*Pic: The 45,000 fans …
Athletic stadium emptied 7 minutes after full time
Athletico about to score
Goooooaal …
Best modern veneer I have seen in Bilbao
A Basque liberation sign in a small village
Many of you know that today is football Derby Day in the Basque country. Athletico Bilbao vs Real Socidad, or going on colours Swans v the Roos.
The crowd assembled outside from noon for a 4:15pm start. At the bars leading to a beautiful stadium that held 45,000 fans, they were singing, chanting and laughing. It was Salamanca Friday night but they brought their culture with them. Tickets were bought and the game started. The Roos were up 1 goal at half time, well in control. I had a quiet word to the coach of the Swans Ernest Valverde, an old drinking buddy from Salamanca prior to halftime. I said to him ‘do something and do it now’ and the Swans struck back repeatedly in the second half. Inixi Williams scored a beautiful goal right In front and the Roos could only respond with one. The final result Athletico 3, Real Sociedad 2.
Immediately as we left the stadium, the Field Marshall was surrounded by TV reporters. It was here that he made his mark. I am a back room type and quietly stood back like the gentleman I am. The Field Marshall speaks impeccable Spanish and his first comment ‘my boots have butterflies’, was an indication of his understanding of Spanish LaLiga football. The ideas that he presented grew him in stature especially when he revealed he was traveling ‘commando’.
The Basque were happy, mature and appreciative of their football. It had an intelligence and they rapidly proved their intolerance of racism by dealing with it via the crowd, telling the racist to behave and he did.
They have a proud history and a political separatist movement. They were probably the Europeans who discovered Nth America via fishing for cod in the twelfth century. They were fabulously skilled sailors and Vasco di Gama is pre eminent.
The Basque have a language unrelated to any other in Europe. Its basis could be Carthaginian or even Neanderthal. Their political prisoners are treated as common criminals. I imagine if they were Muslim, there would be more extra judicial killings. I do not know. There are 361 Basque separatist prisoners and signs everywhere demanding Amnestia all over North East Spain, the area closest to France.
Today was the Lords day, a day of rest, so is Saturday and so is Friday for other religions. The Trade Unions have never really grasped that idea and run with it, the long weekend.
Tomorrow towards Santander.
To be continued…
*Greg James is a malcontent capitalist. He has employed (and fired) a lot of people and spawned many business opportunities for himself and others. Some have been wild successes and some abject failures. Greg refuses to accept that Tasmania is second rate, it is only the people who occupy it who are second rate. Greg is a self and state educated owner-operator. He has been Chairman and President of State and Federal organizations, has owned a gay bar, built a suburb and wasted his life hoping that others around him would see the light as he see it. His brain is addled, his motives suspect and age has caught up with a life well lived. He writes about himself in the third person.
