Mr Davies drivel

MR DRIVEL STRIKES BACK

2010-07-28T10:02:00.004+01:00

Mr Davies, our sincere “galicianist”, couldn’t help himself, on occasion of the 25th of July, from launching his last tendentious remarks on those Galician terrorists who want to wipe out the Spanish language and rule from Galiza. Unfortunately, for him, his pathetic ignorance of both Galician and Spanish culture has backfired on him. Yet again. He pours his scorn on those politicians who were celebrating that spurious myth of Saint James as the symbol of the Galician nation. That Saint James the Apostle never set foot in Galiza is something far more probable that the opposite case. Never mind, the medieval christian marketing operation has proved extraordinary succesful, as we all can testify more than 1000 years later. Subsequentely, this religious symbol was taken by the nationalist to bolster their claims and projects. What Mr Davies, in his blatant ignorance, didn’t know is the colour that those nationalists happen to have. Yes, Santiago is one of the symbols or myths of the Galician nationalist, as it is the celtic heritage, even though in this last one there is more substance. Another symbol is the Galician language, which is not a myth but a reality, a reality that annoys people like Mr Davies, who would rather have one single language for all, that all meaning, of course, the “all” that the Spanish nationalist are referring to all the time.

The “Santiago Apostol” the Galician nationalists were celebrating the other day, 25ht of July, is indeed the Patron Saint of Galiza. This celebration is worth of scorn by Mr Davies, the funder of the “Anglo-Galician” association. Never mind the meaning that this symbol holds for all Galicians, including those who are the staunchest Spanish nationalists. For Mr Davies, the day of the Santiago Apostol (yes, the one that caused the pilgrimage way) is an occasion to belittle the Galician nationalist politicians. Had Mr Davies knew that this saint is also the Saint Patron of Spain, and that it is as much celebrated by Spanish nationalists, in virtue of its “muslim killer power”, would he have seized the occasion to extend his “liars, crooks and fornicators” epiteths to the Spanish nationalist politicians in general? May be, but the occasion was perfect to link the national day of Galiza with the wicked politicians, even those Spanish nationalist, who would be sullied because of a Galician spurious symbol they favoured.

But if this were not enough to show the true colours of this sad individual who claims to be a “Galicianist”, the same one who mentions nothing in his blog titled “Thoughts from Galicia” about the Galician National day, but two days later and only to berate politicians, the same who didn’t mention the 20 000 folk who were on the streets to demand (rightly or not) the Galician nation, he seizes the occasion of someone’s qualification being rejected for not being written in Spanish, but in Galician. That’s the case, that is, the opposite case, that has been preying on the Galician folk by the thousands who don’t want to loose their Galician identity. But Mr Davies, our pretended Galicianist “in the good sense” knows when to bring “the right issue” at “the right moment”.

This old geezer’s ignorance and arrogance is only equalled by his biased crass espanolismo.

MR DAVIES, SHAME ON YOU.

"GALICIANIST" DRIVEL

2010-01-20T00:41:00.002Z

Mr Davies is a real poliglot who speaks about six or seven languages, result of his many travels around the world. This guy, who claims to be a “Galicianist”, has a “Anglo-Galician” website and a blog called “Thoughts from Galicia” blog, where he writes his very clever (or so he thinks) “thoughts” about Spain (and in the process, about Galicia). After living in the Galician country for more than ten years, he has a logical of interest for all things Galician, hence his convicted self-proclaimed “Galicianism”. However, there are limits to his love for Galicia. And nothing more so than the very Galician language. Mr Davies, who speaks fluently six or seven languages (or so he claims) has an aversion for the Galician language, also known as “Gallego”. He prefers “useful” languages, such as English, French or Spanish, to Galician. Nevertheless, he is a fluent speaker of “Indonesian” (which one “Indonesian” we don’t know), Persian and Creole. Not very useful this last one, so perhaps his ignorance of Galician has an explanation other than usefulness. So let’s see: even if he wished that Galician was a dead language, so nobody would bother him with this minor language spoken by “folk up in the hills”, as he uses to say, so that he could get on with his Spanish (he came to Galicia for a reason, didn’t he?), that would be no excuse: he speaks too Latin, a much “more dead” language than Galician ... So, what could be the reason for our friend to complain about the “imposition” of Galician in ... Galicia?

Ten years living in Galicia, and this chap is still moaning about because the Pontevedra council sends him official letters exclusively in Galician! I think we should organise a collect, to buy him a Anglo-Galician dictionary, so he can alleviate the sufferings caused by this awful and very undemocratic linguistic imposition.

But we’ll deal with that another day. Now it is time to show you some sound bites of his very much Galicianist thought, taken from his very blog. Enjoy.

"Anyone can be a nationalist. All that you need is a belief that the place you live in (Perejil Island?) is a nation and that you are the victim of suppression by whatever nation it is that the rest of the world thinks it belongs to."

"However, if Galicia wants tourist income, it should have the sense to put what is aimed at tourists in at least Spanish. Anything else is just self-damaging petty nationalism."

"What I moan about is that official communications are only in Gallego and not in both of the official languages. To use only Gallego (when even Castellano speakers don't know what 'agas' or 'pechada' means on road sign) is doctrinaire nationalim."

(About a British friend who asked him about coming to Galicia with his family, when someone advises him to go to Santander, to avoid linguistic conflicts) "Yes, Santander is a nice place. But the English family want(ed) to come to Galicia for a cople or years or so. You can't blame them if they decide that asking their kids not just to learn but to be educated in two new languages is excessive. Especially as one of them will not be of much use to them outside the Lusosphere. Or even it in, some say.

And one would have to be a short-sighted nationalist to believe their not coming would be to Galicia's advantage."

"I agree with you that Gallego should not be marginalised. I’m on record many times saying that I agree with both the Galician language and culture being promoted/developed. What I disagree with this is this being done to the exclusion of the other official language, Spanish. Especially in official communications, whether these are letters from the Xunta or the Facenda or in the form of street signs and, particularly, tourism brochures"

"Fortunately for me, my girls are well past the education age and so I don’t have to decide whether this unholy mess would force me to leave Galicia. Though I suspect it would. I’m a little biased and feel my departure would be a loss to Galicia but I am well aware that the Galician Nationalists would regard it as a more-than-acceptable price to pay for the furtherance of their linguistic aspirations."

"Well, I may not be terribly sympathetic but, with Irish, Scottish and (obviously) Welsh grandparents, I am more Celtic than virtually anyone else living in Galicia. So perhaps I should have educated my daughters in Gaelic. Will they ever forgive me for not doing so?"

"Do you seriously expect us to believe that the Celtic ‘soul’ survived all these influences on it? I guess you do. Even though there’s scarcely a Celtic word in the language you want to see achieve supremacy over Spanish."

"I’ve written many times that I regard Galician Celticness as a 19th century invention, albeit a harmless and possibly profitable one. It is something the Nationalists have grasped as a way to differentiate themselves from all other Spaniards – even their equally ‘Celtic’ neighbours in Asturias – but, of course, this doesn’t mean it’s genuine. Just convenient."

“as a taxpayer resident in the state and nation of Spain, it annoys me when I receive documents that are not in both official languages. And makes me laugh when tourist documents are only in Gallego. This doesn’t make me a conscious or (now subconscious) Spanish nationalist. It makes me a disaffected consumer whose rights are being ignored”

"It saddens me that some Galego speakers have an instinctive resentment of Spanish speakers, ESPECIALLY if they are fellow Galicians. Why don't they/you(extend) the same courtesy of choice as it given to me? Why does it have to be a fight to the death?"

"Gallego offered nothing by way of attraction and the only reasons I apply myself to it are an interest in languages and the occasional need to understand folk in the hills who either only speak Gallego or prefer to use it."

"In the region of the UK I come from, no one is obliged to learn English. In fact, if you want information on benefits from the local council, it is available in several languages. This, of course, is funded by the taxpayers and they can change things, should they ever want, via the ballot box. Until then, it will rank as the will of the people."

So guys, if you want to get a job and a better life without having to ditch your Spanish, ask Mr Davies, he will direct you to the right place, where there is no linguistic impositions ...

