dissabte, 30 de gener del 2010

Languages' law enforced in Aragon: Catalan language recognized but not official yet

Catalan language is spoken outside the limits of the Catalonia autonomous community. One of the regions where the language is spoken is Aragon. Once a confederated kingdom with the Catalan one, today Aragon is highly hispanicized. In spite of this Aragon preserves its own language, Aragonese, only spoken by about five thousand people.

Today is enforced the Aragon languages' law approved last December. After years of broken promises, the Aragonese parliament approved the so-called “languages law” on 16.12.2009. It’s the first time that Aragonese and Catalan are recognized officially. Law is considered highly weak by languages militants but introduce several improvements. Everyone can use his/her own language in his/her relation with the institutions, everyone can learn the language and Catalan as well as Aragonese are considered “originals, historical and own languages” by the parliament. Spanish language still would be the only official one.

With this recognition, Catalan is recognized in all the territories where it is spoken. In spite of this the language is not official yet in Aragon (Spanish state), Northern Catalonia (French state) and L’Alguer (Italian state). Not official yet; but it has been recognized everywhere.
Last May more than a thousand people demonstrated in Zaragoza giving support to the law. They demanded three official languages too (Aragonese, Catalan and Spanish). Half of the way done.

dimarts, 26 de gener del 2010

Swiss newspaper argues about cinema law and Emma Collective answers

The Deutsch language newspaper “Tanges Anzeiger” from Switzerland surprised us with a note questioning the new Catalan cinema law proposal. The law, proposed by the government, and still to be approved establishes half of the films in Catalan language. Nowadays the proportion is far from equality:  97 % in Spanish and 3 % in Catalan. Some members of the Emma Collective answered the article with strong arguments:

- how can the journalist compare a democratic law with the Fascist law which imposed all the films to be dubbed in Spanish?.
- Did the journalist find normal that in Germany could be no films in German language (dubbed or subtitled)?.
- Did he knows the Swiss legislation in that aspect (70th article of the Swiss constitution, as well as the Film Gesetz (2002), the Verordnung über die Förderung Film (2006) or Sprache Gesetz (2007)
- The newspaper says that Catalan people are obsessed by their language. Emma answers how the German-speaking people could be if their language was forbidden in the European parliament the so-called shrine of the “unity in diversity” slogan.


The sticker says. Is this equality?. 97% cinema in Spanish, 3 % in Catalan.


Here are some of the answers (in German language):

1) Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren

Ich habe Ihren oben erwähnten Artikel von Herrn Martin Dahms, Madrid, über die Förderung der Katalanischen Sprache seitens der autonomen Katalonischen Regierung sehr sorgfältig gelesen. Ich füge einige Bedenken bei. Herr Dahms bezieht sich auf den historischen Präzedenzfall, als General Franco in Spanien zwang, sämtliche Filmproduktionen auf Spanisch zu übersetzen. Wagt es Herr Dahms eine faschistische Diktatur mit der Regierung eines demokratischen Parlamentes gleichzusetzen? General Franco zeichnete sich aus durch das Verbot der Verwendung einer Sprache (Behörden, Schulen, Reden im öffentlichen Leben) in ihrem eigenen Sprachraum (Katalonien) während das Katalanische Parlament nur den Gebrauch der eigenen Sprache auf ihrem eigenen Sprachgebiet verteidigt ohne eine andere Sprache zu unterdrücken. Das neue Gesetz verlangt lediglich, dass nur 50% der Filme auf Katalanisch übersetzt werden! Herr Dahms hätte einen besseren Präzedenzfall gefunden im spanischen „Film-Gesetz“ von 2007, wo es heisst, dass Filme in sämtlichen Sprachen von Spanien übersetzt oder mit Untertitel versehen werden. Weiss Herr Dahms nicht, dass der Artikel 70 der Schweizerischen Bundesverfassung, Film-Gesetz (2002), Verordnung über die Förderung Film (2006) und das Sprache Gesetz (2007) regelt, wie in der Schweiz die reiche Sprach- und Kulturvielfalt geschützt werden müssen? Würde es Herr Dahms normal finden, wenn es in Zürich (oder muss ich wohl eine deutsche Stadt nehmen aus seinem Heimatland?) keine TV, Radio, Schulen und Kinos in Deutscher Sprache gäbe? Würde es Herr Dahms normal finden, wenn einem Zürcher Politiker verboten würde, im Bundeshaus in Bern Deutsch zu sprechen? So geschieht es derzeit mit dem Katalanischen im Spanischen Parlament. Würde er dann nicht auch besessen (um seine Terminologie zu gebrauchen) seine Muttersprache schützen? Und zum Schluss, Herr Dahms, die Katalaner und ihre Politiker mögen sich einige male oder vielleicht auch viele male geirrt haben im Prozess, ein Gleichgewicht zwischen lebendiger Sprache und die Verteidigung der kulturellen eigenen Identität zu schaffen. Aber es freut mich doch sehr zu wissen, dass es auch Leute gibt, die die grosse Leistung anerkennen (Europarat, Ministerkomitee, European Chapter für die Regional- und Minderheitensprachen; Bericht vom Experten-Ausschuss – 2008)!

