Welcome to the first night of my life in a location where there is active separatist terrorism (for those who don’t know, that’s the ETA who want the Pais Vasco (Basque Country) to secede from Spain). In the last week or so, there have been three bombs, mostly against tourist targets, one in Alicante, and two nearby, one actually in this town.
My pacifism at least partially stems from cowardice. I have avoided terrorist zones all my life. Despite urgings from Jewish parents to visit Israel, I have demurred. Despite encouragement from various political acquaintances to visit Palestine, the same. hawkeye and I were due to spend two days in Dublin in 1999 but changed plans to attend the 400th anniversary season of Julius Caesar at the Globe (can you really blame us?). While I’d love to see Ireland, I was somewhat relieved too. Discussions with hawkeye about being a war journalist – which he found appealing – always left me cold. I feel it’s a responsibility, although after the whole ’embedded’ thing and then the near miss with Eric, I’m even less interested. I’ve always wanted to believe I would have been part of the French resistance during WWII, but given that 90% of the populace did nothing or collaborated, what are the real chances? I mean, I chickened out of going to the Easter protest at Baxter detention centre on some piss weak excuse about not having any way to get there (there were buses leaving filled with students… it would have cost me a whole $40).
I do agree with sabotage as a tactic in political protest. I don’t agree with terrorism or anti-human action. I’m anti-imperialist. I’m anti-colonialist. I agree with regional autonomy and self-determination. Does that mean I agree with separatism? Well, that’s where this gets incredibly complicated. Isn’t separatism at least partly based on some atavistic idea of ethnic purity or authentic culture? Isn’t it, at its base, an inherently racist concept?
On the other hand, since most efforts at separatism are direct responses to suppression, they look relatively easy to work out: China out of Tibet? Fuck yeah. Free East Timor? Damn straight. Indonesia out of Aceh? Next on the list. Free West Papua? A Palestinian state? Autonomous Northern Ireland? Chechnya? The kurds? The basque? The break-up of Yugoslavia.… these notions of ethnic ‘identity’ are exactly what concerns me with my thesis… I am struggling with how I feel about these things… and it’s even harder since politically, I don’t agree with centralised government *anyway*… Apologies, this is hardly coherent.
It’s been a long day. I’m safely – for now – ensconced in a little hostel in Calle Amistad, two streets from the bridge across the river to the old town. Tomorrow, I will wander through its pedestrian-only streets and then wander over to the modern area and the Guggenheim. There’s even a net café right at the end of the street…
Small note for qamar: discovered to my joy last night that the Spanish word for ‘random’ is aleatorio…