tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61314978073703329602011-11-28T00:42:40.606+01:00considered thought and opinion by Alberto Bullrich, after more than 20 years in SpainPROSPEROnoreply@blogger.comBlogger381100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-58006707619552032602010-12-18T11:37:00.004+01:002010-12-18T11:49:03.860+01:00

This is a Spanish jamón being cut as it should, in fine, almost transparent slivers. Some consider it an art. Others see it as an offence. Articles appeared recently in Europa Sur and in CampoPulse -and probably in other media as well - about a Muslim family in La Línea de la Concepción who denounced (a Spanish term meaning 'make a report or complaint') their son's teacher for mentioning ham

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-7549779951354991272010-11-09T00:48:00.000+01:002010-11-09T00:48:40.934+01:00

The answer: It looks like it. The Mayor of La Línea de la Concepción must feel pretty fed up by now. Puppets on strings usually do, don't they? They must get tired of being manipulated, surely. That's my theory, anyway. The leader of the opposition (never seen it in caps in Spain, have you?), Mariano Rajoy (PP), will go to any lengths to make life difficult for the governing party (PSOE). Maybe

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-48095244288013004312010-11-03T13:15:00.000+01:002010-11-03T13:15:25.131+01:00

The recent motherhood of a 10 year old girl in Jerez has caused consternation and much opinion in the Spanish media. The girl, a Romanian Gypsy, arrived in Spain ostensibly for a family wedding, but happened to give birth while she was here. There are an awful lot of comments throughout the Internet on this, mostly of the 'we need a Sarkozy plan in Spain to deal with them' variety. But there is

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-79297304471917753062010-11-02T13:10:00.005+01:002010-11-03T18:46:46.752+01:00

I quote directly from The Lancet: "Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) modelling showed that heroin, crack cocaine, and metamfetamine were the most harmful drugs to individuals (part scores 34, 37, and 32, respectively), whereas alcohol, heroin, and crack cocaine were the most harmful to others (46, 21, and 17, respectively). Overall, alcohol was the most harmful drug (overall harm score 72),

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-58857667058987485382010-10-18T14:12:00.001+02:002010-11-03T13:17:05.148+01:00

...as it has for altogether too long, especially when it comes to jurisdiction over waters (Sorry, I couldn't find a picture of a PMPY in the water). China and Japan are at it over a tiny island over on the other side of the world. Just across the Atlantic and a big squidge further down there are some islands that for me were the Malvinas in the morning and the Falklands in the afternoon (this

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-75053572985468254912010-10-02T10:18:00.003+02:002010-11-03T13:18:30.147+01:00

Now that's one heck of a headline. Trouble is, it's true. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton apologised to the Central American country just the other day for her country's intentional infection of some 700 unaware prisoners and mentally ill patients with syphillis and gonorrhea between 1946 and 1948, during the Harry S. Truman administration. The joint statement from Mrs Clinton and Health

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-88338953120017351342010-09-24T13:04:00.003+02:002010-11-03T14:01:23.829+01:00

Sir Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) Yes, I have a public confession to make. I am not really Alexander Bewick. And he is not me. We have been in the same closet for a number of years, we have identified with each other, we are very close. We are one and the same, Alexander and I. The surname I chose for a pseudonym some forty-five years ago comes from my mother's side of the family. She was descended

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-55769387885502740312010-07-10T19:17:00.003+02:002010-09-24T13:29:55.955+02:00

It's those wretched lepatata that threw me up against the computer to post something on this long neglected soap box. That's another, Tswana, name for the same wretched vuvuzela. I cannot stand the noise they make, can you? Vuvuzelas were sold to the rest of the world as a 'traditional instrument' before, during and no doubt after the 2010 FIFA World Cup of South Africa. But I discover that the '

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-37562377433692854002010-05-13T20:18:00.002+02:002010-05-13T20:41:38.020+02:00

Cartoon by abbé, from DominGo magazine 'dedicated to workers and pensioners' The dominoes begin to fall. It was Greece last week, now it's Spain. Portugal and Ireland are not far behind, and Britain cuts back, too, after 'unsatisfactory' elections. Cut, cut, cut. But cut what and from where and, more important, from whom? From here, some of the most drastic measures in Europe: Cut civil service

