Bolkenstein? Nein! Nein! Nein!

Swans are singing their last song over Greece, Italy and Slovenia, the Representative 0 (ex Subcommandante Marcos) is losing his temper in Mexico after being provoked by local agents of stupidity, the ever-clever leaders of islamic countries are pushing people on the streets as they have only discovered some sketches drawn 5 months ago and the even cleverer leaders of the EU suddenly remember the freedom of the press.

Well, freedom is only to be for the press. Citizens throughout the European continent are protesting against the infamous "Bolkenstein Directive" which may force workers throughout Europe to work with lower wages (that is the bottomline anyway). But their representatives could not care less. Europeans may be sure that they are free to speak but noone will listen to them!

At the same time, the catalan people seem to be moving into a sphere of their own. The great issue here is not working rights, freedom of speech or the centralization of Europe. Catalans seem to be very, very far from all that, as their outmost concern is whether or not they should be declared a separate nation according to their new State Constitution. So, while throughout the rest of Europe, people protest against the Bolkenstein Directive, here they are organizing a great protest in order to declare that they are "una nacio" and proud to be catalans. What if the proud catalans of Barcelona are living in the city with the most homeless people throughout the country? And what about those proud Catalans that have a monthly salary that equals their president's daily paycheck?

I sympathize with all the people of Catalunya, but in the end I think they are very dis-oriented about the real problems. If only on tomorrow's protest I could see right next to the banner saying "Som una nacio" another one reading "Baix amb Bolkenstein!"

Happy hour...

So it is Friday and people at work have something to celebrate.
The thing is that they just want an excuse since the city seems to be celbrating everyday, if you feel like it.

Last night I attended my first "happy hour" at the Institute, a happy hour which lasted for 3 hours! Judging from they people I met, how open and warm they are, I think that it won't be hard to organize a lot of such happy hours. And given the position of the Institute, right next to the beach, I would like to think about happy hours when summer comes...They are bound to be much more entertaining.

Friday night in Barcelona, is a fiesta of its own anyway. And it gets even better when greeks are involved. You think you have set out for a day at work, you leave your house at 8.30 in the morning and you find yourself returning at 4.30 in the next morning!!!! This happens because you have spent have of the night dancing at the salsa party that a greek friend is organising every Friday at the basement of a greek restaurant.

For whomever interested, just look for Dionysos restaurant at the corner of Marques de l' Argentera and Passeig Picasso. Christos will be waiting for you at the bar, with cool drinks to quench your thirst after so much sweat on the floor. And there is also a live band playing salsa like crazy!

Then you wake up on a Saturday morning just to remember that the whole weekend is dedicated to Santa Eulalia, patron saint of the children of Catalunya. Nevertheless, there is fiesta everywhere around the city, even for older children! So gather your strength!

Cafe y cigarillos...

The latest war of the Iberian peninsula, is a smokey one! "La guerra de los cigarillos" they call it. The cigarette war!

[Main front. Bars and restaurants]

...where you may still smoke although it is frowned upon by the official state. Actually there are signs everywhere discouraging smokers. I saw a sign saying "Not smoking makes coffee taste better" in a cafeteria in Barcelona. Well, I am not a smoker but I find it hard to believe myself. I always envied the happy looks on the faces of smokers when they are enjoing a cigarette with a cup of coffee. Bar and restaurant owners are strictly advised to discourage smokers but they are free to allow smoking if they want to. Of course they ALL DO allow it. So now the minister of health, a fierce anti-smoker, says it may be time to start prohibitions throughout what is considered one of Europe 's most liberal countries...

[Western Front. The tobacco stores]

Great tobacco companies like Philip Morris and British American tobacco have decided to effectively lower the prices of cigarettes in Spain, in order to compensate for the losses they have after the hard-determined anti-smoke campain of the state. The companies imposed the tobacconists all over the country to sell cigarettes even cheaper than they had initially bought them. The sellers went mad and choose not to sell, today they went on strike and closed most of the stores leaving many smokers in distress...

[Note to greek readers: OF COURSE it is unthinkable for tobacconists to keep selling in the old prices. This would be unacceptable here, although in Greece I guess it would be the easiest way to solve the problem]

[Eastern Front. The French border]

Prices fall, fever rises! Hundreds of french cross the spanish borders everyday to take advantage of cheap cigarettes sold in Spain at prices, which sometimes reach less than half the french ones. Cars trunks are packed with packets, vans are borrowed from friends to carry the valuable herb enclosed in cylindrical bars of joy into french territory. No spirit of "contrabandieures" here. The EU laws allow it. So stores in the french side only sell newspapers and magazines, while the spanish ones get relieved of all their stocks. On the other hand, tobacconists in the spanish mainland accuse their colleagues at the frontline of bad union practice, but still, the colour of the money is the same across european borders and hard to resist.

[Smoking in Catalunya]

This is still not a problem here. I was in a bar yesterday where smoking was considered to be something like a club rule. Of course I did not feel at all awkward with no smoking and since two saxophone, one trumpet, one bass and one drum players at breathing distance had no problem with it, I had none myself.

To all not-tolerant passive smokers : Allow people to have their vices or else the vices will turn against you.

in a few words...

Se prohibe prohibir!