Thoughts from Galicia, Spain: 15.4.19

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable. 

                              Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain

Spain

• There's a report in today's British newspapers about a gang trafficking 29 Vietnamese folk down in Devon. But this is nowhere near the scale of this tale of shocking and disgusting exploitation and abuse down in south Spain. Which the police are alleged to ignore, for one reason and another. Shameful. I think I'll eat even fewer strawberries now.
• If you choose to do a camino through Portugal and Galicia in April, you need to know that the locals refer to it as the month of a thousand waters. For very good reasons. Especially this week. And last week, come to think of it.
• I see that La Coruña is to host a comedy festival. I wonder if this will feature a lot of the Galician humour known as retranca. Described/defined as: Sin lugar a dudas una de las manifestaciones más populares del humor gallego y su característica principal es el modo irónico que tiene para tratar las críticas a diario de los asuntos populares que afectan la vida de los ciudadanos. A close relation of British humour, perhaps. Which wouldn't surprise the Gallegos as they not only believe they're Celts but also that they were the original settlers in both Ireland and Britain.
• The latest manifesto of beggary in Pontevedra . . . a slim, well, dressed woman - possibly a drug addict - asking for money for her bus fare to the next town. Not the first time I've heard this spiel but it usually comes from obvious reprobates. I told her I didn't speak Spanish, so she repeated it in English. Which I claimed not to understand either. I suspect she goes from town to town doing this, as repeating it every day to the same people would surely raise suspicions.
• The Local's list of cancelled Easter flights . . .

The UK and Brexit

• Richard North today: Probably our biggest mistake in approaching the referendum was in failing to realise the extent to which our system of government had deteriorated. Thus, we had not appreciated that it would not be capable of meeting the challenge of managing the Brexit process. The failure, in part – but only in part – came about because of the profound ignorance of most of our politicians and their media fellow-travellers, who have neither the knowledge needed to forge a workable Brexit settlement nor, it seems, the capability to learn.  . .  It would have required a huge leap of faith to have believed that almost the entire collective would have difficulty in coming to terms with as basic a concept as a customs union.  . . . It comes as a shock to find that, nearly 3 years into the Brexit process, the "debate" between the two main parties – such that it is – is dominated by something so basic as whether, on leaving, we should agree a customs union with the EU, with the two sides arguing about the effect this might have on our ability to conduct an independent trade policy. 

Europe

• It’s not only in the UK and Spain that major projects go awry. In allegedly efficient Germany, the failure du jour is the new Berlin airport, the saga of which would take some beating. And the national railways aren’t well run either. Unlike municipal transport systems. As for said airport: Originally planned to open in October 2011, the airport has encountered a series of delays and cost overruns. These were due to poor construction planning, execution, management, and corruption. Autumn 2020 became the new target for the official opening date as 2019 became too improbable. A new report published in November 2017 suggested that the opening could even be delayed until 2021. So, at least 10 years late. Not quite up/down to AVE high-speed train standards but pretty bad.

The USA

• At least one psychiatrist believes Fart’s speech now shows classic signs of dementia. Click here for more on this. Worrying to know this is the most powerful man in the world, with access to nuclear codes. All previous presidents are said to have mislaid these from time to time. Lets’s hope he’s done this too - only permanently.

Finally . . .

• My garden rats have refused to enter traps or to eat the bait laid down. I've read they adore peanut butter -  called 'cream of peanuts' here - and have bought some to smear on the bait sachets. I'll get the bastards somehow!