[TTR]

Originally Posted by culso

If you donīt know where is Catalonia, remember that is a region on Spain, one of the most important.

Dear Culso:

I wan not born in Catalonia, altough I lived there for a long while and my wife is Catalan. And I can tell you that the word "region" is offensive to Catalans, as that is exactly what fascist dictator general Franco wanted: to turn the historical stateless nations of Catalonia and the Basque Country into mere regions of Spain. I assume you are Spanish, and therefore you feel annoyed by Catalans feeling Catalan. Too bad for you (specially now that they've started the political process for national independence), but quite frankly if you don't like this thread just look for another one called "Naked Spanish flamenco dancers" and let Catalans enjoy their thread. Or is Spanish imperialism so bad that you not only don't want Catalans to be independent, speak their language or have their national sports selections, but also you don't even want them to have a simple thread on OCC?

Anyway, this will be a good opportunity for people from other countries to see why the majority of Catalans nowadays want the independence: most Spaniards (not all of them, thanks goodness) are intollerant with ANY form of manifestation of Catalan identity. Wether they want to be independent, or simply speak in their language or even start a thread on OCC, ANY time a Catalan says his country is Catalonia, there's a Spaniard coming afterwards and trying to force him to feel Spanish. Well, let me tell you something as a foreigner who lived both in Catalonia and Spain: IT IS NOT GONNA HAPPEN. The more you try to force somebody to feel a national identity he doesn't feel, the more less likely he is to actually feel that way. So the more Spaniards try to force Catalans to be Spanish wether they want it or not, the more Catalans are gonna see Spain as an unfriendly nation which tries to force them to do what they don't wanna do.

Anyway, even if, as a foreigner who knows Catalonia, I felt I needed to say that, I BEG all of you not to turn this thread into a political thing. If there's any Spaniards reading this who have national prejudices against Catalans, please don't write things to look for an argument with them. And if any of them did, then I beg the Catalans reading this not to answer to them. I say this to both Spaniards and Catalans reading this: you have plenty of other places to discuss your diferences. We're here to have a good time looking at pictures of nude girls, so let's just do that, wether you consider the Catalans to be free people who have the right to decide their own future or even if you consider them a mere posession for the Spaniards to rule and dominate.

Please, discuss this somewhere else, and let's look at some nude chicks! Actually, that is something we all agree on, right? Even those Spaniards who are racist against Catalans would'nt probably say "no" to one of the pretty babes on this thread, right? So let's talk about boobs and butts and forget anything else, my friends.