characterizes us. Led by politicians whose brain is the size of a mosquito’s testicle, we act as a divided people with neither ambition not pride. It’s 500 years of lowering our heads and those who dared to raise it were betrayed by their own neighbors ("botiflers").I love market economy and I am appalled by the fact that most Catalans put all the responsibility of the situation of our nation and especially, our language, on the government. Dear fellow citizens, our government is useless, the brainpower of the whole cabinet put together would not rival the one of an Australopithecus having a bad day. Write them off. They would sell you and their mother, for an ephemeral political gain.
The power is in our cash, credit cards, cash cards, checks and bank accounts. Let’s put our money only on those products that offer user interfaces, directions for use, call centers, labels and advertisements in Catalan. Let’s value the customer focus of those companies that believe that satisfying the Catalan customers is worth while the effort of creating diversity in their product portfolio.
If a company from Albacete offers a product labeled in Catalan and a company from Palau de Plegamans offers a similar product only labeled in Spanish, let’s all massively buy the one from Albacete.
Even assuming that only 50% of the Catalan speaking people gives a damn about their language, that makes a good 5 million people with a purchasing power bigger than many mid and small size European countries with solid line borders around them. When the market share in the Catalan speaking areas of those companies who refuse to offer their services in Catalan plummet, you will see how quickly all of them will offer their products and services in Catalan.
I personally hope that one day, every product distributed in Catalonia will be labed in three languages (Catalan, English and Spanish), any call center and service website will be in those three languages and every shop assistant, taxi driver, policeman, etc will be fluent in those three languages too.
It is in our hands. Let’s not look at the country of origin of the products to decide whether we buy them or not, let’s check whether they have been tailored to satisfy our needs, thinking that we, Catalan customers, are important for this or that company, let’s favor those businesses that value us and are willing to spend some resources to meet our needs and let’s be ready to pay a little bit more for those products too.
If we act this way, you will see how fast the language will be normalized and we will be able to reserve the adjective “gilipollas” only for our politicians.
Note: as a business person, I am aware that the distribution of multi-language labeled products poses a big challenge in Spain. Many Spanish people would boycott products that are labeled in Spanish and Catalan and distributed outside the Catalan speaking areas, simply because Catalan is also on the label. As you can see, Spain is not Belgium, Singapore, Switzerland or Canada.
I am getting ready to fly to Shanghai and practise my Mandarin. Zai jian.
8 comments:
Ian, please, this is simply outrageaous, what are you trying to say? First you assume a Catalan president would never be accepted as a president for Spain without any probe. Now you assume again that many Spanish would boycott products labeled in Spanish and Catalan without probes again. If 'many' means more than two I'm pretty sure you are right but the thing is you are misleading your readers when you don't mention that the boycotts that have worked successfully so far are those promoted by Omnium Cultural and maybe a bit the Cava one, with the little detail that the Cava started as a reaction against Carod's aggressive stance against the Olympic candidature for Madrid and then continued because of the Estatut. NOTHING TO DO with the language, which is INDEED the basis of Omnium's (and others) boycott. I don't defend any boycott but if this set of false accounts is what you provide to your kids I am trembling....Please Ian, you have some culture and a blog to be serious and educate. You have a responsibility and your continuous aggressiveness against anything related to Spain is, besides false, a tour de force into lies-based propaganda..SENY, Ian, SENY...
Garci,
I am afraid that your message smacks fake “neutrality” and self-appointed objectivity. Indeed, your arguments and your approach to the debate ring familiar: the friendly Spaniard who claims the middle ground and dismisses everyone else as misguided radicals. Yet, the points you put forward lack any substance and are often incorrect.
Only you know the reason behind your messages but your patronising platitudes, and candid descriptions about Spain’s relationship with Catalonia do not fool anyone.
Let’s refocus the issues.
1) "First you assume a Catalan president would never be accepted as a president for Spain without any probe."
Don’t you think hundreds of years without a Catalan president serving for more than a few months is proof enough. Indeed, following the argument you put forward in the previous post, Borrell was the best candidate but he was forced to stand down for two simple reasons:
- Corruption allegations.
- Being Catalan.
Since the corruption allegations were somewhat feeble, the only substantial reason for his forced stand-down is that he is Catalan.
As I wrote in the previous post, it was not the PSC that forced Borrell to stand down but the PSOE federations of Andalucía, Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha (and others to a lesser extent), who almost put forward their own candidates.
http://www.lasemana.es/110/nac.html
This is a link that explains the issue, I have deliberately tried to avoid either El Mundo/ABC o El País. Not saying that this source is 100% neutral (nobody is) but it should give you some comfort. Not a word about the PSC being behind any manoeuvre against José Borrell. Also, readers doing a Google search will notice how ALL newspapers of the time referred to José Borrell, as José Borrell, never Josep. The reason is simple: Josep is an unelectable name.
