Open letter to Joe Biden

Open letter to Joe Biden

                                                                               March 24th, 2021

To:

Joseph R. Biden Jr.

President

United States of America

 

Dear Mister President, 

Perhaps is too early in your term as president, but I could presume from your long career in politics you may have been acquainted with the Catalonia growing cry for independence in these recent years.

An ancient country with a long and glorious history, with a vast cultural background and a rich language, Catalonia has been striving to find a place in the concert of the free nations of the world.

The struggle to emerge as a single entity, as a country, has not always been a peaceful one. Lost our ancient rights and laws in fierce battles some 300 years ago, and lost again more recently during the Spanish Civil war that led to a very long 38 years of Franco's dictatorship, had cost us dearly in blood and suffering.

The advent of democracy and the writing of a new constitution for the Spanish State in the 1970s opened a new era of peace and development and growth to Spain and also to Catalonia. Spain is now a modern state of law-abiding citizens integrated into the European Union and cooperating with a wide variety of international endeavours for peace and wellbeing around the world.

This, however, and for the past thirty years, has come about to an unfair cost to the people who live and toils in Catalonia up to a point to make it unbearable.

Not only our economic situation has been set back, worsened further by the worldwide economic crisis of these past few years, but some of our widely accepted initiatives within our community to modernize and put forward a better way of managing it, such as the 2006 Statute of Autonomy originally granted by the Spanish state, have been trampled, despised and utterly rejected by the Spanish central government.

For years, through effort, hard work and entrepreneurship, Catalonia has been the powerhouse for the Spanish state economy. But the unfair taxation system is strangled us and tampered with our efforts so no longer we see our future as prosperous as we should be allowed to dream.

As you well know, the American colonies went into the path for independence initially for a matter of taxes. To us is not just the tea, but rather a sizable chunk of our resources that go to Spain and are not fairly returned as services and investments. Catalonia understands that the contribution in terms of solidarity to other parts of Spain is right, but not to the point to render us poorer than the regions we are helping. And worst, with no end in sight to this lopsided drainage.

All this has brought us to the point of considering that a future not dependent on the decisions and policies, made 400 miles away in Madrid that do not respect our reasoned wishes in terms of administering our lives, is a desirable endeavour.

On September 11th, a date of dire remembrances to both your country and ours, for several years two million of us have taken the streets of Barcelona to peacefully show our will for a change in our relationship with the Spanish State. Those giant rallies have been organized by the civil society, political parties and politicians joining in afterwards. The Spanish state has either ignore us or as they did on the 1rst of October 2017, reacted violently sending riot paramilitary police against peaceful people casting their votes on a referendum considered illegal by the Spanish central government. Following those events, up to 3.000 people have been indicted, charged in courts, or thrown into jail as happened with the members of the Catalan government for their political ideas by lopsided sentences of judicial courts of irregular constitution. Others, as our legitimate president of the “Generalitat”, the Catalan government, forced to go into exile. 

Our collective will is to pursue the constitution of an independent state that suits our needs and dreams for the future. And to do so in a peaceful and reasoned way within the concert of all the nations of the world and the European Union as well.

This is what we want to bring to your attention and, as the head of the most powerful nation in the world, ask for your support to the will of a people that strives for its own laws, its rights and its independent free will in the path of liberty and peace.

With my best wishes for your presidency,

Yours sincerely

Xavier Allué MD, PhD

Citizen of Catalonia

TRIBUNA

Perry Mason

• Xavier Allué

Actualitzada 14/02/2019 a les 20:00

És possible que no a tothom els hi resulti familiar el nom, però la gent de la meva edat vam créixer amb la sèrie de televisió sobre judicis més popular de la història de la televisió. Durant un decenni i quasi tres-cents episodis, la sèrie de televisió mostrava les aventures d’un prestigiós advocat penalista de Los Angeles. Dedicat a la defensa de, gairebé sempre, suposats assassins, cap al final de l’episodi resultaven declarats innocents per la confessió del verdader culpable. Les habilitats del defensor que protagonitzava l’actor Raymond Burr, s’ajudaven de la cooperació d’un guapíssim detectiu, Paul Drake ( l’actor William Hopper) i l’eficacíssima secretaria Della Street (Barbara Hale). Però també del personatge del fiscal, el fiscal del Districte Hamilton Burger (l’actor William Talman) que generalment feia un paperot d’estúpid, habitualment frustrat. 

