In
the best traditions of British Bank Holiday Mondays, it is pouring with rain
here in Catalonia. The one difference, I
have always maintained, is the lack of spitefulness in holiday weather in
Catalonia so that there is always a possibility of seeing some sunshine during
the day – it may not be much, but it will be there.
Today is the damp calm before the
invisible storm as the majority of the working population in designated but
non-essential jobs are urged to go back to work, taking what ever microbes they
have with them into the crowded metros and buses and trains as they
commute.
The fatal proof of this economic pudding
will be in a couple of weeks time when the mortality figures for Covid-19 will
be examined to see whether this ill-thought out initiative has been as deadly
as feared.
It is a salutary experience to discover
that in purely economic terms, we citizens are merely collateral damage,
acceptable wastage, the angels’ share, surplus to requirements or any other
mealy mouthed form of words to cover up the judicial execution that such a
policy is going to mean.
‘Mean’ is a key word for something linked
to the crisis that I hope is fake news, but have been told is actual fact. In Catalan history the year 1714 is a key one. On the 11th of September 1714
Catalonia surrendered to the Bourbon King Philip V after supporting the
Hapsburg Charles in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714): Catalonia
lost its distinctive independence as it was subsumed into the Bourbon Crown;
Catalan was demoted as the language of government; the walls of Barcelona were
destroyed; Catalan territories over the Pyrenees were lost. And all round disaster; but, in the typically
Catalan way, 11th September became the National Day of Catalonia and
1714 a date which is constantly seen, I have a hoodie with the year on the back
and the Catalan flag on the front!
It is therefore pushing coincidences a
little that the National Government of Spain sent Catalonia exactly 1,714
thousand masks to be used in the present Crisis!
There is no love lost between Madrid and
Barcelona and the measures that are going to come into place tomorrow have met
with stiff opposition from Catalonia and the Basque Country, with the Catalan
President asking Sanchez, the Spanish Prime Minister, to send him the
documentation of the scientific advice on which he based the decision to allow
people to return to work. Catalonia is
in favour of a continuation of the strict lockdown, and I have to say that I
think that is the more persuasive approach.
Politicians should be increasingly nervous
about the inevitable Public Inquiries that are going to take place when this
crisis is over. Their mismanagement is
killing people and they should be held responsible. And please, do not accuse me of pre-judging: hospitals
without equipment are a simple fact; hospitals continuing to be poorly supplied
with PPE are a simple fact; people dying are a simple fact. The Conservatives have been in power for a
decade: the fault lies with them – and they must pay.
The
Poems In Holy Week (PIHW) period is now over and I have managed to write drafts of poems for each of the
days, all of which can be found at smrnewpoems.blogspot.com This year has been obviously different as we
have been under strict lockdown and the ‘holiday’ aspect of the period has been
a little ‘abstract’ to say the least. It
is a continuingly odd time as we are surrounded by literally deadly danger, yet
continue to lead ordinary, safe, if isolated lives. It is not like the Second World War where
even my childhood home in Cathays in Cardiff was graced so I was told, with one
(unexploded) German bomb: something tangible from the air raids. But for us in Catalonia, at least where we
are, it is like a continuing Phoney War; we go on with our restricted lives,
and the medical horror is taking place elsewhere, out of sight, though vividly
alive on television screens. I think the
unreality of it all is what is most obvious.
Yes, I know that the virus is real and the deaths and illness are
actual, but our direct experience is limited to our own little inconveniences,
not to a mortal struggle. It’s odd and,
as I’ve said, something where the actuality is difficult to take in.
I have now printed out a draft booklet of
the Poems in Holy Week and have done a few edits to get me going on the
revision that they all have to undergo before publication.
I have not yet decided on a title, but I’m
working on it! The most difficult part,
I find, is writing an introduction for the collection – it forces me to look at
the collection as an entity and write something that makes sense of the
totality rather than individual poems.
I also have to think about illustrations and
that is always challenging. Still, if
nothing else, I do have time to consider these challenges!
The
police in Spain have said that the ‘return to work’ for non-essential workers
when off normally. An interesting choice
of word for anything but normal times where, surely, normality is not the way
to respond to the extraordinary!
My
faith in Catalonia took a knock today.
The poor weather lasted the entire day and I was not graced with even a
moment of proper sunshine. I am prepared
to extend my faith to tomorrow – but anything after that and I will slip into
heresy!
