The Infamous Keith Johnson Article

Basque in the WSJ frontpage
Originally uploaded by luistxo

New Site : Kanaldude

There is a new website dedicated to broadcasting videos of Euskal Herria.

It broadcasts from Behe Nafarroa in Iparralde, here you have the link:

Kanaldude

Enjoy it!

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Sinn Féin in Gernika

This important note was published by An Phoblacht:

International : Sinn Féin attends Gernika solidarity launch

International network for Basque independence

ELECTED representatives from Ireland, the Basque Country, Germany, Scotland, Flanders and Catalonia met at the beginning of November at the first gathering of the Gernika Network for Self-determination, an alliance to internationalise the plight of the Basque pro-independence movement.

This new initiative was launched on 25 April in the Basque town of Gernika, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Nazi bombing of the town during the Spanish Civil War and it focuses on the right to self-determination for the Basque people.

Ireland was represented by Sinn Féin MLA Francie Brolly. Others attending were Michael Leutert, MP of the German party Die Linke (The Left) and member of the Bundestag’s Human Rights Commission; Flemish MP Jan Loones; SNP member Lloyd Quinan, who is currently working in the independence dialogue initiative launched by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond MP; and Otger Amatller, Laia Jurado, Ana María Guijarro and Anna Gabriel, councillors of the Catalan party, Candidatures d’Unitat Popular (CUP). Batasuna’s representatives Karmelo Landa and Eusebio Lasa were also present.

There was an official reception in Gernika’s town hall attended by the town’s local government, led by Basque nationalist parties EA and ANV, and members of Gernika Batzordea.

Some of the signatories to the Gernika Network initiative are working ahead in highlighting the situation in the Basque Country. In Italy, Rifundazione Comunista and the Green Party have tabled motions in the Senate in relation to the rights of Basque people to decide on their future.
Lloyd Quinan (SNP, Scotland) pointed out the closeness between his country and the Basque Country “because we want to be part of the international community and we have the right to our own voice in the United Nations Assembly”. The SNP is committed to publicise the Basque situation in Scotland, he said, “because it is necessary that we all defend the human and political right of all citizens in all countries around the world”.

German MP Michael Leutert referred to Hitler’s support for the Franco regime’s suppression of the Basques. It would never be forgotten, he said. “We Germans have a historical responsibility to contribute to the solution of those conflicts that violated human rights. I hope this network will serve to restore the rights of the Basques.

“Next year we will be celebrating 50 years of the UN Charter of Human Rights and there will be an opportunity to vindicate the rights of this people.”

Francie Brolly referred to an issue particularly important to Irish and Basque people: their languages. Basque and Gaelic are key elements in the identity of both nations. Brolly highlighted the value of keeping minority languages alive, as they represent “the soul of humankind”.

Good for them!

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Blog Reaction to Keith's Propaganda Piece

Here you have one of the countless reactions to Keith Johnson's article against Euskera appeared at the WSJ, this one is by Luistxo at his The English Cemetary blog:

The Wall Street Journal says Basque isn't used in real life

The Wall Street Journal has decided to insult Basque speakers. What a shame of an article. It's hard to be a minority language speaker, precisely when it's minoritised even in your own land... And yet, looks as if Spanish speakers are the ones being persecuted by Inquisition. No. It's Spanish Inquisition the one that in the 21st century decided to close the only Basque-language daily newspaper, based in false accusations. As false as all content in that article.

Of course, the journalist got collaboration from local idiots. "Euskera just isn't used in real life", says a member of the Basque Parliament. If you're reading this here, you may follow the links to my Basque blog, this public discussion about the Guggenheim Bilbao or the Wikipedia. I hope that proves that Basque is at least used in virtual life.

Continues...

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Bill Gates Goes to Euskal Herria

This note appeared at EITb today:

Sci/Tech

Negotiations

Microsoft could be set up in the Basque Country

11/07/2007

The corporation is considering to open a center in the Basque town of Arrasate/Mondragon. The company founded by Bill Gates is negotiating with MCC, Basque Government and councils.

American corporation Microsoft is considering to open a center in Polo Garaia Innovation Center (promoted by MCC), in the Basque town of Arrasate/Mondragon.

The company is negotiating with MCC itself, with the Basque Government, the council of Gipuzkoa and Arrasate/Mondragon city council, Vocento’s group newspapers reported.

According to that information, Bill Gates wants to open a center in the mentioned town and create 20 jobs.

