megaspora

Language choice in Galicia

By: psr, 2009-06-28

The regional government of Galicia distributed a questionnaire among parents of schooled children. The goal is to find out parents’ preferences about which language (Spanish or Galician, or a mix) to use for teaching in school, to later design the “future language policies for elementary and secondary education in Galicia.”

The questionnaire had to reach parents directly, but a group called “galician coalition of linguistic normalization and dynamization” (CGENDL in Galician) has attached a letter (in Galician) to the questionnaire to mold responses in favor of one option (Galician). While this is bad enough (the questionnaire was supposed to be neutral), the letter rests on ludicrous claims:

1) “Galician is Galicia’s own language; it belongs to us all and we cannot play with its future”

This is irrelevant: …

More »

2009-06-28 | Braindead - Rights - Spain | Trackback | 5 Comments »

Why does Rodríguez Zapatero need the special congress permission?

By: psr, 2009-06-21

This week ETA has killed police inspector Eduardo Puelles, and the Government and the main opposition party (PP) have given an image of unity in their response to this new assassination, calling for the defeat of ETA. It seems that the PP backs the Government’s current counter-terrorism policy.

However, it is hard to believe that the Government really wants to see ETA defeated while they still keep alive a permit in congress to allow the Government to negotiate with ETA killers.

Furthermore, we no longer hear the PP voice their old demand that the Government of Rodríguez Zapatero revoke the special permit to negotiate with ETA. The PP stopped asking for this since they failed to win the presidential elections of 2008.

As a reminder, the “special …

More »

2009-06-21 | Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

New financing, …new programming?

By: psr, 2009-06-12

Televisión Española (”TVE”, the Spanish public TV station) is faced with a new financing plan, put forward by the current government, the “Draft bill for financing of Spanish Radio and Television Corporation”. According to this bill, TVE would no longer display TV commercials. Advertisement income will be replaced by income from a tax on telecommunication operators and on private TV channels.

That is, TVE no longer needs to compete for the audience to ensure its income: All its financing is guaranteed by law, coming from national budget, and from mandatory taxes on private companies.

Therefore, if TVE requires not to compete with its programming against other TV channels, will TVE cease to broadcast rubbish? There is no longer any excuse to broadcast stupid contest shows, gossip TV shows, …

More »

2009-06-12 | Spain | Trackback | 1 Comment »

13-week monsters

By: psr, 2009-05-20

In the context of the abortion debate, agitated by the government of Rodríguez Zapatero with its new “Law of Reproductive and Sexual Health and of Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancies”, the Minister of Equality (yes… we have such a idiotic Ministry in Spain), Bibiana Aído, has marked the age limit for the human fetus to be considered human or not.

That is, the socialist government has turned itself into official philosopher and dictates who is human and who is not. This government must really have magical properties, because despite all absurdity they utter, they manage to keep considerable popular support.

What’s that about a 13-week fetus not being human? Is a one week fetus something other than human? What else is it? Possibly up until 13 weeks …

More »

2009-05-20 | Braindead - Rights - Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

Museum of Communism

By: psr, 2009-05-18

While walking around Prague last week, I ran into the following banner on a street wall:

Very nice.

More »

2009-05-18 | Europe - General - Rights | Trackback | No Comments »

European Elections Campaign is a Political Campaign

By: psr, 2009-04-26

A couple of days ago I was in Brussels, and I saw in the airport a big billboard encouraging people to vote in the European Parliament elections of June. I think it’s good to get people involved in voting. However, campaigns to promote participation should be void of political messages. Sadly, the European Parliament has decided to taint this pro-vote campaign with particular views of their own.

One such billboard reads “How much should we tame financial markets? Use your vote in the European Parliament Election - It’s your choice!”.

Perhaps we should not tame them at all. Maybe it’s public bodies, central banks and governments who should reconsider and reform …

More »

2009-04-26 | General | Trackback | 2 Comments »

Silence, please

By: psr, 2009-03-19

I usually condemn from this blog the Spanish penal code and the Spanish judicial system and its practices when they impose weak and slim sentences, but this time I have to applaud them (to some extent).

A bar owner in Barcelona has been sentenced to 5 years in jail for disrupting the lives of neighbors with the noise from the bar. The bar lacked operating permits, and did not comply with any regulation on soundproofing. Neighbors had to stand one year of loud noises at night, despite several formal complaints from neighbors to authorities about the noise.

Offenders like this bar owner know that the judicial system is slow and that sentences are rarely tough on them, so they risk skipping compliance with regulations, with their …

More »

2009-03-19 | Rights - Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

False privacy protection

By: psr, 2009-03-18

Finland’s Parliament passed a law allowing companies to track workers’ e-mail messages, but not to read the messages themselves. With this law in effect, companies will be able to retain information about the e-mails, such as the sender, recipient, the sent and received time and date, and whether the email contained attachments [ref].

Even with such a weak law (it does not permit reading the content of messages), some opposed it arguing it “gives employers more powers than the police, and could lead to an erosion of Finland’s proud heritage as a world leader in human rights” [ref].

It is rumoured that Nokia was pushing for such a law to pass (for it was dubbed “Lex Nokia”). If it were so, they should be applauded for …

More »

2009-03-18 | Economy - Europe - Rights | Trackback | No Comments »

Take the law into one’s own hands

By: psr, 2009-03-03

After a bomb set off by criminal terrorists ETA (or their support groups, it’s all the same) last February 23 in Lazcano (Guipuzcoa) destroyed the home of Emilio Gutiérrez, a local neighbour, Emilio went on a rampage against the local ETA-supporting bar, destroying part of it.

Emilio did what just about every spaniard ever wanted to do in reaction to ETA. It is not right to take the law into one’s own hands, but what are we to do when the State no longer guarantees security, ensuring protection from criminals?

ETA and its supporters roam about many towns in the Basque Country (and elsewhere), and the State does nothing to arrest them, close down their financing institutions (bars included), or remove their propaganda from the streets. …

More »

2009-03-03 | Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

Defenceless society

By: psr, 2009-03-01

Life imprisonment: yes or no. This debate has briefly appeared on Spanish media in the last few days, after a young woman was murdered in Sevilla. The Spanish penal code does not consider life imprisonment for any type of crime.

Those against this type of sentence argue that the Spanish Constitution does not admin life imprisonment, but in fact the Constitution does not mention it at all. It is absolutely untrue that life imprisonment is incompatible with the Constitution. They argue that such sentence would be “degrading”, and this is not allowed by the Constitution. However, this is merely a matter of opinion: is a 30 or 40 year jail sentence “decent”? is life imprisonment “degrading”?. They can both be …

More »

2009-03-01 | Rights - Spain - World | Trackback | No Comments »

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Jun
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Language choice in Galicia

Why does Rodríguez Zapatero need the special congress permission?

New financing, …new programming?

13-week monsters

Museum of Communism

European Elections Campaign is a Political Campaign

Silence, please

False privacy protection

Take the law into one’s own hands

Defenceless society

Feeds

Languages

Pages

Links

Activity

Full Archive

Hazte Oir

Monthly Archives

Calendar

Categories

Meta