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.
Showing posts with label solbes in disneyworld. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solbes in disneyworld. Show all posts
Friday, April 25, 2008
Monday, April 07, 2008
The Ministry of Justice's civil servants have agreed to end their two-month strike which has left the courtrooms of Spain paralyzed. Things are so backed up that nobody's sure when literally thousands of cases are going to be resolved.
So the Olympic torch has provoked large protests in London and Paris; I'm glad to see the protests, but I'm not happy at all with the disturbances. Protest peacefully or don't protest. And, of course, the turnout at these demos against the Communist Chinese dictatorship is less than one percent of what the usual suspects can bring out when the bad guy is the United States.
My position on a boycott: I'm against any sort of government-organized boycotts, like those in Moscow and Los Angeles, since I think government and sports should have nothing to do with one another. If I were an athlete I'd stay home, but if an athlete decides to attend the Peking Olympics, he should behave himself as a guest of China and not make any political statements. Elected government officials should have nothing to do with the Olympics, since it's not an occasion of state but a private sports wingding; they should just ignore it. And as an individual, I am definitely boycotting it; I'm not going to watch it on TV, and I encourage everyone else to do the same.
Economics news: BBVA predicts Spain's economic growth in 2008 to be a mere 1.7-2.2%, and 2009's growth to be 0.8-2.0%. That's bad. Very bad. Unemployment's going to hit ten percent, easy, and the balanced budget is dead. The construction sector is looking at a 10% decline this year and as much as a 20% further decline in 2009. About the only good thing is that low growth may tame inflation, which is pushing 5% a year. BBVA doesn't think Spain will go into an actual recession, and that recovery may begin in the second half of 2009. Econ minister Pedro Solbes still predicts 3.1% growth for 2008. Somebody's wrong, and if the private sector and the government disagree, I tend to have more faith in the private sector, since if they're wrong they might lose their jobs. This does not happen at the Economics Ministry.
By the way, those huge construction complexes on the Mediterranean coast, most notoriously Marina d'Or in Oropesa, are in bad trouble. They're laying off thousands of workers and cutting apartment prices drastically. A lot of people made the mistake of investing their life savings in a coastal apartment, believing prices would just continue going up. Problem: They're going down, and fast. Wild guess: The "Las Vegas in Los Monegros" project is going to turn into a "Mini-Golf and Roadside Zoo in Los Monegros" project pretty soon.
Interesting investment idea: The barley growers' cooperative in Calaf, not too far from Vallfogona, is planning to open a small brewery to manufacture high-end beer to be sold mostly at restaurants as a gourmet item. Their marketing strategy is to sell it as a quality Catalan product, appealing to the "everything we make here is the best" feeling that's common around these parts. I figure it's pretty hard to go broke if you're selling beer, and that if it's a co-op, it's not some kind of fly-by-night company. They're looking for small investors. Shares are €3000 each, so if you buy one you're not gambling everything you have. (Note: I'm not putting any money into this myself.)
Get this: A bunch of Catalan-bourgeois rich kids put the Latino gangs to shame with their violence last night. They were at an expensive disco called Rosebud up near Tibidabo, and the cops pulled over a car with four of them in it, who were obviously loaded on alcohol and pills. The driver of the car head-butted a cop and broke his nose, and a fight broke out, which the rich punk kids lost. A couple of hours later, these four punks' friends decided they were going to wreck the disco, more than twenty of them, and the cops were called in. Chairs and bottles flew, and tens of thousands of euros' damage was done. A total of thirteen arrests were made, including the punks in the car, on charges of assault and battery, grievous bodily harm, and resisting arrest. Finally the cops arrest somebody around here. These little shits deserve to have the whole lawbook thrown at them, and to go to jail for a good long time, especially Mr. Headbutt. So what happened? The judge let them all go free on bail.
Breaking news: The Castilla-Leon autonomous government has announced that two people in the region have died of mad-cow disease. Uh-oh. Get this: Both deaths occurred more than a month ago. Seems like maybe they could have announced this before now.
More boat people: A cayuco with 56 illegal immigrants aboard, including 12 minors, washed up this morning on El Hierro in the Canaries. The West Africans are desperate enough to risk their lives trying to get out. The international press ignored the story as usual.
