Certain overpaid -and underworked - categories of people keep the tabloid newspapers filled with their detrius and drivel: their marriages, infidelities, divorces and their tantrums. Pop stars and professional sports stars are two glaring examples - witness the Tiger Woods Story of recent months and the endless George Michael saga. Both categories spawn latter-day gods who make obscene amounts of money, yet too often they reveal themselves as humanly flawed, less than God-like with their unsuccessful attempts to reconcile private selves and public obligations. And when that happens the paparazzi pounce. As we ordinary mortals all know, happiness doesn't sell papers, dirt and disasters, whether public or personal, do.
This week's Spanish newspaper sports pages are no exception. Most featured a new episode in the checkered career of ex-BCN resident and player, the 30 year-old Milan club's footballer Ronaldinho who is rumoured to have been a bad boy yet again. Not too long ago he was a Barça player and in trouble with their Christ-reborn figure, trainer and saviour Pep Gardiola, for not training hard enough and enjoying the Barcelona night life too much. Despite his obvious talent as a footballer (and entertainer) after a couple of seasons as the club's rising star, he was starting to fit the new Barca team philosophy like the Lion King would Lady Gaga's bikini. Eventually Milan (or Berlusconi the club's owner) decided he might have a future in Italy after he gave the businessman/politician a promise to play there 'till he hung up his boots'. As with Barça he initially fitted in well even regaining some of his old flair, but latterly he had been seen more on the bench than the pitch, a non-starter for most of the important Champions League matches and he's reportedly had several arguments with Milan's trainer, the aptly misnamed Allegri. A case of deja vu!
This week when in Dubai for the club's winter training sessions he not only missed training (for stomach problems again!) but was also reported coming back to the hotel late after going to discotheques (hardly Barcelona or Milan quality but enough to keep him out till 7am.) He reportedly (!) left the team without even saying 'goodbye' and boarded a plane to Brazil. He was last seen sunbathing at a beach resort. Rumour has it he wants to play for a Brazilian team, probably Gremio, where he first started his career.
Ronaldinho's case is an example of a young red-blooded man whose personality doesn't fit a hardline approach, (known as the 'philosophy') of a club, in the case of Barça and Milan ones that are making a lot of money out of him. If off-field exploits make players perform less well, teams start to lose matches and shareholders money for after all football is a business. It's not easy for an individual with such talent and flair as Ronaldinho to accept being treated like a schoolboy and being told off by the 'headmaster'. Some players can take it, realizing that their careers as footballers don't last for ever. Ronaldinho can't. Messi his equally brilliant Argentinan ex-teammate at Barca seems to be able to. I suspect much of the problem hangs on your personal relationship with your trainer. If that's bad you may as well leave.
However there another side to this coin to consider. Money. There's a strong arguement that top football players morally should give 120% on and off the field since they are paid such huge salaries. In sport unlike with pop stars who also earn huge amounts, wide differences in character and attitude are frowned upon. Pop stars are expected to ruffle the establishment's feathers, to wear outrageous clothes, to take drugs, to wreck hotel rooms, to fuck fans. The bad-boy image sells disks. Sports stars wear suits and blazers when they travel together as a team. They eat together, play together while the Big Daddy manager takes care of everything. Step over the line and party too much however and you get slapped down.
Legal contracts bind players to clubs and their philosophy. In Ronadlinho's case at Milan we're talking an eight million euros a year contract. Maybe like Barça, Milan have a right for that amount of cash to expect him to toe the line more. English Premier Club team Blackburn Rovers are said to have offered him 20 million over three years if Milan would sell him in the January sales or 'transfer window' as they call it. Milan want eight million euros since he has one year left of his contract - not out of the question for Blackburn's ebulliant chicken based economy but certainly too much for lowly Brazilian club like Gremio who he seems to want to return to even though he'd play for a fraction of what he now gets at Milan.
Football has always had and will continue to have its casualities and its successes. George Best spent all his money on whiskey and women and died broke. Paul Gascoyne had his fight with alcohol and Madona his with drugs. Stars like Ronaldo and Beckham have their heads screwed on better and have remained successful. Or have agents with their heads screwed on better to make sure they remain so. Ronaldinho's agent is his brother and he also has his sister and mother working for him. Perhaps it's a mistake to mix family and business. Maybe he's made enough money and at thirty wants to enjoy himself before settling down. Maybe he was just an example of a player who wanted to samba through life and the football field was just another dance hall for him. Kinda sad though to see the end of a player who enjoyed playing. His goofy smile and brilliant individualism will be missed by the fans but not by trainers who wanted to wipe it off his face. Adios amigo.
