Chaos in Spain

[OFSO]

Human nature!

[TheGreenGoblin]

Meanwhile in Spain...

"I consecrate my life to the Republic and I will not faint even when I suffer disappointments."

The hair that the clips and comb once held in place, probably in a bun, is long gone, as are the feet that filled the sandals, and the clothes to which the two buttons belong.

All that survives of the middle-aged woman who was murdered in 1936 and exhumed from the cemetery of the small Aragonese town of Fuendejalón last weekend is her skeleton, its split skull punched through by a bullet.

But if the DNA taken from the bones matches that in the blood pricked from the finger of Juan José Espligares, a 60-year-old man from Zaragoza, an hour’s drive away, Spain will finally have recovered the remains of María Domínguez Remón, 54, a woman who overcame poverty, illiteracy and domestic violence to become a poet, journalist, activist and the first female mayor of the Second Republic.

Poet, pioneer... can family finally honour legacy of Franco victim?

[OFSO]

Hopefully it doesn't go further. Far too many present-day families have discovered the consequences of investigating deceased relatives from the Franco era. That's not hearsay.

[OFSO]

Salvador Illa, the former Spanish health minister who "resigned" just over a month ago, is the Socialist candidate in the Catalan General elections (on Sunday). He's promising to fix the 'broken' national health system. Sounds very familiar, both the problem and the promise.

[OFSO]

Just had a report from our local town, where Carnival is banned. Seems many people are in costume, bars open, and police turning a blind eye.

[OFSO]

Turnout in the Catalan general election was 22% by midday. Massively below last time, 2017. None of the candidate parties are discussing real matters of interest to the electorate.

[OFSO]

By closing time, a historic low of voters at 44%.

[OFSO]

The Separatistas won the election yesterday and interestingly the leader spoke in English from the podium, asking for help from Europeans to free Catalonia from the tyrannical Spanish, not to mention freedom for the Catalan politicians in prison for the crime of rebellion.

[OFSO]

Widespread and large-scale violent demonstrations in all Catalan cities last night against the imprisonment of a Catalan rapper, imprisoned on charges of terrorism because of the words he sang. Anti-Spanish feeling running very high, Spanish banks destroyed.

[OFSO]

Riots continue. Condemned by Prime Minister. Big demos forecast for today. Two and a half years incarceration for singing a song insulting the Spanish state.

[OFSO]

Elsewhere m'learned friend is talking about the validity of statistics. I recently read of how healthy the Mediterranean lifestyle is, and how expats here enjoy an excellent old age. Indeed! My German neighbours P and J are well into the new decade after their first hundred years of life, and the town hall, at which they are of course registered - I forward their post - almost certainly includes them in the data it reports periodically to Madrid. The only trouble is they are both dead, died over twenty years ago, when they felt like dying they did what expats always do, and went home to die. The law on reporting a death in Spain, when it's happened 'abroad', is a bit hazy, and families of deceased expats usually don't bother, so there we are. Just one example. I wouldn't dare suggest it's common, as that might bring down a shower of green excretion on my head.

[Pontius Navigator]

OFSO, and in UK you are not dead until a doctor so certifies. At the surgery where Mrs PN used to work about 30 years ago there were many ghosts in the system.

[OFSO]

That is very interesting, didn't know that. Another case here: in the street above lives a chap, international organisation pensioner, still "on the books" as alive and living there (I checked last year), but I drive and walk past frequently, and haven't seen him for maybe fifteen years. So?

And a truly gross story: some years ago I ran into a chap from my organisation, sitting with a large glass of brandy in a cafe in Empuriabrava. He'd come down to check on a relative who had not been heard from for months - in a very hot summer. He told me (can't vouch for his description of what he found) when he went into the house, the relative was not only dead but had, er, liquified. Is that possible? He said he got a shovel....

[k3k3]

If the corpse had liquified in the heat the only way to get rid of the stench would have involved a jerry can of petrol.

[OFSO]

Riots continuing here over the imprisonment of the rapper. Tarragona very violent last night. People lost eyes as police firing rubber rounds incorrectly. The AP7 motorway closed by protestors this morning. Main North/South route.

[Woody]

What’s Spanish for “ we’re all in this together “

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56270508

[OFSO]

I had assumed that with bars and restaurants closed, shuttered and locked from 16:00 onward here they were closed. I was mocked yesterday as it appears a certain pattern of knocks on the back doors will cause them to open and inside they are not exactly empty of clients. Police are taking a blind eye. Of course there are infections. One person well known to us who visits a bar all day has seemingly caught Covid as he tested positive (but no symptoms).

Shades of the Bona Fides of Eire.

[Pontius Navigator]

OFSO, any truth in the rumour that topical application of alcohol is as effective as hand washing?

[OFSO]

Internal application of alcohol works well to prevent catching The Virus and drinking enough means you don't care. We stick to the official gels.
I've just received a flyer that Lidl and Aldi are selling Covid-19 tests from next week. I can't believe it.

[Woody]

Well this could be interesting

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... l#comments