Education Exchange with Nueva Vizcaya

Thanks to the Philippine Information Agency we learn about this initiative for teacher and student exchange between three higher educational centers in the province of Nueva Vizcaya in the Phillipines and a Basque university.

It is good to learn that the inhabitants of this province in Philippines are interested in learning more about Euskal Herria, where the original Bizkaia is located.

Here you have the note:

3 Nueva Vizcaya schools join twinning agreement with Spain

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya (1 February) -- Three schools in the province have showed interest to join the provincial government’s initiative to forge a twinning agreement with Spain.

Jimmy Calata, chief of the Information Technology Division and coordinator for the project said the Saint Mary’s University, Nueva Vizcaya State University in Bayombong town and Aldersgate College in Solano town have unanimously agreed to adopt in principle the project.

“In fact, they are making clarifications if they can send students and teachers to avail of the University of Basque Country’s(UBC) other programs such as Spanish and Basque languages, teacher training, information and communications technology, business and economics and others,” Calata said.

He also said they have offered the accommodation of teachers and students who are interested to come in Nueva Vizcaya.

At present, UBC has expressed strong interest in environmental science and forestry.

Earlier, Nueva Vizcaya proposed a twinning agreement with Spain in terms of culture, education and economy among others. (PIA NVizcaya)

What I found even more important is the interest to get Euskara classes for the students in Nueva Vizcaya, this opens new spaces for development of the Basque language so threatened by Spain and France's linguistic policies.

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Medical Breakthrough

This note was published by EITb:

Trichonomas vaginalis

Basque scientist contributes to a breakthrough in medicine

Felix Bastida, together with other scientists, made a great step forward in research on a sexually transmitted human pathogen. The breakthrough was echoed by important scientific publications.

The prestigious science magazine Science published a paper that describes the genome sequence of the protist Trichomonas vaginalis, a sexually transmitted human pathogen. One of the researches was the Basque Felix Bastida, actually leading Vacunek, a company of technology transference created by Neiker-Tecnalia.

The research of Felix Bastida and a group of scientists of the University of California had been recognised by its publication by Science, one of the most prestigious magazines.

After a journey at several U.S. universities, the young Basque scientist is actually living in the Basque Country and collaborating with the Department of Production and Animal Health of Neiker-Tecnalia, an ambitious project to find vaccines and products to diagnose animal diseases.

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Hunger Strike Continues

This note regarding Iñaki de Juana's hunger strike was published by EITB:

86-day strike

Prisoner on hunger strike determined not to eat until release

A few representatives of Basque culture visited Iñaki de Juana Chaos Wednesday. Writer Laura Mintegi said it's "horrific" to see how he is being "force-fed with his hands and feet tied."

A group of Basque writers visited the Basque prisoner Iñaki de Juana Chaos, on hunger strike since November 7, to denounce the fact that a judicial system, a Government and society admit that a person be "tried and sentenced for the use of the word." They also wanted to note that there's "a serious problem of democracy and freedom of expression" in Spain.

Writer Laura Mintegi spoke after visiting De Juana at Madrid-based Doce de Octubre Hospital to say "an inadmissible theory is being applied from a judicial and even human point of view," and that theory could be applied "to anyone from now on."

In turn, writer Fito Rodriguez noted that the body of law is being applied "depending on who writes, and not on what he writes," and affirmed that if the writer of the two articles were any journalist, writer or citizen "he wouldn't probably have had any problems."

Determined to keep on

In turn, Mintegi highlighted that even "physical" rights are being violated in this situation, and noted how "horrific" it is to see De Juana being "force-fed with his hands and feet tied."

Asked if De Juana will put an end to the hunger strike, Mintegi assured that he showed his determination not to eat. "He won't eat until he is not released and at home," she affirmed.

The writer also noted that De Juana voiced his pessimism with regard to the next decision by the Supreme Court following his appeal against the prison sentence, as he thinks he would stay in the same situation.

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Basque Winter Carnivals

This article comes to us via EITb:

Carnivals in the Basque Country

The most important festivities of the winter in the Basque Country are the carnivals.

Despite the fact that Carnival has often been kept alive by its rural representations, it has gradually developed and perfectly adapted itself in the cities and important towns, where it has possibly acquired even greater strength.

