OK, guess who the speaker is and who he’s speaking about: “[This man] is the leader of the peace process”. No, not someone at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis talking about Gerry Adams. Nor someone describing Nelson Mandela. The speaker is the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu and he’s talking about Arnaldo Otegi.
Who he? Otegi was the driving force in moving the Basque independence movement away from armed conflict and into a pattern of dialogue and debate. So of course he was welcomed by the Spanish authorities and both sides sat down to arrive at an agreement acceptable to all – right? Wrong.
Otegi is in fact in a Spanish prison just about as far away from his family and friends as he could be. The same thing applies to some 500 other Basque prisoners – they’ve been jailed, many in solitary confinement, as far away from their homes as the Spanish authorities can find. This means their families, if they wish to visit them, have to travel hundreds of miles. The response of the Spanish government, in other words, is to go for a total military victory over the Basque activists.
Which may give them a pleasing sense of supremacy but it’s not very smart. If we’ve learnt one lesson here, it’s that oppression doesn’t work. Think of internment, think of Bloody Sunday, think of the many repressive measures introduced here over the decades of conflict: in almost all cases they proved to be a recruitment stimulus for the IRA. People don’t forget when their enemies treat them with contempt or inflict hardship on them. The resentment is just bottled up and passed to another generation. That’s why it’s so important that those who would argue for a united Ireland must, whatever the temptation otherwise, must remember that their political opponents are their fellow-countrymen and women and must at all times be treated with respect.
Why should we care about the Basque prisoners? Haven’t we enough on our plate trying to cope with our own fractured situation? A great English poet and preacher, John Donne, put it best some four hundred years ago. He was speaking of death but his words apply equally applies to suffering and injustice:
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
A well reasoned argument and perhaps we have all been guilty of not showing enough respect.
Thank you, neill. That’s kind of you to say that.
Neke ondoren, poza After the suffering comes joy
“Is b’aithnid dúinne/Toicithe glacacha,/Nach gcloisfear/A drácht sa Spáinn.”
“And we have known/ Grasping tycoons/ Whose names won’t be heard/Mentioned in Spain.”
Ó Direáin
I doubt if the British ex-pats see themselves as YOUR fellow countrymen, Jude,
That is the nature of the beast: rise up and you will be crushed. Christ died on the cross, not just to free us from sin, but to teach us that, if you stand up for righteousness then be prepared to be crucified.
Did ETA not negotiate the release of their prisoners as past of their peace process? Seems a bit strange.
There’s an evocative line in The Scottish Play, Esteemed Blogmeister; in fact , there is a muckle of same but one in particular came to mind on reading today’s blog.
-Hold, here’s my sword. There’s husbandry in heaven; their candles are burnt out.
Now, while husbandry in heaven there well might be, and on a nightly basis too, this is alright for the Gods but for us lesser mortals down here below who are not to the manner so born, less so. It especially does not come as easily to some of us down here in the Free Southern Stateen.
There are particular reasons why this might be so.
In Pamplona in the Basque region, for instance, it is customary to run the bulls through the streets narrow and narrower on a select week during the year. In Dublin in the cask of Arthur Guinness region, it is customary to run the bulls through the streets broad and narrow every day of every week in the year, without discrimination.
Certainly, this is so, if one is to judge by the carpeting of b.s. which takes place on a daily basis once the Dailies hit same streets..
It is indeed a difficult thing to show even a modicum of husbandry to the distortionists and other daily purveyors of media methane gas. Whatever about the other Arthur, this is truly no easy Askey.
Right now these comedians have taken once again that extra step and gone beyond their daily display of distortion to stray into the twilight zone of contortion.Little wonder that the great Donegal contortiontist, Hugh Deeny, is a role model for the ink slingers of the Indo and the typesetters of The Unionist Times.
For the first time since The Sleepless Beauty hit the headlines the strains of The Vale of Avoca can once more be heard in full chorus in and around the statue of Uncle Tom Moore on College Green which is where na meain / the mediacrity is concentrated
AVOCA, of course, being the acronym for A Victim of Child Abuse. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City (situated curiously enough not a pompous editorial sermon’s length away from Provo, Utah) are only in the halfpenny place when it comes to unity of voice on the question of vice, beside the combined choirs of the Halfpenny Bridge. Hackitariat.
