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Show ie RQMCLE summer ' WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 16. 1978 Editor's note Frank Matheson it a University student currently living in Spain. by FRANK MATHESON Chronicle staff A week before Christmas 1 973, Franco's top minister Carrero Blanco was driving to work when he, his driver and car were blown from street level to the roof of an adjacent apartment building. The explosion tore up more than half a block of asphalt, gouged a giant crater and pushed Spain into a state of alert. That afternoon I left for the United States after having studied most of that year in Spain. I drove to the airport listening to martial music drum out over the radio and watching the streets fill with troops and civil police. Minister Blanco's rapid ascension to the 10th floor reminded me of the powerful undercurrents of dissention and unrest beneath the apparent calm of the dictatorship. Having experienced a bit of Spanish life during the latter Franco years, I returned this year and was interested in seeing what changes were taking place under the constitutional monarchy. My previous visit to Spain had introduced me to a conservative, traditional country with a low crime rate and even lower gross national product whose military strength threatened no one whose friendship was not particularly cultivated by the rest of Europe. I knew Spain as a beautiful, often delightfully backward and generally peaceful country. After I left in 1 973 I was very anxious for news of the death of the Caudillo Blanco. Anarchy and civil war were expected by large numbers as the inevitable sequence to the general's passing. I recalled the violent tendencies of Spain's politics such as the uncontrollable violence that helped push the republic towards civil war in the '30s. When the optimistic reports appeared in the American press about the developments of the monarch, I was somewhat suspicious. Even though there now appears to be a firm basis for optimism about the future stability of the government, the foreign press seemed to have touched lightly upon the incidents of violence and moments of crisis interspersed over the past several years. Though apparently stable now, there are still daily reports of political bombings and shootings. Everyone assures new visitors that it was much worse before. Personal accounts I've heard of armed street battles in cities like Bilbao seem to confirm this. Expectations run high and people endlessly debate or write about what is happening or will happen in Spain. One nearly constant factor in politics and its analysis is a lack of explained in terms of agreement on anything. Whether inductive-deductive or individualism machismo, reasoning be described can result the by a popular saying: if patterns, you have two Spaniards, you will end up with three opinions. Spaniards often have extremely personalized manners of considering things. So much so that Altamira, one of Spain's greatest historians, could write a national history without one mention of Wellington without whose help the language spoken in Madrid today might have been French. That Spain has held together at all impresses many. The country is famous for groups who oppose each other with great ferocity, demonstrating little desire for compromise. Tendencies of the universal Roman Catholicism of the Hapsburgs and absolutism of the Bourbons have not altogether disappeared. Sharpness of contrast is peculiarly Spanish whether in a painting by Rivera or the exaggerated forms of its THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH VOLUME PAIN A quick look at the changes 'II 0 88. NO. 22 Public walls, once bare, are covered with political graffiti. Bridges, office fronts and apartment walls look like the Paris subways. Propaganda from new organizations and from those banned since the fall of the republic clash everywhere. They demand peace, revolution, amnesty, executions and strikes. The only slogan I've of Franco on Francisco wall seen was the the hospital. It more is most needs vitamin A." read. "What Spain their The Guardia Civil, state police, with anachronistic hats, modern submachine guns and what Garcia Lorca called "patent leather souls" are today rarely seen in the streets of Madrid. Created originally as a rural police force, their omnipresence in Madrid during the dictatorship was a constant reminder of repression and the regime's swift and effective form of justice. The regular or urban police force, called "grises" for their grey uniforms, are to undergo the cosmetic surgery of a clothing change. Many visual reminders of the Franco era are being removed or altered. Apparently more prosperous than ever before with more housing, cars, TVs. refrigerators than ever before, Spaniards are having to cope with an unbearable inflation rate. Prices in most areas have doubled or tripled in the last few years. Wages naturally string far behind the constant price hikes. Traveling south from San Sebastian I met several labor officials on their way to meetings in the capital. Most felt the economic and labor situation had changed little since the dictatorship, but were hopeful the government would be open to a great deal more dialogue. Some officials mentioned they were expecting and even prepared to wait a while for results. Others from the Feria de Basque provinces have less patience. The y San Fermin, famous for its drunken atmosphere, daily running of the bulls through the streets and superior bull k because of violent fights was cancelled in demonstrations. Sporadic brawling between rival political e rioting resulting in several groups spread into numerous and deaths injuries. The tourists left quickly, but same the antagonisms, intensified, remained. Strikes, prohibited under Franco, are now common enough to be more than irritating. They are. daily occurences that sooner - or later affect everyone. Unionization is widespread with most groups being highly y friend as he politicized. While talking to a worked his shift at Radio Espana, representatives of the non-politic- al 10-da- V:' mid-wee- city-wid- disc-jocke- trosWSgS?' ) Tro w m,n absolutism or liberalism. Historically, the