Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Animal rights activists released 15,000 mink up near La Coruña this week. As these were bred in captivity [the mink, not the activists], most of them are doomed to die of starvation. It seems an odd way to protect animals. By the way, the Spanish word for mink is ‘visón’. Given that ‘v’ is pronounced as ‘b’, I was initially rather confused by a headline which I thought read that 15,000 bison were stomping across La Coruña province.

A couple more ‘linguisms’ – 1. The Spanish for ‘Christian name’ [unusable nowadays, of course] is nombre de pila. This is because a pila is a font. 2. Someone was reported yesterday to have assaulted a woman coming out of un afterhours. This is defined in my dictionary as an ‘after-hour club’. I have no idea what this is but assume it is yet another euphemism for brothel. As if they were needed in a country where no shame apparently attaches to their blatant existence and use.

One of Spain’s largest narcos [drug dealer] has just been released on bail of only 12,000 euros. Which must make sense to someone, I guess. He is Galician, by the way. Like designing/making women’s clothes [Zara], this is one area where we excel.

Galicia Facts

In 2005, Galicia’s economy grew at a slightly lower rate than Spain’s but per capita income rose. This is because the population reduced yet again, with 25,000 more people leaving the land. No wonder there are cheap houses for Brits to buy up in the hills. But not as cheap as they were last year.

Two out of three of the people toiling in Galicia’s fields are women. Who can blame them for wanting to give up this unequal burden and to flee to the cities?

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