Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 14.12.20

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'*  

Covid

National death rates, though still very small in percentage terms, are rising rapidly. Nowhere more so than in the post-Thanksgiving USA. It doesn't bode well for January and February. Since October, Italy has suffered the worst move in the rankings, returning to 3rd, after achieving 11th. France and the UK have also moved significantly in the wrong direction. In contrast, Sweden has gone from 5th in July to 15th now. 

The USA(910/m) is now 6th but, at the current rate of 3k deaths a day, will shortly pass both the UK(933) and maybe even Spain(1018)   

Articles here and here on Italy and Germany, respectively. After initial success, the German deterioration is a bit of a surprise.

Living La Vida Loca in Galicia/Spain

We three kings via Orient air . . . 

HT to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for this item: "Spain is a country of waiters? Not any more, now Spain is a country of civil servants. "The coronavirus crisis has broken a trend in the Spanish labour market that was consolidating in recent years. The public sector and the tourism sector were both registering growth in employment in recent years, the pair of them reaching figures of around 2.6m workers apiece in 2019...’. From VozPópuli. Spain is now a country of funcionarios".

Here's Marìa's Riding the Wave: Days 29&30. Which is sad. And which reminded me I'd just taken delivery of this print:-

Albrecht Dürer's Melancholia. Don't ask why.   

The USA

And we thought we had it bad . . . The estimable John Carlin on The Shyster in Chief. See the first article below.

The Way of the World 

Richard North today: We have, it seems, entered a new Dark Age, where amid an unprecedented flow of information, ignorance stalks the land and shapes our most important policies. If no one is calling this particular phenomenon the "information paradox" – where ignorance prevails despite plentiful information – perhaps it's time they did.

The leader of the Taliban had life insurance and built up a large property portfolio before he was killed in a US raid. Presumably permitted by the Koran. Can't recall.

Social Media

No huge surprise . .  We millennials are living proof that social media is toxic. . . We need to be honest with ourselves that social media is largely unhelpful when you’re young and have mental health problems. . .  Social media is a fairground hall of mirrors and when you’re too full of emotion to see it’s a distorted version of reality, you’ll go mad if you stay.  See the full article below.

 

Finally . . .

Amusing aphorisms No. 14. I hate when a couple argues in public, and I missed the beginning and don't know whose side I'm on. 

 

THE ARTICLES

1. Make email great again, Donald: stop spamming me

John Carlin is trapped on the president’s fundraising list, and the daily entreaties to buy ‘iconic’ calendars and Trump-brand Christmas baubles are wearing thin

Every morning, I awake to a batch of emails from a man I have never met, who addresses me as if we were old friends while desperately pleading for cash. His name is Donald J Trump. His approach has all the sophistication of a door-to-door salesman striving to convince me to buy a keg of bleach as a remedy for the coronavirus.

The first email arrived two days after the election, and it included far more bold type, italics and underlinings than is worth reproducing here. “John, I need you,” it began. “The Left will try to STEAL this Election! I’m calling on YOU to step up & FIGHT BACK. Your support is critical right now, John. We must protect the integrity of this Election. Can I count on you? Please contribute $5 IMMEDIATELY to the Official Election Defense Fund.” The message went on to say that I could contribute $10, or $15 or $20 or much more if I so wished. It ended: “Thank you, Donald J Trump, President of the United States.”

The reason I received the email, I assumed, was that prior to attending a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, I had filled in a Trump campaign form on the web, thinking I would need to do so in order to be allowed in. I was mistaken. Everyone was welcome at Trump’s aerosol-rich, 15,000-strong Covid death orgy. As one of three people wearing a mask, I survived to tell the tale, and to receive the emails.

Since that first one on November 5, I have received another 130 from the president himself and another 50 or so from his son Eric, from his daughter-in-law Lara or from his lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Once, I received a touching and immensely flattering personal message from Trump’s wife, Melania.

The words change, but the tone is always the same. One day it is my “patriotic duty” to stand by the president. Another it is “for the good of the country”. Another it is “to defend the constitution”. Always, I am enjoined to part with my money.

The day after Thanksgiving, November 27 — Black Friday in online marketing-speak — I got this: “John, You’ve always been one of my TOP supporters, and now I have an EXCLUSIVE offer just for YOU. For TODAY ONLY, I’m giving YOU a FREE TRUMP GIFT to show you just how much you mean to me. This offer is meant for YOU, John, and is not intended to be shared. You have 1 HOUR to claim your FREE TRUMP BLACK FRIDAY GIFT before I release it to the next Patriot in line. Don’t wait.”

At last, true friendship, I thought. It’s not all take, take, take. Donald gives too. Or so I imagined, until I read the next line, in bright red: “Please contribute at least $35 IMMEDIATELY to claim your FREE TRUMP BLACK FRIDAY GIFT.”

