With comets illuminating the night sky above Madrid, and thousands gathering in the Puerta del Sol to demand the restoration of the Republic, with political parties and big business spectacularly mired in corruption and Isabel Pantoja collapsing in court – it’s not entirely surprising that coverage of Spain’s asparagus harvest has been relatively low-key. But readers may have noticed that the cost of asparagus spiked recently. This was because heavy rain in Granada province, where about 80 percent of Spanish asparagus comes from, destroyed almost a fifth of the crop in the first quarter of the year, and the shortage sent prices through the roof. Interestingly (if you look at things in … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: The price of asparagus
Tales for Tapas: Life is a pleasure
A woman of international stature passed from the scene this week. Admired at home and abroad, she touched the lives of millions, a champion of personal freedom who nonetheless came to terms with dictatorship, her instincts were conservative but her choices were often daring – Sara Montiel, the venerable icon of stage and screen, died at her home in Madrid on Monday at the age of 85. Montiel personified – particularly in her later chat-show-celebrity-magazine incarnation – the superficiality of pop culture, yet that very superficiality may have been the key not only to her commercial success but to her importance to Spanish society, particularly in the 1960s. Montiel articulated a kitsch … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Life is a pleasure
Tales for Tapas: Money and mystique
The 19th-century British political economist Walter Bagehot noted that letting “daylight in upon the magic” of monarchy risks diminishing its mystique. A court summons, no doubt, represents a mystique-diminishing dose of daylight, and Princess Cristina’s scheduled April 27 appearance before a judge in Majorca may be dignified but is unlikely to be very edifying. Still, the royal families of Europe are not – and never have been – paragons of public virtue (as anyone who has spent time in Las Vegas recently may be able to testify). What makes the Nóos Affair so problematic is not simply that it is a royal scandal but that it is a royal financial scandal in the middle of a national financial … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Money and mystique
Tales for Tapas: Management lessons
There had been gloomy predictions that Spain’s global soccer ascendancy might be coming to an end, but Tuesday evening’s victory over France was solid if not stellar. Coach Vicente Del Bosque, in characteristically imperturbable fashion, said the win “helps support the conviction we have in our ideas.” Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy would no doubt love to bask in the same warm glow of vindication, but this week’s economic data suggest he has as much chance of doing that as Scotland have of going to Rio de Janeiro next summer. Perhaps the most surprising (and dispiriting) thing about the latest batch of figures is that they are no longer very surprising. There was more resignation than … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Management lessons
Tales for Tapas: Capital games
There are arguments for and against holding the Olympic Games in Madrid in 2020. During its four-day visit this week, a nine-member International Olympic Committee inspection team was regaled mostly with arguments for (though a Madrid Metro strike and an anti-Games demonstration helped make the case against). The positive arguments are persuasive. The nearly €2.5 billion required to run the Games will be paid for entirely from ticket sales and sponsorship (with the cheapest tickets to be kept under €40). The €1.67 billion budgeted for additional operating costs and infrastructure will be divided among the central government, the Madrid region and the city, representing, as Madrid Mayor … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Capital games
Tales for Tapas: Compromise in the air
Significant progress this week in resolving the Iberia airlines dispute after the compromise package put forward by government-appointed mediator Gregorio Tudela was accepted by Iberia’s parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), and by most of the unions. Clearly, a solution is good news for travellers – Iberia’s troubles have had a knock-on effect with major airport disruptions and thousands of flights cancelled during stoppages in February and earlier this month; more strikes had been scheduled in the coming weeks in the absence of a settlement. It will also come as a relief to IAG, which claims to have been losing €3 million for each day of strike action, compounding … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Compromise in the air
Tales for Tapas: Rich and poor
On the same day Venezuela’s charismatic president, Hugo Chávez, died the Dow Jones and Financial Times indices broke records, wiping out the losses of the last five years. As capitalism appeared to recover its old swagger, a hero of the Left passed from the scene. The significance of Chávez’s experiment in “21st century socialism” (as he described it) goes beyond Venezuela. His attempt to harness the market to the needs of the poor emerged from a long and well established tradition in the Spanish-speaking world. The shortcomings of his 14 years in power, however, may have had as much to do with oil as with ideology. Chávez’s achievements – and more schools, more clinics, more amenities … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Rich and poor
Tales for Tapas: Catch of the day
With anti-austerity demonstrations, a song for Europe, a pair of Barcelona-Real Madrid encounters, and scandals (royal and otherwise) bubbling along – some people may not have been paying attention to Tuesday’s meeting of the European Union’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council. But when El Sueno de Morfeo have made Eurovision history (or not), when Cristiano and Leo have hung up their boots, and when harmony has returned to Spanish politics, the outcome of the Fisheries Council’s deliberations in Brussels will still be having a profound impact on dinner tables in Spain and beyond. Among the issues discussed at the meeting was the introduction of a ban on throwing unwanted fish caught by … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Catch of the day
Tales for Tapas: Trouble in the air
Striking Iberia workers this week held up banners saying their airline is not for sale – they believe the restructuring plan put forward by parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) is not really about restructuring at all but about letting British Airways, Iberia’s partner under the IAG umbrella, acquire the Spanish airline’s assets at knock-down prices. The prices, though, would not in fact be knock-down, because Iberia has continued to haemorrhage money since its merger with BA at the start of 2011. It lost a cool €262 million in the first nine months of last year. In their campaign against the 3,800 redundancies, 15-percent route reduction and across-the-board pay cuts … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Trouble in the air
Tales for Tapas: Turning points
Bowing to a campaign that gathered one-and-a-half million signatures, the People’s Party this week dropped its opposition to a debate on legislation intended to mitigate the social and financial impact of home evictions. The parliamentary initiative follows a rise in suicides associated with mortgage foreclosures – a shocking barometer of the human cost of economic austerity. Under the new measures, social housing would be made available to families that have been evicted, and mortgages would be cancelled when homes are handed over to the bank. Some argue that market forces will restore prosperity as long as they are allowed to work and that remedial social programmes are no more than … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Turning points