Sometimes you hear statements that
are so obviously untrue, you wonder whether the people making them
just don't give a monkey's proverbial whether or not you believe
them. The latest of these comes from the Spanish Ministry of the
Interior in respect of an ad warning us to be on the lookout for
burglars. This showed the 3 Magi ('Kings') on camels and the ministry
was accused of racism. The answer was to deny that the Kings were
black and to insist that they were wearing the piece of apparel - the
balaclava - that's so associated with criminals. And, even more
preposterous, that criminals could disguise themselves as the 3
Magi prior to committing burglary. Click here to make up your own
mind. Actually, the last 3 examples of tosh like this I can recall were also associated with allegations of racism - the monkey chant offered
to England's black football players; the slurs made about a black
player by the then manager of the Spanish football team; and an
incident of banana-throwing at a black player. You can't help feeling
the perpetrators are laughing behind their hands.
Spain is not quite the relaxed place
it was when I came to live here 13 years ago. This is true most
obviously in the case of minor motoring offences. True, deaths on the
road have halved in that period and, if any of this has resulted from
tightening up on driving offences, then this can only be commended.
But you do wonder sometimes . . . For example, a driver who'd stopped
to help an injured motorcyclist in Valencia was fined for parking
illegally. And, when he ripped up the ticket, he was fined again,
for littering. Then, in my own case, there's the fine for wearing ear-pieces . . . .
To gain entrance to university,
Spanish students have to sit an exam called the Selectividad.
Their marks from this, as I understand it, are combined with those
from their baccalaureate to give a final score. This used to be out
of 10 and to two places of decimals but now appears to be out of 13
and to 3 decimal places. So, to do medicine at the university of
Valencia (2nd mention today) you need to achieve a mark of 12.546.
It's not so easy now to convert these marks into percentages (the
rest of the world?) as while 8/10 is 80%, 12.546/13 is 96.5%. For
medicine the range of required marks is quite narrow, ranging from
11.780 to 12.546. In contrast, for law the range is much wider - from
5.000 to 9.958. Quite how the numbers to 3 decimal points are worked
out beats me. Probably by a computer, I guess.
I've now had 3 estimates for the
repair of my roof - tile replacement essentially. These are €8,500,
€5,000 and €2,100. Do you think it's a coincidence that the last
one comes from the company which did my neighbours' roofs and which
knows that I know what they charged? And that the others are - in modern parlance - taking the piss?
Finally . . . Sorry that there was no
link yesterday to the profile of the murdered Spanish politician.
It's there now, if you want to scroll down.
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