For all my english speaking friends and family. Short brief. The voting day was absolutely amazing and rewarding. In our town Olivella, we were expecting to have between 400 and 500 people coming to participate in this light referendum. We ended up having 750! People of all ages. The oldest, a 95 years old gentleman that had lived a world war, a civil war and a cruel and long dictatorship. Also tons of parents lifting up their children with their vote in their hands making them slide down the envelope inside the ballot. It sounds maybe too romantic but after 300 years of fight, that meant so much to me and to the ones we were sharing those moments at those two voting tables. And all of this in peace, voluntarily, convinced, smiling and with a huge hope and self-determination. An old women from 1925 came to my table, I typed in the laptop her ID info and found out that her data wasnt updated and she wasnt filed in the towns database even though she lives in Olivella. Since the Spanish government didnt allow us to use the national database (bastards!) we had to input their ID info and create our own database in order to have some control over the census and proceed with the referendum in a serious and legal mode. We had some international observers walking around and we wanted their approval and a fair amount of credibility. Anyway, there was one condition and that was that your IDs address had to coincide with the town you addressed to vote. Some people that had moved from town to town and didnt upgrade their ID info just couldnt vote. Back to the old lady, unfortunately we had to tell her that her ID was not valid. You should have seen her wrinkly face full of frustration and disappointment. She had to leave without voting very upset. After three hours she came back slowly walking in. She pulls out a different ID than the one before from her purse and asks me to go on. Thee other ID was expired. All the volunteers were looking at that computer hoping she would be filed in as a legal voter and authorized to go on. She was! I had the pleasure to tell her,...you can vote now Mrs. She did with tears in her eyes and said.....this is for you Josep!! I hope you can see us.... looking up and with so much feeling. It was 5 seconds but it was enough. Later she explained while hugging us one by one and thanking us one by one that Mr. Josep was her husband that died 40 years ago after a long illness caused by some severe injuries while in the civil war against Franco. This is one of many histories we the volunteers witness and shared yesterday. Catalunya had an explosion of democracy yesterday and the fact that close to 2,5 million people, disobeying the Spanish Governors and with many official threats from the Spanish authorities on the air, went to the their local schools and vote made us stronger and even more convinced that this fight will be win. There is no way back. 81% voted YES to become a new independent estate, even in the worse conditions intentionaly caused by the Spanish governors. We have a strong leadership in our president who is stepping up with determination and democracy leads and we are behind him pushing, the people. Many like us have already disconnected from Spain and that is something that comes historically from our hearts but now also from our heads. Enough is enough. We tried, it worked for a while but now it is over. What is also sad is that the Spanish government is avoiding facing the situation in a political mode and is focusing on the fact that they still proclaim that his was done illegally. Respect is the key to achieve stability and maintain friendship between countries and different cultures. They disrespected us for centuries and especially in the past 5/6 years. They screwed up. Spanish Political strategy sucks. They didnt even see this coming. How can we trust them? I do not. We are living a very interesting process guys. Very interesting. Una forta abraçada a tots. Albert
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 20:08:52 +0000
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