Well, I’m a little more clued up about why Spanish students are unhappy with the Bologna Process. Many of them protested in Barcelona yesterday, bringing out the riot police of the Catalan statelet. Reportedly, they’re concerned that “traditional Spanish degrees are being scrapped under the process, whose aim is to make academic degree standards more comparable and compatible across Europe.” Specifically, the students predict "educational inequality and insecurity" and the “commercialisation" of higher education. Translated, I guess this means they’ll have to work harder. And possibly achieve their degrees in the stipulated time, not over a decade or so. Or perhaps I’m being unfair. At least to 10-20% of the undergraduate population. Over at Kalebeul, Trevor has a take on this which is even more pungent than usual. I wonder how he survives. Possibly by disguising himself as The Baldie.

It’s good to see that in the important area of energy generation, Barcelona is ahead of the pack. I regret to say that the development reported would have allowed my father to say that great things are taking place in the dead centre of the city.

When I lived in Tehran 35 years ago, it was embarrassing - but flattering – to find that every Iranian believed that Britain still controlled the entire world, including the USA. Astonishingly, things are exactly the same now. According to a British reporter living there, the Iranians “imagine Britain to be fathomlessly powerful and duplicitous, constantly striving to achieve Iran’s collapse – a nation capable, in the Persian saying, of ‘cutting off your head with cotton’. To a remarkable degree, this perception has survived the end of empire and the decline of Britain’s global influence. No country in this age of cramped diplomatic horizons is more comforting to the British ego than Iran.” I miss it.

As it happens, this is the second time today I’ve quoted someone Persian but you’ll have to go to The Economist’s web page for the first. It’s somewhere among the 1260 other comments to the tendentious article on Devolution.

With the British government announcing ever-stricter [and controversial] anti-speeding laws, the subject is topical over there as well, not just in my blog. I won’t bore you with links to articles accusing the UK government of being more interested in revenue than safety but I will give you a thought that occurred to me yesterday. When I came to Spain 8 years ago, enforcement of not-very-strict laws was rather lax. Rather as things currently are with cigarette smoking. Now, however, the law is much tougher and the police ever more zealous. The former situation was surely wrong and the latter right, as evidenced by the declining mortality figures. But the odd thing is it used to be possible to be semi-relaxed about the local police chief being drunk after lunch and regularly driving into the back of other road users. Now, it seems outrageous and totally unacceptable. Though unlikely to change, I suspect.

Finally . . . I don’t know what ‘enables’ it or how it works but I see there’s a feature on this blog saying it has 12 Followers. This is, of course, very gratifying but I do wish the total would advance. Or even retreat. For, with this exact number of followers, I’m dangerously close to delusions of some grandeur . . .

So, John Sergeant has removed himself from the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing program because of a serious risk the perverse British public would defy the judges and vote him to victory in a few weeks time. For those that don’t know, Sergeant is to dancing what Ghengis Khan was to pony trekking. Or what Stevie Wonder would be to needlepoint, perhaps. He has about as much skill as the ex bullfighter I saw on the Spanish version of the program a few weeks ago but - because of his entertainment value - is highly popular with the audience. The difference is that, whereas Sergeant is regularly savaged by the judges for his terpsichorean incompetence, the bullfighter was lavished with praise simply, it seemed, for being able to stay upright while shuffling around the floor. Something to do with greater respect for ex toreros than for retired political commentators, I guess.

If you’ve been following the saga of The Economist v. the Catalan government, you’ll know that, apart from seeking an apology from the former, the latter has said it will counter international ignorance and disinformation about the Catalan region/nation via an increased number of ‘embassies’ overseas. Which seems an odd thing to be doing in the teeth of a recession that could yet be a depression. But needs must, I guess. And, if scientists can make a new windpipe from a few cells and delineate the genetic profile of a woolly mammoth, maybe they can help out by cloning Dr Goebbels.

Galicia

With petrol prices now falling almost as rapidly as they rose a while back, the question being [re]raised is why the stuff is around 6% more here than in most of the rest of Spain. The suppliers say they have to pay one cent on each litre to the Galician Social Security as a healthcare levy. Which is fine but that still leaves at least another five cents unaccounted for. Perhaps they’ll come clean and tell us it has to be paid to the Galician Petrol Cartel.

I wondered out loud a few months ago whether the mistaken installation of the electricity meter on top of a new wall would be rectified before the house was occupied, by re-locating it in the wall. Well, this photo seems to confirm that they took the easier route of modifying the fence to go round it. Though I assume the cables going in and out of it really are temporary. We should know before the owners take up occupation some time within the next ten years. Having paid around 500,000 euros for the place four years ago. Which must have seemed like a good idea way back then.


The WiFi internet connection I get via my Catalan neighbours has been very slow over the last 24 hours. My guess is they’re doing some heavy film or music downloading. You’d think they’d be more considerate . . .

Earlier this week, the beer brand Watney’s Red Barrel was withdrawn from the market in the UK. I was reminded of this when cutting up chicken and beef for a couple of curries this morning and wondering just what is injected into the meat. It suddenly occurred to me that I was cooking near water. If this makes sense to you and brings to mind an old joke, you must be as ancient as me.

The Frenchman, Jean Monnet, is revered as the great visionary behind the EU. Fittingly so, it seems. For in 1948, he bought a property from a Swedish seller, making a last-minute demand that the price be paid in French francs and not the US dollars previously agreed. The very next day, the franc was devalued to a tenth of its price, leaving the poor Swede well out of pocket. You could put this down to good and bad luck but, then, this would be to ignore the fact Monnet was on the committee responsible for the devaluation. Plus ca change . . .

The comments to the Devolution section of The Economist’s Review of Spain have now passed a thousand. Interestingly, the most recent – as of late Sunday morning – have been among the best reasoned. If not exactly eye-to-eye. Talking of reasoning and argumentation . . . Over at [Barcelona-based] Kalebeul, the ever-trenchant Trevor had this riposte for the Catalan fanatics - What surprises me is that the ethnic supremacists think that the arguments which failed to convince a considerable majority of guiris [foreigners] will now suddenly work on an interested, international audience. You need a new gameplan, folks.

Living as I do in another region where the minority-supported Nationalists have arguably a disproportionate influence on how things are done linguistically, I also found myself agreeing with this comment from a [?]Dutchman - The Internet is wonderful. Just by reading the comments to this article, anyone unfamiliar with the situation in Catalonia and the Basque Country will get a more accurate image of the attitudes of ones and the others than by reading the original, and brilliant, article. I especially love Pere Joan's message, as it beautifully portrays the sort of fanaticism, fundamentalism and violence that drives regional nationalism in Spain.

I certainly wouldn’t want to say or imply that things have gone as far here in Galicia but the trend is clear. So it will be interesting to see how the Galicians vote next March and how things develop if either of the major parties have an absolute majority and so don’t need to have the Nationalists as part of a governing coalition.

I’ve mentioned previously the cartoonist of the ABC newspaper, citing his ability to accurately but cruelly depict Spanish politicians. If you click here and then scroll down to the small picture of 11/11 under the name of Martinmorales, you’ll see what I mean. You need to click on it to enlarge it, of course

Panic being the other side of the emotional coin from greed, it would be understandable if any government stretched the truth a little to avoid making a bad situation a lot worse. Some people believe the Spanish government, its construction industry and the banks might just have been colluding to do this with the house price statistics here. Stretching credulity beyond breaking point, the government insists that prices are still rising, albeit only marginally so. Yesterday, though, the Ministress of Housing said she thought they’d fallen by 15%. Whereupon she was summarily corrected by someone else, with the implausible line that she’d just been referring to some other idiot’s statistics. Mark Stucklin comments on this over at Spanish Property Insight.

