Sunday, March 29, 2009

Oinkari's Golden Anniversary

This article was published at The Idaho Statesman:

Oinkari Basque Dancers to celebrate golden anniversary

The group that began with 7 dancers plans a year of anniversary observances.

BY TIM WOODWARD

You can't call yourself a true Boisean if you've never seen the Oinkari Basque Dancers. They're part of our heritage, like Music Week or tubing the Boise River.

But do you know when and how they started?

Probably not. They're so much a part of the local scene that they seem to have always been here.

The group began after seven Boise Basques in their early 20s visited Spain and learned some Basque songs and dances. They thought the dances would be a fleeting diversion.

Nearly half a century later, Idaho Basques are planning more than a year of events celebrating the 50th anniversary of that trip and what it started. What began with seven 20-somethings has become a tradition that has included more than 800 dancers performing at venues from local parks to the rotunda of the U.S. Senate.

"They've represented Idaho nationally and internationally," Basque Museum and Cultural Center Director Patty Miller said. "And they've been great preservers of our culture. When the visitors' bureau or the tourism department want to point something out about Boise culture, there's nothing more visible than the Basque dancers."

The seven who started it all - Al Erquiaga, Delphina and Diana Urresti, Toni Murelaga, Simon Achabal, Clarine Anchustegui and Bea Solosabal - spent the summer of 1960 in Europe. While visiting the Basque country, they met a group of dancers who called themselves the Oinkaris, which loosely means dancing feet.

"They taught us two dances to take home," Boisean Toni Achabal said. (Her last name being the same as that of another member of the original seven isn't a coincidence. She and her husband, Simon, were the first of many Oinkari dancers to be married.)

"We had the idea of starting a group in Boise," she said, "but we never dreamed what it would become. We thought it would be here today and gone tomorrow."

When the Boiseans visited Spain, dictator Francisco Franco was ruthlessly suppressing Basque culture. Basques couldn't fly their flag, speak their language or write down their music. The novice dancers had to try to remember the songs until they returned to Boise.

"We got together with Jimmy (local accordion legend Jimmy Jausoro) right away because we didn't know how long the songs would stay in our heads," Achabal said. "He wrote down what we could remember. We made our own costumes and started practicing. It wasn't authentic, but it was as authentic as we could make it."

It was authentic enough that their first performance for Boise's Basque community in December 1960 was a hit.

"We were so nervous we didn't know if we were coming or going, but we wowed them," Achabal said.

The performances will continue with more than a year of anniversary observances, beginning with the St. Ignatius picnic Aug. 1-2 (the current Oinkari dancers will perform), culminating with Jaialdi in July of 2010 and ending with a dinner dance in December of 2010 - 50 years after the first group's first performance.

"We're going to try to get all the alumni to dance at one time at Jaialdi," Erquiaga said. "That will be over 700 people."

Though two of the original dancers now live out of state, all seven - now in their 70s - plan to join in the festivities.

"Hopefully we'll rehearse first," Erquiaga said. "Then we'll stagger through it."

That's a greater accomplishment than it might seem.

The Oinkari group that taught them their first dances in Spain? It disbanded decades ago.


Darin Oswald / Idaho Statesman: Toni Murelaga Achabal, Diana Urresti Sabala, Delphina Urresti (front row), Simon Achabal and Al Erquiaga (back row) helped found the Basque Oinkari Dancers. Current and former dancers are about to kick off more than a year of celebrating their 50th anniversary.



Just one little detail, the original Oinkari group was not from Spain, it was from Euskal Herria.

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Saturday, March 28, 2009

Basque Rustic Cuisine

This article was published at The Australian:

Basque in rustic glory

Christine McCabe

I WAS introduced to Basque cuisine a lifetime ago in, of all places, Reno, Nevada, at a small family-run restaurant where patrons crowded at long, communal tables tucking into steaming bowls of lamb stew.

In food-savvy San Francisco, Basque-born chef Gerald Hirigoyen has given his native cuisine a fresh, west coast twist at the acclaimed Piperade, one of this city's must-visit restaurants.

Set two blocks from the waterfront, wedged between the Embarcadero and the Financial District in a renovated warehouse, this charming eatery, opened seven years ago to rave reviews and a chef-of-the-year gong, is a long way from the humble shepherds' fare of northern Nevada or indeed the Basque country.

But Hirigoyen pays homage in the form of a large shepherd's table, anchor to the restaurant's rustic, but stylish, fittings that include an oversized clock face and a chandelier fashioned from used wine bottles.

Lunch starts late on a Friday here. Barely anyone tips up before 2pm, giving we famished tourists a substantial head start. Our French waitress is all smiles and clearly knows her way around the Spanish and California-centric wine list (where Basque wines are a feature), recommending a cava to start: d'Abbatis Brut Nature, Catalunya 2005 ($US10 ($14) a glass) made from 30-year-old parellada vines.

It's the perfect accompaniment to our entrees or tipiak (small plates): a sensational house-cured bacalao ($US12), salt cod topped with small, silken oysters and a drizzle of lemon creme fraiche, and a grande white bean salad served with boquerones (Spanish anchovies), fresh herbs and crumbled, hard-boiled eggs ($US11).

Our tipiak triumvirate is made replete with a wonderful, salty-licious terrine ($US12) of ham and sheep's-milk cheese finished with a crispy, caramelised crust and dressed with aged sherry. A perfect tapas dish designed to tickle the appetite and the thirst, never a bad thing when one is en vacance.

As the cava evaporates at an alarming rate, folk begin trickling into our warehouse bolthole, drawing up to linen-dressed tables lined with festive red, white and blue runners. You get the feeling this a favourite luncheon hideaway for city folk, set on a broad, leafystreet (there's even parking), with a relaxed, urbane atmosphere.

The mains, or handiak (big plates), are a slightly smaller, but just as tempting, selection of Basque-influenced dishes. The restaurant's namesake seems compulsory for first-timers: piperade ($US17), a traditional Basque concoction of sauteed peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic topped with serrano ham and a poached egg. It's simple but elegant, the Coco Chanel of stews. Just as light on the hips is another signature Hirigoyen dish, a braised seafood stew ($US20) of salmon, prawns, mussels, cockles and squid.

To wash down our mains we plunder the Spaniards again: a Vionta Albarino 2007 ($US10 a glass), a rather fashionable variety Stateside, and a Volver Tempranillo La Mancha (also $US10).

By mid-afternoon the small restaurant has filled with a cheerful local crowd giving it the cosy ambience of a corner cafe. There are zero tourists; one imagines they're loitering on the waterfront paying premium for Dungeness crab while missing this quintessential San Francisco dining experience.

Make a day of it by beginning at the nearby Embarcadero Ferry Plaza, exploring the wonderful food shops in this elegantly restored city landmark (artisan chocolates, cheeses and bread are specialities) before jumping a heritage trolley (or tram), reminiscent of Moscow, Milan, even Melbourne, along the waterfront. Then enjoy a stroll to Piperade if for no other reason than to order dessert. Hirigoyen's orange blossom beignets ($US8) are recommended in almost every food guide to the city, with good reason. They are divine.

Having lived in San Francisco for more than 25 years (and now operating two restaurants, including a casual tapas eatery in North Beach), Hirigoyen is firmly entrenched as one of city's leading food identities, his simple dishes a celebration of Basque tradition and Californian innovation.

He has said he doesn't want to be labelled a Spanish chef but enjoys integrating different flavours while drawing on his culinary roots.

And there's something very San Franciscan about his food: fresh ingredients prepared simply in relaxed surrounds where, with a little imagination, one can hear the jingle of a sheep's bell on a Nevada hillside.

From this blog we express our dream that one day those who write about the Basques will finally refrain from insulting our identity by calling us Spaniards.

And just so you know, there is an active Basque community in Australia.

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Spain's New Crusade in the Basque Country

For the second time, Spain’s conservatives and socialists are to share power in the Basque country. The banning from recent elections of pro-independence left-wing parties left the ruling Basque Nationalists with no natural allies. Despite winning the most seats, the PNV had no overall majority and was forced out.

