June 2014

June 2014 - Nº 0376 3 euros

Comingof age

Catalonia Today celebrates its 10th anniversarywith a look back over an eventful decade

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June 2014 � CATALONIA TODAY � 3

10TH ANNIVERSARYMarcela Topor: A decade of covering Catalonia inEnglish .....................................................................................................4

Miquel Berga: A long, worthwhile journey.....................6

Germà Capdevila: A quality magazine for a world-class city .................................................................................................7

Neil Stokes: Our baby's all grown up .................................8

Matthew Tree: Knife edge.......................................................10

Martin Kirby: It has been an education..........................12

OPINIONLetters to the editor.....................................................................14

Barney Griffiths: Shopkeepers...............................................15

Àlex Furest: Leaving Spain to become part of Eu-rope........................................................................................................42

Brett Hetherington: The way we are................................43

Terry Parris: Life expansion .....................................................43

Neil Stokes: The motorcycle kid who just can't stopwinning................................................................................................... x

MY SPACECatalonia Today, the team......................................................16

CATALANS ABROADMontse Casado, Wellington...................................................18

A HOME OF MY OWNNicole Millar: The end is nigh...............................................20

IN THE NEWSWhat happened: May ................................................................22

FEATURESPhoto competition .......................................................................25

A look back on 10 years............................................................30

Write on! short story competition......................................44

BOOKSTravellers in Catalan lands: Not fit for a lady ..............50

THE EYEGermà Capdevila: Silent speed............................................52

ECCLUBWalking with Vinyoli in English............................................54

Living in a different world .......................................................56

ENTERTAINMENTWord pool, sudokus, quizzes, etc.......................................60

Contact us: [email protected] us: facebook.com/cataloniatodayFollow us: @cataloniatoday (Twitter)http://www.cataloniatoday.cat

CONTENTS

his month’s magazine has a com-mon denominator: Catalonia

Today’s first decade. On the occasion ofour 10th anniversary, we provide youwith information about the publicationsince the start and how it has evolvedup until now. You can also read a com-prehensive summary of the most im-portant events at home and abroad dur-ing those 10 eventful years (see pages30-40). Nor should you miss out on thepersonal accounts of working on Cata-lonia Today in that time, by some of theoriginal members of the team.

At the same time, we offer you thewinners of our short story contest, as

T well as a compilation of the best imagesfrom our regular photography contest.

Looking back, the past decade hasbeen one of great change, for our publi-cation and for society. These changeshave taken place between the impact ofnew technology and the wounds left bythe crisis. This period has also seen pro-gress on an issue of great importance forthe country: the right to decide its fu-ture in the November 9 referendum.

The past and the future, it’s all in ouranniversary issue. Enjoy reading aboutit and many thanks for all your supportduring the past 10 years and for makingit possible in the first place.

FROM THE EDITORMARCELA TOPOR [email protected]

Celebrating the past and the future

Published by CATALONIA TODAY SL. Carrer Santa Eugènia, 42, Girona 17005 Tel. +34 972 18 64 00 / www.cataloniatoday.cat /[email protected]: +34 972 18 64 38 [email protected]. Subscriptions: +34 902 456 000 [email protected] to the editor: [email protected]: Marcela Topor. Chief editor: Miquel Berga. Advertising Manager: M.Àngels Ribas.

Staff and Contributors: Neil Stokes, Matthew Tree, Martin Kirby, Terry Parris, Nicole Millar, Pere Gifra, Barney Griffiths, Anna Vicens,Brett Hetherington, Joe Hogan (text editor). Consultant editor: Germà Capdevila. Design: Jordi Molins, Florentí Morante.

Deposit Nº GI-322-2004 Printed by Rotimprès. Catalonia Today SL has a co-operation agreement with Grup El Punt on the use of content.

20. A HOME OF MY OWN

The house Nicole builtNicole Millar withthe last in her seriesof articles recountingthe highs and lows ofbuilding a housefrom scratch inCatalonia.

4-8. OPINION

A decade of Catalonia TodayCatalonia Today team-members reflecton the 10-year history of the only Catalanmagazine published in English

16-17. MY SPACE

Meet the teamA rundown on who is who in themagazine’s Girona newsroom

30-40. FEATURE

A look back on 10 yearsA year-by-year review of the newshighlights over the past decade

Cover: LLUÍS ROMERO

4 � CATALONIATODAY � June 2014

n June 15, CataloniaToday is celebrating its10th anniversary.

When the first issue of Cata-lonia Today was published,things were very different fromthe way they are today, 10years later. It is hard to even re-cognise the country back then,when we started the brave (andfor many, crazy) adventure ofsetting up a Catalan newspaperin English. Since then, in arelatively brief period of time,the world has changed in wayswe would not have dreamed ofa decade ago.

For example, there is now al-most three times more unem-ployment (from 207,521people in 2004 to 611,822 inApril this year). The impact ofnumbers like this help us tounderstand the magnitude ofthe changes that have takenplace in the country, as well asthe consequences, which willleave an indelible mark on thecoming generations.

We have covered many ofthese changes in the pages ofCatalonia Today. Over the past10 years, we have tried to de-scribe and analyse these events,from a local point of view, butalso from a distance, throughthe perspective of the English

O language, addressing a widefamily of readers that is hetero-genous in its make-up and itsinterests.

Ten years ago there were notablets or apps, and it wouldtake another three years beforeiPhones appeared. Other smart-phones were merely conceptsand digital TV had still notbeen introduced. Meanwhile,Facebook only began in Febru-ary of our first year, withTwitter still two years away.

Today the world is digital,smart and mobile. As the hostof the Mobile World Congress,which every year attracts mil-lions of people from across theglobe, Barcelona has become adigital capital in a way unfore-seen 10 years ago.

All of these changes have co-incided with the first 10 yearsof Catalonia Today. At thesame time, the social andpolitical status of the countryhas undergone a change thatputs Catalonia at the gates ofindependence, with a referen-dum on its future relationshipwith Spain set for November 9.

However, there is one thingthat has not changed, and infact is something ever morenecessary and present in ourlives: the need to master Eng-lish, today’s de facto inter-national lingua franca. Duringthe recent explosion of tech-nology, English has become anauthentic operating system ofglobal human communication.The need to improve knowl-edge of English, the need to ac-quire linguistic skills in a lan-guage synonymous with thetechnological revolution of the

A decade of coveringCatalonia in English

CATALONIA TODAY’S 10TH ANNIVERSARYMARCELA TOPOR EDITOR [email protected]

Catalonia Today team and the newsroom in Girona./ L.S./M.LL ADÓ

Catalonia Today in numbersAfter the free daily stage, the “first Catalan newspaper in Eng-lish” printed 10,000 copies every Thursday. The monthly Cata-lonia Today currently prints 15,000 copies every month andhas 5,000 subscribers on all five continents. The English CultureClub, founded three years ago, already has 1,000 memberswho enjoy the great variety of reading groups and other cultu-ral events in English across Catalonia.

There is one thing thathas not changed: theneed to master English,today’s de factointernational linguafranca.

FEATURE

past 10 years is one reason whyCatalonia Today exists.

Today, we know more thanever that the future progress ofa society in a global world relieson its competitiveness, andEnglish is a major contributingfactor in that. Better Englishmeans more opportunity.

The need for a good Englishlevel is greater than ever, and

the economic crisis has merelyintensified this trend. Thou-sands of young Catalans feelforced to look for work abroad,where English is indispensable.A high level of proficiency inthe language is essential which,unfortunately, the educationsystem is still unable to pro-vide. Real effort is requiredfrom anyone who wishes to ad-

vance in the language, and wehope that our magazine canhelp some people achieve theirmuch-desired goals.

What’s more, CataloniaToday has been able to adapt tothe evolving situation aroundit. The publication has existedin a variety of formats and withchanging content until finallyfinding the best possible model

for it target readers. From itsinitial stage as a daily freenewspaper, to a paid-for weeklyand finally, since 2008, to itspresent monthly format.Ourcontent is specific to a maga-zine that aims to help a betterunderstanding of Catalonia ina language that makes it rel-evant and accessible.In thissense, our alliance with GrupHermès has matured into com-plete integration within thegroup, providing us with stabil-ity and access to diverse and va-ried content.

Ten years on, the continuedexistence and permanence of aCatalan publication in Englishhas a small part to play in the

process that the country isundergoing. Every day, morepeople from around the worldbecome more aware and inter-ested in what is going on inCatalonia, a country wheretourism and foreign residentsare key factors. A publication inEnglish that can shed light onthe country is not only useful,but necessary.

There is still a lot of work todo, especially as new formatsand ways of communicatingappear. It is the challenge fac-ing any publication right now,and Catalonia Today wants tocontinue bearing witness to thechanging times, while alsobeing part of them.

First cover of Catalonia Today as a newspaper, then a weekly and two recent covers as a monthly.

We have tried todescribe and analyseevents from a localpoint of view, but alsothrough theperspective English,addressing a widefamily of readers that isheterogenous in itsmake-up



OPINION

ur anniversary brings vivid memoriesof those first hectic days in 2004.Was Carles Puigdemont (now mayor

of Girona, but then a restless spirit in journal-ism) serious? Were we to produce a free dailynewspaper in a matter of days, or was he justmad? Apparently, everything had been ar-ranged, except for the small detail that abunch of journalists with a full com-mand of English and proficient Cata-lan were required in a few days. Ac-cording to Mr Puigdemont, I’d betterfind them quickly otherwise thewhole project would be put into jeop-ardy. I still wonder how, but the jour-nalists did materialise and, best of all,we got a brilliant, experienced man atthe helm: Stephen Burgen. I stayedon the sidelines, but Carles was theremanaging the whole enterprise. AndMarcela, our present editor, was alsothere from day one. Others camealong: Neil Stokes and Braden Phillips were tobecome just as crucial continuing the projectas Stephen had been in getting it off theground. Soon Barcelona was full of CataloniaToday readers, on the buses or the under-ground, looking pleased with this new freetoken that had brought a daily dose of Englishinto their lives.

Sadly, it was too good to last. Soon financialdifficulties emerged, but somehow we carriedon. As is often the case, necessity broughtabout a new product that – however differentfrom the initial project – seemed to fit the bill.Germà Capadevila was instrumental in devel-oping the new monthly, as well as the verysuccessful ECClub, which was launched withthe blessings of the late Tom Sharpe. It was a

O memorable occasion!We did survive against all odds, and here

we are still. Marcela Topor has shown herstrengths as an efficient editor and has as-sembled a wonderful group of regular con-tributors. Catalans like Josep-LLuís Gonzálezor Pere Gifra give us fascinating accounts ofCatalan culture, past and present. And we

have the valued voices that have been with usall along: Matthew Tree and Neil Stokes. Andmore, Martin Kirby, Barney Griffiths, NicoleMillar and Brett Hetherington keep us postedon their views and concerns. Not to mentionour own wise lady of the mountains, TerryParris, who keeps us connected to nature withher delightful stories and reviews.

It’s been a long and winding road, but aworthwhile journey. Ten years on we are stillhere, ready with news and stories that useEnglish to provide insights into this countryfor Catalans, residents and the wider nter-national community. Whether calmly or not,we will carry on. However, today is a day for abig Thank You and a huge Congratulations toeveryone involved with Catalonia Today.

A long, worthwhile journey

CATALONIA TODAY’S 10TH ANNIVERSARYMIQUEL BERGA CHIEF EDITOR [email protected]

Barcelonawas full ofCataloniaTodayreaders, onthe buses orthe under-ground,lookingpleasedwith thisnew freetoken thathad broughta daily doseof Englishinto theirlives

Magazine’s launch at the Gran Teatre del Liceu./ A.PUIG

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Congratulations!

Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 606, 4t 2aDespatx F-G · 08007 BarcelonaTel. 933 170 [email protected] · www.apac.es


OPINION

arcelona is nowadays one of the mostbeautiful cities in the world to live in:a competitive economy, a well pre-

pared workforce, a magnificent landscape andnice weather. It was like that 10 yearsago, but until 2004, it lacked some-thing that you can find in every topcapital around the world:a generalinformation English language publi-cation. The Tokyo Times, The Jerusa-lem Post, The Buenos Aires Herald,Beijing Today, The CopenhagenPost, The Egyptian Gazette, BangkokPost, Helsinki Times, The JakartaPost, The Korea Times, and manymore, are the kind of newspapersthat define a group of cities aroundthe world with an international out-look. They are capital cities with astrong connection to the rest of theglobe. Barcelona, as a leading Euro-pean capital, also deserved an Eng-lish language publication to explainthe news to the world in the de facto linguafranca. Thanks to Catalonia Today, Barcelonajoined this “major league” of world-classcities.

Catalonia Today was created with this am-bitious goal, and 10 years later we can see thatit has achieved it two ways. On one hand itsucceeded in making its motto a reality:month after month, Catalonia Today bringsnews in English from a Catalan point of view.Thousands of expats have grown accustomedto a full package of quality content from newsto in-depth articles that explain this country

B in a language they can understand.On the other hand, Catalonia Today has be-

come a phenomenal tool for Catalans to keeptheir English rust-free. When we at the maga-

zine realised that Catalans were gaining shareamong our readers and subscribers, we took astep forward and created the first English lan-guage culture club in the country, the EC-Club, another wonderful initiative that todayruns more than 40 reading groups in morethan 20 cities around Catalonia and Valencia.The ECClub offers a wide range of cultural ac-tivities to its members, from theatre to cin-ema, from city walks to chats with authors, allin English. Catalonia Today and the ECClubare two success stories, and there is only onething left to say: Happy anniversary!

A quality magazine fora world-class city

CATALONIA TODAY’S 10TH ANNIVERSARYGERMÀ CAPDEVILA CONTRIBUTING EDITOR [email protected]

Barcelona,as anEuropeanleadingcapital, alsodeservedan Englishlanguagepublicationto explainthe news tothe worldin the de factolinguafranca.

A “paper boy” delivering Catalonia Today in 2004 at the Liceu

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OPINION

few parents dream of seeing theirchild address the United Nations orwin an Olympic gold medal. Most,

however, are content if their offspring growup to be reasonable people capable of makingsome sort of decent life for themselves. Life ishard and, while there is nothing wrong inreaching for the top, in a world with potentialpitfalls at every turn, success begins with sur-viving harsh reality in good order.

