It now seems that Iceland has defaulted, apparently believing Russia will be foolish enough to attempt to protect what’s left of its cod against ETA trawlers from Bilbao. Spain is not going down that road, at least not yet, but one of the more-quoted papers on the subject (De Paoli, Hoggarth & Saporta, Cost of…
Classic nimbyism, enabled by Spain’s lack of effective central government: Castilla y León has lots of wolves, but other communities which, according to ecologists, should in historical and biological terms have some, don’t want to take the overproduction. So they’re being shot. I don’t suppose we could airlift them to the outskirts of Reykjavik.
An extreme nationalist Basque group, ANV, was recently banned for being the latest in a succession of ETA front organisations. In Navarre their political representation promote Anschluss with the Basque Country proper, and in a small town called Villava their councillors hung the Basque flag (representing the race, the feudal laws, and the Catholic faith)…
Four-times champion Manuel Rivas has been disqualified from the Spanish championships for refusing to submit to random testing. Is my poor record in my favourite neon night bar due to my drinking beer while my opponents snort Columbian yam extract? Or is it that damn talent thing again?
Someone commented that penícula is probably not a gypsy neologism for a film dealing with the sorrows of life but a childish l/n swap, the fruit of orthographical panic caused by a relatively unfamiliar word. Although we’re clearly dealing with a different level of literary accomplishment, I suggest that Finalcial Times falls into the same…
And, judging by the envious comments on Facebook, possibly the first in Southeast Asia: One of the mysteries of globalisation is that I spend quite a lot of time at the moment writing for Chinese exporters. The first foreign I learnt as a kid was fragments of Cantonese. Maybe I’ll get a chance to check…
Para el heladero de una plaza graciense. Lo acaban de echar y no tiene alternativa ni papeles para buscar en el circuito normal. Lleva año y medio aquí y habla bien español (y nepalí). El y un par de familiares que he conocido son muy amables, y me parece buena persona. Preguntas/ideas aquí.
A friend looking for a childbirth course in one of Spain’s lonelier regions said that ghitting parto and the name of the county capital only ghot veterinary sites. I tried to replicate, and discovered that the municipal authorities can’t spell the name of their principal natural attraction, the Cantabrian brown bear, or oso parto pardo…