To Ban Basque Parties

The fake democracy known as Spain (a Parliamentary Monarchy by the way) is aiming its guns at another Basque political party.

Here you have the note from EITb:

Basque parliament

Conservatives will promote ban on Leftwing Nationalist group

Conservative opposition PP's spokesman in Parliament, Eduardo Zaplana, met Tuesday with the Popular Group of the Basque Chamber to analyse Monday's session in Spanish Lower House dealing with ETA's latest attack. There, he requested a ban on the Leftwing Nationalist group.

In an appearance for the media, PP spokesman affirmed his party will support the Antiterrorist Pact meeting announced Monday by the president of the Spanish Government, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Nevertheless, he warned that they won't "take part in a pretending exercise, nobody must be mistaken."

Asked if his party would be ready to modify the Pact to include such parties as Basque Nationalists or Catalan Nationalists, who criticised the preamble of the Pact, Zaplana said that "if somebody wants to change it, he must voice it in public."

He also noted that, with this meeting, the Government has "a chance to correct" his antiterrorist policies starting proceedings to outlaw the Communist Party of the Basque Lands, which has nine members of parliament in the Leftwing Nationalist Group, because they didn't condemn ETA's latest attack.

Thus, the conservative spokesman announced that his group will raise a proposal in Parliament so that the Government gives the two Ecuadorians killed at Barajas airport a posthumous golden medal, builds a remembrance symbol at the terminal, and defines special measures to compensate those affected by the attack.

There you have it, Banana Republic politics at work.

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Tears

This health related article comes to us via EITb:

Two Basque firms research into tears' help to diagnose eye illness

The method is similar to pregnancy tests, and the easy use of the system, its immediacy and simplicity will make the daily use of the test possible.

The Technological Centre Gaiker-IK4 and the Clinical Surgical Institute of Ophthalmology of Bilbao (ICQO) have developed a method to diagnose eye illnesses through tears. The system will be working late next year.

The method, similar to pregnancy tests, will initially detect specific characteristics of eye pathologies like conjuntivochalasis.

As the managers of the project explained, its easy use, immediacy and simplicity will make the daily use of the test at the clinic possible.

For late 2008, the firms expect to develop a multiple system that would detect other eye pathologies and to bring it out to market.

The research project started in 2004 and will expectedly finish next year. Its foundations are a report on proteins comparing tear samples of patients affected by conjuntivochalasis and queratocone, and healthy patients.

An only sample allows the analysis of all proteins in a tear that are involved in the progress of a certain eye pathology, identifying different characteristics that could be used to develop multiple diagnosing systems.

.... ... .

A Song Called "Gernika"

I want to publicly thanks Andy Roberts for sharing his song "Gernika" with all of us.

If you want to listen to it and even download it, go to his blog DARnet:

Gernika Guernica

The story of the song

Everything is true.

In April 2003 I went on a solo trip around the Basque region of Spain and France. Driving inland from east to west, I called in at the town of Guernica, and after some lunch I wandered towards the town centre and heard the sound of guitar music and singing. It looked like a street party, possibly a wedding. But every few minutes, somebody wound up an old air raid warning siren. I stood and listened to the south american folk singer for a while, and then a woman who was seated at the long table with her family beckoned me over.

“Would you like to sit down, have something to drink, some food. Do you know what this is about? Today is the anniversary of the bombing of Gernika, here” “Oh really?” We chatted some more. I had read a moving passage in my alternative guide book about the history of Gurnica but hadn’t noticed the date. When the musician stopped, people looked disappointed but he had run out of songs. After travelling alone for a week I was appreciating the company there and moved by the occasion and I felt compelled to offer my fraternal greetings in the international language of music, but what kind of song would be appropriate? “Imagine” came to mind, and seemed to go down well. Then I quietly started singing “the internationale” acapella, holding the silent guitar. An older man at the back recognised the tune and stood up, earnestly making a fist and singing with gusto, then everybody else rose from the tables and seats and joined in.

