Penedesfera Day 2 / Segon dia de les jornades

I know that it is a poor excuse, but the main reason why I have been so slow to comment on the second day of the Pendesfera meeting in Gelida is that I have had so many impressions and met so many new people in a language which still is not mine, that it is a huge challenge to structure the experience.

On a very personal level, this weekend has given me a feeling of truly belonging to the Catalan society of today. True, the reason why Daniel García Peris invited me to take part in the item “the Penedes Blogging Culture” was the very fact that I am a foreigner, but once in Gelida I felt totally accepted by the other participants of our panel discussion, moderated by Ramon Arnabat from the Insitut d'Estudis Penedesencs. Except for a fast look at their blogs, I did not know anyone from before, but will start to follow more than one of them actively.

Jordi Torà has been a blogger since 2003 (!) and those who, like I, have difficulties to understand his fast and personal language can always admire his layout. Guillem Carol is much easier to read, but that is not so surprising since he is a journalist. Francesc Balagué runs a blog in Spanish, as an integral part of his research into blogging culture in general. Ricard Garcia and Joan Pinyol are established writers who have incorporated blogging in their literary work. And then we have Rosa Soler, a teacher who helps her students to express themselves and develop as citizens by means of blogging.

After us followed “Blogs, Politicians and Territory” where I was happy to meet politicians of all colours who it was so easy to like and the vilanoví Nacho Corredor who, in spite being much younger, was sharp and specific in both praising and criticising them. Vilanova’s “live streaming” member of the Spanish parliament, Carles Campuzano (CiU) and Laia Gomis (PSC), who protested against some journalists' method to take comments from a person’s blog and then use them as quotations in only vaguely related contexts are the two I remember the best. And everybody present managed to agree on one point: a politician who only blogs during election campaigns and who does not answer comments, should immediately close his or her blog.

Before leaving picturesque Gelida, we were treated to a Penedès style pica-pica and I had the opportunity to meet David Rodriguez, a reader of my blog, face-to-face. As if my head was not full of inspiration and ideas as it was, I was also approached by the platform which works to make Penedès a separate entity (vegueria pròpia - represented by Josep Guillén Viñas in the panel discussion) in the coming new administrative structure of Catalonia. Now this is an issue where I will use the fact that I am a foreigner as an excuse – I plan to follow the development, but plan to let it take time before I make up my own mind.

To sum up, the Penedesfera Days were less well visited but a lot more fruitful in terms of contacts and insight than I ever hoped for them to be. Daniel García Peris and Montse Catalan Malet, I largely owe this experience to you. Thank you.


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D’en Pep Quelart (ERC) vaig aprendre de 'no fer això que altres fan millor' i per tant no escriuré molt sobre la segona Jornada de la Pendesfera en Català. N’hi ha molts que ja l’han fet amb més paraules i menys errors que jo no seria capaç de fer-ho. Si us interessa quines entitats ens han ajudat, podeu rebre les repostes d’en Daniel García Peris i la Rosa Soler ha fet un resum de la part “Cultura blocaire al Penedès” on jo vaig participar.

Gràcies a totes les persones que vaig conèixer a Gelida per deixar-me formar part d’aquesta expressió de la cultura catalana. “Crear, Compartir i Re-utilitzar”, com va dir en Francesc Balagué. Sóc segur que us trobaré de nou a molts de vosaltres, si no cara a cara doncs almenys a la xarxa.

Actualització: Aquí teniu més enllaços amb reflexions sobre les Jornades - en Jordi Torà, en Joan Pinyol (afegeixo el seu post, ja que sóc una mica peculiar) i en David Rodríguez.