Sunday, February 17, 2008

Catalonia welcomes Kosovo's independence

Maybe Spain doesn't, but Catalan blogs do. Although most of them are written in Catalan, Kosovo appears often on our postings. Despite the Spanish Government, we bloggers want to declare: we recognize Kosovo! Of course we do! Catalonia is on its way to an own state. Maybe we'll have to wait a little more than Scotland, but sooner or later we'll get to it. This is why our eyes have been set on Kosovo.

Last december, we could read this on the blog Wirdheim in Vilanova: "In Spain, Kosovo’s coming independence will for sure re-ignite the debate about Catalonia’s future status. There might exist a silent minority againt independence, as some politicians claim, but I am not sure any longer. What I do know, however, is that compared with former Yugoslavia on the one hand, and Basque Country ETA’s violent separatism, on the other, Catalans can pride themselves for peaceful and democratic methods. Visca Catalunya!"

Or read also these items: http://news.trendaz.com/index.shtml?show=news&newsid=1138077&lang=EN
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/02/20/spanish-reactions-to-kosovos-independence/
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1202871721.71
http://txikilike.blogspot.com/
http://int-relations.blogspot.com/2007/11/kosovo-sets-precedent-for-other.html
http://xeniakerimova.blogspot.com/2008/02/when-deepest-of-spains-fears-emerges.html
http://arestanord.org/lord/

3 comments:

m@ said...

Hi, I'm Italian.. I would like to understand why Catalunya claims to be an independent state nowadays... I mean... we are going through an European unification... why it so difficult for you beeing part of Spain and then Europe? I don't really understand...

Xavier Mir said...

Europe is formed by states. However united they want to be, no state will give all of its souverainity to EU. Europe is our meeting point, but every one has their own personality. Spain does not leave place to any other nation. They want us to be spanish, in the linguistic and cultural sense.
We cannot speak our language in Spanish parliament!!

Europe will only recognize our nation if Spain does; and Spain does not want to. So, we need an own state.

Even the economic model they have is centralised in Madrid, which is where they invest.

I encourage you to read more about Catalan society, language, culture and history.

Thanks for your comment.

m@ said...

I'm very curious about the catalan situation... and about the language too... but the things I dont agree with is the fact you talk about beeing spanish as a bad thing.
In Italy we have several kind of languages which we like to define dialects.. because we accepted to recognize Italian as the only national language.
If you go around our regions you will hear several of these dialects but when we speak with people from abroad we always use only Italian.
When I was in Barna instead I noticed that many people were keener on excluding Castellano even when talking with tourists. I think this is not a gentle attitude because people from all around the world expect to be in Spain, indeed to hear people speaking Spanish ( Castellano ). I would easily understand your point if Catalunya was recently conquered by Spain and forced to be part of it... but Spain as we know it, it is this way since many years before our country was even formed!!! You should have built a common sense of nationalism during this years...
About the parlament... well since people in parlament have to understand each other I think using the national language is the right thing. In our parlament people don't speak Lombardo or Napoletano or anything else... just Italian!

I'm sorry if I sound too much ignorant on the topic.. I'm just trying to figure out what is the feeling of Catalan and Spanish people since I love Spain and I'm going to settle down there for studying.
( I had to choose Madrid instead of Barcelona because they told me I would have to learn 2 languages instead of one cause lessons are in one language rather than another depending on the professor.. and studying engineering is yet complicated in native language... )

If Catalans separate today... Valencians will be next? Are we going to get a bunch of little independent states?