, even Sarkozy joked about the intellectual challenges of the Spanish prime minister, "but he wins elections", he added.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqNKJi3tBOLVWJRnq0FJvl1-MjV_g0ysyrj8Y8A-narLf9Oh-AabwFYqrwyp8gWbKmJT35tbhczXE41oaxfkiqD8xcqX_sulRzogzfRpGRnxIfPYyXT9u6ruAudC2KKC0MU5E7nyHkswwR/s1600-h/el+trio+guadalajara-1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 163px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqNKJi3tBOLVWJRnq0FJvl1-MjV_g0ysyrj8Y8A-narLf9Oh-AabwFYqrwyp8gWbKmJT35tbhczXE41oaxfkiqD8xcqX_sulRzogzfRpGRnxIfPYyXT9u6ruAudC2KKC0MU5E7nyHkswwR/s400/el+trio+guadalajara-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331198659510228162" border="0" /></a>The Spanish prime minister just reshuffled his government. The new ministers are two Galicians, two Andalusians and one Basque. The Catalan representation in the central government is pathetic, Corbacho (born in Extremadura, I do not consider him a Catalan, neither does he, I think), and Chacon (no Catalan roots either, I am afraid, and strategically put there with machiavellic intentions). She is the Secretary of Defense, the civil head of the Spanish Military, the same army who has the mandate to shoot to kill if someone challenges the unity of the country, as proven during the heroic defense of the "Perejil island". I would describe her as a weakened virus inoculated to the Catalan society to prevent it from developing the Catalan nationalistic flu (pandemic among <a href="http://catalonianpolitician.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-am-not-catalan-prussian-pig-mr-hunold.html">Catalan Prussian pigs</a>). The only positive note has been the departure of a national disgrace, an Andalusian ministress who would be uncapable of managing a post office in a village with 3 inhabitants. Listen to this video clip and do not forget your Kleenex.<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/v1nOFp7wvAw&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/v1nOFp7wvAw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />I left the country 17 years ago as a Spaniard with strong Catalan sentiment. I do not longer feel myself Spanish. Spain is for me like my ex-wife. I loved her, she was attractive and fun, but if I had continued with her, I would be now emotionally destroyed and financially bankrupt. Filing for divorce was a difficult decision that I never regretted. Catalonia should do the same with Spain, it will be tough at the beginning, but we will never regret.<br /><br />In the fall I may come back with a new name, and maybe a different language. My style will continue to be the same, maybe a little bit bolder, since I will not show my real family name, but those who know me, will easily recognize me.<br /><br />See you again - A reveure - Hasta la vistaian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-59559042658724810182009-03-22T03:29:00.000-07:002009-03-22T03:56:10.561-07:00Aruba Ariba: All InclusiveDuring the first 20 years of my life, I spent every year my summer vacation in the same location, a village on the Costa Brava, a few miles north of Cadaqués. I would spend there 2 months with my <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Q9w06IzqG3vo-gq9xr2qbcQifURF3i5jx5gII91vFF9xp4q5PlulLAzKisCZr6VgrbzFBy0bjNJZKjHErsfmP80doG_xwe6ikLoEAoMupGrrteI5BYyDKGu-V7NVVrPXCZgerxlc_0Q1/s1600-h/Aruba.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Q9w06IzqG3vo-gq9xr2qbcQifURF3i5jx5gII91vFF9xp4q5PlulLAzKisCZr6VgrbzFBy0bjNJZKjHErsfmP80doG_xwe6ikLoEAoMupGrrteI5BYyDKGu-V7NVVrPXCZgerxlc_0Q1/s400/Aruba.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5315929047029492082" border="0" /></a>mother and sister and my father would join us for 4 weeks. I love l'Alt Empordà. I always enjoyed my time there, I made great friends, I enjoyed the beach, I started to learn about the Catalan culture and values (something that was totally absent where I lived the first part of my childhood, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat), I improved my Catalan and even though my Alt Empordà accent is long gone (turned into the ugly Barcelonian accent), I still remember phrases and expressions I loved ("Poc que ho sabia jo" - I have no clue), I still use the "pas" to negate (Això no m'agrada pas), I often do the past participle accord ("No les he vistes") and have a weakness for the Gallicisms ("carrotes i tomates").<br />In Costa Brava, I also improved my English as a teenager, I learnt basic French and decided that Catalonia and Spain were far to small for me to stay.<br /><br />My chidren's life is totally different. My wife works and only has two weeks vacation a year (very normal for those who have worked in an American company for less than 5 years) and even though I have more vacation days, I do not like to go alone with the kids, when my wife is working, although I do it some times.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicmSOEgpuDqfuk5WZDaE9TpC-QRzSSgrkk6yvtgYpe8LKIRJrC0E3R-oW5psuLjNFrFy_qw_5e_rKgeK65GLzPNmOFHw5nscOjJOsucAV09quIKx3YZQ6z63x_8QaJYMQM1X_CIQ5ACCd3/s1600-h/DSC_0028.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicmSOEgpuDqfuk5WZDaE9TpC-QRzSSgrkk6yvtgYpe8LKIRJrC0E3R-oW5psuLjNFrFy_qw_5e_rKgeK65GLzPNmOFHw5nscOjJOsucAV09quIKx3YZQ6z63x_8QaJYMQM1X_CIQ5ACCd3/s400/DSC_0028.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5315946523160220034" border="0" /></a><br />On the flip side, my kids are also used to going somewhere "exotic" for winter vacation. Last year we went to <a href="http://catalonianpolitician.blogspot.com/2008/02/bahama-mama.html">Bahamas</a>, this year to Aruba. We went to this resort called <a href="http://www.diviaruba.com/index.php">Divi Aruba</a>, a very nice place, beautiful beach, great facilities, quiet and relaxing. I needed this week of relax with my family. Since I took my new job in October, I have traveled every week, Europe, China, India, Brazil, Mexico, etc. I needed one week to try to regain ground with my kids, especially the little one, who was drifting a part from me. The resort is an 'all inclusive" resort. You can drink and eat, anything you want, any time. From the famous <a href="http://www.idrink.com/v.html?addvote=100&id=43081&low=%3Alow&high=%3Ahigh">Aruba Ariba</a> cocktail to popcorn or ice cream.<br />Aruba is an interesting place. A separate nation, part of the Dutch Kingdom, achieved the "aparte" status in 1985, thanks to Betico Croes, a politician with "cojones", unlike his Catalan counterparts. Betico died in an accident, the same day when Aruba became a separate state. Many believe that he was killed, but the conspiracy theory was never proven, something not surprising, after having seen how incompetent the Aruban police was in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalee_Holloway">Natalee Holloway</a> case.<br />Aruba is worth visiting, even though most of the island is pretty run down (do not expect lots of idyllic places, outside the hotel areas). Prior to the "aparte" status, their only source of income was the 2 refineries (one already gone) and I am told that it was Betico Croes, "Libertador di Aruba", who proposed the diversification of the economy through tourism. The west side of the island has many hotels and resorts, white sand beaches and lots of restaurants and places to relax.<br /><br />Aruba's independence process is an interesting one and should be studied but Catalan politicians as a model for the future. Unfortunately most of the Catalan politicians have brains, the size of their testicles, and they prefer to study how to beat more students and journalists per square meter during demonstrations. I believe that the way to independence may have to go through using the King of Spain as the umbrella of two (maybe three) sovereign nations (Spain, Catalonia and Euskadi, although I could not care less what happens with the Basques). It is a bit hard to admit that the solution is based on an institution which is in the midst of the current status of Catalonia, but strategy should be put ahead of emotions, and this may be the way to go.<br /><br />To finalize, I will talk about the Aruban language, Papiamentu. In the island, Dutch is nowhere to be heard or seen (with the exception of Dutch tourists and the traffic signs). Everyone speaks English, many people speak Spanish and the national language that everyone uses to communicate with one another is Papiamentu. This language has a strong Spanish foundation and it is spoken with a strong Portuguese accent. I could read the newspapers in Papiamentu with no effort, most of the words are Spanish and Portuguese and some are Dutch and English and I understand all of them, but when they spoke, I understood little. There are some interesting things in the language, like the way the do plurals, by adding the suffix -nan (hovennan is youth, joven = hoven and -nan for the plural). The phonetic spelling is also worth noting. See below a couple of examples of the language.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOL8ktn7QXP9yrrJM900s9gOFVyTfGjgfcCdg437Oj08KWj4tn_NWsfi5RjaBMnFZfzcPJhSKapt5sS4Z2bxG1biJK7unhyphenhyphensGzYvdbzZNCxFUl5HZ0ZOT_ZrrP31Lr7s9mbTsSoeZ56VB6/s1600-h/Papiamentu.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 385px; height: 88px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOL8ktn7QXP9yrrJM900s9gOFVyTfGjgfcCdg437Oj08KWj4tn_NWsfi5RjaBMnFZfzcPJhSKapt5sS4Z2bxG1biJK7unhyphenhyphensGzYvdbzZNCxFUl5HZ0ZOT_ZrrP31Lr7s9mbTsSoeZ56VB6/s400/Papiamentu.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5315944569768739410" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Note: I still believe that my childhood was happier than that of my kids and even my wife's who lived in communist China in a single room, sharing kitchen and restroom with 8 other families was happier. I am doing my best, but it is hard. It is now 3am. I am just back from a round the world trip and I am jet-lagged. Let me go upstairs to give them a kiss while they sleep.ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-41970730684881604062009-02-07T09:37:00.000-08:002009-02-07T19:58:06.145-08:00Sauna thoughtsLast week Friday I was in Budapest. I had decided to spend the weekend in Barcelona, since Monday I had to go to Hamburg and I did not have time to go back home. I was tired. I checked the flight schedules and there was no direct flight to Barcelona, I had to go and change flights in either Vienna or Madrid. So I decided to take a flight to Amsterdam and try to relax during the weekend, while catching up with my work.<br />Destiny always goes against us, Catalans, and now that a group of Catalan businessmen and the Catalan government decided to buy an airline to bring business to Catalonia and the Barcelona hub, we ended up buying an airline with the name of Spanair. We are either "botiflers" or unlucky. Now, if we change the name for the much more attractive of BCNair, they will boycott it, if we keep it, it will be a permanent reminder of our submission and "cojonesless-ism". When the Cat Air group decided to name its new airline Clickair to avoid boycotts (following the long Catalan cojonesless tradition) , I already declared myself a <a href="http://ianllorens.blogspot.com/2006/08/clicktalonia.html">Clicktalan</a>.<br />Therefore, since from Budapest you can fly directly to Urumuqi, but not to Barcelona, plus I was very tired and I had to work over the weekend, I decided to go to this hotel on the beach, west of Amsterdam. It is a great hotel, quiet, with great facilities and a very attractive rate. I love sauna and this one has a great sauna and spa. I spent the weekend working on my laptop while looking from time to time to the North Sea, going to the sauna, cold and hot spa, working again and walking on the beach. It was rainy and a bit windy, but the temperature was acceptable, around 3 degrees Celsius.<br />I called home and I talked to my daughter. I told her that I was in that hotel on the Dutch coast and she asked me: the hotel where people go naked? I said yes. She knows that she needs to switch her cultural profile when he moves from continent to continent and that in puritan New England, she has to take a shower with swimming suit, but saunas in North Europe are mixed gender and swimming suits are not allowed.<br /><br />When lying in the steam room, I could not help but thinking on the Catalan politics, since they<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7_kGPY6ys5mdFMhUsaOdGQxVvHz7qeOrAuDVOy3tsdA48PbIo7hHqO4dcX6mtTB3PsSG3Q1CM64BbBE9-a_i4Ab9ilvFuHIZWmXCedFuDzA_p1sdtKlgzR16abauQruMv_w6xGHrDitBL/s1600-h/pacte-mas-zapatero.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 366px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7_kGPY6ys5mdFMhUsaOdGQxVvHz7qeOrAuDVOy3tsdA48PbIo7hHqO4dcX6mtTB3PsSG3Q1CM64BbBE9-a_i4Ab9ilvFuHIZWmXCedFuDzA_p1sdtKlgzR16abauQruMv_w6xGHrDitBL/s400/pacte-mas-zapatero.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300263810140829314" border="0" /></a> were the reason why I ended up in that sauna, instead of having a good dinner with my university friends at the Tastavins. I was thinking about Convergencia i Unio, the party I feel closer ideologically, but totally useless due to the level of mediocrity and lack of integrity of many of its politicians, including those at the top. It is funny to see Duran i Lleida (now in the middle of a controversy about the alleged misappropriation of EU educational funds by members of his party closely related to him), criticizing Zapatero in his <a href="http://www.duranilleida.org/?p=444">blog</a> for going to bed with the Andalusian president, Manuel Chaves, and agreeing on the boundary conditions for the 2009 Catalan budget, while illustrating his comments with a picture of Zapatero hugging Chaves. A simple Google search demonstrates his level of hypocrisy.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiad8rhyeaK-hu_9Fqn7OIcM-iVt_zw0_T6vM6O0YEpYMJL2lbp1gZG-PrZzRjv4t5aAlQeA97f9W8f77XObH01g-4mDyXzgHUVy7F_wbxTEpNSSUxIEfYXO5NcakF_3F2Batyo9tXTFVfL/s1600-h/1145382180992catalan400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiad8rhyeaK-hu_9Fqn7OIcM-iVt_zw0_T6vM6O0YEpYMJL2lbp1gZG-PrZzRjv4t5aAlQeA97f9W8f77XObH01g-4mDyXzgHUVy7F_wbxTEpNSSUxIEfYXO5NcakF_3F2Batyo9tXTFVfL/s400/1145382180992catalan400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300263922949579634" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />PS: Today I watched Pink Panther 2 with my kids and I had a good laugh. Even if it uses all the typical stereotypes to create comic situations, I felt it was on the acceptable side (clearly they had the advice of a good lawyer). I even found the bullfighter and flamenco scene acceptable (hard to believe, since <a href="http://ianllorens.blogspot.com/2007/03/john-cleese-is-son-of-bitch-would-rhyme.html">John Cleese</a> was in the cast), obviously, I assumed it had nothing to do with me. I only feel touchy, if they wear "barretina".ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-57434411083705491102008-12-13T11:12:00.000-08:002009-01-10T07:31:24.966-08:00The big C<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >I am tired, really tired of hearing people qualify Catalan nationalism as Nazi. I do not have a big issue with people calling us misguided, provincial, old-fashioned, narrow minded, selfish and things like that. but Naz</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR97jBkvejD1A6WyGk-1xpIgCa1J8-oe0ZqtMxZrHOI-CVcleVjlkmJ7UyCkNmFL7Ex_xGddHwRPTQHKf8uVQp3MbEc5nuHve7js4uVYk8UZ3i1RtrDGHccUfXxsHI1_bTgZLs2o-sBhS6/s1600-h/Jerusalem1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR97jBkvejD1A6WyGk-1xpIgCa1J8-oe0ZqtMxZrHOI-CVcleVjlkmJ7UyCkNmFL7Ex_xGddHwRPTQHKf8uVQp3MbEc5nuHve7js4uVYk8UZ3i1RtrDGHccUfXxsHI1_bTgZLs2o-sBhS6/s400/Jerusalem1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5279371025217474786" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >is, no way.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >Three weeks a</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >go I spent the Jewish weekend in Jerusalem, one of the rare times when, while traveling for business, I could do some sightseeing. I visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum. There I could witness the horrors of Nazism, I could see pictures and videos with piles of famine-stricken bodi</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >es (p</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >ure bone ans skin) bulldozed away by Nazi officers, people forced to remove their clothes and jewelry in front of a ditch and immediately shot in their heads in front of those waiting their turn and German d<span style="font-size:100%;">octors experimenting with a crying </span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >nude</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >10 year old girl </span><span style="font-size:100%;">(I do not know exactly what th</span>ey were doing, since I could not watch the video for more that 5 seconds).<br />Not long ago, I read <a href="http://www.lifeincatalonia.com/catalan-kids-dont-know-their-spanish-geography/">the comment </a>of an alleged Catalan woman, <cite><a href="http://www.lifeincatalonia.com/catalan-kids-dont-know-their-spanish-geography/">Anna Sevillé</a>, </cite>equating the Catalan C levels requirement to the number that the concentration camp inmates had tattooed on their arms. I feel disgusted when those comments come from non Catalans, but when they come from Catalans, I feel deeply saddened.<br />Even if I do not agree with some of the rules established by the Catalan government and despite my critical views on the Catalan education system, I understand that the key objectives of the Catalan government are genuinely positive:<br /><ul><li>Integrating everyone in Catalonia and not having a split society</li><li>Preserving the Catalan culture and language</li></ul>That is the diametral opposite of NaZism.<br /><br />I despise all those who use the N word linked to Catalonia in any form. I think that <a href="http://downhillsince92.blogspot.com/2008/06/just-about-stupidest-thing-ive-ever.html">all of you who link Catalonia and Nazism</a> are "fills de puta".<br /><br />The reality is that Catalan na<span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>ionalism, with a big <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>, <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span> as in <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>atalonia, as in <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>aring, as in <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>ivilized, as in <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>alm, as in <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>harming, as in <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>lean, as in <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>lear, as in <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>olorful, as in <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>onscious, as in <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>orrect, as in <span style="font-size:180%;">C</span>onfident, is integrating and welcoming. If we had a solid border around us, we would be called patriotic, but the lack of borders turns us into a nuisance.<br /><br />At the end, I think that the person who described better Catalan nationalism, was one of the ones who despised it the most, Sabino de Arana, the father of Basque nationalism.<br />While trying to belittle Catalan nationalism, this is the way he described it:<br />"En <span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>Cataluña todo elemento procedente del resto de España lo catalanizan, y les place a sus naturales que hasta los municipales aragoneses y castellanos de Barcelona hablen en catalán; aquí padecemos muy mucho cuando vemos la firma de un Pérez al pie de unos versos eusquéricos, u oímos hablar nuestra lengua a un cochero riojano, a un liencero pasiego o a un <b>gitano</b>".<br /><br />[In Catalonia, they"catalanize" every person coming from the rest of Spain, and the locals love the fact that even those from Aragon or Castile in Barcelona speak Catalan. Here (in the Basque country) we<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBfRdplVwtP8zxTV1v4Bi_dR9aENcJHOIJiXO7gJQhFpjWT3CJHaM1BCMvPVG_yZ2xPeG9Ha47IL7tjxMoKbG_pLHRcFeEZQ3xJva5Yc6q6dsCMOSr7fzxsTNYBKwXDVEhENSIK9WXamfI/s1600-h/Jerusalem2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBfRdplVwtP8zxTV1v4Bi_dR9aENcJHOIJiXO7gJQhFpjWT3CJHaM1BCMvPVG_yZ2xPeG9Ha47IL7tjxMoKbG_pLHRcFeEZQ3xJva5Yc6q6dsCMOSr7fzxsTNYBKwXDVEhENSIK9WXamfI/s400/Jerusalem2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5279371159154961186" border="0" /></a> suffer a lot when we see some Basque verses signed by someone call Pérez or we hear a carriage driver, a Catabrian fabric merchant or a gypsy speak our language (Basque)].<br /><br />Notes:<br /><ol><li>I also read the book "The boy in the striped pyjamas" I liked it but I would have preferred a slight different end. I would have preferred that the kids swap.</li><li>Even though I admire the Jewish people and I think that catalans have a lot to learn from them, I do not agree with the way Palestinians are treated. I hope that Obama will settle the issue with a 2 state solution based, as much as possible, on the 1967 borders. It is also clear that not only Catalonia and Spain have stupid politicians, Israel and Palestine suffer from the same disease.<br /></li><li>Yesterday I attended the Boston Catalans Xmas dinner for the first time. I had a real good time.</li></ol>ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-42866522628524124222008-11-04T21:05:00.000-08:002008-11-04T21:40:18.133-08:00Obama, my presidentI landed in Ohio two hours ago and I rushed to the hotel. I arrived in my room and tuned one of the networks. It was 10.50 and Obama was leading. At 11pm, 5 minutes ago, the networks have called for Obama winning the presidential race. I have tears in my eyes. This was my first presidential election as a US citizen. When this morning I was driving to my town high school to cast my vote, I could not stop thinking about the old "La trinca" song "For the first time" (Me la busco i valga'm Deu, no me la trobo).<br />I voted Obama, even though I am a Republican. I would have gladly voted for McCain, had George W Bush not existed and would have he not chosen Sarah Palin to appease the far right. I am financially conservative, I support small government, low taxes, policies which support growth and limit protectionism.<br />But I am socially quasi-liberal (very liberal in USA): I am pro-choice, I am pro-gay marriage (though I oppose gay adoptions for two reasons, if they choose same sex relationships they should live with the anatomic consequences of that, and I think that a child has the right to be raised by a standard family) and I am pro universal healthcare (privately managed and privately funded, except for low income people who should still have the same type of coverage, but subsidized by government).<br />Clearly McCain was a better fit for me, but I gladly voted for Obama and experimented a special pleasure when I introduced the ballot in the voting machine, much more pleasure than in the previous 20 over years voting for Convergencia i Unio.<br />I was voting for the first black president (mixed race for me), I was combating the Bradley effect, I was contributing to stopping the war in Iraq, I was sending a message to the world that we finally understood that having an IDIOT as president cannot be tolerated. I hope that the two other IDIOTS, Zapatero and Montilla, will follow soon Bush's trail.<br />I have tears in my eyes (I just listened to McCain conceding speech and Obama's victory speech. I am really happy for Obama, for USA and for the world. I love Michelle Obama, she is great, she is as talented as Barack or more. The Bradley effect has been defeated.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the Roca-Junyent effect, a theory that proposes that some voters tend to tell pollsters that they are undecided or likely to vote for a Catalan candidate, and yet, on election day, vote for non-Catalan opponent, is still there.<br />I have seen a Black president in USA. I will never see a Catalan president in Spain.<br /><br /><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vc-ShYjrKKs&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vc-ShYjrKKs&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wzyT9-9lUyE&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wzyT9-9lUyE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />La Trinca - Per primer cop (For the first time)<em></em><br />És avui quan ho faré,<br />per primer cop<br />perquè un dia és un dia<br />o ara o mai<br />que en tingui necessitats<br />és llei de vida i també el cos m'ho demana,<br />què carai!<br />quan arribo ja m'ho han dit,<br />hi ha gent fent cua,<br />acotat demano tanda<br />per entrar a la cua<br />n'hi veig molts que dissimulen<br />però hi ha alguns que ja la tenen a la mà<br />després d'esperar-megairebé mitja hora<br />em diuen que passi<br />a un apartament<br />i allà es troba ella<br />tota seductora<br />que sembla esperar-me temptadorament<br />me la busco...i valga'm déu!<br />no me la trobu...<br />ja la tinc! ja me le tret<br />quina emoció...<br />serà cosa de posar-la a l'orifici<br />i em preparo a efectuar la introducció<br />tota a dins li faig entrar!<br />no toco vores i així l'acte finalment<br />ja he consumat<br />dins de l'urna ja he ficat...la papereta<br />ja he votat per primer cop... ja he votat!!!<br />nananana..ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-71866830943265575962008-10-25T15:15:00.000-07:002008-10-25T16:45:04.019-07:00Noiseless vibrationI am tired. Since I took up new responsibilities, my traveling has gone from 60% to about 90%. I love traveling, even for business, but being gone almost all the time is hard for the kids and for my wife. Sometimes I try to compensate my absence by buying to my kids all kind of useless stuff and later I regret it, they are somewhat spoiled. I had such a strict upbringing, no presents outside the standard festivities (birthday, day of my Saint and Epiphany).<br />Last week I landed at Schiphol in the evening. My flight home was in the morning and, even though my hotel was at the airport, I decided to go to downtown Amsterdam. I dropped my things at the hotel, I took a train and I went to Amsterdam Station. I was hungry and I was looking for a restaurant where I could eat "mosselen witte wijn met fritjes" (mussels cooked with white wine with fries) or Japanese food.<br />After wandering for 20 minutes, I ended up in a Japanese restaurant someone had mentioned to me. It is a sophisticated "all you can eat" restaurant, but quality is pretty good. You can order 5 rounds of anything you want (during happy hour there is no limit on how many dishes you can order every round). I ordered maguro, hamachi and sake sashimi, all kind of rolls and makis, miso soup, edamame, shrimp tempura, and several other dishes accompanied by a bottle of cold sake. My third round was just dessert, lychees. Service was a bit slow, but food was fresh and I would have paid double anywhere else. The name of the restaurant is Genroku.<br /><br />I finished at about 10 pm and I decided to go for a stroll to the red district. I always find it a very interesting tourist attraction, though, amazingly, there's guys who actually go inside the rooms. How can anyone have sex behind a shopwindow?<br />I decided, however, to enter a sexshop and buy a present to my wife. Most probably I was feeling guilty about my prolonged absences and my lack of stamina. I had never ever bought a vibrator in my life. The shop attendant was extremely helpful and gave me all kind of explanations, a real lecture on comforting devices. I did not know, for instance, that women's main complaint is the noise they produce. Good to know. Finally a bought a neutrally shaped pink and silent device for €35.00.<br /><br />However, the raw reality is that, at the end, a good pair of glasses is more important than a dildo if you want to have a satisfying sex life.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PXx7iiKYfI0&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PXx7iiKYfI0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />I forgot this was a political blog. OK, I am a republican, but I will vote Obama.ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-49470667554173070992008-09-24T14:59:00.000-07:002008-09-25T02:20:10.504-07:00Barcelona: the moviesIn the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of talk about Woody Allen's new movie 'Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona'. Last Saturday I decided to go to the movies with my wife and watch it. I felt a little bit nervous, because I was not totally sure how my city and my country Catalonia would be portrayed. I was hoping that Woody Allen would, at least, reflect a little bit the Catalan culture and language.