A
woman politician was shot dead in León on Monday, apparently in an
act of personal vengeance. Needless to say, though, she was under
investigation for corruption. But, then, what Spanish politician
isn't? Incidentally, the woman who did the shooting - apparently a
disgruntled ex-employee - was the daughter of the local chief of
police. And she was encouraged in the shooting by her mother, his
wife. The poor chap's career may now stall. Especially, I guess, if
it was his gun.
Someone who's career really has been affected is a Galician politician who said on her Facebook page today she didn't want to comment on the murder
other than to say "You reap what you sow". In a country
where resignation is rare, it was strange to see she'd immediately
been pressured by her colleagues to announce her resignation. Apparently the twitter mob ('twob'?) were unhappy.
On
corruption . . . HT to Lenox for this citation of a list of major cases. It gets longer by the day, of course.
Spanglish:
Latest verb: Spoilear. Seems to be related to 'spoiler', of
film review fame.
I
tried yesterday to take my daughter off my health policy, using the
company's internet form. And that's when the problems began. A woman
called me to say I didn't exist on their computer. This is despite me
paying premiums, using their card, and receiving
numerous bills and letters. A number of things were tried - e. g. my
policy number - but I still stubbornly refused to feature on their
computer. Then she went away to chat to a colleague in the health
division, while I discovered that the original documents contained my
Fiscal Number and not my Identity Number. When she came back, I told
her this and she said I had to go to the company's office in town to
change the number on my policy. Otherwise I wouldn't have any cover. I didn't bother to ask why this couldn't be done on the
phone or via the internet. Life is like that here. Fortunately, I
could do this as I had the time. But what if I'd been at work
today and had had a heart attack at the office? "No. Sorry. This
card isn't valid. Come back when it is." Anyway, I went to the
office and things were changed in 10 minutes or so. And then I had 10
minutes of sales talk on house and car insurance policies. Which is
presumably why I had to go there. From a business point of
view, brilliant. From my point of view, bloody irritating.
Landing
on CNN News this morning, I discovered what I already knew but which
the British media has failed to note, viz. that Astra Zeneca is
essentially Swedish, not British. Later the day, I saw that the UK
Business Secretary, Vince Cable, had admitted that it "might be
tricky" for the British government to stop Pfizer taking over
Astra-Zeneca. By which he meant, of course, that they have no power
to do this as it's a Brussells competency. Funny they don't want to
admit this. And give UKIP a huge boost
Finally
. . . Annual alcohol intake in litres per year:
Bielorussia
- 17.5
Russia
- 15.4
Portugal
- 12.9
France
- 12.2
Germany
- 11.8
UK
- 11.6
Spain
- 11.2
EU
average - 10.9
Interestingly,
the Spanish figure comprises 50% beer, rather than wine.
No comments:
Post a Comment