Dawn

Dawn

Monday, May 08, 2006

According to the Diario de Pontevedra, there are 400 prostitutes in the city, 320 of whom are from Latin America. The newspaper placed this report on its front page, just below a picture of 3 priests officiating at Mass in nearby Marín. An encapsulation of modern Spain, it struck me.

Still on matters Catholic - Galician families spend an average of €3000 on a child’s First Holy Communion, usually obtained on credit. The cash, that is, not the child. And this is in the second poorest region in Spain. God only knows what it must be in Madrid and Barcelona. But I trust it makes Him happy.

After 5 years of hassle, I finally closed my account with the BBVA bank today. The junior ‘adviser’ with whom I dealt treated me with great courtesy, perhaps because she was new. She asked me if I had any complaints about commissions and if I wanted to see my ‘personal adviser’. When I replied there were always problems with the bank’s frequent and extortionate commissions but added that I didn’t want to see the gentleman in question, she said I must be very angry. And added that she was sorry to have met me in such circumstances. The teller at the counter, on the other hand, treated me with a disdain bordering on contempt as he handed me my final balance. Presumably because I’d committed the mortal sin of closing an account. Water off a duck’s back now. I departed with a lighter tread. And a very final Adios.

A Europe-wide survey shows reveals the Spanish to be amongst the least ‘Community minded’ citizens of the EU. Well, no one worries about a golden goose until it dies, do they? Least of all the BBVA.

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