Friday, 7 January 2011
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Tobacco Road: the smoking ban
Ten days to go and the puff-smoke-in-yer-face game will be over. Spain is set to bring in the La Ley del Tabaco, making it one of the last countries to be a bastion for smokers in 'old' Europe to do so. January the second will be 'T Day'. Like all changes it has been fiercely resisted to the bitter end by bars and restaurants who deny surveys that show they won't lose clients and revenue. For God's sake if the Italians can do it, anyone can!
The immediate effect of the law - apart from a less-polluted atmosphere all round - will be that barmen and waiters for example will be able to breathe more easily and live longer - 1,000
of them a year die through tobacco-related illnesses. No longer will they confront a crowd of dragon-like patrons puffing obnoxious fumes in their faces. More importantly future generations may also survive longer - smoking will seem less the norm if totally banned in public places, including children's playgrounds.
Over the last five years the Spanish government has dragged its feet over implementing Brussel´s recommendations. It's almost taken pride in being the last to make changes, citing possible loss of earnings for interested parties: tobacco sellers, kiosks, bars, pubs, eating places and inveterate smokers all protested and you could count on one hand the places displaying No Fumar stickers on their doors when the smoking ban was 'voluntary'. Really though it was all about votes. Offend one section of the population too much by tampering with their freedom of choice and come election time you're burnt toast - appropriately so in this case!
And true to form even with the new law in place it will still allow certain sections to smuggle in fags through the back door as it were, although there could be some method in this madness. Prisons and psychiatric institutions will be able to designate 'smoking rooms' since so many of their clients are addicted - (and if deprived of tobacco could be violent?). Smoking Clubs - whatever they are -will also be exempt as long as they restrict smokers to members and guests. Having many years ago got a whiff of the atmosphere in the smoking room in Singapore's Changi Airport (one of the anti-smoking pioneers) I feel the allowing such exemptions are a subtle way of exterminating problem people - a kind of societal euthenasia or 'ethnic cleansing' as it's termed in some countries.
Some things are not clear about the new law ban, however. Who for example who is going to check on whether businesses are sticking to the law - will we see a huge army of civil service workers come into being, called 'Smoke Detectors' perhaps?; what do you do if a customer who might be paying a huge bill for a blowout in your restaurant whips out a fag and lights up? If you turn a blind eye you're liable to get a heavy fine, particularly if 70% of the clients eating are likely to be non-smokers and might rat on you.
Write in and say whether you feel Barcelona will overnight become smoke-free and where smokers will now go.
Friday, 17 December 2010
Wikileaks conspiracy theories
Not only do we live in dangerous times, but also we Barceloneses live in a dangerous place according Wikileaks. Thanks to Mr Leak himself, Julian Assange, we know all about the cables sent from the US Madrid Embassy to Washington saying why Barcelona would be be an ideal place to set up a multi-agency counter-terrorism and crime-fighting centre.
Some cynics might regard the setting up of such a place as stemming from a conspiracy theory cos I wonder how many of us - except perhaps sharp-eyed Americans - have seen the 60,000 dangerous male and single Pakistanis who, according to Wikileaks, move around BCN unimpeded. On a quick random count on a Metro carriage (jam-packed, Line 3) Pakistanis scored nil. Perhaps I was travelling in a different carriage to the Embassy staff. I did see a few walking up and down Las Ramblas and manning the souvenir shops but 60,000. Come on!
The reports state the Pakistanis and many other Muslims 'live on the margins of BCN society' (unsurprisingly since who can afford the bloody sky-high rents here!) and that they 'don't speak the language.' Well, most of the ones I've heard in shops put all us expats to shame with their fluency. Moreover they are all deemed 'resentful since they don't have places to worship in' - ie mosques. I can understand why Catalans might be resentful with Allah Wakbar bellowing out five times a day from a digital speaker near you, but aren't we all constantly deafened by the 24 hour monster cacophony created by traffic, drunks, car stereos, over-loud club music, ambulances, slamming doors and paraqueets so who'd notice an immam or three shouting from the rooftops.
But perhaps there's lots of hard evidence somewhere else to make this conspiracy theory a reality. Newspaper archives for example. Yes, well they certainly show dangerous terrorists are on the loose here - especially the right-wing La Vanguardia: in 2008, fourteen (out of the reputed 60,000 Pakistanis that's 0.02% by the way) with ties to jihad groups back home were arrested and sentenced for planning an attack on the BCN Metro. The suspects had stolen passports, some of which the Mumbai terrorists were using when captured last year. (Why did they carry passports?) One (yes, you heard correctly) one passport stolen in Barcelona was used by the head of the Unit which organised 9/11; last week seven more 'terrorists' (that's 0.01%) were arrested in the city again with ties to terror groups back home. Of course there would have been many more arrests but police admit that the Pakistani community is 'very difficult to penetrate'. Should the police should start learning Urdu with so many around? A few Salaam aleekums and handshakes wouldn't go amiss either.
