ViToBlog » reflections

Second-Class citizens

ViTo — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 07:31:10 +0000

Even though I am living far away from Spain, it has recently come to my attention the controversy generated due to a TV documental broadcasted by a Madrid station. The topic is a recurring one: the coexistence of Spanish and Catalan in Catalonia (the north east region of Spain). Its title is Second-Class citizens.

Unfortunately, it is only available in Spanish, but in case you wanna watch it anyway, here’s the full 45 minutes documentary:

Click here to view the embedded video.

After living for 24 years in Barcelona, I would say I have a pretty good sense about the day to day reality, and it has nothing to do with the constant conflict situation described on that show. However, if I lived in Madrid and saw something like that, I couldn’t do much but pretty much dislike (¿hate?) Catalan: the language and the people as well.

Although I have a clear position on the topic, I don’t want to express my personal feelings on it; independently from who’s right (in case somebody is), let me just say at least, I find it highly disturbing that a public station broadcasts a show aiming to cultivate conflict feelings, specially on a region where many struggles took place during recent history exactly for this reason …

All about the money?

ViTo — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 21:13:44 +0000

I always had the impression that America was a land of opportunities, yet at the same time when somebody makes an error he has to present himself in front of justice regardless of who he is and the consequences this may carry. Let me assure you this doesn’t happen in Spain. The powerful will bend the rules accordingly to their interests and justice ends up being a joke in many occasions. Maybe is why big trials against large corporations such as Tobacco companies only occur in the States.

Is it really possible to slip in a McDonalds, sue them for millions and win for not having a Wet Floor sign? Whose fault is it really? At what point does common sense stop being common and can be considered other people’s errors. Maybe slipping is just a matter of bad luck: being in the wrong place at the wrong time; yet if this were true all of us should be affected equally, right? From what I’ve seen these problems always tend to occur to the same people (or at least this never happened to me).

I don’t mean to be harsh, but all these reflections came to my mind when I was in UCI and decided to go to a public bathroom. To my surprise I saw the following sign:

Whether it is reclaimed water or not, who the hell drinks water from the toilette!? Are people in America that stupid? Or is UCI just covering its ass?

But at this point why stop there? There are many things that could be said…
Walk with your eyes open, breath every few seconds, etc.
I think there are several differences between our cultures which I’ll never be able to overcome .

Are we european?

ViTo — Sat, 06 May 2006 22:24:33 +0000

Yes, indeed we are! And don’t you dare say the opposite. That’s what most people in Spain will answer. It is quite clear that geographically Spain belongs to Europe. We are members of the European Union, we share the euro common currency and we have the world’s 9th largest GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Being in such a developed region is quite a privilege, yet we still manage to be known for other aspects: our warm weather, the quality of our beaches or our relaxed and party prone mentality. It may seem fantastic being able to combine economic and cultural growth while keeping a traditional approach to life. How do we manage to do that? Or don’t we?

According to Transparency International which yearly elaborates a corruption perception index, out of our 11 common currency european neighbours only 3 of them have more corruption than we do (Portugal, Greece and Italy). Wait, isn’t there common pattern? Aren’t these the countries which enjoy a warmer weather? the typical Mediterranean way of life countries? Is corruption really a problem or am I being an alarmist?

Let me focus on Spain whose situation I am more familiar with. Lately, the attention has been drawn to Marbella, a small 120,000 inhabitants touristic city situated in the beach reasort of the Costa del Sol. A police operation known as Operación Malaya took place: Most city hall members were arrested including the mayor Marisol Yagüe and some of her most immediate collaborators. In Spain, it was a known fact something funny was going on, yet it couldn’t be proved until last month. 25 people were arrested and goods worth more than 2.400 million euro were confiscated, including great art, pure breed horses, great value weapons, significant cash amounts, luxury vehicles and an helicopter. That makes almost 100 million apiece. Unbelievable!

A punctual situation? That’s just the tip of the iceberg…
In a different case, the recording of a phone conversation between a councillor of Orihuela and a businessman was made public. They were talking about how to distribute about 2 million euro of public funds between them and some friends. Let me quote some parts:

AF: You’ve got the key. They have to reach an agreement with you, whoever they are…

JF: That’s what this is about and you know it. I don’t want to be mayor, it sucks. What I want is meddle from behind. (…) He (refering to the mayor) could have been the happiest man on Earth having me meddling from behind, that’s what I’ve always enjoyed. Giving speeches sucks.

