Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, January 02, 2005

One of today’s papers contains a list of the 100 most influential people in the country. The fatuity [or at least capriciousness] of these things is demonstrated by the fact that at No. 2 is one of the female Vice-Presidents whom nobody had heard of until the surprise election results of March last year. It's rather like saying that John Prescott became the second most influential person in the UK in 1997.

More seriously, developments in the Basque region have taken Spain to the verge of a constitutional crisis. Thanks to the votes of the local equivalent of Sinn Fein, the President of the Basque government has unexpectedly obtained parliamentary approval for his secessionist plans. Previously, the political arm of the ETA terrorists had rejected the proposals as too weak. No one seems to know what will happen next but one of the Catalunian nationalist parties has said, in effect, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet. Just wait until we get going!’. In an interesting twist, one of the constituent provinces of the Basque region has said that, if the secessionist master plan goes forward, then they will consider seceding from the seceding region. Presumably to stay with Spain, rather than go it alone. Interesting times.

I read tonight that Latins are always late because they are policrónico, in contrast to Northern Europeans, who are monocrónico. What this suggests is that Latins do several things at once, whereas Germans, for example, tend to stick at one thing and do it well. And on time. Maybe so but I have to admit that, when I see a Spanish driver negotiating a roundabout with one hand whilst smoking and taking a call on his mobile with the other, policrónico is not the first word which springs to my lips.

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