Dawn

Dawn

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Corruption; Multiple morning maither; & Positive news.

CORRUPTION: I've begun to read a book on this perennial theme. Entitled 'Fango'(Mud), its author is Spain's most prominent judge, Báltazar Garzón. More on this in due course but, meanwhile, here's Lenox of Business Over Tapas on one of the worst aspects of this scourge - the political pressure on judges:- "Judge Mercedes Alaya, the lady who was investigating the massive ERE fraud in Andalucía (before being put aside), has broken her silence on the issue in a speech delivered after winning the ‘Premio Jurista del Año 2015’. She said that she was ‘put under enormous pressure during her investigations’ and that the Junta de Andalucía ‘put all the obstacles they could think of’ against her. She also told listeners at the Complutense University in Madrid that ‘Politics has invaded Justice to ensure that Justice does not meddle in the affairs of Politics’".

MULIPLE MORNING MAITHER: It was another day of poor service yesterday:-
1. Picking up my digibox, I told the young woman I was very disppointed no one has told me when It'd brought it in that they couldn't repair Humax machines. The response was not an apology for wasting my time but an assertion that the box hadn't been bought in Spain and that a technician had been on holiday.
2. Picking up a pullover from a seamstress shop, I was told it was, literally, too moth-eaten for them to repair. No matter, I thought, I'll try another shop near my regular bar. Naturally, it'd been a victim of La Crisis.
3. Responding to an email prompt, the Apple shop in Vigo told me my laptop was ready and the cost was their minimum of 70 euros. Reformatting the hard disk must have taken them all of 5 minutes, plus more than 2 weeks before they got round to it. No one, of course, had warned me of the backlog. Assuming they're open today, now for another trip to Vigo.
4. Worst of all . . . Having got a recorded message from Telefónica that I had to return their equipment because I'd ended my contract a month or so ago, I took the modem into one of their shops. They told me they couldn't do anything because I didn't have the reference number. I told them they surely could, using contract and ID details. And, lo and behold, they could. When I asked them to tell me the exact date of the termination about 5 weeks ago, they told me it was the date of the return of the equipment. Which, somehow, Telefónica had neglected to tell me back then. It's tricks like this which makes them the most detested company in Spain. As if they care. Their de facto monopoly is protected by powerful friends. So no one does anything about it. Or even tries to.

NOTE: 'Maither': This may turn out to be a northern word. It means 'bother' and was much used by by mother - as in "Don't  maither me with that!" Possibly of Gaelic origin. See below.

POSITIVE NEWS: It was another gloriously sunny day here in Pontevedra yesterday. And the dawn I'm looking at is magnificent. Oh, and I will be enjoying a lunch of wild boar today. Hey ho. Life goes on.

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