As I drove on that afternoon, I began mentally penning the first few verses of the song. In the evening, at my hotel, the TV was showing that day’s footage of the destruction of Bagdhad and I finished the lyrics within the next day, I think.

What a nice story of friendship and solidarity among human beings.

I'll leave you with this paragraph of the song:

So you say the General was a monster, and the little Austrian mad
but how to explain Sarejevo, and now, what about Bagdhad?

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It's All About Peace and Dialogue

The post by Joe Gandelman regarding the demonstrations in Euskal Herria, Catalunya and Spain last Saturday is so juicy that have no clue were to start.

Let me begin by saying that Joe never once apologized for this shameless piece of drivel he published on March 13th of 2004. In that post, Joe aligned himself with the official version put forward by José María Aznar and his henchmen, the authors of the attacks in Madrid on the morning of March 11th could not be others than the Basques, I mean, ETA.

Less than 24 hours later Joe Gandelman was proven wrong. By then two Basques were dead. He said nothing about. Adding insult to injury, Mariano Rajoy, dauphin to Joe's hero José María Aznar, was rejected by the Spanish public during the elections for Prime Minister.

But why do I bestow so much importance to Joe's infatuation with José María Aznar and his political party the Partido Popular (PP)?

Quite simple, Aznar is the embodiment of Spain's extreme right, he is heir to the Francoist regime, and that is no literary license, oh no, José María is the grandson of Manuel Aznar, the propaganda chief during Franco's dictatorship, a brutal era in Spain when up to a million people were murdered. Just try to imagine something similar in Germany or Italy, where a racist from the extreme right, with a last name like Goebbels or Mussolini, would earn the rank of Prime Minister while leading a political party founded by a former Nazi or a Black Shirt.

Which brings us to another dark episode in Spanish recent history.

Take a wild stab at who ushered Francisco Franco to power. I'll give you a clue, it was the same guy who slaughtered millions of Roma, Poles, Russians, Jewish, Jehova Witnesses, homosexuals and handicapped individuals during his European tour de force.

By now you should be appalled, because if you read his blog, Joe Gandelman claims to be... a Jew.

A Jew that in his little history of the Basques, Spain and ETA dismisses the Basques as a people, as a nation hijacked by two other nations.

Now, if a Basque was to dismiss the Jewish as a people, or Israel as the rightful home of the Jewish, that Basque would be called an anti-Semite. So I say we apply the same rule the other way around, but let us wait, this just gets better and better.

Let us get to the present post, the one titled 'Spaniards Protest Basque Separatist ETA’s Bullet-Riddled “Ceasefire”'. Whoa, talk about a pulp fiction title.

Once again Joe decides to jump on the Spanish extreme right wagon. A bomb, two deaths and a gutted parking lot.

Two deaths.

And the two were Ecuadorians, people that had nothing, absolutely nothing with the Basque conflict, a conflict that pitches Basques and Spaniards against each other, but no Ecuadorians.

But wait, remember how Joe never ever mention the death of the two Basques in the aftermath of March 11? A conflict between Al Quaeda and Aznar over Iraq?

Suddenly, it seems like Basque dead people are less important that other dead people, amazing, discriminated in death.

What is really disgusting about all this is that in the last nine months (and you are welcomed to review his archives), Joe never once spoke against the decision by Rodríguez Zapatero to refuse to do anything, something, in behalf of the Peace Process. Instead, Rodríguez stepped up the repression in the Basque Country, with arbitrary detentions, continued practice of torture and the last pearl of democracy, to extend the jail terms of Basques political prisoners. And Joe said nothing, zilch, zero, nada.

Meaning, because of the Spanish political apparatus, the Peace Process never really started, so how can it be that ETA was the one that violated the cease fire, putting and end to the Peace Process?.

Now we have a bunch of Spaniards claiming that the Peace Process can not continue under the threat of violence. What about the violence generated by the Spanish state during the last nine months? All those pseudo-pacifists never saw it?