AF: Just wait until I hear something. If I see any fissures we’ll talk and see how to make things work.

JF: If I see any fissures I’ll tell you too (…) We can earn several millions with a 3 million square meter PAU. Just make the calculations (…) it results in about 180 million euro, which is what those sons of bitches are earning.

Due to its nature, this recording is not enough to convict them, yet it caused a notorious scandal in the small city and several demonstrations took place. At the present day, more than one month later the situation hasn’t returned to normal. Nobody resigned.

As a final note, let me mention a funny fact. According to the Central Bank of Spain in our country there are around 27% of all 500€ notes from the eurozone. If equally distributed, the amount should only be around 10%. This means there are more 500€ than 5€ notes in Spain. These notes are highly associated with informal economy, that is why at this point this data shouldn’t surprise us.

In case you were wondering, now you know how ¿some? spanish politicians behave: they like to meddle from behind… Now, let me ask again: are we european?

The greater good?

ViTo — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:22:59 +0000

1:00 AM The planned experiment is started and control bars are inserted. The operator forgets to reprogram the computer. The power which should stay between 700-1000 MW descends to only 30 MW.
1:02 AM In order to rise power again control bars are completely removed. It is too late.
1.03 AM This abnormal situation triggers the alarms which the operator manually disables.
1.22 AM The computer indicates a radioactivity excess. Operators decide to finish the experiment anyway.
1.23 AM The system is extremely unstable: working without control bars and with the alarms disabled. An explosion occurs which destroys the concrete retaining walls.

The core of the reactor is exposed. Nuclear fuel is thrown outside the reactor and radioactiviy expands through the atmosphere. The quantity of radioctive material exposed is 200 times bigger than the amount in Hiroshima or Nagasaki’s bombs. It is considered the worst nuclear accident of the history and it was caused by a human error. This is what happened the 26th of April 1986, exactly 20 years ago in Chernobyl.

The first reaction from the Russian authorities was to hide the event! It was only admitted a reactor had exploded when presented with irrefutable evidences. The first russian media report of the accident appeared 2 days later and was the 4th item in the news bulletin. What is even worse, the decision to evacuate the zone with cities only 14 km away from the plant, was made on May 2nd, 6 days later. At that moment, radiation nearby Kiev had risen 100 times above the safe levels. About 116,000 people were relocated, and according to estimations 5 million people were exposed to radiation. Estimated recovery time: 130 years.

Chernobyl remains a virtual ghost town and it has been said this is the one place where you could understand how the world would be after a nuclear war. Terrible… or not?

As humans abandoned the area animals moved in. In spite of the radiation, existing populations multiplied and some species not seen in decades returned: Lynxs, owls and even a bear (not present in Ukraine for centuries). It seems wildlife defies radiation: birds nest inside the sarcophagus (the concrete shield built around the reactor). Obviously, they are negatively affected by it: Many of them died or simply stopped reproducing, yet the next generations have been found to be suprisingly normal. These creatures adapt to their environment: a mutant animal in the wild will die fast, and only the best ones will remain. The natural selection process is boosted.

There may be plutonium in the zone, but all other negative human influences have disappeared: there is no herbicide or pesticide, no industry, no traffic, marshlands are no longer drained, etc. To wildlife, the benefits of removing people from the zone, have far outweighed any harm from radiation.

Spain, a good place to live?

