Thursday, April 30, 2009

Arrests of Refugees and Dispersal

We received this text from our friends at the Irish Basque Committees:

Basque political refugees arrested in Belfast and Venezuela

At the request of the Spanish authorities Arturo “Benat” Villanueva was arrested last Wednesday by the Extraditions Team of the PSNI. The arrest happened at 8am at his home. The PSNI officers involved in the arrest were correct throughout the arrest and the custody at the Musgrave barracks.

40 people supported Benat inside and outside the Court buildings. After a hearing before Judge Burgess and having previously agreed with both the Crown prosecution and the PSNI Benat was released on a £5000 bail, curfew at home from 9pm to 7am, he has to remain within the six counties and has to sign at a barracks every day once. A full hearing will be held on the 13th of May at the Lagan Court in Belfast.

As we’ve reported many times Benat’s case is not an isolated one, it’s part of a broader pattern of repression against the Basque Country . Over the last decade newspapers, political parties, youth groups, cultural associations...have been banned and their members arrested.

Benat has been living and working openly in Belfast for the past 5 and half years. He said: “I’ve made this country my home, made many great friends and become a proud part of a very strong community. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everybody for the welcome and support they’ve extended to myself and the Basque people over the years.”

Between Tuesday and Wednesday Basque political refugee Inaki Etxeberria was arrested in Venezuela. Very little information has come out surrounding this arrest.

The Basque pro-independence movement spoke out against the arrests and branded them as political and reflection of the overall political situation of repression in the Basque Country. The pro-independence movement asked other governments not to follow the Spanish authorities estrategy. Finally expressed their solidarity with the arrested and thanked those in Ireland, Venezuela and the rest of the world who have welcomed and supported Basque refugees along the years.

The Belfast Basque Solidarity Committee has stated that the arrest of a member of the Basque community , living in Belfast, is yet more evidence of the Spanish authorities attack on Basque Civil society.

Speaking on Wednesday a spokesperson for the group, Kevin Morrison, said:

“The arrest of a member of the Basque community, living in Belfast, Arturo “Benat” Villanueva, is yet more evidence of the continuation of attacks by the Spanish government on Basque civil society.

“The extradition warrant issued by the Spanish authorities is accusing Arturo Villanueva of membership of Segi, a youth organization banned in 2005 in a series of draconian clampdowns on Basque cultural and societal organizations.

“Since then newspapers and radio stations have been closed, human rights groups have been banned, and Batasuna, the Basque pro-independence party has been proscribed and its leadership arrested and imprisoned. All of these are blatant infringements of basic human rights and the freedom of speech within the European Union.

“This attitude of the Spanish government has recently been described by UN Rapporteur, Martin Scheinin as ‘too broad’ targeting ‘groups that have nothing to do with violence’.

“Benat has been living openly in Belfast for over five years and now has a life here.. We are a calling for immediate dropping of this case and an overall end to such repression of Basque civil society.”


20 years of dispersal policy

The EPPK/Basque Political Prisoners Collective released a statement on the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the dispersal policy by the Spanish government followed after by the French authorities. Since 1989 hundreds of Basque prisoners have been scattered in dozens of prisons across Spain and France. Nowadays 765 Basque political prisoners are imprisoned in 85 jails.

In the statement the EPPK says they won’t allow to be used to damage the Basque National Liberation Movement. They called upon Basque society to continue working against the dispersal policy.

The EPPK goes on to ask the French and Spanish government to take the prisons policies out of the confrontation lines and take the path of common sense.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Eusko Flickr : Untitled


IMG_2347
Originally uploaded by jon.ntx
Gorlizko Udaletxea.

Ayuntamiento de Gorliz.

Gorliz Town Hall.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Guardian's Original Article About Gernika

The English newspaper The Guardian has published the original article regarding the bombing of Gernika:

Town of ten thousand in ruins

28 April 1937

Guernica, a town of some 10,000 inhabitants, was yesterday reduced to a mass of burning ruins by countless numbers of German "planes which kept up a continuous bombing for three and a half hours".

The full story of yesterday's massacre is not yet known, but what details there are are horrible enough. It is now disclosed that the rebel planes bombed and set fire to isolated farmhouses for a distance of five miles around Guernica. Even flocks of sheep were machine-gunned.

In Guernica itself it is not known how many hundreds of people have been killed; it may indeed never be known. The town is in ruins. The buildings left standing can be counted almost on the fingers of one hand. The convent of Santa Clara, which was being used as a hospital, was destroyed, with many of its inmates. Another small hospital, with 42 beds, was completely wiped out together with its 42 wounded occupants.

The raid occurred on market-day when the town was full of peasants who had come in to sell their produce. Many of the people who raced desperately for the open fields were systematically pursued and machine-gunned from the air by swooping fighters.

The survivors spent a night of horror sleeping where and if they could, awaiting with resignation their evacuation to-day. Since early this morning the roads leading to the rear have been thronged with long streams of peasants whose possessions are dumped on oxcarts. Today I visited what remains of the town. I was taken to the entrance of a street like a furnace which no one had been able to approach since the raid. I was shown a bomb shelter in which over fifty women and children were trapped and burned alive. Everywhere is a chaos of charred beams, twisted girders, broken masonry, and smouldering ashes, with forlorn groups of inhabitants wandering in search of missing relatives. I picked up one incendiary shell which failed to explode. It was made of aluminium, weighed nearly two pounds, and was liberally stamped with German eagles.

