It would be hard to exaggerate the sense of disappointment [and anger] in Spain at ETA’s unilateral ending of its ‘permanent’ ceasefire. What has to be remembered is that we’re talking here about a terrorist organisation operating on the mainland, as it were. Not in a distant, overseas ‘province’ which the rest of the nation would happily be shot of. As it happens, I took a look today at the blog of the Basque fanatic, Aleksu, who diverted us all with his views several months ago. You may recall these arose from his opinion of me as ‘the stupid American Basque-phobe of the week’. Well, this is how he commented on press reports that the Spanish government had refused to confirm a meeting with ETA, some nine months after a ceasefire ‘revived hopes of ending four decades of violence’ – “More like five centuries of violent oppression, genocide and the clear attempt to wipe out Europe's oldest culture.” If he’s still sitting in his room in New Zealand zealously tracking all references to the Basque Country on his computer, I’d be interested to hear whether he feels murdering two South Americans is a useful step forward in ETA’s strategy of ending this clearly intolerable situation. I say ‘intolerable’ but I suppose this rather depends on whether you live there or not.

Spanish TV folk are thrilled that a successful comedy here – ‘Betty the Ugly’ - is being reproduced in the USA. I haven’t seen any local episodes but I was looking forward to seeing the English-language version. At least, I was until I read this in a UK newspaper - Having read everywhere it was going to be funny, I settled down to watch the American sitcom Ugly Betty. The only thing funny about it was that Betty wasn't actually ugly. The programme-makers had obviously and rightly calculated that if they gave her acne, or made her morbidly obese, or afflicted her with a disfiguring birth condition, they would give offence to one or other of the groups representing people so afflicted. So they made her slightly plump and gave her braces and a whacky fashion sense. Result: a moral parable of extraordinary asininity, and a comedy without a single laugh. In truth, Betty isn’t particularly ugly in the original version either. But, then, she doesn’t need to be. For, in Spain, any woman who isn’t thin, blonde and big-breasted cannot be beautiful [guapa]. And is, therefore, automatically ugly.

Galicia Facts

At last some good luck for Galicia. Residents of the town of Ferrol have won 34 million euros in the January national lottery, El Niño. The other welcome news is that the police have broken up a drug-smuggling ring which included a notorious baron from Vilagarcia, a suspiciously rich town along the coast from Pontevedra. So, 2007 has got off to a good start. Which is just as well, as 64% of Galicians are reported to believe 2006 was a bad year for the region.