For some, Popular Party (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy, who is aiming to lead his party to victory against the Socialists (PSOE) on March 9, is playing with fire by using the immigrant issue to sway voters on his side. While some Spaniards see Rajoy’s tactics as a desperate attempt to get more votes, the PP…
Month: February 2008
Fairy tales by Argentinian politicians
Wouldn’t we live in a wonderful world if all that the politicians said is true? I’d be especially happy living in a paradise called Argentina, where the president and government do not only make false promises, but directly cook the numbers of the national statistics agency INDEC to suit them. Nope, it’s not true what…
March 9 election debate in Spain: Zapatero versus Rajoy
Today concluded the first of two televised debates between Spain’s Socialist (PSOE) José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and opposition Popular Party (PP) head Mariano Rajoy. The first polls that were taken right after the debate show Rodríguez Zapatero beating by an ample margin his PP opponent. Television station Cuatro gave Rordíguez 45.4% versus 33.4% for Rajoy,…
First night under a Spain sky
Here’s one of the first picture I took from my hotel room of the Gran Vía in Madrid. Believe it or not, it’s about 2am. A travel guide of Madrid by the National Geographic asked where in Europe can you find a city where there are traffic jams at 5am Sunday? Gran Vía is one…
The “dirty war” that lives inside every Argentinian
The truth about what happened in Trelew almost 40 years ago clearly shows who were Argentina’s real enemies. After shooting down in cold blood suspected left-wing guerrillas at a maximum security prison, the Argentinian navy covered up the incident by stating that the victims had tried to escape. New revelations, however, have shown a very…
En cada argentino vive la guerra sucia
Los hechos verdaderos de la Masacre de Trelew que se han destapado después de casi 40 años demuestran claramente quienes fueron los verdaderos enemigos de la Argentina. Los hechos no sólo ponen a la luz la cobardía de la marina sino es un alivio saber que estos hombres que dominaban una vez al país no…
The Ulysses syndrome: an illness of immigrants
I came across an interesting article Monday in the Ecuadorian daily El Comercio on what some psychologists call the Ulysses syndrome, which is an illness that inflicts some immigrants when they live separated in faraway lands from their loved ones. The article continues: Norma lived in terror and in hiding. This 45-year-old single mother left…
The barber of Madrid…
Today is a beautiful sunny day in Madrid. It’s one of those days that so forceful that one forgets that there’s a season like winter. This would be a great day to go to the barber shop, I thought. I walked into the first barber shop that I saw in the neighborhood of Salamanca, located…
First days in Madrid
For a person like me who grew up in Southern California, Spain in general and Madrid in particular have a special touch of home. Certainly if I’d want to get a good feel for the “European” Southern California I’d have to travel to Andalucia in southern Spain. One of the matters that makes Spain such…