Dawn

Dawn

Saturday, July 05, 2014

Testimonies;Repression; Soccer; TV abuses; & The house market.


Testimony 1: In the judicial investigation for corruption of the king's sister and her husband, their accountant has come out of the long grass and provided evidence of their guilt. Or at least of his. The new evidence didn't mention her at all but confirms her husband and his business partner "led the group as its bosses, having absolute control and decision-making power over it". One wonders if this is the last card of the establishment in its attempt to stop the princess going forward to trial.

Testimony 2: In the trial for corruption of the ex-President of one of Galicia's 4 provinces, all his ex-mayors have lined up to say what a good chap he was and how only they were reponsible for decisions to employ over a hundred of his relatives. A good example as we're likely to get of the contempt in which Spain's politicians hold the judiciary and the public.

There are 265 people in Spain facing prison sentences for organising strikes across Spain against austerity-driven wage cuts, tax hikes, unemployment and a general worsening of working conditions. Again, one is forced to question the direction of travel of the country's right-of-centre party.

There's an American woman called Ann Coulter (no, me neither) who doesn't like football("soccer") and she's tabulated her distaste here. Fair enough, but I'm bored by the American version of rounders but don't go on about it. Nor do I laugh (well, not much) at the concept of the ice-hockey "World" series, involving just the USA and Canada. Anyway, her diatribe has garnered a number of ripostes, of which this is a good one. Incidentally, how many folk know that 'soccer' derives from the word 'association'', as in 'association football'?

As I've said Spanish commercial TV companies bow to no one in their ability to foist ads on the viewers even during the programs. The latest trick I'm told, is to shrink the main screen so that it can be joined by a second screen displaying an ad. Is there no limit to what Spanish viewers will put up with? Or, after years of these abuses, do they not even notice? As with their politicos.

Finally . . . They say the Spanish house market is picking up in the south of Spain. Well, maybe but here it doesn't seem to be. Most of the new houses around me remain empty. And some of them are on sale by those who bought at the height of the boom and probably now have considerable negative equity. Here's one seller who decided to go to inordinate lengths to catch the eye of passing drivers:-



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