Dawn

Dawn

Friday, December 13, 2013

The dead dean; Courtly contempts; Movistar madness; Catalan confrontation; Religious rot; & Galician scoffing.

Who do you think is the honorary Dean of the Madrid Bar Association? Yes, that's right, General Franco. Notwithstanding the fact he moved on to much hotter pastures 38 years ago. But, not to worry - The Association will vote next week on whether to replace him. Possibly by Putin.

It was illuminating to see David Cameron reprimanded by a judge for commenting publicly on a criminal trial. It came on the same day as the latest media report here on the investigation into the death of the adopted Chinese girl in Santiago - viz. that she'd said a month or two before her death that her parents were trying to kill her. Why bother with a trial?

You might think it'd be a doddle to navigate the site of Movistar(Telefónica), Spain's largest (and pretty profitable) telecoms company. If so, you'd be wrong. I spent at least half an hour last night trying to get my mobile bill using the password they'd sent to my phone. After I'd finally succeeded I then discovered that neither my residence card number(NIE) nor the password they'd sent me were relevant for my fixed line bill. It's at times like this that you wonder just how long it will be before Spain gets its act together and whether the sceptics aren't right that a combination of inefficiency and corruption are an insuperable barrier to this.

The Great Catalan Confrontation: Cataluña's referendum on independence will take place next November. There'll be 2 questions: “Do you want Cataluña to be a state?” and “Do you want that state to be independent?” The Spanish government has vowed to stop the referendum, insisting it's unconstitutional, but one wonders quite how they'll do this, short of military action. Like Scotland, Cataluña has said it wants to stay in the EU and retain its current currency. And as with Scotland, national and international authorities have taken issue with these aspirations. So, an interesting year ahead.

Scientology: So, this nutty nonsense really is a religion, says the UK's Supreme Court, as you don't need to worship a deity to be religious. I shall now polish up and expand on my plans to gain the fiscal advantages that come with this designation. I just need to decide what we should worship, now that it doesn't need to be me.

Finally . . . Here's someone's view of the best 20 restaurants in Galicia. It seems rather heavy on La Coruña and Ourense to me, though there is one Pontevedran place. I've never eaten there but I walk past it every day. I suspect its clientele comes largely from the city and regional government offices nearby. But probably not from students at the Fine Arts building opposite it. Or, rather, this was the situation until recently, when the place became the restaurant of Hotel Room, half a mile away, and changed its name accordingly. Bit of a come down.

No comments: