TWO INTERESTING LOCAL ITEMS OF NEWS WORTH READING. FIRSTLY THE SLOW ADVENT OF CATALAN THEN FOLLOWED BY A SUMMARY OF A VERY UNJUST SITUATION BROUGHT ABOUT BY PERSONS WHO COULD BE DESCRIBED AS THE " MUGABES OF MENORCA " FOR GRABBING LAND AND ASSETS BELONGING TO ENGLISH PEOPLE HERE. READ ON. ---CATALAN - A PROTECTED LANGUAGE OR A USEFUL TOOL FOR RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ?

Just recently, February 20th 2005, the Spanish population voted in a referendum concerning the European Constitution.

There was a very low turn-out and of those that did vote there was an approx. 4 - 1 in favour of the Constitution.

However, speaking to many Spanish friends here in Menorca, I was able to ascertain that virtually no-one had received any information by any means and as a result were only voting as they did on the say-so of the politicians, with really no idea at all as to the content of the said Constitution !

 

However, now having said "SI " they will have to comply with European constitutional rules which give us all equal rights in the European Union State.

 

This brings me to a point which has long worried me.

Catalan  -  the baby of Sr Jordi Pujol, the ex-president of Catalunya, has been forced upon the residents of this region which includes Barcelona and the Catalan area of Northern Spain plus the Balearic Islands.

The European charter governing the protection of minority languages was designed to conserve and encourage the culture and history behind the language and allow people, if they so desired, to have access to learning facilities and use the language - once again emphasising -  if they so desired.

It was not meant in the spirit of the charter to create a devisive situation whereby young people from other regions of Spain or, indeed, Europe, were to be barred from employment in any local authority, police or social services if they did not speak and write Catalan.

 

This is blatantly discrimanatory because all Spanish people speak Castellano Spanish  -  the national language and there is no reason whatsoever to deny employment to perfectly qualified youngsters on the grounds of language.

Also, the charter states that the learning of a minority language in schools is and must always be optional and up to the parents to decide.

Here it has crept in as compulsory and often at the expense of learning English or another more widely useful language.

The reason for this rather unpleasant state of affairs in the region is due to the political pressure brought to bear on the administration of Felipe Gonzalez, the first ever socialist premier of Spain post-Franco. The pressure was brought on by Catalan Nationalists lead by Sr Jordi Pujol, President of Catalunya at the time, who insisted that Gonzalez bend to his demands in return for the Catalan vote, one of them being the enforcement of Catalan on the population as a prerequisite to employment in official positions. Totally against the European concept of Human Rights, but a sad reality guaranteeing that power rested basically with Catalans and making it almost impossible for outsiders to get a foothold in local government.

IT MUST NOW BE CHANGED.

If I wanted a job in Glasgow I would not be expected to write and speak Gaelic, and especially not if I happened to be Spanish ! The same principle applies here.

Considering the fact that there are approximately 5,000 English and German residents in Menorca and that the vast majority of tourists and visitors are of those two nations, there is not one single member of any local council who is of those nationalities. The reason is that they cannot speak Catalan. A very convenient method of discrimination against  "outsiders " or " foresteros " as we are called here, even though they may have been residents for years, from joining any council or social services department.

The mainland Spanish also have an equally unfair opportunity. The result is a virtual closed shop in local government and that is why the re are no new innovations from outside of this  very small, almost family, circle.

People who feel that this system ought to be changed please write to me here at Menorca Business World.

My e-mail is  davidcox7@yahoo.com or write directly to the citizens dialogue website of the European Community  -  public.info@consilium.eu.int    you will find this site extremely interesting and an eye-opener, and which informs you of many other problems apart from this one.

It protects you from local and sometimes deliberate mis-information.

There is much information simply with-held from us and it is to your benefit to know quite a lot of it.

                                    David Cox.

 

 

              http://www.davidscartoons.info