martes, 26 de septiembre de 2017

En mi humilde y acertada opinión...: What's going on in Catalonia (Catalunya, Cataluña) / Spain?

En mi humilde y acertada opinión...: What's going on in Catalonia (Catalunya, Cataluña) / Spain?

miércoles, 5 de julio de 2017

What's going on in Catalonia (Catalunya, Cataluña) / Spain?

This post advocates freedom for Catalonian Citizens.
.


Fact: Spain is one of the oldest countries in Europe. The region of Catalonia has been part of Spain (Hispania, Spania,...) for 2,000 years, in different forms, and has been part of modern Spain since 1714. Catalonia was not a Kingdom and the most recent and relevant kingdom they belonged to (many Centuries ago) was the Kingdom of Aragón, which is another Spanish region.
.
Fact: Catalonia has had significant and increasing autonomy since the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 and the re-instatement of democracy. Their degree of autonomy meets and in many aspects exceeds that of Landers in Germany and States in the U.S.
.
Fact: This autonomy and constant transfer of competencies has been used by Catalonian Separatists to contravene the spirit of the 1979 Spanish Constitution; the Separatist true intentions seeked to replicate Central Government functions, thus creating a country within a country, facilitating independence from the administrative front. All this, at the expense of Spanish taxpayers.
.
Recent History: Separatist politicians have used the transfer of competencies, funds and power for their true intentions: Indoctrinate, brainwash, re-invent/write history, eliminate Spanish language (well over 500 million speakers) and only allow Catalonian (7 million speakers?), persecute anything related to Spain, and a long list of authoritarian, totalitarian and fascist tactics. Their schools teach a deviated form of history, limited to Catalonia and applying great imagination to invent a past that would somehow sustain their demands for a country of their own.
.

Stating the obvious: Lesson 1 of this tactic has been to create an enemy. "Spain robs us" is something that the separatists like to say. They seem to forget that their "Abraham Lincoln", namely Jordi Pujol, their first Regional President when democracy was re-instated in Spain, turned out to be the greatest of  thieves, robbing millions from all Spanish taxpayers for decades. A minimum of 3% of all public works was charged as a commission for the pockets of the Catalonian Separatist politicians. Not to say the millions spent on enforcing Catalonian language, persecuting anything that could remotely seem Spanish, opening Catalonia "embassies",... why worry about unemployment, people losing their homes, meal assistance, paying the regions debts, healthcare, improving transport and communication, and the likes? But he is only one of the many thieves.
.
More on corruption: this has been a great problem during the recent economic buoyant years in Spain and fortunately the corrupt politicians are being brought to justice. Catalonia has the highest number of corrupt politicians (303), DOUBLING the second region, Andalucía, and even though the later has a greater population. Madrid, the country's capital, central government and where there is most political activity, is just under half that figure.
.
On we go: Pujol's successor was Artur Mas. He regained power for the party a few years after and was the son of a rich and corrupt entrepreneur with contacts in the Catalonian Government, sentenced for lying regarding family accounts in tax havens... Luckily for Artur Más, Minister of Economy for Catalonia at the time, the offense had prescribed. Saved by the bell. Just before the Pujol, Mas and other scandals came out, separatists oddly pushed hard for independence; they could not afford a judicial system that was not under their control.
.
And more: Perhaps we will write more about Artur in the future: his failure in the private sector, his privileged life and education, and the constant corruption scandals through-out his political life and those close to him. Suffice it to say he was responsible for Public Works and the Ministry of Economy during the period that the President Jordi Pujol was provenly cashing in 3% of public contracts and works, for himself and his family...
.

Fact: Fact has it that Separatists have spent millions and many years attempting to brain-wash their people and silencing the majority. As occurred in pre WWII Germany, they promote a culture of hate to others (the Spanish, in this case),  they promote the "we are better", the "Aryan" Race and silence the rest.
.

Fact: You will see many Separatist flags on buildings in Catalonia, and yet NO Spanish flags. Does it mean 0% of Catalonians do not feel Spanish? No. In the last consultation, the majority of Catalonians did not vote for independence. It simply means that hanging a Spanish flag out your window will get you "in trouble",... we really can't say what "in trouble" means, because you will not see those flags... You will find examples of the violence of the Separatist Movement on Youtube: verbal abuse and physical violence on children, teenage girls, politicians, etc. I dare anyone questioning this violence to wear a Spanish National Soccer Team t-shirt and walk the streets for a while. Today, the citizens of Catalonia are not free to express their views.
.

EU: Catalonia has been a beautiful and great part of Spain for Centuries. A single country benefits all. Or even in the impossible scenario in which they joined the EU, do they think 8 million Catalonians will have greater influence (and votes) than 48 million Spaniards? Who will defend their interests affront the other EU countries?
.

Reality: The Separatist Government has purposefully dilapidated Spanish taxpayer Euros in an attempt to "prove" their point, which is basically that by not contributing to the Spanish central solidarity fund, they will be better off. They deny the benefits of belonging to Spain, with a domestic population 500% larger than their own and greater influence in the world, and that it largely outweighs the benefit of not contributing to the central solidarity fund. As an example, Catalonia exports more to a single adjacent region (Aragón), which is merely one of the 17 Spanish regions, than they do to France.
.

Thankfully, most Catalonians feel Spanish and their region, culture and people are admired by the rest of their country.
.

The future: Politicians must finish this endless transfer of government competencies to Catalonia, which has only resulted in redundancy, where separatists focus on creating a country within a country, instead of addressing the many needs of the people they represent.