Well, what does Keith Johnson have to say about that. Why would Bill Gates go to Euskal Herria when Basques are a bunch of mumbling morons herding cows, pigs, donkeys and sheep?

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EITb's Reaction to WSJ's Article

Keith Johnson is gonna be catching some flak for his openly difamatory article against Euskera, the Basque language.

This is what EITb reports:

Controversial article

Basque, is backward language, according to 'Wall Street Journal'

11/07/2007

The article entitled Basque inquisition: How do you say shepherd in Euskera? says that Basque Government forces thousands of people to return to school and spend millions of euros in "reviving a rural language".

On Monday, the American edition of the Wall Street Journal published in the front page the article “Basque Inquisition: How Do You Say Shepherd in Euskera?” in which they say that the Basque language “doesn’t fit with nowadays’ life”.

The author, Keith Johnson, accuses Basque Government of forcing thousands of people to return to school and spend millions of euros in “reviving a rural language”.

Among the testimonies collected by the journalist there are, the testimony of the Culture councillor of the Basque Government Joseba Arregi who says “that Basque language is not good for an everyday conversation. When a language is imposed, people use it less and creates an evil circle between imposition a and reaction. This language has been forced too much”, or the parliamentary of the Popular Party PP Leopoldo Barreda who says that “Basque language is not used in real life”.

The article published by Wall Street Journal in its American edition, not in Europe, talks about the “marginalization of the Spanish in the Basque Country”, and a Basque inquisition that practices a kind of linguistic cleaning.

Moreover, the journalist signing the article try to convince the readers that Basque is a “backward” language, with no possibility of adapting to society. For that he says there are 10 different ways of saying “shepherd”, however they have to invent words such as "airport" "independence", "democracy" and so on.

Johnson assures there are several “Basque separatists that replaced weapons for grammar” and they “dream with imposing Basque language in everyday life”.

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Keith Johnson : Basque-Phobe of the Week

What do you get when you send a dim witted US citizen to Spain to be your correspondent?

Well, articles like this one from Keith Johnson, published by the Wall Street Journal on what could be consider a case of slander against the Basque people.

Here you have it:

Basque Inquisition: How Do You Say Shepherd in Euskera?

Through Fiat, Separatists Bring Old Tongue to Life; 'Zientzia' and Other Updates

By KEITH JOHNSON

November 6, 2007; Page A1

BILBAO, Spain -- Rosa Esquivias is caught on the front line of the Basques' fight for independence from Spain. Actually, she's in the front row -- of her Basque language class.

Ms. Esquivias, a 50-year-old high-school math teacher and Spanish-speaking native of Bilbao, must learn Basque or risk losing her job. Like her nine classmates, including a man who teaches Spanish to immigrants, she has been given at least a year off with pay to spend 25 hours a week drilling verbs and learning vocabulary in Euskera -- a language with no relation to any other European tongue and spoken by fewer than one million people. About 450 million people world-wide speak Spanish.

Oh, so, according to Keith's logic, the amount of people that speaks a language decides what language gets to go on and which one should disappear. Well, there goes what we like to call cultural diversity.

"For the job I do, I think learning the language is clearly over the top," Ms. Esquivias says.

Basque separatists have been waging a struggle for independence from Spain for 39 years. But lately, many have taken to wielding grammar instead of guns. Separatists still dream of creating their own homeland, but in the meantime they are experimenting with pushing a strict regime of Euskera into every corner of public life. Of the present-day Basque Country's approximately 2.1 million inhabitants, roughly 30% speak Basque; more than 95% speak Spanish.

How strange, the article addresses a public policy put forward by the government of the Basque Autonomous Community, a democratic institution by Western standards. This government is conformed in its majority by Basque parties that support self determination for the Basque people, ranging from a new political pact put forward by the PNV and its two political allies (EB and EA) all the way to out right independence as demanded by ANV. If this policy was able to go through the filter that constitutes the two Spanish parties (PP and PSOE) then it means that it embodies the will of the people.

So, when Keith Johnson says that "...Basque separatists have been waging a struggle for independence from Spain for 39 years. But lately, many have taken to wielding grammar instead of guns..." what he is actually saying is that the vast majority of Basques are gun wielding separatists. This sounds a whole lot like the official posture by the Spanish political elite that claims that all Basques are terrorists or terrorist supporters at the least.

