Wednesday, October 17, 2012

"The End of Spain"






The compulsory tattoo that Prime Minister Rajoy will soon be insisting that every Spaniard has.



    (Photo - Javier.)


Tom, an English architect, forwarded this north-American article to me recently. It came under the title of “Mario vs. Mariano Could Mean the End of Spain.”

I think the journalist (Marshall Auerback) is generally right about the depth of the economic disaster here, and some of the figures are very troubling, but he is almost certainly over-emphasizing the importance of the military in this country. 

Their influence has greatly reduced since the clownish 1981 attempted coup, though both they and the various police forces here can be brutal when allowed to. 

His comparisons with the American Civil War and US history are drawing a long bow.

In the he final paragraph shows an almost gleeful, ghoulish delight in the economic and social misery here, when he wrote: "If you loved what was happening in Athens, just wait until this show moves full steam ahead into Madrid. It could make Greece seem like a harmless side
show in comparison."

As is often the case with sensationalist journalism from the US, some of the comments from ordinary people underneath the article were more sensible, thoughtful and seemingly better-informed than the guy who's getting paid to write this shock-horror stuff.

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