“Newsagents take what Smiths [News] tells them is selling well,” says Peter McCaig, of the Independent News Collective, which distributes radical titles such as New Internationalist, Permaculture and Red Pepper. “Which is fair enough. But the result is that money talks. You get porn titles in more easily than any magazine with a political view.”
via Radical magazines fight for survival | Media | The Guardian.
Posted in Blog, Media | Leave a Comment »
It’s the same old story. Thatcher said the unions were too powerful so she got the police and media to beat them up and smashed them. Now New Labour and the corporate mainstream media are doing exactly the same 25 years later. Seamus Milne says it best today:
But what is truly preposterous is the Tory and media insistence that the dispute confirms the grip trade unions, and the Labour-affiliated Unite in particular, have on the government. As the last couple of days have amply demonstrated, nothing could be further from the truth.
Not only have ministers once again backed the employer in an industrial dispute and denounced the union – as in every other significant national dispute over the past decade – they have resolutely refused to repeal any substantive part of the Thatcher government’s anti-union legislation, which would have almost certainly allowed the BA dispute to be settled last week, if not in December when the courts ruled the first round of strikes unlawful.
As anyone who has followed the twists and turns of New Labour in power over the past 13 years knows perfectly well, it is bankers and businessmen, not trade unionists, who have called the shots – with disastrous consequences for all of us.
via Labour rolls over for BA’s bullies | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.
Who do you think are to blame for the world’s financial woes. “Greedy” unions or corporate greed?
Posted in Blog, UK | Tagged UK, Unions | Leave a Comment »
I’m still in the process of putting more articles online and so the published archive is slowly growing. In the meantime, here’s one from last year that looked at the increasing cost of living in Barcelona. Note that is was written just before the world financial crisis hit and the weakening of the Euro.
Originally Published: March 2009
Anyone who’s lived any length of time in Barcelona can testify to the huge increase in the cost of living over the past few decades. The Olympics, the introduction of the Euro and the advent of low-cost mass tourism have all helped transform Barcelona from simply a Mediterranean port into a glitzy economic powerhouse. By international standards though, Barcelona has remained a relatively cheap destination. Even up to less than a year ago, neither Barcelona nor Madrid were ranked amongst the world’s most expensive cities. However, a recent cost of living study found that this year, for the first time, both cities fall within the top 50. According to the study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Madrid ranks 26th with Barcelona following close behind in 31st place – more expensive than Munich, Brussels and even Los Angeles.
Since this particular study took New York as it’s base, some of this dramatic change can be explained by the weakness of the dollar against the Euro. “There have been some significant changes in the rankings since last year primarily due to exchange rate fluctuations – in particular, the weakening of the US Dollar and strengthening of the Euro,” says study consultant Rebecca Powers. However, such a dramatic change cannot be explained by exchange rates alone and many companies use the study as a gauge when deciding where in the world to relocate employees. “As companies continue to send employees on expatriate assignments, they closely monitor changes in the cost of living to gauge which destination is going to be the most cost effective,” adds Powers. Obviously, the higher that cost is, the less companies are going to see Barcelona as the bargain it once was.
The real driver behind this increase has been the cost of housing. The Mercer study estimated that the average cost of an unfurnished flat in Barcelona is now between €1,400 – €1,500. Meanwhile house prices have exploded in recent years. According to property portal The Property Finders, prices in Spain have tripled within the past ten years. In the case of Barcelona, the website states, “While the rate of increase is slowing down, a typical new 99m2, 3 bedroom apartment now costs in excess of €600.000 – 9% more than in 2005 and double the 2000 price.” The average house price in Barcelona is now a third above the national average – almost €5,000 per square metre – although prices are finally slowing down. Property Finders predict growth of around, “6–7% for 2007, decreasing to 3-4% for 2008 and in line with inflation until around 2010. This makes sense as the cycle from top to bottom to top again seems to be around 15 years.”
According to property portal The Property Finders, property prices in Spain have tripled within the past ten years.
