"piotr gasiorowski" <
gpiot-@...> wrote:
>>>In some places asking a "dumb CA question" without checking the
basic information first may be considered "potentially offensive", as
pointed out by Gene Kalutskiy the other day. Regionalism is a delicate
issue in Spain and...<<<
Just to let you know, I'm not Spanish myself, I just happen to have a
lot of friends around Madrid, Asturias and Cantabria.
>>> As for supporting the "uderdog team", I wouldn't do that in a fair
competition. I'm not a zealous enthusiast of political correctness
either. But I do tend to sympathise with people who have a justified
claim to as much freedom and autonomy as is guaranteed by civilised
norms. That's the consequence of my historical experience as a Pole;
and I'd feel exactly the same about any ethnic minority in Poland if it
were threatened by enforced assimilation or any other form of unfair
treatment, let alone blatant persecution. I'm against bullying in
general. I'm glad that in modern Spain the Catalans are infinitely
better off than they were under Franco.<<<
Again, just wanted to remind you guys that the kingdom of Spain was
formed when the queen Isabel of Castilla and the king of Aragon and
Sicily Fernando II (Aragon also included Catalonia and Valencia in it).
At that time Aragon was in fact a more powerful kingdom than Castile.
And even now, as Petr has mentioned already, Catalonia is the most
poulous, industrialized and urbanized province in Spain, except for the
area immediately around Madrid.
So really, who is the underdog here? (And by the way, I consider it
foolish to root for the underdog - it does not always happen that the
bad guys are stronger than the good guys).
GK
PS: Gerry, you were not born in the US, were you? You must be
originally from Belgium or something, right?