In its place the Basque socialist leader Patxi Lopez will become regional prime minister, a significant political boost for Spanish premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. The post of regional parliament head will be filled by a member of the extreme right Partido Popular. There is no surprise whatsoever about this outcome which ends a three-decade period of Basque Nationalist rule in the region.

The PNV had enjoyed unbroken rule since 1980, but now faces time in opposition thanks to an deal between the PSOE and the PP that ends a masquarade. For the longest time these two parties were shown to the Spanish electorate and to the international community as two separate columns of Spain's alleged democracy. Now it is quite clear that they are little more than the right wing and the left wing of the same government, the one presided by Juan Carlos Borbon who was selected by the genocidal dictator Francisco Franco to replace him after his death.

The big wigs in Madrid decided that the precedents set by the independence of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Croatia and more recently Kosovo, plus the calls for independence from Scotland, Wales, Feroe Islands, Breizh, Corsica and even the possible split in Belgium were far too dangerous because they could not keep up with their campaign of lies and misconceptions that they erected around the right to self determination of their own continental colonies; Nabarra, Cataluya and Galiza. This is why they decided to forget about their "differences" and joined forces in order to secure that they will be able to continue to deprive the Basque people of their civil and political rights.

The main stream media insists that this was the first time ever which is not true, the PSOE and the PP did the same thing over a year ago in the Basque province of Nafarroa when they left out a Basque coalition party known as Nafarroa Bai (NaBai).

The BNP (PNV) will be in the opposition yes, and they deserve it, because for the longest time they enabled Spain to supress the political rights of the left-wing parties thanks to a Franco era like law, it is just right that now they will suffer the consequences of their betrayal to their own people, serves them well.

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Football's Identity Matters

The article you are about to read was published at Goal.com and it tip-toes around the fact that the inhabitants of Euskal Herria and Catalunya (two out of the three abducted nations by Spanish colonialism) do not feel Spanish and therefore do not support Spain's national football team. Here you have it:

World Cup Debate: Spain - Divided, But Still Successful

Goal.com takes a look at that land of many cultures - Spain - and the status of the national team...

It's a rare country that has everyone within its borders cheering for national team success. Virtually everywhere on earth you will find ex-pats, immigrants, and the children of immigrants - sitting quietly at home while the majority are out watching the national team compete in the World Cup.

What's more, in quite a few you will even find native-born citizens, stretching back generations, who are not the least bit interested in the fortunes of the national side. Perhaps nowhere in Europe is this more true than in Spain.

A House Divided

The Spanish football roadshow - easily one of Europe's more mobile national teams - seems to cover a heck of a lot of ground, but this is deceptive. The vast, vast majority of the matches are played in the various pro-Spain heartlands of Castile and Leon, Castile-La Mancha, Andalucia, Asturias, Extremadura, and even Galicia and Murcia. Valencia is well-resented, too, while La Rioja, Navarre, Aragon and the Canaries are also visited. But Catalonia? The Basque Country? No.

There are parts of Spain, then, in which the national side simply is not relevant. Catalonia is the first example: sure, there are Spain fans there, but not many, borne out by the fact that the Furia Roja have not played there since 2000. (To give some context, Spain have in the meantime visited such footballing hotbeds as Vila-Real, Elche, Logrono, and Leon.)

More amazingly, the last time Spain hosted international opposition in Bilbao was in 1967 - at the height of Francoism, in other words - and San Sebastian/Donostia in 1923. Have they any immediate plan to return? Why would they? The attendance would probably be low and the outcry massive.

Flying The Flag

Yet despite the groundswell of opposition at grassroots level, when it comes to professional football, Spanish recognition remains the big prize. Proud Catalans such as Xavi and Bojan without hesitation - and without moderation - play for Spain as readily as they would their clubs. So fulsome were Xavi's efforts last summer, in fact, that he was named Euro 2008's Player of the Tournament.

That's not to say that there cannot be tensions. This current squad is undoubtedly one blessed with camaraderie and spirit, but previous coaches have not quite managed the same. Just look at Javier Clemente. He was accused by Marca, among others, of having a bias towards his beloved Athletic Bilbao, and selecting players who had 'a couple of half-decent games' for the San Mames outfit. Later, Luis Aragones weathered the same controversy for his Atletico Madrid predilection, but in Clemente's case there was, sadly, an ethnic undertone to both his (alleged) policy and some of his critics.

In other words, it's a minefield, and specifically so in the Basque country. This video, courtesy of Carlsberg and partofthegame.tv, featuring football writer Phil Ball, may explain more.

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What they do not point out is that unlike England that allows for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to play in international tournaments, Spain will not even allow Euskal Herria, Catalunya and Galiza to do the same which once again proves that those who call the shots in Madrid have little regard for the right to self determination of all nations in the world.

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Friday, March 27, 2009

Basque Good Friday

This information comes to us from our friends of the Irish Basque Committees:

6TH ANNUAL IRISH BASQUE NIGHT

GOOD FRIDAY 10TH APRIL


Featuring:


ERIK NOON & THE FUTURE GYPSIES

http://www.myspace.com/eriknoon


THE RED RASTA SOUND SYSTEM


with speakers, videos, raffles, merchandising, books...


DOORS OPEN 8PM

£5 BEFORE 10PM / £7 AFTER 10 PM

LIMITED TICKETS




Organised by: BELFAST BASQUE SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE

Keep up to date on Basque struggle news at: Irish Basque Committees

Listen to Basque Info at www.feilefm.com on line on Tuesdays from 6.30-7pm and Wednesdays 12-12.30pm

Once again, thanks to all of our Irish friends for your kindness and solidarity.

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Basque Co-Operatives

This article was published at The Economist, I bet it will be a huge surprise for those who claim that the Basque Country could not compete in Europe's economy as one of the excuses to deny the Basques their self-determination. Here you have it:

All in this together
How is the co-operative model coping with the recession?

THESE are difficult times for the Fagor appliance factory in Mondragón, in northern Spain. Sales have seized up, as at many other white-goods companies. Workers had four weeks’ pay docked at Christmas. Some have been laid off. Now salaries are about to be cut by 8%. Time for Spain’s mighty unions to call a strike? Not at Fagor—for here the decisions are taken by the workers themselves.

Fagor is a workers’ co-operative, one of dozens that dot the valleys of Spain’s hilly northern Basque country. Most belong to the world’s biggest group of co-operatives, the Mondragón Corporation. It is Spain’s seventh-largest industrial group, with interests ranging from supermarkets and finance to white goods and car parts. It accounts for 4% of GDP in the Basque country, a region of 2m people. All this has made Mondragón a model for co-operatives from California to Queensland. How will co-ops, with their ideals of equity and democracy, cope in the recession?

Workers’ co-ops are often seen as hotbeds of radical, anti-capitalist thought. Images of hippies, earnest vegetarians or executives in blue overalls could not, however, be further from reality. “We are private companies that work in the same market as everybody else,” says Mikel Zabala, Mondragón’s human-resources chief. “We are exposed to the same conditions as our competitors.”

Problems may be shared with competitors, but solutions are not. A workers’ co-op has its hands tied. It cannot make members redundant or, in Mondragón’s case, sell companies or divisions. Losses in one unit are covered by the others. “It can be painful at times, when you are earning, to give to the rest,” Mr Zabala admits. Lossmaking co-ops can be closed, but members must be re-employed within a 50km (30-mile) radius. That may sound like a nightmare for managers battling recession. But co-ops also have their advantages. Lay-offs, short hours and wage cuts can be achieved without strikes, and agreements are reached faster than in companies that must negotiate with unions and government bodies under Spanish labour law.

The 13,000 members of Eroski, another co-operative in the Mondragón group and Spain’s second-largest retailer, have not just frozen their salaries this year. They have also given up their annual dividend on their individual stakes in the company. A constant flow of information to worker-owners, says Mr Zabala, makes them ready to take painful decisions.

It sounds conflict-free, but that is misleading. One of Mondragón’s many paradoxes is that worker-owners are also the bosses of other workers. People have been hired in far-flung places, from America to China, as the group has expanded. It now has more subsidiary companies than co-operatives. Mondragón has two employees for every co-op member. The result is a two-tier system. And when recession bites, non-member employees suffer most. They are already losing jobs as temporary contracts are not renewed. Like capitalist bosses, the Mondragón co-operativists must, indeed, occasionally handle strikes and trade-union trouble.

