Thoughts from Galicia, Spain: 8.4.18

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

• A clue to why corrupt Spanish politicians stay in power – many very much more dishonest than Sra Cifuentes – has been provided by one of the country's Vice-Presidents. At the start of the PP party's annual convention, she has roundly declared: We must look after our own.
• And then there's this comment from a Spanish journalist yesterday: Sra Cifuentes might have recognised that she's lost the credibility battle but she knows that in Spain (s)he who resists wins.
• The irony of her travails is that she was heralded as the first of the new guard of 'clean' PP politicians. Always a tall order.

Life in Spain

• It's not unknown for me to feel some aspect of Spanish life is years – nay, decades – beyond the same thing elsewhere. As a case in point, I was astonished to read here yesterday this comment about a new fashion for brunch: This late breakfast/early lunch invention, the product of a New York City trend, is in Spain to stay. I mean . . . I recall first having something designated a brunch in California 30 YEARS AGO!

The USA

• I mentioned the other day that Amazon was not above criticism. Right on cue comes a chap called Thomas Frank, who says, under the headline Trump's enemy is not your friend: Why we shouldn't defend Amazon that:-

- What we are being offered is a choice between the worst president of our lifetimes and one of the most rapacious corporate enterprises in the country. And, eagerly, we are lining up with one or the other.

- This is a vivid reminder of why modern liberalism keeps generating – and losing to – unbelievably awful antagonists such as Trump.

- This seems to me an almost perfect representation of the wretched choices available to Americans these days, as well as the megadoses of self-deception we are swallowing in order to make them. It is everything that is wrong with our politics, and it extends from the most sweeping matters of state right down to the individual reader.

• Incidentally, Frank labels Fart the 'comb-over caudillo'. Which should appeal here in Spain.

The UK

• The media would have us believe there is an unprecedented crime wave sweeping London, making it even more knife-ridden and dangerous than New York. All because of fewer police, says the opposition parties. Here's a comment on that: Comparing murder rates for periods of less than a year is dumb. On a more sensible annual basis, 290 New Yorkers were murdered last year, more than double the 116 Londoners. America’s “intentional killing” rate is 4.8 per 100,000 inhabitants, Britain’s is 0.9. Even within Europe, Britain is far better than eastern Europe, and better than France, Sweden and even peaceable Denmark. It is marginally worse than Germany, Italy and Spain. As for London, its murder rate had been steadily falling since the 1990s. It rose in the 2000s, fell during the recession, and is still a quarter lower than it was just a decade ago. It is not “in crisis”.

Social Media

• Here's an article which everyone should read. And probably act upon.

Galicia/Pontevedra

• It's said that Galicia is full of Celtic superstitions. I don't know if that's true but the local papers do report a number of bizarre annual 'Christian' festivals which might just have Celtic origins. Here's one: Walking under the tiny statue of some saint or other. Possibly connected with fertility:-

And here's another, from the same week. Throwing stones over the roof of a church:-

I find it hard to believe the Vatican approves of this sort of thing.

Finally

1. Blogger tells me that average readership of this blog is around 500 a day. I've no idea if this is true or not but I do know it used to be around 1,500 before I blocked all the Russian bots that were hitting it for a second or two. God knows why. I mention this because on Friday the total was just 3 short of 3,500. Again, I have no idea why, but wonder if it's because the text included the word prostitute. If so, then the numbers for today should be equally unusual. Vamos a ver.
2. A friend tells me that it would have been more PC for me to say sex-worker. I'm happy to confess to this solecism, as it allows me to get the word 'sex' into the text. Twice.
3. This glass of wine cost approximately €60. Tune in tomorrow for an explanation.

© David Colin Davies, Pontevedra: 8.4.18