Catalan International View
Issue 22 • Winter 2015-16 • € 5
A European Review of the World
Cologne: rape culture and its spatial logic
by Cecilia Vergnano
Putin strengthened by war and terrorism
by Natàlia Boronat
The Kurdish option, the democratic alternative
by Quim Arrufat
Colombia’s peace process
by Tono Albareda
Enric Granados Cover Artist: Ramon Enrich Universal Catalans:
sections: Europe · Green Debate · Asia · The Americas · Africa · Business, Law & Economics · A Short Story from History · Opinion · Universal Catalans · The Artist · A Poem
Contents
Editor
Víctor Terradellas
vterradellas@catmon.cat Director Francesc de Dalmases
director@international-view.cat Art Director
Quim Milla
Editorial Board
Martí Anglada Enriqueta Aragonès Jordi Basté Enric Canela Salvador Cardús August Gil-Matamala Montserrat Guibernau Manuel Manonelles Fèlix Martí Eva Piquer Ricard Planas Clara Ponsatí Arnau Queralt Vicent Sanchis Mònica Terribas Montserrat Vendrell Carles Vilarrubí Vicenç Villatoro Chief Editor
Judit Aixalà
Language Advisory Service
Nigel Balfour Júlia López
Positive & Negative
4......... In Memoriam: The Holocaust /
The refugee crisis and the EU’s inactivity
To Our Readers
6......... A new doctrine for Turkey, a new paradigm for the region
by Víctor Terradellas
Europe
10........ France and the 2017 presidential elections .............. by Ariadna Canela
14........ Putin strengthened by war and terrorism .............. by Natàlia Boronat
18........ Cologne: rape culture and its spatial logic .............. by Cecilia Vergnano
22........ Catalan secession, security policy and international recognition .............. by Marc Gafarot Green Debate
28........ The Paris Agreement. How will Catalonia contribute to achieving ...........its goals?
by Arnau Queralt
Asia
32........ The Kurdish option, the democratic alternative for the Middle East .............. by Quim Arrufat
36........ Burma’s history takes a turn
Coordinator
.............. by Mireia Sala
administracio@catmon.cat
The Americas
Webmaster
40........ Colombia’s peace process
Ariadna Canela
Gemma Lapedriza Cover Art
Ramon Enrich The reproduction of the artwork on the front cover is thanks to an agreement between Fundació Vila Casas and Fundació CATmón Executive Production Headquarters, Administration and Subscriptions
Fonollar, 14 08003 Barcelona Catalonia (Europe) Tel.: + 34 93 533 42 38 Fax: + 34 93 319 22 24 www. international-view.cat
Legal deposit B-26639-2008 ISSN 2013-0716
© Edicions de la Fundació CATmón. All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, protocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Edicions de la Fundació CATmón. Printed in Catalonia
.............. by Tono Albareda Africa
44........ Land grabbing: a growing phenomenon in Africa under the guise of ...........foreign investment
.............. by Patrícia Rodríguez Business, Law & Economics
50........ Multitourist Catalonia A Short Story from History
54........ Josep Suñol: in memory of Barça’s democratic values Opinion
56........Open access to scientific publications: the final step
by Ignasi Labastida
60........America, Catalonia, and the right of self-determination
by Stephen Ansolabehere
64........Talking about Ramon Llull in Lisbon
by Àlex Susanna
68........Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya: a showcase to the World
by Joan Fontserè
Universal Catalans
72........ Enric Granados The Artist
76........ Ramon Enrich
Published quarterly
A Poem
With the support of
82........ Deception
by Maria Beneyto
Departament de Presidència
Catalan International View
Positive & Negative by Francesc de Dalmases
In memoriam: The Holocaust
On 27 January, the Parliament of Catalonia celebrated International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The ceremony included the traditional lighting of six candles, speeches by representatives of victims groups and senior government figures, including the President of the Government of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont and the Speaker of the House, Carme Forcadell, and the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau. This year, out of a wish to highlight the diversity of the victims of the Nazi regime the event counted on the presence of representatives of the Jewish and Roma peoples, the Friends of Mauthausen and Other Camps, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTI community. The event was addressed by Enric Garriga, son of one of the deportees to Buchenwald; and Rabbi Stephen Berkowitz, of the Beth Shalom Jewish Community of Barcelona.
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Positive & Negative
The refugee crisis and the EU’s inactivity
On February 8, two Iraqi refugees aged 14 and 30 died of hypothermia. They were trying to cross the border between Turkey and Bulgaria by swimming across the river Deliyska. They were part of a group of refugees who had been abandoned by people traffickers. I mention specific individuals as it seems obscene to talk about figures of hundreds of thousands of refugees we can hardly imagine but which somehow serve to hide the suffering of real people. We know about Europe’s failure to act, we know about the ridiculous European agreements which seek to respond to the crisis with minuscule quotas that the states have still not acted upon. This crisis not only drowns refugees, it drowns the dream of a European political project which is true to the basic principles of human rights.
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To Our Readers
A new doctrine for Turkey, a new paradigm for the region by Víctor Terradellas
US Vice President Joe Biden visited Turkey in January of this year. It was not a courtesy visit as a sign of friendly relations. Instead it may signal a profound change in the Obama administration’s dealings with the region. To understand the change heralded by Biden’s visit, one need go back fifteen years to a world that was rocked by the 9/11 attacks on New York leading President Bush to initiate a worldwide offensive against Al Qaeda centred mainly on Afghanistan. In order to make possible the US military response in the autumn of 2001, the US needed access to both Turkish airspace and its military bases out of logistical necessity. Turkey took advantage of its strategic position to create an international consensus against the Kurds. Ankara forced the international community to add Kurdish organizations to the list of proscribed terrorist organizations of the so-called ‘axis of evil’, thereby ruling out any form of dialogue with the Kurds. 6
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One needs to go back fifteen years to understand the significance of Joe Biden’s meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, last January, when he not only announced America’s willingness to cooperate more closely in the fight against the Islamic State (which was perhaps the most newsworthy aspect for the international press), but also put on the table the need for dialogue and agreement with the Kurdish militias in Syria and, more significantly, the same dialogue and agreement with Kurdish political parties in Turkey. Moreover, Biden even ventured as far as to reproach the Turkish government for a decline in civil liberties. This step represents a significant change because it breaks the discourse
To Our Readers
by which Turkey criminalizes the Syrian Kurds: it insists on reiterating that the major Kurdish party in Syria, the PYD and its armed wing, are equivalent to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, which is still considered by Turkey and the international community as a terrorist organization. It is clear that the United States’ new position took the Turkish government by surprise. Following a meeting lasting over three hours, Davutoglu stressed that he saw no difference between ‘terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State and the Kurdish militias’. In his reply, Biden made it clear that he is keen on the Syrian Kurdish party, the PYD, and in particular its militias, the YPG. He explicitly stated that the militias will continue to have
Washington’s support in their fight against the Islamic State.
It is clear that the United States’ new position took the Turkish government by surprise The regional significance of the visit, and the new paradigm which American diplomacy has decided to adopt, was made clear with Biden’s commitment to mediate between Baghdad and Ankara, exploring new forms of action in Iraqi territory. Specifically, America’s strategy is to ensure the expulsion of the Islamic State from Mosul. A few days earlier, in Davos, Biden held a meetCatalan International View
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To Our Readers
ing with Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al Abadi in order to encourage him to accept the participation of the Turkish army in the retaking of the Iraqi city. It was a declaration of intent. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how far US diplomacy goes and to what extent the Turkish government is prepared to concede, but it is clear that it has produced a positive, unexpected side effect caused by the Syrian conflict, which may produce new ways of resolving conflicts in the region. Washington is adamant that military action is not a viable option in ending the conflict with the Kurds. Exploring the possibilities of political negotiation represents a complete U-turn in US foreign policy which, up until now, has been sympathetic and indifferent to Turkey’s ongoing offensive against the Kurds. Biden’s speech was also accompanied by a series of gestures that deeply annoyed the Turkish authorities. The highlight was his public meeting with Kurdish parliamentarians and certain of its civilian leaders. The US vice president also called for freedom of the press and free speech, and expressed solidarity with the thousands of academics accused of treason for signing a manifesto critical of the government. From the pages of this magazine we have reported on a shift in the essence of Attaturk’s secular state towards a form of Islam that is anything but moderate; the resumption of hostilities against the Kurds; hostility aimed at one of the region’s few democratic alternatives. An alternative that requires the international community to 8
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endorse the construction of a complete Kurdish state or achieve such a state progressively in the different regions. At present it appears as if the United States is providing support when it outlines a new doctrine that aside from resisting the fundamentalists it may also provide support for the major democratic alternatives in the region. The Kurds offer such a democratic alternative, with enormous political value, which the most powerful nation in the world recognizes. It seems apparent, therefore, that while the diplomacy we have seen up to now may have produced certain positive results in the short term, it has been disastrous in the long term. We need to get to work, leave aside all the hypocrisy and embrace the values that have inspired the Western world since the time of Ancient Greece. Values that cannot be exchanged for money. We also need new visions and relations with the international community in the Gulf, paying special attention to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Countries that have turned diplomacy into the art of using their economic strength derived from fossil fuels to manipulate the West, while simultaneously carrying out their personal crusade among the Shiites and Sunnis in the region: from Yemen to Syria. The money they use to buy half the City of London or the World Cup is the same money used to arm and strengthen the Islamic State and its perverse ideology based on a twisted reading of the Koran, for example. Is everyone aware of this fact?
Good for you. Good for nature.
The water of your life
Aig端es de Barcelona manages the complete water cycle. It ensures rigorous compliance with all the steps necessary to guarantee water with the highest health standards. It manages each step: from when it is collected, treated, transported, stored and distributed, until it comes out of the tap at home. Finally, it is returned to the natural environment under the best conditions. For example, we help to maintain the lagoons of the Llobregat Delta with reclaimed water. We preserve a water cycle which has become a worldwide benchmark thanks to its efficiency and health safety.
Europe
France and the 2017 presidential elections by Ariadna Canela*
France is facing new challenges. Nevertheless, the 2017 presidential elections may well be a contest between the same faces as the 2012 elections: Sarkozy, Hollande and Le Pen. The political landscape has changed greatly, however. The attacks on Paris have led France to a point where increased security may serve as an excuse to changing the once-solid foundations of French democracy. It may become yet another European country which is not merely choosing between the right and the left, but also as to whether the far right has a part to play.
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he regional elections that took place in the first week of December 2015 served to take the electorate’s pulse. They demonstrated that the right has regained ground, though less than anticipated, and that the Socialists fared much better than anyone had expected, while the far right still appears unstoppable. The French National Front (FN) has shown its growing strength at every election to date. Nevertheless, the results of the 2015 regional elections were bittersweet for the far right, since their sweeping victory in the first round failed to translate into real power in the second. The party, now led by Marine Le Pen, has nonetheless managed to beat its own record for the 10
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number of votes, reaching 6.8 million. Besides its healthy result at the polls, the FN can also celebrate the fact that it is the only major French party that has firmly decided on its leadership and its candidate for the 2017 presidential elections: Marine Le Pen. On the left, meanwhile, François Hollande has still not been confirmed as his party’s candidate and on the right the duel between Sarkozy and Juppé has only just begun. Following the results of the regional elections, Marine Le Pen lashed out at both the socialists and the conservatives for the FN’s defeat in the second round of the regionals: ‘It is the price to be paid for the emancipation of a people’, she declared, re-
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sorting to her usual tactic of playing the victim. She made a direct reference to 2017, claiming that the two-party system was no longer between the left and the right but rather between ‘mondialistes and patriots’, and this will be part of the presidential race. The prospect of a repeat of 2002, when the far right reached the second round and Jean-Marie Le Pen faced Chirac, who finally won, looks increasingly more likely in 2017.
Following the attacks on Paris
The manner in which French President François Hollande handled the Paris attacks boosted his popularity when it was at an all-time low. He has yet to announce whether he will
run for re-election in 2017 though, in principle, there is no evidence to the contrary.
The FN is the only major French party that has firmly decided on its leadership and its candidate for the 2017 presidential elections: Marine Le Pen Manuel Valls continues to be the most highly rated individual among the French ruling class. The prime minister, of Catalan origin, was Interior Minister at the start of François Hollande’s presidency before being appointed head of the executive in Catalan International View
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2014. Valls still aspires to become president but has yet to set a date. For the time being he remains loyal to François Hollande who, in principle, will stand for re-election in order to complete his government’s programme, with five more years in office (2017-2022).
There could be a rerun of the 2012 presidential elections in which Sarkozy, Hollande and Le Pen faced each other at the polls
One of the variables that could favour his re-election would be a faceoff with Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential elections. Establishing himself as the only alternative to the far right would be to Hollande’s advantage since it would encourage tactical voting against the FN.
Uncertainty regarding the candidate on the right
Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative Republican Party has only just begun its campaign for the primaries. The former
president is running against Alain Juppé, the current mayor of Bordeaux and former prime minister during Jacques Chirac’s presidency. The regional elections were encouraging for the conservatives, having attained victory in seven regions versus the left’s five. Nonetheless, the victory was not as decisive as they had hoped, with the FN’s strength being a bitter pill for the Republicans to swallow. Given such a political backdrop, Sarkozy wishes to accelerate the timetable to elect a candidate for the 2017. It is a race he is expected to contest with Alain Juppé, although other candidates are still in the running, such as François Fillon. To begin with Sarkozy has taken control of the party by dismissing Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who was vice president of the party and highly critical of the former president. If Sarkozy manages to stand again as a candidate it could lead to a rerun of the 2012 presidential elections in which Sarkozy, Hollande and Le Pen faced each other at the polls. Nevertheless, the big question is who will reach the second round and, more specifically, if it will be the far right.
(*) Ariadna Canela (Barcelona, 1979) holds a degree in Philosophy and a degree in Advertising and Public Relations from the Universitat de Barcelona. An inveterate traveller, she combines her creative side as a sculptor and artistic creator with her collaboration with organizations involved with international analysis and cooperation for development.
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Putin strengthened by war and terrorism by Natàlia Boronat*
In the closing months of 2015, Vladimir Putin’s popularity reached a record high. He was reborn as the strongman of Russia who has enabled the country to regain its place on the world stage and has made the international community once again take note of Moscow when facing challenges such as the fight against Islamist terrorism.
D
uring his State of the Nation speech on December 3, Putin imbued himself with the aura of a great fighter against terrorism in an attempt to consolidate his power (which almost nobody questions), with reference to his fight against this threat. For the 16 years that he has been Russia’s strongman, Putin has continually legitimized himself with reference to supposed threats, enemies and the West’s treacherous attempts to destroy Russia. War and terrorism have worked in the past, such as during his rapid rise to power in the autumn of 1999 with the Second Chechen War as a backdrop. In late 2014, with the arrival of the economic crisis and a massive devaluation of the rouble, many Russians lost a third of their spending power within a matter of days, largely as a result of low oil prices. This highlighted the Russian economy’s structural problems, due to a failure to modernize during the years in which oil prices were higher. Fur-
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thermore, at the time Russia had become relatively isolated from the West, thanks to sanctions imposed by Europe and the US, following Moscow’s role in the Ukrainian conflict. Russia and Ukraine are linked by strong historical, cultural, linguistic and economic ties. Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union the Kremlin has refused to take Ukraine seriously as a sovereign country and has ultimately been unable to accept Kiev’s pro-Western stance and NATO’s expansionist pretensions. The annexation of the Crimea and the War in Donbass earned Putin isolation from the West. Meanwhile, internally there were two key events that boosted his popularity as leader. Firstly, in correcting a historical injustice by recovering Crimea, which the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had ceded to Ukraine when both countries formed part of the former USSR. Secondly, by being the president responsible for Russia recovering its national pride. The propaganda machine at the ser-
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vice of the Kremlin, with its tight grip on the major state TV channels, was well aware of how to appeal to the Russians’ sense of patriotism and how to convince people of the need to defend the nation against American expansionism and return Russia to its rightful place on the global stage, as a power that must be respected. Since then the slogan ‘Crimea is ours’ has taken hold in Russia and a clear division has been created in society between those who believe it and those who are against the annexation of the peninsula. The latter staged a wave of protests against the Kremlin in late 2011 and early 2012 for which they were labelled ‘fifth columnists’, traitors at the service of foreign states and the enemies of Russian integrity. In mid-2015 Western sanctions, the economic crisis which exposed Russia’s numerous structural problems, the loss of purchasing power, the disappearance of many western foodstuffs which Russians had grown used to from supermar-
ket shelves, the difficulties associated with travelling abroad (thanks to the devaluation of the rouble) and endemic corruption would all lead one to assume that Putin’s popularity would have suffered. This has not been the case. In private many Russians recognize these and many other everyday difficulties and injustices in a system that has been steadily reducing freedoms. Nevertheless, they still admire Putin for having defended Russia’s geopolitical interests. They claim that he has stood up to American expansionism and has restored Russia’s pride, which many feel was wounded with the disintegration of the USSR and the years of chaos that ensued. At a conference in late September 2015, Lev Gudkov, a sociologist at the Levada Center noted that, according to opinion polls, ‘forecasts of the country’s economic situation and that of household incomes would continue to worsen, while there are growing feelings of dissatisfaction among half
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the population, with little hope for the future and a feeling that the recession will be a long one’. Gudkov added that, nevertheless, ‘it retains overall satisfaction, pride, euphoria stemming from the fact that Russia has shown the West its strength’ and Putin’s popularity rating has remained extremely high (around 80%) as has his government. Gudkov underlined that, ‘there is a distinction, highly remarkable and very rare in this type of research, between negative feelings towards the economic situation and lack of prospects and the high degree of popularity of power [the government]’. He went on to add that this is extremely uncommon in societies like Russia in which the state has a paternal role. He sees it as the result of patriotic feelings that arose out of the conflict with Ukraine.