Some worry that Mondragón-style success kills the idealism on which most co-ops are based. Those within the Mondragón group are aware of the danger. Eroski wants to offer co-op membership to its 38,500 salaried employees.

The most successful co-ops, however, are those least shackled by ideology. Mondragón used to cap managers’ pay at three times that of the lowest-paid co-operativist, for example. But it realised it was losing its best managers, and that some non-member managers were earning more than member managers. The cap was raised to eight times. But this is still 30% below market rates, and some managers are still tempted away. “Frankly, it would be a bad sign if nobody was,” says Adrián Celaya, Mondragón’s general secretary.

Lately Mondragón has had trouble keeping successful co-operatives locked in. Irizar, a maker of luxury coaches, split off last year, reportedly because it no longer wanted to support lossmaking co-ops elsewhere in the group.

Henry Hansmann, a professor at Yale Law School, says co-ops often fall apart when worker-owners become too diverse. He points to United Airlines—not a co-operative, but once mainly owned by workers from competing trade unions—as an example of how clashing interests can kill worker ownership. By bringing in tens of thousands of new members at Eroski, many far from the Basque country, Mondragón risks falling into that trap. The group’s bosses believe, however, that the way forward is to promote the idea that co-operativism brings advantages. The global downturn may strengthen the group internally. As unemployment sweeps the globe, after all, there is no greater social glue than the fight to keep jobs.


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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Language Education in the Spanish State

The article by the Guardian Weekly that you're about to read is quite a departure from the one written by Basque-phobe Keith Johnson a couple of years ago. Here you have it:

Spain's lessons in multilingual teaching

Spain offers some valuable lessons in Clil policy argues María Jesús Frigols Martín. She explains how the the promotion of Spain's regional languages in schools along side Spanish has helped to establish the teaching of content subjects through students' and teachers' second and third languages.

"There has been no single blueprint, yet Clil is now firmly entrenching itself as an innovative educational approach," states Hugo Baetens Beardsmore, one of the international figures in this field. This is very true of Spain, where Clil is now starting to go mainstream after a decade of pilot and experimental projects.

The Spanish experience of Clil continues to be eclectic. There is no single Clil model taking root across the country. There are as many models as regions, different in application but following the same core fundamentals. Spain could be viewed as a "microcosm" of Clil worldwide. This one country is developing different models which share the same main objective: upgrading education and competence in languages throughout the population.

The twin drivers that have powered the uptake of Clil in the last decades are regional and global citizenship. The energy has come from both the general public and, increasingly, political decision makers.

To understand Clil in Spain you first have to understand how the nation functions as a "state of autonomies", a unitary country with 19 autonomous communities (17 regions, plus the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla). Each of these has its own laws, and the power to administer certain aspects of the education system within its own territory. The Organic Act of Education (Ley Orgánica de Educación, LOE) establishes the general frame for the whole country.

This structure is very significant in terms of languages. Whereas Spanish is the official language of the country as a whole, certain communities (the Basque Country, Navarre, Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Galicia, and Valencia) also have their own regional languages, namely Basque, Catalan, Galician, and Valencian. In these communities, both the regional language and Spanish are mandatory in education at the non-university level.

The stage was set for Clil when regional languages were granted official status in the 1980s. From this point onwards regional languages started making their way through the mainstream education systems as medium of instruction. This would become an invaluable experience, for the expertise acquired after years of practice could be easily transferred from bilingual to monolingual communities, and proved to be an excellent starting point for the design and implementation of programmes aiming to produce young people speaking two languages in addition to their monther tongue (MT+2).

Stepping from regional to foreign languages was a natural way for Clil to evolve at a time when increasing priority has been given to global citizenship. This meant generalising the use of more than one medium of instruction. That in turn meant that educators needed to adapt their teaching to suit this context and focussed interest on Clil as the best way to achieve their goals.

There was a transfer of know-how within the regions and across the country that allowed monolingual areas to keep pace with the bilingual regions.

This resulted in scenarios where education was:

* partly in Spanish, and partly in one or two foreign languages
* partly in Spanish, partly in a joint official language other than Spanish (Basque, Catalan, Galician, or Valencian), and partly in one or two foreign languages.

This has given the Spanish Clil spectrum a leading place in Europe. Clil programmes have been implemented in mainstream schools with direct support from educational authorities. The different models vary significantly from one region to another, but can be summarised as following one of these objectives:

* Promoting bilingualism in a monolingual community
* Fostering multilingualism in an already bilingual community


Even though Spain's regional Clil models are diverse, there are certain issues which have been addressed by central government. For example the teachers’ level of language competence has been given special attention. It has been set at B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages for vocational, secondary education, and the Baccalaureate; and B1 for pre-primary and primary. In addition, vocational education is required to have at least two subjects taught through a foreign language. Meanwhile, the communities decide on questions such as subject choice, teaching time invested, and other operational factors.

The learning curve for teachers and administrators has been steep. For years, teacher training has been a major challenge for both central and regional governments. To provide teaching professionals with the necessary linguistic and methodological skills, a specific Clil training programme (Pale, Plan de apoyo al Aprendizaje de Lenguas Extranjeras), comprising improvement of communicative competence, methodology and periods of study abroad, has been designed and implemented. It is funded jointly by the central government and the autonomous boards of education.

Lack of teaching materials and resources is one of the major difficulties Clil teachers have to face. This is common to all the regions. As a general rule teachers develop their own materials by using realia from a target language country, translating and adapting first-language course books, or downloading resources from the internet. Exchanges through seminars, networking, creating data banks, collaborating over the internet, and using blogs have become common means of support.

It is too early to make definitive statements about the impact of Clil across the country. One reason is because some of the separate Boards of Education have not yet carried out extensive evaluation of their Clil programmes. But preliminary research indicators appearing from different communities point to the fact that content acquisition is similar when compared to education through the mother tongue, that learning in Clil substantially improves students’ linguistic and communicative competence, and that it would also appear to assist their cognitive development.

Clil is now consolidating as a trend at all stages of the Spanish educational system, including higher education. It’s a leitmotiv for profound change in the autonomous education systems which are rapidly attempting to adapt to the demands of the knowledge society.

As Rosa Aliaga, a Clil expert at the Basque Board of Education says: "It is fascinating to observe how four- and five-year-old children play, create and have fun in different languages. Their motivation is very high, and they are prepared to take risks in communicating with others with no fear or embarrassment of using the wrong words."

Contrary to common belief, Spaniards have long been keen to learn foreign languages, especially English. The barrier has not been lack of interest so much as lack of response to often outdated language teaching methodologies, and availability of curricular time. The Spanish Clil scenario is one which can serve as a dynamic and realistic model for other countries wanting to reduce barriers to language learning.

María Jesús Frigols Martín works for the Programa Plurilingüe at the Conselleria de Educación de la Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia


One thing we would like to point out is that the advances in education when it comes to Basque and Catalonian are taking place DESPITE Spain and not thanks to its language policies. If it was up to Madrid, the only language spoken in the Spanish state would be Castillian. Just wait and see what will happen to Basque education programs when Spaniard Patxi Lopez takes the presidency of the Basque autonomous community.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Spain Punishes Basque Politicians

Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon charged 44 Basque politicians with membership of the militant separatist movement ETA, which the the fascist Spanish government calls a terrorist organization.

All were members of three banned separatist parties -- the Communist Party of the Basque Country (PCTV), Basque Nationalist Action (ANV) and Batasuna. Among those charged are the mayoress of the northern town of Mondragon, Maria Inocencia Galparsoro, as well as Pernando Barrena and Joseba Permach, leading figures on the radical left.

The charges are a new example of how Spain violates the civil and political rights of the Basque people, specially those who work towards the self determination and the eventual independence of Nabarra (the historic Basque Country) currently occupied by Spain and France.