CATALANOPHOBIA DRIVEL

2009-12-19T22:34:00.002Z

Mr Davies, our eminent English Hispanist will now and again delight us with some observation to lay it on other Spanish people, lest we think his fixation with Galician nationalists is something personal. Now it is the turn, again, to the industrious and cosmopolitan Catalan folk. Is it not sad that when these reluctant Spaniards give a forward step, be it to reassert their independence or just to shake off yet another external Spanish practise, Mr Davies has to apply himself to belittle them with one of his untimely “adjectives”?:

“Meanwhile, those ornery Catalans have taken another step away from Spanish-ness and begun the process of banning bullfighting in their bit of the dissolving Spanish state. The right-of-centre paper, El Mundo, sees this as an issue of liberty and pluralism and will be beefing up its coverage of bullfights in sympathy with this stance.”

http://colindavies.blogspot.com/

How long would take your average Brit to realise that “Spanish bullfighting” is as alien to the Catalan culture or nation as it is to the Galician one? Would it be more than ten years living in the Spanish kingdom? I doubt it very much. Anyway, it seems that, for Mr Davies, wanting to ban a foreign practise is something that would make you not only “ornery”, but suspicious of conspiring against the Spanish state.

Will Catalans be plotting to introduce another foreign practise to take the place of Spanish bullfighting, perhaps English foxhunting, an equally barbaric if only more aristocratic pastime? Well, hopefully not, as the Catalans must have their own practises, perhaps even within the “tauromaquia” realm, as to have to resort to importing foreign practises.

I must inform you that as Mr Davies has enabled the comment moderation facility, that my comments (and only mine) can’t get through (and I feel extremely honoured for this high regard towards my person), I show here the comments I sent to his biased blog:

1 Good for the Catalans, a far more developed folk than your average “ehpañol“. Why should they tolerate Spanish bullfighting, a barbarous practise, and as alien to their culture as fox hunting, if only less cowardly (on the humans side).

Less bullfighting, less flamenco and more Catalan language and culture. And if you don’t like it, why go there then? Stay in Madrid or Andalusia, where you can freely enjoy these things ...

By the way, Catalans are far less “ornery“ than your average Spaniard. Or than myself, or yourself. Get your “perceptions“ right, if you don’t want to show sheer ignorance.

Visca Catalunya!

2. And another thing: the Spanish state will not survive if the right wing radical prevailing doctrine keeps refusing to give way to more progressive and descentralised visions of the state. A federation of Iberian countries, or at least of Galiza, Euskadi and Catalunya plus Spain, each with their own language, laws and uses, and where the Castilian language can be just “lingua franca“, but not infringing on other historical languages privileges, as it is the case at the moment, must be the aim.

So mr davies, keep practising your Galician (it won’t make you any harm), or otherwise do as the “wise“ Spanish nationalist (quite strong in Galiza) do: barricade yourself.

Mais altos muros caírom.

LAST GALICIAN LANGUAGE DRIVEL

2009-12-03T12:22:00.002Z

Mr Davies had last night the pleasure to introduce his readership to his last discoveries about the Galician language. I must admit that he is making progress in his quest for the reality and myths on this topic, but, as usual, he falls short once more, because he departs from a unbalanced base, and in the end he can’t help himself from falling back to his old bad ways: everything leads to the picturing of the Galician nationalist as a bunch of quarrelsome and foulmouthed lot, especially the reintegracionista horde, who are more and more marginal, due to their own cannibalistic and out of tune ways.

Here is Mr Davies last night’s relevant bit:

There are some true facts and fortunate judgements thrown together with some other false facts and assessments. But of them all, the most significant may be this one:

“... despite the fact the reintegracionista cause is now even more lost than it was in the 1980s ...”

As usual, Mr Davies, when unable to argue or debate with ideas, mostly because of his lack of them, won’t miss an opportunity to present a gloom reality, which, we must not forget this, suits very well his own idea of what the Galician reality should be. He can’t help himself from drivelling his discrediting of other people. Fortunately, for those Galicians who still want to be themselves, and not someone else, reality is not drivel. But you will have to take my word for it.

GLOBAL WARMING DENIAL DRIVEL

2009-11-20T20:55:00.003Z

Yes, you guessed right. Prejudice and insolence is a complex package, and a very difficult one to untangle, as it is made up of many strings, all bundled up together and nearly impossible to extricate one by one. Pull at one of them and soon others will come attached. Try with another thread, and you will find yourself in the same place. This is an “organic bundle”, a whole package, one that bears the marks of the condescending person mr davies is. So in case you were wary that being “anti Galician nationalism” is not enough to prove my claim about mr davies’ essence, I am just offering you another point of view into the old man’s ideas: he is a Global Warming denier. That is, one of those who refuse to accept the liability of humankind activities in any experienced climate change phenomena. Or, as he would put it better, on his having to pay more in road or motoring taxes, petrol or anything that limits his own mobility. Never mind that some people can’t bother to worry about mr davies’ endangered leisure time, as they are too busy sweeping the water out of their homes or just keeping their heads above the water. Mr davies probably spares now and then a thought for these poor souls, but he rejects any responsibility. It must be the sun spots.

But let’s not beat about the bush. There are some incontestable facts:

a) The Global Climate has changed and will change, regardless of what men do or don’t do.

b) There is a clear trend towards Global Warming that relates directly to the effects of certain human activities, namely, CO2 and other gasses emissions, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

c) That trend is near to impossible to curb by now, unless radical measures are taken. Measures that would take a rethinking of our whole economy and social system, as well as phenomenal clashes of interests.

d) Even if some countries like the UK did take those measures, their intended effect would be cancelled out by the inactions of other countries, like China or India.

e) Other non-human factors have played and may be playing a crucial role in the evolution of the Global climate. But this does not equate to writing off Human liability. Not even when the scientific community is clearly biased and geared up towards any study that either shows human induced Global Warming or its harmful diverse effects in different locations. Yes, Global Warming is bussiness, and a profitable one for the scientific community.

Anyway, our man takes whatever makes him feel better, from his much ethical high standing point. And that’s it. Don’t contradict him, because you must have a stake in some dodgy alternative energy scheme or government tax payer subsidised program. There is no Anthropogenic Global Warming. No Galician nation. Whoever claims such things must be a fanatic who is planning to deprive mr drivel of his free roaming peninsular trips, or perhaps planning to torture him by making him read his town hall letters without the Spanish version of that local dialect, Galician.

So all credit to mr davies: he is a conceited ignorant, yes, but with consistency.

LETTER TO A PLONKER

2009-11-17T22:58:00.005Z

Tonight we are having a look at what mr cade has to say to mr davies when the latter mentions him again in his official blog, tonight. Never mind that mr cade has warned mr davies many times to keep quiet and not to mention him, the old rag has to always come back to mr cade, and talk about him in his daily (and unbearable) post. Mr cade needs no publicity, this is all about mr davies, he is the one with a blog (now two) for his thoughts and drivel about tha Galician nation.

There are also rumours of mr davies the man himself visiting us, in disguised persona (the cyber version of the sunglasses, raincoat and sombrero) which would be a sad occurrence if true. If I was mr davies I'd be testing for alzheimer or something of the like. Anyway, here is the text of the comment that I sent to him and I guess (and expect) he won't allow, but in any case it doesn't really matter, as we have the other blog, this one, to read what he doesn't want you to read.

"Hi Colin, just two or three things. First, it’s come to my attention that you have been visiting and posting in your unofficial site, under different nicks. Please, you are welcome to use you known identity, no need to inflate your new blog with fictitious personalities. About the “self-important comments” that you mention, that actually applies only to yourself, who have two blogs and a problem of “ego”, as we all know well, don’t we? Mr cade is just the messenger, and he (me) doesn’t want / need any publicity, so don’t kill him. The readership numbers thing: it is very sad to have that quantitative reference to judge a blog. Didn’t you know there are thousands of plonkers and cretins writing every day and read by many? Well, of course you know, since you are one of them. But it’s hardly something to be proud of, is it?
Finally, about the many times you think I log on your official site: it is two per day (check your numbers, you might have a lot of readers, but it is not me). Since I find reading your posts more and more soul destroying, and I have real aversion for your self-important and bombastically cocky style, I am just doing it in a very cold and distant manner, as a matter of routine. It doesn’t take me more than two minutes and it shows me what to write about in your unofficial blog. I wish you were writing about Crete, Patagonia, or any faraway country, so I didn’t have to read your unbearable blog, but there’d always be someone’s bullshit to denounce. That thought comforts me.

I hope you understand that this is as personal as you want it to be. Since you take yourself very seriously and don’t want to debate your seedy views on the Galician nation, which you smear with constancy, I have to touch on the personal thing to illustrate my case. So it is up to you whether you disappear up your backside or you keep two blogs, one for the normal rubbish, and the other for the rubbish explained."

