Nobody Cares

Published by

Clarissa

September 23, 2017

I took Klara for a walk on campus today, and it’s pretty deserted except for a guy who was talking on Skype in Catalan. I couldn’t avoid hearing because Klara saw some squirrels right next to him and refused to budge.

“No, mom, nobody is talking about Catalonia here,” he was saying. “No, nobody cares about the referendum. What’s on the news if not Catalonia? Trump’s problems with North Korea. No, really, nobody cares at all”

By the way, Catalonian independentists have outdone themselves in sheer, unadulterated idiocy this time. It’s a circus. And still, nobody cares.

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11 responses to “Nobody Cares”

Alex the Physicist

September 23, 2017

Is Catalan something that you have studied, or is it just close enough to Spanish that you can understand the gist of a Catalan conversation?

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1. Z
  
  September 23, 2017
  
  It’s a foreign language and I think (although I would need a linguist to confirm) it is further from Castilian than are Italian and Portuguese — it feels that way to me, anyway, and it’s French and Provencal that help me with Catalan. I find understanding conversation depends upon topic. I studied a year in Barcelona, took Catalan courses, practiced, read books in it and by the end wrote a research paper in it, and it is not difficult to read if you are reading in field. However pronunciation is very different and there are a lot of words that aren’t cognates with Castilian at all when you move out of field. So there are a lot of conversations I do not understand, menus I cannot read, etc., and I’ve studied it. Yet at the same time, there are some conversations, like perhaps this one, that one could pick up on the basis of knowing other Romance languages.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    September 23, 2017
    
    I was so tempted to tell him I understand Catalán in Catalán (although that, and a few profanities, is the extent of my speaking in the language) because that would be so freaky. A random person on a deserted campus suddenly understood his language.
    
    But Klara ran towards a bunch of squirrels and I had to follow.
    
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    1. cliff arroyo
      
      September 23, 2017
      
      “Klara ran towards a bunch of squirrels and I had to follow”
      
      Before the squirrels ended up in her mouth?
      
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2. Clarissa
  
  September 23, 2017
  
  Yes, I actually studied but I only have a passive knowledge. I have a great reading knowledge and I understand pretty well but I can’t speak because my Spanish overwhelms any Catalán I know.
  
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cliff arroyo

September 23, 2017

It is worth noting that the current constitution (which, in a referendum, won 95 % of the vote in Catalonia) specifically disallows the current vote. How do they pretend to justify that under any kind of rule of law?

Is there any Chance of the independistes being funded by Russia? The EU has already said that an independent Catalonia is automatically out of the EU…. Assuming they’re serious, the current drive doesn’t make any kind of political or economic sense whatsoever, the only real goal seems to be disruption…. which stinks of Putin and his lackeys…

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J. Otto Pohl

September 23, 2017

Does anybody in the US care about the Kurdish independence referendum on Monday? It is all anybody is talking about here in Suli.

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1. cliff arroyo
  
  September 23, 2017
  
  I know someone in Kurdistan now (not Suleyman) who had very mixed feelings aobut it when we last spoke (a few months ago).
  
  What are the chances of it passing and what are likely results if it does?
  
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  1. J. Otto Pohl
    
    September 23, 2017
    
    The chances of it passing are 100%. The likely results are completely unknown.
    
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Dreidel

September 23, 2017

Sunday and Monday are going to be interesting news days:

The national election in Germany (Merkel will win; the question is how many votes the right-wing AfD will get.)

The independence vote in Catalonia (which will ultimately achieve nothing).

The independence vote of the Kurds (which won’t be allowed to succeed).

The televised debate between pro-Trumpcare Republicans and pro-single payer fanatic Bernie Sanders (with both sides arguing for vast medical programs that neither can justify).

Maybe nobody “cares” — but at least they’ll be some political news besides Korea and Trump and Russia.

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Z

September 23, 2017

Well, this is about Russia but it is something slightly different: Russian Imperial Movement meeting with white nationalists in US! https://thinkprogress.org/russian-american-nationalists-washington-5bd15fd18eaf/

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