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-16037411606762578782010-04-21T10:00:00.007+02:002010-04-23T16:14:55.167+02:00

Looking at it from Spain, it certainly is. It's also an insult to Spain as well as to my, and hopefully your, intelligence. A certain local mountain rag, which shall remain nameless here forever more, recently ran a whole story on Jamie Oliver's escapades in that mountain town, apparently part of a series the cook is doing on Spanish food. Oliver is intent on making a fool of himself: he capsized

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-68580391149101472912010-04-19T23:23:00.008+02:002010-04-19T23:58:25.655+02:00

Nature has a way of taking care of itself. The Eyjafjallajokull (go ahead, you pronounce it!) volcano in Iceland  has apparently entered a calmer stage, whereby more lava and less ash (picture above) is spewing forth. Nevertheless, chaos is still spewing from just about everywhere with any connection to Europe. Anywhere in the world, that is. An entry on Wikipedia, that not entirely reliable

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-50268584722872465892010-04-16T16:47:00.008+02:002010-04-26T21:53:44.978+02:00

Falange Española de las J.O.N.S. (or its full title: Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista) is approximately translated as 'Traditionalist Phalanx Formation and National  Unionist Offensive', a difficult translation at best, particularly when imagining that 'Nacional Sindicalista' could easily have been 'Nacional Socialista' -and may well have been

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-84908210195509776082010-03-19T16:48:00.004+01:002010-04-20T00:10:44.288+02:00

Luis Roldán Ibáñez is a free man today, having spent 15 of a 30 year prison sentence in jail. At age 66 he is entitled to receive a pension although he has never returned the €10million he stole as the first civilian to head the Guardia Civil. "I have paid dearly for what I did," he says, "but there are those who got away scot free." Of course there are, lots of them, but none as corrupt as this

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-67624333687582015552010-03-04T16:26:00.005+01:002010-09-24T14:01:36.753+02:00

I confess: I used to 'follow the bulls'. A youthful fantasy that I had something, anything, to do with Hemingway. I lived in the US long enough to get pangs of nostalgia about life in Spain. That included being clued up on the 'art' of bullfighting. But something happened shortly after my return to this country almost twenty years ago, after attending a couple of bullfights. I was sitting in a

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-73672549147860599092010-02-12T18:49:00.007+01:002010-04-20T00:12:04.848+02:00

Spain, or rather it's government, is under attack from inside and out. With the EU rotational six-month presidency only six weeks in Spanish hands, Prime Minister (or President of the Government if you prefer) José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's popularity sinks below that of Opposition Leader Mariano Rajoy for the first time since the former's reelection two years ago. His party, PSOE, is down in the

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-90984894035905156652010-01-24T18:21:00.008+01:002010-03-19T17:27:25.284+01:00

Aside from the word 'earthquake' and many others associated with death and devastation in Port-au-Prince, another much more promising one that keeps coming up on the hours and hours of news is 'resilient'. It is an understatement describing the people of that unfortunate country, the first independent nation in Latin America and the first black-led republic in the world, the first to abolish

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-4134445158349739622009-03-30T17:27:00.012+02:002010-03-19T17:33:34.007+01:00

In a lingustic twist I first heard from a Polish friend -and one that would amuse my friends Prospero and Sancho- the Spanish caja de ahorros became in English a 'cage of horrors'. I mention it only because the English version in Spain is getting close to being the truth. As I write, the news is full of more horrors of the financial variety. The Spanish government took over a relatively small

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-50136030904822378452009-03-23T00:04:00.003+01:002010-03-19T17:36:44.409+01:00

There is a worrying trend spreading virus-like on Spanish television. Having no Sky or similar facility, I don’t know if the trend is spreading abroad, or even if it has come to this country from elsewhere. As though there weren’t enough problem gambling in Spain, now we have every television channel and lots of radio stations offering quick riches at all times of the day and night – there are

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-9446114504008027452009-02-23T23:22:00.009+01:002010-02-12T23:41:07.795+01:00

This is the scenario: Judge Baltasar Garzón initiates an investigation into systematic corruption in the Partido Popular (PP) of Madrid and other important cities. Arrests are made and heavy bails are set. Plenty of PP bigwigs are allegedly involved, some of whom are aforados, including a President of an Autonomous Region governed by the PP and several national and regional deputies (and more to

