Archive for the 'Spain' Category


Brainwashing in the Basque Country.

By: psr, 2008-07-20

Politicians, the media and the public usually speak about several concepts, mixing them up, ultimately diverting attention from the real problems.

Basque nationalist politicians often talk about the “basque conflict.” For the average Spaniard this might be “the problem of ETA”, but it seems to refer rather to a sort of discrimination suffered by the Basque Country, not being a state in itself but part of another. It seems that this conflict never refers to frequent ETA blackmailing on Basque companies, which forced many people to emigrate from the Basque Country. Within the Basque Country, children are taught that the Spanish state oppresses the basque people, and in some cases, the killing of those who seek to deny the existence of such oppression is justified and defended. In …

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2008-07-20 | Rights - Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

Oil prices, carriers and the Spanish government

By: psr, 2008-06-14

The recent increase in oil prices affects all transport. Air, ground and sea transportation, passenger and cargo alike, have seen their costs rising in the last few months.

Analysts have provided several theories on the causes behind the oil price hike. Some put the blame on the credit crisis in the USA, others blame oil producers, others point at the US Federal Reserve, and others remind us of the significant increase in energy demand. I am not going to analyze the reasons here.

This week Spain saw a strike by some truck drivers (apparently about 20% of them), demanding Government intervention to help their activity, after fuel price increases are rendering their business a loss-making operation. Their strike blocked major communication roads around the main …

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2008-06-14 | Economy - Europe - Spain - Braindead | Trackback | No Comments »

Language, communication and freedom

By: psr, 2008-06-08

Language is often considered to be an aspect of culture. I dissent. First and foremost, language is a means of communication, but the diversity of languages certainly makes humans associate a particular language with a particular group of people. Humans feel identified with other human beings who speak the same language, while feeling more distant from those speaking a different tongue.

Culture or not, language is essentially what allows humans to communicate with other humans and it is therefore a catalyst for growth of the human spirit as language permits access to knowledge and to interaction and relation with other people. The use of language should therefore not be limited nor restricted in any way. This apparently elemental assertion has rarely been true throughout …

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