Tag: Spain

Closing Thought–30Jun20

This pandemic has proved to be a bitch for us mere mortals……the loss of employment and such has done nothing to improve the inequalities of our system…..

The idea of a minimum income goes back as far as the 1500s…..

The idea of an unconditional basic income has three historical roots. The idea of a minimum income first appeared at the beginning of the 16th century. The idea of an unconditional one-off grant first appeared at the end of the 18th century. And the two were combined for the first time to form the idea of an unconditional basic income near the middle of the 19th century.

History of basic income

Even the US is thinking along the UBI line…..

Public support for a national universal basic income has grown significantly in the last decade, and recent studies indicate that Americans are now split with roughly equivalent support for and against UBI. Indeed, some scholars argue that the damage caused by COVID-19 has revealed a fragile and inequitable economy and that the recent one-time payment should become a regular feature to give everyone basic financial security going forward. 

Other scholars are less convinced, maintaining that partial or conditional UBI would not reduce poverty and inequality and that a system sufficiently generous to ensure a basic standard of living for all would be prohibitively expensive. These critics assert that it is more efficient for the government to invest in better quality public services and improve existing social welfare systems.  

Universal Basic Income After COVID-19

Now one country has grab the bull by the horns and worked for the people……Spain.

Spain has done something that goes a way to helping the mere mortals of the nation…….they have now a minimum income…..

Spain’s cabinet has approved the creation of a national minimum income, according to a government spokesperson.

Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias told a news conference on Friday the creation of a minimum income worth €462 (£416.92) a month will target some 850,000 households or 2.5 million people.

The government would pay the monthly stipend and top up existing revenue for people earning less so that they receive at least that minimum amount every month, he said.

The minimum income would increase with the number of family members, up to a maximum of €1,015 (£916.30) each month. The programme would cost the government about €3 billion a year.

Mr Iglesias said: “Today is a historic day for our democracy. Today this government is showing that its political choice is social justice and that it takes the [Spanish] Constitution seriously.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spain-national-minimum-income-universal-basic-coronavirus-ubi-economy-a9538606.html

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Women’s History #5–The Poetic Princess

A little more women’s history to help sooth the nerves in the time of sheltering in place…..

I first came across this woman when I was living in Spain…..she has a fascinating story……and since this is women’s history month what better time to introduce this poet to my readers?

Her name was Wallada bint al-Mastakfi…….

Wallada was born in 1001, the daughter of a noble in the Andalusian city of Córdoba. In 711 an army of Moors coming up from Africa had conquered the city for the Umayyad Caliphate, along with most of modern Spain. Córdoba became the capital of this province on the edge of their empire. Fifty years later, after the Umayyads had been deposed, a prince of their line named Abd al-Rahman fled to Córdoba. Several of the locals had taken advantage of the chaos to declare independence, and he conquered them and welded them together into the independent Emirate of Córdoba. By the time Wallada was born his descendents had declared themselves Caliphs, [1] and Córdoba was a city of half a million people – one of the most advanced cities in Europe.

Unfortunately for the Córdobans, however, by this time the Umayyads had definitely begun to lose their grip on their caliphate. In 976 a ten year old boy named Hisham had succeeded to the throne. In the grand tradition of child rulers throughout history, fierce competition immediately started over the regency (and thus effective control of the caliphate). The eventual winner in this was al-Mansur Ibn Abi Amir, a powerful leader whose victories against the Christian kingdoms clinging to the northern part of Spain earned him infamy as “Almanzor”. He died in 1002, with his son succeeding to the regency.

Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, Poetic Princess

More on her scandalous love affair with ibn Zaydun a prominent poet of Andalusia…..

Although ibn Zaydun was a leading figure in the courts of Cordoba and Seville, he was most famous among the people of his day because of his scandalous love affair with Princess Wallada. They did nothing to hide their passion, and at her literary circle, when the poets began improvising, as was their custom, they would allude to it quite openly. On one famous occasion, Wallada uttered this impromptu verse, as she gazed upon her lover’s face:

“I fear for you, my beloved so much, that even my own sight even the ground you tread even the hours that pass threaten to snatch you away from me. Even if I were able to conceal you within the pupils of my eyes and hide you there until the Day of Judgment my fear would still not be allayed.”

https://www.andalucia.com/history/people/ibn-wallada.htm

Fascinating love story…..

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

19 October 1739–WAR!

Before I start most of my regulars know that I am a student of war (conflict)…and I am interested in the origins and the solutions of these conflicts throughout history.