Then it's the 'organised crime' aspect then which provides a stronger reason for basing a US Crime Centre in Barcelona? Well, yes, there are more tangible signs for the existence of that. South American and Eastern European drug cartels market are said to operate freely here; Mafia gangs launder their money in the region's businesses so it's no wonder the Barcelona region has 25% of Europe's 500 euro notes circulating around its shops and shops; Albanians, Chinese, and Romanians people-traffic through Gerona and El Prat bringing in sad women to work the streets and clubs. High-profile Italian mafioso seem to be on permanent vacation here with their life of luxury only occasionally disturbed by the odd arrest now and then. But does it have to be an American Crime Centre? Don't they have their own problems to deal with over there?
But all this theorising might seem to be irrelevant as the idea may not even get off the ground. The Americans forgot there's a political problem to consider. Although the Spanish Government in principle is favorable to the idea of helping out Los Yonquees, it's not so happy ceding powers of national security to Catalunia. Well what's new? Back to square one again with its petty inter-regional squabbles. What did the cables recommend to get round them I wonder?
Actually the whole affair smells a bit fishy, as if America is looking for a reason to set up some kind of holding centre here for terror suspects and is usingthe high level criminal in Europe thing as an excuse. We need to remember Cuba and Guantanamo Bay are not so politically correct these days. The whole thing smacks of a desperate need for control, control and more control. Whether PM, Mr Bean, will give in to pressure from the White House remains to be seen.
Are you as a resident like me un-affected in your day-to-day-life by terrorism and crime apaprt from the occasional pick-pocket or bag heist attempt? Or do you pound the pavements of Passeig de Gracia and Diagonal with your heart in your mouth fearful that every brown-skinned man (or female) you pass could be a suicide bomber? If you thought Barcelona is bad, mosey on down to Palau Virreina and take a look at the exhibition of crime scenes by a French photo journalist from Nice. Now there's a place place to set up this Super Crime Centre.
Some cynics might regard the setting up of such a place as stemming from a conspiracy theory cos I wonder how many of us - except perhaps sharp-eyed Americans - have seen the 60,000 dangerous male and single Pakistanis who, according to Wikileaks, move around BCN unimpeded. On a quick random count on a Metro carriage (jam-packed, Line 3) Pakistanis scored nil. Perhaps I was travelling in a different carriage to the Embassy staff. I did see a few walking up and down Las Ramblas and manning the souvenir shops but 60,000. Come on!
Because of these high numbers of Pakistanis and a big Arab population, the Embassy suggests that Catalan cities constitute 'a Mediterranean region of jihadist activity, with BCN as a hub', supposedly used as a crossroads for people and goods moving to and from Rabat,Tunis, Algiers and the south of France.
The reports state the Pakistanis and many other Muslims 'live on the margins of BCN society' (unsurprisingly since who can afford the bloody sky-high rents here!) and that they 'don't speak the language.' Well, most of the ones I've heard in shops put all us expats to shame with their fluency. Moreover they are all deemed 'resentful since they don't have places to worship in' - ie mosques. I can understand why Catalans might be resentful with Allah Wakbar bellowing out five times a day from a digital speaker near you, but aren't we all constantly deafened by the 24 hour monster cacophony created by traffic, drunks, car stereos, over-loud club music, ambulances, slamming doors and paraqueets so who'd notice an immam or three shouting from the rooftops.
But perhaps there's lots of hard evidence somewhere else to make this conspiracy theory a reality. Newspaper archives for example. Yes, well they certainly show dangerous terrorists are on the loose here - especially the right-wing La Vanguardia: in 2008, fourteen (out of the reputed 60,000 Pakistanis that's 0.02% by the way) with ties to jihad groups back home were arrested and sentenced for planning an attack on the BCN Metro. The suspects had stolen passports, some of which the Mumbai terrorists were using when captured last year. (Why did they carry passports?) One (yes, you heard correctly) one passport stolen in Barcelona was used by the head of the Unit which organised 9/11; last week seven more 'terrorists' (that's 0.01%) were arrested in the city again with ties to terror groups back home. Of course there would have been many more arrests but police admit that the Pakistani community is 'very difficult to penetrate'. Should the police should start learning Urdu with so many around? A few Salaam aleekums and handshakes wouldn't go amiss either.