It’s easy to make in impression in/on tin. And also, I guess, in/on gods made of the stuff. So it is that the Catalan government has had its ‘embassy’ in London send a formal letter of complaint to The Economist over references to this region in its review of Spain. And why not? If you’re going to claim/pretend to be a state, then you’ve got to find ways – however petty – to act as one. As a rule, nationalists are pretty good at criticising – and whingeing about – others but remarkably sensitive when it comes to comments about themselves. But, then, people with a victim complex always are. If I were the President of Spain, I’d get shot of them all. The problem in a democracy, of course, would be getting a majority of Catalan, Basque and/or Galician turkeys to vote for Christmas. So, failing that, I’d work with the opposition to forge a true federal state. For everything else, the opportunity costs are simply too high. Or would clearly look so if you could raise your gaze above tomorrow’s headlines.

The section on devolution in the review has now received almost 500 comments, many from angry or very angry Catalans. Given the tribal tone, It all makes for rather depressing reading. But I did learn something when ploughing/plowing through the rants; Christopher Columbus was not - as they think here in Galicia - from just outside Pontevedra but from Cataluña. Although I don’t think they’d entirely agree in Genoa. Still, I don’t suppose anyone will complain about Cataluña putting his head on their version of a Euro note, once the place is independent. Or an autonomous region of Grand Europe.

There’s no shortage of stuff to read on the global financial crisis, of course, but I’ve enjoyed this debate on the issue of whether capitalism should be transformed. Even more so this article on the failings of the international financial system, described by the author as “a greedy giant out of control”. I may be doing him a disservice but my summary is he thinks it impossible for the invisible hand to work when there’s a combination of greed, dishonesty and artificial churn rendering the market far from perfect. Resulting in a world in which the suckers are you and me and the financiers can make phenomenally profitable one-way bets in a casino which is rigged in their own favour. Until they bring the house crashing down, of course.

So . . . more regulation or better regulation? I guess we’ll have the answer after the New York conference. Perhaps.

Finally . . . God knows I’ve criticised Spanish bureaucracy over the years. But here’s an article on British aspects of the same monster by the inestimable Theodore Dalrymple.

Sky TV today has a special report on those of Britain's Most Wanted Criminals who live on Spain's east coast. The aim is apparently to enlist the help of the British community there in catching them. It will be interesting to see what results are achieved.

Another interesting development to watch will be the Spanish government's response to the reported desire of the ETA Basque terrorist group to re-start a dialogue. Especially as the last one ended with a bomb at Madrid airport and a lot of flack for the administration. If it does happen, it's hardly likely to be public. So we'll never know until it's over, one way or another.

Reverting to the subject of anti-Americanism . . . The way, over the years, I have defended the USA against its numerous detractors is to stress that the country is so large and diverse that it's possible to find there both the very best and the very worst of humanity. The challenge is to avoid concentrating on the latter. Which is usually done out of ignorance and a susceptibility to stereotypical thinking. Not to mentin political self-interest. I was reminded of this today when reading a columnist who rehearsed all the positives about Obama's election and the global response to it but then added:- This does not get rid of the deep opposition that now exists to the US taking a leading role in the world, and the suspicion of its motives. It does not get rid of the filter of prejudice that takes for granted the best that the US achieves, and exaggerates the worst. If Obama manages to overcome all this, he will truly be a great president. But he's certainly up against it. Especially as, according to the same writer, Expectations of Mr Obama around the world have moved from the vocabulary of politics into magic.

If you'd like an insight into one of the challenges facing President Obama, read this Prospect article on what's happening under Putin in Russia. Let's hope the rather inexperienced new incumbent has better advisers than those of the outgoing George W Bush. Especially as the Russian response to his election was to put rockets on the Polish border. Welcome to the real world, Mr President.

Galicia

A couple of interesting local headlines on that election:-
- What would Obama reform if he were Galician?
- 'Now for a gypsy as Spanish president', says a member of one of Galicia's minorities.

If you have a local government, 11 or 12 local newspapers and a local TV channel, it's pretty inevitable that each of the three local party presidents is going to air his views on a US election. And that each of them is going to offer the cooperation of both his party and of Galicia as a whole to the victor. Who must be touched by it all. And possibly relieved that he isn't going to be opposed here. By anyone, apparently.

Which reminds me . . . Recession notwithstanding, the government of the region/nation of Cataluña is going to be spending 2.2m euros on its overseas 'embassies' next year. An increase of 63% on this year. When it comes to the trappings of a state, where Cataluña goes . . .

We went to see a foreign film at the Caixa Galicia cultural centre in Ponters this week. On entering the room where the three screens were set up, we were each given a ticket for this - free - event. I've long given up being surprised at the Spanish affection for pointless paper but I did wonder whether it occurred to anyone Spanish attending just how unnecessary this was. I suspect not as they're so inured to being asked for 'just one more document' by people whose jobs depend on the production and collection of paper. Essentially, it's a vast job creation/retention scheme, I guess.

Anyway, I'm off now to finalise a talk entitled One Man and his Blog that I'm giving in the infamous town of Vilagarcía tonight. If I don't return, it will be because some angry Galician Nationalist has hit me on a zebra crossing. Where I will be an easy target because of its elevation.

As you would expect, the Presidents of the socialist-led governments of the 'poor' regions of Andalucia and Galicia have criticised the lack of 'solidarity' being shown by the allegedly equally-socialist President of Cataluña. It seems that the latter - along with the two members of the Spanish cabinet who belong to his party - are threatening to throw a spanner in the works of the national budgetary process, if they don't get their way with the new financing arrangements for the regions/nations of not-de-jure-but-certainly-de facto federal Spain. I've read that this sort of domestic spat is common in all federal states but, as I've asked before, do they really go in for this public horse-trading in Germany? Or the USA?

The truth about Georgia is hard to unravel - "What is truth?" asked Pilate, departing with a smile - but here's an article which might get closer than most. Reader Moscow might like to comment, possibly under another pseudonym.

And talking of the truth - It's now a year since the worldwide banking crisis began. Throughout this period both the Spanish government and our banking industry have claimed - pretty strenuously - that the latter has not been as stupid as elsewhere. Against this, I've seen one or two articles hinting that all is not as it seems. And now comes a devastating report from Morgan Stanley which claims:- The condition of Spain's lenders is a source of intense controversy and Spanish officials bridle at claims by foreign critics that there is any problem. The banks certainly dodged the US sub-prime debacle, thanks to restrictions by Bank of Spain on the use of off-books investment vehicles. Home equity withdrawals and "piggy back loans" are rare. Mortgages were mostly limited to 80pc of house prices, at least in theory. The great unknown is whether those price estimates bear much resemblance to reality. Ramon Lobo, a former bank auditor, said valuations were routinely inflated by as much as 25pc, allowing the sub-prime-style abuses through the back door. The report goes on to make some dire predictions for 2009. These will be hotly contested - especially as they come from an arm of a Anglo bank which has hardly been a model for success - but the truth will out. For us non-experts, it's pretty hard to believe that the utter collapse of the massively important construction sector won't impact on Spanish banks as much as on corrupt politicians, estate agents and lawyers. But we will see. Meanwhile, I present you with these facts from my own recent purchase of a casita in the hills:-
Price previously paid by the seller in 2006 - X
Valuation on which he got his mortgage - 1.56X
His mortgage - 90% of the valuation and 1.40X.
Price paid by us - 0.99X and 0.71 of his mortgage.
For non-mathematicians, this means:-
1. The seller lost money.
2. The sale proceeds from us were way below his mortgage.
3. He has a residual debt to the tune of 40% more than we paid, and
4. The bank now has an unsecured loan on its books for this amount.
One mustn't, of course, generalise from the particular. Though one can surely laugh at the stupid greed of everyone involved in the 2006 deals. The bank involved - the BBVA - must have known how farcical the valuation was and how much more the seller was borrowing than he was spending on buying the house. Maybe they all convinced themselves the good times would go on for ever and the chickens would never come home and roost. No wonder the BBVA representatives at the signing in the notary's office whipped up the cheques at the speed of light and departed running. But not smiling. My guess is they'll never see the rest of their money but that it is still on their balance sheet. Along with thousands of others.

