The Pope says choosing not to have children is
'selfish' and that a society which doesn't surround itself with
children is 'depressed'. He himself, of course, is childless. And, being celibate, is likely to remain so. Ditto the entire Vatican
state. As someone once said, it's easy being pro-children when you've
no kids to manage and pay for. JC, of course, was in a similarly
privileged position. Though some do say he wasn't. But he does suffer
little children to come unto him. The less said about priests and
children the better.
Under a 2007 law
brought in by the last Socialist (PSOE) government, we aren't supposed to have any Francoist symbols left on show anywhere in
Spain. But we do. Pontevedra, for example, has at least 2 of them in the
form of shields on buildings, though we long ago ditched the
street names in honour of his psychopathic generals. Anyway, a lawyer has now
brought suits against 38 Spanish mayors for retaining Francoist
symbols on their municipal buildings. It'll be interesting to see how
many of them succeed in arguing they can keep them because they're
"of artistic or architectural significance", or "part
of a religious space". Those who can't could see themselves
suspended for up to 2 years. Which is more than they'd get for
financial skulduggery, I suspect.
Another good thing the
Socialist government did was to extend peace feelers towards
Gibraltar and to try to take the heat out of the situation. All very
sensible but, within days of coming to power, the right-of-centre PP
party boasted it had a mandate to reverse the policy - as if the
electorate had given it a second's thought. Anyway, under the
aegis of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sr José 'Motormouth'
Margallo, things go from bad to worse. His latest announcement is
that he's closing the Cervantes Institute there. On the grounds that
no one needs to be taught Spanish in Gibraltar because everyone
speaks it there except the apes. I thought I'd seen a reference to
him saying even the donkeys spoke Spanish in Gibraltar. But I must
have been mistaken. Perhaps it's just that a donkey - and now an ape
- springs to mind when I see or hear Margallo's name. By the way, 20
students are currently taking Spanish courses at the Cervantes
Institute in Gib. Presumably all apes.
Next week sees our
pre-Lenten Carnival, when a range of funereal activities ends with
the immolation of a huge parrot, called Ravachol, a week today. This
follows a procession of wailing female mourners, many of whom are
men in drag. So, not a good time to chat up anyone in a veil and
fishnet tights. Elsewhere along the coast, the corpse is usually a
sardine. Anyway, I went to the relevant web page and was surprised
and pleased to see a version in English. Sort of: Random wanted that
Ravachol was died in Carnival time and its grief, according to the
chronicles of the year 1.913, was a massive show. The real big day of the Carnival is Friday´s
Carnival when neighbours go out rigorously wearing mourning clothes
to celebrate the funeral of the parrot Ravachol, forming a massive
courtship. More here. BTW: 'courtship' = cortege.
Possibly more
spectacular will be Valencia's fiesta of Las Fallas in mid March.
These include huge papier-mâché figures - ninots
- satirising politicians, actors and other famous folk from around the
world. I must get to see it one day. Meanwhile, here are some pix,
from The Local.
Finally . . . You may
have seen the pictures of semi-naked women prostrating themselves on
the bonnet(hood) of the car taking Dominique Strauss Kahn to court. What you actually saw will depend on the country you were in. In the
UK, the breasts were pixellated out. Whereas in France the women were
'fully anatomically correct', a phrase I once heard in a US ad for a
baby doll. I didn't see what was shown in Spain but I guess the
breasts also featured largely here. In close-up. These (ex)Catholic countries
are not known for their Puritanism. What I want to know is whether
the current head of the IMF was also involved in DSK's orgies. If so,
is it ungallant to say it would be obvious to even DSK that money was
changing hands?
By the way . . . Does
anyone else think DSK is stretching credulity when he claims he
attended ('only') 4 orgies a year at which he was serviced by
gorgeous, sex-mad young women who were just 'libertines' who were
there, not for money, but because they were attracted to him and his
power? I suppose it's possible he's so arrogant he did actually
believe this. Sorry, but it reminds me of an old joke to which the
punchline is: "They weren't pimples on her bum; that was the
price in braille." Go figure.
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