When I visited the town again this afternoon it was still burning. Most of the streets in the centre were impassable, so that it is still unknown how many victims there are. The bodies of the few dead yet recovered are horribly mutilated. Thousands of homeless people have been evacuated with efficiency by the Basque authorities and are now at Bilbao. Their arrival may increase the difficulties of food supply in this city.


A town of ten thousand inhabitants on market day with visitors from all the little towns in the area reduced to smoking rubble and today the Spaniards and even some members of the Basque government insist that only a few dozen were killed.

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Messi's Basque Nemesis

This article featuring Basque football player Koikili Lertxundi was published at Times OnLine:

Only way to stop a genius

Chelsea can learn from one of the few to have tamed Messi

Ian Hawkey

KOIKILI LERTXUNDI is an unusual footballer. He has a degree in history and was once the Spanish under-15 champion at Greco-Roman wrestling. During his spare afternoons, he runs a human resources business in Vitoria, the capital of the Basque country. In the mornings, he drives his camper van to his other work, parks up next to the sports cars and high-performance vehicles of his colleagues and trains as the left-back for Athletic Bilbao.

Koikili , 28, is an especially rare footballer in this season’s Spanish first division for another reason: he has tamed Lionel Messi. Many full-backs have tried, several have approached the task with an X-rated brutality, but very few have anaesthetised the menace of the little Argentinian as effectively as Koikili. Messi scored when Barcelona defeated Athletic 2-0 at Camp Nou last month but only by converting a penalty. Otherwise, he had a diminished influence, tightly policed throughout by the brainy Basque.

“I was impressed with the marking job Koikili did,” said Barça’s head coach, Pep Guardiola, who is usually keener to draw referees’ attention to how often Messi gets fouled.

“With Messi, there’s no special secret,” says Koikili. “The key is to stay right on top of him, stick close and not let him enter a duel with the ball at his feet. Once he does that, he’s at his best.”

Koikili was Leo’s limpet for most of the Barça-Athletic game, so much so that Messi drifted into a more central position and even briefly tried switching wings. He had scarcely seemed so thwarted since, 12 months ago, Barcelona went 180 minutes without a goal in the European Cup semi-final games against Manchester United. On those nights, his marshal was Patrice Evra.

You can take a good guess at Messi’s first instinct in a duel. He is conspicuously left-footed and, though his ability to attack the space outside the left-back and cross or control with his right foot has improved in the past three seasons, his natural deviation is to move inside the pitch from right wing. When Real Madrid went to Camp Nou in December, coach Juande Ramos put Sergio Ramos, a right-footer, at left-back to counter the manoeuvre. Other managers have thought likewise.

“You can understand it,” says Koikili. “Messi is stronger on his left foot and, as his marker, you are aware that’s the side he’s going to want to go past you. But left-footer or right-footer, the main thing is to stop him being in the position to set off on one of those runs.”

Continues...

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Sunday, April 26, 2009

The Rise of Txakoli

We present you a fragment of an article called "Basque-ing in Wine" published at the Sonoma Valley Sun:

I generally stick with less potent starters. In an effort to broaden my stubbornly limited horizons, W.S. introduced me to Txakolina, a lower-alcohol, perfect hot-weather aperitif wine with unique characteristics, as well as a fascinating back-story.

Txakolina, pronounced CHAW-koh-LEE-nah, hails from the Basque country, an autonomous region of northern Spain. Txakolina wines include red, white and rose, although the white is by far the most abundant.

Txakolina has proud origins, and a history so obscure that there’s not much easily accessible information. W.S. suggested I contact Andre Tamers, owner of De Maison Selections, the largest U.S. importer of Txakolina. In fact, Andre and his wife Cindy Cuomo are writing a book on the subject, due for release later this year.

First I enquire about the name, variously referred to as Txakoli or Txakolina. “Well, that’s a mystery,” Andre says. “One theory is that Txakoli was the house where the wine was made, and Txakolina was the wine.” What is definite, according to Andre, is that Txakolina “has always been a part of the Basque people.” The word itself is in Euskara, an ancient language. About one million people speak Euskara. The language can differ in villages as little as 10 miles apart – the result of interaction with other languages, although Euskara predates modern dialects. In fact, Euskara is the only language that survived the Roman conquest of Hispania in 218 BC. Although attempts have been made to link it to many different languages, Euskara’s origins still remain unclear.

Over the centuries, Spanish supplanted Euskara. The Spanish dictator Franco, ruler from 1939 to 1975, outlawed Euskara, provoking Basque nationalism. Spain revoked this law at the end of the 20th century, and today, a standardized form called Euskara batua (unified Euskara) is taught in schools. Spaniards say “Chacoli,” but you will rarely see that inscribed on any Basque bottle.

