Tragedy in Burma: 25,000 dead after a typhoon. I hope the US Navy is in action right now, bringing in food and medicine, no matter how awful and repressive the government is, and even though probably half the aid will get stolen by people by people who will profiteer off it.

Note the difference between Burma and Louisiana. In Louisiana, even though the city and state governments completely bungled the whole operation, from evacuation to relief, only about a thousand people died. Media hysteria didn't help, of course. But at least Louisiana, admittedly America's little corner of the Third World, had the infrastructure and organization to do something. Burma doesn't, largely because its government is corrupt, tyrannical, and xenophobic. So the country had no warning system or evacuation plan or, apparently, anything else.

Nobody's blamed global warming for this yet, though I'm sure it'll happen soon.

Food prices: Oils are up 41% over the past year, wheat flour up 28%, sterilized milk 24%, and dried pasta up 20%. Canary Islands bananas are up 19%, oranges up 15%, fresh chicken 13%, and eggs 11%. Prices that have dropped: fresh tomatoes down 17%, potatoes down 7%, onions down 7%, carrots down 5%, and lettuce down 4%. So this is good news for us salad-eating vegetarians. The cost of the official food of Spain, the tortilla de patatas, stays about the same, with eggs up but potatoes and onions down.

Note: Spanish people say Canary Islands bananas taste better than Latin American bananas. I can't tell the difference, myself.

Get this. Spanish judges have handed down 270,000 penal sentences that have not been carried out. That means there are a hell of a lot of people out there who ought to be in prison but are just walking around free, and quite possibly committing more crimes. One of the reasons for the delay is that there was a strike by the judicial civil servants, which balled things up for a while, but the two main reasons are 1) the wheels of justice grind far too slow and 2) they don't have enough prison space.

What I would do is imprison only violent criminals, and I would imprison them for a good long time. The rest of society needs to be protected from these people. There are other ways to punish non-violent criminals. What I'd do to economic criminals, from bad-check writers to fraudsters to corrupt politicians, is sentence them to poverty for a term of years. They wanted to get rich by breaking the rules? Force them to be poor, make them live in public housing and work at McDonalds. This punishment would allow these lawbreakers to keep their physical freedom, but lose their economic freedom.

Here's some guys I'm all in favor of putting in jail: They busted five pro-ETA punks who'd been committing street terrorism in and around Baracaldo. Among other things, they completely wrecked a commuter train station, torched a couple of city buses, and firebombed local PNV headquarters.

Former Barça star midfielderJosep Guardiola will be FC Barcelona's next coach, according to TV3. I think it's a good hire; I like the idea of hiring young coaches with recent playing experience. Let's just hope Guardiola can discipline these guys, because the clubhouse got out of control in Rijkaard's two last years. Rumor has it that Liverpool will make an offer for Abidal, that Edmilson will go to Newcastle, and that Ronaldinho may wind up at Manchester City, of all places.

There's a story in La Vanguardia saying that Ronaldinho failed a physical, supposedly for AC Milan, and that he's so badly out of shape that he can't play at all. This may be why Berlusconi announced that Milan was no longer interested in him. Right now the question is whether to let him play the last home game of the season as a last hurrah, and the answer will probably be no.

TV3's Washington correspondent has set up an election blog. Today he reports that he challenged a Republican voter in Indiana who said that Obama didn't have enough experience with, "And what experience did Ronald Reagan have?" Well, he'd been governor of California for eight years, the corporate spokesman for General Electric, the president of the Screen Actors Guild, one of the leaders of the anti-Communist backlash in Hollywood, a successful movie actor, and a pioneer radio announcer, and he came from a much poorer family than Obama did. Reagan is the only US president to have been the president of a labor union. Obama, on the other hand, is a professional politician who's been in the US Senate for two years, and before that was in the Illinois state senate. He's done nothing else but write self-justifying books and hang out with Chicago black nationalists and sixties-leftover ex-terrorists.

