Posts aleatorios
Political post:
Let’s see, all this recent Estatut, som un nació, boycotting stuff. What’s really ridiculous is the sanctimonious posturing on both sides.
And one thing I’m sick of is this fantasy some people have of single-handedly being able to reverse the process of multiculturalism. Only a madman, for example, would deny that California is increasingly bilingual. This is the result of much needed immigrant labor which has been the backbone of that economy for the last century. In Catalonia the bilingual roots go much deeper. People speak and understand both Spanish and Catalan because people here are from all over Spain. Kind of obvious, unless you want to ignore it. Some of the offspring of these immigrants are called xarnegos (and although legitimate tax-paying citizens who have been living here for generations, they are looked upon disparagingly by the radical sectors in question). Xarnegos brought up here speak and understand both Spanish and Catalan. Some, naturally, prefer to speak Spanish.
That’s the cold reality of the situation. You cannot force catalanista politics on anyone, and if you do, people will come to detest you. Unfortunately, those Catalans with seny - who inspire me to want to speak Catalan - are lumped in with the independentistas who are pining for a violent schism that would legitimize their actions. Just check out the aesthetic of the JERC and their pals, do they think they're any better than other ultra-nationalist movements?
There’s great quote by Bukowski that everybody I know is probably sick of hearing me say: "Never trust a man with a well-groomed mustache." So true.
It’s also a curious observation that the ERC has its web only in Catalan. Even, gasp, the PP of Catalonia has a website in both Catalan and Castellano. The last time I checked those were the two languages spoken in Catalonia. ERC’s PR people must be drowning in their porrons, or they must love to exacerbate the situation by justifying all the right-wing attacks on them for being exclusive.
It’s a bit like having an argument with a pretentious schoolboy who throws a wall of bookish references at you - as if the fact that you haven’t been fortunate enough to have had the amount of spare time to read all the books they’ve had that that means your mental coefficient is lower than theirs. If the independentistas want to be respected, why not be on the level with everyone else and convince them with clear, reasonable arguments that everybody within - whether they like it or not - Spain, can understand? Why hide behind snide insults and political baiting? Why not rise above COPE, for example, and dish out intelligent non-condescending arguments that everybody can understand? Take a look at the forums and blogs in the ERC web world and it makes you realize some people just love to preach to choirs, as they say.
You enter a reasonable debate, and god forbid, you might have to moderate your stance to accommodate THE COLD HARSH REALITY. Forgive me for stating a truism, a banalidad, if you will, but you cannot reverse time.
At least this guy makes some sense.
Paranoid/sensationalist post:
We will all eat pigeons
We may be eating shwarmas de paloma in the very near future.
German scientists in a recent study have discovered that pigeons are incredibly resistant to all known strains of the H5N1 virus. After repeated exposure to the virus, the teutonic variants of the Columba livia just kept on pecking their little bird brains away. After more than two hundred years of exposure to filthy urban environments these little brutes are as resilient as you can get.
However, one Carme Camps, in a letter to the editor in La Vanguardia, is still frightened:
And the pigeons?
These days we read and feel the precautions that they are taking in our house in front of a possible arrival of migratory birds, carriers of the Avian bird flu. It’s a good thing the European Union shows a unity of sufficiently calming criteria that, for example, reminds us repeated physical contact is necessary with the infected birds to contract the disease. But, the pigeons. If these little beasts can transmit the disease, we should know which measures we ought to take when the Avian bird flu arrives. Pigeons cannot be shut in a farm and there exists physical contact between these animals and the people that feed them, that are, precisely, the presumably more feeble collectives: children and old people.
I els coloms?
