Politics Are Easy With Eyes Closed

Pat Metheny may just be the greatest guitarist in the world. He may even be the world's greatest musician, which would be an accolade that would be impossible to substantiate, so let's just say that as a musician he's pretty damn good and that he's been damn good for over thirty years, as it was back in the late 1970s that the German ECM label released the first album by the Pat Metheny Group. It featured the ten-minute "San Lorenzo", a track, for a jazz outfit, of quite stunning and beauteous melody.

Metheny came to the attention of the wider music public in the mid-1980s thanks to David Bowie doing the vocals for "This Is Not America", which was taken from the soundtrack of the film "The Falcon and the Snowman". At the time, this was the fifth film that Metheny had written the music for. He has since scored many other films and he has just won a Goya, the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar, for the soundtrack to "Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados" ("Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed"), the story of Antonio, a teacher, who drives to Almeria in the hope of meeting John Lennon, who was there filming "How I Won The War". The title of the film, some of you might have realised, comes from a Lennon Beatles song - "Strawberry Fields Forever".

In winning the Goya, Metheny beat off the Mallorcan composer Joan Valent, a name that may well be familiar; he is the director of the Pollensa Festival. Among his many other works and achievements, Valent also wrote - believe it or not - the official hymn (or anthem, if you prefer) of the Balearic Government. This isn't a hymn as such - it is a rather jolly instrumental/orchestral piece that features traditional instruments - and it is something of a curiosity. It is curious in that, whereas mostly all regions of Spain have official hymns, the Balearics does not, but it does have a hymn for its government. (Mallorca, by the way, has its hymn, "La Balanguera", but that's something different.)

Valent's governmental hymn was commissioned by the previous PSOE-led administration of Francesc Antich. It was a piece of music, said Antich, which reinforced messages of cohesion in the Balearics and among the islands' citizens. It cost 12,000 euros and came with an accompanying video. The hymn was to be used on official government occasions, while the video version was to be used for promotion at international travel fairs. The question is, whatever happened to it?

Politics intrude into music and culture when it suits politicians for there to be intrusion or, alternatively, avoidance. Try finding any current reference to Valent's hymn and you will probably draw as much of a blank as I have. I conclude, though I could be wrong, that it has been quietly dropped. It was far too regional for a government that at times appears indifferent to the very region it governs. It was also a work that was commissioned by the other lot.

The Goya gala at which Valent (for "Las brujas de Zugarramundi", entitled "Witching and Bitching" for the international audience) didn't win his award was the occasion for a rare old bitch-in between politicians and the film industry. It might not have been had the national minister for culture (and also education) José Ignacio Wert put in an appearance, but he didn't. It was a snub to the industry and showed a lack of respect on Wert's behalf, said members of the Spanish cinema luverati. There again, Wert, had he turned up, would probably have thought that he might have to endure some bitching in his general direction. His education bill would have been just one source. A bill for which he has no responsibility, the abortion one, would have been another. As it was, this was a source of on-stage complaint and was one reason why the former president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, reckoned that the Goyas had been turned into a gala against the Partido Popular: a witch-hunt amongst the bitching, or something like that.

Wert actually had a prior engagement. It was in London. He was meeting Vince Cable, who is Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. It hasn't escaped the attention of many commentators that Cable and Wert have portfolios which do not coincide. Why, therefore, was Wert meeting him? Something to do with reforming Spanish universities apparently. He did also meet people from the LSE and Cambridge, but the fact that the visit was organised as late as 29 January has led to suspicions that Wert was finding a reason to give the Goyas a miss and so to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the film industry. Politics, it might be said, are easy with eyes closed.

For What It's Wert: Education law

Education, education, education. In the five co-official languages of Spain, there are three translations of education. Educación, educació, hezkuntza. As ever, it is only the Basques who are in a total linguistic other world. Castellano and Galician are in agreement and so, in a slightly different way, are Catalan and Aranese.

The Galicians having the same word for education as the one in the language the rest of the world finds easier to refer to as Spanish is fortuitous. The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, is Galician. The Galician people, those who bothered to vote recently anyway, favour Rajoy and his party. The Galicians are a conservative people. They can also number among their most famous sons one Francisco Franco.

José Ignacio Wert isn't Galician. He comes from Madrid, the centre of government and very firmly a centre of Castellano. Sr. Wert is the national minister for education (educación, educació, hezkuntza), culture and sport. He is currently attempting, and succeeding handsomely, in antagonising everyone who has an interest in education, culture and sport, save for those who are educated in Castellano (or Galician), have a culture which is "high" Spanish (which excludes the Catalans most obviously) and who follow football teams rooted near to the seat of national government. Well, follow a football team.

So aware of education and culture is Sr. Wert that he wishes to establish a Spanish mono-culture. And Spanish it most definitely would be. His reform of education envisages far greater amounts of teaching being undertaken in Spanish and not in co-offical languages such as Catalan. Among the various opponents of Wert's Law are FC Barcelona, the Catalonian footballing anti-Christ forever in conflict with the regal, the very Spanish Real Madrid, Rajoy's football team, as it was also Franco's. Barça, more than a club, is living up to its motto. It is fully in favour of Catalan "immersion" in Catalonia's schools and so dead against Wert. (I wonder how good Messi's Catalan is.)

A couple of months ago, Sr. Wert signalled the direction in which he was heading when he announced that it was his government's intention to "castellanize" Catalan students so that they would feel greater national pride. He didn't actually say that he didn't want the students to not feel pride in being Catalan as well, but this of course was how it was interpreted. It was an easy mistake to make because anti-Wert forces had been alerted to an earlier example of Wertism. This was his decision to revive a grant (of almost 200,000 euros) for the Spanish biographical dictionary. It had been withdrawn by the previous government until certain "errors" were corrected, which still haven't been. Specifically, these are that Franco isn't referred to as a dictator and that a large part of the repression under Franco is overlooked.

As always, the spectre of Franco looms whenever Catalan appears threatened. The secretary-general of the CiU in Catalonia, Josep Duran Lleida, has called for Wert's resignation and has described his law as "the worst attack" on Catalan since Franco's death. The CiU may have lost ground after the recent election, but there are more fanatically separatist elements which have gained ground in Catalonia that will take great delight in using Wert's Law as a means to their end of independence.

You do have to wonder why the national government is so intent in pushing Castellano to the detriment of other languages. It knows it will have a fight and it seems happy to pick one. So much, therefore, for trying to create a spirit of unity in the country as a whole in order to tackle rather more pressing matters.

But it could have been predicted that the fight would come, as one only had to look at the Balearics, the test-bed, the experiment for some of what the PP nationally had in mind. However, the desire to push Castellano in the Balearics has been a flop. For the Balearics education minister, Rafael Bosch, who has overseen the failure to achieve a greater degree of teaching in Castellano, Wert's Law is a Godsend. He can blame it when its imposition falters. Or he can use it to reinforce the Balearic Government's own stance on Catalan, though he is prone to coming out with seemingly contrary statements, his latest being that he will "work to the last moment so that Catalan is an official language".

While Bosch is working to the last moment, Sr. Wert will be busy in a different way. Faced with criticism of his law, he has said that he is "a fighting bull that grows stronger when provoked." He really should choose his descriptions more carefully. The Catalonians have banned bullfighting.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.