A
lot of Spanish cities used the easy, cheap money of the 90's to build
their own Guggenheim. Galicia's vanity project is the Cidade da
Culture – The City of Culture – on the outskirts of Santiago.
Since it was finished a few years ago, they've been struggling to
figure out what to do with it, other than to have people pay to
wander round it. The official estimate of these for 2013 is 500,000,
which will be going some against a total of 333,000 for the last two
years. Whatever the number turns out to be, I aim to be a part of it.
Pending some from me, here are some fotos of the place.
Even
before they take advantage of the chance to become a Spanish resident
(and taxpayer?) by buying a place for 160,000 or more, Russians now
rank second only to Brits as buyers of Costa de Sol properties.
Talking
of foreign tourists, this is how they rank in terms of per capita
spending when they come to Spain:-
- Russians.
- Germans
- Brits
- Italian
- FrenchOn the face of it, this French ranking looks odd but I figure it's because many of them are merely coming across the border to spend time in one of the huge brothels sited there with the very purpose of enticing them.
So,
what percentage of Spaniards thinks political corruption is too high?
Well, just under 100%, in fact. And almost as many believe that
corrupt individuals are protected by their parties. There's a strong
desire for the two main parties to come together to tackle this
problem but breath-holding is not to be recommended.
And,
meanwhile, life goes on as ever, with senior businessmen and
politicians acting as if they don't give a toss what the
public/electorate thinks. Sr Rodrigo Rato was a senior member of the
PP party before taking an elevated position on the board of Bankía.
In this capacity he's being investigated for alleged skulduggery but
this appears to be of no concern to Telefónica, which has just
appointed him to the advisory boards of its European and Latin
America businesses. His specialist skills may be of more use in the
latter than the former, I guess.
Another
odd development was reported today – in 2003 a motorist drove at
speed the wrong way down an autopista in Valencia, killing one person
and seriously injuring several others. In 2011(8 years later!) he was
jailed for 13 years. This week, however, the Council of Ministers has
pardoned him, giving him a fine of 4,000 euros, to be paid over two
years. No explanation for this has been given, inevitably leading to
suspicion that the decision was less than objective. Somebody's
nephew, maybe.
Finally
. . . This, dear reader, is probably the truest thing you'll ever
read - Ginger is the root of all good in any
cook's repertoire. Shame, then, that
the ever-conservative Galicians can't stand it. Which is why you'll
never find it used – would you believe? - in a Chinese restaurant
here. I once asked the waiter in one of these to ask the chef to
include some ginger in the beef and spring onions dish I'd ordered.
He asked me to describe it. I did, and he came back with a potato . .
.
No comments:
Post a Comment