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Posted 13:55 by John

Libertad Digital posted this thing I wrote for them just for fun. It's an excellent list of great Internet radio stations, if I say so myself. Also try "Cool Blue" and "Bluegrass Country".

El invento más grande de nuestras vidas
por John Chappell

Cualquier cosa que puedas imaginar se puede hacer por Internet, te lo juro. Si lo que te gusta es ver fotos de travestidos bajo tratamiento hormonal, te aseguro que están, y gratis. (Una pista: googlea Carmen de Mairena.) Ya que a mí no me va eso, paso bastante tiempo escuchando música a través de la radio por Internet.

No, no es exactamente la radio, lo estás recibiendo por cable o wifi, pero puedes escuchar a través de tu ordenador la programación de literalmente docenas de miles de emisoras de todo el mundo, anuncios incluidos. Para los que quieren mejorar su inglés (o cualquier otra lengua), no hay nada mejor que escuchar las radios que emiten en ese idioma.

Asegúrate de que tienes los altavoces del ordenador encendidos y el volumen a un nivel moderado. Entonces, ya sólo te queda hacer clic sobre el botón en el que ponga "Listen Here" o "Listen Live" o algo por el estilo. Y ya está, empezará a sonar una señal de radio que está siendo emitida en ese mismo momento en el otro lado del mundo.

A mí, siendo useño (una palabra nueva y útil de Pío Moa), lo que más me interesa es por supuesto la música de mi país, y las únicas emisoras que he escogido en este artículo son useñas. Hay, también, emisoras de muchas otros países que son muy interesantes, como las dominicanas que ponen salsa y merengue, las mexicanas que ponen rancheros y norteños, las argelinas con su musica raï, las jamaicanas, las brasileñas, y las del Cabo Verde. Hay que escuchar la música que hacen allí si te gusta lo afrolatino. Y, además, si quieres, hay música popular de Irán, India, Vietnam, y casi todos los demás países del mundo. Búscala por Google y la encontrarás.

Dicho esto, hay muchos que creen que la mejor emisora de radio del mundo es WWOZ en Nueva Orleans, que pone jazz y blues 24 horas el día. Es una radio sin ánimo de lucro, que recibe apoyos voluntarios de sus oyentes, y por eso puede poner lo que quiera sin que sea necesariamente un éxito comercial. Otra muy buena emisora de jazz es KCSM en California. Y si te gusta lo de Luisiana, escucha a KBON de Lafayette, "Louisiana Proud," que a veces emite en francés, y pone una mezcla entrañable de Cajun, country, blues, y lo que llaman "swamp pop."

Los amantes de la música soul y funk tienen WILV (wilv.fm) en Chicago, una emisora profesional que se llama "Love FM." Los que prefieren la rhythm and blues no se deben perder WJLD en Birmingham, Alabama. Estas dos emisoras tienen una audiencia básicamente afroamericana

En Estados Unidos la "radio pública" (National Public Radio, NPR) recibe algunos apoyos del gobierno y otros de sus oyentes. Su programación es interesantísima, aunque izquierdista bienpensante cuando trata de las noticias y los temas sociales. Las emisoras de la cadena frecuentemente tienen alguna conexión con la universidad local, y cuando no emiten la programación nacional suelen poner música. Dos de las radios públicas mas interesantes son KCMP, que programa rock alternativo, y KUT en Austin, Texas, que pone country-rock.

Yo, personalmente, soy un fan del country, y mi emisora preferida es KHYI en Dallas, Texas. Lo bueno de esta emisora es que los pinchadiscos no ponen a Kenny Rogers ni a John Denver, sino a Johnny Cash y Merle Haggard, a Dale Watson y Junior Brown, y tienen un sentido del humor muy, pero que muy, useña. (Cuando España y Portugal firmaron el acuerdo de los Azores con Bush y Blair, los pinchadiscos se emocionaron tanto que sugirieron a sus oyentes que fuesen al supermercado y comprasen aceitunas y vino de la península ibérica, puesto que no podían pensar en ningún otro producto español allí en medio de Texas.) KHYI es una emisora comercial y muy profesional, y los anuncios a veces son tan buenos como las canciones. KNBT en New Braunfels, Texas, es semejante, el estilo de su música es lo que llamamos "western swing," para distinguirlo de la "bluegrass," más propia de los Apalaches. La legendaria WDVX en Knoxville, Tennessee, es el máximo exponente de la corriente apalache del bluegrass y el folk. Y, para una experiencia absolutamente no profesional, escucha WDVR en Nueva Jersey, otra emisora sin ánimo de lucro. Nunca sabes lo que vas a oír, o folk o Celtic o country o incluso rap, pero sabes que el pinchadiscos (todos son voluntarios) será un enamorado de la música que escoge.

