Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Canine carbon footprints; Household economies; The Spanish economic model; Teutonic muscle flexing; Debt figures; and English as she is spoke

Here’s an interesting fact – the keeping of a medium-sized dog has the same ecological impact, they say, as driving a 4.6 litre 4x4 (todo tereno) 10,000km a year. More if the dog is inside the vehicle, increasing the weight.

And here’s a interesting development for those of us who have a daughter whose affinity with artificial lighting is such that she switches every light on every time she enters a room and never, ever switches one off. Regardless of the time of day and the amount of sunlight, I should add. You can buy a little box which tells you how many watts you’re using when you switch anything on. Which will be of most use in respect of guests who believe it’s necessary to put three litres of water in a kettle (3,000 watts) for a 300cc cup of tea.

But on to higher things . . . There was an article in one of our national papers this week, bemoaning the fact the Spanish model is no longer admired around the world. This was a tad confusing since I didn’t think it was likely that many people had admired specious economic growth built on the sand of the phoney construction boom since 2000. And it also struck me the writer couldn’t be very aware of foreign disregard for the things that seriously blemish the Spanish state\culture and which no one seems to have the political will to do anything about. And then I read in El País today that an actress had said, in effect, that Spain’s further development is hamstrung by the ‘anything goes’ attitude so prevalent here. So I’ve changed my views on celebrities making political comments.

One of the inevitable effects of the Eurozone crisis is that Germany is finally moving away from its subordinate role to France. He who pays the piper usually calls the tune, of course, and it was no great surprise to see Germany baulking at giving handouts to Greece. And now it's reported she is hell-bent on getting one of her own as the head of the European Central Bank - traditionally one of the plums snaffled by France, by hook or by crook.

Talking of crooks . . . I also read today that the Spanish debt figures regularly defended by President Zapollyanna are false in that they don’t include the debts of the regional governments. Which are said to be twice as much again. Of course, Spain has not been alone in this. Greece has been using the genius of the American banks to obfuscate things. And Mr Brown has long had his off-balance sheet PFI schemes. The Greeks, of course, have a word for it – Lying.

Talking of Americans, a fellow-blogger in Galicia has become a tad irritated at being told be will fail his English oral exam if he doesn’t pronounce things the British way, and not his natural American way. Frankly, the most surprising thing to me about his account was that the university of Santiago has an oral test. But the other thing that fascinated me – since confirmed by Spanish and American friends - is that, specifically, we Brits pronounce the letter R differently, especially at the end of a word. Which I hadn’t picked up during all my years of visiting and even living in the USA.

Finally . . . I wanted to send a message of welcome to new Follower Peggy today. But to do so, I was compelled to become a Follower of my own blog. But at least this means I was spared the agony of a long wait until the total rose from 49 to 50
 

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