Corruption, Sex, and Fotos.

I see I haven’t mentioned prostitution and corruption recently, so . . . .

Corruption: There was an interesting map in, I think, El País this week, showing where people – probably all politicians or property developers – had been arrested for financial jiggery-pokery in the Valencia region. My first thought was that Valencia had been chosen because they lacked enough space and ink to produce one for Andalucia. And today the same paper contained a “Galaxy” of characters in what it termed the most corrupt place in Spain. This turns out to be the Balearic Islands, east of Valencia. It was rather like a fusion of organisation chart and spider diagram, showing the linkages between the various offenders. Most, if not all, of whom seem to belong to the Unió Mallorca party. I wonder how much competition there was for this national honour. Possibly quite a lot.

Prostitution: El País (again) this week carried an article containing a comment we all know to be true – “The outstanding feature of the Spanish penal system towards prostitution is hypocrisy. [Normally considered here a very English trait]. It allows the industry to get by with scarcely any control. It is in limbo, neither legal nor illegal. But it is certainly growing.”  As for Spanish women, I suspect the outstanding feature is a blind eye. And possibly a view that it’s better than having your man run off with his young secretary.

Property: More from Mark Stucklin on the wasteland that is Spain’s market for this. And the problems the banks are having now they're the country’s largest estate agent (realtor). I've rather given up on plans to sell my lovely house in the hills. But am willing to respond to all indications of interest. With alacrity.

If you’d like to see some better fotos of Pontevedra than the ones I post, see this blog, entitled Forgotten Pontevedra

Finally . . . Walking into town yesterday, I was amused to see a handwritten poster directed at, I guessed, the owner of a local firm which had announced some redundancies. The headline advised that Sr X was “un pufero y un ladrón” I knew the latter was ‘thief'; but had trouble with the former. I couldn’t later find it in my dictionary but a web search turned up putero, or “whoremonger”. So I thought it must have been a spelling error. But friends at dinner told me a pufero was someone who defaulted on his debts to friends. Or, at least, I think that’s what they said; I’ve lost my bloody notes. Happy to be corrected.