We are your menu

A few months ago I wrote here that the Renfe trains running through the country, covered in graffiti, added the final touch of collective desolation caused by a service abandoned to its misery.

Now we've gone further. From letting them do whatever they want with the trains, Renfe has moved on to letting them do whatever they want with people. They've stranded four hundred thousand passengers for two days straight. They've disrupted the normal life of an entire country with complete impunity. Nothing will happen, just as nothing has happened until now after more than two decades of delays, journeys in sardine cans, fires in the overhead lines, covert driver strikes, screens without information, and stations with broken elevators.

Naturally, nothing happens because the problems are in Catalonia. Spain can neglect investment in its trains in Catalonia for decades while spending everything on high-speed, radial,of course,Because we Catalans are a part of the state structure, specifically the one that pays and stays silent. All we get is the argument between unions and employers about who foots the bill for the hours the state prevents us from working.

The service disruptions these past few days show the extent of our political power. The government has hardly any leverage over Renfe, Adif, the state that budgets but doesn't spend, or the minister who keeps repeating that trains are experiencing their golden age in Spain. Neither this government nor any of the previous ones.

The other day, speaking about Trump, the Prime Minister of Canada urged countries to live in truth and act together, "because if you're not at the table, you're on the menu."