ViTo — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 22:05:01 +0000

Almost all the spanish people I’ve met since I am living in Germany, come to terms with leaving temporarily their country, but I haven’t met anybody yet who declares he/she wants to live in Germany indefinitely. Most accept the fact that the Erasmus experience has a due date and quickly return home. I guess the fact that on a monday 10th of April it snows non-stop during the whole moring has something to do with it. Others, trying to maximize our chances do not discard any option and accept the option of living in a foreign country for a longer period of time. Maybe 4, 5 or 6 years, but we still want to go back to our native land eventually. Why does that happen? Is life better in Spain? Actually, yesterday a yearly study which ranks world cities according to their quality of life was published by HR Mercer consulting. The first two spanish cities, as you may have guessed, are Barcelona and Madrid in the positions 44 and 45 respectively! Having read up to this point, you can imagine how suprised I was by these results. I have never seriously thought what rank Barcelona should have, yet I am quite confident it should be higher than the 44th. HR Mercer mentions terrorism as one of the issues not resolved in Spain which drags both cities significatively down. The truth is after living in Barcelona for 24 years I never had any fear / concern about this matter. Yet, I understand this is a serious issue which has to be considered. Here are the results of the study.

Seven out of the top ten cities are european (3 swiss, 3 german and 1 austrian). At the top of the list there are 2 swiss metropolis: Zürich and Genève which repeat their last year’s rank. I never had the pleasure of visiting Switzerland, so I cannot question the results, yet being a country so small and having 3 cities in the top ten, the wealth must be really high. Germany also has 3 cities in the top ten, and one of them: München, I have visited several times besides having some friends living there. I am not implying their wealth is not higher than ours (in fact it is, and much higher), yet I can’t help but wonder if that is the most important aspect. As you may already know, besides spending summer after summer in our cities and beaches there are many germans whom once retired buy a property in Spain and start to live there. I see the opposite situation quite unlikely.

Then, where do you think people really live better?

German Logic?

ViTo — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 22:01:05 +0000

I have been living in Germany for more than a year, and I think I already got used to the cultural differences between Spain and Germany. It is true that usually generalizations cannot be made, and that is why stereotypes are usually wrong, yet somehow there is always a part of truth in them…
I guess you all know that in buildings where there is a significant amount of people (hotels, residences, etc.) it is mandatory to have some kind of charts / maps showing the emergency exits, the location of fire extinguishers and other devices which may be necessary in case of fire. My building has 4 floors and I would say we are around 60 people living in it. That is why recently some of this maps have been installed. As you can see, it is the typical chart, it could even be said it is quite well done (germans use to do things properly).
If you pay attention to the enlargement you will see the fire extinguisher and the exit clearly shown. As it should be in order to be easily spotted in case of extreme emergency. This is where my concerns begin. The map shows the fire extinguisher quite close to the orange dot (where we are standing). The same thing occurs with the building exit (there is only a single exit, emergency or not).

The fire extinguisher is located less than 30 cm away from the map and again the same thing happens with the emergency exit being less than 1 meter away. It is completely useless! Who would waste time by looking at this map? (besides me, of course!). I guess now you get what I meant: This is how most germans are. If it should be done, you do it, even though it is completely pointless.

The Madrid Club

ViTo — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 19:03:22 +0000

Last night we went to a spanish club for Madrid supporters to watch the Barça-Madrid football match. I find it somehow curious, because, although being in Stuttgart’s downtown it is a spanish bar. Yesterday, the place was packed due to the special event, yet if you go there during the week you will find around 10-12 retired spaniards playing cards exactly as they would in any small town spanish bar. It seems to me as if they brought a little piece from Spain to Stuttgart.
These are people who came to Germany during the sixties looking for a job and a better life. Obviously, after being abroad for more than 40 years they all speak german perfectly, yet they haven’t forgotten a bit of their native spanish. When you arrive to a new country, finding places like this is quite comforting cause it reminds you of your own country and makes you feel like home. I can’t help wondering if that is exactly what the arab immigrants coming to Spain are doing.

I guess I am not objective in this matter, yet I feel this is a different situation. I think the spaniards fully integrated in the german society while keeping some traits of their own culture. In fact, this is what I find logical, and this is a common situation in Germany where there is a significative percentage of turkish population.

Population in 2002:

German 75,060,000

Turkish 2,110,000

They have their peculiarities and can be easily identified, yet even between them they all speak german, which proves their full integration. On the other hand, there is a feeling of discomfort with the growing ammount of immigration in Spain. What is the problem?

Are they too many?
Don’t they want to adapt?
Are they not welcome?
Is Spain different to other countries?

Too many questions and few answers. By the way, the match ended in a 1-1 draw.