The Catalan oligarchy

… and the obscene under-representation of mother-tongue Spanish speakers in positions of power.

Gerra civil Cataluña contra Calunya

Activists who can’t spell “war” with the paintbrush deserve to die by the sword, no? I think we’ve already established that schools should be teaching peepul how to write in whatever language they prefer, and that nations can go fuck themselves, so let’s not go here: … or here:
Slogan in Bon Pastor, Barcelona. I blame a CGT drunk.

Cataloonia, Sweden on the Med

Jordi Pujol’s venerable dream appears finally to have been realised, although perhaps not quite as he anticipated.

Pujol, cacique

It’s not exactly a secret that Catalonia is currently run by spiteful, greedy, semi-literate buffoons, but our leaders’ protest re the Economist’s description of ex-regional president Jordi Pujol as a cacique should help to convince anyone still in doubt. The Oxford English Dictionary defines cacique thus: 2. In Spain or Latin America, a man who…

Silvio Gesell disciple in Barcelona

In my mail this morning: someone calling himself Miguel Yasuki Hirota is giving a talk on complementary currencies for sustainable development at 19:30 on the 15th at Argentona 11. Gugel reveals that “Miguel” is a fan of the author of The natural economic order, of whom almost everyone’s favourite (since last month, anyway) liberal fascist…

A couple of rumbas

Generic Manu Chao-ist dumbagogy in Che Sudaka‘s latest ¡uf!re, but a nice little Raval puppet theatre by Marta Pujol & Joan Picó: http://www.veoh.com/videodetails2.swf?player=videodetailsembedded&type=v&permalinkId=v6538025ABKFWbSr Something with a bit more musical class (tho in playback) from pioneer Peret, Mataró-born and hence the only sensible reason why the genre is called rumba catalana instead of barcelonesa: I sometimes…

Barcelona double agent’s difficulties with pounds, shillings and pence

He claimed to be travelling around Britain and submitted his travel expenses based on fares listed in a British railway guide. A slight difficulty was that he did not understand the pre-decimal system of currency used in Britain, expressed in pounds, shillings and pence. He was unable to make sense of the British monetary system,…

Some more sun goddesses

The other day I did a libertarian Raval tour with a particularly dangerous Californian sociologist, and we got onto Orwell’s apparent incapacity to see the most recent civil war as anything but a class conflict betrayed. This despite ethnic-based stuff like the vicious mini-civil war between Catalan fascists associated with Estat Català and self-described communist…