CARME CAMPS - 21/02/2006
Aquests dies llegim i sentim les precaucions que es prenen a casa nostra davant la possible arribada d´aus migratòries portadores de la grip aviària. És bona cosa que la Unió Europea mostri una unitat de criteri força tranquil · litzadora i que, per exemple, se´ns recordi que és necessari un contacte físic repetit amb les aus infectades per contraure la malaltia. Però, i els coloms? Si aquestes bestioles poden transmetre la malaltia, cal que sapiguem quines mesures hem d´aplicar quan arribi la grip aviària. Els coloms no poden ser tancats en una granja i existeix contacte físic entre aquests animals i les persones que els alimenten, que són, precisament, els col · lectius presumiblement més febles: criatures i ancians.
Carme, you need not worry. Barcelona’s pigeons are astonishingly robust and brazen. Go to Puerto Olympico one day in the summer and watch how they launch onto the tables of distracted tourists and peck away with utmost impunity. Watch how old women fortify them with leftover pa amb tomàquet in Plaça Catalunya. Marvel at how strange men pet unfrightened pigeons in Plaça Universitat. This legion of Catalan pigeons (no doubt just as sturdy as their German counterparts) might come in handy if the Avian Flu gets out of hand and kills the much needed chicken stock.
And then there’s this news … yikes.
Episodic recapitulation post:
Today I woke up after having a dream about blogging. Not a good sign. I had a café amb llet while checking the internet. Scanned the news. Off to work and the metro stank of stale farts and dirty laundry. Got to work and boss walked by my desk just in time to see me come in late. SOS. Same jokes ripped off from popular TV shows. At the moment: Alejandro Sanz on coworker’s Itunes, trying to finish this post discreetly.
Agree with me post:
Guiris suck.
Comment samples:
I’m totally LOLing! ROFL BTW IMHO yer SO right!
Check this bizarre link out post:
Doom Generation burn-out goes psycho. It’s actually scary after the first 2 minutes.
The perpetual mirror of blogs post:
Check out this blog, which links to all these other awesome blogs. Vacillate in an endless quagmire of information!
Plug post:
My expat pal Pixelsniper is at it again. Check out the bear in San Francisco video. Strange.
Boring post:
I really don’t have anything else to write about today. Check back some other time. Adios. Deu. Bye.
Let’s see, all this recent Estatut, som un nació, boycotting stuff. What’s really ridiculous is the sanctimonious posturing on both sides.
And one thing I’m sick of is this fantasy some people have of single-handedly being able to reverse the process of multiculturalism. Only a madman, for example, would deny that California is increasingly bilingual. This is the result of much needed immigrant labor which has been the backbone of that economy for the last century. In Catalonia the bilingual roots go much deeper. People speak and understand both Spanish and Catalan because people here are from all over Spain. Kind of obvious, unless you want to ignore it. Some of the offspring of these immigrants are called xarnegos (and although legitimate tax-paying citizens who have been living here for generations, they are looked upon disparagingly by the radical sectors in question). Xarnegos brought up here speak and understand both Spanish and Catalan. Some, naturally, prefer to speak Spanish.
That’s the cold reality of the situation. You cannot force catalanista politics on anyone, and if you do, people will come to detest you. Unfortunately, those Catalans with seny - who inspire me to want to speak Catalan - are lumped in with the independentistas who are pining for a violent schism that would legitimize their actions. Just check out the aesthetic of the JERC and their pals, do they think they're any better than other ultra-nationalist movements?
There’s great quote by Bukowski that everybody I know is probably sick of hearing me say: "Never trust a man with a well-groomed mustache." So true.
It’s also a curious observation that the ERC has its web only in Catalan. Even, gasp, the PP of Catalonia has a website in both Catalan and Castellano. The last time I checked those were the two languages spoken in Catalonia. ERC’s PR people must be drowning in their porrons, or they must love to exacerbate the situation by justifying all the right-wing attacks on them for being exclusive.
It’s a bit like having an argument with a pretentious schoolboy who throws a wall of bookish references at you - as if the fact that you haven’t been fortunate enough to have had the amount of spare time to read all the books they’ve had that that means your mental coefficient is lower than theirs. If the independentistas want to be respected, why not be on the level with everyone else and convince them with clear, reasonable arguments that everybody within - whether they like it or not - Spain, can understand? Why hide behind snide insults and political baiting? Why not rise above COPE, for example, and dish out intelligent non-condescending arguments that everybody can understand? Take a look at the forums and blogs in the ERC web world and it makes you realize some people just love to preach to choirs, as they say.
