March 15, 2004
spanish bombs pt. two
Jeff Jarvis makes a few good points about the election in Spain.
1. Millions of Spanish rally en masse to protest the bombings.
2. Yep. Nothing like a good street demo to get Al Qaeda to fall in line.
The best way to support gapingvoid is to sign up to
"Hugh's Daily Frickin' Cartoon" Newsletter.
A new cartoon sent out every weekday morning to your inbox [RSS version here.].
A wee chuckle to start your day off right etc.
Hugh, I don’t know if you’re referring to the demonstrations of Friday or on Saturday. Since you mention “millions”, it should be Friday you’re talking about. I think you’re (partly) missing the point. These are the reasons why the whole of Spain was in the streets last Friday.
1. Lots of us thought it had been ETA, not AlQaeda. For about 20 years or so, people who were ETA’s targets were very afraid of speaking up. Living in the BAsque country and not being openly nationalistic is/was a mortal danger. Lots of people lost their fear roughly around 1997 (I can tell you why if you’re interested). The demo meant, as so many other have meant since 1997, “ETA: kill us if you want to but we’re not afraid of you anymore”.
2. The government called the demo, it was not spontaneous or really “a protest”. The conservative party used the best chance they had to turn everyone’s grief into a call for _unity_ (the demo’s slogan included a defense of our Constitution, which the non-terrorists separatists was to reform!!!).
3. Plenty of people, including me, marched to show our sympathy for the people of Madrid. It’s silly, small and symbolic, but it’s better to grieve with two million people than to do it on your own. I felt as if I was attending a funeral.
Right?
Fair enough. But the problem with Al Qaida remains. Whether they’re correct or not, they’re currently congratulating themselves for winning their first European general election.
Europe can expect similar tactics in the future.
With what’s at stake, for the former government to willingly try to make short-term electorial gains by blaming ETA, while knowing full well AQ was involved… that really was unforgivable, not to mention stupid.