The Politics of Shrangi-La
ALAN, RAY
Euro vista BY RAY ALAN The Politics of Shangri-La As every schoolboy should know, the frontier that separates France from Spain is neatly and conveniently marked—in atlases, at least—by the...
...Andorra and the World Under the impact of foreign invasion, Andorra's character is changing as well as its appearance...
...mainly useful things like cameras and watches...
...postal services and firewood—and accommodation in some villages—were free...
...The administration has expanded to a second building, and in 1973 the cost of living began to rise at an average rate of 20 per cent annually...
...Their national anthem begins: "Great Charlemagne, my father, delivered me from the Arabs...
...Its 8,000 citizens vote every four years for a 24-member Parliament which, in turn, appoints the chief executive and his assistant for three years...
...There were no taxes, and government was so minimal that one modest building housed the Parliament, civil service, archives, law court, and prison...
...The co-Princes are not heavy-handed (although the French President tends to insist on handling Andorra's foreign relations, he is more favorable than the Bishop to internal reform) and they must be the world's least expensive heads of state...
...Since then, like the rest of us, the Andorrans have lost their innocence...
...the tapwater tasted of melting snow...
...The capital, Andorra la Vella, no longer a village, is a mess of department stores, apartment blocks and traffic jams...
...So where are you when, in the heart of the Pyrenees, you come to a road junction and see signs pointing northward and southward that read, respectively, "Franca, 25 km" and "Espanya, 17 km...
...During General Francisco Franco's reign in Madrid, the dictator's concordat with the Vatican gave him a decisive say in the nomination of Spanish bishops...
...Only once did I ever see the prison cell occupied, by a blue-chinned doctor who went out for dinner in a quiet restaurant and then locked himself up for the night...
...Andorrans claim, not unreasonably, that Spain should not interfere in their internal affairs...
...You are in Andorra, a free republic or principality (what's in a name...
...There was a woman who er didn't want to have a baby, and he well helped her...
...Meritxell housed a 10th-century wooden statue of the Virgin Mary that was found "a long time ago," according to local tradition, in midwinter under a flowering rose bush...
...It was too successful...
...President Giscard d'Estaing was represented by his wife, who delighted the An-dorrans by delivering a speech that contained a sentence or two in Catalan, the local language...
...Some British immigrants have opened imitation pubs which display union jacks and the dread words "English cooking—beans on toast...
...In a political dream of a mapmaker's oversight...
...Something terrible," she said, blushing alarmingly...
...The tiny state's nominal rulers arc still described as "co-Princes...
...What, I asked the only girl in the administration, had he done...
...and the French heir, currently President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, is still referred to in official Andor-ran documents as "His Most Christian Majesty...
...Throughout the centuries, crowds flocked to pray to the Meritxell Virgin in times of difficulty, and Andorra's Parliament, the Council of the Valleys, proclaimed her the patron-saint and protector of the state...
...The Andorrans have taken part in unesco activities and were annoyed with Finland for failing to invite them to the 1973 European Security Conference despite the fact that Andorra had set the rest of Europe an example by cutting its annual expenditure on "munitions" from 360 to 300 pesetas ($5...
...Having experienced Arab imperialism in the Middle Ages ("But for Charlemagne we should now be in the Arab League...
...The Andorrans pay them a "tribute" of about $150 every other year: The Bishop beats inflation by taking a ham, two capons and four cheeses from each of Andorra's six parishes...
...Not that Andorra's international role has been wholly passive...
...occupying 180 square miles of territory, whose independence and Constitution were shaped during the Middle Ages...
...Understandably, a slight backlash is occasionally perceptible as angry young men denounce "feudalism" and demand an independent Andorran foreign policy...
...When a fire destroyed Andorra's most venerated religious sanctuary and pilgrimage center at Meritxell in 1972, many Andorrans assumed it was started deliberately: The thought that it might have been caused by what insurance companies call "an act of God"—a lightning flash or a short circuit—was too grim to contemplate...