An excellent example of this is Tolosa (Gipuzkoa) which has endeavoured to keep its Carnival at all costs despite periods of suffering and repression. Everyone gets dressed up for the occasion in Tolosa, wearing costumes ranging from the simplest of jellabahs to the most sophisticated outfits imaginable. Bullfights, float parades, groups of dancers and competitions are only some of the activities that make the Tolosa Carnival an event to remember.

In Gipuzkoa, carnival time is announced by the tinkers' strange processions which imitate the nomadic wanderings of the gypsies who used to come to these areas over the carnival period, with their shows and skill in tin-smithery. In places such as Donostia-San Sebastian the rowdy tinkers "all the way from Hungary", arrive on the Saturday after 2nd February every year.

In Bizkaia too they remember the gypsy bands who arrived for the carnival - in the Zagari Dantza of Markina-Xemein, for example, which include a bear and its tamer among the dancers. There are many similar vestiges of rural carnival which the Basque Country has preserved. In Gipuzkoa, at the foot of Txindoki, one of the most beautiful mountains of this region, the youngsters of the two little communities of Amezketa and Abaltzisketa dance round the houses in an attempt to stir the goodwill and generosity of their neighbours. They are called txantxoak. In Zalduaondo, in Alava, the main character of the fiesta is a dummy, markitos, who, year after year is judged, convicted and put to death.

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Holocaust Warning

To all Basque-phobes out there (Franco Aleman, John Rosenthal, Joe Gandelman, Colin Davis, to mention some), you better watch it, from today on any denial of the Holocaust is considered a crime.

Here you have the note from Yahoo News:

UN condemns Holocaust denial

The UN General Assembly unanimously condemned denial of the Holocaust, in a move diplomats said was directly aimed at Iran for branding the World War II mass murder of Jews a lie.

In the resolution proposed by the United States and co-sponsored by more than 100 countries, the 192-member Assembly General "urges all member states unreservedly to reject any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, or any activities to this end."

The resolution, adopted by consensus, does not name any country but points to "efforts to deny the Holocaust, which by ignoring the historical fact of these terrible events increase the risk they will be repeated."

Why does it affect you?

Because one of the core issues you deny or downplay when refusing the right of the Basque people to their self-determination are the crimes committed by Francisco Franco's regime against the Basques.

You never talk about Gernika and how the extreme right in Spain has never been accountable for the crimes commit ed by Franco and Hitler that day. I want to remind you today that unlike Berlin, Madrid has never apologized for that genocidal crime.

You conveniently leave out all the Basques that died in Hitler's death camps.

You have never mentioned that the Spanish Guardia Civil hunted down, tortured and murdered Basque resistance fighters who participated in operations to rescue Jewish people (specially children) from the Nazis.

You willingly participate in the massive cover up of the Gestapo crimes in Iparralde, where dozens of Basque villages were destroyed for the active participation of the Baques in the war efforts against the Axis.

Often you refused that there was a Basque Republic before WWII (and a Catalonian Republic for that matter), the only reason why that Basque state ceased to exist was because of the aid that Hitler and Mussolini gave to Francisco Franco.

During WWII while the Basques aligned themselves with the Allies and became a key instrument in the operations to hide and spirit away downed Allied pilots, dissidents and refugees, Franco sent his Blue Division to fight alongside the Nazis in Russia.

After the war the Basque Government in the Exile provided an intelligence network that was proven very valuable when it came to finding Nazi murderers hiding in different Latin American countries in the aftermath of WWII, something that not even the Mossad could match.

So, read this part again:

"...the 192-member Assembly General "urges all member states unreservedly to reject any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, or any activities to this end."

There you have it.

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YouTube: Segi

This video hosted at YouTube will provide you with a better understanding of how police forces react violently against peaceful demonstrations:

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The kids blocking the highway to bring attention over the human right violations by the Spanish state belong to the Basque youth movement known a Segi.

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Gipuzkoa's Museums

This article about some of the best museums you can visit while in Gipuzkoa comes to us courtesy of EITb:

Basque Museums : three stars in Gipuzkoa

Three museums must be remarked among all the one we find in the Basque region of Gipuzkoa: the Aquarium, the Miramón Kutxaespacio Science Museum and Chillida-Leku Museum.

The Basque museum of yesterday, today and tomorrow has to be the Aquarium in Donostia-San Sebastian which stands on the rocks to one side of La Concha Bay. Ever since it opened in 1928, this museum has been visited by over 10 million people, a figure making it into one of the most popular museums in Spain.

On entering the building, we are met by the enormous skeleton of the last whale caught on the coasts of Gipuzkoa. From then on, an interesting tour explaining the naval history, fishing tackle and how boats were built rubs shoulders with one of the most impressive and best stocked aquariums (with 5,000 species) in Europe.

The star of the visit is the spectacular oceanarium, visited via a 360º methacrylate tunnel, in which we can see sharks, sting rays, turtles and a whole variety of other marine animals. By way of a complement to the Aquarium’s dedication to the sciences of the sea, the nearby Naval Museum reflects the ethnographic aspects of the Basque sea world, which takes its inspiration from the locals’ relationship with the sea.

A recent arrival on the Basque cultural scene is Chillida-Leku Museum, not far from Donostia-San Sebastian, which was conceived according to the modern idea of an open-air museum and designed to bring the visitor into close contact with art. This is "Chillida's place", a space conceived by the author himself as the live exhibition of his work. Outside, among green fields populated by hundred year-old beech trees, oaks and magnolias, stand 40 enormous iron and granite sculptures. Inside the renovated 16th century farmhouse we will find smaller works, sketches, and the author’s first sculptures. This daring creation is a place in which to take a stroll and mingle with the author’s work while trying to understand and interpret or even simply enjoy it.

Likewise in Donostia-San Sebastian is the Miramón Kutxaespacio Science Museum, a modern edifice designed to increase the visitor’s knowledge of science and new technologies. Spread over 8,000 metres, this is an interactive museum intended to simply and educationally transmit the most elementary knowledge of natural sciences. A digital planetarium and an astronomic observatory offer a view of Donostia-San Sebastian never seen before. There are also specific sections dedicated to knowledge of the earth, communication, energy, light, mechanics and other unknown scientific quantities. One of these areas is specially dedicated to children and houses interesting temporary exhibitions.

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Basque Oscar Nomination

What would you know, once again a Basque film maker gets an Oscar nomination.

Here you have the note appeared at EITb:

Academy Awards

Short film by Basque moviemaker nominated for the Oscars

Borja Kobeaga will compete against four more action short films. He tells the story of a father and a son that take grandma out of the old people's house to take care of them because mother has abandoned them.

The short film Eramos Pocos, One Too Many, by the Basque filmmaker Borja Kobeaga, has won one of the five nominations for Best Live Action Short Film on the 79th edition of the Oscars.

It's a 15-minute short film starring Ramon Barea and Marivi Bilbao. The story tells about a father and his son, abandoned by the mother, who take grandma out of the old people's house to take care of them.

Kobeaga was awarded with Best Script at the 8th national short film contest of Medina del Campo's Cinema Week, one of the most important festivals in the Spanish State in the field of short films. The award allowed the shooting and premiere of the film.

In turn, Kobeaga assured that "I never thought about this award," and being a candidate for the Oscar is the "culmination" of the warm reception One Too Many has had in festivals, among them the festival of Aspen.

There is another short film competing for the Oscar in the same category, Binta and the Great Idea (Binta y la gran idea), by Javier Fesser, a circumstance Kobeaga described as "a cosmic coincidence."

Kobeaga's One Too Many will compete against Binta and the Great Idea, Helmer & Son, The Saviour and West Bank Story on February 25 at the 79th edition of the Academy Awards.

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Anarchist Support of Segi

I've found this statement at a page called Anarkismo, here you have it:

State repression of the Basque movement

Alternative libertaire is opposed to the process (led by the Spanish government and supported by French government) of banning the Basque youth movement Segi. Indeed, Segi has been recently qualified as a "terrorist organization" by the Spanish justice. Segi, a pro-independence and revolutionary left-wing organization, had already undergone two prohibitions, along with prison sentences for several of their members.

After the settlement of European orders asking for simple searches, Spanish police are allowed to arrest Basque militants belonging to political or trade-union organizations (judged to be close to the ETA army) in France. So, the prohibition of Segi will have consequences in Spain and France. This repression is merely a consequence of attacks on the Basque movement since 1999: the most important left-wing Basque movement, Batasuna, was banned in 2003, as was Segi (twice), and also associations supporting prisoners and "Egunkaria", the only daily newspaper in Euskara. The banning of Batasuna was already a very serious attack on political rights: premises were seized, the organization was sentenced to a fine of 24 million euro because of the justice statement in case of riots, demonstrations were forbidden. Cases of Basque militants tortured by the Spanish police have been denounced by civil rights organisations.

