Warning: this text contains information which some people may find disturbing and upsetting.
Over the years, I've seen TV footage of the following: Israeli soldiers smashing the legs of Palestinian teenagers with lump hammers, American citizens diving from the top of the twin towers, dead Iraqi children and their grieving parents and the dismembered corpses of car crash victims in Ireland. I have, like most of us living in a hyper-communicative, globalised world, seen awful, stomach churning things. But last Friday night, I saw something which actually made me so nauseous that I had to change the TV channel and go for a drink of water. It also made me explode (very unfairly, in reflection) at my new Spanish flatmate in a tirade of white abuse, to the point where he left the room. So, what the hell was it?
Spanish TV sucks. Big time. It really, really sucks. If it isn't a woeful chat show about celebrities, it's some derivative popstars wank. Beyond the main terrestrial channels (which show the above), exists a bizzare hinterland of local cable channels, showing some of the most obscure programming ever imagined. One channel shows live footage from a security camera. Another, shows a series of girls just yelling at the screen to get you to call slime lines. Then there are the real redneck, hillbilly channels with local pundits sitting at Formica tables and arguing about water rates and the price of a cup of coffee in the local pub.
On Friday, one such channel caught my eye as I was flicking through. There was handycam footage of about 200 people in the central plaza of a Spanish village who seemed to be having fun, drinking, laughing etc. No bother. I changed channel. Five minutes later I was flicking back through and now noticed that a Bull had been introduced into the Plaza.
What then occured was the most sickening, repulsive display of naked barbarity and evil that I have ever witnessed with my own two eyes.
200 people, including women, men, children and the elderly tied a rope around the bull, dragged it to a pole and commenced beating it with sticks. They were kicking it, punching it, hitting it with stones and stabbing it with long sticks. Feeling like I was going to puke, I switched off.
Of course, we know what killed the cat: I turned back on and now saw that as well as the merciless beating and torture of this animal, they had now wrapped his horns in cloth, doused them in parrafin and set them alight. The entire community seemed delighted with the results and laughed merrily as this terrified animal screamed, kicked, ran around and smashed itself off the ground in a horrific attempt to help itself.
It was at this point that I finally unplugged the TV. I was later told that the bull would not have died a happy death, as this was just the beginnings of the fun.
I have asked four Spanish friends about this. With each one the reaction has been the same: embarresment, a roll of the eyes, a hand on my arm and a profound apology. One person was close to tears.
How, I ask, how can such unimaginable, disgusting barbarity be allowed in a European Union nation? What on God's green fucking earth do these people think gives them the right to engage is such atavistic, bloodthirsty acts?
Am I the only one to have seen such horrendous spectacles? Am I alone in feeling this way?
Now let's be clear: my feelings do not come from a vegetarian perspective, or a vegan sensibility - I am a confirmed carnivore. Rather, the telvisation of such callous, cruel brutality sickens me beyond capacity.
I find it greatly sad to say this, but this incident has profoundly cahnged my opinion of Spanish people and their culture.
