Free-D

Portuguese laureate José Saramago, in self-imposed exile in Lanzarote (I could think of worse places) declared this week that it was inevitable that some time soon the Iberian Penninsula would be one country. After all, his argument goes, “We see an undivided whole made up of different nationalities, some with their own languages, which have lived more or less in peace.” It would seem to go against the trend in Europe at the moment where the tendency is for devolution of power from powerful centres to nations within nations like Scotland and Catalonia. I was trying to work out the linguistic mix: if my maths is correct (and it often isn’t), then about 28 million Iberians would have Spanish as their mother tongue, 10 million Portuguese and 4.8 million Catalans, with people like me making up the other 7.2 million Basques, Gallegos and other odds and sods. The relationship between the Portuguese and the Spanish, as far as I can gather, is rather ambivalent. The Portuguese are rather antagonistic against their larger neighbours (the second most significant date as far as they’re concerned is 1640 when King Joao IV regained independence), but most Spanish seem to think of Portugal as some little cousin whom you need to grudgingly include in your games. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating, Salamanca repeatedly turns its back on two of its most valuable assets: the River Tormes and its proximity to Portugal. I’m continually amazed about how few people pop over the border to sample the historic delights of Monsanto, Sortelha and Sabugal, let alone the endless Atlantic Beaches north and south of Aveiro.
It comes as some comfort that a joint initiative between Spain, Portugal and Italy has just held its 3^rd get-together in Lisbon with the three heads of state as their special guests. The event is organised by COTEC Fundación para la Innovación Tecnológica run by our very own Mariano Rodríguez Sánchez (Emperor of Salamanca). Unfortunately, COTEC’s website doesn,t actually work, which isn’t a great advertisement for technological innovation, but lets not be churlish!