A photovoltaic atlas that doesn't know Catalan
We read in the ARA Baleares, in a News from Laura López Rigo, the Balearic Government has presented a Photovoltaic Atlas of the Balearic Islands, a digital and interactive device that allows you to check how many solar panels fit on the roof of your house or any building on these islands. Not only that; it also includes the approximate cost of installing the panels, the energy savings they represent, their cost-effectiveness, and, ultimately, everything you need to know when installing solar panels on your own house, apartment building, office building, garage, farm, or whatever. This atlas is a good tool, one of those that, when you read the news, makes you exclaim: "It's about time." An atlas like this allows us to advance the implementation of non-polluting energy (essential and increasingly urgent) in the right way: installing solar panels in urban centers—taking advantage of rooftops, decks, and other already built-up areas—and not converting farmland into solar panel fields.
However, the joy is short-lived in the homes of those whose governments oppose the Balearic Islands' own language. Upon entering the Atlas, we find that the texts are all written in Spanish, with the addition of a map of the Balearic Islands with the place names written in translations or free versions also into Spanish. San Francisco Javier, in Formentera; Santa Eulalia del Río, San José, San Antonio Abad and Ibiza, in Ibiza; Ciudadela, Alayor, San Clemente and Mahón, in Menorca; La Puebla, Marrachí, Palma de Mallorca, Buñola, Lluchmayor, Porreras, Villafranca de Bonany, Las Salinas and an imposing Santañyí, in Mallorca, among other astonishing spellings. Astonishing and of undeniably Francoist tradition, it must be said.
A digital map of the Balearic Islands with text in Spanish and aberrantly written place names. For a moment I thought there might be a mistake in the link, but no: in the upper right corner of the page, the logo of the Balearic Islands Government is clearly visible, with the four-barred coat of arms with the blue stripe so popular on our right. To leave no room for doubt and prevent us from thinking it was a mistake, the Atlas offers a language menu: the user can choose between searching in Spanish or English. Not in Catalan. Spanish is the default language for this atlas, and then an English version is also offered. It's curious that German has been neglected. Another interesting fact is that, in the version with English text, the place names are spelled correctly in Catalan.
I'm sure many in the government would wonder what the problem is: that, as long as the Atlas shows what it should show (the data and forecasts for installing solar panels on buildings in the Balearic Islands), and does so digitally and interactively, even in 3D, what difference does it make whether that information appears in one language or another? They're partly right: the problem isn't just that. The serious thing is that people who see no problem with an absurdity like this have public responsibilities. The lack of sensitivity, the lack of respect, the lack of care, the work poorly done, half-done, or done in a haphazard way, the bad faith, the conviction (because some are convinced) that the language they themselves speak doesn't deserve consideration, and the spending of public money on constant demonstrations of lower prices, linguistic rights, and Mallorcans. All of this is a problem, and a serious one.