Posted 13:16 by John

There have been a couple of comments in favor of boycotting Spain and Old Europe. I must respectfully disagree. Remember, a boycott hurts the good people as well as the ones you don't like. If I may express my personal prejudices a minute about different bunches of Spaniards:

Political:

PP voters: You'll like 90% of them. Salt of the earth. 10% are way-out right-wing nuts, often super-Catholic.
CiU voters: At least 50% are wonderful folks. Half of the rest are almost as wonderful, but they're hung up on the Catalan thing. The other half of the rest are nuts, either far-out Catalanistas or wackjob Catholics.
PSOE voters: Half of them are pretty reasonable most of the time. The other half are either poorly-educated bigots or nuts.
Abstainers: Mostly working-class and not particularly interesting.
Others: Mostly nuts. Some PNV voters aren't too bad, but they're all Basque-wacky.

Social:

Urban white-collar: Generally reasonable and interesting folks, well-educated and cultured. 20% are political idiots.
Urban civil servants: Generally nuts. 20% of them are not political idiots.
Urban small business: Varies. Some are the most incredible people you've ever met. Some are the biggest assholes you can imagine. Most, of course, are somewhere in between.
Urban intelligentsia: As a rule idiots. And boring. To be avoided. Teachers are the worst.
Rural people: I love them.
Urban blue-collar: Friendly and open, and often good-hearted, but many are pretty much dopes. 20% aren't.
Underclass: Like underclass anywhere. Avoid them.
Immigrants: Wonderful people except for the Moroccan street kids and the Rumanian gypsies.

See? At least 40% of Spaniards are people you'd like to meet. And, of course, if you choose to deprive yourself of the riches of the Prado, the Alhambra, the Escorial, the Sagrada Familia, and Spain's other historical and cultural heights, you're only hurting yourself.

Posted 22:09 by John

Here's something I wrote that Libertad Digital posted Monday. Thanks again to Fernando for the editing.

La política del barril de cerdo

Una de las expresiones más antiguas de la jerga política estadounidense alude a la costumbre de los políticos a tratar de satisfacer los deseos de sus votantes. El deseo más cercano a la cuenta corriente del votante suele ser también el deseo más cercano a su corazón, y por eso los varios candidatos al Senado y a la Cámara de Representantes prometen mucha inversión gubernamental en su estado o su distrito. Los que cumplen sus promesas frecuentemente son reelegidos.

Esto, despectivamente, se llama "la política del barril de cerdo." Supuestamente, en el siglo XIX, la típica promesa de un candidato de poca monta sería un barril de carne de cerdo ahumada gratis para cada votante si salía elegido. Entre los practicantes actuales más famosos y asiduos de este peculiar modo de hacer política es el líder demócrata en el Senado, el ex-jefe del Ku Klux Klan Robert Byrd, quizás más conocido por los visitantes de Virginia Occidental por el hecho de que cada autopista, oficina de correos, juzgado, y puente lleva su nombre. Incluso John Kerry, todavía senador de Massachusetts y pacifista notorio, salió hace unos días en los periódicos por exigir que una base militar en su estado, que el Pentágono quiere cerrar por inútil, se quede operativa. Los republicanos, por supuesto, le acusaron de practicar lo del barril de cerdo.

Esto del plan Maragall sobre la financiación catalana me huele a beicon. Si entiendo bien, Maragall quiere reservar un cierto porcentaje de los impuestos recaudados por el gobierno central dentro de la región autónoma de Cataluña. O sea, Maragall quiere un mínimo garantizado del reparto del barril de cerdo para Cataluña. Está muy bien, forma parte de la gran tradición democrática, pero conviene llamarlo por su nombre.

La respuesta cínica de un político experimentado norteamericano a los disparates maragallianos sería algo así: "Mira, hombre, si tus parlamentarios no pueden sacar suficiente cerdo para que tus votantes estén contentos, quizás dichos votantes estarían más felices con otro partido y te lo dirán en las próximas elecciones. O sea, a por el cerdo. Esto se entiende perfectamente. Pero queda muy feo disfrazar esto bajo la capa y la máscara del nacionalismo patriótico que defiende los propios derechos históricos de tu pueblo."

El sistema norteamericano del reparto de los impuestos funciona de ese modo. Hacienda recauda los impuestos federales, o sea, centrales. El Congreso reparte el cerdo. Cuando hay suficiente cerdo para todos, entonces se gasta lo que sobra en la defensa y cosas necesarias de este tipo.

Si tu estado quiere más cerdo, entonces lo que haces es recaudar impuestos en tu estado. Los más típicos son sobre la propiedad inmobiliaria, un IRPF estatal (mucho mas bajo que el federal, normalmente, porque cuando el IRPF estatal sube demasiado mucha gente se traslada a otro estado), sobre la venta (un tanto por ciento; por eso pagas un dólar con diez por un periódico que en su portada pone que cuesta un dólar cuando te dispones a comprarlo en el aeropuerto de Nueva York), y sobre el alcohol, el tabaco, el juego, y la gasolina (los llamados "impuestos sobre el pecado").

