Category: Life

The political climate in Spain is a bit disturbing in the last few weeks, with Spanish nationalists acusing Catalans of being anti-Spanish, and Catalan nationalists accusing Spaniards of being anti-Catalan. There is even a plan, from the Spanish nationalist camp, about boycotting Catalan products during the Christmas, as there were some calls from the Catalan nationalist camp about boycotting Madrid’s candidacy for the 2012 Olympic Games. Normal crazy nationalist craps, yeah, but today I learnt a bit more about how crappy these polititians can be: the Major of the place where I live, Sagrario Guinduláin, is an active participant of the boycott. I guess she’ll deserve, once again, the crowd booing at her when she talks in next year’s festival (as it happened the last two years).

As for me, I’ll continue eating “fuet”, “pan tumaca” and other Catalan products for the rest of my life. As for nationalisms, there was someone who said “nationalism is a disease that only gets cured by travelling” (or something similar, sorry for the bad translation).

Wow, so a survey shows that “1/3 of people believe a woman is partially or completely responsible for being raped if she has behaved flirtatiously“.

I remember once, in a taxi in Madrid, the taxi driver trying to convince me about this same thing, talking about a woman in the are where he lives that “dressed flirtatiously” (“like a bitch” he said a couple of times) and that “was calling for someone to rape her”, and also the guide we had while in Egypt saying something similar (“that woman was raped because she dressed like a bitch”).

So, is there not hope for men to behave like real men and not like troglodytes? Not sure about the statistics a few years ago (when machism, at least in Spain, was more spread than it is now), but a 3rd looks like a lot to me. I wonder what those people would say if I stole their car because “they left the door open and so was calling for someone to steal it”.

People in the Basque country and Navarra have been enjoying the last few years “Vaya semanita”, a comedy TV show, conducted by Oscar Terol. It’s been one of the best humour programs I’ve seen in the last few years.

And now, all people in Spain can see them, in their new program, on TVE1, “Made in China”. Not sure if it would be as good as the one in ETB2, but if it’s just half as good, I suggest everyone who reads this to watch it. AFAIK, it’s on Fridays evening.

I attended last weekend, in Alsasua, the 2005 edition of Navarroa Oinez, a yearly festival organized by the “ikastolas” (schools in Basque language) in Navarra to get some funds for the schools (which are not public in Navarra).

It was a very nice day, even though we arrived quite late and missed most of the concerts. It was a 6/7 kms walk around Alsasua and other close villages, on the countryside, with bars, artisans, and, the best, concerts for all tastes.

As we arrived late, we could only attend the last concert, a death metal group (don’t know the name), which was ok.

So, we sat down with some very nice cider, and listened to the music for a little while.

Looking forward to go next year (in Vera, since the location is changed every year), hopefully much sooner, to not miss the concerts. Also, it is a pity it is only one day, it would be quite nice if it were the whole weekend, with concerts in the countryside at night.

So, watched last night the show about piracy and terrorism, and, well, it was as pathetic as expected, with Mercedes Milá, one of the most pathetic “journalists” in Spanish TV, accompanied by Bustamante, one of the most pathetic “artists” ever borned in Spain. But that would be just as usual in Spanish TV, except for the “proofs” they showed up for demonstrating the relationship between piracy and terrorism. They used the clothes shop that belongs to the Chedadi brothers, arrested a few days after the March 11th attacks, and released a few days later with no charges at all, saying that the money they got from the shop “could be used to finance more terrorist attacks”. But as it happened with all the media, they forgot that last detail (“they were released with no charges”), which makes most people just believe the authors of the massacre are in jail, when the reality is that all of them, except one, are now free because the investigation couldn’t get any proof of their relationship with the attacks. And, IIRC, the one in jail, as for what the official documents say, is just there “because of the possible danger involved if he is released” (yeah, that’s justice!).

But, unfortunately, most people will believe what was said yesterday on that crappy TV show, so, don’t be surprised if people start treating piracy-related people (ie, the poor inmigrants with no papers selling CDs/DVDs on the street) as terrorists.

Ah, and the worst thing about the crappy TV show is that they, again, showed the images of the explosions in the Atocha station, images that the victims’ families asked to not be shown again on TV, for respecting their pain. But hey, reality shows need to impress the spectator, even if that is a lack o respect to the victims.

While trying to fight piracy in Spain, the powerful have tried to do lots of things, like trying to treat P2P users like criminals, getting an extra tax on blank CDs/DVDs (and even hard disks), etc. But what I just saw is just too much: Telecinco, a Spanish TV channel, is broadcasting tonight the Diario de… show, which this week will be about the “relationship between piracy and the March 11th terrorist attacks in Madrid”.

I haven’t seen it yet, so will comment on it later, but I have been following all the investigations about those terrorist attacks, and there are lots of other things to explain before we get to this sort of FUD, which, IMO, is just about getting people so ashamed of buying pirated CDs/DVDs that they will just stop doing it (remember Spain is one of the countries with more music piracy, there are lots of people selling pirated CDs in the streets). Also, since Mercedes Milá is conducting the show, even though I’ve never watched it, I am sure it will be just a reality show, with no base at all.

I am also against piracy, but there are many ways they can fight it (like selling the CDs/DVDs much cheaper) than just spreading FUD, which in fact, as with lots of other “official news”, just deviates the people from the real truth about those terrorist attacks. Please, fellow Spain habitants, don’t believe what is said there, if you really want to know about those horrible terrorist attacks we all suffered last year, I’d suggest a few books:

• La jugada maestra, Bruno Cardeñosa
• 11-M – 14-M Onda expansiva, Rosa María Artal
• 11-M Claves de una conspiración, Bruno Cardeñosa
• Cómplice inocente, Iván Chirivella

I won’t comment on those books, since the last time I blogged about politics, some people got very angry, filling my inbox with lots of mails, so I promised I wouldn’t do it again. But this show, which I guess lots of people in Spain will watch, was important enough to just post some tips.