Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

A political murder; Case list; Spanglish; & Booze rates.


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.

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