In order to facilitate the work of those individuals who want to boycott Catalonia, a good Catalan Samaritan has created a website called “boiCATeja’m” (“boyCATt” me) that provides good reasons to boycott Catalonia, as for example:
- One I said a few bad words about Spain
- I have a basque friend
- Once I celebrated the defeat of the Spanish national soccer team
- At home we speak Catalan, just to annoy Spaniards
- I read the Catalan constitution and I think it is not that bad
- In addition to Catalan, I am gay/lesbian
- My parents gave me a very Catalan name (Jordi/Montserrat)
- I would not mind if we would give away the north Africa enclaves (Ceuta/Melilla) to Morocco
- Etc.
I like the site because it radiates good humor. Almost 4000 people have already signed up and provided a wide variety of reasons to boycott us.
The creator of the website is Emili Junsalba who works in a textile company in Barcelona. He created the site after receiving a letter from a Castilian customer who informed them that that they would no longer buy carpets from them, because they had read in the papers that Catalonia did not want to remain as part of Spain and they refused to learn Catalan (a sheer misinterpretation of the facts, but anyway).
It is going to take a long time to get where we want be as a nation. We need to be relentless, but, at the same time, face the daunting job with good humor and without a revengeful attitude. We can make it, yes we can.
9 comments:
that right ian you tell it!
Jordi/Montserrat are sexy names, i'd buy stuff from them. :)
I read the infamous letter. I can't believe the guy was serious when he wrote that. Maybe he ate some bad curros or something?
Does that mean the 'Gourmet' section of El Corte Inglés will close? After all more than half of their products seem to be from Catalonia...
i meant churros, not curros. sorry. but, somehow curros could fit in there
i love churros, nice people sell them from little carts in the subways... they smell really good but i'm afraid to buy them like that--
extremists here in the US are always trying to boycut some companies for some reason, Kraft foods, for association with cigarette company, American Girl for supporting gay/lesbians, Coca Cola by associating with the Devil... they're all crazy--
Caau!
ops- i mean, Chhhhhau!
(jk andrew, i'm not making fun)
I like Montserrat (or Montse in short). That's my younger sister's name.
I also love "churros", especially after dipping them in hot chocolate o in "un suizo" (a cup of hot chocolate with fresh whipped cream on top).
Ciao for the orthodox.
Of course, noone seems to remember that boycott against Spanish prodcuts of Catalan products labelled in Spanish has been promoted before the "Catalan boycott". One of those web pages was sponsored by the regional government (not any more, since it was made public).
If the Estatut is finally approved, I won´t buy Catalan products. Call it boycott if you like, I call it survival. I´d rather buy products from busnisses from whose taxes I´m going to benefit in the future.
In the world, there is people calling for all kinds of boycotts. Boycott to Spain because of bullfighting and removing troops from Iraq, boycott to France for not supporting the Iraq war, boycott to USA for supporting the Iraq war, to Catalonia for wanting more self ruling, etc.
The reality is tha the Catalan people do not boycott anything, they buy the products they like, independently from where they come from. That's a fact.
And I would ask you, have you been boycotting Basque and Navarre products since 1978, because they control and collect all their taxes? Have you ever thought that maybe the way the taxes have been distributed was not fair and that Catalans have good reasons to ask for a change in the model? Would you agree that from now on, all taxes are collected at European level, and that the European government decides where the money will go and that by this wealth redistribution, the per capita income of, let's say, Portugal, would behigher than the Spanish?
Tht's exactly what's happening today in Spain and no one wants to analyze the problem in depth, because they would lose votes.
I question every day (well, almost) the way my taxes are distributed, especially since I started paying them a few months ago, haha.
I despise many things that are done with my taxes: PER subsides in Andalucía, gender change and abortion being paid by NHS whereas many children´s teeth works aren´t, the overwhelming amount of official workers who don´t do their job properly (starting with politicians).
I have serious doubts on whether wealth redistribution is a good way, not because they take my money, but because I don´t think it helps poorer people as much as we assume it does. Haven´t found a better way yet, though.
But I don´t think that gives me the right to say: "Look, I don´t like what you do with my taxes. From now on, I´m going to pay my own private insurance (as if I could afford it), and give a part of my income to charities and other insitutions which do the things I like and/or how I like them done and/or in my town/region".
Since I don´t have that right as a person and a citizen, I doubt a region (Basque, Navarra or Catalonia) can have it.
On another matter, as long as we are civil to each other and don´t get in each other´s throats (and I think we can make it :) ) I have never said you weren´t welcome to visit and comment on my blog. In fact, you´re more than welcome. I think we can do a pretty good job of keeping each other sharp and giving so different views of the world people worldwide will go nuts and we can govern them all.
Evil laugh.
Ok. Bed. Now.
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