Opinió
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Alfred Bosch: 'Gibraltar, per a Espanya, és com Catalunya'
Alfred Bosch
13.08.2013
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Manel Alves: 'Necessitem 70.000 persones per omplir les Terres de l'Ebre'
Manel Alves
09.08.2013
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Què implica prorrogar els pressuposts?
Elisenda Paluzie
07.08.2013
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Maria Antònia Font: 'Bauzá vol infondre la por entre el professorat'
Maria Antònia Font
01.08.2013
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Joan Joan: 'Veig cendra, silenci i pedres'
Joan Joan
30.07.2013
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Jordi Bilbeny: 'Universitat Nova Història: un espai per a recuperar la història i la dignitat'
Jordi Bilbeny
29.07.2013
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Lengua Viua: 'Cau contunhar persutant tà qu’er usatge der aranés sigue present ena vida vidanta dera gent'
Lengua Viua
28.07.2013
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Tretze federacions de països no independents al Mundial de Natació. I Catalunya?
Albert Bertrana
22.07.2013
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Eugeni Casanova: Que enviïn algun tanc, per favor
Eugeni Casanova
18.07.2013
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RTVV: la penúltima desfeta del País Valencià
Amàlia Garrigós
16.07.2013
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Salvador Cardús: Una candidatura excepcional per a una oportunitat única
Salvador Cardús
11.07.2013
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Dels nervis i les tupades del 1992 a l'emoció i la comunió del 2013
Tomeu Martí
04.07.2013
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Odei A.-Etxearte: Sóc de 'Santako', no imbècil
Odei A.-Etxearte
03.07.2013
Francesc Canosa
12.07.2014
We the radicals
I'll understand if the reader doesn't believe me. A few weeks ago we were in one of those interior patios in the Eixample. There was a celebration. Since we're poor, we took advantage of the cava. They say it's nutritional. That it cures everything. And god-help-us we believe what we're told. We had drunk several glasses that should've kept us fed for at least two days. All of a sudden I stood up straight. A man and a woman were chatting with me. Very friendly. I don't know what drink we had graduated to. I lifted my glass and saw that Barcelona sky that looks like summer sheets. Childhood. The couple were talking about a city I didn't know. About when they were kids. Wheeeee. The fun they had. They never knew where they were going. Never. One day at one person's house. The next day the other's. Like hide and seek. Houses, houses. There were other kids. And a young teacher, and another. And they said "Bon dia" [Good morning, in Catalan] and "Bona tarda" [Good afternoon, in Catalan]. Secretly. They thought it was a game. Their father made them think it was a game. They were learning their language, in their own country, in safe houses, in rooms with the curtains drawn. Shadows with just a sliver of light. How much did all that cost?
Now that [Spanish Education] minister Wert wants to pay parents who demand that their children be taught in Spanish six thousand euros, we have to ask ourselves how much money it has cost us to learn our own language since 1714. How much? I am the only member of my family that was schooled in Catalan. From a family that has lived in Catalonia. For three centuries. The State has not paid for any schooling in our own language. Not any. We have lived with the State's back turned to us, and we have kept our language alive. We are the radicals. The true radicals. You people who spit on, insult, threaten, and paint the Members of the Catalan Parliament can go to hell: we are the real radicals. Nobody has ever given us anything and we gave our all. We have not lost our language. They have killed it, they have denounced it, they have fined it, they did everything they could and we said No.
We have said No since time immemorial. The Moyano Law of Public Instruction (1857): "The Spanish Academy Grammar and Orthography will be the sole required text for this subject matter in public education." And we kept speaking Catalan. Jump to whatever time period you want. Quantum leap wherever you like. According to the Royal Order of December 29, 1923 the University of Barcelona is prohibited from offering electives (electives!!!) in Catalan. The reason? "That no official educational center should authorize the teaching of disciplines that are not included in the curriculum previously approved by the authorities." We kept speaking in Catalan. Just a single anecdote from what happened after 1939. October 6, 1939: "The civil governor surprises and personally shutters secular, separatist schools": "One of the supposed teachers was found giving classes to twenty children, who responded to a brief interrogation (which it was not necessary to prolong, given the erroneous responses), proving that they were not being taught the catechism and that the classes were being given in Catalan." And... we continued speaking in Catalan.
This week (July 11) is the 53rd anniversary (1961) of the birth of Òmnium Cultural. It is also the 28th anniversary (July 9) of the death of one of the organization's founders: J.B. Cendrós. Many of the children who two weeks ago nourished themselves with cava learned Catalan thanks to Òmnium's clandestine network during the Franco era. How much did all that cost us?
What country has to pay secretly, voluntarily to teach its own language? Which one? Now we have to pay democratically so that five families receive schooling in Spanish. Us, all of us, absolutely all of us, who were never paid a cent to teach us our own, common, community vehicular language. We have supplemented everything that the State did not do. And one day it will be proven scientifically that Catalans invented the virtual world to amend everything that reality does not provide us. How much does that all cost?
We have constructed throughout history a para-state and we are afraid now to create a real state? We have continued with our language against all odds and now everything feels uncertain? We have made certainty out of uncertainty. Normality from abnormality. From death, a miracle. We did it all. There is no other future than the one that we have created. There is no other tomorrow than the path that we have taken. There's nothing else. There's nothing else because if they take away our language, they steal my landscape, my people, my feelings. They take away everything. I have nothing left. We come from nothing and we have had a language which was everything. How much has all that been worth? Incalculable. How much will what we have to do be worth? Incalculable. Unimaginable. Who can do it? Only we can. There's no one else. We, the ones with just a glass of cava in our hands. We, who have only a sky of sheets. We, who only have sadness for hope. We, the radicals.
Editorial
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La manera de guanyar importa
Vicent Partal
27.07.2015
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La fi de Pujol i la fi de la Catalunya autònoma
Vicent Partal
25.07.2015
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7 contra 155?
Vicent Partal
24.07.2015
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El 155 o l'evidència de la desesperació
Vicent Partal
23.07.2015
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Rajoy i els conceptes més elementals
Vicent Partal
22.07.2015
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Anem a totes
Vicent Partal
21.07.2015
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Ciutadans contra el(s) valencià(ns)
Vicent Partal
20.07.2015
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Contra la revolució
Vicent Partal
17.07.2015
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Les tres explicacions que no entendran mai
Vicent Partal
16.07.2015
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Setanta-cinc dies per a treballar tots com bojos
Vicent Partal
15.07.2015
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Bones vibracions…
Vicent Partal
14.07.2015
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Turbulències, també a Podem
Vicent Partal
13.07.2015
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Lleida és un gran exemple
Vicent Partal
10.07.2015
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I ara un parell de preguntes
Vicent Partal
09.07.2015
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Entre Irlanda i la CUP
Vicent Partal
08.07.2015
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(In)justícies
Vicent Partal
07.07.2015
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La democràcia té límits?
Vicent Partal
06.07.2015
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Persistència per a guanyar
Vicent Partal
05.07.2015
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Sumar
Vicent Partal
03.07.2015
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L’embolic d’Iceta amb el 9-N
Vicent Partal
02.07.2015
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Contra la 'llei mordassa'
Vicent Partal
01.07.2015
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Europa, en perill
Vicent Partal
30.06.2015
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A les vostres mans
Vicent Partal
29.06.2015
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La trampa
Vicent Partal
26.06.2015
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El retorn de la Generalitat
Vicent Partal
25.06.2015