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Spanish? No, he's Catalan. There's a world of difference. Like assuming a Bavarian is German.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 08:42:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I also wanted to add "like assuming a Corsican is French" but then there's all that negativity associated with Corsica which doesn't exist for French (Perpignan) or Spanish Catalonia (Barcelona).
by Alex in Toulouse on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 09:11:49 AM EST
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How about Brittany?

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 09:25:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Nah, Britanny was considered different a pair of generations ago, but it's now mixed enough for the independence movement to be in its last throngs. It's still common to refer to Bretons as being a singular type of people, but not more so than an Occitan, or an Alsatian, a Nordiste for example.

Corsica on the other hand has the particularity of being isolated, insular, and, well, not always welcoming (this depends on where in Corsica of course). Bomb attacks on people with a distinctly foreign origin (particularly Arabs) occur in Corsica once in a while.

by Alex in Toulouse on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 09:58:31 AM EST
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You know the Bush administration has redefined the meaning of in its last throes? There are hardly any safe idioms any more.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 10:04:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Another idiom that is in danger of being totally hijacked by the administration, is: "to beat around the bush". Not only is "beating around the bush" something that they practice daily, but if you're suspected of beating around the Bush yourself, you can end up in an orange jumpsuit.
by Alex in Toulouse on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 10:13:00 AM EST
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Well, I should have been more precise - and have inadvertedly revealed my ignorance...

From Spain. I should have said. From Spain

Particularly since some of those fellas were speaking catalan as well,

doh

by PeWi on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 09:48:48 AM EST
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From Spain? You must not have seen (or do not remember) the ads that the Catalan government put out in the international press around the time of the 1992 olympics in Barcelona. "On which country would you place this city?" (red dot on Barcelona, on a tellow silhouette of southwestern Europe) Next page: "In Catalonia, of course!" (whole of Catalonia highlighted in red).

Kcurie knows I'm just snarking, but you just can't get away from it no matter how hard you try... And the thing is boiling over in Madrid and Barcelona as we speak... unlike Muenchen and Berlin.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 09:52:40 AM EST
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I have already professed my ignorance. Cannot remember those adds, but then that was the time I just started University and I did not have a television...
by PeWi on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 01:03:25 PM EST
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The ones I saw were printed in Newsweek. Those were the days when I was innocent and still thought NewsWeek was worth subscribing to.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 01:05:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I don;t think I was reading anything in English back then... I had to learn Hebrew and Greek and I had only just survived school, with my English mark the worst mark of them all...
by PeWi on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 01:07:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]
You know what? That comment is actually relevant to the topic of this diary...

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jan 25th, 2006 at 02:20:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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