<br /><object height="349" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AKdo2KwC7qg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AKdo2KwC7qg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="349"></embed></object><br />The movie was OK, no masterpiece, but, in a way, entertaining. However the way Barcelona was portrayed was a total disappointment. Barcelona was only used as a postcard, as a beautiful setting and that was all. At the beginning of the film, there were a few references to Catalonia as a result of the one million Euro subsidy by the Barcelona mayor (by the way, and excellent investment, since I am sure that American tourists will pour into the city), but the plot was more suited for Madrid, Seville, Oviedo or Albacete. The non American protagonists, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz had nothing that I would qualify as Catalan, not even the name, Bardem's character, the Catalan painter, was called Juan Antonio Gonzalo and was born in Oviedo. In addition to that, I found Penelope Cruz's character vulgar and uninspiring (and she even had a line with a very racist comment against Chinese that embarrassed me and my wife, not her fault but the Director's, but really unacceptable)<br />I think that "Vicky, Cristina, Oviedo" would have been a much better choice for title. It is funny that in the Catalan version of the movie the Americans speak Catalan and the "alleged" Catalans speak Spanish to each other (though the trailer tries to hide this fact). Not even the signage was in Catalan.<br />The only good news for Catalan Don Juans is that if the approach a pair of American girls having dinner in a Barcelona restaurant and they propose to them a one night stand, there is a 50/50 chance that they will not be rejected flat out, and the probability improves if they sport a 3-day beard.<br /><br />The best thing of the night, however, was dinner. We went to Legal Seafood in Peabody (MA). We had Cape Cod oysters, pan seared tuna (almost raw) with soya sauce and wasabe, crab cakes and Sam Adams summer ale. After two minutes, my irritation was gone.<br /><br />On the flip side, a few weeks ago, while trying to <a href="http://www.netflix.com/">Netflix</a> Woody Allen's movie to put it in my cue, I discovered a 1994 movie called Barcelona. Though that movie was no masterpiece either and actually had some remote similarities with Woody Allen's one, I found that it reflected Barcelona's character much better and avoided the stereotypes in many occasions. The main female characters are called Montserrat Raventos and Marta Ferrer, they have fair hair and there is clear evidence that the movie Director Whit Stillman understood the differences between the Catalan and the Spanish culture and was sensitive enough to have Catalan actors playing the secondary roles (Pep Munné and Núria Badia).<br />Despite all this, he succumbed to the pressures of the producer and had to add a flamenco scene (you know, the usual flamenco dance that Catalan girls rehearse after the daily nap*).<br /><br /><object height="349" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ILxixHrq7Lk&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ILxixHrq7Lk&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="349"></embed></object><br /><br />* Note for the "guiris": I am kiddingian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-5765476564540980832008-09-06T17:29:00.000-07:002008-09-06T17:46:34.514-07:00PIGS or CANDIESIn the last couple of posts, I have managed to draw criticism (to say it mildly) from all parts of the spectrum: Catalan nationalists, Spanish nationalists, the Anglo world, generally amused by the irrelevant fights between Catalans and Spaniards, taking sides as though this were a soccer match being watched sitting in the couch, drinking beer and eating popcorn, but jumping as grasshoppers when someone dares to criticize them a little bit.<br />So far, the only ones who did not call me names have been the Swedish, let’s see for how long.<br /><br />I do not know whether you read an article in the Financial Times called <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/388a3e90-77bd-11dd-be24-0000779fd18c,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F1%2F388a3e90-77bd-11dd-be24-0000779fd18c.html&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ft.com%2Fsearch%3FqueryText%3Dpigs%26x%3D0%26y%3D0%26aje%3Dtrue%26dse%3D%26dsz%3D">PIGS in the muck</a>. The pejorative acronym PIGS used by the Financial Times refers to the countries Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. The article has some merit, but, once again shows the total lack of respect of the Anglo world for those countries and territories below the virtual Pyrenees (with the exception of Gibraltar).<br />Despite the cheap shots, I agree with the substance of the article, the fact that the economies of those 4 countries have grown out of speculation: “wages rose, debt levels ballooned, as did house prices and consumption”. The foundations of those economies are weak and a recession would hit those countries much harder, especially Spain, as the FT points out. Let’s not forget that unemployment in Spain will very soon reach the 11% mark.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-2RkcrqN6qG-TCQs0YGm8SHmEZGmdlX7Oxgxgkw_ipz7E9x9Bou_9GXWvHjsorOuahMMoslA2gfGi2kuXVm0vpeYPaK7Iha1hiDd6gEqDRnMOF4CW1kbqXZaNghRLYR8kDL2uUf6PEOuM/s1600-h/pigs_or_candies.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-2RkcrqN6qG-TCQs0YGm8SHmEZGmdlX7Oxgxgkw_ipz7E9x9Bou_9GXWvHjsorOuahMMoslA2gfGi2kuXVm0vpeYPaK7Iha1hiDd6gEqDRnMOF4CW1kbqXZaNghRLYR8kDL2uUf6PEOuM/s400/pigs_or_candies.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243073323077858098" border="0" /></a><br />When attacked, I normally side with Spain, but I would like to do it out of juxtaposition and friendship, not out of inclusion and submission. The truth is that I do not want my country, Catalonia, to be part of the PIGS. I want Catalonia to be one of the CANDIES (Catalonia, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Euskadi and Sweden), small countries with strong economic fundamentals, with diversified economies, with real added value activities, with outstanding education systems and international focus.<br />Catalonia has all the ingredients to be one of the CANDIES, but the fact that Catalonia is part of Spain and has limited control of its policies and resources makes it impossible (together with the fact that the Catalan politicians are totally inept).<br /><br />In one of my next posts, however, I plan to theorize about those grandiose countries which, for a variety of reasons, believe that they are the center of the universe, France, UK, China, Korea and USA, also known as, FUCK-U (as first described in the LT, the Llorens Times).ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-41288303684230815882008-08-16T08:32:00.000-07:002008-08-16T09:42:20.006-07:00Anglo hypocrisy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWrjPbhjdWUftjFFbvtctRiG13erMyQ1n8KJXrr9kwB5DMvBzIyaJjirIYuwqjxPr5tRoveFHAq5c53vyDmcJj4ga1kjf9I0TsniigBpM4hq0rBLaU0zJhZZ5LAyy5l8qdrCGcFUtPYEwc/s1600-h/SpainBasket.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWrjPbhjdWUftjFFbvtctRiG13erMyQ1n8KJXrr9kwB5DMvBzIyaJjirIYuwqjxPr5tRoveFHAq5c53vyDmcJj4ga1kjf9I0TsniigBpM4hq0rBLaU0zJhZZ5LAyy5l8qdrCGcFUtPYEwc/s400/SpainBasket.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235143661649613602" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Me: PingPing, come here, I want to show you a picture and tell me what you feel!<br />PP: I feel nothing. What’s the problem?<br />Me: Look well, this is the Spanish basketball team. The British and the American press say that the picture is racist.<br />PP: Racist? Is it because they are stepping on the dragon? I do not think they did it on purpose.<br />Me: No, it is not because of the dragon. Look at their eyes. They pretend they have slit eyes like Chinese<br />PP: They look cute.<br />Me: So, you do not find it offensive.<br />PP: No, it’s funny. Maybe, they should have stepped back a little bit in order not to step on the dragon.<br /><br />This is the conversation I had yesterday with my wife, a mainland Chinese. I wanted to acid test whether Chinese felt offended with the picture or not. Clearly she did not feel offended at all. Her only remark was related to the Dragon, something that was not even noticed by the British and American press.<br /><br />It is clear that Spaniards in general, and I have to include Catalans in the bucket too, lack cultural awareness. Someone in the advertising company should have realized that, in some countries, the picture would not be appreciated and it would be misinterpreted, but unfortunately, most Spaniards have a very simplistic and monocultural view of the world. But the level of racism in Spain is lower than in the anglo world. There is a lot of interest in Spain for China, its people and its culture. After USA, Spain the country with more adoptions in China. In Catalonia, I know many families with Chinese kids, the families adore them, they are great.<br /><br />It is unfair for the British press to attack Spain for this ad. If the reaction had come from the Chinese, we should have apologized, but coming from the British, what the heck, aren't British notorious for their racism? Wherever they went, they either eliminated the local population (America) or segregated it (India, Africa). If by “accident” a mixed child was born, the child would no longer be Anglo, he/she will be the other race, even today, Obama is black, even if he is 50% Anglo-white.<br /><br />Obviously, the objective of the Anglo press is to hurt Madrid candidacy for the Olympic games. If you want to know, I support Madrid’s candidacy full heartedly. I just hope that Catalonia will participate as an independent state.<br /><br />The slit-eyed gesture is innocuous. How many times in China I have been called "gao bizi" (high nose – big nose), how many times people have hinted to me that the size of my nose most probably mimics the size of other appendices south of my belly button. I always smiled and I never sent a complaint to a British tabloid.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSksNsTAXhGxqC3jJGtI5cv7LfHq8E9kgfxNpv3SX3TylLbXUjA2F6mHrfeccn1Y1enscvXv3VFD-9t2uor5IgQmMSyndhHpR_mXJHm8x7V-0zHRxHKJD_t4ZLwcwsKpnrdi3M8nAfqP4W/s1600-h/ColomPixant.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSksNsTAXhGxqC3jJGtI5cv7LfHq8E9kgfxNpv3SX3TylLbXUjA2F6mHrfeccn1Y1enscvXv3VFD-9t2uor5IgQmMSyndhHpR_mXJHm8x7V-0zHRxHKJD_t4ZLwcwsKpnrdi3M8nAfqP4W/s400/ColomPixant.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235143384661171954" border="0" /></a>ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-79157894584499811392008-08-02T11:50:00.000-07:002008-08-02T15:44:15.630-07:00Mr Suñé, please godfather a Catalan kidThis week, we have been able to witness, once again, some more examples of stupid and unacceptable behavior of our politicians. I will start with the one, which in my opinion, was the less serious, but which attracted front page coverage in most of the Spanish online media. Mr. Lluís Suñé i Morales, a councilman of the town of Torredembara, south of Barcelona. decided to publish a post to call the attention about the unfairness of the current financing systems and the fact that even though the 8.7% of the Catalan GDP goes to support other regions, we are called unsolidary. Up to here, nothing serious. Many of us have written similar things and we have not made it to the front pages. The problem came when in order to illustrate his point, he added a picture that you can find <a href="http://www.microcaos.net/actualidad/apadrina-un-nino-extremeno/">here</a> in which he urged Catalans to godfather an Extemaduran child with €1000, because the 8.7% was not enough. The picture was offensive, tasteless and most probably illegal since it portrayed a boy and a girl playing in the mud, the boy naked waist down, showing what the Catalan politicians do not have, with the logos of UNICEF, the Spanish government and the Extremadura flag.<br />This childish approach put Mr Suñé on the spotlight and as a good Catalan "cojonesless" politician, he removed the post and wrote an <a href="http://lluissunye.blogspot.com/">apology in Spanish language.</a><br />I would like to show to Mr. Suñé a video clip taken about 30 minutes away from downtown Barcelona, an area, where he, a member of the communist party, has probably never put a foot on, and invite him to start a real campaign in Extremadura to godfather a Catalan kid, since there are more kids in Catalonia below the poverty line that total number of kids in Extremadura. Maybe this video is a better justification to try to retain some of the 14 billion euros that leave Catalonia to support "less favored" territories. Please take a minute to watch the videoclip published by la Vanguardia.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/m6hFhkEaX1c&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/m6hFhkEaX1c&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />One of the other two awful behaviors that I wanted to comment briefly today, much more serious that the childish behavior of Mr. Lluís Suñé, is the act of pure nepotism displayed by Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira, who, without any parliamentary control, appointed his brother Apel•les Carod-Rovira as representative of the Catalan government in France. Even if he were the best candidate, what he is not, I would find the appointment disgusting and criminal, and yes I would prefer that this money would go to buy computers for the Extremadura children, or even better, to support the kids in the videoclip, but neither to the Carods nor to Mr. Ybarra and his friends like the "businessman" Gallardo.<br />The last one for the week has been the fact that CiU's Artur Mas has started to break the Catalan unity approach to financing, by coming up with a different alternative. He sold the Estatut for a picture with Zapatero. He will do it once again. Mr Mas, you are the botifler of the decade.ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-6340680529363291172008-07-17T17:44:00.000-07:002008-11-18T16:59:24.038-08:00Stand and deliverA couple of years ago, I came across a 1852 map from Torres Villegas splitting <st1:country-region><st1:place>Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region> in 4 different groupings: <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;"><span style="">·<span style=";font-family:";font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Uniform or Purely Constitutional Spain which comprises these thirty-four Provinces of the Crowns of Castile and Leon, equal in all economic, judicial, military, and civil branches. Former kingdoms of Castile, León and Granada.