Dawn

Dawn

Monday, March 22, 2021

Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 22.3.21

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'

 

Covid 


Spain: German tourists have been flocking to Mallorca since Friday, with tens of thousands more planning to enjoy an Easter break in the Balearic Islands – whilst citizens living on mainland Spain are not allowed to travel there during Easter. They all have to provide PCR test results not more than 72 hours old at the airport showing they are Covid-free.


Cosas de España


An editorial from the (sort-of-left-of-centre) El País on depressing political developments here. More depressing than usual, I mean.


Talking of politics . . . An imminent punch-up over new housing laws.


This cartoon would be very apposite for Spain . . . .



Cousas de Galiza


Bit of a scare this morning when an English language journal suggested we’d be confined to our townships over Easter. Fortunately, it was a mistake. My trip up the coast is still on.


Here's the mayor of Pontevedra et al in the chozo/chouzo/choza/chouza I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, when the whole area was mired in mud and the video from it I posted showed only cloud and rain. And not the Dawn Marshes below the recently deforested area.


 


The UK and the EU 


The EU claim that it has a (war-inspired) legal right to take over any intellectual property it likes has its equivalent in the 1985 UK government attempt to take over - under a 1939 law - the DNA fingerprinting technology my company had licensed from its inventor and future Nobel Prize winner. For the record, this was foiled with the help of, first, Mr Thatcher and, then, Mrs Thatcher. Who realised how unwise it was in an inter-connected world for governments to expediently steal technologies. One wonders if Brussels will also see sense in due course. Sadly, mere bureaucrats rarely do and the EU doesn't have a wise political leader. Or any political leader, for that matter. Only a puppet with  a committee of real leaders somewhere in the background. Led by a German leader who isn't exactly covering herself with glory at the moment. 


The EU 


I saw this after I'd written the previous paragraph . . . The EU needs sane and sensible voices to end its vaccine delusions. So, I'm unlikely to disagree. 

 

Quote of the Week


In these post-shame days, guilt is not necessarily the mother of consequences. Not in the political sphere, anyway. Either in the UK or the EU.


Finally  . . . 


The local sparrows, greenfinches and robins have grown fat and lazy on all the seed I buy for them. I very much hope they haven’t got slower and less alert, as I’m pretty sure I glimpsed a swooping sparrowhawk(gavilán/gabilán) twice over the weekend. If so, it’s hardly likely to move on, given the rich and easy pickings. And, if it takes any of 'my' blackbirds, I'll have to shoot it. Or at least try to trap it and release it on the border with Asturias. Or, closer, Portugal.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That Stücklin article on housing proposals.
4 times he uses the word radical and 2 times the ward radicals.
Socialists 8 times.

Shame he did not give a more balanced view on the rental market, including restriction of rentals for vacations. Or the protection of rights for both the renter or landlord.
Maybe if he had written about a workable housing policy.
He really hates the left wing. That was all the article was about. He has done this in the past.
The nu-named "English language journal". Was it the same one that recently wrote that Bristol was part of Wales? �� Then it is the same one that said Spain was going to have a second lockdown as the first thus causing panic. How that keeps going? Just like the Express in the UK ����

Anonymous said...

sorry about the question marks, something went wrong.

Whiting said...

I've had to ration my bird feeding rather than feeding on demand. Last year I was up to my neck in goldfinches. Yes it is expensive!

Colin Davies said...

The "English language journal"

No. It wasn't the notorious Euronews rag.

It was a normally reliable journal and the editor immediately apologised for the mistake and had it deleted.