Back to the old Fashion

Hi bloggers.

I noticed those last posts were of the same kind. I lost my funny touch and I regret it a bit. The fact is I was hiding some information in case somebody could read my blog and be offended. Today I realized if they read it and they get offended that means they don't have any sense of humour at all and that's not my fault. But today I have something to tell you and I'll leave humour for next one.

I've been to a demonstration today. If you read spanish newspapers you'll know wich one I'm talking about. But I'll talk about what it was about in case you don't.

Our new goberment decided to dialogue with ETA for them to put their weapons down. That showed useless in the past. For two times they tried (different gobernments) and for two times it was not only a failure but a chance for ETA to be reenforced and renewd. Last time it was the PP who dialogued with them and for a while it looked good, they weren't bombing anything for almost two years (I'm not sure about the time) but in the meantime ETA was just waiting and taking advance of the time without being disturbed to make some money and steal some explosives. So finally they started again with new strenght.

So it showed useless to speak with them and the PP decided to take some more rough tactics. They made a new law to expell the political arm of ETA from the legality (wich showed useful) and encourage police to take a lot of actions against them. For a time ETA was weaker than ever (that's for sure, and I'm not saying it's because of the PP but because of the tactics and help from other countries they used).

But then, the new gobernemnt needed to be different from the last one. As they didn't have experience on gobberning (almost all the older PSOE leaders have been left out) and they spent last 8 years on the opposition they acted (and act) as they still were the opposition party. So they made new laws and stopped some others against the PP. Our new president Zapatero, or ZP(whom is called sometimes "bamby", as the Disney character) loves dialoguing (what he calls, or it's called since he became the leader of PSOE "talante") and he is never offended for he preffers talking than being angry. So he talks with everybody, and even he tries, without any answer yet, to talk with G.W. Bush, whom he didn't ever liked.

Continuing, the political arm of ETA was a political party called HB. After being declared illegal they changed their name and that time it worked. That was 'till the new law of PP, they became illegal with any name. But this time a new p. party called PCTV (Comunist Party of the Vasque lands) came to take the place of HB. This time it was less easy to see the connection between PCTV and ETA but it was clear for some, even a judge. The old leader of HB said to HB votants to vote for that party, so it became clearer. But PSOE allowed them to be and then the mess started. Some weeks ago PSOE declared they wanted to talk with ETA and asked the parlament (I'm not sure if it was the parlament, sorry). The parlament it's constituted mostly by PSOE and his friends who are nationalists (vasque and Catalonian) so the petition it went on and was approbed with the negative vote of PP who broke the antiterrosit pact they had with PSOE.

But it seems the country doesn't want them to talk with ETA at all, and neither do I. The terrorism victims asociation is against talking and they convoqued a demonstration for today. There's some other things, but it'll take a long time and pages so I'll left them. I'll just tell you another one and then I'l talk about the demonstration. There's a guy (called Gregotio Peces Barba) who is the gobernemt responsible to manage all the affairs of the terrorism victims. He decided not to go to the demonstration as he should because it's against his party (he's elected by the gobernement). The T. victims association didn't like it at all and they didn't like either the fact he didn't resing after saying that. I understand about him not going to the demonstration but he should do something or, at least, resign of his charge. In fact I believe it's a stupid charge considering he'll never be with the victims if it's against his party. So that means he's not helping the people he's payed to help. It's clear to see some of the shoutings were against him.

The demonstration was a big one. There were something like 1 million people (according to TV) and the street was full and the crowd was like a snake. It covered a whole large street (Principe de Vergara) and ended at a roundabout near my house, so that's why I went, I'm too lazy to had gone if it was far away. At first my flat mate Vane and I came to the middle of the street. We were well positioned to see the people as we were beside the road, she wanted to see some famous politics. But after a while old people came and they subtly started to push us away to be first. They seemed to like it a lot, specially old women. Some of them came with their best clothes and some make up, the hair perfectly done. They laughed, they shouted, they pushed us without saying sorry, but they said good words to the policemen who were pushing them. There was something I found really funny, some cameramen were there with stairs. They walked a bit in front of the crowd and run up the stair to record the crowd. When they came close enough they went down and walked a bit further away and repeated the same thing. And then, the head of the demonstration came. They had a rope tied along the head, it was something like 20 meters long and made kind of a circle around them, I've never seen something like that before, but it was nice. After some organization people (the ones holding the rope and some others, including policemen) came victims of ETA, some recognisable faces because of TV, it was the only moment I got a bit sensitive and emotional as I thought about them being almost killed and some of their relatives getting killed by ETA bombings.

Then it was a big gap between them and the politicians filled with normal people. We waited being pushed to see them. After 20 minutes the politicians came holding a sign. The leader of the PP was in the center of it. I saw him being so, so, so happy!!!. He was smiling, giving kisses to everybody and enjoying the crowd bath he was having, he looked as he really liked it. I'm not going to say I like him but I'm not going to say the opposite, he's a human being after all, but I felt a bit proud of him as he was my neighbour when him and myself were living on the same street (I have a friend who lives on the same building as his parents and it's just a few buildings close to mine). I also felt happy because of his smile, he was so happy it was even contagious. And considering the demonstration was against a PSOE decission you can imagine everybody was encouraging him.

It was a big one, I might say but I don't know if it'll be useful or not. At least it'll tell the gobernment people some times have their own oppinions, and this time I agree with them. It's being a bad month for the goberment, as they have some other problems (related to european constitution) to deal with. I just hope it won't be bad for my country and any others.

I'll stop now, because it's taking a lot of space and time, and I don't want you to be too bored. I hope next one will be funnier, I'll do my best, I promise.

Farewell all you fellow readers.

Manoel.