SPAIN - LIVIN' ON THE EDGE. OF A ROOF. IN BARCELONA.

If you're a Swedish girl or a gap year student, Barcelona might well be the best place on earth. It's like Cancun, Bermuda, and Neverland rolled into one. Eighty percent of the people you'll interact with will be exactly the same as you, but with slightly dumber tattoo stories. The nightlife is just retarded enough to remind you of what people were listening to at home six months ago so you'll never get homesick, and everybody speaks English. Barcelona? RADcelona more like.

I guess if you're not into having the same conversation about graffiti/French house/ trainers 50 times a day, it could be a bit of a drag. Even more so if you're an Algerian immigrant who's been reduced to squatting the roof terrace of an inner city apartment block for somewhere to sleep. But you don't know anyone like that, do you? The people you hang around with spend their days painting faux outsider art portraits of dogs and figuring out how to pull off the perfect drop in to fakie switch (or whatever, skate terminology bores me) at the Macba. Wake the fuck up people.

Anyway.

This is the entrance to the apartment building where I stay in in Barcelona.

This is the staircase. As far as I know no one has ever fallen down and broken their neck, but I do know that the 77 steps up to my friend's flat take an awful long time to climb on acid.

This is the roof terrace. Pretty nice, eh? I bet you're splitting up with your special someone and booking your easyjet flight as I write this.

And this is the other side of the roof terrace, where an Algerian kid called Saleem has been living for the last few months.

Saleem didn't let us take any pictures of him because he's understandably ashamed of living on a fucking rooftop. But he did invite us in for a cigarette.

Er, how long have you been living on my friend's roof? I've been here for two months and a week. I cant wait to go back to Brussels. There I've got a house and friends. But here--look at this. It's disgusting.

Wait, you live in Belgium? Why did you come here?

When I first left Algeria five years ago, the first place I went to was Valencia. I was there for two years, and then went to Belgium. If you're in Spain for more than three years you can claim papers, so I came back to try and do that. But I'm not sticking around, I'm going back as soon as Ramadan's over.

Oh, it's Ramadan. How's that going?

I hate it, man. All I want to do is sleep during the day, but you can't 'cause by three o'clock it's too hot up here.

How do you cook up here?

We can't. We go and eat at Arabic bars, or sometimes at friends houses. But I don't have many good friends here.

How about the people you live with?

They're older than me. They've only been here in Spain for two weeks and don't speak any Spanish. To me they seem kind of stupid.

 

So how did you find this spot?

The first guy here was a Moroccan dude. He's the guy who changed the locks, but he's moved out now.

So this place is for people to arrive to. Before they can find somewhere else?

Yeah, that's right.

How old are you?

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday! I almost forgot, but I was talking to one of the guys and he mentioned that it was the 26th. I was like, "Fuck man, it's my birthday today."

Happy birthday! This view is kind of amazing. People would pay thousands for this.

Ha, I know, But for me it's all free. At least that's something.

PAUL GEDDIS

Comments

[taco baby]

77 stairs? jesus, i would never leave the house, i mean roof.

[radish]

I dont get it. why is he living up on the roof? he never really explained that

[planB]

why doesnt he just find some desperate spanish girl and pretend to be her boyfriend so that you can use her house. Thats what I would do at least.

[Kid Viscous]

@planB, you stay classy.

[Jennnn]

yeah, why IS he living on the roof?

[mune]

could be worse

[kid confidence]

wish i was there. so bad. viva catalonia

[jhv]

wow you are so awesome

[scooby doo games]

this makes me want to live on a roof too... haha

[cb]

There are 12 million illegal immigrants in the USA.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0731888120080208

People are complaining about how they take jobs, don’t pay taxes, break the law, and burden social services, but almost no one is doing anything about the problem. Some of the solutions that have been proposed so far are unconstitutional and illegal. Arizona has a law that allows the police to racial profile and stop people simply because they look like immigrants. This law is discriminatory and violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition against illegal search and seizure without probable cause. What does an illegal immigrant look like anyway? Another solution to stop illegal immigration is to deny the children of illegal immigrants citizenship and clearly violates the 14th Amendment that states that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens. What would make someone more American than being born here? Other solutions against illegal immigration that have been enacted by towns forbid illegals from renting homes, but violate the Fair Housing Act prohibition against discrimination.

Since many of the suggestions to deal with illegal immigrants so far are illegal, I propose
the following better solutions:

1. Add immigration agents to patrol the border.

2. Require all employers to use E-verify to verify that all employees are legal.

3. Increase fines on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

4. Do not allow illegal immigrants to have drivers’ licenses. Do not make the lives of
illegals easier or reward them for breaking the law.

5. Call the police if you see someone playing loud music, stealing, vandalizing property, drinking or urinating in public, doing drugs, littering, loitering, or illegally keeping chickens in the city. Regardless of whether the lawbreaker is or isn’t an illegal immigrant, the broken windows theory of crime says that small crimes lead to bigger crimes and less respect for the law. Why have a law if it is not enforced? Someone who violates the law by living in a country illegally is probably not going to care about obeying other laws. Any illegal immigrant who is arrested should be deported. If illegal immigrants are hassled enough maybe they will leave on their own or at least try to fit in a little more. I grew up in a small Midwestern town and I have seen the bad effects of illegal immigration myself.

http://www.gctelegram.com/News/Blotter-5-21-08

6. Build more illegal immigration detention centers and deport the illegal immigrants that are here. Maybe deporting millions of illegal immigrants is not practical, but we can deport more. If the USA can put on a man on the moon, why can’t we defend our borders?

Of course reducing illegal immigration costs money so I suggest increasing sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco, reducing the wages of government workers, cutting welfare spending, and eliminating less important programs like Amtrack, PBS, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We should stop extending unemployment benefits, deport the illegal immigrants, reduce legal worker visa quotas, and require unemployed Americans to take jobs in farming, meatpacking plants, construction, landscaping, and hotels. If 15 million Americans are out of work, 12 million illegal immigrants shouldn’t be taking up the jobs.

The United States is a nation of immigrants, but these are modern times with rules and regulations. Immigrants need to respect these rules. The USA does not have room for all the people in the world. Do you want America to have a population of 1 billion like China?

We don’t need new laws, we just need to enforce the existing laws.

Write your representatives, contact the media, and talk with your friends and family. Tell them that we have had enough of illegal immigrants. Nothing will change if nothing is done and the government won’t care if you don’t care.

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

[JW]

We encourage green roofs!

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