Cooperation in the fight against terrorism between Paris and Madrid was confirmed by converging views displayed when Sarkozy and the Spanish Popular Party (PP) met. The latter is expecting a return to power on the basis of the reinforcement of their security policies.

Alternative libertaire wants the Spanish government to stop the repression and legal actions against Segi, and to release immediately those militants that have been arrested.

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Myths and Legends

Time for some cultural information regarding the Basque Country's myths and legends courtesy of EITb:

Origin of Basque Myths and Legends

There is a vast collection of myths and legends which still exist today thanks to the great Basque oral tradition.

Even most primitive Man felt the need to give meaning to the phenomena and natural cycles which conditioned his existence. He interpreted them, named them, found an explanation for them, and with these answers built up his own myths, legends, and religions. These formed the framework for his relation with nature and with anything else in his environment which was incomprehensible or supposedly magic.

Primitive Basque man was converted to Christianity very late. He was also all but cut off from other cultures by an inhospitable and very inaccessible geography. Thus he came to invent a vast collection of myths and legends which still exist today thanks to the great Basque oral tradition.

For him the mountains and valleys developed an almost human significance, and in the bowels of the earth ran rivers of milk, out of the reach of mortals. Two powers ruled nature and their designs conditioned human life: the god of the firmament, "Ost" or "Ortzi" - equivalent to the Roman god Jupiter, the Greek Zeus or the Germanic Thor, and "Ilargia", the moon, a feminine force which emerged from the world of hidden things. "Ost" and "Eguzki", the light of the sun, belonged to the day, to the earth, since it was from the earth that the sun rose and to the earth that it returned every day. "Ilargia" though, belonged to the world of the deceased, of souls, to the hidden side of existence and nature.

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Orson Wells in Euskal Herria I

Thanks to You Tube here comes a segment of the documentary that Orson Wells shot in Euskal Herria.

Here it is:

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Anti-Torture Committee Visits De Juana

This article comes to us via EITb:

Europe's Anti-torture unit visits Basque prisoner in hunger strike

The visit took place on Jan. 14 or 15. The representatives of the Council of Europe's Anti-torture Committee met with Iñaki de Juana Chaos, the doctors' team, judicial authorities and the director of the jail Madrid VI.

A delegation of the Council of Europe's Anti-torture Committee travelled last week to Spain to examine the treatment the Basque prisoner in hunger strike Iñaki de Juana Chaos is receiving, as the European group reported in a statement.

The visit took place on January 14 or 15 and aimed at examining the treatment and care De Juana Chaos is receiving, as the Committee was informed the prisoner was being force-fed.

According to the statement, the delegation met with De Juana and the members of the doctors' team treating him at Madrid's hospital Doce de Octubre, as well as the competent judicial authorities and the director of the detention centre Madrid VI, where De Juana Chaos was serving his sentence.

The two representatives of the Committee who travelled to Spain were the Italian vice president of the group, Mauro Palma, and the Swiss doctor Jean-Pierre Restellini. They also met representatives of the Association of Spanish Doctors and several lawyers linked to the case.

Likewise, they also met with the secretary general of the Interior Ministry, Maria Angeles Gonzalez Garcia, and the general director of Penitentiary Institutions, Mercedes Gallizo.

Usually, a report follows such visits of the Committee within two weeks and one month, and before unveiling it, the Government involved receives a copy of the report, in this case the Spanish Government.

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Googling Basque Cuisine

And so it is that the people that works for Google are lucky enough to count with a food outlet within their own complex which serves Basque cuisine items.

Here you have the note published at EITb:

Google headquarters

A Basque restaurant in best US company to work for

19/01/2007

One of the 11 gourmet cafeterias of Google's headquarters in California is Café Pintxo, situated in building 47. The Basque-themed restaurant surprises every day Google employees with delicious dishes of the Basque gastronomy.