Carles Torres

2) Sehr geehrte Herrn Direktor: ich habe zufälich eine Kopie von ihres “Tages Anzeiger” auf einem Stuhl in wiener Flughafen Schwechat gefunden, und ich war erst schokiert, dann nacher überreutsch, endlich ärger über den Artikel über Katalonien das ich gefunden habe auf seinen Seiten.

Nur ein paar Sachen: Katalanisch ist die Sprache von etwa 10 millionen Menschen, die in Spanien, Frankreich (Nord Katalonien) und sogar in Italien (Alghero, für uns l'Alguer) leben. Ein paar Wochen her Politikern von alle diese Örte haben eine Zusammentreffung um unsere Sprache zum konsolidieren durchgeführt.
Ich bin Urenkel eines Deutsches, Sohn von einem Vater aus Baskenland und eine Mutter aus Katalonien, und beide Spräche haben unter die militärisch Stiefeln übergelebt, gegen antidemokratische Regierung und Journalisten die kaum Idee haben, um was darüber schreiben.
Mit freundlichen Grüssen aus Mallorca, wo man auch katalanisch redet.

Natxo Knörr i Borràs

3) Meine Damen und Herren

Ich habe heute, den 24. Januar, Ihren Artikel über Katalonien gelesen. Ich bin empört über einige Ihrer Aussagen.
Katalonien ist eine alte Nation mit eigener Sprache und Kultur. Nach einem Krieg, im Jahr 1714, verliert Katalonien seine Institutionen und wurde gezwungenermassen Teil des Spanischen Staates. Seitdem hat das Katalanische Volk mehrere brutale Repressionen gegen seine Sprache und Kultur erlebt. Früchte dieser Repressionen gegen unsere Sprache ist die aktuelle Situation: wir können im eigenen Land nicht in unserer eigenen Sprache leben. Es ist zum Beispiel sehr schwierig einen Film in der eigenen Sprache besuchen zu können oder sogar einen Kaffee in der eigenen Sprache zu bestellen.
Die Generalitat von Katalonien versucht nun diese Diskriminierung etwas zu mildern.
Katalonien versucht nun nach Jahrhunderten von Diktaturen und Repressionen jetzt mit demokratischen Mitteln seine Sprache zu schützen , das ist ein Recht jedes Volkes auf eigenem Boden auf seine Sprache leben zu können und dieses Recht ist heutzutage in Katalonien nicht garantiert.

Dolors Ferrer Noguer

dimecres, 20 de gener del 2010

Valencian people climb to break the TV borders


The autonomous government of the Valencian Country is ruled by the Spanish Popular Party. Three years ago this government decided to act severely against the TV’s reception of the neighbour autonomy: Catalonia. It tried to cut the reception. In spite of these, Catalan autonomy receives well the Valencian TV which is partially in Valencian. Catalan autonomous channels are fully in Catalan language. The two autonomies share the same own language: Catalan; sometimes called Valencian too. This is not extraordinary as well as Spanish is sometimes called Castillian.



