Why?
What is the reason for seeing things on a negative light?
Why does the knowledge that a song is a copy of another song has to have unpleasant reactions among people?
What is going to take for the Basques to stop being misrepresented in the media?
On an article that appeared at Forward, titled "The Situation: Basque Twist Tarnishes Jerusalem's 'Gold'", Ofer Shela tells us that there is many Israelis distressed by the news about Naomi Shemer's plagiarism of a Basque lullaby.
In the article, Ofer Shela talks both about the Basque lullaby and the defeat of TAU Vitoria at the hands of the Maccabi team in Moscow last weekend.
But the information Shela provides about the Basques is so full of clichés that is painful to read through it. You would think that an author that deals with how the Jewish community and Israel are misrepresented in the media constantly would be a little bit more thorough and objective about the Basque people.
The author repeats the one line that I did not like at all from Shemer's mea culpa letter:
"My only comfort is that I tell myself that perhaps it is a tune of the Anusim [Inquisition-era Spain's secret Jews or Marranos] and all I did was restore past glory."
Meaning, there is the possibility that the Basques heard the tune from an Anusim and they themselves plagiarized it for Pello Joxepe, the lullaby. So, it was just divine justice to reclaim it, and not only that, to restore it to past glory after the Basques had perverted it.
We Basques read that line, and still we were corteous and sided with Naomi. But that was not enough for Ofer Shela who then indulges on some Basque bashing. Just read this line:
Terrorism?
Inquisition?
Is that how the Israelis and the Jewish perceive us?
I don't think so, I think that is the way Ofer Shela perceives us.
We are not known for playing the guitar, those would be the Roma or the Andaluces. We play the trikititxa (accordion), the txistu (flute) and the txalaparta (drums).
The Inquisition was quite brutal against the Basques after the defeat of Navarre. For those of you that do not know it, the Basque religious beliefs would fit into the description of Animism, think Wiccan. Now you see the picture.
And well, the same old shoe, terrorism. That one hurts, a lot.
But Ofer Shela was not done, oh no, then he uncorked this one, when talking about the basketball team TAU Vitoria:
Sleepy capital?
Talk about a bias. Sleepy is the way in which cities in Spain are constantly described. It brings back images of siestas and lazy people. But the undertone is even more telling, for the author, the Basques are actually Spaniards, there is no cultural differences between the two nationalities. We play guitars, and when we are not burning witches or setting bombs off, we take siestas.
The lazy part is an insult for both Basques and Spaniards, and since we are all the same, to Catalans and Galizans, fuck, throw the Portuguese in that one too.
What about the Basques from Iparralde, are Bayonne and Biarritz sleepy also?
This is what I was talking about when I said that this was a golden opportunity for the Jewish community and the Israelis to get to know the Basques better, and just look at that, Ofer Shela just wasted it.
Related posts:
What is the reason for seeing things on a negative light?
Why does the knowledge that a song is a copy of another song has to have unpleasant reactions among people?
What is going to take for the Basques to stop being misrepresented in the media?
On an article that appeared at Forward, titled "The Situation: Basque Twist Tarnishes Jerusalem's 'Gold'", Ofer Shela tells us that there is many Israelis distressed by the news about Naomi Shemer's plagiarism of a Basque lullaby.
In the article, Ofer Shela talks both about the Basque lullaby and the defeat of TAU Vitoria at the hands of the Maccabi team in Moscow last weekend.
But the information Shela provides about the Basques is so full of clichés that is painful to read through it. You would think that an author that deals with how the Jewish community and Israel are misrepresented in the media constantly would be a little bit more thorough and objective about the Basque people.
The author repeats the one line that I did not like at all from Shemer's mea culpa letter:
"My only comfort is that I tell myself that perhaps it is a tune of the Anusim [Inquisition-era Spain's secret Jews or Marranos] and all I did was restore past glory."
Meaning, there is the possibility that the Basques heard the tune from an Anusim and they themselves plagiarized it for Pello Joxepe, the lullaby. So, it was just divine justice to reclaim it, and not only that, to restore it to past glory after the Basques had perverted it.
We Basques read that line, and still we were corteous and sided with Naomi. But that was not enough for Ofer Shela who then indulges on some Basque bashing. Just read this line:
The news that "Jerusalem of Gold" had been borrowed — "stolen," as many media reports put it — struck Israelis like a thunderbolt. It was as though a piece of their identity had been snatched from them by the Basques, a tiny nation within a nation in far-off Spain whose name conjures up guitars, terrorism and echoes of the Inquisition.Guitars?
Terrorism?
Inquisition?
Is that how the Israelis and the Jewish perceive us?
I don't think so, I think that is the way Ofer Shela perceives us.
We are not known for playing the guitar, those would be the Roma or the Andaluces. We play the trikititxa (accordion), the txistu (flute) and the txalaparta (drums).
The Inquisition was quite brutal against the Basques after the defeat of Navarre. For those of you that do not know it, the Basque religious beliefs would fit into the description of Animism, think Wiccan. Now you see the picture.
And well, the same old shoe, terrorism. That one hurts, a lot.
But Ofer Shela was not done, oh no, then he uncorked this one, when talking about the basketball team TAU Vitoria:
Just days later, like lightning striking twice in the same place, Israelis won their identity back in a basketball game against, of all teams, the Basques. The May 9 game was the last round of the European championship, pitting Israel's national team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, against the fast-rising Tau Vitoria, representing the sleepy capital of Spain's Basque autonomous region.Nevermind that no Israelis nor Basques where actually on the court.
Sleepy capital?
Talk about a bias. Sleepy is the way in which cities in Spain are constantly described. It brings back images of siestas and lazy people. But the undertone is even more telling, for the author, the Basques are actually Spaniards, there is no cultural differences between the two nationalities. We play guitars, and when we are not burning witches or setting bombs off, we take siestas.
The lazy part is an insult for both Basques and Spaniards, and since we are all the same, to Catalans and Galizans, fuck, throw the Portuguese in that one too.
What about the Basques from Iparralde, are Bayonne and Biarritz sleepy also?
This is what I was talking about when I said that this was a golden opportunity for the Jewish community and the Israelis to get to know the Basques better, and just look at that, Ofer Shela just wasted it.
Related posts:
.... ... .
Never give too much importance to what journalists say, there are lots of lazy and missinformed guys with a ballpen out there.
ReplyDelete"We are not known for playing the guitar, those would be the Roma or the Andaluces. We play the trikititxa (accordion), the txistu (flute) and the txalaparta (drums)."
Well, I love Muguruza, Laboa and Mikel Erentxun and they all use guitars :p
Pd: I agree with the journalist when she says that Vitoria is asleep, you just have to compare it with SS ot Bilbo to know why.
Is it a she?
ReplyDeleteI really couldn't tell.
Gazteiz may not be as bustling with activity as Donostia or Bilbo, but that is not what they mean when they write that.
Spanish cities, Mexican cities, Peruvian Cities are sleepy. English cities, German cities, Japanese cities, they are alive. It's a cultural stereotype.