The difference is that Keith Johnson is an US correspondent and he should not be taken sides, he is in Spain to inform, not to have the American public lean towards one side. It is called being professional and most important when it comes to a reporter, unbiased.

It does not stop there, continue reading please:

The regional government of the Basque Country has begun to tighten the screws on its language policy to the point where now, all public employees, from mail-sorters to firemen, must learn Euskera to get -- or keep -- their jobs. Cops are pulled off the street to brush up their grammar. And companies doing business with the Basque government must conduct business in Euskera. Starting next year, students entering public school will be taught only in Basque.

This is a plain out lie and I dare Keith Johnson to prove this assertion. There is three different educational systems in the Basque Autonomous Community and parts of Navarre. You can enroll your kids in either a Basque speaking school with Spanish as a second language, a school with 50/50 policy about the two languages and also a Spanish speaking school with Euskera as second language.

Although there is a shortage of doctors in the Basque Country, the Basque health service requires medical personnel to speak Euskera. Health-service regulations detail how Euskera should be used in every medical situation, from patient consultations down to how to leave a phone message or make an announcement over a public-address system (Basque first, then Spanish). There are rules specifying the typeface and placement of Basque signs in hospitals (Basque labels on top or to the left, and always in bold).

Another lie, there is no doctor shortage in the Basque Country, once again, proof Keith, proof.

The official goal of the Basque policy is to transform Euskera from a "co-official" status with Spanish to "co-equal" status. That, say Euskera proponents, is necessary to make up for years of linguistic repression. The language was banned during the 36-year dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and only began to re-emerge in the 1980s.

Something wrong with that?

"To have a truly bilingual society, you need positive discrimination," says Mertxe Múgica, the head of the Basque language academies where Ms. Esquivias studies. Many Basque speakers still feel discriminated against because of the pervasiveness of Spanish.

But as Basque nationalists try to push their language into the mainstream, they are bumping up against an uncomfortable reality.

"Euskera just isn't used in real life," says Leopoldo Barrera, the head of the center-right Popular Party in the Basque regional Parliament. Though it has existed for thousands of years -- there are written records in Basque that predate Spanish -- it is an ancient language little suited to contemporary life. Euskera has no known relatives, though theories abound linking it to everything from Berber languages to Eskimo tongues.

Well, Keith is really stretching it here, I invite Mr. Barrera to walk with me through the streets of Bilbo, Donosti, Iruñea and in less than five minutes I will show him people speaking Euskera when addressing issues like the most recent soccer match, the weather or why does the US condones the killing of Iraqi civilians by "security" companies like Blackwater.

By the way Keith, you should be more careful, you don't want the WSJ to get a hate crime law suit thrown at them, they are called Inuit, not Eskimo.

Here you have a pearl:

Airport, science, Renaissance, democracy, government, and independence, for example, are all newly minted words with no roots in traditional Euskera: aireportu, zientzia, errenazimentu, demokrazia, gobernu, independentzia.

Correct Keith, I am going to let you in a little secret, Euskera has been around for at least 5,000 years and guess what, back then there was no need for airports because... there was no airplanes!

Besides, those words you mentioned derived from either Greek or Latin, please show me the English versions with no roots in traditional English for those same words.

Meanwhile, there are 10 different words for shepherd, depending on the kind of animal. Astazain, for instance, is a donkey herder; urdain herds pigs. A cowpoke is behizain in Euskera. While Indo-European languages have similar roots for basic words like numbers -- three, drei, tres, trois -- counting in Euskera bears no relation: bat, bi, hiru, lau, and up to hamar, or 10. Religious Basques pray to Jainko.

Yes Keith, just like the Inuit have a hundred words for snow, that does not render their language useless.

The regional government has spent years of effort and billions of euros to make sure that every official document, from job applications for sanitation workers to European Union agricultural grants, is available in Euskera. But this year, in San Sebastian, a hotbed of Basque nationalism and the region's second-largest city, not a single person chose to take the driver's license exam in Euskera, says Mr. Barrera.

The Basque-language TV channel is loaded with Euskera favorites, such as the irrepressible redhead "Pippi Galtzaluze." But the channel has a 4.4% audience share in the Basque Country, according to data from Taylor Nelson Sofres -- less than the animal-documentary channel of public broadcasting.

Even some of the biggest proponents of Basque independence stumble over Euskera's convoluted grammar. Juan José Ibarretxe, the Basque regional president, speaks a less-than-fluent Euskera at news conferences. Like most people in the region, he grew up speaking Spanish and had to learn Euskera as an adult.

