Percy Moo as Einstein

Percy Moo as Einstein
Dog=Einstein2

Sunday 23 November 2014

WHY BOB GELDOF AND HIS MATEYS WON'T BE SHAMING ME INTO PARTING WITH MY HARD-EARNED PENNIES.

Oh how it warmed the cockles of my heart to see Sir Bob Geldof and his superannuated millionaire mateys bestir themselves once again for the poor benighted Africans! 

Oh how (bowel-) moving to see the aristocracy of rock gather together in a spirit of brotherhood towards their fellow man and revive a conscience-stirring anthem of giving!

Oh how warm and fuzzy I felt inside seeing all of these rich people sacrifice their time and talents to help those less fortunate!

Oh how wonderful it must feel to swap anecdotes and tax dodges in a glow of camaraderie while quaffing champers and scoffing caviare butties (tax-deductible, no doubt).

Oh how guilty I felt as I fingered the change in my pocket, realising that I was going to have to spend it on diesel to get to work instead of buying this hymn to universal brotherhood.

Oh how grateful I felt to Bobby and his mates as they made me realise how selfish and uncaring I was towards my neighbour. 

Oh how unworthy I felt as cynically I wondered if this was nothing more that a ruse to revive various flagging careers.

Oh how much self-loathing and hatred I felt as I mused upon the fact that U2 gave away their latest album to iPhone owners (not exactly the most destitute of people) instead of putting it on sale at a greatly reduced price, proceeds going to combating Ebola. Obviously I am a hateful sceptic unfit to share a bottle of Bollinger with the great and good who were setting me such a shining example of self-sacrifice. 

In sum, instead of trying to shame ordinary people with their mortgages, school and/or university fees to part with a few pennies, why don't these people donate the royalties of one of their hit songs or albums to the cause - although I dare say that in the case of Saint Bob such royalties would be rather (and deservedly) meagre these days? How easy it is to have a social conscience when you've got more money than you know what to do with, except employ armies of accountants and tax lawyers to keep as much of it as possible and scrabble for more by demonstrating how wonderful you are by donating our money to your pet causes. 

Pay your taxes, I say, and then both the people and their governments will be able to contribute more to such things as the Ebola crisis.

I don't deny anyone the right to accumulate a fortune and enjoy it as they see fit, but I do object to a bunch of millionaires taking money from my pocket in order to bolster their own images as concerned humanitarian crusaders.


Tuesday 4 November 2014

El Vaporcito. Better a Viking Funeral than Being Left to Rot?

Not so long ago, I wrote an entry on the El Puerto de Santa María - Cádiz ferry service. Well this weekend, my Dark Lady and I repeated the experience.

This time I was able to take a closer photo of the ill-fated Vaporcito mentioned in the above entry. Here is a picture of the boat in its present state. Have you ever seen such a sad sight?



Saturday 1 November 2014

A(nother) Modest Proposal

This week my colleagues and I have been conducting B1 certification oral exams for our august educational establishment's degree students. Thanks to the EU's Pisa Hgher Education treaty (GB quite sensibly did not sign up to this particularly demented bit), European students need a B1 level in a foreign language in order to get their degree.

Now, as an English teacher, I must admit to serious misgivings over my power to deny a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, or whatever, to a truly academically gifted student because s/he cannot give me grammatically correct advice on how to stop my imaginary daughter from spending all of her money on shoes, how I can lose weight, or remove a spider from my bath, however welcome that advice may be.

I also find it worrying that there is a growing number of unemployed 40+ year-old students with families etc. who are back at uni. trying to get a degree in order to have the slimmest of slim chances of finding employment. It's also rumoured that there are unicorns in the local park - they should try hunting them instead. It's depressing enough to see all the young ones with hopes of a bright future when the only brightness thay will get to experience is that of the TV as they kill zombies on the Play Station because IN SPAIN THERE ARE NO JOBS - unless you have friends in the right places.

A possible - but just as brutal - solution might be an adaptation of Swift's Modest Proposal. Swift ironically suggested that as the 18th-century Catholic Irish were such prolific breeders and so grindingly poor, they should breed babies for the tables of the English nobility and mercantile classes. Spare the babies, I say! What Spain needs is another Civil War. It might plunge the country into poverty, starvation and mass murder, but it would sure as hell reduce unemployment. Indeed, it would provide huge opportunities for the unemployed young men and women as soldiers, doctors, nurses, black marketeers, NGO leeches &c. &c. &c. And, of course, post-war there would be a lot of reconstruction and fewer workers.

The above is obviously an ironic comment on the state of the country, yet all of the ingredients for a civil war are there - a disgruntled populace, tired of the corruption, and unemployment that devastates the country while highly gruntled politicians, bankers and union executives live off the fat of the land, tax the people and bleed the country white. And now we are witnessing the rise of Podemos (aka Pokemon), a demogogical political party for the disaffected - i.e. almost the whole Spanish populace - which seems to have borrowed from Castro, Chaves, Morales, &c. 

The cafés and bars in Plaza del Cabildo, the main square in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, are witness to a constant procession of beggars, asking clients for food, a coffee or money. Some are addicts. Most are unemployed people whose benefit has run out and who have no other means of support. And all credit to the good people of Sanlúcar de Barrameda; they are very charitable and willing to help when they can. Who knows? It might be them next.