So we witness anew members, supporters and other assorted and sundry hangers-on of 'Europe Incorporated', i.e. anyone and everyone with pro-European Union sympathies and sensibilities, uniting in disbelief, frustration and anger/hostility to the imminent prospect of the ancient Spanish region of Catalonia - once the Roman- and Goth-occupied area known as Gothalonia according to my handy little The Concord DESK ENCYCLOPEDIA: Volume One: A-E (1982) - declaring, asserting and otherwise seeking to establish its independence. From the utter furore of late whipped up, one would or at least ostensibly could, imagine that it didn't only presage the very finale of European civilization as such, but the imminent Apocalypse and Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! That is, following the inevitable demise of the Spanish nation itself. Or so the present media coverage would seem to indicate.
Having no especial familiarity with, let alone more than a cursory, media-instilled, knowledge of this age-old regional division of modern-day Spain, obviously I am no expert on the matter, but as a disinterested observer, accruing no benefit whatsoever whatever might betide Catalonia and Catalonians - or for that matter Spain and Spaniards - let me simply note (and posit), in addition to the foregoing, the following thoughts/ideas/considerations (and queries):
*Surely residents/'citizens' of this long-time 'autonomous region in N(orth)E(ast) Spain', to which 'In 1980 the Spanish government handed over certain limited functions', thus enabling/creating 'a Catalan regional government with its own parliament and premier', having 'maintained its own customs and language even after its union with Aragon in 1137', have such a long history of semi-independence that it's hardly surprising that now - when 'everybody and everyone' seems set upon establishing their own identity c/o asserting their own geographical stamp of authority - they might themselves want fuller, even complete autonomy (to pursue their own unique vision of themselves and their place in the world). I mean, it's hardly that unpredictable a political development, surely? (All quotations herein as per the above-mentioned (pocket-sized) Desk Encyclopedia.)
*Perhaps French President Macron's beef at least 'subconsciously' relates to the fact that since 'Catalan, one of the nine Romance languages, and (understandably) native language of Catalonia', is 'also spoken in the French Pyrenees', he's covering himself well ahead of time for the - admittedly probably rather tenuous at best, but nevertheless - forseeable prospect that some of his fellow French-'men' might also (in time to come) seek to join just such a newly-independent state.
*Though the idea isn't unique, indeed I heard some such similar observation made by someone on BBC World Radio or the like recently, isn't it more than a little interesting, curious, suspect even, that those in the vanguard of the 'European Project' at present, expeditiously get their knickers in a knot whenever anyone within modern-day (at least Western) Europe goes the independence route, whereas whenever the same happens elsewhere, even within the bounds of the once 'Eastern' Europe, it's pretty much, "Okay, Jose, she's no big deal, nothing to sweat over or get unduly panicky or worked up about." Or as we kiwis might put it: "She'll be right, mate." Yes, everyone everywhere has the inherent right to self-government and sovereignty, except those within our midst we might have reason to suspect of being either (to be charitable, simply) fuddy-duddy, or, to be much less so, racists and xenophobes (as in British Eurosceptics, for instance), terrorist in modus operandi (as in the Basque separatists, who, incidentally and interestingly, also hail from the Pyrenees region of France and NE Spain) or precociously self-willed (as in the Catalonians). Although, speaking as we are of such matters - at least within the bounds of Westerndom - **Quebecis seem to have ever been allowed a special dispensation...that is, on the off-chance that they ever do - electorally at least - assert their independence from Canada.
**Though I prefer 'Quebecis' (for the inhabitants of the Canadian province of Quebec), my trusty 'ole Chambers Concise Dictionary (1988) seems to prefer 'Quebec(k)ers', and/or 'Quebecois' (this latter rendering, with a diagonal 'macron' over the first 'e', obvious irony and unintended 'pun' notwithstanding), so that is that, I suppose...
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