You enter a reasonable debate, and god forbid, you might have to moderate your stance to accommodate THE COLD HARSH REALITY. Forgive me for stating a truism, a banalidad, if you will, but you cannot reverse time.
At least this guy makes some sense.
Paranoid/sensationalist post:
We will all eat pigeons
We may be eating shwarmas de paloma in the very near future.
German scientists in a recent study have discovered that pigeons are incredibly resistant to all known strains of the H5N1 virus. After repeated exposure to the virus, the teutonic variants of the Columba livia just kept on pecking their little bird brains away. After more than two hundred years of exposure to filthy urban environments these little brutes are as resilient as you can get.
However, one Carme Camps, in a letter to the editor in La Vanguardia, is still frightened:
And the pigeons?
These days we read and feel the precautions that they are taking in our house in front of a possible arrival of migratory birds, carriers of the Avian bird flu. It’s a good thing the European Union shows a unity of sufficiently calming criteria that, for example, reminds us repeated physical contact is necessary with the infected birds to contract the disease. But, the pigeons. If these little beasts can transmit the disease, we should know which measures we ought to take when the Avian bird flu arrives. Pigeons cannot be shut in a farm and there exists physical contact between these animals and the people that feed them, that are, precisely, the presumably more feeble collectives: children and old people.
I els coloms?
CARME CAMPS - 21/02/2006
Aquests dies llegim i sentim les precaucions que es prenen a casa nostra davant la possible arribada d´aus migratòries portadores de la grip aviària. És bona cosa que la Unió Europea mostri una unitat de criteri força tranquil · litzadora i que, per exemple, se´ns recordi que és necessari un contacte físic repetit amb les aus infectades per contraure la malaltia. Però, i els coloms? Si aquestes bestioles poden transmetre la malaltia, cal que sapiguem quines mesures hem d´aplicar quan arribi la grip aviària. Els coloms no poden ser tancats en una granja i existeix contacte físic entre aquests animals i les persones que els alimenten, que són, precisament, els col · lectius presumiblement més febles: criatures i ancians.
Carme, you need not worry. Barcelona’s pigeons are astonishingly robust and brazen. Go to Puerto Olympico one day in the summer and watch how they launch onto the tables of distracted tourists and peck away with utmost impunity. Watch how old women fortify them with leftover pa amb tomàquet in Plaça Catalunya. Marvel at how strange men pet unfrightened pigeons in Plaça Universitat. This legion of Catalan pigeons (no doubt just as sturdy as their German counterparts) might come in handy if the Avian Flu gets out of hand and kills the much needed chicken stock.
And then there’s this news … yikes.
Episodic recapitulation post:
Today I woke up after having a dream about blogging. Not a good sign. I had a café amb llet while checking the internet. Scanned the news. Off to work and the metro stank of stale farts and dirty laundry. Got to work and boss walked by my desk just in time to see me come in late. SOS. Same jokes ripped off from popular TV shows. At the moment: Alejandro Sanz on coworker’s Itunes, trying to finish this post discreetly.
Agree with me post:
Guiris suck.
Comment samples:
I’m totally LOLing! ROFL BTW IMHO yer SO right!
Check this bizarre link out post:
Doom Generation burn-out goes psycho. It’s actually scary after the first 2 minutes.
The perpetual mirror of blogs post:
Check out this blog, which links to all these other awesome blogs. Vacillate in an endless quagmire of information!
Plug post:
My expat pal Pixelsniper is at it again. Check out the bear in San Francisco video. Strange.
Boring post:
I really don’t have anything else to write about today. Check back some other time. Adios. Deu. Bye.
posted by Guirilandia at 6:27 AM
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