A separate study by Deloitte highlighted just how much these huge increases are affecting the average Spaniard. The research found that the traditional summer hiatus, when practically all of Spain leaves the cities, is under threat this year due to increasingly high mortgage payments. Over two-thirds of Spaniards say they been severely affected by interest-rate rises, with 35 percent saying that they have had to take measures to save money – the majority choosing to sacrifice their summer holidays as a way to cut costs. In the case of young people, the situation is even worse. Another recent study by the Observatorio Joven de Vivienda en España found that on average, almost 70% of young people’s salary goes towards paying for housing between 30-40 square metres. Even the UN has warned Spain that the government needs to step in before the situation gets anymore serious. UN envoy Miloon Kothari warned press in June that, “The main problem with housing in Spain is that it is not affordable, with a considerable proportion of the population spending over 40 percent of their salary on mortgage repayments.” These rising costs have been exasperated by foreigners, particularly Northern Europeans, buying second homes here. A study by Barclays Bank claims that more than 50% of second home owners in Spain are foreigners mainly Brits followed by Germans and the French. It also found that one in every four newly built home in Spain is purchased by a foreigner, many of which are around Barcelona and the Costa Brava.
Of course, this crisis has been in the making for several years. Many residents trace the start of the first small rises back to the early 1990’s. “In my experience, the 1992 Olympics put Barcelona on the map and so it was no longer the well kept secret I had enjoyed since 1986,” says English resident Simon Davies. “Without doubt, the subsequent arrival of more tourists from countries where salaries are higher and currencies are stronger encouraged prices to be hiked up.” It was however the introduction of the Euro in 1999 that most pinpoint as the moment when prices really started to shoot through the roof. “The turning point in terms of Barcelona getting really expensive was definitely the introduction of the Euro,” adds Davies. “There’s something in the pysche of going from large units to smaller units whereby the new prices in smaller figures don’t seem expensive. Then the complicated exchange rate didn’t help – which encouraged unscrupulous increases.”
This change to Euro was particularly noticeable as regards the cost of everyday items. Many residents recall the pre-Euro days when a cup of coffee cost no more than a few hundred pesetas (less than half a Euro) and can now cost upwards of €2 in the more touristy areas. However, president of the Gremio de Restaurantes de Barcelona, Gaietà Farràs, says the costs of the city’s bars and restaurants are, “Still some of the lowest of the major European cities and the value for money still remains very high.” He concedes however that, “It is the Euro that has been responsible for price rises in recent years.”
The intrroduction of the Euro saw sharp increases in Barcelona's cost of living.
Part of the problem is that Barcelona has simply been a victim of it’s own success. Investment in the Olympics rejuvenated the once dour port and the installation of a man-made beach has given the city much more tourist appeal. The subsequent discovery of Barcelona on the international map has left magazines ranging from Newsweek to Wallpaper clamouring to declare Barcelona the “coolest” city in Europe. Davies adds, “I think it’s a general fashion-conscious glamorous bandwagon – Barcelona has become an ‘in’ place for the last few years. This has attracted a massive influx of people – everything from tourists to trade fairs.” Tourism in particular has certainly seen a massive increase. The Barcelona Tourist Board estimates that almost 30 million people will visit this year – almost a 40% increase from 2000. Trade Fairs have also brought huge amounts of money into the city. The Fira de Barcelona, the main exhibition centre, hosts 75% of Spain’s trade fairs with an estimated 3.5 million visitors last year.
How much longer residents will tolerate this escalating state of affairs remains to be seen but with youth movements emerging such as “No tendras casa en tu puta vida” (You’ll never be able to afford a home in your f****** life) it seems the existing situation has already gone too far for some.
Posted in Economy, Published Articles | Tagged Barcelona, Catalonia, Cataluña, Catalunya, Financial Crisis | Leave a Comment »
Maybe not since the Sagrada Familia has a construction project run into so many problems as the highly prestigious Las Arenas bullring restoration project in Placa España. It’s amazing that since writing this story over a year ago, construction at the troubled €100m project only resumed a few weeks ago. When I interviewed chief Spanish architect Lluis Alonso in April 2009, he said construction would resume within “a matter of days”. I thought this was a wildly ambitious prediction at the time and so it has proved. As I learned more about the financial problems of the project and got an anonymous tip-off about a bust-up behind the scenes between the Spanish and British architects involved, it was clear that Alonso’s attempts to make-out that the halting of construction was just a minor setback rang rather hollow. These feelings grew even stronger as Spain plunged deeper into recession and brought the construction industry to its knees.