Google's unique company culture is not only made of food. At Google you can work out in the gym; attend subsidized exercise classes; get a massage; study Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish and French and ask a personal concierge to arrange dinner reservations; free meals; free doctors; swimming spa; haircuts onsite; laundry for free; etc.

The American company has been elected 2007 Best Company to Work For.

I was forced to eat frozen food out of a machine for years during my stint as a slave of an US company.

Are they a lucky bunch or what?

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The Trecherous Spanish Government

Rodríguez Zapatero wanted a firestorm?

How about the recently undisclosed information that his government (as usual) did not fullfill their promises and compromises?

Even after ETA had given up its own part in the Peace Process in behalf of the Basque political parties and the Spanish government, Rodríguez refused to live up to the word given.

Here is the note by EITb that puts the spot light on Madrid's treachery:

ETA- Government meeting

Government admitted the importance of a Basque political agreement

01/18/2007

The Basque armed group ETA and the Spanish Government talked during their last meeting in December about "a political agreement between the Basque parties" as a "key-solution" to unfreeze the peace talks, the Basque newspaper Gara assured today. The Spanish Government "promised not to block the negotiations between Basque political parties so that they could reach an agreement", informed the newspaper.

The newspaper assures that both manifested their desire to continue peace talks, but made clear that a political agreement between the Basque political parties would be fundamental.

According to Gara, both parts confirmed during the December meeting that the peace talks were freezing.

ETA's proposal

The Basque newspaper also assured that ETA presented to the Spanish Government a global proposal to develop the peace process when a political agreement would be reached to resolve the Basque conflict.

This proposal and the Spanish Government’s one should be analyzed by both, at least if the Spanish President didn’t put an end to the dialogue.

The meeting also treated the Basque-prisoners-issue. The Basque armed group asked, according to the newspaper, to respect the Basque prisoners' rights and to stop the use of exceptional measures. The group also asked the Government "to respect all the guarantees linked to the agreements that gave place to the cease-fire". They warned that "policial and judicial attacks" and the situation of Basque prisoner Iñaki de Juana Chaos (nowadays in hunger strike) could "blow up the process".

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Batasuna's Analysis

EITb has published a note about how Batasuna is assuming its responsability in the future of the Basque Peace Process. The political party also calls on the other parties to do the same. Finally, it decries the attempt by the PP to outlaw EHAK.

Here it is:

Batasuna's explanation

Leftwing nationalism's reflection, collective - Batasuna's Permach

01/18/2007

The Basque leftwing nationalist movement assumed part of its responsibility in an attempt to push the process following the Madrid airport attack, but rejected that all responsibility is on the movement, as Joseba Permach noted Thursday.

Permach assured that the reflection of leftwing nationalism is "collective" and criticised the attempts to "pass the buck" to the nationalist movement while all parties have to reflect on the matter. Likewise, he warned that trying to outlaw the Leftwing Nationalist group in the Basque Parliament is "an error."

In an appearance in Donostia-San Sebastian, Permach referred to the statements voiced by Batasuna spokesman Arnaldo Otegi and LAB union's secretary general Rafa Diez, to affirm that when leftwing nationalism voices a reflection, it's "collective" and not just "personal views."

The Batasuna leader noted that, following these statements, agents are trying to "dodge the issue" and "pass the buck" to leftwing nationalism event if what is necessary is a "collective" reflection by every political party.

Likewise, he denounced "the attempt to outlaw" the Leftwing Nationalist group in the Basque Parliament and denounced the "return" to conservative PP and socialist PSOE's policies to try to wipe out leftwing nationalism, saying it is a "big error" and does not work.

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Lessons From the Demonstrations

I hate to pat myself on the back but... what did I tell you?

While the Basque-phobes and the neocons drooled over the allegedly anti-ETA rallies in Euskal Herria, Spain and Catalunya I insisted that if Rodríguez Zapatero and his PSOE wanted to survive the next electoral process they needed to listen to the Spanish public.

And what was the Spanish public saying?

Yes to dialogue and yest to a peace process for the Basque Country.

So, after his confrontation last Monday at Congress with Über-fatxa Mariano Rajoy, Rodríguez is giving out signals that he knows how to read the pulse in the streets.

