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Catalonia Bans Bullfighting 68 votes for - against 55 today - Ban divides Spain 28/07/2010

Movie director Agustin Diaz Yanes described the decision as a 'cultural tragedy,' while animal rights activists celebrated a 'historic day.'

Catalonia Bans Bullfighting 68 votes for - against 55 today - Ban divides Spain 28/07/2010

The north-eastern Spanish region of Catalonia on Wednesday adopted a ground-breaking bullfighting ban that is dividing opinions in the rest of the country.

The regional parliament in Barcelona outlawed bullfights with 68 votes against 55. Nine legislators abstained.

Catalan nationalist and far-left legislators backed the ban, while Spain's main opposition conservative People's Party (PP) and most Catalan parliamentarians from Spanish Prime Minister
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist Party voted against it.

The ban will end bullfights in the region of 7.5 million residents - the wealthiest among Spain's 17 regions - from the beginning of 2012

Catalonia is the first region on the Spanish mainland to outlaw bullfights, after the Canary Islands banned them in 1991.

The anti-bullfighting group Prou had collected 180,000 signatures to request the prohibition, which parliament then agreed to debate.

Bullfighting had already been on the decline in Catalonia, where Barcelona's Monumental remained the only bullring to stage bullfights on a regular basis.

But Prou spokeswoman Anna Mula had urged the Catalan parliament to send a 'message of compassion and progress to humanity' in ending the 'torture' of fighting bulls.

The treatment they are given in bullrings would never be accepted if it involved other mammals such as dogs and cats, she argued.

Conservatives defending bullfights said Catalans should be free to decide whether to attend them. Bullfighting enthusiasts also regard the spectacle as an art form that is part of the Spanish identity.

'Bullfighting is an emotion, and emotions are very difficult to explain,' author Almudena

The Catalan branch of the PP said it would ask the national parliament to overturn the ban, while local animal-rights activists vowed to encourage other regions to outlaw bullfights as well.

That would, however, be difficult in regions with strong bullfighting traditions, such as Madrid or southern Andalusia, Prou spokesman Leonardo Anselmi admitted.

Madrid activists have nevertheless already requested a ban in a countermove to conservative regional Prime Minister Esperanza Aguirre, who announced that the region would declare bullfights part of its cultural heritage.

The Catalan debate also took political overtones, with conservatives claiming that separatists wanted to abolish bullfights as a symbol of Spanishness.

More than 11,000 bulls are killed annually in Spanish bullfights, which generate some 1.5 billion euros (1.9 billion dollars) and give direct or indirect employment to 200,000 people.

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Holidays In Spain: www.paramountplaces.co.uk

That's understandable that cash can make people independent. But what to do if one does not have money?

Posted by RoyShelley20 on 06/08/10 at 01:05pm

I guess that to get the from banks you must present a firm motivation. But, one time I've got a term loan, just because I was willing to buy a house.

Posted by ParkerJanelle on 04/08/10 at 06:14pm

There is a known slogan all over the world that reads: "Catalonia is not Spain". And the Catalans seem to be serious about it.

Like them, there are other human groups who claim the same statement, but when it comes to facts, usually they fall short, not because of lack of freedom or democracy, but because they are and feel Spaniard themselves indeed, even when externally they express the opposite by using, some times, a different language than the Spanish.

And then the question to ask is: what is it that makes a Spaniard person be Spaniard? His or her language? His or her symbols? His or her traditions? It is doubtful, because there are other people who use the same languages, the same symbols and the sale traditions. But when we get down to more personal matters like his or her place of vacation; his or her favorite TV shows, radio stations and newspapers; his or her time to eat meals and sleep the "siesta", and a long etc. In other words, is it his or her behavior what makes his or her Spaniard? When the way of acting of any person forces an apparently, innocent comment from his or her peers outside his or her regular circle of friends, family and environment: "....oh yes, the Spaniard guy or gal, yes I know him or her", then is when it is clear, that there is still a long way to go for that person to become something different than Spaniard, if that is what he or she wishes.

In this particular case of the Catalans, refusing to behave like Spaniards for not liking the bullfights, it could be just another, "apparently insignificant" step of their uniqueness or idiosyncrasy. And when the addition of those little tiny steps grows and grows, then it is easier and more natural for those peers that we talked above to state: ".....oh yes, the Catalan guy or gal, yes I know him or her".

But the case of the Catalans is not the only one among the different peoples who have its ancestry, place of living and place of work in The Pyrenees. The Catalans are going to wherever they want to go, at least, the majority......would the people of Nabarre, Occitania, Aragon, etc. have the same conviction? The day such awakening becomes a reality, we would be talking of a different Europe, more modern, flexible, democratic, and most of all, free.

Posted by Txabi Ertze (SUBO-PYRENE) on 29/07/10 at 04:39pm

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