Until I wrote about Las Arenas, I also had no idea of the egoistic problems that can cripple such a prestigious construction project when superstar architects such as Spain’s Alonso Balaguer and the UK’s Richard Rogers come together. What I found most astonishing in this case was Alonso’s claim that he had “lifted” the entire building four metres off the ground – an almost impossible architectural feat that an anonymous source revealed has caused a major rupture between Alonso Balaguer and Richard Rogers. Unfortunately, the tip-off came after I interviewed Lluis Alonso on the phone and attempts to press him by e-mail on the 4 meter claims were met with silence. Richard Rogers refused to comment at all and I was informed that they had taken legal action to resolve the dispute.
A bigger question this entire project raised however was, does Barcelona really need another huge shopping and retail park? It’s quite clear that Spain has deep economic problems that are not going to be solved by building Spaniards more places to shop. The restoration of the abandoned bullring was long overdue but I’m not convinced the reasons for it are going to be of any great help to Catalans when they already have shopping complexes such as El Triangle, Gran Via, Glories, La Machinista and L’Illa to choose from.
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Originally published: June 2009
Barcelona is already famous for one unfinished architectural masterpiece but it’s the Las Arenas bullring in Plaça España that’s currently grabbing the headlines – for all the wrong reasons. The embarrassing prospect facing both the local council, contractors and architects involved is a half finished €100 million white elephant in the middle of one of Barcelona’s most famous landmarks. While the economic crisis is largely to blame, architectural controversy between the high-profile British and Spanish firms involved surrounds the project. With the original completion date of autumn 2006 long passed and now the second target of spring 2009 also gone, there is now no official end in sight.
The Las Arenas project is one of Barcelona’s most prestigious construction projects of recent times. Originally built in 1898, the bullring was abandoned in 1990 as the popularity of bullfighting decreased in Catalonia. One Olympics inspired city revival and a decade long property boom later, prestigious British architects Richard Rogers announced that they would once again team-up with Barcelona firm Alonso Balaguer to finally revitalise it in 2003. The €100 million project features mouth-watering designs that aim to create an elegant and sustainable combination of old and new that will provide 70,000m² to business, retail and leisure facilities including a new FNAC, Mercadona and museum of rock. Piece de resistance is to be a solar powered roof terrace that will form a ‘piazza in the sky’ with stunning panoramic views over the city.
In March 2009 however, amongst economic chaos and unpaid bills, construction was abruptly halted. Building firm Dragados went on strike after months of being unpaid and Sacresa, owners of the site, went into liquidation. They subsequently entered into a messy administrative takeover by Metrovacesa who then themselves suffered a partial takeover by banks. At the time of writing, no official agreements have been reached regarding resuming construction leaving the entire project in limbo. However, Lluis Alonso, joint partner in Alonso Balaguer, says that construction will resume very shortly.
Lluis Alonso
“At the moment the construction – not the project – has been stopped due to the economic crisis. That means that the owner has changed from Sacresa, which was our original client, to Metrovacesa. The delay is because there were so many administrative pending question specifically about the construction company Dragados.” Builders Dragados went unpaid for several months during construction and in March 2009, laid down their tools completely. In April, they started removing construction equipment from the site in protest at failure to reach a settlement. Alonso assures however that a resolution is within touching distance. “In my opinion, this is a question that could take just a few more days or weeks – no more than that because everyone is focused on following ahead because the building is so advanced that it’s not logical to stop now.”
It’s not only the economic crisis that has dogged the prestigious project though. Disagreements over design specifics of Las Arenas has resulted in a rupture between the British and Spanish architects involved. A British trained Spanish architect close to the project, who wishes to remain anonymous, says, “Problems between Richard Rogers and Alonso Balaguer emerged as early as 2007 when Richard Rogers departed their joint offices with Alonso Balaguer to set-up on a skeletal staff of their own separately. The reasons for the split were because of concerns over issues of credit for the design of Las Arenas and the Protos Bodega and also the loss of the Viladecans Business Park joint project later to be commissioned solely to the Alonso Balaguer office. This followed the first joint project between the two offices for the Hotel Hesperia building on Gran Via, regarded as a huge failure both in financial and design terms by the Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners London office.”
