Peter Fieldman
What is the link between the US Government and the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg? Both are doing a fine job of upsetting EU member states. The U S has been accused of spying on Europe’s leaders including Angela Merkel (listening to her personal telephone conversations must have been riveting). And after its legal battle with Great Britain over the deportation of Abu Qatada to Jordan, the Court of Human Rights has angered Spain with its decision to invalidate the Parot Doctrine…
The Judges do not seem to know the meaning of human rights. If only Courts, Judges and Governments stopped confusing law with justice and spent more time looking after the interests of victims than their aggressors, the world might become a safer and more moral place. Meanwhile despite all the sophisticated spying technology, the corrupt, the mafia, the drug bosses, the fraudsters, the tax evaders etc are still able to operate with impunity.
France is also at the centre of controversy over the deportation of the Kosovar family and its treatment of Roms. True the methods might not be in keeping with France’s image of “solidarité”, but after the Lampedusa tragedy it raises the question of what Western Europe can do to stem the tide of illegal immigrants who fail to meet the criteria for asylum, but just like the idea of a more comfortable life style in someone else’s country, which no longer has the means to look after them. It is an issue, which will be at the centre of next year’s Euro elections. At the moment each country has its own policy and coupled with the unwanted intervention of the European Union, it is leading to chaos.
As the IBEX rose above the 10.000 level and speculators pile into Spain buying stocks and real estate, Rajoy, Montoro and Botín are jumping up and down with excitement, telling us the crisis is over. Well, can they explain it to the five million without jobs, the three million below the poverty threshold or the thousands of educated young who are leaving because their prospects seem bleak.
Maria Dolores de Cospedal seems to have opened up a pandora’s box with her decision to go to court over the Bárcenas affair. As Oscar Wilde said. “It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.” This scandal should bring down the Government but despite the mounting evidence nobody has resigned. Perhaps Spain should look at how China has started to crack down on political corruption with Bo Xilai receiving a life sentence and others being removed from their posts, ending their privileged life style using public funds to pay for luxury brands, cars, restaurants, hotels etc. The luxury life style sector seems to make its money out of corruption and from people who only spend other people’s money, never their own.
Madrid appears to be losing tourists, apart from the problems of Barajas, and has decided to crack down on unruly behaviour such as cleaning windscreens at traffic lights – which really upsets me, and I don’t even have a car – accordion players at café and restaurant terraces, illegal street vendors and to fine clients of prostitutes.
Yet the cultural scene is buzzing with several exceptional exhibitions; Velazquez at the Prado, Surrealism at the Thyssen Bornemizsa and Fundacion March, Japonisme at the Caixa Forum, the Macchiaioli artists and Spanish history photoexpo at the Fundacion Mapfre and British photographer Chris Killip at theReinaSofia. In addition the Matadero has been transformed into an exhibition and event centre and the Gran Vía is currently full of musicals. And have you ever visited the markets of San Miguel and St Anton, which attract masses of people?
The problem with Barajas seems to have something to do with competition over airports. I was under the impression that airports were built to enable travellers to fly. But no, they are shopping centres with runways, offering ”duty free” stores for branded luxury goods, which seem as expensive as in high streets, overpriced restaurants and bars and rip-off car parks. Airlines are a nuisance to put up with. Personally I like Barajas. There are few airports so close to the city centre with efficient and fast public transport links. By the way still no news from Refund. Me over my complaint to Ryan Air !
On tourism, did you hear story about the increase in the number of Chinese tourists travelling abroad. One group on a tour to Vladivostok apparently paid 80euros each to see “typical Russian folklore dancing” only to end up in a strip club with a laptop dancer.
This month is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President J F Kennedy. I happened to arrive in New York by transatlantic liner on 23 November 1963 to find a deserted city in total shock. John Kennedy had transformed the image of America and the President and his extensive family were a sophisticated civilised, cultural elite who acted and spoke in a way Europeans could understand. Then I watched Jack Ruby shoot Oswald live on TV, which converted me into an avid conspiracy theorist. The longer I stayed travelling around the country, the more I realised how diverse it was, how much poverty there was side by side with so much wealth and why some people hated the Kennedy clan.
In 1968 I was in Paris during the student revolution when Robert Kennedy was assassinated, just a short time after Martin Luther King. He was arguably a greater loss than his brother, mourned by thousands, who lined the tracks on the final train journey to Washington in an open carriage bearing his coffin. A few years ago after visiting the Gettysburg battle site, I stayed in Washington and went to Arlington cemetery to see their burial place. Another young President was in the White House idolised by millions. But Barack Obama too has been unable to fulfill his promises and, as we have recently noticed, the U S is more divided than ever. The American dream was an illusion.
More Spanish words: One which I initially found confusing can be seen on road signs; “Nudo, 5 Kms.” I was looking out for someone without clothes wandering across the motorway. “Ilusión” is also contradictory. Does it mean hope or an illusion like the announced economic recovery? I leave you with the attached image, which is not an illusion as Emilio Botin would have us believe with his “Vivimos un fantástico momento para la economía.”
