Hey y’all.
I don’t have any huge idea for an article today.
But do you remember last year when several immigrants burned alive inside their flat in Barceloneta?
Well, that’s happened again, or at least something similar.
Once again, it’s right up the street from me. About 10 people were living in an abandoned bank office in Plaza de Tetuán, about 6 blocks from my house. They’d paid an “okupa” mafia for the privilege. And the other day, the place burned down, killing a family of four. The rest escaped with minor burns.
Here’s a photo…
Not pictured, a small monument with flowers and things (apparently) made by the classmates of one of the kids who died, who was three.
Incidentally, nobody involved was Catalan, so the political class is completely ignoring the situation. Check this article for more. But basically, these stories confirm my basic suspicions about the quality of politicians in Catalonia.
Basically, if you’re not Catalan, you don’t count.
The big news recently, from the Parlament, is that they’re trying to block approval of the Spanish national budget in order to force Netflix and HBO to produce a percentage of programs in Catalan. I’m not joking. I wish I was. Here’s an article about that.
In other news, they’re making people present vaccination passports to go to bars, restaurants, gyms, etc, starting tomorrow. Yay, medical-themed fascism! Let’s wring every bit of authoritarianism we can out of the omicron variant.
And generally, let’s just say they’re doing nothing for regular (non-Catalan) people who are mostly struggling to pay their horrendously high rents and get by financially – and who happen to make up a huge but non-voting part of the population.
Over here on my side of town, nobody gives two shits whether there’s a bust of the King in City Hall or not. But that’s been one of the main priorities of the local government for years.
Obviously, my opinion doesn’t matter much. But in Madrid I was never made to feel like a second-class citizen. Maybe the Catalans could tone down their nationalist trolling (AKA right-wing racism disguised as “freedom fighting” that manages to fool the European left) and we could try to solve some actual problems that actual citizens have.
But I doubt they’d be into that idea.
Last I checked they were too busy raising their own salaries to do much governing.
Yours,
Mr Chorizo.
P.S. Yeah, in case you can’t tell, I’m not super chuffed about Catalan nationalist stuff. Basically, because it ignores the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of people here in Barcelona (and the rest of Catalonia) who just want to live their lives, and who are totally unrepresented. Anyway, here’s an article about last time they set my neighborhood on fire. And here’s a general strike back in the good old days. Have fun!
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