For print publications, the world is a par-ticularly harsh place at the moment. The ad-vent of digital technology has smashed themonopoly that the printed press had on in-formation, while globalisation has providedthe public with more choice than we knowwhat to do with. That a modest magazine in aforeign language can exist, and even thrive, inthis hostile new environment is hard to fa-thom but nevertheless cause for celebration.

After 10 years of working for CataloniaToday in a variety of capacities, I have wit-nessed the publication’s birth, teething, ado-lescence and maturity. More often than not,what has been demanded of me has been tohelp provide the practical attention that allgrowing things need. Through writing, trans-lating, editing and correcting, I have manytimes changed the publication’s metaphoricalnappy, wiped its nose, fed and clothed it anddriven it home from the disco late at night.

Like many real world youngsters, especiallythose who belong to families with limited re-sources and those lacking the privileges thatonly the lucky few get to enjoy, life has notbeen easy for Catalonia Today. Strangely in asociety that has traditionally doled out publicmoney on cultural and linguistic projects like

A there was no tomorrow, Catalonia Today hasbeen granted relatively little financial supportin the past decade. At the same time, few withthe power to do so have offered it a protectivewing, which may be a failure of the publi-cation to inspire, or a lack of vision on their

part, perhaps a little of both.However, what Catalonia Today has never

lacked for are people willing to go that extramile, often for little in return, to ensure thepublication gets what it needs. Apart fromthose of us still here, many other names alsocome to mind – Stephen, Michael, Braden,both Alexes, Joseph, Birgitte, Gabe, Josephine,Barbara, the list goes on. It is thanks in largepart to the efforts of these people that Catalo-nia Today has reached maturity in fairly goodorder. Along with our stubbornly loyalreaders, we minions behind the scenes havethe pleasure of knowing that, while ourcharge may never win Olympic Gold, all ourefforts have been worth it.

Our baby's all grown up

CATALONIA TODAY’S 10TH ANNIVERSARYNEIL STOKES [email protected]

After 10years ofworking forCataloniaToday in avariety ofcapacities, Ihave wit-nessed thepubli-cation’sbirth, tee-thing, ado-lescence andmaturity

Catalonia Today in a film shot in Barcelona./ G. MASSANA

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OPINION

ver the last ten years, this magazinehas had some tricky moments. Itstarted life as an optimistically pre-

crisis free daily, which quickly metamor-phosed - just before going irrevocably bust -into a weekly with a price tag. When the crisisreally got into its miserable stride aroundabout 2009, Catalonia Today’s holding com-pany decided to ditch it as potentially noi-some ballast, but its editors saved the day byturning it into the successful full-colourmonthly it still is. Alltold, though, CataloniaToday’s financial situ-ation has been the leastof its problems. Indeed,perhaps the biggestchallenge it has had toface is simply that - notbeing a politically neu-tral expats’ rag filledwith little more thanrestaurant tips and prop-erty investment ads - ithas been obliged, insome measure, to pro-vide information onwhat Catalans oftenrefer to as “el Tema”(“the Subject”): theceaselessly burgeoningindependence move-ment. A risky business,because for many Eng-lish readers this is tanta-mount to making Cata-lonia Today an outletfor nationalist propa-ganda; and in England,at least, nationalism is avirtually a synonym forultra conservatism orworse. There are signs,however, that slowly butsurely, people abroad -the English included - are noticing that whatis happening in Catalonia is something quitenew, whose roots share no soil with those ofthe often murderous European nationalistmovements of the last two centuries. In April,the linguist and (pro-anarchist) political com-mentator Noam Chomsky, addressing anaudience at the Google offices in Cambridge,USA, made it clear that he sees Catalan seces-sionism as part of an on-going process of pro-

O gressive cultural and political renovation inEurope. (In March, the veteran left-wing jour-nalist Tariq Ali, writing for The Guardian, saidsomething similar about the Scottish pro-indycampaign). Which is perhaps why, in Catalo-nia, independence is backed by liberal or left-wing parties - together with a massive grass-roots movement which includes plenty ofSpanish-speaking Catalans and ’New Cata-lans’ (residents born outside Spain) - and ismainly opposed by parties which are ultra-

conservative (or worse). In short, the Catalanpush for self-determination could be defined,by and large, as socially concerned, culturallyopen-minded, internationalist in ambitionand - I would dare to add - post-nationalist.Catalonia Today’s Romanian, Jamaican,American, Australian, New Zealand, Argenti-nian, Catalan and English staff will be doingtheir best to keep you posted about it, wellinto the future.

Knife edge

LONG-TERM RESIDENTMATTHEW TREE [email protected]/ ww.matthewtree.cat

There aresigns, how-ever, thatslowly butsurely,people ab-road - theEnglish in-cluded - arenoticingthat what ishappeningin Cataloniais somethingquite new

LLUÍS ROMERO


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OPINION

hat? No way. Really? Ten years?An incalculable volume of lifehas passed beneath the bridge

in the past decade, but it doesn’t feel thatlong.

I (maybe you) don’t feel ten years older. Iconveniently fail to accept my true con-text. People who are ten years senior are,well, old. But people ten years younger are,of course, almost the same age.

Where the passage of time smacks us inthe conscience is in the faces, hopes, apti-tudes and attitudes of children. Only theyare not toddlers or children any more.Babes in arms are set to move from juniorto high school. Eight-year-old free spiritsare suddenly giants, round-shoulderedfrom carrying ten kilo school bags bulgingwith textbooks up the steep incline to adul-thood.

These new adults now look us in the eye,having complied with the educational de-mands spelled out by elders from a differ-ent age. They emerge, perhaps instilledwith a valuable work ethic but more oftenthan not unclear of the relevance of thetrauma other than to see who can thrive,survive or who will fail under duress.

Learning that life if no picnic is an earlylesson. You must pick a path, unsure ornot, and knuckle down or accept your lot.

With the bold, underlined caveat that Ithink teaching is an incredibly challen-ging, vital and persistently undervaluedprofession, I’m firmly of the view that thesystem, particularly at senior level, fails tooffer both teachers and students the timeand support for fundamental issues thatneed to be addressed in close collaborationwith parents and community.

Naturally it serves society to set youngminds on a course that conforms to theneed for educated, committed, responsiblepeople – the next generation of law-abid-ing consumers keeping the delicate econ-omic balances and peace in an unstableworld.

But this is not an industrial process andteachers and students are not machinists,nuts and bolts.

It serves society equally well to haveyoung minds that are positive, curious,compassionate, creative and fulfilled.

We have to stop and take stock.

W Over the years I have dipped into bothjunior and senior school classrooms here inCatalonia, trying to help impart someunderstanding of English, and know someextraordinary teachers, particularly at sen-ior level who, goodness knows how, findtime from nowhere to break from thebooks, to nurture self-worth whatever thegrade, to listen, to impart the life-long les-son that accumulating knowledge andunderstanding is so much easier when youare inspired. That sort of wisdom is con-tagious. Are we teaching children to con-form to our generation’s dated perceptionof the world and at the same time failing togive them the security, curiosity, moralcompass and wisdom to have fulfillinglives?

It is a truly bewildering age in which tobe a teenager. They are conditioned byadult profiteers to be passive consumers ina high-tech world of mass information andcommunication, some of it deeply darkand depressing – a shocking reality that, Ibelieve, has long had the upper-hand intheir attention and education. This all hasa profound psychological and oftendeadening bearing on their view of them-selves, the world and their potential withinit.

A damning, alarming fact of the systemfailing young minds: Spain has recordedthe highest number of school drop-outs inthe European Union for the third year in arow. Nearly a quarter of young Spaniardsgrow tired of the education system andquit before reaching the compulsory age.

What does that teach us? How has edu-cation evolved in the last decade? We all,schools, parents and communities, mustreflect and react to the changing needs ofall young people.

Education, said poet William ButlerYeats, is not the filling of a pail, but thelighting of a fire.

HEADING FOR THE HILLSMARTIN KIRBY [email protected]/ www.mothersgarden.org

It has been an education

A damning,alarming factof the systemfailing youngminds: Spainhas recordedthe highestnumber ofschool drop-outs in theEuropeanUnion for thethird year ina row.

Write to us!How has education evolved over the years?Your opinion is important! We invite you tosend us your feedback and comments [email protected]


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OPINION

10 years reading learnt on your Facebookpage that Catalonia Today is

celebrating its 10th anniver-sary. How time flies! I can re-member back 10 years whenevery day I would go to theBarcelona tourist office to col-lect my copy. Later, when it be-came a weekly I continued toget it and since 2009 I became asubscriber and look forward toit arriving in my letterbox eachmonth. I love your monthly re-ports and they help me withmy English. Reading aboutthings close to home makes iteasier to understand. I look for-ward to spending at least an-other 10 years with you!GEMMA DALMAUManresa.

Liliputonathan Swift wrote Gul-liver’s Travels to satirise the

Whig party and the prime min-ister, Robert Walpole, becausehe was a Tory against George Iof Hanover taking the throne.What this Anglo-Irish writerdid not foresee was that hisown Lilliput (Great Britain)would become an immenseempire that would take overhalf the world. Those Spanishpoliticians of a certain age, whoread the censored and abridged

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versions of the novels of Swiftand Daniel Defoe would dowell to re-read the full versionsand thus realise that quoting

these authors is merely a way ofshooting yourselves in the foot.SALVADOR TARRADASGualta (Baix Empordà)

Europe needs anew direction

he European elections areapproaching. It is hard to

find incentives to take part:there is little connection withsocial needs, the policy of aus-terity has been severe and fore-ign policy is just about mean-ingless in conflicts like those inUkraine and Syria. All of thiscreates discontent and, as a re-sult, the far right parties benefitwith a populist discourse thatblames the “immigrant” whenthe main blame for our predica-ment should go to the financialsystem that, paradoxically, hasrecovered best from the crisis.We should not be swayed bythe xenophobic argument be-cause it is during difficult timesthat people are more suscep-tible to the manipulation ofdrastic and easy solutions. Weneed new policies which putthe interests of the general pub-lic first, so that people can livewith some dignity, and thatcan be extended to the rest ofthe world. As Churchill said,the problems of democracy aresolved with more democracy,which means that tolerance,civic values, respect for othersand empathy are the order ofthe day.MONTSERRAT AVEDAÑO ORDÓ-ÑEZ. Mataró (Maresme).

T

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] Today reserves the right to edit readers’ letters.

I discovered your publication some years ago. It was a fineday and I had to take the train. In the station kiosk I saw themagazine and bought it. On the front cover, there was asmall tomato stuck on the end of a fork; I liked the image alot. This issue was the first monthly issue. Since then I nevermiss it. When I spoke to other expats who live in Catalonia,I was surprised to learn that they were all subscribed to themagazine. I did the same a few months ago. Every month Ilike reading the articles by Neil Stokes, Martin Kirby, Mat-thew Tree and more recently Barney Griffiths. And all of theothers, of course! I have also recently come round to theviews of Josep-Lluís González. However, my favourite sec-tion is My Space, which always has interesting people everymonth. Catalonia Today is, in short, a great way to learnabout how things work in Catalonia.DEBRA SMITHLleida.

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Happy Anniversary

CARTOON OF THE MONTH. SALLY POULSON


apoleon famously labelled Britain(or England at least, it’s hard toknow how precise he was being with

l’Angleterre) “a nation of shopkeepers”. I’ve al-ways found it a strange categorisation, prob-ably because I associate shopkeepers with longhours and hard work, something I don’t as-sociate with my compatriots at all. The 24-hour corner shop phenomenon that haschanged the face of Britain over the past fewdecades has been brought about by immi-grants rather than natives.

Of course, what Napoleon was really say-ing, you would assume, was that Britain’s

source of power derived from its great abilityto trade with the rest of the world. I don’tthink he really meant my ancestors were allshopkeepers. Although you never know, hewas French. And of course Britain still does afantastic trade with the rest of the world, espe-cially in weapons. But let’s overlook thatfrankly unpleasant and hard-to-digest fact forone moment and get to my point, which isthat, curiously, I feel that I’ve ended up livingin a place it would be much more accurate tolabel a nation of shopkeepers: Catalonia. Thistime, however, it’s the natives rather than im-migrants who are doing all the hard work inthat respect.

After nigh on twenty years in the country,it’s hard for me to think of a Catalan I’ve metwho I would label a scrounger. In fact, I’venever even heard the word used in Catalanand my wife insists there isn’t one. Well, shewould. This is not true of Spanish, however -

N I’ve met plenty of gorrones - or of my ownnative culture, where stories of those who liveoff the state fill certain newspapers on a dailybasis.

No, Catalans have an extraordinary entre-preneurial spirit, evidenced by the hugenumber of family businesses and PYMEs (orSMEs in English) that comprise the country’seconomy. And when it comes to personal ex-amples, I have plenty. Take the reaction of thefamilies around me who, when the recent re-cession hit and they saw their work disappear-ing, started up a new business. More precisely,they opened shops and turned themselves

into shopkeepers, with all the long hours,bureaucratic paperwork and hassle that gowith it in this country. And what’s more, in aclimate of no help whatsoever from the finan-cial institutions. What a massively impressiveresponse to adverse circumstances. As a Brit, itmakes me tired just thinking about it. As a Bri-talan, it makes a small part of me proud.

Anecdotally, I remember seeing a Koreanwoman resident of Barcelona speaking on aTV3 talk show a couple of years ago sayingthat Catalans did not know the meaning ofhard work. Well, that just makes me dread tothink what it must be like to live and work inKorea.

Let me end with a statistic: the number ofsmall and medium-sized family businesses inCatalonia is truly impressive – over 600,000,by far the highest of any autonomous region.How many are shopkeepers you ask? That, I’mafraid, I do not know.

Shopkeepers

THE CULTURAL TIGHTROPEBARNEY GRIFFITHS [email protected]

After nighon twentyyears in thecountry, it’shard for meto think of aCatalan I’vemet who Iwould labela scrounger.

