politics – Page 6 – don't confuse the narrator

alien affairs

In today’s El Mundo there’s a report entitled Los borrosos rostros de la nueva Unión – “the vague faces of the new Union”. (It’s in the print edition, but it seems you need a subscription to read the article online.) In it, they talk about the new president of the European Union and the “superministra”, Catherine Ashton.

Oops. I nearly typed Catherine Tate.

There are two possible reasons for that slip, I think: one, going back to the Eighties when I first learned about databases with dBase II, an Ashton-Tate product; and two, the fact that the article is accompanied by a photo of a dalek.
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tall tales

Esperanza Aguirre, the presidenta of the comunidad de Madrid who described herself as “el verso suelto dentro del poema” has come up with another quotable phrase: “Yo no hablo cuando llevo zapatos planos.” – “I won’t make a statement when I’m wearing flat shoes.”

Most women are familiar with the concept of getting dressed and putting our make-up on before making an important phone call, and I guess this is much the same thing. The problem is the psychological reasoning behind it.
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crooked houses

Potentially good news for all those Brits in Spain who are living in houses that were built without proper licences. The Reader (Almería-based English-language paper) tells us: Mayor of Zurgena and 24 more charged in urban corruption case.

An interesting language point from the story is the word prevaricación which although clearly connected to the English “prevarication” is not a direct translation.
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London graffiti

Travelling in London this last week, it was a pleasant surprise to read the following sign:

The result of that freedom to draw, paint, spray etc., is a highly decorative tunnel:
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politics with a smile

It’s not often I get political in this blog – that’s not what it’s intended for. But yesterday I stopped for breakfast in the village and found myself watching Hugo Chávez proclaiming la victoria.

I can’t find a video of the exact part of the victory speech I was watching, but this will give an idea of the force of his presentation (warning! turn your volume down a bit if you don’t want to be deafened!).

(Note: I’ve replaced the video I had here originally as it seems to have disappeared off YouTube. This one is equally enthusiastic.)

As I watched, I suddenly realised I was sitting there with an inane grin on my face. Not so much because of the “victoria del sí“, but because the pure unadulterated enthusiasm of Comandante Chávez was infectious. And, of course what he said about it also being a victory for all those who had voted “no” was perfectly true.
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