dijous, 20 de novembre del 2008

Reason 13: THEY WILL NEVER STOP IMPOSING THEIR LANGUAGE UPON US, DAMAGING OURS AS A CONSEQUENCE


I often say that the Spaniards are the ones who constantly give us reasons to want independence. I also often say that the Spaniards will never let us be. The multi-national Spain that some would like is be more difficult to achieve than independence.
Why?
Because independence we can get by our own will (without them wanting it) while a multi-national federal system can only be achieved with their collaboration and they will NEVER give away the power they’ve got over us voluntarily.
There are many signs that prove that the Spanish mentality in power today still is the imperialist one. A mentality that does not want to embrace the multi-cultural or multi-national reality of Spain.
Up till now there were 148 laws imposing the use of Spanish language in commerce. Only one law protects the Catalan language within the Catalan territory. But this law is not even being applied (perhaps because our politicians are afraid that by applying this law the hatred in Spain against Catalans would increase even more).
The fact is that the Spanish authorities this year have developed three new laws in order to reinforce and impose the hegemony of Spanish language in Spanish territory.
We all thought things would get better with democracy, but in the ‘democratic’ Spain of today this mentality hasn’t changed much. In fact the linguistic laws are pretty much the same as in times of the dictator. Everything must be in Spanish language. The other languages are not taken in consideration.
This mentality is causing a lot of trouble to develop a normal life in Catalan language; this attitude is a constant threat that is slowly bringing our mother tongue to extinction. I don’t have to say that the only and best way to get rid of this mentality is independence.

The three new laws are:
Reial Decret 1079/2008, 27 June to ensure labels in Spanish language on ham
Reial Decret 1644/2008, 10 October to ensure labels and instructions in Spanish language on machines
Reial Decret 1246/2008, 18 July to ensure that all official documents for products for veterinarians are in Spanish.

The original article on the two new laws for the Spanish language is here (Catalan only):
http://www.directe.cat/article/151-lleis-obliguen-a-etiquetar-en-castella-a-lestat-espanyol-10827