So let's hope that mr davies takes due note. Next post we'll look at another thing mr davies doesn't want you to know: the truth about the Galician Celtic link. I will prove to you that that link is real, not just popular mythology, and what is the hidden agenda of the old git intent on hidding / distorting this beautiful truth about the glorious Galician nation.

CATALANS ARE BAAD

2009-11-13T23:16:00.010Z

One of the tenets of the widespread and rampant Spanish nationalism, ideology that forms part of Mr Davies acumen, is the idea of the Catalan people being a stingy xenophobic clan-like bunch. Now, a friend of Mr Davies, Mr Xose-Wahn, a half Galician young lad renegade of American upbringing, who has been the last target of my blog-terrorist campaign, has joined the wand-wagon of the Catalan vilifying pro-Spanish supremacy lot, not happy with his previous “have a go at” the Somali people, which promptly was denounced by me in his own seedy blog, and as a consequence earned me my last blog banning. These two champions of the Castilian Spanish levelling cause have (God bless) each other to comfort for their tragic common plight of being the target of some obsessive sad chap, as well as Galician fanatic, Mr Cade here writing. The argument against the Catalans came to the fore this time because at a university lesson (Mr Xose-Wahn’s) a teacher explained the meaning of the word “xarnego”, which is a Catalan one, and not Galician. The way and context in which this word was explained, according to Mr Xose-Wahn’s own account, should be enough to dismiss this professor from his duty but, as the Spanish nationalistic ideology reigns undisturbed nearly everywhere in the Bourbon Kingdom of Spain, it will pass unnoticed and unpunished. For Mr Xose-Wahn, of course, nothing out of normal happened. Xarnego is used by Catalans to refer to those who living in their country are of non-Catalan descent or fail to acquire the culture and language (Catalan) of the country that has given them an opportunity to make a living. That is, those who take advantage of the official status of Castilian Spanish in yet another foreign country, or rather ignore or discard the original culture of the country. Plenty of this folk in Catalonia, believe me, all united in their common ignorance. So the Catalans, in the Castilian Spanish view of our plonker friends, are labelled as racist, endogamic and the like for using that term towards whoever they consider not their own. Mr Xose-Wahn is happy to note that in Galicia nobody will call you a xarnego, even if you aren’t of Galician descent. What he won’t tell you is what most Galicians, being proud Spanish, might not call him in his face, but keep to themselves: that Mr Xoan-Wahn is a “guiri”. Or, being half Galician by blood, half guiri. That is the Spanish equivalent of half-xarnego. But we know. That is not as clan-like, not as tribal as the Catalan version.

Some useful advice:

MR WANKER AND HIS AMAZING DISCOVERIES

2009-11-12T21:56:00.005Z

Mr Davies has made an amazing discovery today: the ‘semantic contradictions’ of the Spanish Constitution, which recognizes the existence of nations within the Spanish nation. This he only found out through an Australian friend of him, who was on a Compostela pilgrimage and has written about this contradiction in a book on that pilgrimage. Little matter that Mr Cade, the true Galician here writing, already pointed out to Mr. Davies this incongruence (in two previous posts). But Mr Davies will only find out through some foreign source of any passing fellow English speaker.

Anyways, today the man lowered his guard and disabled his moderation tool, so my messages, intended for our complete intimacy, got through, and he hasn’t even bothered to delete them! He enabled the censure tool back though, at my polite request.

My comments on Mr Davies official blog Wednesday 11th postwent in two directions:

1) His critics towards a masturbation information campaign for youths in the Spanish region of Extremadura, as a waste of public spending, which would give more arguments to the unreasonable Basque and Catalan nationalist folk, are irrelevant even if he ignores the much larger public amounts spent every year (and increased by the PP in CCAA like Galicia) for the many catholic run private schools. These schools, which Mr Cade knew first hand, teach you that masturbation is not only sinful but prejudicial for you health and spiritual well being.

2) His silence about an important issue in the country these days: the Somali pirates and the kidnapped Galician (perhaps native from Pontevedra) fishermen. There was a rally also, with many hundreds in the streets of Vigo.

About this Somali piracy issue, a young friend of Mr Davies, Mr Xoan-Wahn, a Galician renegade of American upbringing, wrote a few posts in which the rotten hypocrite Western press view is pathetically echoed, vilifying the Somali folk and condoning Western rapacity. Mr Cade left a few messages in this chap’s blog, to denounce his double standards and hypocrisy, in his direct style, as usual, with the result that Mr Xoan-renegade has followed on Mr Davies’ steps and enabled the moderation tool. In the process, he deleted all Mr Cade’s comments and links to the exposing of this Western conspiracy against the Somali people and the environment. So we might have to deal with this issue here. Let’s wait and see if Mr Davies writes something or only chooses to delight his readership with more amazing stories of getting stuck in a parking lift, brushing off people in the street or wanking budgets in some Spanish region.

The funniest bit of this is how these two wankers (I can’t think of a better term to refer to them) comfort each other for their now shared awful plight of having to resort to the blog moderation tool. Mr Davies even apologizes for having been through his blog that Mr Renegade got tracked down! I can’t help it but feel deeply moved at such show of solidarity and brotherhood. Let’s pray for them, and for any other possibly exposed innocent blogger.

THE IMPOSITION OF AN ALIEN CULTURE

2009-11-11T14:56:00.002Z

I reproduce here (edited for brevity) Mr Ointe's comments and links that denounce the imposition of the Spanish (Castilian like) culture and language in Galiza (or Galicia, as he prefers to call it) . In the previous post he had only hinted at it.

“It´s almost impossible to have our own culture displayed on any mass media in our country. The named one of the best folk music in Spain (that of Galicia) is totally absent in the dozens of radio and TV channels here, with only one exception, the almost crucified by Spanish nationalists, Galician Xunta media (TVG, and RTVG). And even there we have to share with all the imposed (yes, imposed because they have less followers here than most local musicians) "Spanish" folk. You can be here a life, without being capable of listen any reference to our music, customs etc. on media. In this same time you will know even the most ridiculous details of "Spanish way of life". In 10 years, barely 3 times had I seen our culture on Spanish media. About five TV channels on UHF normal signal, many more on TDT, about 100 radio stations of Spanish media and this is the result? Do you know how many times is repeated "flamenco", or "copla" on a single day? Almost all followers of our music are from internet. Does this comply with the 11 article of the law of comunication?:

In the language area, I have the document of the European Commision about the Galego language in the schools and it disqualifies the Galician Xunta in 2008 because ... they weren´t even close to comply with the objectives of language immersion in local language.
Check here too:

"Most of the reactions of “pro-Castilian” to this document where related to one part of it that established the right of the parents with Castilian as mother language to educate his children on his language. Right that NEVER, was denied nor obstructed by the Xunta. But they don’t talk about the right of Galicians to preserve their own language which is the main part and objective of the document .

In the papers, magazines, etc, the proportion of Castilian language over Galician is about 20:1. In internet this is much more favourable to Galician. This reminds me of the case of one pro-Castilian guy here, that protested because in the web page of the Xunta de Galicia the main language were Galego. He made about a scandal of this, without seeing that in the upper-right corner of this main web page there was a link to the page in Castilian. Having learnt that, he protested because the main web page should be (to him) in Castilian and the link, to the page in Galego. This is the kind of stupidity of some pro-Castilians here.

Followers of bullfights here in Galicia are a minority. Well, for this minority there are 120 millions of Euros in subsidies and expenditures on infrastructures only in Galicia (this is an estimate of spending of some, not all, the councils in Galicia on this area). When the "plazas" of Coruña are at risk of being almost empty in a "corrida", for example, there are plenty of FREE entry tickets to promote it on population. NEVER was so much money wasted on promoting any of our sports as billarda or petanca for example. Not to mention in our folklorists, writers, musicians, etc. And this for what? Is there a prevision of massive afluence of tourists here, that will some day fill the Plazas? Is there a plan to obtain a new species of bull for bullfights that can be born and grow on Galician "plains"?
NOVEMBER 10, 2009 12:18 AM

[...] there are people interested in sustaining that the result of the last autonomic elections backs up the linguistic and cultural policies of this government WITHOUT SAYING that the percent of voters by linguistic reasons was 0,2%, by educative reasons: 4% ... and economic and unemployment reasons: 74%.

Do you think that this conflict will be over with time? I sincerely think not.

ARE GALICIAN NATIONALISTS MOANING FOR NO REASON?

2009-11-07T20:16:00.004Z

"What are the arguments against the real, daily, abusive, and illegal imposition of a foreign culture in Galicia?”. I ask you are the people of Galicia really living a life of hell? Why are they advertising weekend breaks to Galicia in the UK and who is behind advertising it? Are they trying to overun the place with foreign tourists so as to cheapen Galicia?”

