More comments have come
in about about Spain and Galicia in the first half of the 20th
century. Eamon has told me that, when he first arrived in La Coruña,
there were knife sharpeners(afiladores) in the streets during the day
and watchmen(serenos) patrolling them during the night. And my friend
Ian has advised that, in the towns and villages he visited in the
late 50s, drinking water was only available from a pump in the main
square. And that there was a guardia civil on every corner.
Reader Maria has
commented on the aspects of poverty at the time of her grandmother
here in Galicia. Going further back still – to the late 1830s –
here's what George Borrow had to say about Galicia, when he first
entered it, on horseback: The villages were mostly an assemblage
of wretched cabins; the roofs were thatched, dank, and moist, and not
infrequently covered with rank vegetation. There were dunghills
before the doors, and no lack of pools and puddles. Immense swine
were stalking about, intermingled with naked children. The interior
of the cabins corresponded with their external appearance: they were
filled with filth and misery.
When you look at
today's Spain and marvel at such things as its ultra-modern road and
high-speed rail network, you can be forgiven for forgetting that,
back in the 60s, Spain was officially part of the Developing World.
No wonder Spaniards love the EU, the source of massive largesse. Only
relatively recently did Poland take over as the biggest beneficiary
of this. Which is ironic as - in contrast to Spain - Poland is not
showing much gratitude. In fact, it's threatening to replace the UK
as the bad boy on the EU block. See the article at the end of this
post on this.
By the way . . .There
was the occasional knife sharpener on the streets of my street when I
was a kid.
Back to modern Spain .
. . Here, from The Local, is a list of the 'strange' things
Spanish parents do with their kids:
And here's a scarcely
believable account of a suit taken out by a teenager against his
mother, for taking his mobile phone off him. He accused her of
maltreatment.
Here's The Local's
list of the Top Ten paradors in Spain. I featured No. 1 here a few
months ago, of course.
As for the Spanish
economy, here's something that reflects the macro-micro void I keep
banging on about.
I read conflicting
reports about the Spanish construction industry. Generally speaking,
it's still in the doldrums. Pontevedra, for example, has only 10% of
the number of active architects it had back in the boom. (As if we
care). But, in Madrid, huge investment is going into office premises.
Which Spain thinks is a major positive factor in her favour in the
current Continental war to get bits of the London financial business
post Brexit.
On the latter, Don
Quijones reports that Frankfurt is the way-ahead favourite to bag the
biz. See here on this.
Over in the USA, Trump's healthcare reforms - which will hit the poor - have been held up by Republican extremists who don't think it goes far enough. They insist the law must more accurately reflect the 'character' of the nation. Jeez. Some more people who deserve to be shot.
Finally . . . El
País tells us that almost two people are processed every day for
political corruption here in Spain. One wonders when – or, indeed,
if – the Spanish public will eventually rebel against this in any
serious way. Not while it continues to put the PP in power, of
course. Which they might well have another chance to do quite soon.
The government has had a couple of reverses in parliament and
President Rajoy is threatening to go for a new and larger mandate.
This doesn't concern me, of course. I might pay taxes but I have no
vote. Revolutions have been incited by less.
Today's cartoon:-
Poles threaten to spoil EU’s birthday party
European leaders
heading for Rome this weekend to shrug off Brexit gloom and celebrate
the EU’s 60th birthday are ruining the party mood with bickering
and finger pointing.
Heads of government
minus Theresa May, will gather at the Campidoglio palace tomorrow to
commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957.
Smiles may seem forced,
however, amid threats from Poland and Greece not to sign a joint
declaration on the EU’s future. Beata Szydlo, the Polish prime
minister, is upset by a reference to a multispeed Europe in the
document. Brussels officials see it as giving members greater leeway
as they integrate their economies, but Poland fears it will be left
behind in a second division.
“It’s an incentive
to create sub-groups, to exclude, to abandon joint decisions,” Ms
Szydlo said.
Greece says it will
sign the declaration only if it mentions protecting jobs — an issue
seen as important because of demands from international lenders to
make lay-offs easier. One diplomat warned that Greece would not get
far by sabotaging the declaration. “We won’t be blackmailed by
one member state which is linking one EU issue with a totally
different one,” he said.
Southern states are
already on a war footing after Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch
eurogroup chief, accused them of wasting money on “drinks and
women”. Luigi Di Maio, the probable prime ministerial candidate for
the Italian Five Star Movement, which is leading the polls, said
yesterday: “The euro made us poorer and we are now being humiliated
too.”
Tensions will run high
outside the signing ceremony tomorrow as police patrol a barricaded
city centre and Predator drones fly overhead.
Riot police will be on
hand as 30,000 demonstrators criss-cross Rome in numerous marches,
including potentially violent hard-left and hard-right anti-EU
protesters, and pro-Brussels marchers.
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