LLUÍS ROMERO


BarneyGriffiths

he Catalonia Today team got together for a photo at La Farinera, ElPunt Avui’s headquarters in Girona, to celebrate our 10th anniver-

sary. Clockwise from left, beginning with back row:Martin Kirby: UK journalist and writer who has lived at Mother’s Gardenin Priorat for nearly 14 years, an organic farm he runs together with hiswife, Maggie Whitman. Martin is the author of three books, including Espot beure te amb porro´?, and two screenplays. More than 1000 peoplefrom around the world have stayed in the family’s farm holiday cottage(www.mothersgarden.org).Brett Hetherington has lived in Catalonia (in the Penedès region) since2006. Born in Australia, he is the author of The Remade Parent, a recentlypublished non-fiction book and is a journalist and teacher. Brett startedwriting for Catalonia Today six years ago and is also the team leader ofour English Culture Club.Barney Griffiths was born in Manchester and has lived in Catalonia for19 years. He works mainly as a teacher trainer and also translates aca-demic articles from Catalan to English for publication in internationaljournals. He is also a group leader of the ECClub.Jordi Molins:Design director with El Punt Avui since the beginning.Florentí Morante:Head of art and design of Presència, Barça kids andCatalonia Today.Miquel Berga teaches English Literature at Universitat Pompeu Fabra andis the president of APAC (Associació de Professors d’Anglès de Catalunya)and chief editor at Catalonia Today. He also has a column every Sundayin El Punt Avui.Anna Vicens: Sommelier and wine correspondent for various publicationsand TV channels.Germà Capdevila: Argentinean journalist and editor of digital magazines,he is contributing editor at Catalonia Today. He also has weekly columnsin El Punt Avui and L’Esportiu newspapers and a daily space in El PuntAvui TV.M.Àngels Ribas. Marketing and advertising manager since 2009. Shelives in Girona and has been at El Grup El Punt since 1992.Neil Stokes: Born in the UK, Neil moved to Catalonia in 1991 and nowlives in Alt Penedès. He has been with Catalonia Today since the begin-ning and was the magazine’s editor from 2006 to 2008.Matthew Tree moved from his native London to Barcelona in 1984,when he was 26. He has published 10 books in his second language,Catalan, and two in his mother tongue. He is now promoting his newEnglish novel, SNUG. Matthew regularly appears on TV and radio, andhas a column in El Punt Avui newspaper.Terry Parris has lived in Catalonia for 40 years after spells in England,South Africa, England, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), Cyprus and Jamaica –a life of travel and change. Despite having six children, Terry has foundtime to act, write, broadcast and teach.Marcela Topor. Involved in the magazine since the start, before becom-ing editor Marcela was previously the Review editor. She was born in Ro-mania and has lived in Girona since 1999.Pere Gifra: was born in Barcelona and teaches English language and liter-ature at the Faculty of Humanities of Universitat Pompeu Fabra. One ofhis hobbies is collecting antique travel books, which he usually buys inbook fairs, flea markets or on the net.

Not in the photo:

Nicole Millar, author of A Home of My Own and previously, ofOut&About. Nicole is British and lives near Girona.Joe Hogan, our text editor and at times translator is a Catalan Kiwi whohas lived here since 1985. When not working on Catalonia Today heteaches and is a passionate photographer and chef.Aniol Najera lives in Girona and is an intern with Catalonia Today thisyear. In his free time Aniol composes music and studies English.

T

MARCELA [email protected]

The whole team, 10 years after

CataloniaToday

MatthewTree

MartinKirby Brett

Hetherington

Neil Stokes

Photo: MANEL LLADÓ

NicoleMillar

JoeHogan

AniolNajera

MY SPACE


Miquel Berga

TerryParris

Florentí Morante

MarcelaTopor

M.ÀngelsRibas

JordiMolins Anna Vicens

Germà Capdevila

Pere Gifra

Non-stop fromBarcelona toWellington

hy did you leave Catalonia?Well, it’s the same old story: Love! I met this English

professor from New Zealand at a friend’s party. We got mar-ried a couple of years later, and decided to give New Zealanda try.

How long have you lived there?We moved to New Zealand right after the Barcelona ’92Olympic Games, so it’s more than 20 years now. I have tosay that I always dreamed of living in another country, butNew Zealand wasn’t on my list until I met my husband.

Are you happy in your adopted country?After so many years living here, I can say that this is myhome now, though I do feel homesick when visiting familyand friends in Catalonia. This is a small, beautiful country,and my three children were born here. I can totally say thatI am very happy living in New Zealand.

What do you think is the best thing about living there?Well, nature is simply stunning here. Not only the land-scape, but also the plants and the animals that you can onlyfind in New Zealand. And Wellington, while it is thecountry’s capital, it’s still not a huge city, so you can have aquiet life with all the benefits of a capital city: theatres, cin-emas, shops, restaurants, museums, and so on. We live in asuburban area called Hataitai, which is very near to the citybut just far enough away! And it’s a five-minute walk toEvan’s Bay, a beautiful place to enjoy the sea.

What would you most like to change?The weather, absolutely! Winters are rainy and foggy. Andthe fear of quakes, too. Wellington has high seismic activity,since we have our very own “San Andreas Fault” runningthrough the centre of the city. People here are used to livingwith several small earthquakes every year, but I’m not!

Do you plan to go back to Catalonia?I don’t think so. I am a kiwi now! I love going back to Cata-lonia to visit my family and my old friends, and to enjoythe food and the weather, but as I said before, I feel thatNew Zealand is my home.

W

MONTSE CASADO Married to a Kiwi20 years ago in Barcelona, the couplesoon moved to Wellington, where shetakes care of a family of five.

CATALANS ABROAD

Can you recommend a place to have lunchwith friends?If you are not looking for an equivalent of ElCeller de Can Roca or el Bulli, I’d suggest visit-ing Fidel’s Cafe. The atmosphere is fantastic,and you will get great service and tasty food.Try the pasta salads and don’t miss out on thenachos!

What is the best time of year to plan avisit?Avoid the winter if you can. Spring andsummer are both perfect options to come andenjoy this beautiful city.

What is the area’s best kept secret?At the top of the cable car in the BotanicalGardens there is a tree. Some people call it thetripping tree, I’ll let you work out why. It’svery easy to climb and the top is almost like afloor. You get an amazing view of Wellingtonat night or on a nice sunny day.

Some suggestions


A HOME OF MY OWN

henever I watch Grand De-signs, an English TV pro-gramme that shows people

building their dream homes, I am alwaysamazed at their naivety. Can they not seethat it is going to take longer and going tocost more than they originally thought?

Well, I’ve fallen into the same trap. If Ihad been filmed believing my builderswhen they said I would move into thehouse in September, a year after workstarted, then viewers would be entitled toshout the same accusations at the TV!

I suppose that when you are the one im-mersed in a project, it is hard to take a stepback and see the overall picture. In my de-fence, I would just say that this is my firstbuild and in the hands of the workforce: ifthey told me it would be ready by a certaindate, I had no reason not to believe them!

The day after the Mayday bank holiday,we drove down to have a look at the housebut it was locked up with no one workingon site. This was a turning point for us.The architect had a strong word with thebuilders and everyone is now working flatout to get everything finished. It is a trickysituation; we like the builder and have a lotof respect for him and we don’t want tofall out with him. We need to keep themfocused and get to the end. It is the samestory with anyone who has built a house; itslows down towards the end, withworkmen looking towards their next job.

Though progress seems slow, there areconstant changes still and it is excitingseeing the house grow with every visit.Each week the meetings with the architectare full of detailed decisions to be made.

By the time this article goes to print thewooden floors will be going down, which,amazingly, takes almost two weeks. Oncethat is done, then the bathrooms and a fewother things can be finished off.

At least my kitchen is in, and so is theoven and fridge, which I am just itching tostart using. It looks wonderful and really

W

brings the house together and makes itlook more like a real home.

There is still work to be done on the out-side but that really will be the final touch.As of now, the builders are saying six moreweeks and we will be in. The question iswhether I can believe them. In short, theanswer is ‘no’; I’ve learnt my lesson. Yet, tobe honest, it really does not matter muchnow if it takes six weeks or three months.We will have to be patient, knowing thatone day very soon we will be there andlooking back on this exciting journey ofbuilding a house, wondering what all theworry was about. At least I can imagine theend result now and can picture us livingthere, which is something I haven’t beenable to do until very recently.

Last month, I was lucky enough to be upin a gorgeous place called L’Avenc, close to

Rupit, where I was given a tour of the mainmanor house. What the owners wentthough to create a home for themselveswas quite extraordinary and extremelybrave. What we have done with ours is nota patch on that. Nevertheless, it has beenan incredible journey, a lot of, as well asfrustrating, nerve-racking and stressfulrolled into one. Yet, I am relieved it wasn’ta bigger project; I am not sure I would havethe guts for that, and I am pleased that wehave something that we can now call ourhome for many, many years to come.

So on the 10th anniversary of CataloniaToday, I bring this series about ‘Building aHouse in Catalonia’ to a close. Perhaps Iwill do a Grand Design Revisited in a year’stime and let you know how life is in ourlittle castle that we bought almost threeyears ago.

BUILDING A HOUSE IN CATALONIA

The end is nighNicole Millar [email protected]


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CATALONIA

Spanish governmentplans to halve CatalanPublic TV channelfrequenciesThe Catalan executive raised thealarm on May 19, saying that theSpanish industry ministry is plan-ning to take away one of the twomultiplexes run by the Catalan pub-lic television broadcaster (TVC). Byhalving the spectrum available forCatalan public television — whichtraditionally has the highest audi-ence share in Catalonia — the Span-ish government will force the broad-caster to reduce its number of chan-nels to a maximum of four (sincethere are four channels in each multi-plex). The Spanish government’s

decision would mean a reduction inTVC’s channels, making the broad-caster either cut its HD emissions, de-crease the presence of cultural con-tent, eliminate its sports channel orno longer offer TV channels fromother Catalan-speaking areas,mainly the Balearic Islands and Val-encia. This would decrease TVC’saudience and therefore its influence,as it would lose content and competi-tors would continue to broadcast inHD. Therefore, this might also bring areduction in advertising income anda consequent weakening of publicservice broadcasting and the pre-sence of Catalan language and cul-ture in the media. The Catalan gov-ernment sees “an undoubted” politi-cal motivation in this decision,

which its says aims to decrease the in-fluence of Catalan-speaking mediaby rendering TVC “residual” in thecurrent self-determination debate.

Girona’s Temps deFlors flower festivalhighest success everGirona was filled again with thou-sands of flowers to celebrate Tempsde Flors, the most important Catalanflower exhibition and an vital annualsocial and cultural event for the city.In its 59th edition, Temps de Florsboasted a total of 185 different freeexhibitions, including the lovely his-toric patios and some new sights,such as the Cathedral basement orthe Casa Pastors. As usual, most of the

apanese car manufacturer Nis-san has launched the new Pulsar,

a new five-door version of theexisting compact car, at Madrid’sAutomobile Fair. The new vehiclewill be assembled in Barcelona’sZona Franca plant, located next tothe city’s harbour. In order to buildthe new Pulsar, Nissan will invest110 million euros in the Catalanplant and will hire up to 1,000

JNissan to invest 110 million and hire 1,000 workers

workers by 2015. Nissan’s Barcelonaplant was already in the news in Mayas it began production of the neweNV200 electric van for the globalmarket.The new Pulsar will start pro-duction in July, so as to be on the mar-ket from October this year. Nissan isplanning to produce 80,000 units ofthis model per year. According to theDirector General of Nissan Iberia,Marco Toro, the assignment to build

the new Pulsar endorses the com-petitiveness and projection of theBarcelona plant. Nissan decided toallocate further cars to the Catalanplant after the company and theunions reached an agreement bywhich salaries were reduced inorder to increase competitivenessand ensure the arrival of new pro-jects, such as the eNV200 and the-new Pulsar.

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WHAT THE FOREIGN PRESS SAYS ABOUT CATALONIA

he more likely outcome is that MrMas will call a new election which

separatist parties will treat as a plebis-cite on independence, in effect makingit a referendum. That would shunt con-frontation off. But it is unclear whenany election might be called. Mr Mas

T

Is Cataluña the Next Crimea?pain’s governing party must mod-erate its zeal for false metaphors if

they wish to take a seat at the EU fore-ign policy table as adults rather thanpetulant children who are myopicallyfocused on their own internal disputesrather than geopolitics. Not only do

S

Wars of Spanish secessioncould wait until 2016, after Spain’s gen-eral election next year. But he will bepressed to move sooner. A new separ-atist government would then comeunder pressure from hardliners tomake a unilateral declaration of inde-pendence. (May 3, 2014)

these outbursts undermine moresound arguments against Catalan inde-pendence but they demean the audac-ity and illegality of Russia’s Crimean in-vasion. Not all independence is thesame .

(May 2, 2014)

spots were in the open air, so touristscould appreciate them while strollingthrough the heart of Girona. This year’sedition included an emotional tribute toMaria Cobarsí, the promoter of the festi-val who died in 2013. The origin of Tempsde Flors dates back to 1954, when it wasborn as an indoor exhibition supportedby the city council. Gradually, this floralexperience began to spread to other partsof the city thanks to the selfless partici-pation of amateurs and professionals.During the days of the flower festival, thecity of Girona also programmed a largenumber of varied cultural activities. Inplaça Independència , a stage was set upwhere daily musical performances wereoffered by ’a cappella’ singing groups. Forfiner tastes, there were up to 41 restau-rants with special menus in which flowerblossoms were the main ingredient. Sug-gestive proposals such as salad withshrimp and petals, fruit tartar of mint andviolets or beef burger with rosemaryflowers, are just some examples of thedishes that could be tasted last month inGirona.

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Photography Competition ANNIVERSARYThank you all for participating in our contest. This month we publish the winning photo along with an overviewof the best shots published in the past two years. We hope you enjoy them and challenge you to a new adventurefor next month. Theme: BEACHES. Send your pics to [email protected] before June 16. Good luck!

The winning photo: A special cake for a special dayPaula Sau FigueresThe jury loved the photo of this festive cake taken for September 11 lastyear in a Girona pastry shop. Congratulations Paula!

FEATURE


Food (September 2012) by Francesc de Diego

Nature (November 2012) by Antoni Portela

Winter (February 2013) Elisabeth Reixach

Holidays (October 2012) by Liam O’Brien

Old Christmas (December 2012)by Àngels Ansaldo

Carnival (March 2013) Peter Whalley

FEATURE


Flowers (July 2013) by Joan Torres Nalda

Cities (June 2013) by Francesc de Diego.