Leaky bucket

Mr Ointe, a fellow Galician who used to post his opinions in Mr Davies official blog (and who has no relation whatsoever with Mr Cade) has provided me with two links about discrimination towards Galician speakers, which I promptly referred to in yesterday’s post. Then he complains about >"What are the arguments against the real, daily, abusive, and illegal imposition of a foreign culture in Galicia?”. This is a serious accusation, and there are three elements about this “imposition” (that goes in the opposite direction to what Mr davies talks about) that deserve pointing out:

daily, abusive
illegal
foreign culture

Then Mr Leaky bucket, who has also a literary talent, takes this thread to pose questions on the other sense, as if directed to Mr Ointe. Basically, he wants to know whether Galicians are living a life of hell, following from Mr Ointe arguments. He also wants to know whether there is a tourist cheap-style campaign to attract UK citizens.

I will leave Mr Ointe to elaborate on his accusations, if he happens to pop in and wishes to explain, but to Mr Leaky bucket I have clear cut answers:

1. No, Galicians aren’t leaving hell because of the cultural and language “substitution” process. (See here too). They can express themselves in a very similar culture, the “Spanish main-stream”, as well as find “indirect” routes by renouncing to part of their identity. Not a good deal though, just short term gains, and long term underdevelopment. It isn’t as bad as the Tibetans, though, or as the Kurds. But still, this process is unjustifiable and regrettable, the same as many other practises, like, for example, the raiding of fishing stocks, the burning of forests, or many political practises in the countryside.

2. The unbridled and unsustainable touristic development is having a pernicious effect, in Galiza, as in any other country. People like Mr Davies buying a house there hardly contribute to the cheapening of property or cost of life, but rather to a contrary effect. In Wales, Cornwall, etc, idle people like Mr Davies, who have “succeeded” in life, contribute to the pricing out of the locals, who have little more choice than migrate to the cities. They are in collusion with local politicians and speculators, of course. But, do they care about this? Not the least.

That is one of the reasons I have very little sympathy for this type of folk who, not happy with carrying with them the seed of unbridled and unsustainable development, complain about any “local claims” that may “complicate” their otherwise uneventful lives.

For sure, we all are part of the problem, but if some of us might be part of the “solution”, well, it is not them.

WHAT MR DAVIES WON'T TELL YOU

2009-11-06T21:20:00.002Z

Mr Davies, that plonker that has to spill his guts and tell his readership about his senile private life in a blog, without missing this his sad appointment every evening, is now claiming to have a boost of readership. Funny, but that doesn’t reflect in the number of posted comments, which are clearly in the wane these days. And since I log on his blog nearly every day, twice, which is not a lot of loggin’ ons, there must be some people just reading, or otherwise mr drivel is quite busy “moderating”, that is, not allowing comments. So perhaps there are more “dissenting voices”.

Today, I’ll just give you three links that tell you the type of stories that this old rag will never tell you, here, here and here, perhaps because he only deals with the Pontevedra “toffs” (not the “toffees” who just got seven “Lusitanian” in their bag) and knows fuck all about Galician people reality. Let me tell you English middle-class ignorant, that in my dealings with any Galician banks, security forces, official institution or offices, etc, I have to put my Galician “aside”, lest I am labelled more or less what mr alzheimer labels me and put my businesses in jeopardy. Undeceive you: there are two languages in Galiza: one is “neutral”, the other is “ideological”. I’m sure I don’t have to tell which is which.

This idea of Galician language being "imposed" is one more pathetic rant from the Spanish nationalist right wing, that only ignorant pathetic folk can believe. I will expose that fallacy in the next posts.

IT’S YOUR OWN FAULT BABY

2009-11-05T14:28:00.003Z

“I am not, however, going to be persuaded that [ ... ] I must be an idiot to harbour some suspicions that the attitudes and strategies of the Galician nationalists are prejudicial to their own cause.”

Mr Davies

After establishing neatly the difference between the Good and the Bad (Galician), Mr Davies has also some advice to give the Galician nationalists (the Bad), regarding their own strategies. As if it wasn’t enough with expressing without qualms his aversion to the ideology that claims Galician culture and language to be something independent from the Spanish mainstream, the man allows now himself to accuse these Galician patriots of harming their own claims . Here we have the mark of the arrogant Spanish nationalist creed : not happy with propagating their narrow minded ideology of a homogeneous and unified Spanish country and culture that can only be transmitted through the supremacy of the official Spanish language, they have embarked themselves in a campaign of attack and undermining any glimpse of self-esteem from those who don’t share their reductionist views, the “peripheral nationalists”. This self-esteem has been coming out in the form of the dozens of newborn civil movements in defence of our Galician culture , as well as in Mr Cade’s contestation of Mr Davies’ unashamed publicized prejudices against them. For all those indulging in self-esteem, the message here is simple: it is your own fault that you have such a weak support and following. This extremely patronizing statement, coming from the same part that would avowedly regret your death as a cultural or national group but at the same time exerts all its power to perpetuate the situation conducive to that outcome, is something that deserves the most acrid critic.

Trying to discredit the dissidents’ views and policies without questioning the more than half a millennium of history of the phenomenal Spanish centralist state machinery (material and propagandistic) makes for an ignoble start. The same way that you can accept the official history that presents that process of homogenization as something good, you should respect the view of those who consider it as an aberration , or at least as something negative and avoidable. But for these people, the Spanish nationalists, holding this opposing view is something of the past, and questioning the status quo is just a frivolity of those who long for an ideal and inexistent past and are unable to accept reality and adapt accordingly. They are the makers of the only possible reality, join them or damn yourself.

However, we must not forget that since there is human society, there has been disagreement and dissidence, as well as repression. Trying to impose your own views through illegitimate means doesn’t guarantee agreement but, more frequently than not, further disagreement.

Therefore, all this unrequested and insincere “advice” must be rejected, and we Galician patriots must ask their “givers”, like Mr Davies, to kindly take it back where it belongs: up your arse.

THE GOOD AND THE BAD GALICIANS

2009-11-03T20:01:00.008Z

Mr Davies, our own expert on things Galician, is a very special man, as he has invested himself with a quite high prerogative: he can tell the Good from the Bad. That is, the good Galician from the bad Galician. The latter is epitomized by me, Mr Cade, although there are many more in the field, even if, fortunately for all of us, they are only a minority within the total of the Galician population. The good Galicians, as Mr Davies has explained to us, are those who respect the rights of the Castilian speakers and don’t want to impose Galician in your town council letters. They speak Galician quite often (but will refuse to do it if compelled to), especially when dealing with informal situations, and they do it in a better fashion than the bad ones, who speak it in an academic way, which is something rather annoying. They, the Good ones, deplore the political manipulation of the Galician language, and that is the reason they are very wary of the indoctrination of the youth by the bad Galicians, that is, the nationalists ones.

Good Galicians are all for the cosmopolitism and for a better development of the country, and know that with Galician language their children won’t go too far. It takes away valuable hours of learning in the "proper" language of the country, Spanish. That’s why learning English is more important for their children. Bad Galicians, on the other hand, are for an idealistic society of monolingual (in Galician) peasants and fishermen, that is, for all that opposes progress and looks back at an idealized and irretrievable past.

Anyway, if you found mr davies’ patronising simplistic views particularly annoying, that’s because you are not used to deal with the Good Galicians. Had you had that opportunity, then you would know by now that it is not all about being a Good or a Bad Galician, but something actually deeper. If you are a Galician, you can be it in a Good or in a Bad sense, depending on how you conduct yourself in life. Not only that, but if you are a Good Galician, like any of mr davies Galician friends, you must try hard not to be a Galician "in the bad sense". And that can only happen by not trying to be (and, more importantly, to look) "too Galician" in either sense, as too much of any quality is bound to be harmful, either for yourself or for others. If this can happen to Mr Bean, the puppet Good Galician president, it could also happen to you. This is a very intriguing concept that I am disclosing here at mr davies’ unofficial blog, and one not easy to understand too. If you are English, for instance, you are English, and that’s all. You can be a good or a bad one, of course. But you cannot be an Englishman or an Englishwoman “in a bad sense”, or “in a good sense”, can you? The same happens to Spanish, French or German people, believe me, at least in their own eyes. But we Galicians, are different. We know that we can be Galicians, both the Good and the Bad ones, in a bad sense. And being (or just looking) "too Galician" is, of course, as Mr Bean and any "Good Galician " know, always bad sense.