Like Euskara, Basque wines nearly disappeared. Vineyards once covered more than 2500 acres. The 19th century European Phylloxera epidemic wiped out Basque vineyards, too. According to Tamers, sheer isolation helped pockets survive. With the advent of new nationalism, the wine industry revived as the Basque government subsidized winemaking. This attracted new people and technology. Wine expert Jancis Robinson writes that since the 1990s Txakolina has improved “noticeably.” For the first-time, Txakolina, once a little wine made in homes, exploded internationally. Basque country is only about the size of Rhode Island. A little more than 400 acres produce wine. That’s expected to expand exponentially. “They don’t have enough for demand,” says Andre. “This year they’re totally sold out.”

What makes this wine exciting is the fresh acidity, minerality and vibrant fruit, the result of Basque’s cooler climate, sandy soils with clay subsoils, and proximity to the Atlantic. It’s best within the first year of its release because the youthful characteristics diminish over time.

In the last decades, winemakers from the Getaria appellation also added a slight effervescence, and a Txakolina ritual evolved based on Spanish cider-drinking customs. Inserting a pourer called “escanciador” the bottle is held high over a pint glass and poured two to three fingers deep. Drinkers take “shots” of Txakolina. Like most Basques, I’ll take mine in a wine glass, thank you very much.


So, whenever you have a chance, enjoy a refreshing glass of txakoli.

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Democracy Now! and the Gernika Bombing

This video from a show dedicated to Gernika's bombing was posted at the Democracy Now! webpage:

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On Anniversary of 1937 Guernica Bombing, Basque Community in Idaho Looks Back

Seventy-two years ago this Sunday, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, on April 26th, 1937, the Basque town of Guernica was carpet bombed by Fascist Italian and Nazi German forces. Three-quarters of Guernica was destroyed, and as many as 1,600 civilians were killed. Boise, Idaho is home to one of the largest Basque populations in the United States. We speak with a survivor of the Guernica bombing and with the director Basque Museum and Cultural Center in Boise. [includes rush transcript]


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How the Spaniards Took Over the BAC's Government

This article was published at Green Left:

Basque Country: Spanish chauvinists oust nationalists

Emma Clancy


In the regional elections held on March 1 in the south-west Basque region (Bascongadas), the Spanish state banned left-wing Basque nationalist parties from taking part.

Combined with an alliance between rival Spanish chauvinist parties, the result was that for the first time since limited autonomy was granted to the region in 1979, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) has lost control of the Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community.

The Basque Country (Euskal Herria) straddles the Spanish and French borders. The majority of the 3 million Basques live within the Spanish state.

The Basque people have waged a long struggle for self-determination from Spanish rule.

The Bascongadas regional elections (comprising the Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Araba regions) disenfranchised about 15-20 % of citizens by banning political parties Spanish authorities claimed were linked to either the armed nationalist group ETA, or Batasuna — the pro-independence political party outlawed in 2003.

The PNV won the highest number of votes, but failed to win an outright majority in the 75-seat parliament. The two main Spanish parties, the local section of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (the PSE) and the right-wing Popular Party (PP), who between them took 38 seats, struck a deal on April 1 to form a coalition government on the basis of opposition to Basque self determination.

In the lead-up to the poll, the Spanish judiciary increased its repression of the pro-independence movement. The Supreme Court banned two more parties — Democracy 3 Million and Askatasuna (Freedom) — from standing candidates.

The left-nationalists, who generally poll 15-20%, were entirely excluded. They have no representatives in the new parliament.

The left-nationalists responded by printing and distributing illegal ballots, with which more than 100,000 people voted. Including these ballots, a majority of voters (around 640,000) backed pro-self determination parties. The PSE and PP won 482,000 votes combined.

The pro-Spanish parties, bitter rivals in Madrid, agreed to make PSE leader Patxi Lopez regional government president in return for the PP taking the presidency of the Basque parliament.

Repression

The coalition has already indicated it intends to increase repression against the pro-independence movement. Plans include bolstering the security forces, and attacks on the Basque language and cultural rights.

In a particularly vindictive move, Lopez has announced plans to cut government travel aid to the families of hundreds of Basque political prisoners that helps them visit relatives in jails throughout Spain and France.

On March 23, top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, who is on a personal crusade against Basque nationalism, filed “terrorism”' charges against 44 pro-independence activists.

The activists are alleged to be members of banned parties, including Batasuna, the Communist Party of the Basque Lands (PCTV) and Basque Nationalist Action (ANV).

Among those charged is Mondragon Mayor Maria Inocencia Galparsoro.

In a December 16 report, the UN human rights special rapporteur Martin Scheinin said he was “troubled” by Spain’s Law of Political Parties, which provides the legislative basis to ban political organisations. He said it defined “terrorism” so vaguely that it “might be interpreted to include any political party which through peaceful political means seeks similar political objectives” as those pursued by armed organisations.

This reveals that it is not the tactics, but the political goals of the pro-independence parties that Spain seeks to repress.

Scheinin said the law against “glorifying terrorism” should “include the requirements of an intent to incite the commission of a terrorist offence, as well as the existence of an actual risk that such an offence will be committed as a consequence”.

The Spanish authorities are using this law to try to extradite former ETA prisoner Inaki de Juana Chaos, who served 21 years in Spanish jails, from Belfast, where he moved after his release last August.

A Spanish court is basing its extradition efforts on the flimsiest grounds. Its evidence is one media report that, at an August rally in Donostia, which de Juana Chaos did not even attend, someone said, “Kick the ball forward”. This is alleged to be a call to commit terrorist acts, although there is no evidence the statement was made by de Juana Chaos or that it was an incitement to terrorism.

