It'll
be a long time yet before I fully understand the Spanish judicial
system. It seems that anyone is allowed to say just about anything
they like - "I think my daughter-in-law did it" - in respect
of the recent murder of an 11 year old Galician girl. Indeed, the
investigating judge appeared on yesterday's news programs, answering
questions about the case. Unimaginable in the Anglo system.
Speaking
of Spanish law . . . I mentioned the Public Prosecutor yesterday,
raising a question about his/her real role. Bang in cue, said Fiscal
has told the inquiring judge in the biggest corruption case of the
moment - and that's saying a lot - to stop investigating illegal
corporate donations to the PP governing party as this would be
"inútil, impertinente y perjudicial." Or 'useless,
impertinent and prejudicial'. I suspect there's a better translation
than this, possibly from a Spanish reader who's a lawyer.
You
mustn't run away with the idea that corruption here is confined to
politicians and businessmen. Down in Andalucia the UGT union is
accused of obtaining millions from both the regional and national
governments by inflating invoices for reimbursement of their costs. Well, it is a game for any number of players. Where the rewards are high.
Has
he no shame? The Spanish President, Sr Rajoy, stands in front of the
UN and demands that Britain re-establish the dialogue on Gibraltar
that his own government terminated a few months ago. Well, I guess he wouldn't be a politician if he couldn't do this sort of thing.
Personally, I wouldn't like to be the person having to re-start talks
with Motormouth Margallo, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I'd feel
very tempted to lean over the table and deck him.
Which reminds men . . . I'm
not sure how true this is but, if it is, it'll be a major
embarrassment to Spain - The Canary Islands government is reported to
have applied to the UN for 'decolonisation' from Spain. It says that
the islands are treated more like a colony than an autonomous region and they are fed up with sending
€4-5bn to Madrid every year, even though 45-50% of their residents
live below the poverty line. Something to keep an eye on.
Back
here in Pontevedra, most streets in our old quarter have a previous
name. For example Rúa Sarmiento used to be called Rúa de
los Jesuitos, before the latter were booted out of Spain in the
late 18th century. One of the more interesting name pairings is this
one:-
So,
a street now named in honour of F de Paula Cousiño was once called
Fried Fish Street. Bit of a
change.
Finally
. . . Some graffiti new to me:-
The
accompanying text says: "Ubicuo relapso. Six in the morning".
Your guess is as good as mine.
And
this is another one beyond my understanding:-
Finally,
this one has the handsomely-written text: One thing you should
know is that I have a friend who lives there. I know he wont refuse
to put some color to my troubles and call 'em the crawler blues. A
snatch of a song?
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