The other eclipses of Catalonia

1. Fortunately, time does not stop and the eclipse has already passed. With it, collective history, fueled by the media (the role played by 3Cat, or TV3, or whatever it's called now, will be the subject of some doctoral thesis in the future), has reached an unusual point and has made evident the degree of gregariousness we all carry with us. I hope the country's sociologists and anthropologists take this seriously and explain the mechanisms of this episode to us well. Not even the Spanish victory in the Football World Cup has fueled a phenomenon of these dimensions, at least in this country.2. As could be foreseen (and no expertise was needed), public transport, mainly Rodalies and the sinister society formed by Adif and Renfe, failed spectacularly. Everyone (or almost everyone) knew it, but people rushed to the stations, onto the trains heading south, on the morning of the eclipse. Surprising. Were any of the users trapped in that black hole unaware of the disaster they were about to experience? Years and years of mistreatment, shameful operation, lamentable services, institutional mockery, etc., are useless? Only to complain and lament that in Tarragona, on the way back, the disaster was consummated? What is wrong with the people of this country, with the regular users of Rodalies? And with those who are not so regular? I don't understand. Expecting Rodalies to work is exactly the same as wanting to see a solar eclipse in the middle of a snowstorm (when there were snowstorms).3. The country was already fumbling before the eclipse. Now it walks in the dark. We have descended one more step in the general erosion of public life. We have consumed the spectacle of the eclipse at sidereal speed and, when it became clear again, the country remained at the same point where TV3 left it before trying to abduct us with the spectacle. Climate change, droughts, and fires are in the usual place. The institutional eclipse is dragging on; pending files remain pending and full of dust; on top of the old ones, new ones are added. Suffocated by heat and stunned under an unforgiving sun, the invisible and silent Minister of Culture announces the possibility of throwing money into some national dance and theater companies, presumably public and well-paid. All this in a ministry that, like that of Linguistic Policy, is distinguished by its absolute discretion. They cost us money, but we must admit that they do not bother at all.

4. We have a Minister of Research and Universities whose existence has been proven on very few occasions in her official life: two interviews in ARA, in which she has made it very clear that she is not at all interested in research in humanities (apart from a very elliptical reference), and a second sign of life, on TV3 (naturally), to explain the use of glasses to correctly view the eclipse. Meanwhile, research in this country (good research in libraries, physical and digitized archives, networks and press archives, archaeological sites and museums, because people in humanities and arts do good research) will continue to be based on the voluntarism of those who carry it out. Quite a promise of modernity.5. The educational and school eclipse is another matter, one of the most serious that those responsible for this phenomenon should try to resolve: rulers, managers, and workers (I mean, those formerly known as teachers; currently, "education workers"). The list of issues is very long and known to everyone; to the pending problems, our public managers have the ability to add new ones, and, in the temporal horizon of autumn, there is no indication to be optimistic. A total eclipse, perfectly rounded.6. Our rulers, due to the responsibility and commitments they made two years ago, are the first ones who must answer for all that (which is a lot) that doesn't work. But, behind them, there is a group of politicians, aspiring to rule something someday, who also must go through the wringer of analysis and criticism. They are also eclipsed, from some lost Republicans to the holy progressive innocence of the Commons, through the inanity of Junts. Behind this darkness, the eclipse of the country hides the tenebrous embrace of the racist, Spanish nationalist, and neo-Francoist, fundamentalist and integrist far-right, whether it's called Vox, whether it's called Aliança Catalana.7. The Sun has reappeared; we note that the heat waves, the fires, the droughts, the collective excesses of uncontrolled tourism, the conflicts, and the usual problems have not left with the collective hysteria of the eclipse. We will roll up our sleeves again, we will load ourselves with patience, and we will continue forward, as almost always and despite the eclipse, public mediocrity, and media hysteria. How lucky that the solar eclipse, the real one, has already passed!