In March, a Belfast judge ruled against de Juana Chaos, accepting the advice of the Spanish authorities that the phrase constituted “praising terrorism”. De Juana Chaos is appealing the ruling.

On April 21, 32-year-old Basque activist Arturo Villanueva Arteaga, who has lived in west Belfast running a tourism business for the past four years, was arrested under a European warrant issued by the Spanish authorities.

Spain is seeking his extradition on unspecified terror charges reportedly relating to proscribed left-wing nationalist youth organisation Segi. The extradition hearing is set for May 13.

The UN report also criticised the interpretation of kale borroka, or street fighting between young people and the security forces, as “urban terrorism”. This definition subjects those who take part in street fighting to anti-terror laws, including incommunicado detention.

The report slammed the fact that all the political cases are judged by National Bench, descended from fascist dictator General Franco’s Public Order Tribunal. The Supreme Court has only a limited ability to review the bench’s judgements.

Prisoners

The UN report criticised human rights abuses. These include the denial of the rights of “terror suspects”, who may be dheld incommunicado for up to 13 days without charge.

The UN report noted the frequent allegations of torture by those detained incommunicado, as well as the failure of the Spanish authorities to investigate these claims properly.

The Basque human rights NGO, Group Against Torture (TAT), has listed testimonies of torture from 62 people in 2008, most of whom had been held incommunicado. The allegations include beatings, sexual assault, plastic bag asphyxiation, food and sleep deprivation, use of stress positions, and threats to rape or kill detainees or their family members.

Another alleged common abuse was being forced to sing the Spanish national anthem or fascist anthems.

There are now 765 Basque political prisoners, the highest number since the Franco dictatorship fell in 1975. They are spread out in more than 80 prisons in Spain and France — on average about 600km from the Basque Country.

The return of prisoners to the Basque Country has long been a central demand of the Basque people.

Spanish chauvinists now also control the central institution that Basque nationalists have historically used to exercise a degree of autonomy — the Basque Autonomous Community parliament.

The opportunist alliance of the social democratic PSE with the right-wing, neo-Francoist PP brings into sharp relief the fact that self-determination remains the defining issue facing the Basque Country.

The conservative nationalist PNV must also realise that the Spanish state’s strategy of fostering division and trying to isolate the radical nationalists also hurts the PNV. It has lost the limited power it had, demonstrating its dependence on the left-nationalists.

In power, the PNV failed seriously to oppose the persecution of the left. Such collaboration with Madrid's anti-democratic policies, out of narrow self-interest, has backfired.

A new nationalist united front, with a strategy of extra-parliamentary mass mobilisation, will be vital to defend the political, cultural and economic rights of Basque people against attacks from the chauvinist coalition.

Left-nationalists have begun holding meetings to discuss the way forward. Basque nationalist trade unions have called a general strike for May 21.

International support for a serious, inclusive peace process — in which the Spanish and French states acknowledge the Basque people’s democratic and national rights — is now more important than ever.

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Thursday, April 23, 2009

Support in Belfast

Supporters of Arturo Villanueva Arteaga hold Basque flags and display placards at Lagonside Court in Belfast, yesterday, April 22nd. Spanish authorities say Northern Ireland police have arrested a man suspected of having links to an outlawed Basque group. The Interior Ministry says police arrested Arturo Villanueva Arteaga, 32, in Belfast on Wednesday on a European arrest warrant. Villanueva is accused of belonging to Haika, a group outlawed in 2007 by Spain as a terrorist organization linked to armed Basque separatist group ETA, something that Spain's D.A. has failed to prove thus violating international law and treaties regarding human rights. This action by Madrid's government is part of an ongoing campaign to force governments around the world to curtail the civil rights of Basque citizens.

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Thursday, April 16, 2009

Bitter Taste

The article from Victor Mallet that you are about to read was published at the Financial Times contains a basic flaw, it departs from the misconception that the pro-independence vote in the recent Basque electoral process was lower than before when in fact it was higher. If the rabidly pro-Spain parties were able to size control was due to a fascist law that enables Madrid to outlaw any Basque party that they want to keep out of the process to ensure "success" to the parties that consider the perpetuation of Spain's colonial rule over the Basque Country as a priority. After more than 100,000 votes were declared null by Madrid, the political landscape was so thrown out of balance that the PSOE was able to become the party in control of the situation.

Here you have the article which in fact contains interesting info about the status quo between the Spanish State and Euskal Herria, Catalunya and Galiza, the nations abducted by Spain's statehood.

Global Insight: Spanish brew has bitter taste

By Victor Mallet in Madrid


Galician nationalists have lost power in Galicia. Basque nationalists have lost power in the Basque country. At first glance, the results of the two Spanish regional elections in March suggest that ethnic nationalism on the Iberian peninsula is in retreat.

Spain is not unique as a fragile nation state with centrifugal communities on its fringes: the closest comparison is probably with Britain, where Scotland looks far more likely to secede from the union than the Basque country or Catalonia do from Spain.

But the legacy of the civil war in the 1930s means that nationalism is a particularly sensitive issue today for the inhabitants of Spain, whether they call themselves Spaniards, Castilians, Catalans or Cantabrians.