Finally, Joe decides to go along with another blogger, an open Basque-phobe who goes by the nick name of Franco Alemán.

Here you have Joe's final statement:

The bottom line is that to many Spaniards of many political persuasions ETA — and the Zapatero government — have a long way to go before many of them will accept that the ceasefire is more than yet another hiccup in the wave of violence and sea of blood that has marked ETA’s history in Spain. During the Franco era, even though many repudiated its tactics and violence, some privately considered it a kind of folk hero organization, battling the dictatorship.

But now Spain is most assuredly a democracy. Some Spaniards have lived all their lives being given assurances that some day a ceasefire would be put in place with ETA that would endure.

They’ve heard it all before.

Been there. Done that. Buried them….

Did you notice?

Not one word of criticism towards Franco's dictatorship, a terror regime that spawned ETA. Not one word of criticism towards the PP, an embarrassing political formation that has been torpedoing the Peace Process since its beginning.

On top of it, he takes away the real meaning of all the marches. People in Euskal Herria, Spain and Catalunya want the Peace Process to continue, even ETA is in for it as shown in their last statement. Joe, Franco Aleman and others insist that it was against ETA's attack on December 30th, in doing so, they patronize the Spanish people who demonstrated in Madrid supporting dialogue, reason why the PP and its satellite groups did not attend.

Shame on Joe Gandelman, the Basque-phobe.

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AVT Flunks the Test

For a long time I was the lone voice in the desert trying to tell you that the AVT is not more than a front group for the openly Francoist Partido Popular (PP), "cleverly" disguised as an human rights NGO.

Remember when I told you that they had refused to accept the victims of the M-11 attacks because they had placed the guilt of what had happened on Aznar and his crazy obsession with going to war in Iraq?

Well, seems like other bloggers start to see things the same way, mostly after AVT refused to join the demonstration called by an Ecuadorian immigration organization.

Here you have what thebadrash.com has to say in a post titled "PP says No! to peace":

Understandable, perhaps, when the demonstration was organised by trade unions… but what possible reason could the Association of Victims of Terrorism have for not attending the march? They are, after all, a nominally apolitical group. In the past, observers have been heavily criticised for suggesting that the AVT has become little more than a grassroots PP activism unit… but it’s all beginning to look a bit more obvious now.

The AVT’s website is dominated by criticism of the Socialist government and a banner which describes the ‘Civic rebellion’ to be ‘unstoppable’. In fact, looking through their site, it’s tough work finding a single example of what the AVT actually does to help victims of terrorism. I’ve been told that even if the AVT has strayed from its original aims, it was founded in good faith. I find this difficult to believe. The whole movement is based on a simple lie: that the necessarily random victims of Basque terrorism, and their families, could somehow all subscribe to the same complex, right-of-centre political philosophy.

Continues...

Yes, that "Basque terrorism" part looks ugly, I could give the author some good examples of Spanish terrorism, maybe later.

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Remembering the Basque Children

This note from the Yorkshire Diary comes to show that not all English are Basque-phobes like Colin Davis:

City help for the children of war

Eric Drummond of Syke Lane, Scarcroft, read a tribute to the proud Hull tradition of remembering the Basque children in the Spanish Civic War.

But Eric says Leeds can also feel justly proud of providing a home for 30 children in a house at the end of Hill End Road, Armley, which had an open outlook across fields. That was before the land was covered by housing.

"The house was not only their home but their school," remembers Eric.

"My wife's grandmother was caretaker and her mother, and an aunt, used to bake buns and cakes every week for the children and I'm sure other Armley people contributed to the needs of these Basque children.

Paper lad

"I was a 12-year-old paper lad for Lindley's newsagents on Armley Town Street and Hill End Road was the last call on my paper round.

