Changing
Spain 2: A couple of banks have announced that, in the interests
of customers, they'll be staying open during the afternoon/evening, beyond
the 2pm norm in Spain. This is nothing short of revolutionary in a
country where customer orientation has traditionally been 10 to 20
years behind other countries. The thin end of a (positive) wedge,
born of La Crisis? And a demonstration of the truth of the old
saw that it's an ill wind that blows no good?
One
of the oddities of languages with genders is that nouns that seem
obviously masculine can actually be feminine. As it is with the word
Señorías used by the Speaker in the Spanish parliament to
mean Lordships, or Gentlemen. But also Ladyships
or Ladies. Or all of these. The absence of genders is one of
the big pluses of the English language, of course. Another is that I
learned it as a child.
Sentences
have now been handed down in the Malaya trial I mentioned the other
day. This case centred on kickbacks to the entire local council from
constructors, master-minded by the Chief Planning Officer. You can
see just how successful he was from the eye-watering fine imposed on
him of €240m. In addition to which he was sentenced to 11 years in
jail. Other sentences were not quite as punitive but a couple of
mayors were sentenced to 6 and 2 years in jail.
Talking
of corruption - The ex-provincial President responsible for the
Castellón (non)airport is now on the bench. Apart from financial
skulduggery, Carlos Fabra is famous for a few other things - 1. Looking like a
Spanish gangster from Central Casting; 2. Never taking off his opaque
sunglasses, as if he were an actor in a Godfather film; 3. Winning
the lottery very regularly - a classic way to launder black money;
and 4. Displaying the sort of arrogance which led him to refuse to
answer questions in court. Justice must be equitable, of course, but
it's hard not to hope he gets sent down for a long stretch. By
the way, Fabra is the 7th member of his family to rise to the
position of President of the province of Castellón. In other words,
an old fashioned cacique, whose father, of course, was a Francoist.
Galicia
fares well in next year's State budget. On a per capita basis, it
ranks third in the central allocations. But, then, when the President
is a hometown boy, the only surprising thing about this is that we're
not first.
Owls:
Here's what we really need in town to scare off the damned pigeons.
And
here's the latest example of what we make do with.
Finally
. . . It's not widely known that Adolf Hitler once played cricket, with British prisoners of war during the First World War.
Allegedly, he tried to change the rules in respect of leg pads and
the hardness of the ball. He wanted to ban the former and make the
latter even harder than it was. This was early evidence of his
psychotic nature but no one noticed. His proposals were, of course,
rejected, after which he bore
eternal resentment against the British. With consequences with which
we are all too familiar.
No comments:
Post a Comment