After Francisco Franco, the civil war victor, died in 1975, Spain celebrated the end of his dictatorship – and its harsh suppression of diverse languages and cultures – with a liberal constitution enshrining regional autonomy within a united Spain.

The obvious beneficiaries were the Basques, Galicians and Catalans but, since it was unfair to exclude Andalucians, Valencians or anyone else, the policy adopted was café para todos: coffee for all – and so modern Spain consists of 17 autonomous communities and two enclaves in north Africa.

Support for full independence is mostly confined to the Basque country, where Eta militants pursue a campaign of terror against the Spanish state and those deemed to have collaborated with it.

But many non-Castilians do favour more autonomy and speak vaguely of having their region recognised as part of the European Union rather than of Spain. Autonomy is credited with reviving neglected cultures. Catalonia, brimming with confidence, has established delegations, shadow embassies, in cities such as London and Brussels.

Yet many Spaniards, including those who voted for the unionist parties that won the latest regional elections, say the pendulum has now swung too far in the direction of autonomy.

There is a whiff of centrist counter-revolution in the air, a sense that Spain will fall apart if Madrid is too lenient with the regions. That is one reason for the scant criticism at home of Spain’s divergence from most European partners in refusing to recognise the independence of Kosovo.

Language policy has been especially contentious, with moves by regional governments to impose Catalan, Galician or Basque in schools and the civil service provoking angry reactions from Spanish-speaking residents. Dozens of doctors in Ibiza, for example, have threatened to leave the island because of the Balearic regional government’s insistence that they be tested in Catalan, the local language.

Forced marches towards linguistic divergence have gathered pace in a manner that intrigues philologists but is regarded as artificial and politically dangerous by Spanish nationalists. Catalan speakers, ironically, can be very protective of their own language while simultaneously mocking the pretensions of Valenciano and Mallorquí, the Catalan dialects of Valencia and Mallorca, to an independent existence.

Charles de Gaulle, to illustrate the difficulty of running a diverse nation, famously referred to the hundreds of different cheeses produced in France. But neither he nor his successors would have tolerated the number of languages and dialects officially promoted in Spain today – let alone accepted the need for simultaneous interpreters for television news coverage on election night.

Autonomy is not only occasionally inconvenient for those who want to speak Spanish. Investors, domestic and foreign, complain bitterly about the extra bureaucracy imposed by regional governments, costs that Spain can ill afford as it plunges into the deepest recession in memory. “The administration in Spain suffers from elephantiasis,” was the verdict of one unionist lawyer in Madrid recently.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Socialist prime minister, is in a trap set by Spain’s democratic constitution for governments without an absolute majority in parliament. He senses the worries of voters before the European elections in June and his instincts are to promote Spanish unity. But he needs the votes of regional parties, particularly the Catalans, ito pass legislation and stay in control of Spain.

Unfortunately for Mr Zapatero, every regional government from Galicia to Murcia is determined to hang on to the powers it gained after Franco’s death. Café para todos is a stimulating brew that no one wants to forgo. When the waiter comes, however, no one wants to pay the bill.

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Monday, April 13, 2009

Language Issues in Euskal Herria II

This is the follow up to an article published at the Portland Cultural Travel Examiner about the Basque language that we posted here a couple of days ago:

Tyler Sprecker

Language, identity and education policy in Spain’s Basque country: Part 2

As I mentioned in Part 1, the language debate taking place in the Basque Country of Spain is more than one about culture versus economy. The status of Basque as a language is tied closely to Basque nationalism and the fight for sovereignty. The Basque Country of Spain enjoys a great degree of autonomy from the rest of Spain, though not enough for Basque Nationalists who want nothing short of absolute sovereignty. While not representative of all Basque Nationalists, the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), a pro-independence terrorist organization, has been the darker face of the independence movement.

Although the separatist movement has lost some steam in recent years, it remains an important force in Spanish politics. Basque separatists have long argued for their right to self-determination as a separate ethnic group with their own language and culture. Surely a sovereign country retains the right to choose and promote its own language? Given the Basque country’s semi-autonomous status and current demographics, that has been a point of frustration for many.

Many native Spanish speakers in the Basque Country feel frustrated with the Basque language requirement for civil service jobs, arguing that some professionals such as doctors should be focusing their time and energy on learning about disease and medicine rather than a second language. Foreign language requirements have aroused public discontent in other regions of Spain as well. Protests were recently held in opposition of a government decision to make knowledge of Catalan mandatory for civil service jobs in the Cataluña region.

While not recognized as such by the federal government, Basque is a co-official language along with Spanish in the Basque Country of Spain. The Basque Country government strongly encourages bilingualism among its citizens. Under current policy all civil servants are required to speak Basque. The government has even taken to encouraging business owners to encourage their employees to learn Basque if they do not already know it. Educational policy is geared toward the same goal as well.

The Basque Country of Spain currently has three educational models from which parents are obliged to choose for their children. In Model A, all classes are taught in Spanish, except for language classes; Basque language classes are required. In Model B, some subjects are taught in Basque while others are taught in Spanish. In Model D, all classes are taught in Basque; Spanish language classes are required. In all three models English language classes are a required part of the curriculum. Some schools have even been testing a new trilingual education model where subjects are taught in Basque, Spanish and English. Over the past several years, the Basque Nationalist led government has been closing Model A schools due to reportedly low demand.