Richard Rogers
At Las Arenas, the source claims Richard Rogers were particularly upset by what they regarded as inaccurate claims regarding construction details Alonso has made in the Spanish press. “Many articles feature either complete design authorship claims by Alonso Balaguer or incomprehensible statements regarding the design and construction of the projects. Luis Alonso still maintains six years into the Las Arenas project that 25 steel hydraulics have been used to lift the Bullring façade 4m above ground level, when this is completely untrue and the façade is fixed in its original position. Luis also still maintains the doomed roof is made of zinc when it is in fact a laminated timber frame with a liquid plastic coating.”
To the outsider, it certainly looks as if the building has been lifted at least 4 meters into the air and is now resting on V-shape steel foundations. However, according to our source, nothing has been lifted – the ground has simply been removed from under the building. “The original bullring was built 4m above the level of Gran Via. It had a large wide staircase leading from the street up to the entrance to cover this change in level. The builders have done nothing but remove the foundation earth from underneath it and inserted the V-shaped steel girders which is why from the outside, it looks like it has been lifted.”
Spanish architects Alonso-Balaguer claim they have lifted Las Arenas 4 metres off the ground while an anonymous says such claims such have embarrassed their British partners Richard Rodgers as the building was already 4 metres off the ground and that architects have simply removed the ground from under it.
Independent Catalan architect Jorge Caminero points-out however that such bickering over design claims are not uncommon in joint projects. “There tends to be a lot of egos flying around in joint architectural projects and each one wants to claim his part of the work.” The truth about the allegations is hard to ascertain because Richard Rogers refuse to comment on the project. The anonymous source however claims that this may well be because the firm have initiated legal proceedings and don’t want to compromise their position. “The Rogers lawyers have been called in to resolve any contract disputes with the client and with Alonso Balaguer. Luis Alonso is looking to take the remainder of the project away from Rogers for a reduced fee and finish the project. He is currently dealing with the client body about this. A similar event occurred with an office complex in Viladecans which was a joint project, later designed solely by Alonso Balaguer. As I understand this was the start in the breakdown between the two companies.”
Proposed Vildecans Business Park building project between Alonso Balaguer and Richard Rodgers which also ended in acrimony.
Alonso meanwhile denies that any rift has taken place although concedes that the two firms won’t be working together again. He says, “We have been working with Rogers on several projects in Spain but the bullring will be the last one that we are developing together. We decided to finish this joint venture together without any kind of problem. We have been developing everything in harmony but in the future, each one wants to have their own way. It must be made clear that there is no kind of problem between us. We are friends and completely without any kind of problem. We have an office onsite where our architects have been living together for the past 5 years.”
If economic problems and architectural bickering aren’t enough though, it seems that even the weather is determined to plague progress of the project. During the period that construction has been suspended, Las Arenas has suffered structural damage that will setback the project even further. The persistent rain that fell in Barcelona during April 2009 damaged the wood interior which has not yet been protected by the shell. Alonso says of the damage, “It’s not a really, really serious problem but it is a problem obviously.”
How Las Arenas used to look
Even if building resumes, the problems for Las Arenas won’t stop there. The danger is that the building will open half empty without enough occupants to cover the first and basement floors. Alonso however maintains that the majority of the building is occupied with businesses currently being selected to fill the remaining two floors. “The dome will be occupied by a media company and the fourth floor will be occupied by a sports company and rock museum,” says Alonso. “On the second and third floors will be 12 cinemas. FNAC, Mercadona and Veritas will occupy the -1 level. The rest of the space will be occupied by small operators. It’s not necessary to have everything occupied yet because there are many operators waiting and Metrovacesa are selecting which ones will be appropriate to balance everything on the retail centre.”
As a result of all these problems, the final cost of the project also remains unclear although Alonso says that as far as he is concerned, the final figure will only differ by 4% of the original budget of €100 million. “The project has cost almost the same as the budget we signed with Sacresa 6 years ago. We have just a deviation of 4%. But the question is, we don’t know anything about the figures Sacresa has passed onto Metrovacesa.” Asked about the €200 million figure being suggested in the Spanish press, Alonso says, “I’ve seen that figure too but I don’t know anything about it.”
Metrovacesa have promised Las Arenas will finally be completed by 2011
The €100 (or €200) million question is when will Las Arenas finally open it’s doors to the public? Alonso says that once construction begins again, it should be no longer than one year. “We should take no more than 6 months. That means 6 months to finish the shell and 6 extra months to finish the interior design.”