Galicia

After a few more young men were killed in the early hours of Sunday morning, editorials in our local papers were asking how long this would go on. My guess is for as long as the police don't do more about the drinking that takes place from 10pm to 5am every Friday and Saturday and for as long as young Spanish men who don't earn huge salaries are somehow able to buy powerful cars they could never afford in other cultures. Incidentally, one of the accidents involved a car braking for 250 metres, hitting something on the verge and then 'trampolining' through the air to hit the first floor window of a house at the side of the road. One can only imagine the speed. And the fear felt by the two occupants before they crumpled and died.

On a lighter note, 92% readers of the Voz de Galicia who could be bothered to vote on-line felt that something must be done to regulate the seagulls in our cities. Personally, I'm going to do my bit by carrying around a replica of an Eurasian eagle owl, which I understand to be the largest of the species. As shown by this lady.

We went furniture shopping in Ponters yesterday. One of the shops favoured by us echando un vistazo was called Los Negritos. Or, politely, The Little Black Boys. I guess this is intended to reflect the exoticness of its - very overpriced - offerings from Africa and the East. I predict the place will be closed withing a year. Though not because of its name.

Finally, I should correct my Spanish for a Coming Out ceremony. It's Una puesta de largo, not a larga. Which reminds me that one of the lovely young ladies was called Covadonga, pronounced Cobadonga. A Spanish friend tells me this - the name of a town in Asturias - sounds as bad in Spanish as it does in English. Poor girl. Or woman, as she is now.

The EU supreme court has pronounced - to nil surprise whatsoever - that the Spanish government acted in contravention of the rules, a couple of years ago, when it helped a local energy company to fight off a bid from a German giant and, instead, to get into bed with a Catalan competitor. So, what now? Absolutely nothing, is my guess. In Spain, some rules are more important than others. And many not important at all.

I'd guess, though, that the President of Spain has got larger problems on his plate than a reproof from the EU. For, as if the economic crisis weren't enough, he's just had the Catalan branch of his PSOE party demand a wholesale revision of the country's Constitution. Given that the pesky Catalans are pushing at a door being held open by the government, it's hard to know where this process will stop, short of secession. Is there to be a 'free association' of the Spanish state with a Catalan satrapy, paying an annual tribute decided by itself? Will we, in fact, have to go back to the Persian, Greek and Roman empires to find a model that will suit everyone? Well, everyone who matters. Which may not include a substantial proportion of the Spanish population.

To my surprise, I read that Spain has now overtaken the UK as the European country with the highest percentage of its citizens behind bars - 157 per 100,000. In comparison, the UK is 152, Holland 124 and France 'only' 91.

The good news is that road deaths in Spain continue to fall and are expected to be around 2,500 for this year. However, every silver cloud has a dark lining and, in this case, it is that there are now fewer organs available from road accidents. Fatal ones, I mean.

Galicia Facts

Tourism news for Pontevedra:-
- There's Pressing Catch down at the bullring tonight, should you be reading this locally . . .
- The lovely little conch-shaped church of the Virgin Pilgrim in the centre of town has now been restored to its full beauty.
- A standard breakfast costs around 4 euros in Ponters, against 2.60 in Vigo and 3.50 in Madrid. But, in compensation, flats here are cheaper per square metre than elsewhere in Spain.

Back on the unpopular-with-everyone proposal for financing the regions, the main gripe here in Galicia is that the formula/model takes no account of the fact this region's population is 1. highly dispersed, and 2. aging quickly. But I feel sure each of the other 16 Autonomous Communities can come up with some highly reasonable objection. If they haven't already. The show could run and run.

I've mentioned the Xunta's own newspaper as being the 12th newspaper in circulation here. It goes by the snappy title of Delunsavenres, which you'll all have recognised as Gallego for Frommondaytofriday. Or Theweek, perhaps. Anyway, I'm pleased to announce that every word in it is in Gallego, with the exception of the TV schedules. Apart from the local one, of course.

Some readers will recall that, a week ago, a pigeon landed on my glass of Rioja and sent the contents all over my paper and me. Well, this Friday evening, I managed this myself without any external help whatsoever. Thankfully, in a different bar . . .

Finally - My thanks to reader David for the citation of a web site offering free tools, which has been a help as regards my malfunctioning computer. However, I'm still rather distracted by a number of changes/problems. Which I only mention as a prelude to a confession that, after years of thinking about it, I finally bought an external disk in Madrid two weeks ago, so I could back up all my files and programs. And it's still in its box. Draw your own conclusions . . .

The first day of June and I’m delighted to say another glorious day has dawned here in southern Galicia, rather contrary to the forecast I looked at – in despair – on Thursday. I hope the same is true of Madrid as I was a bit surprised to hear last night from my elder daughter that May had been just as bad there and that she’d even put her heating back on. But, then, she’s always been something of a friolera.

News of a surprising bit of coalescence between the UK and Spain this morning – the percentage of British families using childcare facilities has fallen from 57 to 54% in the past three years, as parents have increasingly taken to depositing their offspring on grandparents. This extended family concept has, of course, the same impact on job mobility as it has in Spain. But, truth to tell, this may not matter much in a recession.

The Spanish adjective emblematico is used a great deal more than its English equivalent, emblematic. But I guess it really can be said to be an appropriate word when, as the economy’s free-fall gathers pace, the Spanish government continues with the distraction of its multi-party negotiations aimed at arriving at a new model for financing the regions. Needless to say, the pressure comes mostly from Cataluña, supported by those regions who’ll benefit from their proposals and opposed by those – such as Galicia – who’ll suffer. The concept of solidarity has apparently been suspended as the horse-trading proceeds around a pot which is diminishing while eighteen Presidents slug things out.

And talking of the President of the Galician Xunta – He’s reported to have said gnomically in Madrid this week that “All the forces of the Right - and not only the politicians - will be waging war against the Galician language during the regional elections due next year”. I don’t really know what this means but my guess is we’re supposed to understand that anyone who doesn’t accept increasing imposition of the local language at the expense of Spanish is at least a proto-fascist. This is nonsense, of course. But I plead guilty, despite being a supporter of the promotion of Galician culture and language by willing taxpayers. On willing citizens.

I’ve not yet had any advice about roundabout protocol but I possibly got an insight when following a learner driver into one this morning. As we approached the two-lane hazard, the driver signalled right despite the fact there was no right exit and so he could only go straight on or turn left. As soon as he got into the outside lane, he started to signal left, drove round the perimeter then cut across me in the inner lane going straight on. But, as I’ve seen this a hundred times or more, I was ready for it. Of course, I’m prepared to accept I was in the wrong here in Spain, even though I don’t recall having had this experience in any of the 20-plus countries I’ve driven in. When in Rome . . .

Proof positive this morning that Britain will never fit happily into the EU – The Danish chap in charge of the Eurovision Song Contest has complained about Terry Wogan’s irreverent and occasionally acerbic commentary on the grounds it makes the event look ridiculous. He adds it’s regrettable the BBC and the British public don’t treat it with the respect it deserves. I would’ve thought that’s exactly what they did do.

Only a day after I quoted the contentious view of a Madrid constitutional expert that Spain’s autonomous communities were a model for all of Europe, we read that the President of Cataluña says he and his fellow whingers are fed up with having their [economic] interests prejudiced in the name of solidarity. “We can’t wait any longer” he says. So what next? A unilateral declaration of independence a la Ian Smith? A refusal to send taxes collected to the Madrid treasury. Ya verémos. Perhaps.