Spain's Supreme Court banned two further nationalist parties from regional elections earlier this month using a so called Law of Political Parties, a Franco era style law that allows Madrid to ban any political party that demands and end to the long colonialist rule of the nations abducted by Spain's statehood, meaning that there is no truly democratic elections in Spain, a country ruled by a king elected by Francisco Franco since the death of dictator.

After more than one hundred thousand votes where declared null by Madrid, the ruling Basque Nationalist Party is expected to lose power in the Basque Country to a coalition of the two parties that represent Madrid's colonialist rule, the PP and the PSOE -- ending an unbroken run of Basque nationalist governments going back to 1980.

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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Irish Judge Pleases Spain

On a dramatic flip flop, an Irish judge has decided to please a country that violates a number of human rights on a daily basis by allowing the extradition of Basque political refugee Iñaki de Juana according to this article published at An Phoblacht:

Court backs Basque activist's extradition

BELFAST Recorder’s Court ruled on 9 March that Basque nationalist Iñaki de Juana Chaos is eligible for extradition to Spain. He has been paroled until May when he will appeal the decision at a further hearing.

A European arrest warrant for de Juana Chaos was issued by the Spanish authorities to the PSNI in November. The Belfast court has since then discussed the legal issues surrounding the warrant, ruling last week that the charges alleged in the warrant of “glorifying terrorism” constitute an extraditable offence.

De Juana Chaos spent 21 years in Spanish jails for his role in ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom) armed attacks during the 1980s. He moved to Ireland after he was released in August last year.

The Spanish warrant alleges that, on the day of his release, he gave a woman a letter to be read out in his name at a rally in Donostia in Euskal Herria (the Basque Country), that allegedly “publicly justified terrorism”.

But the Spanish authorities admit they do not have this letter and de Juana Chaos’s defence lawyer stated in court his client did not authorise anyone to speak on his behalf. The comment allegedly read out at the rally was “Aurrera bolie” – a Basque expression meaning “Kick the ball forward.”

The Spanish Government is basing its legal effort to extradite de Juana Chaos on somebody at a rally in Donostia saying “Kick the ball forward” without any evidence that the comment was de Juana Chaos’s or that it somehow constitutes a terrorist offence.

This relentless harassment of de Juana Chaos by the Spanish courts is not surprising in the context of the current ramped-up repression in the Basque Country, where several nationalist parties and candidates were banned from participating in the 1 March elections and where more than 700 pro-independence political activists are being held prisoner.

The Belfast judge accepted the advice of the Spanish authorities that the phrase “Kick the ball forward” constitues “praising terrorism” and that this offence has a legal equivalent under the British Terrorism Act 2006.

De Juana Chaos’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said he would contest the move on human rights and procedural grounds.


This judge is going against the Irish solidarity towards the Basque right to self determination, we wonder if there was some euros involved in his decision.

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Eusko Flickr : Palazio and Torrekua Farms


Friday, March 20, 2009

An Invitation to Visit Nabarra

This information was posted at the Sierra Mountain Times:

Discover the Cultural Riches of Spain’s Basque Country

This summer, Columbia College is again offering a unique opportunity to get an insider’s view of the colorful culture, art and history of the Basque Country of north central Spain. Located to the west of the Pyrenees along the Bay of Biscay, the region is rich in its Basque, Gothic and Roman heritage.

Based at Vitoria-Gasteiz, the seat of the Basque Parliament, those interested in going on the trip will attend the Zador Institute, an accredited school of Spanish language where classes will be taught by certified native teachers for four hours per day, five days a week in classrooms and neighborhood settings. Their website is located at www.zadorspain.com. Travelers will stay with Spanish families for a total language immersion experience. Of course, participants will also earn a total of six units of credit from Columbia College: three in conversational Spanish 10A, 10B, 20A or 20B – depending on initial assessed level of proficiency – and three in humanities (old world culture), taught by local expert, Dr. Susan Still.

Afternoon activities and field trips with Spanish-speaking guides will include city tours, art and history museum visits, bike tours, dining at typical Basque tapas bars and restaurants, and cider house samplings, as well as day trips to an ancient Roman saltworks, nearby lakes and a nature park.

Vitoria has a population of about 200,000 and with its excellent train and bus transportation and central location, excursion destinations are never more than an hour or so away. On weekends, tours are planned with Spanish-speaking guides to Pamplona in Navarra, the medieval walled city of LaGuardia, the La Rioja wine region and Alavese fishing villages. Students will also see Spain’s most famous Gothic cathedral in beautiful Burgos, the Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art in Bilbao and the inviting beach city of San Sebastian.

The two-week program begins on June 6, with an optional third week. The approximate cost for the two-week program is $2,900, and $850 for the additional week. This covers tuition, classes, airport transfers, home stay, meals, excursions and insurance – airfare is not included.

Columbia College Spanish Instructor Vonna Breeze-Martin is coordinating the program and is again leading the Basque Country visit. “It is so enlightening and inspiring to see how another culture views the world,” she said. “The Basque cities are modern, clean, prosperous and environmentally-friendly places, steeped in history dating back to the Bronze Age. Vitoria, for instance, boasts of its bike paths (and free bikes for loan); green spaces and parks that are among the highest per capita in Europe; walking paths; mall routes; a restored medieval quarter and excellent public transportation. And if you’ve ever had an opportunity to enjoy a Basque meal here in the U.S., you know what a real treat is waiting for you in Pais Vasco!”

Despite the title and the insistence in calling the Basques by the term Spanish, this article has some redeeming qualities. Is good to learn than more and more people are identifying not only the Basque Autonomous Community as the Basque Country but also Navarre and even Rioja (Errioxa). This means that people are recognizing the cultural identity of once sovereign and independent Nabarra.

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Colonialist Spain

The article you're about to read will show you how Spain desperately clings to its colonialist past. First they refuse to recognize the right of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to their self-determination, a right that they have also denied to its own European colonies (Nabarra, Catalunya and Galiza).

But then they are all too willing to contribute to the USA's colonialist occupation of Afghanistan.

Here you have the article published at The New York Times:

Spain: Troops to Leave Kosovo

By VICTORIA BURNETT

Spain said Thursday that it would withdraw its 600 peacekeeping troops from Kosovo by the fall, easing the way for a possible increase in the number of soldiers it has deployed in Afghanistan. The Spanish government, which is trying to rein in secessionist movements in the Basque region and Catalonia, does not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign nation. Defense Minister Carme Chacón, above, who was visiting Spain’s force there on Thursday, said the withdrawal would take place gradually over the coming months. “Your mission has been accomplished,” she told the troops in comments broadcast on the Web site of the newspaper El País. “Now it is time to go home.”

Rafael Calduch, a professor of international relations at Complutense University in Madrid, said in a telephone interview that it did “not make sense to have troops in an independent country that Spain does not recognize.” He added that there was also “a lot of pressure to send more troops to Afghanistan.” Spanish officials have high expectations of a closer relationship with the United States after the inauguration of Barack Obama, but diplomats and foreign policy experts in Madrid say an early test of the relationship will be Spain’s willingness to enlarge its force of nearly 800 troops in Afghanistan.

Did you know that the Spaniards celebrate the genocide that they unleashed in America every year on October 12th when they initiated their colonization of the continent?

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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Simply Delicious

The article you're about to read was published at amNewYork:

The delicious simplicity of Basque food

By Ya-Roo Yang
Special to amNewYork

While Basque cuisine is technically a Spanish regional cuisine, dismissing it as simply Spanish would be unfair.

The three provinces that form the Basque country have their own distinct language, government and culinary style, which Alex Reij, chef at Chelsea’s Txikito (pronounced “chee-kee-toe”) describes as “more connected to France than Spain.”

Food is such an important part of the Basque community that men, who normally wouldn’t be caught dead cooking at home, form secret gastronomic societies where they socialize by cooking together.

Unconvinced? Just look at the Michelin Guide and find the greatest concentration of stars in San Sebastian, Spain - the Mecca of foodies and gastronomes.

The quality of Basque cuisine lies in the ingredients derived from three distinct micro-climates. Rain provides for the fertile soil that yields beans, leeks, tomatoes, peppers, garlic and onions. Close to the coastlines, seafaring Basque fishermen catch cod, hake, octopus, spider crabs and sea urchins. Inland, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, Basque Shepherds raise beef and lamb.