The downing of the Airbus A321 lent Russia the legitimacy it needed to carry out airstrikes in defence of its interests in the Middle East, in addition to its fight against Islamist terrorism A new role in Syria
Following this wave of popularity due to the crisis with Ukraine and its numerous consequences, Moscow strengthened its involvement in Syria in 2015, five years after the outbreak of the civil war. Damascus is Moscow’s greatest ally in the Middle East: thousands of Syrians were educated in the former USSR’s universities, the Syrian port of Tartus is home to the only Russian military base in the Mediterranean and the two countries have signed lucrative trade agreements, particularly in relation to the supply of Russian arms to Syria. Conscious of the threat of Islamic radicalism, Moscow has warned 16
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of the danger of Western countries’ support for the Syrian opposition since the very beginning of the conflict. It has insisted that it is the Syrians themselves who should decide the future of President Bashar al-Assad. In late September 2015, during his speech to the UN General Assembly, Putin called for the creation of an international coalition to combat the Islamic State. Meanwhile, Moscow strengthened their ties with the Shiite axis, represented by Iran, Iraq and the regime in Damascus. They also created an information centre in Baghdad to coordinate the fight against the Islamic State. A few days later Russia responded to Damascus’ request for help and began its aerial military campaign in Syria. Putin justified this move at home by saying it was necessary to combat international terrorism and prevent hundreds of militants from the Islamic State originating from the Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus from returning home to Russia. The Russian operation against supposed terrorist targets in Syria was criticized from the start for also bombing the political opposition and the civilian population, not just Islamist terrorists, with the aim of strengthening the Assad regime. According to a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published on December 1, two months of Russian bombing had caused 1,502 deaths: 419 members of the Islamic State jihadist group, 598 Al Nosra soldiers the local branch of Al Qaeda together with other local groups and 485 civilian victims. On October 31, one month after the commencement of the Russian bombardment, the downing of a Russian Airbus A321 over the Sinai Peninsula killed 224 people. 17 days later, following rampant speculation involving every possible version of events and repeated requests by the Egyptian authorities for
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caution when drawing conclusions, the Kremlin announced that the cause of the tragedy was a bomb on board. British and US intelligence services had already opted for this hypothesis, while Sinai Province, an affiliate of the Islamic State in the region, claimed responsibility from the start. The Kremlin, however, called for caution when drawing conclusions and Putin only mentioned the tragedy in passing when expressing his condolences to the victims. While uncertainty remained as to whether the electorate might directly relate Russian intervention in Syria with the deaths of 224 civilians returning from their holidays in the Red Sea, Putin remained on the sidelines of the tragedy. The Kremlin carefully chose the time to admit that the Russian aircraft had indeed also been the victim of an attack. The announcement was made just after the G20 summit in Antalya -with Putin protesting that countries which funded the Islamic State were present- and three days after the attacks in Paris which led to a rethink of the strategy against the Islamic State jihadist group and the need for a united front against Islamist terrorism. Putin’s response was immediate and forceful. When referring to those responsible for the tragedy he promised to, ‘find them anywhere in the world to punish them’, since, ‘the murder of our people in the Sinai is one of the bloodiest crimes in modern Russian history in terms of the number of victims’. He also warned that Russia would invoke UN Charter Article 51, which guarantees the right of states to engage in self-defence.
The question remains as to whether the timing was merely a coincidence, and Russia’s Federal Security Service had indeed not finished analysing the evidence of the disaster, or if the Kremlin held onto information relating to the cause of the air disaster to use it when it suited them. Whatever the reality, in the end the tragedy benefited the Kremlin since it once more placed Russia alongside the very nations which had turned their backs on and isolated them following the crisis in Ukraine. It lent it the legitimacy it needed to carry out airstrikes in defence of Russian interests in the Middle East, in addition to its fight against Islamist terrorism. Putin’s State of the Nation speech serves as an indicator of the image the Russian president wishes to project. This year he has chosen to make terrorism his main target, leaving aside ‘enemies’ such as Ukraine or Russian dissidents. Lilia Shevtsova, a political scientist at the Carnegie Moscow Center, states that the speech is like a ritual that serves to reaffirm the political elite’s unity with respect to its leader and the official slogan which must be defended in order to legitimize their power. In this sense, Shevtsova noted that, ‘Putin has again acted as if he were a president in a time of war. This time the Kremlin has replaced internal threats with the creation of a supposed external threat, related to far-off Syria and the threat of terrorism. This is like recognizing his inability and reluctance to deal with the country’s real problems’.
(*) Natàlia Boronat holds a degree in Information Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and in Slavic Philology from the Universitat de Barcelona. Since 2001 she has spent most of her time in Russia. She worked in St. Petersburg as a Catalan lecturer at the State University and in the tourism industry. She now lives in Moscow, where she works as a freelance journalist for different Catalan media organisations and reports on the current situation in the post-Soviet arena.
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Cologne: rape culture and its spatial logic by Cecilia Vergnano*
The mainstream narratives regarding the violence which befell Paris in November 2015 and the New Year’s Eve attacks in Cologne have certain elements in common. In both instances the events have been described as attacks by ‘foreigners’ who, with their violent behaviour, try to threaten ‘our’ values, ‘our’ freedom and ‘our’ lifestyle. In other words, ‘our’ time for leisure and entertainment.
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t is a good opportunity to examine how the relations of domination between the North and South, between the global centre and periphery, between the downtown and the urban periphery, together with relations of male domination, are being reshaped at this historic moment in a manner which may become especially visible in the public spaces of our cities. Both in Paris and in Cologne the reassuring image of public space as a place which is normativized, pacified and safe has become challenged. These attacks make it clear that this ideal space where ‘public life’ is performed in the abstract and Habermasian sense (free and equal partnership between individuals who establish reciprocal bonds of mutual recognition) has never existed. The street is once more a dangerous place. One reason why this generates large waves of moral panic is that these days the street in question is to be found in certain neighbourhoods which are considered ‘safe’, central and gentrified.
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Those who speak of ‘the West’s common values’ confronting ‘Islamic obscurantism’, forget that the violence committed against the bodies of these women and the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians are not the exclusive prerogative of ‘backward civilizations’. As far as gender violence is concerned, statistics show that in Europe nearly a quarter of women have experienced physical, psychological or sexual violence (two thirds of which took place in a domestic setting, committed by their partners or other family members). Many women still commonly perceive the public space as unsafe, which is usually to be traversed while exposed to the male gaze and, at certain times or in certain places, to assaults -for the simple fact of being a woman. In short, violence and abuse against women have not only taken place in Cologne on the night of December 31. All forms of violence are, to some degree, ‘sexed’ and interpreting what happened on New Year’s Eve
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as a clash of civilizations merely hinders (or instrumentalizes) the debate. The relationship between racism and sexism is well known and has long been the subject of research. The very definition of racism itself implicitly includes the phenomenon of sexism (both refer to contempt or fear of those who belong to other groups, as defined by supposedly ‘genetic’ criteria), making it difficult to analytically separate the two phenomena. Moving beyond these pedantically formal reflections, some have masterfully explained the apparent contradiction between the universalist and egalitarian ideologies typical of ‘western’ modernity, on the one hand, and racism and sexism on the other, as a tension inherent in the very existence of capitalism and its need to structure the workforce (Balibar, in Balibar and Wallerstein 1988). Analysing events from a spatial perspective, one can say two words about the places where these events took place. Urban anthropology has shown the constructed nature of space as a
social product. It would be interesting to see the processes through which the spaces of the 11eme arrondissement in Paris, and the Altstadt (Old Town), in Cologne, acquired their characteristics as ‘young’ neighbourhoods, attractive thanks to their offer of fun and nightlife and above all attractive for investments in real estate. One need only look at the increase in land prices that has characterized both areas in recent decades. Over the course of a century, the 11eme arrondissement has gone from being an industrial area to being a working class neighbourhood with a significant immigrant presence. It has even come to represent the heart of European gentrification, with homes which easily fetch 10,000 euros per square meter. These processes are obviously not immune to social impacts, since the composition of the neighbourhood has undergone a profound transformation, leading to the expulsion of part of its inhabitants -those most weakened by rising pricesand the arrival of a newer wealthier Catalan International View
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class. Meanwhile, one need only observe the growth of prices in Cologne’s old town (the neighbourhood around the station) to appreciate the ongoing processes of speculation. The succession of different phases that characterize the gentrification of a neighbourhood are well known to many researchers and social scientists, which imply among other things and in many cases, the massive appearance of venues for the nightlife as a factor that enables and justifies the rise in land values. A place where people go to spend the night is in fact a place which in common perception is presented as safe, peaceful and deconflictivized. It is precisely these explosions of violence which cause the emergence of the deepest moral panics.
Failing to distinguish between and analyze the specificities of the different forms of sexed violence is highly irresponsible
Nevertheless, far from justifying such violence as ‘restorative justice’ in a structurally unfair context (which would be furthest from my intentions), I would just like to show its arbitrary nature in an equally arbitrarily violent context, which is nonetheless perceived and internalized as ‘normal’, ‘everyday’ or ‘natural’. In fact the notion of ‘public space’, as it is currently used, establishes and legitimizes what might be called ‘the right to exclude’: relegating to the periphery so-called ‘street violence’, relegating to the domestic space the majority of gender violence. The gentrification of urban centres has its social costs which are well-known phenomena which is studied by sociologists and social scientists. These include the marginalization of young immigrant men 20
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and the processes linked to the persistence of specific forms of the construction of masculinity into the second and third generation of immigrants. We should also talk about the different forms of sexed violence. An assault on the street similar to that which occurred in Cologne entails a hyperrepresentation of a certain sector of the population (the so-called ‘undesirable immigrants’), while a classic form of sexed violence, domestic violence, would reveal completely different statistics in respect to the geographical origin of the aggressors, their level of education and socioeconomic backgrounds. We would also find peculiarities when analyzing the phenomenon of sex tourism outside Europe, in countries that have become ‘sex havens’ for European tourists in search of women and children whose misery makes prostitution a viable alternative that is anything but a free choice. Failing to distinguish between and analyze the specificities of the different forms of sexed violence is highly irresponsible, since it means recognizing only one form, which is that found ‘on the street’ - and not just any street, but only the streets of the ‘First World’. Many women living in European cities (whether ‘natives’ or ‘immigrants’) can testify to the fact that, in recent years, many of the discomforts or aggressions they have suffered on the street have come from ‘non-national’ citizens. The proportion is completely reversed when it comes to femicide, however -mostly carried out within the domestic walls, by the victims’ partners or former partners. The question to be asked, then, is who is on the street? And who is at home? Who is in the public space, and who is in the domestic space? And, one might add, who do we find on the streets of Thailand, Singapore, Brazil and Morocco buying their own sexual pleasure in contexts of poverty? Who are the aggressors in the areas where
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peacekeeping missions take place, in which the UN peacekeepers themselves are repeatedly accused of rape? A long series of ‘etceteras’ are called for. The real ‘news’ in relation to the Cologne attacks, therefore, is that they represent a logic that no one disputes, that is to say, rape culture: rape ap-
pears to be socially accepted when it follows the flow of structural violence, from the centre to the periphery of the world system (and the urban system) but never the other way around. Rape is legitimate depending on the aggressors and the victims, their respective races and the space in which it takes place.
(*) Cecilia Vergnano (1983,Turin) holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the Universitat de Barcelona. Her areas of research are related to the construction of racism, the production of urban space, access to housing, segregation and urban conflict. She is currently a member of OACU (Observatory of the Anthropology of Urban Conflict) and GRECS (Research Group on Exclusion and Social Control). She was living in the 11eme arrondissement at the time of the attacks on Paris.
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Catalan secession, security policy and international recognition by Marc Gafarot*
The possible emergence of new states at a time of renewed international tension and widespread concern over the capabilities and commitments of existing member states, means that in seeking recognition any such country will have to address the always conflicting issues of liberty and order: ‘order’ here understood as security will need to be at least as satisfactory with the two resulting successor states, in the case of an internal enlargement within the EU, as was previously the case as a single country. Safety and recognition
Considering the strong secessionist cases of Scotland and Catalonia, security issues have also been raised causing some anxiety, sincere sometimes but fake in others, in certain European and international chancelleries. Irrespective of any politically biased view it is abundantly clear that only a credible position on defence and security matters will provide the possibility for recognition of a new state. Otherwise the international community’s stance will be even tougher than it may appear to be nowadays, notably if international political organizations like the EU and NATO are involved. With this in mind any new state in the world that seeks international recognition, especially if it wishes to join the European Union, must necessarily 22
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possess armed forces. It may possess such resources to a greater or lesser extent, but without them the subsequent recognition and acceptance of the international community seems impossible under the current circumstances. Therefore, a hypothetically independent Catalonia must have its own defence forces and will need to be willing and able to contribute on an equal footing to global defence of our continent and the Mediterranean region. In the current circumstances, while one can discuss which model of taxation or education is the best, it is absurd to debate whether one should pay taxes or whether children should attend school or not. By the same token, questioning whether we should have armed forces or not is unthinkable. It is a dishonest, malicious argument, far
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from international standards of legitimacy and consensus. If we really want Catalonia to be independent we ought to ask ourselves why there is no country on Earth that does not have a defence policy, whether with its own model or via a delegate. Those countries which have a representative model of defence, such as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Andorra, do so largely thanks to their size as microstates (a label which would not be applicable to an independent Catalonia, with over 600km of Mediterranean coastline) or their geostrategic position.
If Catalonia fails to show a clear determination and contribution to matters of defence it should not expect the recognition of or cooperation from any other party Nowadays, with Catalonia as a regional autonomy, when addressing sovereignty, we ought to be realistic when it comes to considering how the Catalans will face the challenge of taking care of the security and defence of our nation, with its own state structures, something we wish to obtain via a democratic route, which is a real leap forward. We ought to consider what role we will need to develop at the regional and global level. The conception of Catalan nationalism which is eminently peaceful and consensus-seeking, and the political priority which for decades has raised crucial issues such as language and culture have contributed to marginalize a key debate (and add to the debate surrounding international relations) relating to national reconstruction and the conceptualization of a sovereign Catalonia projected to the world. 24
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The concept of National Security
Broadly speaking national security can be divided into three areas of expertise: Homeland Security, Defence and Intelligence. National security does not mean a self-contained, isolated concept, rather it is fully compatible with shared security at the international level and the participation in international security and defence organizations. As a medium-sized country, which is not as small as some would have us believe, Catalonia must develop an intelligent policy of alliances at the European and Mediterranean level, which has as its heart a solid strategic alliance with a global power, which inevitably means the United States. This policy must take into account military and security factors as well as industrial and technological ones that are associated with it and derived from it. Consequently, in the Catalan case, national security will have to be organized using criteria compatible and aligned with a strong transatlantic relationship and as a member of NATO. Clearly most of the policies relating to the formation of alliances brought about by an independent Catalonia are yet to be determined, but in any case, they will need to adhere to the concepts of reciprocity and solidarity. Although recovering our sovereignty would be a just cause, international relations do not usually operate according to these principles. We need to take this into account and avoid falling into utopian idealism or making unnecessarily ambiguous choices. In the words of the British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, ‘in international relations, there are no friends nor enemies, only interests’. The EU and NATO both offer us a satisfactory framework of shared interests and challenges that, given the opportunity, we ought to take advantage of. Take the example of Estonia, which
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illustrates the importance of the concept of reciprocity and solidarity at one and the same time. If Estonia and the other Baltic States are able to count on the protection of other countries it is not by accident or simply the result of good will. Despite its small size, Estonia makes its contribution as part of an alliance, in this case NATO. As with every other country, it participates out of duty as an independent member state of the EU and NATO and in return it receives a significant amount of political and military support which in turn has an effect on its security. Consequently, if Catalonia fails to show a clear determination and contribution to matters of defence it should not expect the recognition of or cooperation from any other party. Neither Catalonia, nor anyone else for that matter, can expect any form of recognition if they are unwilling to make a contribu-
tion. No state would pay the political price of sending its citizens to risk their lives for us in exchange for our money and nothing else. Aside from displaying a more than questionable morality, if we were to take such an approach we would undoubtedly be branded as lacking in solidarity.
Secession, security and the EU
Any nation that wishes to become a state that is willing to enforce its recognition will have to subsequently explain to the international community how it will not only defend itself but its allies as well. At a time of growing threats to global security, a country’s contribution to collective security is bound to be one of the main factors determining its recognition, or on the contrary its rejection, by the international community. We ought to note that every member of the European Union, even the Catalan International View
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smallest such as Luxembourg (with a population of half a million) and Malta (population 400,000), has a defence policy and their own armed forces. It should also be noted that Luxembourg and Estonia (population one million) and Slovenia for that matter (population two million), also belong to NATO, and that each of these states, according to their political realities fulfil the military contribution that is required of them. Luxembourg is a founding member of NATO -and the EU- and as soon as Estonia and Slovenia became independent they sought NATO membership, together with EU membership, with the latter taking longer for economic reasons. Moreover, most people who support Catalan independence are in favour of Catalonia’s continued membership of the EU if it were to become independent. In this respect, regardless of what the people of Catalonia decide on the matter, it is worth considering that Europe and the Mediterranean form part of our indisputable geostrategic context. In fact, the growth of the Catalan independence movement is largely based on the unfair deal between Catalonia and the rest of Spain (a lack of reciprocity). Moreover, Article 42.3 of the Treaty on the European Union states that, ‘Member States shall make civilian and military capabilities available to the Union for the implementation of the common security and defence policy, to contribute to the objectives defined by the Council. Those Member States which together establish multinational forces may also make them available to the common security and defence policy’. The article emphasises ‘civilian and military capabilities’. Therefore, in order to belong to the European Union, the possession of military capabilities is a given. 26
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Likewise, none of the states with whom Catalonia can compare itself (Austria, Finland and Denmark for example) have renounced their own armed forces. Indeed, if a European army were to be created, they would ask us to contribute troops and resources. As some have suggested, paying a kind of ‘fee’ or ‘toll’ is unacceptable, firstly, for the rest of the states: what government would pay the political price of risking the lives of their soldiers while its supposed allies enjoy the benefit of security without the cost that it represents? Once again we are in the realm of reciprocity. For a country of our size to become a state, we must meet a series of requirements that other countries in the world, especially those of a similar size to ours, would ask of us. One of these would be to have the same tools and pay the same price they pay, such as having defence forces and using them, as they themselves do, when they ask for it, when they need it. Calling this into question out of a supposed ethical stance only serves to reinforce Catalonia’s position within the current framework of Spanish sovereignty. In Scotland, a traditionally pacifist and republican SNP adopted positions in favour of armed forces within NATO out of pure pragmatism and/or a conviction that given the current state of the world now is not the time for frivolity on such a delicate matter, which also affects a number of areas such as the generation of wealth and the defence of one’s own democracy and the welfare state. In this new Scotland the queen would remain the head of state, although in this instance due to the wishes of the Scots themselves. On a similar note, it is worth reminding ourselves that Denmark, Austria and Finland are models of the welfare state, yet they invest between 1.3 and 1.6% of
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their GDP on defence. Doubtless with the increased Russian military activity in the Baltic and the new form of jihadism such spending will increase, at the EU and NATO’s behest, to reach around 2% of GDP. In short, these countries appreciate that aside from the obvious benefits, independence comes at a price and that it calls for a clear and resolute assumption of responsabilities. If Catalonia or Scotland (according to the renowned White Paper on Scottish independence) wish to be independent states, they know what roadmap they need to begin to follow and fulfil. The
question is not ‘military or no military’, but rather which model of armed forces best serves our security interests, and just as importantly, those of our friends and allies. ‘Freedom comes at a price’, as the old saying goes, and so too does democracy, I would add. It is not free as some people in Catalonia seem to believe. Our status as an autonomous community has shrunk too many minds in Catalonia and with some separatists it is worth paraphrasing Clemenceau’s proclamation on the military : ‘Independence is too important a business to leave in the hands of certain nationalists’.
