Scottish referendum through the eyes of a “local foreigner” II

It has been great to live the referendum campaign from the inside! The experience has almost been a sociological / political science study. I has allowed me to notice that some well-known differences between British (be them Scottish or from the rest of the UK) and their Mediterranean European brethren also extend to politics. One of them is the rational V emotional discourse.

As a Mediterranean, I would imagine that a campaign of this kind would be very emotional. The separatists would be appealing to the patriotic feeling of the Scots by showing how different their traditions and character are from the rest of the British. They would appeal to the patriotic history of wars against the English (and the Irish, by the way). Unionists would be appealing for the same patriotic feeling but on the reverse, showing how much the four nations that form the United Kingdom have in common. They would be appealing to the sense of common history and heritage.

In this patriotic dialogue, both sides would have a lot to present. In fact, Scots and the rest of the Brits do have differences and similarities. However, instead of this emotional patriotic discourse, both sides provide very rational and technical arguments: membership in the EU, the common use of the pound sterling, petrol, gas and fish reserves in the Northern Sea, the permanent seat in the UN Security Council, the education and social security systems, the amount of contribution and benefits to the common budget, etc..

This is an interesting approach. It certainly helps us, foreigners, better understand the technical issues at stake and get an overall view of British political system. And it confirms our judgement that British prefer not to show their emotions publicly (which is not to say, as many Southerners think, that they don’t have them). But I certainly would prefer a more patriotic campaign. So an appeal to both separatists and unionists: spice it up!

Scottish Referendum through the eyes of a “local foreigner” I

I am a foreigner living in Scotland. Well, to say the truth I’m not totally a foreigner: I am an EU citizen and the UK is in the EU, so I’m a citizen of this greater union I live in. Because of that I’m given the right to vote in the referendum.

And here I find two different opinions among the other “foreigners / not so foreigners” on this respect. On the one hand there are many who say they will not vote because this is a matter that concerns only the nationals. There are many others who see voting in the referendum as part of the duties towards the country they live in. I am much inclined to agree with the later ones.

There are many reasons why the treaties of the EU established EU citizenship and a right of all citizens to vote for some elections in the other member states. If there is freedom of citizens to establish themselves in other countries (and therein pay taxes), it is only fair that they should be able to hold local politicians accountable for their decisions. Besides, it is considered that the future of the territories they live in is also of their concern.

I add another one. This is a less political or practical reason and more emotional one. We, foreigners, may very well love the country in which we establish ourselves and to want the best for it. For this reason, we may want to share the responsibility with the nationals for important political decisions.

For these reasons, I chose to vote in the UK for the EU elections. With this, I lost the right to vote in the same elections in my own state of nationality. For the same reasons I will vote in the referendum on the 18^th of September. And I will vote with the best interests of this country at heart… Just as any national should.

Future of the UK and Scotland

Yesterday around 200 people got together in the Old College to talk about the white paper made by the government of Scotland. It's already impressive that this amount of people would choose to spend most of its St. Andrew's day talking about politics. But even more impressive was how well the debate went and how obviously interested people are in reflecting on the issue before making a final decision in 10 months time.

I know that's how Democracy should be like. Unfortunately, it's so rare that it really is like that. So often people don't care about getting to know more about the consequences of their vote. That, of course, when they do decide to vote... So this event was refreshing and gave me confidence on Scotland's future: in or out of the UK.

In the morning we had five academics' thoughts on five different questions. Would Scotland be wealthier? A fairer more equal country? Safe in the world? Greener? And what kind of Democracy would it have? In the afternoon we had five other academics who, assuming a yes vote in the referendum, reflected on dividing assets and debts, EU membership, role in the international community, currency union and constitution.

Both panels were followed by debates with people with different opinions and from distinct professional and political background. In the morning there was also a period of audience discussion. Unfortunately, the gadgets they provided for the audience to vote were not working very well but the discussion was still very lively. Another unfortunate fact was that there was a fire alarm in the afternoon that made us all freeze outside for one hour and loose the time for audience discussion. These two technical malfunctions still could not cast a shadow over how great the exchange of ideas was.

