Here is more about Llívia, a Spanish/Catalan town of 1,589 people entirely surrounded by France. “Well, the treaty said “villages’, didn’t it?”
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Well, actually,* I’m a bit surprised Catalonia hasn’t left Spain yet. Feelings were already running pretty strong when we visited Barcelona in 2012.
*See what I did there?
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Catalonians did indeed vote for independence from Spain – but “democracy” is a rather fluid concept. Spain’s rulers responded by arresting the leaders of the independence movement, rather than by honoring the democratically-expressed wishes of the Catalonians.
The use of language is interesting. The Powers That Be are telling us about the importance of the “independence” of the Ukraine from Russia, at the same time as they are joining the Ukrainian branch of the Powers That Be in condemning people in the Donbass who want independence from the Ukraine as “separatists”. It seems that those who have won a round always then want to freeze the situation and declare the game over. But the game is never over.
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Then there’s the phenomenon of “Grievance by penultimate possession”. When a given territory has changed hands numerous times over the years, it seems like only the next-to-last owners bear a grievance over losing it, and the current holders feel guilt only toward them.
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