...In the winter of 1961, the Andorrans invaded France?with snowplows, the French highways department having failed to clear the main road north of the border (General de Gaulle was not amused...
...One of their cinemas celebrated Holy Week last year with a porn festival for Spanish tourists: Competing with the Mass from 10 a.m...
...Andorran representatives dissuaded both Napoleon and Hitler from invading the territory...
...Andorrans rejoiced when King Juan Carlos renounced this privilege, but then discovered that a new agreement between the Vatican and Madrid still enables the Spanish government to influence the appointment of the Bishop of Urgel in view of what Madrid calls "the peculiarities of this diocese...
...No dope...
...My French dentist once showed me a large and expensive piece of electronic gadgetry, imported from I forget where, obtained without payment of customs duties through an Andorran supplier...
...Unhappily, Andorra no longer has this protector: The statue perished in the fire...
...Sadly, it is "ridiculous feudal anachronisms" like this that Andorra's young reformers are eager to abolish...
...Both co-Princes were invited to the inauguration...
...Fortunately, Hitler seemed unaware that Andorra was already at war with him: After declaring war on Germany in 1914, it did not make peace until 1958...
...An odd thing is that her spirits speak only English, not a word of Catalan...
...Euro vista BY RAY ALAN The Politics of Shangri-La As every schoolboy should know, the frontier that separates France from Spain is neatly and conveniently marked—in atlases, at least—by the Pyrenees...
...The police, though, are inclined to blame God...
...The End of Innocence That was about 15 years ago...
...Life was uncomplicated...
...Until the early 1960s the Andor-ran economy was based on two healthy outdoor occupations—agriculture and smuggling...
...inevitably, it is as unsatisfying as a photograph of an oil painting or a bunch of plastic flowers...
...Andorrans tend to sympathize with Israel...
...Unfortunately, in the early 1960s tourism took over...
...In Shangri-La...
...on Easter Sunday morning were The Prostitution Dossier and She-Devils...
...Today, despite its feudal origins, Andorra is more democratic than most members of the United Nations—though that is not saying much...
...One English lady has introduced spiritualism to this once Catholic country...
...What other nation ever stood up to Germany for 44 years...
...Tradition always associates their recovery with miraculous circumstances...
...Many such statues were buried or otherwise hidden when Spain and southern France were invaded by the Moslems in the Middle Ages, and some were not discovered again for many decades...
...A new sanctuary, designed by the Barcelona architect Ricard Bonn, was inaugurated on September 8. It is a simple structure of local stone, but its copper rods and steeple disconcert conservatives who would have preferred a building with thick stone walls, small windows and slate roofs...
...Mountain breezes are now laced with diesel fumes—harsh American-style diesel fumes (those wicked multinationals again) as well as the spicier Spanish variety...
...The state's relations with its two co-Princes are still governed by treaties concluded 700 years ago...
...Rivalry between the co-Princes, and the fact that, constitutionally, neither one could intervene unilaterally in the country's affairs, preserved the Andorrans' freedom and favored the development of a paternalistic parliamentary regime...
...and I have heard of a man who had a large diesel engine delivered safely into his back yard by an Andorran import-export agent...
...In the 13th century, Andorra acquired two feudal suzerains: the Bishop of Urgel (just south of what is now the Spanish border) and the Count of Foix (just north of what is now the French border...
...Between the years 1959-76 the number of tourists visting Andorra soared from a mere 500,000 to 3 million and the resident population increased from 8,000 to 30,-000?2,000 of them foreigners, including 15,000 Spaniards, 2,500 French, 700 British, 55 North Americans and one lonely Turk...
...The Count's rights passed in due course to the Kings and, after 1789, the presidents of France...
...Andorra is not quite Shangri-La, but until fairly recently it was an acceptable substitute...
...The statue placed inside the church is a copy of the old one...
...Andorra has even had its first armed holdup (the take was ?0,-000) and its first political terrorism (a bomb outside the apartment of a French journalist), and the An-dorran police force has been increased from 11 to 25 men...
Vol. 59 • November 1976 • No. 22