Flowers (April 2013) by Jasar Garbi Countryside (May 2013) by John Boliart Romero

Holidays (September2013) by Joan Torres Nalda


September 11 (October 2013) by Jaume Guillamet Thomas

Animals (December 2013) By Debra Foremsky

Strongtramuntana

in Begur(January

2014)by Joan Torres Nalda

FEATURE


Cooking (March 2014) by Albert Vilaró.

Windows (November 2013) by Anna Solà

Sports (February 2014) by Jordi Fonts

Funny (April 2014) by Inès Tell de Pallejà

Spring colours (May 2014) by Andrea Bosch


FEATURE


JUNE 15CATALONIA TODAYIS BORN

First Catalan newspaper inEnglish appears, free, dailyand available in news-stands across the country

PRODUCT OF THEYEAR FACEBOOK

FILM OF THE YEARLOS CHICOS DELCORO Cristophe Barratier

CAR OF THE YEARCITROËN C2

Some 300,000 people died or wentmissing after a tsunami assaulted thecoasts of various countries includingIndonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thail-and. The giant waves, as high as 30metres, were caused by an earthquakebeneath the Indian Ocean. Measuring9 points on the Richter scale, the tsu-nami became the deadliest natural cat-astrophe of modern times.

DECEMBER 26................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Tsunami tragedy in Southeast Asia

Effects of the tsunami in Thailand / AP

A total of 191 commuters died and1,700 were injured when bombs ex-ploded on three trains during themorning rush hour in Madrid. The at-tack took place three days before a gen-eral election. The PP government ini-tially attributed the attack to ETA.However, Al Qaida later claimed re-sponsibility for the attack as a reprisalfor the invasion of Iraq.

MARCH 11................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Madrid attack causes 191 deaths

One of the trains attacked / EFE

JANUARY 23European space

mission, Mars Express,

finds signs of water at

the south pole of planet

Mars.

JANUARY 27Catalan minister

Josep-Lluís

Carod-Rovira resigns

after meeting with

representatives of the

Basque separatist

group ETA.

MARCH 20Mass demonstrations

take place in cities all

over Spain against the

US-led occupation of

Iraq.

MAY 9Inauguration of the

Fòrum

Universal de les

Cultures in Barcelona

MAY 22Spain’s crown prince

Felipe marries former

journalist, Letizia Ortiz.

IN SHORT......................................................

Ronald ReaganUS PRESIDENT

A 14-year oldboy was accusedof terrorismafter demand-ing that the Diasupermarketchain label pro-ducts in Cata-lan. Bertran later recounted hisexperiences in the book, Èric il’Exèrcit del Fènix.

Èric BertranACTIVIST

The formerChairman ofthe PalestineLiberation Or-ganization andPresident of thePalestinianNational Auth-ority died aged 75. Arafat won aNobel Peace Prize with YitzhakRabin and Shimon Peres in 1994.

Yasser ArafatPALESTINIAN LEADER

Former US presi-dent, RonaldReagan, died atthe age of 93.Reagan’s presi-dency, from1981 to 1988,was characte-rised by his radical supply-sideeconomic policies and stronganti-Communist sentiments.

KEY FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

BOOK OF THE YEARLes veus del pamanoJaume Cabré


JANUARY 13CATALONIA TODAYBECOMES WEEKLY

A new revamped formatand more varied content

PRODUCT OF THEYEARELECTRONIC DNI

FILM OF THE YEARMAR ADENTROAlejandro Amenabar

CAR OF THE YEARPEUGEOT 407

Tunnelling work on line 5 of the Barce-lona metro caused a huge cave-in atthe station in the Carmel neighbour-hood. The accident required theevacuation of around a hundrednearby buildings, while more than2,000 local people had to be rehoused.The accident became a political hotpotato at the time, damaging the tri-partite Generalitat coalition.

JANUARY 25................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Carmel metro tunnel collapse

Affected buildings./ ORIOL PUIG

Agbar tower, Barcelona’s new land-mark is officially open on September16. Equally admired and criticised,qualified by many as a “vibrator” or“suppository”, it is designed by Frencharchitect Jean Nouvel, who describedit as a geyser erupting from the Catalanearth, an image he claims first came tohim from the rounded spires of Mont-serrat, Catalonia’s famous mountain.

SEPTEMBER 16................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Agbar tower officially inaugurated

Agbar Tower in Glòries./ ARCHIVE

APRIL 2Karol Józef Wojtyla,

better known as Pope

John Paul II, dies in the

Vatican at the age of 84.

He was the

second-longest

serving pope.

APRIL 14Approval of proposed

legislation for the

return to Catalonia of

the so-called

’Salamanca Papers’,

documents that were

confiscated after the

Civil War.

MAY 2822-year old Josep Maria

Isanta is stabbed to

death during the Patum

festivities in Berga after

being attacked by a

group of 15 people.

SEPTEMBER 16The .cat internet

domain name is

approved.

IN SHORT......................................................

Fernando AlonsoFORMULA 1 RACING DRIVER

2005 was the50th anniver-sary of the scien-tist’s death.Born in Ger-many but latersettling in theUS, Einstein isbest-known for developing thegeneral theory of relativity,which revolutionised physics.

As manyas100,000 sup-porters took thestreets of Barce-lona in May tosalute the Barce-lona players asthey toured thecity in an open-topped bus aftertheir draw at Levante securedtheir 17th league title.

Albert EinsteinTHEORETICAL PHYSICIST

FC BarcelonaFOOTBALL TEAM

The Asturianwon his firstworld Formula 1title to becomethe youngestracing driver towin the honourat the age of 24.The following year, Alonsowould go on to retain his titlewith the same Renault team.

KEY FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

BOOK OF THE YEARA peu per Mallorca senseveure el mar / Josep MariaEspinàs

FEATURE


MARCH 9MARKET LEADERIN ENGLISH

Catalonia Today consoli-dates its position as thecountry’s leading publi-cation in English

PRODUCT OF THEYEAR NINTENDO WII

FILM OF THE YEARTHE DA VINCI CODERon Howard


On July 3 at 1pm, a train on line 1 ofthe Valencia metro, with 150 pass-engers on board, derailed causing thedeaths of 43 people and leaving 47others injured. The investigation intothe accident concluded that the trainhad been travelling at twice theallowed speed of 40 kph. Later, the Val-encia high court ordered a second in-vestigation into the accident.

43 deaths in metro accident

JULY 3................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The first metro carriage / EFE

After two years in court, on November5, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hus-sein was sentenced to death after beingfound guilty of crimes against hu-manity by the Iraqi high court. Hus-sein’s hanging was broadcast live overthe internet on December 30. In thesame year, another former dictatormet his death when Augusto Pinochetdied of a heart attack at the age of 91.

Hussein hanged in public

DECEMBER 30................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Hussein just before his death / AP

JANUARY 1Legislation prohibiting

smoking in enclosed

public spaces in Spain

comes into effect.

APRIL 30For the first time, a

nuclear power station

in Spain is definitively

closed.

AUGUST 23Natascha Kampusch

manages to escape

from a homemade cell

in Austria where she

had been held captive

for eight years.

NOVEMBER 24Socialist leader José

Montilla becomes

President de la

Generalitat de

Catalunya.

DECEMBER 30Basque armed

separatists ETA carries

out a bomb attack on

Madrid’s Barajas

airport.

IN SHORT......................................................

Pedro Martínez de laRosaF1 DRIVER

De la Rosa be-came the firstCatalan driverto win a podiumplace after com-ing second inthe HungaryGrand Prix. He has raced withJordan, Arrows, Jaguar, McLaren,Sauber, HRT F1 Team and Ferrari.

Rafel NadalTENNIS PLAYER

2006 wasAnnan’s finalyear at the headof the UnitedNations. His te-nure had beenmarked by aneconomic scan-dal, focusing attention on hisfight against poverty and start-ing a reform of the organisation.

Kofi AnnanUN SECRETARY GENERAL

KEY FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Nadal surpassedGuillermoVilas’s record of53 consecutivevictories on claycourts. Nadalwent on to clockup 81 victoriesby the end of the season. The fol-lowing year, he won his secondGrand Slam.

BOOK OF THE YEARL’església del mar /Ildefonso Falcones


NOVEMBER 2007THIRD YEAR AS AWEEKLY

Catalonia Today improvesits design and introducesnew sections

PRODUCT OF THEYEAR PLAYSTATION 3

FILM OF THE YEARAMERICANGANGSTER Ridley Scott


The McCann family from the UK wereon holiday in Portugal when theirfour-year old daughter Madeleinewent missing. The parents had leftMadeleine asleep with her two-yearold twin siblings in the room whilethey had dinner. On returning, Mad-eleine had disappeared. A long investi-gation and global search began Mad-eleine has still not been found.

Madeleine McCann goes missing

MAY 3................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Madeleine’s parents./ EFE

The former president of the Generali-tat and former PSC leader, Pasqual Ma-ragall, announced that he had beensuffering from Alzheimer’s disease forsome months. Maragall made his an-nouncement at the Sant Pau hospitalin Barcelona after a visit to the Unitatde Memòria. At the same time, Marag-all made a commitment to helping tocombat the degenerative disorder.

Maragall makes Alzheimer’s public

OCTOBER 20................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Maragall at the press conference

JANUARY 1Lleida begins its

12-month stint as the

new Capital de la

Cultura Catalana.

MARCH 16The Generalitat in

Valencia decides to cut

broadcasts of TV3 to its

entire region.

APRIL 16Some 32 victims are left

dead after a school

shooting by a lone

gunman at the Virginia

Polytechnic Institute in

Blacksburg in the US in

what has become

known as the Virginia

Tech massacre.

JUNE 6The Basque armed

separatist group ETA

announces the end of its

self-imposed ceasefire.

JULY 23A huge blackout in

Barcelona leaves

300,000 customers

without electricity.

IN SHORT......................................................

Lluís LlachSINGER-SONGWRITER

Lluís Llachbrought hismusical careerto an end withtwo concerts onMarch 24 and25. The con-certs, in hishometown of Verges, attracted5,000 spectators each, with thou-sands watching live on TV3.

Nicolas SarkozyPOLITICIAN

On March 11,The body of in-dependence ac-tivist LluísMaria Xirinacswas found in awooded area ofOgassa in Ri-pollès. Initially believed to besuicide, an autopsy showed thathe had died of natural causes.

Lluís Maria XirinacsACTIVIST

KEY FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

On March 6,centre-rightcandidate, Ni-colas Sarkozy,won the Frenchpresidentialelections. Sar-kozy took overfrom Jacques Chirac as presidentof the French republic, who hadbeen in the post since 1995.

BOOK OF THE YEAREl pont dels jueus / MartíGironell

FEATURE

DECEMBER 1NEW MONTHLYFORMAT

Catalonia Today becomesa full-colour monthly ma-gazine, with more pagesand in-depth content

PRODUCT OF THEYEA 3G IPHONE

FILM OF THE YEARVICKY CRISTINABARCELONAWoody Allen

CAR OF THE YEARHYUNDAI I30

The long-awaited high-speed rail linkbetween Madrid and Barcelona be-came operative on February 20. Thelink was originally planned to open in1995 but the central government gavepriority to the Madrid-Seville link. Inthe end, Barcelona was forced to wait16 years for a high-speed connection,without any date given for the linkfrom the Catalan capital to Paris.

High-speed train gets to Barcelona

FEBRUARY 20................................................................................................................................................................................................................

High-speed train arrives / ARCHIVE

PSOE won the March 9 election, ensur-ing that socialist leader José Luis Rodrí-guez Zapatero remained Spain’s primeminister for another term. With over11 million votes, the socialists secured169 seats in parliament, giving theparty a simple majority. However, in2011, Rodríguez Zapatero would callan early election, which the PP centreright party would go on to win.

Rodríguez Zapatero gains relection

MARCH 9................................................................................................................................................................................................................

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero / EFE

MARCH 13The high court throws

out the case against 16

men prosecuted for

burning photos of the

king during a protest in

Girona.

JUNE 14The expo dedicated to

water and sustainable

development begins in

the city of Zaragoza.

JULY 30NASA’s Phoenix Mars

Lander confirms the

existence of frozen

water on the Red Planet.

APRIL 20Franki, a young man

from Terrassa, is

imprisoned for

removing and

damaging the Spanish

flag flying over the local

council building.

AUGUST 8The 29th Olympic

Games begin in the

Chinese capital of

Beijing.

IN SHORT......................................................

Ingrid BetancourtCOLOMBIAN POLITICIAN

On November4, BarackObama won theUS election withmore than 62million votes,making him thefirst black presi-dent in the country’s history. Hisinvestiture as president tookplace on January 20.

Marc GasolBASKETBALL PLAYER

KEY FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Politician IngridBetancourt wasfreed by the Co-lombian armytogether with14 other hos-tages on July 2.Her captivityhad lasted a total of 2,321 daysafter she was kidnapped in Febru-ary of 2002.

Barack ObamaUS PRESIDENT

Marc Gasolmade his debutin the NBAleague in Nov-ember, makinga great impres-sion by securing12 points for hisnew team, the MemphisGrizzlies. Before that, Gasol hadplayed for Akasvayu Girona.

BOOK OF THE YEARL’últim patriarca /Najat El Hachmi


DECEMBER 1A POWERFUL MEDIAGROUP

El Punt buys L’Avui news-paper and El Punt Avui isborn

PRODUCT OF THEYEAR TDT

FILM OF THE YEARINGLORIOSBASTARDS QuentinTarantino

CAR OF THE YEARCITROËN C5

Arenys de Munt became the first mu-nicipality in Catalonia to hold a voteon independence. The ’yes’ optionwon with 96.2% of the vote, despite at-tempts by some Spanish nationalistgroups to organise a boycott. The initi-ative spawned a series of similar votesin municipalities around the country,providing an impetus to the cause ofself-determination.

SEPTEMBER 13................................................................................................................................................................................................................

First local independence vote

People at Centre Moral in Arenys./ EFE

The Gürtel case was an investigationinto allegations of political corruptionlinked to the PP party. The case beganwhen the high court ordered an inves-tigation into corruption allegationscentered around Madrid, Valencia andCosta del Sol. The suspects in the case,including supposed ringleader, Fran-cisco Correa, were accused of money-laundering, tax fraud and bribery.

FEBRUARY 6................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Gürtel corruption case linked to PP

Francisco Camps./ EFE

JANUARY 19Celebration of the first

edition of the Catalan

cinema awards known

as the Premis Gaudí.

