/ kalebeul / 2008 / 06 / 06 / josef fritzl supports catalan nationalist boycott of air berlin /
Here (thanks MM). So are you with Joe or against him? Does the Guernica page header mean the author identifies Air Berlin with the Luftwaffe? I thought only racists indulged in that kind of generalisation.
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6 June 2008 at 11:21 PM
Two words. “Sake” and “fux”
7 June 2008 at 11:48 AM
Air Berlin made a mistake, I reckon. While it may not be a priority for them, the way they responded to the Balearic request was unprofessional, tactless and naive.
Applying the Nazi logo to either the Air Berlin tailfin or the Estelada is just pathetic.
8 June 2008 at 9:15 PM
As a “saupreissische Katalaner” (according to AirBerlin’s CEO Joachim Hunold), most probably I do not have the right to comment on this blog.
I will just say that even though I will not boycott AirBerlin, I will not fly it anymore. I am just afraid they installed “catalanity” detectors that would switch the O2 to a lethal gas in the oxygen masks.
9 June 2008 at 10:27 AM
Air Berlin made no mistake. It was a good response to the outrageous demands from the Balearic regional government of Spain.
More info in my blog: http://www.megaspora.net/en/2008/06/08/language-communication-and-freedom/
9 June 2008 at 10:58 AM
Pedro, I didn’t find any ‘info’ on your blog - just a bit of diatribe. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
9 June 2008 at 11:53 AM
I have lived in Catalunya and observed that way Catalans are pathetic in the way they try to force their language down your throat.
Most of my friends, while I lived in Catalunya, are Catalans and I still keep in touch with them.
There is a militant mindset that they have to promote their language no matter what the cost (but financial considerations have a higher priority, of course).
9 June 2008 at 2:02 PM
Ted, do I get this right? Did those pathetic Catalans gang up on you for the odd bit of ethno-nationalist skull-youknow? No wonder so many poor foreigners are getting a sore throat..and I was making an ass of myself putting this down just to binge-related chanting!
9 June 2008 at 2:17 PM
“There is a militant mindset that they have to promote their language no matter what the cost (but financial considerations have a higher priority, of course).”… er… so ‘whatever the cost, unless it costs’ then? Can’t have it both ways!
9 June 2008 at 2:20 PM
@2.Tom: Budget airlines haven’t got much fat to shave off, and they’re being hurt badly by fuel price hike. So the last thing they need is a bunch of fanatics coming along and saying: Hey, we’ve found a way of raising your costs without providing any kind of material benefit to you, your staff, your shareholders or your customers.
O’Leary is going round saying that Air Berlin is on the way out, which is partly the Ryanair way of doing things but also a real reflection of the problems being faced by AB. No AB on Balearic routes means Ryanair will swamp things, leading probably to reduced competition and higher prices. Joan Puig’s lasting contribution may have been to make it more expensive to integrate the islands and the mainland.
9 June 2008 at 2:50 PM
You do not save an opportunity to insult and attack the Catalan people (who, in this case, did not even innitiate the episode). If the reason was economical, there were other avenues for Mr. Hunold to express his opinion.
However, he opted to behave as a Saukerl what has shaved 10% of Air Belin’s market cap since Thursday and reconfirmed the analysts’ recommendation of selling all.
9 June 2008 at 3:01 PM
On the contrary: I want that mysterious invention, The Catalan People, to have a job by this time next year. And telling businesses that you’re going to make life difficult for them is not a good way of doing that.
9 June 2008 at 4:38 PM
Part I. European Constitutions and Sovereignty
The French constitution expressly mentions “le peuple français” as the sole origin of sovereignty in the French Republic. So does the Spanish constitution by referring to “el pueblo español”. The current Catalan autonomy statute, approved by the Spanish Cortes, repeatedly cites “el poble català” in similar terms. Please discuss existence or, if that be the case, non-existence of afore-mentioned subjects.
9 June 2008 at 5:55 PM
@Trevor : yeah, yeah but I’m talking about the way he decided to transmit this decision. Why not say “We’ll definitely keep it in mind”? It might have made for the exact opposite in terms of the headlines it generated, and would have given him a year or two before he actually had to decide anything (by which time they’ll probably be bust anyway). I wouldn’t be surprised if their stock has fallen at least partly because their CEO seems to be a chap who lacks the ability to hoodwink silly Catalans, as I would have done.
Though your words about it all benefiting that bastard at Ryanair have given me pause for thought. There are few companies I despise quite as much as Ryanair and the idea of them doing well out of anything at all makes me puke.
