Obviously this is nothing new. It can be felt in the street. And it is good that a serious study corroborates this fact, providing details that can help us to find a way out. We should be thankful for it. But we have long been aware of this downbeat situation. We have often remarked of late that we are not satisfied. We know we have made mistakes. We will not earn any marks on the way things have been handled in recent years. With this in mind we have spoken out. Yet we remain embroiled in an exhausting battle for a fair financial deal for Catalonia and threatened by a decision from the Constitutional Court that we believe is not objective. And all this in a prevailing climate of extreme hostility from Spain.
But despite this panorama Catalonia must continue the fight. Now her continuity as a people, her internal cohesion, and her capacity to be competitive and – as a consequence of all this – to improve the wellbeing of the Catalan people is also at stake. And Catalonia must continue the fight with the knowledge that she has very important assets. Of all kinds and highly diverse. And we need to remember that not only is it a question of having more or less economic resources. We can prove to those people outside Catalonia who believe they will achieve what for centuries they have been striving for –to relieve Catalonia definitively of her influence and her own personally — that we are in the right conditions to surprise them once again. Because, as I said, Catalonia continues to possess human assets of influence and quality.
Now the first thing we need to have clear: regardless of the outcome of the negotiations on the financing, or of the Constitutional Court’s ruling, the first Catalan objective is to bolster the country from within. We must not seek confrontation with Madrid, nor make any kind of radical demands, nor ask for crumbs or accept any backslapping. This is the time for the internal reinforcement, recovery and bolstering of our values and of a reasonable ambition. To this end we need to take stock of our assets, those that we have here in our country.
In a time of crisis like the one we are going through, knowing we have a good reserve of ideas, initiatives and talent can boost our confidence. Provided – naturally – that we are prepared to make good use of them.
Allow me to enumerate some of these assets.
1. By a long shot Catalonia is largest exporter country of the entire Spanish State, (more than 27%) and even more in high technology products (38%). This means she is a competitive country.
2. In recent years the Catalan economy has increased its investments around the world. Its market is adapting to globalisation. We are winning the challenge of globalisation.
3. For some years now the cultural and literary field has seen a rise in the number of translations of Catalan works around the globe. Sánchez Piñol, Jaume Cabré, Carme Riera, Baltasar Porcel, Maria Barbal, Emili Teixidor, etc., have enhanced the Catalan literary presence abroad hitherto never seen (The list is longer, but I have purposely reduced it because it would never have been entirely complete, yet it would be more insulting to those forgotten or left out).
4. It is common knowledge that the percentage of R+D held up against the GDP is a habitual referent for gauging a country’s innovation capacity and its competitive strength. How is Catalonia doing in this respect? Taking into account that she started at a very low level, 0.25% in 1980, today she stands at 1.42 (in Spain it is 1.27). It remains low, considering that the EU average UE is 1.8, but the trend is on the rise. If in 1980 the R+D ratio between Madrid and Catalonia stood at 10 to 1, now it stands at 10 to 8. And Madrid includes much Government research, above all from the Scientific Research Council, which is very centralised.
5. In the field of Biomedicine, Barcelona and Catalonia enjoy a very good reputation thanks to university research work, support from the Institutions and the very high standard of a long list of scientists who are either Catalan or work here (like that of the authors, I have also kept this list to a minimum): Massagué, Baselga, Valentí Fuster, Izpizcua, Cordon, Badimon, Alonso, Beato, Rodés... This, I repeat, is only in the field of Biomedicine.
6. Thanks to this and to some effective promotional activity, health tourism has become very important in Barcelona. Many people from all over the world come to Barcelona for medical examinations, operations and treatment. This means we have several private hospitals of a high scientific level and international prestige.
In the raking of the 40 best Spanish hospitals, 19 are Catalan.
7. Catalonia has a series of state-of-the-art scientific installations and with great potential that ranges from powerful Marenostrum computers to the synchrotron that is under construction in the Autonomous University, which will put us on the map in terms excellence throughout southern Europe.
8. All this is not a slanted view of an enthusiastic Catalan nationalist. The journal "Nature", one of the world’s most prestigious scientific and research publications, in its July 2008 issue, published an article entitled
Catalonian Powerhouse in which it explains in depth, and even enthusiastically, many of the techno-scientific initiatives that are being carried out in Catalonia. And it says that Barcelona is becoming a Mediterranean science hub. “Barcelona in the lead”, the article is subtitled.
9. One piece of data that corroborates the standard of the new scientific community is the high percentage of grants given out by the European Research Council to Catalan scientists: 16 out of a total of 25 given to Spain (and 300 to Europe as a whole, that is, more than 5%).
10. BCN is the world’s fifth tourist cruise liner port and everyone expects it will soon be the fourth.
11. The Caixa de Pensions is the first savings bank in Europe. We Catalans have always regretted not having powerful instruments of finance. Now we have one, an extremely important player in the Catalan and Spanish market, but also in the area of big business with influence on the international stage. Our economy has a healthy balance because it is highly diversified, which is seen in how it is split into areas of activity. It has a notable degree of versatility, and it ranges from very small but dynamic companies focused on what the economists call a well-defined niche that are capable of having an influence abroad, to large companies with a significant international presence, from the publishing industry to the production of fruit trees, and from logistics to energy.
12. In the field of social initiatives Catalonia is a country with a high density of cultural, leisure and international support bodies. A density that is on a par with the highest in Europe.
This list is nowhere near complete, neither according to the areas listed (there are many more) nor for the volume and quality of each one of them. The case of the doctors and biologists is one example, or those of the companies with an international standing. But they are enough to testify to the fact that we continue to hold a good hand of cards in order to continue working on a project for an ambitious future. With confidence, enthusiasm, ambition, and self-respect.
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We must continue insisting on our assets. Because it proves we are in the conditions to recommence our advance. But this alone is not enough. And the thrust of this reaction will not work without a concerted and serious political action. Nor will it work if our society does not have certain attitudes and convictions. For this reason we will conclude this editorial by suggesting you read three recent editorials from this bulletin: editorial 119 (3 June)
The time to recommence our advance; editorial 120 (10 June)
We count on what we can count. Let’s add seriousness; and editorial 124 (8 July)
Inner Consistency, condition for recovery.