Angel Acebes announced he was officially stepping down as PP secretary general. Good. Manuel Pizarro, to have been Rajoy's economics minister had the PP won, is going to resign his seat and go back to the public sector. They've also announced that the convention will be June 20-22 in--guess where--Valencia.

La Vanguardia says there's an informal alliance between Valencia and Catalonia to work together in the common interest, claiming that Valencian premier and PP heavy hitter Francisco Camps wants more Catalan-style financial autonomy for his region, that he wants better transport infrastructure between the two cities, and that he wants to form a strategic alliance to counterbalance the power of Andalusia and Madrid. Camps is willing to compromise on the water issue and on linguistic politics.

Barcelona and Valencia have historically been enemies; Barcelona sees itself as Madrid's rival for the number 1 spot in Spain, and Valencia as an ally of Madrid. Valencia has always seen itself as Barcelona's rival for the number 2 spot in Spain, and would rather play second fiddle to Madrid, which it sees as the unquestioned number 1, than to Barcelona. In addition, Valencia holds a grudge over what it sees as Barcelona's veto of the damn water plan.

All this leads to incredibly silly controversies over whether Valencian is a form of Catalan or an independent language. It's also made Valencia into the PP's strongest region. Hypothesis: Camps, a Rajoy ally, knows that the PP needs to win a lot more votes in Catalonia if Rajoy is to be elected in 2008.

The prices of food imported into the Eurozone increased by 28% in 2007. Highest increases: Oils, up 43%, and grain, up 33%.

Get this: Barcelona's homeless are moving out of the Old City to outlying areas like Montjuic because young local drunks and Romanian gypsies beat and rob them. That's disgraceful and cowardly, victimizing the weakest among us, going so low as to steal their blankets. They've got a problem with homeless people at the old hospital in the Raval, which is now a library and art school, who have moved into the courtyard en masse. Maybe for protection in numbers, I don't know.

Remember Borat's hometown in Kazakhstan? That was actually filmed in a Romanian gypsy village.

The Spanish press is making a big deal about the US State Department's report on terrorism and what it said about Spain. To wit:

1) Spain is "an important transit area at a strategic crossroads...a logistical base" for terrorists operating in Western Europe 2) Jihadi terrorists travel from Spain to Iraq 3) Most Islamist terrorists operating in Spain are North African 4) Spain's government has "acted aggressively against terrorist recruitment" and arrested 47 suspects in 2007 5) "Spain cooperated closely with the US to investigate and pursue terrorists...Spain was the first EU country to sign an agreement to exchange information on suspected terrorists" 6) The trial of the 3-11 terrorists was "exhaustive, deep, vigorous, and transparent" despite public emotion and high political tension 7) "Spain's government and citizens are aware that Spain is a major target of Islamist extremism and terrorist acts."

I'm not so sure about number 7, and it was probably Aznar's government that signed the agreement on exchanging information, but in general that sounds pretty positive, giving credit where credit is due.

Barcelona beat a Valencia team that didn't bother to show up 6-0 last night, but it didn't matter because Real Madrid clinched the League title with a 1-2 victory at Osasuna. Congratulations to Madrid, which I don't think is a very good team, but it has proven that it's by far the best of the not very good teams in the Spanish league. Milito popped an ACL and is out for six months. Rumors have Barça interested in Poulsen, Navas, Torres, and Coloccini. Some reporter followed Ronaldinho around the night before Barça played at Man U, when Ronnie was supposedly injured; he stayed out drinking and dancing "in good company," until at least 5 AM, when the reporter packed it in. Now AC Milan is backing off on its offer to buy him.

Too bad. He was such a good player for three years here, and he was really having fun out there. He seemed like a nice guy, which some jocks are not. The fame and high living got to him, though. I'll bet he has a couple more pretty decent years in him, but the rest of his career is going to be an injury-laden disappointment.

