Lies, corruption, shame= Spanish democracy

I could write thousands of pages, but I don't want to throw all my rage against the daily revelations on Spanish corruption on the blog. It will be too depressing to read. That has to be enough.... As simple as that: corruption has destroyed democracy in Spain. It's our duty, citizens, to restore it. We are the only ones capable of doing it. Let's not waste too much time talking about our usual liars, our vile, shameless politicians (let's hope justice will do it for us).

When the judge opened the record of corruption, the stench became unbearable

Bastards Out of the Spanish Congress Now!

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, THIS (please watch the video below) happens

El PSOE pide la dimisión de la diputada del PP Andrea Fabra

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As you can see on the video, Andrea Fabra, deputy at the Congress for PP, yells "Fuck them all"  while Mariano Rajoy was announcing cuts in unemployment benefits (5 milion citizens are unemployed in Spain). A political representative insulting the citizens. This is the lowest moment I ever seen in Spanish politics (democratic times). 

It shouldn't be that surprising, in all honesty, as she's the daugther of Carlos Fabra, former president of the Province of Castellón, president of PP there for 22 years, and one of the most corrupted politicians of this country ever. After all, this is a country where a bunch of powerful families have always had the control of the territory, in particular during very dark times (not that long ago) where they were fascists chieftains. The manners may have changed, but sometimes, like Andrea's yelling, the inner truth explodes. Of course, her excuses (she says she reacted against the PSOE congressmen) is ridiculous. Makes absolutely no sense. But what can you expect of a majority of the Congress that applauded, vividly, the most drastic cutbacks of Spanish democratic history.

If we want to restore our democracy, people like Andrea Fabra must disappear from politics. You can help signing the petition for her resignation here at change.org We need to clean out the bastards from the Congress!

Spanish Elections Results: and the real parliament is...

1. The Congress shall consist of a minimum of three hundred and a maximum of four hundred Members, elected by universal, free, equal, direct and secret suffrage, under the terms to be laid down by the law.

Section 68, Spanish Constitution

... A total fake. Sorry folks, but equal? That's, frustratingly, not true. The results of Sunday's parliamentary elections prove it. The axiom one person, one vote, is false in Spain. On the previous graphic (sorry they are in Spanish, but they are quite clear in my opinion) it is showed how much does a seat "cost" depending on the party. The variations are so disproportionate (thanks to the unacceptable criteria of the circumscription divisions in provinces) that the whole system HAS to be questioned.

This second graphic estimates how would have been the results of Spanish elections with a proportional system. In this case, there wouldn't be a conservative (extreme right if you ask me) absolute majority, and the deserved socialist electoral setback would have been even worse. The system has given Mariano Rajoy's PP their absolute majority, not Spaniards. Never forget that. I'm not saying the electoral system has to be a pure proportional one, but it is clear that what we have now doesn't represent equally the voters-citizens of this country. So where's the political legitimacy then? What a shame. We have to fight to change this.

Spanish Election Day Eve: think for a minute!

An imaginary conversation between the only honest politician in our country and a potential voter, today, on the Spanish Election Day Eve.

Politician: You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. No BRICS. No America. There are no third worlds. There is no West. No European Union. No United Nations. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, euros, rubles, pounds, and shekels.

It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

Am I getting through to you, dear voter?

You get up on your little twenty-one inch TFT HDI screen and howl about Spain and democracy. There is no Spain. There is no democracy. No PP or PSOE. There is only Banco Santander and Inditex and Telefónica and LaCaixa, Endesa, Repsol, and Abertis. Those are the nations of the world today.

What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state - Karl Marx? What do you think Merkel and Sarkozy talk about in their meetings -saving the European welfare state? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, dear voter. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, dear voter. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And I have chosen you, dear voter, to reveal this truth.

Voter: But why me?

Politician: Because starting tomorrow, you can stop this nonsense. Please, think for a minute before voting. 

(adapted from "Network", 1976)

The death of Spanish democracy: referendum now!

