Sunday, September 26, 2021

"So, how was your summer?" -- My latest opinion column for Catalonia Today magazine

 


When people ask me this question I’ll be able to say it was unique. I had some novel experiences. 

Because the Spanish government doesn’t seem to have the ability to get its Social Security department to pay welfare benefits properly, I was one of the millions of unemployed who received nothing from them.


Like most private (or non-government) teachers in August I had no income.


This meant that the only state support for my household of three adults was a voucher for 100 Euros that I could spend in our little village’s only food shop. Still, I’m grateful for that. The town council helped.


Of course, it didn’t stop me worrying about the possibility of losing our house. That’s another new feature of 2021 but not confined to summertime.


What else? Well, we didn’t travel anywhere. We couldn’t afford it. Same as last year and the year before that. Instead, I spent hour after hour looking for the best place to sell some of my wife’s inherited jewellery. My mother in law’s gold bracelets paid for some of our mortgage.


I also put some time into a new hobby: persecuting myself and my wife and son to only use electrical appliances during the low-charge periods of the day, 2pm to 6pm. 


Of course, it didn’t work. Our electricity bill has gone up anyway. But we’ve almost stopped eating meat and drinking tea (the real, expensive stuff) so that might help even things out, do you think?


But surely I did something worthwhile? Yes. For my one glass of it a day, I found a bottle of wine I can actually drink that costs less than 1 euro. Also, I kept beavering away on my first novel. It’s getting close to finished. Nice. I watched my son with his girlfriend and I was proud of him. Also very nice. (She’s moved in so now there’s four of us.) 


As well,I walked here and there. It was free. Nice, again. It meant I discovered new patches of nature and parts of nearby towns that I hadn’t explored before: Pacs del Penedes and it’s Roman aqueduct in the medieval shade of a leafy forest, the thickest vines on the side of unfashionable Santa Margarita i Els Monjos and yet more wonderful Roman arches next to Sant Jaume dels Domenys.


All those in silence and with no one else around to distract me.  I went home and learned a lot reading Doris Lessing then dreamed about going to a restaurant again one day. It’s been more than 18 months since we did that.


On top of those fun and games, I enjoyed the heat of the sun. I always do. There was a part of me though that sometimes thought of that melancholy Bob Dylan line. “It’s not like the sun that used to be.”  


In short, while on a reluctant holiday, I tasted the stale, acrid taste of relative first-world poverty, or at least the sensation of sliding hundreds of metres towards it from what was once a comfortable middle-class existence. Surely, this is “The New Adventure” of the 21st century.


[This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, Sept. 2021.]


Sunday, September 19, 2021

Brazil resistance documentary launch by Helios Molina in Barcelona

 



Filmaker Helios Molina says, "I'm presenting/launching a documentary along with a debate at the Athenaeum Enciclopedic at C/- Reina Amalia 38 (Raval) Barcelona on 30 Sept at 18.30. It is about how the extreme right entered Brazil and will be with various artists from Rio de Janeiro and the resistance. The doc is 1h08 + debate following on how to cope."

Sunday, September 12, 2021

Another 5 Star Review for "Slow Travels in Unsung Spain"

 

Reader Review 

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2021

"I enjoyed reading this book by someone who obviously loves Spain. His observations are 
insightful, and particularly to me because it is the view of someone outside the culture, looking 
in. These are not small towns for the most part, and many are off the tourist track, so the author
is giving us a unique view.

It is a little wordy and more literary references than I prefer, so I would like to see tighter editing
in future works, but still a valuable read."

See this Amazon reader review here.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Timecheck (from Oakland, CA United States.) I do love 
Spain, most of the time...But sometimes she makes you disillusioned too!



Saturday, September 4, 2021

Podcast: "Catalonia: Squatters, Eviction and Extortion" [Crossing Continents]


A balanced and moving podcast with a real sting in the tail.

"Spain has a history of squatting. 

After the property crash of 2008 many families were forced to occupy homes that did not belong to them because they could not pay their mortgages. 

Now a darker side to ‘okupacion’ has emerged. 

Organised crime has seen an opportunity. Some flats in Barcelona have become ‘narcopisos’ - properties used to process or sell drugs. 

Other empty properties have been ‘sub-let’ by gangs to families who cannot afford a commercial rent. And the pandemic has spawned a new commercial model – extortion. 

These are cases where squatters occupy a property and demand a ‘ransom’ from the owner of several thousand Euros before they will leave. 

Enter the controversial ‘desokupa’ companies – firms run by boxers and bouncers who will evict unwanted 'tenants'."

Producer / Presenter: Linda Pressly Producer / Presenter in Spain: Esperanza Escribano Editor: Bridget Harney