Then it's the 'organised crime' aspect then which provides a stronger reason for basing a US Crime Centre in Barcelona? Well, yes, there are more tangible signs for the existence of that. South American and Eastern European drug cartels market are said to operate freely here; Mafia gangs launder their money in the region's businesses so it's no wonder the Barcelona region has 25% of Europe's 500 euro notes circulating around its shops and shops; Albanians, Chinese, and Romanians people-traffic through Gerona and El Prat bringing in sad women to work the streets and clubs. High-profile Italian mafioso seem to be on permanent vacation here with their life of luxury only occasionally disturbed by the odd arrest now and then. But does it have to be an American Crime Centre? Don't they have their own problems to deal with over there?
But all this theorising might seem to be irrelevant as the idea may not even get off the ground. The Americans forgot there's a political problem to consider. Although the Spanish Government in principle is favorable to the idea of helping out Los Yonquees, it's not so happy ceding powers of national security to Catalunia. Well what's new? Back to square one again with its petty inter-regional squabbles. What did the cables recommend to get round them I wonder?
Actually the whole affair smells a bit fishy, as if America is looking for a reason to set up some kind of holding centre here for terror suspects and is usingthe high level criminal in Europe thing as an excuse. We need to remember Cuba and Guantanamo Bay are not so politically correct these days. The whole thing smacks of a desperate need for control, control and more control. Whether PM, Mr Bean, will give in to pressure from the White House remains to be seen.
Are you as a resident like me un-affected in your day-to-day-life by terrorism and crime apaprt from the occasional pick-pocket or bag heist attempt? Or do you pound the pavements of Passeig de Gracia and Diagonal with your heart in your mouth fearful that every brown-skinned man (or female) you pass could be a suicide bomber? If you thought Barcelona is bad, mosey on down to Palau Virreina and take a look at the exhibition of crime scenes by a French photo journalist from Nice. Now there's a place place to set up this Super Crime Centre.
Friday, 10 December 2010
Doping: a case of mistrust
Spain yesterday was hit by another scandal when Marta Dominguez the country's most famous athlete and world 3000m steeplechase champion was arrested. She is being investigated for supplying performance-enhancing drugs to other athletes - though not taking them herself. Others, well known trainers and medical people in the world of athletics, have also been arrested. Her arrest follows on from other investigations into the world of sport for doping this year and going back to 2006. In the cycling world, Spanish Olympic rider, Alejandro Valverde, was banned and another, Alberto Contador, is under provisional suspension.
Another separate but related piece of news is that several middle-management police officers have also been arrested in Cataluña for alleged connection to the importation of cocaine through Barcelona's port. They belong to the home-grown Catalan Police Force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, but other police forces are implicated, including the Guardia Civil and the National Police. They have been on the take, it seems, receiving 'gifts' of various types and value for 'favours' given. Apparently there are also connections to the Italian Mafia and Columbian drug cartels with certain criminal investigations concerning drugs and prostitution having been 'discouraged' or 'blocked' by senior policemen.
The first item is kind of sad in that athletes and sportmen need to resort to underhand tactics to achieve fame and success - especially as younger sportsmen look up to people like Dominguez. But now what's the point of training to get to the top, what's the point of this respect when she - and others like her are maybe cheating their way to the top? Where will it stop. Will the world of football be next? Imagine if folk heroes Messi and Ronaldo were caught up in this type of sordid cheating by taking drugs to enhance their stamina! Luckily the world's major sport seems to monitor drug-taking better than most - match-fixing seems to be a greater danger. However, implications have been made by a Spanish sports doctor in the French magazine L'equipe, Eufemiano Fuentes, that both Barca and the Spanish world champions are 'not so clean' - immediately denied by Del Bosque and Iniesta.
The second item has much wider implications than the first in that it affects all sections of society. It suggests that Spanish police are in danger of becoming like Mexican and South American police, making as much as they can out criminals while they can and letting criminals make the rules. It means very dog has its price and drug dealers seem to know who to get to in order that blind eyes are turned at the right moment and in the right place. It could mean that law and order as we know it could be in danger of disintegrating with corruption across the board. You'd expect such a situation in a Third World country where police salaries are pitifully low, but this is Europe for God's sake, so it's greed not need as the motive.
I'm not sure what the answer is. In some countries non-corrupt police when they exist have a short career or even life span and family members even shorter when threats not gifts are used by criminals, And who do you complain to when the barrel is full of rotten apples? Who do you shop a corrupt colleague to? Who can you trust? This dilemma is the theme of countless films across the globe. In many cases the answer seems to be: no one.
