Dawn

Dawn

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Thoughts from Galicia: 11.3.17

Someone's leaked a confidential Spanish government analysis of the impact of a Brexit on Spain. See here and here. One gets the impression Spain won't be as revanchist as, say, France

Spain has 2 possessions in North Africa which are very definitely not colonies or even ex-colonies. So totally different from Gibraltar. They're often referred to as 'enclaves' but last week I saw them termed 'exclaves'. I don't know the difference*. I only know they're absolutely not analogous to Gibraltar.

I called Amazon Spain about their inertia-sold Premier service and asked if they'd sent me a confirmation email back in November, as happens in the UK. Ignoring this, the chap at the other end immediately told me the payment had been automatic – as if I didn't know – and I could have 15 of the €20 back. Unbeknown to me, I'd used the service a few times, he claimed. Such was the speed of this response, I concluded I'm not alone in seeking repayment.

I can think of a number of crimes which should be punished by unlimited fines but selling an Adele concert ticket for 25,000 quid to someone rich and stupid enough to pay this isn't one of them. Apparently, in the UK being a ticket tout is now considered to be worse than being a hit-and-run driver. What a comment on our times.

Another telling sign of the UK times is that the government there feels it necessary to pay huge bribes to young people to lure them into a profession – teaching – which has changed out of all recognition – for the worse, of course – over the last 30 years. See here and here for details of the money and other goodies available. A large percentage of teachers leave within 5 years of starting. I wonder if you get to keep the cash if you do.

Talking of madness . . . I'd never heard of hygge until this week. Just in time to read that it's been superseded by lagom. Or perhaps wabi-sabi. Here's something on these you will enjoy: Have you heard of wabi-sabi yet? No, it’s not a character from the next Star Wars film or that sachet of spicy snot that’s served with sushi. Let me, perhaps quite literally, enlighten you. Wabi-sabi is the latest piece of tenuous New Age guff being flogged to gullible folk . Wabi-sabi is just the tip of the arseberg. It’s the latest in a long line of repackaged philosophies being peddled as the antidote to all our 21st century ills. Wabi-sabi, hygge, lagom, Kondo-ing… All half-baked bilge which has inspired far too many bandwagon-leaping articles and been turned into full-on fads by neophile book publishers. These codswallop credos should be filed alongside windchimes, dreamcatchers, detoxing, reiki, superfood, bone broth, life-coaching, clean-eating and Facebook-posting motivational quotes super-imposed on a sunset. Hygge is bullshytte, lagom is a load of Swedish meatballs, Kondo is hollow and wabi-sabi is crappy. So now you know. 

And still on madness . . .

US Nutters' Corner:-
Tele-evangelist Jim Bakker: Thinking people know a Hillary Clinton victory would have unleashed God’s wrath on the American people.
Tele-evangelist CindyJacobs: Buy the Prosperity Bible and get rich! The wealth and the riches that we’re able to obtain is going to make the Jews jealous and that’s going to bring a great harvest of Jews for conversion
Charismatic preacher Lou Engle: Everyone – especially women should take part in a 3 day “Esther fast” to put a stop to all the evil hexes put buy witches on Donald Trump.
Religious Right activist Dave Daubenmire: Evolution is a hoax because only God could make a skunk’s farts stink

Finally . . . I'm not sure I can believe this report, about a priest in that amusingly-named nearby Galician town.

Today's cartoon:-



*To save you the trouble, I've looked them up:-

Enclave: 1. A country, or especially, an outlying portion of a country, entirely or mostly surrounded by the territory of another country. 2. Any small, distinct area or group enclosed or isolated within a larger one. e. g. China town.

Exclave: A portion of a country geographically separated from the main part by surrounding alien territory:

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