Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

A l'any 1970, els estudiants de l'universitat d'Ohio estaven protestant contra la invasió de Camboia dels EEUU com part de la guerra que lluitaven al Vietnam. Els estudiants no anavem armats. La Guardia Nacional els va obrir foc, matant 4. No se sap si Felip Puig estava allì ...

... pero els grans Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young van escriure aquesta cançó. Ohio.

....

Ohio, written by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, after the USA National Guard opened fire on a peaceful student demonstration at Ohio University in 1970. The students were protesting the extension of the Vietnam war into Cambodia. Four were killed.

Cathedral - Crosby, Stills & Nash

Després d'una setmana on les noticies ens han donat les opinions del Stephen Hawking i del Papa, pos, em quedo amb el primer. Aquí tenim Cathedral dels Crosby, Stills and Nash, del LP CSN, any 1977.

News-worthy opinions from Stephen Hawking and the Pope himself last week. I'll stick with the former, please.
Here's Cathedral from Crosby, Stills, and Nash' 1977 LP CSN. As clear a message as any.



Six o' clock In the morning, I feel pretty good
So I dropped into the luxury of the Lords
Fighting dragons and crossing swords
With the people against the hordes who came to conquer.
Seven o'clock in the morning, here it comes
I taste the warning and I am so amazed I'm here today, seeing things so clear this way
In the car and on my way to Stonehenge.
I'm flying in Winchester cathedral
Sunlight pouring through the break of day.
Stumbled through the door and into the chamber;
There's a lady setting flowers on a table covered lace
And a cleaner in the distance finds a cobweb on a face
And a feeling deep inside of me tells me this can't be the place
I'm flying in Winchester cathedral.
All religion has to have its day
Expressions on the face of the Saviour made me say I can't stay.
Open up the gates of the church and let me out of here!
Too many people have lied in the name of Christ for anyone to heed the call.
So many people have died in the name of Christ that I can't believe it all.
And now I'm standing on the grave of a soldier that died in 1799
And the day he died it was a birthday and I noticed it was mine.
And my head didn't know just who I was and I went spinning back in time.
And I am high upon the altar, high upon the altar, high.
I'm flying in Winchester cathedral,
It's hard enough to drink the wine.
The air inside just hangs in delusion,
But given time,I'll be fine.

L'Ebre, dia 4 - Down By The River dels CSN & Y

El PHN va ser mig-retirada, diem, perquè s’han quedat molts d’aspectes d’aquell Pla que encara estan en vigor i si s’acaben de fer, arribaríem al mateix fi que abans, un final infeliç per l’Ebre.

Des del PHN del PP, hem patit un altre gran intent de transvasar. L’intent del tri-partit (aquells del Mai Més un Govern Transvasista) de emportar-se aigua a Barcelona a l’any 2008. Aquí un cop més, la gent al carrer va ser l’única manera de aturar-ho. Els 30.000 persones a la mani de Amposta va ser el que els va fer reflexionar.
De totes formes, des de la mig-retirada del PHN, la PDE no ha descansat. Transvasament o no, l’Ebre pateix diversos problemes i sembla que totes les promeses de protegir-ho són precisament això, només promesos.

Mentrestant, la PDE ha intentat aturar i/o ficar seny al anomenat “canal Xerta –Senia”, un canal que s’està construint a una velocitat poc habitual, per a regadiu segons el govern. No obstant això, les infraestructures són sobre--dimensionades pel poc regadiu que es vulgui fer aquí, i tampoc és que hi ha cap pla de regadius fets ni se sap qui vol regar. Segons els propis pagesos, és el primer cop que es fa l’obra d’un canal abans de saber qui vol regar, com, i per a que. La PDE està convençuda que aquesta aigua es quedarà com a “sobrants” i per poder pagar l’obra, doncs, s’acabarà enviant-la a la Comunitat Valencia per usos més “beneficiosos” econòmicament – golf, hotels, Marina d’Or ....

De manera igual tenim el canal Segarra-Garrigues, un pla descarat per a transvasar el Segre (o sigui l’Ebre) cap a Barcelona.
I mentrestant, les Terres de l’Ebre continuen iguals, aturats econòmicament, veient com els governs només es recorden de nosaltres quan calen més recursos per altres zones, i veient com els seus joves han de marxar d’aquí per a estudiar i treballar.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cantant Down By The River, any 1969.
............

The National Hydrological Plan, 2000-2004, with its crazy water transfer projects was abolished by the incoming Socialist government in 2004 – or so we thought. Actually the government only abolished certain aspects of the Plan but kept many which will have negative effects on the quality and quantity of the Ebro’s flow. All in all, the story still has an unhappy ending for the river.

Two years back we came up against the seventh attempt to transfer water out of the Ebro basin. The Catalan coalition government proposed piping water up to Barcelona in the spring of 2008. The government was, and is, made up of three self-called “left wing” parties, the same ones who 4 years earlier had publicly signed a document promising Never Again a Transfer-proposing Government (the slogan has a better ring to it in its original Catalan!). Once more we had to take to the streets and only when 30,000 people protested in Amposta did the government have a re-think.

Transfer plans or no transfer plans, the Plataforma has not rested since it started out as the Ebro suffers from many other problems and it seems that political promises to protect it are just that – promises.
One of our campaigns is currently related to the Xerta-Senia Canal, a canal being built alongside the Ebro which crosses the country before almost reaching the Valencia Autonomous Community. This canal is supposedly for irrigation purposes but everything points to a different result. There are no serious plans for irrigation in this area and no information regarding exactly who wants to cultivate this land and at what cost. The Plataforma is convinced that this is just a smoke-screen, and that eventually, after the “failure” of this canal, the water will be offered to other regions of Spain for more profitable uses – intensive tourism, golf courses ... and once this gate has been opened, nothing will be able to stop more and more demands being made upon the Ebro.
Similarly the Segarra-Garrigues canal is a blatant attempt to transfer water from the Ebro’s chief affluent, the Segre, to Barcelona.
Together we consider these two canals to represent the water transfer number eight!

Meanwhile, the Ebro region stays the same, stuck in an economic dead end, watching how governments come and go only remembering this area when they need resources for big cities, and watching our younger generation leave to study and work, never to come back again.
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young with Down By The River – 1969