Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Thoughts from Galicia, Spain: 7.2.18

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
- Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain. 

If you've arrived here because of an interest in Galicia or Pontevedra, see my web page here.

Spain
  • There's going to be cheaper high-speed train for the Madrid-Barcelona stretch, aimed at younger travellers who normally go by bus. I don't understand why money needed to be spent on this. Surely they could just get the existing train to slow down and take longer.
  • Spain doubled paternity leave a year or so ago, which has led to a doubling in number of dads taking it. Spain could well be ahead of the game on this. Does anyone get it in the USA?
  • With very good reason, the in-power PP party is running scared of the upstart centre-party, Ciudadanos. So, it's not surprising that the PP's regional 'barons' are calling for changes in Madrid. Just possibly a change in leader.
  • Pescanova is/was an international fish company, based in nearby Vigo. It went bust a couple of years ago and now 17 of its officers are being investigated/prosecuted – I'm never clear which in Spain – for various fraudulent practices which enriched them and bankrupted the company. The president, it's said, could get 30 years. I'd be surprised if he gets 30 months. And if we know the outcome of the investigation-cum-trial in under 5 years. Ten even.
  • On a lighter – if surprising – note . . . Here's The Local's 7 reasons why you might want to stay in a hostel in Spain. Not terribly convincing, to me at least.
The EU
  • Negotiating the Brexit with Brussels would have been a huge challenge for an exceptionally competent and unified British government. As it is . . .
The USA
  • The Iraq war resulted in catastrophic losses for the region and the United States-led coalition, and destabilized the entire Middle East. This should not be forgotten, since the Trump administration is using much the same playbook to create a false impression that war is the only way to address the threats posed by Iran.  See a relevant interview here. Worrying. If not terrifying.
  • More on the island of Tangier. Or nice fotos, anyway.
The UK
  • Here's an interesting thing. Examination of a 10,000 year old skeleton reveals that the earliest Britons were black-skinned, with dark curly hair and possibly blue eyes. So . . . Contrary to popular belief, the founding generations of Britons owed more in appearance to Palaeolithic Africans, from whom all humans descend. Which means, say scientists, that commonly understood racial categories are historically only “recent constructions”.  It's claimed there were about 12,000 humans in Britain 10 millennia ago and that their DNA now comprises roughly 10% of the genetic make-up of most white people currently living in the UK.
  • One Tory MP has said she'll quit the party if Jacob Rees-Mogg becomes leader. I'm prepared to go even further. If either Johnson or Rees-Mogg become head of the Conservative party and  so an actual or potential prime minister, this will give me just the shove I need to take out either Spanish or Irish nationality.
  • Meanwhile, Mrs May and her incompetent and divided government are providing irrefutable proof of the maxim that, while you can't please all the people all the time, you certainly can displease all the people all the time.
  • Corruption is not, of course, confined to Spain. Whistle blowers have revealed numerous cases of staff in the Royal Bank of Scotland forging customer signatures, for one reason or another. Heads should roll. And they might.
Nutters Corner
  • Former Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann said last month that she’d run for a  Senate seat in Minnesota as soon as God gave her the sign.  God has finally responded. With silence. Explaining her decision not to run, Mrs B said: I went before the Lord and it became very clear to me that I wasn’t hearing any call from God to do this. Well, that's one explanation.
  • Rocket man, to little surprise I guess, again failed to get off the ground this week. See his excuse here.
Galicia/Pontevedra
  • Today I got by email the full program for Pontevedra's Lenten Carnaval/ Entroido. No concessions to Spanish; everything is in Gallego. It's the way of things. As least for so long as we have a Galician nationalist mayor.
Finally
  • In a new experience, I yesterday had an email to my insurance company rejected, thrice. On the grounds that their In Box was full. I eventually got it through by removing the attached scan of a relevant bill.
Today's Cartoon

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