Is This Important? / És important això?

Yesterday, Daniel García Peris, the driving force behind the Penedesfera came here to promote this project in an interview with local radio station Canal Blau. To add some Vilanova flavour he asked me to accompany him, although he was aware that that would be the first time I spoke Catalan in public.

As you might remember, I have started to prepare explanations to 'why I blog', but instead I received the question 'why it is important that people have blogs'. From a language point of view, I do not think that my answer was worse than expected, but the journalist’s face revealed his disappointment when I said that 'my blog only is important to me'. And that 'although I hope that it will be interesting for other people, I can not say that blogging is important'. Fortunately enough, the question could be passed on to Daniel who made long comment about 'bloggers being a manifestation of citizen activism and thus important for society as a whole'. That was obviously what the journalist wanted to hear. I can not help wondering if this how I will stand out during the coming Penedesfera days – as a cynic in a group of Internet optimists?

Does my lack of enthusiasm stem from my Swedish background? The average Swede does, after all, use the Internet quite a lot more than the average Catalan, so at least theoretically we might have lost some illusions which still exist here. For example, Facebook is growing in popularity in Catalonia, while I have the feeling that most of my Swedish friends lost interest in it months ago. What an interesting topic to investigate further!

Up-date: In case you would want to listen to the interview, there is a link to it from Daniel García Peris' blog.
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Encara que vull que tothom vingui a les jornades de la Penedesfera, espero que no hàgiu escoltat l’entrevista que la radio Canal Blau va fer amb en Daniel García Peris, impulsor de la comunitat, i amb mi. No per que vaig parlar d’una manera dolenta – per ser la primera vegada que vaig provar el meu català en públic, vaig ser content de parlar més o menys segons el nivell intermedi on sóc – sinó per que vaig presentar-me com una persona massa cínica.

La realitat és que vaig ser honest quan vaig respondre-li al periodista que la única persona per a qui és important el meu bloc sóc jo mateix. Quina sort que en Daniel va aclarir que la suma de tots blocs afegeix un valor important de participació ciutadana a la societat – la resposta optimista esperada.

Personalment no ho diria mai. Pertànyo a una generació que a Suècia es deia la irònica – una generació de debó postmodernista que quan erem joves no creiem en grans plans per al món. Molts de nosaltres teníem el somni de millorar la societat – o fins i tot treballavem activament per fer-ho - però d’això no parlavem. Si ho haguessin sabut els nostres amics, ens haurien acusat de prendre'ns massa seriosament – cosa prohibida entre la gent “irònica”. Encara avui estic programat així.

Actualització: Si voleu escoltar el programa, podeu trobar-hi un enllaç des del bloc d'en Daniel García Peris.