Check this out, it was published at the Boston Herald:

Spain’s prime minister says dialogue still an option to solve Basque conflict

AP
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

MADRID, Spain - Spain’s prime minister staunchly defended his policy of dialogue with the violent Basque separatist group ETA on Wednesday, even after a deadly New Year’s weekend car bomb that shattered his peace efforts and left him open to the harshest criticism of his term.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the government has an obligation to seek any avenue to end the four-decade-old conflict, in which 800 people have been killed. While arrests and recruitment problems have reduced ETA to no more than 20 active fighters and about 100 collaborators, the group’s ability to create havoc is still alive.

The bomb planted at Madrid’s international airport on Dec. 30 weighed more than 1,100 pounds, and police subsequently found and disabled two other bombs in the northern Basque country. The airport attack killed two people, and reduced a parking garage to rubble.
"Spaniards have a right to live in peace," Zapatero told a breakfast meeting with politicians, businessmen and journalists at Madrid’s Ritz Hotel. "The government has to make that right a reality by using the justice and security forces, and by exploring avenues for dialogue aimed at finding an end to the violence."
Zapatero’s stance has been highly criticized by the opposition Popular Party, which has accused him of being soft on terrorism and naively believing the word of killers.
The bombing has deepened a political divide that has existed in Spain since the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings by Islamic radicals. Zapatero’s Socialist Party won election just days after the attack, and the conservatives, now in the opposition, have yet to recover from the loss.
Zapatero called on the opposition to stop its combative stance and join the government, noting that when his party was out of power it always stood by the ruling party in its dealings with ETA.
"Anti-terrorism policy is the responsibility of the government," Zapatero said. "All the political parties must unite around the government. This issue should not be a political one. It is the struggle of life against death."
ETA wants to create a sovereign homeland in the Basque region that straddles the border between northern Spain and southern France.
While ETA is small in comparison to other militant groups like the Irish Republican Army, the issue is an extremely emotive one for Spain, which has been grappling with demands for greater autonomy by wealthy regions. Conservatives feel that if the government caves in to these demands, it would eventually lead to the breakup of the country.

One thing Mr. Rodriguez, not only the Spaniards deserve to live in peace, also the Basques, and the Catalonians, and the Galizans. For that, their right to self determination must be brought to the foreground of any future negotiation. And when justice is served, peace will be the natural outcome.

Hopefully this time around Rodríguez will give up his extensive use of state sponsored violence and will take decisive steps towards the viability of the peace process.

And hey, this article mentions something new, that the IRA was at one time way larger than ETA has ever been. You know why?

Among other things, because it counted with wide open support by the Irish American community.

Food for thought.

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González Iñarritu's Golden Globe

As you may know, the film "Babel" by Alejandro González Iñarritu won the Golden Globe to the best Drama Movie last night.

The film was not well received among US film critics because it demolishes the idea some have that the USA is the perfect democracy.

Ironically enough, the person in charge of presenting González Iñarritu with the award was no other than The Governator, the fascist immigrant by the name of Arnold Schwarzenneger, a mediocre actor who among other things, despises Mexican immigrants.

The note from Yahoo News relates how the director told Ahnul how much of a bigot the Austrian is:

Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu received the best picture award for "Babel" from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appeared on crutches to give the final prize of the night at the Beverly Hilton.

"I swear I have my papers in order governor, I swear," Inarritu quipped, a reference to his film, which touches on immigration issues between the United States and Mexico.

Wham!

Enter idiotic smile by Schwarzenegger.

The article tells us a bit more about the movie and the director:

The multi-lingual drama skillfully interweaves the stories of four families on three continents following the shooting of a US tourist in Morocco.

Inarritu, who has said inspiration for the film came from his experiences of living in America in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, said the film showed that cinema knew no boundaries.

"It seems that no matter how many languages you make a film in, I think the power of cinema is universal and at the end emotion doesn't need translation and that's the beauty of it," Inarritu said.

I know that by know you may be wondering what does this had to do with this page. Well, Gónzalez Iñarritu is Mexican of Basque background. And if that was not enough, the script was penned by Guillermo Arriaga, you guessed it, another Mexican of Basque background.

The Basque diaspora is leaving its mark.

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Misplaced Pride

Pernando Barrena, spokesman for banned Basque pro-independence party Batasuna, drinks water during a news conference in Pamplona January 16, 2007. Barrena said that the ruling Spanish Socialist Party were proud that they had done nothing during armed separatists ETA's 10-month old ceasefire. REUTERS/Vincent West (SPAIN)

I agree with Barrena, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero did absolutely nothing in behalf of the Peace Process.