I inevitably thought of Cataluña when reading this comment this morning on why things are now developing in Scotland the way they are - The answer goes back to the deeply flawed belief that constitutional appeasement will defeat a separatist movement rather than encourage it. This is the delusion under which Gordon Brown and those around him have operated for the past 30 years. Some would say Sr. Zapatero has now got five years of the same thing under his belt. In the UK, the real prospect is now of the break-up of a successful 300 year-old union. And in Spain? A formal, pluralist federation along the lines of the USA?

The relevant minister tells us electricity prices are set to rise by as much as 20 or even 30%. This, of course, is more information than we’ll get from the electricity companies when they eventually do.

As I’ve said, you have to hand it to the leaders of Spain’s troubled construction industry. Apart from demanding subsidies from the public purse, they’ve now taken to attacking the Finance Minister for making ‘frivolous’ speeches in which he rejects their thinly veiled blackmail threats to bring the entire country to a grinding halt by laying off a million workers. What fun.

Talk of blackmail takes me back to the case of the town near Madrid which the police chief operated as a personal fiefdom. Apparently it was an open secret in the place that the entire police force was utterly rotten but the authorities did nothing because there were no official complaints. This may have been because anyone who was foolish enough to make one – it now emerges – was beaten to a pulp. Though it’s not quite true there were no complaints – the police chief was the subject of 29 suits for brutality in a mere 9 years. But presumably got off in each case. Unless the problem was the courts finding time to deal with the actions.

Finally - Here’s part of a rant by a British commentator on the state of the UK, echoing my recent theme of excessive regulation and intrusive surveillance there - After 11 years of Labour, Britain leads the world in abortion, teenage pregnancy, family breakdown, burglary, spy cameras, speed cameras, parking fines, wheel-clamping, dustbin fines, green taxes, fuel taxes, stealth taxes, superbugs, binge-drinking, drug-taking, stabbing and social disorder. We may not have much in the way of engineering or manufacturing, but we can boast the planet's highest concentration of public sector inspectors, equality monitors, risk assessors, transgender advisers, climate change warriors, outreach co-ordinators, diversity managers, streetscene officers, traffic wardens, elf 'n' safety enforcers, five-a-day fascists, recycling Nazis and yuman rites lawyers.

Although almost any country in the world might sound more appealing than this [even Burma], I can vouch for the fact that you can do a lot worse than Spain. How much more positive can I be?

The Anglo Galician Association – open to all who speak English – now has a Forum on the web. If you have a query about Galicia, why not register and post it.

A new study in Spain suggests it’s middle aged men who are those most likely to have their credit cards stolen here. I have a good idea about the most frequent location of these thefts.

It’s reported that the Spanish armed forces are complaining about not being allowed to take action against the Somali pirates sailing off with more than a million euros in ransom money. But I guess this is what it means to have an army and navy which ‘is a force for peace’. I hope the Moroccans don’t take advantage of things by once again displacing the goats on Perejil Island, off the coast of North Africa. And then ransoming the creatures. Which are presumably Spanish. For now.

One of the problems with devolving significant power to regional governments – of which Spain has 17 – is that leaders of the bigger ones become ‘barons’. Who then cause trouble not just for the President but also for the Leader of the Opposition. The former is facing an odd alliance between previously estranged regions whose interests are now threatened by a proposed new system of financing . And the latter, of course, is fighting for his political life and so at the mercy of one group of barons or another. I’m not sure it’s a form of government anyone starting from scratch would come up with. But, then, in 1976 Spain was hardly in this position. So it was wise to gloss over some of the factors that might just come back to haunt the founders of democratic Spain’s Constitution. Like calling Cataluña a ‘nation’ for example – an issue which is now going through the Constitutional Court in the context of a revised Constitution for a troublesome region which, as yet, still forms a part of Spain.

Which reminds me – Up in Scotland, without permission from London, the leader of the Labour Party has just effected a massive U-turn and come out in support for an early [2010] referendum on Scottish independence. It’s thought she feels this will take the wind out of the sails of the Scottish Nationalist party. But, of course, all will depend on the wording on the voting slip. So this is what will be occupying Scotland’s greatest minds for the next two years. Though not really, as all of these are down in London, running Britain’s government, the BBC and The City.

Back to government in Spain – I see the Valencian government has a minister for Social Affairs and Immigration. So I wonder if there are actually 18 ministers in Spain worrying about such things as the fact that unemployment amongst immigrants rose by 25% in the first quarter of this year.

If you’ve no interest in what’s happening in the Spanish property sector, you can log off now. For the rest, here’s an interesting blog from Mark Stucklin of the Times. It makes for pretty depressing reading but the diamond in the dross is that prices rose in Galicia by almost 7% in the final quarter of 2007. Allegedly. In an earlier post, Stucklin said this about the Spanish scene - Most people now accept that Spain is going into a serious property market downturn, even if the ministry of housing’s statistics are still suspiciously hunky-dory. But it winds me up how the majority of people – commentators and politicians in particular – blame the downturn on the credit crunch. Let’s be clear about this. The credit crunch is no more to blame for Spain’s housing market problems than the immigrant labourers who have flooded into the country to help build tens of thousands of dreary blocks of flats. Certainly, the easy credit of the last 5 years or so has fuelled Spain’s property boom, but some sort of credit tightening was inevitable and predictable. The speed and severity of the crunch might have taken people by surprise, but there was always a good chance it would end that way. Big benders are always followed by hangovers, we all know that. The real cause of Spain’s present property market problems was a greed-driven, speculative housing boom that sucked in close to 20% of Spain’s GDP. Once the bubble was allowed to inflate and take over so much of the Spanish economy, it was doomed to burst and the credit crunch just helped prick it. But you’ll be aware of this. Or you will if you’ve been a regular reader of this blog . . .

I depart to the sounds of trumpets being blown. Or one, at least.

This is a bit late but I’m recording my admiration for the way Spanish sports commentators reported Barcelona’s loss to Manchester United on Tuesday night. Not only was the reportage balanced and fair but, in some cases, superbly written. The thread common to all was that it was the end of an era for Barcelona, who some believe now only have one player worth keeping – the entrancing young Argentinean, Messi. Anyway, as it’s Saturday, here’s an example of the purple prose, from El Mundo:- History will record that the sun rose and set for Barcelona with Ronaldinho. Lacking the light of El Gaucho, Barca ended up dying last night in Old Trafford, the Theatre of Dreams - the best possible place for a Requiem. Glory to Manchester on the road to Moscow, and an end to the Barcelona of Ronaldinho and Rijkaard.

As it happens, I watched the earlier first round of the tie in Pontevedra’s Real Madrid supporters’ bar. Which explains why, when I groaned at Ronaldo missing the 3^rd minute penalty, I was drowned out by everyone else there. Spanish solidarity? Forget it. We all hate the uppity Catalans.

And still on the football theme – Here’s an article which supports my view that money has ruined the British game. Which may seem a tad daft when there’s to be an all-English final to the Champions’ League competition but there we are.

Allegedly because of EU-inspired laws on recycling, municipal councils across Britain are rushing to reduce the frequency of their rubbish collections from one per week to one per fortnight. No, I don’t understand why either but apparently more than half of the country’s 360 councils have now taken this retrograde step. The UK rat population is reported to be delirious.

Back here in Spain, we get our rubbish collected every night. And every April we get bills showing a huge unexplained increase in the recycling element of our annual water charges. Así son las cosas. I just wish I had the franchise. Though it might mean me having to marry someone’s sister. Or worse, his widowed/divorced mother.

Galicia Facts

This region of around 3 million people has 9 – possibly 10 – local newspapers. For the life of me, I can’t understand how they can all be viable. Especially as the Spanish are said to be poor buyers of dailies. It’s whispered that money flows from the town councils, in return for appropriate content, but I’ve no idea whether this particular conspiracy theory is true or not.