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-48235955139223229222009-02-16T23:21:00.000+01:002010-02-12T23:21:37.195+01:00

Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689-1755), better known simply as Montesquieu, wrote: "I believe that the thing above all which ruined Pompey was the shame he felt to think that in having elevated Caesar the way he did, he had lacked foresight. He accustomed himself to the idea as late as possible; he neglected his defence in order not to avow that he had put

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-51141553649623219952009-02-12T23:54:00.000+01:002010-02-13T00:24:39.022+01:00

Terrorists are back in the headlines. We’ve just heard of two attacks by the ‘Real’ IRA in Northern Ireland. On the inner pages of a paper, we read about Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Israel, etc. etc. We even read about ‘non-terrorist’ attacks in the US and in Germany, which by virtue of the madness of their perpetrators, create terror nevertheless. But today, March 11, marks the fifth year

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-18398547666937698752009-02-12T23:51:00.000+01:002010-02-13T00:25:31.681+01:00

The recent arrest of the Mayor of Alcaucín, Málaga, on corruption charges that include allowing building on terreno rústico, points the spotlight at a problem that is and has been recurrent certainly on the coasts if not all over Spain for a number of greedy years. Most of the buyers of holiday or retirement homes in these places are expats looking for a place in the sun. By expats I mean of any

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-31072148684567538402009-02-12T23:47:00.000+01:002010-02-13T00:26:03.342+01:00

I’m not sure why my friend Prospero at JimenaPulse posted an item about corruption in the Axarquía region of Málaga, given that his blog is about the Campo de Gibraltar. The only connection I can think of is that similar charges are rife all over the area in which I live, too. Indeed, my other blogging friend, Sancho at Tilting at Windmills, has written extensively on the subject as well. In any

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-76479758530945727142009-02-06T22:58:00.001+01:002010-02-12T23:11:57.297+01:00

Here are a couple of interesting calculations. The US is debating whether to hand over another $700 billion (let’s get those zeros right, we’re talking about $700,000,000,000, the US billion, not $700,000,000,000,000, the UK kind) to the banks. Forget the $500 billion they’ve already handed over. The world is inhabited by 6,700,000,000 people, give or take a few million born while I’m writing

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-70680896352204297592009-01-19T22:50:00.018+01:002010-02-12T22:56:43.482+01:00

The story is out in Britain about Deputy District Judge Esther Cunningham (photo), who had to be escorted from court after kissing a solicitor, swearing at an usher and insulting a prosecutor while 'fortified' with brandy. This from a disciplinary tribunal that 'found it difficult to determine the correct sanction' according to The Telegraph. Apparently, Cunningham caused uproar at a hearing in

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-15612409240559494602009-01-16T22:41:00.000+01:002010-02-12T22:49:22.520+01:00

(Image by Sorel, Vanity Fair, 2008)George W. Bush is gone. There are those who might say he was gone for a long time, even for his entire presidency. Never has a US President had such a low rating as he leaves office, a notoriously low rating period for any presidency. But does he deserve it? Probably not, as he didn’t seem to have anything much to do with his period in office. Surrounded by his

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-47342165843376946142009-01-06T22:27:00.016+01:002010-02-12T22:34:16.075+01:00

I first saw this cartoon by Pepe Medina on JimenaPulse. Titled Vida regalada, ‘A gifted life’, its simplicity carries a powerful seasonal message as does all of Medina’s work for Público, in print and online. It’s well worth having a look at for it makes you think. That is the job of cartoonists everywhere, to make us think. And a heck of a job it is: a distillation of feeling, requiring a sense

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-36817979810914735522008-12-30T20:17:00.015+01:002010-02-12T22:25:54.081+01:00

 As I am writing Israel is in its fourth day of devastation on the Gaza Strip. Palestinian dead are conservatively calculated at 360 by the Spanish media, while Israel’s are at four. Palestinian injured are close to 2000, but I don’t have a figure for Israel. Women, children and innocent civilians are predominant in both casualty lists. Palestinian, or Hamas, armaments are home-made missiles with

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-12858873616718993322008-12-15T21:52:00.048+01:002010-02-12T22:15:43.349+01:00

