Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Well, it was Hebrew in the carving I showed yesterday. But, thanks to reader Victor, I now know that the book was, in fact, the slabs of stone containing the 10 Commandments, being held by Moses. The horns in his head are the result of a mis-translation of the Hebrew for rays of light.

On to weightier matters, on which I was going to write on Friday but held off to see what the weekend would bring . . . Spain’s economic data is too awful to repeat. President Zapatero has said he won’t change his policies in the face of it but I, for one, am not clear what these actually are, other than increasing public expenditure while rejecting demands from employers that it be made less expensive to both hire and fire people. The Opposition has claimed there’s no ‘socialist way’ out of the crisis, to which President Z has replied it’s either that or nothing. So, the Opposition is trying to turn the imminent EU elections into a vote of censure, which rather assumes a significant percentage of hacked-off Spaniards will bother to turn out to vote. Which I rather doubt. President Z may well believe, in his heart of hearts, that tough measures and structural reforms are required but he gives not the slightest evidence of doing so. He may, of course, regard admissions of the harsh truth as potentially suicidal ahead of these elections. So, we continue to have a sort of phoney peace, in which nothing is happening – as far as I can see – apart from the transfer of large sums of money to the cash-strapped regional governments, who may or may not be spending it less profligately than in recent years. And possibly for the benefit of their citizens.

As for protests on the street . . . I continue to be surprised - more accurately, astonished - at the restrained reaction of the Spanish to an unemployment rate rising towards 20%, which is the highest in Europe and which is widely forecast to be heading for 5 million. Is it resignation and fatalism on the part of a people who feel they didn’t really deserve the good times? Or is it, say, because the greatest impact has been on the 5 million or more immigrants who came in to provide hands for the (phoney) construction boom? I really haven’t the faintest idea, especially as Pontevedra appears to be rather immune to the cold draughts. At least in the café I’m typing this in.

Which reminds me . . . The 11am cacophony is greater than ever this morning, partly because all the 7 thirty-somethings at the next table appear to think screaming is compulsory. A few minutes ago I decided to counter this by playing some Blues through my computer using the excellent Spotify program which has now reached Spain. But, believe it or not, I couldn’t hear a bloody thing from the computer, even at max volume. Happily, I remembered I had the earphones from my MP4 in my bag. Not perfect but at least I can now hear both the Blues and myself think.

Finally . . . I’m a bit disparaging about Galician cuisine from time to time. So here’s a laudatory comment from a blog which made Google Alert this week. Unlike mine, needless to say – “Not all Galician cuisine is seafood based and the region can lay claim to some quite gorgeous recipes and provincial dishes which are all well worth trying out. Here is one for Galician beef sirloin." Que aprovechen.



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