A picture is worth 1000 words

On the left: Catalonia
On the right: Spain

Click to enlarge

Why you should not invest in Spain

WARNING - THIS ARTICLE SHOWS A PICTURE AT THE END THAT MAY OFFEND YOUR SENSIBILITIES.

Either if you are planning to invest in Spanish bonds or you are thinking about the possibility of setting your company in Spain, please, stop and think for a while! Are you sure? Should you invest in Spain?

This study sets out a simple question: do educated leaders matter? By analizing data on more than 1000 political leaders from 1975 to 2004, the study tries to find out the relationship between the level of education of politicians in a country, and its economic growth rate. The conclusions reached are:

1) When a leader having a university (degree or postdegree) education is substituted by a leader without such education, the country's growth rate decreases.

2) When a leader with no university education is substituted by a leader with such education, the country's growth rate increases.

3) When a leader with no university education is substituted by a leader without no such education neither, the rate keeps unaltered.

4) When a leader with university education is substituted by a leader with such education too, the rate keeps unaltered.

5) Democratic leaders tend to have a higher education than the dictatorial ones.

In Spain there is plenty of politicians that are suspicious of having poor education, but I'd like to extend this study to their way of thinking: I mean opinions, likes and behaviours. It turns out that, in Catalonia, bullfighting was forbidden by the Catalan Parliament some months ago. Some people think it was forbidden because it is an insane, old-fashioned tradition. Others think it was forbidden because it is a Spanish tradition. Whatever, to me the most important thing is that bullfighting was forbidden. Now it turns out the Spanish government is attempting to declare bullfighting as "Protected National Fiesta", which would force the Catalan Parliament to abolish the prohibition and restore "corridas".

The problem though is not whether Spain is governed by PP (the right wing party) or PSOE (left wing). The problem is that both, the biggest parties in Spain, agree in protecting bullfighting!!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Most of the members of the Spanish Parliament THINK bullfighting is glorious! So:
1) What can you expect from these politicians?
2) Do you think your company will be safe in a country with laws made by such ill minds?
3) Do you want your product to be manufactured in a country with such traditions?
4) Moreover, are you sure you want to buy Spanish bonds taking into account that Spain cannot even pay the debt it owes to Catalonia?

And you may wonder: well, is bullfighting such a terrible tradition? Judge for yourself. The picture below was taken yesterday April 29th in Seville. During a "corrida" the bull can be stabbed by people riding horses. Since the bull desperately tries to defend itself, it attacks everything in its path, even those horses. The horse in the picture died after spreading its guts on the floor. What a beautiful tradition...Isn't it? Fuck!

T'estimo

English speakers have the verb "to love" so they can say "I love you". We, Catalans, do not have a usual equivalent for "to love": we say "T'estimo". The verb "estimar" literally means "to esteem, to respect". So, when you are saying someone "T'estimo", you are saying that you appreciate, respect him/her. Beautiful, isn't it?

In Catalonia today is a great day to say "t'estimo": this is Saint George's day ("Sant Jordi"), a day in which men give a rose to the women they love, whatever they are girlfriends, wives, sisters or mothers. On the other hand, women give a book to men (actually men also give books to women, besides of the rose). If you have the chance to walk around the cities and villages of Catalonia, you'll  be able to buy books and roses in the street markets that are specially set for today.

Happy Sant Jordi!

Saint George, a dragon and a rose as a single being, and the princess.
Illustration by Xavier Salomó

You can read the article about Sant Jordi 2011: " When roses and books fill Catalonia with color and culture "

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. 

'Libération' wonders: Catalonia, mirage of independence?

The French newspaper 'Libération' has recently published an article in which it wonders how independentism is growing in Catalonia due to the unfair treatment it receives by the Spanish state. In the newspaper's own words: "Catalans pay too much and Spain, their stepmother, does not compensate them. [...] It's true that in this region of Spain - which is one of the richest regions and represents the 20% of the Spanish GDP - the smell of independence is more and more intense".

'Libération' points out that the largest national Catalan party (CIU), which has always had a moderate point of view towards independence, is now changing its mind due to the "discontent of the Catalan society towards the appeals lodged by the Spanish conservative party Partido Popular against the Catalan Statute". Actually, the French newspaper remembers the demonstration taken in Barcelona on July 2010, when more than one million people complained to the Spanish government for having cut the Catalan statute voted by Catalans in referendum.

CIU knows it has the power to make Catalans aware of needing independence from Spain. However, as 'Libération' also asserts, Catalonia's President and CIU's leader Artur Mas is still too ambiguous which makes independence a tangible goal though distant.

Samsung Mobile vetoes Catalan language

I purchased a Samsung Mobile phone with Android some months ago. One of the things I was disappointed with was that the phone didn't come with the Catalan language package. I thought it was due to the early existence of Android-based devices and I expected future devices would fix this issue. However, Samsung Spain has deliberately vetoed Catalan language again on new devices running Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), which includes Catalan by default. EbreAndroid (the first Catalan blog about Android) asked Samsung for telling the reasons for this veto, and the South Korean company replied they are not responsible of the decisions of local offices regarding to the languages shipped on devices sold in their regions.  So, EbreAndroid is urging Catalan Samsung Mobile users to ask Samsung Spain for including our language on their devices. Requests are being performed through Twitter by using the hashtag #androidcatalà in different Samsung accounts (such as Samsung Mobile Spain and Samsung Spain) for sending this letter (in Spanish).

I like Samsung devices and I'm planning to purchase a new device in few months. I would like them to be in Catalan language for then. Meanwhile I'll have English on my mobile phone.

"The Best Oil In The World"

Yesterday I went to "Les Borges Blanques", a village in Lleida (Catalonia) of about 6000 people located at approximately 1.5 hours from Barcelona, if you travel by car. The reason I got there was to visit "La Fira de Les Garrigues", a fair that takes place every January in this village to show different traditional gastronomical products that can be found throughout Catalonia, although the most prominent product shown is the Olive Oil, which makes the Fair to be also known as "La Fira de l'Oli" (the Oil Fair). The region of "Les Garrigues" joke about themselves to produce the best olive oil in the world, which holds a Protected Designation of  Origin. Although they make this assertion in a joking way, I can confirm the variety of oils this region produces are all excellent, and if you don't trust me, go there and taste it for free!

Below there are some pictures of the event, which is ending today, January 22th. And if you plan to visit it the next year,  I strongly recommend you to have lunch before, otherwise you will be tempted to buy all the products the exhibitors offer you for tasting!!

(click on the pictures to enlarge them)

The village of Les Borges Blanques

"Coques de Recapte"

"Embotits" (cold meat)

Cheese

Beautiful botle with olive oil

Different varieties of olive oils