"Like all children the Basque ones were mischievous. After delivering my papers I would often return to find my bike 'missing' – it was being ridden up the road and I'd have to wait its return which I wasn't very pleased about at the time but those kids enjoyed their ride on my bike.

"It would be interesting to see if other people of Armley recall the unfortunate children who came to live among us."

It certainly would be a talking point, Eric. Watch this space.

It was nice what they did for those children, too bad the genocidal maniac Churchill decided not to live up to his promise that he would help to wipe Fascism off the face of Europe. But since he himself was a fascist, no wonder he decided to cut Francisco Franco some slack.

Now, if the English could all keep present in their minds the betrayal of the Allies against the Basques at the end of World War II, maybe they would start demanding a solution for the Basque issue, a solution that must include statehood.

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5th Anniversary

Five years ago a good friend of mine finally got me to start a blog. I was not sure about what I was supposed to do with it so I would post time to time.

And here we are, five years later, blogging as often as work and social compromises allow.

During these five years I have seen how the blogosphere evolved. I remember the time when you would tell someone that you kept a blog and they would look at you as some someone from out of space. Today, anyone that uses the internet on a regular basis knows what a blog is, and the main stream media has become more aware of how bloggers can actually break right through their barrier of lies and deceptions.

This blog was one of the first blogs to bring some of the worst of the main stream media to the spot light. While many were busy blogging about their cats and their children, and other were busy trying to bring their agenda forward, this blog pointed a finger at one of the worst aspects of news as a business and as a propaganda tool.

And it aimed its criticism towards one of the worst aspects of the information monopolies, their proclivity to demonize the national liberation movements that are not darlings to Washington and London.

And so it is that while Taiwan and Kosovo are always portrayed as victims of bad governments (China for the former and Serbia for the latter), other peoples were eternally presented as violent loons. The Palestinians, the Kurds, the Timorese, the Karen and the Basques.

I can say without doubt in my mind that this blog was the first of its kind, today there is many blogs published by Basque people, Kurdish people, Palestinian people. Many of them address their national struggle towards nationhood. But this one was the first.

And as it happened, when the worst vermin produced by the neocon wave decided to attack the Lebanese, the Palestinians, the Kurds and the Basques, this blog was here to stop them on their tracks.

Many wannabe Goebbels met a mighty adversary here, and one after the other folded. Today they stay away from aiming their guns at those who work towards the self determination of their people .

This has been a labor of love and courage.

And there is a lot left from were those last five years came from, so stay tuned.

And by the way...

...Gora Euskal Herria Askatuta!

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Story of Two Pro-Dialogue Marches

I'm sure that you've heard about the two multitudinary demonstrations (there was more actually) that took place in the Basque Country and Spain were thousands went out to the street to demand the continuation of the Peace Process and the dialogue needed to resolve the so called Basque issue.

Maybe you are not sure what I'm talking about, it is not your fault, after all, the main stream media has been labeling the two demonstration as anti-ETA, sparked by the bombing of a parking lot at the Barajas Airport in Madrid.

Here you have a couple of examples, this one found at Yahoo News:

Thousands in march against Basque violence

By Joe OrtizSat Jan 13, 1:44 PM ET

Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards marched, mostly in silence, for peace on Saturday, two weeks after the Basque separatist group ETA shattered its nine-month "permanent ceasefire" with a massive car bomb.

Demonstrators in Madrid, Bilbao and other Spanish cities carried various slogans including "For peace -- against terrorism," "We are all victims of ETA" and "Peace is the task of all of us."

The protests, which have caused political bickering about who should take part and under which slogans, come after ETA claimed responsibility for the bomb at Madrid's Barajas airport, which killed two people.

The march finally got under way under the slogan "For peace, life and liberty and against terrorism."

The squabbling meant that the main opposition Popular Party was absent from the Madrid march, the first time a major party has not attended an anti-ETA demonstration since democracy returned to Spain in the 1970s.

This prompted other slogans such as "Absences help ETA" and "Where is Gallardon?" -- a reference to the Popular Party mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon.