O sea, que todos los representantes catalanes, madrileños, vascos, murcianos, y cántabros compiten por el cerdo. Esto está muy bien, y que los que no traigan el cerdo a casa no vuelvan al Parlamento. Pero si el hambre de tus votantes no está saciado con lo que puedes traer a casa desde el gobierno central, lo que tendréis que hacer es sacar más cerdo de tu propio estado. Canalizar este hambre en el deseo de venganza por unos agravios históricos mayoritariamente o falsos o exagerados para desviar la atención de los votantes famélicos no está nada bien. Lleva a una desvertebración entre regiones innecesaria y contraproductiva.

Lo que no está mal es ser honesto sobre lo que realmente quieres hacer, y si esto es traer dinero a Cataluña para construir aeropuertos y escuelas y hospitales y carreteras, perfecto. Hay que mantener contentos a los votantes, pero sin pasarse. Hay que ser responsables con el cerdo, porque si comes demasiado te pones enfermo y el país acaba como Argentina. Este quizás es el genio del sistema anglosajón: consigue controlar la cantidad de cerdo que se reparte, para que todos coman pero para que nadie engorde.

Hay un viejo chiste político muy famoso en Estados Unidos. Un político está estrechando manos en un pueblo pequeño. Se encuentra a un anciano del lugar y éste le pregunta por qué debería votarle, y el político le dice, "Bueno, señor, hace cinco años voté a favor de subir su pensión, y hace diez años conseguí los fondos para el hospital nuevo, y hace quince años abrimos la universidad pública para que sus hijos estudien, y hace veinte años presenté la resolución que permitió abrir el casino donde trabaja su nieto." Y el viejo le responde, "Vale, pero ¿qué has hecho para mí recientemente?"

Posted 15:08 by John

Lluís Foix, of all people, in La Vanguardia, of all places, blew the whistle on some absolute bullshit prepared by, get this, the Barcelona city government's Institute of Education for the purpose of, get this, using it in the schools. Impostor Enric Marcó was a major source for the book. It's called "Republicans and Republicanas in the Nazi concentration camps." From the chapter "The Nazi genocide today and other genocides," Foix quotes,

"Of all the problems that exist today, probably there are two that, at the moment of writing this educational unit, have many similarities with Nazi genocide and the ghettos which the German Nazis created to isolate the Jews from everyone else...they are the construction of the wall of shame in Palestine and the jailing of Taliban prisoners at the military base the United States has on the island of Cuba, in Guantanamo."

The Barcelona city government is going to pass this crap out in the schools, this explicit moral comparison between the Nazi genocide and current American and Israeli actions. Do I need to point out that my great-uncles Homer and W.B. and Zeb actually got dragged out of Texas and sent to Europe where they actually shot some Nazis, or that the Spanish Republican prisoners at Mauthausen were liberated by none less than the Americans, or that the Israelis are the children of those who suffered real genocide, not those Spaniards who were locked up because some of them were Stalinist murderers?

Find me a gas chamber at Guantanamo or a death camp in Israel, you shits.

Meanwhile a Catalan delegation went to Israel and behaved like a bunch of assholes. First they had an homage to Yitzhak Rabin, and the Catalan flag wasn't there, so separatist leader Carod-Rovira refused to attend it. Refused to attend a ceremony honoring a prime minister murdered precisely because he tried to make peace because his region's flag wasn't there! Then there was a ceremony in homage to the victims of the Holocaust, which the Spanish ambassador was at, and they only had a Catalan flag, which bothered the ambassador since his country's flag wasn't at an official government occasion. They played regional symbolic politics at an homage to the victims of the Holocaust! Then, get this, on Friday premier Pasqual Maragall and ERC leader Carod-Rovira paid a visit in the morning to the Holocaust Museum, the Wailing Wall, and the Holy Sepulchre. They were so deeply impressed with the solemn occasion that they bought a souvenir plastic crown of thorns and Maragall got a photo of Carod wearing it in front of everybody with a huge smile on his ignorant, arrogant face. And some people dare to complain about foreigners' inappropriate behavior in Spain! Gee, let's make fun of Jesus after visiting the most sacred sites of the Jewish and Christian religions and the museum dedicated to the real victims of genocide.

The Israeli ambassador to Spain's reaction was, "It is lamentable and inappropriate that a ceremony in which respect was to be shown to one of our heroes, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was marked by an incident internal to Spain." Duran Lleida, of Convergence and Union, the Catalan moderates, said, "It was an embarrassing show. Real clownishness, like Charlie Chaplin." Duran called for "respect toward Christians and for what Jerusalem signifies." The PP's Jorge Fernandez Diaz said he felt "embarrassed. More than an official visit of leaders of a country who have to show an appropriate image, this looks like a bunch of buddies on a trip behaving ridiculously." Pasqual Maragall said, "The visit was an exceptional success." I think they let Maragall start drinking again, because he sure has been acting like it recently. The guy is a notorious alcoholic.