“They have such incredible products: great produce, seafood, cheese, lamb and beef that really resonate with people that are into cuisine and care about food,” says Seamus Mullen, executive chef at Boqueria.

Many ingredients used in Basque cooking are locally grown others can be ordered online or purchased from Despana in SoHo. Like most ingredient-driven food traditions, Basque cooking techniques are very simple and the dishes can be replicated by any home cook with basic kitchen skills and the proper ingredients. In his cookbook Pintxos (Ten Speed Press, 2009), San Francisco chef Gerald Hirigoyen writes about how easily he cooked for a party of unexpected friends with things found in his pantry.

There is also the convivial spirit of eating. The Basque tradition of catching up with friends at a bar, before lunch or supper, for a glass Txakoli, a light effervescent local wine, and a few pintxos (pronounced pinchos), bite-sized snacks, is perhaps the most beloved part of this cuisine. Natalie Sanz, owner of Las Ramblas in the West Village, speaks fondly of the tapas bars in San Sebastian: “The bars are crowded with patrons seeking the house specialty. Go alone and you will feel like you are close friends with everybody within arm's reach.”

While New York does not have a pintxo culture, some of this is rubbing off at Basque eateries like Txikito, where diners from different parties often talk and share food with each other.

Five Cool Facts about Basque cuisine

1) The Basque were into offal before it became fashionable to be into offal: The Basque diet includes a steady staple of innards with delicacies like sweetbreads, kidney, liver and tripe.

2)Using canned and preserved food is sometimes okay: While most Basque dishes are created with the freshest ingredients, many Basque dishes actually taste better made with canned goods. This is especially true for white asparagus, piquillo peppers, Vantresca tuna and anchovies. Of course, a Basque pantry is never complete without salted cod.

3)Pintxos are great alternatives to canapés at parties: These bite-sized snacks are often bits of sausages and cheese or shrimps skewered together with toothpicks or open faced sandwiches with eggs and anchovies that make them great finger food for parties.

4)It’s the perfect food for the culinary commitment-phobe: The pintxo culture makes trying lots of different food very easy; and one can wander from bar to bar without committing to any one place.

5)Basque cuisine is also pretty good for weight conscious: The largest Basque meal is lunch, which is served around 2 pm. Supper or dinner is usually something small like a few pintxos or some yogurt.

Q and A with Alex Reij

As one of the chefs and owners of Txikito, a Basque restaurant in NYC, Alex Reij is known for her authentic yet modern interpretation of Basque food.

Q: With the sophistication of New Yorkers’ palates, why do you think there are not more Basque restaurants?

AR: I think up until recently New York wasn’t ready to sustain them. New Yorkers who have traveled know that Basque food is synonymous with quality. But Spanish regional cooking hasn’t resonated with New Yorkers. Outside of the Basque country, the food and the community were not clearly distinguished from the rest of Spain.

Q: Being that Txikito is one of two Basque restaurants in New York; do you have problems explaining the cuisine to New Yorkers?

AR: Not at all. What’s beautiful about Basque cuisine is it values a bean as much as it values a crab so I found that is a way to really engage the American diner. We don’t want to tell people how to eat. The menu is composed of ingredients that people know. If you like the ingredient, you’ll like the dish because in Basque cooking everything taste like what it is and there are no hidden flavors.

Q: With all the exotic ingredients Basque food demands, do you have problems sourcing your ingredients?

AR: Sometimes the stuff is outside of our price range. Other items, like the spider crab, aren’t available here. You could import many things but the prices are so prohibitive that it makes more sense to use local ingredients and cook it in the Basque spirit.

Q: Most of the dishes on your menu are very traditional. Are you inspired by the modern Basque cooking?

AR: I am really inspired by contemporary cooking – by Basque as well as other innovative chefs in Spain. But I am more interested in how they maintain the Basque identity - the things that are thoroughly Basque and thoroughly original. I like the continuity between the gastronomic legacy that it comes from and the food.

Five NYC Places to Enjoy Basque Food

Txikito
One of the two Basque restaurants in New York City
240 Ninth Ave. NYC
(212) 242-4730

Euskadi
The other Basque place, on the East side of Manhattan
108 East 4th Street, NYC
(212) 982-9788

Boqueria
Try the kokotxas.
53 West 19th Street, NYC
(212) 255-4160

Las Ramblas
Basque dishes include: piquillo con morcilla, bocadillo crujientes, pintxos de setas rebozadas among others.
170 West 4th Street, NYC
(646) 415-7924

Pamplona
Try the poached eggs with white asparagus or the braised short ribs.
37 East 28th Street, NYC
(212) 213-2328


Recipe: Garbanzos de Vigilia: Lenten Chickpea stew with Salt Cod and Spinach

1 pound dried chickpeas
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoon olive oil
1 carrot peeled
1 Spanish onion split in half
1 unpeeled head of garlic plus 3 cloves garlic peeled and sliced thin
Salt to taste
6 cups fresh spinach leaves
2 pounds rehydrated good quality salt cod, (torn in small pieces), or substitute 2 pounds fresh cod well-salted for 10 minutes and rinsed.

In a large pot cover the dried chickpeas with 8 cups water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let stand ½ an hour to rehydrate.

Drain the rehydrated chickpeas and restore them to the same pot with the onion, head of garlic and carrot. Add 3 teaspoon of salt, and cover with fresh water by about 4 inches.

Add 2 tablespoon olive oil and bring to a boil for five minutes. Turn the heat down and simmer until tender checking frequently after the first hour and adjusting seasoning if necessary. Approximately 2 hours. Remove the garlic and discard.

In a small pan heat the remaining olive oil, toss in the garlic until just golden, pour into a blender. Add ½ a cup of chickpeas from the pot, a cup of cooking liquid and the carrot and onion to the blender and carefully blend to a smooth puree.

Add the chickpea puree back to the chickpeas to thicken the stew.

Stir in the cod and spinach until cooked. Top with a thread of good olive oil.


Seems like the author of the article forgot that part of Euskal Herria is currently (and illegally) occupied by France, so "technically", Basque cuisine could be considered as French cuisine according to her. This is why people need to understand that Basques are not Spaniards nor French, it is actually quite simple, they are Basques.

Also, Iruñea (known as Pamplona) is located in Euskal Herria, so technically, the one with the name Pamplona is a Basque restaurant too.

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Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Cider House Rules

No, this has nothing to do with the one movie with the terrible actor. This is about one of the Basque Country's must cherished traditions and it comes to us via EiTB:

Cider and its rituals

Nora García

Cider is the most popular drink in Gipuzkoa. January marks the inauguration of the cider season with the opening of the cider houses.

Cider is the most popular drink in Gipuzkoa. This apple beverage may look innocent enough but its alcohol content has been known to sneak up you. It is preferably consumed within a year from its production.

The Tolosa region and particularly the town of Astigarraga and vicinity (near Donostia-San Sebastian) are a bastion of the longstanding Gipuzkoan tradition of cider making.

The process begins with a discriminating selection of apples, which are then put into a tolare (cider press). After they are crushed and pressed, the juice is poured into kupelas (wooden barrels). The juice is then fermented for about three months, when it is ready for drinking.

To enjoy cider at its best, it should be served between 13 and 15ºC. It is bottled in dark green bottles to keep the light from getting through and spoiling the fragile liquid. To serve, it is poured into a glass from a distance of 30 o 40 centimeters so that bubbles are formed as it splashes against the side of the glass, bringing out its full flavor. It is said that cider should be drunk quickly, and never left to sit in the glass too long.

The rituals of cider

January marks the inauguration of the cider season. The cider houses open their doors, beginning with the ritual probaketa, or taste test to see whether the cider is ready. A small stick called a txiri is used to poke a tiny hole in the barrel, and out comes the first trickle of cider.

Cider is typically accompanied by a traditional meal comprising a cod omelet, a thick charcoal broiled T-bone steak or some sort of fish prepared in sauce. Cheese and walnuts are the perfect way to finish off an evening at the cider house.


