Kafka’s is the art of comic exasperation deploying absurd, even paranoid pseudo logic, labyrinthine insurance company and regulatory double-thought and dead-end speak, at one point probably convincing Derrida and the rest of the deconstructionists to become plumbers. Of course, calling officials, their projects and indirectly the Government itself the Arrangement, says a lot about Kafka's own state of mind. (Personally, I think the Deranged is more like it!), but he still created world literature out of the texts that as an insurance lawyer and later a Workman's Compensation Board verifier, engulfed him. He imitated the structures of treacherously simplistic but circular language so … [Read more...] about Kafka in Spain
Archives for November 2011
Who will be in charge for Rajoy’s great Spanish clean-up?
In 2002, when the Prestige oil tanker sank off the coast of Galicia, Mariano Rajoy was the Popular Party (PP) government’s official spokesman and was designated to oversee the handling of the crisis. The administration faced heavy criticism from some quarters for its management of the event, not least when Rajoy asserted that the spill, which would eventually see 20 million gallons of oil pour into the sea, had produced little more than “little threads of oil that look like plasticine”. Nine years on, Rajoy faces an even bigger task: to clean up Spain’s finances and oversee its economic recovery, while maintaining the support of sceptical Spaniards and the approval of a crisis-ravaged … [Read more...] about Who will be in charge for Rajoy’s great Spanish clean-up?
Why Real Madrid vs. Barcelona will be crucial, for Germany
Set your mind at ease, this article is not an early preview for the December 10 el Clásico. It has no intention whatsoever of pointing out the fact that Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are useful footballers, or that 142 percent of the world’s population will be tuning in, or indeed that the players involved have between them won every single sporting gong ever conceived. Undoubtedly, all that and much more looms inevitably on the horizon. But for the moment, hold off on decommissioning all your electronic devices and moving to Greenland. Let us instead ponder the upcoming European championships. We now know who will be there and who will not. We also have a vague idea of how they may be … [Read more...] about Why Real Madrid vs. Barcelona will be crucial, for Germany
O Lusitania
Tabucchi loves Lisbon, the film director Wenders loves Lisbon, and I much like Lisbon: the sweet urban decadence of it, the formidable Atlantic ocean of it making it Europe’s last vestige on the southern flank, but also an easy, open way to the new world, as far as the immensely flowing Amazon. A city in a nation well positioned for potential greatness, but Portugal still needing to be represented in the international literary canon with its only available candidate at one point, the poet Fernando Pessoa it seems. A chap through his compositions and spiritual meanderings contributing to its name, ironically named pessoa, meaning person in Portuguese, yet a man cleverly made up of many … [Read more...] about O Lusitania
Rajoy must take reins swiftly to avoid economic chaos
Mariano Rajoy’s resounding election win has redrawn Spain’s political map and put his Popular Party (PP) firmly in control of the country after seven-and-a-half years of Socialist government. He could hardly face a more difficult task on being voted prime minister. In the days leading up to the election, Spain’s economy was being battered by the markets, with its bond prices close to those of beleaguered Italy. Italy hopes it has just overcome its own political upheaval; Spain’s situation is less clear-cut. Spanish law dictates a lengthy hiatus between a prime minister’s election win and his instatement. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s successor as prime minister was not due to be sworn … [Read more...] about Rajoy must take reins swiftly to avoid economic chaos
Right sweeps to power in Spain, but don’t expect “miracles”
"There will be no miracles, I didn't promise any," PP leader Mariano Rajoy declared pragmatically on Sunday night after his party took almost 45 percent of the vote, winning an absolute majority in Congress in its strongest ever election result. With 186 seats in the 350-seat Congress, Rajoy, who is due to take office in a month, will have a virtually free hand to carry out reforms, although no one knows for sure what steps the new government plans to take to end years of recession and anaemic growth, the euro zone's highest unemployment rate and an escalating debt crisis. Having kept his cards close to his chest throughout the campaign, Rajoy will now be expected to show them - … [Read more...] about Right sweeps to power in Spain, but don’t expect “miracles”
Spain’s election will complete country’s swing to the right
On November 20, the fate of another European leader will be sealed by the ongoing economic crisis. Barring a major surprise, Spain will vote in conservative Mariano Rajoy as its new prime minister, to replace José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Zapatero is not running for reelection a second time, instead his Socialist colleague Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba is the government-backed candidate. But when Zapatero announced earlier this year that he would be stepping aside, there was no doubt that it was the economy that had cut his career short, in the same way it has ended the administrations of Georgios Papandreou of Greece and Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi. With Spain once again exposed to market … [Read more...] about Spain’s election will complete country’s swing to the right
Real Madrid winning run leaves Mourinho smiling
José Mourinho has changed. The brash, bombastic, fight-picking, opposition-baiting, eye-poking manager, who was worshipped by fans at Porto, Chelsea, Inter and now Real Madrid while being reviled by almost everyone else (including his own colleagues), has been replaced by a more reserved and gentlemanly figure who calmly oversees affairs and stays out of trouble. That was the argument put forward by journalist Tomas Roncero in the Tuesday edition of Madrid sports newspaper AS anyway. “Mourinho has made a radical change in his attitude,” Roncero wrote. “For the better. Since he signed his contract with Madrid for four seasons at the Bernabeu on 31st May 2009, to the Mourinho of 15th … [Read more...] about Real Madrid winning run leaves Mourinho smiling
Modern Spain’s legacy: airports, deficits and brutal cuts
Last week, Spanish newspapers reported that a recently busted gang of drug smugglers had planned to buy part of Ciudad Real airport in order to ship cocaine into the country. It was hardly the kind of news that the Castilla-La Mancha authorities would normally have enjoyed hearing, but right now, almost any potential buyer of this huge building with a four-kilometre airstrip will be welcomed with open arms. The Aeropuerto Central Ciudad Real, as it is known, is now as representative of Spain –particularly 21st century Spain– as the windmills and plains that surround it. Built in 2008, it was, for a time, presented by the local government as a bold way of putting the land of Don … [Read more...] about Modern Spain’s legacy: airports, deficits and brutal cuts
¡Sangre!
Her name was Catherine Sintes. She was the illiterate child of Catholic peasants from Menorca but grew up near Oran, Algeria, to where many dirt poor Spanish families migrated at the turn of the last century. It was where she married a farm worker raised in a Protestant orphanage, a kid named Lucien Camus, who would give her the son they would soon name Albert. Not an astonishing background, and neither Spain nor Africa are universally known for their thinkers. For even had Catherine stayed home, it is doubtful the Baleares would have produced much more than an avid tennis player. But colonial Algeria producing the melting pot and gene pool that sometimes gives rise to the development … [Read more...] about ¡Sangre!