Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Quixotic Basques and Catalonians

It is no secret that the Spanish media has no love for the nation building process in both Euskal Herria (Basque Country) and Catalonia.

So, it does not come as a surprise when time to time one of their trained monkeys decides to hurl insults aimed at the "bad" nationalisms.

In his article titled "Meditation in the palace", which appeared at El País but comes to us via inanews.com, Enrique Gil Calvo starts by giving us a rather convoluted theory on the difference between the Don Quixote Spain and the Don Juan Spain.

He finally gets to the meat of his message, under which category modern day Spanish politicians can be labeled. To my delight, what he says about Aznar is quite correct:
Yet in terms of sheer aggressive nihilism few can match the so-called "Talibans" of Spanish politics, whose only mission is the destruction of their rival. I refer not only to the faction of Catalan Nationalists (CiU) who go by that name, but to all the party spokespeople, and in particular to the specialists in the Popular Party who work full time at sowing hatred and distrust. In this department the palm goes to Aznar, a professional Taliban who has spent his life speaking foul of anyone who fails to bend to his will.
But that seems to be just a divertion, because right after that, he goes head on against Basque and Catalonian nationalisms, only Galizans seem to be under his radar. Read on:
However, the real Quixotes in our political comedy are the regional nationalists, who, confusing their prosaic territories with the giants of history, invent fictional states and regional statutes dressed up in the exalted terminology of constitutions, build castles in the air while poor Sancho Panza stands by perplexed at the mad knight's delirium and wonder what to do next. These are Catalonia and the Basque Country's premiers.
Whoa!

What a list!

Check this out: prosaic territories, fictional states, fictional statutes, exalted terminology of constitutions.

Does Gil Calvo realizes just how much does he sounds like the Taliban Aznar?

.... ... .

1 comment:

  1. Alexsu:
    Hmmm Catalunya a fake giant of history? You mean that the almogavers' conquest of Athens and the establishment of the Catalan empire in the late middle ages was that of a fiction?
    The constitutional government- however oligargical and elitist- was relatively 'liberal' for its time.
    I suppose the Basques can point to similar milestones. The Castillans nationalists are so tiresome with their una libre, grande (tanto que no eres un nacionlista temible con sus fanstasias de 'fets diferencials')

    xavier

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