Having done a number on the Catholic Church so successfully in this regard they have now turned their uniform attention to the sinners of Sinn Fein. So successful in the former case that the perpetrators of AVOCA and the clergy of the Catholic Church have become synonymous terms.
This was achieved by the adoption of a very simple, to the point of being simplistic arithmetical formula: turn 97 % of the, erm, media spotlight on the 3 % of offenders and – bingo ! – synonymity is achieved. It was always thus in the FSS, certainly so since the heady heyday of Conor Cruise O’Goebells who was the great cementer of the First Three and the Fourth Estates. The proto-type dodgy developer indeed, one might aver.
It is a formula which has never failed to make Schrodinger laugh even unto to the point of tear-shedding in the back yard shed. Schrodinger being, of course, the name of Perkie’s own pet Pekinese cat. To see him pounding the linoleum with his paw in hilarity always gladdens his master’s heart.
As cats go, Schrodinger is above the feline average when it comes to maths (and mats) and, also as a black cat who was capable of counting on his paws before his first birthday, he is more than able to fully appreciate the darkness of the humour which lies at the core of that formula: 97/3 in percentage terms.
It is indeed hard to the point of being arduous to show any measure of husbandry to a FSS hackitariat which can pony up piles of references to the RCC (to give it its new, expanded title) while discussing a programme broadcast by the BBC, of all ‘the best stations in the world’.
It never seemed to have occurred to them to mount even a rudimentary challenge to the Bona Fidos of their fellow watch dogs in the BBC. Not least when the innumerable mentions of kangaroo courts were yahoo-ing for a nod in the direction of Rolf, portraiturist of Mrs.Knobble Knees and purveyor of wobble boards.
One looks forward to Harris on Harris next Sunday in the Sindo.
(Perhaps it will all boomerang the hackitariat? Only time and the Red C Poll will tell).
One finds it demanding to muster up a smidgin of husbandry for a Free Southern Stateen which can import a Trench-foot Fetishist such as Field Marshal K. Myers and allow him – wow ! – full rein to set the agenda on everything to do with the Great Donkey Derby of 14-18 and the damnable little bothereen of 16 in between.
Guernica is the Basque town which had the b-haysus blown out of it during the Spanish ‘Civil’ War. It also conspired Picasso to paint his magum opus of distortion.
Which might even have served as a template for the distortions subsequently practiced with such obvious relish in the Free Southern Stateen, where even the bleedin’ Olives find it obligatory to get oiled/ twisted in public.And not just on St. Patty’s Nite.
-Aw, shur, aren;t we the best craic of any of the preliminary heats of the human race?
Hard to harbour husbandry, indeed.
-Thump, thump, thump.
That would the three-thump warning which Schrodinger invariably gives when it recognises the need for clarity of the part of his master (and bewhiskered supplier of Whiskas). In this instance, the provenance of the word ‘husbandry’.
It is,of course, Orkney rhyming slang for ‘respect’ and it first appeared in The Scottish Play as quoted at the beginning above. Shakespeare took a real shine to Orkney rhyming slang.
This is how it evolved:the husband henpecked/ respect. The henpecked was dropped, then the respect, leaving only the husband which subsequently added the -ry.
And never was there a more hencpecked husband in the history of literature than Macbeth/ Mac an Bheatha/ Old Mac the Life.
Indeed, Lady Macbeth was the death of him in the end.
-Thump, thump, thump.
Time for a cat-nap. One’s candles are burned out.
Terrorists’ families having to travel to visit them shouldn’t present any difficulty. Spain has an excellent rail network.
Do you mean tourists ?
Hi Jude. A refreshing subject. Our community is still fractured. The fracturing was created a long time ago. One of the more recent phases was 400 years ago. A clearing out and a replanting with a constant process of attacking and weakening the weeds that survived, ever after. (Long live the wild flowers.)
The point you made about “RESPECT” is a valid one but it is a hard thing to put into practice because our babies (even our middle class SDLP babies) are and will be fed on the nonsense, that we are fundamentally different from each other. Not our bodies or even our DNA. Just that strange soupy mix in our heads that keeps us forever in the grip of an ancient spell. That one great lie of imagined “difference”.
It suits people for us to use the red/yellow or red/white of Ulster, different sports, different languages, or different flags to set ourselves apart from each other. To reassure us of who we really are. Really?
