Dawn

Dawn

Friday, April 15, 2016

Ponters Pensées 15.4.16

The Siesta Meme: It takes an article from the Harvard Business Review to debunk this worldwide myth. See here.

The Mad World of Spanish Energy Policy: It's reported that Elsewhere in the world, private use of alternative forms of energy grew more than 100 times than they did here. Where the last government reversed its policy, withdrew subsidies and then started penalising users of the sun, for example. In fact, most self-consumption installations in Spain have are now illegal. One wonders why. Could it really be to protect the interests of Iberdrola and other large energy companies. I guess it could.

A Warning: Some readers here in Spain will need to know about this. The first line of the report comes as a surprise - to me at least.

Which reminds me . . .

A Common Spanish Word: Not many Spaniards know this but the noun follador really means 'The person who works the bellows'. It comes from the word – fuelle - for 'bellows'. These days it usually means 'Someone engaged in the sexual act', or something shorter to that effect. Deriving, I guess, from the action of the bellows. Anyway, would you believe that there's a Prosecco wine called Follador. See here for proof of this. Apparently, it's usually quite enjoyable and sometimes very enjoyable indeed.

Spanish Non-Taxpayers: A wry comment from Lenox of Business Over Tapas: The Tax Office (Hacienda) has issued a fine against the ex-president of Spain, José María Aznar, for fiddling his taxes. The headline from OKDiario says: The Minister for the Hacienda, sets a fine of €70,403 for Aznar and makes him pay a further €199,052 for tax irregularities. The news inexplicably failed to make the Telediario on Spanish national television. Funny – when a similar item regarding a senior Podemos politician occurred a few months ago, it led the TV national news.

Spanish Solidarity: God knows the UK hasn't done much to help refugees enter Britain but the EU is furious with Madrid for not letting a single refugee into Spain since the start of the year. Despite promising in March to allow in 467 by the end of the month. As I may have said, this is a tad ironic given the normally charitable attitude of the Spanish towards the poor and disadvantaged. Perhaps it reflects the absence of a functioning government. Meaning promises are even more worthlittle than usual.

Russia's RT TV Channel: I watched open-jawed yesterday morning when a perennially-strident female 'reporter' interviewed the astonishingly calm Uffe Ellemann Jensen. Given that he demolished every one her Moscow lines and dismissed her usual anti-West comments as erroneous and misplaced if Russia really wanted global cooperation, it was amazing that RT allowed it to be aired. Needless to say, in desperation, she eventually turned to attacking Turkey and the West's attitude towards this country. But the brilliant Dane calmly assured her she was again wide of the mark, as the West did not like or support the way Turkey was going. And pointed out that the problems Russia has with Ankara were of their own making. “You asked for them”, he succinctly stressed. Wonderful performance. Incidentally, whenever she is disagreed with, this reporter spits “With respect” and then insults the interviewee. As she did this time, of course. But I wonder if we'll ever see her again.

Finally . . . My Galician Garden: Certain things – such as the jasmine – have been out for weeks. So, how come my daffodils have yet to emerge, when my mother's in NW England have been out for at least 2 weeks? A less hardy breed? Anyway, I was going to post a foto of my plum cherry tree in pink flower but a storm about 10 days ago did for these on they day after it started to bloom.

Another good cartoon . . . 




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