The latest news is that Metrovacesa have promised the mayor of Barcelona Jordi Hereu that it will finally open in the first quarter of 2011. The big question now is, will there be any shops and shoppers to fill it?
Posted in Architecture, Published Articles | Tagged Alonso Ballaguer, Architecture, Barcelona, Catalonia, Cataluña, Catalunya, Construction, Las Arenas, Lluis Alonso, Richard Rogers, Spain | 5 Comments »
The Catalan Flag
It’s exactly four years since I wrote this article and amazingly, the furore over The Estatut continues. Graeme at the South of Watford blog has done a good job of bringing things up to date at the end of 2009 with this post. Spain’s Constitutional Court is still to rule whether the Estatut is in violation of Spain’s constitution. The main sticking point, as discussed towards the latter end of this article, has little to do with greater Catalan political and economic independence and more to do with whether the article in the Estatut stating that “Catalonia is a Nation” is legal or not.
However, while legal bigwigs battle it out in court and politicians continue to make capital out of it, the more important point is does the average Catalan feel as passionately about it? As I found in the article, the answer is not really. There is deep skepticism amongst the general population whether much of the posturing over the Estatut by political parties really has the interests of the average man in the street at heart. Graeme states the case well saying: “I suspect it is an issue of far greater importance to the political and media elite than to the population in general, most of whom probably don’t include choosing their favourite article from the Estatut amongst their party games.”
The truth is, the Estatut is a perfect example of a liberal “red herring” i.e. an issue that liberal elites in the media and politics have defined as of supposedly vital democratic, political and economic importance but in reality, pales into insignificance when compared with far more serious state and corporate crimes taking place on a daily basis which ultimately have a much greater detrimental effect on the lives of Catalans and Catalonia.
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Originally Published: February 2006
A Spanish army General threatened to invade Catalonia if it goes ahead. A nationwide boycott of Catalan products is underway and the leader of the opposition has called it “a return to the 18th century”. It is of course the new Catalan constitution or “Estatut” which has rapidly become one of the most hotly debated issues in Spain’s young modern democratic history. Whilst some argue it’s a progressive political initiative, others say it’s a destructive and even illegal proposal that could spell the beginning of the end of Spain as we know it.
However, even for many Catalans, the exact details of the Estatut remain a mystery. “I don’t know what to think about the Estatut because it hasn’t been explained properly,” says Catalan textile entrepreneur Toni Gassó. “The politicians keep painting a rosy picture saying we will gain more control over our region but I suspect there will be a catch. As individuals, will we end up paying more, less or the same amounts of tax, social security etc? Its still not clear.” So what exactly is the Estatut and what is all the fuss about?
Essentially, the Estatut is a Catalan proposal for greater political and economic independence from central government in Madrid. Potentially, it will mark the next important chapter in centuries of regional struggles in Spain that have already resulted in one of the most autonomous power structures in Europe. Catalonia in particular has fought a long and bloody struggle for greater independence, the modern origins of which can be traced back just over a century ago to the “Bases de Manresa” – the first draft plan for Catalan autonomy. Inspired by the gradual demise of the Spanish empire, Catalonia was already emerging as a powerful cultural and economic region in its own right as the industrial era dawned.
An Assembly for the Bases de Manresa in 1892
A conservative Catalan nationalist movement “Lliga Regionalista” was subsequently founded and in 1914, achieved its first milestone with the establishment of the “Mancommunitat” – the first government of any kind in Catalonia in 200 years. It was soon destroyed by the 1923 military coup of Primo de Rivera but the founding of the second Spanish Republic in 1931 brought new hope. Francesc Macià helped establish the first Catalan constitution of autonomy in 1932 but once again, a military coup – this time lead by General Franco – plunged Spain into a 36-year dictatorship. It wasn’t until 1979 that the second Catalan constitution was established, enshrined once again by the revival of the Generalitat.
Catalan nationalist party Convergencia I Unió (CIU) subsequently went on to dominate local elections for the next quarter of a century until 2003 when it had to share power with two more radical left-wing parties – Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and Iniciativa Verds-Esquerra Alternativa (IC). These parties have formed a coalition that has spearheaded the fresh drive for greater autonomy and so it was that in September 2005, the Catalan Parliament voted overwhelmingly to propose the Estatut. The Spanish Congress subsequently approved it for formal consideration with Prime Minister Jose Zapetero saying, “A strong Catalonia will make Spain stronger”.