FEBRUARY 7Major forest fires in

Australia cause some

189 deaths.

MARCH 18Students and police

clash at Barcelona

university when the

authorities attempt to

remove protestors

against the educational

reforms known as the

Bologna Process .

JUNE 30The first stage of the

process to phase out

analogue television in

favour of digital TV

begins around the

Països Catalans.

OCTOBER 29The so-called Pretoria

political corruption

scandal erupts in Santa

Coloma de Gramenet.

IN SHORT......................................................

Pepe RubianesACTOR AND COMEDIAN

The ’King ofPop’, MichaelJackson, died onJune 25 at theage of 50. Jack-son had been aleading figure ofmodern popu-lar culture for four decades. Hisalbum Thriller remains the best-selling record of all time.

FC Barcelonastriker, LionelMessi won theBallon d’Oraward in Paris,making him thefirst Barçaplayer to winthe distinction. That year, Messialso received the World Playeraward and World Soccer prize.

Michael JacksonSINGER-SONGWRTIER

Lionel MessiFOOTBALLER

José RubianesAlegret, better-known as PepeRubianes, diedon March 1 inBarcelona. Theactor and direc-tor was much-loved for his humourous mono-logues and was a major popularcultural figure in Catalonia.

KEY FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

BOOK OF THE YEARThe Girl Who Kicked theHornets’ Nest Stieg Larsson



FEATURE

JUNEGROWING ANDGETTING BETTER

New sections involvingthe readers appear, suchas the photo competitionand short story contest

PRODUCT OF THEYEAR IPAD

FILM OF THE YEARPA NEGREAgustí Villaronga

CAR OF THE YEAROPEL ASTRA

One and a half million people floodedBarcelona’s passeig de Gràcia in an or-ganised protest against amendmentsmade by Spain’s high court to Catalo-nia’s statute of autonomy, the Estatut.The demonstration, which includedmany of the country’s leading politi-cians, quickly became a mass call forthe country’s right to self-determi-nation.

Mass Estatut turnout in Barcelona

JULY 10................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Estelades on Passeig de Gràcia./ J. R.

A large part of the Girona region wasbrought to a standstill on March 8 byunexpected snowfalls. While theproblems caused to the transport net-work were quickly dealt with, electric-ity pylons damaged by ice left someareas of Costa Brava without power fordays. The failures in the power infra-structure led the government to fineenergy company Endesa.

Heavy snow paralyses Girona

MARCH 8................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Snow in Girona./ MANEL LLADÓ

JANUARY 17The new

Lleida-Alguaire airport

opens. It is the first

airport under Catalan

jurisdiction.

JULY 28Popular legislation is

passed banning

bullfighting events in

Catalonia.

AUGUST 5A mine collapse in Chile

traps 33 miners

underground, where

they are forced to

remain until finally

rescued in October.

AUGUST 19The last US combat

troops leave Iraq,

putting an end to the

war that began in March

2003.

SEPTEMBER 29As the effects of the

global economic crisis

continue, a widespread

general strike is held

across Spain.

IN SHORT......................................................

Baltasar GarzónFORMER JUDGE

Despite servingas chief ministerin the Pujol gov-ernment andlater winningtwo electionsyet remaininghead of the op-position thanks to the tripartitecoalition, Artur Mas finally se-cured the Catalan presidency.

Julian AssangeFOUNDER OF WIKILEAKS

KEY FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The judge andmedia favouritedue to his in-volvement inhigh profilecases was sus-pended in Mayfor overstep-ping his jurisdiction with an in-vestigation into crimes com-mitted by the Franco regime.

Artur MasCATALAN PRESIDENT

In November,Wikileaks begandisseminatingsecret docu-ments on the in-ternet takenfrom 250,000intercepted USdiplomatic communications.Soon after, Assange was accusedof rape by a Swedish court.

BOOK OF THE YEARMaletes perdudesJordi Puntí


APRILBUILDINGCOMMUNITY

Catalonia Today createsthe first English CultureClub

PRODUCT OF THEYEAR SAMSUNGGALAXY S II

FILM OF THE YEARBLACK SWANDarren Aronofsky

CAR OF THE YEARHYUNDAI IX35

The so-called ’indignat’ movement ap-peared out of a protest organised onMay 15 by a variety of groups. Thenight of the demonstration, some 40people camped out in Madrid’s mainsquare, Puerta del Sol, causing adomino effect in other places aroundSpain, including Barcelona. The mainfocus of the movement was a call for amore participatory democracy.

’Els indignats’ take to the squares

MAY 15................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Indignats in Plaça Catalunya./R.R.

US president Barack Obama an-nounced the death of Osama BinLaden, after the Al Qaeda leader wasshot by special forces in Pakistan. Theworld’s most wanted terrorist hadbeen hiding out some 80 kilometresfrom the capital, Islamabad. Accord-ing to US authorities, after a DNA testBin Laden’s remains were buried at seaaccording to Muslim tradition.

MAY 2................................................................................................................................................................................................................

US special forces kill Bin Laden

Bin Laden during an interview

JANUARY 10Basque separatists ETA

announce a

permanent,

self-imposed ceasefire.

FEBRUARY 21A popular uprising

erupts in Libya against

the regime of

Muammar Gaddafi,

who would be found

and killed by the rebels

in October.

MARCH 11An earthquake and

resulting tsunami off

the coast of Japan

causes an emergency at

the Fukushima nuclear

power plant.

JULY 21With the landing of the

Atlantis in the US, the

era of the space shuttle

comes to an end.

JULY 20Francisco Camps

resigns as the president

of Valencia due to his

association with the

Gürtel corruption case.

IN SHORT......................................................

Lionel MessiFOOTBALLER

Barça forwardLeo Messi wonthe Balon d’Oraward for thesecond con-secutive year.Messi wasjoined by team-mates, Andrés Iniesta and XaviHernández, who were awardedthe second and third prizes.

After five yearsin captivity, Is-raeli sergeant,Gilad Shalit,was freed in Oc-tober as part ofan agreementbetween Hamasand the Israeli government. Inreturn, the Israelis agreed to re-lease 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

D. Strauss-KhanFORMER IMF DIRECTOR

Gilad ShalitISRAELI SOLDIER

KEY FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The directorgeneral of theIMF was ar-rested in NewYork on May 14,accused by ahotel maid ofsexual assault.Strauss-Khan was forced to re-sign and abandon his intentionto run for the French presidency.

BOOK OF THE YEARL’arqueòleg / Martí Gironell


FEATURE

JANUARYPICK OF THE CROP

Guide to the bestof the country’sfood and drink

PRODUCT OF THEYEAR L’ESTELADA

FILM OF THE YEARFÈNIX 11.23Joel Joan/ Sergi Lara


Some 1.5 million people flood Barce-lona’s city centre in a demonstrationcalling for the independence of Cata-lonia. The mass protest took place in afestival atmosphere, with many par-ticipants arriving from places all overthe country. The march ended with astatement read out in a number of dif-ferent languages.

Huge independence demo in BCN

SEPTEMBER 11................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The march was huge and peaceful

The more than 4,200 people aboardthe cruise ship Costa Concòrdia ex-perienced a living nightmare in Janu-ary when the vessel began to sink nearthe island of Giglio, in Tuscany. Afterhitting a rock, the cruise ship becamegrounded on a sandbank, complicat-ing the rescue operation. In all, 32people died in the accident and 64were injured.

JANUARY 13................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Cruise ship sinks off Italian coast

The wreck of Costa Concòrdia

JANUARY 1Legislation prohibiting

bullfighting events in

Catalonia comes into

effect.

JULY 22Two forest fires in the

Alt Empordà area

threaten many places in

the Girona counties.

SEPTEMBER 3The Ajuntament of Sant

Pere de Torelló passes a

motion in favour of the

independence of

Catalonia.

NOVEMBER 1Five young women die

in a tragic accident

during a Halloween

party in the disco,

Madrid Arena.

DECEMBER 14A shooting takes place

in the Sandy Hook

Elementary School in

Connecticut, when a

20-year-old fatally shot

20 children and six staff

members.

IN SHORT......................................................

Josep GuardiolaFOOTBALL COACH

Former playerand coach, PepGuardiola, an-nounced inApril that hewould leave FCBarcelona at theend of the sea-son, after leading the clubthrough the most successfulperiod of its history.

Antoni Tàpies,one of Catalo-nia’s leading20th-centuryartists, died onFebruary 6 aged88. The Barce-lona-born artisthas his own foundation knownas the Fundació Antoni Tàpies inthe Catalan capital.

Artur MasCATALAN PRESIDENT

Antoni TàpiesARTIST

KEY FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

In September,the President ofthe Generalitatcalled an earlyelection forNovember, stat-ing that the mo-ment had ar-rived for self-determination. Theelections would have an un-precedented turnout.

BOOK OF THE YEARMemòria d’uns ulls pintatsLluís Llach


NOVEMBERPAU CASALS

In the service of peace:Forty years since thedeath of Pau Casals

PRODUCT OF THEYEAR 4K TV

FILM OF THE YEARGRAVITY Alfonso Cuarón


The so-called Via Catalana took placeon Catalonia’s national day, a 400-kilometre long human chain, fromone side of the country to the other, infavour of independence. It is esti-mated that some 1.6 million peopletook part in the initiative proposed bythe Assemblea Nacional Catalana. Theevent was accompanied by a range ofcultural activities around the country.

Human chain for independence

SEPTEMBER 11................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Human chain at Vinarós./EFE

On January 23, the Catalan parlia-ment passed a declaration of sover-eignty on the right of Catalonia to aprocess of self-determination. Themotion was passed with 85 votes in fa-vour, 41 against and two abstentions.On March 13, a parliamentary major-ity approved a motion for the Gener-alitat to begin a dialogue on a referen-dum with the central government.

Parliament backs self-determination

JANUARY 23................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The Catalan parliament./ O. DURAN

FEBRUARY 28Pope Benedict XVI

announces he is giving

up his position as the

head of the Catholic

Church; it is the first

time this has happened

for centuries.

MARCH 8Venezuela’s

controversial

president, Hugo

Chávez, dies and is

given a state funeral.

MAY 19Disturbances take

place in Stockholm

after police cause the

death of a young

immigrant.

JUNE 14Whisteblower Edward

Snowden reveals the

NSA’s global operation

monitoring private

digital communication.

JUNE 24Train accident in

Santiago de

Compostela leaves

more than 80 dead.

IN SHORT......................................................

Salvador EspriuWriter

2013 was desig-nated as the offi-cial Any Espriu,to commemor-ate the centen-ary of thewriter’s birth.Cultural eventsand celebrations took place allover the country celebrating Es-priu’s work.

Roca brothersChefs

The former UKprime ministerdied on April 8.Thatcher madehistory by be-coming Bri-tain’s first fe-male primeminister. She was a controversialfigure due to her radical conser-vative reforms and abrasive style.

Margaret ThatcherBritish politician

KEY FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

On April 29, inLondon, Cellerde Can Roca wasnamed as the’best restaurantin the world’ bythe prestigiousRestaurant Ma-gazine. The Michelin starred ea-tery in Girona is run by the Rocabrothers: Joan, Josep and Jordi.

BOOK OF THE YEARVictusAlbert Sánchez Piñol


FEATURE

JUNE10TH ANNIVERSARY

Catalonia Today celebratesa decade of publishingnews in English

PRODUCT OF THEYEARWHATSAPP

FILM OF THE YEAR12 YEARS A SLAVESteve McQueen

The largest international rescue oper-ation took place this year when a Ma-laysia Airlines plane went missing onMarch 8. Flight 370 was a scheduledflight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijingthat went missing an hour after ta-keoff. On board were 12 crewmembers and 227 passengers from 14nations. Despite the huge search nodebris or crash site has been found.

MARCH 8................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Malaysian airline plane disappears

The military search for the plane.

JANUARY 23Sandro Rosell resigns

as Barça president over

allegations of the

misappropriation of

funds.

MARCH 16In a referendum, Crimea

votes to secede from

Ukraine and join Russia

MARCH 23Adolfo Suárez, Spain’s

first democratic PM

after Franco dies.

IN SHORT......................................................

Killian JornetEXTREME SPORTSMAN

Vilanova, whotook over asBarça headcoach after PepGuardiola, diedon April 25 atthe age of 45.Tito won theleague title in his first season incharge, stepping down in July2013 due to ill health.

This year is theofficial centen-ary year of thepoet, Joan Vi-nyolí. He pub-lished his firstcollection,Primer desenl-laç (First Outcome) in 1937. Inthe 1970s he received wides-pread recognition for his work.

KEY FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Tito VilanovaFORMER BARÇA COACH

Joan VinyoliPOET

World cham-pion skier andmountainrunner, Saba-dell-born Jornetwas named Ad-venturer of theYear byNational Geographic magazine.Jornet describes himself as “alover of mountains”.

BOOK OF THE YEARThe Analphabet Who KnewHow to CountJonas Jonasson

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OPINION

t is evident that the efforts deployed foralmost two years by the Spanish foreignminister have been useless against some

thousands of Catalan activists spreadaround the world. The aim of Catalanpeople to vote for their collective futurecannot be stopped with rhetoric and oldfashioned arguments.

The sovereignty process in Catalonia willreach its goal based on the passion and ef-fort that Catalans put into it. Repeating anextraordinary Diada national day with LaVia Catalana (The Catalan Way) in 2013, ayear after the mass demonstration of 2012,made some governments see that the pro-cess is real, not just a flash in the pan.Everything is in the hands of the Catalans.In our hands.

Any country that counts for anything inthe world knows what the situation is inSpain very well, and privately they admitthat Spain cannot continue as it has done.The image of Spain in the world is not avery good one: widespread corruption,economic collapse, huge debt, skyrocketingunemployment, the monarchy in dispute,new laws undermining basic rights, such asabortion, education, human rights.

The Anglo-Saxon world (UK, USA) isquite clear about its priorities. The keypoint is democracy. But neither the UK northe USA make the decisions in the EU, sotheir support is important, but not enough.

