In The Ghetto

Volem Un Barri Digne! reads the slogan. It means We Want A Decent Neighbourhood and is a common sight on signs hanging from the balconies of parts of El Born, El Raval and other barrios of Barcelona, where the residents feel aggrieved by the incivisme - poor public behaviour - in their community. The chief concerns are noise, public urination, drugs and prostitution. 


So it was with some amazement that I read that this slogan was being imported into Poble Sec at the instigation of the Unió d'Associacions de Veïns and is now being hung over the balconies of a few flats in our barri. Worse still, this - according to the press -  indicated a rending of the social fabric of Poble Sec, as this (as yet notional)  lack of respect for one's neighbours was being blamed on - you guessed it - us immigrants.


It didn't take the usual suspects to long to join the (largely non-existent) dots. Newspaper and web reports were quick to pick up on the meme, and soon the online comment threads were seething with racist hatred directed against the uncivilised  üntermenschen who had turned Poble Sec into a cross between East Baltimore, the South Bronx and Compton.


In a later post I intend to make a more sober analysis of this unalloyed nonsense. But I couldn't resist the opportunity for scrawling a stream of angry and heavy-handed irony first. 


If you'd rather read a masterful point-by-point rebuttal of all the vile accusations the shit-for-brains commentators have been peddling  - and can read Catalan, I urge you to check out Julía's blog posting. In the meantime, here's my rant: 

A typical everyday scene in  the neighbourhood. 

Straight Outta Poble Sec


The truth is finally there for all to see - Poble Sec is being taken over and ruined by immigrants. Having lived here for five years, and spending most of our free time in the many bars and restaurants of the barri, attending many of its cultural events, and making friends with local residents, we were obviously completely blind to the fact that we were actually part of a wave of mutilation breaking over the neighbourhood, leaving a spew of whores, junkies and dealers, turds and pools of piss, all cavorting (or fighting) to an unholy symphony of screams, shouts - and bachata. 


Thankfully, highly educated, balanced and free-thinking individuals, posting comments on articles such as this in La Vanguardia, plucked the scales from my eyes - and I’m now thoroughly chastened from the realisation that I and my fellow foreigners have generally screwed up the Earthly paradise that was Poble Sec before our detestable arrival. I hang my head in shame - and if you are not a full-blooded Catalan and currently sucking on the teat of Barcelona’s infinite generosity, I urge you to do so, too. 

As ‘Una Altra del Poble Sec’ helpfully points out: 


c. Blai is taken by a legion of dirty, disgusting Dominicans, lazy unemployed and criminals. The Pakis (sic) do not reach the same levels of degradation. IMMIGRATION IS A CANCER. Do you understand now??. If we do not solve the problem NOW, voting for a RADICAL change, this riffraff will soon be able to vote…

There is a similarly courageous vanguard of free-thinking progressive radicals in any culture, and - sad to say - they are disappointingly shriveled minority. A much more watered-down view was taken by the original press articles,  which seemed to be championing the concerned citizenry, with headlines such as Poble Sec Joins In With El Raval To Ask For A Decent Neighborhood, pointing out what must be obvious to anyone with eyes to see that it is currently NOT a decent barrio. And as a result of this rising and historically unique phenomenon of poor behaviour - centering on c. Blai, Tapioles and Blasco de Garay, with supporting roles from Plaça de Bella Dorita - the president of the Unió d'Associacions de Veïns del Poble-sec, Jordí Bargall has sensibly taken upon himself to speak for the entire community in order to communicate the message that: 


this is not the neighborhood that we want... the increasing problems (are) bad public behaviour, drugs and the increase of immigration.

Of course, needing to pander to the liberal élite values that so perniciously cling to any talk of the invading hordes, Bargalló does not make the all-too-obvious connection between the immigrants and other curses inflicted on the barri. Thankfully, many of his sympathisers do not mince their words in the same way - as we have seen. 

RIP Kelvin

In the small hours of Saturday the 5th September a 19-year-old young man, known to his friends as "Tiger", was stabbed outside a disco in Sabadell. According to the reports I've read, Kelvin - his real name - was involved in a street fight, taken home by friends after being injured, and then his family called an ambulance. He was taken to the Hospital del Mar, where he soon died of his injuries.