What this region also has – as the Galician Nationalists rightly say – is the wrong clock. We really should be on the same time as Portugal and the UK. But we’re not. So it doesn’t get light at the moment until after 7. But every cloud has a silver lining and, for larks like me who can’t sleep in whatever time they go to bed, the compensation is that the dawn chorus works its magic around 7.15, at a time of the year when it’s warm enough to open the window so as to enjoy it to the full. Why, today I even got to see the first hesitant flights of a fledgling blackbird. Just before my neighbouring Catalans’ cat got it. No, I made that up. The Catalans’ cats don’t come in my garden any more. Something frightened them off. I suppose. Possibly my ageing dog’s habit of breaking wind every three minutes.

The Pontevedra council has announced it’s actually going to do something about the binge-drinking [el botellón] which blights the old quarter throughout two or three nights a week. From mid-year, this will only be allowed across the river in the recinto ferial, the city’s fairground. Any youngsters found drinking in the streets within the city itself will be prosecuted. Well, we’ll see. I have my doubts. Though it has to be said this has been achieved in Madrid and other cities, albeit by employing hundreds of police officers to block off traditional stamping grounds.

Down in my favourite plaza/praza, one’s calm can be disturbed by the feral pigeons which plague the place. Nothing has ever been done to frighten these off, even in the shape of a phoney hawk perched on the rooftops. Worse, some people are dumb enough to feed these vermin their allocation of free peanuts. But the pigeons were absent yesterday, which struck me as rather mysterious. Until, that is, I looked up to see a huge seagull perched on a nearby bench and eyeing me with malicious intent. For some reason, I thought of pirates, ransoms, appeasement and ever-larger threats. But, being without my rifle, merely removed my peanuts from view. The furious bird flew on to the next table and sent the ashtray crashing to the ground, before screeching off in what sounded very much like Somali to me.

Does anyone know where I can get a plastic sparrow hawk? I don’t take my farting dog into town.

I mentioned the other day that St George’s Day [23 April] would probably be celebrated rather more in Georgia than in England. What I overlooked is that the Catalan for George is Jordi and so the dragon-slayer is big in the North East of Spain as well. Needless to say, in a region always keen to celebrate its nation status, things are taken to the other extreme from England. The words “refuge” and “rogues” spring to mind. Not to mention “Scottish”, “British” and “ Brown”. And “end in tears”.

In Leeds, where my younger daughter lives, she puts all her recyclable items into one [green, of course] bin and everything else into a traditional black bin. I wondered why the former weren’t separated into different materials but the answer came in a TV program this week. It all goes to a central municipal facility, where it’s hand-sorted into plastic, paper, etc. In contrast, here in Spain we put our bottles, plastic, paper and household waste into different containers in the street, to be emptied at different intervals. However, given that at least some of my neighbours seem to be rather confused as to what constitutes ‘paper’ and ‘plastic’, I wonder whether, as in the UK, everything isn’t later re-united in one huge sorting facility. If so, it might explain the doubling of the charges over the last few years.

Still on an Eco theme – If you’re someone who not only fears the consequences of global warming but also sees CO2 emissions as the main factor, you might like to know that “Projected emissions of greenhouse gases from the global south would trigger dangerous climate change even if the north were to cut its emissions to zero tomorrow”. The answer, it seems, is to transfer humongous amounts of money from the north to the south to bribe them to stop developing. Easy, peasy. Click here for the details.

Talking about municipal services and charges, I read this morning that a full 20% of municipal taxes in the UK now goes to finance the final-salary schemes of Britain’s growing battalions of officious bureaucrats. Given that these schemes have all but disappeared from the private sector because of government tax measures, this is little short of scandalous. Or, as I’ve said before, a particular form of corruption. Where is Wat Tyler when you need him?

A relevant comment from William Chislett’s Spain going Places – “Spain has the fourth most comprehensive mandatory pension scheme among OECD countries. Future retirees can expect, under the current situation, to receive state pension benefits equivalent to 81% of their pre-retirement earnings as against 96% in Greece, at the top of the league, and 31% in the UK, at the bottom”. Of course, Spanish workers may have to keep going until they’re 68 or more. But this seems like a fair trade-off for a life of geriatric ease.

For those with an interest in the current shenanigans in Spain’s PP opposition party which can’t be satisfied by my witterings – or even by Graeme’s analyses over at South of Watford - here’s an excellent summary from someone who really does seem to know what he’s talking about. But who appears not to have much sympathy for Señor I’m-here-to-stay Rajoy. I'm indebted to John over at Iberian Notes for this.

Along with the governments of the regions of Andalucia, Asturias and Castile y La Mancha, the Galicia’s Xunta has rejected Madrid’s proposed new way of financing the country’s 17 Autonomous Communities. But, if you choose to become President of Spain, you will quickly learn – and regularly re-learn – that it certainly is possible to displease all the people all the time. This particular president – Sr. Zapatero - is also now discovering that his €400 tax rebate/electoral bribe – not payable to me and a few deserving others, by the way – will hit state finances just as tax revenues are plummeting because of lower [7%!] property tax and [16%] sales tax receipts. And not long before he has to compensate the regions for scrapping the annual wealth tax [el Patrimonio] from the end of this year. I wonder if he really believed his own assurances of a soft landing and his forecasts of continuing stellar growth. I suspect not.

It strikes me that Cataluña and Scotland have more than a couple of things in common right now, apart from the fact they’re best buddies because of shared independence goals within their governments. The left-of-centre central governments in both Spain and the UK only retain power because of seats held in Cataluña and Scotland, respectively. I guess if it weren’t for fear of the power of precedent, the PP and Tory parties would be kissing them goodbye.

The Palma politico who spent €50,000 on male prostitutes in two years, turns out to have been a pillar of the Catholic church and a man who refused to preside over gay marriages. I’d be prepared to bet he is/was a member of the Opus Dei secret society. Nice to see that hypocrisy is not confined, as the Spaniards appear to think, to Brits. By the way, his name is de Santos. Or Saintly, I guess. This explains why he has re-paid the money. Which was just lying around, it seems.

Things change. Views change. Societies change. Listening to a BBC discussion of the classic 1914 American film Birth of a Nation, I heard one critic say the people who’d made it hadn’t the slightest appreciation it was not just racist but appallingly so. Albeit astonishingly well directed. I shall think of this whenever in future anyone tells me here they’re not racist and were merely joking when they upset whomever they upset.

Galicia Facts

With the elections well over, life has returned to normal. The spat over the re-location of displaced gypsies between the mayors of Pontevedra and neighbouring Poio appears to be shifting towards outright war. The street demonstrations against gypsies – more accurately against ‘drug trafficking’ – have moved to the centre of Pontevedra. Meanwhile, the gypsies in question have moved back to the encampment near me, into houses erected where their illegal homes were knocked down a month or so ago.

The new Indian restaurant here in Pontevedra was a disappointment. Not bad in some ways but, as in the Vigo Indian, dishes described as sweet on the menu were unbearingly so. I wonder if this is an attempt to Hispanicise/Galicianise them. The usual way, of course, is to remove anything that makes the dishes hot [picante].

I seem to have got my wishes about the Portuguese workers who’ve been clogging up the street with their cars for more than two years. They appear to have disappeared from the building site opposite my house. But whether this is because their work is done, or because money has run out or because we’re in a holiday week, I can’t tell. For whatever reason, work appears to have ground to a near-halt.

The Portuguese economy has been in a bad way for some time now. So I wasn’t surprised to read that more than 50% of the workers on the nearby tracks for the twelfth-of-never high speed train [the AVE] are from Portugal. Not did I fall over when reading that 1. they’re paid a third less than their Spanish colleagues, 2. they’re denied the benefits given to the latter, and 3. the site boss was reluctant to let them be interviewed.

Asked whether they thought zebra crossing provided enough protection for pedestrians, 95% of the readers of the Voz de Galicia opined that they didn’t. Of the 5% who thought they did, 50% have since been run over.

See – Two days now without news of the printer. Which is, of course, because there isn’t any.