(*) Marc Gafarot holds a Degree in Humanities from the University of Navarra and Masters in European Studies from the London School of Economics and in Latin American Politics from the University of Liverpool. He is an independent analyst who is an expert on international relations, European affairs, nationalism and security.
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Green Debate
The Paris Agreement. How will Catalonia contribute to achieving its goals? by Arnau Queralt*
On the afternoon of 12 December 2015, the international community focused all its attention on Paris, when 195 countries adopted a new climate agreement with a long-term goal of maintaining the increase in global average temperatures to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and establishing the path for a new global policy on climate change post-Kyoto Protocol. This article gives a brief overview of the main elements of the Paris Agreement and makes the link between the commitment to climate change mitigation and adaptation at the global scale with a recent and very important initiative undertaken in Catalonia in the field of climate change: the Climate Change Bill. This legal instrument, which has been recently passed by the Government, is an excellent example of the efforts made by sub-national governments to contribute to mitigation and adaptation processes worldwide. Key points of a universal agreement
[1] Post-2020 climate actions that the countries are committed to take in their territories under the new international climate change agreement.
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The agreement has been seen by some experts as the first truly universal climate change agreement, since it was approved by 195 countries and covers 98% of global greenhouse gas emissions (including those produced by China and the US, who have the highest emissions at the global level). Although it does not contain a binding commitment in terms of emissions reduction (aside from the above mentioned long-term 2°C goal), it obliges countries to ‘prepare, communicate, and maintain successive nationally determined contributions (NDCs) 1 […] and pursue domestic mitigation measures with the aim of achieving the objective of such contributions’ (art.42). It has been argued that this is a clear step forward regarding the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol to that convention, which only contained procedural obligations for countries and emission reduction obligations for developed countries, respectively. Catalan International View
Let me focus the presentation of the agreement based on five key issues: mitigation (i.e. reducing greenhouse gas emissions), transparency regarding the fulfilment of commitments, adaptation of the impacts of climate change, the question of damages and losses, and finally the necessary support among the parties to advance the process of mitigation and adaptation. In terms of mitigation, as mentioned, the parties agreed a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, which should be reached by peaking emissions as soon as possible and reaching net-zero emissions in the second half of the 21st century. The agreement also includes the aim of going further and limiting the increase in global average temperatures to 1.5°C in order to avoid extremely costly climate change effects (in environmental, social and economic terms). The agreement also establishes a regular 5-yearly global stock-take to assess progress on the achievement of the parties’ commitments. Regard-
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ing transparency, the agreement acknowledges the critical importance of transparency in ensuring countries are accountable to the international community and building mutual trust and confidence. This is one of the reasons why the parties agreed to create a robust and unified system of transparency and accountability. In terms of adaptation, the Paris Agreement includes the parties’ commitment to increasing their capability to adaptation to climate change impacts and foster resilience. For those countries which already suffer from the adverse effects of climate change, the Paris Agreement recognises the importance of averting, minimising and addressing losses and damages and acknowledges the need to enhance action in areas such as early warning systems, emergency preparedness and risk insurance. Last but not least, the agreement contains the commitment of the European Union and other developed countries to supporting climate action in developing countries, including the mobilisation of the previously ap-
proved USD 100 billion/year contribution until 2025, while other countries are encouraged to provide such support voluntarily.
The agreement has been seen by some experts as the first truly universal climate change agreement, since it was approved by 195 countries and covers 98% of global greenhouse gas emissions
Catalonia, a country committed to mitigating and adapting to climate change
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) clearly stated in its last report, substantial and sustained reductions in emissions are urgently required in order to limit climate change. Catalonia has been proactive in the mitigation of climate change. At the regional level, the Government adopted a GHG emissions plan for diffuse emitters in 2008. Some years later, in 2012, actions to mitigate GHE Catalan International View
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emissions from the energy sector were introduced in the Energy and Climate Plan 2020 (based on the European Union 20-20-20 targets). Mitigation is clearly a priority in reducing the cause of anthropogenic climate change. However, governments at the national, regional and local level must prepare adaptation strategies or plans in order to address the major environmental, economic and social impacts of climate change. To this end, in 2012 the Government of Catalonia approved its Strategy for Adapting to Climate Change 2013-2020. The strategy includes both generic measures for cross-cutting natural systems and socio-economic sectors, and specific measures aimed at addressing biodiversity, agriculture and livestock farming, water management, forest management, and certain socio-economic sectors (energy, fisheries, health, industry, services and trade, mobility and transport infrastructure, tourism and town planning and housing). The implementation of this strategy (jointly with different actions planned or taken at the local level) is absolutely crucial to ensuring Catalonia is less vulnerable to the effects of climate change and to strengthen the adaptive capacity and resilience of its citizens and organizations.
The new bill for climate change, a step forward in mitigation and adaptation
[2] For a comprehensive review on climate legislation worldwide: http://www.lse.ac.uk/ GranthamInstitute/ publication/2015-globalclimate-legislation-study/.
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On 26 January 2016, the Government of Catalonia approved a bill on climate change (which will enter Parliament for discussion and approval in the coming months). This initiative -the first of the new legislative term in Catalonia- is an example of Catalonia’s commitment to mitigate and adapt to climate change and, therefore, it is a clear demonstration of the will of the country to contribute to the implementation of the agreement adopted in Paris on 12 December last year. Catalan International View
In my opinion, it is essential to highlight the pioneering nature of this bill. Thus, although the vast majority of states around the world have taken steps to mitigate and adapt to climate change and have approved planning instruments (of a more or less ambitious nature) in these two areas, very few have taken the plunge in the regulatory sphere 2. Thus, apart from Catalonia, within the European Union there are laws on climate change in Denmark, Scotland, France, the United Kingdom (a clear reference, passed in 2008) and Sweden. Internationally, the list includes laws passed in Australia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and, at the sub-national level, in Quebec. The list, however, remains a short one. In the case of Catalonia, the bill approved last January addresses three key elements: greenhouse gas emissions mitigation objectives, climate change adaptation policies and, finally, the integration of these two issues (mitigation and adaptation) in sectorial public policies. Thus, the bill has five main objectives, as outlined in its preamble: 1) Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the country’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change (while promoting the transition to an economy with low greenhouse gas emissions and efficient use of energy and natural resources). 2) Strengthening the existing strategies and plans in the field of mitigation and adaptation to climate change. 3) Promoting and ensuring coordination among all sectorial planning instruments related to climate change and also the coordination of all Catalan public administrations, as well as promoting the participation of citizens and social and economic stakeholders in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
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4) Ensuring that Catalonia becomes a pioneering nation in researching and implementing new technologies related to climate change mitigation and adaption. 5) Making Catalonia’s role visible to the world, both in terms of cooperation projects and in participation in global climate change forums. With regard to mitigation, Catalonia reinforces its commitment to global efforts for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through this bill. Thus, our country will adopt the current mitigation targets in the EU, assuming the same criteria of allocation of emission reduction efforts applied to its member states. This means that Catalonia is committed to reducing its emissions by 25% by 2020 (compared to 2005 emissions) and by at least 80% by 2050. These emission reduction targets, ambitious but absolutely necessary given the need to act to reduce global climate change, are the driving force behind fostering Catalonia’s transition towards an energy, economic and social model based on low greenhouse gases emissions which is therefore more sustainable.
By way of conclusion
Since the approval of the Paris Agreement, many analysts have argued over the success or failure of this agreement on a daily basis. Although I did not set out to make a detailed assessment of the Paris Agreement in this article, it is worth noting that, though it is imperfect and fails to
solve some of the main existing challenges (at least with the urgency required), the agreement is probably the best agreement, or the only possible one, right now. Achieving such a commitment in a unanimous way was important and positive news, especially when considering the outcome of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Copenhagen in 2009. It is important to remember, at this point, that the failure of the summit put international climate diplomacy in an embarrassing position and created an extremely sensitive future path for multilateral climate change policies. The agreement will be opened for signature (for one year) on 22 April 2016 and will come into force once 55 countries (that account for at least 55% of world greenhouse gases emissions) have deposited their instruments of ratification. This is the real first challenge facing the Paris Agreement. The second, the implementation of the agreed actions (some of them with a non-binding nature as highlighted in this article) will require a strict follow up by the international community, civil society and the business community. In this regard, actions boosted by national, subnational and local governments -such as the bill described in the article- should contribute in a highly decisive way to increasing the global commitment contained in the Paris Agreement. Let us hope so.
(*) Arnau Queralt holds a degree in Environmental Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a Masters in Public Management from ESADE, the UAB and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Since October 2011, he has been the director of the Advisory Council for the Sustainable Development of Catalonia (CADS), an advisory body of the Government of Catalonia attached to its Presidential Department. Since October 2012, he has been a member of the Steering Committee of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC). From May 2010 to October 2011 he was secretary general of the Cercle Tecnològic de Catalunya foundation. He has been on the board of the Catalan Association of Environmental Professionals since 2004 and was its president from 2010 to 2012.
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Asia
The Kurdish option, the democratic alternative for the Middle East by Quim Arrufat*
In a Middle East mired by a combination of war and violence, under assault from invasions, dictatorships and Islamist neofascism, the Kurds continue to stand out as a democratic oasis of peace, coexistence, pluralism and respect for human and civil rights. In the chaos of the Syrian war, the Kurds have gained strength in the region they call Rojava (‘west’ in Kurdish, since it is the most westerly part of Kurdistan). However, instead of simply replacing Assad’s regime they have initiated an authentic revolution.
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he revolution taking place in Rojava is democratic in nature, based on respect for cultural, linguistic and religious diversity as an answer to the ongoing sectarianism and violence. Furthermore, women take a central role and play an important part. For months the YPG and the YPJ (Women’s Defence Units) Kurdish guerrillas have demonstrated that they are the only force on the ground to have shown time and again their effectiveness in defeating the Islamic State in combat. They no longer retake Kurdish towns, instead they liberate Arab towns and invite them to join the system of government the Kurds have established: Democratic Confederalism. Meanwhile, the offensive shows no sign of stopping. In recent weeks the Kurds have agreed to a military alliance with other progressive groups and have reached a democratic agreement with Syria. While it remains numerically insufficient, it is currently the only project aimed at building a future for Syria. It is the only one which not only wins military battles, but which manages to involve the population in a dynamic of democratic participation and a respect for diversity.
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A large group of politicians, academics, writers and journalists were invited to the town of Derik in Rojava last October in order to experience the Kurdish proposal of Democratic Confederalism at first hand. They attended a conference addressed by Kurds and international speakers, which tackled the fundamentals of the proposal: feminism, municipalism, cultural and religious diversity, direct democracy and self-defence. Five concepts that form the basis of what they see as the democratic revolution the Middle East needs in order to break the impasse in which it finds itself thanks to authoritarian regimes, religious sectarianism and widespread violence.
Rojava, another Middle East is possible
The Kurdish region of Syria is a sliver of land some 600km long running next to the Turkish border. With a population of just over 2 million, it has a rich ethnic mix of Arabs, Kurds, Assyrian Chaldeans and Yezidis. To get there, one has to travel to Iraqi Kurdistan. The territory, which is currently ruled by a quasi-independent autonomous government, was attacked with chemi-
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cal weapons on several occasions by Saddam Husain (beginning in 1987), causing the majority of the population to flee to the mountains. Just 10 years ago the capital, Erbil, lay in ruins, with no electricity or running water. Nowadays it resembles a city in the Gulf with skyscrapers, hotels and shopping malls. The Barzani clan rules with an iron hand an economy that runs on oil, whose legitimate owners, the Kurds, have never been able to enjoy. Mosul lies close to Erbil on the road to the Syrian border. One needs to skirt round the town as it is in the hands of the Islamic State. The head of Barzani’s cabinet, Fuad Hussein, tells us that the Peshmerga Kurds could retake Mosul whenever they wished, but this is not the problem. The problem is that Mosul is not Kurdish territory and once Daesh is defeated, who will be responsible for the administration of this great city? As a result, they are patiently waiting for Baghdad to make plans while trying to prevent suicide bombers from sneaking into Kurdish territory. The border between the two Kurdistans is a river, the biblical Tigris. We crossed it at night by boat, the only means to reach the border. On the other
side there is no customs post, only a few jeeps and two girls with Kalashnikovs waiting for us. Sevdar and Ahin, both 18 years old, are members of Asayish, the recently created Kurdish police force. They are here for our security. We stayed in an old hotel in Derik which has been taken over by the municipality. The restaurant is run by the relatives of the former owners, Assyrian Chaldeans. The guerrillas take turns guarding the door at night. One day it is the turn of the Sutoro, the armed wing of the Assyrian Chaldeans. The next day it is the Arabs, then the Kurds. They are not armed to protect themselves from each other. Instead, Rojava’s new government’s self-defence and self-rule policy is based on autonomy: of municipalities, cantons and communities. Although the Rojava government appears complex to outsiders, for them it is straightforward. The basic unit of democratic organization are the Komin, clusters of 300 homes. Someone asked if the word Komin is inspired by the word ‘commune’, as in Paris. According to the Kurds, precisely the opposite is the case. The Kurdish language is Indo-European, as is Catalan, with which it shares semantic roots. ‘Kom’ is the root of the word Catalan International View
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‘community’ in Kurdish, Catalan and English. We are told more: the ‘Peshmerga’ are ‘those who advance towards death’, where ‘merga’ means ‘death’, as in ‘morgue’ in Catalan and English. While the Komin are at the bottom, the government of each canton is at the top. There are three cantons. Jazira, bordering Iraq, Kobani in the middle; and Afrin, on the Mediterranean. We met with the government of Jazira canton and were introduced to three co-governors: an Arab sheik, a Kurdish woman and a young Assyrian Chaldean. Representation and the decision-making bodies are mixed. The first day we had dinner with Amina Hussein, the government of Rojava’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Her summary of the situation in Rojava is both simple and tragic. To the north lies the border with Turkey, which keeps borders closed to them (preventing the Kurds entering from the north to offer help and preventing Kurdish refugees from fleeing) while enforcing a strict trade embargo. To the south and west lie borders with Daesh, forming a front 400km long. To the east, fortunately, lies Iraqi Kurdistan, though relations are not particularly cordial. The Barzani would like to have control over Syrian Kurdistan, but it is not the case. Goods and people manage to enter and leave. In short, a border some 700km long with enemies who wish to do them harm and wipe them off the map against a 100km long border with a Kurdish government which is of little help. The next day we visited Amude. Following a short detour en route, we were able to observe the Islamic State’s positions, marked by black flags, with the aid of a pair of binoculars. The Kurds proclaimed self-rule on July 19, 2012, taking advantage of the power vacuum left by the Assad regime in a corner of the country that offers little more than agriculture and beautiful 34
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landscapes. Shortly after they had to contend with an offensive by the Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in the region. Once that was over they then had to deal with the Islamic State offensive. Daesh initiated their attack against Kobani in September 2014. A year later the Kurds have so far liberated some 1,500 villages from the hands of Daesh, while Kobani has gone on to become a symbol of Daesh’s weakness and Kurdish pride in their resistance in defence of humanity. Amude is the legislative headquarters of Jazira Canton. The recently constructed parliament has yet to participate in an electoral process, as these are continually postponed due to the precarious security situation. Nevertheless, it is home to representatives from every party and every community. It passes laws, some of which are proudly shown to us. One states, ‘Civilized peoples and nations are judged according to their cultural level. Culture is like a ship that contains the legacy of knowledge of every community. In this canton, which is culturally diverse, cultivating that knowledge and giving it the maximum freedom of expression is an objective shared by this Parliament’. Among the canton’s laws there is one that ranks as a Constitution: the Charter of Democratic Autonomy. ‘We, the peoples of the Democratic Autonomous Regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira, a confederation of Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Arameans, Armenian Turkmens and Chechens, are united in the spirit of reconciliation, pluralism and democratic participation to build a society free from militarism, authoritarianism, centralism and the involvement of religious leaders in public life’. Ultimately, the key to appreciating the Syrian context and understanding the scope of the Kurdish democratic proposal is the following: ‘The Charter
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recognizes Syrian territorial integrity and wishes to maintain inner and international peace’. And article 7: ‘Every city, town and municipality which accepts this Charter may form cantons and participate in democratic autonomy’. The following day we headed to the capital, Al-Qamishli. Once inside the city we are warned that in certain streets photography is forbidden, as the district belongs to the regime. Pictures of Assad are on display, and Syrian police patrol the streets. It is the administrative district and home to the airport. The Kurds reached a nonaggression agreement in the interest of both sides. The airport remains open, as do basic administrative offices, such as those dealing with issuing identity documents. All part of the absurdity of the war and chaos that is present-day Syria. Two blocks away lies the headquarters of the YPJ, the guerrilla group that has played a major part in Kurdish resistance in battles such as the fight to retake Kobani. We are welcomed by a 29-year-old commander. She explains that the major cultural and democratic revolution in the Middle East is not one of class, but of women. Dismantling the values of authoritarianism, sectarianism, violence and militarism entails placing women at the centre of public life. The truth is that in Rojava, wherever one goes, and despite being a traditional society, women are everywhere. In all walks of life. And so are men who have learnt to act differently and think differently. Back in Derik, where the conference is to be held, we spend a night
in a private apartment housed in a former Soviet military base. Suddenly, half-way through dinner, Sevdar and Ahin receive a WhatsApp and break down in tears. A friend of theirs has died in battle against the Islamic State. Her body is already being shipped home. The next day we visit the cemetery of those who have fallen in battle. A huge expanse of graves adorned with red flowers and the photographs of those who have died in the name of the revolution. Some workmen are finishing the latest tomb occupied by Sevdar and Ahin’s friend. Female, 18, feminist, landless and a citizen of an oppressed nation. She died fighting against fascism, in the face of international indifference.