Quick news brief before we take off for Vallfogona for the four-day weekend. It's International Commie Day. They had the usual union marches this morning, and a few thousand people came out: I remember twenty years ago they really managed to pull off mass demos, but now it's all rather perfunctory, as if it were more an obligation than something people get all excited about.

Everybody's talking about the pervert in Austria who imprisoned and violated his own daughter. The general tone down at the café this morning was pro-death penalty, and some discussion ensued over which precise method should be used.

ETA exploded three small bombs at labor ministry buildings in the Basque country; nobody was hurt, fortunately. They called in warnings for two of them, but not for the third. Speculation is that the bombings are a response to the jailing (on charges of membership in a terrorist organization) of the pro-ETA mayoress of Mondragon, the town where ETA's last victim, Isaías Carrasco, was murdered in March. By the way, Carrasco's killers have not yet been caught.

La Vanguardia reports that Angel Acebes is being demoted from his position in the PP leadership. Good. About time his head rolled.

Efficient management: The estimated cost for line 9 of the Barcelona metro, which will run from El Prat to Badalona looping around Barcelona on the northwest, has multiplied by more than three to €6.5 million. Apparently much of the extra cost is due to improvised, ad hoc changes to the original plan. Not to mention the three percent kickback from the construction companies to the political parties in power.

Massive Barça firestorm after the elimination from the Champions League. New coach: either Guardiola or Mourinho. I'd go with Guardiola. 80% of the fans want president Joan Laporta to resign, but he's not going to. Players whose contracts expire who won't be back: Edmilson, Thuram, Ezquerro, Pinto. Players on the shit list, to be sold or given away: Ronaldinho, Deco, Henry, Marquez, Zambrotta. Player on thin ice: Eto'o.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo is in big trouble after his little escapade with the transvestites: his girlfriend has left him, and Nike is talking about breaking his contract--presumably there's a morals clause, and the cops are investigating his possible cocaine use. But baseball pitcher Roger Clemens is in bigger trouble: he's been having an affair with drug-addled country singer Mindy McCready. So what? you may ask. Well, they met when she was fifteen. In addition to the steroids charges, he's looking at Statue Tory Rape. I would say at this point there are several players whose reputations are permanently trashed. In order: Clemens, Canseco, Bonds, Palmeiro, McGwire. I will bet these guys all get blackballed from the Hall of Fame, except Canseco, who would never have gotten close anyway.

So some jerks in a town in the Aragonese Pyrenees had nothing better to do, and they thought it might be a good idea to pull down the abandoned church's bell tower. And, get this, they posted the video on YouTube, under the title "Down with the church," to the tune of a punk-rock parody of the Lord's Prayer. La Vanguardia has the video (to the right of the news article). Now, the abandoned church is of fairly recent construction and has almost no historical or artistic value, so this isn't a cultural tragedy like when the Taliban blew up the giant Buddhas. But I just don't get the point of destroying something for the fun of it.

More cultured, sophisticated European behavior in the Andalusian town of Ecija: on Sunday six members of the same family died in a fire. Tragic, of course. But the rumor began to spread that the firemen had taken thirty minutes to respond to the alarm (the mayor said it took less than five minutes), and a lynch mob of locals began to attack the firemen, throwing rocks at them, while they were still trying to put the fire out. Now the Guardia Civil has arrested seven of the mob. Good, for once somebody who violently breaks the law gets arrested around here.

Complaints are being made that the French killed three innocent Somali victims in their raid on the pirate base. This news got one sentence at the bottom of a page 6 story in La Vanguardia yesterday. Wonder how much play it would have gotten if it had been another case of unilateral colonialist Yankee warmongering?

