Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, September 03, 2009

They said on the news this morning that Michael Jackson would finally be laid to rest today. I rather doubt it.

There’s an almighty – and entertaining - spat taking place at the moment between macro and micro commentators on the Spanish economy in general and the banking sector in particular. If you have a serious interest in these, then you really should read this and the references cited therein. Though, if you are serious, you’ll probably already know about it. And, if you’re really serious, you may well be able to understand it. I am with those whom I think are saying that the emperor has no clothes and all is not what it seems in the balance sheets of Spanish banks. By which I don’t mean the cajas/caixas quasi-banks. Who don’t, I believe, bother to give us any balance sheets. But this is possibly because, though I may not fully understand the counter-arguments of the macroists to the criticisms of the microists, their response is beautifully constructed.

Speaking to a British teacher earlier this week, I asked when term started. “Thursday. But I’d rather not think about it”. Putting the same question to a Spanish teacher friend elicited the response – “Dunno. Some time this month. I guess they’ll let me know.” Spanish teachers complain, of course, of how much more difficult their lives are than twenty years ago. But, compared with their UK colleagues, I’d hazard a guess they enjoy a gilded existence.

I wouldn’t want to be responsible for you polling into Pontevedra on Sunday to find only the debris of our medieval fair (Feira Franca). So I should stress that it starts on Friday evening and continues until late Saturday. If you do come to town, you’ll find it an even bigger mess than I’ve previously described. The cause appears to be a mixture of archaeological digs, normal dilatoriness in carrying out obras and a rise in pretty pointless works aimed at keeping down the rate of increase in the unemployment figures. The compensations are:- 1. Things are even worse in Vigo, and 2. The mess probably won’t interfere with your enjoyment. And perhaps it will make the place look even more medieval than you expected.

It’s taken me a lot longer than expected but I’ve finally posted the Memoirs of M. Rocca to my Galicia page. Click here, if interested. Reading these, it’s clear that Rocca was an admirer of both Lord Wellington, on the one hand, and Spanish spirit, pride and character, on the other. It’s also obvious that no one involved in the planning of the American involvement in Vietnam ever read the memoirs. Nor, indeed, any foreign power which contemplated going into Afghanistan.

My current reading – and next posting – is George Borrow’s treatise on the gypsies in Spain – Zincali. And I leave you today with a longish appetite whetter:-
Gitano, or Egyptians, is the name by which the Gypsies have been most generally known in Spain but various other names are applied to them; for example, New Castilians, Germans, and Flemings [Flamencos]; the first of which titles probably originated after the name of Gitano had begun to be considered a term of reproach and infamy. They may have thus designated themselves from an unwillingness to utter, when speaking of themselves, the detested expression ‘Gitano,’ a word which seldom escapes their mouths; or it may have been applied to them first by the Spaniards as a term less calculated to wound their feelings and to beget a spirit of animosity than the other; but, however it might have originated, New Castilian, in course of time, became a term of little less infamy than Gitano.

That they were called Germans, may be accounted for, either by the supposition that their generic name of Rommany was misunderstood and mispronounced by the Spaniards or from the fact of their having passed through Germany in their way to the south, and bearing passports and letters of safety from the various German states. The title of Flemings, by which at the present day they are known in various parts of Spain, would probably never have been bestowed upon them but from the circumstance of their having been designated or believed to be Germans, - as German and Fleming are considered by the ignorant as synonymous terms.

Amongst themselves they have three words to distinguish them and their race in general: Zincalo, Romano, and Chai; They likewise call themselves ‘Cales’ by which indeed they are tolerably well known by the Spaniards, and which is merely the plural termination of the compound word Zincalo, and signifies, The black men. Chai is a modification of the word Chal, which, by the Gitanos of Estremadura, is applied to Egypt, and in many parts of Spain is equivalent to ‘Heaven,’ and which is perhaps a modification of ‘Cheros,’ the word for heaven in other dialects of the Gypsy language. Thus Chai may denote, The men of Egypt, or, The sons of Heaven. It is, however, right to observe, that amongst the Gitanos, the word Chai has frequently no other signification than the simple one of ‘children.’

It is impossible to state for certainty the exact year of their first appearance in Spain; but it is reasonable to presume that it was early in the fifteenth century; as in the year 1417 numerous bands entered France from the north-east of Europe, and speedily spread themselves over the greatest part of that country.

No comments: