Fish and chips? Spain's Jews are the origin

 

[Illustration: Leonardo Berbesi]

"The history of the dish begins with the persecution of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula, during the 16th century.

Many of them ended up in England, taking the fried fish with them. It was a Sephardic dish that they used to eat on Fridays.

The secret was the use of oil, which sealed the flavours, made the flour crispy and the fish very tasty.

To those islanders accustomed to lard, frying in oil seemed revolutionary…’ Later we read: ‘…A Jewish fishmonger who emigrated from Eastern Europe, named Joseph Malin, was the first to come up with the idea, in 1860, of putting fried fish and potatoes together in his store in [London's] East End…"

Found at BoT but original source is here.

An ugly truth

 

"The Banco de España confirms that company profits grew seven times more than wages in 2022.

The institution says that companies have transferred the increase in costs to sales prices and have improved or maintained their profitability during the current period of high inflation."

Found at BoT : a great summary of Iberia's news.

(Original source at ElDiario here.)

"Damned noise" -- an opinion from the 2nd most noisy country in the world: Spain.

  

‘In this country, clamour is as inevitable as the air one breathes. It follows you, wherever you go, whatever you do.

Motorcycles, construction sites, shouting, music, mobile phones, bells, firecrackers, barking, horns, alarms, barrel organs, shouting, radios, hammers, garbage trucks, heels, drills, TVs and slot machines…

We live in the acceptance that silence is no longer possible; we have given up, we endorse with total naturalness that we do not have access to the balm of tranquillity...’

Read more (in Spanish) here.

[Article first found at Business over Tapas:

"Only Japan (with its paper walls) is noisier than Spain."]

Business Over Tapas

Highly recommended by me. 

Brilliant, concise current affairs summaries: done every week. I couldn't do without it.

Read for free only this week here.

A (pre) X-mas story in Catalonia

(Photo: Mané Espinosa)

 

"The sad news for many health workers is that their temporary contracts fell due and they lost their jobs. Now Catalonia has picked up some 600 Andalusian health workers who say they now get better hours and a better contract."

[This story from La Vanguardia originally found at excellent news service Business Over Tapas.]

Someone please tell me why...?

The Spanish region of Valencia will be the world capital of Hyperloop, "the transport of the future." 

From July 19 to 25, Valencia will host the European Hyperloop Week, a transport system that will allow passengers and goods to be carried at more than 1200kph.

[Source via news service: Business Over Tapas.]

Barcelona's homeless union now a reality

 

Spikes to stop street sleepers outside a shop on la Rambla

 "A homeless union is born in Barcelona: "There cannot be people sleeping on the street with 13,000 empty flats", they say’."

[From elDiario.es here: (First found through Business Over Tapas news service.)]

AND see here for semi-related news of the latest Covidiocy: Last night's planned insanity/experiment/super-spreader event in Barcelona.

I vote, therefore I am? -- An opinion from Lenox

From the editor of BoT (Business Over Tapas) news service...

"News arrives that an elderly Briton living in Italy was finally successful in his long-term campaign to persuade the British Government to allow Brits living abroad the right to vote. 

Each country has its own rules about this chestnut. The British either lose their vote after fifteen years abroad; or they don’t, because they never had it in the first place (being born abroad or leaving the UK as a minor). Most other nationalities do not lose this right. 

The idea is that we Brits abroad should finally have representation in the World’s Greatest Democracy. What this means is unclear, since the Parliamentary Member for North Norfolk (for example) might have a few dozen supporters living across the world – all of them clueless about sugar-beet and the price of Norfolk wherries (it’s an obscure type of barge). 

Much better we expatriate Brits, all thirteen million of us (Wiki) of which 1.2 million are estimated to be living in the EU (here) – that’s about the size of the city of Brussels by the way – get some useful representation where we live. 

Just for comparison, the official number of Brits in Spain (even after Brexit) is around the same size as the city of Alicante, or ten times the size of the city of Teruel (here). 

Having the vote – probably even swinging the vote – for the Brexit referendum would have been very useful, but it's not much use to us expatriates any more, unless Westminster allows foreign-based constituencies.

The French have eleven of these, representing the French citizens who live outside of their motherland (Wiki). The MP (deputy) for the French diaspora in Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Monaco is called Samantha Cazebonne. I’m sure she is kept busy.

So, unless we have someone who solely represents us Brit expatriates in Westminster, there's not much point. 

My constituency was North Norfolk, and I haven't been back there since I left the UK (via public school somewhere) at the age of 16. Would the different candidates write me glowing testimonials about their work with sugar beet futures? After careful consideration, which one would I chose to represent me (or rather, not represent me) in Westminster? Hmm, tricky.

In general terms, having the vote – or rather representation – here in Europe would be much more useful and fair. So thank you Beacon of Democracy, but I’ll not be bothering to vote. "

                                                                                                                    Lenox Dixit

Spanish youths' surprising outlooks

 

[Photo: EFE]

‘Young Spaniards believe that they will live better than their parents, but in another country.

