Free-D

Salamanca’s hospitals have constantly been in the news recently – due to the continuing strikes. Many are critical of this industrial action which is apparently putting lives at risk. But who would want to work in such an environment, where the responsibilities at every level are so great, stress levels so high, and where there’s no such thing as a “regular day at the office”: rather a constant influx of unpleasant, and occasionally life threatening occurrences? Patients on the whole aren’t the easiest folk to deal with; tempers are often understandably short and demands frankly unreasonable. During the last few months I’ve had quite a lot to do with the Hospital Clinico, which has brought me into contact with many members of staff. It’s not an easy place to work; admissions usually resembles an extremely busy airport terminal. It’s obvious that nobody’s there for an easy ride. It’s equally obvious then that these strikes point to the fact that something has gone awry. Read the rest of this entry »

The vultures are feeding on the living. Does that sound like something out of a post apocalyptic horror film? The reason for it is simple though: any animal corpses left exposed on the Sierra are being buried. The vultures must have been pretty hungry to start swooping down on new born calves the way they’ve been doing.

Read the rest of this entry »

So that’s that then, Zapatero stays in office with a less convincing majority than previously believed possible. Meanwhile smaller parties, such as the IU  managed just 6.43% of the Salamancan vote. They complain that they’ve been squeezed out by the polarizing effects of the electoral campaigning. This is, no doubt, partly aggravated by the press: on the day following the election virtually the only mention of “minority” groups ran for a quarter of a sheet on page 15 of the Gaceta. You could ask “why should they enjoy greater representation?” Well, anyone  seriously considering how to vote understands that minority parties represent a far greater number of people’s views than the media would have us believe. As such you might think they also represent a significantly more important aspect of Spanish life than does, for example, Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, the Elvis be-wigged, toy guitar toting idiot currently attempting to “revitalize” Spain’s Eurovision efforts . Read the rest of this entry »

Although my mother always said that one should never talk about politics when abroad; during a general election campaign it seems rather a waste not to mention this most ticklish of subjects.  The first thing one notices about both sides of the political spectrum (if you can call two colours a spectrum) is their similarity to those of England; which are in turn of course strikingly similar to each other. How one is supposed to decide who to vote for is beyond me – considering that all we have to go on are sound bites and platitudes. Perhaps it’s just my poor Spanish, but don’t the slogans, “clear ideas” and “we’re more” tell us absolutely nothing?  During Salamanca’s wild days politics used to be really dangerous. Read the rest of this entry »