Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, March 02, 2014

Spanish kids; Dirty work at the banks and embassies; Presidential nonsenses; and Brothels etc.


I doubt there's many North Europeans residents here who haven't looked at the indulgence shown to Spanish kids and wondered what sort of adults they'd grow up to be. In his book, Ghosts of Spain, Giles Tremlett writes about the glorious Spanish Family and its adored and spoilt star-turn - the child. . . . If life has been getting better continuously and rapidly over the past three decades, one type of Spaniard has done even better than the rest. That Spaniard is the child. The imperious little princes and princesses of the, now typical, one or two-child family are a wonder to behold. The centre of attention of parents, grandparents, neighbours, aunts and uncles and an endless list of admirers, their life is as golden as it can get. There are, of course, many exceptions but it seems that childhood is often an obligation-free experience. I cite all this as a lead in to a news item of this week that violence by teenagers against parents has risen alarmingly in Spain. They kids lack boundaries, apparently, and "girls are just as abusive and aggressive as boys". Who'd have thought it? I thank my lucky stars I've only got the tots that run into me on their plastic motorbikes while their mothers look on and smile.

The spanish dimension. Bankia is a bank formed from several weak savings banks. It hasn't been a huge success, partly - it seems - because its management has had some difficulty distinguishing clients' money, the bank's money and their own pockets. An astonishing 30 of them are now having to answer questions in relation to charges of fraud, embezzlement and the falsification of accounts.

Here in Galicia we can't compete; Banco Pastor can only only offer its former chairman, who's been charged with forgery and fraud. It seems the company accounts for 2008, 2009 and 2010 were 'forged' to show the bank was solvent when it was actually in the process of declaring itself bankrupt. What next?

Oh, yes: The Spanish Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been fired after he was caught selling Spanish visas for €2,900 each. The clever bugger realised he was being investigated and immediately put in a report about someone on his staff selling the visas. Not clever enough, though.

Ex-President Zapatero has put forward an interesting argument for why senior Spanish politicians shouldn't be expected to speak English. This, he said, would deprive poor kids of the chance to reach office. I'm still trying to work out if this is brilliant or inane. But am tending in the latter direction

In his recently State of the Nation address, the current President Rajoy offered the pre-election promise that income tax would be reduced for those earning less that €12,000 a year. Either no one had done the homework or he thought voters would be too dumb to figure it out for themselves but it seems the average individual will save a mere €49 a year. Or €1 euro a week. Way to go, Mariano!

Finally . . . To say the least, "brothels are a common sight in Spanish cities. And prostitutes, often scantily-clad at most, line many roadsides throughout the country." Every now and again there's an 'exposé' in one of the serious papers or a documentary on the TV and then the subject goes away for 2 or 3 years. Now, though, outrage has been caused by a plan to provided a 'career development course' for aspiring prostitutes. This, some fear, will make Spain the "whorehouse of Europe". Sorry to say, folks, it's a bit late for that.


Note: British TV: For those affected by the recent move of FTA programs to a new satellite: If you now find your BBC programs broken up by rain, try the Northern Ireland channels (957 and 969) as these seem to provide the best signal. God knows why.

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