Get this: The Catalan regional government budgeted €20 million in 2006 to help out the very poorest people in Catalonia, those with a monthly income of €544 or less. Of course, I'm completely in favor of spending public money to help the less fortunate among us, at least in cases like this; it's part of the social contract that we provide a safety net to help those of us who can't make it on their own. We can debate how to provide that safety net, and how much we should spend on it, but you can't leave people to go hungry and be cold, even when (as is true in some cases) their poverty is at least partly their own fault.
So they've cut the number of people eligible for this program from 51,000 to 8000. By the way, there are 80,000 people in Catalonia whose only known income is their minimum old-age / disability pension of just €322. Just great. If we're going to help the poor, let's bloody well help the poor, instead of inventing new bureaucratic programs that don't seem to be doing a damn bit of good.
And people around here criticize the United States for being heartless toward the poor. Some guy told me the other day that New York was the city with the most poor people in the world. I said, "What about Calcutta and Lagos and Sao Paulo?" and he shut up. Where do people hear this crapola? From the Spanish media, of course. But why do they believe it?
Just in case you're interested, the Telegraph has a positive article about wind energy farms in Spain. Check it out.
Charlton Heston's death is getting big media play in Spain, and they're concentrating on his acting career rather than his political opinions, which is a nice change from the usual.
Barça choked last night and drew 0-0 against Getafe at home, a game they should have won and needed to win. For the first time since Laporta has been club president, the fans brought out their white hankies and had a "pañolada," when they wave said hankies en masse to show their displeasure. It's more clear than ever that everybody's head but Laporta's is going to roll at the end of this season.
So the Olympic torch has provoked large protests in London and Paris; I'm glad to see the protests, but I'm not happy at all with the disturbances. Protest peacefully or don't protest. And, of course, the turnout at these demos against the Communist Chinese dictatorship is less than one percent of what the usual suspects can bring out when the bad guy is the United States.
My position on a boycott: I'm against any sort of government-organized boycotts, like those in Moscow and Los Angeles, since I think government and sports should have nothing to do with one another. If I were an athlete I'd stay home, but if an athlete decides to attend the Peking Olympics, he should behave himself as a guest of China and not make any political statements. Elected government officials should have nothing to do with the Olympics, since it's not an occasion of state but a private sports wingding; they should just ignore it. And as an individual, I am definitely boycotting it; I'm not going to watch it on TV, and I encourage everyone else to do the same.
Economics news: BBVA predicts Spain's economic growth in 2008 to be a mere 1.7-2.2%, and 2009's growth to be 0.8-2.0%. That's bad. Very bad. Unemployment's going to hit ten percent, easy, and the balanced budget is dead. The construction sector is looking at a 10% decline this year and as much as a 20% further decline in 2009. About the only good thing is that low growth may tame inflation, which is pushing 5% a year. BBVA doesn't think Spain will go into an actual recession, and that recovery may begin in the second half of 2009. Econ minister Pedro Solbes still predicts 3.1% growth for 2008. Somebody's wrong, and if the private sector and the government disagree, I tend to have more faith in the private sector, since if they're wrong they might lose their jobs. This does not happen at the Economics Ministry.
By the way, those huge construction complexes on the Mediterranean coast, most notoriously Marina d'Or in Oropesa, are in bad trouble. They're laying off thousands of workers and cutting apartment prices drastically. A lot of people made the mistake of investing their life savings in a coastal apartment, believing prices would just continue going up. Problem: They're going down, and fast. Wild guess: The "Las Vegas in Los Monegros" project is going to turn into a "Mini-Golf and Roadside Zoo in Los Monegros" project pretty soon.
Interesting investment idea: The barley growers' cooperative in Calaf, not too far from Vallfogona, is planning to open a small brewery to manufacture high-end beer to be sold mostly at restaurants as a gourmet item. Their marketing strategy is to sell it as a quality Catalan product, appealing to the "everything we make here is the best" feeling that's common around these parts. I figure it's pretty hard to go broke if you're selling beer, and that if it's a co-op, it's not some kind of fly-by-night company. They're looking for small investors. Shares are €3000 each, so if you buy one you're not gambling everything you have. (Note: I'm not putting any money into this myself.)