The first case ('Operation Galgo' or 'Greyhound') seems to be escalating - you only need to turn over more stones. Yes, it is bad but it's about sport and that's it. Society won't collapse and just a few personalities will lose respect. After all many of the tattooed iron pumpers I see everyday in my gym are on pills and powders of various kinds. To date only 14 people have been called in for questioning only two of them top athletes: Alemayehu Bezabeh, European cross-country champion and Nuria Fernandez, European 1,500m gold medalist. However if it does spread further maybe the jargon word 'contagion', used lately to describe a financial 'disease' countries can catch, might then be applicable here. How many more athletes will be 'touched'? We can only wait and see. Meanwhile in the early stages an atmosphere of political correctness reigns - the Spanish athletics captain, Manolo Martinez, has stressed that if people are guilty they should be punished and if not they should be exhonorated. Well chosen words - meaning nothing.
At least the doping affair is manageable and out in the open - all you need do is have more random tests at high levels. Police and political corruption are not so manageable, not so easy to root out and cause much more damage.
Another separate but related piece of news is that several middle-management police officers have also been arrested in Cataluña for alleged connection to the importation of cocaine through Barcelona's port. They belong to the home-grown Catalan Police Force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, but other police forces are implicated, including the Guardia Civil and the National Police. They have been on the take, it seems, receiving 'gifts' of various types and value for 'favours' given. Apparently there are also connections to the Italian Mafia and Columbian drug cartels with certain criminal investigations concerning drugs and prostitution having been 'discouraged' or 'blocked' by senior policemen.
The first item is kind of sad in that athletes and sportmen need to resort to underhand tactics to achieve fame and success - especially as younger sportsmen look up to people like Dominguez. But now what's the point of training to get to the top, what's the point of this respect when she - and others like her are maybe cheating their way to the top? Where will it stop. Will the world of football be next? Imagine if folk heroes Messi and Ronaldo were caught up in this type of sordid cheating by taking drugs to enhance their stamina! Luckily the world's major sport seems to monitor drug-taking better than most - match-fixing seems to be a greater danger. However, implications have been made by a Spanish sports doctor in the French magazine L'equipe, Eufemiano Fuentes, that both Barca and the Spanish world champions are 'not so clean' - immediately denied by Del Bosque and Iniesta.
The second item has much wider implications than the first in that it affects all sections of society. It suggests that Spanish police are in danger of becoming like Mexican and South American police, making as much as they can out criminals while they can and letting criminals make the rules. It means very dog has its price and drug dealers seem to know who to get to in order that blind eyes are turned at the right moment and in the right place. It could mean that law and order as we know it could be in danger of disintegrating with corruption across the board. You'd expect such a situation in a Third World country where police salaries are pitifully low, but this is Europe for God's sake, so it's greed not need as the motive.
I'm not sure what the answer is. In some countries non-corrupt police when they exist have a short career or even life span and family members even shorter when threats not gifts are used by criminals, And who do you complain to when the barrel is full of rotten apples? Who do you shop a corrupt colleague to? Who can you trust? This dilemma is the theme of countless films across the globe. In many cases the answer seems to be: no one.
The first case ('Operation Galgo' or 'Greyhound') seems to be escalating - you only need to turn over more stones. Yes, it is bad but it's about sport and that's it. Society won't collapse and just a few personalities will lose respect. After all many of the tattooed iron pumpers I see everyday in my gym are on pills and powders of various kinds. To date only 14 people have been called in for questioning only two of them top athletes: Alemayehu Bezabeh, European cross-country champion and Nuria Fernandez, European 1,500m gold medalist. However if it does spread further maybe the jargon word 'contagion', used lately to describe a financial 'disease' countries can catch, might then be applicable here. How many more athletes will be 'touched'? We can only wait and see. Meanwhile in the early stages an atmosphere of political correctness reigns - the Spanish athletics captain, Manolo Martinez, has stressed that if people are guilty they should be punished and if not they should be exhonorated. Well chosen words - meaning nothing.
At least the doping affair is manageable and out in the open - all you need do is have more random tests at high levels. Police and political corruption are not so manageable, not so easy to root out and cause much more damage.
Monday, 22 November 2010
Saga Louts: UK pensioner crime
Only the Guardian newspaper could come up with such an outrageous pun - do they still have sit-down comedians to write all their headlines? The phrase 'Saga louts' recalls the 80's phenomenon of young gun Brits fuelled on gallons of high-strength lager loutishly wrecking property and people in Britain and abroad - Spain with places like Loret del Mar and Torremolinos were a prime casualities. Latterly young people in the UK seem more likely to wreck themselves at the weekend though they still manage to create no-go areas for the rest of us leaving stations, town centres and carparks awash with vomit. Luckily today's teenagers seem more concerned with how many times they can throw up in a night rather than how many fights they can pick.