HOW NOT TO BLOG

2009-11-02T23:33:00.002Z

“Whether you are the owner of a tiny blog or the editor of a national newspaper, if someone points out an incorrect fact, you correct it; if someone challenges an argument, you argue back; if someone says that you must think what they think, you ignore them”.

This wrote a columnist on the last edition of The Observer. It referred to the wave of internet rows, sometimes spilling out of the cyber world, and of abusive messages in public fora, like twitter or so many blogs. Three basic rules to consider if you pretend to go on blogging without feeling under attack or without finding undeserved enemies. Three basic rules that Mr Davies has blatantly ignored. He is never wrong, it is the others who misread him, either because they don’t know / understand English properly, or because they are fanatics with an agenda. Mr Davies sometimes argues back, but only as far as his patience / wits will let him go. Then he refuses to argue and “shuts down”. Or rather shuts them down, if they are too stubborn or naughty, like mr cade. And to top it all, not happy with “doing his own thing”, he keeps talking about them, that is, mocking them or smearing them with any argument (sometimes ludicrous) that he can get hold of, in the safety that they, that is, mr cade (so far), will not reply. The mark of a real gentleman. Talk about Galicians that give a bad reputation to their own country!

No wonder that Mr Davies isn’t now having the best of his times, when he can’t even understand the basic rules of proper blogging. And I doubt it very much that his ignorance be due to his age, grumpy old man he may look. It is rather something to do with arrogance. And that is one of the reasons we have an unofficial Mr Davies blog, where anyone, including Mr Davies, is free to write whatever they please, rectify or persist in their errors, as chosen.

RANT OF ALL RANTS (III)

2009-10-31T21:15:00.005Z

Today I am looking at the last part of Mr Davies final(?) rant on Galician nationalism. This chap has been living in the country, according to himself, for the last decade, so he must know what he’s talking about. If you thought that you had already read all about his sophistry and distortions, well, you are wrong. In a single paragraph, which I reproduce next, you can find all the signals that a bigot like him leaves behind, for any one who has eyes and a minimum of intelligence to pick up:

“And yet, I do wonder whether the solution is to force people to use Gallego and to effectively seek pre-eminence for the language, while pretending you’re merely redressing the wrongs of the past and seeking only to achieve equal status for Gallego.”

Well, there are still in Galiza many Galician speakers who are still being forced at using Castilian Spanish in their daily life. Not that they consider Castilian Spanish as something from the past, or for the people of inferior social status, far from that, but if they don’t use it, they won’t go too far. That simple. Nothing wrong with the language. But if the doctors, the judges, the police, social workers, politicians, etc, can’t / won’t speak Galician to them what language can they use then? This is not something from the past, but a daily common occurrence, about which Mr Davies doesn’t / won’t talk.

This is the existent solution, which ensures the effective pre-eminence of Castilian Spanish in a part of Spain where it continues its imposition over the native tongue thanks to all the phenomenal apparatus of the Spanish state. Nothing wrong with accepting that pre-eminence, even if a good part of the citizenship has to change their mother tongue when in public space. Trying to reddress that unbalance, caused by the ignorance and bigotry of those Galicians (and their acolytes in Madrid) who still persist in ignoring part of their own culture, is, for Mr Davies and many equally “neutral” Galicians, forcing people.

But Mr Cade, who is a fluent Castilian Speaker, as any Galician, and who has spoken Castilian at lenght in Galiza, never felt someone was trying to impose something on him, on linguistic terms, because mr cade, as all the Galicians cultured enough to know (at least to a basic level) the legitimate language of his own country, knows that Galician belongs also to him. Nobody can impose on you something that you own already, or something that if you don’t own is however there for you to take.

Mr davies thinks that we shouldn’t redress the wrongs of the past by “seeking only to achieve equal status for Gallego”. Here we have a bigot who thinks of languages as marks of status. High status languages (Spanish, English ...), low status language (Galician, Welsh ...) One superior and useful, the other rural and already dying out in the most “cosmopolitan areas”.

So there you go: some languages, some cultures are just superior, others inferior, so let natural selection run its course. Remember Nazi Germany?

Let’s be clear about this, you racist sad bunch: language and culture is not a mark of hierarchy, but of knowledge, of education and of humanity. There is not such a right as the right to ignorance. Moreover, Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population.

So, why do some Galicians persist so doggedly on keeping on their ignorant state? That is easy to answer:
a) Because they don’t consider it worthy of learning, possessing and cultivating or using.
b) Because they think Castilian Spanish is all they need for their life.
c) Because they don’t want to be Galicians, only Spanish.

So here we have either Spanish nationalism going rampant, that ideology that considers Castilian Spanish as superior to the other languages of the Spanish state, or otherwise supine ignorance and disregard for the cultural heritage of your own ancestors. Which one is more disgusting? Take your pick. I think the most disgusting are c). Because they have the same fault as those in a) and in b), plus another of their own: self-denial. Little matter that when in Madrid I can spot them as soon as they open their mouth. It seems that what they hate the most, the Galician speech, goes with them, in some form or another, wherever they go.

But Mr Davies drivels on, unstoppable on his foregone conclusions:

“Much of the promotion of Gallego seems to be done on the back of political indoctrination, in which Gallegos are conveniently portrayed as victims of Spanish neglect born of imperialist arrogance, ...”

So promoting Galician, the original language of the country, recognised in the Spanish Constitutional chart, is political indoctrination? What about promoting Spanish? Ah, well, Spanish doesn’t need promotion, does it? When you have the country by the scruff of the neck there is no need for promotion, you are already promoted, you have the high status. This is the fine argument of a poor idiot hypocrite, thank you Mr Davies. I wish I was as idiot as yourself. Although I am not going to deny an excessive dwelling on victimisation by some people, there are enough pages written on the systematic cornering and marginalising of Galician language and people, up to our days, when our language is hardly ever used in public life, other than as a ritual to justify the "Galicianess" of a politician or journalist.

Anyway, let’s rant on:

“This, needless to say, is directed mostly at children, it being an act of faith that the earlier you can turn them into sympathetic speakers of Gallego the better”

So there you go, hitting the highest reaches of idiocy: a Galician child needs converting to become a “sympathetic” speaker of ... his own language! I guess Mr Davies needed a lot of converting to sympathise with English. What lies behind this line of thought is the Spanish nationalist ideology: the “normal”, the right thing, is being educated in Spanish. If you do that in Galician, you are then indoctrinating. Now, I could admit a possible indoctrination in Islam, Swahili or English language, but hardly in the language of all Galicians (of all, even of those who have not been lucky enough to learnt it) Or do we think, Mr Davies, that there are two classes of Galicians, those who, for their own sorrows, know Galician, and those who don’t. Is there a class of Galicians for whom Galician is an alien language, is it not theirs? Are they just “Spanish”? How vile is that campaign of spreading of ignorance and deleting the marks of identity of Galicians, dividing them into two classes, the baddies (“nationalists”) and goodies (“non-nationalists”, that is, Spanish nationalists), Mr Bigot-high status language-sympathiser?

“And it is the children in primary school who are affected by having to learn key subjects in a language they don’t fully understand because it’s not spoken at home. From teachers, it’s frequently said, who don’t speak it well themselves.”

This is pathetically ludicrous, mr drivel: what about the hundreds of thousands of poor children in UK primary schools who don’t have English as a mother tongue? How do they manage? Oh dear! Nobody speaks English at home! How did Mr Cade learn Galician? Nobody spoke to him Galician at home! And what about the teachers? How can they speak it properly if they were not spoken at in Galician? Catch 22? What about forming then both teachers and pupils, some of them the teachers of the future, in Galician? Ah no! That’s indoctrination, that is! Yes, you are a moron, Mr Davies.

“On the question of the solution to the thorny issue of how to ensure that Gallego is promoted without Spanish-speakers having their rights trampled on,”

What about the rights of Galician speakers not being trampled on? Or there is no Galician speakers left? Ah well, all of them speak Castilian, so no rights trampled on, they can (= they will have to) manage in Castilian. Again, two measuring sticks. Mr Davies, what about considering everybody equal? What about making of those who can’t / won’t speak Galician real bilingual citizens, as all the Galician speakers are? How long would take any Galician learn Galician? Is that indoctrination, giving people ownership of one of the most visible and relevant assets of their own country? Making them participant of their own heritage? How mean and narrow-minded has a person to be not to understand this?

“That said, I suspect linguistic harmony is going to reduce further before – if ever - it is restored. Which is a shame.”