Why?

The easy explanation is that he was too afraid to confront the members of the Francoist Partido Popular, too afraid to bring upon themselves the ire of the ultra conservatives that poison the political landscape in Spain, too careful about not losing too many votes in 2008.

The truth is, Rodríguez Zapatero and his correligionaries at the PSOE did not do anything to streghnten the Peace Process for their own dark motivations. Let us not forget which party created the GAL, a state sponsored terrorist group that kidnapped, tortured and murdered scores of Basque citizens during the government of Felipe González.

Rodríguez Zapatero wasted a great opportunity to break up with that past, instead, like a madman he tried to outdo what his predecessors did. From the moment ETA issued the ceasfire, Rodríguez stepped up the repression against the Basques. The Peace Process never ever started because the PSOE was unwilling to make its first move.

Spanish politicians have all the same weakness, they all cling to Spain glory days, back when the country was a colonialist power. Euskal Herria, Catalunya, Galiza and the Canary Islands along with Ceuta and Melilla are the last remnants of that allegedly great past, it is hard for them to let go of them.

Too bad this colonialist minded Spanish politicians count with the trecherous support of many others like them in Europe and around the world.

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Basque or Welsh?

Here you have some additonal information about a note that was published last year in which DNA studies point out at a Basque origin for the inhabitants of the Brittish islands.

This was published at icWales:

Basque-ing in Welsh DNA

Jan 16 2007

Western Mail

New DNA research claims we may have more in common with the English than we thought - we both descend from Basques. Perhaps that explains the swarthy Welsh looks, says Catherine Jones

LIKE a miner or a steelworker, many of the Welsh have got one of them somewhere in their family tree.

Yes, a picture of someone who has the dark eyes, hair and colouring of a "foreigner" - often causing the family to think there must have been some "exotic" influence way back when.

The Welsh sometimes seem easily categorised on a superficial level. You either have the dark, swarthy customers with near-black eyes or the pale- skinned, finer-boned lot with beautiful, startling blue eyes.

Pair the two together in a marriage and you can still get a brood with the curly dark locks, insolent dark eyes and chunky brown limbs of one of those spoilt Mediterranean fat kids you see running about piazzas in the evenings.

How many Welsh families like to have a bit of a joke about something "rum" in one of the parents' family trees?

How else to explain the fact their children turn "black" in a bit of sun and all get mistaken for French/Spanish/Italian depending on which country is the holiday destination of choice?

The more fun the family, the better the story they concoct to explain the beady black eyes staring out of a sepia family photo.

"Looks like a Portuguese sailor," say some, looking round at the modern-day mob with their pale eyes and skin, and wondering where the heck he came from. Or where they came from.

Perhaps one parent - usually fair-skinned - makes mischief with haughty references to "your father's family", as though it's awash with Romanian Gypsies who "came over" in wagons to flog pegs.

Or, if you hail from West Wales, there's the Spanish ships wrecked on Pembrey Sands routine.

If you come from Llanelli and you're dark of skin and eye, you've probably heard the one about the Italian ice cream parlour owners - and how your Great Aunty May got taunted at school for looking like a senorita.

But what is the truth of our origins? Over to Professor Stephen Oppenheimer of Oxford University, who says some 81% of the Welsh have DNA evidence which shows a common link to ancestors who came to Britain from northern Spain many thousands of years ago.

In fact, many Britons share a gene pool that can be traced back to Basque. Around three-quarters of the Welsh, Scots and English can be traced to those who arrived from the Basque country between 7,500 and 15,000 years ago.

Based on research into DNA studies across the UK and Ireland over the past 10 years, the professor's theory on British origins challenges mainstream historical views. And it might horrify those who like to think they are a distinct race apart from the English.

Most people in Scotland, Ireland and Wales were assumed to be descended from Celtic farming tribes who migrated here from central Europe up to 6,500 years ago. The English were thought to largely take their genetic line from the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the Dark Ages who supposedly wiped out the Celts in England.

Continues...

So, there you have it, one more reason to ensure that Europe's oldest indigenous culture does not get erased by the occupying neighbors.

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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.

~ ~ ~

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.

~ ~ ~

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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