Spanish Names: Spain
might not be a very religious country these days but traditional
names remain popular. But they're being slowly ousted by more modern
monickers, such as Neymar and Iker. Football stars, in case you're
not familiar with them. Click here for more on this.
Generous Spaniards:
Almost 100% of Spaniards support the taking in of refugees from the
Middle Eastern war zones and nearly 20% say they'd put them up
in their homes. Hmm. See here for details of an Amnesty International
survey. The UK also does very well.
Lucky Brits?: There may
be as much as €2.64 billion available for these. This is the amount
of money paid as deposits to builders who failed to deliver the
contracted properties. This optimism stems from a “ground-breaking”
(surprising?) court judgment in favour of those cheated. Details
here. Personally, I wouldn't be too confident of seeing a single
centimo. For at least another 5 years. And quite possibly ever.
Spanish Corruption: The
domestic media regularly tells us that corruption is endemic here and
that this is the most corrupt society among the original 15 members
of the EU. And the New York Times has averred that Spain's system of
government one of the most corrupt in Europe. So, how come one could
live all one's life here and never witness it, even when buying or
selling property these days? Well, the clue lies in the phrase
'system of government'. It's the politicians and bureaucrats who've
acted for centuries as if they had a god-given right to
plunder the national, regional and municipal coffers. So much so that
it's virtually impossible to believe a single one of them is honest.
Or poor. A related aspect is the scandalous lack of protection - to
say the very least – for whistleblowers here. Quotes: 1. Spain is
among a handful of European nations without legislation for
whistle-blowers. 2. Spain has not followed up on
OECD recommendations on this issue. 3. This lack of
legislation, many here believe, has contributed to a culture of
impunity. Spain is different, as they say. Will things change soon? I
rather doubt it, despite public anger. The very corrupt PP party is
most likely to be back in power quite soon. Your tribe is more
corrupt than my tribe is the national motif.
The Internet:
- Here's how to turn off at least some of Facebook's irritating 'helpful' initiatives.
- For searching, I use Duckduckgo, as it doesn't track me for advertising purposes. However, this company – unlike Google – doesn't stop the numerous useless citations such as these that dominated the initial pages of a search I made this morning for who is pjs injunction. . . . . . .houseinteriordecors.science/new-update/who-is-pjs-injunction . . . . . .http://carupdate.work/auto/who-is-pjs-celebrity-injunction
Finally . . . . Are you
Heaven or Hell bound? Here's one FB app which you might want to have
fun with. But probably not.
Here are 3 fotos I took yesterday in one of the few streets in Ponteveda's old quarter where one can see dereliction. These 2 houses are side by side and represent terrific opportunities for reform, if you've got the dosh.
And this is a house in the same street which has recently been restored to itrs original glory:-
The foto doesn't really do justice to the mellow-yellow colour of the granite when the sun is on it. Thankfully, the doors and windows are of wood and not of that ubiquitous bloody plastic stuff with which tasteless folk ruin their renovations. Being very, very old, the place has its own family escudo(shield) on the facade. Two, in fact.
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