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span><span style="font-family:Symbol;"><span style=""><span style=";font-family:";font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Incorporated or Assimilated <st1:country-region><st1:place>Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region> which comprises the eleven provinces of the Crown of Aragon, still different in the manner of contribution and in some points of private law. Crown of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Aragon</st1:place></st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;"><span style="">·<span style=";font-family:";font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->"<st1:country-region><st1:place>Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region> of the Fueros", or approximately "Statutory Spain".Kingdom of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Navarre</st1:place></st1:country-region> (actual Basque country was part of <st1:place><st1:placetype>Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename>Navarre</st1:placename></st1:place>)</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;"><span style="">·<span style=";font-family:";font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Colonial <st1:country-region><st1:place>Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8hRQhE6Yzx5h4n8re6xclzOCpEAG3DbVQSRC1vf8VB-tuuT0G_D4QQo8yW8pUAIBbo4YFilTDJK9BchZBP5MVOic-JuMILQNLfQM54GTmLEWFANXZ74vz1vMiQkS_aM33O22APG1Ils6F/s1600-h/SpainMapRipoffcorrecte.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8hRQhE6Yzx5h4n8re6xclzOCpEAG3DbVQSRC1vf8VB-tuuT0G_D4QQo8yW8pUAIBbo4YFilTDJK9BchZBP5MVOic-JuMILQNLfQM54GTmLEWFANXZ74vz1vMiQkS_aM33O22APG1Ils6F/s400/SpainMapRipoffcorrecte.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5228974468455672354" border="0" /></a></p> <p>I saved the picture in my “pictures to be used file”. I was convinced that if one day, the inter-regional fiscal balances were published, mapping the net balances to the map would be very revealing. And you can now check the result by yourself. The incorporated <st1:country-region><st1:place>Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region> has a revenue outflow of 23,100 billion Euro, the Statutory Spain is basically neutral and all the Uniform Spain gets a subsidy of 12,500 million Euro, not taking into consideration the additional inflow from the European Union. I think that voluntary solidarity is a good thing, but this is a ROBBERY, and if at least, there were any signs of thankfulness, if when we travel to the rest of Spain people would come and hug or kiss us, I would maybe feel that it is worth the while, even if this unconditional transfer is perpetuating some habits that will make the situation permanent, but the reality is that, when traveling in Spain, we get insulted (called polacos or catalufos) and <span style=""> </span>our cars get vandalized, our products get boycotted and our language treated with no respect. </p> <p><o:p> </o:p></p> <p>In the meantime, Catalonia's infrastructure is crumpling, the Mediterranean corridor high speed train is still years from completion (but you can go take it now to go from Valladolid to Bollullos del Condado), we need to pay toll in most of the highways, we still continue to pay inheritance tax and even worse, the Barcelona industrial belt, which requires heavy investment in <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Uhp5NvIHP0I2NXtDr_in8JzuYfybxj3dB40-gCuKAIj4S6GGzkNsuxTYR8O5h5ms9EF2FrSJxq-QaAb0eeYiwOeBV1yGrAk4fteWLHXjq9z_9OwTpvW3h-GR318xgYMErjkNpD4p2U4X/s1600-h/balancesfiscalscorrecte.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Uhp5NvIHP0I2NXtDr_in8JzuYfybxj3dB40-gCuKAIj4S6GGzkNsuxTYR8O5h5ms9EF2FrSJxq-QaAb0eeYiwOeBV1yGrAk4fteWLHXjq9z_9OwTpvW3h-GR318xgYMErjkNpD4p2U4X/s400/balancesfiscalscorrecte.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5228974735877778946" border="0" /></a>infrastructures, education, healthcare and neighborhood amenity upgrades, is totally underfunded, unable to absorb the old and the new immigration and turning into a potential social disaster. In addition to that one Extremaduran Euro is only worth 62 cents in Barcelona due to the cost of living differential and let’s not forget that in Extremadura 25% of the workforce are public servants, versus only 8% in Catalonia (too many in my opinion).<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEU8tG6akxUw3bLrgGgFe0fWKjMv-CXnSc33xkc6e6MQTLIcMfqMu6JTWDo5cpasqp37kp_QMziqxmBgHPIOZtpD-QvPh2Lr749BuAmGR-8k-a-o3_9c2o3RXn4C2-xUQm-KiXcPNRdTAx/s1600-h/Balancesfiscals2correcte.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEU8tG6akxUw3bLrgGgFe0fWKjMv-CXnSc33xkc6e6MQTLIcMfqMu6JTWDo5cpasqp37kp_QMziqxmBgHPIOZtpD-QvPh2Lr749BuAmGR-8k-a-o3_9c2o3RXn4C2-xUQm-KiXcPNRdTAx/s400/Balancesfiscals2correcte.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5228975782233396930" border="0" /></a></p> <p>The result would be even more skewed if we corrected <st1:state><st1:place>Madrid</st1:place></st1:state>'s capitality effect (if <st1:state><st1:place>Madrid</st1:place></st1:state> were not the capital, it would have the same economy as <st1:city><st1:place>Guadalajara</st1:place></st1:city>). Despite the fact that <st1:state><st1:place>Madrid</st1:place></st1:state> is a net contributor, mainly because of its status of capital of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region>, it cannot offset the huge deficit <span style=""> </span>that its surrounding provinces generate.</p> <p>Finally, the analysis of the inter-regional fiscal balances shows that the idea of the Catalan Countries, that I like to call Valeària to avoid unnecessary sensitivities, makes a lot of sense, not only from the linguistic or cultural side, but also from the economical point of view. </p> <p>Note: I have taken one of the methodologies proposed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy. All the methods yield to the same conclusion, although this methodology is one of the most extreme ones. Click <a href="http://documentacion.meh.es/doc/C18/C12/Varios/BalanzasFiscalesCCAA.pdf">here</a> to see the full report.</p>ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-90302785923245520402008-07-12T18:09:00.000-07:002008-07-13T06:30:06.301-07:00Anachronic manifestoA lot has been said during the last week about the <a href="http://www.abc.es/gestordocumental/uploads/nacional/manifiesto.pdf">manifesto</a> that a group of self-proclaimed intellectuals have published with the objective to give support to what they call the common language, Castilian, known in English as Spanish.<br />When reading the article, my appetite for Spanish was drastically reduced. I have always defended trilingual education in Catalonia, but after reading this <a href="http://www.abc.es/gestordocumental/uploads/nacional/manifiesto.pdf">manifesto</a>, I start to think that we, Catalans, could obviate Spanish and massively switch to English as a second language.<br />The <a href="http://www.abc.es/gestordocumental/uploads/nacional/manifiesto.pdf">manifesto</a> reminded me of those societies where if someone rapes a woman, he is exonerated if he marries the victim. It totally forgets that Castilian was imposed on Catalonia with a series of Royal decrees, the first of which was the Decree of New Foundation in 1715, and that for 300 years, Catalan was set aside, isolated, relegated, bullied, downgraded, expelled, ostracized, removed and shunned. No one asked Catalans whether they wanted another language. the Bourbon kings and queens religiously applied the Machiavelli principles to make sure that Catalonia would not continue to rebel and search independence.<br />We cannot simply forget that and pretend nothing happened. We have the right now to make restitution for what was taken from us and this is only possible through positive discrimination. The Catalan language needs 100 years of positive discrimination to go back to a plain field and the best way to carry out this positive discrimination is through immersion and favoring those activities which promote Catalan language and Catalan culture. Positive discrimination is nothing new. African Americans and Hispanics enjoy positive discrimination policies in USA to try to compensate the burdens that British and Spanish (I should say Castilians) inflicted on their ancestors.<br /><br />You may tell me that 300 years is a long time and that we have to forget what happened in the past, that, as per today, Spanish is spoken by 450 million people and Catalan by barely 10 millions, that past is past. If this is your position, then, after 20 years living, traveling non-stop and working in 5 continents, I have to tell you that the common language, the language that brings together European, Americans, Asians, Africans and people from Oceania is not Spanish, but English. The <a href="http://www.abc.es/gestordocumental/uploads/nacional/manifiesto.pdf">manifesto</a> is pathetically anachronic, they are just trying to cling to the Spain of Phillip II, but all that grandeur is gone. The common language is English and I feel really ashamed when in the last paragraph, the self-proclaimed intellectuals demand from the Spanish politicians that they only use Spanish when they speak in public in Spain and overseas. I am afraid, they do not need to ask for it, since most of them cannot speak anything else.<br />Finally I would like to mention some related facts:<br />• Having a small language does not mean underdevelopment. Many countries with minority languages (the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, etc) have some of the highest per capita incomes<br />• When Spain was at its peak, in the 15th and 16th centuries, only Catalan was spoken in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and most of Valencia. This fact did not seem to stop Spain’s success.<br /><br />I also recommend that you read <a href="http://wirdheiminvilanova.blogspot.com/2008/07/el-talento-malgastado.html">Erik Wirdheim's related post</a>. It is simply beautiful.<br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/G4GipPyNwTs&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/G4GipPyNwTs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5m95BZOKDPs&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5m95BZOKDPs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-53171925459329213012008-06-11T15:04:00.000-07:002008-11-18T16:59:24.520-08:00I am not a Catalan Prussian Pig, Mr. Hunold!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYXxSKRBe1CrQ30h8bnzyawJdzKI5IaZ8LH9vK-Nisp9ElDxYq2sIFrYhSMcsmScxLaEf43AptKpU1Qwhg-PhUnVkKiIL-5aIRJNUM6g8T1Kx8ycb2mEITTj9SUW0LIO2-R7m_cVnrYPdk/s1600-h/Picture1-2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210751225492770962" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 426px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 216px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="114" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYXxSKRBe1CrQ30h8bnzyawJdzKI5IaZ8LH9vK-Nisp9ElDxYq2sIFrYhSMcsmScxLaEf43AptKpU1Qwhg-PhUnVkKiIL-5aIRJNUM6g8T1Kx8ycb2mEITTj9SUW0LIO2-R7m_cVnrYPdk/s400/Picture1-2.jpg" width="533" border="0" /></a><br />Some of those who landed in my blog recently may think that I would want to have Catalan as the only language spoken in Catalonia, and I would like it to become second language of choice in USA and China. Nothing further from reality, my approach to language is a very pragmatic one, based on trilingualism for all residents in Catalonia. I am not for segregated schools based on language or any other reason, a single trilingual education system for everyone. You can read a 2 year old summary on my position on language if you click <a href="http://ianllorens.blogspot.com/2006/01/some-guidance-on-language.html">here</a>.<br />I am a businessman and know that localization is a real pain in the lower back. The ideal situation for businesses is “one size fits all”, global market, single language: English. This reduces costs, accelerates the product roll-out and maximizes the profits. However, there are three reasons why at the end, many companies localize their products: competition, regulation and in some cases, a genuine desire for customer satisfaction.<br />Languages without a state have it very difficult to reinforce their customer requirements through regulation. For example, Kosovo, that was recognized by Germany and USA as a sovereign nation, three days after their independence proclamation, can now regulate that all products and services rendered in its territory need to be in Albanese, that if products are not labeled in Albanese, they cannot be sold locally, and companies need either to comply or go.<br />With Catalan, there are several reasons that make the adoption rate of companies much lower than that of other languages with only a fraction of its speakers:<br />· The fact that all Catalan speakers are bilingual<br />· The fact that Catalonia is not a sovereign state<br />· The lack of central government support (unlike other bilingual countries like Malta or Ireland)<br />· The lack of self-respect of a big portion of the Catalan speakers (around 50%), who would rather go for the cheapest option, instead of paying more for a product where their language is taken into consideration<br />· The cartels among companies to avoid that if one uses Catalan, the other ones will need to follow to maintain the market share , since the 50% who do care about language, would massively switch to the company which uses their language.<br /><br />The conclusion is that if you want products or services in your language, you need an own state and ever better, to have a substantial portion of monolingual people. It sounds crazy, but this is the pure reality.<br />The alternative to that is, on one side, use the market mechanisms to favor those products and companies which use our language, and second have some institutional support to lobby and educate the companies in our territory plus provide legal protection to whistleblowers who expose cartels.<br />That’s what happened when the Balearic government sent a letter to Air Berlin politely encouraging them to use Catalan in their interaction with its Catalan speaking customers.<br />Air Berlin could have reacted in many different ways. As for example:<br />· Saying that they were a low cost carrier and they could not afford it<br />· Saying that they already have 38 Catalan speaking employees in their offices and that customers could always refer to them<br />· That they are willing to install pre-recorded announcements in the flights if the Balearian government is prepared to foot the bill<br />· That the Catalan speaking customers are so smart that they always have a good command of one or several of the languages offered on board<br />All those would have been acceptable answers, respectful, logical.