Meanwhile, poor Victor Harel, the Israeli ambassador here in Madrid, also had to deal with the offensive history textbook the city government came out with. He said, "We feel very badly. It is shameful to include the issue of the Palestinian wall in a text about the Holocaust. The text shows a complete lack of sensitivity and the banalization of the Holocaust, and we cannot permit that, Comparing the Nazi era with Israel's current policies crosses the red line and becomes anti-Semitism. " Harel demanded "the text be retired immediately and its content be rectified, omitting all references to current Israeli policy." Meanwhile, the Israeli embassy has contacted the Spanish foreign ministry and Israel's president, Moshe Katsav, is going to call Maragall on the carpet and, I hope, chew him up one side and down the other.

Official reaction from the Barcelona city government? Socialist clown Marina Subirats, in charge of the municipal Institute of Education (why we need one I have no idea), said, "The sentence in which the Palestinian wall is mentioned is the opinion of the authors that the city government will not censor." Later, after being talked to loudly and clearly by somebody with a brain, probably from the foreign ministry, she said, "We don't want a diplomatic incident. Although this controversy is totally disproportionate, we will, together with the authors, revise the entire text before its distribution. This material has not yet been handed out and is in the process of correction because of its references to Enric Marcó."

Good job, guys. You managed to offend the Israelis, the Americans, the Catholics, the non-Catalan Spaniards, the Jews, and the memory of the dead. Not bad for three days. Not to mention looking like fools for swallowing all of Enric Marco's lies.

How long are Spain's voters going to let this go on?

Posted 14:50 by John

Check out these bits of news from the Spain Herald from last week.

El País blaims White House for Newsweek error

Despite Newsweek's retraction of its notorious story on supposed profanations of the Koran, El Pais, Spain's best-selling newspaper, blamed George W. Bush for Newsweek's error both in an editorial and on the news pages. El Pais belongs to Spain's largest media corporation, Prisa, property of Jesús de Polanco. A reporter from El Pais, José Manuel Calvo, calls into question the falsity of the story, and claims that the wounds of the Iraq war have not healed as the protests in the Muslim world showed. Calvo wondered, "Is the published story, despite the retraction, true, or are these only accusations that are part of a tried-and-true strategy? Or both? Since last year, the Guantanamo prisoners have made 'credible charges of religious humiliation,' according to the Constitutional Law Center in New York, one of the organizations that advises the inmates." Calvo's piece turns the story in its head, saying, "Though Newsweek retracted its story Monday, under pressure from the White House, and the Pentagon says that Al Qaeda militants have orders to charge religious profanation, the interest of the tens of thousands who were offended is not knowing whether the story was true or not, but that it was published." On its editorial page, El Pais tries to make the retraction look less important, saying the story was just a news brief that wouldn't have been so important but for the Iraq war. Says El Pais, "Trying to blame the messenger for the blood spilled and America's loss of prestige is a supreme act of cynicism on the part of the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House. The administration is responsible because of its rigorously opaque information policy on terrorist issues, and because it permits the existence of a prison like Guantanamo, a legal limbo outside all civilized convention, where US soldiers do whatever they want, with no control but their own, with the hundreds of Islamist suspects interned there...It is no accident that the most demagogic use of the now disproven story was made in Afghanistan, a country on the brink despite American military presence, where Al Qaeda and its supporters have great power, and whose president, a firm ally of Washington, has serious problems exercising power outside his capital." Newsweek's false report may have led to rioting in Afghanistan that killed at least 16 people.

What bogosity, which by the way was followed up by a similar piece in La Vanguardia. Gee, if Newsweek prints a lie, and a bunch of people get killed in rioting, it's America's fault and Bush's in particular. Also note the "fake but accurate" justification being thrown out here; it doesn't matter whether Newsweek's story is actually the truth, the important thing is it may be a lie but a reflection of the greater truth, which is that America is evil. Similar "fake but accurate" information, you'll recall, was provided by CBS News about Bush's military record and, most recently, here by our unmasked impostor, Enric Marcó, about his alleged imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps.

SGAE supports Internet "drivers' license"

The SGAE is Spain's private union of creative workers, and manages the intellectual property of more than 66,000 members, such as authors, songwriters, film directors, scriptwriters, and musicians. During its fourth workshop on digital journalism yesterday, SGAE lawyer Pedro Farré proposed, "Just as you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to use the Internet. The objective is to eliminate the anonymity provided by the Internet. The Internet is not a regulated world, and liberty cannot exist without responsibility." Journalist and blogger Arcadi Espada responded, stating that Ferre's idea "means saying that anonymity should be prohibited in 'civilian life'." Espada believes that "some things are much more dangerous than anonymity," in reference to Newsweek magazine's publication of a false story that may have resulted in violence. Arcadi Espada called Internet "the most important philanthropic enterprise ever conceived." Meanwhile, industry, tourism, and commerce minister José Montilla warned yesterday that in the digital press sector "new products of doubtful utility and legality, such as some kinds of newsletters or blogs, are being created." Montilla added he did not mean "that this kind of product is pernicious in itself, nor anything of the sort, but some of them do not meet the fundamental norms that define the profession of journalism. Every medium of communication must be solvent and credible, which some of these newsletters and blogs are far from being, colliding with the freedom of expression and information." Montilla said, "There are legions of those damaged by digital newspapers, among them myself. Damaged because of some actions that, sometimes, were caused by concrete interests of those very sources of information."

