Personal: Catalunya's situation

Hello there!

So, yes, I missed yesterday... But I didn’t wanted to post something that I wasn’t going to like or that you weren’t going to enjoy so I decided to give myself a free day to think well about the next posts.

Next week will be quite an exciting one so stay tuned for the posts that are coming with it!

Today I’m coming with a reflexive post: Catalunya’s stituation.

Image of today's demonstration 

I’m from Barcelona and if you have seen the news not so long ago you’ll know about the current situation in Catalunya. Our ex-president is exiled in other European countries (and was actually in a German prison just a week ago) while he’s running from Spanish jurisdiction, members of the Catalonian parliament are passing their days in prison because they were pro-independence, police mans come to demonstrations to hurt the protesters and they even try to inculpate citizens that participate in the demonstrations as violent people... And I could go on.

Why I’m talking about it today is because there was a demonstration in Barcelona to protest for the political figures that the Spanish government decided to put in jail because they wanted to make Catalunya independent. Just clarifying, the constitution has no article that says that it’s banned celebrating a referendum. Also, just so you know, the Constitution we’re following now a days was written back in 1972. We are in 2018. I think that it’s more than obvious that it is completely off dated and that a lot of articles might not make any sense now.

I’m hurt. As a Catalan citizen I’m hurt that there’s this image promoted from the Spanish government of hate towards Catalans and Catalan culture. They want to make us look like racists that hate Spaniards and everything that has to do with Spain, they want to make Spain believe that we educate children in this direction in our schools, they want to believe that we won’t even speak Spanish because that’s our level of disgust towards Spanish culture.

I just want to make very clear, that’s just the image they want to create. It wouldn’t be the first time that people from other Spanish cities come to Catalunya and they say «You speak Spanish so well», «They were always so kind to me», «I didn’t have any problem communicating myself», «I never felt insulted or harassed by Catalans». My parents are not Catalan but they already feel like one. They’ve been living in Barcelona the past thirty years and they never had a problem of any kind. People from the outside believe some of these stereotypes the government sells and the truth is that the government say this things while they’re covering up their corruption.

Our president has more than 400 cases that are being judged in this moment regarding misappropriation of public funds, money directed to tax-heavens and many other corruption related issues. Not to talk about the people that has around him that are also involved in this cases and they’ve insulted other regions of Spain publicly without hesitation.

Why do we live in a moment plenty of hate? And why do we allow such horrendous things happen right in front of our noses?

I don’t understand why we need to create more barriers insulting, devaluing and marginalizing our fellow compatriots. And not just compatriots, anyone that wants to step into our country.

We’ve passed through a lot of stages of hate and every time we make a step forward we are taking three more back in another aspect. How can we say that we’re building a path towards freedom of speech when in the votation of October 1st in Catalunya people were hurt severely by national police mans just because they wanted to participate? How can we say we are a united nation when the only way to have it is by putting in jail every person that doesn’t agree with the central government opinion?

Image of the October 1st Votation.

National police man assaulting a voter.

Times change and we must change with them. We sometimes think that we must conform ourselves with what we have, that it’s better to shut up, nod and not get involved; that doesn’t bring us anywhere.

Equal marriage wouldn’t have happened if people didn’t go out to the street and claimed for their rights, females wouldn’t be able to work, vote or have a minimum freedom if they didn’t raised their voices, people would still be working locked in a factory for sixteen hours straight if they didn’t shouted «stop» years ago. And there’s still so much to do in this aspects!

I’m not saying that it’s all fully solved, but we can make a difference by expressing ourselves without harming others. The words are more powerful than what we might think and today my city showed it. I’m moved and I’m not going to lie, also a bit scared, because the future is uncertain and it feels like a major throwback every time I see how the news announce that, for example, a rapper has been put in prison for three years for making a song about the current king of Spain (that, by the way, no one ever chose or wanted) but an abusive husband that killed her wife will be able to get out of prison after eight months of preventive prison because «she provoked the situation».

That being said, this is why we need to speak, we need to want to make a change. Changing for better brings us to a new stage of evolution and makes us move forward and learn from the past mistakes.

I hope you understood a bit of how I feel with the current situation in my country and if you’re ever interested in me talking about any other current situation you might be interested in hearing of, let me know down below because sometimes I feel like it’s fantastic being able to give an opinion and open a peaceful and respectful debate.

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday evening and I’ll see you tomorrow! (this time for real ;) )

Love,

Muriel