Wars have been started because of some very unusual reasons…..unusual like an EAR.

In the year 1739 United Kingdom declared war on Spain because of an incident in Florida……

The 9th April marks the anniversary of the event which led to the bizarrely named War of Jenkins’ Ear, an eighteenth century conflict which came to foreshadow many of the historical themes that dominated the nineteenth century.

The man at the centre of the conflict was Captain Robert Jenkins, a British sea captain. On 9th April, 1731, while sailing in the Caribbean, Jenkins’ ship Rebecca was apparently stopped and boarded by a crew of Spanish coast guards led by Captain Juan de Leon Fandino. The coast guards pillaged the ship, attacked the crew, and ultimately set it adrift. Most shockingly, Jenkins claimed that the Spanish crew had tied him up and cut off his ear.

https://www.newhistorian.com/the-war-of-jenkins-ear/3447/

Plus a little more information on this war……

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/War-of-Jenkins-Ear/

For those that cannot read……or that want it fed to them simply….I have a short video that can make it easier to learn….

This is one of those situation that most history books omit because they are considered by some as unimportant……to me NO war is unimportant and a society could learn much by remembering and studying ab out what went wrong.

That is the old Professor’s history lesson for the day…..”Learn more today so that you will know more tomorrow”.

Class Dismissed!

Guernica–70 Years On

Exactly 70 years ago today the Condor Squadron bombed the Spanish city of Guernica out of existence……

“Guernica, city with 5,000 residents,” the commander of the Condor Legion, Wolfram von Richthofen, noted curtly in his journal, “has been literally razed to the ground. Bomb craters can be seen in the streets. Simply wonderful.” Not a word was written about the hundreds of dead.

April 26, 1937 was a Monday, a market day. Thousands of people were out on the streets of the Basque town of Guernica when around 4:30 in the afternoon, the bells suddenly began ringing. Air raid alarm! The first airplane appeared on the horizon, a German Heinkel 111 bomber — in the cockpit was Lieutenant Rudolf von Moreau. When he was over the city center, von Moreau opened his bomb bay doors — and death rained down on the city.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/hitler-s-destruction-of-guernica-practicing-blitzkrieg-in-basque-country-a-479675.html

We must know history to avoid making the same mistakes……chuq

Guernica Remembered

In 1936 the Spanish landscape erupted in a bloody civil war that lasted until 1939…..I know about this war because I lived in Spain and when I was there some of the scars from family against family still lingered……and my grandfather was fighting there as part of the International Brigades….(read more history)….

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) broke out when the Spanish army in Morocco when a few of the most influent generals of the Spanish Army, led by General Francisco Franco, rose up against the democratically elected Republican government, presided over by Manuel Azaña. Allegiances were not always clear-cut during this conflict. Essentially, the ranks of the Left (also known as Loyalist and Republican) comprised workers, peasants and trade unions, but also the Spanish government, Socialists, Communists and Anarchists. The Right (also known as Nationalist), was supported by rebellious factions of the army, industry, landowners, the middle classes and the Catholic Church. For various and somewhat contradictory reasons, the Loyalists received the support of the Soviet Union and European democracies, while the Nationalists were armed and equipped by the Fascist governments of Germany and Italy.

The Spanish Civil War would prove to be both fierce and bloody. Although the resources of the two sides were not that unequal, the Nationalists were better organized and received extensive material aid from Germany. The Loyalists received very little assistance from the Soviet Union and, moreover, were divided by internal conflicts between Communist, Socialist and Anarchist factions.

While European and North American volunteers fought for the Republic in the framework of the International Brigades, and a number of foreign artists and intellectuals supported the Loyalist cause, including Ernest Hemingway (who was working as a reporter and photographer) and George Orwell (who fought on the Republican side only to be prosecuted later on and thus becoming profoundly disillusioned by the rivalry in the ranks of the Left), the Nationalists were finally triumphant.

General Franco’s victory marked the beginning of a forty-year dictatorship in Spain (1939-1975). In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, Hitler sought Franco’s support for his own military campaign, but Spain was in no position to provide either financial or human aid. Although the Spanish Civil War had been a training field for the battles to be waged in the Second World War, Spain would play no part in the latter but agreed to sponsor a small army of volunteers known as La División Azul.

