Friday, July 23, 2004

Spaniards


spaniard: resident of Spain (country in southwestern Europe)

That's the definition from a dictionary. But, of course, that's uncomplete. If we follow the literal words my friend Colin could be a Spaniard, but of course he isn't (and I'm pretty sure he would never want to be one). A Spaniard it's a person who lives in Spain and like a Spaniard. So, before, I'll post my own definition:

spaniard: Human being who has a lot of important friends, who loves chatting, cheating, partying and Spain. And lives in Spain.


One of the most common sentences you will hear from a Spaniard it's "No se vive mejor en ningún sitio como en España" that I translate into "There's no place as comfortable as Spain". You can change the verb "vive" that literally means "live" and change it into "come" (eat) or any other expression like "lo pasa uno tan bien" (funny, to have fun) and it would be the second and third and so on favourite Spanish sentences. For a Spaniard there's no place better than home and they'll say horrible things about any other countries, specially when they speak about food and fun. But the problem is that 90% of the Spaniards had never gone out Spain. So, you will hear something like "The food in England is disgusting" and if you dare in asking if they had been there they will say "Of course not, but a friend of mine...". As Spaniards love chatting, and chatting, and chatting and so on to the infinite, they tend to speak about almost everthing even when they don't know a word on the subject. Well, sometimes I don't think I'm really a Spaniard, and about food I don't think our food is the best, I like it, but I love other non Spanish food. But I still like chatting.

The real wish of any Spaniard it's to be a "funcionario" (clerk). That gives them a chance to spend their lives chatting and having fun. Spanish burocracy is one of the worst in the whole world, and not because our government is really bad (well, actually it is, but not the worst), but because if you want something, all the clerks will be doing something better than working. It's not really difficult to find a clerk having coffe while you need a paper to be signed, or whatever. And, of course, the chance of coming close to a clerk's desk and finding him reading the news, or chatting with anybody on the phone, or just at home, it's something like perfectly possible. They get high salaries, and some discounts in education, and a good health insurance. So it's perfecly understanding that wish.

About government, well this year I had a perfect example on what a government shouldn't be. I'm sure you know we had our own 11S in the shape of 11M. If the terrorist had an idea of how to damage a country I'm sure they did, but not on purpose. Do I believe in Democracy? not in this country. You know we had it since 1976 (more or less) and that should give an idea of how trained are we in this. Well, the point I want to speak about is that we are having a kind of an investigation like in the US about what happen. What a lie. If you read Spanish newspapers you'll realise that the newspapers, radio, TV knows more than even the investigators about it. You'll realise that SECRET documents are being shown, confidents and almost everything. That's a shame, in my own opinion. What's the point on having a secret agency if you can know all just reading the news. What's the value of a confindent when the terrorist know their names?

Something else about government, specially about the new government. Today, as a special report in the news, they said that our last governemt had a contract with a "lobby" in the US. That contract was about promoting Spain in the US, something like developing relations in business, diplomatics, ... And also it had a mention about a medal the US parliament was giving to our old president Aznar. So, the new socialist Spanish governemt was really fast to speak about it, and not with nice words. They said that it's a peculation of public funds. But I'm thinking about something, if they are the new government, shoudln't they have access to all the bills? And if they have why they didn't found out about that contract and that monthly bill? It's something like If I'm the president of Spain I can make any contract, even in my own benefit, because the new government will never know. It's just an excuse to say again, and again, how bad was our last governemt.

Well, as I'm not already in England I think I can only speak about Spaniards. And I think that even When I'll be there I'll still speak about Spaniards. We are so wierd...

1 comment:

Colin Davies said...

Hey, Manoel. I think you are bit hard on Spaniards. And, in fact, I think I will be quite happy to be one when I have completed the residence qualification.

You need to tell us what you mean by 'cheating'. Next blog? Perhaps I will need to training if I am to become a real Spaniard......