I recommend this excellent article on Catalonia recently published in Los Angeles Times written by Henry Chu.
It seems that international media are slowly realising that the best way to inform about the Catalan conflict is to get first hand information instead of the usual Spanish-biased point of view after just reading a bunch of newspapers published in Madrid. Serious newspapers can’t afford that lack of professionalism.
Let’s hope that slowly the international understanding of Catalonia’s struggle increases. It’ll definitely come in handy for all sides when the declaration of independence finally arrives.
Reporting from Barcelona, Spain — The economy is flailing, unemployment is sky-high and painful government cutbacks lie ahead. Now is the time, it would seem, for the people of Spain to pull together.
To Joan Puigcercos, it’s all the more reason to split up.
A resident of wealthy Catalonia here in the sunny northeastern corner of the country, Puigcercos blames Spain’s economic woes on the government in Madrid and what he sees as its irresponsible and discriminatory ways.
Read the full article at latimes.com
Photo by Toniu
I personally didn’t like the article due to its use of the same old stereotypes that are constantly being fed to the public by the Spanish media outlets. I think the article could have been written with a little more objectivity. Descriptors describing Catalans as aloof and full of rhetoric while ignoring the rhetoric on the Spanish side seems biased to me. Of course I myself am biased towards a goal of independence, but I didn’t write an article in a newspaper pretending to be an unbiased reporter. If it were in the opinion section that’s different.
Thanks Alex, I think you have a point but at the same time I can see an improving trend, only last year most articles portrayed a very negative image of Catalonia when it came to sovereignty issues.
Thanks Albert,
I can see your point. I can sometimes be a bit over-sensitive about these things.
As a foreigner who also has worked as a journalist I find it funny how “our” articles are treated in Catalonia. Catalan nationalists who have recently grouped together (see Emma, for instance) to target “us” are trying to introduce their bias into other people’s work. This will not make them many friends, logically.
The usual amount of criticism is always welcome. But the mobbing we can observe lately makes Catalonia look like a pool of ideological loonies.
Up until recently most journalists were biased by reading Madrid’s newspapers, that is quite a bias, especially considering the incredibly low journalistic quality of those.
Col·lectiu Emma are doing a great job showing them that Madrid’s point of view is not only biased but also morally questionable by developed countries’ standards.
So, in your book, journalists just copy the papers they read?
You can be even more insulting, but you can also stop all that crap and show some respect. I inform you that by the latter you would make a better impression, from which your cause could only profit.
For now, you (personally and collectively, see Emma) can only lose.
(You (collectively speaking) should actually have to pay me for such a valuable advice.)
Candide: are you struggling to make ends meet or what?
You seem to be asking for money everywhere you post your patronising twaddle.
For as long as foreign correspondents simply recycle the garbage published by the Spanish press, the work of Emma and others is a necessary counterbalance to the inaccurate reporting of Catalan politics by most of the foreign media.
To be sure, this is not a uniquely Catalan phenomenon: Rafael Ramos (UK correspondent) and La Vanguardia are as bad the other way round.
You and those whom with you share your views of course would rather we kept quiet like we used to do in the past, and submissively accept what is written without challenge and questioning. Alas, no such luck.
We set up Emma, we set up our multilingual blogs and we will keep working to prevent more misinformation by the pro-Spanish lobby and lazy foreign journalists.
Really, Rab, your kind disgusts me so much that I prefer you do not keep quiet. Ever.
But sometimes I have a weak moment and think that an even better solution is possible, i.e. nationalists stopping to be such boring, manipulative, lying, dangerous bunch.
That usually happens when I’m drunk.
Yeah Spanish nationalists like you
I’m a European citizen, kiddo. Don’t underestimate that.
You want to watch that language
Candide, my friend, don’t get over-excited. I did not realise I provoke such an emotional response in your usually measured self.
I mean: what a pearl of a comment you have left for posterity!
Piece of friendly advice: there is nothing wrong with taking sides as an immigrant in a foreign country. People take sides in truly foreign conflicts (Isreal v Palestine, Tibet, etc) without having ever been in the damned places, so nothing should prevent anyone from taking sides in the political debate of their chosen place of tax residence –as long as they are willing to acknowledge it. What is not acceptable is to pretend to be something one is not.
I have taken sides where I live now but at least I accept it and acknowledge it. You, on the other hand, are trying to have your cake and eat it. You write pretending to be neutral and free of “nationalist” bias, but your rhetoric, your language, your discourse is identical, the same, bit by bit, of someone from the PP, UPyD, or Ciudadanos or a mixture of all. Do yourself a favour and accept like a brave man the path you have taken and walk it free of fear. I have joined a pro-fiscal autonomy/first-step-to-independence business network in Scotland now and I feel much better for it. I don’t need to pretend any more I don’t care. You should do the same. You will feel liberated.
The reason you dislike me so much is because I take to pieces your duplicitous discourse, I burst your sanctimonious bubble of pretend intellectual and debating superiority, and I expose your own biases and prejudices, so evident in your argumentative narrative, to open scrutiny. Above all, I am your worst nightmare: I hold up a mirror to your writing, and all we can see is a resentful immigrant unable to accept he has internalised the discourse of Spanish unionism.
Do not fear: I will be around, God providing, for a while yet. In the meantime, remember to take herbal teas at night. 🙂
Insisting that I must be a woman or a Spanish nationalist is not going any step towards “bursting” any supposed bubble.
It’s making bubbles.