Foreign
Correspondents' Views on Spain: Vanity
Fair asked several foreign
correspondents how they saw Spain. If you read Spanish, you can enjoy
their opinions here. Basically, the Spanish are too negative about
the worst aspects of the country. And too positive about the good
things. One nice question posed is why the Spanish think so badly of
their country as a whole, when their village and their region are the
best places in the world. Must be the other bastards.
Non-Employment
in Spain:
- El Mundo reveals there are 4,000 people whose jobs will go if the administration changes and the new one brings in its own partisan civil servants, etc. Nail-biting times, then, for the occupants, as they await the next round of elections in June. Or September.
- Would you believe that the story of the guy who got paid for 6-14 years without turning up for work was the lead article in The Guardian early this morning? Not great for Brand Spain, in its confirmation of 'Spanish practices'. Mind you, who cares if you only go there for your holidays?
Verdugo:
This means all the following in English:- an executioner;
a hangman; a tormentor; a balaclava (headgear); a
lash; a rapier; a (plant) shoot; and a shrike (bird).
So, I was left wondering what this fiesta would be all about, up in
the hills behind us. More so about what the 'Opportunities' would be
for:-
And
then I recalled that the river which flows through the town of
Pontecaldelas is called the Verdugo. And now I see it might once have
been called the Caldelas. Because of thermal springs nearby. Which
ain't there now.
The
EU: Its downfall
is now only a question of timing, says the writer of this polemic.
Adding that: No organisation
strong enough to push – and believe – nonsense can
stay healthy. Consequently the end to the EU is easy to predict. Long
term it stands no chance of surviving as anything but a memory of yet
another paternalist mega-project that did not fulfil its splendid
promises. However, history also proves that such systems, precisely
due to their immensely powerful network, have a tendency to limp
through. Right until they fall and everyone starts saying they saw it
coming. Well, I have for yonks.
And I have the evidence.
Argentineans: The Spanish are not fond of these, by and
large. Among several scurrilous things said about them here is that
everyone there is a psychologist. Including all the patients. Well,
this could soon be the case in at at least Galicia. The psychology
course at Pontevedra's UNED university is the most popular of 27
offered, with 76% of the students being female. As a result of the
demand, you probably need higher marks than you do for a medical
course to get in. Maybe that'll stop expansion of the course. Unless
they lower the qualifications so that idiots can qualify. And then analyse each other.
Finally . . . The Devil. The Pope has told Mexicans to shun him/her. Well, I certainly would if I'd ever had the pleasure of meeting the bugger. Does anyone have contact details?
Public
Service Announcement: Adblock is an app which
removes extraneous advertising from web-pages, including YouTube and
Facebook. It's already stopped more than 700 since I downloaded it
24 hours ago. It says.
Residents' Tax
Special: Modelo
720:
This, as you'll recall, is the tax submission demanded by the 2012
law obliging residents of Spain to give details of their assets
overseas - a development which was never publicised, even in
Spanish, beyond the statutory mention in the state Bulletin. Given
the humungous fines for late delivery, one's tempted to see this as
deliberate. Anyway, a friend of mine who didn't know about has discussed his overseas interest income at the local Tax Office in each of the
intervening years and was not once told about the obligation to
declare the capital. So, now he face fines of €1,500 for each of
the relevant 3 years. We agree that the failure of Hacienda personnel
to inform him is unlikely to butter any parsnips when he pleads this
in mitigation. Anyway, as I keep saying, if you're resident and don't
know about this astonishingly vicious law, you'd better contact someone
like Blevin Franks down on the Costa del Sol. I doubt you'd get much
satisfaction from a local asesor. Even less from a gestor. Though
they'd be much cheaper.
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