0007 The Catalonian Biscuit - News and infomation in English about the Catalan Countries

THE CATALONIAN BISCUIT

LA GALETA DELS PAÏSOS CATALANS

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News and infomation in English about the Catalan Countries

Per a la llengua, el poble, la terra – i la independència.

In support of the language, the people, the land – and independence

This page is: http://www.estelnet.com/catalunyacymru/catala/galeta_noticies_2003_09_22.htm

Archives of Previous News Pages

1/ The Castilian police and the Castilian paramilitaries give the neo-Nazis carte blanche to operate – from the front page of today’s edition of the weekly El Triangle (see the news page from the day before yesterday (0005 = Saturday September 20 2003)and yesterday (0006 = Sunday September 21 2003)

The front page of the weekly El Triangle, published every Monday, has as its main headline “The police and the Civil Guard give carte blanche to the growing number of neo-Nazis”. Above the headline is the slogan “No passaràn!” (They shall not pass) and adds !Agressions, pallisses, “caceres”, atemptats, incendis, còctels molotov” (“Assaults, beatings, hunting down (of victims), violent attacks, acts of arson, Molotov cocktails”). Below it adds “El Triangle has documented a hundred incidents of fascist violence in (the county of) Vallès, most of which have not gone before the courts; an amateur video recording shows the failure of the police to act against the right-wing extremists; the “Worthy (Force)” (i.e. the epithet by which the Civil Guard is called by itself and its admirers) had undertaken to put a stop to the Nazi attacks and Nazi symbols over a year ago; SOS Racisme (= an anti-racist organsation) blames the Movimiento Social Republicano (Castilian, = the Social Republican Movement), which includes skinheads as electoral candidates, as the instigator of the incidents.”

A photo shows a group of residents in Castellar who have displayed a banner on the ground saying “Fora feixistes rapats i uniformats’ (Catalan = literally “Out uniformed and shaven-headed fascists” – i.e. fascists, whether skinheads or police, get out of our village).

The paper lists incidents under the title “Castellar – cinc anys d’impunitat” (= five years of impunity; i.e the violent activities of the neo-Nazi have been allowed to go unchecked for five years). First four months of the year 2003: stickers and posters constantly appear with the words “Ni legales ni ilegales: stop immigración,” (Castilian = Neither legal (immigrants) nor illegal (immigrants). Stop Immigration” ), with a swastika and a Celtic cross (Castilian Nazis have used this emblem probably because it is simple to draw, being a circle with a ‘plus’ sign superimposed. The neo-Nazis often have difficulties spray-painting swastikas; they find the Celtic symbol easier to produce) In just one weekend the centre of the village was left full of the graffiti of the right-wing extremists. The skinheads attacked an ERC centre (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, a left-wing / anti-monarchy / pro-Catalan independence party) hurling stones at it when a meeting was being held there. During this same period, unknown assailants threw a molotov cocktail at a house rented by immigrants in the centre of the village. There was damage to the façade and to a window.

There is also a list of incidents perpetrated by neo-Nazis in the county of Vallès, in which Castellar is situated.

For example in Sabadell on 5 October 2001 a group of 14 skinheads attacked a hamburger restaurant “Papys” in the Zona Hermètica, beating up the customers and trashing the premises. Three people were injured. On the same day a North African lad was attacked in the Oasis bar.

Sant Quirze del Vallès. On 30 August 2002 stones are thrown at the ERC centre (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) and two Catalan flags are set on fire.

Terrassa, 3 May 2003. Racist attacks at Ca n’Anglada. Eleven people are arrested.

Sabadell, 29 June 2003. A gang of skinheads stab a youth in Lusitània Street.

2/ Who is the director of the Casa de la Generalitat de Catalunya in Perpinyà? A case of an inflated CV?

The journalist Alfons Quintà, very critical of the present crop of Catalan politicians, and especially damning in his evaluation of the twenty-three years of power of Convergència i Unió (the ruling party in the Generalitat de Catalunya, the autonomous parliament of Catalunya), has brought to the attention of the readers of Avui not a few instances of gross mismanagement and shady dealings of this governing party.

Recently the Generalitat opened an office in Perpinyà (5 September 2003), in the part of the Catalan Countries (Països Catalans) under French domination. This was hailed as one of the most significant events since this part of the Catalonia was prised away from the rest of the Catalan Countries some three and a half centuries ago, in 1659, with the Treaty of the Pyrenees.

But it seems that the pro-Catalan residents of the town have been asking who precisely the director is – Maryse Olivé Quintana – as she is unknown to the activists there who have laboured long years to protect Catalan identity in this French-occupied territory. According to her credentials as explained in a publication of the Perpinyà town authorities she was a “directrice du lycée anglo-français de la Ville de Darnius.” However, nobody seems to know what an “Anglo-French secondary school” is, and the village of Darnius has never had such an institution. It is suspected that it may have been merely a language school. The director also says that she studied languages at the Sorbonne, without giving any real details of what precisely her qualifications are, and local Catalans have not been able to find any trace of this former student at the Sorbonne. What is know however is that this lady is the recipient of an award given by the French Government for the “defense and promotion” of the French language.

It looks as though the Generalitat de Catalunya has got itself into murky waters again, just as it did with a similar centre it set up in Paris some years ago. This was lavishly funded by the Generalitat in Catalunya, but Catalans resident in Paris or visiting the city were appalled that it seemed to think its remit was the promotion of French and Castilian culture. There was a mystifying lack of Catalan language and culture in the centre, with staff who had no connection with the Països Catalans whatsoever and who were unable to speak the language of the Catalans. Indeed they showed open hostility towards it.

3/ Floquet de Neu (“Little Snowflake”), the albino gorrilla of Barcelona Zoo, is close to death
The press, the radio and the TV are full of the news that the gorrilla is suffering from a terminal skin cancer. Hundreds of people turned up at the zoo at the weekend to take a last look at the gorilla before he dies. But “El Triangle” reveals that far from having had a pleasant cossetted life surrounded by its human friends and admirers, the “discovery” of the animal in 1966 marked the beginning of a long trauma for the ape. The official story is that an ape specialist Jordi Sabaté Pí found the animal in 1966 in Ikunde, in Equitorial Guinea, at that time a Castilian possession. In fact it had been captured by a farmer of the Fang people, who had killed the rest of its group in order to obtain this unusual albino specimen. It was a young animal at the time, clinging to its mother’s neck. Sabaté paid a small fortune for the gorrilla. In Guinea it had been known as Nfumu-Ngui (“White Gorilla” in Fang) but in Barcelona it obtained a Castilian name “Copito de Nieve” (which El Triangle describes as very twee). Its Catalan name (Floquet de Neu) is a translation of this.

The association ADDA (Associació per la Defensa dels Drets de l’Animal / Association for the Defence of Animal Rights) has criticised the way in which Barcelona Zoo has made a spectacle of this albino gorrilla, as well as the concept of zoos in general as places of amusement for the general public.

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Last Updated: 2003-09-23