Having visited the wonderful Museum of Human
Evolution in Burgos today, I joined my colleagues in the Centro
Gallego. "Do you speak Galician", I asked the waitress,
in Gallego. "Sorry", she said. "I don't understand
you. I'm Romanian."
The outgoing President of the EU Commission has
said it's quite untrue that the EU was responsible for the
catastrophic bubble in Spain between 2002 and 2007. It wasn't the
result of an ill-planned introduction of the EU, he insisted. Nor did it stem from
inappropriately low interest rates. Or walls of cheap money from elsewhere
in the EU. No, it was all down to the failure of Spain's Central Bank
to take measures to deal with these. The bank, he ironised, saw itself as the
best in the world and repeatedly rejected the EU's claims that
something might just be wrong. So, it was Spanish pride which came
before the Spanish fall. Yes, well. Maybe.
A member of the Guardia Civil was recently suspended and
prosecuted for not just doing nothing about the sexual harassment of
a woman by his friend but also filming it on his camera. He was
jailed for six months but quickly given a pardon and a fine. His
father is a city councillor in Asturias and a member of the ruling PP
party. But this is probably just a coincidence.
Which reminds me . . . There are a staggering
20,000 afueros in Spain - people who are in some way protected
from prosecution. Most of these are said to be in the judiciary but
2,000 are politicians. I'm aware that folk like Mitterand, Berlusconi
and Sarkozy had legal immunity during office but does any other
country in the world offer such comprehensive protection to a class
which is nowhere to be trusted? If not, why?
Finally. . . Interesting to see that the 'grocers'
apostrophe' has made its way to Spain - as in Cantina's and
Menu's. I'm moving towards the school that the apostrophe
should be completely abandoned. Chaucer didn't use any and got by
nicely. Though you couldn't write I'm back then.
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