Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Stolen babies and strange TV; Immorality; Corruption; Street riots; 4G???

I had one of may occasional brushes with Spanish TV last night. The program centred on the scandal of baby robbery and sale (sic) some 40 years ago when a cabal of nuns, nurses and doctors deprived mothers of their newborns and sold them for adoption. But it wasn't an investigative program; it was about bringing together people who thought they might be related and then giving them DNA tests. The case I saw began around 10 and finished - with a disappointingly negative conclusion - at 12.15. One reason it took so long was that the host and his panel of 'experts' stretched things out to the verbal max. The other reason was that another program - involving very pretty women, sometimes dressed and sometimes not - was spliced into the middle of it. Different.

Someone once said that morality is directly proportional to the risk of getting caught. Man, being imperfect but rational, will always assess the risk. This, of course, was why religions were invented, with their threat of Hell in the next life. You might be able to escape punishment in this life but God will get you in the next. I was dwelling on this yesterday as a result of asking myself whether the lofty number of prosecutions for corruption underway in Spain would result in less immorality in the political and business classes of the present and the future. And then I remembered just how many of them are pardoned by the government and how few of them end up in clink. And how much of their ill-gotten gains is retained. Most of all, I recalled they don't seem to suffer any social price. Pariahs they certainly aren't. So, on balance, I doubt things will change much. Unless the EU, after telling the Spanish government this week to clean up its judicial act, finally sprouts some teeth.

More news on one major corruption case. Astonishingly - but consistently - the Public Prosecutor has written to the judge of the Noos case telling him not to manufacture a case against Princess Cristina out of his imagination. In respect of some damaging invoices, the Prosecutor has said these are false and their origin is malcontented tax inspectors who have a grudge against the Tax Office. Weird. But at least it makes it clear where the Establishment stands on this case. Again.

After 5 nights of mild rioting and numerous arrests, the good citizens of Burgos have gained a 2 week suspension of plans for the pointless reforma of one of their main streets. Not enough but it's a beginning.

Talking of street protests . . .The relevant ministry had told the President that "Society is angry, exasperated and on edge. A mix of latent discontent and resignation is being expressed through sudden eruptions of fury, almost spontaneously.” Sadly, this isn't Spain but France.

Finally . . . You can imagine how pleased I was to read the promise of the relevant minister that 75% of Spain will have 4G capability by the end of 2015. I vow to donate a thousand euros to charity if my barrio is not in the 25%. Right now, I suspect we don't even have 1G. Whatever that is.

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