It’s far too soon for all the implications of Sunday’s election results to be fully known but it certainly looks as if Cataluña will play an even larger role in the determination of Spain’s destiny as a plural state. Which, in some ways, seems a tad ironic for a nationalist/separatist region. For one thing, the hard-left and less moderate nationalist parties both suffered a sizeable defeat there, which favours both the minority-governing socialist PSOE party and the moderate Catalan nationalist party, the CiU. On the other hand, I read this morning that the Catalan branch of the PSOE will veto any attempt by the PSOE government to forge a coalition with the CiU. So it’s anyone’s guess how strange the bedfellows will be once all the horse-trading is done. Perhaps the President of the Galician Nationalist Party really will be able to parlay his two seats into a pivotal role after all. He certainly thinks so. “The BNG will play a decisive role many times in this legislature”, he was quoted as saying yesterday. Not bad when you have the support of only 12% of the people even in your Galician heartlands. Political reform anyone?

Meanwhile, a few random observations:-
- The turnout was as high as last time, around 75%. Far more than in, say, Britain.
- The ETA shooting of a PSOE member may have contributed a little to this.
- The results were out remarkably quickly after the 8pm closure of the polling stations
- These were published in impressive national and regional detail in the papers the following morning. [Actually, I think I’ll invent ‘sub-national’ for ‘regional’, if someone hasn’t beaten me to it].
- In a telegenic age, it was always going to be No Contest between the PSOE’s ‘Bambi’ Zapatero and the PP’s Rajoy. Even without the rumours that Rajoy is slack-wristed. The TV debates were a mistake in principle and a disaster in practice.
- Commentators may be right that Spain has moved a little more towards a true two-party system. Unless the one-seat triumph in Madrid of a new centre-party is the harbinger of much bigger things to come. Which is rather doubtful.
- As ever, it’s clear that large numbers of people in Spain really do believe you can only be a socialist [and good] or fascist [and very, very bad]. I guess it’ll be a while yet before nuances are permitted.
- The disappearance of the Catholic Church – or at least its muzzling – would be useful in this regard.

Of course, the other big election of the last week was that of Spain’s contestant for the Eurovision song contest. The winner is so bizarre one’s forced to conclude the Spanish have reached the only sensible conclusion possible around this dreadful event and decided to take the piss. If not, they could well win.

Events shouldn’t take too long to wipe the smile off Mr Zapatero’s face. Forecasts for 2008 economic growth – as I’ve said before – decline almost every week. The latest are for 2% or even the EU average of only 1.8%, the first time Spain will have been this low for 10 or 15 years. I don’t suppose the Minister of the Economy here is too pleased about the rise of the euro against other currencies but, of course, there’s nothing he can do about it.

I thought I’d share with you this comment posted by a reader [Anonimo] yesterday. This may or may not be the same chap who’s been sending similar, albeit milder, thoughts recently: You don't like Carrefour? Then go to Tesco. You don't like Spain? Go to your fucking country. I don't mind immigration, but the Brits are the worst scum. If you read the comments to any blog in English on Spain, you’ll inevitably come across similar sentiments from aggrieved Spaniards. So, I wonder if Spanish bloggers writing in the UK get similar treatment from the Brits they upset. If there are any.

Anyway, his mention of Carrefour allows me to segue smoothly – for those interested – into . . . Customer service: Carrefour- Chapter 2
I send in the cavalry, in the form of my friend the lawyer.
MFTL: My friend who spoke to you on Saturday needs a printer and is prepared to forgo his demand for cash and to accept an exchange
Assistant: No, we can’t do that as he came more than 15 days after purchase.
MFTL: This is irrelevant. Under Clause 5 of the relevant Article, he has the right to opt for either a repair or an exchange.
Assistant: Well, OK. But [master stroke] we need to check that the machine is broken. So he has to bring back the printer and leave it with us, so that we can send it to our technical service people.
MFTL: But why, when he has a right to a replacement and this will leave him without the printer he needs, possibly for weeks.
Assistant: Well that’s all we’re willing to do. If it really is broken, we will replace it. [Message: There’s a good chance he’s lying. The logic of which escapes me].

This is more or less what I expected. As to the next development, my guess is they’ll say either:-
1. the machine was misused by me,
2. the machine was damaged when I brought it from my house to the store, or
3. it was indeed malfunctioning but they have fixed it.
Only in the last case will I get a working printer back, possibly weeks from now. But it won’t be the new one the law says I’m entitled to. But, then, in a place where the cogwheels of justice grind exceedingly slow, the law does not have quite the respect it does elsewhere. And customer orientation suffers as a result.

Of course, the real losers in this will be Carrefour and Epson. I can easily afford to buy another printer from another manufacturer and I will never shop at Carrefour again in my life. At 40 euros a week minimum, this is €2,000 a year. Nor will I ever buy an Epson product ever again. So, this saga-ette has been translated into French and sent to the head office of both companies. This might achieve nothing but it has cost nothing, except the time in which I am rich. And you never know. Some companies would respond immediately. Though these may well be confined to the Anglosphere.

And maybe some of you will draw a conclusion from this and buy your electrical goods from a place other than Carrefour. But, if the head office turns up trumps, I will let you know.

It’s reported that the number of sharks off the Barcelona coast has risen significantly in the last few years. If this is a good thing, this will be down to excellent Catalan government. If it’s bad, it’ll surely be the fault of Madrid. With a nationalist government in power, the Scots are going to see a lot of this sort of thing over the coming years.

The ‘two week’ election period is drawing to a close. By Monday morning we’ll know the stamp of the government which is going to have to wrestle with the challenges of an economy growing considerably less rapidly than in the past 10 years or so and which will no longer mask other important problems. I quoted a few days ago the figures for new property permits over the last three years. And now we have those for housing starts over the last five, plus the construction industry’s forecast for this year. So . . .
03: 690k
04: 740k
05: 786k
06: 910k
07: 689k
08: 200k
It’s hardly surprising, then, that forecasts of unemployment in the construction sector are particularly bad. In fact, over the last six months they’ve gone from 239,000 to 305,000.

John Chappell over at Iberia Notes yesterday gave links to many of the Anglo takes on Spain’s election, and on the TV debates in particular. And you can get a trenchant view of the latter at the Puerta del Sol blog. I particularly liked this comment from Newsweek:- The two parties and their leaders behave "like 17th-century armies where one side shoots, then reloads while the other side shoots," says a political analyst at a Spanish bank. As a consequence, says William Chislett, the author of several books on Spain, "the level of disenchantment with the political system is at an all-time high." All in all, it hasn’t been an edifying spectacle and, if the right-of-centre PP party fails to win, it will have no one else to blame but itself for a poor campaign. Doubtless, there will then be blood on the carpet. Apart from that, perhaps the economy bombed too soon. As it were. People are still only too willing to blame the nasty, stupid Americans for the downturn, rather than Mr Z.

But, hey ho, someone else is always worse off. The Zimbabwean dollar has fallen to 25 million to one US dollar. With inflation at 100,000%, Zimbabweans now need to exchange about 19 kilos in weight of their own currency to secure just one $100 note. It would be funny if people weren’t dying of starvation there.

And talking of people suffering – though this time from self-inflicted wounds – here’s a bizarre site where you indulge a macabre desire to place a bet on the date at which Amy Winehouse finally pays the price for her own indulgences. As you can see, it has a Chose your ‘girlfriend’ link. I’m rather doubtful about this, while appreciating its appeal to some of those who hit this blog.

One gets used to reading and hearing of the extraordinary lengths to which Spanish parents will go to mollycoddle their offspring but I have to admit I was a tad surprised to see the Director of Prisons had built a flat for her daughter in the HQ of the relevant organisation. Her defence was even more astonishing – “It’s only a small flat. And I’ve got a right to live with my daughter". So it’s a good job she doesn’t have five or ten kids. Not that traditional, then.

