Fight, you are not alone

The other side of the crisis

On the fast train from Cordoba to Madrid, with one more night in Spain, I "read" - through an automatic web translator - an opinion piece by Jordi Soler in today's El Pais titled The Reverse of the Crisis. He reminds his Spanish readers of Orwell's  analysis of the positive benefits to community life in London during the second world war, ranging from growing, sharing and exchanging food and skills; to more reading (and more sophisticated reading) by bored soldiers at the front line and civilians deprived of other entertainment at home. Orwell argued that this response to hard circumstances encouraged a more thoughtful and community minded sensibility.

Soler suggested Spain's situation, while not as serious as the London that Orwell was writing about, also provided opportunities for a sophisticated, communitarian response: the other side or face of the Crisis could lead to a collaborative economics.

So reflecting on Australia, it must be fair to say we are not in a similar crisis, structural adjustment not withstanding. The focus on consumption in our consumer society remains pretty well undiminished. But we are picking up the economic and political rhetoric that seems to drive the dominant government responses to the crisis in this part of the world: We must pull our belts in. People on low incomes are too dependant on the state. A balanced budget is the priority before social well being.

The thing that unsettles me about this equation is we aren't being pitched together to make do creatively in Australia today, as arguably people were in London in the 1940s, or even people are in Europe today.   It looks like the language of hardship and striving might just be an excuse to narrow our thinking to self interest.

Patio in antique Cordoba

patrimonio cultural inmaterial

Being here in for The Fiesta De Los Patios De Cordoba frees you up from the burden of more simplistic self directed tourism. We don't need to buy things, we can just look in the courtyards, and there are a series of pathways through neighbourhoods of open courtyards that you can sign on to which puts some structure in the experience. That most of the visitors are Spanish and even local (although many aren't) kind of helps me deal with the situational challenge.

We took a guided tour through some of the patios in the antique areas of Cordoba this evening(Friday). It was in Spanish so I understood just a little. Grette understood a lot more.  But that was a good exercise for my Spanish ear. And a fine experience too given we mostly get things delivered to us in English and ready to consume.

This trip has strongly featured representative examples of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as proclaimed by UNESCO. Namely Flamenco, Fado and now this Fiesta de Patios. As our guide explained, in the middle of a residential street, hundreds of years old - with bars and loud music and a number the courtyards looking spectacular and with queues at their doors - it's not the material thing, it's about the life people lead. And that includes maintaining the patios, and their geraniums and ferns and wells and fountains, and holding the competition.  

UNESCO seems big in Europe. And cultural heritage makes a lot of work, particularly if people like us come along to see or enjoy it.

Reminds me of a plan a friend and I had in the early nineties of a dance led economic recovery.. After all a dance piece with only one dancer isn't a better more efficient product than a piece with a troupe of ten.

But this cultural heritage (patrimonio cultural inmaterial, in Spanish) is especially fun and powerful because it isn't just us visitors enjoying the festival, or the fado in Portugal, or the flamenco, it really is still a part of so many people's lives.

Pavement sample

Pavements in black and white

The pavements of Portugal are particular it seems. A mix of white (limestone) and black (granite) squares making lines and patterns, quite different in different cities and different streets. They are pretty hard. Well, stone is hard. And variously uneven and slippery at times. They obviously last a long time. And they are a cultural expression, ranging from  sweeping curves to geometric boarders up and down the sides of streets, and even pictures of the Madonna, or a landscape, or a cat picked out in a black and white mosaic.  

The thing is there are so many of them. Much lower in terms of carbon dioxide production than concrete. I just wonder if there are some hills or mountains somewhere made of limestone, that are disappearing.  

Mosteiro dos Jeronimos