Catalonia certainly does not lack autonomy as things stand. The Generalitat already holds exclusive jurisdiction in such matters as culture, the environment, communications, transportation and public safety. Even in regards of education, schooling is in Catalan meaning the only way to obtain an education in Spanish is privately. For Toni Gassó, this level of autonomy is sufficient in itself without risking alienating the rest of Spain. ”I think we already enjoy a decent level of control from Madrid. As a businessman, I’m particularly concerned because many of my customers are Spanish and I’m a bit worried there might be boycotts of Catalan goods if the Estatut goes ahead.”
Camp Nou, FC Barcelona v Real Madrid, Nov 29, 2009
In matters regarding health, justice and economic budgeting however, Catalonia shares power with the Spanish government and it is this latter point that has caused the most controversy. Catalonia lacks its own fiscal system thus the economic financing of the Generalitat depends almost entirely on funds raised by national-government taxation. Estatut supporters claim that reform is long overdue since Catalonia pays far more into the national Spanish coffers than it receives. Those against it say that this is a selfish and greedy attitude that could devastate the Spanish economy.
Such fears are unfounded however according to UAB Economist lecturer Rafael Boix Domènech. “The Estatut proposes a federal approach to a fiscal model similar to that of the European Union,” says Domènech. “It proposes that Catalonia simply collects and administers its own taxes whilst also paying the Spanish government for the cost of collective services plus an additional share for national solidarity. This is aimed at correcting severe deficiencies in the management of taxes and avoid dependence of the ideologies of future Spanish governments – a sensible move in view of the bad relations Catalonia has had with previous conservative administrations. People forget that the Basque Country and Navarra already enjoy this level of autonomy and there have been no catastrophic consequences for the Spanish economy.”
However, of the 40,000 word proposal, it is perhaps one four word statement that has caused the most controversy – “Catalonia is a Nation”. For some, this is in direct violation of Article 2 of the 1978 Spanish Constitution which states that the constitution “is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation” but at the same time, also refers to the “right to autonomy of the nationalities and regions.” The controversy centers on whether referring to any autonomous community of Spain as a “nation” may go against Article 2 meaning Catalonia’s claim to be a “nation” rather than a “nationality” has separatist overtones.
Much of the media and those on the right of the political spectum have seized on this issue with Popular Party (PP) leader Mario Rajoy blasting the Estatut as “an outrageous fraud” protesting that trying to make it compatible with the Spanish constitution is “like trying to give a hedgehog a permanent wave.” One of the most dramatic moments in the process so far was a declaration by Lieutenant General José Mena Aguado that Spain’s military would intervene if Catalonia was declared a nation. It is only 25 years ago since the last attempted coup d’etat in Spain was led by leaders of the army who were against the process of democratisation that was taking place in the wake of Franco’s death. On this occasion, the General was universally condemned and subsequently sacked although the PP said his statement was an “inevitable” result of the government’s decision to debate the Estatut.
General José Mena Aguado who threatened to invade Catalonia if it were declared a "nation" under the Estatut.
Meanwhile, several organisations have launched boycotts of Catalan products through websites such as “nacionalismo-no.com”. They appeal to Spaniards to boycott everything from banks that are known to support the proposal, to Catalan pet-food companies and cava. Josep Ferrer, Honorary President of cava producer Freixenet expressed his concern saying, “We are worried about the present political situation on our sales of cava. We are a Spanish company, with a global presence, and wherever we export, we always go with the Spanish flag.”
At the time of writing, President Zapetero has stated he thinks the Estatut will be passed “with a substantial majority” in Congress. It will then be down to the people of Catalonia to decide its future in a referendum. Whether or not it is passed, the Estatut has polarised political feeling across Spain and could turn out to have a huge bearing on which party wins the next national election.
More info:
Posted in Catalan Autonomy, Published Articles | Tagged Barcelona, Catalonia, Cataluña, Catalunya, Estatut, Spain | 2 Comments »
Apart from this post, (the out-and-out leader by a mile and has had me seriously considering whether to devote this entire blog to Larry Flynt’s request to bailout the porn industry) the most popular content on this site consistently seems to be the articles I have had published about Spain, Barcelona and Catalonia.
