Bob Hunter

® strictly personal ®

1 HAPPENED to be leaving Madrid July 1S — the day Basque
separatists killed nine young policemen, using a 00-pound car bomb

stuffed with nuts, bolts and bicycle chains.

were mutilated.

The bomb didn’t go osf
anywhere near me. | was on my
way to the airport when it went
off in the suburbs. But [ had
been out wandering at random
with a buddy through the streets
of Madrid all the previous day
and evening.

By the way, even with that
deadly attack, the odds against
getting hurt in Madrid are
nothing compared to the dangers
of wandering about in a big
American city crawling with
muggers.

My friend and J had, in fact,
got almost falling-down drunk in
the course of an inspection tour
of bars. No one so much as
short-changed us, let alone
threatened us in any way.

THE FOLLOWING people
appeared in North and West
Vancouver provincial court-
houses over the past week to
face various criminal charges
laid against them.

Before Judge J.B. Paradis i.
North Vancouver provincial
court, July 11, 1986:

Michael Berlinguette, 28, of
North Vancouver was fined
$300 after pleading guilty to
driving without a licence.

Jeffrey Andrew Claydon, 27,
of North Vancouver was fined
$75 after pleading guilty to a
charge of mischief.

Jay Wilson, 2!, of Vancouver
was fined $100 after failing to
appear in court Aug. 2.

Alexander Webster, 19, of
North Vancouver was jailed for
60 days after failing to pay a
$2,000 fine.

Before Judge P.L. Maughan in
North Vancouver provincial
court, July 15, 1986:

Terrance Melenchuk, 37, was
given a suspended sentence and
four months’ probation on two
theft charges.

Before Judge P.L. Maughan
in North Vancouver provincial
court, July 16, 1986:

Dale Andrew George, 26, of
North Vancouver was fined
$100 after pleading not guilty to
possession of a narcotic.

John A. Rice, 29, of North
Vancouver was fined $25 after
pleading guilty after failing to
appear in court July 5.

A fine of $35 was levied
against Mathew Frank Opsal,
31, of North Vancouver after
he was found guilty of stealing
cigarettes from Safeway on
June 26.

Before Judge R.G.Grandisen
ja North Vancouver provincial
eourty, July 21, 1986:

Michael Hepnarek, 19, of
North Vancouver was given a
one-day jail sentence after being
found guilty of possession of
marijuana.

Dozens of other people

Everywhere — 1 seemed — there
were people singing and dancing,
eating and drinking.

We felt at home, totally en-
tranced by one of the most
beautiful cities in) the world.
Spain, under its restored
democreti¢ monarchy, is ex-
citing, open, friendly, even
joyous, despite a familiar litany
of economic problems.

As far as I could see, there
were few beggars, no thieves.
Nobody minded our fractured
Spanish.

Yet ... underneath, a very old
wound festers,

The news reports that | read
after getting off the plane in
London blamed the ETA, the
Basque militatits who took credit

CONTEST RULES:

1 All winners veil De required to answer 4 mathematical shill testing question

for killing five other Civil Guards
last September.

There was speculation that the
bombing was a signal to the
nearly-elected national governm-
ent that Spain’ s*'Punjab’’ — the
Basque region on the slopes of
the Pyrenees — still stubbornly
resists absorption.

There iz nothing new in this, of
course. The Basques have roots
that go back to ancient Iberia.
They have clung like the stones
themselves to those baked hills.

The Basques not only held out
against the Romans, who other-
wise took the whole peninsula,
but they fought off the Visigoths
and the Moors alike, enduring as
a separate people through the
Middle Ages right up until late in
the last century, when the
Spanish kingdom finally
swallowed them.

The car bomb in Madrid went

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transterred

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autare for two adulls and two children plus accomodation 4 days)
Resinctions will apply tor departure dates

7 Winner to be sevected by random draw on August 10 1986 at Abbotstad
Austow olfices, Abbotsford Aiport

off the day before the SOth an-
niversary of the start of the
Spanish Civil War in 1936, surely
no coincidence. During that epic
struggle, the Republican Basques
briefly forged an autonomous
state,

hte was at Guernica, their capi-
tal, that Hitler did his first cun-
throughs of Blitzkrieg, paving the
way in bleod for the eventual
victory of General Franco.

Picasso's famous painting,
titled Guernica, which he refused
to permit to be displayed in Spain
until democracy prevailed, is still
so potent a symbol that it is hid-
den behind bullet-proof glass in a
special section of the Prado
Museum, while other, more an-
cient masterpieces hang, com-
pletely exposed, on the walls.

(It was unnerving to be able to
lean over and virtually sniff
Hieronymus Bosch, Breugel,
Reubens, Goya and Velasquez,
and yet be kept well back from
Picasso's scribblings).

The point is politics. Spain has
never been at rest. Probably
never will be. All thet passion
and fire. And blood.

The Basque nationalist issue is,
of course, an internal struggle.
Visitors aren't the targets, which
is quite different from the style
of Mid-Eastern terrorism.

Sull, it was a. brutal reminde:
that only half a century ago, the

Canadians on their way to Spuin
were en route to a ferocious
struggle between bloody-minded
fascism and equally blood-mind-
ed Marxism.

With Stalin backing one side
and Hitler backing the other,
Spain became the first great
abattoir of the Second World
War. Caught in between were
wild-eyed idealists by the tens of
thousands, most of whom would
be gored before the struggle was
over.

Just incidentally, frish Catholic
volunteers were pitted against
Commies from Manitoba — the
reach of the battle was that
broad.

Now a single car bomb punc-
tuates the gentle hiss of water
sprinklers, the rumble of the
Madrid subway system, the
pleasant murmur of Spanish
Yuppies strolling the boulevards.

In this ping-ponging echo of an
old slaughter, one blinks. Was it
really only 50 years ago that a
workers’ rebellion in Spain
against the power of landowners,
church and army sparked an in-
ternational power struggle that
drew fighters and doctors and
writers from all over the world?

Modern Spain may not be
completely at peace with itself —
but it is paradise now, truly,
compared to then.

a CP AIR HOLIDAYS
TRIP FOR A FAMILY
OF FOUR TO

ISNEYLAND
CALIFORNIA

Come on out and see Zar and
his space ship Pride, the SR71
Blackbird, the Blue Angels and
the famous Snowbirds.

For the first time ever, see the
soaring Italian ““Frecce Tricolori”
and the French ‘‘Patrouille de
France” jet teams, plus many
more outstanding flying acts and

displays.

ADMISSIONS:
Special Carload pricing — $25.00
Children under six — FREE

Gates open at 6 a.m., Ground displays
at 8 a.m. and the Flying show begins

at 17 am.

PARTNERS IN TOURISM ga

Address

City

Te'enhone

Postal Code co. cee ce ee

a
a
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| P.Q. Box 361, Abbotsford, B.C. V2S 4N9

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