Per la influència, juntament amb altres sèries de TV i moltíssims films de Hollywood, en aquest país estàvem i potser estem més familiaritzats amb el sistema judicial nord-americà que el mateix espanyol. El temps que vaig passar als Estats Units i la forçada presència com a testimoni o pèrit en uns quants judicis, em van permetre veure que el sistema judicial americà tampoc se semblava gaire al que se’n veia a les pel·lícules. No és només la notable diferència dels sistemes que depenen de la llei canònica dels països mediterranis d’arrel llatina amb els que depenen de la llei comuna (common law) anglosaxona. És que el component d’espectacle es perd en el volum de normes i paperots que fan la pràctica judicial quelcom molt més tortuós i feixuc. Avorrit tot plegat. No hi ha forma de reduir un judici que dura setmanes al cap de 45 minuts d’un capítol de sèrie televisiva.

El judici que ha portat com acusats a una bona part del govern de la Generalitat, la presidenta del Parlament i als líders civils Sánchez i Cuixart, es farà llarg i eventualment avorrit. Tampoc ajudarà la maleïda realització de la retransmissió televisiva a càrrec de RadioTelevisión Española que també s’encarregarà, pel que hem vist fins ara, de fer-lo més tediós encara. La creativa i ficcional instrucció del procediment planejarà sobre tot el procediment, intentant distorsionar una realitat que no cal que ningú ens expliqui perquè la vam experimentar en viu i en directe més de dos milions de catalans la tardor de 2017. Sabem que estem essent jutjats en una forma de rebel·lia quan vam fer col·lidir els nostres cossos contra les porres del «piolins», pobres servidors públics obligats a menjar croquetes per Nadal. I que fa mesos que pintem el país d’un horrible color groc, insuportable als ulls dels nacionalistes espanyols.

Esperarem amb paciència quines originalitats revesteixen un procediment judicial tort i forassenyat, lluitant contra l’avorriment amb el convenciment que el resultat el tenen escrit.

October revolutions take place in November

100 years of the October Russian Revolution

The Great October Socialist Revolution and commonly referred to as Red October, the October Uprising, the Bolshevik Revolution, took place one hundred years ago. Dated on the 25 October (7 November) allows for the eleven days (actually, they were thirteen, two still missing) difference between the Gregorian calendar and the one in use in Russia.

No one can say how the historians will end up labeling the current events in Catalonia. Some of the participants are fond of the “smiles revolution”, as they make positive efforts to stave away any form of violence thus far. And that to the despair of the Spanish Central government, who is more than willing to contemplate violence that could justify a strong repression move. The 10.000-plus police force stationed in different improvised quarters, including off-season tourists hotels and at least three ferry boats moored in Catalan ports, sit watchfully idle, for the time being.

Back in August, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks that took place in Barcelona and the small beach resort town of Cambrils, the vice-president of the Spanish Central government, Ms. Soraya Saez, was all set on sending the army to Catalonia, on account of the terror attacks, but with the political drive for independence in mind. In France, the army is patrolling the streets since the major terror attacks suffered in the recent past. That was not to be in Catalonia, mainly due, so is said, to the lack of proper funding for such a displacement of troops and equipment. And also the reluctance of the military to get involved in the thorny political situation, grossly mismanaged by the Central government. The supposed saber rattling meant in a recent article of the Chief General of the Armed Forces was induced by the Government and is just a formal position.

On the Catalan side, there are constant calls to retain the peaceful overtone in all actions. Claims of “Ghandiism” are common, remembering the tactics of the Hindus back in the mid 20th against the British Empire. Whether that will hold is yet to be seen, as many Catalans are beginning to feel fed up with the situation.

The matter in question is moving from an independence movement to a complete overhaul of the Spanish State as it is. The resort of just the judiciary to counterattack the Catalan independence movement, shows the inner difficulty of consider political moves on the part of the Spanish state, including both the party in government, the “Partido Popular” (PP) and the main opposition party, the “Partido Socialista Obrero Español” (PSOE). The far right organizations and parties are just the spearhead of the entrenched central powers, rooted way back more than one hundred years, and located in Madrid.

The judicial management of the situation evidences the absolute lack of separation of powers in Madrid. The Spanish judicial system has been neglected by successive governments, limiting its resources and modernization. Still all set on paper, the only use of modern computers is as word processors. Courts personnel are not able to manage databases and most proceedings are not digital. The integrated systems known as Minerva NOJ and Lexnet are not entirely compatible and, particularly Lexnet breaks down very often and is not reliable, to the despair of judges and lawyers and, even more, any citizens using the justice system. All this has been just convenient for the PP, as almost one thousand of its members are involved in court cases related to corruption schemes. A nonfunctioning system favors corruption cases.

