Opinió
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Salvador Garcia: Catalunya, un estat d'Europa o de la UE?
Salvador Garcia-Ruiz
13.10.2012
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Miquel Strubell: 'Seria irònic que, a la nova Catalunya, el castellà hi fos oficial'
Miquel Strubell
10.10.2012
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Bernat Joan: 'Oficialitat asimètrica'
Bernat Joan
10.10.2012
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Gabriel Bibiloni: 'Construir un estat amb l'espanyol com a llengua oficial és un risc explosiu'
Gabriel Bibiloni
09.10.2012
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Mariano Ferrer: 'La qüestió identitària serà important en la campanya electoral basca'
Mariano Ferrer
05.10.2012
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Lois Rodríguez: 'És impossible d'aventurar si guanyarà el bloc de dretes o d'esquerres a Galícia'
Lois Rodríguez
05.10.2012
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Isidor Marí: 'El Diccionari català-valencià-balear, un dels grans de totes les llengües romàniques'
Isidor Marí
05.10.2012
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Els crits de la gent normal
Jordi Borda
30.09.2012
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Raimon trenca el silenci a Berlín
Martí Estruch Axmacher
29.09.2012
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Jaume Aulet: 'Decàleg per a combatre el pensament autonòmic'
Jaume Aulet
27.09.2012
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Rafa Xambó: 'Saben que perden i que no tenen res a fer'
Rafa Xambó
26.09.2012
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Martí Gasull, des de Mallorca
Tomeu Martí
23.09.2012
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Meritxell Ramírez: 'L’exemple de Catalunya pesa com una llosa en l’imaginari nacionalista escocès'
Meritxell Ramírez
23.09.2012
Liz Castro
07.01.2014
Straight from the source—in English
It is one of the great paradoxes of Catalonia that its language—a key piece of its culture, tradition, and indeed its identity—is also one of the obstacles for telling its story to the world. It's natural for Catalans to tell their stories and discuss issues that are important to them—their self-government, their culture, their history—in their own language—spoken by some 10 million people. And they do so through Catalan-language TV and radio, four major daily print papers and several online news portals, including VilaWeb, that publish in Catalan, and with around 8000 books in Catalan published each year.
But there is a problem: how does Catalonia's story get to the world if is told only in Catalan? And the answer is, mostly it doesn't. Traditionally, foreign correspondents of world-class newspapers in the Spanish state are based in Madrid. Not only are they dependent on and affected by Madrid's view of Catalonia, but because they generally don't know Catalan, they have difficulties contrasting that view with information that comes directly from Catalan sources. It's a bit of a double whammy.
And the effects of this dearth of first-hand information is readily apparent.
If you google Catalonia in the international press, you might think that Catalonia's demands for independence stem from selfishness, a fit of craziness from President Mas alone, or from xenophobic nationalism. But you'd be wrong. Catalonia is a net contributor both to the Spanish State and the EU—contributing 18 times more to Spain than German does to the EU; the independence movement began to gain steam after the Spanish Constitutional Court ruling against the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, and President Mas joined the movement only after the massive grassroots demonstration in favor of independence just 15 months ago; and Catalans are the first to insist that they have nothing against the Spanish, and hope to be good neighbors—they just want to choose their own destiny.
Of course, the story is much more complicated than that. It has to do with a long history, a cultural identity and peace-loving but implacable character that refuses to go away, and a firm belief that democracy is the way to decide a people's future. With a second massive demonstration just a few months ago that had more than 1.6 million people holding hands from one end of Catalonia to the other and the multi-party agreement to hold a referendum on independence on November 9th of this year, the world has suddenly turned its gaze in this direction. It's time we offered information about Catalonia straight from the source, in a language that the whole world understands: English. VilaWeb was the first online news portal in Catalan and our more than 1 million unique visitors each month make us one of the most visited sites for news about Catalonia online. Our new English edition will help explain Catalonia's story—during this particularly interesting year—to this new audience.
Liz Castro is the coordinator for VilaWeb English. She is also the publisher of Catalonia Press, a small imprint that specializes in books about Catalonia in English, and is a bestselling computer book author.
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