Congratulations to the organization and to all the participants! (uops, this last one also includes me...)

Things that only a Brit would say... II

You meet someone in the street, exchange a few words until time comes for farewell and your British interlocutor tells you: "catch you later!" 

Catch me! Will you be chasing me? To do what once you caught me? Is that a threat?

In fact this only means "see you later!" So why don't they say "see you later"? Britishnesses...

Things that only a Brit would say... I

In reply to your question: "how are you?" you get a "not too bad!"

Not to bad!!! The first time I heard this my immediate reply was one of commiseration: "why? what happened? is there anything I can do to help?"

In fact "not too bad" in this country means "good". Go figure... 

Prestige... Do you still remember?

Can you still remember the accident of prestige? Well, it was 11 years ago and it was one of the worst petrol spills in Europe ever. After all this time the criminal court in La Coruna (Galicia), finally came to a decision. Everyone involved was innocent of any crimes.

What do we learn with this? That to not comply with safety navigation norms in order to save some money is ok. That to severely harm the environment is not that serious. That to prevent entire communities of fishermen from working for months in a region that greatly depends on fishing is just bad luck. 

Well, the environment is not that important, right? If we completely destroy this earth we can always move to Mars... What? Mars does not have enough O2? Well, our planet will also soon not have much, so what's the difference?

Rum...maging Denmark

That´s what the Danes say...

Living room window

Saving the best for last... The best view, of course!

The living room window has a superb view over Arthur's Seat. For those who never visited Edinburgh (shame on you), Arthur's Seat is a pick in Holyrood Park. From it, the visitor can have a superb view over the city. In this photo, Arthur's Seat is the one on the right.

This window gets a lot of sun in the morning. When there is sun, of course. Which clearly was not the case when I took this photo... It also leads to the street, overlooking one of the main streets of Edinburgh: Clerk Street (locals read Clark).

Even though this is the window with the best view, I don't have a funny story to tell, like the bedroom window's nor did I ever took long to contemplate the people outside, like I did with the kitchen window. Maybe people who say that beauty isn't all that important are right. Or maybe not...

How many days?

In the post office, after posting a registered letter to Singapore the lad behind the counter tells me:

- Forty five days to arrive.

I, obviously surprised, answered with shock in my voice:

- Forty five days to arrive!!!

The lad replies:

- Forty five days to arrive.

No wanting to believe this outrageous number, I reply:

- One month and half for a letter to arrive in a city that has daily flights from London! In that case I don't want to send it from here! Give me back the letter!

Given that tomorrow I'm flying home, I intended to send the letter from there. I'm sure our postal service would be more efficient than 45 days with the royal mail. The lad decided to speak really slowly:

- T h e - l e t t e r - w i l l - t a k e - f o u r - t o - f i v e - d a y s - t o - a r r i v e.

- Ahhhh! - I replied with relief - Why didn't you say: "the letter will take between four and five days to arrive" in the first place then? Are you afraid of using extra words? It wouldn't stress your vocal cords too much, you know?

Mental note: I won't use that post again!

Polish adventures

Next to my house I have a wee Polish food shop. Sometimes I go there to buy bread and I end up being adventurous and buying something else. Why adventurous? Because everything is written in Polish and I can only vaguely imagine what I'm buying.

Today I decided to buy something that looked like a pate. At least it was certainly something to put in the bread because there was a picture of the thing spread over a loaf of bread. The thing was called Smalec z ogorkiem malosolnym. This sounded like an innocent enough name, right? Well, not really... The thing is almost pure lard! That exotic people from across the iron wall spreads lard in the bread!

Now, I can't exactly say that I loved it at first bite. However, I'm not the sort of person who throws away food which means that by the end of the jar, I will probably be a fan of spreading lard in bread. And I will have gained a few extra kilos as well...

Joys of being adventurous!