One of the worse airstrikes by the Nazi Condor Legion was in the attack on the  Basque town of Guernica……

The German bombers appeared in the skies over Guernica in the late afternoon of April 26, 1937 and immediately transformed the sleepy Spanish market town into an everlasting symbol of the atrocity of war. Unbeknownst to the residents of Guernica, they had been slated by their attackers to become guinea pigs in an experiment designed to determine just what it would take to bomb a city into oblivion.

Spain was embroiled in a convulsive civil war that had begun in July 1936 when the right-wing Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco sought to overthrow Spain’s left-wing Republican government. It did not take long before this bloody internal Spanish quarrel attracted the participation of forces beyond its borders – creating a lineup of opponents that foreshadowed the partnerships that would battle each other in World War II. Fascist Germany and Italy supported Franco while the Soviet Union backed the Republicans. A number of volunteers made their way to Spain to fight and die under the Republican banner including the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the United States.

Source: The Bombing of Guernica, 1937

Today is the 80th anniversary of the attack……and a prelude to the death and destruction that would become World War Two…..and the only memory the world has of this attack is a painting by Picasso entitled “Guernica”……sad.

UK Thumps Its Chest

Looks like Right leaning governments all have the same agenda…..threatening other countries…..in the US Trump has been threatening North Korea and Iran among others since we elected DJ……and now the UK with May at the helm is threatening Spain….

The triggering of Brexit was expected to lead to some robust exchanges between Britain and other EU members—but not many people expected open talk of war within days. The BBC reports that on Sunday, former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard warned that if it has to, Britain will defend its Gibraltar territory from Spain the same way it defended the Falklands Islands 35 years ago. In 1982, “another woman prime minister sent a task force halfway across the world to defend the freedom of another small group of British people against another Spanish-speaking country” and Theresa May “will show the same resolve in standing by the people,” Howard said.

Howard’s remarks followed the EU’s release of Brexit negotiating guidelines stating that Spain would have to sign off on any decisions affecting Gibraltar, a 2.6-square-mile territory on its south coast. “Someone in the UK is losing their cool and there’s no need for it,” said Spain’s foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis. “The Spanish government is a little surprised by the tone of comments coming out of Britain, a country known for its composure,” he added, per the Guardian. Opposition UK lawmakers called talk of war “ludicrous,” while May promised that Britain would stand by the territory. Some 99% of Gibraltarians rejected sharing sovereignty with Spain in a 2002 referendum—and last year, 96% of them voted against Brexit.

What is it about these macho spouting turds and the Right leaning governments?

Thousands protest in Spain for Western Sahara independence – Yahoo News

Spain is illustrating that they are concerned about the different conflicts from around the world…..their Parliament is schedule for a vote to recognize Palestine as a state…..and then this demonstration.

I wish more countries would show such concern for the Sahawaris….the people of Western Sahara…

The Us is mealy mouth about support….mainly because Morocco is a strong ally in North Africa and we do not want to alienate the monarchy….

Spain is showing extremely good taste, IMO………..

 

Thousands protest in Spain for Western Sahara independence – Yahoo News.

Secession Fever

By now I feel that everyone who is interested has heard that there are petitions for secession for all 50 states and I believe Texas (go figure) has the most signers at 100,000…….and there are those in other countries that want to break away from the motherland to form their own ……..the Kurds in Iraq, the Eastern half of Libya, lots of unhappy residents that do not like their governing body and think they can do it better themselves……

But at least one country has had success at the ballot box for secessionists…………

(Newser) – In a vote widely seen as a test of support for independence from Spain, a majority of voters in Catalonia have picked separatist candidates in regional elections. The result makes a genuine referendum on independence within the next few years more likely, but with the separatist vote split among four parties, it’s not clear who will spearhead the effort, the New York Times reports. The party of Catalan President Artur Mas, who wants the region to secede, has lost seats in the regional parliament and he will now have to strike alliances with smaller parties who agree on Catalan independence but little else.

“Mas managed to turn separatism into a burning issue, but then ended up being overtaken by more radical parties in this debate and now finds himself in a much harder position to govern Catalonia in a time of crisis,” a newly elected Socialist lawmaker says. Polls show that support for independence in the relatively wealthy region has more than doubled to 57% since Spain’s economic crisis began, though the government in Madrid has vowed to fight the independence movement every step of the way, the Telegraph reports.

Is this a view into the future?  Gimme your thoughts.

