Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, January 12, 2014

The ERE corruption case; An ill-fated(?) hotel; Royal power; Spanish names; & Spanish vulgarities.

The Olive Press has done us a service in providing details on the huge ERE corruption case, down in Andalucia. As it says, the very Spanish aspect is that Despite being the biggest political corruption case in Spanish history, there are no guarantees that those responsible will ever actually face prison.

There's a 4 or 5 star 'thermal' hotel along our coast between Vigo and Bayona. Allegedly it was financed by a narcotrafico and certainly it's illegal. It seems the local council which approved its construction failed to put a notice in the relevant bulletin. This seems like a minor technicality to me but maybe it masks something rather more serious. Anyway, the courts have ordered the hotel's destruction, only for the owners to demand payment for this which is 14 times the local council's annual budget of €18m. So, it could still be standing in 10 years' time. In fact, I'd be prepared to bet on that. Though I think it should be knocked down tomorrow simply for publishing English like this:- People Kitchen team, led by chef Cruz, transmitted through the food delights of good food has always excelled in Galicia. An elaborate cuisine market in which traditional dishes as well as other more daring live in the Charter of one of the best restaurants in the Rias Baixas. In addition to a varied Menu that changes daily, we offer a service "a la Carta", which highlights his interest in rice, such as police[???] or lobster.

In a podcast I heard last night, a woman said Princess Diana was a feminist icon who'd successfully taken on the Royal Family, "the most powerful family in the land". Personally, I'd have thought this was the accursed Murdochs. After all, what can the Royal Family actually do? Start a political party? Initiate a law? Commit crimes with impunity? No. They can't even make me (or you) do anything I don't want to do. Privileged? Yes. But powerful? No.

There's no foreign name which isn't transformed into a Spanish equivalent. Unless, like David for example, it's the same in both languages. So it is that Chekhov in English is partnered by Chéjov in Spanish. Though, on reflection, the latter may well be closer to the pronunciation of the original Russian.

Finally . . . There's an exclamatory expression in Spanish - Me cago en la madre que te parió. Or "I shit on the mother who gave birth to you." My elder daughter was at a family dinner where, during an argument, the mother threw this at her son. At dinner last night with local friends, they seemed remarkably unsurprised at this, giving the strong impression there was nothing unusual about it. You don't have to be robust to work here but it helps.

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