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Saturday, March 14, 2009

Visiting Errioxa

This article published at The Times contains a pearl of historic truth, Errioxa (known as Rioja) is actually a Basque province, here you have it:

On the trail of a fine rioja by way of the annual wine battle

David Sharrock

Spain’s most famous wine-producing region actually extends across its eponymous province into the Basque Country and Navarra, although at its centre is the historic city of Logroño, an important halt on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail.

Thousands of years ago La Rioja region was an inner sea of the Iberian Peninsula and its geography gives its wineries a distinct advantage, sheltered from the more extreme climates of its regional neighbours by mountain ranges to the north and south. The region is slowly but surely developing a wine trail, the jewel in its crown being the Marqués de Riscal Hotel, in Elciego, designed by Frank Gehry, whose rippling roof of titanium leaves reflects the colours of the landscape during the grape harvest.

While the hotel is visually stunning, the winery designed by Santiago Calatrava for the makers of Ysios rioja is perhaps a happier match with the stunning landscape.

The winery or bodega is located close to Laguardia, a fortress-like town which well reflects its name: it was originally known as Laguardia de Navarra – the Guard of Navarre.

Cars are not allowed through its medieval gates for a very good reason: beneath the narrow streets lies a honeycomb of catacombs, the original bodegas where wine was made and stored. Most lie empty, but El Fabulista is one exception where guided tours and tastings are given inside a beautiful underground vault.

Primicia is another town worthy of visit, where recent restoration work has opened up what is thought to be its oldest building, a tithe house established by the Catholic Church.

If you are very lucky you may also visit Primicia’s bodega garden, set among some of its vines with views of the mountains. I enjoyed a memorable autumnal lunch there, feasting on barbequed baby lamb chops.

Laguardia makes an ideal base for exploring the immediate area. For those of us with pockets too shallow to stay in the Marqués de Riscal – where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have rested their Hollywood heads – I recommend the Posada Mayor de Migueloa, a characterful 17th-century house in the heart of Laguardia.

For a busier nightlife head for Logroño and some of the best food in northern Spain.

The city highlight is Calle Laurel, where some 50 bars create what is known locally as the Elephant Trail.

It derives its nickname from the Spanish phrase Ir trompa – to stagger drunkenly along. Trompa is Spanish for an elephant’s trunk. On a Friday evening it makes perfect sense: you can just imagine the herd in full cry.

Don’t worry, it is all very good natured, washed down with small but frequent glasses of good rioja and accompanied by a type of tapas called pinchos, with each bar offering its own speciality.

My favourite bar is the Soriano – fantastic mushrooms. And if you think that wine tourism is simply refined sniffing and slurping then try being in Haro for its annual wine battle, held each year on June 29.

Its origins are based on a local territorial dispute but that is beside the point: thousands of litres of red wine are sprayed, poured and thrown. Be sure you are not wearing anything you value too highly.

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Criminalizing Solidarity

Officers from the Ertzaintza (Basque police force), have today removed photographs from the railings outside a bank in Arrasate-Mondragón, after receiving an order from the Public Prosecutor of the country's High Court.

The officers went to the bank in Calle Maalako Errabala, where the photos were on show, and unscrewed the aluminium board being used to display the pictures, which included Basque political prisoners like Unai Parot, José Ignacio Gaztañaga, José Gabriel Urizar, María Asunción Arana and Eugenio Barrutiabengoa, amongst others.

The court order came from Public Prosecutor, Vicente González Mota, who had reacted to information provided by members of parliament for the Basque Country about the existence of the photographs.

The Public Prosecutor's office acted on direct orders from Francisco Javier Lopez, a member of the PSOE who decided that Spain should criminalize displaying the photos that are placed in public spots to show solidarity towards the Basque political prisoners and therefore ordered them to be removed. The order is part of an strategy by the fascist Spanish government aimed at increasing the repressive measures against the Basque political prisoners and their families. Let us remember that the very same Spanish government has refused to remove the Francisco Franco's regime memorabilia still in place on streets, town squares, churches, schools and military installations, memorabilia which includes the present flag and the national anthem.

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Eusko Flickr : Arribe


Arribe
Originally uploaded by oksidor

A Cycling Paradise

From what the press usually publishes about Euskal Herria you would never guess that this tiny nation in Western Europe is a paradise for those who enjoy practicing sports. There is excellent surfing spots like Mundaka, Zarautz and Biarritz, there is plenty of places where to go hiking and well, there is a wide range of options for those who love cycling. PezCycling News published this article about what the Basque landscape and geography offer:

GIANT TOURS: Cycling The Basque Country & Pyrenees

Friday, March 13, 2009

We first met Giant Tours last year as they launched with trips through the Pyrenees hosted by former World Champ Abraham Olano. For 2009 they’ve expanded their catalogue of cycling adventures, and the company’s Javier Sánchez offers some new reasons to go cycling in Basque Country…

Special Travel Feature By Javier Sánchez-Beaskoetxea of Giant Tours -

The Basque Country, Euskadi as it’s known in the Basque language, is a magical place for all lovers of cycling, and also is one of Lonely Planet's Top 10 Best, must-see, destinations for 2009. This green land has given the sport some of its great riders, cyclists who have shone in the world’s greatest races, like Marino Lejarreta, Abraham Olano or Miguel Indurain. GIANT TOURS offers the chance to enjoy cycling, gastronomy, life and this beautiful scenery.

The Basque Country is just a step away from some of the most important climbs in the Pyrenees, scene of some of the most historic stages in the Tour de France. So it’s a perfect chance to ascend the legendary slopes in the good company of some ex-pros, like Abraham Olano, World Champion, or Roberto Heras, three-time winner of the Vuelta a España, both of whom are present on some our our trips.

GIANT TOURS is a biking holiday company set up by Giant Bicycles in Spain, and all the people who are a part of it have one thing in common – a passion for cycling and life. And it’s this passion that we transmit with our cycling tours. We love riding the roads of the Basque Country and the Pyrenees, the ideal place to enjoy cycling at any level, whether you want to train hard or simply go for a relaxing ride.

Each cyclist who signs up for one of our trips can be sure that he or she is in the hands of people who truly love their work and who know the Basque Country and the Pyrenees perfectly, because we’re playing on our ground, a place which we want to share with everybody.

The TRIPS

We offer many trips in our catalogue, but a few a worthy of note here. For those of you looking for a great adventure, we suggest riding through the Pyrenees from the Mediterranean to the Bay of Biscay on the TRANSPYRENEAN.

What cyclist has never daydreamed about going on a fantastic trip by bike? If we pick up a map of Europe, our attention will soon be drawn to the Pyrenees, whose name brings us memories of some of cycling's greatest moments from more than 100 years of history of the Tour de France. And the idea of crossing this majestic mountain range from sea to sea via its legendary climbs will have occurred to more than one.

This trip allows any cyclist to make this dream come true, since we provide all the organization, transport, accommodation and support necessary. So, cyclists only have to think about enjoying each stage with the only worry of hauling themself up the awesome climbs.

This trip consists of one day’s travel by bus from Hendaye to the Mediterranean, plus seven fantastic days cycling back on the most famous roads in the French Pyrenees following the D-618 and the D-918 from Argelès-sur-Mer to St. Jean-de-Luz - including a rest day in Luchon where you can just rest or climb other famous Cols like Port de Balés or Superbagneres.

THE TOUR DE FRANCE: In July, from 10th July to 14th July, we’ve prepared a trip to the French Pyrenees to see the best race in the world. During the stage in Argeles Gazost, at the bottom of Tourmalet, we’ll have the chance to live the Tour de France and to climb some of the most famous Cols of this race, like Col d’Aubisque, Luz Ardiden or Hautacam.

LUXURY TRIPS

Dream landscapes, legendary climbs, cuisine for connoiseurs, surprising museums, exquisite hospitality. All this, and more, is offered by our GIANT VIP TOUR – an extraordinary holiday for lovers of cycling, travelling and life, all in six marvellous days divided between the Basque Country and the French Pyrenees, through green valleys and along an amazing coastline, with visits to the best restaurants and climbs up cycling legends like the Tourmalet or the Aubisque. What more could anyone who loves cycling and life ask for?

