The newspaper El Mundo, a journal which ancient legends tell us once merited some respect, has been busy for weeks combing villages in Cataluña and the Basque Country looking for town halls where the Spanish flag is not being flown. Not surprisingly, they have found some, and have received the energetic support of the Partido Popular (PP) in their campaign to force these renegades into line. Not content with this, the PP leadership has now launched yet another campaign to try and wrap themselves in the national flag – an operation which hopefully includes at least some risk of suffocation.
October 12th is a national holiday in Spain, and indeed in several South American countries. It gets called different things in different countries, although “Your country now belongs to us” Day appears to have fallen out of fashion as time passes since the end of the empire. Anyway, I digress; the PP wants people out on the streets on October 12th when those of us unfortunate enough to live close to the centre of the capital will be repeatedly subjected to low flying military aircraft. Some sections of the PP probably regard this event as a dry run for getting Zapatero out of office should the more conventional route of winning the elections not produce the desired result. Given the tendency of many of these people to take any opportunity to hiss and boo at the hated Zapatero, the PP clearly hopes they can turn the military parade into an anti-government demonstration with lots of elderly irate rightists waving enormous flags as they shout abuse. What should I do, go there with my camera, or get of town? Tough decisions.
Occasionally in my idle moments, of which I don't have enough these days, I try to think of something useful to do with a flag. Use it for cleaning the windows is one option, but newspaper works so much better (El Mundo is not completely useless). It might work as a doormat for muddy feet with all the rain falling in Madrid this week, but then it crumples too easily and I have a good doormat anyway. Something will occur to me.
October 12th is a national holiday in Spain, and indeed in several South American countries. It gets called different things in different countries, although “Your country now belongs to us” Day appears to have fallen out of fashion as time passes since the end of the empire. Anyway, I digress; the PP wants people out on the streets on October 12th when those of us unfortunate enough to live close to the centre of the capital will be repeatedly subjected to low flying military aircraft. Some sections of the PP probably regard this event as a dry run for getting Zapatero out of office should the more conventional route of winning the elections not produce the desired result. Given the tendency of many of these people to take any opportunity to hiss and boo at the hated Zapatero, the PP clearly hopes they can turn the military parade into an anti-government demonstration with lots of elderly irate rightists waving enormous flags as they shout abuse. What should I do, go there with my camera, or get of town? Tough decisions.
Occasionally in my idle moments, of which I don't have enough these days, I try to think of something useful to do with a flag. Use it for cleaning the windows is one option, but newspaper works so much better (El Mundo is not completely useless). It might work as a doormat for muddy feet with all the rain falling in Madrid this week, but then it crumples too easily and I have a good doormat anyway. Something will occur to me.
5 comments:
Save your flag, Graeme. As winter approaches, it may be cut into pieces to stuff into your boots on long mountain treks. Also: when burnt, flags produce a great amount of heat. get your fire started with a flag and you'll cook with the spirits of the Reis Catòlics protecting you.
And all this obsessive flag-waving by the same people who claim they are against nationalisms and the politics of identity... obviously not their own.
Thanks for the link :)
Flags, anthems, patriotism, spanish identity. It's as a religion for them. As stupid and useless as religion.
Opium of the people Evaristo, but without even the consolation that religion might bring.
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