But 'saga louts'? OK, saga rhymes with lager but there have to be other similarities? Well it seems there are. An increasing number of Saga members, the over 60's, are taking the law into their own hands. Financial crime, drug and weapon crime and sexual offences (must be all these purple pills available on the Internet) are on the up for pensioners, so much so that elderly prison wings are going to be the thing to go for in penal institutional architecture, fitted out with stairlifts and wheelchair ramps. Plus prison staff will also need to learn how to deal with prisoners who suffer from dementia problems and don't know why they are there or even just Why?. Will that sad infirmitythat become a legitimate and genuine defence in court? "My client doesn't remember a thing about the night of the 11th , mi lud."
The Guardian suggests the reasons for this significant increase in older-person crime could be because pensions aren't enough to live off in today's climate of increased VAT and fuel bills. The Internet makes scams easier to set up and courts are getting tougher on older criminals. It also points out that it's not only Britain where the phenomenon exist : the same has been happening in Holland, Japan, France and Israel. Increased customers on Saga Holidays and Cruises another reason then?
No figures exist as far as I know for penioner pugilists in Barcelona, though I did once see an irate abuela almost club a pink shirtless tourist to death with her brolly as he crossed the Ramblas with his mates. But things are clearly changing. Published crime figures show that a highly respecatable area of Barcelona like Sarria is now statistically regarded as a high crime area even though it's mainly populated by the over 70's. Gym chain, Dir, have classes every morning for the Evergreens in its upper Diagonal area premises. Maybe it should stop training them in Body Balance, Karate and Kick-boxing though. It's obviously putting ideas into their heads and over-toughening their aging bodies.
Soon young people will have to move downtown to safer places like Cuitat Vell and Trinitat where there will be fewer chances of being robbed and violated. Or run down by wild pensioners gunning their Porsches and Ferraris. Soon we'll also have 70 year olds whispering psst! as you walk up Via Augusta while pulling out plastic wrapped comforters from their shopping trolleys. A perfect cover. It's going to play hell with the city's demographics in a year or two. Its clubs and bars will be full of randy old greybeards fuelled on Viagra and Cialis leching after young women and swigging Hot Chocolate cocktails. What? They already are? OK forget that then. Certainly you can expect to see an increase of leather-jacketed Segway riders hanging out in L'Illa, sporting labels on their backs like "Turro Park Grannies" or "Les Corts Angels.
It's not going to be pleasant then for us good law-abiding types working our nuts off - I'd hate to be a Mosso in the next two or three years if Spain follows the current trend. But then maybe there's no need to worry yet as the country is always the last one to follow norms and trends. It will be the last to observe smoking bans in public places so why should it send its glamorous grannies to solicit on las Ramblas?
But 'saga louts'? OK, saga rhymes with lager but there have to be other similarities? Well it seems there are. An increasing number of Saga members, the over 60's, are taking the law into their own hands. Financial crime, drug and weapon crime and sexual offences (must be all these purple pills available on the Internet) are on the up for pensioners, so much so that elderly prison wings are going to be the thing to go for in penal institutional architecture, fitted out with stairlifts and wheelchair ramps. Plus prison staff will also need to learn how to deal with prisoners who suffer from dementia problems and don't know why they are there or even just Why?. Will that sad infirmitythat become a legitimate and genuine defence in court? "My client doesn't remember a thing about the night of the 11th , mi lud."
The Guardian suggests the reasons for this significant increase in older-person crime could be because pensions aren't enough to live off in today's climate of increased VAT and fuel bills. The Internet makes scams easier to set up and courts are getting tougher on older criminals. It also points out that it's not only Britain where the phenomenon exist : the same has been happening in Holland, Japan, France and Israel. Increased customers on Saga Holidays and Cruises another reason then?
No figures exist as far as I know for penioner pugilists in Barcelona, though I did once see an irate abuela almost club a pink shirtless tourist to death with her brolly as he crossed the Ramblas with his mates. But things are clearly changing. Published crime figures show that a highly respecatable area of Barcelona like Sarria is now statistically regarded as a high crime area even though it's mainly populated by the over 70's. Gym chain, Dir, have classes every morning for the Evergreens in its upper Diagonal area premises. Maybe it should stop training them in Body Balance, Karate and Kick-boxing though. It's obviously putting ideas into their heads and over-toughening their aging bodies.
