Till the 30th November…

No, it is not a joke. It’s the truth. The suburban train in Barcelona will not work till the 30th November. It means that users won’t be able to go by train to their work or to their house.
Work On the high velocity train (AVE), which is soon to arrive in Barcelona, is the main cause of this inconvenience. In Bellvitge, one of the main stops of the suburban train, the floor collapsed five weeks ago and three lines stopped working. From then till now, only half of one of these lines has been repaired, the C-2 south. I say “half” because in this stretch the rail works only in one way, so the frequency of the trains is much reduced than before.
People who normally use the train are now taking the bus. Renfe, the public Spanish Railway Company offers this alternative transport during the time that the train will be inactive.
But it is not a very good solution. One train can transport almost 300 people in each journey; the bus can only take 55. In Barcelona, there are not enough buses to cover Renfe’s need, so the company contracted the service of different companies around the country. Drivers from Zaragoza, Valencia, Sevilla, La Coruña… arrived in the Catalan city with their buses to follow the same route as the trains do. Obviously, the first week was chaotic. Drivers didn’t know the route, it was their first time in Barcelona and they got lost. As a result of this, buses arrived very late at their final destinations. And one of the serious consequences was the traffic jams on the roads around Barcelona. To the normal daily traffic, hundreds of buses substituting trains occupied the routes. It was amazing!
Why has nobody forseen all these catastrophic consequences? In my opinion, the solution to the mess of the suburban trains was not very good, but it was the best of a bad bunch. Nevertheless, the main persons in charge of the AVE works should have been more diligent. They were such in a hurry and they didn’t use their common sense. The Spanish Minister for Transport promised long time ago that AVE would reach Barcelona by 21st December. But works were on delay and they had to start working very quick.
The result of the pathetic management by the Minister is big holes on the floor, more than two hundred thousands people moving by bus and suffering traffic jams on the journeys, and one Minister for Transport, Magdalena Alvarez, asking to the Catalans to be patients. She seems to be laughing at us.
I think Catalans have been very patient, too much. We need to be better able to fight against Spanish manipulation. Catalans are subjected to decisions taken in Madrid. But Madrid doesn’t know our needs. I really believe in a Federal State where each region could make its own decision and also could manage its own money. Spain would work much better. So would suburban train.

Soutien à Marie-Agnès Peleran

Aujourd'hui je suis un peu touchée. Je viens d'appendre que l'amie d'Elena Atanassova, Marie-Agnès, c'est une des journalistes arrêtés au Tchad. J'ai rencontré Marie-Agnès en Bulgarie, fin avril 2006, quand on a fêté les 30 ans d'Elena.
Elle faisait partie du groupe des professionnels de l'informations qui sont allés au pays africain pour faire un reportage sur l'Arche de Zoé. Cette ONG voulait ramener en France 103 petits tchadiens qui apparemment étaient orphelins. Les membres de l'organizations, les journalistes et le pilot et les hôtesses de l'avion se sont fait arrêtés le 25 d'octobre. Tout le monde pensé que l'Arche de Zoé était une ONG honnête, mais finalement on a appris que les petits enfants ont père et mère.
Je suis convaincue que Marie-Agnès s'est fait avoir. Elle voulait adopter un enfant africain, mais elle est allée au Tchad pour faire un reportage sur les adoptions, pas pour réaliser quelque chose d'illégale.
La famille, les amis et les copains du boulot de Marie-Agnès ont commencé à écrire un blog où on peut lire tous les nouvelles sur la situations des arrêtés au Tchad. J'ai déjà signé pour demander la libération de la journaliste et ses copains et, bien évidemment, du pilot catalan et les hôtesses. Vous pouvez aussi signer à l'adresse:
http://www.soutienmapeleran.org/blog/index.php

La Castanyada versus Halloween

One of the most typical products in autumn is the chestnut. This is the fruit of the chestnut tree, which are between 20 and 40 metres in height and grow in warm countries, such as Spain. The chestnut can be toasted or cooked with sugar, like “marron glacé” in France.
Tonight, in Catalonia, we celebrate “la Castanyada”, which means the Day of the Chestnut. On All Saints eve, people used to go for a walk in their city or village and buy this product in small stalls in the street. A long time ago, “les castanyeres”, women who sell this fruit, used to wear very warm clothes and woollen hat and gloves because of the cold weather in this season. Nowadays, these women have almost disappeared and students, who want to earn some money for their student trip, have replaced them. They also wear different clothes, which are not so warm. They even wear short sleeves because the weather has also changed.
As well as the chestnuts, Catalans also eat “panellets”. It’s a kind of small, round cake made of flour, eggs, sugar, toasted almonds and some lemon. To these ingredients, you can add some other products to make different flavours depending on your preferences: you can put in chocolate, strawberries, pinions… These days, pastry shops’ windows are full of them. Sweet wine or “cava”, a kind of sparkly white wine, are the most recommended drinks to have with the “panellets” and the chestnuts.
But, since Halloween arrived in Spain, things have changed. Halloween is a celebration born in Ireland and exported to the States in the 19th century by Irish workers. This celebration has its origin in the Celtic tradition: on All Saints Eve, people decorated their houses with phantasmagorical objects because they were afraid of dead people. Now, people continue with this tradition and even children participate in this party. Little boys and girls disguise with scary clothes and go door to door to ask for some sweets.
In Catalonia, children don’t do exactly this, but they dress up for school. Then they make themselves the “panellets” and eat them with the chestnuts. So, in some schools they mix the two traditions, the Catalan one and the Anglo-Saxon one.
I don’t think it’s a good idea. In my opinion, school is more than a place to learn maths, chemistry or languages. School is an institution that has to preserve the identity of the people living in the country. In Catalonia, we have our own traditions and culture and school must show them to the newly-arrived people in the region. Catalans are open-minded, friendly and warm. This is why foreigners people feel good in our country, but our obligation is to show them our way of life and preserve traditions and culture. In a global economy, the only differentiating feature is identity.

