Corruption:
The train chugs on: This week the police have searched the HQ of the
governing PP party. And a searchlight has been shone of the astonishing
things that took place in the Caja Madrid bank during the Aznar
presidency. Including government pressure on bank executives, job
placement for cronies and inappropriate loans. As I recall, the Chief
Executive of the time - Señor Blesa - had been put in the job not
because he knew anything about banking (he didn't) but because he was
a mate of Aznar. As if that weren't enough, he's now been accused of
various acts of financial skulduggery and of serial sexual
harassment. The investigative judge has courageously said that in any
other country he'd be in jail. A typically Spanish saga, in other
words.
It's not
often that a democratic country goes into reverse on its social
policies but this is exactly what's happening in respect of abortion
in Spain right now. Essentially, the government is reversing the
initiatives of the last administration and taking the law back to the
80s. Or even, some claim, to the Franco era. According to one survey,
81% of the population are against this. The Catholic Church, on the
other hand, isn't and it's still a part of the Establishment. Even if
it doesn't play a part in the lives of most of the people who live
here. More info here.
Language
1: There
are 2 forms of the verb 'To be' in Spanish: Estar
and Ser.
And it makes a difference which you use. Sometimes a big one. Ser
molesto
is 'To be annoying'. Estar
molesto
is 'To be annoyed'. Or the other way round. I think this is also true
of aburrido
- 'bored' and 'boring'. Confusing or what?
Language
2: Latest bit of Spanglish:
Leguis, Legins, Leggins:
For 'leggings'.
The
compulsive disorder nightmare - A foto of the leaning tower of Pisa
in a frame on the wall. Think about it. If you straighten the tower,
the frame is skewed. And if you straighten the frame . . .
Finally
. . . I've mentioned this before but, should you buy or hire a car in
Spain, you might want to check the tyres. For they're always
over-inflated. Possibly significantly so. Ahead of driving south
tomorrow, I've just discovered that mine are 33% higher than they
should be, after a service in September.
Finally,
finally . . . I decided to open my water bill before departing for
the South. Big mistake. It showed usage of 387m3, against a norm of
around 15. And a bill for €650. There was a leaflet with the
statement telling me how the water company is improving its service.
I couldn't find anything about their computer alerting you to the
fact that your daily consumption is 26 times more than usual.
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