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
Iberoblog
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
Catalan police gunned down in Barcelona wild boar mayhem!
It’s not often that we sympathise with the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s regional police force. All too often recently, they have hit the headlines for truncheoning protesting young Catalans or beating up suspects, so it was rather refreshing to read this on Europa Press: A Mossos d’Esquadra agent was injured in the knee on Wednesday by a bullet that rebounded after another policeman shot at a wild boar which had ventured into Barcelona’s Sants district, according to police sources. This took place between 4am and 5 am, when the animal reached a populated area – it got as far as Calle Numància – and the agents started the search to shoot the wild boar in an open space. The presence … [Read more...] about Catalan police gunned down in Barcelona wild boar mayhem!
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
The Chávez trap
It is January 2003, I'm in the Ecuadorian capital Quito, and my arm is aching. I am holding a tape recorder up to Hugo Chávez’s mouth and he won’t stop talking. Chávez is in town to attend the swearing-in of Ecuador’s new president, Lucio Gutiérrez, a man many expect to pursue the same radical leftist path as the Venezuelan leader (although, as it turns out, he doesn’t). Other Latin American leaders have come to Quito, but Chávez is by far the biggest draw. I am part of a scrum of journalists who surround him as he strides into the lobby of a smart hotel, smiling and sure of his own magnetism. I’m standing behind him, slightly to one side and I’d like to rest my arm by placing the tape … [Read more...] about The Chávez trap
March 11, again
Another year goes by, and still the poisonous legacy of the March 11 bombings remains. I wrote this a year ago, but sadly, it still applies: Another anniversary of the Madrid terrorist attacks of March 11, 2004, comes and goes and with it, another storm of acrimony that highlights, in the ugliest way possible, Spain’s divisions. It’s now eight years since bombs planted by Islamic radicals were detonated on trains in or near Madrid during the morning rush hour, killing 191 people and injuring nearly 2,000 more. Enough time, you would think, for society to digest and come to terms with the attack, if not the grief it caused. But as dozens of relatives of those killed gathered … [Read more...] about March 11, again
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