The need for bilingualism appears to be shared by many, though there is disagreement about the languages. Many native Spanish speakers see Basque as a language with marginal utility and would prefer their children to be taught English instead.

Public policy as it relates to language, however, may see some changes in light of recent political developments. After 30 years of governance by the Basque Nationalist Party (or by Basque Nationalist Party-led coalitions), the People’s Party (PP) – Spain’s main right-wing party, and the Socialist Party of the Basque Country (PSE) have formed a governing coalition that is set to begin governing starting mid-May of this year. Exactly what this means for language policy is yet to be seen, although a joint-statement of policy goals agreed to by both governing parties was recently issued.

The joint release clearly states the new government’s support for freedom of choice for parents among educational models. It also states the parties’ support for bilingualism as official government policy whereby all students are to be bilingual, though their parents retain the right to choose their educational path towards that end. Only time will tell if such policies will in effect create a bilingual citizenry. The only other question remaining is: Have they chosen the right languages?

I insist, seems like the author took many of his cues from that infamous article by Keith Johnson although it does a better job at keeping a more objective view on the issue.

And I insist, how dare any US citizen label any group as "terrorist" after all the crimes committed by the US military in Afghanistan, Irak and Pakistan?

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Sunday, April 12, 2009

A Basque Wagon's New Home

This article about the Basque heritage in the USA has been published at Nevada Appeal:

Wagon moved into Nevada State Museum’s new structure

Teri Vance

Basque sheepherders wagon, built around 1902 for the Campbell Ranch in White Pine County, was moved into the Nevada State Museum’s new concourse on Thursday.

It is the first large artifact to be moved into the glass-enclosed structure that will serve as the museum’s new entrance when it opens on May 14.

“It’s a great step forward for the museum,” said museum director Jim Barmore. “Finally, we’re getting close to the end of construction and getting ready to do what we do best, setting up exhibits.”

The project, built to look like the structure used to lower people and equipment into Nevada mines a century ago, will provide disabled patrons access to the Nevada State Museum and its underground mine exhibit.

It will also connect the three museum buildings on North Carson Street.

“It offers many advantages,” Barmore said. “It will unify our complex with a single point of entry and offer a safe, comfortable walkway.”

He said it also provides a space big enough to display large items that have not had enough room. Those displays will rotate and be visible from both inside and outside the museum.

The first exhibit will be the wagon designed after the first sheepherders wagon built by James Candlish of Rawlins, Wyo. in 1884. He designed and built the original sheepherders wagon from an old wagon behind his shop.

This wagon was open in front, with the interior canvas flap to block the wind, and was quickly adopted by sheepmen all over the West, according to a press release from the Nevada State Museum.

The museum’s wagon has been stored outside of the museum for about eight years, Barmore said, because of lack of space.

He said the museum has been anticipating the project for about 10 years and the staff is looking forward to its completion.

“We have a lot of exhibit work to do before we can open it up, so we’re all working really hard,” he said. “We’re busy little beavers over here.”

The estimated cost of the project was $3.2 million.

If you go

WHAT: Grand opening of Nevada State Museum’s connecting concourse

WHEN: 5-8 p.m. May 14

WHERE: Nevada State Museum, 600 N. Carson St.


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Saturday, April 11, 2009

Eusko Flickr : Untitled


F64_BASC.181
Originally uploaded by photonogrady

Language Issues in Euskal Herria I

I've got to tell you, ever since that infamous article about the Basque language by Basque-phobe Keith Johnson I cringe each time I find an article about this issue in an US media outlet. Here I present you one published at Examiner:

Tyler Sprecker

Language, identity and education policy in Spain’s Basque country: Part 1

Governing has never been so complicated. Political scientists the world over have been scratching their heads over the simultaneous integration and devolution of governments. The European Union has expanded to include 27 member countries and Asia has discussed development of a European Union-like structure while separatist movements from Quebec, Canada to the Tibet, China fight on for sovereignty. All the while, political and economic commentators from Benjamin Barber to Thomas Friedman have reflected on the effects of globalization and what it means for people around the world.

For many, it has meant having to balance economic and cultural survival. That struggle is evident in the Basque Country of Spain, where the regional government is feudally trying to weave a trilingual web of Basque, Spanish and English among its citizens, making education policy a hotly debated issue. This two part series will explore language in Spain’s Basque Country, education policy and the current debate.

Spain’s Basque Country is a semi-autonomous region on the northern coast of Spain near the French border and longtime home to the indigenous Basque people. In fact, Basque is believed to be the last remaining pre-Indo European language in Europe. Communities in the Basque region had enjoyed a great degree of autonomy until the late 18th-19th centuries. Spain’s dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) even went so far as to outlaw the Basque language, nullifying all legal documents recorded in the language and punishing those that dared speak it in public. Since the ratification of Spain’s 1978 Constitution, the Basque Country has been named a “historical region” and has been afforded a great degree of autonomy.

