XPost: es.charla.actualidad, es.charla.politica.misc, esp.charla.politica   
   XPost: soc.culture.catalan, soc.culture.europe, soc.culture.italian   
   From: patanegra@netnitco.net   
      
   "Nelson"  wrote in message   
   news:e1114q$idc$5@inews.gazeta.pl...   
      
   > "Matad en Madrid si quereis, pero no en Cataluña (Carod-Rovira)"   
   > Defiende lo tuyo: ni un producto polako ni una cuenta en La Caixa (Pasalo)   
   > !!!   
   >   
   > "Jerónimo"  escribió en el mensaje   
   > news:1144259856.061994.314720@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...   
   >   
   >>En cualquier caso, la oficialidad de una lengua, que se refiere al uso   
   >>de la lengua por el estado, en nada obliga al uso privado de la lengua,   
   >   
   >   Excepto en Cataluña, donde se persigue la utilizacion de otras lenguas,   
   > alguna de ellas tambien oficiales.   
      
      
   In 1992  laws were promulgated that  this signified the de facto end of the   
   parallel linguistic system (Castilian Spanish and Catalan) in Catalonia  by   
   proclaiming that Catalan, as Catalonia's "own" language, must also be the   
   language of compulsory education. These were the so-called "linguistic   
   immersion decrees" which came in practice to radicalise the initial budgets   
   of the Linguistic Normalisation Act. In summary:  Just like under Franco but   
   in reverse: persecution of Castilian in Catalonia.   
      
   The Parliament of Catalonia voted  on December 30 1997 as the Linguistic   
   Policy Act. The Act gives precedence to Catalan, not only in the civil   
   service, but also in public and private companies, which are obliged to   
   utilise it preferentially in their invoices and documentation; signs and   
   adverts must be displayed "at least in Catalan", labelling must be   
   exclusively in Catalan and, a provision that caused great outcry in certain   
   sectors, as  heavy  sanctions are  applied if the provisions of the Act are   
   not fulfilled.   
      
   Tese draconian laws have been critiziced for the  enormous psychological and   
   institutional pressure that was being felt by Castilian-speaking sectors,   
   and many institutions have  demanded respect for the plurality of Catalan   
   society. In agreement with this policy, a series of groups, such as the   
   Pro-toleration and Anti-discrimination Association, the Association of   
   Teachers for Bilingualism and the Federation of Regional Houses (societies   
   for immigrants from other regions of Spain) warned of the danger that this   
   new policy might have for the ability of Catalans of different languages to   
   live in harmony together.   
      
   There is a growing  dissent with nationalist linguistic dogmas on the part   
   of a considerable number of Catalan intellectuals, thus breaking what had   
   been assumed to be this sector's uncritical acceptance of the linguistic   
   policies of the Catalan authorities. There has been a recent increase of   
   ideology of Catalan nationalism which, without respecting the linguistic,   
   ideological and cultural plurality of the Catalan community, is attempting   
   to impose on the community an identity unambiguously and exclusively   
   Catalan. Some suggest  to Catalan society that there do not exist -or should   
   not exist- taboo topics that are excluded from public debate, as the   
   linguistic question had been until that time:   
   The very raising of this topic appears to be symptomatic of the complex   
   sociopolitical situation thtough which Catalonia is passing, a situation in   
   which the Generalitat is accused of having established a false   
   identification of mother country with language: for the nationalists,   
   abandoning this equation would require the renunciation of their own   
   cultural roots. There is now a sterile linguistic war that obliges the   
   individual to be traitor or martyr as a function of the language that he   
   normally speaks.   
      
   It is precisely in this identification that the romantic conception of   
   language as a "way of viewing the world" lies, as an element of construction   
   of national identity, an idea that has been fundamentally rejected by the   
   free minds of Catalonia.   
      
   To believe, as pure nationalism does, that a language is the essence of a   
   community, its unique distinguishing feature, is in fact to make a serious   
   error, and one which is at its most serious in the case of Catalan society,   
   in which such an assumption would have to exclude 65% of its members, i.e.   
   everyone whose mother tongue is Castilian Spanish. Nationalism, in its   
   extreme form, tends to be diverted into a dangerous sectarianism, in that it   
   regards certain given features of the identity of certain parts of society   
   as the only legitimate and characteristic ones. Language can function as a   
   social selector and the equivalent of a proof of citizenship. Abroad,   
   immigrant workers can be exploited with impunity because they are not   
   citizens. Here  as  the Generalitat doesnt have full State powers and does   
   not distribute national identity numbers, language is an equivalent   
   identifier. But the end result is the same: if you do not belong to the   
   country concerned, you cannot aspire to participate in the exercise of power   
   And, as with language, so with ideology.   
      
   Saludos   
                     GURRIATO   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)