France, with regard to geo-politics, andGermany with regard to the economy, willdecide in the end how the question will betreated if Catalans go all the way. Francecan see Catalonia as a potential ally, ifviewed as a “southern Belgium”, as theFrench mentality includes Catalonia in thesame way that it includes Belgium. In fact,Napoleon annexed Catalonia to the FrenchEmpire in 1810, the only territory he an-nexed from Spain. He pursued the geo-graphical inheritance from the time ofCharlemagne. If France considers Cataloniapart of Charlemagne’s inheritance, we

I

could get French support if we give themour unconditional support in return. Ofcourse this would not mean being annexedby France, just as Belgium is not part ofFrance, just the commitment to be a goodally. France sees Spain as a corrupt copy oftheir Jacobin system, ruled by a bureau-cratic and hereditary caste system.

Germany recognises that the Catalansituation with Spain is untenable. The Süd-deutsche Zeitung talks about “Five cen-turies of anti-economic decisions”, andthey know about fiscal balance, but theirbiggest concern is the Spanish debt. Theirsecond main concern is that 55% of theGerman corporations on the Iberian Penin-sula (Spain & Portugal) are located betweenBarcelona and Tarragona. And this is no

joke. Germany won’t allow any action thatcould damage its corporations. In fact, theGerman government leaked a report fromKai-Olaf Lang where the issue about the ac-ceptance of Catalonia within the EU is re-solved.

The criteria for Catalonia would be thatthe “flight” of Catalonia (a resource fromthe Roman law) will enter the EU, but notthe soil. In all events it is most likely thatCatalonia will be in the EU in the case of in-dependence. In the implausible event that anet contributor to the EU budget with apopulation already under EU laws were tobe rejected from EU membership, EFTA isthe alternative to be “in Europe” as in thecase of the Swiss or Norwegians. Not a badalternative.

TRIBUNEÀLEX FUREST Member of the Economy Section of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC)

Leaving Spain to become part of Europe

The human chain passing through Avinyonet del Penedès./ JUANMA RAMOS

VERBA DOCENT, EXEMPLA TRAHUNT GERMÀ CAPDEVILA [email protected]

Old-school machismo should have no place in the European Parliament. With his witless comment, Mr. Arias Cañete buried his chances ofbecoming a new European commissioner

"A debate between a man and woman is very complicated, because if you abuse your intellectualsuperiority,you end up looking like a male chauvinist." Miguel Arias Cañete (Spanish MEP)


was a reader of Catalonia Today beforeI was a writer for Catalonia Today. Myfirst memory of it (at that time pub-

lished as a weekly newspaper) was beingimpressed by (now Editor) Marcela Topor’swonderful interview with the Catalannovelist Vicenç Pagès Jordà in an editionfrom October 2006. “Bad readers make in-complete citizens” was the title of the ar-ticle and I kept it filed away. I also con-tinued archiving all the editions when myown work began to be published.

Last week, at random, I pulled out acopy and, as it it turned out, this one fromNovember 2008 was the final weekly edi-tion before the newspaper became amonthly magazine. In it I had an articleabout Barcelona teenagers’ addictions tomobile phones (which is maybe even moretimely today) but it is the content of theother pieces in this thirty two page publi-cation that really impresses me still. Cata-lonia Today then had such a great varietyof voices, news stories and current in-formation. In that particular issue a readercould open up the paper and be greeted

I with ’Long Term Resident’ Matthew Treerailing against Franco or caressed with asofter story about the comeback of localCatalan donkeys (and here the focus wasthe beast of burden, not any politicalasses.) Flicking through “The Week” sec-

tion, anyone with decent English couldlearn about the situation of homelesspeople here or they might also read an up-date on the saga of Judge Garzon and hisefforts to allow the opening up of massgraves from the Civil war times. Equally,this issue also gave the opportunity to getwell-informed about pollution and Co2emissions in the Tarragona region or to tryand understand the reasons for 30,000 Val-encians taking to the streets over the use of

English in schools there. A special double-page report by Gabe Abeyta Canepa delvedinto the world of the Mormon church inthis part of the world and detailed thework of the 132 missionaries who walktheir shiny black shoes across Barcelona’sstreets. Towards the back of the newspaperin the Review section Joseph Wilson didsome fine work in the arts, culture and lan-guage areas. Apart from the original inter-views also there, I was always struck by thepage which gave a round-up of the fairs,festivals and other events across the wholeof Catalonia. This made an impact on mebecause it showed that -there was life andeven cultural life outside Barcelona– a factthat is largely overlooked by both visitorsand English language media. CataloniaToday was, and still is, the only print pub-lication that routinely acknowledges theexistence of a wider Catalonia outside thecapital. It does this in a magazine that youcan touch. It was the first Catalan news-paper in English and I am proud to be aregular part of it. Catalonia deserves atleast another ten years,...if not more.

TRIBUNEBRETT HETHERINGTON Journalist and writer. www.bretthetherington.net

The way we are

It was the first Catalannewspaper in Englishand I am proud to be aregular part of it.

f someone is thinking of writing a bookthe advice often given is “write about

something you know, something you arevery interested in, something familiar inyour everyday life”.

A reworking of this advice might beequally useful for retired people who arewondering how to fill their days in pur-poseful, enjoyable living. Many have hadhobbies alongside their work: photography,bird-watching, searching for rare orchids orfor ancient fossils. But not everybody.

Some have devoted their whole lives andtheir whole days to a business, trade, or pro-fession, or to caring for their children with

I cooking and household chores. Suddenly,on retirement, the days might appearblank, repetitive, without meaning. Andthis is where the unexpected opportunityoccurs to ask themselves vital and interest-ing questions: “What have I sometimeswanted to do that is not familiar, some-thing that I’d be good at and which I coulduse to enthuse not only myself, but givehelp to someone else?” And here theanswers may arise: become a prison visitor,become a volunteer working with childrenin hospital, visit house-bound older peoplefor tea and a chat . . . Help others and you’llhelp yourself!

And here’s another idea, the idea for lifeexpansion. Think of making a subscriptionto an enlightening magazine. For ten yearsCatalonia Today has been “openingwindows” for a vast variety of different sub-jects: sport, politics, Catalan culture, art,books – you name it and they have pro-duced it. But more than all these materialsubjects to open windows, the magazine, byits dedication to its readers, has opened thesoul-faculties, the ability to see behind ap-parent downturns in materialism, and toshine the light on understanding andknowledge for the future of Catalonia.

RANDOM THOUGHTSTERRY PARRIS [email protected]

Life expansion

VERBA DOCENT, EXEMPLA TRAHUNT GERMÀ CAPDEVILA [email protected]

It’s good to hear this from the great Barça captain. Not every great player can be a good coach, and everyone can see that Puyol has a lot toteach to the players of the future.

"I think I’d prefer the academy to being a coach."Carles Puyol, (recently retired FCBarcelona player)


FEATURE

CATALONIA TODAY

SHORT STORY COMPETITION

ur Write on! competitionhas proven to be a huge

success among our readers.Many short stories arrived onour desks and it was a real chal-lenge for our jury to select theseven finalists and the three topprizes. Choosing a winner isnever a easy task.

As announced, CataloniaToday is publishing the first 10short stories: the three winnersand the seven runners-up, won-derfully illustrated by themasterful work of Lluís Romeroand Jordi Soler.

The first prize went to IvanBuck from Girona, the second toMichelle Courtright from Barce-lona, while the third prize be-longs to Lluís Bach from Artés.The finalists include Carles Soléfrom Girona, Ðominique Heath-cote from Sant Cugat, FrancescVidal from Sant Sadurníd’Anoia, Troy Dagg from Barce-lona, Brian Brennan from Barce-lona, Montse Catulí from Barce-

O

Write on! And thewinners are...A great deal of stories were submitted to our short storycompetition, giving the jury a real headache in selectingthe first ten entries: the top three prizes and the finalists

lona, and Carla Massó from Vila-desens. Congratulations to all!

The winner of the firstprize will get a two-nightstay for two in the lux-ury hotel, Mas Ti-nell in Vilaf-ranca del Pe-nedès.

The second andthird prizes will receiveelectronic dictionaries,hampers of wine and cavathanks to Freixa Rigau and MasTinell and free subscriptions to

CataloniaToday ma-gazine.

It was a realchallenge toselect theseven finalistsand three topprizes

All the winnersand finalistswill receivehampers ofwine and cava


nd not one of the doom-laden pre-dictions had come true. Not a dropof blood shed, no rubber bullets,

no tanks on the street, no military rule.From the shores of the turquoise sea to

the snow-tipped peaks, naturepursued its eternal cycle. Springstill followed winter and thesummer gave way to the au-tumn. Following the customs ofcenturies, the farmers bent theirbacks and toiled in their fields,like the reapers of old.

There had been no economicmiracle, but also no plunge intoterminal decline. Some citizenswere still doing well, many werestruggling to make ends meet.What had become of thethreatened boycott of every-thing they produced and of theflight of capital?

Swimmers and sunbathersflocked from afar before reluc-tantly returning to make roomfor skiers and snowboarders. Of-fice-workers still spent long

A hours at their desks, but more joyfully, asthey now knew where their taxes weregoing. Children studied hard in their an-cient language, free of complexes and con-fident in their bright future.

Unfinished projects had been com-pleted, new ones started, motorwaytolls had disappeared. A singlestriped flag fluttered above everytown-hall.After three centuries of darkness, atlast there had been one decade oflight, faint but unflickering.Ten years earlier, on a cool Nov-ember day in 2014, millions hadqueued patiently to wait their turn.Some said “no”, others “yes,but...“. The vast majority, however,said “yes”, not once but twice.The next day the President in Brus-sels recognised the result. At a hastilyconvened summit, the Heads of Statewelcomed the new member of theclub. Despite all the campaign rhe-toric, no veto was imposed.A new democratic state in Europehad been born.

FIRST PRIZEIVAN BUCK

There had been noeconomic miracle,but also no plungeinto terminal decline

JORD

I SO

LER

inally, the 10th anniversary had ar-rived. Looking across at Núria, Jamescouldn’t believe a decade had al-

ready slipped through their fingers. A fate-ful wait at a train station in Bern, followedby hours of rambling conversationthrough the dark French countryside andthen an awkward good-bye in the brightmorning light at Estació del Nord… they

were meant to have crossed paths. And al-though there were no cell phone numbersto exchange back then, fate threw them to-gether in a dank underground disco inPlaça Reial only three months later.

James didn’t know Núria had been fre-quenting every club where guiris gathered,hoping to catch a glimpse of the tall lankyblonde in a baseball cap. Núria had no idea

F

that James had signed up for an “inter-canvi” hoping to woo her with a few morewords of her own language. Neither ad-mitted how much that night of conver-sation in the dark had haunted their everywaking hour. No, that night they just cel-ebrated being reunited. They flirted, they

laughed, they drank, she danced while hebopped along looking like a fool – and inspite of it all, they finally kissed.

Looking at the toddler playing on thefloor and the baby in her arms, Jamessimply smiled. 10 years goes by in a heart-beat.

SECOND PRIZEMICHELLE COURTRIGHT

Fate threw themtogether in a dankunderground disco inPlaça Reial

LLUÍS ROMERO


FEATURE

heir children had convinced themthe money would bolster their pen-sion. It helped knowing the Ger-

man woman was as old as they were.Theirs was a humble home; they wouldhave felt uncomfortable had it been amodern couple, with a moderncouple’s expectations.

Iscle and Dolors saw her sometimesin the village, in the evening, oncethe sun had softened. The Vidrerespeople talked. She bought vegetablesfrom Can Batallé, smelling each one,and then passing them to be weighedas if they were jewels. She spoke little,with a bemused smile, detached.

At the end of August, Iscle and Do-lors returned from their children’s totheir own home. There they found apainting, a portrait of Dolors, hung inthe spare bedroom. Dolors demandedIscle remove it, so Iscle put it in abox. When next August the sameGerman woman came and went, theyfound another Dolors portrait wait-ing.

T Thus every August the German womanrented their house. Once they saw herstriking out between fields carrying paint-ing equipment. In the evening she sippedmineral water in the Casino’s terrace, be-stowing upon all her distant, bemused

smile.And returning home every year,hung in the spare bedroom, theywould find another portrait of Do-lors. And every year, at Dolor’s be-hest, Iscle removed the portrait tothe box.The box contained ten portraitswhen Dolors took ill. Iscle’s son tele-phoned, but as always the Germanwoman came.That August, Dolors died. Iscle wasfull of grief, and in the home thathad contained Dolors the Germanwoman cared for him. At the end ofAugust, Iscle burnt all ten portraits inhis yard.“Go.”But the German woman stayed, andIscle mourned Dolors for all his days.

FINALISTTROY DAGG

Iscle and Dolorsdecided to rent theirhouse during August

JORDI SOLER

oger and Carla were driving some-where in The Pyrenees to celebratetheir ten years of living together.

Neither of them spoke. Carla was look-ing at the mountainous landscape andRoger was enjoying his driving with-out the stressful cries of their belovedkids, who were left behind with thechildren’s beloved grandparents.

Carla didn’t know exactly wherethey were going to spend the wee-kend, but she didn’t mind much.What she really wanted was some re-laxing days. However, she was a littlecurious to discover Roger’s surprise.Everything had been planned by him.

When they were in La Cerdanya re-gion, they left the main road whichruns along the valley and parallel tothe river Segre and took a rough track.They started going up the mountainsand they could start enjoying themagnificient views of the Serra delCadí.

At last, Roger stopped the car infront of a cosy chalet opposite the im-

R pressive mountain range and showed Carlathe keys of the small wooden house. Carlacouldn’t believe it and stared in astonish-ment at him.

“We can’t afford this…”, she said seri-ously.“Oh, dear, we can’t, but my bosscan…”Carla hugged and kissed him and theywent quickly inside the chalet becausea cold winter wind pushed them intoit.Later in the evening, in front of theblazing flames of the open fire, Rogerwhispered to Carla: “Tomorrow youwill get my real present…” Carla’s eyesbrightened like the stars in the dark skyand Roger smiled at her.When Carla woke up next morning,Roger was opening the window. “Carla,this is for you”. Outside it was snowingheavily and everything was white andquiet. The present was a great snowfall.“And don’t worry, my boss can affordit. Even if we must stay the wholeweek...”

THIRD PRIZELLUÍS BACH

They could enjoy themagnificient viewsof the Serra del Cadí

JORD

I SO

LER


riol, 65, locked hisdoor, walked down thesix floors to street

level, and stepped outside,drawing his threadbare scarfaround him against the Febru-ary chill.