Therefore, I’m finally going to do something that I promised to do when I started this blog about 4 years ago – publish absolutely all of the articles I’ve written until now.
Obviously, many of them, being written some years ago, won’t exactly be topical or up to date but I hope that they’re useful to English speakers somewhere with an interest in the region. As always, if you want to republish any of them, there should be no problem but please contact me first on info@nicholasmead.com.
Many of the articles that will be published I have prepared in advance and are in drafts at the moment but I’ll try to space out the publishing so that anyone mad enough to have added me to their RSS feeds, won’t get bombarded with irrelevant old articles of mine.
Until this process is complete, I won’t be blogging much but please don’t let this ruin your weekend 
UPDATE: I’ve just realised that because I’ve postdated the articles, they don’t appear as the most recent posts on the site so you won’t even know they’re being posted. You will however notice the Archives expanding in the bottom right hand corner of the site.
UPDATE 2: Sod it. I’ve decided to publish them as current posts with an updated introduction and will archive them to their correct publishing date at a later time.
Posted in Blog, Site News | 2 Comments »
Blair at the Chilcot Inquiry
It was better to deal with this threat, to remove him from office and I do genuinely believe the world is a safer place as a result.
Even before you invaded, the CIA and FBI disagreed with you on that Mr Blair. And we all know how much you passionately believed in intelligence agencies.
When it suited the aims of you and your corporate sponsors that is.
Like every other government inquiry, the Chilcot Inquiry will be a whitewash. The findings aren’t due to be published until 2011 anyway and when it is, it will conclude something like “mistakes were made”, “intelligence was flawed” but there was no “criminal intent” by Blair and his cohorts.
By that time, Tony will no doubt still be earning £1,000,000 a month with his after dinner speaking engagements while the rest of us have to live in the infinitely more dangerous world that he helped create.
Posted in Blog, Middle East, Politics, UK | Tagged Blair, Chilcott, Chilcott Inquiry, Iraq, Tony Blair | 2 Comments »
Considering the subject of the last post I wrote, today seems an appropriate if rather sad occasion to start blogging again. I’m very sad to learn that Howard Zinn has died of a heart attack at the age of 87. I was only listening to a talk by him a few days ago and his mind was still so lucid, its hard to believe he has died so suddenly.
Zinn will be sorely missed as one of the few American historians who told history from the perspective of the people and not the powerful and always encouraged listeners that the lessons of history are that they can confront power and change things for the better. Zinn started his life killing thousands in World War 2 bombing raids and spent the rest of it trying to raise awareness about the realities of American abuse of power throughout the ages.
It’s a funny world he leaves behind. As I highlighted in the last post, try and tell history from the perspective of working people nowadays and you’re labeled a “Marxist”.
Send thousands of young people to their deaths, and you’re awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In-depth tribute on Democracy Now and commentary piece in The Guardian.
Posted in Blog, Politics, USA | Tagged History, Howard Zinn, Politics, Zinn | 2 Comments »
It’s not difficult to get accused of being a Marxist nowadays – especially if you’re in Hollywood. Just try to suggest that the perspective of the poor and oppressed is important and watch how they chase you down Hollywood Boulevard with burning copies of the Communist Manifesto.
Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the USA is one of the best selling history books in America. It attempts to do something that most history books don’t – report history from the point of view of common people involved in the fight for civil and working rights. Recently, it has been turned into a star-studded documentary that yesterday got its first showing on the History Channel.
I haven’t seen it yet and I’m not sure when it will be aired in Europe where there are even more Marxists sitting around enjoying their free health care, public transport, worker’s rights etc. What’s impressive however is the conservative backlash in the USA against the documentary. The History Channel’s official forum and right-wing entertainment websites are outraged that this work of Satan has been turned into a documentary. Some examples include:
Have you people lost your freaking minds – or just your objectivity. Enter Howard Zin: Zinn has spent a lifetime teaching college students about the evils of capitalism, the promise of Marxism, and his version of American history – a history that has, in his view, been kept from students.
Howard Zinn?? Howard Zinn?? The History Channel expects us to believe Howard Zinn and his hand-picked crew of Hollywood leftist are about to give us an accurate and unbiased account of American history..,. Shame on the History Channel… Shame, shame, shame………
This two hour special full of the spewings of a twisted Marxist like Howard Zinn is the last straw.
