I've
got a couple of Chip and Pin cards issued by my bank here in
Pontevedra. In theory, I should be using these as I do in the UK –
just inserting the card, tapping in the PIN number and taking the
card back. This, however, is not how things work here. After a short
survey of ten outlets, I can say that:-
- 0% asked me to input the PIN number.
- In 90% of the cases I was asked for proof of identity. Only the toll booths on the autopistas didn't.
- The same 90% asked me to put my signature in a little box.
So,
will Chip and Pin ever arrive here, precluding the ubiquitous
practice of demanding proof of identity, however small the purchase,
and then a signature? I do wonder.
Government
Cost Savings:
How about fusing some of the regions ('Autonomous
Communities').
Asturias and Galicia?
La Rioja with one of its
neighbours?
Cantabria with Castile y León?
Would
you buy this (rather ugly) house for a million euros?
No?
Quite right; no one here has in the more than five years it's been on
sale. Presumably the vendors are the sort of stupid and stubborn Galicians who over-price their property and then refuse to reduce it
when no offers come in. Just possibly it might have sold for 500k at
the peak of the phoney property boom in 2007 but now it's just a “toxic
asset”. Which may well be owned by a bank.
A
couple of lists, reported in recent weeks (and just found in my
notebook):-
The
Index of Competitiveness
- Switzerland
- Singapore
- Finland
- Sweden
- Holland
- Germany
- USA
- UK
- Hong Kong
- Japan
21.
France
29.
China
36.
Spain. Same position as last year.
So,
lots of room for improvement.
Approval
Ratings for Spain's Institutions
Doctors
– 93%
Scientists
– 90%
State
school teachers – 88%
Then
we plummet right down to:-
Judges
– 44%
Courts
– 36%
The
Constitutional Court – 29%
The
Supreme Court – 27%
Parliament
– 16%
Banks
11%
Political
Parties - 9%
This is a sorry picture and it's interesting
that political parties are even less well thought of than banks. But,
then, we do have an endless diet of corruption stories in the media.
Which
reminds me - The mayor of the small town near Ourense arrested last
week for various offences has come come up with a novel defence -
“Yes, I did receive moneys but they weren't for me. They were for
someone else.” I wonder if this person (his wife?) will be
serving his gaol sentence for him.
Finally
. . . This is the van of an enterprising student attending the School
of Fine Arts in town.
During his first year, he parked it – for
free - in the street and saved himself the cost of renting a room.
And he's now done it again this year. Though rather closer to the
entrance, saving himself 30 or 40 metres walk of a morning, midday
and evening.
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