Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Sp. Weather; Cataluña; Sam Johnson; Nationalism; Sp.'s Brains; & Sp. Justice.

The Spanish Weather: It's a glorious day in Galicia, I see. The weather map for the country is rather unusual - sun for the entire North West but rain and even storms for the South East. Long may this continue.

Cataluña: What an almighty mess. The regional elections on Sunday provided something for everyone except the (declining) Podemos party. The leading secessionist party could claim their coalition gained more seats, though not that they garnered most votes. The relatively new - and allegedly anarchist and anti-capitalist CUP ('coop') - gained seats and became the country's kingmaker. But the biggest winner was the right-of-centre, anti-secession party Ciutadans. No one, of course, knows what'll happen next. Especially as President Mas's bizarre rag-bag coalition has only one things in common - a desire to get out from under the Spanish yoke and place Cataluña under the Brussels undemocratic variety. I guess it makes sense to some but it's totally beyond me. There's even a suggestion that Mas's CUP partners will prevent him staying on as president. Meaning new elections. But at least the commentariat has enough to chew on for eternity. Or at least until the general elections in December. !Que va!

Johnson on Donne: The Catalan 'rainbow' coalition rather reminds me of one of the few quotations I can recall relatively accurately - Samuel Johnson's dismissal of John Donne's Sonnets as A host of the most heterogeneous ideas by violence yoked together. Now, that was telling him! Strange to get yoke and yoked together in one post. If you noticed . . .

Nationalism: The thing about this - it occurred to me this morning - is that it's easy to see where it begins but impossible to see where it ends. A war between The Cornish National Front (which really exists) and The Devon Nationalist Front (which doesn't. Yet.)?? It's rather like rights for animals and helping the distressed of the world. If you're going to help poor Syrians what is your argument against helping even poorer Africans? Assuming shades of brown are not relevant to you.

Spain's Brain Drain: If you can access it, BloombergView has an article on this huge threat to future economic growth.

Finally . . . Spanish Justice: I see the Galician couple accused of killing their adopted child 2 years ago are still being tried - and convicted - in the local and national media. Perhaps one day they'll actually get their day in court. Meanwhile, we seem to be privy to their every word and even to their every thought. Not very edifying.

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