And they say the Socialists don't want to censor anybody. Sounds to me like they want to censor this here blog. If you're not "solvent and credible," and you go ahead and express your ideas, does this mean that you're "colliding with the freedom of expression and information"? Who is going to give out licenses of solvency and credibility? The state, I suppose, since it's in charge of drivers' licenses too. Welcome to the new Socialist Internet. This would be in clear violation of the First Amendment back home in the US, and I imagine it's pretty damn unconstitutional around here, too.

80% of Spaniards say they're Catholic

79.3% of Spaniards identify themselves as Catholic, while 11.7% are nonbelievers and 4.9% say they are atheists, according to a survey of 2500 respondents taken in March by the government-owned polling bureau CIS. Of the Catholics, 41.7% rarely or never attend mass or other religious ceremonies, except baptisms, weddings, first communions, and funerals. 19.7% of Catholics attend several times a year, 13.1% every month, and 17.2% every Sunday and Christian holiday. 2.3% go more than once a week. In other results, those surveyed considered Spain's most important problem to be unemployment; their concern over terrorism, the second most important problem, is decreasing. Citizens' concern over housing and immigration is rising.

I just thought that was interesting. This means about 20% of the 80% who identify as Catholics actually go to church regularly. That sounds about right to me. One point is a lot of those churchgoers are old ladies, whose numbers are of course dropping. I think Spain is a basically secular country of distinct Catholic tradition. That is, they aren't observant Catholics anymore, but they sure aren't anything like Protestants, of whom Spain has never had more than about seventeen.

Posted 16:17 by John

Here's a piece I wrote for Libertad Digital they didn't use. In case you didn't already know, Barça won the League for the first time since 1999. At the celebration of the title in Barça's stadium, Samuel Etoo, who played several years for Madrid's youth team, shouted into the microphone the traditional culé slogan, "Madrid, cabron, saluda el campión," which translates more or less as "Madrid, you bastards, hats off to the champions." He then apologized the next day, since it really was kind of offensive, and especially with the kids watching and all.

Congratulations to the fourteen, later sixteen, players who won the title. Many of Barça's players, including backup goalie Jonquera, defender Edmilson, midfielders Gabri, Motta, and Gerard, and forward Larsson, were injured early in the season and missed most of it. The starting eleven was Valdés; Belletti, Puyol, Oleguer, Van Bronckhorst; Xavi, Márquez, Deco; Giuly, Etoo, Ronaldinho. These eleven guys, plus Iniesta, who was the twelfth man, frequently substituted for Giuly but can play almost any position, and the only player to appear in all 36 League games, Sylvinho, who was a backup but stayed healthy and ate up a lot of minutes with solid defense on the left side, and Damià, from the youth squad, who filled in a few games at right defense when Belletti got hurt and did very well, kept Barça in first place in the League start to finish and in good position in the Champions' League, in which they reached the quarterfinals before getting knocked out by Chelsea, not exactly disgraceful. These fourteen played alone, with a little help from midseason signings Albertini, who soon got hurt himself, and Maxi López, who showed some real promise, three times every ten days for five months. Real Madrid, who have a good team, put on a massive final assault, winning seven games in a row before tying Sevilla away, and couldn't catch Barça, or even come close.

This was one of the best seasons I've ever seen a team put together, and I've been watching Spanish soccer since 1987. I think the team I liked best was Robson's 1997 Barça, which won the Cup and the UEFA but didn't quite win the League, with the 1991 team that won the League and the Champions' League second. This Barça team is third on my favorites list, and we're expecting big things from them next year. All the stars are still young and hungry, and Barcelona has them tied up for the next couple of years at least. The only player on the starting eleven over 29 years old is Van Bronckhorst, who's 30, and hardly the team's best player. Closer to the worst, not taking anything away from Gio, but when the competition for best player includes Ronaldinho, Deco, Etoo, Xavi, and Puyol, it's understandable that a solid left defender with a good left leg wouldn't be the top star. Another attractive thing about the team, by the way, is that most of them are family guys, not wild partiers. Only Etoo is known for hitting the town big-time, and if he's going to score 25 goals a year he can keep doing it. He starts scoring seven goals a year, then it's time to review the standards of behavior.

Supposedly Van Bommel, the midfielder from PSV Eindhoven, is a signing for sure next year. Santi Esquerro, Athletic Bilbao's right wing, and Luque, Deportivo's center forward, are the Spanish players supposedly on Barça's list. I still don't think they should have ever let Luis García, the one on Liverpool now--there are at least three Spanish players named that--get away.

Anyway, here's that thing.

