Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight

And, lo, the hunter of the east 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/Galiza

There’s been a nice find down in the south of Spain, in a dig near Mérida in Extremadura. It seems to be a unique bronze ritual cart from about 2,500 years ago, and it helps to show connections between Tartessian culture and other ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Its decoration includes mythological figures, suggesting religious or ceremonial use rather than ordinary everyday function. Earlier excavations at the site have evidenced trade with Greek, Phoenician, and Etruscan worlds and this new object helps fill in a still-mysterious chapter of Iberian pre-Roman history.

A bit of Galician history, from the Voz de Galicia: One hundred years have passed since the approval of the Law of Redemption of Foros[Rights], which officially allowed farmers to purchase direct ownership of their land. The legal concept of the ‘foro’ consisted of the shared possession of a property between the one entitled to rent and the one entitled to work it. It had a 700-year history and explains why the smallholdings that still dominate the Galician countryside became so entrenched, despite the restructuring of agriculture. Over the years, rural areas have become depopulated, but the smallholdings remained intact, some forgotten and without a known owner.

Which makes is next to impossible to do anything with/about them.

The UK

Very probably true. . . . . Andy Burnham is going to be yet another terrible Prime Minster.

Europe

Wow. . . Europe’s airport’s chief tells politicians to stop pretending the EES is working and warns of a complete collapse as tourists face summer queues accused to enter Spain. So, something is to be said for being forced to fly into Oporto.

Iran

From Scott Anderson’s excellent King of Kings: The Fall of the Shah and the Revolution That Forged Modern Iran . . . Back in 1978, the man closest to Ayatollah Khomeini in Iraq and France was a thoroughly Americanised Iranian medic from Houston, called Ebrahim Yazdi, He was an absolutely key figure in the events of that year, when he worked hard to convince the West, and especially the (US)Americans, that they had nothing to fear from a future Islamist Iran, because Khomeini would be a democracy-loving moderate. The evidence is that Yazdi did really think Khomeini would be relatively moderate and not – as he turned out to be – violently authoritarian. And that Khomeini was being honest when he said that, in a future Islamic republic, the people would “enjoy full freedom of speech and the press” in a participatory democracy. Possibly one of the most consequential misreadings of anyone in history. Yazdi was eventually imprisoned after he fell out with Khomeini over the level of violence he’d authorised. Years later, Yazdi was asked, if he had the chance to go back, would he act the same way. His reply: Never. Never would I do that; it is my life’s greatest regret. One of ours as well, of course. The debate continues as to whether or not Yazdi was driven by naive idealism. For which many have paid the price. Anderson’s final comment on him was that it would be hard to find a more paradoxical figure than the pharmacologist from Houston, Texas. 

The USA does not escape censure from Anderson, himself a (US)American. He describes the optimism of some senior officials as regards the survival of the shah and his military as delusional wishful thinking. Despite Khomeini’s record of ‘vengeful and bloodthirsty writings, Anderson writes, the US government theorized that the ayatollah “might be far more moderate and Westernized than perceived‘. And Anderson highlights the colossal ineptitude of the administration’s handling of the Iranian crisis, an approach in which not only did the right hand not know what the left was doing, but steps were actively taken to ensure it stayed that way. This resulted in a dual-track approach to the Iran crisis to which – from the standpoint of incoherence and guaranteed futility – modern diplomatic history offers few parallels. So, you don’t have to be a narcissistic clown to make stupid mistakes. But it helps.

Khomeini had at one time assured the world that his theocratic movement planned to build a new Iranian society based on “humanistic values like those of the USA”. But well before he moved from France back to Iran, he was urging his followers to engage in “direct confrontation” with the security forces, “to arise and sacrifice your blood.” Even more ominous was his call for 75 volunteers to don the white shrouds of martyrdom, to sacrifice their lives at the hands of the shah’s soldiers in replication of the 75 faithful who had been slaughtered with Imam Hussein at Karbala. In Khomeini’s cold-eyed calculus, the soldiers would surely gun down the faithful—and probably far more than the requisite 75. Anyone tempted to regard his edict as a bit of medievalist fantasy was soon set right. Reports from across Iran told of a shortage of the white cloth required to make death shrouds. From Qom came the news that, in that city alone, the call had brought forth 7,000 volunteers. Murderous violence against those whom Khomeini declared enemies of himself and, therefore, of God began on Day 1 of the Islamic Revolution. And have continued for 47 years now, under Khomeini and his fanatically zealous and all-powerful theocratic successors. Who possess, said an Iranian friend of mine years ago, even deeper pockets than those of the shah’s corrupt ministers.

The Middle East War

The latest update from Naked Capitalism.

The United States of Trump America

Trump

• We’re doing great on affordability. We’re reducing prices a lot.[Shame no one has noticed this achievement.]
• We’re doing great with Iran. We’re about to do the greatest deal ever with Iran. [Ditto].
• Everything I do works. [Ditto]
• It’s the oil companies’ fault that gas prices are so high.
• We’re never going to solve the problem of who killed the Iranian children. There were missiles flying all over the place. I haven’t seen anything that shows it was ours. I don’t think it was us.

Others

• In the USA, there’s a constant struggle between our highest ideals and our lowest impulses. [Possibly not unique to the USA. Though a leader of Trump’s low impulses and total lack of high ideal might well be. At least among democracies.]
• The USA has the very best and the very worst of everything in the world. [Not hard to categorise Trump.]

But there’s hope . . . Why Trump’s Grift and Destruction Will Doom Him.    Podcast      Video

The Way of the World

Journalist/writer Michael Wolff lists these 9 requirement for a great democratic leader. No one, he adds, can have them all. And some leaders have few, raising the question of how they came to be elected to power:-

• High quality media performance and a sharp social media game.
• A personal, relatable presence – authenticity and an ability to admit mistakes.
• Superior executive function.
• Managerial excellence – the ability to hire and shepherd a talented team
• Old fashioned political instincts and an ability to count heads and achieve something greater than 50%
• ‘Brand guru flare’ for whatever particular new politics you’re selling.
• Bureaucratic savviness. A talent to deal with government bureaucracy.
• A personal countenance that engenders great loyalty.
• A killer instinct.

Spanish

• Acontecimiento: Event, occasion, happening
• Medrar: To thrive, grow, prosper, increase, improve.
• Polizón: Stowaway, free-rider., fare-dodger.

Did you know?

The Scots might have been defeated by Brazil yesterday but they did once have a great victory against the English.

You Have to Laugh

Finally, an untroubled Finn . . .

Finally . . .

Is this the face of every young woman on the internet these days???

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. If you do this but don’t read the posts, I will delete your subscription. So perhaps don’t bother if you have other reasons for subscribing . . .

I can also be read on X at Thoughts from Galicia. And on Substack here. I no longer post on Facebook.

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.

If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you.