<br /><br />However Air Berlin’s CEO, Joachim Hunold decided to make a political statement in the editorial of his inflight magazine, a statement full or inaccuracies, lies and errors, mocking at the Catalan culture, ridiculing its pronunciation (does platja sound so much worst than Achtung?) and inferring that the Balearic islands are where they are today thanks to the European Community and that the Catalans would have never been able to make it happen.<br />Rajoy, the leader of the conservative Popular Party, could have not done it better, with the only glitch of the implicit pan-Catalan assumptions that Hunold made in his article.<br /><br />As a Catalan customer of Air Berlin, I did not take the editorial well and I decided that when next time I want to hop from Germany to Barcelona (as I do a couple of times a year), I will use other airlines.<br />However, what got me furious, was the little cartoon that illustrated the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmEZpWLiDI9uMI0xIFctFH2ExuQJSUtX7pXOZONJLdl_0Gzm-Ux4t58pt_0FbUe3QLo_oZrktIOqM8NQqALX91oUXag4uZXkNR6-c8URqe76OYneYEzdoTrSEiB1jcG0plC_Ix9sesBDBp/s1600-h/HunoldPorc_Page_2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210752589916883826" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 409px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 404px" height="449" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmEZpWLiDI9uMI0xIFctFH2ExuQJSUtX7pXOZONJLdl_0Gzm-Ux4t58pt_0FbUe3QLo_oZrktIOqM8NQqALX91oUXag4uZXkNR6-c8URqe76OYneYEzdoTrSEiB1jcG0plC_Ix9sesBDBp/s400/HunoldPorc_Page_2.jpg" width="431" border="0" /></a>editorial. I got really upset of being called Catalan Prussian Pig, that even though there is not yet consensus whether the Bavarian expression means either Catalan scumbag or Catalan fascist (a euphemistic way of saying the German N word), it is clearly not the way I like to be addressed by a service provider (and Catalonia had, at that point, nothing to do with the whole thing!).<br /><br />Mr. Hunold showed lack of tact, disrespect, defiance, conceit and vanity, but this did not stop the non Catalan speaking part of Spain, and especially the far right, to applaud and cheer Hunold’s wanton attack.<br /><br />Today, I just want to say to Mr. Hunold that despite the fact that I love my language with all my heart, no matter how it sounds, and I would have cried of joy if in just one of your flights, one stewardess would have addressed me in Catalan for 5 seconds (in my February flight from Shanghai to Munich with Lufthansa there was a Catalan speaking steward and they announced it), Mr Hunold, I am not a Catalan Prussian Pig. Herr Hunold, ich bin kein Saupreissische Katalaner.<br /><br />Since last Thursdays, the shares of Air Berlin are down by 30%, what has shaved more than 125M Euro in market capitalization. Today the president of the Air Berlin’s Iberian branch has vaguely committed to implementing Catalan somewhere in the future.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKXDXHKH9qB9Yd4g2KGupaWT-8umObDgttm7vMOvKBhSpLcCsD6cJRY2AgeNvL0eOTXZFqZ72BS4JfX4rWtZpYmVzygX1Q9hzSd-9y41Xz9XzfwX3yIxQ3Lhs6Bxkqqa_uz_VXRvb8BBKv/s1600-h/AB+shares.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210753218556488818" style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 440px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" height="272" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKXDXHKH9qB9Yd4g2KGupaWT-8umObDgttm7vMOvKBhSpLcCsD6cJRY2AgeNvL0eOTXZFqZ72BS4JfX4rWtZpYmVzygX1Q9hzSd-9y41Xz9XzfwX3yIxQ3Lhs6Bxkqqa_uz_VXRvb8BBKv/s400/AB+shares.jpg" width="652" border="0" /></a><br /><div><div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEielrtHysDFq0vGDs_-QmxacIoNICTBxKLyJcYN3zZfaqm3579VMvkOyuEywoupIl6w7t7V-q9VZol5DO1g2BalZc64qcbgBQcH_OZL9Tc_f4XrsDEeAHjJZ10mrx6tI8Koibo7u8W4tWV6/s1600-h/ABC.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210753065960621778" style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 450px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 226px" height="240" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEielrtHysDFq0vGDs_-QmxacIoNICTBxKLyJcYN3zZfaqm3579VMvkOyuEywoupIl6w7t7V-q9VZol5DO1g2BalZc64qcbgBQcH_OZL9Tc_f4XrsDEeAHjJZ10mrx6tI8Koibo7u8W4tWV6/s400/ABC.jpg" width="662" border="0" /></a></div></div></div>ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-34112754508383119922008-05-27T18:10:00.000-07:002008-11-18T16:59:24.580-08:00Politicians without "cojones"Some of you still remember that I described Catalonia as a <a href="http://ianllorens.blogspot.com/2006/12/catalonia-country-without-cojones.html">country without "cojones"</a>. And the question is where did we lose them? My conclusion is that we never had them, or, at least, our politicians never had them.<br />When I left Catalonia, 16 years ago, I thought that Catalonia was part of Spain and I never challenged that reality. After 16 years overseas, I have become a Catalan nationalist who would like to see Catalonia as an independent country. Why? I have realized that I<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotvRyCyjO-Z1giFglpKPeOS3rtcxIb26R_8SbVkfOZ5yIIctMUXfplG8m72UBFmKBj8CBe_iCJ6f1CBXNOaqpQpuv9Yo2Ez29ZuWlabrEMv1kYnkgaggUXLi8lPFK0JkegpKUZR7pF-di/s1600-h/Portrait+of+queen+Petronila+of+Aragon+and+count+Ramon+Berenguer+IV+of+Barcelona,+oil+canvas+1634+%28Prado+Museum%29.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5205259289418793874" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotvRyCyjO-Z1giFglpKPeOS3rtcxIb26R_8SbVkfOZ5yIIctMUXfplG8m72UBFmKBj8CBe_iCJ6f1CBXNOaqpQpuv9Yo2Ez29ZuWlabrEMv1kYnkgaggUXLi8lPFK0JkegpKUZR7pF-di/s320/Portrait+of+queen+Petronila+of+Aragon+and+count+Ramon+Berenguer+IV+of+Barcelona,+oil+canvas+1634+%28Prado+Museum%29.jpg" border="0" /></a> do not feel Spanish, I have little to do with the image Spain portrays in the world, I do not want to be identified with that country, I do not feel proud of being from Spain, I try to hide it or euphemistically say, I am from Barcelona (since I positively know that if I say I am from Catalonia, 99% people will think I am from Caledonia). My personal values are different from those who people associate with Spain or the Hispanic people and, in addition to that, I am against bullfighting in Catalonia, I dislike "flamenco", and I feel like vomiting when someone uses one of these symbols to refer to me. You can tell me that what I am saying it is an attack to Spain. I do not think so. You foreigners tell me the truth, which symbols do you associate with Spain. Go ahead. Tell me the truth. Do no be shy. Isn't it flamenco, siesta, bullfighting, conquistador? (I still remember when a group of Swedish customers visited my factory in Barcelona and during the factory tour they asked me where we took the naps. I swear). And now, tell me whether you think of the same symbols when you think about Andorra. You see. And I am much more like Andorra, even if that means that your mind is blank.<br />The Spanish government has done NOTHING to reverse this. Go to any embassy and you be immersed in a Castilian atmosphere. I feel like a man trapped in a woman's body, I want to be a man, but my ID says I am a woman. I want to be a Catalan, but I am a Spaniard (I have to say that since I became American, I feel much better, but it is impossible to erase decades of mental stress).<br />If someone wants to understand what a Catalan is (or was, I should say) and which the fundamental differences with the perceived Spanish culture are, I invite you to read Jaume Vicens i Vives's "Noticia de Catalunya" (Catalonia news), a very unbiased and subdued book about us Catalans filtered by the Franco's dictatorship, but deeply Catalan if you read between the lines.<br />All my internal suffering could have been avoided if years ago, decades ago, centuries ago, a millenium ago, Catalan politicians had had "cojones", but they had NOT. Starting with Ramon Berenguer IV who got engaged to a one year old Petronilla, was appointed regent of Aragon and who never took the title of King, never dared to change his title of count of Barcelona to king of Barcelona or king of Catalonia, and took the cojonessless title of "Count of Barcelona and Prince of Aragon". His son, Ramon Berenguer, the first king of the emerging XII century European power, the combination of the Catalan counties and Aragon, who was only 11 years old when he became count of Barcelona and 13 when his mother renounced her rights in Aragon in his favor and became king, ruled under the name of Alfonso II to PLEASE the Aragonese. Give me a break, he was not called Josep-Lluis, Ramon Berenguer was not so difficult to pronounce, he was the son, grandson, great grandson of Ramon Berenguers, he was born in the outskirts of Barcelona (something I have to change periodically in the <a href="http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_II_de_Arag%C3%B3n">Spanish wikipedia</a>, since they always make him a native of Huesca) and he had to change his name to please the Aragonese.<br />And his grandson, Jaume I, another big disappointment, even though I truely admire him. Despite he has nothing but praise for Catalonia and the Catalans ("And by the faith that we owe to God, since those of Catalonia, which is the best kingdom of Spain, the most honoured, the most noble,...", Llibre dels Feyts), he goes to Majorca and makes them a kingdom, he goes to Valencia and makes them a kingdom, he does not annex them to Catalonia, let it be, but he does not even change the rank of Catalonia to a kingdom, the most noble, the most honoured, the most "gilipollas", that's the truth.<br /><br />After such a brilliant start, what can we expect now? The worst. On one side, our politicians have adopted all the negative characteristics of our Catalan ancestors, making compromises too quickly, not having "cojones", being low profile, betraying their own (botiflerisme), etc, plus many other new ones that they have quickly absorbed like being corrupt, practicing nepotism, red tape, etc.<br />The Mas, Carod-Roviras, Puigcercos, Chacons, Corbachos, Vendrells and Montillas of this world will sink Catalonia and will actually erase the few remaining characteristics of our culture, characteristics which survived in its genuine form for more than 1000 years till 1939 and which first through Franco's application of Machiavelli's guidelines that can be concisely found in The Prince ('if you want to dominate a country that has a different language, it is much more effective to send colonies of your own people than big armies' wrote Machiavelli) and later through the even more effective methodology of self-destruction that consists of giving the power to a moron and ask him to represent an "honoured and noble" people.<br /><br />And I know what you are thinking and you are right. I have to admit it. I do not have "cojones" either.ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-30802193925450402872008-05-12T16:22:00.000-07:002008-11-18T16:59:25.159-08:00Carles Rius Çafó and Ildefons Falcons (I)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zaf%C3%B3n/dp/0143034901/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210637351&sr=8-3"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5199644985499326258" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6lnvGTNDr3jUxOLVAYRQgVeA-N6pn3bte7_Z76GGJDq4kj7WVUgUDxQsj0VdnsDOH9bZfCLa-PdBoN4Ur8ZAS4Nku5DD7U50X5zABWKSYs2hN04LeBX3F5jV67bene2kRtH1Hh1Yr9M1/s320/Zafon.jpg" border="0" /></a>In the last two months I have been flying a lot, those very long flights that give me the opportunity to finish long and interesting books. Two of those books were written by <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:city><st1:place>Barcelona</st1:place></st1:city> authors. The originals were written in Spanish (not in Catalan), although I decided to read one of them, The Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefolso Falcones in its wonderful translation to Catalan, since I thought it would allow me to get immersed much more easily in the medieval Catalonia. In general, I always try to read books in their original versions, but this time, reading The Cathedral of the Sea in Catalan was really a plus.<?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p> <p class="MsoNormal">I never wrote in the past about the <st1:place>Frankfurt</st1:place> book fair. Now with the perspective that time provides, I have to admit that, in my opinion, it was a blunder, no surprise if we take into consideration that Josep Lluis Carod-Rovira was behind the whole thing.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">As a purist, I went back to check how the invitation to <st1:state><st1:place>Catalonia</st1:place></st1:state> was phrased in the <st1:place>Frankfurt</st1:place> book fair website. There, they clearly stated that the <st1:state><st1:place>Catalonia</st1:place></st1:state> culture was invited, not the <st1:state><st1:place>Catalonia</st1:place></st1:state> literature, not the Catalan literature, not the literature in Catalan, but the Catalan culture. For me this is Culture generated by Catalans in any language. Not inviting Catalan authors writing in Spanish was, in my opinion, a big error. They should have positioned the Catalan culture as an open culture with excellent contributions in our mother tongue and also in other languages like Spanish. They could have even tried to find Catalans who write in other languages like English, French, German or Swedish (actually, there is afew of us) and give us a booth too. What about me?, I write in English, am I not considered Catalan culture?, apparently not, at least, for Carod-Rovira.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.amazon.com/Cathedral-Sea-Ildefonso-Falcones/dp/0525950486/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210637409&sr=1-1"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5199645436470892354" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilu4das8tqzB68tc9LXBywuMbVbH-91F4E6awERvqXn3mvpWmg822O2uC_xmbY42zK-3uJSiVjY-QHZluZwXjN4kvxhho6hO8nifLbWkCDBBjdfuz0kk0uwmqKLpCVlIYNmWOyWZSrFFp7/s320/Falcones.jpg" border="0" /></a>Frankly speaking, I think that the Catalan politicians do not portray the openness of the Catalan society. They should have taken credit for the contributions of all Catalans, independently of the language they use for their artistic creations, while highlighting the strength of the Catalan language which, in theory and due to its size, should be in the list of endangered languages, but which is still alive, kicking and growing.