Much is being made of a potential world food crisis around here. Comments: 1) Rice is going up, but wheat is coming down 2) Amartya Sen said that famine is not caused by there not being enough food, it's caused by food not getting to the people who need it 3) I think we have the technology to get emergency food to anywhere in the world outside remote places in Africa 4) Let me repeat that I am completely in favor of ending agricultural subsidies in the First World, and I've been talking about it for years 5) The Spanish press is blaming "speculators," which sounds to me like Jew-American capitalists, for the potential problem 6) Law of unintended consequences: The Greens say use less fossil fuel. The Americans start using corn to make less-polluting fuel. Now American greed for energy is killing babies in Chad. You can't win either way 7) Demand for grain has risen for many reasons, but over here all they can talk about is biofuels 8) Since the demand for grain has increased, the supply is going to increase too, and pretty damn quick 9) Lula da Silva is in favor of biofuels, too, but nobody ever criticizes Brazil for chopping down the Amazon to plant sugarcane or for using that sugarcane to make fuel 10) Nobody, ever, criticizes the OPEC cartel for artificially keeping petroleum prices high, which is probably the most important factor in the rise of food prices.

Is Barcelona the only city in the world where airline routes are big news? All the papers are reporting that American Airlines has instituted nonstop service between El Prat and New York. I'm sure it's got something to do with the city's raging self-esteem problem: we must be important because we've got a nonstop flight to New York! Note the standard Spanish love-hate attitude toward America: we resent American power and influence, but at the same time we bask in reflected glory when America pays attention to us.

Jeez. Econ minister Solbes just won't leave Disneyworld. Now he's predicting 2.3% GDP growth for both 2008 and 2009, though the private sector says it'll be half that.

Meanwhile, 246,000 people were added to the unemployment rolls in the first quarter, putting the number of Spanish unemployed over 2 million, a rate of 9.6%. The only two regions that didn't see a rise in unemployment were the Basque Country and Extremadura, while Catalonia saw the largest increase, 39,000 more unemployed. It's going to get worse before it gets better, people.

The percentage of flats in Barcelona priced at under €240,000 has doubled since 2006 to 18%, and you see a few under €200,000 now. El Periodico says that these places are of generally good quality, too, while two years ago cheap flats were all very undesirable. Problems: 1) the mortgage interest rate is high right now, with the Euribor at 5%, depressing demand 2) credit is tight and banks aren't giving out mortgages to everybody and his dog anymore.

You probably saw that Barça drew with Man United at the Camp Nou, 0-0; they had a dozen opportunities but couldn't score as usual. United played it safe and stuck to defense and fast breaks, and they'd have won if Cristiano Ronaldo had made his penalty kick in about the second minute. Wayne Rooney was disappointing. Barcelona's best players were Iniesta and Touré. Now they have to play the second ninety minutes at Old Trafford, which will not be easy. But anything could happen, and all hope has not been abandoned. Rijkaard has given up on the League; this weekend he's sitting his good players to rest them up for the rematch with Man U.

It's Sant Jordi, so there are rose and book stands up all over town, and it's a beautiful pre-summer day. Lots of bustling around downtown, with the combination of Sant Jordi crowds and the Man U supporters, who haven't committed any major atrocities yet. The city government is trying to concentrate the English fans in the Puerto Olimpico, as they did with the Glasgow Celtic fans at the Forum.

Of course, like all holidays, Sant Jordi has its capitalist side; in fact, you could argue it's the most commercial national holiday in the world, since it's the only one centered on buying things. Six million roses will be sold today in Catalonia, 60% of the yearly total, which is fifteen million euros if you figure they go for an average of two-fifty. Only 25% of the roses are produced in Catalonia, and the rest come from Colombia, Ecuador, and Kenya. La Vanguardia says a Catalan rose wholesales at 50 eurocents, while one from Kenya wholesales at just 20. So buy a rose and help out Third World agriculture.

