Battle of the Flags

This is a big thing here.  Many balconies sport the opinion of the dweller within regarding their wish for independence from the Spanish govt, as frustrating as it is with them being determined not to  respond to Common Spanish . . . They are a culture under threat of being phased out.  Now I have a better understanding of what the Catalonias are on about an why they seem to come across as snobbish.  It's perfectly useless for the likes of me to try using any Spanish other than Hola Gracias and good old Por Favor! !  Cos pretty much every thing else is unauthorised.  It's a little like a war of the star bellied sneeches ... There are those with stars and those without, Stars stick with Spain . . . An Catalonians clean off the star!  To my delight I did have to add the Tibetan  prayer flags that I found too :-)  The Spanish government is about to try to remove the Catalan dialect from schools and it is causing a bit of an uproar, they're also cutting educational benefits causing graffitied protests slathered up the walls of schools, by the way these schools' play grounds are up on the rooves. . . They have no actual ground available for playing on. Seriously . . . I felt real live grass with my hand for the first time since I arrived, it wasn't allowed to be my feet as I wanted as it is forbidden to walk on it.  Although some areas have signs I saw indicating dogs are welcome to walk on the grass. ... An people must pick up the poop. . . But I wondered how are they going to do that without standing on the grass??? ? Real long arms? You might want them if you're doing that anyway :-)