#1Oct is a handy reference for people who use Twitter and who want to see what is happening.  There is a lot written in English in case you can’t read Catalan!  Why in English?  Because it is very important that people outside Catalunya know what is happening and offer support.

Why support the Catalan people?

Because whether you think there should be independence or not,  we all need to know that in Europe the democratic right to vote is protected. People should have the right to express their opinions freely without being threatened or bullied or arrested.

This last week has seen a lot of activity here in Catalunya. People who want to vote have been very busy, getting together, creating imaginative ways of protecting their right to walk to a civic building and to make a cross on a piece of paper to state if they want Catalunya to be independent or not.

The response from the Spanish state have been extreme. There is virtually a state of emergency although that has not been officially declared. Web sites have been closed down, printed material has been seized. The country has been flooded with police. 700 mayors threatened with arrest for supporting the referendum. Officials have been arrested. Catalan government buildings were entered by police and their web sites closed down. Protestors on the streets have been threatened with arrest for the crime of sedition. (Sedition = conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch)

What else have the Spanish government done?

The finances of the Catalan government were taken over by Madrid.  Premises searched, boat-loads of police costing 300,000 euros a day are sitting in Barcelona harbour waiting to be deployed.  The Spanish government insists that the referendum is illegal and will be stopped.

And what are Catalan people doing?

Getting on with life and saying calmly and peacefully that they will vote.

Taking part in demonstrations which is the part you may have seen in the news.

Also having what Julian Assange has called the ‘biggest slumber party in the world’ as they spend the weekend in schools and colleges, health centres and old peoples homes. They have organised all sorts of activities, singing, dancing, practising human towers, cooking, playing games, making new friends…..all in order to keep places open for the vote tomorrow.

Or should I say ‘today’?  I am writing this in the early hours of October 1st and thinking about all the people – ordinary citizens of all ages – who are so determined to vote that they are willing to camp out this weekend, facing who knows what tomorrow. Whether they vote yes or no – whether they want to be independent or not – they are taking part in a massive public show of strength and courage – to defend the democracy they believe in from the extremely authoritarian power of the state of Spain.

Isn’t that worth supporting?

If this can happen here, it really can happen anywhere. It’s easy to think ‘I won’t bother to vote’ until someone tells you that you can’t. It is a right that has been fought for over the ages and must mean a lot if a state like Spain tries so hard to stop it.

So we had better believe it is worth supporting these people as they call for the freedom to vote.

Tomorrow – we will see what happens. Please do keep watching!

And if you are in the Labour party in the UK can you ask Jeremy Corbyn why he is so quiet about the threats to democracy in Catalunya?  And the EU – will they speak out?

Photographs of students demonstrating in support of the referendum in Barcelona. Thanks to a friend who sent them to me – will add his name shortly.

What has forced me back to the computer?  What has broken the spell of the writer’s block that has hung like those Cornish clouds over my blog?

Today I am watching scenes in Catalunya that are bringing tears to my eyes.

There is a referendum due on October 1st. Have you heard about it?  Perhaps if you follow the news from Catalunya you will know that the Catalan people want to vote to say if they want to separate from Spain or to stay. You may even have noticed that the Spanish central government has banned this referendum and said it will not be allowed to happen.

But do you know what is going on today?  Raids, arrests, threats, interference in a peaceful democratic process which is bullying of the worst kind.

There are no attempts by the Spanish government to discuss, negotiate or try to find a peaceful resolution.

• First Catalan politicians tried to change the constitution to create equality between all autonomous communities.   Refused
• Then they tried to negotiate with the Spanish government to create a fairer financial arrangement.    Refused
• They organised a consultation in 2014 to ask if Catalan people wanted independence. A referendum was banned by the Spanish government and even the consultation was not officially permitted to take place.    Banned
• Charges were brought against the organisers of the ‘Consultation’ and the then President has been banned for two years from political life as a result. Banned

Some news in English continues to speak of ‘Catalan separatists’ as if they are a strange vocal group of nationalists who can be seen waving flags and shouting slogans. Others are more condescending and try to convince the reader that those who want the right to vote are angry left-wingers who want to cause trouble. More sympathetic voices may explain that there is a long history to this movement and that it is partly caused by the refusal of the Madrid government to negotiate or discuss the many grievances that people in Catalunya have about their treatment – financial, cultural and social – since the beginnings of democracy in Spain.

But from all that I know and have experienced these people are just people – hundreds of thousands of people. Not activists or nationalists or trouble-makers or extremists. Ordinary people with their families, their workmates, their neighbours and their friends.  People like you and me who want to vote because they have been pushed too far into a corner with no other option but to want to leave the entity called Spain.

Can we call it democracy when some regions are treated differently from others?

Is it democracy to favour some areas with funding and investment and deliberately deprive others (Catalunya for example) of proper roads, schools, health services? When Catalunya pays more in taxes than other areas but receives not just a shoddy return but a return which is intended to act as a punishment.

Punishment for what?  For being a wealthy area, for being Catalans with a strong and different culture, for having been strongly and bravely republican in the Civil War and its aftermath?