Trust the Kurds
It is vital we trust the Kurds to make an endogenous, democratic, long-term commitment to the bottomless pit which is essentially what the political situation in the Middle East has become. They are not asking for their slice of the cake. They do not wish to contribute to generating more borders, more conflicts, new tolls. Perhaps if the context were different they would, but it is not the case. The Kurds are well aware that they cannot survive alone and that, at the end of the day, they share their problems with the Middle East as a whole. It is vital we do not abandon them to their fate. But more importantly, now that it seems that once again the Middle East is making itself felt in the centre of Paris, we must take note of what they have to say.
(*) Quim Arrufat (La Seu d’Urgell, 1982) is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Universitat de Barcelona and the CUP’s head of international relations. He was a member of the Parliament of Catalonia since 2012 and 2015 and was previously head of the international cooperation for CIEMEN, an NGO working for the recognition of collective rights of peoples. He has studied in Tunisia (Al-Manar University), Turkey (Galatasaray University) and Germany.
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Burma’s history takes a turn
by Mireia Sala*
The winds of change are blowing throughout Burma after decades of having been trapped in one of the world’s most hermetic dictatorships. The National League for Democracy (NLD), the opposition party led by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections held on 8 November 2015. They were the first free elections in 25 years and the first since 2011, when the military junta that had ruled the country with an iron fist was dissolved and constituted a civilian government.
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he final count confirmed Suu Kyi’s election victory exactly five years to the day since she was released from a house arrest lasting 15 years. Between 1989 and 2010 the Nobel Peace Prize winner was subject to various forms of detention resulting from her struggle for democracy, against the backdrop of a dictatorship run by the military junta since 1962. The team of 150 EU election observers described the elections as peaceful and transparent, despite certain irregularities, such as errors in the electoral register, early voting or the exclusion of dozens of candidates for being Muslim. Shortly after learning of Aung San Suu Kyi’s overwhelming victory, the 36
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country’s president, Thein Sein, promised to respect the result and called on all parties to guarantee stability during the transition. The new parliament, with MPs elected from the recent elections will not be formed until February, and the new president will not take office until March 2016.
Aung San Suu Kyi will not be president
In spite of its landslide victory, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party has limited room for manoeuvre. Following a change to the constitution in 2008, by law the military are guaranteed 25 percent of the seats in parliament, together with the most powerful government ministries: Defence, Foreign Affairs and the Home Office.
Asia
The National League for Democracy won 390 of the 491 seats at stake and has a big enough majority to control parliament and elect a president but Aung San Suu Kyi will not be it. The army introduced an article in the Constitution which bars presidents with foreign spouses or children. Aung San Suu Kyi is the widow of British academic Michael Aris, while her sons Alexander and Kim hold British passports. Nevertheless, the Nobel Peace Prize winner announced during the election campaign that she was prepared to govern the country. In a statement to the press, Suu Kyi said, ‘I will be above the president, heading the government because the Constitution says nothing about somebody being above the president’.
Her statement caused unease among the military and could lead to a confrontation between the new government and the army, which holds the real power. Htay Oo, chairman of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the political party which up until now has formed the government, immediately announced that the military will not accept a president without power and labelled Suu Kyi’s proposal unconstitutional.
Limited room for manoeuvre
During the election campaign Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy promised to improve Burma’s rudimentary schools and hospitals and boost the economy, creating jobs. However, to fulfil such promises it must Catalan International View
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have the support of rival MPs and the budget that the new government will administer must be approved by the parliament that existed before the elections. Sources close to Suu Kyi’s party fear the military will apply pressure on them to devote much of the budget to defence spending, which in turn could affect spending on health and education, the two main pillars of the NLD’s policies.
After learning of Aung San Suu Kyi’s overwhelming victory, the country’s president, Thein Sein, promised to respect the result and called on all parties to guarantee stability during the transition The Rohingya
One of the major challenges facing Aung San Suu Kyi’s new government will undoubtedly be the issue of the Rohingya. This Muslim ethnic minority with its own language is looked down upon by most Burmese, who consider them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Meanwhile, according to the United Nations they are one of the most discriminated groups in the world. The Rohingya mostly live in Rakhine state, also known as Arakhan, situated on the coast bordering Burma and Bangladesh. Some of them have ancestors who settled in Arakhan in the sixteenth century, yet the law refuses to recognize them as Burmese citizens and barely grants them any rights. While many Rohingya had a document known as a ‘White Card’, which allowed them to vote in previous elections, President Thein Sein changed 38
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the law to prevent them from voting in the most recent election. The Burmese leader acted under pressure from Buddhist extremist groups such as the 969 Movement led by the monk Ashin Wirathu. The group claims that Muslims are taking control of the country and destroying the Buddhist way of life. Arakhan state experiences tension between the majority Buddhist community and the Muslims. In 2012 there were outbreaks of violence which killed 200 people, almost all Muslims, leading to more than 100,000 fleeing their homes and who are currently living in precarious refugee camps. Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized outside of Burma for her silence on the persecution of the Rohingya, while also being criticized at home for precisely the opposite, for having made timid statements in support of the ethnic minority. The new government that emerges from these elections will be under pressure from the international community to address the discrimination against the Rohingya community. Nevertheless, providing them with support will have a price in terms of domestic politics. Win Htein, a prominent NLD leader, speaking shortly after the election said they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t, especially in Arakan state where the opposition Arakan National Party will take advantage of every opportunity to criticize them. Win Htein has opened the door to a change in the law so that the Rohingya are considered citizens and he is also in favour of allowing them to settle wherever they want in Burma to relieve pressure on the state of Rakhine, which is now home to large numbers of refugees from the Rohingya community.
Asia
The Guerrillas
Three weeks before the election, the Burmese government signed a ceasefire with the guerrillas from eight ethnic minorities, in a first step to ending more than six decades of insurgency. Nonetheless, the most active organizations were not involved. The government, successor to the last military junta, portrayed the agreement as a first step towards peace and as a direct result of the reform process that President Thein Sein launched when he took power in 2011, when several bilateral truce agreements were signed. Among the guerrilla groups who refused to sign the agreement is the Unit-
ed Wa State Army, considered the largest and well-equipped in the country, and the Kachin Independence Army, which continues to fight the Burmese military in the north. However, among those who signed the cease-fire is the Karen National Union (KNU), one of the oldest insurgent groups, having begun fighting before the country became independent from Britain in 1948. Achieving more autonomy is the principal demand of almost all Burmese ethnic minorities, including the Shan, Karen, Rakai, Mon, Chin, Kayah and Kachin, who represent over 30 percent of the country’s 53 million inhabitants.
(*) Mireia Sala is a journalist and has been editor of Catalunya Rà dio’s news services since 1992. She currently works in the international section. She has also acted as a short-term election observer accredited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with experience in Armenia (OSCE) and Palestine.
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The Americas
Colombia’s peace process by Tono Albareda*
It appears as if the peace agreement announced by the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, and the leaders of the FARC, to be signed on 23 March will not become a reality. However, it seems apparent that this year a peace agreement will eventually be signed between the guerrilla group and the Colombian government.
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ollowing nearly 60 years of armed conflict, which has resulted in some 220,000 deaths and the displacement of over 6 million individuals, this can only be seen as wonderful news. Talks have been held between the government and the various armed groups on numerous occasions since 1964 but these have rarely led to an agreement ultimately being reached. The history of the armed conflict is complex and shows just how difficult it is to bring about a satisfactory resolution. The Uribe Accords were signed as long ago as 1984. This agreement between the Fuerzas Armadas de Colombia [Armed Forces of Colombia] (FARC) and the Colombian government did not involve disarmament. Instead the guerrilla created a political party, the Unión Patriótica [Patriotic Union], which had excellent electoral prospects. Nevertheless, it was eliminated by paramilitary groups with the murder of 15,000 of its members. 40
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In 1990, President Barco Vargas signed peace accords with the M19 and the following year a new constitution was proclaimed, one of the most advanced and democratic in Latin America. Unfortunately, it has also been one of the least respected. Between 1998 and 2002, President Pastrana initiated the ‘El Caguán’ dialogues, which established a large demilitarized zone. However, the talks subsequently broke down. In 2002, President Álvaro Uribe initiated a peace process with the paramilitary groups. It revealed a part of the truth as to how these groups act. In spite of the agreements in place, to this day they still act under another name and a different leadership. In June 2014, the Government announced that it had begun an exploratory phase of negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN). They have not yet formally begun. The drug trade has played a significant part in the armed conflict, especially since 1980. While it cannot
The Americas
be said to be the cause of the conflict, it certainly serves to add fuel to the fire. Negotiations for the current peace agreement with the FARC began in 2012 and are based on six points: 1. A comprehensive agricultural development policy involving land and rural development. Signed on 21 June 2013. 2. Political participation: guaranteeing the existence of political opposition, including former guerrillas. Signed on 6 November 2013. 3. The end of the conflict: transitional justice, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. An important agreement was reached on transactional justice on 23 September 2015. 4. A solution to the problem of illicit drugs: an anti-drug policy. Signed on 16 May 2014.
5. Victims: victims of the conflict. The creation of a comprehensive system based on five foundations; a Truth Commission, a Special Unit to search for the missing, reparation measures, an agreement not to commit more offences and transitional justice. 6. Implementation, verification and ratification: how to consolidate, in legislation, commitments to the peace agreements and oversee their compliance. The negotiations are already at a very advanced stage, although it is unlikely there will be successful in time for March 23 of this year, as originally announced. There are several features of this process that distinguish it from other peace negotiations. From the beginning there has been significant pressure from civil society for an agreement to be reached and also for the chance to play a part in Catalan International View
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the negotiations. Numerous meetings have been held in various regions with the aim of submitting proposals to the negotiating table in Havana. Meetings and rallies have been organized nationwide, regionally, locally and also outside of Colombia.
The drug trade has played a significant part in the armed conflict, especially since 1980. While it cannot be said to be the cause of the conflict, it certainly serves to add fuel to the fire. The victims have been listened to. Several delegations of victims of the FARC, the army and the paramilitaries have travelled to Havana and have been heard by the negotiators. Their claims and proposals have been partially taken into account in the agreements. In the majority of other peace accords the victims have not been heard. Crimes of sexual violence have been taken into account, both by the Truth Commission and the Special Courts. Resolution 1325 of the United Nations Security Council has also partially been taken into account. It is the first formal, legal Security Council document, requiring parties to the conflict to respect the rights of women and support their participation in the peace negotiations and in post-conflict reconstruction. There is a political force, headed by former President Álvaro Uribe, which has opposed the negotiations by any possible means and which counts on considerable support among different sectors of society. If people’s hopes are realised and a peace agreement is reached soon, it will need to be ratified by a referendum which requires a minimum participa42
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tion of 35% of the voting population. Such a percentage seems possible in spite of the low voter turnout historically in Colombia in elections of this kind. There are major challenges facing the post-agreement transition, in addition to the outcome of the referendum and the necessary agreement with the other guerrilla force, the ELN: • The implementation of the agreement: the experience of agreements in other countries indicates that only a part, tragically small in many cases, is upheld. The performance of courts dealing in transitional justice is especially delicate. The agreement which was reached prioritises admitting to the truth over all other considerations. Those who fully admit to their crimes will be sentenced to alternatives to prison. Those who are convicted of crimes to which they do not confess must go to prison. This formula, possibly the only one acceptable to both the guerrilla and the army, is considered by organizations such as Human Rights Watch as an agreement that leads to impunity. • The end of paramilitary activity: despite the fact that fighting between the guerrillas and the army has declined significantly during the negotiating process (at present it has practically ceased), the actions of paramilitary forces, especially in the provinces, has failed to decrease. In the first nine months of 2015, 577 human rights defenders were attacked, of which 51 were killed. • The fight against corruption: the relationship between the paramilitaries and the politicians was made apparent in the final stages of Presi-
The Americas
dent Uribe’s time in office. Some 80 members of congress were accused of having links with so-called parapolitics. During the most recent elections for mayors and governors, its control over large areas of the provinces was obvious. This is especially apparent in the north, where some politicians have links to the paramilitaries. • The state must reach all corners of the country: it is obvious nowadays that there are significant areas where the state has no presence and which are only reached by the army, eventually. It is vital that education, health and the rule of law are present everywhere. • Respect for the rights of indigenous peoples: these have been greatly affected by armed conflict. Their land has often been a battleground. In addition, with the increase in mining, their constitutional right to consultation regarding activities on their land is often not respected. Indigenous peoples, some of them in danger of extinction, may stand to lose the most following the peace deal if the necessary measures are not taken. • The fight against the drug trade: aside from the agreement that was reached with the FARC, there are other organizations that continue to possess a large capacity to cor-
rupt. It appears as if the international fight against illicit drugs has not had much success, and perhaps we should start listening to the voices of former Latin American presidents, who propose alternatives. Finally, various sectors of society will need to undergo a significant change in their mentality. They will need to stop seeing the opposition as an enemy which is to be beaten and understand that they must live with diverse ideas, while making an effort to meet multiple demands. Predictably, such demands will increase following the arrival of peace, especially since Colombia is one of the most unequal countries in the world (it has a Gini coefficient of 53.5 while England and Spain have 32.6 and 35.9, respectively). Learning to live with those who, until recently, were considered one’s deadly enemy will not be easy, especially when they may be considered guilty of having committed serious harm to the people around them. If we add to this the fact that more than six million people have been displaced (15% of the population), the challenge is considerable. European countries are currently highly focused on issues closest to their borders. They should not forget the importance of explicit, political and economic support to one of the few armed conflicts in the world that may actually come to an end.
(*) Tono Albareda (Barcelona, 1947) served almost four years in prison for resistance to the Franco regime (1969-1973). Editor of El Món (1981-1990). He has been involved in issues related to international cooperation since 1984. One of the founders of Cooperacció and the Catalan Board of Peace and Human Rights in Colombia. Member of the Board of Cooperacció. Head of Grupo Sur’s Colombian operations (an alliance of European NGOs working in Central America and the Andean Area). Member of the Board and former President of OIDHACO (Alliance of European NGOs working for the defence of Human Rights and Peace in Colombia). Vice president of LaFede.cat (Catalan Federation of NGOs for Peace, Human Rights and Development).
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Africa
Land grabbing: a growing phenomenon in Africa under the guise of foreign investment by Patrícia Rodríguez*
In the last issue of the magazine, in the section devoted to Africa, we analyzed the potential impact on this continent of the new development agenda, with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), by highlighting some of the current threats to their being met by 2030. In this article I would like to focus on one of these threats: land grabbing, a little-known phenomenon which nonetheless is proving to have a major impact on the realisation of two of the SDG: SDG 1 relating to the eradication of poverty and SDG 2 on the eradication of hunger by 2030.
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irst let us define the concept. What is land grabbing exactly? The term refers to a practice that involves the buying or leasing of large tracts of arable land by large corporations and investment groups, with the implicit backing of foreign governments, in order to produce biofuels, agricultural products, or simply to speculate on land prices, thus displacing small farmers and threatening the livelihood and subsistence of millions of people. Such practices are occurring with increasing frequency worldwide, but they are having a substantial impact on the African continent. Land grabbing is a troubling practice which has become more frequent and widespread in Africa since the 2008 world food price crisis. The in44
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crease in food prices put a strain on countries which are highly dependent on food imports, who saw how it was increasingly difficult to meet their demand at a reasonable price. In response to this situation, some of the richest countries which import food, such as the Gulf States (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, in particular) China, Japan, South Korea and India adopted new policies to encourage their businesses to acquire large tracts of land in foreign countries in order to produce food and export it back to their home country. The intensive use of biofuels, which diverted production to ‘industrial’ ends, also served to push up food prices. An example of this phenomenon is the EU’s decision to ensure that 10% of vehicles use biofuels
Africa
by 2020. Since the EU has insufficient land to meet such a demand, it will have to produce the biofuel in other countries. The increase in food prices obviously had an impact on local markets, which continues to this day. Whereas households initially spent 50% of their income on food, they must now devote a much higher percentage, at the expense of spending money on education and health. The strategy is a simple one. A country either buys land directly, or more typically it does so through large companies or multinational investment groups. The land is then used for the intensive cultivation of a product, as part of an exchange that benefits the country’s government but not its peo-
ple. The government takes the ‘necessary’ steps, including the use of force, in order to sell the land free of ‘complications’, thus acting against the interests of farmers and local people who live on the land.
Land grabbing is a troubling practice which has become more frequent and widespread in Africa since the 2008 world food price crisis Large corporations, mainly Chinese and Saudi Arabian (though including French, Spanish and others) are buying large tracts of land in African countries. The entire African continent is Catalan International View
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experiencing the expropriation of its arable land. Foreign companies have been putting pressure on Africa by looking for fertile land to produce agricultural goods for export. Hundreds of contracts have been signed involving millions of hectares. According to numerous studies, since 2008 between 67 and 72 million hectares have been monopolized in Africa (an area equivalent to Germany and Italy combined). The African countries which are most affected are Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ghana, Uganda, Madagascar, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali. The practice is widespread throughout Africa, so the list could include Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia and many more.
