Some people's reading this might ask how an Italian, born in Sardinia and living in Slovakia, has any right to express is opinion on the protests and fights over the so called referendum of Cataluña. The truth is even after living in Barcelona for five years and still holding business in there, I have always thought of myself as a visitor. But after visiting Andalusia recently I really felt no diference between North and South, which made me think about this need of indipendency in deeper. The truth is I have always hoped for one European country with one government, and I always saw any request of indipendency from Brexit to Padania to IRS a mere politic act of propaganda, something poor pliticians with lack of ideas bring up to gain votes with not a clue on the benefits for the population. I am not going to write an annoying article that explains tiny bits of the story without taking any part or action on the issue. I want to be straight: all this talks and action to conquer indipendency are an absolute waste of time and energies!
There has been many countries complaining about their need for indipendency for historic reason, languages and traditions. For one the Sardinian island would be the one that inside Italy better diferenciate itself, and I have recently experienced some serious chat with an Hungarian teacher that proclaims Slovakia to be part of Hungary. An upper level of this would be some today's Romans going to Egypt and proclaiming their rights on the region. What I want to say is that history is history, life today would not be improved if we went back to what was said twenty, fifty or one thousand years ago. The core issue in Cataluña has been the taxation, alias being a net contributor inside the Spanish Kingdom, like Italy and UK are inside Europe. What that means is if taxation is on twenty percent, countries that produce one million Euro will pay two hundred thousand while countries that produce one hundred thousand will pay twenty thousand. There is anything wrong with that? Taxes collected will be then re-distribuited in a solidary principle giving more to the poors and less to the rich to help them to advance. Should be a basic principle behind any democratic state and something each European citizen should be proud of. However indipendency talk have hit so badly recently, after the financial crisis (crisis in which this principle were completely forgotten) and the corruption scandals that affected all modern democracies including Spain and Cataluña. Hence politicians with no better ideas to win the election, came back with the most stupid and easy idea: INDEPENDENCE.
Do I want to say that Rajoy managed very well the situation? Absolutely not. I think the majority of protesters were there more to prove their right to express an opinion than to be separated from Spain. If I was Rajoy I would have spoke to the Catlans in a clear way:" Dear Spanish fellow, I would like very much to hear your opinion on this matter, however I would also like to remind you that in the case of YES winning you will be on your own, and by this I mean: no more LIGA (Barcelona will play football with any other city in Cataluña), no Euro money supply, no more Spanish bank accounts, no more exports to Spanish cities or with higher taxation, incentives to all Spanish leaving Cataluña, no more energy supply from companies based in other Spanish region. Etc." Would they be ready to queu and vote if they would become an isolated region between Spain and France? I know many Catalans would, simply because of this idiotic idea to be better, stronger, different than the others, but I can tell you it really isn't like it. So another idea would be to send "La Guardia Civil", but instead of stealing the boxes from the voters, they could stand there and laugh at a fantasy uncostitutional referendum. Like doctors in a psychiatric clinic, when they reply to their patient: Bonjour Napoleon, come an ça va? Anything would have been better than this childish talk: we say No no no! And they reply Yes yes yes! And now who knows what will happen?
Once an Irish friend laughed at my crazy idea to have one European country within fifty years: how complicated is to unite one small country (Ireland) imagine to unite many of them? Fine. But what are the options? The real issues that nearly each country in the world will face soon are: immigration, pollution, rise of water level, extreme weather conditions, aging of population and growing of global corporations with more power, money and information than single governments. If any country, big or small, is ready to better tackle these issues thanks to isolation, less inference and power of higher institutions, god have mercy of them and their citizens.
To finish, I just would like to remind everyone that all you hear in Europe is people giving out about their country, their government, their salary, none of us is happy! But we all have Facebook, Google a Tablet and we can freely express our opinion- like me here- and in the end ideas will matter. Ideas cannot be arrested or stopped. A book, a consumer act of choice and a post on facebook can free more people than violence and protests. I am not saying Catalans have been violent but for sure they voted in the Spanish and Catalan elections and I don't think they got the right, smartest choice, or for sure is wrong to think that indipendency will affect this choice. The only indipendency we should all seek is the one from our national's governments and leaving the European Union manage on bigger needs like, health, defence and education. Having more flatmates activily managing these issues on the European condominium will free us from corruption and speed up on the higher treats that will really affect our lives in the XXI century.
