''Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose'', went one of the great anthems of the 1970s. Around the world, people are dying for their chance of freedom.
The Iraqi government has banned international flights to the Kurdish capital Irbil, isolating Kurds in Iraq to a degree they have not experienced since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The isolation is political as well as geographical, because traditional Kurdish allies - the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany - opposed the referendum on Kurdish independence.
Near neighbours in Turkey, Iran and Baghdad are moving to squeeze the Kurds into submission because they all have Kurds within their borders. The successful referendum succeeded in showing the Kurds, not just in Iraq, but in Turkey, Iran and Syria, still yearn for their own state.
In Spain, riot police clashed with voters as polls opened in Catalonia's independence referendum, a referendum the Spanish Government said did not happen. Catalan independence websites were blocked by the Government in a bid to stop the referendum.
Graphic images of elderly Catalans being dragged away from the polling booths were shown throughout the world. There are reports as many as 844 people were hurt as officers deployed by Madrid fired rubber bullets and used riot equipment on defiant crowds.
Riot-police smashed their way into a polling station in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the region's president voting in the banned ballot. Despite the violence, the Catalan government declared an overwhelming victory for the Yes campaign. It says 90% of the 2.26million voters who cast a ballot voted for independence - a turnout of 42.3%.
Despite many words being written, not many have drilled down into what makes the Catalans so determined to fight their way to freedom and independence.
A nationwide strike was called for yesterday against what 40 unions say is a protest against a grave violation of rights.
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has called on British Prime Minister Theresa May to intervene, something unlikely to happen, it seems.
Despite calls from Catalan authorities to condemn the brutal police crackdown on their independence referendum, the EU and most member states were reluctant to respond formally, seemingly viewing the dispute as an internal Spanish matter. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel was among the few national leaders to denounce the violence.
With a distinct history stretching back to the early middle ages, many Catalans think of themselves as a separate nation from the rest of Spain. This feeling is fed by memories of the Franco dictatorship, which attempted to suppress Catalan identity, and is nowhere more clearly expressed than in the fierce rivalry between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, Spain's top football clubs.
Spain's painful economic crunch has fuelled enthusiasm for sovereignty. Many Catalans believe the affluent region pays more to Madrid than it gets back, and blame much of Spain's 2008 debt crisis on the central government.
The Kurds find themselves in a bind and would normally look to Washington to help them out. Foreign policy under President Donald Trump has become notoriously unpredictable. Worse for the Kurds, the US no longer needs the Iraqi Kurds as it did before the capture of Mosul from Isis in July,
For the first time in 14 years, there is a powerful Iraqi army in the north of the country. Some commentators now believe the region is on the verge of an enlarged Kurdish-Arab war where the military balance has shifted from Irbil to Baghdad.
Catalans and Kurds are indeed trying to establish independent nations and both face enormous challenges from neighbours and former friends.
The price of freedom looks high for both populations and less likely to succeed as the power struggles continue to kill or seriously hurt citizens.
