Dawn

Dawn

Monday, August 26, 2013

Spanish institutions; The Tour of Spain; Another copy-cat owl; Spanish white elephants; And more Spanglish.

Ever so often, the Spanish are polled on their approval ratings for Spain's institutions. Here, from yesterday's El Pais, are the latest numbers. There can be little surprise that politicians are rock bottom, with half the positive rating of the second-to-last in the list, political parties. My overview is that the UK list would be rather different, with several of those at the top of the list scoring quite a lot less. And vice versa for those at the bottom. Specifically, it's hard to imagine judges and the courts scoring as low as they do here in Spain.
ABOVE 50%
Scientific researchers 92%
NHS doctors 92
SMEs - 90
The Guárdia Civil (national police) - 85
Public sector teachers - 85
The police - 83
Universities - 75
NGOs - 75
The armed forces - 72
Municipal social services - 64
The Crown Prince - 62
Newspapers - 60
The media as a whole - 58
Tax inspectors - 53
Lawyers - 53
The Supreme Court - 53
Parish priests - 53
The King - 50
The judges - 50

BELOW 50%
The Constitutional Court - 48%
State Prosecutors - 46
Large Spanish companies - 46
The Catholic Church - 42
The regions - 41
The municipalities - 40
Multinationals - 33
Trade unions - 28
Parliament - 24
The government - 21
Businessmen - 21
Archbishops - 21
Banks - 15
Political parties - 12
Politicians - 6

The 2nd leg of Tour of Spain began in Pontevedra yesterday and will pass through the city today during the 3rd leg. Along with some friends, I went down to town at midday yesterday to watch the riders set off. With half an hour to spare, we went for a tiffin at a nearby bar but the service was so slow we left for another bar, where - until I complained - things were much the same. After finally getting and downing our shandies, we left and headed towards the start point in front of the town hall. To find that everything was over and that all the bikes, cyclists, cars and trucks who'd lined the Alameda 30 minutes earlier had all disappeared, leaving us this . . .


We were are a tad annoyed the service delays in the two bars had cost us our chance to see the start of the race but we're resolved to make a better fist of today's spectating.

The only consolation for waiting for the service that never materialised was that it gave me the time and opportunity to snap the latest of the town's pigeon-scaring owls . . .


This one sits atop a pedestal and can clearly be rotated. An upmarket model, then.


It's rather ironic I should mention bad service here as I've always been a great admirer of Spanish bar staff. They work long hours for low pay and almost always do so with efficiency and a smile. Only a day or so ago I read that many of them have been working 12 hour days this summer for as little as €500 euros a month. Which is scandalous.

My friend Paul has sent me this article on Spain's white elephants. I'd heard of some but not all of them. If your jaw is not on your chest at the end of it, I'd be astonished.

Finally . . . A bit more Spanglish: "Vigo se llena de skates, BMX y B-Boys". 'Vigo is full of skaters, BMXers and B-Boys'.

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