It is too late for me but I cannot believe what I am reading. There is talk about a possible storm of the Ecuadorian Embassy by the UK government.
I imagine that this is not going to really happen because if this happens I am afraid that this will be the start of the end of the concept of embassies as we have known for decades.
If one of the most respected democracies of the world could dare to storm an embassy I do not want to imagine what will follow suit. A world without embassies?
Well, I go to sleep with the believe that the UK won’t storm the embassy of Ecuador. I do not want to believe that such a strange thing could happen in such a respected democracy. It cannot be for real!
Maybe in some years we speak about the euro as just the official currency of just Germany while the rest of the eurozone is in total disarray. Maybe in some years we speak of Scotland as a new state of Europe and even maybe of the European Union if this last does not break up after the eruozone breaks up.
And now it could happen too that Jersey becomes independent too.
So what is going on?
It must be quite disturbing for somebody in London: you know that in some years your island could be home of two states, Jersey could become another state in Europe and mainland Europe could break up due to the eurocrisis.
It almost seems as if Gibraltar and The Falklands were the only lands to remain as they are!
The Prime Minister of the UK has clearly said that the UK won’t help Spain with underwriting Spanish bank deposits.
So, while France, Germany, Italy and the rest of eurozone will help Spain the UK won’t do.
Why I write about this?
Because I think it is very important to state clear how each state acts with respect to the other countries.
I think it is very important to know who helps you and who does not want to help you.
So, imagine that in the future European countries have to vote which country should host some important technology equipment or whatever? If Spain has to vote, it is important to know the words of Cameron today. It is obvious that we should vote before for France, Italy or Germany than the UK.
Is this a way to say that we should be at odds with the British? Not necessarily!
I must accept that I understand the position of the UK. They are outside the eurozone.
But it is obvious that if the UK wants to take advantage of not being in the eurozone for not helping countries in need then it is obvious that Spain should always choose Germany and France as better option!
Should Spain buy, for example, a plane. There is a British plane and a French plane to choose. No doubt that Spain should choose France.
If the UK does not help Spain just because the UK is outside the eurozone then the eurozone countries should always choose eurozone countries as first choice to invest.
On the other hand I think that Spain should also review its use of the English language. Maybe it is time to choose American language. Unfortunately I am afraid I will continue using British English because not everything should be white or black … Some eccentric contradiction should be allowed …
This is big news. The UK will send Julian Assange to Sweden. This may the firt step before the US gets him from Sweden maybe. Are we returning then to the times where Wikileaks was at the top of the news too? What will the supporters of Julian Assange do?
English: Picture of George Orwell which appears in an old acreditation for the BNUJ. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Imagine that Spain and UK realise that the current situation is so bad that they need to work together. Imagine for one moment that for once both countries realise that the current bad times can be an opportunity to start a good friendship …
Well, what I say is like pure fiction but I would love to see in the current situation new ways to solve the current crisis. Instead I just see each country blaming the outside of the internal problems: the UK is in a bad situation because of the eurocrisis, Spain is in a bad situation because of the markets …
Let me give an idea of how Spain and the UK could join forces …
We all know that Spain and the UK are at odds about Gibraltar.
So instead of currently using Gibraltar to hide internal problems why not use Gibraltar to bring cash to Spain and the UK.
Do you imagine Olympic Games 2032 hoster in La Linea de la Concepción and Gibraltar. Or creating the tallest rollcoaster of Europe which is made in the border bewteen Gibraltar and La linea so that people in the rollercoaster change territory while in the rollercoaster.
Or why not looking into the broader world … Both the UK and Spain are unhappy with Argentina. Why not try to make a partnership between the three countries?
The most spoken languages in the US are Spanish and English. When you are in New York the languages you here most on the streets are Spanish and English. So if one of the coolest cities of the world speaks English and Spanish could not the UK and Spain see that they may have a future to share?
George Orwell wrote Homage to Catalonia. In the hard times, the UK may have not been always supporting democracy in Spain but writers like George Orwell came to Sapin to fight for the republic. Even Margaret Thather, so loathed by some, was one of the few politicians worldwide who condemned the coup d’etat of 1981 in Spain.
And there is also another reason to work togehter and not against each other. We know the good things we have. People in Spain travel to London and know what amazing city you have: the more interesting bug city in Europe. And the landscape in England is so nice. And in Spain there are a lot of tourists from the UK. So, in contrast with older centuries, now we know each other better. Why should behave as old enemies?
