21.01.2014 - 15:26
Sàpiens magazine has started receiving thank you notes and acknowledgements for the 14,513 copies of the book, ‘Catalonia calling: What the World Needs to Know’ that it sent to political leaders, and important personalities throughout the world. The most recent letter came from the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, in which Annan expresses appreciation for the book and DVD as well as his hope that the campaign is successful. Other thank you letters and acknowledgements have come from Prince Charles of Wales, and the King and Queen of the Netherlands.
Sàpiens, which is Catalonia’s best selling history magazine, highlights some of the recipients that have responded: ‘We have gotten letters from British, French, Dutch, and Quebecker parliamentary leaders, political figures like Tony Blair and Kofi Annan, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, the President of Lebanon, Michel Sleiman, and the Ombudsman of Malta. Beyond politicians, we have also been contacted by the coach of Manchester United, David Moyes, the Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the French businessman Maurice Lévy, the president of the Constitutional Court of Slovenia (Ernest Petrič), and the editors of the L’essentiel (Luxembourg), ‘Jamaica Observer’ and ‘Bhutan Today’.
Via the “The World Needs to Know” campaign, that has come to a close, the magazine sent 14,513 copies of the book to ‘influential people’ throughout the world. There is a list on this page of all of the contributors that made the campaign possible as well as a list of all of the recipients on this page.
The hubbub and support generated by the campaign has begun to worry some unionist voices, like for example the ex-director of the conservative ABC newspaper and columnist for ‘La Vanguardia’, José Antonio Zarzalejos. A few days ago on his blog, he admitted that the campaign had been very successful and well-executed and he contrasted the wealth of easily digested and attractively presented information provided by the independentist movement with the silence and rigidity of the Spanish government and political parties. ‘Secessionism is winning the battle of public opinion in Catalonia because it is spreading in pockets of non-nationalists without the leaders and organizations normally connected with this spectrum of voter knowing how to react. We should not overlook the good results achieved by Sumate, which came out of ERC.’
