Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 15.3.21

 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'

My thanks to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for a couple of today's items. 

Cosas de España  

As anyone who lives here knows . .  Workers in Spain put in more hours than the European average but it's not among the most productive countries. One possible solution, it says here, is a 4-day working week. Allegedly, the government has agreed to launch a modest pilot project for companies interested in the idea. I await the results with interest.

If this is a success and 4 days become the norm here, it'll mean a change in the motto that The weekend begins on Thursday. Which won't go down well with all residents in fiesta centres such as Pontevedra's old quarter. For what it's worth, my view is that the government would be better advised fulfilling its promise to  do something about the ridiculous Spanish horario, which means people getting home as late as 10 at night.

Brexit, says Mark Stücklin here, has hit the cheaper end of the property market. Down South, at least. Bringing great opportunities for younger Brits who can work on line from anywhere.

Madrid was not the first capital of Spain. Before it came Burgos, Valladolid,  Córdoba, Cangas de Onís, Barcelona, Toledo, Salamanca, Valencia, Sevilla and Cádiz. But not necessarily in that order. Fine fotos here.

 

Cousas de Galiza  

 

Maria's Tsunami:  Day 42

The UK

In contrast with the range of reactions to it, I've nil interest in watching That Interview: As regards the former, here's one British columnist's view: Meghan’s fake interview has real-world effects. The Sussexes’ claims have undermined the monarchy and done lasting damage to the Commonwealth. See the full article below.

The Way of the World 

Assaulting anyone, verbally or physically, is wrong. We also know it is disgraceful that many women and young girls suffer harassment, stalking, groping, threat and insult in public places, and sometimes at home. We all shake our heads. Yet meanwhile a whole industry of commercial sexual fantasy profits from depicting the abuse and murder of women. I do not just mean hard porn. . . .  For now I mean something “softer”, peddled by respectable institutions and award winners. When a terrible crime makes us discuss street safety, CCTV, boys’ education, policing and prosecution, this anguished conversation rarely includes or questions the entertainment industry. Night after night on our screens imaginary violence against women is monetised and praised. Full article here.

Identity politics is largely performative. It isn’t primarily about standing up for other people. It’s about broadcasting your own compassion. You can guess what's prompted this observation from another British columnist

Finally  . . .  

Something on the fine city of  Liverpool.

THE ARTICLE  

Meghan’s fake interview has real-world effects. The Sussexes’ claims have undermined the monarchy and done lasting damage to the Commonwealth: Tim Stanley The Telegraph

Two headlines appeared on the BBC News website on the same day. At the top: “Harry and Meghan rattle monarchy’s gilded cage”. At the bottom: “The kidnapped woman who defied Boko Haram”. Well, that puts the Sussexes' problems in perspective, doesn’t it? Yet across Africa, one reads, the Duchess’s story has revived memories of colonial racism, tarnishing the UK’s reputation, and has even lent weight to the campaign in some countries to drop the Queen as head of state.

The only nation that seems to think a lot of nonsense was spoken is Britain. In the wake of an interview that Joe Biden’s administration called courageous, British popular opinion of Harry and Meghan fell to an all-time low, and the American format had a lot to do with it. Oprah Winfrey is not our idea of an interviewer. She flattered, fawned and displayed utter credulity. Imagine if it had been her, not Emily Maitlis, who interviewed Prince Andrew over the Jeffrey Epstein allegations. “You were in a Pizza Express that day? Oh my God, you MUST be innocent! Tell me, in all honesty, though...did you have the dough balls?”

This wasn’t an interview, it was a commercial for a brand called Sussex, a pair of eco-friendly aristo-dolls that, if you pull the string, tell their truth – which isn’t the truth, because no one can entirely know that, but truth as they perceive it. “Life is about storytelling,” explained Meghan, “about the stories we tell ourselves, the stories we’re told, what we buy into.” Meghan is a postmodernist. Just as Jean Baudrillard said the Gulf War never happened, but was choreographed by the US media, so the Royal narrative she was forced to live was fake, her public happiness was fake and, following that logic, this interview might involve an element of performance, too.

People have challenged her claims, alleging contradictions and improbabilities, but one of the malign effects of wokeness is that you have got to be very careful about pointing this out. Why? Because wokery insists on treating a subjective view as objective truth, or even as superior, because it’s based upon “lived experience”. To contradict that personal perspective is perceived as cruel, elitist and, in Meghan’s case, potentially racist, so it’s best to wait a few weeks to a year before applying a fact check. In the meantime, affect sympathy. People would rather you lied to their face than tell them what they don’t want to hear.

The result is profoundly dishonest, for I have never known an event over which there is such a gulf between the official reception, as endorsed by the media and politics, and the reaction of average citizens, who are wisely keeping it to themselves. Into that vacuum of silence steps not the voice of reason but bullies and showmen – like Piers Morgan, who said some brash stuff about Meghan’s honesty and, after an unseemly row on Good Morning Britain, felt obliged to resign from his job. “If you’d like to show your support for me,” he wrote afterwards, “please order a copy of my book.” Dear Lord, was this row fake, too? I can no longer be sure, though I despised Good Morning Britain before and still do: it embodies the cynical confusion of emotion and fact, a show made for clicks, where even the weatherman has an opinion.

So what is real in 2021? The Commonwealth, which does a lot of good in a divided world. The monarchy, which has been at its best during the pandemic, doing the boring stuff of cutting ribbons and thanking workers that, one suspects, Meghan never grew into (can you imagine her opening a supermarket in Beccles?). It contains flawed people, but that only adds to its realness, and they can adapt faster than you might think.

Prince William got the ball rolling by telling reporters, who he is trained to ignore, that his family is not racist. His wife paid her respects to the murder victim Sarah Everard, demonstrating that she is neither cold nor silenced. I’d wager Kate does her duty, day after day, no complaint, not because she is “trapped”, as Harry uncharitably put it, but because she loves her family and believes in public service.

Meghan and Harry have indeed prompted the Royal family to change: not in order to endorse their criticisms, however, but to answer them.