Spanish life is not
always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
-
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain.
Mainland Spanish is notoriously crude, and quite a shock to those coming from South America. One of the most common phrases is Cago en la madre que te parió. Or 'I shit on the mother who bore you'.">These are often shortened to La madre or La madre que te parió. Not very nice. A new abbreviation I overheard yesterday was La
madre que la compró. Or 'The mother who bought her'. Doubtless Spanish readers could come up with many more.There's corruption and corruption. This must be one of the worst recent Spanish examples.
And then there's the guy who was responsible for safety in the company - ADIF - which built the track on which 80 people were killed 2 years ago when a train came off the tracks on a very sharp curve, a few kilometres from the station of Santiago de Compostela. He's been refusing since then to speak at the inquiry into the accident. For example about internal memos which identified the risk. This is his right, it's reported.
Where would I be without The Local? Here's their list of weird Spanish Easter traditions. And the Spanish wonder why others think they're odd . . .
During my Sunday trip to Portugal I found it difficult to find a good restaurant to eat in at 2pm and ended up in a place which did take-aways as well as sit-down meals. But there was the kid I wanted on the menu as well as beef, chicken and - of course - cod. The waitress offered the establishment's 'Specials'. This turned out to be what they had available. Which was cod.
I've read that the Pontevedra provincial government is considering forcing trucks to use the parallel autovia instead of the N road (UK A road) when they pass through our bailleywick. Not before time. The bane of the N road between here and Vigo is the trucks-and-trailers taking the local cash crop - eucalyptus trees - down to wood mills in Portugal. I speak as someone who was driving one of 20 cars in a line behind one of these last evening.
I've written of an obsession with pedophilia in the UK. Attached is an article on one of the sadder consequences of this.
I've written of an obsession with pedophilia in the UK. Attached is an article on one of the sadder consequences of this.
Nutters' Corner:
THE ARTICLE
- Gordon Klingenschmitt: Katy Perry is now ruled by Satan. She doesn't just need more Jesus camps, more of the Bible, more of what her parents told her. She needs to get the devil out of her. All this after she'd said she'd given up her Christian beliefs.
THE ARTICLE
Men won't volunteer to
help the Scouts for one depressing reason: they'll be labelled
paedophiles
Ever since it was
officially recognised by Royal charter in 1912, the Scout Association
has taught British kids the type of campfire practicality
and social do-gooding that is arguably lacking in our tech-rich, late
capitalist world.
All that is in danger,
however, as the organisation is having to turn away young applicants
due to a lack of adult volunteers willing to teach them life skills
such as how to tie knots, launch watercraft and work
together to achieve a goal.
According to Bear
Grylls, Chief Scout, the waiting list is now upwards of 51,000 young
people (it was 35,000 this time last year), with an extra
17,000 volunteers needed to cope with the demand.
"Volunteering
changes us all for the better," said the adventurer and
broadcaster, who is personally responsible for at least some of the
upturn in applicants for the Scouts. "Please join me."
Sadly, the truth is
that volunteers aren’t stepping up for good reason.
The first barrier is
red tape, in the form of an exhaustive, compulsory background check,
overseen by the Disclosure and Barring Service. This was supposed to
be less bureaucratic than the Criminal Records Bureau it replaced in
2012, as it only targets “sensitive” posts with intensive contact
with young people.
Scouts volunteers are
on that list, and with some justification. In 2015,
lawyer Oliver Jeffcott claimed that his firm received calls
relating to over 150 historical cases of child abuse, after BBC
News covered the story of one of their clients.
At the time, the
Scouts' figures suggested that 48 abuse claims had been made against
the organisation since its formation in 1907,
The second barrier is a
more general red flag: the very real fear among many men who want to
work with children that they will be branded a potential paedophile.
And this leads into a
third factor. Since 2007, it has been compulsory for girls to be
admitted to the UK Scouts (no reciprocal agreements allow boys into
the Brownies or Girl Guides). This drive to encourage “cross-gender
participation” was a huge success: there are 83,363 female members
aged between 6-25. But it's possible that this boom has exacerbated
the shortage of adult male volunteers willing to come forward.
A similar negative
dynamic is at play in our schools. Surveys show that there is a
woeful shortage of male school teachers, especially at primary
level, at a time when every education expert worth their salt admits
that schools are crying out for positive male role models.
The General Teaching
Council for England statistics show that only 26,208 men were working
as primary school teachers, compared to 185,023 women. A quarter of
primary schools have no male teachers at all.
Worse, in 2016 there
were just 48 male teachers in state nurseries, and only three are
under the age of 25. Why? In an echo of the Scouts' predicament,
former Education Secretary Michael Gove previously admitted
that rules around adult men and children made normal contact “a
legal minefield”.
A male pal of mine, who
would have made an amazing school teacher, summed it up: “It’s
not worth the risk. One accusation from a kid, teen or a mother you
p***ed off and your career is over”.
Due to systematic
failings that meant vile paedophile Jimmy Savile escaped
justice, there is now a foreboding sense that every decent, ordinary
man must be scrutinised as if they are capable of the actions of the
very worst.
So it is we cannot
recruit Scout helpers, nor teachers. Next up: Santa Claus. Young
kids sitting on your knee as you give them gifts? Looks a bit pervy,
doesn’t it?
To our shame, we have
allowed male Scout leaders, teachers and any men working with
children to become nudge-nudge, wink-wink figures of suspicion and
ridicule.
Part of the blame must
reside with the toxic, feminist, politically-driven whispering
campaign that “all men are potential rapists”. Modern
masculinity has been put in the dock, and there it appears to remain.
Today, we have 51,000
wannabe Boy Scouts who are sitting on their iPads because we cannot
recruit enough men to help them gain priceless life skills. In
schools, boys are now out-performed by girls at all levels of
education, especially poor, white, working class boys, who seem
doomed to a life of servile jobs nobody else wants.
It is a bitter irony
indeed that, in the Boy Scouts, where youngsters are taught to start
fires, an attitude of “no smoke without fire” around the male
adult-child interface is preventing them from even learning the
practical skill in the first place.
Most tragically, by
treating much-needed male mentors like monsters-in-waiting, we are
damaging the education and life skills of an entire generation of
innocent young men and boys.
No comments:
Post a Comment