The restaurants and hotels have been especially chosen in order to make your stay a delight for all your senses. From the moment guests set foot in Bilbao Airport until the moment you have to leave, you’ll have the pleasure of being treated like royalty. You won’t have to worry about a thing, since at every moment GIANT TOURS will be available for your every need. For example, you’ll be able to enjoy riding a GIANT carbon composite bike, and we’ll even invite you to a beer if you fancy one!

THE FISH & WINE ROUTE travels through the breathtaking landscape of the old commercial route which joined the inland wine-growing areas with the coast for the trade of fresh fish for wine and other produce. From La Rioja Alavesa to the coastal villages of Bizkaia, guests travel through the Basque Country from south to north as we discover the changing countryside and enjoy the delicate shades of colour which are characteristic of this marvellous corner of Europe.

Read more about these and other trips at: Giant Tours
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Inky Gourmet Treat

This delicious recipe comes to us courtesy of EiTB:

Baby squids in Getaria

Nora García

Getaria is the most characteristic fishing port in Gipuzkoa. Its narrow streets hold all the charm visitors are after, and its port is a kaleidoscope of images, lights, colours and smells.

The fishing fleet processed, although a large part of the labor of the "arrantzales" (fishermen) ends up on the grills and in the kitchens of some of the top restaurants in the Basque Country.

Grill houses line the streets but, in fact, the local speciality is the mouth-watering combination of freshly caught chipirones (baby squids) and onions, a dish known as "chipirones pelayo". The recipe has spread throughout the Basque Country, and is considered one of the true masterpieces of our cuisine. Needless to say, it should be accompanied by a glass of "Txakoli" wine, also from the town of Getaria.

Stuffed baby squids in ink sauce

Ingredients (3 servings):

24 small baby squid (best caught on a hook), 3 large onions, 2 small tomatoes, 1 green pepper, 4 cloves garlic, 2 sprigs parsley, oil and salt.

For the filling:

squid fins and arms, 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, a bit of chopped parsley, oil and salt.

Separate the head and the arms from the body. Remove the pen and the outer and inner membrane. Wash thoroughly. Cut the fins off and chop them up. The innards will come out when removing the head and arms. Very carefully remove the ink sac before discarding the innards. Dissolve the ink sac in a glass of water. Remove and discard the mouth and eyes and wash the squid again. Chop up the arms and add them to the diced fins.

Follow the same procedure for each squid. Dice the onion, garlic and parsley. Add them to the chopped up squid fins and arms and sauté the mixture in a bit of oil. Let cool. Use this mixture to fill the baby squid bodies, being careful not to stuff them too full as they will shrink while cooking. Fasten the end of each squid with a toothpick to keep the filling from falling out.

Put an earthenware casserole and with the burner on low slowly sauté the garlic, tomatoes, green pepper and parsley in the oil. After a while turn up the heat and add the baby squid. Let them cook for a few minutes until they brown a little. Add the dissolved ink, season and lower the heat to a simmer.

When the squid are tender (but not overly soft), remove them from the vegetable mixture. Press the mixture through a food mill. This dish can be accompanied by white rice or croutons.


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Eusko Flickr : Portu Zaharra


Portu Zaharra
Originally uploaded by Arrano

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The "Decline" of Basque Nationalism

The article you're about to read was published at The Politonomist, it is a fine example of the way the international media is reading the outcome of the recent electoral process in the Basque Autonomous Community:

The Decline of Basque Nationalism

by Lindsay Amantea

March 9th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

In an interesting change during the regional elections in Spain on March 1st, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) lost it’s 29 year hold on the parliament in the Basque Autonomous Community. Approximately 1.7 million Basques of the 2.1 million living in the region are eligible to vote. The new government is expected to be made up of a coalition between the Basque Socialist Party, a non-nationalist group led by Patxi López, and the People’s Party (PP), which has a right-wing conservative platform. This also marks the first election without Batasuna, one of the parties that was banned by the federal government for its connection with the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), which is a militant Basque group fighting for an independent nation state. There are calls for a re-election, as the votes that were cast for the banned parties were not counted, and theoretically could have gone to giving one of the other parties (namely the PNV) a majority. While ETA related groups were not allowed at the polls, there were no attacks from the militants during the campaign.

Actually, the Basque Socialist Party led by Patxi Lopez is a rabidly nationalist party, only that it is a Spanish nationalist party, their only goal is to erode the Basque identity of the province in favor of the Spanish identity.

Now, a couple of important facts:

a) The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV for its initials in Spanish) did not lose any of its electoral power, they actually managed to retain their votes and even attract some voters from a former political partner, the Eusko Alkartasuna party.

b) More important, pro independence party D3M (Democracy Three Million) obtained a total of 100,000 votes and seven seats in the parliament. These votes were voided later during the electoral process which consitutes a clear violation of the political rights of the Basque people. The decision to declare these votes void amounts to Apartheid and Spain should be taken to court for this.

c) Aralar, the other openly pro-independence party increased its presence in the parliament from one seat to a total of four seats.

But let us continue with the article:

Basque nationalism has been alive for more than two hundred years, with justifiable right. The Basque region, which spans the Pyrenees between France and Spain, is home to possibly the least assimilated group of the Palaeolithic inhabitants of Western Europe. According to the most believed theory, while the rest of Europe was being assimilated into the Roman Empire, Basque society developed outside of its influence. They created their own language, Batua, which is still spoken by about 650,000 people, almost all of whom live in what is considered Basque country. The Basque people were largely autonomous until the French Revolution in France and the Carlist Wars in Spain at which point the governments of both countries took an interest in their rule.


There is a minor mistake in this paragraph, the language spoken by the Basque people is called Euskara which is divided in seven different dialects. Batua is the unified language that was created to bridge the gap between dialects and provide the language with a common grammar and lexicon to use at government insitutions and even written literature.

Since the early 1800s there has been a significant movement towards an autonomous Basque region or for complete independence from Spain and France. As it currently stands, about 60% of those living in the Spanish Basque Autonomous Community want some sort of an autonomous state for the Basques, while only 25% want to see an independent country spanning the Spanish-French border. There has also been a movement away from living in the Autonomous Community in recent years. While there are about 2.1 million people living there now, over the last 25 years approximately 380,000 people have left the area, many of which have settled in other regions in Spain. One of the most cited reasons for this exodus has been the violent tactics used by ETA.

ETA was founded in August 1959 as a group that advocated for cultural traditions of the Basque people. It has since evolved into a paramilitary operation which has been responsible for an estimated eight hundred twenty five deaths, thousands of injuries and dozens of kidnappings since it first took a violent stance in 1968. Hundreds of members of ETA are currently imprisoned in France and Spain, and most countries, including all of the EU, Canada, and the United States consider them a terrorist organization. Between 1983 and 1987 a sort of war raged between ETA and Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberacion (GAL). GAL kidnapped, tortured and killed members of ETA, as well as their family members and even some people who had no connection to ETA. This war is what prompted thousands to flee the area. In 2006 ETA announced a ceasefire, which was subsequently broken in 2007.

After hundreds of years of repression and forty years of violence, the people of the Basque country are ready to try to come to a peaceful agreement. While a majority would like some sort of autonomy and recognition as a distinct people, they do not want this at the expense of the lives of their brothers and sisters. The history of the Basque people has been hard, but it is no longer the time to fight for things that they will never get. As a people they are free, they are prosperous and they are happy. Their children can learn in their native tongue, and no one tells them that they cannot have their culture. The Basques no longer have a cause to fight for. They are content with what they have as a people, and do not need anything more.

Well, actually, the Basque right to self determination is protected by the UN Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Basques really have no need to "fight" to regain their sovereignty, if France and Spain were to respect the rights of the Basque people then all of them could seat down and negotiate a diplomatic way out of the 5oo years of colonialist rule over the Basque Country.

No one can claim that just because you live a good life you should give up your right to the independence of your people. The Colonials were enjoying excellent lives and yet they fought against the English crown because they did not want to share their profits. Same goes for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, all of them were wealthy societies that decided to part from England. Right now Scotland and Wales have strong pro-independence movements and they are not poor and uneducated.