Two minutes took him to themetro entrance, where he po-litely accepted the free news-paper from the smiling womanwith high Andean cheekbones.Seconds later, he was swallowedby the metro. Pushing his pinkcard into the slot, he positionedhis hand ready to retrieve itafter the two seconds it tookthe machine to print the line oftiny digits. He knew withoutconsulting his watch that it was 7.40. Itwould take an hour to get to the end of themetro line; by then the number of pass-engers would have thinned out. Unlikethem though, he never made for the exitbut crossed to the other platform, andwaited to board the next train going back;

O sometimes it was even thesame one. At the first inter-change he changed onto an-other line and rode it to its ter-minus, where he repeated theoperation and travelled backtowards the centre. Like everyday. It was what he did.Now dozens of mid-morningpassengers were shuffling inand out at Plaça Catalunya.There he always shut his eyes;he had no need to see the con-fused tourists stopping dead asthey ambled onto the platformand stopped dead, bumpinginto the faster-moving streamsof locals. Or the African youthswith their imitation bags and

belts displayed on sheets held with strings,ready to run if the police showed up, andrun they did, along this very platform, thepolice in pursuit ten years ago. In the stam-pede, his Pilar, his wife, knocked off herbalance, falling into the path of the on-coming train. Ten years ago today.

FINALISTBRIAN BRENNAN

He had no need tosee the confusedtourists stoppingdead on the platform

JORDI SOLER

e could only imagine ittwelve years ago. It wasa thought. It was a pro-

ject, just a conversation betweentwo friends in a terrace of a bar.Neither time to develop it or moneyto achieve it, and a ferociousnumber of competitors in the mar-ket. However, what differentiatedus from others were two thingsbasically: Enthusiasm and Persever-ance. It could sound like a fairytalebut it is as real as I am breathingnow.

No matter how many nights Iwas working until late, how manytimes I told to someone: “I am sorryI have to work today…” the only import-ant thing is that we achieved our goal. Ourcompany is surviving each month sincethen, and who are mainly responsible ofthat are us, just us. We struggled hard toconquer our dream and we succeeded. Wehave the fruit of our effort in our handsand it is worth it.

It has been a kind of double-edgedsword during all this time, because at the

W

same time that we had to continue ourpush, the effort itself was increasing a littlebit more and more, although as it is said, if

you like the scratching then you do notmind the lice.

Therefore, the moral that we couldextract from this story I think is clear: tryto arrange your objectives in life, prioritizewhat really makes sense to you, and makeit real as soon as possible. Be fierce and atthe same time sensitive and above all sen-sible. Believe in your dream and go aheadwith it. We can!

FINALISTFRANCESC VIDAL

What differentiatedus were Enthusiasmand Perseverance

LLUÍS ROMERO


FEATURE

he place was overcrowded. No-netheless they made their waythrough the public and squeezed

themselves up near the stage, where thepresenter was standing under the brightspotlights. “Welcome every-body!,” he said. “We are at thesame spot where that silver urnwith the ashes was found. Theletter attached to it stated that atheatre had to be built here anda comedy performed every yearon the same date the urn wasdug up. Today is the 10th anni-versary and our cast of actorsand actresses are going to per-form a tragedy for a change.”

The crowd was enthused bythe news and broke into a thun-derous ovation. There had beensome hearsay going round aboutthe company changing theiryearly ridiculous comedies andnow those rumours were con-firmed.

They looked at each other in disbelief.As it seemed, all those years of deprivation

T

had hardened those people’s hearts andthey realized at once that all their efforts tohearten them had been in vain.

The cheer gradually faded when two in-fluential men appeared on the stage. Theywere signing a deal which would un-doubtedly only benefit themselves. In thenext scene some people were holding a de-

monstration against unfair dismis-sal. “Down with the tyrants! An eyefor an eye!,” someone among thepublic spat out. The audience lostcontrol and began throwing ob-jects at the players and cursing ateach other.The sight of all those people ar-guing was unbearably painful.Therefore, the two spectres decidedto leave the place and as they saun-tered about among the public, afine rain of silvery ashes began tofall burying all the people under-neath. Their incapacity to face andovercome difficulties rationally hadultimately led to their downfall.None of them would ever knowthat people’s last will cannot be de-

fied. Would any of them have asked formore comedies to be performed? That wasindeed a perfect tragedy!

FINALISTMONTSE CATULÍ

All those years ofdeprivation hadhardened thosepeople’s hearts

LLUÍS ROMERO

hen Mr. JohnVersary hadmarried, his

father had promised himhis longed for inheritanceas long as he produced 10heirs. This represented asubstantial amount ofmoney so John and hiswife Mary had quicklygotten down to business.Not long after, Mary hadtelephoned John with thegood news and ninemonths later Mary gavebirth to her first child.“What shall we call her?”they asked each other anddecided it would be nice to call her Annie.And so they did. John celebrated with sev-eral rounds of beer for him and his friendsalthough Mary stuck to a small glass ofsweet sherry as beer didn’t agree with her.A year later Mary produced another childand again they asked each other “Whatshall we call her?” For it was another girl.

W

“Well” said John’ who hadn’t too muchimagination “perhaps we should just keepit easy and call her 2nd Annie” and Mary

who hadn’t much imagin-ation either, agreed.2nd Annie was followedby 3rd, 4th and 5th Annie.At this point John andMary threw a great party,having achieved half oftheir goal. John’s fatherwas invited as the guest ofhonor, he was however alittle put out as he had ini-tially imagined an heirmeant a male heir, still hehad grown fond of all theAnnie’s although he was alittle taken aback at hisson’s and daughter’s in-law lack of originality

when choosing a name and so he had dis-creetly given them a book titled “Namingyour child, 1000 names” as Mary wasagain, expecting.

Along came 6th, 7th and 8th Annie, (thebook gathering dust on the shelf) followedby 9th, and then finally, the 10th AnnieVersary had arrived.

FINALISTDOMINIQUE HEATHCOTE

LLU

ÍS R

OM

ERO

A year later Maryproduced anotherchild


his was such a remarkable day.Diane looked up at the calendar justabove her tidy desk: it had been ten

years since that day. Ten years without anygreenhouse gases emissions. It was hard tobelieve.

She remembered when shewas a researcher at the univer-sity. In those days, climatechange was a real threat whichnobody seemed to be aware of.By then, huge quantities of pe-trol were deliberately wasted andnobody went to work by foot orused public transport.She lookedback on how polluted the airwas in the shabby bustling citiesand how she loved her calmpeaceful walks across thecountryside just to escape fromthe unhealthy contamination.She took back the endless dis-cussions with her university col-leagues about the hazardouschanges in climate patterns andhow global warming was trigger-ing natural disasters in which

T thousands of people were seriously af-fected. She thought how dangerous couldhave been the alteration of Mother Nature:the irreversible consequences of shortageof precipitation in some parts of the world

and devastating floods in others, themelting of the icecaps, the effects ofunsustainable agriculture…She poured herself more tasty tea andstopped thinking for a while.It wasamazing how, despite the selfishnessof some human beings, an agreementby the World’s entire population wasaccomplished.She looked outside:people cycling in car-free streetsunder shadowy, enormous greentrees. Families were hanging out inthe wide parks where not far away,the unspoilt ancient woods sur-rounded the picturesque city, inwhich the solar-panels of the neigh-bouring houses were taking advan-tage of this bright, sunny lovely day.It brought a smile on her face.Planet Earth was breathing again andit had been doing so for ten years.What a fantastic day!

FINALISTCARLES SOLÉ

How dangerous couldhave been thealteration of MotherNature

LLU

ÍS S

OLE

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inally, the 10th anniversary had ar-rived. Hundreds of journalists wereengaged on their TV vans and radio

stations ready to cover what would be avery special unique event. Thou-sands of eyes and millions of earswere looking forward to contem-plating the wished ceremony,hosted at Barcelona University. Allover the World, crowded streetsfilled with joy wanted to celebratethis hopeful, enjoyable occasion.Screens were spread in every city,radios were transmitting in everyremote place. Eventually, Dr. Gar-cia started her address:

“Dear fellow citizens. Since hu-manity has existed we have beenfighting against uncountable ad-versities, we still do and we cer-tainly will. Mother Nature is adark horse not always generousneither sweet. But humanity hasshown her, once and another, thatgoodness and relentless desire ismore powerful that any problem.

F And what is more, the human race is char-acterized to be virtuous: its written in ourcondition. Those who are selfish don’t suc-ceed, those who share, who love, live full,

colourful lives. Goodness is some-thing we share all. This war in par-ticular has been a really tough one.It seemed that it would never cometo an end but our perseverancefinally won.”“And now, all together, fromgrandparents to grandsons, will beable to go hand with hand andbeat with the same joy and deter-mination any other adversities theworld will have to face. Today, notonly we celebrate the day of thehope but a lot more: willingness,life, future, hope, love, charity. Wehave won, my dear friends.”A great huge wave of applausessuddenly burst. Happiness couldbe felt in the air. It took long, butat last that day had arrived. It wasthe 10th anniversary of cancer’scuration.

FINALISTCARLA MASSÓ

Thousands of eyesand millions of earswere looking forwardto the ceremony

JORDI SOLER


BOOKS

Not fit for a ladyOld picture of Elx with palm trees./ARCHIVE

Elx comes off the worse in thisscathing and supercilious description

from a prolific Victorian writer

pproaching Elche in thiscalcined landscape, I am

conscious of entering a Euro-pean Africa; each miserablehovel built of mud, with no vis-ible roof, a lean-to of driedarundo leaves, and over-sha-dowed by palms. Not anothertree visible on the horizon.Thicker and thicker they come,also the mud hovels, culminat-ing in one universal palm-wooddarkening the road.

Of all frightful things in na-ture, commend me to the Elchepalms. When young and welltended, as at Alicante, withnoble fronds waving to thewinds, and yellow fruit drop-ping from golden hearts, palmsare the king of trees; but at Elchethey fall into a dishonoured oldage, shrink up, limp and feeble,

A

and lean to oneside, in the laststage of tree-de-crepitude. Not aplant grows be-neath, not a weed;scant corn patcheshere and there in open-ings, and men like monkeysclinging to the coruscatedtrunks, attached by a cord, toknock off dried leaves and cleanout rusty crevices, just as a barbertrims and furbishes an ancientwig; palms of merchandisethese, and cut and packed for

traffic, for Elchesupplies the Spa-nish churchesfor Easter, as Bor-

dighera doesthose of Italy.

Elche itself is acluster of plaster dwel-

lings, shapeless and void. Not aglass window in the place. Eachhouse on its own dirty hook,with no reference to its neigh-bour; a break-neck pavement;the entire population a degradedcrowd squatting in the sun; foulparti-coloured children with

supernaturally large eyes rollingin the gutter; dogs growling orfawning, according to taste anddisposition; pigs and fowls wal-lowing; heaps of esparto cordlying about, men passing itthrough their hands to soften it;oranges in piles, and bad unripedates; tables set with wine anddrinks, muddy and unpalatable.Many blind beggars wanderingabout, also cripples, and a dwarfwithout legs, screaming forpennies (she, for it is a female,impels herself forward on a chairunder our horses’ feet-indeed,but for the intelligence of thelittle leader, she must have beencrushed). The posada a horribleplace, with an earthen floor; agreat houseplace on entering,like a barn, where Don Quixotemight have ridden in on Roci-


A selection by PERE GIFRAFrances Minto Elliot, Diary of an Idle Woman in Spain (London, 1884), pp 212-214

Women Travellers inCatalan Lands

Landscape with an old hostel in Elx./ ARCHIVE

nante, with Sancho on Dapple-leading to the stable, packed atthe side with muddy tartanasand dilapidated omnibuses; awooden gallery overhead run-ning round, and in corners seatsof matting. On one side akitchen redolent of garlic; on theother, a dingy parlour. The en-trance a frame for raggedchildren, who, when too numer-ous and penetrating indoors, arerepulsed by the master flingingout jugs of water.

People come and go all smok-ing; an exhausted woman dropsin laden with bundles, lies downupon the stairs, and calls faintlyfor a glass of aquaforte. Her face isdeathlike, but no one gives any

heed, nor would they, had shedied. Meddling is no man’s busi-ness, also rude; yet the chairswere filled by men solemnlysmoking, the housewife goesand comes on her domestic er-rands, and a bold-faced childkicks its heels and stares compla-cently.

At mid-day two tables were setfor dinner, one with a cloth forthe masters, called the tabled’hôte, another one without acloth for the servants. Beans,soup, and bread are the viands,washed down by copiousdraughts of excellent wine, thebold-faced child partaking out ofa saucer, dogs in attendance, acat without a tail, and a whole

drove of chickens.Here for two mortal hours I sat

awaiting the coach to take me toMurcia. I advise no one to lingerat Elche. Driving through yousee the palms. There is nothingto investigate, except you are anarchaeologist and inclined to in-spect the church.

I may say, en passant, there issome talk of making Elche, withits lovely climate and nearnessto the sea, a winter sanatorium;all very fine and feasible if thepresent town be burnt down anda decent one built in its place.Perhaps, too, a few hundredniggers from Africa would not beamiss, and give a better local col-our.

FrancesMinto EliottThe abundant literary ca-reer of Frances Minto Elliot(1820-1898), like that ofother Victorian womenwriters, was an offshoot ofher own troubled life.Born in Swallowfield,Berkshire, as Frances V.Dickinson, at age 18 sheinherited her father’s es-tate and soon marriedJohn Edward Geils, withwhom she moved to Glas-gow to enjoy the appar-ent domestic bliss of a so-cialite. However, after giv-ing birth to four daughtersand enduring seven ca-lamitous years of connu-bial life, she left him andpursued a long divorcecase that finally ended in1855. During these yearsshe supported herself bywriting journalistic piecesfor several London period-icals, and she also beganto travel abroad, particu-larly to Italy. Elliot wroteunder several names andpseudonyms. In 1863 shemarried the Dean of Bris-tol, Rev. Gilbert Elliot, anold widower, but threeyears later she also lefthim and returned to Italy.Despite her separation,she continued to use hissurnames to publish herbest known works, includ-ing several traveloguesthat expressed the viewsof the Victorian lady ab-road: Diary of an IdleWoman in Italy (1871),Diary of an Idle Woman inSicily (1882), Diary of anIdle Woman in Spain(1884) and Diary of anIdle Woman in Constant-inople (1893). Theseviews often encompasseddisparaging comments onforeign cultures and a firmbelief in Britain’s superior-ity (if not a downright rac-ist attitude), as shown inthis passage from the jour-ney she made to Spain be-tween 1881-1882.

ultaco is a legendary name in Cataloniaand Spain. From 1958 to 1983 the Cata-

lan company founded by Paco Bultó manufac-tured motorcycles full of power and personal-ity. Bultaco bikes conquered off-road, moto-cross, enduro and trials competitions in Eu-rope and the US, with models like the belovedSherpa, the Pursang, the Astro and the Mata-dor.