The more we use these symbols as some imagined truth of identity (like the Basque prisoners) the greater distance we have to travel, to visit each other, on either side, as just human beings. One head, two eyes, two ears. One mouth. One body, two arms, two legs. Two hands. Two feet.
That’s who we really are. Just “PEOPLE”
Yes, we have experienced different histories, languages and customs, over the past 10 to 12 thousand years (not a long time in human history). Ireland is one of the youngest countries with regard to “people or population” in all of Europe.
We shouldn’t really be looking at “YOUSE-UNS” or “THEM-UNS” in our society to blame for our woes. That is just a grand distraction. We should be looking higher at the structures that rest far, far above us. The elites in either Britain or Ireland, most of whom historically originate from elsewhere (In Ireland or Britain). They have generally been the driving force in creating and manufacturing “difference” amongst us. It is a commodity and one of the main tools used to gain control over large groups of people.
So Basque, Irish or British, it is merely a cap of cultural experience and conditioning that makes us feel different from each other. Most of us don’t own hundreds of acres of land, run large corporations, live in walled estates or live off shares and investments passed on to us from grandfathers or great great grandfathers.
Most of us are just members of the great herd, grazing, temporarily, upon relatively futile distractions and activities. The whole idea of “nationhood or nationalism” is a concept created by our betters, from the time of the early farming chieftains or even earlier. Everything is controlled and guided by some elite group in society.
Without wanting to continue for much longer. We are distracted by nationalism/loyalism in this part of Ireland and Britain. In other countries it is other conflicts and disagreements. While all these serious conflicts are important, what goes on behind the loud noise of disagreement?
The counting of money and the industrialisation of society.
Some few hundred years ago the step was taken. The enclosure of the fields using legal and political means for reasons of commerce. Then, over time, the insects, the butterflies and the bees were asked to leave our fields too, for reasons of commerce. Then the fields were made bigger and the hedgerows were destroyed and ripped up for reasons of progress but really only for a return upon shares.
While our eye is taken off the ball and we are persuaded by our “leaders” (?) to focus on “manufactured difference” our world is stolen away from us as Basque prisoners and national conflicts are paraded in front of us every night and everyday on TV. (The sugar and wallpaper paste for our eyes).
So what is really going on and what is to blame?
As our Gaelic chieftains fade into memory and the English monarchy becomes a hollow thing where are our new petty kings? Who is running things these days? Certainly not our democratic leaders. Is that why no one wants to vote.
Like the marginalised Basque prisoners you will only find innovative ideas, on the edges of society. Like our ancient wild flowers, they wait to re-populate our minds and re-seed society with our old colours. Free to be different yet free from “manufactured difference”.
I suppose families of dead have not such a problem, they can visit their relatives very easily… on the closest cemetery.
I agree that if peace has to be reached everybody has to forget, if not forgive, the harm that the other part made them. But there has to be also some kind of recognition of the harm done, and the minimum is to ask for pardon to the families of the dead.
Let´s not forget that we are not speaking of political prisoners, but terrorists that actually have killed men, women and even little children with their bombs. Not only policemen or soldiers, but also politicians, students, bakers, bus drivers and even housewives. They have done if for political beliefs, but try to tell that to the dead…
The original purpose of having these prisoners so far away from their homes was nor torture them, but to break the “hard core” of ETA prisoners group, that didn´t allow any prisoner to disagree with ETA´s purpose. From that point of view, it has been a complete success, as right now there are dozens of ETA´s prisoners that have resigned the organization, recognized the harm to the victims and so have benefited from softer jail conditions. On the other hand, the ones that haven´t resigned from ETA are still in the original condition.
It´s true, however, that right now it seems that this situation is not longer useful, as ETA itself has give up on their purpose of killing people.
It should be the moment of showing generosity on this side of the conflict. The same can be said for Otegui. Otegui has shifted his political position from his support to ETA´s killing to his current support to the democratic fight. The fact is that even if I don´t like him as a person he is the actual leader of one of the sides of the conflict, and if we want to have any chance for solve it, he must be out of jail to represent his side and poit of view.
This is my opinion as spanish.
Arturo, your proposal is revenge. In my opinion, not a very good way to solve problems.
You say they are not polítical prisoners. Why are they judged at a special court and under special legislation? Why aren’t they treated like other prisoners?