That Special Place

Inkwell Institute

Subject:  Europe

We all have that special place…the place we lived as a child or that place of the first kiss or our first sexual encounter or…..well a place that holds a special place in our hearts…..Mine is Spain…..I lived there twice in my life…once as a young teenager and then as an adult…..a place of great food, wine and beauty….and yes my first adventure in love and sexuality……..her name was Charlotte a French girl from Paris and a red head….in retrospect….that could explain my obsession with red heads…..whatcha think?  I also worked as a researcher for a Spanish newspaper….so I guess Spain is a place that I watch fondly…….

Sorry I digress into my past……but Spain is a source of concern in the existing economic upheaval around the world, but especially in the ailing European Union.

You may remember all the hub-bub over the situation in Greece….well Spain is reaching that point, as we speak……observations of Gonzalo Lira…….

Spain’s jobs-scarce economy plunged back into recession in the first quarter of 2012 as employment slumped even further, the Bank of Spain said Monday.

Barely two years after emerging from the last downturn, Spain slid into recession again with two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, the central bank said in a report.

Gross domestic product fell by an estimated 0.4-percent in the first quarter of 2012 after a 0.3-percent decline in the last three months of 2011, the bank said.

Spain, whose unemployment rate at the end of 2011 was already the highest in the industrialised world at 22.85 percent overall and nearly 50 percent for the young, suffered a further sharp jobs decline.

The government forecasts the jobless rate will rise to 24.3 percent this year as the sagging economy struggles to absorb millions of jobs destroyed in the collapse of a property boom in 2008.

The European Central Bank had helped to ease market tensions, Spain’s bank said, alluding to the ECB’s decision to extend more than one trillion euros in low-interest, three-year loans to the region’s banks.

Spain’s economic woes are just the beginning…..and with their propensity for protests and not always the calmest of situations….. I look for rising violence and the new government, elected last year, to fall and chaos will reign…..kind of like Greece……

If this happens and I think it will what will happen to the country?

An opinion is that they will exit the Euro on a dead run……..

With a 24% unemployment rate that is rising, and over half of the young people unemployed, no politician in his right mind—especially a nationalist—will decide that even more austerity is the cure for the disease. One thing is cutting off the fat—it’s quite another to be cutting to the bone.

For Rajoy and de Guindos, it will be simpler to exit the eurozone, go back to the peseta, and devalue by 20% to 30% right off.

It is always easier for a politician to cut expenditures via devaluation than via nominal spending cuts. Since the Eurocrats won’t allow a 20-30% devaluation of the euro, and since Spain cannot really cut any more or find any more money in the bond markets, then the only thing left for it to do is devalue a currency that it controls.

On a personal note…..I would not cry over Spain leaving the EU….I remember it from my youth and would like to see a Spain that can be enjoyed and not feel like I was held at gunpoint by the EU.

Spain Gives EU The Finger

Daily we are told all about the restructing that the PIGS of the EU are having to do….well Greece is not going well and could bottom out tomorrow and yet they, the EU keeps forcing governments to do what they want….Iceland’s population said NO and now Spain is flipping off the EU…..

As many readers will already have seen, Premier Mariano Rajoy has refused point blank to comply with the austerity demands of the European Commission and the European Council (hijacked by Merkozy).

Taking what he called a “sovereign decision”, he simply announced that he intends to ignore the EU deficit target of 4.4pc of GDP for this year, setting his own target of 5.8pc instead (down from 8.5pc in 2011).

He is surely right to seize the initiative. Spain’s economy will contract by 1.7pc this year under his modified plans and unemployment will reach 24pc (or 29pc under the 1990s method of counting). To compound this with manic fiscal tightening – and no offsetting devaluation – is intellectually indefensible.

There comes a point when a democracy can no longer sacrifice its citizens to please reactionary ideologues determined to impose 1930s scorched-earth policies. Ya basta.

“Spain and other nations in the EU are sick and tired of Chancellor Merkel’s meddling and Germany’s usurpation – with the help of Sarkozy’s France and their pretended “executive presidency” that does not in fact exist in EU treaties.”

“Rajoy must not retreat one inch. The stakes are high and the country is in no mood to suffer humiliations from a Chancellor who is amassing all the savings of Europe and won’t listen to anybody, as if she were the absolute ruler of the Union. Merkel and the Commission should think hard before putting their hand into the sovereignty of this country – or any other – because it will be burned.”

Before everyone starts blaming those damn socialists….Spain voted out the socialist government a couple of months ago and this government is more conservative…..

The EU is slowly disintegration ………who cares, you may ask?  Just wait!  When the world markets start a downward spiral yet again and you demand an explanation…….please do not forget….you had one!