Land grabbing is directly linked to water grabbing, since the crops which are cultivated are water intensive
The African governments themselves are behind land grabbing since they make large tracts of land available for sale or rent, whether it is occupied or not. Over the last decade, African governments have been carrying out political and structural reforms to attract investment to their countries, creating a climate favourable to foreign investors: treaties, legislative reforms in certain sectors, specific fiscal policies favourable to foreign investment and so on. In many cases land passed into the hands of the state as the result of decolonization. This happened in Mozambique; in an exercise of sovereignty, land became the property of the people in the form of the state, a fact which is enshrined in the country’s constitution. Nowadays, however, states use the land as if it were private property by signing 46
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contracts for the transfer of ownership of land for 50 to 100 years. These vast expanses of land are used to produce products for export, such as pineapples, cocoa and coffee and for the production of biofuels for cars, thus abandoning the production of food for local consumption. A lack of transparency, control and equity in the negotiations leads to agreements that are not in the public’s interest, not to mention their disregard for sustainability or possible positive benefits for the country and its population. The lack of access to land registration processes, the fact that requirements for productive use are poorly defined, the presence of legal loopholes and other factors often undermine the position of the local population. They are often impotent as traditional systems of land use on which they previously based their production become irrelevant in the eyes of investors. Thus, the relationship between land grabbing and the level of protection for local populations is highlighted by situations where they are legally helpless. Land ownership is often based on customary rules, with the absence of official records as we understand them, in which the state becomes the legal ‘owner’ under international law. In order for these businesses to grow and become profitable, peasant agriculture is replaced by large-scale industrial plantations, while local food production becomes another link in the chain of transnational food corporations, from the seed to the supermarket shelves in rich countries. The strategy which is being implemented means: a) increased sales of chemicals and seeds to African farmers, b) global supply chains are assured low-cost access to land and resources in order to feed rich populations at the expense of small farmers, c) rural African people remain deprived of their liveli-
Africa
hood and are forced to abandone their home, d) detrimental effects on the environment and the reduction in genetic diversity, e) small variations in rainfall trigger food crises with devastating knock-on effects for the local population. Returning to the provisions of Agenda 2030 and the actions to be taken to reach the targets which have been set, we can clearly see how the achievement of SDG 1 and 2 is directly linked to the right to access to economic resources, which includes the ownership and control of land. If the goal of the eradication of poverty is to be achieved it will first be necessary to guarantee public access to land. SDG 2, defined to, ‘end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture’ also establishes as a precondition secure and equitable access to land, with control of the extreme volatility in food prices, as one of the key measures in bringing it about. What is occuring, therefore, is a tension which is something more than a tension between a desire and alleged
commitment by states on the one hand, and a practice which is becoming increasingly widespread in Africa, unbeknownst to the majority. The latter, which is sometimes concealed or justified by international organizations, is land grabbing, or in other words, the expulsion of local farmers from their land. On paper it seems clear that in order to eradicate poverty and hunger, especially in Africa, we need to support small producers, family farms, which are the foundation of the African economy. However, reality shows us how the interests of large agribusinesses comes before those of the African population. The African people are thereby deprived of the right to land, a right that, beyond its economic sense, is also a part of their identity and their personal and collective self-esteem. This results in the continent having to import tens of millions of tons of staple foods. Sierra Leone, for example, is forced to allocate 24% of its GDP to importing food, while large corporations cultivate vast tracts of sugarcane for ethanol production. The percentage Catalan International View
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of land that has been ‘sold’ in Benin accounts for 10% of its arable land. It is now mainly in the hands of companies from China and Italy. In Ethiopia, 26% of arable land is mostly in the hands of Chinese and Saudi Arabian companies, in Mozambique 53% ‘belongs’ to Brazil, China, the USA, India, Portugal, the United Kingdom and South Africa. In Senegal 12% is in Saudi Arabian, Chinese, French, Italian and Indian hands; and the list goes on. The companies choose the most fertile land, displacing the local population. Investments which are supposed to improve productivity and the people’s welfare end up in the hands of the large farms. As a result, the only way for many Africans to survive is to come to Europe. 48
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In addition, land grabbing is directly linked to water grabbing, since the crops which are cultivated are water intensive (as in the case of maize used to produce biofuel), and as is well known, the conflicts of the future will be fought over the access to water. A clear example of the effects of the grabbing of land and water on the local population is the construction of a dam in Lake Turkana in Ethiopia. Thousands of families living around the lake will be affected since they depend upon fishing for their livelihood. The outcome is that rural populations across Africa are under increasing pressure from their own governments and companies to hand over their land and water resources.
Africa
African civil society, together with international organizations are working to expose these practices and bring them to the public’s attention. Africa is mobilising and will not remain silent while it is exploited in this way. Nevertheless, it needs spaces in which it can be heard. A study conducted by the international organization GRAIN, a non-profit working to support peasants and farmers, together with a Mozambican organization, UNAC (National Peasants Union of Mozambique), highlights the dire situation in the north of Mozambique, the Nacala Corridor, a vast area of fertile land that spans northern Mozambique where millions of peasant families earn their living from agriculture. In the case of the Nacala Corridor, the phenomenon is essentially occurring via an alliance between the governments of Mozambique, Japan and Brazil, as part of a program named ProSavana. Its objective is the transformation of 14 million hectares of land, currently cultivated by peasant farmers supplying the local market in the area, to large-scale farming operations operated by foreign companies that produce cheap agricultural products. The phenomenon is displacing thousands of peasant families at this very moment. There have been widespread protests, but Catalonia need to lend its support. The ‘Rights to Water and Land, a Common Struggle’ declaration was drafted and approved at the World Social Forum held in Dakar in Octo-
ber 2014, being subsequently reiterated at the World Social Forum in Tunis in March 2015. In both cases the double discrimination faced by rural women was also noted, since they are deprived access to land ownership, in spite of the fact that it falls to them to work the land and feed their familes. It is worth recalling that 70% of the world’s poor are women and that they own just 1% of the land.
In the coming years we must be vigilant of investments and the purchase of land in Africa if we truly wish to eradicate hunger and poverty Once again we need to be aware of the structural causes of the threats which Africa is facing: extreme weather events due to climate change, high food prices, which continue to rise and limiting families’ access, low levels of investment and a lack of policies which support and encourage small-scale, local peasant production. These are all aggravated by the phenomenon of land grabbing, leading many Africans to suffer from a permanent state of vulnerability that expels them from home in search of food, a fundamental human right which must be guaranteed to all. In the coming years we must be wary of investments and the purchase of land in Africa if we truly wish to eradicate hunger and poverty.
(*) Patrícia Rodríguez A Development Aid Consultant. She holds an Economics degree (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), an MA in Strategies, Agents and Policies for Development Aid (Universidad del País Vasco) and a Postgraduate Diploma in African Societies (Universitat Pompeu Fabra). She was the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation’s head of Sub-Saharan Africa for 10 years.
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Business, Law & Economics
Multitourist Catalonia Catalonia is a pluralistic, diverse holiday destination which offers something for everyone. Located on the northern shores of the Mediterranean, Catalonia caters to tourism of the highest quality. The PGA Catalonia Resort, for example, caters to golf tourism. Meanwhile, Catalonia also caters to gastro-tourism with El Celler de Can Roca, the best restaurant in the world, together with 60 establishments which have been awarded a Michelin star and its 27 flagship kitchen collectives. Catalonia is inextricably linked to enotourism or wine tourism, thanks to its 12 wine and cava appellations, offering numerous wine routes throughout the territory. Catalonia is also an ideal destination in which to hold business meetings, with Barcelona being one of the highest-ranked cities in the world for conferences and conventions. A multiple, varied offer, designed, above all else, to provide excellence and satisfaction to our visitors. A land of business
Catalonia is a first-class Mediterranean destination with incredible geographical diversity, combined with an open and innovative society. It has distinguished itself with its pioneering spirit and great dynamism in industry, commerce and services. Its distinct cultural practices, the richness of its cuisine, its varied landscape of sea and mountains, the quality of its infrastructure, the professionalism of its organizers, the welcoming, entrepreneurial spirit of its people, make Catalonia an ideal destination for hosting conferences and business events. The Catalonia Convention Bureau (CCB) was created in order to facilitate 50
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the holding of such events. Part of the Catalan Tourism Board, it aims to position Catalonia as a leading destination for business tourism, congresses, conventions and incentive trips. The CCB counts on the participation of business sectors and local authorities which are specialized in this activity. The CCB’s goal is to facilitate the work of the organizers in the process of identification and selection of the spaces and services which are most appropriate for every event, according to the requirements and expectations of each meeting. The CCB is therefore an invaluable tool for anyone charged with organizing a business meeting who is considering holding it in Catalonia.
Business, Law & Economics
A first-class gastronomic destination
Catalonia has obtained recognition as a European Region of Gastronomy 2016, together with the Portuguese region of Minho. They are in fact the first places in Europe to be recognised in this way. The distinction of Catalan cuisine is one of the reasons why Catalonia has declared 2016 the Year of Gastronomy and Wine Tourism. This will provide a new impetus to these two areas which are closely related to tourism. Besides strengthening the cuisinearea-produce triangle, this year’s theme is intended to ensure that gastronomy is a key component in singularization, as one of Catalonia’s backbones, defin-
ing the territory as a tourist destination. Catalonia has been given the European Region of Gastronomy 2016 Award, in recognition of the quality of its agricultural and tourist heritage and as a symbol of the excellence of its produce, its cuisine and its traditions. This distinction aims to contribute to a better quality of life in European regions, highlighting the different food cultures, promoting education for better health and sustainability, and encouraging gastronomic innovation. These objectives are to be achieved via numerous activities and events and through a knowledge sharing platform with the support of European institutions, coordinated by an independent Catalan International View
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body that helps collect and disseminate the knowledge generated by the activities of the participating regions. The European Region of Gastronomy label firmly establishes Catalonia as a leading country in Europe in the food and tourism sector. The hard work of producers, restaurateurs, research centres, schools, media organizations and Catalan chefs, including brand ambassador Carme Ruscalleda, ensures our cuisine and produce are known worldwide. In Catalonia, gastronomy is a strategic sector accounting for 20% of our GDP, generating some 50,000 million euros and employing over half a million people. With the title of European Region of Gastronomy, Catalonia aims to stimulate, obtain and disseminate knowledge to contribute to a better quality of life in every European region by promoting food culture and encouraging gastronomic innovation.
Whatever the reason for your visit, Catalonia offers its environment, resources and infrastructure to make sure you feel at home. Come and see for yourself. The European Region of Gastronomy is an initiative spearheaded by a platform of European regions and administered by the International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism (IGCAT). Catalonia’s European Region of Gastronomy project is vibrant and inclusive, based on three key areas: its products, its landscape and its cuisine. These are defining, differentiating factors which have enabled Catalonia to achieve this distinction. Its objective is to make gastronomy key to its identity to ensure the differentiation and singularization of the territory. The slogan ‘Som terra, som mar, 52
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som gastronomia’ [We are our land, we are our sea, we are our cuisine] sums up this unique identity.
Catalonia and golf: a world to discover
Catalonia has a mild Mediterranean climate and a natural environment that combines the beauty of its mountain landscapes with the intense light of its beaches. Thanks to such variety and some forty golf courses, one can play near the beach, within sight of the mountains or surrounded by woods, in many instances, just a short ride from one of its four regional capitals. The design of the various golf courses and their unique characteristics make Catalonia an ideal destination both for those who wish to play with their family and for professional golfers. There are many reasons why one should play golf in Catalonia. Firstly, the weather. Catalonia is blessed with good weather, a mild climate and annual average temperatures of between 18° and 23°C, which means one can play golf all year round. The golf courses are designed by renowned Catalan architects. The majority are modern and well equipped, allowing one to find the most appropriate course according to one’s ability. As for the surroundings, Catalonia’s unique landscape provides golfers with unique vistas: courses a short distance from the sea, with a backdrop of mountains, surrounded by forests, set on a wide plain. Whichever setting one chooses, it is sure to be unbeatable. Catalonia’s varied geography makes all manner of landscapes available to golfers. Thanks to its four international airports, Catalonia is well connected with the major European capitals. Many courses are to be found around Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, while the rest are located strategically just an hour’s drive away.
Business, Law & Economics
Catalonia currently has 37 golf courses, 5 of which are par 3 (with 9 and 18 holes). It also has over 40 pitch and putt courses, which are perfect for beginners or as an alternative to large courses when one is short of time. Twothirds of the larger courses in Catalonia open their facilities to visitors, while the rest operate as private clubs. The variety of golf courses in our country is extensive while at the same time there is the perfect combination of the competitive element (with courses where the players need to have a high level) with the existence of smoother, flatter courses which suit players of all levels who play golf in a more relaxed atmosphere, surrounded by
friends or family members. Catalonia’s unique landscape allows one to play golf near the beach, on the slopes of a mountain or surrounded by forests. To these magnificent surroundings one must add the designs made by leading golf course architects. And all this is available to golf-lovers right beside Barcelona or an hour away by car. Playing golf in Catalonia also means doing so while surrounded by history, art, gastronomy, entertainment and modernity. Whatever the reason for your visit, Catalonia offers its environment, resources and infrastructure to make sure you feel at home. Come and see for yourself. Catalan International View
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A Short Story from History
Curated by Francesc de Dalmases
Josep Suñol:
in memory of Barça’s democratic values FC Barcelona [Barça] dedicated 2015 to the memory of Josep Suñol. The year culminated with the premiere of the documentary ‘Suñol, a Valiant Cry’, a project conceived to bring the figure of FC Barcelona president to the attention of a wider audience, since his life was cut tragically short. Carles Vilarrubí, vice president of Barça and the main driving force behind the project initiated by the Board of Directors in December 2014, is pleased to have brought Suñol Year to a successful close. ‘He is a figure who has been banished from the official version of history. We have taken 4 important steps during this period: the installation of an exhibit in the Barça Museum dedicated to his memory, naming the president’s box in the Barça stadium after him, organising a lecture by the historian Josep Maria Solé i Sabaté and finally this documentary. That was the fourth milestone’. Josep Suñol (1935-1936) has gone down in the club’s history as the ‘martyr president’ as a consequence of his tragic death in the early days of the Civil War when he was shot by Franco’s troops in the summer of 1936. A charismatic individual, Suñol was highly respected by everyone at the club. He began his career as club manager in 1928, paradoxically during the presidency of Arcadi Balaguer, a staunch monarchist of a radically different political hue. Suñol was president of the Catalan Football Federation during the 1929-30 season. At the time of the Spanish Republic, Suñol was famous both for his political activity as leader of Esquerra Republicana, and for his involvement in the sporting world. In respect to the latter he was the creator and owner of the weekly newspaper La Rambla, which went under the slogan ‘Sport and Citizenship’.
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Suñol was elected president of FC Barcelona on 27 July 1935. The members entrusted him with putting the club’s finances in order, in collaboration with the accountant Francesc Xavier Casals, ensuring Barça ended the season with a considerable budget surplus. Meanwhile, on the pitch, the team became champions of Catalonia. Josep Suñol’s brilliant career was tragically cut short, however. On 6 August 1936, Barça’s president visited Republican troops near to Madrid as part of his political duties. He entered an area controlled by Franco’s troops in the Sierra de Guadarrama. Suñol was identified, arrested and summarily executed, along with his companions. News of his death took a week to reach Barcelona, whereupon it caused an uproar in all spheres of society. As a posthumous tribute, between 16 November 1937 and
17 January 1939 the Board of Directors decided to declare Josep Suñol ‘President in Absentia’ of FC Barcelona. Josep Suñol’s death by firing squad was a prelude to one of the most difficult times for the club. Only five photographs remain of Suñol as president of the club, plus a few family photos and a handful from published sources. Little more. Making a documentary about the figure of the club’s president who was assassinated in 1936 during the Civil War was not an easy task, therefore. The memory of Suñol was erased from the history books, as is often the case under totalitarian regimes. Files were burnt, images were lost, names were deleted. According to Francesc Escribano, director of the documentary, ‘it was a challenge due to the lack of documentation’. Vilarrubí adds that, ‘with Suñol dead, the Franco regime put him on trial and punished his family with a fine of five million pesetas for separatism and for being ‘red’. It was extremely hard for them. Suñol was condemned to the silence of the losers, and his name was removed from all of the club’s documentation until 1962’. As a result, no moving images remain of Suñol but, while conducting research for the documentary, Escribano found a short clip of Suñol attending the funeral of Catalonia’s President Francesc Macià in the Filmoteca film archive. Just one
second long, it showed a quiet, solemn Suñol in the only footage of a man who was constantly in motion. ‘It was a very exciting find’, admits Escribano. Barça’s vice president, Vilarrubí, acknowledges that, ‘we lacked the tools to make a typical film, because there are no living eye-witnesses, there is little documentation. Suñol was an unusual man. Politically on the left, but from a very wealthy family. He was president of the Royal Automobile Club, the Catalan Football Federation and Barça itself. A businessman and a journalist, founder of La Rambla, a politician... a Renaissance man’, according to Vilarrubí. ‘He was nicknamed ‘the man with 42 jobs’ by humorists of the time’, he explains in the documentary, which recalls how ‘sports reporters played an important role during the Primo de Rivera dictatorship’. Josep Suñol, the President of Barça executed in 1936, is once more remembered and given the respect he deserves.
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Opinion
Open access to scientific publications: the final step by Ignasi Labastida*
In the first decade of this century the emergence of the open access movement has brought significant changes in the current dissemination of research results. Nowadays every researcher is aware that, one way or another, the results of their research must be accessible to all, at the insistence of those who fund such projects. Nevertheless, it is surprising to see the relatively small proportion of documents publicly available, when compared to the total number that are published. Perhaps the fact that doubts still remain as to what open access actually involves, together with a failure to monitor compliance with the requirements, means that the percentage fails to increase. The time has now come to take the final step if we wish to make a clear commitment to open access. The beginnings of Open Access
[1] Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), http:// www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read [2] RoMEO Statistics [Dec. 2015] http://www. sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/statistics.php [3] Collins, E.; Milloy, C.; Stone, G.; Guide to open access monograph publishing for Arts, Humanities and Social Science Researchers, JISC (2015), http://oapen-uk.jiscebooks.org/files/2015/07/ Guide-to-open-accessmonograph-publishingfor-researchers-final.pdf
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At the end of 2001, the Open Society Initiative (OSI) held a meeting in Budapest in order to discuss the state of scientific communication. The conclusion reached at that meeting was that it was necessary to pursue a dissemination of research outputs without any barrier, whether technological, economic or legal. As a result, anyone would be able to access those results witout a paywall and they could be reproduced freely, so long as authorship is acknowledged and integrity of the work is respected. This is the aim of the Budapest Declaration, published in February 2002, which forms the basis of the open access movement 1. To achieve the Budapest objective, two strategies were proposed, which became the two current types of open access. The first strategy is to self-archive any document that has been published in a peer-reviewed publication. In this strategy it is assumed that there are no legal impediments to researchers in doing so, either because they still hold the copyright to their work or beCatalan International View
cause they are allowed to do so by the rights holders of the publications. Currently most journals allow some kind of self-archiving 2 but it is not so easy in certain disciplines that publish in other formats such as monographs. The second strategy that was proposed was the creation of a new generation of journals that follow the open access model, i.e. publications that can be accessed free of charge and that use copyright to facilitate the reuse of their content instead of banning it. Currently some noted journals follow this model and initiatives exist to explore open access models for monographs 3. One of the main challenges posed by these new publications is finding a sustainable business model. Clearly, publishing has a cost and therefore new sources of income need to be sought if the contents are available free of charge. One of the most widespread income models is to ask for a fee for publishing. The growth of the open access movement has been possible thanks to the creation of repositories. These are digital archives that host copies of
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published or unpublished materials, making them available to the public free of charge. Repositories can be institutional, or disciplinary, depending on who is behind them providing support. It is also important to mention the harvesters, those repositories which serve to collect metadata from other repositories and organise them according to specific criteria such as geographical relevance or topic area. Such metadata harvesting is possible because repositories generally use standard protocol and metadata schema. However, the emergence of policies or mandates requiring researchers to self-archive has provided the final impetus.
