"Gets to the Heart of the Real Spain" -- Another ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader-review of "Slow Travels..."

 

I'm extremely thankful for these lovely words of praise from Lesley Postle about my latest non-fiction book...

"As someone who used to live in Spain and has been away for far too long, for me, Brett's book was a moving nostalgia trip through a country I love.

He brought it all back to life for me in a way that could only be done by someone who knows and understands the place really well. I adored the way he describes the minutiae of Spanish life, the food, the music, and the way things often don't quite work as they should over there, like having a tourist office which is impossible to find.

For me, the mix of travel writing with short commentaries on politics, history, religion and culture works well. There isn't too much of any one topic, so it never gets boring. I just wish it had been even longer. It was really interesting to read about some of the lesser-known towns which I do not know, but which I'd now love to visit.

I could really relate to Brett's personal story, having lived in a similar area and experienced a lot of the same things. It made me quite homesick and even more determined to get back there some day.

Original reader review titled "Gets to the Heart of the Real Spain" at Amazon here.

"House closed" -- My latest article for Catalonia Today magazine

"Precarious:" a word that accurately describes so many jobs under modern hyper-capitalism.

In Catalonia over the last few months this word has become a sword that is hovering over the lives of thousands of people. 

For around 300 employees at the International House chain of European language schools, “precarious” has come to be much worse than a mere word .

In their Barcelona branch (which operated for 40 years) at least 120 teachers and support staff have lost their positions. 

This is in addition to closure of IH’s other workplaces in Tarragona, Sabadell, Badalona, Terrassa and Mataró. Zaragoza and Palma de Mallorca are also shutting up shop.

Speaking to union representative Duncan Hawthorne, who has worked for IH Barcelona for the last 23 years, he told me he’d expected to stay with them for the rest of his working life. His opinion is that it was a great school but badly run over the years, particularly due to power struggles at the top of the company.

“There’s a lot of anger towards the management and that’s who the staff are trying to hold responsible for the end of the business," he said. "Covid 19 wasn't a major cause of us closing. It was just the last straw."

Duncan believes that employees feel abandoned by the owners of the company and their recent protests outside their former office on Trafalgar Street in Barcelona are evidence of that. He explained that one of the worst problems for employees is that they are currently in a kind of financial limbo, neither being paid by IH nor able to claim unemployment benefits (which for  hundreds of thousands of others, are currently taking up to 3 months to be paid by the Spanish government.)

Duncan also told me that the company is in the hands of a legal administrator but is not yet technically bankrupt. 

Another teacher said on social media, "Many of us have worked for IH over the last 5 decades. Staff left without pay or contracts 5 days before the new school year. Staff continued to finish classes yesterday because they care about their students."

Apart from this, it needs to be acknowledged that IH has stated online:

“The closure of schools is due to a sustained deterioration in recent years of International House's main lines of business, resulting from fundamental changes in the world of language teaching. This downward trajectory worsened, without a doubt, with the crisis caused by COVID-19.”

As someone who has also worked in and for a number of different language “academy” schools for many years, to me, this disaster represents just one of many that are striking this sector. 

This is due to the so-called free-market economy failing to provide secure jobs. The (supposedly temporary) closure of Merit School in Barcelona in July is just one other example.

As long as there are native English speakers in Barcelona and elsewhere in Europe giving one-to-one “classes” for a glass of wine or online for under 10 euros an hour -- both common enough -- there will be continuing exploitation of professional, qualified and experienced teachers. 

We are witnessing an ‘Uber-isation’ of teaching and learning in the private sector.

In reality, across our continent there is no law; there is only power. Or at least the power to enforce it. The “convenio” standard that legally exists has been widely abused for years and the pandemic has meant a genuine drop in pay rates. I’ve seen this for myself in trying to find teaching work since August.

So, what do we have in the industry? We have closed houses and open slather.

[This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, November 2020.]

A free read of "Slow Travels in Unsung Spain"

If you like armchair travel you can now read any part of the book for free at Scribd!

Click here.

"a compelling and eclectic narrative full of the unexpected" -- Nick Inman, Rough Guides

[5 min. video:] The good news and the bad news from Trump's defeat

Balanced and clear-headed comments from Yanis Varoufakis, co-founder of DiEM25, a pan-European, progressive movement that aims to democratise the EU before it disintegrates.

 

 

Controversial art exhibition opens in Barcelona, Nov. 5

 

[12 de febrer de 2019. Xavier G-Solís]

 ESTATAMBESTAT/ESTATCONTRAESTAT

              by Xavier G-Solis

From November 5 to December 5, 2020,at the  Contrast Gallery: C / Consell de Cent, 281, 08011, Barcelona.

The Contrast Gallery will remain open during the following hours during the month of November:

Tuesday to Saturday from 12 to 6 p.m.

They guarantee all safety  measures and the capacity is reduced to 33%: 6 people.

Openings cannot be held these days.

Next Thursday, November 5, from 12pm to 6pm the artist will be in the gallery for anyone to meet.