Seriously, who is taken in by this stuff? What kind of a sucker do you have to be? Surely people are not falling for it. They are. Millions have paid up, and millions have been received. The New York Times reported on December 1 that Trump had raised $170m (£129m) in donations since the election. In less than a week the figure had gone up to $207m.

The salesman president has not failed to seize on the opportunities the festive season provides. Here’s an email I received on Monday morning. “John, I have something special for you. You’ve always been a TOP supporter of our movement, so when I saw our beautiful new 2020 Trump Christmas Ornaments, I knew that YOU needed to have one IMMEDIATELY.

“We only have a limited supply left, so I’m saving one for YOU for the NEXT HOUR. After we run out, you’ll NEVER have another chance to get one of our ICONIC Trump Christmas Ornaments, so don’t wait. Please contribute $5 immediately to claim your 2020 Trump ornament.”

And then there’s the calendar, which is where Melania comes in. “John, our incredible First Lady, Melania Trump, handpicked the beautiful photos for our BRAND NEW 2021 Trump Calendar. She said to me, ‘Darling, I want John to have PRIORITY-ACCESS to get the calendar FIRST.’ That’s right — YOU are one of my strongest allies, so I’m saving one of our ICONIC calendars for you. All you have to do is contribute $30 RIGHT NOW to claim yours.”

Where is the money going? To the “Official Election Defense Fund”, presumably, to help pay Giuliani’s $20,000-a-day fees and to finance more than 50 lawsuits that have been filed to challenge the election results — reportedly all but one of which Trump has lost.

The speculation in the US press is that much of the money will end up in Trump’s pocket, a suspicion reinforced by a ruling almost a year ago by the attorney-general of New York, Letitia James. It read: “Not only has the Trump Foundation been shut down for its misconduct, but the president has been forced to pay $2 million for misusing charitable funds for his own political gain.”

Still the president keeps plugging away. This one was on Wednesday: “John, I have URGENT news! According to the LIES reported by the Fake News Media, [Joe] Biden received 15 MILLION more votes than [Barack] Obama did in the 2012 Election. Does anyone actually believe that? ... I want you to know that this is far from over, John. In fact, I have decided to EXTEND our critical fundraising deadline to ensure our team has the resources we need to continue FIGHTING for the FUTURE of our Country. Please contribute $5 IMMEDIATELY ...”

The latest email — freshly pinged into my phone as I write — is titled “Make Christmas Great Again”. I am offered the chance to send a Christmas message to Donald and Melania, which — if accompanied by $5, or $10, or $15 — will “guarantee” me a place “AT THE VERY TOP” of the list. I will see my name in lights.

Trump knows his market, and the chances are that he will extend the fundraising deadline right through to a re-election bid in 2024. I could unsubscribe from the mailing list, but I shan’t, partly out of journalistic duty, partly because of the dumb fascination he exerts over me — like a rabbit caught in headlights. For me and the rest of the rabbits, our Groundhog Day could last four more years.

2. We millennials are living proof that social media is toxic: Pravina Rudra, TheTimes

Last week, two related news items appeared on the same day. First, that young people who are unhappy with their appearance are most likely to develop depression, and second, that 60 per cent of eight-year-olds use messaging apps that are meant for teenagers.

Neither came as a surprise to me. From the time I entered my all-girls secondary school, I’ve seen countless friends succumb to severe mental health challenges: from depression to bulimia. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that we came of age as social media boomed, lying about our age as we signed up to Facebook and spending our teenage years desperately updating our profile photo in an attempt to garner strokes of that hallowed “Like” button.

Worryingly, the habit has persisted into our twenties. When I speak to friends who have mental health difficulties, they often scroll through Instagram as they chat about those same difficulties, comparing themselves to a filtered, one-sided version of someone else’s life (or a size-zero influencer who gets paid more the less she eats). I know these things are harmful now but I didn’t as a teenager: why would you know at an age when you think you’ll die alone unless you have a boyfriend?

We need to be honest with ourselves that social media is largely unhelpful when you’re young and have mental health problems. It’s fashionable to spout creative rationales of how social media allows for connection and inspiration, citing uplifting quotes on Instagram and body-positive feeds (which, instead of featuring normal-sized women, are often just full of skinny girls pictured eating huge burgers).

Deanne Jade, head of the National Centre for Eating Disorders, says that the first thing she asks patients to do is to switch off their phones and computers so that they can reset the way they think. Why is this so hard for some children and their parents to understand? The first thing I do when I’m feeling low is log out of Instagram or, if I’m stressed, close my LinkedIn tab. Social media is a fairground hall of mirrors and when you’re too full of emotion to see it’s a distorted version of reality, you’ll go mad if you stay.

As we exit the pandemic this spring, and children can interact once more in normal social settings, we have to stop making excuses for staying on social media when it’s unhelpful. The harsh truth is that parents whose children are suffering from poor mental health need to find a way to get them offline.

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