Policies to promote open access
The difficulty involved in obtaining content for the first repositories led to the emergence of institutional policies in favour of open access. In Europe, in 2004, the rector of the Universidade do Minho [Braga, Portugal] decided to provide financial incentives to those departments which comply with a new policy: a copy of all published research
results should be posted in the institutional repository 4 A few months earlier, Queensland University of Technology passed a similar mandate 5. Since then, these early initiatives have been followed by hundreds of institutions around the world 6. At the same time, research funding bodies, both public and private, have also adopted similar policies requiring grant beneficiaries to make research outputs publicly available. They not only call for selfarchiving, they also provide funding for publishing in open access journals that charge for article processing.
The reaction of publishers to open access
[4] Universidade do Minho Open Access Policy (2004), http://www. eprints.org/openaccess/po licysignupfullinfophp?inst =Universidade%20do%20 Minho [5] Queensland University of Technology Self-archiving Policy (2003), http:// www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/fullinfo. php?inst=Queensland%20 University%20of%20 Technology [6] Research Organizations Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies, ROARMAP (2015), http://roarmap.eprints.org/ view/policymaker_type/ research=5Forg.html
With the emergence of such policies, there have been different responses Catalan International View
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[7] Wellcome Trust, The Reckoning: An Analysis of Wellcome Trust Open Access Spend 2013-14, Wellcome Trust Blog (2015), http://blog.wellcome.ac.uk/2015/03/03/ the-reckoning-an-analysisof-wellcome-trust-openaccess-spend-2013-14/ [8] LERU calls for fundamental change to the financial model behind journal publishing, LERU Press Release (2015), http://www.leru.org/files/ general/2015_03_18_ LERU_calls_for_fundamental_change_to_the_financial_model_behind_ journal_publishing.pdf
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amongst traditional journal publishers. On the one hand, some publishers have decided to start their own open access journals or even buy others that only publish according to this model, such as the absorption of Biomed Central by Springer. Another remarkable change has been the modification of the transfer of copyright documents: there are publishers no longer requiring an exclusive transfer of copyright, i.e. they do not insist on being the copyright holders, instead they acquire a license to publish. While this change may appear positive, in practice it is not. The licence is exclusive and it does not allow authors to exercise their rights freely, but rather to adhere to a series of restrictions. Both in this case and in that of transfering copyright, public access cannot be provided after a period of time has passed once the article has been published. These periods of time are known as embargoes and range from three months to sixty, though they generally last between twelve and twenty-four months. The problem with such embargoes is that they are not the same as those established in the mandates of research funders, which tend to be lower. Publishers have a solution: if a researcher is unable to adhere to the policy they can opt to provide their article as open access upon payment of a fee. This model is known as the hybrid model, since in such journals there are open access articles, offered free of charge which can be freely reused, while access to the remainder is restricted to subscribers or those who pay for one-time access. The hybrid model appeared in response to the available funds to pay for open access publications. Traditional publishers didn’t wish to miss the opportunity to obtain part of these funds. Thus, apart from subscriptions and Catalan International View
one-off payments, they now have a new source of income which is by no means negligible. According to the Wellcome Trust, one of the most important funders of biomedical research, last year they paid nearly four million pounds to publish according to this hybrid model7. The hybrid model has been the subject of much criticism, mainly because it seems it has little effect on the price of subscriptions, leading various institutions to question whether the fees are in fact being charged twice 8. Nevertheless, funding agencies continue to accept it as a legitimate part of spending on research projects.
The situation in Catalonia
One can examine the status of open access in Catalonia from the perspective of researchers and institutions. On one hand, researchers are affected by different policies. Most Catalan universities have institutional policies that require open access. The introduction of these policies is the result of the plan approved by the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia (CIC) in 2009 which proposed a set of actions towards open access. In order to put these proposals into effect, universities have created repositories, many of which are harvested in Recercat, the first research repository created in 2005 and managed by CSUC, the Catalan Consortium of University Services. Recercat also hosts content from institutes and research centres. Aside from institutional policies, Catalan researchers who receive funding from the Spanish governement or the European Commission through research projects must also comply with open access requirements. In December 2011, the Spanish Law 14/2011 came into force. The so-called ‘Science
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Law’ includes a clause which stipulates that the published outputs derived from research which is largely state-funded must be accessible to the public no later than twelve months after publication. Such access can be provided through a disciplinary or institutional repository. The European Commission has also opted for open access. In the 7th Framework Programme, it piloted an initiative in a limited number of areas which called for the public dissemination of the published results. Currently, under the Horizon 2020 program, any beneficiary of a project is required to make any results public within six months of publication, twelve in the case of social sciences or humanities. As for support for open access journals, both Spanish and European projects include budgetary provisions aimed at financing their publication. At the institutional level, the Universitat de Barcelona has provided funding since 2010 9.
The final step
It appears we have reached a point where we need to go further if we truly wish to ensure that open access becomes the default model. On one hand we need to monitor the policies which are in place and encourage compliance, while penalizing non-compliance. In this regard it will be interesting to see the results of the policy adopted by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, following the model of the University
of Liège, of only assessing those research outputs available at its institutional repository 10. The danger of this policy comes from having a repository full of documents which are inaccessible to the public due to copyright restrictions. Perhaps the time has also come to stand up to the demands of publishers, especially with regard to embargoes. In many cases, institutions as the beneficiaries of research funds are liable for fulfilling their requirements and, therefore, the results must be made public before publishers typically allow them to be. This commitment to meet the demands of those who fund research is one of the points raised by the ‘Christmas is over’ campaign organised by the League of European Research Universities (LERU) 11. The other issue tackled by the campaign is bringing an end to support for the hybrid model, committing to a transition process towards truly open access, and using the funds which are currently spent on subscriptions to cover publication costs. The British and Dutch governments are committed to this transition and are proposing such a change during negotiations with publishers to renew access to publications. While some publishers have accepted it, others are still reluctant, endangering some relevant renovations 12. Given the current situation, we now face the challenge and the opportunity to give a final push to open access to promote the access to knowledge.
[9]Ajuts de la Universitat de Barcelona per publicar en accés obert, Vicerectorat de Política Científica de la Universitat de Barcelona (2015), http://crai. ub.edu/que-ofereix-el-crai/ acces-obert-UB/publicarajuts/ub [10] Acord 177/2014 del Consell de Govern pel qual s’aprova l’assignació de punts PAR únicament per publicacions en accés obert, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (2014), https://www.upc.edu/ normatives/butlleti-upc/ hemeroteca/2014-2015/ butlleti-upc-158/bupc158-docs/docs-consell-go vern/8.04Aprovacidelass ignacidepuntsPARnicam entperpublicacionsenaccsobert.pdf [11] Christmas is over. Research funding should go to research, not to publishers!, LERU Statement for the 2016 Dutch EU Presidency, LERU (2015), http://www.leru.org/index. php/public/extra/signtheLERUstatement/ [12] Elsevier open access negotiations in deadlock. Academics must act, Open access fact sheet, VSNU (2015) http://www.vsnu. nl/files/documents/Publications/Factsheets/33_Elsevieropenaccessnegotioationsindeadlock.pdf
(*) Ignasi Labastida (Barcelona, 1970) holds a PhD in Physics from the Universitat de Barcelona. Head of the Office for the Dissemination of Knowledge at the CRAI Research Unit of the Universitat de Barcelona. Member of LIBER’s (Association of European Research Libraries) working group on copyright, member of the LERU (League of European Research Universities) Steering Committee of the Community of Chief Information Officers and its working groups on open access and research data. Head of the Creative Commons project in Spain.
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Opinion
America, Catalonia, and the right of self-determination by Stephen Ansolabehere*
It is an old axiom of politics that those in power will do what they can to stay there. Democratic politics are no exception. Those in office determine the rules of elections so as to ensure their election and reelection, to make sure that the old order remains. That fact of political life runs squarely against the most basic precept of democracy - it is through the vote that we express our voices, choose our governments, and determine our futures. The vote is the instrument of self-determination.
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n democracies throughout the world today the right to vote for self-determination, and the right to vote as a right of self-determination, is an essentially contested idea. Catalonia faces this problem today square on. For Catalonia and Spain the question is whether the region has the power to vote for separation and independence from Spain in a referendum. Can the Catalans determine their own future and fate at the ballot box? The actions and pronouncement of the Spanish government and courts have, so far, opposed separation, even though
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the region has made a strong push for status as a separate nation. The United States may carry some important lessons or ideas about how Catalonia may proceed. The United States has long struggled with a similar set of issues. The nation itself formed out of colonies that separated from England in 1776. Less than a century later, ten American states voted to separate from the Union in 1860. Secession was entirely legal in 1860, but the formation of the Confederate States of America precipitated a brutal civil war that scarred the nation. In the wake
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of that war, the Supreme Court of the United States declared secession to be unconstitutional in the case of Texas v. White. No state has since challenged that doctrine directly, though several movements have agitated for separation, including the southern states, the states of the Pacific Northwest, and even the Republic of California (which
doesn’t call itself a state). The question remains, what would happen if a state today decided that it wanted to leave the union? Could the US national government really stand in the way? The most poignant struggle for the right to self-determination is in the American territories, most notably Puerto Rico. It Puerto Rico became a Catalan International View
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territory of the United States following the Spanish-American war, and was effectively under military rule by the United States through the 1940s. From 1948-1952, simply flying the Puerto Rican flag was considered a felony. In 1952, however, the United States granted Puerto Rico the status of a Commonwealth, whose citizens are citizens of the United States.
The Catalan push for independence serves as an important test of the possibility of peaceful separation of an autonomous region from a central government Throughout its history Puerto Rico has had powerful movements to become either a state or an independent nation. None of the three options -remaining a territory, becoming a state, or becoming an independent nationhas gained the support of a majority of the people. The fact that there are always three options present (territory, state or nation) dilutes the efforts for change. Whenever the question arises in public or in the legislature, the three choices divide the body politic, leaving no clear majority, and no clear direction. As a result, the status quo remains,
and merely by inertia Puerto Rico remains a territory. The relationship of the United States to Puerto Rico is ambiguous. The United States Congress has left open the possibility of either a Puerto Rican state or nation. The Congress attempted to clarify the matter in 2007 and 2010 with the Puerto Rico Democracy Act. The act was passed by the US House of Representatives, but not the Senate, so it has not become law. One chamber of the US Congress, then, has expressed its support for Puerto Rico’s right to self-determination. Further bolstering Puerto Rico’s right of self-determination, the UN Special Committee on Decolonization has declared that former colonies have the right to declare their independence and standing in the international community. It seems likely that if a majority of people in said territory voted to form their own nation, the United States would allow it to happen. Whatever Puerto Rico decides to do, the legal right to self-determination of the territory stands as a potential international precedent for Catalonia. By the same token, the Catalan push for independence serves as an important test of the possibility of peaceful separation of an autonomous region from a central government. And, the world is watching.
(*) Stephen Ansolabehere is Professor of Government at Harvard University. He is an expert in public opinion and elections, and has published extensively on elections, mass media, and representation, political economy and public opinion, especially concerning energy and the environment. He is the author of five books: The Media Game, Going Negative, American Government, The End of Inequality, and Cheap and Clean: how Americans think about energy in an age of Global Warming. He is a Carnegie Scholar (2000), a Hoover National Fellow (1994), and Truman Scholar (1982) and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007. He directed the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project from its founding in 2000 through 2004; is a member of the Board of Overseers of the American National Election Study and the Reuters Institute of Journalism at Oxford University; and consults for CBS News Election Decision Desk. He is the principal investigator of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, a collaborative effort of over 60 universities and colleges in the United States.
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Tel. +34 977 757 473 · +34 977 756 265 • Fax +34 977 771 129 Camí Pedra Estela, 34 • 43205 Reus (Baix Camp) www.demuller.es
Opinion
Talking about Ramon Llull in Lisbon by Àlex Susanna*
As director of the Institute that bears his name, it has been an honour to participate in an event dedicated to the memory of Ramon Llull at the Universidade de Lisboa, and, more specifically, at its Faculty of Arts. I am also grateful for having had the opportunity to socialize with the Rector, Professor António Manuel da Cruz Serra, and the Vice-Rector, Professor António Feijó, to whom I would like to express my sincere thanks for having agreed to preside over this academic celebration. Incidentally, this is the first time that such an event has been held outside of Catalonia, following the inaugural ceremony held at the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya, the seat of government, on 30 November 2015: the program of international activities begins in the Universidade de Lisboa, organised by the Institute, to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the death of Ramon Llull.
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would also like to thank the director of the Faculty of Arts, Professor Paulo Simões Alberto, and everyone who collaborated in this event, for their involvement and enthusiasm: José Jorge Letria, president of the Portuguese Society of Authors; Helder Costa, cultural promoter and director of ‘A Barraca’; Professor Aires Nascimento, professor and member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Catalonia; Cuca Roseta, singer of fado; the novelist Luisa Costa Gomes, author of The Life of Ramon (Dom Quixote, 1991) and Lurdes Gil, director of the Portugal Sou Eu programme. And last but not least, thanks to the Catalan government’s delegation in Lisbon and to Ramon Font, its director, without whose dedication this event would not have been possible. Thank you, Ramon, for all your hard work and special attention. I’m sure your namesake would have appreciated it. In any case, the event was a wonderful opportunity to tell everyone, firstly, about Ramon Llull and, secondly, about the institute that bears his name. It should be said that I do
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not consider myself a ‘Lulista’ (a Llull scholar), but merely a reader of some of his works. Who was Ramon Llull, or rather, to what is owed his enormous importance? In short, it is not that he has been the most universal figure in Catalan literature, but rather that arguably he is the only truly universal figure from this literary tradition. This might make one think that nothing remains to be said, when in fact we have hardly said anything at all. First things first: Llull is a continent full of philosophical, theological, scientific and mystical ideas. He is the giant of Catalan literature. In the words of Harold Bloom: ‘He is, in fact, the Cervantes of Catalonia, its Goethe, its Dante, its Chaucer, the creator of a new literary language who founded a tradition’. Indeed, it is with Llull that Catalan went from its infancy to reach fully grown bewildering philological and linguistic heights, while simultaneously opening up our language to all manner of possibilities of philosophical and theological speculation and scientific thought. I agree with Joan Santanach, the commissioner of Llull
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Year in Catalonia, when he says that, ‘few forms of literature have a beginning comparable to that which Llull provided to Catalan, both in terms of the sheer number of works he wrote, and in terms of the quality and ambition which he displayed’. I think that this is one of the most effective ways to approach his work, though ultimately Llull is not so easily understood and this definition barely explains the reason for his universality. Aside from the legend surrounding his figure, who was he really? Although he is often depicted as some kind of a monk, Llull was in fact a self-taught layman, the creator (as we would say nowadays) of an interdisciplinary, intercultural, global system of thinking which provided an alternative to the academic world of his time. A man of culture and action; both a mystic and an activist. An avant la lettre novelist (especially with regard to his two biographical novels that introduced the genre in Europe: Romanç d’Evast e Blaquerna [Book of Evast and Blanquerna] and Llibre de meravelles [Book
of Wonders]. A poet and the author of a remarkable work in verse, which best captures his philosophy of love and also serves as one of the best introductions to his work: I am referring to Livro do amigo e do amado [Book of the Lover and the Beloved], translated into Portuguese by Artur Guerra and Dimitur Simeonov (Lisbon: Cotovia, 1990). It is also the forerunner of modern computing. In short, Llull is a multilingual writer, teacher, missionary, mystic and, above all, an inveterate polygraph, having authored more than 265 works, in Catalan, Latin and Arabic. The essayist Gabriel Magalhaes called him the ‘Pessoa of the Middle Ages’: which is another way to arouse interest in Llull, with regard to his vast, polymorphous body of work. Apart from Llull’s overwhelming personality, exuberant in all areas, he should be seen as the archetype of an ‘innovative’ philosopher: in the words of one of the most illustrious lulistas, Michela Pereira, ‘Llull was the first in a series of ‘innovative philosophers’ or thinkers found outside the university Catalan International View
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lecture halls, where ideas were constructed through the slow exegetical accumulation around texts by Aristotle, who brought to the forefront speculation and practical reflection on problems and demands of a society that was increasingly articulate and dynamic’. His was the society of the island of Majorca, freed from more than three centuries of Muslim rule shortly before, following prolonged contact with the renovating Islamic culture, which also coexisted with a significant Hebrew nuclei, equally open to decisive scientific and philosophical speculation: I am referring to its renewed cartography and also the Kabbalah, which so influenced our author.
The impact of Llull’s work on European culture has been felt from the fourteenth century to the present day: beyond a native lulismo, lies another Hispanic, French, Italian, German, Polish and Russian variety In any case, the centre of his work is Art itself, of which he wrote countless versions, from L’art abreujada d’atrobar veritat (1274) and the Ars generalis ultima (1305-1308), through to the Arbre de ciència (1296), ‘the most beautiful of all his works from a literary and philosophical point of view’ according to Miquel Batllori another distinguished lulista. How can we define what lulista art is exactly? In short, it is an attempt to unify natural and supernatural knowledge, philosophy and theology, in order to demonstrate revealed truths with philosophical arguments. Expressed in this way it almost seems easy, but we must not forget that the missionary methods were based on the authority of sacred texts, which always ended in endless, sterile debates. Llull replaced 65
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these debates with a search based on general principles accepted by the three monotheistic religions, and therefore he always favoured his famous disputatios: to convince the other through the dialectic path of reason. According to Alessandro Tessari, this idea of rational debate with Muslim and Jewish scholars, ‘is one of the precursors of European identity, which Llull locates in the heart of the Mediterranean’. The impact of Llull’s work on European culture has been felt from the fourteenth century to the present day: beyond a native lulismo, lies another Hispanic, French, Italian, German, Polish and Russian variety. This is a testament to the intensity of the radiance of his thought over time and space. Indeed, the reception of his ideas permeates the history of Europe and is present from the Renaissance (‘Lullism is one of the major forces of the Renaissance’, according to Frances A. Yates) to the Enlightenment and the Romantic era to the Avant-garde movement (Dalí was a great admirer of Llull, as was Gaudí a few years earlier, or Tàpies a few years later). This March the Majorcan artist Miquel Barceló will exhibit a fresco he has created on a 1,140m2 window at the French National Library entitled ‘The glass of wonders’ in reference to Ramon Llull’s Book of Wonders. There are countless examples of contemporary artists who continue a dialogue with Llull. Clearly his legacy is alive and well. When in 2002 the governments of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands decided to create an institute to promote Catalan language and culture to the world, they did not hesitate for a second: it was named Ramon Llull, in memory of the ‘Catalan from Majorca’ as he liked to call himself. Our institute is therefore our Camoes, our Cervantes
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or our Goethe. It is an inter-autonomic consortium whose mission is clear: to promote Catalan language and culture internationally. After analysing a dozen institutes like our own, we noted that one of its main features is the wide range of skills it possesses, rarely found in one body: we are responsible for the network of Catalan study programs abroad (involving over 150 universities where Catalan language and culture are taught, including this very university [Universidade de Lisboa], where the lecturer is Malena Llorca); translations of Catalan literature, with a yearly average of 130 translations of classical and contemporary fiction and nonfiction works. Ironically Catalan literature’s great success in regard to internationalization has coincided with the economic crisis over the last five years, suggesting that Catalan literature is highly competitive; and finally, the IRL also organises projects aimed at bringing the visual and performing arts, together with all kinds of music, architecture, design, cinema and gastronomy to international audiences. We carry out our mission by seeking to balance our instrumental role with the various sectors and subsectors (through the offer of numerous grants, both to facilitate the maximum mobility of our creators in every field, to encourage the translation and promotion of Catalan writers) and our willingness to promote Catalan culture in forums, festivals, auditoriums, schedules, museums, fairs and major art exhibitions, in which in one way or another the debate surrounding contemporary creation takes place. Every year we are present at
the Avignon and Edinburgh festivals, at the Art and Architecture Biennials in Venice with our own pavilion, and focus specifically on literature by being invited to some of the major book fairs such as those in Frankfurt, Guadalajara, Paris, Gothenburg and Warsaw. The institute also works in specific sectors that allow us to showcase contemporary creativity, as was the case recently with the Beijing and Hong Kong Design Weeks, or the London and Turin Film Festivals, to name but a few.