If the EU now has a concerted foreign policy, what on earth is the French President doing trying to mediate between Colombia and Venezuela? Is he really only there because the lifts in his shoes make him taller than most of the people he will meet? Or is he compensating for the fact that Mrs Merkel has recently hit his Mediterranean Union firmly on the head?

Galicia Facts

Yet another kamikaze driver was arrested on the A6 between La Coruña and Lugo yesterday, after going 13km down the wrong side of the motorway. As he was only 42, we can probably rule out senility in this case. He was, of course, three times over the drink limit. But we can probably add tiredness to inebriation as a likely cause, as it was 6 in the morning when he was stopped.

In one of those endless region v. region comparisons which fill Spanish papers, we learn that Galicia is at the top end of the scale for wasp and bee stings. You’ve been warned. Property stings, on the other hand, tend to take place at the other end of the country. Or nation of nations, if you prefer.

I attended Mass with my Catholic daughter yesterday. If I wasn’t actually the second-youngest person there, it must have been close. My daughter says things are very different in her parish in the UK, raising the question of whether the Catholic Church in Spain will last much more than a single generation. Perhaps the country will be flooded, as with Britain, by Catholics from Poland. If so - and as I am still waiting after two months of broken promises - I hope at least one of them is a plumber who likes the look of Pontevedra. He could probably sustain the entire Polish economy with remittances arising from his [easy] earnings here.

The Mass was in Spanish, though I have heard them in Gallego. One wonders how long it will be before it effectively becomes obligatory to go with the flow and have them only in the local language. Probably never, as the Xunta doesn’t pay the priests’ salaries. And, if there is pressure in this direction, I suppose the Church can always play the same game and ‘normalise’ back to Latin.

Today is not a holiday in Spain. So, instead of endless TV ads for huge shop sales or holidays in the Maldives, we have the Portuguese workmen banging away at the front of the house and a pile driver doing its stuff at the back. And it’s only 9am. Which is dawn at the moment here in Galicia. Oh, and my next door neighbours have people in ‘reforming’ their bathroom, mostly by banging on the wall it seems. To say the least, my daughters are not best pleased. Especially the one who always writes until 4am.

There’s been a spate of reports recently on how much prices have risen here, not just but over the last few days, weeks or months but since the introduction of the Euro in 2002. Some of the increases are astronomical but everyone interviewed adheres to the standard line that, firstly, it’s someone else’s fault and, secondly, that everyone else is a liar.

The worst news of the week has been that, in the case of the illegal abortions is Barcelona and Madrid, the police have found foetuses with air in their lungs. This, they say, is evidence they were born alive. One doesn’t have to be religious to find this truly appalling.

And the best news? El País says four people have been arrested in the slimming products fraud in Málaga

Finally, Spanish critics say the recent Spice Girls’ concert in Madrid ‘consisted mostly of bright lights and costume changes and was not dominated by either outstanding singing or choreography’. There’s a surprise.

I mentioned the other day the Spanish economy is still motoring along at a good lick. But the news for individuals continues to be worrying. Property prices are at best static, mortgage payments are about to rise again and inflation has just taken another large kick upwards. So, more and more families are going to find it, as they say here, hard to get to the end of the month. But can things be as bad as this forecast for the UK? - “A conflation of rising borrowing costs, falling house prices and retrenchment by lenders is expected to propel personal bankruptcies, home repossessions and other debt-related pain to electorally intolerable levels. . . The Prime Minister is about to oversee a period of disastrous burn-outs. Families are more financially over-stretched than they were even in the late 1980s.” Indeed, the question arises - Can things really be this bad in the UK?

President Zapatero has learned it’s not only useful to have Spain’s various nationalist parties as your allies when it comes to general and regional elections but also that they can come in handy for a bit of divide-and-rule. He was able this week to deflect a Catalan-inspired vote of censure on his hapless Minister for Public Works by throwing some timely titbits in the direction of Navarra and Galicia. I don’t suppose the Catalans will give up; they have about a zillion bees in their bonnet and a massive sense of grievance that, being richer than other Spaniards, they pay more taxes into the distributive central coffers. Though not, it seems, as much as the Madrileños. Who are not revolting.

Talking of politics . . . The deputy PM, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, was again all over the papers yesterday. This time presiding over a meeting with TV company owners on the topical issue of tellyrubbish. For a picture, click here. I don’t know about you but she’d certainly frighten me into acquiescence.

El Mundo reported this week that 22% of university graduates don’t read a single book in a year. At first I thought this meant those actually studying, which would be truly amazing. Then I realised that, even if it means those who’ve already graduated, it’s pretty bad. But, then, reading isn’t a very popular pastime in Spain. It rather gets in the way of having fun.

And on the subject of education . . . The international organisation which ranked reading ability by country has now issued the Science results. These, too, are depressing for both Spain and the UK. Maybe I will have to entrust the education of my grandchildren – if I ever have any – to myself. Or perhaps to my border collie, Ryan.

Which reminds me . . . One or two readers have asked for more evidence of Ryan’s wisdom. Well, I’m not sure about that. After reading of events in the Sudan yesterday, he proposed his name be changed to Mohammad. Naturally, I rejected this out of hand. I have enough problems with hate mail from Galician and Basque Christians. The Catalans, though, disdainfully ignore me. Which is fine by me.

Finally - The end of November brought a couple of noteworthy searches to my blog. The first is a variation on the one I cited only a couple of days ago . . .
throwing a donkey off a church in Spain
And the second is both sui generis and so impressively precise I’m sorry I can’t oblige . . .
naked pictures of fat spanish women over 40 years old

Tales of power-mad and/or randy priests are a staple of Galician village life but you don’t expect to see them covered in the local press. Recently, however, we’ve been treated to the saga of a 75 year old priest in the border town of Tui who became a little upset when his Brazilian housekeeper was told her visa had expired. So he nipped down to the town hall and, in effect, registered her as his common law wife so she could stay in Spain. However, his bishop has taken this rather amiss and instructed him to rectify matters. And to attend confession, perhaps. You can read about it here.

Talking of humour, I see that a new magazine specialising in the Galician dark humour of retranca has just hit our newsstands. The first issue seems to be dedicated to the ugliness of much of the construction in Galicia, a well-deserved target. You can read about it here, in an article which says publication of the magazine proves Galicians can laugh at themselves. It rather depends, of course, on who’s doing the joking.

In the UK, where it’s now permitted to criticise ‘multiculturalism’, it seems things have gone even further and one is now allowed to discuss immigration and its impact on British culture. However, you must do this under the rubric of ‘population growth’, rather than ‘immigration’. Since the latter always appears high on the list of things that concern the Spanish the most, I suspect this bit of political correctness has yet to reach Spain.

En passant, this doesn’t seem like a good time to try to get anywhere by train in Cataluña. Responding to recent criticism of her apparent ineptitude, the Minister for Public Works insisted she wouldn’t resign as ‘Only cowards run away’. This, of course, is on a par with the view of the besieged head of London’s police, who said that he must stay on ‘to sort things out’. By the logic of these under-achievers, the worse you perform, the more you need to stay in your [undeserved] job. How convenient.

Talking about Cataluña, there was a nice comment yesterday from my fellow blogger, Trevor, who lives there . . . Apparently if you go to the Barcelona real estate trade fair and say you want to buy a parking space, they’ll throw in a free flat. If you can get a mortgage. (Of course the sector is not in collapse. That only happens in other countries.)

And still on this theme, it’s reported that A slowdown in the real estate sector may be to blame for the decision of a large developer in the Toledo region, known popularly as ‘El Pocero’ [Mr Drains?], to sell three of his private jets, keeping just his largest one. Tough times, obviously.

