EL PACTO DEL OLVIDO

Not much of a looker ill admit , just like the Famous Window Matisse painted during the WWI , it captures an elemental bleakness , the extraction of the spirit from being leaving a mass of inertness , the turning to rust of the consciousness , untended spilt blood;straw;dust; spent bullets; all-encompassing corrosion ; a dusk that will never see the dawn.All in all not a pretty picture.

Frederich Schiller ventured political policy should be akin to an artistic painting , aesthetically beautiful.According to this painting the Pact of Oblivion is ugly , ready to pounce at a moments notice.

The Pact of Oblivion is under the severest test as the Spanish economy suffers its first sustained period of downturn since the end of Franco led rule.The Spanish economy has always managed to grow since the return to democracy , it shifted from an agricultural weighting to a diversified semi-modern part of the EU.Manufacturing Industry ; quite astounding infrastructural developments and especially Construction have made Spain a major gainer in Europe.

Alas , the World economic downturn has found the Spanish economy exposed to negative aspects more than most in Europe.It has lost out , not being as established as the Northern economies , and more so has found the membership of the Eurozone means local National Government cannot tweak its currency to make Spanish goods and services more competitive in these tight , restricted and difficult times.


The Germans are a surplus economy , wishing the Euro to serve the need to curb inflation.The Spanish require a boost to trade by making it a cheaper option attractive to foreign investment.In a bizarre way the Spanish will envy the manoeuvrability of the UK , collapse of Sterling notwithstanding , to set its own lower rate to suit its needs rather being tied into the counter current of German development and requirements.

The net result is that Spain is a loser on two fronts.Lack of ability to raise funds to boost the internal economy ( only about a third of what France is proposing and barely an eighth of the German boost package) and also an Unemployment rate that is twice the EU average and getting to a worrying 14%.

This is where concern for the future course of the Pact of Forgetting comes into play.At first the pact , whether you are against it or for it , had seen Spain through the rough waters and raw emotions for the last 3 decades.Chile had their pacto to facilitate a relatively peaceful transition from Pinochet to the present, Argentina had a Pacto del Olivos ; South Africa have had their Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the UK has had the Good Friday agreement in the North of Ireland.Pacts as such , and the pacto del olvido in particular , deserve credit for getting a very difficult and tense situation from ground zero to a meaningful workable level in which parties can use the space to reconfigure their own internal past , come to terms with the process of making Amends , to forgive without forgetting , ultimately getting down to the task of working to reconcile , to get from a suspended state of war to a genuine cohesive working state.

The problem of the pacto , though , is that the fascists have never been brought to answer or accept responsibility of the rule of Franco , a process of redemption was literally put on hold , a no-fault arrangement , no stain on the conscious would be a more accurate description.By never having to answer whether Franco period was a good or bad thing means that , given the right opportunity Fascism , an unconstituted one at that , can easily make a comeback when economic or social circumstances allow the unaddressed extremism that has lain dormant , but very much alive , put aside whilst the economy was progressing, to make an entrance.Spain has teetered between extremes and now could be a time for the chips to fall one way or another.The tragedy of Spain in the early 19th century was that the International Community let the Spanish People down , the payback may be the rise of the right may re-embrace the International Community , especially parts of the Mediterranean Rim and eastern Europe , with an ideology that we had hoped was shaken of in the middle of the last century.

Anyway , back to Ayewrite.

This evening , as you can guess , we had a Symposium on the 70th Anniversary of the Spanish Civil War.The Great Historian Paul Preston , who has arguably written the best and most easily accessible primer on the war , as well as a rich bibliographical narrative of the archives in both English and Spanish was unwell and could not make it.

The other panellists included Chris Dolan ; Historian Paul Gray and Trade Unionist Dave Arnott.All gave moving accounts of , not only the local militias but also the substantial contribution made by the People Of Scotland in both sending People and Aid to the Peninsula , but also the fundraising efforts and the hosting of refugees , especially Children from various parts of Spain.

Alas , as always the establishment of the Catholic Church did not come out of it with flying colours.With such instances as the collection of the Church of 75,000 worshippers at Carfin in order to pray for the victory of Franco.

But the Final word must go to the Artist , who very perceptively points out NOTHING STAYS BURIED FOREVER.