Soon young people will have to move downtown to safer places like Cuitat Vell and Trinitat where there will be fewer chances of being robbed and violated. Or run down by wild pensioners gunning their Porsches and Ferraris. Soon we'll also have 70 year olds whispering psst! as you walk up Via Augusta while pulling out plastic wrapped comforters from their shopping trolleys. A perfect cover. It's going to play hell with the city's demographics in a year or two. Its clubs and bars will be full of randy old greybeards fuelled on Viagra and Cialis leching after young women and swigging Hot Chocolate cocktails. What? They already are? OK forget that then. Certainly you can expect to see an increase of leather-jacketed Segway riders hanging out in L'Illa, sporting labels on their backs like "Turro Park Grannies" or "Les Corts Angels.
It's not going to be pleasant then for us good law-abiding types working our nuts off - I'd hate to be a Mosso in the next two or three years if Spain follows the current trend. But then maybe there's no need to worry yet as the country is always the last one to follow norms and trends. It will be the last to observe smoking bans in public places so why should it send its glamorous grannies to solicit on las Ramblas?
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Catalunya's National Front.
Today I had my mailbox stuffed with electorial propaganda. I usually chuck this kind of stuff into the nearest bin - as a foreigner I can't vote in the elections anyway. But today but one flyer caught my eye. On the front was a cross printed against the phrase "Control immigration" with 'immigration'' highlighted. There was also a picture of the candidate who wanted my vote - he looked remarkably like my gym trainer, Marcus, a 'typical Catalan' face. On the back was a list of the things he promised to do if I voted him in. Amazingly, out of the ten issues highlighted by Sr Josep Anglada of the PXC party eight consisted of 'crimes' levelled against non-Spaniards. Unbelievably, as a foreigner I found myself guilty of dire crimes against (Spanish) humanity? And he wants me to vote for him. Assassinate more likely! I mean, look what the man would do to me if he got in.
For starters he'd immediately deport me if I was an illegal immigrant or a teenage delinquent.
He wouldn't allow me to wear my burka -in public - nor allow me to build mosques on any public land. If I was part of a South American gang terrorising residents in the local parks and squares he'd deport me right away. If I had a shop and wanted to keep open to catch the on-the-way-home-from-work crowd, he'd want to take my licence away, cos what I was doing would be unfair competition. As a foreign shopkeeper he thinks I'm probably part of the Mafia anyway. And if I went into selling fake handbags or DVD's on the street to make a living then God help me!
He'd certainly change all this reserving places in schools for my kids rubbish, cos he says there's no room for Catalan kids is there? My children would lower the standards of any school they were in -they'd prevent all those hard-working motivated Catalan kids from progressing quickly enough. Finally there should be no free health cards for me and my type because we clutter up the local clinics and prevent sick Catalans from being attended to.
This man certainly doesn't beat about the bush does he. He goes to town on the naming of names: he pole-axes the Chinese, the Pakistanis, the Moroccans, the Latins and by inference any one who is Muslim. He's sexist in picking on burka wearers.
Hey wait a minure you might say. There's plenty of sense in what the man says. He appeals to voters over 99 who are terrified by gangs and get their handbags snatched off them every day. He has a point too about the health centres - all these bloody Brits down in the south getting their new hips and kidneys on the cheap. Can't even get my Viagra prescription these days the queues are too long. Bloody health tourists!
But underneath this right wing garbage passed off or disguised as an electoral campaign there's something more sinister at work. It's a policy riding on the popular back of xenophobia and pure racism. It's no better than Oswald Mosely's National Front in the UK in the thirties. And what was the political climate then? An economis crisis just like now. Mosely blamed the foreigners for everything and whipped up feelings in the worker class. Look around there are plenty more examples around you. It's what Penn and more recently Sarkozy did in France, what Berlusconi says in Italy. It's the politics of the British National Party . Come to think of it isn't that how Hitler did so well too in Germany?
So Herr Anglada will you get my vote? Like hell you will! Now what can I post in your letterbox? Plans for a mosque in a space near you! Spanish architect though.
Update: day after elections - 29 November.
The PxC party didn't get any seats in the Catalan Parliament, but overall 72,000 people voted for its racist policies. Let's see what happens in the Municipal elections next year on which Anglada intends to concentrate. He was reported to have said said he had been greeted by voters after the election with cries of 'Anglada for President!' Dream on Señor:
For starters he'd immediately deport me if I was an illegal immigrant or a teenage delinquent.
He wouldn't allow me to wear my burka -in public - nor allow me to build mosques on any public land. If I was part of a South American gang terrorising residents in the local parks and squares he'd deport me right away. If I had a shop and wanted to keep open to catch the on-the-way-home-from-work crowd, he'd want to take my licence away, cos what I was doing would be unfair competition. As a foreign shopkeeper he thinks I'm probably part of the Mafia anyway. And if I went into selling fake handbags or DVD's on the street to make a living then God help me!
