Foc al Front. Poema als Brigadistes Internacionals

South, North, East& West London...(A little story)

Hi there everyone!

Though I basicly writte in Catalan...I would like today to writte something in the language of Shakespeare so much more people around the world can get to understand me ( I wish "Esperanto" could truly be the international language :(...).

At my work I get to see lots of people from all over the glove...And English as you know tend to travel everywhere...

Specially to a popular fashionable place like Barcelona, When I ask someone from Italy or France, the Netherlands or Germany (To put an example) Where are they from".

They usually say:

Italians: "From Pescara, near Ancona in the Adriatic sea or from Lake Como near Milano or this other town near Palermo..."

French: From Avignon, or Cherbourg in the Normandy, or Lile near Paris...Perpinyà-Perpignan in the french Catalonia near Girona or Carcassone...etc, etc".

Germans: "I am from Laipzig near Dresden, or Frankfurt, Hannover near Denmark, Bonn, Heilderberg near whatever...bla, bla, etc, etc.."

Dutch: "Where are from Utrech, Eindoven, Mastrich or the tiniest village you have ever heared for first time!"

But curiously...75 or 80% of the English people for some strange reason tend a lot...To say:

"Oh! I´m from South London!"

or: "well...We are from East London..." And so on til we got the 4 cardinal points!

Many times for them saying: "I´m from East London" means 120 km away from that city and living in such important famous town as "Canterbury"!

But for some reason they seem to be afraid of people NOT recognizing where their original town or village is at!

Perhaps they believe saying "I´m from London" is more "fashionable" or perhaps they are secretly payed by the Government (Or get some tax discount) by doing propaganda of The City...

Anyway! It´s something that sort of dissappoints me and makes me think that could be a "collateral effect" of the Globalisation that we seem to be expiriencing...

Sometimes I tell these people: "Hey, you can tell me what is your real town or village! I might know It! And If I don´t I will learn or you can tell me about It!

Many times It appears to happen that I actually know the place where they are from...And then...

They get surprised! Ha, ha!

To put an extreme funny example: I am NOT from Formentera island near Eivissa/Ibiza (i the Balearics) but from the "South East of Washington about 7.000 km away...Or If you preffer: "I am from the South East of London" rather than Formentera! :-)

By the way! Any English or British reading this article are very wellcome to give me an idea about why this happens so often...

Thanks to all.