Llull is a continent full of philosophical, theological, scientific and mystical ideas. He is the giant of Catalan literature. Aside from being an agency designed to promote culture, the Ramon Llull Institute is also an effective tool for cultural diplomacy at a time where the concept of traditional diplomacy is in crisis. Catalan identity is strongly cultural and we are well aware that culture and creativity are excellent calling cards for a country like Catalonia which aims to be, as is well-known, as complete a nation as it can be. Catalan society has decided to go its own way, firstly since it is fully aware that it belongs to a distinct language and culture, and secondly, as a response to the Spanish state’s sustained, notorious inability to recognise the multilingual, multicultural and multinational character of Spain. It will not be an easy or a quick way to travel, but once taken it will not easily be reversed. (*) Àlex Susanna
Poet and cultural manager, was director of the Institut Ramon Llull at the time of this presentation in Lisbon (18 January 2016).
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Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya: a showcase to the world by Joan Fontserè*
In June 1984, the Parliament of Catalonia approved a non-legislative proposal regarding the creation of a new permanent race track. Thus began an exciting project that was to become a reality in 1991 with the opening of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Throughout the twentieth century, the Terramar racetrack, together with the Pedralbes, MontjuĂŻc and Calafat circuits served to promote motor sport in our country. They created many followers of motorsport among the public, especially following the success of Catalan motorcycle riders in the late 1980s. On 10 September 1991, the dream came true, with the inauguration of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Just five days later it hosted its first race and nineteen days later its first Formula 1 Grand Prix.
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oday, almost 25 years after its inauguration, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has become a well-established, mature institution which is famous both at home and abroad. It has become an economic and sporting mainstay connecting Catalonia with the world. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is internationally famous for its races, with a busy schedule that combines various specialties. The most prestigious, with the greatest media impact, such as the Formula 1 Grand Prix and MotoGP; the most emblematic and traditional, such as the 24H Catalunya Motorbike Endurance Race and the 24H Barcelona Endurance Race;
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European races such as the V de V Endurance Series, the FIM CEV Repsol International Championship and the International GT Open; innovative events such as the Barcelona FIA World Rallycross and Supermoto; and local ones, such as Catalunya Motorcycling Championships. The appeal of this calendar of events lies precisely in the fact that it combines events which promote the grassroots sports involving up and coming stars of motorsport, together with championships involving the best drivers in the world. Nevertheless, the sporting calendar is not only aimed at motorsports, since the racetrack is open to other formats.
Opinion
In recent years, twice a week, the training facilities have been open to cyclists, as an alternative to roads. Thanks to the positive experience for cyclists, who discovered the Circuit as a place to train, an event has been created, which will be held in late April: the BiCircuit Festival, which will hold cycle races, one a 24hour race, and activities for the whole family. The Circuit also organizes other sporting events such as athletics and duathlons. The Circuit is much more than a place to hold races and sporting events however. The track is operational 90% of the year, since when no competitions are being held, it hosts private training events, driving courses, film shoots,
photo sessions, presentations, driving experience days, vehicle testing and so on. Thanks to the versatility of its facilities, with a wide range of areas that provide endless possibilities in an ideal setting, practically any type of event can be held there: meetings, product launches, corporate meetings, team building and so on, the only limit being one’s imagination.
The track is operational 90% of the year, since when there no competitions are being held, it hosts private training events, driving courses, film shoots, photo sessions, presentations, driving experience days, vehicle testing and so on
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Business, Law & Economics
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Opinion
The Circuit gained the ISO 14001:2004 certificate in 2008 in recognition of the care it takes of the environment. It is particularly careful to minimize the consumption of resources and the generation of waste by promoting the use of recycled materials, renewable energy sources and the recovery of its waste. Thanks to such actions, the Circuit has been awarded prizes on several occasions by international automobile associations in recognition of its commendable work with respect to environmental issues. The numerous events and actions which take place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya mean it functions as an engine of economic development and tourism in Catalonia. Aside from being a place for motor sport at the highest level, it is a facility that creates wealth for its surroundings with benefits that are not confined to its own sector. Thanks to the fact that it has 90% occupancy, it was able to sign more than 10,000 contracts in the last year. The economic impact of an entire season in Catalonia is estimated to be around 330 million euros. The spectators who attend the races, numbering
more than half a million during the season, and the Circuit’s customers, together with the profit generated for the surrounding area and the resulting international publicity it receives, mean the Circuit is highly positive for Catalonia and its international projection, with positive consequences for the country as a whole.
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is internationally famous for its races with a busy schedule that combines numerous specialties. The most prestigious, with the greatest media impact, are the Formula 1 Grand Prix and MotoGP. The dreams of many motor enthusiasts began to take shape in 1991 with the opening of the Circuit. Few would have imagined that twenty-five years later the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya would have become a showcase to the world, generating wealth for the country. Its success speaks for itself, as do the figures. Let us hope this will be the case for many years to come.
(*) Joan Fontserè (Sant Feliu de Codines, 1974) holds a degree in Business Administration and Marketing. With a distinguished career in the sporting world, he has worked for companies such as TopFun and Octagon Esedos. In 2011 he became Director of the Centre d’Alt Rendiment [High Performance Centre] in Sant Cugat, where he worked until his appointment as CEO of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in June 2015. He is also councillor for Sant Feliu de Codines.
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Universal Catalans
Enric Granados Enric Granados was a famous composer and pianist who was born in the Catalan city of Lleida. He never broke his bond with Catalonia. Even when he lived in Paris he always reserved the month of May to return home and offer concerts in Barcelona, Lleida and other Catalan cities. On 24 March 1916, while returning from the premiere of his opera Goyescas at the Metropolitan in New York, the ship in which he was travelling was broken in two by a German torpedo and Granados drowned in the English Channel. The Government of Catalonia has declared 2016 ‘Granados Year’ in order to commemorate one hundred years since the tragic death of the pianist and composer.
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ranados’ international career began in 1887 when he moved to France at the age of 20. Initially intending to enroll at the Paris Conservatory, a bout of typhus soon after his arrival forced him to take to his bed for three months, frustrating his plans. Nevertheless, Granados was able to remain in Paris and continue his studies with Bériot, during which time he coincided with the pianist Ricard Viñes, with whom he shared a room. During his time in Paris Granados also met Isaac Albéniz, who represented the quintessence of pianistic virtuosity and above all was a great fellow countryman. In 1889 Granados returned to Barcelona where he gave a recital with Malats and performed as a pianist
in concerts conducted by Crikboom, Manén, Casals and Thibaud. Thus began a career as a successful concert pianist, based in Barcelona, where he was a key figure on the music scene. Granados toured Europe, where he had the opportunity to work with greats such as Édouard Risler and Saint-Saëns. Those who had the good fortune to hear his performances speak of Granados as an exceptional pianist, especially with the works of Chopin, Schumann and Grieg, with whom he shared a spiritual affinity. In 1892 Granados published his Spanish Dances for piano, which were received to great acclaim and drew the attention of the great composers of the time, including Grieg, Saint-Saëns and Catalan International View
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Cesar Cui, a Russian theorist and member of The Five, to whom Granados dedicated Spanish Dance No. 7 ‘Valenciana’. These works, well-known to the public and widely disseminated, led to an upturn in Granados’ career, leading to a personal shift towards a lateromantic nationalism. These pieces are charming, youthful, original and with a unique variety. In 1901, encouraged by his passion for education and the need for economic stability, Granados founded the Granados Academy, which later became the Marshall Academy. The academy, which introduced a unique style of interpretation, was directed by Granados until his departure for America, when it was continued by his pupil, the pianist Frank Marshall. Granados felt an authentic passion for the work of Francisco Goya and the social classes the painter chronicled in his paintings. Out of this devotion emerged his piano suite Goyescas, subtitled Los majos enamorados. These musical impressions in seven scenes are Granados’ real success, illustrating the development of a passionate relationship between a pair of ‘majos’ [an 18th century term for people from the lower classes of Spanish society], from their first meeting until the tragic death of the boy and the subsequent appearance of his ghost. Granados’ emergence onto the international stage came with the premiere of the Goyescas at the Sala Pleyel in Paris in 1914. It proved to be such a success that the musician was granted the Legion of Honor of the French Republic. 74
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A few years earlier, Granados had met the American pianist Ernest Schelling. The latter was a great admirer of the music of Granados and on his return to New York after four years touring Europe, he premiered the Goyescas suite at Carnegie Hall in New York on 26 March 1913. The New York Times and the Evening Post reported on the success of the event, introducing Granados to a wider public. Shortly after Schelling premiered the Goyescas in London on 12 December 1913. Once Granados’ name became known, Schelling facilitated his commercial access to the United States.
While returning from the premiere of the Goyescas at the Metropolitan Opera New York on 24 March 1916, Granados died in the sinking of the SS Sussex in the English Channel, when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat
Tragically, while returning from the premiere of the Goyescas at the Metropolitan Opera New York on 24 March 1916, Granados died in the sinking of the SS Sussex in the English Channel, when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat.
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The Artist
A somersault on a pedestal by Julià Guillamon
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f she met Ramon Enrich, Angelina Auledas, a hairdresser who works on Carrer del Castell in the village of Arbúcies, would nod her head vigorously, lower her gaze, click her tongue and say ‘he looks as if he doesn’t know if he’s coming or going’. What made me think of her? Perhaps the chairs. In one of the lock-ups he uses to store his work, Enrich has built up a collection of chairs from the 1950’s he has salvaged from junkyards and scrap merchants, all left exactly as he found them, without changing a thing. Some of them are design classics -an Eames rocking chair, a Moragas chair, or a Torres Clavé chair- while others are simple chairs made by the town locksmith or in local workshops, incorporating, without even knowing it existed, the spirit of the modernist movement. To make them last people upholstered them in floral patterns, painted and repainted them in house paint. From the living room they moved to the terrace, from the terrace to the stable (if the house had a stable, like Angelina’s hairdresser’s, which had living quarters and a place for livestock at the back), from the stable to Ramon Enrich’s lock-up, which before becoming an artist’s studio was a tanner’s and a fabric workshop.
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Angelina would have been right about him not knowing if he’s coming or going. In the three to four hours I spent in Igualada we went all over the place without stopping for a second: from the station to the painter’s studio, from the painter’s studio to the lock-up, from the lock-up to the design studio where he is working on the image for REC.0 Experimental Stores, a scheme to revitalise Igualada’s old industrial quarter. From the design studio to a leather factory where they know him, from the leather factory to the workshop of a neighbour who has built a musical instrument with stones from Segarra: a stone xylophone like the ones played by the Flintstones. It is highly entertaining as he picks up a couple of improvised mallets, starts playing the xylophone, decides it is out of tune, informs his neighbour and tells him off about it. We go back to the painter’s studio and from there back to the station, although first we stop off at a factory that is being stripped (the woman working as the caretaker also knows him and lets us have a look around). He shows me the seamstress’ changing rooms and bathroom done in beautiful, small blue-green tiles, with mirrors set a palm’s width off the wall; the workers’ lockers made by one of the town’s locksmiths,
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the bells, the photos on the wall with models holding a sign that says Escorpión. They are making an inventory of furniture, clocks and wastepaper bins: the workers will come one day and will be able to keep objects from the factory where they worked. The enthusiasm he puts into everything he does is amazing. In the studio and the lock-up Ramon Enrich’s work mixes with the world it came from; the things he likes, the artists he admires, and the books and catalogues that interest him. He is very thoughtful and it is not down to chance that you may find on a table the bearded face of Donald Judd in a monograph from 30 years ago or a leaflet from an exhibition by Richard Serra in Qatar, or that a book about Ed Ruscha seems to have been casually left under one of his recently finished pieces -a construction done in iron rods that makes you think of the Russian avant-garde and the way swings were when we were children. I will end this note on the atmosphere: amongst the garden furniture repainted a thousand times, the small cupboards, the writing desks (a wealth of aerodynamic knobs and handles and slender legs), I am amused to see a dismantled gymnastics vaulting box (what we called simply ‘the box’ at school), because the box seems contrary to the ironically nostalgic, affectionately sceptical, spirit of Ramon Enrich. Which is not to say that Enrich is not an athletic guy who would break into a sweat vaulting the box! Although his talent is opposed to whistles and standing in line I think he will end up doing something with this object. Perhaps he will liberate it, as he has liberated the chairs from the stable, the tannery from its work, and the soldering mask he has hanging on the wall from stainless steel and electrodes. It is possible he will use the box as a plinth or a pedestal. And with the box as a pedestal, Ramon Enrich would jump (without the need of a springboard) and do a somersault. Adding up the different rooms in his studio and workshop (ground floor, stairs, first floor), the drying shed, the room with the pits, the room with the barrels, the corridors 78
and storage rooms at the leather factory, the artist’s showroom next door with the stones, the changing rooms, the warehouses, the pressing rooms of the factory being moved: we have perhaps been in 30 or 40 spaces. Obviously he cannot always be like this. I am a guest! We never see each other and we want to talk about everything. And as well as that, I am the type of person who is always rushing around too. I feel at home in this industrial place. In a corner of the studio he has a section of a large sign – from a dealership or a petrol station – hanging up that says “BARRE”. It looks like the lettering from Barreiros Motors. I tell him the main character in one of my books is called Barreiros, who is a lorry driver. If we switch from one thing to another at high speed it is because of how much we have in common, our enthusiasm; wanting to take on the world. There is nothing like going fast. Although at the same time you have to know how to get off of a cartwheel when you feel like it. And Ramon Enrich has no problems with jumping or leaving a somersault half done. He is not merely impulsive with nothing behind it. For instance; he has discovered that many industrial buildings, even the simplest, conceal geometric forms of great purity. Sometimes an outside wall becomes a set of steps. Other times the door is so tall that the top corners almost touch the triangle of the roof. Other times it is the flat roof. Or a simple porch that protects the entrance. Or two slightly pointed vaults. Or a building with four walls and a door with a window on either side that make a face, like the house in Tati’s Mon Oncle. Put up with a simple formwork, a few bricks, a layer of plaster and a couple of coats of paint. Enrich intervenes only slightly in the photographs he takes of these buildings. He eliminates the unnecessary elements, changes the colour of the sky and the walls. He isolates the building and points up the shadows that create perfect diagonals and rectangles. He transports us to the space of pure metaphysical abstraction found in De Chirico’s squares and Ed Ruscha’s gas stations.
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The book Learning from Las Vegas (1972) by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour is one of the great reference points of our age, as much as Beckett or Duchamp. It provides the formula for making the most of the simple things, the self-built, vernacular, or industrial, which contain a constructive logic and can be used efficiently, as well as displaying an innate sense of the monumental and spectacular. It is interesting to follow the line of influence of Learning from Las Vegas from Arquitectura y lágrimas, an essay by the PER practice in Barcelona in the 1970’s, to Estudando o Samba or Estudando o Pagode, two albums by Tom Zé in São Paulo from 1970 and 2000. Ramon Enrich’s work could be called Learning from Igualada or Learning from the Rec District. Or better still without the gerund: What I Have Learnt
from Igualada or What I Have Learnt from the Rec District. By the same token you could have What I Have Learnt from Segarra. Since the same synthesis of elements that he discovers in a haulage contractor, a metal pressing workshop or in one of those single-storey flat-roofed bars, he has perhaps seen before in the threestep ladder into a pool, in a shepherd’s hut (which Enrich strips of any hint of the picturesque: his small houses look like rooks in a chess set or Renaissance towers), in a house alone in the middle of a sown field or a hillside vineyard. Or in the landscape surrounding his house and his neighbours’ houses. A network of squared lines that looks like the design on a tablecloth, the houses as if they are from a model railway diorama. The trees and bushes are like spindles and bobbins set on the in-
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tersections of the lines or corralled in one of the corners that make a square. Everything that in everyday life is mobile and dizzying is solid and timeless in painting. And a similar thing happens with his sculptures. His sculptures made from iron rods that I see as being related to Tatlin and children’s drawings, or his solid buildings modelled in clay, offspring of the Mesopotamic, Ancient Greek or Roman spirit houses and toy construction sets. Never have museum pieces (in an archaeological museum or museum-house of one of the heroes of the avant-garde) been as close to toys as in these works. Ramon Enrich sifts through the essence of things, possibly to find a moment’s rest, to detain the constant movement of things, to create spaces for retreat and meditation. Always drawing from everyday objects, and without losing his ironic touch. His spirit houses make one think of the gardens painted by Raoul Dufy, Nicolau Rubió i Tudurí and Llorens Artigas in the 1920’s showing mythological scenes, sometimes also with profane episodes, such as altars to unknown gods. Enrich is developing a new form of ancestor worship: carpenters, locksmiths, metalworkers, decorators, plasterers and labourers, ancestors of today’s computer men. When he photographs his clay houses and reproduces them in black and white, he is looking for an ambiguity that transports us away from the physical world; it is the idea of a house, the idea of a town, not the house itself, an actual neighbourhood or town. At times he paints a type of aerial view (as if he could fly over an abstraction in an aeroplane). Other times he finds perspective at ground level. He packs all the houses together side by side, like houses and hotels in Monopoly, like the green arches, yellow pillars, red pediments and blue beams in a box of toy building bricks, or archaeological pieces on the shelves of a museum store room. Sometimes, between one house and another, or between a house and a yard, he leaves space for a section of landscape or an alley that does nothing more than emphasise the sense of exile 80
and absence of a human presence. Nobody ever walks these alleys or landscapes. But once when I talked to him about one of the cabins surrounded by vineyards with a path leading to it, I realised that it had a story; in that shepherd’s hut something had happened that I will not mention. Something else that fascinates Ramon Enrich is offcuts. I also have a personal interest in them. Right by the house where I lived in the Poblenou district of Barcelona, I would often find sheets of tin with die holes cut out of them. For example, a rectangle with six round pieces cut out. Or the filings from laminated steel profiles. In Arbúcies there was a factory that made buses. Next door to the guesthouse run by my grandparents and mother there was a man who made leather upholstery for the bus seats. It was fascinating to pick up the angles that were left over from the cutting out process, with the curves that narrowed down into a point or horn shape. And then there were the tubes that were the heart of the rolls of imitation leather, which all the children in the street asked for. We could come to blows over a cardboard tube. Enrich collects the offcuts from sheets of metal and combines them in small sculptures (each one would take up a roundabout if they were large). There is something I really like about the way he presents his pieces: for sculptures made from metal rods he uses tables with iron rods for legs to show them on; to show sculptures made from cut out sheet metal he uses a support made of sheet metal. Artwork and utilitarian object, united by material. It is a way of saying that utilitarian objects are works of art, and artworks are also useful objects. One can be made with the castoff material of the other, and vice versa. This interest in cutting out and discarding also occurs in his lettered pieces, where he leaves out letters from a poem or song. In the same way that the metal rectangle was missing six round pieces, now there are two a’s, an s or a b that are gone or have dropped off. This disappearance forces us to concentrate on the letters that remain, on the section they
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occupy, and on how they relate to the background and the space, worked with washes, drips and trails. Now he has discovered leather offcuts, he looks at them and contemplates them. I think it won’t be long before they appear in a new series, collage or poster. Synthesis, cut outs, drips, absence, negatives, aerial views, filing cabinets: forms combine and recombine. I believe Ramon Enrich strategically places his
artworks in the spaces where he works, close to his raw materials, so that they help him to stabilise his world. As if they were lead, weights on a loom, continually tensing the warp of the cloth being woven. And if a visitor or client takes a liking to a certain piece -something not at all far-fetched- it vanishes without leaving a trace, like an explorer swallowed by sinking sand, and another beautiful object takes its place.
