Last Saturday there was the other demonstration against ETA and in favour of peace. This one was convened by the opposition party, and the front pages of all the Sunday papers featured a crowd swimming in red and yellow: everyone proudly waving Spanish flags or balloons in its colours. As a New Zealander, and in these globalising times, this ardent nationalism is a mentality I don’t quite understand. Demonstrators certainly don’t bring their Kiwi flags out in force in New Zealand. (Do they?)

Is it just another way of showing pride in your country? I’m well proud of being a New Zealander, but I don’t feel the need to rip out the flag at any opportunity.

The only time I’ve seen such a concentration of New Zealand flags is at a sports match. And I believe it is appropriate to a sports game, where the sentiment is of a complete backing of your team, a desire to win against the other.

I see all this flag-waving as a form of isolation, a way of attempting to distinguish one’s country from all the others. To me, it says “We are Spanish, we don’t need anyone else”. It implies superiority to others. It also implies a staunch belief in the country’s government – ironic, given that those in this protest are largely supporters of the opposition party.

This isolationism belongs to the Basque nationalists as well, of course. ETA demands complete autonomy for the Basque region in northern Spain. Their own government, their own rule. Never mind the fact that it would most likely be integrated with the European Union, with open borders and shared currency. Of course, Spain is reluctant to let go of the Basque region largely due to principle and economic reasoning - and much less due to any idea of national unification.

In these times of globalisation, increased movement of people, goods, and information, it seems strange to me that these people cling so strongly to the concept of their nation as a complete, stand-alone entity. We are all people, no matter where we live or what we do. What’s a nation, other than an administrative entity?

Other posts by Katie Llanos-Small