I believe that democracy allows people to vote and to have their voices heard. The referendum is only asking people what has been a question in the hearts of many for years.

“Do you want Catalunya to be an independent country in the form of a republic?”

But this question is seen as illegal.

The police are right now detaining officials in the Catalan government. They are raiding offices, confiscating written documents. The finances of the Catalan government have been taken under control by Madrid. Mayors from hundreds of towns have been harassed and threatened with arrest.

People are thronging the streets in Barcelona and calling for the right to vote.

And we who are looking on from outside, from the UK, or Europe or North America or anywhere else in the world, we need to be witnesses to this threat to democracy, to this bullying and violence. We are watching and need to send our support.

Pep Guardiola, the former coach of Barcelona Football Club said, “We are just asking that people be allowed to vote for a better life”

I say that the moment has come to stand up for democracy, for peaceful negotiation, for respectful discussion and for international support to those who want to vote.

One last thing I want to say is this. There are many people who love Barcelona – who have visited the city and enjoyed the Ramblas and the tapas and the beach. Perhaps the city has stolen your heart as it did mine.  But if you love Barcelona then you must support the people of Catalunya in their struggle to be free of an extremely oppressive and repressive regime. We cannot just be tourists who take what we want and then ignore the real life of those who live in that country. Please do one thing to send support.

Tweet your support with hashtags like #Catalandemocracy. Write something on Facebook to draw attention to what is happening today. Share this post if you feel inclined. Email the EU Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker as I did or write to the newspapers.  Or if you are in Barcelona then go and join the protests or offer to be an observer at the referendum.

Let’s stand alongside the Catalans today.

Photo credit: keith ellwood via Foter.com / CC BY

It has been too long but I was wondering whether to continue or just stop.

I do still have quite a lot to say about life post Catalunya and of course there is the interesting sensation of being in my home country while my Catalan man is learning the ropes. I may be physically in Cornwall but a part of me is still in Catalunya, keeping that connection alive. I was planning to keep writing but when someone commented that maybe I now need to change the blog title, something in me sort of withered, as if perhaps I am no longer entitled to write under this name.

Do you know what I mean?  Have you done that?  Allowed outside opinion to deflate you?

Then I found this comment in my spam folder and it made me laugh. I want to share it here just before I delete it for ever.

“Count me among the distraught souls who miss your fantastic Catalan sausages. The fennel flavour and the half salami’ taste made them truly exceptional. I am now condemned to wander the earth in torment. Having tasted Heaven once and now lost it, life seems no longer worth living . Please, please bring them back. I crave redemption!”

So, just in case there are some of you wandering the earth in torment because you have heard nothing from the Catalan Way for months, here is my new post.

Reverse Culture Shock

I have only recently discovered this is ‘A Thing’

When you have lived abroad and then you come back home to a place that you have missed and kept alive in your heart, sometimes it isn’t quite how you imagined it would be.  All around you is the familiar landscape, the people and the shops, the language that you can speak effortlessly. But something has changed. Partly you, and partly them.

People have been living quite happily without you and especially if they felt a bit miffed when you left, they are apt to let you know that you are not indispensible. I have a friend who regularly ‘forgets’ to tell me about events and when I asked her why she replied “Oh we got used to you not being here”

Changes within you mean that you respond to life in a slightly different way. This can give a feeling of awkwardness as you fail to slot back into your old familiar routines.

It can be hard to talk about your past experiences lest it sounds like bragging. “When I was in Catalunya blah blah blah..”  So you learn to keep quiet and then feel that a large chunk of your life has mysteriously slipped down the plug hole.

It is so comfortable to be back in a well-loved and familiar place. You can settle down to watch the BBC news, eat in restaurants that serve vegetarian food as if it is normal, meet up with friends and how amazing – you understand everything that is said.

But, there is always something slightly askew.  And you have a horrible feeling that it is You!  It is subtle but disturbing. Like looking through a lense that is almost but not quite right. You feel like an outsider. You question yourself about how to behave and how to fit back in. Things have changed and because you weren’t here to change with them, you feel you are always caught on the wrong foot.

I found this list of things that people have described feeling when they return home after a time away

• Boredom
• No one wants to listen
• You can’t explain
• Reverse homesickness
• Relationships have changed
• People see ‘wrong’ changes
• People misunderstand you
• Feelings of alienation
• Inability to apply new knowledge and skills
• Loss/compartmentalisation of experience

Yes. I know those feelings.

On top of which people often ask you how it feels to be back.  I have to decide what sort of answer they are looking for. Do they want me to say it is 100% wonderful and I will never stray away again?  Do they really want to know?

And now there are a whole new set of people in a foreign land who have been left and who I want to keep in touch with but who I know are also getting on with their lives, perfectly happily, without me.

It is a weird floaty feeling.

Perhaps I just need to enjoy it. Rootless and more alone than before. At least I am free.

As for the sausages….I have now swopped them for a Cornish toasted teacake in the company of our lovely dog Zero.