Batasuna, the banned political wing of ETA, refused to join the Bilbao march because the slogan of the protest included the phrase "We demand ETA ends violence."

The Bilbao town hall estimated that 80,000 had joined the protest in the Basque city.

And the one from USA Today:

Hundreds of thousands rally in Spain against bombing

Posted 1/13/2007 8:20 PM ET

MADRID, Spain (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched through Madrid and other cities to denounce a deadly car bombing by the Basque separatist group ETA that shattered a 9-month cease-fire and snuffed out Spain's best hopes in years to end decades of violence.

The rallies on Saturday evening were boycotted by the opposition, conservative Popular Party, illustrating how deeply divided Spain struggles to find common ground even on the issue that polls show is the most worrisome to its citizens.

Nationwide figures were not available but the Interior Ministry said the Madrid rally alone drew an estimated 175,000 people.

"I am angry with ETA. The attack only shows that it is a gang of madmen," said Alejandro Zarzalejos, a 41-year-old English teacher who attended the Madrid rally with his wife and two children, of the Dec. 30 blast at Madrid airport that killed two and injured 26.

He said he had been optimistic about the peace process until the bombing. "I have no idea what they want to achieve with this," he said.

Rallies were also held in the Basque city of Bilbao — where police said 80,000 people took part — as well as in Pamplona, Zaragoza and other cities and towns.

In Madrid, the capital's main north-south artery became a sea of people as entire families turned out on an unseasonably warm winter evening. They waved placards with the symbol of a white dove and wore stickers bearing one word: "Paz," the Spanish for peace.

But if you read through the classic noise created by those who care little for peace, you will notice that all the demonstrators were demanding one thing, for the Peace Process to continue.

For anyone that wishes to read the pulse of the Spanish electorate the message is right there, they want for Rodriguez and his PSOE to continue the dialogue with the Basque political forces as to finally find a resolution to the Basque conflict.

And that includes the Ecuadorian community, a collective that for the last two weeks has been showing the Spanish politicians what dignity really means.

Yes, there were slogans and banners against ETA, but by taking the streets the citizens of Euskal Herria, Catalunya and Spain told Rodríguez and the entire political class that they are not fooled, the Spanish government must start doing something in behalf of the process, ending its own violent repression of the Basques would be a good start.

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Holiday

He, this is precious, one goes into a winter holiday's hiatus and some think one is keeping a low profile.

Just because the colonialist minded Spaniards were shown in all their mendacity towards the end of last year.

Precious, indeed.

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Batasuna, Yes to Dialogue

This came as a surprise only to those who benefit from the status quo in the Basque Country, Batasuna announced that they will be joining the demonstration called by the lehendakari Ibarretxe.

Here you have the report from Prensa Latina:

Batasuna for Dialogue, Stirs Basque

Madrid, Jan 11 (Prensa Latina) The announced participation of the illegal political organization Batasuna in the march against the ETA attack at the Barajas Airport, scheduled for Saturday in Bilbao, has caused a huge commotion among Basque political parties, it was revealed on Thursday.

Basque government spokeswoman Miren Azkarate asked pro-independence politicians to clarify whether they will be calling for the end of ETA during the protest, convened by regional President Juan Jose Ibarretxe.

Accompanied by his colleagues Joseba Permach, Joana Regueiro, and Imanol Iparragirre, he affirmed they will attend the march with the slogan "For Peace and Dialogue."

Batasuna leader Pernando Barrena told press in San Sebastian they will join the march because "it is the right time to give an impulse to the political process" in the Basque country.

And why not?

Besides ETA, the only ones that have been working towards the strenghtening of dialogue as a solution to the Basque issue are the people from Batasuna. Everyone else was taking profits and politics above peace and the right of a people to their self determination. Plus, the decision to go to the demonstration situates Ibarretxe and the pseudo-socialists from the PSOE on the spot light.

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