Waiting…
Waiting… Ignoring each other…
There are people from over 100 countries living in Barcelona, many Chinese, Pakistanis, several thousands French, Indians, Moroccans, and so on. Integration is still a problem, despite of the efforts of the local gouvernment (the Generalitat). Immigrants are offered free Catalan classes, free access to culture, but still, the divide is great. Also, we are in Spain, but it’s hard to get a job here if you don’t speak Catalan. But then, Catalan doesn’t help you very much in the rest of Spain…It’s hard to get a job anyway, with or without Catalan, as the unemployment rate in Spain is the highest in Europe, with 19.3%. Over 3.8 million people are unemployed here.
The mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, recently blew a fuse about the “anti-publicity”, the bad name of the city in the news lately. Corruption, grand theft, prostitution, drugs. So, not all is fair in our fair city. So what? Welcome to the real Barcelona, a place finally like any other place, with a good side, and a bad one!
Barcelona Daily Photo 
They look like they've had an arguement. It's sad hearing things are going badly. Two family members went to Barcelona two years ago and they loved it. One of the things they raved about were the coffee shops that you stand up in. They said you stand shoulder to shoulder (almost), everybody speaks to everyone else, total strangers exchanging words, stories etc. The atmospohere, the friendliness of the people, they loved it. They also said you could buy coffee and sit down but it cost more.
Melbourne Daily Photo
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November 4, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Well… Let's try to answer. Anjoe Playhouse, you are totally right with Belgium, the divide there is much worse.
Gunn, it is a very sad fact, but last year, 80000 cases of bag snatching were reported to the police, most of these cases in the touristic old town. As the police here does not speak english, that means that probably many cases were not reported.
Arabesque, Catalan is a distinct language, roughly half way between French and Spanish, but still very different. I speak both french and spanish, and I understand Catalan fairly well. Guess it's a bit closer to french.
Johnny, thank you for following my blog!
VP, guess when you're on holiday, you get careless. But yes, it is a really big problem
Finally, Leif my friend, there are probably 37824 Liechtensteiner here, 38 penguins, and 1 Icelander. I think. Might be wrong with the penguins.
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November 4, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Very interesting post ( and informative as well).
I liked this shot moment, they don't look friendly in fact…but it's a fabulous shot!Well done! 🙂
Léia
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November 4, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Yes its the real life 😉
waiting ……
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November 4, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I'm not sure that Barcelona are so bad – lots of europeans contries have problems; Belgium have insides lots more linguistics extra, so????
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November 4, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I have heard that your city is beautiful, and I have seen your photos.
But I also know that some of my friends got robbed….. and therefor did not like the city!
Anyway, that could also have happened many place here, up in Scandinavia.
Your shot says something via the body language…
I like the colors/lines and composition too.
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November 4, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Its really a sad thing that in spite of declaring ourselves educated and civilized citizens of developed or developing countries, integration is still an issue in every part of the world.
Hope we get over it someday.
Thanks for sharing.
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November 4, 2009 at 5:36 am
What a perfect photo to go with this post. Things are not perfect anywhere Rob. Unemployment is at an all time high in many places. This causes frustration which creates even more division. A rough cycle. Still, you are in one of the most beautiful places in the world. One can only get so depressed I suppose.
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November 4, 2009 at 5:31 am
it's a universal problem. ^-^
both of them are minding their own business.
case closed. ^-^
catalan is a hard language to learn than spanish or french i think. it gets confusing…
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November 4, 2009 at 4:58 am
Are there a lot of immigrants from Iceland and Liechtenstein in Barcelona? I love your new blog front page header photo – bravo Roberto!
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November 4, 2009 at 4:00 am
I think what you say about Barcelona can be said of nearly every city. There is bad, there is good. Even in seemingly idyllic small places all is not ideal. It's good to share what is the best about our worlds, but it is also good to be realistic about the whole picture.
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November 4, 2009 at 1:16 am
Love your image and your post. Sadly integration is one of the hardest things to achieve in any country.
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November 3, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Maybe the waiting is already the 'arrival'.
Trying to understand the other, realising that we are all into this together, what is called life.
A wonderful Wednesday for you all.
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November 3, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Oh my, I'm surprised they are not sitting further apart!
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November 3, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Please make a follower of my blog. Despite the bad side, Barcelona will remain a reference of cities worldwide
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November 3, 2009 at 10:54 pm
You could probably describe any major city with those words. Which obviously is a shame.
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November 3, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I'm glad you are writing about this. I really like Barcelona and would be easy to get there from here. But I'm wary of all the very bad stories of fellow citizens mugged which, honestly, are much worse than in the rest of Europe. What's happening there?
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November 3, 2009 at 10:12 pm