Because of the cultural diglossia, someone might think I'm going to talk about the famous song by the Spanish singer Raphael. Well, no. I shall refer to the attitude of the institutions towards the Basque country, which I believe has become scandalous.

Indeed, I have my struggle with me. Although the law recognizes me the possibility of using the official language that I desire to relate to any institution, whenever I choose the Basque, I always find some hindrance in all the institutions, without exception: City Hall of Bilbao, Basque Government, Provincial Council of...

Sometimes it happens to me when I act as a person, sometimes on behalf of an association, also in the workplace. One of the usual problems is that I presented a document only in Basque and they responded only in Spanish, breaking the current laws and showing disrespect towards me.

But there is something else, albeit indirectly, that affects me as a Basque citizen on a continuous basis: the functioning of the institutions. In other words, most of the time they work in Spanish and this has serious consequences for the Basques. Many times some forms or documents do not exist in Euskera, and when they exist, they are almost always just a translation of Spanish. And you notice, because understanding is almost impossible.

This is clearly seen in the advertising they publish. The last example was the campaign by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia against homophobia on 17 May. I met the campaign in the project phase, by chance. The content, albeit with ups and downs, I liked it, but the use of languages shocked me. It was clear that the campaign was designed in Spanish. There were five different posters and five different slogans, but they all had something in common, which somehow gave unity to the campaign: everybody started with the word "too." As they were also required to do so in Basque, of course, someone would have to translate those choruses. And this is my surprise. Besides that the “translation” (to call it in some way) is a grammatical barbarity, besides being a little special... they did not have obvious elements together, and due to the lack of that unity, the effectiveness of the campaign was largely lost. So, I couldn't suppress it, and I sent an e-mail to those responsible, proposing credible translations that respected the unity of the campaign. Fortunately, they have listened to me, and it is the translations that I myself have made that can be seen in the posters. I believe it is high time that the institutions demanded that advertising companies also work in Basque. This time I've made them part of the work. And I haven't charged!