The rap singer Valtònyc (wearing dark green in the first photo) has returned from exile. It's the first time he steps in his homeland Mallorca in almost 6 years.

He was sentenced to 3.5 years of prison because when he was 18 years old he wrote a song where he criticized the Spanish monarchy and uploaded it to YouTube. He wasn't famous and his most listened song on YouTube had 8,000 views, but in Spain it's a crime to say "injuries against the crown", and the laws are often applied more harshly against national minorities (Valtònyc is from the Catalan Countries). His song was found and he had to go to trial over it, and was sentenced guilty of the crimes of injuries against the monarchy, praising terrorism, and threats.

Valtònyc refused to accept the so-called "justice" of the Spanish judicial system, so he decided to escape. He managed to sneak to France unnoticed by the police, and went to Belgium, where there was already a community of Catalan people on exile for their political involvement in the Catalan independence process. He has lived on exile in Belgium these last 5 years and a half.

Had he come back to any Spanish territory, Valtònyc (same as the other exiles) would have immediately been jailed. In fact, Spain issued an international order of extradition, demanding Belgium arrest him and send him to Spain to be imprisoned. But the Belgian courts found that these kind of cases should be allowed under freedom of speech and, instead of sending Valtònyc to Spain, Belgium got rid of their own law that punished "injuries against the crown" as a crime. With no Belgian law to punish him, he was allowed to stay in Belgium. This is a similar process that had happened with other Catalan exiles, who Spain has demanded be extradited multiple times but Belgian law has protected for human rights and freedom of speech reasons.

By the way, the song that got him sentenced to prison had been a commission from the Spanish politician Pablo Iglesias (leader of Podemos, the left Spanish party) for his TV show La Tuerka. Valtònyc has explained that Iglesias never called him, never showed any solidarity nor interest in his case. Iglesias was vice-president of Spain during Valtònyc's exile.

The crimes expired six months ago, meaning he can no longer be imprisoned for it. However, the Spanish courts did not notify him of it (as they should have done), so his lawyer and him just found out.

After saying goodbye to other Catalan people on exile in Belgium, who are not allowed to come back yet (in the photos, shared by Valtònyc on his Twitter, he is saying goodbye to the politicians Lluís Puig and Carles Puigdemont), he has come back home.

He was welcomed by 200 people in his hometown. He has thanked all the people who helped him and showed solidarity. He also reminded that Pablo Hasél (a rap singer from Catalonia) is still in prison for the lyrics of his songs and the contents of his Tweets, sentenced guilty of injuries against the crown and praising terrorism. You can read more about Pablo Hasél's arrest in this post, and an explanation of the tweets and lyrics that got him sentenced in this post.

As we celebrate Valtònyc's return, we cannot forget that Spain has repeatedly ranked number 1 in the whole world for country that sent the most musicians to jail for the content of their music, in 2018 and 2020. By the way all the 14 rap singers condemned to prison for their lyrics were Catalan (Pablo Hasél and the 12 members of the band La Insurgencia from Catalonia, and Valtònyc from the Balearic islands), not one of any other culture group or from any other area. Curious, 100% of the sentenced, when the population of the Catalan Countries is less than 29% of the population of Spain. Wonder why!

Camí de Cavalls

by sir20 for menorca-sir20

Selva, Mallorca, Illes Balears, 05-12-23

Sunbeds, Ibiza by sir20

Catedral "Palma de Mallorca" en Palma, ESPAÑA

Just some more coast pictures from Mallorca, but this time it‘s more about rocks and cliffs.

They‘re also taken with the Canon A1 on a ISO200 color/ negative film.

Just loved to take pictures of the sea 🌊☺️

These are the only 2 books I have that my grandmother wrote (under a pseudonym). She was a contract writer in the 1960s for popular children's book publishers in Germany, chiefly Schneider Bücher.

Dilbi is another one of hers (cover image found online) - but most of these books were fodder for voracious young readers and have disappeared without much trace.

My grandmother liked to pick what were then considered 'exotic' locations and Dilbi awakened my interest in the beautiful Balearic Islands. So in the late 60s I travelled to Ibiza, which back then was still a sleepy tourist destination.