Popular protests of Valencian people and a judicial answer stopped some of the PP actions but not anyone. Some regions have lost the signal at all. This is an unique case in Europe. Popular movements begun a campaign called “Televisions without borders”. The aim is to promote the sharing of channels in neighbouring autonomies. They have reached an extraordinary number of signatures: 300.000. But they need 500.000 to be recognised by the Spanish government in this popular legislative initiative. This weekend, too, Acció Cultural del País Valencià (ACPV, Valencian Country Cultural Action) will climb to the mountains were TV reception engines have been closed: on January 23 to the Montduver and on January 24 to the Bartolo (with buses from Castelló and Vila-real). There will be popular meetings in support of the initiative at the end of the rallies. Basque and Galician associations are being to support “Televisions without borders too” so the half a million signatures could be achieved.

diumenge, 17 de gener del 2010

Burning of Vila-real (1706) remembered



The Succession war was used by Castille to transform the Spanish kingdoms in a centralist structure. It reversed the federal basis where every country had their own institutions. Catalan countries, allied with Britain, fought fiercely against the Franco-Spanish alliance to preserve their own constitutions and parliaments. One of the sadest chapters of this war was in Vila-real (Valencian Country).

On January 12th, 1706 Spanish troops were stopped by the Vila-real population. The battle was hard and died about half a thousand people. Once defeated, Vila-real was sacked by the Spanish with hate. About 10 % of the local population was killed. Never again so many people of this city died in only one day. Later the Franco-Spanish army burned the village. Just for this battle a British-Catalan army conquered València hours later because the Spanish army sent to defend the main city was delayed in Vila-real.


The local independentist movement, Esquerra Independentista de la Plana, demonstrated on Saturday 16.01.2009 with the slogan “We’ve memory. 1706. We don’t forget.”. One of the movements which form the EIP is just called Maulets, the name of the Valencian fighters who opposed the Castilians in the succession war.
About a hundred people marched by the Vila-real streets shouting songs against the Spanish occupation which, in fact, has its roots in battles as the 1706 Vila-real burning. Later, a popular lunch and a concert took place too. This is the second consecutive year that such a commemoration tooks place after a decade without a signle independentist demonstration in the Vila-real city.

dilluns, 11 de gener del 2010

"La nostra terra" republished in Mallorca


“La nostra terra” (Our land) was a cultural magazine published in Mallorca from January 1928 to May 1936. The domains of art, literature and science were reviewed in almost a hundred issues. Cultural personalities as Picasso collaborated as well as there were translations of works from Gorki or other writers of the moment. Studies about Kierkegaard, Le Corbusier, Stravinsky, Bartók shows the high quality of the magazine. More than two hundred people, from the Catalan Countries, published in “La nostra terra”.

The Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics has reprinted the issues published in five books as a evidence of the Catalan national unity as well as its will to be open to the world. Their main idea was that every Balearic island had its own identity; but all of them were united thanks to the Catalan nationality.
As many other Catalan cultural initiatives, this magazine was abolished by the Spanish nationalist dictatorship in 1936. The damage done for forty years of dictatorship and 300 years of Spanish fierce imposition is still to be reversed.

dissabte, 9 de gener del 2010

"An Phoblacht" talks about Catalan referendums


The Irish newspaper "An Phoblacht" (The Republic) talks about the Catalan referendums celebrated last December. It includes the opinion of Lluís Sales i Favà, a CUP ( Candidatura d'Unitat Popular, Popular Unity Candidature) member, about the process. The Irish paper opinion is that the referendums are steps in the way towards a Catalan national referendum.

Link : http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/39338

divendres, 8 de gener del 2010

Reply to "The Economist" (Of bulls and ballots) by Emma Collective

In its haste to pass judgment not only on the Catalans’ actions but also on their alleged shady motives, The Economist has found it convenient to mix up two unrelated issues (“Of bulls and ballots”, January 7th 2010), omitting in the process a few facts that we believe should be emphasized.