Enemigas

Los estadounidenses como yo, aficionados al deporte, siempre encontramos chocante el hecho de que los equipos professionales de fútbol en España tienen conotaciones políticas. In EEUU no es así; no hay equipos derechistas o izquierdistas o nacionalistas o separatistas. Soy hincha de los Kansas City Chiefs en el fútbol americano, lo que quiere decir que siempre me quedo decepcionado al final de la temporada porque nos han eliminado en la primera ronda de los playoffs; apoyo a los Jayhawks de Kansas, mi alma mater, en el baloncesto universitario, lo que quiere decir que siempre estoy decepcionado al final de la temporada porque nos han eliminado en el final four; y soy de los Kansas City Royals en el béisbol, y entonces nunca me decepciono, porque somos tan rematadamente malos que si los Royals solo pierden cien partidos,`podemos estar contentos.

Pero apoyo a estos equipos porque son los de mi ciudad o mi universidad, sin otras razones. Ningún de estos equipos representa nada más. En contraste, en España los varios equipos tienen simbolismo político y/o nacionalista, cosa que sencillamente no entendemos los de allende el Atlántico; la única excepción es el equipo de fútbol americano de la Universidad de Notre Dame, el cual recibe apoyo de muchos católicos por razones obvias.

Está claro que la rivaldad entre el Real Madrid y el Fútbol Club Barcelona es mucho más sentida que cualquier otra rivaldad, quizás en el mundo, y ciertamente en comparación con EEUU. Esto tiene que ver con el gran odio que hay entre las dos ciudades, Barcelona resiente el hecho de que Madrid es la capital, Se cree lo suficiente grande y gloriosa para ser una capital ella misma. No le falta razón; es una ciudad más importante económicamente y culturalmente que muchas capitales de estado europeas, como Bruselas, Dublín, Lisboa, Bern, Estocolmo, y una larga lista más. Pero Madrid es la capital, y seguirá siendo la capital, y los barcelonistas, tanto deportivos como políticos y culturales, no pueden tragar esto. Antes muertos todos que arrodillarnos ante Madrid.

Mientras tanto, en Madrid existe mucho resentimiento hacia Barcelona, y no le falta razón tampoco; si fuera madrileño, estaría enfadado por los intentos constantes de Barcelona de desbancar a Madrid de su puesto como capital y, si esto no es posible, denigrar a Madrid para que parezca mal simbólicamente. Esta rivalidad es la fuente del catalanismo político; si Barcelona no puede ser la capital de España, entonces quiere ser la capital de su propio estado independiente. Los del resto de España, por supuesto, se sienten ofendidos porque piensan que los catalanistas se consideren superiores, tan superiores que no deben vivir bajo el yugo de Madrid. Y de aquí viene el madridismo deportivo, político, y cultural.

Este gran resentimiento que las dos ciudades se tienen es conducido hacia el deporte, e incluso las autoridades locales lo toman tan en serio que se enfadan unas con otras sobre los resultados de la liga profesional de fútbol y las declaraciones de unos futbolistas profesionales. Señores Aguirre, Simancas, Maragall, Zapatero, creced de una vez. Nuestra sociedad es amenazada por el terrorismo tanto nacional como internacional. No vale la pena enfadarse por algo tan obviamente simbólico como el fútbol cuando lo que necesita España es la unión entre sus dos ciudades más grandes para hacer frente a los enemigos de todos.

Posted 12:42 by John

Here are the two columns I wrote in Spanish for Libertad Digital that they posted last week. Thanks very much to Fernando for the editing.

Jerga socióloga

A partir de la década de 1840 millones de irlandeses se vieron forzados a emigrar a Estados Unidos a causa de la pobreza y el hambre. Los habitantes de Irlanda vivían bajo el férreo mando inglés, que les tenía sojuzgados y sin oportunidades. No podían tener tierras, no podían estudiar, no podían practicar su religión, no disfrutaban, en suma, de ninguno de los derechos humanos básicos. Esto contribuyó a lo que llaman los sociólogos "la cultura de las expectativas disminuidas." La idea de que no había futuro llegó a ser una de las bases de la cultura de Irlanda.

Es decir, que en Irlanda la gente no tenía expectativas para el futuro. ¿Para qué trabajar duro, para qué hacer planes, para qué tener esperanza? No les iba a servir para nada. No había posibilidades de mejorar su situación. Por esa razón los irlandeses no solían trabajar mucho, ni esforzarse en nada, simplemente porque no se beneficiarían de ello. Esto es fácil de entender; de haber sido irlandés en aquella época, tampoco me habría esforzado yo.

El problema empezó cuando emigraron a Estados Unidos. Aunque, naturalmente, América no era el paraíso, había oportunidades de verdad allí, había trabajo, había escuelas, existían los derechos básicos. Pero los irlandeses no se aprovecharon de estas posibilidades porque en su país natal habían aprendido que el esfuerzo era inútil. Al contrario, ganaron fama en Norteamérica por perezosos, borrachos, incompetentes, sucios, y gente de poco fiar. Y merecidamente.

Les costó dos generaciones a los irlandeses en EEUU superar su cultura de las expectativas disminuidas. Con el tiempo, aprendieron que había oportunidades que podían explotar. Pero les llevó más de cincuenta años.

En España existe un síndrome semejante. No es una cultura de bajas expectativas económicas, es una cultura de bajas expectativas políticas. Durante doscientos años antes de 1975, los españoles aprendieron que el sistema político era corrupto, dictatorial, incompetente, injusto, arbitrario, y a veces asesino.