Get this: A bunch of Catalan-bourgeois rich kids put the Latino gangs to shame with their violence last night. They were at an expensive disco called Rosebud up near Tibidabo, and the cops pulled over a car with four of them in it, who were obviously loaded on alcohol and pills. The driver of the car head-butted a cop and broke his nose, and a fight broke out, which the rich punk kids lost. A couple of hours later, these four punks' friends decided they were going to wreck the disco, more than twenty of them, and the cops were called in. Chairs and bottles flew, and tens of thousands of euros' damage was done. A total of thirteen arrests were made, including the punks in the car, on charges of assault and battery, grievous bodily harm, and resisting arrest. Finally the cops arrest somebody around here. These little shits deserve to have the whole lawbook thrown at them, and to go to jail for a good long time, especially Mr. Headbutt. So what happened? The judge let them all go free on bail.
Breaking news: The Castilla-Leon autonomous government has announced that two people in the region have died of mad-cow disease. Uh-oh. Get this: Both deaths occurred more than a month ago. Seems like maybe they could have announced this before now.
More boat people: A cayuco with 56 illegal immigrants aboard, including 12 minors, washed up this morning on El Hierro in the Canaries. The West Africans are desperate enough to risk their lives trying to get out. The international press ignored the story as usual.
Get this: The Catalan regional government budgeted €20 million in 2006 to help out the very poorest people in Catalonia, those with a monthly income of €544 or less. Of course, I'm completely in favor of spending public money to help the less fortunate among us, at least in cases like this; it's part of the social contract that we provide a safety net to help those of us who can't make it on their own. We can debate how to provide that safety net, and how much we should spend on it, but you can't leave people to go hungry and be cold, even when (as is true in some cases) their poverty is at least partly their own fault.
So they've cut the number of people eligible for this program from 51,000 to 8000. By the way, there are 80,000 people in Catalonia whose only known income is their minimum old-age / disability pension of just €322. Just great. If we're going to help the poor, let's bloody well help the poor, instead of inventing new bureaucratic programs that don't seem to be doing a damn bit of good.
And people around here criticize the United States for being heartless toward the poor. Some guy told me the other day that New York was the city with the most poor people in the world. I said, "What about Calcutta and Lagos and Sao Paulo?" and he shut up. Where do people hear this crapola? From the Spanish media, of course. But why do they believe it?
Just in case you're interested, the Telegraph has a positive article about wind energy farms in Spain. Check it out.
Charlton Heston's death is getting big media play in Spain, and they're concentrating on his acting career rather than his political opinions, which is a nice change from the usual.
Barça choked last night and drew 0-0 against Getafe at home, a game they should have won and needed to win. For the first time since Laporta has been club president, the fans brought out their white hankies and had a "pañolada," when they wave said hankies en masse to show their displeasure. It's more clear than ever that everybody's head but Laporta's is going to roll at the end of this season.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Economic news: bad. Unemployment has reached 9%, up from 8.1% this time last year, and higher than any other EU country except Slovakia. Meanwhile, new car sales are down 28% over this time last year, with 4x4 sales down more than 40%. The automobile sector claims it's because Semana Santa fell in March this year, and so there were three sales days less than in March 2007. Yeah, right.
The Independent headlines, "USA 2008: The Great Depression." Yeah, more wishful thinking from the British press: what pisses me off is that they want it to happen. They want Americans to be poor and suffer deprivation. It would please them no end if one-third of us were unemployed like in 1932. Of course, nothing of the sort is going to happen.
Check out their evidence: The number of Americans on food stamps has increased from 26.5 million to 28 million--still less than one-tenth of the population. That's all they've got to base their screamer front-page headline on. Wonder where the praise for the American system of feeding the poor went to? If, say, Venezuela or Cuba were passing out food stamps to its poor, they'd be praising it to the skies. Of course, in Venezuela and Cuba there's no food to pass out to anyone.
By the way, most Spaniards have no idea that poor Americans get food stamps and public housing and public schools and Medicare/Medicaid. They've been told that life in America consists of cutthroat competition, and he who falls by the wayside is left to starve, and they believe it.