He'd certainly change all this reserving places in schools for my kids rubbish, cos he says there's no room for Catalan kids is there? My children would lower the standards of any school they were in -they'd prevent all those hard-working motivated Catalan kids from progressing quickly enough. Finally there should be no free health cards for me and my type because we clutter up the local clinics and prevent sick Catalans from being attended to.
This man certainly doesn't beat about the bush does he. He goes to town on the naming of names: he pole-axes the Chinese, the Pakistanis, the Moroccans, the Latins and by inference any one who is Muslim. He's sexist in picking on burka wearers.
Hey wait a minure you might say. There's plenty of sense in what the man says. He appeals to voters over 99 who are terrified by gangs and get their handbags snatched off them every day. He has a point too about the health centres - all these bloody Brits down in the south getting their new hips and kidneys on the cheap. Can't even get my Viagra prescription these days the queues are too long. Bloody health tourists!
But underneath this right wing garbage passed off or disguised as an electoral campaign there's something more sinister at work. It's a policy riding on the popular back of xenophobia and pure racism. It's no better than Oswald Mosely's National Front in the UK in the thirties. And what was the political climate then? An economis crisis just like now. Mosely blamed the foreigners for everything and whipped up feelings in the worker class. Look around there are plenty more examples around you. It's what Penn and more recently Sarkozy did in France, what Berlusconi says in Italy. It's the politics of the British National Party . Come to think of it isn't that how Hitler did so well too in Germany?
So Herr Anglada will you get my vote? Like hell you will! Now what can I post in your letterbox? Plans for a mosque in a space near you! Spanish architect though.
Update: day after elections - 29 November.
The PxC party didn't get any seats in the Catalan Parliament, but overall 72,000 people voted for its racist policies. Let's see what happens in the Municipal elections next year on which Anglada intends to concentrate. He was reported to have said said he had been greeted by voters after the election with cries of 'Anglada for President!' Dream on Señor:
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Sagrada Familia: semi-ready
You'd have thought that after last weekend's Papal blessing, the polemic surrounding the newly created basilica, La Sagrada Familia (La SF) would die down while work got on to complete Gaudi's project. But no, life in Barcelona is never that simple. Tuesday's papers were full of speculation about the future of the 128 year-old building, not least whether it will come tumbling down when tunneling for the high-speed train the AVE continues, not quite underneath it but pretty close. Mind you it seems a tough old bird and survived Civil War bombs as well as an attempted burning in 1936.
It seems, however, there are other demolition matters pending too. According to freebie paper ADN, plans to knock down two housing blocks on nearby Calle Majorca are to go ahead in order to create a grand entrance for La SF and extend adjacent green areas. Naturally owners of flats in the blocks are somewhat pissed off since they haven't been properly consulted, and it seems most likely they will not be compensated fully when their houses get the metal ball treatment.
BCN mayor Jordi Hereu assures residents that this destruction is years away -though not that it won't happen. One wonders what would he feel if he knew that sometime in the vague future his house would be knocked down and that, at best, he would get less than market value. Notably on compulory purchase orders such as this, Government valuations are on the low side to say the least. And these buildings are not exactly slum clearance stuff -the ADN photo taken from the visitor's gallery of the SF shows that. Residents don't want to move even though every day tourist buses are parked all round the place and at 7 am they are woken up by construction noise. Have they ever been compensated for that I wonder? Ironically, many people criticised these same residents for renting out their balconies to Popophiles last weekend to take pictures of his highness and entourage. Perhaps they deserved this for the inconvenience of limited access to their houses for the whole weekend?
I have a feeling that there is more to this than meets ADN's eye and one of those things is money. La SF is the most symbolic building in Barcelona - even though lots of Barcelona residents have never been inside it or up its towers. A conservative estimate shows that it's worth about 30 million per year on entrances fees alone, without all the spin-offs from souvenirs, guided visits - and visitors coming to BCN proper. So it's got huge drawing power. Can't it do without a huge stepped entrance - which apparently wasn't even on Gaudi's plan anyway - so these soon to be thrown out families can rest in their beds. Well, till 7am anyway. For the next 15 years.
La SF to me symbolises all that is negative about Barcelona despite its quirky architectual uniqueness and many say beauty. You have noise and dirt from the building site from dawn to dusk. You have masses of people arriving on the Metro and in tour buses. And you have the pickpockets and con-men living off them all. Don't get me wrong I love the city but this is definitely a rip-off area. Still there's a good pub there if it all gets too much. 'Michael Collins'. Now he'd have known what to do with the pickpockets!
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