The hard times that is currently living Europe should open us and not the opposite!
This is weird. During decades the citiziens of some parts of Europe have had the doors open in Europe so that people in the EU can more or less move from one country to another. The weird thing is that when you may really need the doors to be open then the doors close.
There are news from the UK saying that if the euro collapses there may be contingency measures. Greece and Spain are mentioned.
So it is possible that if things go worse for Spain then London closes its doors to Spaniards.
Well, first of all I must say that I understandd prefectly well that the UK is worried about a massive influx of people fleeing an hypothetical collapse of the eurozone.
So if the UK closes its doors I cannot say anything against that but I can say what the my contingent measures would be:
- I would stop buying TWINNINGS TEA immediately. If I cannot go to London then I do not want to buy tea from this wonderful London brand.
- I would stop writing “theatre” and I would begin to write “theater”, ie, I would start writing American English instead of British English.
- I would continue listening th the BBC but in secret, without telling anybody!
- I would ask Spain to close the border with Gibraltar if that is possible not breaking any international law.
- I would ask Spanish government to use English as less as possible in official websites and instead use French or German (provided France and Germany do not close its doors too!)
- I would ask Spanish government to treat British tourists that come to Spain as possible people who come to work here so i would put a lot of trouble to come in. Just in exactly the same way that the British may do.
- If the restrictions to Spaniards start before the Olympic Games then a boycott to the Olympic Games may only be done if the whole eurozone decides that.
- English schools should be encouraged to get teachers of English from outside the UK: Ireland, US, Australia, New Zealand , …
- I would join the Greek to dennounce the UK for not letting enter Greek citizens to visit the Elgin marbles at the British Museum.
IF THE UK CLOSES ITS DOORS TO GREECE THEN THE MARBLES SHOULD BE RETURN TO GREECE. (I have never been very hard in asking the British Museum to return the marbles because one of the best things of London are the Elgin marbles and as I am closed to London than to Athens …)
“This evening” the UK song for Eurovision has got so few few votes that I think that only Norway got fewer points.
As a country in Eurovision needs votes from outside and I am from outside the UK I want to tell here the reasons why I think that the UK has received so few votes.
Well, first of all, let me say that the song from the UK was a good song. Very well done. Then why so few votes? Why, for example, did I not vote for the UK?
Well, I think I may guess the reasons why the UK may receive normally not many points.
As we all know the English language is very much used in the songs in Eurovision. But we all know that the UK is just the place where the language was born. So, a song from the UK will be always special because in some way the rest of the countries know that the UK has an advantage when it sings in English!
So for people to vote for the UK (or even the Irish) song, the song must be quite impressive.
What we don’t like outside the UK (or at least not me) is that the UK goes to Eurovision showing-off that they are the masters of the English language.
So songs like the one this year of the UK are very good for the UK (I am sure it would be an awsome song for any musical of the worldwide celebrated West End in London) but I think they are not good for the rest of Europe because we see the UK using the English for its advantage. Well, I think I am not explaining myself well. What I mean is that the song from the UK was a very good song but we all know that only the UK can sing that kind of song (and the Irish) The rest of Europe can send to Eurovision songs in English but only the UK (and Ireland) can send a song where the English language sounds so nice.
In summary, I think people do not vote the UK songs because they ask for a UK song more than for other songs from other countries.
Maybe if the UK sent a song to Eurovision spoken not in English would win more votes (it it is a good song) because other countries would feel that the UK is playing without advantage.
Another reason why I think that the UK has received so few votes is because it sends songs without thinking about other countries. Other countries write songs in English so that people from Europe understand a bit of the song! But the British song just is a way to show-off. When I hear tonight beautiful UK song I have the feeling as if the song sang to Europe: “See, Europe, what a beautiful song I have made. Most of you just made a fuss of the English language while I can do poetry with my beloved native English language. Only I can make the English sound so nice.” That is what I feel!
Imagine the UK song, the one of this year 2012, sang in Catalan, for example by a Catalan singer. The song would have been also well sang and well done but would the UK people voted for it?
So to end, my advice to new song from the UK for next year is: your song must not look gorgeous because you speak English in a gorgeous way (as it has happened now) but just for the music and other things.