Shame, shame, indeed!! This is a vitriolically anti-American editorial and does not deserve to be shown on a channel whose business it is to present facts, not opinions. Leave it to a bunch of Hollywood types to spit in the face of a country that has given them everything!
This is an act of war, the clear intention here is to plant the seeds of revolutionary hatred into a whole generation of youth. Such brainwashed youth will regard the generations before them as vermin who are pure evil and in need of punishment. This is the beginning of training for future revolutionary soldiers who will happily make the streets run red while thinking of themselves as white nights.
(There was ONE happy viewer incidentally):
I guess it’s just a relief to see some “History” on a channel that still calls itself HISTORY, and not some fat guy doing some scripted ‘dangerous’ job.
And the bile just goes on and on. So basically, according to these guys, be very careful if you go to Hollywood because nowadays it’s full of liberals and communists that are trying to suggest that the plight of the poor and working population in history is worth hearing (even if it is from the mouths of a bunch of rich film stars). I mean, they might as well rename Hollywood Boulevard Karl Marx Strasse and give Fidel Castro the green light to invade from the Hollywood Hills!
Where have the good old days of Hollywood gone such as Showgirls and Basic Instinct 2?
Posted in Blog, Documentaries, Politics, USA | Tagged Communists, Documentaries, History, Hollywood, Howard Zinn, Karl Marx, Liberals, Marxism, Marxists, People's History, Politics | 3 Comments »
It seems wholly appropriate that a decade that has been punctuated by death and destruction, from the nightmare events of 9-11 to the illegal invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, should end with a man winning the world’s most prestigious peace prize for waging war. In a world of Orwellian political discourse such as The “War On Terror”, “A War for Freedom and Democracy” in Iraq and a “Moral War” or “War of Necessity” in Afghanistan, a picture of a man being lauded by intellectual elites for recently sending another 30,000 troops into an already impoverished country seems very fitting.
Not that this is anything new of course. Powerful interests have to cloak acts of aggression with pretty words otherwise the public they rule over wouldn’t let them get away with it quite so easily. It’s just that the whole thing with Barack Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize – when there are millions of charities and aid workers out there working for genuine peace – has reached rather bizarre extremes. Even the authors of the Wikipedia entry on Nobel Peace Prize Laureates have been a bit naughty and said that Obama “doesn’t deserve it” (scroll to the bottom of the page).
And it’s no secret that Obama will soon be “bringing peace” to Iran with missiles and bombs which is what this peace prize is really all about. The main reason Obama has been awarded the peace prize is apparently because of his rehtorical “commitment” to reducing nuclear weapons. Words are cheap though and any rational person judges someone on their actions and not their words.
Unfortunately, Obama’s actions on nucelar proliferation don’t paint a pretty picture. The International Atomic Energy Agency recently passed a resolution calling on Israel to join a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (N.P.T.) and open its nuclear facilities to inspection. The USA, along with Europe, tried to block it (to the general silence of the media) although unfortunately for them it passed anyway. But while it’s OK for Israel to be armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, Obama has made it quite clear that it’s not OK for Iran to do so.
Even more tellingly, the day before Obama was awarded the Nobel Prize, the Pentagon announced it was accelerating delivery of the most lethal non-nuclear weapons in the arsenal: 13-ton bombs for B-2 and B-52 stealth bombers, designed to destroy deeply hidden bunkers shielded by 10,000 pounds of reinforced concrete. Ideal for attacking a well protected country like Iran unlike a feeble one such as Iraq or Afghanistan.
It would be nice to think that those naive Scandinavians have awarded Obama the Peace Prize to “encourage” him towards real actions towards peace. To give them the benefit of the doubt, they did award it to him in a moment of madness after getting a little over excited about his election just a few days after he took office. However, as they very well know, it has been interpreted as a ringing endorsement of what Obama is doing now. The unfortunate effect is that it looks like the European intellectual elite’s way of giving Obama a green light to go steaming into Iran when the US administration feels the time is right.
As the decade ends, Orwell’s 1984 depiction of a world where “War is Peace” has been given new meaning by this year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Posted in Blog, International Politics, Middle East, Politics, USA | Tagged Nobel, Nobel Peace Prize, Obama | 5 Comments »