Ok, we get the message, Mr Davies. You regret that the unfair hierarchical linguistic situation won’t be restored. So, do you have any plan for the future? Perhaps joining those nostalgic of the old regime?

RANT OF ALL RANTS ON GALICIAN NATIONALISTS (II)

2009-10-30T11:27:00.004Z

Mr Davies had made clear in his rant of all rants, his final (unlucky) “dissertation” on Galician nationhood, that he doesn’t believe Galiza is a nation. Never mind the Spanish first chart, in its second article, recognizes the existence of nationalities within the “Spanish nation” (and this is not something trivial: nationalities within a nationality, can someone explain this to me?!), or that Galiza is considered as a “historic nationality” in Spanish politics.

He doesn’t believe either in Galiza as a “Celtic nation”. Well, neither do I. There is Celtic influence, of course, the same as in so many European cultures, nothing extraordinary here, but not to the point to talk about a Celtic nation. Perhaps Ireland, Brittany, Welsh, but not Galiza, in my opinion, as well as in Mr Davies’. However, Mr Davies is right in pointing at the Celtic thread as a hub for the creation of a Galician nationhood conscience. And I think that, as any other thread, it has real and not so real elements. What Mr Davies doesn’t say, because he doesn’t know, is that the Spanish nationhood is a construct made up of myths, half lies and whole lies. To start with, how can you explain the rationale of a nation made up of nations? Then follows the official history, based in a string of myths, like the purity of the Spanish race, the universality of the Spanish language par excellence, Castilian of course, and the innate superiority of Castilians to “unify” the “Spanish” people. However, they didn’t complete the job, as the Portuguese can testify today. Well done though with Moors and Jews. Those massive deportations were of great value for the subsequent impoverishment of Spanish culture and economy. But this is the history that Mr Davies, and his sheepish readership know (somehow) or have heard of. And for Mr Davies, this is the reference. That makes for the perfect wrong start. Assuming as read a string of myths. It seems that Mr Davies has two measuring sticks, one for the “true” history, for Spanish, another for the” made up history”, Galician. A common popular error, but one that Mr Davies won’t admit to: the history is written by the victors.

Another bit of his rant goes to deny the place the old Galician tongue in the history of the Middle Ages. He writes that “Nor have I met anyone who agrees that everyone – from the king down – who was writing poetry in the 14th century wanted to do this in Gallego.” Well, I’m not sure about what Mr Davies implies by this, so I just refer the reader here and here, to put things in perspective.

I cite from this popular source:

“(Galician-Portuguese lyric) It is the earliest known poetic movement in Galicia or Portugal and represents not only the beginnings but one of the high points of poetic history in both countries and in Medieval Europe.”

“... there is the priceless collection of over 400 Galician-Portugues cantigas in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, which tradition attributes to Alfonso X, in whose court (as nearly everywhere in the Peninsula) Galician-Portuguese was the only language for lyric poetry (except for visiting Occitan poets).

“Galician-Portuguese had a special cultural role in the literature of the Christian kingdoms of medieval Iberia, comparable to that of Occitan in France and Italy during the same historical period.”

“The Cantigas are written in Galician-Portuguese, the lyrical language of Castile at the time.”“The Cantigas are in Galician-Portuguese, and reflect the popularity in the Castilian court of other poetic corpuses such as the cantigas d'amigo and cantigas d'amor."

So, what is Mr Davies playing at by denying historical well testified and documented trends? I just find it plainly ludicrous. As any average-cultured Galician person knows, our own tongue was not only the prestigious tongue of poetry in Galiza, but also in the rest of Christian kingdoms of the peninsula, except in Catalonia, where Occitan held its sway. Let’s set the record straight, Mr Davies, enough with your tergiversation / ignorance.

The next rant is about the loss of linguistic “harmony” due to the fact, in his opinion, of the use of the Galician language as the only possible political argument for the nationalists. It seems that these hapless “nationalists” (that is, the Galician ones, since the others, the PP, PSOE, etc, voters have surely no nation) have nothing to say about any other issue. Well, each nationalist party has been talking of many things, not only about language. For example, BNG, FPG or NOS-UPG.

But not, for Mr Davies it is just the language, what a sad bunch! Were the “nationalists” intent on changing the legal frame that guarantees 50% of school time in Galician? To make it 60%? 70%? To banish Castilian Spanish? Were they ignoring the legal frame that has the backing of the EU policy on minority languages?

Nope. It was some of the “non-nationalists” (that is, the Spanish nationalists) who raised the issue of the language, asking for the derogation of this law (which had been passed in the previous PP legislation), and the PP (Popular party) promptly took the cue to gain some votes from the right end (Spanish nationalists) of the voters’ spectrum. With the help of the media of Madrid and its Galician acolytes, “La Voz de Galicia” and “Faro de Vigo”, of course. It seems that now they will have to backtrack, after the massive manifestation against protection of our language, but never mind, they, the PP, won the votes they needed (which in any case are less than the total of BNG + PSOE) and consequently have the power.

Anyway, Mr Davies, as ignorant as usual, buys into the delusion of the “attack” on Castilian speakers (by Castilian speakers?, since every Galician speaker is also a Castilian speaker), into the “linguistic” argument as the only one when it all started with a media campaign of “galegofobia”. It all started because the Galician government with the Galician nationalist in power together with the PSOE were trying to apply the legal framework that aimed at giving a more prominent place to the original language of the country. Up until last government it was a law without real reflection on reality, only on paper. The PP had signed it but knew how to go around that law. And when they can’t no longer carry on bending the law for their own Spanish nationalistic interests (that is, that Galician language be a “second rate” language, as “always”), since they were ousted in the elections, then they put forward the linguistic issue, with a defamatory campaign of “imposition” of Galician and violating of civil liberties, something that only happens in the minds of those who can’t /won’t speak Galician, that is, the ignorant monolingual Spanish nationalist. And they have a lot of friends in Madrid, too. But it seems that such attack suits Mr Davies well. Perhaps he won’t receive any other leaflet or letter from the council exclusively in Galician. It will be worth all the hate campaign.

Tomorrow will see the final part of his dissertation / rant. It is the final piece of a master of idiocy.

NAME AND SHAME DRIVEL (II)

2009-10-29T15:42:00.000Z

Today I checked on yesterday’s, Wednesday 28th, Mr Davies’s original blog, to see if the idle pensioner continues drivelling about Mr Cade. No. He seems to have finally realised that there is no point in talking evil about someone and then denying them the right of response. It doesn’t look good on him either. Mr cade writes about mr davies in every post, but mr davies seems not to have anything to refute of what it is written about him, on the grounds of it being “abusive language”. This is the guy who first called me an idiot and other similar names. However, in yesterday’s post, I was surprised to find a new target for my name and shame campaign: Mr Sean, who wrote:

Hi, Colin
Thought I'd check out why you felt constrained to moderate-out the ill-mannered Cade. I also checked out his new self-agrandising blogspot - dear me. It was significant that the majority of the comments were from Cade himself, as you have said, vilifying anyone who has the temerity to hold a different view from himself on any subject. Perhaps Cade's blogspot is the electronic age's version of Bedlam, where members of the blogging public can go and laugh at the poor madman . . ? He's been quiet on his own site since his "rant of rants" on Tuesday - I'll check on the bile and invective tomorrow. Hey, since I also live in the UK, perhaps I could go and "knock on his door" and discuss his (lack of) manners face to face? No mention of any Nationalism in this post, you notice, just a cold fury that Cade considers he is entitled to his opinion, but anyone else is not.
Totsiens, Seamus

Well, to put this “intelligent” gentleman, mr sean, in his place:

1) This is not a “self-agrandising blogspot”, quite the opposite. it’s about “de-agrandising” the arrogant who thinks too big of himself, mr davies. Get your facts right mr sean.

2) About the comments in this blog, so far: 16 from mr cade, 12 from other persons (among them a personality disorder sufferer who signs with three different names). About the vilifying other people’s view I think it is a bit far-fetched. You should read them again. You make too many assumptions.

3) About the frequency of posts, as I said in my first post, it won’t be possible for me to post every single day. I have far more important and interesting things to do with my time.

4) About the “knock on your door” comments, I said very clear (and sent an email to mr davies, who probably will never bother to replay) that it was meant to be a “virtual knock”, the same as when I wrote about him slamming his front door on me and leaving the ground floor windows open. He knows a blogger friend of him, a moron by the name of David Jackson, who wrote a demeaning post about Galicians, and got hundreds of “knocks” (=logging on) on his blog (=door), with a lot of real abusive invective. That’s the risk mr davies exposes himself to with his comments. If he can’t manage with one disgruntled Galician, just imagine several disgruntled Spanish nationalists ... It’s very simple: if you can’t hack it, just don’t do it, keep quiet and just write for your gentle following without offending third parts. I wouldn’t write in my personal blog against basque nationalists if I was living in their country. Or if I did, I would make sure that what I write is fair and square, not lies and silly assumptions. Just common sense. Unless I liked a good (cyber)fight.