Those aged 15 to 29 are critical of the value of friendship, committed to social causes and sceptical of their political representatives’.

The survey includes a useful graphic. From La Vanguardia but found at Business Over Tapas.

"Where (some of) Spain's agricultural workers live"

A video report from LaSexta titled ‘Between garbage and no hot water in old farm-buildings: the inhumane conditions in which the seasonal workers have to live’.

[Thanks again to the comprehensive round up of weekly news at Business Over Tapas.]

"Barcelona’s Epic Tourism Boom Is Over..."

Apart from the great news that Spain is to prohibit the docking of cruise ships ‘indefinitely’ there's the prediction that the crisis well and truly underway in the tourism sector, is going to get worse, particularly in Barcelona.

Some local people are undoubtedly happy about this but we can only hope that the reliance on tourism in the economy also ends. Then I and many others want to seet moves towards other, better paid employment.

(These stories and many others can be found at the hugely informative Business Over Tapas weekly news service. They give me no payment, BTW.)

(1 min video:) "Covid19 Appeal: Food & vital supplies for migrant workers in Southern Spain"

"Migrant workers, providing fruits and vegetables to UK supermarkets, have been confined to the cramped settlements in Southern Spain where they live due to recent social-distancing laws, often without access to running water, basic sanitation or food.

Ethical Consumer (here) appears to be an organisation that looks to publicise bad business practice. ‘Learn how to use your spending power to help change the world for the better’, they say."

Original source: (the highly informative) Business Over Tapas.

Spain leads world in number of jailed artists

"Spain leads the world in the number of jailed artists, says Kamchatka, quoting ‘the Danish-based Freemuse organisation which warns of the emergence of "a new global culture to silence others" [something] which is repeated in all countries of the world, "even in the traditional democracies of the West".

This independent organisation, which is responsible for monitoring the state of freedom of artistic expression, has published its annual report, in which it identifies Spain as one of the countries in which the repression of [culture] creators has increased the most. 

Specifically, Spain leads the ranking of artists imprisoned in 2017, with a total of 13, ahead of China, Iran, Egypt and Turkey, and is the third in creators prosecuted, lying only behind Egypt and Ethiopia..."

(Article found through the excellent Business Over Tapas, which calls itself 'a weekly non-commercial newsletter about Spain...without fluff nor filler.')

Spanish government freezes EU-funded solar research centre

"In the desert of Tabernas, near where the famous spaghetti western films were shot, is the largest research centre for concentrated solar energy in Europe. 

And it’s dying through the usual blend of bad politics... As early as November 2017, the PSA chiefs resigned and cuts in research staff were announced. 

But how did we get to this point? 

Here’s what has happened: the research groups, partially funded from Brussels, had to deal with the freezing of funds due to [Spanish] government-driven spending restrictions. 

That’s right: they receive funds from the European Commission that they cannot use, even though their use would not affect in any way the Spanish national budget."

The Spanish government is against the solar plant (the traditional oil-based energy producers don't like competition from the solar people - at least until they've bought them out).

Translated by the excellent Business Over Tapas, which calls itself 'a weekly non-commercial newsletter about Spain...without fluff nor filler.'

"The lost photos of Barcelona"

[Image: Milagros Caturla, courtesy of Tom Sponheim]

  
An envelope in a Barcelona flea market held the work of an unknown master photographer...

"In the summer of 2001, American Tom Sponheim was vacationing in Barcelona with his wife. On their way to the cathedral of Sagrada Familia, they wandered through the bustling flea market of Els Encants.

Sponheim spotted a stack of photo negatives on a table, and after checking that they were decently exposed, asked the vendor how much. She asked for $2.50 for an envelope of the shots. He paid her $3.50.

Upon returning home, Sponheim scanned the negatives and discovered that he had stumbled upon the work of an unknown but immensely talented photographer."

Read more from source and see more of the remarkable photos here.

(Article first found via Business Over Tapas.)

Immigrants and The Vote in Spain

Young people at a demonstration

With the Spanish election tomorrow these words are particularly relevant...

"An article about how the foreigners living in Spain (better than four million of us) are ignored by the politicians. It's not just that we don't have the vote (and thus, some influence), it's that the politicians are frightened about giving us any attention as it could cost them domestic votes. A quote from an immigrant association in Madrid: "This campaign has not mentioned the foreigners (4.4 million of us live in Spain). There has been nothing, neither good nor bad, said about us. We simply do not exist. Could we generate votes? Not from Immigrants. If someone speaks up for us, then Society disagrees. In our association we have already received several 'threats' and we have been left messages on the door showing that immigrants are to blame for all ills, even for the corruption of the parties."

Translated from an article in El Diario, courtesy of the highly informative Business Over Tapas.