The Spanish government has acceded to all the requests of a hunger-striking ETA terrorist, sparking a storm of protest throughout the country. President Zapatero has justified the decision on humanitarian grounds, praying in favour the sanctity of human life. The irony in this is that the beneficiary of this largesse had himself displayed no respect either for the life of the 25 people he killed nor for his own. Worryingly for Mr Z, a significant majority of the Spanish people think he’s caved in to blackmail and the result will be many more hunger strikes. And not just among ETA prisoners. There’s no doubt the government has acted within the letter of the law but whether its humane gesture has been wise remains to be seen. Is Mr Z a saint or an idiot? Or perhaps both. Meanwhile, Spain’s [illegal] equivalent of Sinn Fein, Batasuna, has repeated there’ll be no progress in stopping ETA terrorism until Navarra is added to the existing Basque Country, en route to secession. Plus a bit of France, probably.

The writer/historian[?] José Pla is quoted as saying [albeit in the 1930s, I think] that “España es un país de odios africanos y onanistas furiosos”. Or “Spain is a country of African hatreds and furious onanists”. Can anyone shed any light on what he meant by this? Why 'African'?

Cigarettes have featured large in two news reports in the last week, one in the UK and one here in Spain. Both, strangely, in the theatre. In the UK, there was a bit of a rumpus when the actor who plays Harry Potter appeared in a revival of the controversial play Equus. As required, he appeared on the stage naked. But what really caused the fuss was the fact that he was – as we say in British English - dragging on a fag. Here in Spain, a performance of Fame in a brand new theatre in Pontevedra had to be cancelled when the sprinkler system failed to distinguish between a blazing row of seats and a cigarette on the stage.

Galicia Facts and Perspectives

Here’s the reference for a new site dedicated to matters Galician. It defines itself as a search engine which collects data - in any language - issued in/on Galicia, with sections covering web pages, news, official bulletins and . . . blogs. But not mine, so far.

And, for those interested in ‘contemporary Galician studies’, here’s the site of new magazine [Galicia 21], from the U. of Bangor in the UK. This will ‘place special emphasis on discussion and debate centred upon the thematic concerns of this expanding discipline in order to foster connections with neighbouring frameworks and approaches’ but I’m afraid I can’t help with the meaning of this sentence. Maybe it sounds better in Gallego.

Closer to home, the Voz de Galicia reveals that noise levels in all Galicia’s 7 cities are regularly well above the legal limits. As if this counts as news! The reporter focused on nightlife and street works so has clearly never sat next to 5 or 6 grandmothers ‘chatting’ in any café in Galicia.