Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

The summoned princess; The king's lousy speech; Abortions for us but not for you; It's raining hailstones; & Words of wisdom?

I don't suppose the palace spokesman who pleaded a couple of days ago for the acceleration/termination of the judicial process really expected the judge to announce he was summoning Princess Cristina to a hearing in early March. But this is what happened yesterday and things don't look good for her. Even if she does continue to have the Public Prosecutor and Tax Office on her side, insisting she's done nothing that merits investigation. Brave judge. Or at least a determined one.

The other blow to a monarchy already on its knees was a dire performance by the king in his address to the military on Monday, where he hesitated, stammered and repeated parts of the text. The odds on him abdicating soon have surely shortened. Perhaps a tad surprisingly, his son the crown prince still retains his popularity with the Spanish people. Though this could change if his reported marital difficulties result in divorce.

Talking of reports . . . El País tells us that the wife of the Spanish president has had not just one but two abortions, one of them as late as 6 months. Not surprisingly, the man who's now driving the abortion law revisions has been labelled a hypocrite.

We're all familiar with stories of hailstones the size of tennis balls. Or golf balls as least. Well, the storm that hit Pontevedra last week - and which I missed - certainly seems to have deserved the description. All of my (plastic) drainpipes are riddled with large holes. And even more tiles have disappeared from the roof. So now I'm gearing up for a battle with the insurance company.

Tidying up my book shelves, I came across something I bought many years ago - The Little Green Book of the Sayings of Ayotollah Khomenei of Iran- The man who effectively deposed the Shah in 1979. Contrary to appearances, this is not a spoof but a genuine collection of the old man's dicta. I thought I'd quote them one by one over the coming weeks. So, here's the first one:-

During joint prayer the woman must position herself behind the man. If the woman and the man enter the place of worship at the same time and the woman happens to find herself in front of the man, she must say her prayer again, after placing herself where she belongs, i. e. behind the man.

Perhaps I should stress that Iranians are Shia Moslems, not Sunni. Attitudes may be different among the latter. Though I doubt it.

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