Spanish Congress and the Tower of Babel

21^st September 2023

One step forward, two steps back.

Spain’s Congress approves the use of regional languages in its sessions. Spain, the only country in the world to approve such a daft measure, will now be using four official languages during its plenary sessions. Congressmen will now be required to use translator devices to understand each other!

You really couldn’t make it up.

Whilst the rest of the planet is busy studying Spanish (the fourth most spoken language, and the second in importance worldwide trailing only after English, spoken by 22 countries, or half a billion people), Spanish politicians are busy approving new divisive laws that marginalize the language of Cervantes.

This deluded measure is a political concession the incumbent President has agreed with nationalists (read separatists) to secure being re-elected into office another 4 years.

In effect, Pedro Sanchez is leading the country down a dark path of balkanization, erecting new artificial walls, sowing dissension, and in general bending over backwards to undermine the country’s cohesion and union. And he’s doing a great job at that!

A country’s language is a cultural heritage that needs protection, it enriches and unites its nationals, meshing them together into one.

Perhaps I’m being hopelessly naïve and idealistic, but one would imagine the priority of this president is to rally the country behind him, as one, in these difficult times. Curbing down its (over)reliance on (over)public spending, decreasing unemployment levels (the highest in all of the EU and out of the OECD), diversifying the economy so it doesn’t rely as much on tourism, allowing easier access to homes for first-time buyers, reducing taxes, vastly improving public education by allocating more resources towards it, paying teachers (much) higher wages, etc.

Nope, not a chance. Silly me.

His priority is power. And if that means balkanizing the country, so be it. He will approve a general amnesty and basically duck his head in the sand in the face of a financial tsunami that quickly approaches Spain (in the shape of high interest rates) that threatens to swallow the country whole in a sea of darkness.

Truly, we have the worst president at the worst of times.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” – Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865). From an impoverished humble background of corn farmers, this self-taught American lawyer, strategist and politician would rise to serve as the 16th US President. He resolutely ensured a pro-Union victory, strengthened the federal government, modernized the economy, brought about the emancipation of slaves and preserved the Union. During his tenure, he held presidential elections in 1864 to be re-elected, amid a devastating Civil War that threatened to tear his country apart and engulf it in a sea of darkness; yet he gave example in the face of adversity, holding steadfast to his ideals, steering the ship safely into port and acting as a beacon of Democracy which light shone with a fierce intensity the likes of which the world has never witnessed, before or since. Never again would a country hold presidential elections amidst a bloody civil war in what constitutes one of History’s greatest democratic feats to date. But most importantly, he went into great lengths to ensure the festering wounds left open during the fratricidal Civil War were healed; generously reconciling both sides in equal terms, as one nation, indivisible, under God. It is for this very reason, that more than two centuries on, he is widely regarded as the greatest American President to grace the White House; likely the greatest American of all time, towering above the rest. Through his courage and sacrifice, which ultimately claimed his own life, he laid the groundwork of what was to become the greatest and most powerful nation on earth over the next two centuries. A true statesman that would always put ahead of any consideration the best interests of his people, by tearing down divisive walls, and fostering at every opportunity union.

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