On my walk into town everyday, I pass Pontevedra’s Fine Arts School. The young women who attend this are just about the only ones in town who don’t dress in exactly the same uniform as their mothers – a pair of tight jeans and whatever top is currently the rage. Not exactly London at the peak of the punk period – or even now – but different nonetheless. And probably the only bit of teenage rebelliousness one comes across. If you discount getting blind drunk in the Friday and Saturday night botellones.

Anyway, I’m off on a short trip down into Portugal and Castile. I may or may not find a cyber café. So, until I return, my best wishes to anyone who shares my birthday today.

Largely ignored by the rest of Europe, southern Mediterranean countries have for some time been dealing with the intractable problem of thousands of would-be immigrants arriving in flimsy boats or rafts from north Africa. Most are still alive – albeit barely – but many die in the attempt. On the Italian island of Lampedusa, the inhabitants are reported to have become averse to their local shellfish, fearing it has feasted too much on human flesh. What times.

Talking of parasites, the subject of drugs in Galicia came up three times in my reading yesterday. Firstly, the British author Michael Jacobs suggested – in his Between Hopes and Memories – that a particular peninsula here has high traffic mortality because of the numbers of drug runners rushing back and forth. Secondly, another local village has held a noisy protest against the possibility that the gypsies dislodged from near me would end up living close to them, bringing a drug supermarket to their parish. And, finally, the local police provided some appropriate background by capturing another 3,500 kilos of cocaine being transported into the rías on the customary speedboats.

Actually, Jacobs was writing in 1994 and I wondered whether his speculation was soundly based. Then I recalled that a new, fast highway had been driven through the peninsula since then. And that it’s notoriously dangerous. Just a coincidence?

The other query that came to mind was the usual one of – If drug dealing and drug taking are as high here as frequently reported, why isn’t there the plague of petty crime associated with this in the UK? Perhaps the answer is the dealers and the addicts are largely the same people and can easily afford their habit.

On the economic front, bad news continues to pile up for Spain. Perhaps merely reflecting the use of a more appropriate, EU-driven formula, inflation here rose 0.9% in October to reach 3.6%. This is up from ‘only’ 2.2% at the end of August and probably accords more with what most people have long thought the true rate is. Secondly, the Economy Minister has joined the Jeremiahs by further reducing next year’s growth rate to 3%, though this is not quite as low as that of more independent commentators. Finally, a major property developer has confirmed that house prices are falling around the country. So, I guess it’s possible the ‘badwill factor’ will extend beyond long-suffering Cataluña in the five months to next year’s general elections.

As for said Cataluña, the central government in Madrid has come up with a cunning plan to ensure it can triumphantly announce the planned completion of the AVE high speed link with the capital ahead of the elections. Shuffling the options of terminating the line well outside Barcelona near the airport or by-passing this station and sticking with the aim of getting the line into the centre of the city, it has plumped for the latter. Brilliant. Whoever will notice?

Thursday is a holiday here, meaning that many people will take Friday off so as to enjoy what's called a puente or bridge. Some might do this legitimately and others might not. The railway company, RENFE, has said it’s going to fine fifteen drivers for participating in a hidden strike. All of these presented sick notes at the same time for tomorrow, causing the cancellation of some of the services between Sevilla, Córdoba and Madrid. In the UK, this is referred to as a ‘Spanish practice’. I wonder if it’s called a ‘British practice’ here.

Finally . . . A word on commenting to this blog. I recently learned that some readers were having phoney messages sent in their name. Coming on top of regular insults and messages in Gallego, this has finally pushed me to ask that all contributors register as a condition of publication. As I understand it, this doesn’t lead to any personal details – e. g. your email - becoming public information. However, for those who don’t want to do this but who still want to play silly games, messages can be sent to me personally at

Thoughts.from.Galicia@gmail.com

This address can also be used, of course, by any reader who wants to make a serious point to me alone but who hasn’t found my personal address on the web.

In his detailed response to my list of Positives about Spain, reader Xoan-Carlos criticised the Spanish working day, rightly stressing it plays havoc with the work-life balance. For those that don’t know, this is because the day is split into two chunks, separated by a long, main-meal break at what in most other countries is known as mid afternoon but here is ‘midday’ [1.30/2.00 until 4.30/5.00]. Just one of the problems with this is that the 4^th traffic jam of the day can be at 9pm, with one or both parents not getting home until 10. I mention this because the Galicians have just been polled on what they’d prefer and a whacking 74% say they’d rather have the traditional civil servant [funcionario] timetable of 8 to 3. I guess one advantage of this is they’d still have their main meal at the normal-ish hour of 3.30. This conclusion is supported by the fact only a meagre 3% opted for the traditional European day of 9 to 5. Presumably, this is because, at best, they’d be forced to have a quick lunch or, at worst, a sandwich. And at a hour which they regard as mid-morning coffee time! If the majority preference came to pass, this would, of course, simply mean that Galicia/Spain would move from one unique timetable out of kilter with the rest of Europe to another one. But I wouldn’t rule this out. After all, Spain is different. And maybe this is compulsory. One thing’s for sure, an 8-3 timetable fits rather more with the priority of personal convenience than with that of international compatibility/productivity.

The leader of the Spanish PP opposition party recently remarked, in effect, that global warming is perhaps not the most important problem facing the world. The poor man made things worse by saying he’d learnt this from his scientist cousin. What he’d failed to realise was that, with multiculturalism now officially dead, the world has a new religion. And any degree of doubt or scepticism [or even common sense] is treated as heinous heresy, possibly worthy of being burned at the stake. Even in a country which is handsomely exceeding its Kyoto emission targets. And where per capita energy use is the highest in Europe.

Up in Catalunia, there is tremendous disruption on the local railways. Ironically, the cause seems to be much-delayed work on the AVE high-speed link from Madrid. Given the nature of Catalunian politics, this is a God-sent opportunity for the traditional blame-game. As my fellow blogger John Chappell puts it - It's Day 3 of Operation Traffic Disaster in Barcelona, with the commuter trains still down and huge traffic jams on the highways leading into the city. The Socialist Generalitat [local government] is blaming the Socialist central government, and the central government is blaming the allegedly pro-PP [opposition] contractors, while the Cataloonies as usual blame some kind of sinister Madrid conspiracy to keep Catalonia down.

Actually, there’s a Galician connection with all this. Somehow, the problems in getting the AVE line through a mine en route from Madrid to Santiago has impacted on the capability of the company which is failing to construct the line up in Catalunia. But I couldn’t begin to guess exactly how. I do know that the Galician president has dismissed this as unjust, diversionary scapegoating. Which it might well be.

Spanish newspapers yesterday headlined that Spain was near the bottom of the European list as regards healthy living. Needless to say, the UK was even lower and a Scandinavian country [Sweden] was top of the pile. What was astonishing is that Portugal came second, ahead of Italy. Even more surprising was the claim that only 28% of Spaniards smoke. If so, they certainly make up for the 72% who don’t.

It was also reported that the Spanish do well when it comes to eating vegetables. Not in the country's restaurants they don't

Galicia Facts

84% of Galicians between the ages of 18 and 24 live with their parents. This is one of the reasons given by Ben Curtis for the [alleged] absence of noisy all-night parties in Spain. Kids can only throw these when they live in their own place.

The Galician city of Ferrol hasn’t figured much in this blog over the last 3 or 4 years but here’s the second mention in less than a week - In Ferrol you can get traffic fines annulled by exercising your constitutional right to receive notifications in Spanish instead of the Galician preferred by the local council. This is because the council claims it’s incapable of making a translation. Odd but potentially useful.

Talking of Galician cities - I fancy I read recently that Ourense is the coffin capital of Europe. Can anyone confirm this?

Final question - Can anyone [Biopolitical?] explain why, over the last 10 years, the prices of clothes have fallen by 52% in Ireland and by 47% in the UK but by only 3, 6, 12 and 13% in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, respectively? My confusion is increased by the claim that restrictions on cheap Chinese imports were greatest in the UK. Can this really be true?