Spain's mint-new
political party, Podemos, is now a fully fledged, grown-up party. It
has its first corruption scandal, with the No. 3 in the organisation
admitting tax evasion. Things can only get bigger now.
Talking of corruption .
. . Investigators down in Andalucia have upped their estimate of EU
funds diverted into local pockets and bank accounts - en route to
Switzerland - from a mere €2 billion to more than €3 billion.
Serious money indeed. As elsewhere in the EU, no doubt, Spanish
fraudsters must have been astonished at how easy it was to con the
bureaucratic mess that is Brussels by setting up phoney training
companies, complete with phantom personnel and trainees. It's all
very reminiscent of the huge flax scandal of 1999, which involved no
actual flax but shedloads of money transferred to relatives of the
Minister of Agriculture here in Spain. Mind you, the Andalucian
miscreants were clearly wrong in believing they'd never be nabbed.
Though probably correct in believing they'd keep the money if they
were.
Doesn't the EU have a
High Representative for Foreign Relations, or something like that?
So, why did negotiations with Russia over the Ukraine involve only
the leaders of Germany and France? And will the other 26 members of the
EU agree with the deal they're said to have struck last night? All
very odd. Suggesting once again that the only 2 countries that matter
are (strong) Germany and (weak) France. Both of whom, interestingly
enough, have close commercial ties with Russia. Including a couple of
very expensive but embargoed ships in the case of France. All for two
and two for all?
You'd wonder what
compels people to do it but another group of people has been snapped
displaying the Franco flag and giving the Nazi salute. This time it
was members of the youth wing of the governing PP party. It was all
just a joke, of course, but they've had to resign nonetheless.
An interesting
statistic - 1 out of 5 fish we eat is illegal. Of course, this is an
average and some parts of the world will be worst than others. Our
nearby port of Vigo used to have a dreadful reputation but I have no
idea how things are these days. Perhaps a lot better since the EU put
its Fisheries Control Agency there. Bloody criminal, if not. A quick
search suggests things have moved to Argentinean waters, to the
annoyance of Buenos Aires.
A well-known Gallega
has passed away. She's María Romero, who was an actress but also,
far more importantly, a dubber. A versatile woman, she was the voice
of Sophia Loren, Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, Jessica Tandy and Kathy Bates.
More recently, she did Mildred in the comedy series George and
Mildred so loved by the Spanish. All this may seem very strange to
foreigners, even our Portuguese neighbours, but dubbing is a huge
industry here, thanks to Franco censorship, and I suspect it will
remain a bar to English learning for some time to come.
Finally . . . The
kiddies' board game known as Snakes and Ladders in the UK is called
Chutes and Ladders in the USA. Wonder why. Was it considered
snakeist?
Finally, finally . . . A Spanish view of George and Mildred:-
Finally, finally . . . A Spanish view of George and Mildred:-
Un clásico de la
comedia británica
La primera vez que los
Roper aparecieron en televisión fue en los años 70 en el gran éxito
británico Un hombre en casa. El matrimonio formado por Mildred y
George, una pareja desternillante y refunfuñona, ejercía como
vecino de los protagonistas de aquella serie, Robin, Chrissy y Jo,
pero su popularidad creció de tal forma que tuvieron su propia
serie, derivada de la primera. Mildred (encarnada por Yootha Joyce)
encarnaba a una mujer amargada por el especial carácter de su
marido, al que llamaba por su nombre con un tono especial que la hizo
célebre. George (Brian Murphy) representaba a un hombre vago y
remolón al que, en español, dotó de un especial timbre de voz el
actor Rafael de Penagos.
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