3 ms·

Phew! Finally it's safe for Basques to visit Iceland again! :D Jokes aside, Iceland is a very interesting place, not just because of its incredible nature, but

by kebman 6y ago

Phew! Finally it's safe for Basques to visit Iceland again! :D Jokes aside, Iceland is a very interesting place, not just because of its incredible nature, but also its history and language, especially due to their very interesting and well preserved old texts, and also because they're so remote and insular. It's a treasure trove for etymologists and laypeople alike. It's also quite interesting to track the etymological differences between the nearby islets and countries, for instance on Faroe Islands. Personally I wonder about graph-driven language analysis, and it's a hobby project of mine to go deeper into that.

Melting_Harps 6y ago
> Phew! Finally it's safe for Basques to visit Iceland again! ¡Ahí Va La Hostia Pues, Inaki! Europe has so many of these small disputes and treaties that make absolutely no sense what so ever if solely looked at through a modern lens and with no context. As a person born in the US to a European parent it was so odd to see these little details when visiting, even within Spain itself. Specifically, and relevant to this topic, the Basque Country which has a long history of secession from the Spanish Kingdom. Catalunya is another as is Valencia, due to the horrible violence of the Spanish Civil War, but I had known of that already. The notion of Autonomous communities is almost antithetical to a nation state/uniter kingdom model, and yet you have it and it exists within the EU. And then when it tries to to exercise those rights it gets people thrown in jail as seen with the successful 2017 Catalan separation vote, that saw its proponents get thrown in jail, beaten and chased by secret police from Madrid and saw its leader Carles Puigdemont fled to Brussels where he still has standing as a member of Parliament somehow. He recently spoke out about the CCP's brash and belligerent violence in Hong Kong, and sought to enact legislation to curtail it. And then in the South you have Gibraltar, a part of the UK, which is some how autonomous but still physically in the Iberian peninsula. I wonder if there will be a time when the whole UK vs Iceland thing over Icesave will come up in some obscure way, as the UK put Iceland as a rouge nation on the terrorist watch-list for their refusal to bailout them out in the 2008 financial crises [0]. 0: https://www.icelandreview.com/news/iceland%E2%80%99s-president-attacks-gordon-brown-over-crisis/ https://www.icelandreview.com/news/iceland%E2%80%99s-preside...
- harperlee 6y ago
  > when it tries to to exercise those rights it gets people thrown in jail as seen with the successful 2017 Catalan separation vote That is a really biased, inaccurate way to describe the legal ramifications of the Procés. I won’t hijack the conversation but people, don’t store this as fact without reading more about it. It’s quite a convoluted situation but it is pretty clear imho that just painting it as “Spain is an oppresive state” is a ridiculous simplification.
- Rebelgecko 6y ago
  Is there still bad blood between Iceland and the UK from the Cod Wars?
  - kebman 6y ago
    I don't think so. Could be one or two British fishermen who are still sore about it, but they got bigger problems once they joined the EU.

by kebman 6y ago

Melting_Harps 6y ago

> Phew! Finally it's safe for Basques to visit Iceland again! ¡Ahí Va La Hostia Pues, Inaki! Europe has so many of these small disputes and treaties that make absolutely no sense what so ever if solely looked at through a modern lens and with no context. As a person born in the US to a European parent it was so odd to see these little details when visiting, even within Spain itself. Specifically, and relevant to this topic, the Basque Country which has a long history of secession from the Spanish Kingdom. Catalunya is another as is Valencia, due to the horrible violence of the Spanish Civil War, but I had known of that already. The notion of Autonomous communities is almost antithetical to a nation state/uniter kingdom model, and yet you have it and it exists within the EU. And then when it tries to to exercise those rights it gets people thrown in jail as seen with the successful 2017 Catalan separation vote, that saw its proponents get thrown in jail, beaten and chased by secret police from Madrid and saw its leader Carles Puigdemont fled to Brussels where he still has standing as a member of Parliament somehow. He recently spoke out about the CCP's brash and belligerent violence in Hong Kong, and sought to enact legislation to curtail it. And then in the South you have Gibraltar, a part of the UK, which is some how autonomous but still physically in the Iberian peninsula. I wonder if there will be a time when the whole UK vs Iceland thing over Icesave will come up in some obscure way, as the UK put Iceland as a rouge nation on the terrorist watch-list for their refusal to bailout them out in the 2008 financial crises [0]. 0: https://www.icelandreview.com/news/iceland%E2%80%99s-president-attacks-gordon-brown-over-crisis/ https://www.icelandreview.com/news/iceland%E2%80%99s-preside...

harperlee 6y ago
> when it tries to to exercise those rights it gets people thrown in jail as seen with the successful 2017 Catalan separation vote That is a really biased, inaccurate way to describe the legal ramifications of the Procés. I won’t hijack the conversation but people, don’t store this as fact without reading more about it. It’s quite a convoluted situation but it is pretty clear imho that just painting it as “Spain is an oppresive state” is a ridiculous simplification.
Rebelgecko 6y ago
Is there still bad blood between Iceland and the UK from the Cod Wars?
- kebman 6y ago
  I don't think so. Could be one or two British fishermen who are still sore about it, but they got bigger problems once they joined the EU.