Now, regarding language and culture the author should double check Patxi's political agenda, he has not been annointed as the president of the Basque Autonomous Community yet and he's already launching attacks against the Basque language which happens to be the corner stone of Basque culture.

Basque may be wealthy and happy, but the stark truth is, they are divided in three different political entities and at any time Madrid or Paris (or both) can decide if they want to put limits to the development of Basque culture. Let us remember that Spain has already launched direct attacks against the freedom of speech by shutting down Basque newspapers, magazines and radio stations.

We Basque are missing one thing, it is called self-determination, we want to be what we are, nothing more, nothing less.


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Sunday, March 08, 2009

Basque Political Prisoners Join Boycott Against Israel

This article was published at Workers World:

Movement spreads to boycott Israel

Kathy Durkin

The Palestinian Unified Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel is taking hold and growing in unions, universities and among political forces on many continents.

A worldwide focus is organizing for March 30—Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Action Day—when progressive forces are being asked to carry out concrete, strong protests to further this key campaign in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
www.pflp.ps

Many exciting actions and commitments to the BDS campaign have taken place within the last month.

Inspiring activists worldwide, Basque political prisoners at France’s Fresnes jail strongly spoke out for the people of Gaza, despite threats of reprisal. They avowed, “We, Basque political prisoners, refuse to buy [Israeli] products [in the canteen] [to] show our solidarity with [the] Palestinian people.” (www.bdsmovement.net)

On Boycott Israel Day, Feb. 14, picket lines circled grocery stores throughout Denmark. Protesters targeted produce sold by Israeli companies, especially Carmel Agrexco, Israel’s biggest exporter of fruits and vegetables, which are grown in occupied Palestine.

The city of Stockholm, Sweden, has terminated an agreement with Veolia Transport because it is connected to a tramway project in Israel.

The BDS call has swept through Norway’s union movement. Six top Norwegian unions and many organizations are calling for a campaign to end state investments in Israel. The Union of Trade and Office Workers, Norway’s biggest union of store workers, has called on its members’ employers to stop purchasing Israeli goods.

The Norwegian Trade Unions confederation, which represents 20 percent of the country’s population, condemned Israel’s bombing and invasion of Gaza and called for strong protests. (More than 28 cities were sites of protests during the siege.) This union also expressed solidarity with COSATU when South African dockworkers refused to unload an Israeli ship last month.

Italy’s largest metalworkers’ union, the FIOM, representing 360,000 members, has called for war crimes’ trials for Israeli officials for the Gaza siege. The union also demands agreements be terminated between Israel and Italy, and between Israel and the European Union.

An academic boycott of “all Israeli institutions participating in the occupation [of Gaza]” was announced in a call by many French academics, who are promoting a wide scale BDS campaign and want to see war crimes’ trials for Israeli leaders.

The Consumers Association of Turkey called for a nationwide boycott of Israeli, U.S. and British goods that are sold by companies that “openly declare their support and cooperation to Israel [and] the ones that transfer funds to [the] Israeli Army.” Among companies listed are Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Starbucks, McDonald’s and Burger King. (bdsmovement.net)

The Association of Social Workers of Mauritius has called for the removal of Israeli products, including food and medicines, from store shelves and for a boycott.

University workers’ delegates in the Ontario branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents 200,000 public sector workers, just passed a resolution which calls for an academic boycott of Israel. It calls for an educational campaign on Israel’s “apartheid,” asks the union to back the BDS movement, and more.

The Australia BDS campaign has picked up steam, especially in recent weeks in Sydney. There have been direct actions, campus organizing and strategizing on long-term campaigns. A key target is Max Brenner Chocolates, an Israeli-owned company in the transnational Strauss group, which supports the IDF’s Golani brigade, notorious for its ruthless offensives in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.

And as of March 1, the city of Tulkarem, which is in the Occupied West Bank, is initiating an all-out boycott of Israeli food and other products.

March 1-8 will be the fifth annual Israeli Apartheid Week. It will be commemorated with cultural events and protests in the Occupied West Bank at universities and refugee camps, and in cities worldwide. Activities will help to build the BDS campaign under the theme of “Standing United with the People of Gaza.” (stopthewall.org)

Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

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Friday, March 06, 2009

Franco's Incriminating Letters

When you read this article published at Times Online you have to keep in mind that Spain's government still subscribes to Franco's version of the genocidal attack on Gernika, that the real culprits were "the reds" and that there was no more than a dozen casualties.

Here you have it:

Revealed: Franco's desperate attempt to hide the truth about Guernica

Graham Keeley | Madrid

General Franco launched a propaganda campaign to try to counter a report by The Times that exposed the attack on Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, according to original documents.

George Steer, who was covering the war for the newspaper, revealed how the Nazi Luftwaffe Condor squadron reduced the Basque market town to rubble and unleashed a firestorm that killed 1,600 unarmed civilians.

Mr Steer’s report outraged the world and inspired Picasso’s masterpiece Guernica.

Thousands of original telegrams sent by General Franco to the Duke of Alba, the Nationalist Ambassador in London, are to go on show to the public at a new archive in Spain shortly.

They reveal the four-year campaign, waged by the man who was to rule Spain for 36 years, to counter damaging reports in the British Press and prevent their readers from supporting the Spanish Republican Government.

Three days after the devastating attack on Guernica, on April 26, 1937, Franco sent a telegram from his military headquarters in Burgos, northern Spain.

It read: “Escaping Basques recount frightening tragedies of a town like Guernica, burnt and destroyed intentionally by the Reds when our troops were only 15 kilometres away. Indignation great among Nationalist troops for slanderous Red manoeuvres, after destroying their best cities, try to lay blame Nationalist air force when this only pursues military objectives.”

But Mr Steer had already revealed the truth.

He was covering the Spanish Civil War from the Republican side and was one of the first journalists to reach Guernica, hours after the massacre. He waited before filing his report to find proof that the Nazis were responsible: three small bomb cases stamped with the German Imperial Eagle.

At this point, Nazi Germany had signed the Non-Intervention Pact and their troops were officially playing no role in the war.

Mr Steer’s report read: “Guernica was not a military objective... the object of the bombardment was seemingly the demoralisation of the civil population and the destruction of the cradle of the Basque race.”

The report appeared in The Times, was syndicated to The New York Times and went around the world.

When Picasso, who was in exile in Paris, read it, he was outraged and changed a canvas that he was preparing for an exhibition. The result was Guernica, a stark black-and-white canvas, that has come to symbolise the horror of war.

As Franco’s Nationalists faced international condemnation for the attack on defenceless civilians, which was to herald the era of total war, he sent another telegram to London.

Dated May 3, 1937, it criticised lack of coverage of the “murder of thousands of innocents in Madrid under the Presidency of the Red Government”. The telegram claimed that these “murders” were the “deliberate work of Red dinamiters [sic]”.

The efforts of Franco to counter bad publicity in the international Press extended from 1936 to 1940, even after he had crushed the Republican forces in 1939.

In thousands of telegrams, Franco’s propaganda machine sought to remind the world of the outrages it claims the Republican side committed.

They include the alleged murder of “17,000 priests”, the “theft of gold from the Bank of Spain” to Russia and the “barbarity” of the Republican militias.

In reality, though hundreds of priests were killed in the Civil War, the figure of “17,000” appears wildly exaggerated. The Republican Government did send the Soviet Union gold worth $500 million to pay for arms and support.

The documents were carefully preserved by the Duke of Alba and later stored in the Institute Cervantes in London.

Under an initiative to preserve documents relating to the Civil War and the dictatorship, they were transferred to the Historical Memory Documentation Centre in Salamanca in western Spain.

In 2006, Mr Steer was honoured with a street named after him and a bronze bust in Guernica after a 25-year campaign.


And then there is those within the international community that claim that Spain has never deployed an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Basque people. This article proves them wrong... again. No government can commit as many crimes as Madrid has against the Basques without the silent complicity of the international community. It is because of their own phobias against "the reds" that the Europeans agreed to allow Franco to remain in power and go on with his murderous reign of terror that lasts until today through his heir, Juan Carlos Borbon.

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