Getting dirty

On Monday, I was getting a sick scared feeling in my stomach but I thought maybe things would calm down a bit after the Diada, the national day of Catalunya. But now I am getting that same feeling again. A certain Mr Assange is championing the cause of independence and that frightens me. He is using the famous picture of a Chinese guy in front of tanks in Tinamen Square as if to suggest that Spain exercising its laws is the same.
There is much that I want to do today, painting, learning Tagalog for my visit to the Philippines. But I cannot concentrate - I am genuinely scared about what will happen in the next two weeks. It will get dirty. The government in Madrid puts its faith in the law, as did I, but this could crumble under the onslaught of lies and extreme language on TV and in the press and, of course, the internet. There are people around the world who have no idea about the issues here, they simply see the "poor under-dog" Catalunya being denied its "legitimate, democratic" right to self-determination (the phrase which is used here). If every region in every country had that right under a referendum, the world would be thrown back decades in its progress towards peaceful co-existence. We should be looking for closer ties between countries, not fragmenting the world into myriad small states. Everyone has a vote, it is called the Elections for a Parliament! A referendum is quite different. There are people who simply want to disrupt Europe and the democracy that I so value and which keeps me safe.

As I mentioned yesterday, the Fiscalia in Barcelona has issued a warning to the mayors of all the municipalities which belong to the Association of Municipales de Independencia (AMI) that they face charges if they continue to promise support for the referendum but this worries me - it could back-fire against them because the charges are very serious. (They represent about 75% of the total). Carles Puigedemont describes this as "barbarity".

Barbarity, civil war..... ? This is Europe?

The Government in Madrid closed down the Referendum website yesterday but today, Carles Puigdemont announced two alternatives, one of which (www.ref1oct.eu) was registered on 6th September. So obviously they were prepared. I think the website is hosted in the UK so the Spanish police can't do anything about that.

If I wanted to create a website which the law could not touch, then it is very easy. It doesn't need the knowledge of Assange. Simply register the domain name in Luxembourg as they have done and host the website in the UK... or anywhere, so long as it is not Spain.

I guess they could block the website in Spain but they would have no control about the rest of the world seeing it. And there are ways around that anyway as many expats watching BBC iPlayer found. Except that it is not possible now!

Tonight, I will be among friends and like-minded people. I am a member of SCC (Societat Civil Catalunya) and the Girona branch is meeting tonight in a Civic Centre. The SCC is not a political party, it is a group of people who do not want independence, especially if it is carried out illegally. But the independistas shout louder.
https://societatcivilcatalana.cat/es

OK, what if the referendum goes ahead? I suspect people who dislike the idea of independence will not recognise it as legal and stay away. That will leave the way open for independence. And that would be a disaster of major proportions. Many people are so full of hatred for the governement in Madrid, and resentment about the Franco years and even the defeat in 1714 that they are blinded by what lies in the future. It is rather like driving a car and looking out of the rear window. I would feel a little calmer if the prospect for an independent Catalunya was to be in the EU but I cannot see how this is  possible when the EU President - no less - has confirmed that it would leave at the same time as leaving Spain.