06 February 2008

Asturies needs to change ...

Vais disculpame ,, entame a escribir una respuesta a una respusta del post d'abaxo y cuando quisi dame cuenta llevaba medio fueta n'ingles ,,,

there is no easy fix to our problems ,,,

There are indeed a lot of entrenched interests ...
For about a million people ( data from an article in La nueva espana ) ,,, we have a regional government , 12 mini-ministries ( conseyeries ) and astonishing 500 high senior civil servants in them ! we have about 9 MPs a few more in the senate and we have so called embassy of the asturian government in Madrid ,,,

We have 45 asturian MPs , a delegation of Spanish government in the asturias ( with another handful of highly paid officers in them ) ,,, then we have another 78 councils ,,, with several hundreds of "full time" city councillors and people on their service and payroll and this is just people living directly off the business of politics ,,, then we have all sorts of IDEPA-like organizations , consejos de la juventud , instituto de la mujer etc etc ,,,

Then we have the special interest groups such as Unions , including both the employee's union and the employer's union ( la Dade ) ,,, all on their own way frequently coluding on the noble task of getting money of asturian taxpayers in diverse forms channelling it straight into their membership pocket ,,, prejubilaos ( I doubt this word exist in the english language ,,, )

And those who are not in the "gravy train" already dedicate their time , effort and sometimes intelligence and talent trying to join ,,,,

I could go on ,,,

What's left then ? a significant number of us have already leaft , others are children destined to emigration and a few more are older people who have retired ..true a few meritorius people fight the trend but too few of them.

There is however another asturies that believes in the future and is fighting for it ,,, but is it is not in the power , not in the money and sadly way off the asturian mainstream ...sorting ourselves out is not impossible ... within a generation Ireland has gone from being a remote european backwater to one of the richest country per capita in the european union , only 40 years ago people in Taiwan and Korea have little to eat and now they are asian economic power houses , and closer to home Almeria is now one of the richest provinces in spain .. well evidence is everywhere ... it can be done ,,,

The problem is not that Asturians are lazy of just f*****g stupid , many Asturians have been succesful when they emigrated in the americas and we even had a golden era when we werea leading industrialisation in Spain. We have achieved a lot both individually and as a group and , no doubt , we can do that again.

We need to change the way we think , people need to be more ambitious , strive for excellence , we need particulalrly young people to dream of creating something new and making money ... not of becoming a postman ( a noble profession no doubt but that's beyond the point ) or a paper pusher in some irrelevant office ,,, mediocrity shall not be rewarded ,,, we need to reward risk and entrepreneurship and not the opposite , in Asturies we need to understand that we have to do the things for ourselves and not sit and wait for "other" to come and sort us out ,,,

I do not mean to be cheesy but us , asturians , need to love ourselves a little bit more ,,, The hatred our political elites dedicate to the asturian language ( A fala on the westernmost ) does not come out of the blue is just another manifestation of a deeply rooted malaise ,,,

I speak to friends and some are ready for change ,,, but many others ( the majority ) are not ... a critical mass needs of discontent before anything can change and there are far to many people out there just loving it too much the way it is ,,, the message is clear ,, "we can not go on like this forever , I know it and you know it too" it just needs to get across to a lot of people and that is not an easy task ...


que rollu acabo de soltar ... pa la proxima vuelvo a l'asturianu ,,, prometolo ,,,

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

El problema ye precisamente que nun ye an easy task. Va un tiempu, falando con un collaciu d'estudios col que m'atopaba depués d'unos años, acabó diciéndome, tres d'una esperiencia con una deses 'sociedaes rexonales' que "nunca pensé que me diba volver un lliberal, pero ye superior a mín ver el mou en que se marafundien les perres de toos impunemente nestes alministraciones-chiringu". Yo nun llego a lliberal, pero sí que nun pueo con esti comederu en que se convirtió Asturies. Sobra alministración pública y falten xestión y conciencia de que Asturies o ye por sí mesma, o nun ye. Ye'l llamentu de siempre.

Anonymous said...

Agree with your premise that a mentality changer is the only way to achieve results and that mentality changes are difficult. And yet, other places/economies that have undergone mentality changes (Ireland is a good example, as you point out; but Portugal is undergoing one right next door) have shaken off disadvantageous legacies.

Asturias can do the same, if people realize that their situation is dire, even disastrous. That’s why I hope the impending recession in construction will bring things to a halt. Areces and his troupe of profiteers (hiding behind masks of benevolence, as you point out) will finally leave politics. Then people will begin to weed out all the irrelevant bottom feeders, the entrenched interests that are at the center of Asturian paralysis.

Once that’s over, we will be able to assess what’s left and how to build a globally competitive productive sector, basing it on traditional strengths in the region (high-end steel, with possible spinoffs in automotive, renewable energy engineering, marine logistics in the Atlantic, eco-led dairy farms). For this to happen, voters need to be much more proactive about defending specifically Asturian interests, as opposed to those of the central government in Madrid.

As for those of your friends who agree with you, I know plenty of them too. They are often smarter, more intellectually curious, better traveled (i.e. cosmopolitan), friendly toward Asturian culture and ambitious. That kind of talent needs to emerge and challenge the ossified mainstream. And absolutely: all mediocre-thinking people should not be rewarded by the system, which is exactly what happens in Asturias every day.

Power to you, Chalgueiru. Wish we can discuss this one day in person and start a grassroots movement! By the way, ‘prejubilaos’ in English is ‘early retirees’. Saludinos dende Washington.

Anonymous said...

ayalgueru, si lo prebes, nun dexes de decinos si ye verdá que funciona. Un saludu.

Anonymous said...

Chalgueiru, deixasme fader un enl.laz a esti post n'ingles n'AsturianUS.org? Ou prefieres que copie el testu afitando la direicion de tou blog?

Ia que tengo un filu abiertu sobre esta tema embaxo 'The future of Asturias' ya paezme axeitao lo que dices. Cumu ta n'ingles, interesaria-ys a la xente d'esi foru.

ayalgueru said...

si hom claro nun ye problema.

Un saludu

Anonymous said...

Xa ta colgau tou post no foru d'asturianus.org. Gracias pol copyright, chalgueiru!

Bryce Wesley Merkl said...

Here's a great Asturianu source you might want to check out:

Asturianu wiki browser

Anonymous said...

Took me time to read the whole article, the article is great but the comments bring more brainstorm ideas, thanks.

- Johnson

Anonymous said...

This article is a great help to me! Thank you!

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