An EPJ reader emails:
Regarding your post,Why French Universities Are Now Teaching Many Courses in English,: I have a good friend in Barcelona. He has three young children. I asked him what he is considering for their future given the economic situation.
The first thing he pointed to was his real concern about Catalonia secession, as he sees an economic disaster if this situation develops. I asked him if this was truly his first concern - it gets virtually no coverage in mainstream media.
He assured me that it was - it would lock his children into a future of one region of Spain - closing the door to the rest of Europe, as EU membership would be denied. I did not debate him on the pros and cons of this.
His second effort was to ensure all three children learn English. He is achieving this through school and by sending the oldest for a year to study in an English speaking country.
The idea that the EU would not give membership to a newly constituted State of Catalonia (or Scotland) is completely preposterous.This line of argument is nothing more than the politically expedient dogma of neo-Franco imperialists who know that without the tax receipts from the industrialised and modernised region of Catalonia and its international hub in Barcelona, Spain would quickly return to irrelevance.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but I think Bob is just pointing out how the secession
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean Spain is relevant now? Why?
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't noticed, Anonymous of 12:56p, Spain is at the heart of the fight over the euro, and creeping supranationalism via the ECB and EU bureaucrats in Brussels. In Europe, a place with twice as many people as the USA, Spain is incredibly crucial to the direction of the EU project.
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