advocates of each group have wished to impose their views exclusively and expel all others, emulating the 19th Century Spanish General Narvaez, who, when asked on his deathbed if he forgave his enemies replied, "My enemies? I have none. I have had them all shot." Taking the weight of cultural heritage into account, current violence may seem to be less than might have been expected. With the generalismo finally underground, one may simply walk the streets of Madrid to notice that more has changed than just the form of government. Many differences are highly visible such as the relaxation of censorship. Dissent in the press is as new as pornography and both are enjoying tremendous popularity. Magazine shops and newsstands five years ago could have passed for Catholic versions of the Christian Science reading rooms while today they are covered with the like of Spanish versions of Penthouse (contents differ in language only). Yesterday's Playboy was an expensive item of contraband and today is propped up next to the dailies. Where the cinemas and theaters were once politically and sexually innocuous, they are now full of nudity and sex, exploiting themes from democracy to sado-masochis- musician's union entered the studio to leave announcements that they would be on strike to protest certain government policies. Striking for money is often subordinated to the strike as a political tool in areas outside of finance. Some aspects of Spanish life are clearly in upheaval, but the constancy of others is reassuring. The afternoon siesta is still inviolable for most, and if a civil war begins it probably won't start until the afternoon nap is over. Supper is at 9 p.m. or later, and half of Madrid spills out into the cafes and bars until one or two in the morning listening to music, drinking and enjoying the cool night air. Walking the avenues and parks is recreation and doesn't mean you don't have a car. The variegated beauty of the countryside and coastline is as delightful as ever and the fine sherry ubiquitous. The process of a more modern world imposing itself on a somewhat primitive country is hard to chart. The changes reflect to some degree the greater Europeanization of Spain where one half of the country is dragging the other half screaming and kicking out of a peninsular atmosphere. A reluctant suitor to the 20th century Spain has a little difficulty separating fantasy and reality. Public input for RARE-I- I nears end Utah's wilderness resources range from the deep rock canyons at the head of the Escalante River drainage to 13,000-foo- t peaks inhabited by Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, moose, wolverine, pine marten and elk. Conservation organizations in Utah have proposed some 32 roadless areas for this wilderness. This means that about 24 percent of the roadless areas in Utah have been endorsed for wilderness that's about 20 percent of the entire National Forest acreage in Utah. Whether or not this area will become wilderness will depend in large part on the Forest Services Roadless Area Keview and tvaluation-l- l (RARE-IIAccording to information released by the Wilderness is a simple process in theory. In Society, RARE-I- I it application is not a complicated land allocation process. It is detailed and dependent on massive public input. The objective of RARE-I- I is to take all Forest Service roadless areas and place them into either immediate recommendation for wilderness, further planning for wilderness and other uses or release from wilderness consideration. During the summer of 1977 the Forest Service ). Deanships abolished Three associate deans and the director of graduate studies in the College of Business will relinquish their positions September 15 and two of the associate dean positions will be abolished as a result of a reorganization of the dean's office. Dean Blaine Huntsman of the College of Business said the reorganization was a natural result of bringing the college administration in line with regular college organization. James Wool ley, associate professor of accounting, will be relieved of his position as associate dean of community e affairs. A administrator will take a new position as full-tim- director of corporate relations, replacing the community affairs position. Although Thayne Robson will no longer be associate dean of research and the position will be eliminated, he will maintain his position as director of Bureau of Business and Economic Research. Wally Gardner will step down from his position as associate dean of academic affairs, a position he has held for six years. The chairman of the finance department, Ramond Johnson, will take over the position. In addition, Ray Shaw, director of graduate studies, will e also return to teaching duties although no been chosen. has replacement full-tim- inventoried all roadless lands it managed. The public was asked to comment on that inventory to determine if the inventory accurately reflected the roadless boundaries and acreages. Taking the public input the Forest Service used available resource inventory data and put together a report of the This wilderness attributes and resource trade-off- s. in a Statement draft Environmental (EIS) resulted Impact which was released June 15 The public again has a chance for input on this report up until October 1 . The Wilderness Society is pushing for greater public involvement. In a reader's guide to the RARE-I- I EIS, the Wilderness Society states that there are many glaring inadequacies in the RARE-I- I process and the EIS. Of the dozen or so major problems that the Wilderness Society finds in the RARE-I- I EIS, Dick Carter, regional representative for the Wilderness Society in Utah and Nevada emphasizes two that pertain to problems with the regional EIS that includes Utah. For information Carter's office is in room 523 of the Letters of Judge Building, 8 E. Broadway (359-1337- ). comment may be directed either to individual areas or one of the 11 alternatives. They should be sent to Verne Hamre, Regional Forester, USFS, Region 4, 324 24th Street, Ogden 84401. Copies of the EIS can be found in the Forest Service offices, 8226 Federal Building, 1 25 So. State St., Salt Lake City 84138. |
