It
was reported last year that Madrid and Barcelona were competing to
bring "EuroVegas" to their bit of Spain. This was to be a
gambling and golfing venture that would bring as many as 250,000 jobs
in its wake. Last I heard, it'd run into strong resistance to its
demands that tax/money-laundering concessions be given to the
investors. And now, it seems, there are also 'financing issues'.
Which could mean anything, of course. So nothing will be clear for a
while yet. Meanwhile, last week I saw a bit of a TV program on the
subject. It was centred on the threat that EuroVegas could bring with
it the levels of crime and prostitution for which Las Vegas was said
to be famous. In Spain, said the program, the second of these, at
least, had been successfully banished (under Franco, I think) from
the centre to the periphery of cities. Which is why you'll see at
least one garishly pink Club on the edge of every city and town in
Spain. Sometimes, indeed on the edge of villages.
Talking
of financing issues . . . Courtesy of my friend Dwight, here's an
article on the practice of 'dynamic provisioning' indulged in by
Spain's banks, with a nod and a wink from the EU. The phoney
results it produced probably lay behind President Zapatero's claim
that Spain had the world's soundest banking system. But, then, that
man was quite capable of making ridiculous statements even without any
backing at all. For example "We're richer than Italians this
year; next year we'll be richer than the French; and by 2012 we'll
even be richer than the Germans." Oh, how we laughed! And are
still laughing. All the way to the bank . . .
And talking of banks . . . You'll all recall that the new bank Novacaixa Galicia was formed from a merger between our two big savings banks, Caixa Galicia and Caixa Nova. And those of you who are very on the ball will recall there was (relatively speaking) an uproar when 4 or 5 directors of one or both of these were discovered to have made themselves huge bonus payments just before retiring. Well, the good news to emerge in the last week is that the original board of 320 members has now been reduced to a mere 12. I'll need to check this story as it really is quite hard to imagine any board or committee of that size being expected to function successfully
The
news of marital difficulties between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes naturally took me to Wikipedia on Scientology and to the writings of
both L Ron Hubbard and the church's current leader - David Miscavige.
Frankly, though, I didn't reach the end of the article, as I was
doubled up with laughter at the inanity of their beliefs in Xenu, Thetans and the like. It all seemed to prove how easy it must be to
set up a religion, to fleece your believers and to obtain tax relief
from supposedly lay governments. Though possibly not in France.
Worryingly, though, California is said to be awash with adherents.
Which must say something about the inhabitants of the USA's most
socially advanced state. I do hope I don't suffer some hardship
inflicted on me by my inner-Thetan as a result of writing this.
Anyway, here's the Wiki page. Enjoy.
Finally
. . . Chevrons on the road have always been a problem for me. I've
never understood whether I could cross them or not. Local drivers are
not afflicted with this uncertainty. They understand perfectly well
that they are there to demarcate a parking area. As here.
Small
print: There's been a rash of spam messages recently so I will
have to look at preventing this. Apologies to anyone who then finds
it harder to post a comment.
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