ixpieth

 
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  • in reply to: Energy vs Waste #51144
    ixpieth
    Participant

    Ilargi, thank you for this and the explanation of the maximum power principle. I have read a lot on Degrowth, Steady State, and often puzzled why this type of shift was “unsellable”. Since the Rio Earth Summit, unsustainable production and consumption has been the elephant in the room, and still is. Look at the media promotion of this way of life it is unescapable and overpowering.
    For 40 years I lived in Australia with a “bolted on” car as my legs, there is no public transport to speak of.
    I had a consumption based footprint of 23 tons of carbon per year. In 2011 I moved to Barcelona and live here now. My carbon footprint is 8 tons and I have not driven a car for 8 years. I walk.
    It is nice to know I have reversed the MPP, but looking around I see no “trend” in this direction.
    The MPP explains some of the “inbuilt issues” degrowth has with the “individual”, how can you “socialise” a biological impulse? How can you “calm” an individual desire to make a squillion $?
    I find it difficult to “vision” a future so far from the limits I try to live by, we have come too far.
    Vaclav Smil points out eloquently what he sees when he looks at a wind turbine, 500 tons of steel, 500 tons of concrete etc etc. what better way to fly into catastrophe than a “green revolution”.
    I am a big fan of Adam Curtis, “HyperNormailsation” explains a lot

    in reply to: Catalonia and other Disasters #36270
    ixpieth
    Participant

    I have lived in Barcelona since May 2011 after moving from Australia. I arrived 3 days before 15M, the “Ocupada” of Pl. Catalunya, I met my first Catalan friends there. The “Mossas” moved in there too, put 170 people in hospital and cleared the square. Los Indignados were back next day 5,000 strong and stayed there.

    Anyone who thought the thousands of Spanish police, sitting in rented cruisers in Barcelona port waiting for 1 – 0, would do anything else but beat the crap out of anyone who got in their way is naïve. You do not expect a scorpion to do anything but sting, and this is the land where bullfighting is part (thanks to Rajoy) of the “patrimony” of the country, where macho idiots from all over the world come to run in front of a pack of bulls. Historically this is a brutal country.

    You are spot on with the Franco references Raul, it amazes me to this day that there has been no mass attempt to have a truth and reconciliation forum. Thousands of bodies still lie in mass graves around Spain, whilst “El Caudillo’s” monument is in pristine condition. Justice Balthazar Garzon was the last person to try and do something about that. He was also running a corruption investigation into 70 senior members of the Partido Popular (Rajoy). Garzon was suspended and banned from practicing law for 11 years by the same Spanish judicial system that made the Catalan referendum illegal, and gave instructions on how the “Mossas” should behave on 1 – 0.

    There is a direct lineage from Franco to Rajoy, From 1951, Manuel Fraga served in various posts in the Franco regime, including minister for information and tourism.  He took part in the Transition (restoration of the Monarchy),  and formed the conservative People’s Alliance (AP), the precursor to the Popular Party (PP).
    Appointing Jose Louis Aznar as head of the Partido Popular (PP) in 1989, Fraga became President of the PP.  Fraga finished his political career as Franco did, in office. He died in January 2012 serving as Spain’s ambassador to the European Union. Rajoy was appointed head of the PP in 2004 after Zapatero’s election. It was not until 2004 that the monuments to Franco began to be removed in Catalunya. Streets named after fascist generals still exist. There is still an intense hatred of the Bourbon royal lineage, installed by Franco.

    The “agreement to forget” which is the basis for the “democracy” which exists in Spain, and Catalunya also deprives 100,000 bodies in mass graves around Spain the peace their families badly need.

    It was Aznar that asked the Royal Academy of History to re write the “Spanish Dictionary of Biography”, which then attempted to describe Franco as “authoritarian” rather than a “brutal dictator”. Aznar introduces “friendly fascism” to Spain. Rajoy inherits a “crisis” when elected and has been the perfect puppet. Even tells Donald Trump that Rafa Nadal “is my friend”, Trump not impressed.

    Whatever happens in the aftermath of 1 – 0 may not be pretty, it may be brutal again, its a brutal country, but the people of Catalunya and Barcelona have seen worse and will be back.

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