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Going back to Carlos Ruiz Zafón and Ildefonso Falcones, I think that there is a clear reason why they did not write their books in Catalan and the answer is that I think that they do not have a good enough command of the language to produce works of similar quality. They are both my age and at that time, it was forbidden to learn Catalan at school, and we spent years and years learning Spanish grammar and literature (from the "jarchas" to the Archpriest of Hita, from Cervantes to Pio Baroja, but never ever a single author who wrote in Catalan or a single piece of work written in Catalan). Therefore, I assume that they would have struggled (the same as I do, although I do not give up) to write something good in Catalan and they took the easy way out and it paid, since they are now famous and hopefully wealthy.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In one of my future posts, I will explain why, despite being written in Spanish, there is a thick Catalan subtract in those pieces of work, even in Ruiz Zafon's one.<span style="font-family:Batang;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-14017649759818784622008-04-15T05:25:00.000-07:002008-11-18T16:59:25.277-08:00Woman, Catalan and PregnantOne of the most powerful Spanish military unions has described the appointment of Carme Chacon as a provocation. They literally declared that the appointment of a woman, who in addition to that is Catalan and pregnant, is an insult to the Army institution.<br /><br />I remind you that the military have the constitutional duty to guarantee the unity of Spain. So they are tasked <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1QHqLxanJFJxHMyaZMeybIQyjeTZUdDtCChkL-PIt4sfsbcHecM3VAkka7hw_chCKhwPGVy0ZDqGHThKabkri-Jq8-5USy2BQGwG1UGuLsw9yG-Yc3mOtlQCzmEBVUnCw5O7dOt1-LPRN/s1600-h/ZapaClub.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5189464997542104338" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" height="397" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1QHqLxanJFJxHMyaZMeybIQyjeTZUdDtCChkL-PIt4sfsbcHecM3VAkka7hw_chCKhwPGVy0ZDqGHThKabkri-Jq8-5USy2BQGwG1UGuLsw9yG-Yc3mOtlQCzmEBVUnCw5O7dOt1-LPRN/s320/ZapaClub.jpg" width="434" border="0" /></a>with the important duty of keeping Spain as a united country and shoot to kill anyone who may threaten a united Spain even if they come from inside. I may be at risk.<br />As you can imagine my respect for the Spanish military is zero. They are a bunch of fascists who would like to see the dictator Francisco Franco rise from his ashes like the Phoenix avis.<br /><br />On the other side, I have to agree with them on something. The new Spanish government is a joke. A random selection of macaques at the Madrid zoo would have yielded an higher average IQ than the one of the new cabinet.<br />I also have to openly say that it is hard for me to see a Catalan as the head of an Spanish army, which has been openly anti-Catalan and that would not hesitate to shoot anyone who would challenge the unity of Spain, in Barcelona, in Girona or in Maçanet de Cabrenys. I felt like crying when she said that "the Spanish Army, never before, has been better prepared to defend Spain's sovereignity and independence" during yesterday's march-past.<br /><br />Mr Zapatero's cabinet is pathetic. I thought that after 20 years global experience in executive positions in 4 continents, I may not be yet ready for a cabinet position in the Catalan government. Today I think that I may be overqualified.<br /><br />I am today in Hong Hong and I wanted to talk about trilingual countries (Cantonese, Mandarin anf English here). I will leave this for my next posting.ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-74442306364757392822008-03-27T06:44:00.000-07:002008-03-28T16:26:57.547-07:00I didn't do it !!!Since my vacation, I have not been in the mood of writing anything. The result of the last Spanish elections was so disappointing that I felt like giving up my political blogging endeavor. After a couple of years of chaos in our infrastructures, a trimmed down "Estatut", the deployment of which never starts, continuous threats of boycott, captive airports, etc, etc. etc. and we go and vote for the Socialists. Unbelievable!. It's obvious that personally I have no future in the Catalan political landscape.<br /><br />The last straw was the additional House representative that the Popular Party got in Barcelona thanks to the votes of overseas Catalans. I promise, I was not the one, I would not vote for the Popular Party in any circumstance because they are simply anti-Catalan, whereas the Socialist party is merely sloppy and incompetent.<br /><br />You may want to know whom I voted for. I voted for CiU, just because it is the least of all evils. You know I lean towards the right, and that I am a Catalan nationalist, so despite the fact that I believe that CiU lead politicians and especially Duran-i-Lleida and Mas are a bunch of "botiflers" (traitors) and that the former is, in addition to that, corrupt, I decided to vote for the idealistic concept of a competent center-right Catalan nationalistic party, rather than giving my vote away to the enemies of my nation.<br /><br />The debacle of ERC is also remarkable and shows two things, that the current leaders of ERC (Carod-Rovira, Puigcercos, etc.) are literally morons, not bad people, simply they have not been blessed with an IQ that would allow them to conduct a normal job, and therefore they had no option but to become politicians where no credentials are required and that people do not forgive their slave-like submission to the Socialist party.<br /><br />If Catalonia does not get a solid, mainstream, serious left wing party, we will continue to be a scoff, an object of mockery and derision. When the PSC becomes the equivalent of the Catalan Popular Party, the party from the Spanish nationalist left wing minority in Catalonia and left wing Catalans vote massively for ERC, then we have a chance of success. But this will only be possible if ERC distances itself from anti-system positions, recruit high level politicians and becomes something similar to the British labor party.<br /><br />Unfortunately the chances of that happening are slim, and I foresee a decade of flat ECG politicians in the Catalan landscape that will sink our country and make us the benchmark of mediocrity and idiocy.<br /><br />I am suggesting to the Catalan political leaders to adopt other methods to, at least, keep the people awake until I return in 2017.<br />I enclose videoclips with the methods used by politicians in other geographies, some of those politicians as dull as ours. The first one is a debate between the Japanese politicians of the autonomous region of Hokkaido (*) (Kalod-Lovila, Puigzelkos and at, the end of the clip, Dulan-i-Yeida) and the other one is an Obama supporter trying to make us forget about his controversial priest (*).<br /><br /><embed src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/477476/.swf" width="400" height="345" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> </embed><br><font size = 1><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/477476//"></a> - <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/">The most popular videos are here</a></font><br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dyjXt1zSXHU&hl=es"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dyjXt1zSXHU&hl=es" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br />(*) Totally invented statementsian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-28749327556616483652008-02-22T10:59:00.000-08:002008-11-18T16:59:25.576-08:00Bahama mama<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wA_PW83t8c8Z_rrJgwmyduyl0Iobj_KG8M1pBdMwhsVdlGuExW_Q8z-B8oGmcLJqtwHNHTfrCeilDtJBAwnuBXMWHkamUO-LAzTQtQJkGWBtj01XgQ6NrtX1DJPahLIfs63jyuoR_wL7/s1600-h/DSC_0456.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5170636929773566466" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wA_PW83t8c8Z_rrJgwmyduyl0Iobj_KG8M1pBdMwhsVdlGuExW_Q8z-B8oGmcLJqtwHNHTfrCeilDtJBAwnuBXMWHkamUO-LAzTQtQJkGWBtj01XgQ6NrtX1DJPahLIfs63jyuoR_wL7/s320/DSC_0456.JPG" border="0" /></a>These couple of weeks have been tough on me. Since I decided to keep my personal and business lives totally separated, I will not elaborate on it, maybe I will do so in 2017, but not now.<br />However I decided, impromptu, to take a vacation with my family and go to the Bahamas. Someone had recommended me a resort in Paradise Island, near Nassau, called <a href="http://www.atlantis.com/">Atlantis</a> and so far, it has been no disappointment, despite the $600 a night. It is the right place to relax, you do not have to leave the compound for an entire week, it's a hotel, aquarium, waterpark and tropical beach in a single location.<br />The Bahamas is a funny place. This former Spanish territory discovered by Colombus in his first trip is now a predominantly black nation. The Spaniards eradicated the local tribes, the Lucayans, through slavery and disease, and left the islands practically uninhabited. As usual, about 150 later, the British took them over. I have been in many countries in 5 continents (I should say 6, since the Americans consider North and South America as two different continents), but I never went thorough Immigration and Customs with a live Reggae band playing in the background.<br />As I said, my kids loved the place, the water slides ending through the sting ray and shark <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLn38y1aGqe9vSExlbrC332kHcuKEZNJtyhez7Gmh2tVgFLtTYjlHgGDhMi_a8Oz5SHXhNIR0AM9syEggg0a70OeIwEDX5ORJcxPYDvuGNUyp1M8ZQ1z-ujE9xuY6LHYsf7dA_-A1GAKWl/s1600-h/DSC_0321.JPG"></a>filled pools are a real hit and the half and hour rapids are a lot of fun. To tell you the truth, personally I prefer the Costa Brava, where the food is 100 times better or a 10 dollar a night Kampung type of hotel in the Riau archipelago (Indonesian islands in the Malaka strait), but an upscale vacation from time to time is not bad either if you can afford it. I will consider it, a birthday present, <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7V0cFPKvnVJrX80-QdDh070ppu1c3nOSuknegqZdrk6hNU7Nzdqd_BkjMQwkVVkbdYKiB2Zhyphenhyphen9rtdYXI5jwcprftnsyOq_ma3llaMDpI7BWXFAZtXZ-7OxQOHsmObiYjjLF6H15NCTCE/s1600-h/DSC_0317.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5170642770929089042" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" height="205" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7V0cFPKvnVJrX80-QdDh070ppu1c3nOSuknegqZdrk6hNU7Nzdqd_BkjMQwkVVkbdYKiB2Zhyphenhyphen9rtdYXI5jwcprftnsyOq_ma3llaMDpI7BWXFAZtXZ-7OxQOHsmObiYjjLF6H15NCTCE/s320/DSC_0317.JPG" width="283" border="0" /></a>because, yes, today February 22nd 2008, is my birthday (same birth date as George Washington) and I am celebrating it drinking a Bahama Mama at the pool while listening to, of course, a live reggae band and typing on my laptop. And what about Catalonia, OK, OK, my <a href="http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bahama-Mama/Detail.aspx">Bahama Mama </a>had a good shot of Bacardí rum, a real good one, and the founder of the Bacardí dynasty was born in Sitges (Barcelona). Unfortunately, no one knows about it (but me) and they all make him Italian and pronounce it as Bacàrdi. Again, no pride, no "cojones"!!!<br /><br />Note: the pictures are not catalog pics, I took them.ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-34026934216762220922008-02-03T15:16:00.000-08:002008-11-18T16:59:25.795-08:00Dos fills de puta<div>Today I would like to teach you a little bit of Catalan. I will start with the expression "fill de puta" or its plural "fills de puta". The translation is son(s) of a bitch, or as DJ Salinger would write, sonuvabitch. It is used as synonim of idiot, moron or asshole and not in reference to its literal meaning. In general, son of a bitch's mothers are nice women who do not deserve the kind of kids they raised.<br />As you all know, there are sons of a bitch everywhere, but the percentage seems to be much higher among Catalan journalists. The biggest dickheads are <a href="http://www.enricvila.cat/">Enric Vila </a>and <a href="http://www.salvadorsostres.com/">Salvador Sostres</a>. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMYSl0dvgXqlvFGd8W9xQEGdqKoipR4C7KPJFzsA61NC6n1L2MV-Qf9s_lWZyULzUBoKv5oqWgqbUKnze2coKnQbOFYIdTvrOjnZQ8j8uHYaNZ1FV8PbknCtdcqnNz1Y9qdxw6Y57FcO6u/s1600-h/VilaSostres.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163324279039415858" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMYSl0dvgXqlvFGd8W9xQEGdqKoipR4C7KPJFzsA61NC6n1L2MV-Qf9s_lWZyULzUBoKv5oqWgqbUKnze2coKnQbOFYIdTvrOjnZQ8j8uHYaNZ1FV8PbknCtdcqnNz1Y9qdxw6Y57FcO6u/s320/VilaSostres.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyjkXIm0GZY0iBKoLBz30DdtDOVTJM9pmkPOmRzlwvG3T5WJYRD9mMp-vZgSOGxB4DwGBp43D2GO8MsOzV0oUMw3LwTP8uW24dx0dFmGFim-So2uV9KBEcr-P80v0okKKZqtXWq8odLUlu/s1600-h/DosFillsdePuta.jpg"></a><br />With the false pretext to defend the Catalan language, these misguided individuals have developed a strategy to continuously insult immigrants who do not speak Catalan using a xenofobic and racist language which I find unacceptable.<br />As an example, Enric Vila recently recommended to those people (immigrants who do not speak Catalan) "to go back to their shitty countries with their shitty people, who have not been able to create or defend a minimum level of harmony". Three of four years ago, Salvador Sostres said in an article published in Avui referring to those who spoke Spanish: "only poor people, rednecks and analphabets speak a language which sounds so horrendously when pronouncing the letter j".<br />However, this kind of language is not exclusive of Catalonia. I have heard similar things in USA and Germany, and actually I once left a meeting when I suggested to hire some Spanish speaking people to deal with Mexican customers and someone said, Spanish is only useful to talk to my cleaning woman and my gardener.<br />Maybe I am too sensitive, because I am also an immigrant. When I went to Singapore, I only spoke English, but not Mandarin, Malay or Tamil (I learnt Malay while there) and in China, I did not speak Mandarin or Suzhouese when I arrived (while there, I learnt Mandarin and I was able to understand Suzhouese when I left), but I can assure you that I would have not lasted much as a waiter if I had had to wait in any of those languages. Despite this, I made great contributions to those countries and I continuously promote them and their culture. And no one ever told me to go back to my shitty country with my shitty people, much to the contrary.