Econ minister Pedro Solbes stuck his neck out and claimed that Spain's 2008 growth would be 3.1%, much higher than the Bank of Spain's estimate of 2.4%. Somebody's going to be wrong and I bet it's the politician rather than the institution.
The PP is replacing Eduardo Zaplana with Soraya Saenz de Santamaria as its spokeswoman in the Congress of Deputies, something they should have done like three years ago. Saenz de Santamaria is known as a Rajoy loyalist and comparatively moderate, as well as less personally obnoxious than attack-dog Zaplana.
ADSL Internet service is 25% more expensive and 26% slower in Spain than the EU average. Spanish ADSL speed is 3 megas, whatever that means, while in the UK and France it's 8 megas. Thanks a lot, Telefonica, for crap service at premium prices. Somebody needs to go all AT&T on that company.
Check out this Yankee-bashing cartoon from El Periodico's Ferreres, about as subtle as a dose of chloral hydrate. Uncle Sam says, "You should respect human rights more," while China replies, "Respect? Like at Guantanamo? Like in Palestine?" Simply pathetic.
Meanwhile, NATO is asking some of its members to provide more troops for Afghanistan; the Americans are sending 3000, and even the French will send 1000. Naturally, they're not even bothering to request additional troops from Zap's Spain, since none will be forthcoming.
Oh, guess what. Raul is beginning the liberalization of Cuba. From now on Cubans will be allowed to stay at hotels hitherto reserved only for foreigners. If they can pay a hundred bucks a night, that is. Of course, that silly freedom of speech stuff will take a little while longer, as will the democratic elections and the rule of law.
The Independent headlines, "USA 2008: The Great Depression." Yeah, more wishful thinking from the British press: what pisses me off is that they want it to happen. They want Americans to be poor and suffer deprivation. It would please them no end if one-third of us were unemployed like in 1932. Of course, nothing of the sort is going to happen.
Check out their evidence: The number of Americans on food stamps has increased from 26.5 million to 28 million--still less than one-tenth of the population. That's all they've got to base their screamer front-page headline on. Wonder where the praise for the American system of feeding the poor went to? If, say, Venezuela or Cuba were passing out food stamps to its poor, they'd be praising it to the skies. Of course, in Venezuela and Cuba there's no food to pass out to anyone.
By the way, most Spaniards have no idea that poor Americans get food stamps and public housing and public schools and Medicare/Medicaid. They've been told that life in America consists of cutthroat competition, and he who falls by the wayside is left to starve, and they believe it.
Econ minister Pedro Solbes stuck his neck out and claimed that Spain's 2008 growth would be 3.1%, much higher than the Bank of Spain's estimate of 2.4%. Somebody's going to be wrong and I bet it's the politician rather than the institution.
The PP is replacing Eduardo Zaplana with Soraya Saenz de Santamaria as its spokeswoman in the Congress of Deputies, something they should have done like three years ago. Saenz de Santamaria is known as a Rajoy loyalist and comparatively moderate, as well as less personally obnoxious than attack-dog Zaplana.
ADSL Internet service is 25% more expensive and 26% slower in Spain than the EU average. Spanish ADSL speed is 3 megas, whatever that means, while in the UK and France it's 8 megas. Thanks a lot, Telefonica, for crap service at premium prices. Somebody needs to go all AT&T on that company.
Check out this Yankee-bashing cartoon from El Periodico's Ferreres, about as subtle as a dose of chloral hydrate. Uncle Sam says, "You should respect human rights more," while China replies, "Respect? Like at Guantanamo? Like in Palestine?" Simply pathetic.
Meanwhile, NATO is asking some of its members to provide more troops for Afghanistan; the Americans are sending 3000, and even the French will send 1000. Naturally, they're not even bothering to request additional troops from Zap's Spain, since none will be forthcoming.
Oh, guess what. Raul is beginning the liberalization of Cuba. From now on Cubans will be allowed to stay at hotels hitherto reserved only for foreigners. If they can pay a hundred bucks a night, that is. Of course, that silly freedom of speech stuff will take a little while longer, as will the democratic elections and the rule of law.
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