Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, April 30, 2020

Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 30.4.20

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.   
- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*
Life in Spain in the Time of Something Like Cholera
  • The government's flexible, phased (but only possible) relaxation of the lockdown is usefully presented in this table:-

  • As to what will actually happen, no one really knows. 
  • Opines Nick Corbishley, of Wolf Street: If everything goes according to plan, which is far from likely given the complexity of the task and the volatility of the situation, the country will return to some semblance of normality by the end of June, says the government. 
  • Nick takes a - despairing - look at the overall situation here, stressing that the light at the end of the proverbial is hard to discern right now.
  • Here and here The Olive Press and The Local, respectively, take a first look at the development and its possible implications for our social life.
  • For me, the questions of immediate importance are: Come Saturday - will I be able to drive down to town and then walk more than 200m to pick up a take-away order or to sit on a terrace? And, if so, will my sister be able to come with me in my car? Or will I be fined by our zealous police, if I attempt any of this?
  • Other Brits resident here have much bigger problems, of course - such as those with a business in the South. And those in the tourism industry, one of whom has described the relaxation plan as a 'lifebuoy filled with concrete'.
  • As for the political backcloth, the situation is possibly as tribal/polarised as in the USA, with only  0.5% of 'far-right' Vox voters and 9.5% of 'centre-right' PP voters saying they trust the government to manage the situation effectively. More on this here.
  • If, despite everything, you're continuing with a pre-crisis plan to buy property off-plan in Spain, here's Mark Stücklin with advice on your legal position.
  • And here's María's Chronicle, Day 46, down at the coal face.
Real Life in Spain
  • Dolphins are having a whale of a time down near Valencia.
  • It's said that summer holidays this year - if taken at all - will be more local than usual. This won't bother most Pontevedrans, as they only travel c.15km to spend a month or two in Sanxenxo, 'The Marbella of Galicia'. 
Europe
The UK
  • Ignoring The Guardian  . . . The belated inclusion of care home deaths in the total has taken the UK above France to the 4th position, after Italy. For which the government doesn't yet seem to be paying the price.
  • An interesting portrayal of the UK, drawing parallels with Spain:-


Germany
  • Have they been lucky as well as efficient?  
  • Does this saga - complete with design fiascos and multiple opening postponements leading to 'national embarrassment' knock a bit of a hole in the country's enviable reputation for efficiency?
Italy
The USA
  • Dr Fauci and other experts are being 'disappeared', it seems. In favour of lackeys who'll trumpet Fart's (alleged) economic successes. As ever, not a huge surprise. Once you've accepted the reality of an utter shyster being the president.
China
  • Is  boosting its global propaganda, says Politico here. Calling on all that self-interested economic aid it's given around the world over the last decade or two.
English 
  • Word of the Day: To disappear: A new transitive version of a previously only intransitive verb, brought to us from the USA, I guess.
Finally . .
  • An odd fact . . . The UK's oldest man and and the oldest woman were born, not just on the same date, but on the same day -  29 March, 1908.

 *A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

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