And if Iceland should be the model to follow, Spain is the shameful example of what we mean by giving up to the pressure of the market, banks, and the countries that rule the European Union. Here's another article, by professor Vicenç Navarro (sorry is written in Spanish, but I guess an online translator would do fine) about why WE MUST celebrate a referendum in order to, we citizens, have our say regarding all this economic nonsense. Otherwise, we will be certifying the death of Spanish democracy.

Un referéndum necesario

[...]La democracia queda limitada en España a votar cada cuatro años sin que se le ofrezca a la ciudadanía la oportunidad de participar en referéndums vinculantes y otras formas de democracia directa que permitieran una mayor capacidad de incidencia de los ciudadanos en el quehacer común. [...]La única expresión de desaprobación que los representados tienen a su alcance es dejar de votar o votar por opciones distintas cada cuatro años. Ello es un indicador de lo enormemente limitada que es la democracia española.
Hemos estado viendo recientemente cómo partidos gobernantes (tanto a nivel central como autonómico) están aprobando medidas altamente impopulares, que no estaban incluidas en sus propuestas electorales, y que se están llevando a cabo supuestamente por mandato de los mercados financieros, a quienes nadie ha elegido. El 82% de la ciudadanía estaba en contra, por ejemplo, del retraso de la edad de jubilación; el 86% en contra de la congelación de las pensiones; el 68% en contra de los recortes del gasto sanitario, y así un largo etcétera, lo cual no fue un obstáculo para que la mayoría de las Cortes españolas aprobaran tales medidas. Una consecuencia de ello es la enorme distancia que se está creando entre representados y representantes, con la pérdida de legitimidad de los últimos. No es de extrañar que la clase política dominante esté considerada por la población como el tercer gran problema que tiene el país.
Y estamos a punto de ver otro caso en el que una decisión de enorme trascendencia (la reforma de la Constitución, para garantizar un límite al gasto público) se está proponiendo por la dirección de los dos partidos mayoritarios, medida que no estaba en el programa electoral de ninguno de ellos (y que afectará negativamente a la calidad de vida de la mayoría de la población). 

Full article here: http://blogs.publico.es/dominiopublico/3895/un-referendum-necesario/

We must mobilize in order to let "them" now we won't remain silent while our rights are buried.

I love Iceland. Lessons to face the crisis

I suggest you to read this great article by Deena Stryker, that I was lucky to find at the interesting website Daily Kos. It explains briefly how a country, Iceland, can collapse, economically speaking, and go back stronger while opposing to follow the unique's receipt the rest of the European countries (Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal on top) seems to be forced to take in the "sacred name" of the market. Is a bit long, but worth every second of your time, so please read it. This are the opening paragraphs:

Iceland's On-going Revolution

As one European country after another fails or risks failing, imperiling the Euro, with repercussions for the entire world, the last thing the powers that be want is for Iceland to become an example. Here's why:

Five years of a pure neo-liberal regime had made Iceland, (population 320 thousand, no army), one of the richest countries in the world. In 2003 all the country’s banks were privatized, and in an effort to attract foreign investors, they offered on-line banking whose minimal costs allowed them to offer relatively high rates of return. The accounts, called IceSave, attracted many English and Dutch small investors. But as investments grew, so did the banks’ foreign debt. In 2003 Iceland’s debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent. The 2008 world financial crisis was the coup de grace. The three main Icelandic banks, Landbanki, Kapthing and Glitnir, went belly up and were nationalized, while the Kroner lost 85% of its value with respect to the Euro. At the end of the year Iceland declared bankruptcy.

Contrary to what could be expected, the crisis resulted in Icelanders recovering their sovereign rights, through a process of direct participatory democracy that eventually led to a new Constitution. But only after much pain.

Full article here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/01/1001662/-Icelands-On-going-Revolution

What an enormous lesson. To overcome the crisis, why don't become more democratic, inclusive and active, instead of letting the ones that created the problem start again? It's a bit embarrassing to read the article when PP and PSOE, the two biggest parties in Spain, have decided to reform the constitution together, in order to satisfy the markets, and without having a referendum. Let's learn something from Iceland, please!