I think there is an easy way to know if the next UK song can win Eurovision. Just get it translated into Catalan or Danish or why not Welsh. If you listen to the translation and you would vote for it then go ahead! Would have you voted for the UK song of this year if it had been sang in French, Catalan or Danish?
I am sure that the song of the UK tonight would have sounded amazing in any language but that does not make it a song for Eurovision. A song whose beauty relies too much on the domain of the language seems to me that cannot win eurovision easily.
Anyway, here is the UK song. I find it very nice but not the right song for Eurovision! Any UK song that takes advantage of being English the mother language won’t succeed in Europe if it does not have a universal appeal.
Let me end by saying something nice about the song of Engelbert Humperdinck. It is better not to receive votes but have a good song made with care and love than to receive some points with quite a bad song.
I read that Quuen Victoria’s journal will be available worldwide until the end of June. From July they will be available only in the UK.
Well, I cannot understant that. If Queen Victoria reigned too over India and other places is not logical that the diaries should be available outside the UK?
General view of the room displaying the Elgin Marbles (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is my solution to the Elgin marbles dispute between the British Museum and Greece: let’s declare the part of the British Museum with the Elgin sculptures as Greek soil!
The UK should declare a little part of London as part of Greece. In this way the Parhtenon sculptures would be in Greek soil and at the same time in the British Museum! The British Museum would be in two countries! In the UK and in Greece.
The agreement would say that the sculptures cannot leave the British Museum and cannot be move from the Greek part of the museum.
In this way, any Greek could say that Parthenon sculptures are in Greece soil while at the same time the British Museum could say that the Elgin marbles are inside the British Museum!
In Rome you can be in Italy or in The Vatican without a clear border. Here it could happen something similar! The fact that a tiny part of the British Museum is in Greek soil would give to the museum even a greater appeal.
An option to make all this seem more interesting would be the possibility that people in the Elgin marbles room could put you a Greek stamp on your passport! It would be wonderful to enter the British Museum and to leave the museum with an stamp that says you have been in Greek territory!
I feel quite ashamed that the current government of Spain uses Gibraltar to hide the great problems we have here with the economy. I feel ashamed that the Spanish government has finally done the same that the Argentinian government: use a place of controversy (call it Falklands, call it Gibraltar) to hide the real critical situation of the country.
It is obvious that I feel much more closer to London than to Madrid because in London let the Scots decide their own future. The same that they do with Gibraltar and the Falklands.
I understand perfectly well that some people in Spain claim the sovereignty of Gibraltar. But one thing is to understand that and the other is to forget that the UK is much more than Gibraltar! Without the UK we would have not enjoyed the music of The Beatles, maybe we would not be able to drink tea, trains and industrialization may have come later and even Hitler may had won the last great war.
Never in my life, when meeting a person from England I have spoken about Gibraltar. Maybe if I was from Andalusia I would feel different but the reality is that I just see Gibraltar as an extravaganza.
We are living in very difficult times. I know that in the UK there are also cuts and I feel it is very bad to see the UK, Argentina and Spain with bad relations among them.
I have realized reading the British press and some comments that some people in Britain feel that the Queen of Spain is almost offending them by not going to the Diamond Jubilee. This seems to me good news. The fact that some people in the UK are unhappy about what a Spanish queen does means that they care about what we do. After all a lot of British people come on holidays to Spain. To know that the place where you go on holidays is in bad terms with your country cannot be good news.
So I feel very frustrated! Because the Spanish government is sending the wrong signal to the UK! Spain needs more than ever to be in good terms with London. Imagine that we quarrel inside the eurozone. Wouldn’t it be nice to be in good relations with the only strong nation outside the eurozone in the EU?
The government in Spain, when thinking about Gibraltar, should think very seriously why the people from Gibraltar want to remain British?
No doubt that in the current situation, if I was from Gibraltar, I would prefer to be British too.
Let me end by wishing Elizabeth a nice Diamond Jubilee. I feel sorry that the queen of Spain cannot be there because that has been the decision of the Spanish government. Paradoxically it seems that the Spanish government, had not problem whatsoever in “my king” to go to hunt elephants in Africa. No wonder Gibraltarians are much better with Elizabeth as a queen than an elephant hunter as a king. Unfortunately I cannot choose.