I agree with you when you say that they should ask for pardon. However, in my opinion, saying sorry is something very personal, it is a feeling; we shouldn’t Join this feelings with the law.
Well, I don´t think I have praised for revenge. When?
Special courts and laws were the consecuence of special criminals. Maybe when you see a little girl with her legs cutted off because a bomb on her mother´s car you can understand that something special has to be done against such atrocities, because criminals have learned to profit from old laws, like Batasuna earning money from the very country they hate and from the very people they were killing. Ouch.
In fact I´m telling that the situation of the prisoners was a strategic one: putting them far away from their homer is puting them away from ETA´s sphere of influence, and breaking the group has had the outcome that many have rejected from ETA´s thinking , which would have never be possible if all of them are on the same prison under ambient pressure.
So the strategy worked. That was not done for torturing them or their families, even if as a result they have, of course, lots of inconvenience for them and their families.
Now I think this strategy it is nonsense, as the main reason for doing that it doesn´t exist anymore. I can only suppose that it is maintained to have more force on the negotiation.
As for asking for pardon… well, I think that if you really want a pacific solution, there has to be something like that for the victims, or they will never be able to stay and live on the same cities than their family´s killers. I think it´s very unfair to ask a victim to forget that his father, wife, son or daugther is dead if the person responsible of that act has no regrets about it.
If an assasin pretends to get out of jail, he has to put something from his side, because pretend just to get out without any consecuences when their victims are still, and always be, in graveyards, it´s at least macabre.
This is only if you really want to solve the conflict. Recognize the harm done, ask for pardon and then start to do politics, and good luck on the next elections. That´s the way normal people (no assassins) do things and pursue political objectives. No guns, no bombs. Just votes.
And please, be aware that, as you easily can see, I don´t like ETA, or Arnaldo Otegui, or whoever defend the violent acts of ETA. But I want to see the problem solved, and that includes that the people who thinks that way to do politics, simply because their are not going to vanish, as the other side is not going to vanish. I really WANT them to do politics, even if I dislike them.
But killing can never be for free. It is too much to ask to say… I´m sorry?
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your ideas but I don’t agree with many of them.
Arturo, when you ask for special laws for special criminals, you are breaking the rules. The laws must be the same for everybody, we cannot change them at somebody’s will, that’s not fair. When you change the laws for special crimes, you are including prejudice, beliefs, opinión. Justice must be universal.
Last year, a young man from my hometown -Elorrio- died in prison 1000km from home. He was 34 years old, he had been in prison for 12 years. He died of a heart attack just 2 months before reléase date. His crime: he had burnt a public bus.
Many Young basque girls/boys are wasting their lives up to 15 years in prison just for acts of hooliganism, riots in the streets, burning ATMs or this kind of “terrorism”
The same acts in other parts of Spain are not considered a crime. So when you talk about special crimes you are really talking about politics, not justice. That’s why I mentioned revenge.
If they are assessins or hooligans why aren’t they judged only for their acts (special Court, special laws). Revenge for their enemies and their enemies’ political beliefs. They are treated as enemies but aren’t they Spanish citizens?
Sincé you mention economic issues, I think your focus is a bit biased here, I remind you that Batasuna not only earns money from the country they hate but also pays their taxes.Ironically this is the only political party in the reign of Spain which has no economic cases of corrupcy among their members. Sory for being a bit cynical here but I think you made a bad move here.
On the other hand, I totally agree with you when you say that in order to solve the conflicto everybody has to ask for Pardon, recognize the harm inflicted and start doing politics.
This is exactly what Arnaldo Otegi was doing when he was taken to prison. Arnaldo was arrested and condemmned to a short stay in jail during the 80s. He was an ETA member then.He was harshly tortured and denounced it but nobody wanted to believe him. After this experience he very likely realised that violence wasn’t a good option. He was trying to convince ETA to do all the things you previously mentioned to solve the conflicto but was imprisoned for it and accused of reorganising Batasuna.
A politician trying to do politics, trying to solve a conflict with votes, no bombs or guns as you said before, was inmmediatelly imprisoned!!!
Jus to finish, saying sorry is a start. I think all ETA members should ask for Pardon.
One final thing to your consideration, when we mix Christian terms lke “Pardon” with political issues, shouldn’t we also include “Forgiving”. I mean if you ask somebody to apologise , are you sure you want to forgive?
