Fauna

DISCLAIMER: as fas as I know, humans are animals. If you want to know why am I pointing this out, read the note at the end of this article.

You can see three animals in the picture below. In the background, an elephant lies dead after being shot in head. On the left, there's another animal that thinks that killing elephants is fun and lucrative (yeah, he's wearing ridiculous clothes). And on the right, there's yet another animal that has the particularity of living at the expense of other animals (the Spanish citizens, me included). This individual is Juan Carlos 1st, the king of Spain.

The Spanish Royal Family are a handful of people that nobody really knows what they are useful for. They were established by the fascist dictator Francisco Franco and they use to spend their time in sailing, hunting, attending to parties and official meetings. It turns out that the King Juan Carlos recently said in one of these meetings that he can't sleep at night because he can't stop thinking about the young people that are unemployed. Well, provided that the Spanish monarchy costs, at least, more than €10 million per year of public money, I can understand why the king is worried about unemployment: who the hell will keep on supporting the Royal Family in the future?

Now, while Spain is sank in a deep economical crisis, while many people are resigning themselves to accepting spending cuts, the Spanish king spends, at least, 60,000€ in travelling to Botswana for hunting elephants. I say "at least" because that's the prize the man of the funny clothes in the picture charges for that: logistic costs for moving the royal family are not included. The funny thing though is that during this bloody safari the king has broken his hip.

Some people are beginning to talk about the "annus horribilis" of the Spanish Royal Family. Some months ago, the king's son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarín, was accused of siphoning of millions of euros in public funds from a nonprofit foundation he ran. And some days ago, the king's 14-year-old grandson, Felipe Juan Froilán, accidentally misfired into his right foot during a target practice.

The worst thing though is that debating whether Spain should keep on being a monarchy or turn itself into a republic is still some sort of taboo among the main Spanish political parties.  This is Spain, again: a country plenty of experts in sweeping the problems under the rug.

DISCLAIMER NOTE: Spanish laws are quite archaic as for freedom of speech, and they forbid Spanish citizens of mocking the Royal Family. Many TV programs and magazines have been censored several times for having sarcastically criticized the king, the prince or any other family member. So, one must be careful when publishing something about the king.