I remember how as 12-year-olds we went to the local stationery shop regularly to check out new arrivals of our favourite Schneider series. By far the runaway top sellers were (for girls) the Hanni und Nanni books; and for boys the Burg Schreckenstein ones. Both were set in boarding schools, a sure recipe (to this day) for childhood fascination. And yes, you read that right: books were colour-coded and marketed for Girls and Boys!

H & N live on in audio book format. The interesting facet is that these were adaptations (heavily edited and localised) of Enid Blyton's St Clare's series, spun off into its own German version. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Clare's_(series)

Otra vez un dia nuevo se levanta.

Island life, part 3.

Probably the 1rst car in 10 years runnning Autowahn I was not able to identify fully. Is it a kit car? Or a weird build based on Moke, Suzuki Jimny and some Peugeot components (see interior)?

this is the best thing I've seen all week

A football referee expels a coach for speaking in Catalan

Sadly this doesn't make it to most news because it's not uncommon, but I will translate this to give an idea to foreigners of the situations we have to deal with.

Yet again, another Catalan speaker has been kicked out of somewhere just because they spoke in Catalan in a Catalan-speaking country. This time, it happened in a local football camp in Petra (town in Mallorca, Balearic Islands).

While reading this story, remember that Catalan is the native language of Mallorca, and is legally recognised as a co-official language.

During a local-level football match, the football coach of the team UE Petra protested to the referee that a decision wasn't right. The referee told him "we are in Spain, Mallorca is part of Spain, not Spain part of Mallorca, and you must speak to me in Spanish". The coach continued speaking Catalan, since it's the language of the place where this is happening, and the referee proceeded to expel him. This is what the referee wrote in the match's minutes:

In the half-time, the coach [...] after perceiving my communication in Spanish and being reprimanded for addressing me with the words "this is shameful", starts speaking to me in Catalan. When I ask him to talk to me in Spanish, he continues perpetuating his dialect, where I understood some lacks of respect. Since I could not make him stop, I decide to expel him.

At the end of the minutes card, the referee wrote the reason for expelling him as "for disobeying my orders".

The other witnesses in the football match explain that the referee was very rude to the coach and never asked him politely to change to Spanish, only rudely saying "in Spanish!". Later, the referee also wrote that the coach was "perpetuating his dialect", as we have seen. Using the word "dialect" for a language that has suffered persecution, illegalization and discrimination is an extremely loaded term based on bigotry, only used by the hardcore Catalanophobes who defend that Catalan (and other discriminated languages like Basque and Galician) aren't languages because they're not important or respect-worthy enough to be a language, only a "dialect" (understood as a derogatory word).

The football club UE Petra has complained that this referee is partial and "has taken decisions, as can be seen by the wording used in the minutes, influenced on a coach using his mother tongue in the place where it has been official for centuries".

Now, a few days after the game and the UE Petra publishing a statement explaining it on their social media (you can read it here), the referee has pressed charges, claiming that she has been "threatened" when it was posted on social media. 🤦

Can you imagine if this happened to a Spanish person for speaking Spanish in Madrid? Or French in Paris, or English in London? Can you imagine if doctors threw them out for speaking Spanish in Madrid, French in Paris or English in London? Or hotels, banks, petrol stations did? If policemen identified them because speaking it was seen as lack of respect? Then why do we have to accept that it's normal when it happens to us?

You can find the statement published by this coach's football team UE Petra here (in Catalan). Some sources from newspapers who reported on it: Esport3, Ara Balears, Vilaweb.

Nubes caminando

by sir20 for menorca-sir20

Artà, Mallorca, 07-12-23

Les Illes Balears i els Països Catalans

Quan la gent xerra de l'independència d Catalunya i València tmb fiquen Les Illes però mai les tracten com un tema important, només alguna cosa que és aquí i punt.

Les Illes estan sent gentrificades i espanya no fa res. La península no fa res.

Les Illes estan sofrint i no us importa res. No volem aquesta situació.

No hi ha Països Catalans sense Les Illes Balears.

Peninsulars per favor comenceu a preocupar-vos i a apreciar-nos

A PROVINCE IN PHOTOS - ILLES BALEARS

sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

pics 1 and 2 are from es migjorn gran, menorca. pic 3 is located in binibeca vell, menorca. pic 4 shows the isle of es vedrà, off the shore of eivissa. pic 6 is from fornells, menorca. finally, pic 7 was taken in sóller, mallorca.