Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Hot on the heels of the news that the judge in the Caso Noos corruption trial has been leant on to keep Princess Cristina out of the box, comes the announcement that her implicated husband is going off to Qatar to be a basketball coach for a couple of years. I can't say I understand how either of these things can happen

Talking about perplexity . . . There are a number of things about Spain that I suspect will always remain a mystery to me. One of these is the unemployment rate and another is the 1988 Law of the Coasts and its implementation. The principle is that a strip of land back from the sea can't be built on and that, if your property lies in this strip, you can only live in it for X years. As to the size of this strip, I've seen numerous numbers cited, one difficulty perhaps being that national and regional governments take different lines. And now we have a new law from the PP government which will reduce the strip from 100 to a mere 20 metres and given an amnesty to anyone who broke the last law. To make up for this new-found flexibility, there will be 'very strict controls' in respect of the 80 metres between the new 20 metre mark and the old 100 metre mark. So that's all clear then.

The Spanish President, Sr Rajoy, in naturally worried by the precedent being set by the UK and Scotland, fearing – rightly – that it's incentivising the restless Catalans. During David Cameron's recent visit, Rajoy insisted that “Cataluña and Scotland are absolutely different because the UK and Spain have different laws.” And he added that “Spain is the oldest nation in Europe and the Catalans shouldn't be deprived of inclusion,” This is pure tosh, of course. Laws can be changed, if there is the political will. What I guess he means is that, as the UK has no written constitution, anything goes. Whereas Spain does have a Magna Carta and, according to his reading of it, this precludes a Catalan opt out.

Interesting historical facts:-
  • Sara Montiel (see yesterday's post) was taught to smoke a cigar by Ernest Hemingway.
  • Homer – and other Greek works – were translated into Arabic before they were rendered in Latin.
The folk over at IberoSphere have initiated a new item called SpainX5. This is, they say, a shamelessly subjective view of the country, looking at and celebrating its greatest people, places and products. With no scientific basis for its opinions, these articles are based on nothing more than gut feeling. Anyway, I took a look at their listing of the top 5 cities in Spain and am still reeling from the inclusion of Vigo – the fishing port about 25km south of here. The other four – not in any order of preference – were Bilbao, Barcelona, Córdoba and Madrid. They anticipate that readers will raise an eyebrow over the inclusion of Vigo and fear some would see it as being inferior to either Santiago de Compostela or La Coruña. I have to admit these weren't the replacement names which sprang to my mind ahead of, say, Salamanca, Toledo and Mérida. But, anyway, you can see SpainX5's rationale here. I don't, in fact, disagree with anything they say about Vigo. And I adore crossing the bridge they illustrate. But I still can't see it adding up to a top 5 position. And it's going to infuriate the Pontevedrans, who regard Vigo as an ugly upstart.

Finally . . . Spain being different is frequently an irritation but sometimes it can be a delight. I went up into the Galician hills today to make hotel bookings for a Camino group at the end of May. Six hotels and not one request for a deposit, a credit card rubbing or even a credit card number. I was so pleased about this I forgot to get annoyed about having to produce ID and sign my name at the petrol station.

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