5) If Mr Sean has a real interest in discussing mr Cade’s lack of manners face to face, mr cade will have no problem whatsoever in inviting mr sean to discuss that over a cuppa or in any other way, as preferred, in any public or private venue that suits mr sean.

6) Of course everybody is entitled to their own opinion, I'm all for it. But mr cade has been deprived of his right of response in mr davies first blog. Hence his more extended reponse in mr davies’ second blog, mr davies drivel. Mr davies had opened a special space in his blog for mr cade, to “channel all his vitriol” to that space, but mr cade prefers to make his own choices of where and when. And this is the place: mr davies drivel’s blog.

So there you go, this chap, Mr Sean, is the archetypal mr davies’ reader: not a lot of intelligence, a lot of prejudices and drivel about what he doesn’t know, no will to learn or to question their own beliefs, and little more. No wonder the smears and misconceptions about the Galician country and people are so widespread and ridiculous, even outside Spain. Let’s see if this poor chap has something to say tonight. Here everybody is free to express their opinion and choose their own words, even if they are not pleasant for the faint hearted.

But, what about mr davies response to mr sean comment? Here:

Hi, Seamus

Thanks for this,

Yes, he’s really something isn’t he. I’m told he’s made a totally gratuitous attack on poor Liliana. And perhaps others. But, frankly, I’m bored stiff by him now, while encouraging readers to take at least one look at his web page, to get the true cut of his jib.

I guess you’ll be taking a knobkierie with you should you go to knock on his door. As it happens, I made one of these for myself a while back and took it out with me yesterday when walking my dog.

Cheers.

PS Wanted to add a pic of my stick but it doesn't seem possible here.

As expected. More drivel. First, playing at the poor guy being threatened by raucous Galician nationalists. How ridiculous is that! Has anyone heard of any attack by a “Galician nationalist” on a single person, even an old frail pensioner walking with a stick? That would make a glorious first page on the Spanish press, wouldn’t it? Well, I think they will have to wait. To start with, I don’t know in person a single Galician nationalist. Not even one! Never mind command orders from my chair several hundreds of kms away from a place, Pontevedra, where I never set foot, and possibly never will.

Second, “a totally gratuitous attack on poor Liliana”. You dirty little mind mr davies, you are. “An attack” on “poor” Liliana!.

Mr davies, now you are bordering the psychotic. Keep on digging your heels in. The shit is already starting to come out your ears.

RANT OF ALL RANTS ON GALICIAN NATIONALISTS (I)

2009-10-27T20:22:00.000Z

Last Sunday Mr Davies delighted his (dwindling) readership with a two-screen-scroll-down rant on his views about Galician nationalism. To start with he admits at having had exchanges with nationalists (of the cogent and reasonable type) over the years and to even have developed some sympathy or understanding about their views. Mr Davies admits though his original tendency towards mockery. Here we have a person who move to a country and can’t help himself of feeling some form of disdain towards those who somehow don’t buy into the conventional political views. Not a good start, is it? Anyway, he then says that having not suffered any particularly bad experience at the hands of these “formerly mock worthy” individuals, he has felt “real irritations” when receiving tax guides, letters from the town hall, from the “Xunta”, tourist brochures, etc, exclusively in Galician. I guess his irritation is somehow similar to the irritation that native Galician speakers have suffered FOR CENTURIES when receiving leaflets and letters in Castilian, and beyond that, when having to do all their official normal life things in Castilian. But they are not Mr Number one, are they? Anyway, if what Mr Davies says is true, that is not fair on him, certainly not. But, what about those poor fellows who were sitting an exam for a civil servant post and had their Galician choice of questions writing in a an appalling standard, to the point of it not being comprehensible?

What about the elderly who have been attended in Castilian at the doctor’s? Mr Number one has a good reason to complain, but compared to the million reasons of those who have been systematically marginalised in a racist (linguistically) way, for centuries, his plight is a joke. Ask any Galician speaker how far will he get in any public life issue if he sticks to his Galician. And when he or she ditches his or her GalIcian, I can assure you that it is not English what they resort to. Mr Davies not only has a self-admitted tendency to mockery, but another one to insult intelligence and another one to be a great hypocrite. There is no linguistic conflict in Galiza, just a centuries' long established project of linguistic substitution, by making the “inferior” language ever less relevant and useful. Now that some Galicians react to it we are having the conflict. Because without it the substitution will continue, until Galician becomes something folkloric, and then we'll get to the point of seeing Mr Davies lamenting with a heavy heart the “shame” of its demise.

Then Mr Davies moves on to wider issues. He explains that in his opinion Galiza is not a nation, one of his arguments being the electoral results. Perhaps the Kurds aren’t a nation either. Nor the Welsh. Nor the Chechenians. It is true that Galicians have much more freedom that both Kurds or Chechenians, just to give two examples, and that the electoral results speak of a Spanish region, not of an distinct nation. Also, if we organise a democratic election in certain region of the Brazilian Amazon area, the “independentists” wouldn’t win either. But from that result you can not deny the existence of the nations of a number of local tribes inhabiting the region, and their right not to be “Brazilian”, but to keep their own traditions and language. That is, the fact that many Galicians have relinquish any nationalist pretension is not a proof of inexistence of nationhood, only of (incomplete) acculturation of a part of the population. Furthermore, Mr davies has been living for 10 years in Spain and still doesn’t know the basics of the law. Namely, article number 2 of the Spanish Chart: « La Constitución se fundamenta en la indisoluble unidad de la Nación española, patria común e indivisible de todos los españoles, y reconoce y garantiza el derecho a la autonomía de las nacionalidades y regiones que la integran y la solidaridad entre todas ellas. »

That is, the Spanish first legal document admits to the existence of different nationalities in Spain. Everybody in Spanish (not mr Davies, though, he just watches France news 24 in English) knows which ones are the three historic nationalities in Spain:

But Mr Davies, a man with a self admitted penchant to mockery and more inclined to worry about the stock markets and the value of his property than about people’s rights has his own views.

Then the rants go on to reach higher levels of sheer stupidity: “I believe I’ve witnessed over nine years a reduction in the linguistic harmony which is/was the pride of Galicia.” That is, for this arrogant man, having a two tier language system, one language prestigious and ever present, another marginalised and mocked at (until very recently), even if the original of the country and most widely (until very recently) spoken, is something of a “linguistic harmony”. Not only that, it is something to be proud of, it is the pride of the country. This guy really thinks we Galicians are all idiots, he really does.

Enough for today. Tomorrow we’ll continue examining the drivel of this sad chap. He can even reach higher levels of idiocy and sheer ignorance. Believe me.

Mr Drivel, a real gentleman

2009-10-25T11:23:00.000Z

If anyone had the shadow of a doubt I can now confirm that Mr Drivel is a real gentleman. As soon as I suggest that I am leaving his blog for good he doesn't waste a second to post another of his venomous invectives against Galician nationalism. This arrogant poor chap has to slam the door to let it known that in is his house it is him who says what can be said and when. Little matter that when you open your house to public scrutiny it is of no use slamming the door and leaving the ground floor windows open. Anyway, here what I wrote yesterday, which he promptly deleted. Now if you want to post a comment in Mr Drivel's blog you have to wait for Mr Drivel's moderation. In case you remind him of what he really is. Here are my three deleted posts:

1.
Mr Davies, you don't know what you are writing today. I'm gonna cite you:

“Truly are the Spanish at their most impressively efficient when it comes to making money from having fun. Come to think of it, this might be the only time they’re impressively efficient.”

That is not fair on the Spanish, and you know it full well, Mr Davies. When it comes to conquer, brutalize, exploit, massacre, enslave and deprive people of their own culture the Spanish are up there with the very best. They even excel where you Brits fail, where you simply killed or expel they succeeded in the acculturation of masses of native Indians. But that was only possible because they were susceptible to be converted to the true religion, Catholicism.

Oh,sorry, I see, you are as critical of Spanish as of Galicians ... a bit too late, no?

“You’ll also be very aware that Cade specialises in the sort of ad hominem abuse which seems to be a constant feature of Spanish discourse.”