L'Alzheimer acabarà amb naltrus

L'anunci, aquest cap de setmana, que l'expresident Pasqual Maragall pateix Alzheimer m'ha colpit. És un personatge peculiar que ha despertat en mi diverses sensacions.
Algunes vegades, m'ha semblat un polític amic i proper, amb sentit de l'humor i capaç d'aixecar passions entre els seus seguidors. En definitiva, un líder carismàtic. Un líder que, des del meu punt de vista, no mereixia ser fulminat pel PSC. Maragall és qui va portar els socialistes a la Generalitat i, en canvi, va marxar-ne escaldat.
En d'altres ocasions m'ha semblat un clown, un polític poc a l'alçada de les circumstàncies. Un clar exemple és el famós episodi de la corona d'espines: Maragall va fotografiar el president d'ERC, Josep Lluís Carod-Rovira, amb el símbol de la passió de Crist a la sortida del Sant Sepulcre, a Jerusalem, ara deu fer dos anys. Personalment, crec que es pot fer broma de tot, també es poden dibuixar caricatures de Mahoma, però els polítics han de ser diplomàtics i, evidentment, políticament correctes. El Maragall de vegades no ho ha estat.
Tot i no ser sant de la meva devoció, reconec que m'ha afectat el seu anunci. En primer lloc, perquè tinc un tiet que ha mort sense reconèixer els seus fills, néts, nebots i germans. Ha mort deteriorat, sense controlar el seu cos. Ha mort consumit per aquesta malaltia. A més, tinc dues tietes diagnosticades d'Alzheimer, també.
En segon lloc, l'anunci de l'expresident ha despertat en mi una preocupació. En Pasqual Maragall no es distingeix precisament per la seva discreció, al contrari, es caracteritza per dir les coses tal com ragen, sense embuts. Sense anar més lluny, al mes de setembre va declarar que el president del govern de Madrid, en ZP, va posar una condició per aprovar l'Estatut de Catalunya: la dimissió de Maragall. Després del reconeixement públic de la seva malaltia temo que algun infeliç de l'aparell socialista no desacrediti algunes de les declaracions de l'expresident i les atribueixi a xacres de la malaltia.
Encara que en Maragall abandoni la política per dedicar-se en exclusiva a la seva salut, l'hem de deixar opinar a gust. Només està en una fase inicial de la malaltia i encara té el cap clar i moltes coses a dir. Malhauradament no és el cas de l'Adolfo Suárez. Sort Pasqual!

Bubbi World

Estimats tots! No sé quina és la raó del nostre trencament. Fa dies que no sé res de valtrus i em sento abandonada, buida. Ni tan sols hem discutat. Ha estat un trencament dolç, perquè segurament hem caigut en l'oblit. No desitjo que sigui definitiu, no podria suportar un allunyament, representeu massa per mi. Potser ha estat la distànica. Ella tot ho esborra. Però, jo us he estat fidel. He mirat cada nit al cel per veure els mateixos estels que valtrus. He reproduït tantes vegades el vostre nom que tothom al meu voltant sembla conèixer-vos. No recordo el darrer dia que vaig tenir notícies vostres. Em sembla una eternitat. Si he fet quelcom de malament, perdoneu-me si un perdó mereixo. Però, no puc estar sense noves dels Bubbis. L'enyorança m'oprimeix el cor.

Ich bin eine Berliner

Cap de setmana a Berlín

A tu, que no em coneixes

Quantes vegades al dia ens dirigim a una persona que no coneixem: el conductor de l'autobús, la caixera del supermercat, la veïna vella del setè que surt de tant en tant... Amb totes elles hi ha un intercanvi de paraules, un creuament de mirades i, en algun cas, una rialla. Poc més. Però, en algun moment de la meva vida m'he topat amb persones que realment hagués volgut conèixer. Gent, que per la seva manera de caminar, per la veu, o simplement per ser allà on l'he trobada, m'hi hagués agradat intimar.