In this situation, the resort to a judicial answer to the Catalan political challenge, the central government has used very questionable members of the judiciary. The leading actor is the “Fiscal General”, sort of Attorney general, a person involved in corruption cases himself that was reproved by the Congreso de los Diputados, the Spanish Lower House, by a large majority. In any other country, this should have prompted his resignation. However, the PP government opted to keep him in his post, disregarding the Congress reproval. The Fiscal general gets all his inputs from the “Abogacia del Estado”, State attorneys, currently manning the most conspicuous posts in the PP administration, particularly the current vice-president of the government, Ms. Soraya Saez. The court acting in this situation is what is called “La Audiencia Nacional”, a legal body heir of the “Tribunal de Orden Publico”, the political court of regrettable Franco’s era memory. This is a special court meant for terrorist crimes and such. The judge in charge is a well known ultra-right lady judge, Hnbl. Carmen Lamela, with a rather peculiar record of outward harsh sentences for minor incidents of superficial political undertones.

The inability of the PP government to find other members of the judiciary, with cleaner records, is a clear sign of the executive intervention and meddling on the judicial system. That includes irregularities such as:

Acceleration and change in the judicial calendar. Denial of the right to a defense, violation of fundamental rights.Judicial action against politicians in electoral periods. “Audiencia Nacional” court judging without jurisdiction, according to the Supreme Court, plus the fact that Supreme Court doesn't have jurisdiction over Catalan Parliament Board members. The prosecutor has built a partisan criminal complaint. Basic process rights are not being respected, Violating the privacy of communications of the defendants.

The whole judicial process is becoming a “General cause” against the independence movement in Catalonia, but the intention is to cover the great irregularities that plagued the Spanish central government and system.

The Catalan popular movement, with all its ebbs and flows, the inconsistencies of some of the Catalan government decisions, the difficulties of the responses to the Spanish central government actions, the colonial occupation forces, the jailing of members of the government, or even the meagre repercussions in the European theater, still is a popular movement. It is the people, nor the leaders nor the organizations, who is carrying the flag. That is what gives the movement its character of revolutionary. And thus far it seems nothing is going to stop it.

The main question is not whether Catalonia will or will not become independent. It’s just how. The “when” will be determined by historians, once it happens.

In November, perhaps.

Current events (End of June 2015)

This I share with my fiends:

Racial violence in the US. I haven't read enough about the American Civil War but to me it seems slavery was only part of the problem. A very important one, but I got to sense a strong patriotism and anti-big government and independence feelings amongst the rebels. Regretfully today's racial violence and crimes are not circumscribed to the South. Civil wars are not through in just one generation. They drag on and on. See the Carlists wars in Spain. Some say the ETA conflict was the last Carlist war...

Guns and violence. A guy with a gun is bound to shoot somebody. I see no sense in taking away the Confederate flag. Take the guns away instead.

Jihadi terrorism. Last Friday episodes in France, Tunisia and Kuwait City may or may not be connected. But they are connected for sure with the Charlie Hebdo shootings a few weeks ago.

The "We are Charlie" (Je suis Charlie) of solidarity, would now be "we are...what?" "Tourists?"

There is a war out there and the front line is fuzzy. No drone bombings are going to end it.

New defense strategies and new weapons are needed. Like other wars not yet won (the drug war, etc.): follow the money.

Lone wolves. There is not such a thing as lone wolves. Just packs, with members acting individually with sharp fangs. Hunt the pack. They did that in Galicia with the real wolves and extinguished the species in those parts.

Gay marriage. All for it. For what silly reason the gays should be spared the miseries of marriage?

Local news.

Difteria. The death of a difteria child victim after four weeks in the ICU, closed another chapter of the vaccination struggle. Too bad. Two hundred and twenty years of existence and the vaccines and still need fighting for.

Christian Democrats. The until now partner of the ruling party in Catalonia, Unió Democràtica de Catalunya (UDC) is split down the middle over the independence issue. Does anyone care? Less than 3000 card carrying member took part in the poll to decide on the issue in the face of the elections next September 27 (27S). Minority organizations like Procés Constituent , led by an university professor and a radical nun, claim a 49.000 fee paying membership.

Artur Mas. The current president de la Generalitat a Catalonia has made a stronger than ever statement for the Catalan independence asking the political and civil organizations to rally around him facing the elections in 27S  and pursuing government actions to create statehood structures to guarantee the process of independence. The Spanish central government just plans to take the whole shebang to the courts, Supreme and Constitutional, forgetting that old Gipsy curse: "Pleitos tengas, y los ganes" : May you have litigations, and even win them...

 

Assemblea Nacional Catalana. (ANC) Major organizer of massive rallies with a widespread grassroots base proposed its members to join forces towards the 27S elections with other political organizations and parties... but with a rather convoluted question resembling a Vatican proposal concocted by a Jesuit coven...

...we still got a long way to go.