I have cousins in England and decided to pay them a vist. Since I had never been to Spain, Barcelona seemed to be a good idea.
It’s a lovely place and I recommend it to fellow travel addicts. Quite a lot of history here.
What I didn’t know was I would find myself in the middle of a bit of history in the making. Just like Scotland, the Catalunyans want secession from the federation. It turns out that Catalonia wants to go it alone.
Yesterday, I walked into a demo in Catalonia Plaza. Hundreds of protesters from both sides! But no violence, no abuse. Just a lot of symbols, flags etc and loud music. Great stuff for a tourist like me!
From what little I saw, the numbers were about 75% in favour of secession.
It made me think of the Scottish referendum. That one didn’t get up and I don’t think this one will either. Also, apparently, unlike the Scottish one, this referendum is not binding.
Makes you think though. What if they did secede? What currency would they have and do they have the reserves to back up that currency?
What about a defence force? Like Spain is going to oblige! Not!
There were so many unanswered questions with the Scottish referendum and the same is the case here.
The good thing, though, is that the issue of Basque initiated violence in the name of secession is absent.
What I have noticed, similar to the Scotland that I know, is that there is an antipathy from the ordinary Catalunyan towards the Spanish in Madrid! “We work here in Barcelona, they siesta!”
I have to think of the time Jo Belke-Petersen wanted to secede Queensland. Maybe we should have let him! Canberra gets bashed more by Queenslanders than any other state, possibly excepting Victoria.
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