Another lie, I have been present at a number of Ibarretxe's public presentations and only a Euskara speaker could tell that he uses Euskara Batua, the unified version of the language.

Other adults who are now running afoul of the new language policy are having similar trouble picking up the tongue. "I guess we're the last of the old guard, but we don't have any choice," says Ignacio Garcia, a math teacher who is a classmate of Ms. Esquivias, and is sweating over a stack of notes before his first big Euskera exam.

The language policy has led to a massive adult re-education push, as tens of thousands in the Basque Country head back to school. Their predicament has become a popular sendup on a Basque comedy show. In one sketch, non-Basque-speaking adults who have been sent to a euskaltegi, or Euskera language school, have to ask schoolchildren to help them with their homework.

In the same token, when speaking Spanish to me there was a young man who had to keep asking his friends how to say this or that word in Spanish.

Joseba Arregui, a former Basque culture secretary, native Basque speaker, and onetime architect of the language policy, feels that Euskera is being pushed too far. "It's just no good for everyday conversation," he says. "When a language is imposed, it is used less, and that creates a diabolical circle of imposition and backlash."

Ahem, Keith, Spanish was imposed in the Basque Country before and I see Basque people going around their business as usual, so, why should it be so bad the other way around?

Shall I remind you how many millions of people were murdered in the process of imposing Spanish around the world?

In the classroom, Euskera use has also allowed separatists to control the curriculum. Basque-language textbooks used in schools never tell students that the Basque Country is part of Spain, for example. No elementary-school texts even mention the word Spain.

Students are taught that they live in "Euskal Herria," stretching across parts of Spain and southern France, that was colonized by "the Spanish State."

Is that bad to say the truth? Because if you read any book history one can clearly see that the Basque Country was indeed colonized by Spain. Are you Keith going to tell us that the USA has been there since the dawn of times?

Some local politicians worry that the insistence on Basque language makes any type of reconciliation between separatists and Spain impossible. "Everything young Basques later encounter in life -- like the fact they live in Spain -- then appears to be an imposition from Madrid," says Santiago Abascal, a regional deputy from the Popular Party who campaigns against the linguistic policy. "That creates frustration that keeps violence bubbling in the Basque Country," he says.

One question Keith, what violence are you talking about?

For more than five hundred years Spain has been using violence to perpetuate their grip of the colonized land. How are the Basques responsible for that violence?

But back in the classroom, most of the frustration seems to be with the dense grammar, forthcoming exams, and the difficulty of finding quality shows on Basque TV.

Arantza Goikolea, Ms. Esquivias's teacher, leads a class through an exercise about their daily routines. Tamara Alende, 25, watches a lot of TV at night, she says in pidgin Euskera.

"Basque shows?" asks Ms. Goikolea. Ms. Alende lowers her head and turns red. "No, Spanish series," she mumbles, to a chorus of boos from the teacher and the rest of the class.

Write to Keith Johnson at keith.johnson@wsj.com

So Keith, these are the reasons why you have been designated Basque-phobe of the week.

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Eusko Flickr: Basque Light

Basque light
Originally uploaded by Ladyol

AI Welcomes Proposals

If there is one issue in which the government of the Basque Autonomous Community has failed to distance itself from the central government in Madrid it is the reports of police brutality against Basque citizens accused by Spanish judges of either terrorism or apology of terrorism (remember, speaking Euskara, the Basque language, is enough to get this accusation hurled at you).

Well, seems like some things are changing according to this report by Amnesty International:

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement

AI Index: EUR 41/010/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 211
1 November 2007

Spain: Amnesty International welcomes Basque parliament proposal to install CCTV in all police stations and end incommunicado detention

Amnesty International welcomes the recent proposal of the Commission of the Interior of the autonomous Basque parliament, aimed at abolishing incommunicado detention and installing CCTV surveillance in all places of detention. On 25 October the Commission of the Interior of the autonomous Basque parliament voted in favour of the proposal, which must now be approved by the Basque parliament in plenary. If adopted, it will be passed on to the Spanish national parliament for consideration and possible action.

For many years Amnesty International and other international organisations have expressed concern about reports of torture and other ill-treatment perpetrated by members of state security forces in Spain. Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the Spanish government to abrogate Articles 520bis and 527 of the Law of Criminal Procedure governing the incommunicado regime, and to install CCTV surveillance of the custody areas of all police stations in order to protect detainees against the possibility of ill-treatment. This is one of the principal recommendations of a new Amnesty International report on police ill-treatment in Spain, to be published on 14 November.