I don’t do it often but when I do, I have to admit to a certain frisson, which could be simply a matter of age, though that's what they want me to do. I’m not talking about sex. Well, I am, but on television and in the press. The Spanish press and television, for that is what I see more frequently. The above picture comes straight from last Sunday’s El País, and there’s more below. This time of

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-54631064692371830252008-12-07T09:50:00.000+01:002010-02-12T21:50:55.777+01:00

I came across a past copy of the Daily Express, not a paper I read often even online. Above the main headline you will see: “EXCLUSIVE: Secret squad preparing us to join euro.” I know what the political inclination of the Express is, so its alarmist tone doesn’t surprise me in the least. On Page 2 is a long article headlined, “X43m is spent on unit plotting to join euro.” (The X should be a pound

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-10826125881984336912008-12-05T07:34:00.000+01:002010-02-12T21:42:37.210+01:00

Call me old-fashioned, a wrinkly, past it, anything you like - but for the life of me I cannot understand why anyone would want to look like this. Okay, the illustration is perhaps a little exaggerated, but the fashion for mutilating one’s body has been going on for too long. The way I see it is that self-mutilation can only be a reflection of someone’s self-esteem and a pretty low one at that.

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-89607050693416065892008-11-30T21:27:00.000+01:002010-02-12T21:32:53.186+01:00

Only a few weeks have gone by since Barack Obama was elected the next President of the United States of America, and he is still surprising us. Not least for his choice of Bush’s Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, to remain in his post for the simple reason that Obama believes him to be the right man for the job. He has reportedly settled on Hillary Clinton, formerly his bitter Democrat rival

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-39320182820109617992008-10-30T21:23:00.005+01:002010-02-12T21:26:54.759+01:00

Unlike almost every other country in Europe, Spain does not have what might be called a ‘transparency law’. Sweden has had one since 1766, but only Spain, Luxembourg, Greece and Cyprus don’t have one today, while Malta has put one into motion recently. There are 78 countries in the world with one but we can surely guess that Zimbabwe doesn’t and it wouldn’t require a much imagination to take a

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-14032919454254843852008-10-11T21:14:00.001+02:002010-02-12T21:20:23.395+01:00

Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, October the 12th was a celebration of the Discovery of America, but around the 400th anniversary (1992) of Columbus’s famous voyage the Spanish-speaking countries on the American continent rose up in protest with the obvious conclusion that they hadn’t needed to be discovered, thank you very much. The Inca, Aztec and Maya empires had already existed

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-73383098795928789712008-09-30T21:05:00.000+02:002010-02-12T21:13:26.065+01:00

That’s it, George W. Bush has had to admit (temporary) defeat for his rescue of the U.S. banking system: Congress did not pass his request for $700 billion to bail out the greedy sharks of Wall Street. The world’s stock exchanges dropped like lead balloons, with Big Brother Nynex falling to hysterical lows that haven’t been seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Dow Jones Industrial

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-59337230579123352692008-09-28T21:01:00.000+02:002010-02-12T21:04:44.178+01:00

My friend Prospero, over at JimenaPulse, was boiling with indignation when we met for coffee the other day. He’s one of those people that get involved, very involved, in any bombardeo that’s going. He’d just come from a second day of demonstrations at the schools in his village, where he’s lived for almost twenty years and where his son goes to class. To make it short, he and his fellow parents

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-27431698414896761402008-09-22T20:26:00.001+02:002010-02-12T20:55:51.457+01:00

A very good friend called me on the weekend to tell me about something he and his son had gone through during the week. The boy’s mother has long been diagnosed with bi-polar disease, or what used to be called Manic-Deppressive Disorder. To use his words, “It’s one of those illnessses that tell you you don’t have it, like alcoholism.” I interpreted that to mean that she hadn’t been taking her

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131497807370332960.post-65508220769017168052008-09-17T20:13:00.005+02:002010-02-12T20:25:54.212+01:00

Northern Rock, Fannie Mae, Fannie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, XL, Alitalia, HBoss, AIG. Morgan Stanley… these are just some of the big names in the news today, most if not all of them global in the reach of their tentacles. Bankruptcies, failures, government rescues (at your and my expense), last minute bail-outs… these are just some of the panic reactions. Billions of dollars, pounds,

PROSPEROnoreply@blogger.com0