A
few illustrations to back up my comments yesterday about the cesspool
of corruption, nepotism and croneyism on which modern Spain so
handsomely floats:
1.
The replacement judge - the first one was fired for excessive zeal -
has pronounced that none of the 12 rail and rail-track executives
implicated in the accident which killed 80 people last year should
stand trial for anything. Only the hapless driver, a useful
scapegoat. Perhaps there'll be a civil case for negligence. And
perhaps there won't. The Victims' Association, desperate for justice,
says there will be.
2.
Not for the first time, Spain's central intelligence agency, the CNI,
has been shown to be a hotbed of nepotism. 75% of the positions have
been given to applicants related to incumbents. I suspect this is
connected with the Spanish belief that the only people you can really
trust are your relatives. Which may, of course, be right. Except for
the black sheep.
3.
Just in - The mayoress of a town in Andalucia stands accused of
favouring companies belonging to her husband and her relative to the
tune of many millions. Then there's the 470 examples of nepotism in
her administration. Showing that corruption is an equal opportunities
employer, she's a member of the United Left party. Presumably all this
was an open secret before anything was done about it, as she was in
power from 1999. But, then, it is Andalucia. Anyway, the lady has
resigned - "To spend more time with my family" - boasting
"I'm leaving with the feeling of satisfaction of having done my
job and done it well." Well, that's now for a judge to
determine. And not before time. But I'm guessing she won't go to jail. Doubtless she knows where other bodies lie.
To
more everyday matters . . . For my 2 recent trips to Portugal. I
again had to wrestle with their crazy tolls system. In an article in El
País today, this was described as
farragoso de mínimo.
Or 'cumbersome/convoluted/involved/dense, to say the least'. On
both occasions, I neglected to pay the silly tolls of 20c, 30c or
even 50c which are 'collected' via cameras on overhead gantries. I
reckon I must owe 20 or 30 euros by now. This is only a tiny fraction of
the huge amounts owed by Spanish transport companies, it seems. A
total of €11m in all. But now the Portuguese government is using a
Spanish law firm to track down the offending drivers and I may just
get a letter soon. I hasten to add that I pay the much larger tolls
on the motorways from the border down to the south of the country.
You might think this is because you can't avoid them. But, in fact,
you can as Portugal's Via Verde
lane doesn't have a barrier. According to the writer of the El
País article, an awful lot of
picaresco
Spaniards go straight through this gap. Maybe not for much longer.
Finally
. . . You'll all recall the road in town which has had its (single)
direction changed so many times the 2 roundabouts at each each have
become semi-functional. At one end, the temporary yellow barriers
were last week replaced by 3 of the town's ubiquitous (€450 each)
stainless steel poles. The very next day, one understandably disorientated driver tried to drive - in the right direction - between 2 of the poles and got stuck. Anyway, here they are from
upstream.
And
here they are downstream. Note that the temporary yellow barriers
have returned. In front of the 3 poles. Planning? What planning?
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