Hi Cali.

You have assume both that I have studied in an "instituto of curas" and that I read "El País" neither of them is true. It made me smile those statements, I felt you were telling me "state appart little boy, I'm going to tell you some story".

I tend to be critic on what I see, more in regard of ETA and its environment. My ideas regarding it are a mix of what I have studied, what I have seen in the Basque Country, what I have read and what I have been told by basques. So I consider myself quite informed. You are right that there are things I will never understand, but there is something I know: there is no single idea which is worth of cutting a life.

Yes, I understand why ETA política was created: to oppose the dictatorship of Franco. ETA-p dissolved years ago, when the reasons for its existence ceased to have weight. However, ETA político militar, a band of pure terrorists and radicals continued to make it's own "war" against the democracy.

See, the difference between the catalonians and the basques is that the catalonians where clever enough to pursue their ideas pacificly, did you know there was a terrorist group anaog to ETA in Catalonia (Terra Lliure)? They now have a great economy and they pursue their ideas according to the laws that rule the democracy that our parents fighted for.

Sorry but Castilla was born in the west of the Basque Country, are we so different? Absolutely no. A basque is as different to a madrileño than to a catalonian. That is the richness of Spain.

"Look at present-day Navarra: Aside from the comunidad foral flag, which other flag is more predominant, the Spanish or the ikurriña?"

Of course the ikurriña at present. When I was a child the navarros would never have showed an ikurriña, never. Now the radicals have forced the situation to a point in which it is difficult to show an spanish flag (otherwise you expose yourself to reprisals), but easy to show an ikurriña.

"The only reason Navarra is somewhat separate from the rest of Euskadi is that there are so many transplanted Spaniards so as to make it the least Basque of the seven provinces in the «zazpiak bat». The province isn't any less Basque. Is Bilbao no longer Basque because of the influx of andaluces after the war? Not quite."

This statement did surprise me... Where have you read that? The concept of the seven provinces is a one that has been invented earlier than 10 years ago. Tell a french basque that and he will laugh at your face. Transplanted spaniards? What do you think that Franco made colonies there? There are as many spaniards in the Basque Country than basques in Madrid...

The blood difference is the more stupid lie the separatists have thrown to show how different they are... No single scientist has never supported that lie. Yes, my blood type is AB negative, I want to be independent of all of my siblings!!!!

Now you assume that the government does obscure things behind the scene, but you apparently don't care of what terrorists are doing in the name of foolness in front of our eyes.

In my short life I can recall some things.

First: Ikurriña is a flag which was invented by Sabino Arana (a man whose mental health was far from good). Have you never thought why is it sooooooo close to the flag of the United Kingdom? The ideologist thought it would give the Basque Country the power of an empire...

Second: The euskera is a mix of dialects of the real basque language, based upon batua. They have eliminated the richness of the basqye language just for the cause.

Third: ETA doesn't represent the Basque Country, but they assume that role.

Fourth: Navarra has never been akin to the Basque Country. When I was a child to call basque a navarro was close to an insult (the same as a riojano).

In this democracy there is no single reason for ETA to exist. No one. They may pursue their objectives: independentism, via the basque parlament. But they will never stop until they destroy Spain and create a marxist-leninist country which comprises the Basque Country, Navarra and the french Department of the West Pyrinees.

Fernando