10 June 2008 at 3:01 PM
@David/Gleiwitz/Political Science and Metaphysics/schizophrenic ward in Sant Boi: Anyone who uses “the * people” I assume to be deranged until proven otherwise. The semantic range of the phrase in popular usage is different in English from, for example, in Catalan, but the opportunities for misuse are so great that I believe that its employment should be rigorously avoided in constitutional texts. I’m similarly much happier with the phrase “the Spanish state” than “Spain” because it denotes an arrangement for living together rather than something that could be interpreted as having a date with destiny.
10 June 2008 at 7:43 PM
Trevor, mate, there’s been some regrettable misunderstanding here. You’ve obviously mistaken me for the fellow in the white coat who brings you the double helping of Risperdal after your morning sessions with Dr. Robert, remember?
If you can’t, please don’t worry. The side effects, although certainly uncomfortable, will abate before long.
Get well soon,
David
10 June 2008 at 9:29 PM
I remember this Dr Robert guy, but not, unfortunately, whether he was maikelyakson’s friend or Barcelona’s heaviest peripatetic dope dealer.
Kind regards from Barcelona’s only real anarcho-fascist bar,
El poble en slag
17 June 2008 at 1:18 AM
NAZI CRIMES AGAINST SPANISH MINORITIES: GERNIKA 1937. Aerial attack on the Basque town causing widespread destruction and civilians deaths. The raid was made by planes of the German Luftwaffe as part of their training for the II WW. Gernika was a centre of great symbolism to the Basque people but it was not a strategic o military spot. The destruction was total giving birth to the most notorious and universal XX century masterpiece, “Gernika”, by Pablo PIcasso, the great republican painter.
17 June 2008 at 1:19 AM
NAZI CRIMES AGAINST SPANISH MINORITIES: THE 927 TRAIN. August 24th 1940 a train with 927 spanish republicans refugees, most of them catalan kids, women and men, left Anguleme (France) destination Mathausen, the infamous extermination camp. The catalan republican will become Gestapo first guesses and they will finish to build the camp. The “927″ will be the first deportation train in W Europe. Just 50 people will survive the liberation in 1945
17 June 2008 at 1:20 AM
NAZI CRIMES AGAINST SPANISH MINORITIES: LLUIS COMPANYS, democratic President of the Catalan Government during the Spanish Civil War is captured by the Gestapo and delivered to the fascist regime of Franco, which executed him in 1940. Any German President or institution has not come to ask for forgiveness for sending our legitimate President to the butcher, neither for sending those catalans republicans to Mathausen. Just a slight recognition of the Luftwaffe participation on Gernika’s bombing.
17 June 2008 at 8:08 AM
There’s no connection between the Nazis and Joachim Hunold except in your diseased mind. Since you bring it up, the German parliament–representing, incidentally, a rather different state in a rather different era–apologised for Guernica in 1999 and ordered the removal of memorials to the Condor Legion from bases. If you were acting out of any real interest in the past or concern for what happened to people, you might have learned how to spell Mauthausen.
17 June 2008 at 2:32 PM
Lairadehillary:
You are descrating the memory of the victims of fascism. If you don’t understand how, then there is absolutely hope for you.
17 June 2008 at 8:16 PM
BNS,
I would understand that comment coming from anyone else, but someone who desacrates the memory of millions of people who lived and died in the last 1000 years by placing a swastika on a Catalan flag, has ZERO credibility.
Kalebeul,
Thanks for this site. I am in China now, and all the well known blogging sites are blocked. Tell me if someone says something smart in mine. Do not bother if BNS is the one.
17 June 2008 at 8:35 PM
I obviously have better Shanghai contacts than you, which is why the Chinese have not turned off the best-known blogging site of them all.
18 June 2008 at 12:06 PM
Ian, you’re entitled to your opinion. Are you really comparing the “oppressed” history of Catalonia with the holocaust?
The use of the swastika on my blog was a deliberate provocation, I was not cmparing Catalans to Nazis, unlike the boycott-mongers who appear to believe that Hunbold is a nazi.
Trevor, I demand you do something to get yourself banned in China immediately.
How about I say Deng XiaoPing sucked cock?
18 June 2008 at 12:58 PM
I thought that was the little people’s friend, Mao. Deng XiaoPing (= +-Shopping) on it own is surely insult enough.
The Chinese better not touch me or I’ll start playing selections from The Mikado
18 June 2008 at 3:19 PM
Trevor/BNS,
Smart move, you are trying to get rid of me!
Comrade Hu Jintao. I do not know any of those guys. I promise.
18 June 2008 at 9:36 PM
Sorry, Ian (I mean stranger) couldn’t resist.
Happy holidays
19 June 2008 at 5:53 AM
No holidays for me.
Trabajando como un chino.