In light of these concerns, Amnesty International calls on the autonomous Basque parliament and the Spanish national parliament to take swift, positive action on these proposals when they are presented.

Background
Under current law, the investigating judge can order incommunicado detention for persons in custody on terrorism-related charges for a total of up to 13 days, first on police or Civil Guard premises and, after five days, in prison.

In 2002 the UN Committee against Torture expressed "profound concern" at the Spanish incommunicado regime, stating that it facilitated torture and ill-treatment. Amnesty International itself has repeatedly called for the abrogation of Articles 520bis and 527 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which govern the incommunicado regime. It believes that the current, restricted legal safeguards are inadequate, and has called for the right of access to a lawyer from the outset of detention and the right to talk to the lawyer in private. Amnesty International has also repeatedly called for detainees to have the right to be examined by a doctor of their own choosing, in addition to a state-appointed doctor.

The legislative initiative approved by the Basque Commission of the Interior on 25 October would remove incommunicado detention from Spanish law and create a new article in the Law of Criminal Procedure making it a legal duty for all authorities responsible for places of detention to use CCTV security surveillance in these sites.

Now, the next step would be to demand the destitution of Xabier Balza as head of the ministry of the interior in the BAC. Balza is a butcher all to eager to please his bosses at the Audiencia Nacioanl and the Guardia Civil, if democracy is to take hold of the Basque Autonomous Community, he needs to go.

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Bad News for Basque-Phobes

Basque-phobes around the world are now eating hearty servings of humble pie.

Conservative bloggers who decided to follow the Barcepundit's lead are now faced with their own mendacity, the list is long but let me name those who insisted the most: Joe Gandelman and Colin Davies.

Here you have the report by the Guardian Unlimited about the outcome of the Madrid trials:

Madrid bombings

Mass murderers jailed for 40 years as judge delivers verdicts on Spain's 9/11

Relatives unhappy after alleged ringleader is acquitted over 2004 attacks that left 191 people dead

Paul Hamilos in Madrid
Thursday November 1, 2007
The Guardian

A Spanish court convicted three men of mass murder yesterday for their part in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, but one of the alleged ringleaders was acquitted.

At the end of a four-month trial, 21 of the 28 defendants were convicted on at least one charge for their role in Europe's worst Islamist attack, in which 191 people were killed and more than 1,800 injured when bombs hidden in duffle bags ripped through four crowded commuter trains.

The attacks were Spain's equivalent of September 11, a day of chaos and confusion as frantic relatives rang mobile phones which went unanswered amid the carnage. The government of José María Aznar, an ally of George Bush, initially blamed the Basque separatist group Eta, despite evidence of Islamist involvement. Three days later he and his People's party were toppled by an electorate which believed it had been misled.

Yesterday, the heavily guarded courtroom was packed with victims' relatives. Some shouted abuse at the accused, who were held in a bullet-proof chamber, but silence descended as Judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez read his hour-long verdict.

....

Victims' relatives expressed shock at the verdicts. Pilar Manjón, who lost her son, said: "I'm not happy that killers are walking free." But the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who came to power in elections three days after the attack, said he was satisfied: "Justice was rendered today." He added: "The barbarism perpetrated on March 11 2004 has left a deep imprint of pain on our collective memory, an imprint that stays with us as a homage to the victims."

....

Spaniards were divided after the Aznar government initially blamed Basque separatists. Yesterday Judge Gómez said there was no proof of Eta's involvement.

The People's party leader, Mariano Rajoy, said the verdicts would not end the investigation into those responsible for the bombings, saying that his party would "support any further [investigation] without limits ... to find justice".

Analysts say the Madrid bombings were different in style from previous attacks claimed by al-Qaida, and the investigation found no evidence of a direct operational link to the Islamist terrorist group.

The problem of course being that Aznar and his Francisco Franco regime styled Partido Popular did not blame the bombings on ETA, they blamed them on Basques in general. Remember those mentions of the constitution? Remember how a Basque baker was murdered by an off duty Spanish officer in the city of Iruñea (Pamplona)? Remember how an old lady died of a heart attack when the regional police refused to assist her during a demonstration?

But Basque-phobes continued to publish articles supporting the conspiracy theory that gave Madrid the chance to step up the repressive measures against Basque society.

Well boys, is over now, you lost.

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