Después de 1975, en cambio, hemos tenido un sistema gubernamental básicamente decente. Se han cometido errores, claro que sí, pero ahora tenemos una democracia con las garantías propias de un estado de derecho. De uno de los países peor gobernados del mundo, España se ha convertido en uno de los países mejor regidos por sus políticos.

Lo que pasa es que los españoles no lo reconocen. Siguen pensando que la política tiene que ser corrupta y que los políticos son a lo mejor incompetentes y a lo peor asesinos en masa. Esto es la causa del pasotismo español; parte de la cultura de España es el desdén hacia la política.
A los irlandeses les llevó cincuenta años aprender que su cultura de las expectativas disminuidas no funcionaba en su nuevo hogar ultramarino. Los españoles han pasado ya treinta años en democracia. Espero que no se tomen muchos años más en aprender que su cultura política no funciona en esta nueva era.


Emociones no justificadas

Robert D. Kaplan, el ilustre periodista norteamericano, autor de varios libros y ganador de otros tantos premios, escribió en su libro "Los fantasmas de los Balcanes" allá por 1993: "Ahora que el comunismo ha caído y los soviéticos han sido expulsados, hay muchas emociones a rienda suelta en los Balcanes que han perdido su uso legítimo." Kaplan hablaba de los nacionalismos balcánicos, tanto viejos como nuevos, que aparecieron casi inmediatamente después del fin del imperio ruso y que causaron tanta muerte y destrucción.

La situación en España es semejante. España sufría muchos años de mal gobierno, especialmente entre el fin del siglo XVIII y 1975, y muchos españoles lo pasaron bastante mal durante aquella época. Así las cosas, no debe sorprender a nadie que se produjesen movimientos contra el poder establecido, ya que no dirigía bien el país. Los carlistas, los nacionales, los anarquistas, los falangistas, y todos los demás tenían como meta arreglar España; por supuesto, las soluciones milagrosas de cada grupo fueron equivocadas, pero había una justificación para buscarlas.

Lo que ocurrió en Cataluña durante los primeros tres cuartos del siglo XX, al igual de lo que ocurrió en el resto de España causó resentimiento. La diferencia entre Cataluña y el resto de España es que muchos catalanes canalizaron su disgusto con el status quo en el nacionalismo. Llegó a existir un importante movimiento popular allí cuyo apoyo al nacionalismo catalanista se convirtió en una cosa mucho más emocional que racional.

Pero a partir de 1975 España comenzó por primera vez a ser un país gobernado por los representantes de los electores bajo el estado de derecho. Los españoles ganaron los derechos de expresión, de confesión, de asamblea, de un juicio justo, y de hablar en el idioma que les daba la gana.

El nacionalismo catalanista se encontró en seguida sin argumentos racionales. Los catalanes ahora tienen su propio gobierno, su propia salud pública, su propia enseñanza, sus propios impuestos, su propia policía, sus propios juzgados, y ad infinitum. ¿Qué más pueden querer? Nada, pero el nacionalismo siempre buscará un agravio. Aunque hoy en día en España vivimos mejor que nunca antes en la historia, su irracionalidad les llevará a quejarse de todo como siempre han hecho. El problema es que sus quejas ya no son justificadas, y espero que sepamos combatirlas antes de que nos lleven a los Balcanes de Kaplan.

Posted 11:50 by John

Sorry I haven't been here for so long. I spent the last week in Madrid visiting the folks at the Spain Herald, which of course you ought to be reading religiously every day for the skinny on Spain, talking to Robert Duncan, who is starting a new project called Spero News that I am doing some editing for, and hanging out with my friend Richard. We saw the Durer exhibit at the Prado and went to the Thyssen museum, as well as taking trips to El Escorial and Segovia. We hung out one night with my contact Carlos, who is a real nice guy, and we found a bar run by some Bulgarians called La Bruja on Calle Lope de Vega, near Calle Huertas and Plaza Santa Ana, that we highly recommend. Inexpensive and very friendly with tasty Bulgarian food, which is basically standard Mediterranean fare, good stuff. Try the quichelike substance, which is called baritza or something like that. Richard had a good time here in Spain; he thoroughly enjoyed everything. I really do recommend that you guys come and visit in case you haven't already. Don't boycott us just because Zapatero's an idiot. You'll like the sights, the cities, the landscape, the weather (most of the time), most of the food, and most of the people. You won't like tourist hell places like Lloret or Salou, so just stay away from them. That way you can avoid all the--if I may put it euphemistically--working-class Europeans of low socioeconomic status whose alcohol consumption so much of the Spanish economy is dependent on. Also, of course, avoid unattractive suburbs such as Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Vallecas, where the local working class of lower socioeconomic status whose alcohol consumption the rest of the Spanish economy is dependent on hangs out.

