As we speak I’m still impressed by the documentary “Adéu, Espanya?” just watched online on live broadcast from the Catalan TV3. It portraits the realities in Greenland, Quebec, Scotland and Catalonia and the current situation on their paths to a possible future independence. I think this is the first time a catalan television discusses this topic so openly. The documentary compares our situation to other national realities. There’s a bunch of excellent interviews, including Scotland’s Primer Minister, Alex Salmond and excerpt of the history of every country, very enlightening and …

Sabadell organised last sunday their referendum of independence. With a population of 200.000 people, Sabadell has been to date the biggest city to organise a referendum and obviously poses an organisational challenge. The results, 92,78% “Yes” votes against 5,3% “No” votes. Overall, 22608 votes that make up for a 13,87% turnout.
If you think this is low keep reading. This voting used 800 volunteers and around 60000 euros budget that came from donations. I’d obviously like a bigger turnout but this follows the trend seen in bigger cities from previous …

“Do you hate catalans?”. Guess in which european country it is OK to incite racism from mainstream media.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo (the second newspaper in Spain) asked its readers that question on 16th July, 2009. The exact question was “¿Se siente usted catalanófobo?” a direct translation would be “Are you catalanophobic?” or “Do you hate catalans?”. The original poll page can still be seen here.
The problem is twofold, first it is very serious that the mainstream Spanish media incites to racism and secondly and most worrying: nothing, absolutely nothing …