Cosas de España/Galiza 

Under the PSOE+Podemos, Spain is again in the social van, but on something which is dividing the coalition parties: A controversial law that will grant trans rights prompted a row within the Socialist-led government after a deputy prime minister warned that it would “destroy” women’s rights. With the draft bill, which also bans LGBT conversion therapies, Spain is set to join two dozen countries aiming to decouple gender choice from medical procedures and would become the largest European country to introduce self-identification. More here.

Yesterday evening I passed a Pv city square in which they were setting up a small stage and several odd stalls:-

This turned out to be  part of a large gathering of representatives from 45 countries, here to discuss ‘the future of the city’. It’s apparently called La Placemaking Week, whatever TF that means. And an ad in today’s Diario de Pontevedra talks of a session in the square entitled Play the Place. Another one is entitled: Permission to Play in Public Spaces(Play-ce Making).I kid you not. I’m beginning to suspect the global attention give to our mayor has gone to his head. But no doubt it’ll bring a lot of other countries’ taxpayers’ money to Pv.

Perhaps the council could spend some of it on the bus station that’s been undergoing renovation for at least 3 years now. I paid a visit to it this morning and was impressed by the cleanliness and the lightness of the place. As far removed from my first Spanish bus station – in Alicante  back in 1971 – as can be imagined. But then I found the electronic notice board wasn’t fully operational. And there are no numbers yet above the several departure ‘gates’. Meaning utter confusion as the various buses arrived. So that, at least, was just like Alicante 50 years ago . . . Oh, yes and the café-restaurant there doesn’t look like it’s going to be re-opened for some time yet.

Shame for all the visiting urban bureaucrats that the autumn rains finally arrived today, though only as drizzle so far.

I need someone to tell me how nursing education works here in Galicia. To get on a university course, you have to get a very high mark in the pre-university Selectividad exam, reflecting very high demand. But Galicia is said to be very short of nurses, possibly reflecting the fact that some of them go to work outside the region. So, Why not more courses?

The Way of the World

An article on the safeguarding of kids, something which the trans lobby seems not to believe in. The writer used to be a columnist on The Guardian but her views are no longer acceptable there, where the Kool-Aid has been drunk in gallons.

Spanish

Drizzle: Llovizna

English 

An interesting question from Times columnist, Mathew Parris: Feminists rightly point to words that are implicitly misogynistic because they’re both pejorative and commonly used only of women: diva, ditzy, blonde, bitch, pouting, catty, etc. All true. But in the interests of sexual equality, shouldn’t we spare a thought for words of abuse that (though mostly not explicitly gender-specific) are commonly used only of the male sex, and always assumed to refer to men? There are rather a lot of them. Cad, bounder, beast, dickhead, buffoon, creep, bastard, scumbag, blighter, stinker, shit, rat, ne’er-do-well, bugger, sod, brute, blackguard, bum, old bore, gammon, oaf, drip, prick, lout, piss-artist, Jack-of-all-trades, drongo . . . If we can’t make these terms gender-neutral, perhaps we can devise feminine counterparts for some. Pricklet, loutress, piss artiste, cadette, boundress, Jill-of-all-trades, dronga, Jill-the-ladette . . . Or do we think that only the male sex answers to most if not all abusive terms? Tricky territory here.

Finally   . . . .   

To amuse . . .

Welcome to new subscriber:   deconincksjust, from Norway I think.

For new readers: If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.