<br /><br />However, I also want to promote my language, but with respect and education. Only Catalans are to blame for the decline in our language and we could turn things around if we wanted. These are the reasons why Catalan does not make progress:<br /><br /><ul><br /><li>Catalan business owners do not want to spend a cent to satisfy customers. They should make sure that there is always Catalan speaking personnel to attend to customers who want to be waited in Catalan. However, the only thing they want is to make money and they hire those who are willing to work for less and in addition to that, they do not provide them with training to improve their language and job skills</li><br /><li>We, Catalan consumers are lazy and do not fight for our rights. If we want service in Catalan and it is not available, we should demand it to the manager or the owner and leave the restaurant if it is not available. But we should always treat the staff with education, they were hired as they are, and it is not their responsibility if they cannot meet the customer needs. If Catalans would only patronize stores or restaurants where service is offered in Catalan, very soon, all businesses would offer it, but we are, in general and including myself, a bunch of sheep. Remember my post <a href="http://ianllorens.blogspot.com/2006/05/zom-una-nazi.html">“zom una nazió”</a></li><br /><li>Many Catalan people do not want to work hard. In USA, many waiters and waitresses in restaurants or hotels are college or high school students who work part time to pay for school, car, or vacation. In Catalonia, there are hardly any students who work, they prefer to get allowance from their parents until they are 30 years old. If all university students would work evenings, weekends or summers, the need of foreign labor for service activities would decline and most of the businesses would be able to offer service in Catalan.</li></ul><br /><p>But let me tell you that people like Vila and Sostres are a minority. There's sons of bitch everywhere and Catalonia is no exception. Unfortunately people like them cause a lot of damage to the Catalan national cause. We should not blame the weak and the needy. We should only blame ourselves for where we are.</p></div>ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-38535690437935600672008-01-03T17:31:00.000-08:002008-11-18T16:59:26.259-08:00Happy New Year full of deceit<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH9BRVTvz4KaTeg0JMHcQN4vk5c8Q79nD2Y1eCB1w6pJuskWtfG7ngg0nl01Fo8IF3i7sC31bMNlf-4IqEOqBQ-aWN1mCowx6c92uefvKL8BSduNTvh2Njz755QOvWtPwrFoItuGwHtYNS/s1600-h/BackyardSnow.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5151434719557154674" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" height="237" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH9BRVTvz4KaTeg0JMHcQN4vk5c8Q79nD2Y1eCB1w6pJuskWtfG7ngg0nl01Fo8IF3i7sC31bMNlf-4IqEOqBQ-aWN1mCowx6c92uefvKL8BSduNTvh2Njz755QOvWtPwrFoItuGwHtYNS/s320/BackyardSnow.jpg" width="274" border="0" /></a>Last year I thought that global warming was around the corner. We had little snow in New England and in January temperatures reached 70 plus degrees. I remember playing basketball with my daughter on the front yard in mid January. But global warming is making things pretty cold this year. Today the temperature was 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 Celsius) and we had a lot of snow in a beautiful white Christmas and white New Year (almost 2 feet of snow, as you can see on this picture of my house backyard).<br /><br /><br />The good news for those who want a change in the Catalan politics is that in only 9 years, I will come back to Catalonia to revolutionize the Catalan politics. My preference is not to come back on the front lines, but become a key strategist that will bring one bright but inexperienced candidate to success, a Karl Rove type of person, but nicer. However, if the raw material in Catalan politics continues to be as crappy as it is today, I will have to step up and take the lead.<br />2008 is going to be a memorable year. In the upcoming Spanish national elections you will be able to witness <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwA6jidwA5fF1BqEc6cYA8HqV7y2nZ5hy-Dx9pUcSJsBMhkltRupmBzcqiZdtk1q4WT6Y4SZ2AL6EJq3_x9xjvLYTSVNalZw6Tsww6p6Giblm4Su1QFX85BIgCUzc3d9fahhIRMfLlHmbp/s1600-h/ParlamanetCatalunyaClosingSession.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5151431764619655010" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" height="277" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwA6jidwA5fF1BqEc6cYA8HqV7y2nZ5hy-Dx9pUcSJsBMhkltRupmBzcqiZdtk1q4WT6Y4SZ2AL6EJq3_x9xjvLYTSVNalZw6Tsww6p6Giblm4Su1QFX85BIgCUzc3d9fahhIRMfLlHmbp/s320/ParlamanetCatalunyaClosingSession.jpg" width="230" border="0" /></a>all kind of deceitful practises, multiple lies, unfulfilled promises turned into attacks to others, public money funneled to individuals with close links to the political leaders, politicians selling Catalonia for power or using Catalonia to get power, principles flushed down the toilet, etc., etc. and the reality is that Catalonia will continue to lose influence, will become more and more mediocre, our language will lose ground while being told that Spanish is being suppressed and the education system will produce individuals who will not be able to meet the challenges of the 21st century.<br />I hope that not all will be lost. I am a specialist in crisis management and business turn-arounds, but I need something to build on. Nine years is not that long.<br /><br />Happy New Year.<br />Ian Llorensian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-42365120252901067692007-12-20T15:21:00.000-08:002008-11-18T16:59:26.712-08:00R rated shitting logI have never been a Tió person. Even though I am fully aligned with many of the scatological Catalan traditions like the “caganer” (shitter) who occupies a privileged spot in my Nativity display, I never fell for the shitting log (Caga Tió). When I was a kid, some of my 100% Catalan friends got their presents on Christmas Eve through the log shitting methodology, but hybrids like me, were hooked to the cleaner Three Magic King tradition.<br /><br /><br /><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146201181647894322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpA-na94A36B2Jc00poI0gVS6S3ZvZl0Qx7L7MSJkVdzUx4Pz44v8Ksy5rdxObczIS2BbWYyN47t-kEjClci2LsAZlk3OG5fLogIF-NJ6E7T4ON_qqoOE5dmU9N5hUNNTPDO8fv5EkfsqL/s320/PICT0086.JPG" border="0" /><br />I have to give credit to the previous dictator Franco for having devised a plan to eradicate Catalonia as a nation by favoring the relocation of a massive amount of people from other regions to dilute the Catalan sentiment and convert Catalonia into a blended combination of Spanish traditions. He was quite successful in his attempts, but died too early to fully succeed and the Catalan seeds started to re-grow in the 1980s. I am not totally sure what globalization will bring to us. The vast majority of those who moved from other regions to Catalonia are now Catalans and have embraced the Catalan culture and language and their children have no ties whatsoever with the regions where their parents come from. It is unclear to me what’s going to happen with the 1 million foreign nationals who migrated to Catalonia in the last decade. I see most of them very interested in transforming Catalonia into what they thought it would be, instead of adapting to what Catalans as a people want Catalonia to be. I think that the way the Catalan government reacts to the situation with things like Catalan immersion or obligations on Catalan signage is understandable, but often backfires. Strategy is more important than tactics if we want to win the battle against homogenization.<br />Anyway let’s go back to the shitting log tradition. The poem below was recited by the kids who gathered around the shitting log while hitting the log with a baton. At the end of the process, the Tió would defecate all kinds of presents for the children and adults rejoicing:<br /><br /><br />Caga tió/Shitting log,<br />Tió de Nadal/Christmas log<br />No caguis arengades/Don't shit herrings<br />Que són salades /‘cause they are salty<br />Caga torrons/Shit nougat<br />Que son mes bons!/Which is much better<br /><br />A couple of months ago, I was in a hotel in Japan watching a late night show, while drinking a glass of rice sake to try to compensate my jet lag, I saw a TV advertisement which made me long for the shitting log tradition. I am in my mid forties and my continuous trips, long haul flights, jet lags, meetings and teleconferences any time of the day and often nights, have partially eroded my stamina, what translates directly into a poor sex life. My problem is not ED, it is just exhaustion and the Japanese R rated ad seemed to address exactly my requirements. I was able to find a video clip in one of the video sharing sites (I have edited out the steamiest scenes to still have a remote chance to become a Catalonian Politician). On Christmas Eve, I will hit hard my shitting log and hope that the present will be there at the end of the night. You may want to try the same. I do not understand Japanese, but my assumption is that neither the guy nor the girl come with the piece of equipment.<br /></p><p><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=video&file=Mid_Age_aid_censored_2.wmv">Mid Age Crisis Aid</a></span></p>ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-37824793731375378012007-12-13T14:22:00.000-08:002008-11-18T16:59:26.788-08:00Las Vegas in Los MonegrosIt is no point being a visionary, if my Catalan audience does not want to follow me. Most probably I am already too American, too market economy oriented, too focused on the private sector, against a welfare society which penalizes hardworking people and pampers the lazy.<br />I am often blasted in the Catalan forums when I propose a dramatic downsizing of the government, free enterprise, reduction of the welfare benefits for those who are healthy, but simply do not want to work. I still think that the government should provide a cushion for the needy, senior citizens, children and sick people, but that's it.<br />But today I will not elaborate about my political views, I will do that step by step, today I want to talk to you about a missed opportunity.<br />When in December 2005 I was in my room at the MGM hotel in Vegas, I had a dream. I looked trough the window and I saw the flashing hotels superimposed to the desertic background. It reminded me of Los Monegros. I used to cross Los Monegros when I was a kid. We visited, from time to time, my mother's relatives who lived near Saragossa. I still remember crossing the Monegross when I was 4 or 5 in my father's olive green Seat 600. It was in August and the car was literally boiling. The temperature outside was 110 degrees and inside 120. My father stopped at the roadside, somewhere between Alfajarin and Bujaraloz. The Guardia Civil stopped shortly after. My father told them that we had a problem in the car, it was hot as hell. The police inspected the car and found the problem. I had activated the heating. There was a lever to activate the heating under the passenger seat. While playing in the rear seat, I had turned it on. In the 1960's kids did not wear safety belts, just played around without any restrictions.<br />I also remember that when the Americans made it to the Moon, my grandmother used to tell me that it was all a sham, that she heard that American military film crews based in Saragossa had been seen filming in the Monegros, months before the Americans landed in the Moon. I was a kid and I believed her.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143632551277243106" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRSnhCOcaeqmXqaN7h8hyt1nB5kXWi92Z4e4krxfBNmqeXtQy34QwsWc9xa_F1NEawZXMUnQp59BdzDsuAzEwSJ72fFv3-n_NMcbGfR3eovyVH1RRYEjbJ602-I8uo6EYp4T_iphpwWtc_/s400/e1.jpg" border="0" /><br />I also remember that in my mother's village, they would call us catalanufos or something similar and they tried to hurt our feelings by saying that we spoke a dialect. They did not offend me (they would now), I thought they were village people and I was coming from the civilization. For a strange reason, my mother always talked to me in Catalan. Most probably because she thought that I would have more possibilities of success if I was bilingual. Almost everyone spoke only Spanish in the 1960s Hospitalet de Llobregat where I grew up.<br /><br />From the MGM hotel I imagined that I was back in Los Monegros and I thought it would be a great idea to encourage Catalan businessmen (and women) to invest in Los Monegros to set up a Las-Vegas-like leisure complex. I also encouraged them to set up a bullfighting rink, since I was sure that bullfighting would be banned in Catalonia with the new Estatut. In March 2006, I published a post with my recommendations, it was called <a href="http://ianllorens.blogspot.com/search?q=las+vegas">Las Vegas II</a>.<br />Unfortunately, no one in Catalonia followed my advice. We could have made millions. It would been the ideal complement to Catalonia, like Vegas is to California. The reality is that a group of International investors has recently unveiled its plans to start a <a href="http://www.elpais.com/articulo/Pantallas/nuevo/Vegas/Monegros/elpepirtv/20071214elpepirtv_1/Tes">Las-Vegas-like leisure complex in Los Monegros</a>, exactly as suggested by me. Since I proposed the idea two years ago in my blog and my blog was licensed under a Creative Commons Attibution, do you thing I have rights to some royalties? I will check with my lawyer.ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-46358140363251199582007-11-23T13:09:00.000-08:002008-11-18T16:59:26.934-08:00Resign in Spanish and in Catalan used to be “dimitir”When I was a student at the Institute of North American Studies in Barcelona, our teacher, an interesting guy called Donald from Cocoa Beach Florida, spent a couple of lessons talking about things which sound similar in English and Spanish, but have different meanings. The most vivid example I remember is the word molest. As many of you well know, “molestar” means to disturb in Spanish. Some Spanish speaking people, however, have the tendency to say, “may I molest you?”, instead of “may I disturb you?”, what in some instances can bring them some trouble, since the connotation of molest in English is mainly related to making indecent sexual advances. The other word I remember is the word resign. The correct translation for resign is dimitir in Spanish (and also in Catalan. I know that in Catalan you can also say resignar, but let’s forget about it for the purpose of this post). Donald explained with multiple examples that when someone resigned, he or she was giving up an office or position and that we should not confuse the word resign with resign oneself to something.