2)"the boycotts that have worked successfully so far are those promoted by Omnium Cultural and maybe a bit the Cava one."
Very wrong. Omniun Cultural does not promote any boycotts. Omnium Cultural and many other associations throughout the Catalan Countries promote acts of consumers' positive affirmation (buying products labelled in Catalan, regardless of origin). Nothing wrong with consumers opting for products labelled in their own language, is it?
Thus some of the beneficiaries have been companies based in Zaragoza (Morlitz) or Andalucia (El Ejido) that label their products at least in Catalan.
This contrasts with the actual boycott Catalan products have been a victim of in Spain recently. Get your facts right: Omniun Cultural does not boycott any products, rather it encourages buyers to buy products labelled in the language of Catalonia REGARDLESS of origin. Consumer rights. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Contrast this to the fascist boycott of Catalan cava (and other products made or with a connection to Catalonia), just for being Catalan. This is despite cava families being mostly sympathisers and funding friends of the Partido Popular in Tarragona. Self-inflicint damage I call that. Yet, the outcome of this silly experiment by Spanish nationalists has been extremely good for Catalan producers: faced with a Spanish boycott, they have been forced to seek new distribution channels abroad and to diversify their internal market offering. When people buy a bottle of cava from Asturias or Extremadura, the final owner of the cava is probably one of the big three: Freixenet and Codorniu or Rondel. In any case, the grapes used to make this non-Catalan cave come from Catalonia as there is little grape production (suitable for cava) outside Catalonia. The result was this: more profit margin, diversification and less reliance on the Spanish market.
Or put in other words: internationalisation of the Catalan economy. I say thanks to Libertad Digital, Partido Popular, TeleMadrid, El Mundo, etc.
3) “with the little detail that the Cava started as a reaction against Carod's aggressive stance against the Olympic candidature for Madrid and then continued because of the Estatut”
a) Incomplete. You seem to forget that Carod’s stance against the Olympics started because the Spanish government boycotted and prevented the admission of the Federació Catalana de Patinatge (Catalan Skating Association) to the International Roller-Skating Association at the Fresno assembly. The Spanish government used political means to stop a lawful sporting decision that had been approved in a previous assembly of the IARS. A Catalan sporting federation was going to be admitted as a full member of an international sporting body, but the Spanish government prevented that by using the full political and diplomatic powers of the Spanish state. As has been acknowleged by members of the South-American confederation, locals associations had their debts cancelled thanks to the Spanish government. I call this bribery, not a very sporting behaviour, is it?
Then, after the disgraceful events of Fresno, Carod actually said that "he didn’t feel compelled to support the candidacy for the Madrid Olympics since the Spanish government showed little sportsmanship with the plight of the Catalan Federation of Roller-Skating." Short of opposition or boycott or aggressive stance. Carod never pronounced himself against the Madrid candidacy, he merely mention that he did not feel like supporting it.
b) Interesting. Are you implying that the original text of the Estatut, approved by 90% of the elected representatives of the Catalan people, in a historical and unique exercise of consensus rarely seen in Catalan politics, justifies a commercial unilateral boycott of any products manufactured in Catalonia as it happened?
4) “You have a responsibility and your continuous aggressiveness against anything related to Spain is, besides false, a tour de force into lies-based propaganda..”
What Ian writes is just the tip of the iceberg, mate. And his messages are most polite and succint. I wish I could write with such focus. It has nothing to do with "aggressiveness" against Spain as you dramatically describe but with stating the bleeding obvious. The aggression allowance is the other way my friend, as the Spanish Constitution makes very clear in Article 8. For whatever reasons, you choose to view the issue in one particular way, even if the facts and historical evidence make your arguments collapse.
Ian, and many others, write what is happening in the ground to Catalonia.
It is simple Garci: for the last 300 hundreds years, Spain has tried to suppress any symbols of Catalan nationhood. That’s why Spain is not like Canada or Belgium or Switzerland. Catalan is a second-rate language because the Spanish Constitution, unlike in Switzerland, Canada or Belgium makes one language (Spanish) compulsory and mandatory FOR ALL. The objective behind this is to obliterate Catalan language and to assimilate Catalan people into the Spanish-nation state. The same Constitution grants powers to the Spanish army to prevent the Basque people or the Catalans to exercise their democratic right of self-determination. That’s the reality. That's fact.