Unfortunately for many non-Basque speakers, the Basque government seems to have concluded that the best way to protect the Basque language is to force it onto others, and that may not be such a bad assessment. Language displacement has occurred in many parts of the world as dominant languages such as English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and Arabic have spread. As a necessity for survival, speakers of the marginal languages are often forced to learn the dominant language of their respective regions, creating a generation (or several) of bilingual speakers that function as a bridge between their cultural past and the future of their children. Faced with economic marginalization, parents will often times raise their children in the dominant language but will not teach them their mother language, or if they do, the marginal utility of that language will not be sufficient so as to warrant its use by the younger generation who often times will abandon it completely. Left to evolutionary forces alone, many marginal languages will simply disappear as they are replaced by dominant ones. Simply permitting a given population to speak their native tongue does not guarantee that language’s survival. But is this a matter of survival for Basque speakers?

Perhaps not; there are an estimated 632,000 native Basque speakers (roughly double the number of Icelandic speakers). Aggregate numbers alone, however, do not tell the whole story. While the Basque people are largely confined to one geographic location, only an estimated one quarter of Basque region inhabitants speak Basque as a native language, and the region’s main center of commerce, Bilbao, is largely populated by native Spanish speakers, with native Basque speakers largely confined to the outskirts and surrounding areas.

But to frame the debate exclusively in terms of culture versus economy is to distort it. In Part 2, I will explore in further detail Basque Country politics and the identity debate.

Just one little detail, Euskara is not forced "onto others", the government of the Basque Autonomous Community can do nothing about having someone in Andalucia or the Canary Islands learning the language. The language policy is implemented only in the three Basque provinces it rules and all the inhabitants minus the inmigrants of these three provinces are supposed to be Basques.

If they don't feel Basque and they refuse to speak Basque they can always go to Spain and live their happy lives in a Spanish speaking environment, in the end, Spain is not awefully far from the Basque Country.

We'll wait and see what Tyler tells us in the second installment of the series.

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Friday, April 10, 2009

On The Road

This article about the Basque cycling team Euskaltel-Euskadi was published at the Daily Peloton:

Euskaltel-Euskadi On the Road - 2009

In American parlance, the emphasis is on rebuilding, as Basque team Euskaltel-Euskadi takes to the 2009 season with a reduced roster compared with 2008 and an emphasis on youth.

By Christopher Fauske

In American parlance, the emphasis is on rebuilding, as Basque team Euskaltel-Euskadi takes to the 2009 season with a reduced roster compared with 2008 and an emphasis on youth. Of course, it is a campaign strategy complicated—or at least touched by irony - in that the squad is headed by Olympic gold medalist Samuel Sanchez. Sanchez will be a marked man this year, and any Euskaltel-Euskadi contingent in a race that includes him will have little opportunity to test its mettle under the radar.

One wrinkle of Sanchez’s higher profile is the question of the role Koldo Fernandez will play in the 2009 campaigns. He is the team’s first legitimate sprinter, a rider they intend to help develop into a weapon they have never before brought to the peloton. Fernandez is an example of how Euskaltel-Euskadi is developing its tactical options under the leadership of DS Igor González de Galdeano, a veteran of earlier incarnations of a team which distinguished itself for the passion of its fans and with very few results to show for it. Basque fans want to see their riders attack on the mountains, says team press secretary Jesus Aizkorbe. As a youth, “Koldo was a great sprinter, but when he was an amateur he tried to be good in the mountains.” Since he joined the team in 2004, managers have “convinced him to be a sprinter. He’s unique in the team’s history. We have had fast riders before, but not sprinters.”

Fernandez’s presence on the team and Sanchez’s increasing skills as a one-day specialist has led to the Basque team’s interest in the northern classics shifting from one of grudging acceptance that UCI pro tour rules required their presence, to an attitude of at least some interest. It is an interest tempered by Sanchez’s focus on preparing for Le Tour. Rather than taking both Fernandez and Sanchez to the north, then, Euskaltel-Euskadi has sent one squad north with their sprinter while another works to support Sanchez in the south.

It was a strategy that started less than convincingly when Fernandez managed 51st place in the Tour of Flanders, having missed all major breaks. But things looked up a bit on April 8 when Fernandez managed sixth in a field sprint at Gent-Wevelgem and Sanchez moved into second overall in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco in front of home crowds.

In 2009, the team is choosing to stay away from some races in which it has historically played no great part, chief among them the Giro D’Italia, where the team’s 2008 experience was described by one critic as that of “strangers in a strange land” and by another as “dreadful.”

Aizkorbe is blunt in his assessment, “We have no interest in the Giro. In 2005 and after we were obligated to go, but there’s no interest for us or our sponsors.” With the separation of the pro tour from the historic races, Euskaltel-Euskadi is “free to decide,” while acknowledging that the team “must compete in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and Le Tour.” Aizkorbe is clear that ASO has committed to offering the team a Tour invitation for the next several years.

In 2008, the foundation that runs the team finished the year about €1M in the red and is looking forward to a less expensive 2009 campaign. The size of the squad has been reduced from 27 to 23, a little larger than originally planned. The most noticeable change from 2008 is the departure of long-time rider Haimar Zubeldia, now with Astana.

