Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

So, Act 4 of Spain’s national Comic opera has begun. Assailed by accusations of corruption but flushed with the success of the scalp of the Justice Minister, the Opposition Partido Popular announced yesterday they'd today officially accuse the prosecuting judge of perversion of the course of justice, if he didn’t remove himself from the case. And they may well have done so by the time you read this. This will run and run. To a full house.

And talking of madness, I don’t always agree with the writer and commentator, Will Self, but on the issue of the ghoulish media circus around the wedding and death of the ‘celebrity’ Jane Goody in the UK, I plead as guilty as him to the charge of being a hard-hearted cynic. You can read his trenchant views here.

Back in the little pool of Pontevedra, there were cars a-plenty without tickets in the little square today. But no sightings of any traffic cops. On the other hand, the old quarter of Pontevedra featured a feral pack of young Rumanian women with their clipboards and their monosyllabic demands for donations to some fictitious charity for the deaf and dumb. So, what on earth is the link between these? Well, it was a public holiday in Pontevedra today and the police had clearly taken time off from both persecuting motorists and arresting crooks. My initial thought was that crime must rise here on days like this but then I realised that Spanish criminals probably enjoy a good fiesta too. Though not their more industrious Rumanian colleagues, it would seem.

Which reminds me . . . At the head of the list of foreign nationals resident in Galicia I posted the other day were the Portuguese. At 19,000 as I recall. But, looking at the building site outside my house this morning, it dawned on me that the survey was probably done a year or more ago, when Galicia was full of construction workers from our southern neighbour. The real figure might be much lower now. Possibly around 19.

The Voz de Galicia this week gave this verdict on the campaign for the regional elections taking place next Sunday:- What we have is an empty campaign, devoid of ideas, devoid of proposals worth the name, devoid of debates but full of haphazard meetings. Which is like going to the bullring knowing that the bull’s horns have been trimmed. I wouldn’t disagree but, then, I don’t read all the guff so am probably not overly qualified to give an opinion. What I can do, however, is give you a picture of the poster for the PP candidate for President, looking as statesmanlike as he can. The other two will follow tomorrow. In line with my theory about the hankering for strong leaders, I can add that the theme next to the picture of the PSOE candidate – and current President – is:- Give him more power.

I give you Sr. Feijoo, of the Partido Popular . . .

Incidentally, consistent with my ad hominem theme, the PP is attacking the incumbent President for being responsible for Galicia’s economic plight. I suspect this is a mistake, given that most people here probably believe he’s been powerless to stop something caused by the dastardly Americans and not palliated by the bastards in Madrid.

At the same time, the BNG nationalist party is attacking the incumbent President – the head of their PSOE coalition partner - for being “A mouthpiece of the [fascist] PP party”. I suspect on the issue of which co-official language is to have de facto hegemony.

Said incumbent President seems to be too nice to make personal attacks on either of the two other candidates. Which rather suggests he’s not fit for office and shouldn’t be there in the first place.

Finally, I leave you with the odd results of two on-line polls carried out this week by local papers:-

Do you think the Oscars process is impartial?
NO - 67% YES – 33%

Do you think Penelope Cruz is Spain’s best actress?
YES – 10% NO – 90%

I’d be interested in any rationale for either or both of these.

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