The grandchildren of the founder are nowbehind the rebirth of the manufacturer, whichwill start producing the new model picturedon this page, the Rapitan. Look at it carefully.There is something missing on this beautifulmotorcycle. Got it? Yes, it has no exhaust pipe.The reason? It is a fully-electric motorbike. Nocombustion, no fuel, and no deafening noisewhen the engine is running.

Welcome to the 21st century. Harley-Davi-son even patented the sound of its engines, aspart of the soul of its motorcycles. The futurewill be something different, a more silent one.

B

London, May 17, 2014 - Photo: EFE/G.Arche

GERMÀ [email protected]

Silent speed


THE EYE



THE ENGLISH CULTURE CLUB CATALONIA TODAY AND ABACUS......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Walking with Vinyoli he ECClub is joining thecelebration of one of the

greatest Catalan poets: Joan Vi-nyoli, who was born in Barce-lona a century ago.

This month, we will visit thewoods and gardens around thecity of Santa Coloma de Farnersthat inspired Joan Vinyoli,while reading the translation inEnglish of 16 of his finest poemswith the poet, translator and lit-erary critic D. Sam Abrahams.

TThe poetic route will take

place on Saturday June 28 at10am. Send an e-mail to [email protected] tobook your place and discoverthe works of one of Catalonia’sbest poets. And all in English, ofcourse!

Vinyoli first became familiarwith poetry by reading theworks of Rainer Maria Rilke andat the beginning of his careerwas heavily influenced by thework of other German poets,

such as Goethe and Hölderlin.In the 1970s, after a decade of

relative silence, his workchanged to a more realisticstyle. During this period he re-ceived widespread public recog-nition and was awarded theGeneralitat of Catalonia Prizeand the National Prize for Liter-ature, among others. He alsopublished translations ofRainer Maria Rilke into Catalan.

The work of Vinyoli is that ofa self-taught writer. Initially

very much influenced by thepoetic language of Germansymbolism (Hölderlin, Goetheand Rilke, whose verse Vinyolitranslated into Catalan), helater leaned more and more to-wards the sort of realism that iscapable of using everyday lan-guage to offer a distinctive vi-sion of the human condition.

Vinyoli spent the summers ofhis childhood in Santa Colomade Farners, a city that inspiredmany of his best known poems.

CATALONIA TODAY

ECClub


...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

in English

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n a former life as a secondaryschool teacher I taught several

students with (the then poorly-understood) Asperger’s syn-drome. One girl in a class of minealmost never did the work Iasked her to do and sometimes Iwould get very frustrated withher. After several months I wascasually told that she had thissyndrome and of course I feltterrible for badgering her. (Thisis just a little story to illustratethat in education those with theknowledge – and therefore thepower – often do not share it andinnocent adults and children gethurt as a result.)

In Mark Haddon’s book thereis also plenty of hurt. Chris-topher, the narrator, has As-perger’s. He also has an in-credible eye for detail, an acutesense of smell, an impressivegeneral knowledge and a phe-nomenal memory which he saysis like a film that he can “rewind,fast forward and pause.” Chris-topher is 15 years old. He needspredictability and a high degreeof order in his life and his empa-thetic teacher Siobhan is centralto that need. He likes SherlockHolmes books, University Chal-lenge, mathematics and po-licemen...except when he hascause to hit them. Christopher is

I

prone to violent outbursts whenhis senses are overloaded but hisregard for the simple affectionsof animals is clear. When he dis-covers that a neighbour’s dogthat has been brutally killed heputs himself on the case to findthe culprit. Meanwhile, hecomes across several dozenletters that his mother haswritten to him over the last fewyears since separating fromChristopher and his father, who

has been hiding these touching,nostalgic letters from him. Afteran explosive conflict with hisfather, Christopher decides thathe must travel to London to livewith his mother and this bringsanother dimension to hissuddenly very mixed-up world.

Mark Haddon’s book is purelyfrom the point of view of oneteenage boy, as it is experienceddirectly from his senses andbrain. A reader could expect this

to create some problems becauseof these limitations to the nar-rative but I found few reasons tonot genuinely enjoy this book.Occasionally, I thought themathematical and logic puzzlesincluded in the text were a bit ir-relevant and the insistent self-referencing of Christopher’svoice was slightly irritating tome but there is a lot to like aboutthe way this story is told. There isa beautiful but accidental poetryto some of Christopher’s de-scriptions of nature - (Haddonalso does write poems) and over-all it is a seemingly excellentgradual explanation of the mindand personality of a young per-son with a syndrome that ismore common than we mightthink. On just the second pagefor example, we are treated to asimple diagram of facial ex-pressions which provide an in-sight into how those with thissyndrome have great difficultyin “reading” or interpretingother people’s body language orunderstanding how emotionsare typically displayed. As itturns out, we are all apparentlyoperating in our lives at a pointsomewhere on the spectrum ofautism and this gives weight tothe idea that we are not so differ-ent to characters like Chris-topher, either real or imagined.

Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel confronts the reader with the reality that for some, thingsaren’t as simple as they might seem

ECCLUB BOOK REVIEW

Living in a different world

BRETT HETHERINGTON

ECClub

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ENTERTAINMENT

Can you find the six differences between the two drawings? SPOT THE DIFFERENCE by Soler

SUDOKU PUZZLES BY PAPPOCOM www.sudoku.com

Fill in the grid so that everyrow, every column, and every3x3 box contains the digits 1through 9. Numbersshouldn’t be repeated in anyof the rows.Solutions and computerprogrammes atwww.sudoku.com

No.

3409

. Le

vel: E

asy

No

. 34

10. L

evel

: M

ediu

m

Quotes C.T.

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those whomatter don’t mind.” Bernard M. Baruch (1870-1965)

”“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

Use this space to do your working out.

JOT SPOT

No. 3409 No. 3910

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

Check www.elpuntavui.cat,(Entertainment section) for moreinteractive games

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE


M N K X T A Z R U A D E D G H

R K D N P M C G A U I S B S R

E J W G G A U W L T F I H S K

F B T I F T H D E T R A K D Z

O I M S C E H R A O Y R W F Z

R N M E B R S T R I K E U A K

M T V R N N O A N I O B O J F

S E M E C I T N E R P P A L Q

F R M P L T E A W J E R I F E

N N K V K Y Z V P M M K M L E

O D W A G E U Q A F K C P H N

I W O R K E R R S E Y A B Z I

N R E Y O L P M E L L T K R A

U C Q U I T A Z D P X S K Q R

D H M T T O C Y O B U Q G K T

STRIKE, EMPLOYER,

WORKER,

APPRENTICE,

TRAINEE, INTERN,

SHIFT, LEARN,

RAISE, MATERNITY,

LEAVE, FIRE,

Can you find these work relatedwords?

·····························

RESIGN, QUIT,

STACK,

BOYCOTT,

REFORMS,

JOB,

WAGE,

UNION

WORD POOL85

9822

-109

0188

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ENTERTAINMENT


Here is a quiz to see whether you picked up the meaningof some of the more colloquial phrases in Barney’sarticle on page 15 of this month’s magazine.

COLLOQUIAL COMMENTS

1. “labelled” means:a) abusedb) admiredc) definedd) expected

2. a “corner shop” is:a) a shop located on thecorner of two streetsb) a small shop selling a va-riety of goods and serving alocal communityc) a type of franchise commonthroughout Britaind) a large supermarketsituated on an importantcorner

3.”you never know”means:a) you will never be ableto understandb) a reference to some-thing that changes fromone day to the nextc) it might well be truebut possibly it isn’td) it’s very confusing

4.”hard-to-digest”meansa) an uncomfortabletruth that you wouldprefer not to admitb) bad food!c) facing economical dif-ficultiesd) a growth industry

5.”nigh on” meansa) a lot less thanb) a lot more thanc) exactlyd) almost or around

6.a “scrounger” is:a) someone who works verylong hoursb) a person who abuses thewelfare system and lives offothersc) a person who has beenlooking for a job for a long

timed) someone who has abso-lutely no employable skills

7.Barney’s view of hisfellow-countrymens’ atti-tude to work is:a) one of admirationb) he thinks things havechanged over timec) not very positived) the same as Napolean

8.Barney’s attitude to

the Catalan work ethicis:a) one of incomprehensionb) one of ambivalencec) one of disapprovald) one of great admiration

9.Barney believes that:a) there are far too manyshops in Cataloniab) there should be more shopsin Cataloniac) Catalans are in general, veryhard workersd) Catalonia needs to changeits economic base to overcometo the present crisis

Watch the following videos on Youtube and answer thequestions:

COLLOQUIAL COMMENTS

1.What is the nameof the song?a) Sad b)Angryc)Happy2.Where theymade their video?a)Baghdad b)Tehranc)DamascusWhat is the hastag?a)FreeHappyIraniansb)Free c)FreeThem

http://youtu.be/taGf9T7I1h4

http://youtu.be/OFtCxkueTXI

Why do Russiansshave beards?a)To celebrate b) Toprotest c) For funHow many talkedto the reporter?a) None b) 1 c)5Was the song asuccess in Russia?a) Yes, it topped thecharts b) Not at all.

SOLUTIONS and CLUES

WORD POOL

Answers can be found verti-cally, horizontally and in diag-onal. There are forward andbackward words. Some lettersmay be shared.

COLLOQUIAL COMMENTS

1-C, 2-B, 3-C, 4-A, 5-D, 6-B, 7-C,8-D, 9-C

VIDEO QUIZ

1. c - b - a2. b - a - a

GET IN TOUCH!

We would like to hear fromyou! Email your feedback, com-ments or contributions to us at:games@catalonia today.cat [email protected] the English Culture Club,contact [email protected] interest and support willbe much appreciated!

You can also write to us at:

Catalonia TodaySanta Eugènia, 4217005 GironaTel. 972 18 64 38


OPINION

n May 18, at the Le Mans FrenchMotoGP, Catalan rider Marc Már-quez set a new record to become

the first rider since 1972 to win the firstfive races of the season. By the time theMotoGP comes to the Circuit de Barce-lona-Catalunya on June 15, it is possiblethat Marc Márquez will have extended thatrecord to six races (the Italian GP takesplace at Mugello on June 1).

Márquez, who sits atop the riders’ over-all standings with a more than 20-pointadvantage over his Repsol/Honda team-mate and fellow countryman, Dani Pe-drosa, is no stranger to breaking records.Last season, for example, the Cervera-bornrider became the youngest MotoGP cham-pion after a third-place finish in the finalrace of the season, in Valencia, securedhim the 2013 world title in his debut year.Also in his first MotoGP season, Marquezbecame the youngest winner of a premierclass race after victory at the Circuit of theAmericas in April. He also won the mostraces in a single season as a rookie, withsix, and became the youngest rider to winfour races back-to-back.

Anyone thinking that Márquez just got

O lucky in his debut season need only glanceat the results for this season. To add to thefact that he has won all five MotoGP racesthus far, he also began each of them inpole position. No rider has achieved suchconsistent success since the legendaryMick Doohan in the 1990s, whose recordsMárquez is currently smashing. The near-est thing in recent times is the extraordi-nary success achieved by seven-time worldchampion, Valentino Rossi, but even theDoctor was only able to string three con-secutive wins together, in 2001.

Márquez is clearly something specialwho, at the age of 21, still has plenty oftime not only make a name for himself inworld motorcycle racing, but to join thelikes of Rossi and Doohan in the pantheonof all time greats. While, it is still early daysin Márquez’s career, for the moment every-thing has gone smoothly. Honda recentlyoffered Márquez a two-year extension tohis contract, which will provide theyoungster with the support necessary tokeep winning. With five wins out of five sofar, it would be a dream come true for Már-quez if he could make it seven out of sevenon his home soil at Montmeló on June 15.

The motorcycle kid whojust can't stop winning

EXTRA TIMENEIL STOKES [email protected]

Motorcycle racingall over the world

Vital statistics

The Road Racing World Champion-ship is split into three categories: Mo-toGP, Moto2 and Moto3, with thefirst considered the premier category.Four-stroke engines are used in allthree divisions, with 250cc bikes inMoto3, 600cc bikes in Moto2 and1000cc bikes in MotoGP. June 15 isthe date for this season’s annual GPheld at the Circuit de Barcelona-Cata-lunya in Montmeló. Each MotoGPchampionship race takes place at oneof 18 circuits around the world. Apartfrom Montmeló, there are three othervenues in Spain: the Circuito de Jerez,Motorland Aragon and the Circuit Ri-cardo Tormo in Valencia, which is al-ways the final race of the season.

Giacomo Agostini is the most suc-cessful all-time GP champion, with 15titles . The most dominant rider of alltime was Mike Hailwood, with 10 outof 12 wins in 1966, while Mick Doo-han won 12 out of 15 in 1997. Val-entino Rossi is the most successfulcontemporary rider, with nine worldtitles, including seven in MotoGP.

Again we see that there is somethingabout Catalans on two wheels. ToniBou, Adam Raga, Laia Sanz, Dani Pe-drosa, Catalan names dominate mo-torcycle sports. Now, in MotoGP, aspecial talent in Marc Márquez hasemerged. Márquez has made quitean impression so far, whether he cankeep it up only time will tell. Here issome extra information about Marc.Full name. Marc Márquez i Alentà

Date of birth. February 17, 1993

Birthplace. Cervera (Segarra)

First season. 2008

Team. Repsol Honda

Bike number. 93

Record. Youngest MotoGP world champion (2013).

World titles. 125cc/ 2010, Moto2/2012, MotoGP/2013.

Recognition. Laureus World Sports Award for Break-

through of the Year

Personal website. www.marcmarquez93.es

Márquez crosses the finish line of the French Grand Prix at the Le Mans in May.

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