Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts
the stars to flight.
And, lo, has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light!

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable – Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’

Cosas de España/Galicia

The fugitive ex -president of Cataluña is said to have escaped back to Belgium, the authorities having failed to find him hiding in the sewer system or in the zoo. Plenty of egg on plenty of faces. The FT takes a serious view of the farce here.

Spain has a pious Catholic group of lawyers called La Fundación de Abogados Cristianos. Who are quite possibly all members of the ultra right-wing Opus Dei. Not surprisingly, it has taken a case to the “UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief” against France for what it regards as the blasphemous ‘Last Supper’ opening ceremony at the Olympics. I’ve no idea what sentence/ punishment the Raporteur can hand down but I’m sure that, whatever it is, France will ignore it.

As of 1 July this year, Spain’s ‘resident population was 48.8m, of which 6.6m(14%) were foreigners. The latter are a rising proportion, reflecting Spain’s low birth rate and high immigration levels. Happily, South American Christian folk of a similar culture are easier to assimilate than others. And Spain’s key tourism sector would collapse without them.

A propos . . . Its reported that: Foreign workers have taken nearly half of all new jobs created in Spain this year – most of which have come in the tourism sector. I guess the percentage would be even higher if all the South American applicants had got work permits without a 2 year wait.

HT again to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for this article on the ‘long and storied’ history of Gibraltar, from prehistoric to current times. Here’s a thought that arose when reading it . . . As the Moors owned Gib before ‘Spain’ formally existed, shouldn’t it go back to them? Along with at least Andalucía, I guess. After all, isn’t this the Spanish argument for not ceding Ceuta and Melilla to Morocco? “We owned them before you existed”. As I say, just a thought . . . Then again, is there a modern Moorish state to make this claim?

The Way of the World/Social Media

There’s a great difference in the way the media is allowed to treat arrested folk between the UK and the USA, with restrictions being very much stronger in the former. But there’s a growing view that social media will force the UK to move in the direction of the USA, because armchair detectives and keyboard warriors can’t/won’t tolerate a vacuum and, in the absence of official data, will invent it and spread it around the world at the speed of, well, the internet. Sometimes with deliberate malicious intent or for racist reasons. This then plays into the fears of conspiracy theories and thugs of the Far Right. The latest example of this has been the recent riots around the UK after the (insane) killer of 3 young children was very quickly mis-identified as an illegal Muslim refugee who’d recently arrived on a boat from France. As he was under 18. the police were not at liberty to reveal his identity. Once the judge had done this – and after hundreds of arrests had been made – a degree of calm ensued. I imagine both the judiciary and the law professions will resist changing laws and procedures that have stood for possibly centuries but the internet has forced a lot of changes and this one seems to me to have an air of inevitability about it. Either that or more riots, dealt with by the sort of militarised police forces that operate in other countries. France and Spain, for example. As an aside, I don’t think that water cannons have yet been used in Britain. Let alone tear gas. Excepting Northern Ireland, of course. But, technically, that’s not part of Britain. . . . And, far more pertinently, things have not yet got anywhere near that point in England, Scotland or Wales.

Covid

Interesting to hear that lockdowns and the scepticism they led to are now considered to have been a major factor in increasing levels of conspiracy thinking around the world.

English

Rarissima: Extremely rare books, manuscripts, or prints.

Spanish

Chas, chas: What my 5 year old son says when he makes the 2 strokes of a cross. Says one dictionary: La palabra “chas” tiene varias acepciones en español:

1. Al contado: En México, “chas” se utiliza como una locución adverbial que significa “al contado” o “de inmediato” .
2. Onomatopeya:  También se refiere a la onomatopeya del sonido que produce algo al romperse, especialmente un chasquido. En este contexto, se puede usar como interjección para expresar el sonido de un golpe o ruptura 

Something relevant:-

Chasquido: Ruido seco y súbito, especialmente el que se produce al partirse algo quebradizo, al sacudir un latigo en el aire o al separar la lengua bruscamente del paladar. A crack, click or snap.

Did you know

The ‘world’s greatest torero’ is afraid of something that has nothing to do with furious bulls trying to kill him.

Finally . .

I guess I’m not the only person in the world to now be receiving several emails a day from ladies who say Hello and kindly provide their email address.

The Usual Links . . .

• You can get my posts by email as soon as they’re published. With the added bonus that they’ll contain the typos I’ll discover later. I believe there’s a box for this at the bottom of each post. I guess it’s logical that this doesn’t appear on the version given to me . . .
• 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.
• For those thinking of moving to Spain:– This is an extremely comprehensive and accurate guide to the challenge, written by a Brit who lives in both the North and the South and who’s very involved in helping Camino walkers. And this is something on the so-called Beckham Rule, which is beneficial – tax-wise – for folk who want to work here. Finally, some advice on getting a mortgage. And this article ‘debunks claims re wealth and residency taxes’. Probably only relevant if you’re a HNWI. In which case, you’ll surely know what that stands for.