Friday, October 27, 2017

1984

27th October 2017

Large countries made up of smaller countries are loathe to heed the voices of those annoying little sub-states squeaking from within their boxes that it's time to let them go now. America, which was once in such a box, and about which it currently has collective amnesia, is reporting very little about the situation in Spain with regard to Catalonia.  UK media, which is largely owned and operated out of London even when it pretends to be Scottish, is giving it short shrift. It wouldn't like to give those Scots north of Hadrian's wall any grist for their mill. History, of course, always sees these "uprisings" with the advantage of 20/20 vision. History is quite sure the fledgling USA was entirely within its rights to demand separation from the English Crown; no one suggests these days that India would have been better to stay under the British Raj.


Same goes for Ireland, with its economy now the fastest growing in the Eurozone. And so it goes with all the 6o countries that were once subsumed into the British Empire or the 33 into the Spanish Empire. They took back their nationhood, and not one of them has asked to get back in. History knows and recognises that the call of self-determination was and is a worthy cause, and so, too, does the UN Charter:
All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. 

So why is the United Nations and the European Union turning a blind eye to the travesty happening in Spain right now.
Catalonia is a wealthy region/ex-country that was taken into the kingdom of Spain in 1716 - nine years after Scotland fell under the British. In 1938, during the dictatorship of Franco, Spain overran Catalonia and dismantled its autonomy, trying to quash its culture and language. Sounds familiar.
So now the sins of the fathers are being visited upon the sons, and Spain is faced with Catalonia's democratic vote to go its own way.


George Orwell fought in the Catalonian resistance against Franco. Art is often the best voice of dissent when politics-as-usual threatens to undermine the voice of a people. On 1st October, when Catalans went to the polls to vote on this issue, Spain sent in its troops to disrupt the election. Now, today, after a declaration of independence, Spain is about to act thug and impose its own martial law. And the European bodies set up to settle such acts of brutality sit on their hands. From this small artist's corner, I lift up my voice in support of Catalonia and raise up my hands against Spain in dissent.

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