No
sooner do I say no one's expecting much violence on Spanish streets
than Resistencia
Galega
sets fire to a couple of large rubbish containers, or contenadores.
This, though, was almost certainly a blow in favour of Galician
independence, rather than a protest against government policies. And
it probably didn't make the national papers.
I
mentioned court pardons last night. Here's a bit more information on
that subject - Drug
trafficking, violent robbery, injuries resulting in permanent
disfigurement, embezzlement, abuse of authority, murder, sexual
abuse, torture, pimping, and a long list of etceteras. Just about
every offence imaginable is pardoned by the Spanish government every
year. Over the course of 2012, the administration of Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy has issued 468 pardons, a similar figure to that of
previous governments. The law that allows the government to issue
pardons dates back to 1870, and allows it to do so without having to
give any account or explanation.
Coincidentally,
a leader in today's El
Mundo railed
against this sort of thing, labelling it scandalous - Nuevamente
la corrupción de dirigentes políticos va a quedar impune porque eso
es lo que supone el pacto suscrito ayer por la tarde entre la
Fiscalía de la Audiencia de Barcelona y las defensas de los acusados
en el caso Pallerols, en el que se dilucidaba la financiación ilegal
de Unió Democràtica de Catalunya (UDC).
I
also mentioned banks, of course. Todays' news is that there are now
30 senior executives of Bankía in the dock. The bank was formed from
the merger of 6 or 7 of Spain's infamous savings banks(cajas).
A development which seems to have allowed insiders to continue to
play their old games, but on a larger scale.
Argentina's
president, Cristina Kirchner, is having a bit of bother with an
uppity actor, who's wanting her to explain how the net worth of she
and her husband rocketed upwards during their years in power. Her
response so far has been the very Hispanic one of “Y tú más”.
Or “You too but more so”. Then she couldn't take a plane because
it had been embargoed because of non payment of bills, forcing her to
use a British back-up. Which hasn't stopped her firing off another
salvo about the Falklands/Malvinas islands. If events in Venezuela
are anything to go by, a better bet to lift her ratings would be to
announce she's got suspected breast cancer.
Finally
. . . Watching the news in a bar tonight, I was rather taken aback
when the Sports reporter stopped talking about a football match and
started promoting a brand of yoghurts. I was just getting my head
around this when the weatherman segwayed into an ad for a health
insurance company. So I was almost expecting the anchorman on the
next show to do something similar. Which he duly did, along with a
couple of large puppets. I wonder if this sort of thing is done
elsewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment