I’ve seen some inconsiderate parking here in Spain but I’ve never felt like assaulting any of the perpetrators. Earlier this week, though, a fight developed in our local resort, Sanxenxo [‘The Marbella of Galicia] when one young man took exception to the parking of another. The affair ending with a stabbing and, when I read that the knife-wielder was a ‘foreigner’, I feared the worst. Colombian gangs along our coast. But it turned out he was only from Madrid. So not that foreign.

When I came to Spain, my new bank charged me handsomely for taking my savings into their coffers. To say the least, this rather annoyed me. So I was pleased to later hear this practice had died out. But yesterday I read the Bank of Spain had given 45 financial institutes the right to reintroduce it. So, all you Brits fleeing the UK are now forewarned. Coincidentally, yesterday’s papers spoke of a significant rise in bank profits. In the past, I mean. Not in the future.

Well, Spain may not have achieved its Kyoto commitment but I’m pleased to say that, according to our local paper, the city of Pontevedra can make this proud boast. The world can sleep calmer in its bed tonight.

Galicia Facts: It now costs an average of 8.1 times your salary to buy a flat in Galicia, up from 3.1 twenty years ago. This might explain why there are said to be 214,000 empty flats here. Though I don’t know how they can know this, given the general reluctance to be over-accurate with tax submissions. Or any submissions, for that matter.

Spain’s statistics bureau says that fires in the country can be attributed in the following percentages:

Irresponsible farmers – 31

Negligent cattle farmers – 22

Pyromaniacs – 8

Careless folk - 7

Conflictive asocial individuals – 3 [Feuding neighbours?]

Important ‘Señores’ – 3

Interested ‘Misters’ – 1 [Money bag symbol. Dollar, of course]

Interestingly, only 1% of those responsible are caught.

Finally, once more into the breach . . . A couple of days ago, there was an article about Gallego in the Voz de Galicia, by Xavier Alcalá. Here’s a translation but, as it was actually in Gallego, I can’t guarantee its accuracy. I had hoped to cite the original – for checking by Xoan Carlos – but the archives of the paper don’t appear to have it. What I really want to know is - What is the author recommending? More imposition? Or less? Greater compulsion or more freedom? Is the tone one of resignation or one of determination that things must change for the protection and advancement of Gallego? Compulsory night-school classes for recidivist Spanish or Castrapo speakers?

Agonising Bilinguism

A French travel magazine says “The Galician patois greatly resembles Portuguese”. An Argentinean writer, visiting the land of his ancestors, insists “Gallego is Spanish larded with Portuguese words”. A Romanian philologist on a summer course given by Impais asks why – based on her knowledge of Spanish brought from Romania – she understands Gallego-speakers better than others. An engineer from Braga [in Portugal] insists that when he hears Gallego well spoken, with its own vocabulary and pronunciation, it seems to him he’s listening to Portuguese.

The main problem for Gallego is that it doesn’t exist as a unified language based on a social mass with sufficient size to feed or create speaking norms. Although it is clearly codified and available for general use, only a cultivated group uses it in accordance with this code, less so for the majority who spoil it in various ways; everyone has his own private ‘patois’, one or other form of Castrapo [mixture of Spanish and Gallego] more or less akin to Spanish.

In the face of this anarchy there can only be the discipline with which all languages become fixed and grow within a community; its study. This obviously appears inimical to the ‘Harmonic bilinguism’ [more accurately, ‘Agonising bilinguism’] of the last few decades. But, when the country’s signatories[?’sinaturas’?] and declarations of the Defenders of the People [Ombudsmen] and other big-wigs [señorias] oppose impositions, one is entitled to wonder if anyone wants there to be ‘Correct bilinguism’: With two languages spoken correctly, studied, letting each person chose his/her primary language for his feelings and thoughts