September 11.

international | miscellaneous | other press

Saturday September 11, 2004 19:43

by ipsiphi

how people remember-

Depends really on which culture they live in.

Chile remembers the coup d'etat that toppled Alende's legitmate government and began Pinochet's dictatorship.

Catalonia marks it's independence day, anniversary of it's 1714 defeat by Bourbon Spanish forces.

England has but almost forgotten the Levelers petition delivered to Parliament this day 1648 with over 40,000 signatures claiming basic rights.

Mayor Bloomsberg visited ground zero in an America more interested in the issues of why Schwarzenegger chose yesterday to finally outlaw necrophilia in California, and the news that Disney CEO Michael Eisner has finally stepped down.

Catalonia celebrated it's first "onze" (11) with a socialist president and tripartite coalition which includes two independence parties.
Accordingly the Spanish Flag was not flown over official buildings in the second and third cities of the country today, Girona and Lleida.
Their president Maragall has appealed that they find expression of their self determination within a Spanish context. But today really belongs to the myriad full independence groupings and types who have this year adopted the donkey as their mascot animal, replacing last year's cat.

Chileans have seen in the last year, Pinochet stripped of is constitutional immunity for the part he played in Operation Condor a CIA planned coup, and this last week millions of dollars banked in his name during and after that period were frozen. Despite protests by his younger son that these funds were savings alone, most chileans remember that his elder son was arrested a month ago on charges of illegal secondhand car dealing, and feel confident that this year will see Pinochet face more "justice".

It is difficult to treat on the Cromwellian period of English history without acknowledging the masacres and genocides which accompanied it mostly in Ireland. Whilst Cromwell's legacy cuts through our history to the present day, the demands put by the Levelers to parliament this day 356 years ago were forgotten and can only be theoretically thought to have resurfaced in later social movements.

September 11 did not begin
nor did it end History
for any people.

But it is a useful benchmark.