In my view, the key to the Catalan/Spain issue is this: if Spain was like Canada or Belgium, there probably would not be CiU or ERC and probably Ian or myself would not be writing our blogs about Catalan/Spanish politics. There would not probably be the pervasive feeling of being fuck-over by Spain at all levels: economically, culturally, etc. During the last 150 years or so, the Catalan middle-classes have tried to change Spain and make it a more democratic state, respectful of its different nationalities and language, but it has not worked, it is not working and it will never work because, sadly, Spain is not a democracy like Canada or Switzerland. That, again, is a fact. And that is our tragedy.
Rab. First of all, thanks for defining me at least as self-appointed with objectivity and fakely neutral. Coming from someone like you is indeed a nice compliment. I am not going to go through all those points again, if you allow me, unless you really insist. As I said, I don't identify myself neither with Catalonia (even if I lived there for 14 years of my life) nor anywhere nearby the Mediterranean. Hence, I can't identify myself with Spain either. I am sure you have visited my blog and you may have a clearer idea about my feelings. Because I am not Catalan and because I am an obligate Spaniard I think I can speak from a more objective stance that many (I have basically been never paid by the Spanish or Catalan governments either). A final point is..did you read my last message? where do I justify a boycott because of an Estatut approved by 90% of members of the Catalan parlament and 35% of members of Catalonia (after an intense - and well resourced propaganda campaign..talking about Fresno)? I totally agree with those some (many) call Spanish nationalist called C's for short..this result is indeed a proof that politicians and citizens are further apart than ever..and this also happens at the Spanish level.
Sorry, but my 'patronising' is more a matter of my personality (because as an individual I happen to have way more personality than a collective or a territory, whatever that is). I really feel dialectical wars are to be avoided, and I understand that the other day I did not play well my part when I qualified Catalonian politics as Fascists. Even if I think so, this is not a compromising attitude.
The historical reasons imposed by Catalan nationalist are no better than other territories. Asturias has more historical reasons. Catalan is not a distinctive language, since it is shared by other territories (like Castilian, Basque, Galician, or Asturleones).
The right of self-determination belongs to the individual and I will totally support a referendum not vinculating all Catalans, just those who want to join together and form a nation. This means those assets belonging to the individuals not supporting that joint enterprise will not be part of it. That means that assets that are public will be split in proportional parts according to the percentage of votes. If this is not democratic for you, maybe you should consider reviewing your convictions. Greetings to Scotland, you lucky guy, from rich country to rich country...
I love your posts, especially because you have this faith in the people of Spain and Catalonia. I don't and that's why I find it so funny. I can even get to believe a bilingual (ES-CAT) label outside of the Païssos Catalans, but trilingual? - no way! Now you can find products (not only food) labeled in English, but they haven't been done so to be sold in Spain, but worldwide.
Pity, I know, but hoping Spanish will learn English is as hopless as PP accepting Catalan national feelings - or accepting that we don't live in '1984' (re De Juana Achaos).
I suppose you don't mind then whether the rest of spain gives up using services offered by catalonian companies... do you?
It's the same but opposite point of view...
By the way Habibi... nowadays there are lots of bilinguals (english-spanish) state schools in spain.
Anomymous,
You have difficulties to understand my English post. Your analogy is totally wrong.
The analogy would be that people in the rest of the Spain do not use Catalan companies who try to sell them things in CATALAN.
Please read my post carefully and do not make a fool of yourself:
"If a company from Albacete offers a product labeled in Catalan and a company from Palau de Plegamans offers a similar product only labeled in Spanish, let’s all massively buy the one from Albacete."
Anyway, whatever!
I'd have no problem if a company from Albacete offers products labeled in english... for example. Even in Catalan or any other language if their products are better... (where I live there are products labeled only in Euskera... very goods!!) why do you have problems with products or services offered in Spanish? Don't you like Spanish? Yes, I know, you don't like it LOL
Your proposal is only a sign of your racism.
Anonymous,
You totally missed my point. Since when asking that products sold in Catalonia are labeled in the language that the customer wants is racism? DO not continue to make a full of yourself. Stop insulting me, married with a Chinese and who has learned the language of every territory I have lived in (I speak 9 languages).
I like Spanish, read my posts and you will see that I like Spanish and I would like all Calatans to have a a good command of it. Even in my labeling policy I was very clear:
"I personally hope that one day, every product distributed in Catalonia will be labed in three languages (Catalan, English and Spanish), any call center and service website will be in those three languages and every shop assistant, taxi driver, policeman, etc will be fluent in those three languages too."
So, if you had a bad day, go and insult someone else.
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