So yesterday Catalunya announced a decision to ban Bullfighting in the province.
They became the first Spanish mainland region to do so and based their argument on grounds of animal cruelty. It was just one area and won't actually make any difference for at least two years, however...
Animal rights activists were out in force to celebrate, and their opposition were making just as much noise, so what do you think?
Now as you know already from following this blog, I enjoy living in this part of Andalucia and am quite used to a Sunday afternoon beer in local Bar Pinche, where the resounding slap of dominoes competes with the omnipresent very loud TV usually screening (or screaming?) a bullfight from somewhere in the province.
I'm really not shocked by it and when you consider you will only find the reviews the next day in the culture section of the papers, then you cannot argue that it is a bloodsport.
Sure, it's not pleasant to see a bloke in pink tights tormenting a drug induced bull, who in this case probably is a defenceless creature, but there are plenty who find it exciting, flamboyant and not a little gladiatorial.
So, in addition, we live here and have no intention of NOT accepting - if not always agreeing - to all things Spanish, including their fantastic culture.
Secretly, I think all this hoo ha is just another mark in distancing 'them up north' from the rest of the peninsula.........another story.
And a footnote to all the cultureless teeth grinding foreign residents here in Spain....just before you go and have a nice bowl of oxtail soup - I'm sure that beast died perfectly happily - take a moment to consider fox hunting...........
Your reading material for this week is Death in the Afternoon - Hemingway!
They became the first Spanish mainland region to do so and based their argument on grounds of animal cruelty. It was just one area and won't actually make any difference for at least two years, however...
Animal rights activists were out in force to celebrate, and their opposition were making just as much noise, so what do you think?
Now as you know already from following this blog, I enjoy living in this part of Andalucia and am quite used to a Sunday afternoon beer in local Bar Pinche, where the resounding slap of dominoes competes with the omnipresent very loud TV usually screening (or screaming?) a bullfight from somewhere in the province.
I'm really not shocked by it and when you consider you will only find the reviews the next day in the culture section of the papers, then you cannot argue that it is a bloodsport.
Sure, it's not pleasant to see a bloke in pink tights tormenting a drug induced bull, who in this case probably is a defenceless creature, but there are plenty who find it exciting, flamboyant and not a little gladiatorial.
So, in addition, we live here and have no intention of NOT accepting - if not always agreeing - to all things Spanish, including their fantastic culture.
Secretly, I think all this hoo ha is just another mark in distancing 'them up north' from the rest of the peninsula.........another story.
And a footnote to all the cultureless teeth grinding foreign residents here in Spain....just before you go and have a nice bowl of oxtail soup - I'm sure that beast died perfectly happily - take a moment to consider fox hunting...........
Your reading material for this week is Death in the Afternoon - Hemingway!
As someone said to me here (in Glasgow), it's as if we were to ban Morris Dancing in Scotland. The corrida was never that big in Catalonia anyway, there's only one ring left (in BCN), and I suspect that the crowds attending there are internal immigrants from Andalucia. So it's more of a nose-thumbing exercise than anything.
ReplyDeletetotally agreed Martin, as usual it's the politicians using the emotionally charged heart on their sleeves eejits! Guess the world is the same all over........
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