Ramon Enrich
Arquitectures, fotografies i altres volums
[Architectures, Photographs and other Volumes]
Fundació Vila Casas Espai Volart
Carrer Ausiàs Marc, 22, 08010 Barcelona
21st January – 24th April 2016
A Poem Curated by Enric Bou Professor in Iberian Studies, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia
L’ENGANY Jo sóc la dona forta de la Santa Escriptura. (Mai no hi hagué més feble, més humil criatura.) Mai no hi hagué un silenci més compacte que el meu tancant els camins vívids a més crescuda veu. Ells em motegen freda, i serena, i valenta. I estic plena de pànic i de tristor calenta. Ells són sens rels pregones, i sens força i sens pau. Ells són el covard sempre, o el dolent, o l’esclau. Ells són els vents aqueixos que ajuden tota flama, ells, folls, els gots de l’ombra, la veu tensa que clama. I jo no sé quin núvol equivocat i estrany posà en mi l’aigua aquesta, de font que no em pertany. Però mai no vaig dir-los: «Companys, també sóc terra. De flama sóc i d’aigua, d’elements sempre en guerra...» No els diguí la por meua a la nit, a la mort. Prop de mi, no sabria que estic morint-me, el fort... No és l’estil meu, sabeu-ho, lluir per la ferida la vida.
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A Poem
DECEPTION I am the strong woman of the Holy Scripture. (There was never a weaker, humbler creature.) There was never a more compact silence than mine Closing vivid roads to a growing voice. They call me cool and calm and courageous. I am filled with panic and hot sadness. They are without deep roots, and without force and without peace. They are always the coward, or the bad, or the slave. They are the winds that start all these blazes, Them, fools, glasses in the shadow, a tense voice crying. And I do not know what wrong and strange cloud Gave me this water, from a source that is not mine. But I never told them: “Friends, I am also earth. I am made of flame and water elements always at war...” I did not tell them of my fear of night, of death. Near me, they would not know that I am dying, the strong... It is not my style, you know, to brag for the wound Life. (Translated by Enric Bou)
Maria Beneyto (Valencia, 1925-2011) was a poet and novelist. She started to publish her work under difficult circumstances in the 1950’s. She won the Barcelona City Prize with a collection of poems Ratlles a l’aire [Stripes in the Air] (1956). Her novel La dona forta [The Strong Woman] (1967) is written with a technique (a collective main character) reminiscent of other writers of the time, such as Blai Bonet or Camilo José Cela. Critics consider it to be the most significant novel published in Valencia during the 1960s. Maria Beneyto’s poetry is characterized by an ability to unify poetry, the female condition, introspection and tenderness. The poem L’engany [Deception] can be read as form of self-portrait and a vindication of women’s role in literature and society.
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Editorial Board Martí Anglada Former foreign news editor at TV3 (Catalonia Television). He has been foreign correspondent in the Middle East, Italy and Great Britain (1977-1984) for the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia and TV3’s foreign correspondent in the United States (1987-1990), Brussels and Berlin (2009-2011). He has also been an international political commentator. His books include Afers no tan estrangers [Not So Foreign Affairs] (Editorial Mina, 2008), Quatre vies per a la independència: Estònia, Letònia, Eslovàquia, Eslovènia [Four Ways To Independence: Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia] (Editorial Pòrtic, 2013) and La via alemanya [The German Way] (Brau Edicions, 2014). He was named the Government of Catalonia’s new delegate for France and Switzerland in September 2014.
Enriqueta Aragonès A research professor at the Institut d’Anàlisi Econòmica (IAE-CSIC) and affiliate professor at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. She holds a degree in Economics from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a PhD from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Most of her research takes place on the frontier between economics and political science. In particular she examines questions concerning political science using the instruments of economic analysis and game theory. Her articles are published in leading journals in both political science (American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science) and economics (American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Theory).
Jordi Basté (Barcelona, 1965). Journalist. He worked at Catalunya Ràdio, collaborating on Joaquim Maria Puyal’s football broadcasts( 1982-2004). He also r eported on basketball matches and presented the programs La Jornada and No ho diguis a ningú. Later he joined RAC1 radio station, where he presented the sports programT u diràs ( 2004-2007). S ince then he has been the director and presenter of the morning magazine El món a RAC1 ( currently the leading program in Catalan radio history) for whichhe received the Premi Nacional de Radiodifusió in 2010 and the Premi Òmnium Cultural de Comunicaciói n 2012. O n TV, he has w orked on Basquetmania and a s a c odirector and presenter of Gol a gol for Televisió de Catalunya (2001-2003). In 2010 Basté received the Protagonistas award for communication and in 2011 he r eceived an Ondas award in recognition of his distinguished career in broadcasting.
Enric Canela (Barcelona, 1949). Holds a degree in Chemistry from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and a PhD in Chemistry, specialising in Biochemistry. He has taught at the UB since 1974, where he is currently professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and collaborates on research into intracellular communication. He also conducts research on theoretical Biochemistry and regularly publishes in scientific journals of international repute. He is a member of numerous scientific societies. Between 1991 and 1995 he was vicepresident of the Catalan Society of Biology. Between 2007 and 2009 he was president of the Circle for Knowledge. Between 2007 and 2011 he was a patron of the National Agency for Evaluation, Certification and Accreditation (ANECA) in Spain. He is currently vice-rector of Science Policy at the UB.
Salvador Cardús (Terrassa, 1954). PhD in Economics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge, Cornell University (USA) and Queen Mary College of the University of London. Currently he is professor of Sociology at the UAB and the former Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology. He has conducted research into the sociology of religion and culture, media, nationalism and identity. His published works include, Plegar de viure [Giving Up on Life] with Joan Estruch, Saber el temps [Understanding Time], El desconcert de l’educació [The Education Puzzle], Ben educats [Well Educated] and El camí de la independència [The Road To Independence]. In the field of journalism he was the editor of the Crònica d’Ensenyament magazine (1987-1988) and was deputy editor of the Avui newspaper (1989-1991). He contributes to ARA, La Vanguardia, Diari de Terrassa and Deia newspapers. He is a member of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. www.salvadorcardus.cat
August Gil-Matamala Has been a practising lawyer since 1960, specialising in the fields of criminal and labour law. He has taken part in numerous cases in defence of those on trial for their demands in favour of people’s rights, as well as hearings before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Gil-Matamala fought the first successful case against the Spanish state for the violation of basic rights. He is a founder member of the Commission for the Defence of Individual Rights of the Col·legi d’Advocats de Barcelona [the Barcelona Bar Association] and the Catalan Association for the Defence of Human Rights, which he presided over from its foundation in 1985 to 2001. Gil-Matamala has also been president of both the Fundació Catalunya and the European Democratic Lawyers organization. In 2007, coinciding with his retirement, he received the Creu de Sant Jordi (St. George’s Cross, the highest honour awarded by the Catalan government).
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Montserrat Guibernau Professor of Politics at Queen Mary College, University of London. Holds a PhD and an MA in Social and Political Theory from the University of Cambridge and a degree in Philosophy from the Universitat de Barcelona. She has taught at the universities of Warwick, Cambridge, Barcelona, the London School of Economics and the Open University. Guibernau has held visiting professorships at the universities of Edinburgh, Tampere, Pompeu Fabra, the UQAM (Quebec) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Currently she holds a visiting fellowship at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics. Montserrat Guibernau is the author of numerous books and articles on nationalism, the nation-state, national identity, and national and ethnic minorities in the West from the perspective of global governance.
Manuel Manonelles A political scientist specialised in international relations and human rights, he has been Director General for Multilateral and European Affairs of the Catalan Government since June 2014; a position he combines with that of associate professor of International Relations at the University Ramon Llull (Barcelona). Member of the Steering Committee of the Jean Monnet Centre of European Excellence on ‘Intercultural Dialogue, Human Rights and Multi-level Governance’ located at the University of Padua (Italy), he has participated in the work of the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development (2009-13) under the coordination of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in support of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty (2011-2). He has been special advisor to the Co-chair of the UN High Level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations, as well as director of the Foundation Culture of Peace and the World Forum of Civil Society Networks (known as the Ubuntu Forum). He has been an international electoral observer and supervisor for the OSCE and the EU on many occasions, and has participated in several international intergovernmental and non-governmental processes. He is currently the Government of Catalonia’s Director General of Multilateral Affairs.
Fèlix Martí Former president of the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (Pax Romana), from 1975 to 1984; director of the Catalonia magazine (1987-2002), aimed at disseminating the Catalan culture around the world; director of the UNESCO centre of Catalonia (1984-2002) and subsequently its honorary president. From 1994 to 2002 he was editor of the Catalan editions of the yearly reports of the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute, L’Estat del món [The State of the World] and Signes vitals [Vital Signs]. He promoted the Declaration on Contributions by Religions to a Culture of Peace, signed by leaders of the great religious traditions in 1994. President of the Linguapax International Institute from 2001 to 2004 and its honorary president thereafter. He published his memoirs Diplomàtic sense estat [Diplomat Without a State] in 2006. His latest book is Déus desconeguts. Viatge iniciàtic a les religions de l’Orient [Unknown Gods. Journey of Initiation Through the Religions of the East], published in 2013. He was awarded the UNESCO Human Rights Medal in 1995 and the Catalan government’s Creu de Sant Jordi award in 2002.
Eva Piquer (Barcelona, 1969).Writer and cultural journalist. Works for several newspapers and magazines. Has been a lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a New York news correspondent. Won the 2002 Josep Pla prize for her novel Una victòria diferent [A Different Victory]. Also author of several books, including La noia del temps [The Weather Girl], Alícia al país de la televisió [Alice in Television Land] and No sóc obsessiva, no sóc obsessiva, no sóc obsessiva [I’m Not Obsessive, I’m Not Obsessive, I’m Not Obsessive]. Her latest book is called La feina o la vida [Life or Work].
Ricard Planas (Girona, 1976). Journalist, art critic and cultural promoter. Studied Philology and the History of Art at the Universitat de Girona. In 1999 he founded the magazine Bonart, dedicated to the contemporary art scene in the Catalan Countries. More recently he created and directed the Catalan art fair INART in 2005 and 2006. Has worked as the curator for exhibitions by important artists such as Arranz-Bravo, Lamazares, Formiguera, Cuixart, Ansesa and Grau-Garriga. Ricard has collaborated with Ona Catalana, Catalunya Ràdio, iCatfm and Onda Rambla radio stations. Has also worked for the Diari de Girona, El Punt and El Mundo newspapers, among others.
Clara Ponsatí Professor of Economics at the University of Saint Andrews. Holds a degree in Economics from the Universitat de Barcelona, a Masters in Economics from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. She is a research professor and director at Institut d’Anàlisi Econòmica-C.S.I.C., affiliated faculty and research fellow at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. She has been senior researcher at C.S.I.C., associate professor and assistant professor at UAB and Postdoctoral research associate at Bell Communications Research, Morristown, NJ. She is a member of the editorial boards of The International Journal of Game Theory and The Review of Economic Design.
Arnau Queralt Holds a degree in Environmental Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a Masters in Public Management from ESADE, the UAB and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Since October 2011, he has been the director of the Advisory Council for the Sustainable Development of Catalonia (CADS), an advisory body of the Government of Catalonia attached to its Presidential Department. Since October 2012, he has been a member of the Steering Committee of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC). From May 2010 to October 2011 he was secretary general of the Cercle Tecnològic de Catalunya foundation. He has been on the board of the Catalan Association of Environmental Professionals since 2004 and was its president from 2010 to 2012.
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Vicent Sanchis (Valencia, 1961). Holds a degree in Information Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. In his career as a journalist it is worth highlighting that he has worked and collaborated on many publications and with numerous publishers; he is director of El Temps magazine, and he has been director of Setze magazine, the Catalan supplement of Cambio 16, and director of the newspapers El Observador and Avui. He has also excelled as a scriptwriter and director on different TV programmes. At present he is president of the editorial board of Avui, and vice-president of Òmnium Cultural. Vicent is also a lecturer in the Faculty of Communication Sciences at Universitat Ramon Llull in Barcelona.
Mònica Terribas (Barcelona, 1968). Holds a degree in Journalism from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Stirling (Scotland). She is a lecturer at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. From 2002 to 2008 she presented and subsequently directed the current affairs programme La nit al dia for TV3 (the Catalan public television). From 2008 to 2012 she was Director of TV3 and the following year, the CEO and editor of the newspaper Ara. Since September 2013 she has presented El matí de Catalunya Ràdio, Catalonia’s public service broadcasting flagship current affairs programme.
Montserrat Vendrell (Barcelona, 1964). Has been BIOCAT’s CEO since April 2007. As a cluster organization, BIOCAT’s goals include promoting the development of biotechnology companies and research institutions. Vendrell has been the Chairwoman of CEBR (the Council of European Bioregions) since 2012. She holds a PhD in Biology (Universitat de Barcelona), a Masters in Science Communication (UPF) and a degree in Business Administration (IESE, PDG). Before BIOCAT she was linked to the Barcelona Science Park, where she held several posts such as Scientific Director (1997-2005) and Deputy Director General (2005-2007). Among other tasks, Dr Vendrell led the design and implementation of the Park’s Strategic Plan, as well as the organization and management of scientific activities and technological platforms. She was a member of the Steering Committee of the Park’s Biotech Incubator, and in charge of international relations.
Carles Vilarrubí (Barcelona, 1954). Businessman. He is currently Executive Vice-President of Rothschild Spain Investment Bank, specialising in key mergers and takeovers in the financial sector on an international scale. President of CVC Grupo Consejero, an equity and investment advisory firm, with a portfolio of shares in consulting and service companies from the world of communications, the media, marketing, technology and telecommunications. President of Doxa Consulting Group, independent consultants on technology, media and telecommunications, leaders in the sector and with a presence in Spain and Portugal. He is a member of the advisory board of the Catalan confederation Foment del Treball Nacional [National Employment Promotion] and patron of the Fundació Orfeó Català - Palau de la Música. He has also been a member of the governing council of ADENA WWF (World Wild Fund for Nature), and sat on the boards of the Fundación Arte y Tecnología, Fundesco and Fundación Entorno. He is vice-president of F.C Barcelona.
Vicenç Villatoro (Terrassa, 1957). Writer and journalist. Holds a degree in Information Sciences. He is director of CCCB (Barcelona’s Center for Contemporary Culture). Former president of the Ramon Trias Fargas foundation and the former director of the Institut Ramon Llull. As a journalist he has worked for numerous organizations. He was the editor of the Avui newspaper from 1993 to 1996 and head of the culture section of TV3. Between 2002 and 2004 was director general of the Catalan Radio and Television Corporation. He has contributed to a range of media companies, such as Avui, El Periódico, El País, El Temps, Catalunya Ràdio and COM ràdio. He has written a dozen novels.
Francesc de Dalmases (Director) (Barcelona, 1970). Journalist and consultant in humanitarian aid and cooperation and development. Has been president (1999-2006) of the Association of Periodicals in Catalan (APPEC); coordinator for the delegation to the Spanish state of European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages (1995-1999); coordinator for the third conference of the CONSEU (Conference of European Stateless Nations) (1999); and coordinator for the publication Europa de les Nacions (1993-1999). Has acted as a foreign expert in aid projects in such diverse locations as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mongolia, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico, Guatemala, Morocco and Congo. He is a member of the Cooperation Council of the Catalan government. In 2011 he joined Barcelona’s Council’s Aid Commitee and is a board member of the Federation of Internationally Recognized Catalan Organizations.
Víctor Terradellas (Editor) (Reus, 1962). Entrepreneur and political and cultural activist. President and founder of Fundació CATmón. Editor of Catalan International View and ONGC, a magazine dedicated to political thought, solidarity, aid and international relations. Víctor has always been involved in political and social activism, both nationally and internationally. The driving force behind the Plataforma per la Sobirania [The Platform for Self-Determination] as well as being responsible for significant Catalan aid operations and international relations in such diverse locations as Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Pakistan and Kurdistan. Currently he is General Secretary of International Relations for Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya.
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