Let’s walk together.
Best Regards
Hi, Jabi.
I just want to point out why things happen with that special laws.
As you know, there where years when the killings can be counted on hundreds. ETA was strong not only with weapons, but inside the political institutions with Batasuna, in the prisons and also on the streets, with Kale Borroka surrounding all the enviroment on Basque Country. That means to control many parts of basque society.
When the spanish goverment tried to fight “fire with fire” with GAL (nice Pandora Box I have open here to you) they saw that it was not only not aiding to finish ETA but was actually counter-productive. So they decided to attack all those points that made ETA strong:
– Batasuna, who was providing political support to the terrorist was banned, which in fact means that they can not longer control city councils and their resources, and also have not real political power anymore. Remember that Batasuna supported very actively ETA´s killings. Other separatists Basque parties like PNV or EA were not banned, as they condemned violence.
– Kale Borroka, making the law harder for them means that it was more difficult to stay on the streets making pressure to the police, so the enviroment eases inch by inch. Also, some members of Kale Borroka ended being ETA members, so they were also cutting future of ETA, or at least making more difficult the replacement.
– Prisons, I have already talked about it on past posts.
This strategy from the Spanish goverment was very effective indeed. The power that ETA had on the streets vanished on a very high percentage; also there were less enviromental pressure and less youngsters joined ETA.
Unfortunately, this means also that there were very unfair outcomes. Nobody should be inprisoned for years for burning a bus or for riots that doesn t harm anybody. I´m sorry about your neighbour from Elorrio, he should not have died in prison and I´m sure he doesn´t deserve it, as he killed nobody. I think he is not the only one.
What I try to explain is that this was not for revenge, but for a practical purpose: get ETA weaker. Because ETA was very strong those years. And they did.
Of course, I think that Otegui should be out of jail asap. He should be able to defend his ideas so basque youngsters like your neighbour can vote him instead of burning buses. I think that right now with no killings on the horizon it´s the right moment for everybody to defend their political beliefs. As I said, I think that Spainsh goverment make him stay in jail for being stronger at negotiations. I think it´s not only unfair but it is also a political mistake that will made Otegui´s figure stronger in the future as a symbol.
So when I talked about pardon and you about forgiving, this only work if it is by the two sides, each of them know what it needs pardon and forgiving from the other part. I think only time will tell.
You said let´s walk together. I hope so! I hope everybody´s children could play together on the park without thinking if their parents wants independence or not.
There will be a time when everybody will respect each other thinkings.
Arturo, thank you for your sympathy and for your respectful answer. I’m sure we’d come to terms in hypothetical negotiation between both of us. It won’t solve anything, but ….
Concerning the revenge topic, I now think it’s worse than revenge. Are you really telling me that the goal justifies the means? If that is true, in my opinion, your proposal is very similar to ETA’s. This is unacceptable in a democracy!
Don’t worry, I won’t open the GAL box, I hope we both can agree on a condemn to this.
Making laws “ad hoc”, torturing, banning parties, putting in jail politicians like Otegi and other 5, revenge with prisoners and their relatives. Do you really believe this is acceptable?.Does the goal justify the means here?
You are right when you say that some members of kale borroka ended up in ETA. It is also true that nowadays, three years after the cease fire, there about 50 youngsters in jail plus other 50 on the way, just because they belong to youth movements connected to left handed political organizations. Imprisoned just in case one day they could become ETA members. Preventive justice! Very effective indeed though not very democratic.
You mentioned condemns. I wish Batasuna had condemned all of ETA’s acts of terrorism. However, banning a political party just because they didn’t condemn ETA is in my opinion an excuse to get rid of a party with 300.000 votes behind.
“The refuse of violence”, we’ve been talking about this for decades here. Of course we should condemn it, but banning a party is crucial decision.
If you have a look at the problem of torture, 10.000 denounces since the 70s (incredible, isn’t it?). Well, all the parties have condemned torture up to now.
So, what!! They knew the solution to the problem of torture was very simple (10 euros a digital camera) in every police office. They have the solution in their hands but the only thing they do is condemn it.
To sum up: “ad hoc laws”, banning parties, revenge with prisoners and their relatives, putting in jail politicians and young people, torturing…
Do you really think this is the best way to solve this conflict? Does the goal justify the means?