Protest

Barcelona is a culture that has something to say.  It knows how to protest.  The graffiti contains political or life messages.


Large corporations such as Citibank, El Corte Inglés, and Starbucks paid dearly in property damage on the day of the General Protests due to their involvement in economical collapse as well as their unwillingness to close their doors while the rest of Barcelona was at war against the system.

What I'm learning, though, that while Barcelona has a lot to say and be angry about, as do many other cultures, countries, etc, the people aren't offering solutions.  Yeah, we understand that you don't want cuts to education, but how do you get out of deficit without some sort of sacrifice?  Surely there is some misappropriation of funds, etc., that leads to cutting valuable programs.  And some politicians (if not all) are protecting their own interests rather than those of the people.  But, how do we fix these issues?  Causing property damage costs the taxpayer and the consumer more in the end.  It's not a great solution.

We saw this last photo on a walk today.  What a reminder on how to live your life.  The acquisition of wealth does not exempt one from death.  It's all temporary.  But, as poignant as this is, it doesn't answer the question: "If I'm still going to die…then what?"  What do you do with this information?  OK, so you've called us out, but what's the alternative.  Where do we go from here.

I'm not going to attempt to answer these questions here, especially the political ones.  We all have things we can be angry about, but rather than just trying to rip the system apart, how do we move to positive change?  That's the challenge.