I've heard it said more than once that Spain will
never really prosper under its own steam as long as only 10-20% of
the population work as hard as anyone else in the world, while the
rest are happy to be carried as passengers. I'm reminded of the time
the Dean of the Law Faculty of Santiago wrote to the Voz de
Galicia saying they could hardly be expected to pass more than
20% of the students if 80% of them failed to turn up for the exam.
And now comes this notice from a university teacher expressing anger
at the pathetic efforts of her students in a Physics exam. Given that
Spanish is a phonetic language, I'm struggling to understand her
complaint about spelling mistakes. Perhaps V and B.
It seems a lot more snakes are being caught or run
over in Vigo than ever before. Particularly the Culebra Bastarda. Or
the Malpolon Monspessulanus, as it's known in the rest of the world.
No one seems to know why its numbers are rising but fortunately,
though venomous, it's not fatal to humans. But it can give you a nasty shock if it raises its head in your toilet.
Especially if you're sitting on it, as one terrified young woman recently was.
David Cameron's (now lone) fight to stop Mr
Juncker becoming President of the EU Commission has again raised
and answered the question of who rules Europe. The answer, of course,
is Germany. Not Mrs Merkel this time but her junior coalition
partner, the SPD. She, it's said, is just as antipathetic towards Mr
Juncker as Mr Cameron, but has been unable to prevail in this case.
Mr Junker, of course, is the ex-president of Luxembourg, a country
which has defied all EU efforts to deal with money laundering and
secret bank accounts. Not much of a reformer, then. Just as Mr Cameron claims.
We had a couple of novelties in Pontevedra this
weekend:-
1. A new type of beggar. A chap in a military cap,
standing on a corner in front of a placard that said something like
Checa + España = Skoda.
2. A fiesta gastronomica of octopus. Which
I can take or leave.
Finally . . . There was a cartoon in the latest
Private Eye which was funny before the events of last week but
hilarious after them. It has the England team descending from their
plane on their arrival in Brazil, with the Captain shouting from the
cockpit: "Shall I keep the engines running?"
No comments:
Post a Comment