This is also the big day for book sales, and the Barcelona press actually handicaps the various authors to see who sells the most. This year's favorite is Carlos Ruíz Zafón, who's come out with another of those medieval historical fiction things, and who is by the way detested by literary snobs. Eduardo Mendoza and Quim Monzó are also expected to do well. The three biggest foreign authors of best-sellers are Ken Follett, John Boyne, and Noah Gordon, all of whom I believe are in town to sign books; another Sant Jordi marketing thing is that authors show up and sign purchasers' copies at bookstores. The press always has a couple of laments over what they call "media books" (by the likes of Andreu Buenafuente, Toni Soler, and whoever's the latest TV3-created pseudo-celebrity is) that are based on TV programs and take the bread out of the mouths of hard-working hacks who've knocked out yet another unreadable 160-page monograph on linguistic politics.

ABC is reporting that Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's number two, has called on the Moroccans to "struggle against the allies of Satan," i.e. Spain, and free Ceuta and Melilla "from Spanish occupation." Listen, Zap, I've been saying it for years, we are a target no matter how much Alliance of Civilizations wanking about that you do. The Madrid bombings would have happened no matter what Aznar's policies had been, and you took political advantage out of it. You better just hope that the PP doesn't take that same advantage of you next time we get bombed.

Remember Zap's budget surplus? In the first three months of 2008 it was cut in half. Payouts are up 13% while income is only up 1%. This includes the €266 million the Zap government has already paid out as subsidies to parents of newborns, but does not include the €6 billion in tax refunds, half to be paid out in June. Now, we can afford a little deficit spending. Let's not fall into the trap of making it lots of deficit spending.

Esperanza Aguirre has apparently decided that she will not challenge Rajoy at the June convention, but that she will do so before the 2012 election. She has proposed a primary election to determine the 2012 PP candidate. This means party disunity for the next three years, which is the best way to lose the next election.

Meanwhile, there's a three-way power struggle in the Catalan PP between current president Daniel Sirera and challengers Montserrat Nebrera, a moderate, and Alberto Fernandez Diaz, of the old guard. It's pretty clear that Sirera is going to be defenestrated; the influential moderate Francesc Vendrell has proposed a Fernandez Diaz-Nebrera leadership. Just a comment: Though the PP got twice as many Catalan votes as Esquerra Republicana in the last election, the ERC power struggle is getting about ten times the TV3 coverage.

The Spanish Navy has sent a frigate, the Méndez Núñez, toward the Somali coast, and Moratinos announced that it is "several sailing hours" from where the Spanish fishing boat is anchored. "Other countries and organisms," which means the US, UK, France, and NATO, have provided Spain with the necessary intelligence, and have granted Spain the use of their communications systems. We'll see what happens. Meanwhile, Spain has sent its ambassador in Kenya to Mogadishu in order to negotiate with the Somali government. I didn't know there was a Somali government, and I doubt it has much influence among the pirates.

Worst-case scenario: The pirates are really Al Qaeda, and the Spanish fishing boat is bait to get a Western naval ship within range of some kind of missile they've managed to get hold of. I hope I'm just being paranoid.

Now Berlusconi, the owner of AC Milan as well as incoming Italian prime minister, says that Barça is asking too much for Ronaldinho. They're offering twenty million for both Ronaldinho and Zambrotta, and Barcelona is demanding fifty million for them. I say Barça should take Inter's offer of thirty million for just Ronaldinho, though I'm all for getting rid of Zambrotta as well.

And tonight's the big game, Barça-Man U in the first leg of the Champions' League semifinal. Man U is of course the heavy favorite to make the final, but in two games, three hours of play, anything can happen, which is why they play the games in the first place. Valdés needs to be perfect, because he's not going to get any help from his back four, and Iniesta needs to find Eto'o with a couple of through balls. Hey, it could happen. The Giants won the Super Bowl. The Cardinals won the 2006 World Series. Truman beat Dewey.

Oh, yeah, get this. Burglars broke into soon-to-be-ex-coach Frank Kijkaard's house last week while he and his family were inside. They didn't realize the burglars had even gotten in until they found that some €300,000 worth of cash, jewelry, and watches were gone. My question: What the hell were they doing with all that stuff in their house in the first place?