The hilarious yet pathetic news is this guy named Enric Marcó, who had gone around ever since 1978 claiming he was a Spanish Republican survivor of the Nazi concentration camp in Flossenburg, was unmasked this week as an impostor. He had actually volunteered in 1941 to work in Germany with one of the transports of volunteers Franco sent. Nobody really knows how many Spanish Republicans were killed by the Nazis. Several thousand, probably. What happened is tens, maybe hundreds of thousands, of these guys, some of whom were basically innocent and some of whom had been guilty of participating in the revolutionary violence in Republican Spain, fled to France after the collapse of the Republic at the beginning of 1939 so that Franco wouldn't get his hands on them. Many of those who Franco did catch he had shot. Some of them probably had it coming and some didn't. Those who fled to France were interned in unpleasant detention camps. Some signed up for the French Army or for French labor batallions and some didn't and some died. After a couple of years the Francoist terror had pretty much burned out and some went back to Spain. The Nazis grabbed some of them and put them in concentration camps for political reasons, since they were mostly leftists. A few, such as former Catalan prime minister Lluís Companys, were deported by the Gestapo and turned over to Franco's tender mercies. Most of those who were imprisoned by the Nazis were in Mauthausen, and many died there. The survivors formed an association which is known for its left-wing activism.

Here one must point out that there is a difference between these guys and the Jewish and Gypsy victims of the Holocaust. The Spanish Republicans were persecuted by the Nazis because of what they had done and what their political ideas were. The Jews and Gypsies were persecuted because of who they were ethnically, not politically. The Jewish and Gypsy victims of the Holocaust were of all political stripes, and most had no political ideas at all. All Spanish Republican victims were, of course, radical leftists. The Spanish Republicans had in their time persecuted other people of different political or religious ideas. The Jews and Gypsies had persecuted nobody. This is not an excuse for the Nazi treatment of the Spanish Republicans, but their suffering, tragic as it was, and what happened to the Jews and Gypsies were two very different things.

Enric Marcó, anyway, was a liar and a fraud. He had been going around for almost three decades as a professional victim. There have been several articles in the Spanish press wondering why Marcó did what he did. The answer is simple. He wanted to feel good about himself. He wanted to have others sympathize with him. He enjoyed being the center of attention. He liked being a hero, lionized by those leftists who naively believe that the Left is Good and the Right is Bad; he got Socialist cabinet minister Carme Chacón to cry on the floor of Parliament with his heart-wringing story, which was of course all made up. The guy volunteered to work for the Nazis, for God's sake. He's not only a fraud, he was a collaborator.

Enric Marcó's imposture brings back memories of such famous exposed phonies, all heroes of the Left, as Anita Hill, who lied about alleged sexual harassment by right-wing judge Clarence Thomas; Rigoberta Menchú, who lied about her family's history in Guatemala; Lillian Hellman, who lied about her own history and her ties with the Stalinists; Jesse Jackson, who lied about his relationship with Martin Luther King; Edward Said, who lied about his family's alleged persecution by the Israelis; Ward Churchill, who lied about his American Indian ancestry; François Mitterand, who lied about his Vichy collaborationist past; and Bill Clinton, of course, who lied about everything to everyone, including the United States Congress.

What do they all have in common? They all basked in the attention of the correct-thinking folks of the Left. It's fun when everybody feels sorry for you and thinks you're a big hero. When their credentials were checked, though, they turned out to be fakes. One wonders how many other stories of victimization are made up. One also despairs at the undeserved discredit that will be cast upon the histories of true innocent victims of persecution by these frauds.

Posted 02:07 by John

The Jedman is really putting out the bloggage for all his fans and friends, so click on the link over there in the blogroll. Learn about Jed's experiences playing disc golf, going to Hooters, attending rock shows, fighting against superficiality, and being impeded by security guards from finding true love, while fulfilling his responsibility to the impressionable youth of this nation. If you are wondering where the sensitive yet masculine, desirable yet available, gentlemen are, look no further.

Posted 15:31 by John

Well, again, I haven't had all that much to write about. My friend Richard, whom I've known since I was 16, was here in town earlier this week, and so we spent some time running around town. It was a good excuse for me to revisit some places I hadn't been for a while; it had been months since I'd walked up to the Parque Guell, and it's only half a mile up the hill from our house. Not much in the Spain Herald, either, which of course you should be reading every day. The biggest alleged news around here is that there might be a deal coming between the Socialists and the Basque Nationalists to form a government in the Basque Country. Part of the problem is that hopes of a truce and then negotiations with ETA have been raised, and I think they're unrealistic. Optimists point out that ETA hasn't killed anybody for two years now. Leftists don't mention that ETA actually is very close to collapse and the hard-line policies the Aznar government followed deserve most of the credit for bringing them there. There has been a lot less general bogosity on international affairs in the press, indicating that the anti-gringo faction around here has had to admit that improvement in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan, even Saudi Arabia is real. There are occasional rather snobby sniffs at your basic American foibles, like those dopes in the Texas legislature who passed a bill against sexy cheerleaders. As if other countries didn't have their own dumb foibles. Eusebio Val in the Vangua has decided that's just one more step in the power of the Puritan theocracy that rules the United States.