So, it seems Marco Polo may well have hit (North) America a couple of
hundred years before Columbus hit the Caribbean, in mistake for
India. This will surely disturb the residents of the 10-20 towns around the
world - including mine - who insist the latter was born there. Also
disgruntled will be the Danes, if it's convincingly established that
Polo got to the eponymous Bering Strait 400 years before their Vitus Bering.
The
Spanish President is sticking to his mantra that the Catalans won't
be allowed to hold a November referendum on independence. Though no
one yet knows what effective action he'll take to stop it. Should the
Constitutional Court pronounce against it - a racing certainty - the
Catalan President will probably call early regional elections, as an
effective plebiscite on the issue.
I
mentioned Opus Dei a couple of days ago. The (Spanish) bishop who
headed this right-wing (fascist?) organisation was beatified
last week in his home town, en route to sainthood. The founder of
Opus Dei (also Spanish) was declared a saint by the Vatican 12 years
ago on the back of a miracle that happened when the parents of a very
sick baby prayed for his intercession and the baby subsequently recovered.
Nothing was said about all the non-miracles which occurred when other
parents prayed to him and their children nonetheless died. One wonders what
criteria are used by (would-be) saints. Or whether God gives them an allowance of X miracles a year.
One
of our local papers - there are at least 12! - has trumpeted than one
of the large corruption cases in process has thrown up evidence that
dozens of Galician mayors and regional politicians were involved in
croneyism and the traffic of influence. No one has fainted in
surprise. One very local case involves the compulsory purchase of
land owned by the regional president's family for the purposes of a
motorway spur. I'll leave you to guess just how much above a fair
market price was paid.
Some
good news for Spain. 1. The number of foreign visitors topped 9m in August, the highest number ever and up 9% on
the same month last year. 2. The government says it will create
350,000 jobs
next year. I'm not sure this will bring the unemployment rate crashing
down from 26% but every little helps.
Finally
. . . The coffee I bought from the 24/7 shop yesterday was a brand - Bellarom - I didn't recognise and cost €2.50. I saw on the packet it was
produced for the cheap German supermarket, Lidl. The price in 2010
was €0.99. So, very good business, even buying it retail and selling it on. Still, who can
blame them? Who'd go to a 24/7 shop in Spain unless they were
desperate. In other words, on a Sunday.
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