Undoubtedly
in shock, the driver may or may not have lied to hide this breach of
company regulations but the conductor certainly did. He never
mentioned it in his statements to the police and the judge and he
initially denied it yesterday, when El
País
asked him about a call. I assume he'll be arrested very soon, if he hasn't been already.
As
we await further revelations, Asdif and RENFE have announced that,
even though the crash had nothing to do with their management of the
track and the trains, they are revising their safety procedures.
Which begs a few more questions, of course.
As
with most nationals, I guess, the Spanish can be more acute observers
of themselves than foreigners can. Talking to a friend the other day
about the way the Spanish media quickly sets up individuals as
figures of hate - the captain of the Prestige, Madeleine McCann's
mother, the driver of the Santiago train, for example - he commented
that this was the most Latin aspect of the Spanish and the way in
which they most resembled South Americans. I have no idea
whether this is true or not but, if it is, then it must be safe to
assume that the government is not only aware of
this tendency but capable of using it to manipulate the people at a
time like this. Indeed, this is exactly what the Aznar government tried to do in
immediately blaming the 2004 Madrid bombings on the Basque terrorist group, ETA. However, these attempts were so
premature and so cack-handed they backfired. And an election was lost
as a result.
The
most obvious of examples of attempted manipulation around the Santiago tragedy were the immediate attempts by Adif, RENFE and the national
government to exculpate themselves and inculpate the driver and the
attempt by the regional president, Sr Feijoo, to raise the spectre of
foreign commercial interests taking advantage of the crash to
besmirch the reputation of Spain's high-speed train industry.
One
Spanish commentator has made the point that the Spanish people are
obsessed with their rights but rather less concerned with their
obligations and responsibilities. As he said, no one ever resigns for
anything here. Certainly not politicians and, though it's possible
that Sr Rajoy will today admit in parliament that he and his
colleagues were receiving illegal back-handers for several years from
an illegal slush-fund, there's no possibility whatsoever that anyone
will fall on his or her sword. As they say, a people gets the
politicians it deserves. Something needs to change in the attitudes
of the populace here before politicians will change for the better. A
small start would be to stop voting crooks back into power.
Finally
. . . Eight years after construction began and 2 years after it
finished, it's looking like the houses behind mine will finally be
occupied. Or at least made ready for sale. Electricity has been
connected and a car-park type barrier has been installed on the
access road. Which will upset the two 'wild' dogs which have been
using it as a sleeping area, conveniently close to the rubbish bins.
Progress.
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