Vet aquí una peça que fa unes setmanes que tenia pràcticament enllestida perquè em vulguessin publicar en un lloquet, que tot d’una m’he dit: però si tens un bloc la mar d’eixerit a Can VilaWeb!
Total, que ho enganxo aquí amb tota la meva bonhomia, que vindria a ser una segona part de les meves subreflexions sobre la catalana esplèndida (línia que, gràcies a Déu, han fet seva amb molt d’encert persones amb el cap molt millor moblat):
[Està escrita en llatí modern, d’això, anglès]
Born in the Mediterranean
Entrenched antagonisms, epic wars, ups and downs were the dominant historical constant on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, cradle to the oldest civilisations known that have fed into what is currently called the West: Egyptians, Hittites, Minoans, and a palimpsest-like recombination of borders and supremacies that has resulted in present-day states. Perhaps the Pax Romana period could be regarded of as the sole exception, although the price to pay was imperial overstretch and a fragmentation that was never again overcome. 20th century was no exception to that: it saw empires collapse, invasions, de-colonisations, what have you.
Military, fascist or totalitarian rulers were present in almost every single country in the region, wasting its peoples’ precious energies. In 1968, a young Catalan artist from Barcelona was selected to participate in the Eurovision song contest representing Spain, but saw his candidacy truncated because he refused to bow down and sing a song in its Spanish version, the only one acceptable for Franco’s regime which still then continued to intervene in such matters. Joan-Manuel Serrat could not imagine then that one day the Spanish broadcaster TVE would choose one of his songs as the best Spanish pop song ever. The same broadcaster from which he had been banned because of his attitude. He even spent some time in exile because of his ideas.
The song was entitled Mediterráneo (and goes “born in the Mediterranean…”, but was written in 1971, 13 years before Springsteen’s Born in the USA, let that be clear). In a parallel trend –still used today to promote certain Catalan Mediterranean best-selling beers-, after Franco’s troops entered Barcelona in 26 January 1939, one of the first symbols ‘tackled’ was the then-prestigious Institute of Catalan Studies (which had been audaciously fostering scientific excellence and nurturing local culture for some decades), which after a ethnocultural and ideological cleansing was rebaptised as Instituto Español de Estudios Mediterráneos. Little explanation needed: Mediterranean qualifies perfectly as an enthusiastic buzzword through which to hide or paralyse a genuine reality beneath it.
This also sold rather well at least once Europe-wide recently. In 2008 Sarkozy’s Union for the Mediterranean, almost killing the few precious fruits the Barcelona Process had delivered, went on to embody one of the most catastrophic initiatives of this century in the EU. While inflicting French grandeur in it, this Barcelona-HQ’ed entity is still busy at designing the ideal high-level meeting. Meanwhile, the only genuinely all-encompassing system of land transportation in the Mediterranean was the one built by the Romans. To date. Speeches, more speeches, and the region that invented philosophy still to its knees…
With much less noise, up North, cross-border initiatives in the Artic Ocean, the Baltic Sea and the Barents region are, on the contrary, sound illustrations of what can be achieved in an orderly and respectful pursuit of mutual interest. A lot to gain for all partners, not least huge loads of natural resources ready to be plundered now emerging, let that be said. Northern countries are thus likely to consolidate competitive advantages, relational power and geopolitical clout. However looked into, one must admit the Mediterranean as a whole needs a serious revamp, a true cultural revolution if it is to benefit from its regained centrality in the Afro-Eurasian world island… Redemption could start by re-discovering and truly celebrating the progress and innovations brought about by the peoples bathing in it. Definitely not by trying to bury them with void newspeak.