Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, January 10, 2013


No sooner do I say no one's expecting much violence on Spanish streets than Resistencia Galega sets fire to a couple of large rubbish containers, or contenadores. This, though, was almost certainly a blow in favour of Galician independence, rather than a protest against government policies. And it probably didn't make the national papers.

I mentioned court pardons last night. Here's a bit more information on that subject - Drug trafficking, violent robbery, injuries resulting in permanent disfigurement, embezzlement, abuse of authority, murder, sexual abuse, torture, pimping, and a long list of etceteras. Just about every offence imaginable is pardoned by the Spanish government every year. Over the course of 2012, the administration of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has issued 468 pardons, a similar figure to that of previous governments. The law that allows the government to issue pardons dates back to 1870, and allows it to do so without having to give any account or explanation.

Coincidentally, a leader in today's El Mundo railed against this sort of thing, labelling it scandalous - Nuevamente la corrupción de dirigentes políticos va a quedar impune porque eso es lo que supone el pacto suscrito ayer por la tarde entre la Fiscalía de la Audiencia de Barcelona y las defensas de los acusados en el caso Pallerols, en el que se dilucidaba la financiación ilegal de Unió Democràtica de Catalunya (UDC).

I also mentioned banks, of course. Todays' news is that there are now 30 senior executives of Bankía in the dock. The bank was formed from the merger of 6 or 7 of Spain's infamous savings banks(cajas). A development which seems to have allowed insiders to continue to play their old games, but on a larger scale.

Argentina's president, Cristina Kirchner, is having a bit of bother with an uppity actor, who's wanting her to explain how the net worth of she and her husband rocketed upwards during their years in power. Her response so far has been the very Hispanic one of “Y tú más”. Or “You too but more so”. Then she couldn't take a plane because it had been embargoed because of non payment of bills, forcing her to use a British back-up. Which hasn't stopped her firing off another salvo about the Falklands/Malvinas islands. If events in Venezuela are anything to go by, a better bet to lift her ratings would be to announce she's got suspected breast cancer.

Finally . . . Watching the news in a bar tonight, I was rather taken aback when the Sports reporter stopped talking about a football match and started promoting a brand of yoghurts. I was just getting my head around this when the weatherman segwayed into an ad for a health insurance company. So I was almost expecting the anchorman on the next show to do something similar. Which he duly did, along with a couple of large puppets. I wonder if this sort of thing is done elsewhere.

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