Ornithophobia
- Fear of birds
Alektorophobia
- Fear of roosters or poultry.
Pavophobia
- Fear of peacocks
And
my favourite . . .
Anatidaephobia
- The fear you're being watched by a duck.
Which reminds
me . . . Fake merchandise is nothing new - especially in Portuguese markets and on the internet
- but I was rather surprised to learn there were 20 Apple shops in
China which, unbeknown to the employees, were entirely phoney, right
down to the staff T-shirts. Closer to home, one of my my visitors has
told me that Amazon declined to do anything about a company which was
selling fake quality perfumes through their site. Caveat emptor,
then.
In
a fascinating insight into the workings of the White House, a Danish
TV company has shown President Obama praising 3 Scandinavian
countries for 'punching above its weight' when meeting their
respective prime ministers. I seem to recall him uttering the same flattering but meaningless phrase when meeting
David Cameron. So much for the UK-US 'special relationship'.
Yesterday
brought proof of what I've long suspected - that, even in tough times
(vacas flocas), the Spanish are reluctant to cut back on eating well. An outfit call Euro Monitor Inernational has
measured the total spent in 100 countries on food
at home, dining out, alcohol and tobacco. Spain's 2012 average was
€5,160 per person, comprising €2,483 on food at home, €2,148 on
restaurant meals and €529 on tobacco and alcohol. This put Spain in
an impressive 9th position, with the top 3 spots going to
Switzerland, Norway and Australia.
The
railtrack company, Adif, implicated in the Santuago crash of a month
ago are crying foul and resisting the efforts of the investigating
judge to bring several employees (and their files) before him. And
they're also denying they had anything to do with the decision not
to install the best available security system as the site of the
crash. Finally, they're claiming that the (tight) bend can be taken
at 140kph, assuming the driver is in control of the train. But not at
the 199kph the train was doing just before the crash, when the driver
was dealing with a call from the ticket inspector. Adif appear to be
trying to get the government in the dock with them, attributing the safety
decision to the Minister of Development, but one wonders whether
they'll succeed. Meanwhile, it's all nowt to do with them.
Reading
Bill Bryson's "A Brief History of Everything" I was amused
to come across an American chap called Edward Drinker Cope. Almost as
odd was his rival's name of Othniel Charles Marsh.
Finally
. . . Here are 3 letters from yesterday's El País on the
subject of the bull-lancing 'fiesta' I mentioned yesterday. The
Google translations are dire but I don't have time to tart them up.
You will surely catch the drift:
What
we have to bear in Tordesillas. I would as a tordesillano, animal
lover movements perform a strong reflection on how to express their
aspirations. The anything goes cannot be an option and, therefore,
enough, by many media, to forgive his actions.
I
understand they come to manifest. I'm used to constant insult you. In
fact , sometimes it's funny, though, of course, do not think me or
let my friends and neighbours about sadists and murderers, like it or
not the tournament because, despite what is sold in the media
communication, in Tordesillas there are people who disagree with the
tournament. The difference is that it shows respect. But the last
performance has no forgiveness, no logic no ... drop tables with tips
to stop the horsemen, besides being dangerous because many people can
be injured, is shot to its own objectives, such as defending the
rights of animals, as horses may have run great danger , unless you
think that the end justifies the means. - Juan Francisco Rodríguez
Gómez. Tordesillas, Valladolid.
At
this time I suffer to see how is repeated year after year, this
exercise of cruelty, which is spearing a bull to death, that perverse
enjoyment of pain, represented today by the Tordesillas inhumane
Lancers, degrading spectacle brutalizes medieval all somehow involved
in it .
They
talk about tradition. What is its origin? The first reference appears
in 1534, in the Book of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament of
St. James of Tordesillas . Those were different times. Public life
was governed by the Inquisition.
Fortunately,
society evolved and the Holy Office was abolished by the Cortes of
Cadiz in 1812. However, it seems that this Castilian town has not
evolved, but remains in medieval backwardness, calling "fiesta",
" a tourist good " or "tradition." Pablo Iglesias
be ashamed of the socialist mayor who promotes it, comparing it to a
theatrical performance. Also guilty is the Popular Party, which
governs the Community and could ban it. Both should use public money
in taxes to create jobs.
I
hope this country, famous for fiestas which involve animal abuse,
legislate against, without exception, as an offence under the
Criminal Code. - Julia Leal de la Rosa. Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid.
For
many years the struggles of gladiators in the circus were a tradition
in imperial Rome. Bread and circuses, wrestling, blood and death to
the delight of the people. How much time had to pass before such
atrocities were abolished? Would we accept today? I believe not. By
long tradition that could be invoked as a party disgusts accept that
which represents the suffering and death of a human being by another.
We accept, however, smoothed versions of gladiatorial combat and
fiesta traditions in which suffering and death fall on all kinds of
animals. Traditions are not sacred and should no longer be
untouchable, because there are traditions that are true aberrations
to which a society with minimal sensitivity should give up. A day
will come when we find it incomprehensible that coexist in the same
time both as little technical progress and moral progress and that a
mobile phone generation could relay to friends the show which is a
beautiful animal dripping with blood and dying speared by a mob of
gladiators version light amid the excitement of the people. -
Enrique Díez Chamber. Segovia.
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