Hi folks!<\/p>\n
I don’t usually talk about politics, and I think I’m not talking about politics in this post. But I want to share with you something we are undergoing now in my country.<\/p>\n
Since I got up this morning, I have been reading newspapers, watching news and checking some of my facebook contacts’ profiles. All of them talk about something we started living in Spain some days ago under the name of \u201cDemocracia Real Ya<\/em><\/strong>\u201d, (True Democracy Now), but which seems to be spreading through some other European countries. I don’t know much about politics. I thought it would only be, as some people said, a \u00a0kind of pataleta<\/em><\/strong> (a tantrum), but to our politicians’ surprise it is growing bigger and bigger. From Puerta del Sol in Madrid, there is a constant stream of news and information, and lots of other cities are organizing manifestaciones pac\u00edficas<\/em><\/strong> (peaceful demonstrations) and acampadas<\/em><\/strong> (camps). And it’s not only happening in Spain: all our Espa\u00f1oles por el mundo<\/em><\/strong> (Spaniards living abroad) are making a call for gatherings in front of every embajada espa\u00f1ola<\/em><\/strong> (Spanish embassy). And even more, people from some other European countries are starting a similar revoluci\u00f3n<\/em><\/strong> (revolution): Italy, France, and Portugal are using the internet \u00a0and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to organice similar social protest camps.<\/p>\n As you all know, la crisis econ\u00f3mica<\/em><\/strong> (the economic crisis) all over the world, el paro <\/em><\/strong>(unemployment), and the burbuja inmobiliaria<\/em><\/strong> (housing bubble) have left thousands of families in a very difficult situation. And there is a general feeling that our pol\u00edticos<\/em><\/strong> (politicians) haven’t done enough to solve the problems. We are now in campa\u00f1a electoral<\/em><\/strong> (election campaign), and people have decided not to listen to the politicians anymore, but make them listen to people instead. We need and demand political and social changes. There are manifiestos <\/em><\/strong>(manifestos), reivindicaciones<\/em><\/strong> (demands), and finally, a national cacerolada<\/em><\/strong>! Do you know what a cacerolada is?<\/p>\n A cacerolada<\/em><\/strong> is a usually spontaneous demonstration where saucepans are banged. It often involves some other methods of protest such as apagones<\/em><\/strong> (power cuts), sentadas <\/em><\/strong>(sit down protests), but always in a peaceful way. You can meet with some other people in the city centre, or just lean out of your window to make some noise. It is a protesta democr\u00e1tica<\/em><\/strong> (democratic protest) we learned from South American countries, but we really like to use it.<\/p>\n And now is time for me to leave you and prepare my biggest saucepan to take part in today’s cacerolada. Maybe under the name of Spanish Revolution there is a real social revolution, and we are now living some historic moment! What do you think?<\/p>\n