Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.   

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*

The Bloody Virus

• Hmm. A planned test of hydroxychloroquine on intensive care patients in Ireland is under review, after the WHO halted its trials because of concerns about efficacy and safety
• Hmm 2: The lockdowns saved no lives and may have cost them, says a Nobel prize winner. Not just any prize-winner but the chap who correctly predicted the initial trajectory of the pandemic. 
• Hmm 3: Along the same lines, a salutary read here.
• Hmm 4: Men with long ring fingers are less likely to die from the virus, says the NY Post here. Credible? Or tabloid nonsense?
• Spain is proposing EU-wide green flight corridors for the tourists the country desperately needs. Wont' be much help, though, if Brits have to self-isolate when they get home. Depending, I guess, on the post-Cummings-debacle-fidelity to this and, of course, the ability (and willingness) of the authorities to police this.

Life in Spain in the Time of Something Like Cholera 

• Mark Stücklin asks here what we'll be allowed to do in our communal pools this summer. It depends, he says, on who you talk too. And, again, on policing capability.
• Talking of confusion  . . . A new rule about exercising was announced yesterday. Despite reading the report several times, I'm still not clear about what I'm legally allowed to do by way of 1. walking, 2. exercising, and 3. going to a café or restaurant.
• But the strict legalities might not matter now. A friend told me last night that a local beach on Tuesday afternoon had been as crowded as ever, with no 2m distancing taking place, and the police making no attempt to enforce it.
• Another friend tells me of the farcical situation in a Poio bakery, where customers coming to the counter to buy things are obliged to wear a mask but those taking a coffee aren't. IGIMSTS.
• Sadly, food aid queues here are now growing apace, as poverty levels are already below those of the 2008 crisis.
• But there is positive news, for some at least . . . The massive political gathering permitted on 8 March was only 'marginal' to the spread of Covid-19 in Madrid, a formal investigation has concluded. I guess we'll be told next that the visit of 10,000 Atlético Madrid fans to Liverpool a few days later had no real impact either. Infected Scousers might disagree.
• Here's María's Come-back Chronicle, Day 17. Beach practices get a mention.

Real Life in Spain 

• I fear this won't come as a huge surprise to some of us.  . . . Spain joins Italy at the bottom of OECD rankings for basic literacy and numeracy skills among graduate. I have to confess I sometimes wonder if pupils here are taught to think for themselves. Or merely to just think.
• What certainly won't be a surprise to anyone here is that Andalucia has been a hotbed of massive corruption for many decades. And that a trial for those who diverted hundreds of millions in EU funds took over 10 years to come to completion and saw few convictions. Click here on this. Nice to see Mercedes Alaya getting credit for her tenacity. Actually, it's always nice to see this 'stunningly attractive' judge. Need I add that she was eventually removed from the case, for being too zealous in wanting to see justice done.
• With that case in mind, my second confession today is that I occasionally wonder if Spanish politicians don't still - as regards the EU - obey the old 'Third World' dictum that, if someone offers you the chance to cheat them, you're a fool if you don't take it.

The UK

• Says Richard North this morning: We have a brand new test and trace system to play with, which starts today. . . In the best tradition of English public service provision, we have an entirely new enterprise being run by someone who has absolutely no knowledge of the subject and has a track record of presiding over train wrecks. [At the internet provider TalkTalk.]  What could possibly go wrong?

Germany

• Read here the reasons why Germany has done so much better than the UK in dealing with Covid-19.

The USA  

• Russian interference in elections is apparently OK but not that of US social media companies, whose warnings about his lies Fart is attempting to prevent via a presidential executive order.  How sad that this great country has been reduced to this.

English

• A new word: Testiculate:  To wave your arms around - a la Boris Johnson - while talking bollocks.

Finally . . .

• I was lucky enough, as a young man in Iran, to learn that hosting is one of life's great pleasures. Or can be. For, 19 years of experience here has revealed a wide spectrum of gestures of gratitude for this. Which range from the over-generous to the, well, very under-generous. Happily, my current guest/refugee is at the former end of the scale. Así son las cosas. Such is life. Nowt as queer as folk, as we Northerners say. And as I regularly remind myself.

 * A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.