<br />After 30 years I have realized that Donald was wrong, that the word “dimitir”(resign) has been eliminated from the Spanish and Catalan dictionaries and that the only words left are “resignarse/resignar-se (resign oneself to something, to submit (oneself) passively; accept as inevitable).<br />Yesterday was Thanksgiving day and I was able to spend a couple of hours reading all the Spanish and Catalan internet press and I felt like crying. The situation in Catalonia is deteriorating so dramatically, but no one is taking any responsibility. I already mentioned in my previous posts the situation of the infrastructures and that the incumbent ministress Magdalena Alvarez (the spell checker wants me to change the word ministress by mistress, I am impressed by Microsoft!) is holding on to her post. Emulating John Stark’s famous sentence “Live free or die”, she said “antes partía que doblá” an Andalusian phrase that could be translated as “rather dead, than kneeling” And here we are, the infrastructures suck and she is a happy woman. Today she opened a new tunnel that connects France and Spain. It is ahead of time, as it was fully financed by the private sector. Unfortunately it connects nothing with nothing, because neither the Spanish side of the High Speed train, nor the French one, will be ready in many many years, but there she was, on the border, smiling and cutting ribbons, while tens of thousands of Catalans suffer every day from the ailing infrastructures. The Catalan disaster will position her very very well in the next elections when she is said to be a candidate for Malaga. Problems created in Catalonia are great credentials in the rest of Spain to become a public official.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136148560425978338" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLpXzgFF7vy_PEaSYL7bRAX_2hIUgh4MaeADMkaAcelgo-IoZoICX6iqz28aTaS24ANt2EtAo94qc5CqAutBcDHxVH1ztcRI2r31QBIcq4cFlrl30dF8Jah-G9qVvLR1AO4QGbznZuGmhyphenhyphen/s400/MaleniSe+Rie.jpg" border="0" />But is she guilty of all this? No, not fully. The only group of people responsible for the debacle is the Catalan politicians, especially those in the “tripartite” (Montilla, Carod and company) who did not have any master plan for infrastructures in Catalonia. How can you measure progress if you have no plan. I heard Carod saying exactly that, “we have to admit that we had no long term plan in infrastructures” Quins collons! (translated as beep). And they are all still there, getting richer and richer and sending the kids to private schools.<br />That leads me to the last point I want to discuss today: the <a href="http://www.fbofill.cat/intra/fbofill/documents/Dossier_%20de_premsa.pdf">last report of the Jaume Bofill Foundation</a> shows that Catalonia is trailing the rest of the countries in the European Union and even the majority of Spanish regions in terms of education. The only two countries which are worse than Catalonia are the two super powers Portugal and Malta. The biggest fiasco is in the secondary education where the percentage of drop-outs is extremely high. In a normal country the secretary of education would have resigned. Education is a fully transferred competence, so we cannot blame Madrid for this. However the guy responsible, Ernest Maragall, brother of the one who is even more responsible Pasqual Maragall, has said he has no intention to resign, that they were aware of it and they will take urgent measures. Urgent measures!!!. Once again, those living in Catalonia will have to resign themselves while our politicians pocket as much money as they can in a nation that collapses.ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-48619917634893195062007-11-15T12:10:00.000-08:002008-11-18T16:59:27.304-08:00Labeling in Catalan: right or vanity?<p>Prior to me going to Barcelona, I had decided that I would only buy products labeled in Catalan during my vacation. I do not mean products labeled only in Catalan, I think labels in Catalonia should be in Spanish-Catalan-English or Spanish-Catalan-Galician-Basque. In my first visit to the supermarket, I saw plenty of bilingual labels. However, the two languages were not Catalan and Spanish, as you may assume, the labels were in Spanish and Portuguese.<br />I thought that as consumer, I had the right to choose. I thought that labels would be in Catalan because millions of Catalan speaking consumers demanded it, and companies would want to make customers happy by addressing their specific needs, not because of the threat of fines. But I was wrong. Very soon I realized that if I wanted to stick to my plan, I would die of inanition after a couple of days. There was almost nothing labeled in Catalan and I started to wonder why.<br />After giving some thought to the situation, these are my conclusions: </p><ul><li>Catalan consumers in general, Catalan and Castilian speaking, do not value labeling in Catalan. I have seen many comments in several e-newspaper forums, where people said, “I would not spend a single cent to have labels or DFUs (Directions For Use) in Catalan”, “Companies will leave Catalonia if we ask for these things”, etc. We will go no where with this kind of mentality. We have to demand what we believe is right. Both Catalan and Spanish speaking should demand bilingual labels for all products sold in Catalonia and, at the beginning, they should be willing to accept a small mark up to get the machinery started. I also remind you that most of the jobs created by the requirement to have customer facing interfaces in Catalan cannot be outsourced: call centers and translation services cannot be moved outside the Catalan speaking territories. Conclusion: if we Catalans do not value it and demand it, companies will not voluntarily go through the extra effort. </li><br /><li>The anti-Catalan sentiment in Spain is unbelievable. Very few people understand that the only way to keep Catalonia in Spain in the long term is to embrace its diversity, support it and promote it. It is interesting to see that the anti-Basque sentiment is far milder, despite the fact that Catalonia has almost always used pacific methods to defend its rights. This anti-Catalan sentiment prevents companies from labeling products in Spanish and Catalan for its distribution throughout Spain. Many people in Spain would not buy bilingual labeled products if they noticed that Catalan is one of the languages, no problem if the other language is Portuguese or English, but Catalan, no way, and many companies do not want to run the risk of boycott for distributing products with Catalan as one of the language on the labels. Isn’t it sad? </li><br /><li>The third issue is collusion. I am convinced that there is a certain level of collusion among companies operating in Catalonia to avoid labeling in Catalan. I cannot prove it (I hope a whistleblower will bring this to light one day), but I am convinced that a number of companies have agreed not to label in Catalan to avoid that if one company does it, it will get a much bigger market share and the rest will have to follow. Browse in internet and you will find by yourself. SEAT advertises in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_language">Estonian</a> in Estonia (<a href="http://www.topauto.ee/seat/">click here to see</a>). There is only 1.1 million people who speak Estonian, and most of them speak Russian too, but SEAT spends advertising dollars to tailor the offer for the Estonian. Seat is a Catalonia based company, but its only website in Catalan (<a href="http://www.seat.cat/">http://www.seat.cat/</a>) is only addressed to Andorra. It is disheartening.</li><br /><li>Finally, I think that there is a total lack of pride among the Catalan business people. In my previous blog, in a post called <a href="http://ianllorens.blogspot.com/search?q=freixenet">"Catalonia, a country without cojones"</a>, I explained that Freixenet sells cava in USA, without any reference to Catalonia, Barcelona or even Sant Sadurni d'Anoia. A couple of weeks ago, I ran of out "cava" and in my home, there is no celebration without Catalan "sparkling wine", so I rushed to the liquor store and the only one one I could find is the famous 1+1=3 (I had never heard it in my life). At least this one had a translation of the brand to Catalan “u més u fan tres”, but no reference to Barcelona or Catalonia. I repeat again, a country without "cojones". </li></ul><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133177714367465938" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp_8Lxwc-DuMgTBVTxI3kuMfwKXJXibdxRrMy2CBy_PeruXgFQT0EqYB6-rZaatM8HhDI-IG0MkD-83PvuMA7aYpfFvLX2gCWRX3kOyNjUx0cFhAF9MWRRJjjaxwp84r0PCwfvb6IWZfWA/s400/1mes1-1.JPG" border="0" /><br /></p>ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301444029778064048.post-76862298491665657812007-10-28T19:45:00.000-07:002008-11-18T16:59:27.504-08:00Barcelona: business city or third world?This year’s <a href="http://www.cushmanwakefield.com/cwglobal/jsp/newsDetail.jsp?repId=c7400002p&LanId=EN&LocId=EMEA">Cushman&Wakefield survey </a>ranked Barcelona as the number 4 European city for business, after London, Paris and Frankfurt (Madrid was 7th). The survey has very nice words for Barcelona: "The Catalan capital has been one of the fastest risers in the ranking since ECM was first launched in 1990. This goes to support the view that the more a city is perceived to promote itself, the more it will be perceived as a good business location". However when you study the survey, you immediately realize that there are reasons for concern, Barcelona ranks first in quality of life for expats, but does very poorly in infrastructure, level of English and preparedness of the local workforce. In another words, the expats have a lot of fun (“s’ho passen de conya”), eat well, enjoy our mountains and beaches, but the local workforce does not meet the standard, cannot speak English and the infrastructure sucks.<br />I would agree to almost everything, except to the lack of preparedness of the workforce. It is true that the English level is poor, but if I see how Catalan expats do overseas, pretty well in general, I have to conclude that our universities are not that bad and, in addition to that, we are fast learners.<br />As you know, English and infrastructures are my pet peeve. I have been hammering it since I started my first blog <a href="http://ianllorens.blogspot.com/">Catalonia, Politics and Supply Chain</a>. Catalans pleeeease learn English, do not forget your Catalan and Spanish, but pleeeease learn English. That’s the only way to get multinationals back with real jobs that cannot be outsourced.<br />But let me tell you my experience with infrastructures. When I left Catalonia, in 1992, I was proud of my city and my nation, Catalonia, the transformation in the 80s had been amazing. This summer I went back as every other year and I had to face a debacle, an airport with absolutely no organization, displays with the wrong information, the luggage took for ever to appear and if you dared to ask, they would look at you, as though you were a criminal. In the security check area, the tables were not connected to the scanner, so you had to carry two or three trays in your arms, in addition to your other personal belongings. When I suggested to the female Guardia Civil to connect the tables and the scanner so that we could push the trays instead of struggling to carry them, she told me: “no nos lo han mandao d'arriba” (we have not been told from “above”). Give me a break. I want to go home to Boston.<br />From the airport I went to my old neighborhood in Gracia. Most of the district had no electricity and you could hear very loud generators trying to pump up some electricity to the apartment buildings. We avoided the train, because it broke down all the time, leaving commuters stranded a couple of days a week. Then I decided to go to the Costa Brava, to Calella de Palafugell to be exact, and it took us more than three hours. We were moving at an average speed of 10 m/h and we still had to pay 10 bucks at the toll booth. The last straw was my trip to Montserrat. Even though I am <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzlgK7TQrpYPUm-6VpWfd4X8wqCR68oWK_XmtAZve5ic9CFNWNN2BwzWPxKi-16cso15j8x6o9TPN534Nb4658Yr7TUSada7kPlX9tXjH4heYlRUJsQRKqMkapknwrre4il249hynJhtrg/s1600-h/1539038-The_monastery_up_in_the_moutains_of_Montserrat-Monistrol_de_Montserrat.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126590218868990306" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzlgK7TQrpYPUm-6VpWfd4X8wqCR68oWK_XmtAZve5ic9CFNWNN2BwzWPxKi-16cso15j8x6o9TPN534Nb4658Yr7TUSada7kPlX9tXjH4heYlRUJsQRKqMkapknwrre4il249hynJhtrg/s400/1539038-The_monastery_up_in_the_moutains_of_Montserrat-Monistrol_de_Montserrat.jpg" border="0" /></a>not what you would call a devout catholic, I revere the Mother Mary of Montserrat. Whenever I go home I go there to pray and ask for protection for my family and me. But the bridge that leads to Montserrat had collapsed and I had to take a detour. But I got there and it was worth while. I always feel so much peace in that Basilica and this time I went there with my two little ones.<br />It would be very easy to blame the central government for all these mishaps, but I will not. The only people responsible for this chaotic situation are the Catalan politicians, a bunch of inept and conceited individuals whose only interest is power. They could not care less about the Catalan people. The PSC just follows party lines, even if, in many occasions, those party lines seriously damage the interest of the Catalan people, ERC continues to lick the PSC’s ass with the only objective of being somewhat relevant while Catalonia crumbles, and CiU is the most clear example of “botiflerisme”, betrayers by nature, losers, mediocre and unprepared.<br />My style is not to blame Madrid for our situation. However, when I read today's <a href="http://www.abc.es/20071028/opinion-firmas/cataluna-tercer-mundo_200710280250.html">Antonio Burgos’s article in ABC, Catalonia, Third World?, </a>I felt like a bitch who has to pay for the bed too. Thanks God I am American. I am flying to Pittsburgh on a Sunday night while my iPOD plays my favorite song Photograph from Def Leppard.<br />But in 2017, God willing, I will come back to Catalonia as the catalon-IAN politic-IAN. Please leave something left for me to build on.ian llorenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11480151992510686932noreply@blogger.com7