On the tiresome matter of bullfights, we are forced to point out first of all that, contrary to what is implied in the article, there is in Catalonia no tradition remotely comparable to the “glorious” ritual of methodical torture and messy death that Spaniards have chosen as a national symbol. Fearing for that symbol, Spanish nationalists are now yelling bloody murder because they see the proposed ban as a Catalan attack on some fundamental component of Spanishness. Interestingly, no one regarded a similar ban that was passed in the Canary Islands in 1991 as a crime against the state. The fact is that, rather than being the expression of a hidden nationalist agenda, the proposition that has been accepted for debate by the Catalan parliament was initiated by a strictly non-political animal-rights organization that managed to collect over 180,000 signatures in support of the ban – well above the 50,000 that are needed for any such popular motion to be considered. So if any groups in Catalonia feel that strongly about bullfights, as a spectacle or as a symbol, all they have to do is scrape together 50,000 signatures against the proposition. And good luck with that.
As regards the more substantial issue of the popular consultations on independence that were held in several towns a few weeks ago, we fear that The Economist may have been misled by the official Spanish line into making light of that initiative and dismissing it as a total failure. The vicious attacks directed against it in the Spanish media should have given a clue as to how seriously it had been taken in the capital, where centralist nerves were definitely rattled when almost 200,000 people turned out to vote in a symbolic poll held by private entities with little financial support and facing a virtual media boycott, while the major parties kept their distance or squarely opposed it.
It would be unwise to brush off the 27% turnout and the 95% pro-independence vote obtained under such unfavourable circumstances, especially if one considers that the socialist party is now governing in Catalonia with the support of just over 15% of the total electorate after the tireless campaigning and the barrage of media attention that come with a regular election. Regardless of what they may say in Madrid – and regardless of what they really think – the established Catalan parties have already engaged in some serious soul-searching, and with good reason: a recent opinion poll put the pro-independence camp at just over 50%, while in a second unrelated poll 57% of those who in the 2006 election voted for CiU, usually described as a “moderate nationalist party”, declared themselves for independence; and so did, more surprisingly, 30% of those who had voted for the socialist party, still a bastion of Spanish unionism in Catalonia.
So concluding, as The Economist does, that a referendum on independence in Catalonia “would surely produce a large no” is at best risky. But that will remain a moot point as long as the Spanish authorities doggedly, and quite undemocratically, refuse to allow such a referendum to be held. In the meantime, a good pointer to the road that Catalans will choose to follow will be given by the upcoming parliamentary elections. When recent ballots have been held in a climate of indifference and abstention figures have been high, the 200,000 voters of December 13th can be considered to represent the “quality vote” that will be up for grabs in the next election in that they are a fraction of the growing number of people who are sure to show up at the polls when a genuinely inspiring option is presented to them. The flaccid autonomy charter that The Economist rightly describes as just giving “small nudges” towards devolution is certainly not that option anymore. The socialist party may still be clinging to it for dear life, and CiU will still pay some lip service while waiting for the decision from the Constitutional Tribunal in Madrid, which has been fiddling with it for over three years now, but the statute is probably dead on arrival. For starters, no one can seriously think that it is for twelve Spanish judges to decide, among other things, whether or not Catalonia is a nation and, no matter what they have up their sleeve, it is becoming clear that their ruling will have no lasting effect on Catalan politics.
Putting an end to the devolution process, especially when it comes to Catalonia, remains high on the Spanish agenda. But if Catalonia is a vexing problem for Spain, so is Spain for Catalonia. The Spanish economic miracle that so many in Europe were dazzled with has now been exposed as the bluff that it always was – not least by The Economist in several recent articles, and only a few days ago in a harsh Financial Times editorial. The next step would be for international observers to recognize as well the intrinsic flaws of a Spanish political project that was initiated under the shadow of a 40-year-old dictatorship and is still tainted by that original sin. Mixing hope and wariness, many Catalans have gone along with that project for over thirty years now, but their frustration is growing as they see that Spain still refuses to acknowledge those intrinsic flaws. So today, when others options are taking shape, no one should be surprised if Catalans would seek to explore them.
As to the question of where the “path of devolution” must end, that is ultimately for the Catalans – and only for them – to decide, including in a free, fair and binding referendum on independence.

dimecres, 6 de gener del 2010

People prosecuted for collecting signatures

Thirteen people have been convoked by Spanish judges for collecting signatures in favour of self-determination right. They are members of the Platform for the Right to Decide (Plataforma pel Dret a Decidir) as well as militants of CUP, ERC and Reagrupament. Spanish judges accuse the militants to collect signatures just in a election day. In spite of this several hundred people collected signatures the same day and have been not prosecuted.