Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

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

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid 19 in Spain

• Striking an optimistic note . . . Covid-19 can lead to a more agile, productive and innovative economy. Businesses rightly reacted to Covid-19 by focusing on safety, liquidity and continuity. Now a more nuanced form of crisis management is necessary. A marathon rather than a sprint, and encompassing different assumptions about markets, products and technology.

Living La Vida Loca     

• When I came here 19 years ago, it was considered scandalous that most young people could only aspire to a salary of €1,000 a month. 'Milionarios'. Now - after many years of inflation - this is considered a decent wage. So, things have clearly deteriorated for people coming on to what passes for the job market here. As clearly demonstrated by this article.  
• I think I've mentioned before that there's a well-known scam here in Spain whereby Chinese students who need a piece of paper to raise their (critical) civil status back home 'study' at Spanish institutions which take their cash but invest it in something other than teaching them. So, everyone's happy. Or they were until Covid 19 came along. Perhaps a large hole has now been blown in that scheme.
• My TIE: No luck on the phone again this morning, so I’m off now to the Comisaría, unless the ‘temporary’ office in the old Bank of Spain building - mentioned to me by 2 people - proves to be the right place to go to. I’ll be trying there first, especially as it’s closer to my watering hole.
• Day 9 of María’s Dystopian Times. 

The UK

• Here's a nice assessment of Boris Johnson. True, this is from from a left-wing paper but a large - and increasing - number of right wing voters would agree with it.  I give Johnson only 12-24 months before he’s ruthlessly ousted.  The Tories are not like US Republicans.     

The USA 

• Andrew Jackson once proposed that every office in America should be elected, from president to dog-catcher. This approach to politics is meant to prevent the creation of the kind of self-perpetuating elites (such as, say, British judges) that Jackson loathed. The drawback is that, in such a system, it is impossible to float above partisan politics. In a country as divided as America that creates a different problem.
• To amuse:-

[Can't includeit here. Go to  https://colindavies.blogspot.com/2020/08/thoughts-from-pontevedra-galicia-spain_24.html]

English/Spanish

• Three more refranes:-

- Let sleeping dogs lie: Quien despierta un perro dormiendo vende paz y copra ruido.

- Those whom the gods love die young: A quien Dios quiere para si, poco tiempo lo tiene aquí.

- Worse things happen at sea: Más se perdió en Cuba.

Finally . . . 

• I came across this quotation this question this morning, from Samuel Hoffenstein :

Breaths there a man with hide so tough

Who says two sexes aren't enough?

I guess it would have to be 'two genders' now.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Hoffenstein

• I also guess most folk will have realised that yesterday's Where there's much . . . should have been Where there's muck . . Well, native English speakers at least. Though maybe only northern Brits. To whom ‘brass’ means ‘money’.

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