I'M AFRAID OF THE STATES

LIU XIAOBO, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER 2010 - CONGRATULATIONS! 

This post should be written in Catalan or in Castilian but I am afraid that nobdy is going to read it or understand what I want to say. So I have decided to write this in English. Not just for the people who normally speak English but for all the people around the people who know a bit of English.

I AM AFRAID

This may seem strange but I am afraid. I think it is the first time it happens to me but I am afraid of the state where I am living. I must accept that I am not very much afraid but I must admit I am a bit afraid.

Something terrible has happened in Spain, my current state, this weekend. This Friday the air traffic controllers decided not to work. This brought a lot of chaos to the airports in Spain. This Monday and Wednesday is also holiday in Spain so we had a five day holiday for some people. So, the wildcat strike of the controllers came at the worst time.

My state, Spain, decided then that controllers should work. Now they are under military command. If they do not work they can be arrested and can go to jail. We are in State of Alert.

Sometimes I watch TV and all continues as if nothing has happened. They just show how the airports are now working properly. If you watch TV it seems as if the whole country finds OK that these "evil people", the controllers, are obliged to work! It seems that we the Spaniards have the right to travel so for that reason these air traffic controllers have been put under military command.

I must be a very strange person. It seems that what has happened is normal. On the media it seems that everything is normal. Even the other political parties seem to agree with the measure. The air traffic controllers are so much disliked by the Spanish society that it seems that everybody finds OK that they are under military command. It is as if the Spaniards had forgotten that the air traffic controllers are also human beings.

At this moment in Spain, like in the rest of Europe, the planes are flying through the skies. But in Spain the planes are flying because the air traffic controllers are obliged by the military commanders! If the do not obey they can go to prison! I feel as it these people were slave of my state. I feel terrible.

But what makes me more afraid, and this is not related to Spain but to the whole world, is the easiness that one state can do wrong with its citizens supporting the state. I am terrified by the power of the state. These air traffic controllers made a mistake when they just left their seats but to force them to work makes me so sad. It makes me afraid of my state. It makes me afraid of any state.

The fact that a state can bring a citizen to jail because he refuses to work makes me crazy. It seems to me so unfair. As I am writing this, now in my country, there are people that are surrounded  by military personnel. If these people refuse to work they can go to jail. This seems to be unacceptable! But it is the way it is in Spain and I feel alone protesting against this! If I was in Eurocontrol I would forbid flight through Spanish air space because the air traffic controllers are not working in a proper way! These air traffic controllers are playing with the lives of thousands of people so it is crazy to think that they can do their job properly when they are surrounded by military threating to arrest them if the stop working! Europe should not allow what is going on in Spain! No European should be allowed to work by force! The air traffic controllers belong to the European Union! Why are the others democracies of Europe making a bling eye to this unacceptable way of treating workers in Spain?

In the Spanish constitution it says that I have the right to work and the right of having a place to live. Why does not the Spanish government confiscates the banks, or the palaces of the King and the Queen in order to create jobs and give houses to the homeless?

Now the Spanish state is forcing some Spanish citizens to work because in the constitution it says we have the right of movement.

So for some rights we force people to do things but for other things we do not do anything. So the state declares state of alarm so that Spaniards can go on holidays but it does not nationalise banks to help 4 milion jobless people.

I am sorry that I am talking so much about Spain because I know that this situation of the controllers is nothing compared with other situations in other parts of the world. But is is thanks to what is going on now in Spain that I understand better how terrible should be in some other countries where the State does not respect the individual rights. I am just thinking about the following cases:

IRAN. In Iran they hang homosexuals and some opposition leaders and the media supports the state (as it is happening in Spain! The media and most people in Spain are so angry with the controllers that they do not realize that it is crazy to threaten them to go to jail!)
CHINA. The Nobel Peace Price is in jail! And the Chinese just do not revolt against this injustice. The Chinese dictatorship controls the media.

Well, I could continue with other countries but let me just tell you the worst thing that may happen in a totalitarian state: THE WORST THING IS THAT THE STATE THANKS TO THE MEDIA MAKES BELIEVE THE POPULATION THAT THE STATE IS RIGHT!

That's what is now happening in Spain!!! During months and months the current government of Spain has shown the air traffic controllers as evil people: they earn a lo  a lot a lot of money and they want to keep their privileges. As in Spain we have a lot of economic problems it is easy that people hate these privileged people. So now that the Spanish government has declared the State of Alert the people are sympathetic with the State but not with this wealthy workers! The Spanish government this Friday regulated by law the regulations of the air traffic controllers. So these people got angry and they left their jobs. That was not right but I think that the Spanish government is playing with this people.

In Spain we also have a Monarchy with a lot of privileges that we all Spaniards pay. Why nobody talks about that and just about the air traffic controllers?

States can be very dangerous. That's the lesson I have learned this weekend in Spain. I wonder how many states are in the world that are not a threat for its own citizens.

If somebody is reading this I just hope you keep an eye in any state around the world. And the worst is too that they help each other. The State of Spain is not respecting the human rights of air traffic controllers and the rest of Europe remains silent. Well, it is not so strange. After all, Europe always remains silent about what goes on in Russia, for example.

I'M AFRAID OF MY STATE. ARE YOU AFRAID OF YOURS?