Only ad hominem arrogant, like you, who mock and disrespect other peoples’ culture and rights to keep it and then run away like a baby, refusing to discuss your disrespect. The Spanish discourse, by the way, is the one that labels me as a separatist nationalist fanatic. Which after all, is not as different to the British one. Something to do with empires where the sun never sets? Don't mix concepts that you can't understand, Mr davies. Watching Sky new won't help you either.

2.
“Reading this stuff, it’s sometimes not difficult to understand why, even in the 20th century, the country had to resort to a civil war to sort out its differences”

This comment is beyond the pale, you pathetic racist. How are things going on Northern Ireland today? Any police van in flames? Any kneecaps shot? What about Saturday night down town? Any interesting debate between rational intelectuals?
You are an arrogant poor chap, carry on.

3.
“The writer of a recent article in a Gallego paper who suggested that the association of the language with Galician nationalism was doing neither of them much good was deluged in vitriol from his fellow Gallegos.”

You are bordering the comatose sir. I asked you yesterday about your opinion here (check my questions on yesterday and before yesterday posts), and as always you said nothing. And still say nothing. You throw the stone and then run. You have no opinion because you hardly know anything at all. You just get hold of any fact or comment that make Galician nationalists look bad. How puerile, how brainless, how pathetic is that? In that forum, “Vieiros”, many people give their opinion freely and without fear, there is heated debate with no holds barred, that’s what happen when there is no debate in society and shit gets swept under the carpet. There are more than 200 comments in that thread which seem to bother many people that would prefer silence and dictat. There were at least 4 university teachers with a PhDs and various experiences in universities around the world, with decades of background of research on the topic, there were members of the Galician Academy of the Portuguese language (AGLP), from the Galician Culture Counsel (CCG), as well as normal people, and ignorant ones too, and there are very opposed views yes, and mutual serious accusations of negligence, treason and the like, but nobody was drawing a knife, that only happened in your George Borrow bed table fantasy book. But you are so ridiculous to ignore that and much more and then even venture here and spill your filthy narrow mind.

Sometimes you just have to desire something to make it happen. You can delete my comments, you xenophobic arrogant ignoble coward, you can bar me, but by now, that I can see your true colours when I say I am leaving, it is too late, because you got your blog, a new one,

http://mrdaviesdrivel.blogspot.com/

where all your rubbish and disguised invectives will be posted as well as your biased and despicable thoughts dissected. All written here will be posted there, so everybody can see who is posing questions and who is evading answering them and then come back to throw another stone of disrespect. And you know what Mr Drivel? You are welcome to come and write your comments, as well as your readership. I’m not like you, I back up what I say, otherwise I shut my mouth.

Harmony drivel

2009-10-24T16:43:00.000+01:00

For starters: I check on Mr Drivel blog, click on the "Nationalism" label. First post that appears, Thursday March 2009. In the second paragraph Mr drivel hints at the happier days when Galicians were (sic) free to switch "back and forth" from Spanish to Galician as "courtesy dictated". I suppose that by courtesy Mr Drivel meant the accepting of the established order. And the established order, lingusitically speaking, in Galiza, is it one on based equal terms? Or is there a language more important, more prestigious, than the other? And if that is the case, courtesy will probably mean not to challenge that order ...

Is it just and fair an order where one language enjoys of a superior rank in society? Are some languages, cultures, superior to others? Is it a happy society that where the language of the majority of the population (at least until very recent times) is the "inferior" one, reduced for the informal realms of life, and banned from the public and political sphere?

Then Mr Davies goes on driveling further by launching a theory about this "harmony" (i.e., accepting of the unfair order) being more solid here than in the Basque Country or in Catalonia because of the proximity between these two languages, Castilian, or Spanish, as it is more commonly known, and Galician, which enables a Spanish speaker to master Galician in three months, as put to him by a Galician commentator. Three months! Could any English speaker master any English dialect, other than his own, in only three months?! I doubt it very seriously. Quite probably any Londoner in three months living among Glaswegians would be able to converse with them, but to "master" Glaswegian perhaps not even in his whole life ... and let's not forget that Galician and Spanish are not different dialects, but languages ... so Mr Davies, who must be familiar with different dialects, should know better and drivel less.

But less imagine, just for a moment, that it was really possible that in that three months period any Spaniard were able of "mastering" Galician. In fact, many people, like that Galician commentator, believe so. So now the question we must ask is another one, very different in nature: admitting that hypothesis of the three month period, and admitting also that Spaniards are normal folk who don't discard any opportunity to know another language or to add it to their cv, even those Spaniards from Galiza, as atached to their local particularities as the rest, why should they be unhappy with that "imposition" of the Galician language? Wouldn't be worthy making a little effort (just three months, for God's sake!) to become really bilingual and once they are, just keep "moving back and forth as courtesy dictates"?

It seems that the courtesy ends when the one at the bottom demands the same recognition as the one on top. Then it is not only lack of courtesy, but "imposition". So some Galicians, many many of them , create their "Galicia Bilingue" (the name is a joke, as they aren't bilingual folk, only speak Spanish) so that they can keep the Status Quo that allows them to move according to "courtesy" on the old established order, with one language more important than the other (perhaps because it allows you to go to Madrid, but not to Porto), as it used to be. And they are so many that they brought a few hundreds (with some friends from Madrid and other parts of the country) to a public demonstration to denounce their horrible plight. I don't know if Mr Davies drivelled about this, but I will check one day. What I know is that between 50 000 (police estimates) and 100 000 (organisers estimates) demonstrators came out last Sunday to protest against the old order of "courtesy", and Mr Davies didn't mention it. The motto of their act was "Queremos galego" (We want Galician) and they were demonstrating against the announced plans by the reigning Spanish nationalist Partido Popular to change the law that demanded 50% of learning time in school in Galician. A law designed and approved by Mr Fraga Iribarne, old Franco acolite, then in the regional government.

Anyway, if both languages are so similar and easy to move back and forth from one to the other in all courtesy, why all this mess? What's the problem with 50% of Galician in school? Aren't children courteous enough to get along in this frame? Or could it possibly be that 50% in Galician interferes with the proper learning of Spanish, language which surely needs more than three months to be mastered by any Galician? What image would they give when in a school trip to Madrid, mixing Galician with Spanish? If their grandparents were caught in that mixed situation someone would have promptly warned them "no sea barbaro, hable espanol".

So, Mr Drivel Davies, if you want your Spanish not to be mixed and look "barbarian" you will have to slightly change your narrow and nationalist (Spanish) views and try to see Galician not as a language on (nearly) equal terms, otherwise arrogance won't be seen anymore as courtesy. Try this: Galician is a dialect, it looks and sounds so Spanish, doesn't it? Let's have people saying and admitting to that, Galician is a dialect (or a regional language, which is the same, and it is its official status). How many tens of thousands d'you reckon would then come out to the streets of Compostela?

Mr Davies drivel

2009-10-24T15:56:00.001+01:00

This is a space to denounce the drivel of that arrogant ignorant by the name of Colin Davies, a brit old geezer who lives in the country of Galiza, belonging to the kingdom of Spain. This plonker likes to mock Galician nationalism by writing foolish comments that some way or another contribute to give his Spanish nationalist tacky views. Let's not deceive ourselves, he is no scholar, but he likes to dabble now and then in amateurish history and linguistics, always to reassure himself (and his readership, mostly as dumb as him) in his narrows beliefs of Spanish and Galician culture. The guy has been living in Galiza, in the kingdom of Spain, now for a while, ten years, but still eagerly watching Sky news and France 24 in English occupies good part of his time, as he doesn't like / understand the Spanish and Galician (sic) channels.

Everybody should be allowed to give their opinion, even Mr Davies, but when one makes of that right an excuse to mock the views of that minority who really care for their own culture (Galician by essence, Spanish by accident) and cowardly refuses to discuss those smears with the offended part, then they shouldn't expect any sympathy by the offended part either.

I will be exposing with the frequency and regularity that my normal (personal and professional) life permits the "pearls" that this hapless Englishman leaves or has left in his blog, to make his ignorance and disregard for cultural diversity explicit and to cut short his arrogance. Hopefully he will learn some respect for the minority, for the weak or for those who want to be themselves and not someone else, as well as shed his unbearable arrogance. This guy will never admit to error, he takes himself very seriously, so he will have to learn the hard way. Or, as we Galicians say, "o que nom quer umha taza, toma duas" (he who won't have a cup, will eventually have two).

Feel free to leave your comments anytime. I will answer if need be, sooner or later. And remember that if you are as crass as Colin Davies you may find yourself on the receiving end!