Despite these challenges, team management is increasingly confident of its ability to attract the best in Basque talent, as the return of Egoi Martinez from Discovery in 2008, and the decision of Sanchez to stay after his Olympic medal suggest. After the Olympics, foundation president Miguel Madariaga publicly acknowledged he would not be able to offer a salary much larger than that which Sanchez had accepted earlier in the year. The contract was renegotiated, but Sanchez endeared himself to team and fans alike when he stated bluntly “I see myself at Euskaltel.”

Sanchez’s perspective is not unique. Mikel Astarloza says pointedly, “for years we had the pressure [of having to keep up]. But now we come with a feeling of pride.” Under the leadership of Madariaga and Igor González de Galdeano the riders have solidified behind a philosophy that “the team knows it’s known. The riders know there are big teams out there, but it doesn’t mean our riders are not competitive. Their mission is to do their best. Now, when riders reach this level they choose to stay here,” says Aizkorbe. With a little prodding he says of the rider whose name is still associated with the team, “Iban Mayo was a completely different case. He never bought into the idea of Euskaltel-Euskadi.”

As part of its commitment to developing younger riders, the team is also looking to offer longer contracts. Within the pro tour peloton, contracts for all but the very biggest names are for one or two years, but Euskaltel-Euskadi is moving to offer three-year contracts and so its staff is paying more attention to the younger riders. “You have to be confident to offer a contract like that,” says Aizkorbe.

Still, there are challenges despite the greater flexibility in scheduling, the addition of a pure sprinter to the team’s top flight, and the options offered by having a one-day threat in Sanchez who is also a legitimate Grand Tour contender.

Fans and Le Tour

The fan base has at times got out of hand, and organizers of Le Tour responded by changing when the race comes through the Pyrenees to try to get past the ugly TV images of the recent past. The riders have become advocates of better behavior, reminding the Basque population that the world is watching. “There were really difficult days in the Pyrenees,” Aizkorbe admits, and for a while tour organizers avoided weekend stages in the Pyrenees, but although “it’s a bigger problem than the team can solve the team tries to get the message to fans. But there are people who don’t understand cycling. They are soccer fans who go there to have a party. It’s not comfortable.”

Still, these days the team is in the position of trying to adjust people’s expectations. In the past, “the team has been criticized by journalists for trying too hard to win a stage in the Pyrenees,” Aizkorbe says, “but now it’s not enough for us just to win a stage, so we cannot afford anymore to go into the Pyrenees and then relax. For us it’s better when the Alps come first,” as they will not in 2009.

As for the Vuelta a Espana, which famously avoids the Basque country, Euskaltel-Euskadi would very much like to see it move back to the spring slot it used to occupy, after the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and before Le Tour. It would in some sense allow the team to return to its main purpose, representing the Basque country where, in Astarloza’s words “cycling has reached the people.”

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Monday, April 06, 2009

Bleak Era Starts in Euskal Herria

The Basque Autonomous Community's Parliament has a Partido Popular President for the very first time. A bleak era of human, civil and political rights has opened in the Basque Country with the Partido Popular’s Arantza Quiroga, elected President of the Basque Parliament in Vitoria on Friday. The pact between the Socialists and the Partido Popular gives then 38 of the 75 seats and has led, for the first time in the history of the BAC'sParliament, the election of a P.P. President. Who can forget that the Partido Popular was founded by ministers from the Franco dictatorship, a genocidal regime that murdered thousands of Basques. Who can forget that not one single Spaniard has been prosecuted for all those murders.

The President of the Government, the Lehendakari, is the Socialist Francisco "Patxi" López, and for the first time also the left wing pro-independence parties have no representation in the chamber after Madrid resorted to a law that is a throw-back to Francisco Franco's regime to declare 100,000 votes null. The PNV Basque Nationalist Party, despite being the largest party at the regional elections on March 1, is now therefore out of power for the first time in 29 years.

On Sunday the new President went walkabout in her home town of Irún. Aratxa Quiroga admitted that her family are having a hard time of it, as now she is in the ‘eye of the hurricane’. She is also being the target of harsh criticism for her stance against the usage of condoms in Africa, as a member of the Spanish extreme right she champions the most backwards positions defended by the Catholic Church. Also, like every other member of her political party, she has never condemned the crimes committed by the Franco regime.

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Friday, April 03, 2009

Is Not Our National Side

It's been 42 years since Spain's side has played in the Basque region. And there is a good reason for it, the Basques do not support the team that represents the colonialist state that denies us our right to self determination, to the extreme that they won't allow the teams representing the nations trapped within the Spanish State nightmare to take part it international events unlike England that allows Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to do so.

But things changed after the botched electoral process last month in which the Spaniards on an all out attack against democracy were able to finally take over the Parliament in the Basque Autonomous Community. Now they want to celebrate and they will do so by adding insult to injury by having their national team playing on Basque turf.

There is supposed to be a debate in Spain following the revelation that the Spanish Football Federation wants to play in the Basque Country. It’s normal in Spain for friendly and some other international matches to be played in the regions, but the Basque Country has been ignored since 1967, 42 years ago.

It’s down to nationalist politics of course, and the thought of Spanish flags being waved in the San Mamés stadium is simply unthinkable.

Now the Federation President, Ángel María Villar, who is an ex Athletic de Bilbao player himself, has made the idea one of his objectives before his mandate ends in four years time, this shows that as usual, Spain resorts to traitors in order to advance its colonialist strategy.

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