If by any chance any friends or family of Kelvin come across this article I'd like to extend my deepest sympathies for their tragic loss.

Despite a remark in a report by ADN that it bore the hallmarks of a gang confrontation, El País carried a piece that said the Mossos d'Esquadra had discarded the idea that it was gang-related. The same article also identifies a 17-year-old from L'Hospitalet de Llobregat as the current suspect, and that the assault is alleged to have occurred after an argument that started inside the disco. The youth is currently in custody. 

I was on holiday when it happened, and heard that there had been a stabbing, via the radio. I didn't realise that the victim lived in Poble Sec. In fact the first I knew of how close to home the tragedy was, I was having a quiet glass of wine with my wife and mother-in-law in a bar, and at the corner of c. Blai and c. Tapioles we saw floral tributes to "Tiger" and "Kelvin". Commemorative messages had been sprayed onto the walls, and attempts obviously made to remove them by the cleaning services, as they already appeared faded.

As you can see in a photograph in this blog entry - if you scroll a little way down, past the videos and photos of party-goers - the original homage also consisted of photographs of Kelvin, and votive candles. This was to prove to be a bone of contention for some of those living in the barri, as we shall see. 

It appears from the above blog that Kelvin lived with his mother and five brothers and had only emmigrated to Catalonia from the Dominican Republic five months ago. The spot was chosen to mourn Kelvin,  I suppose,  as this is a corner where many latin youths meet up and socialise. During the Festa Major there are always open-air discos playing bachata and other popular latin music, which people of all ages dance to. Customised cars cruise the corner, and young people flirt. The only trouble I've ever seen, other than a little rowdiness, was a screaming match between a couple which looked like it could turn a bit nastier. It didn't.

The Dominicans and other latin arrivals to Poble Sec are amongst a large number of recent immigrants to the barri which include Brits, Pakistanis, Chinese, Germans, Poles, Russians, French, Ukrainians, Morrocans and many more - a microcosm of the entire town in other words. I'm part of this wave of immigration, and so feel a great deal of solidarity towards any immigrant here, and whilst I am lucky enough not to face many of the struggles the majority have to contend with in trying to make it in a new country, I have an inkling of how difficult it can be.

As a white Anglo with a job, a flat and money in the bank (some of the time), I get to miss out on the worst that this town - or any, for that matter - can throw at you. So, I was very upset by this blog entry. Now, as I've said in my profile, my Catalan ain't up to much, and my deepest apologies to Oscar - whose blog it is - if it has severely let me down on this occasion and I have completely mis-understood him, but I found one or two of his comments a little offensive. 

He writes: Quan hi passava al vespre tornant a casa, estaven tots reunits fent una mena de missa rara: resant i bevent cervesa. Semblava vudú. That, I think, translates more or less as: "When I walked past on the way home that evening, they (the Dominicans who hang out on the corner) were all engaged in some strange kind of Mass: they were praying and drinking beer. It looked like voodoo." He then goes on to ask why it subsequently took four days for the street cleaners to get rid of the melted wax, etc that was left over from this "voodoo". 

Labels for the blog entry include brut (dirty) and brutíca (filth/dirt/dirtiness). In addition, a comment from a reader includes this: "que s’adapten a les nostres costums, és molt important

 "It's very important that they adapt to our way of life." By that, does the poster mean rampaging insensitivity, in the face of tragic loss, masquerading as civic pride?

Attitudes towards immigration, integration, preservation of immigrant culture and sensitivity towards cultural differences are fraught at the best of times. And with a recession, 20% unemployment and the spectre of worse to come, these are far from the best of times. It is also far too big an area to go into here, particularly as I don't wish this blog to become a polemic (those that know me would say that it's inevitable, but I'll try to defer it for as long as possible). So I'll leave you with a photo of a commemoration of another shared tragedy, also on public display at the same time as Kelvin's. Dedicated to those killed in Catalonia's loss of independence on September 11th 1714, it is now our national day and a public holiday.