Inside Spain: behind the protests

On World Voices, the Crunch news from a Spain-domiciled Englishman. It made me realise how little I know, and how much I want to. Here's some of my supplementaries:

1. The media in Spain: who and what would you read if as a foreigner you wanted to get at the truth (and what are their hidden biases)?

2. The 15-M Movement: how did it mutate? What are the Movement's personalities, images and symbols?

3. How are modern social media (Twitter, Facebook, iPhone video etc) stimulating and organising people within our democracies?

4. How does (doesn't) the weird party-list-based voting system work in Spain?

5. What are the Spanish Government's work creation initiatives, and do they work?

6. What are the effects of extra tax as experienced by business owners, wage earners, shoppers - and what do they do to get round / deal with it?

7. What are Spanish public servants like, to deal with?

8. What have been the effects of terminating contract workers in the public sector to save money, as a first resort before considering the need for some of the permanently employed?

9. What does  the increasing unemployment look like on the street?

10. How does the modern protest resemble (how is it linked with) political agitation and enmities in the past (cf Orwell in Catalonia)?

11. Who else has noticed the return of the beggars - and how are they different from the cripples and  beggars of Spain decades ago?

12. What is Spain's experience of immigrants, especially from non-EU countries? Are there any attempts to control their numbers? Any tensions, as in the UK?

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.

Nick Drew: EDF nuclear energy horse-trading nearing climax

... and goodbye to a colourful industry player: see Nick's latest here.

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.

The weather's odd in Africa, too

Wet heads three months early - see World Voices.

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Cigarette packaging row - my art entry

Following yesterday's challenge, here's my first:

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment.

Monaco - Grim Pix

See World Voices on the fightback against the media, here.

Cigarette packaging: new art competition

Here are some suggestions, but you can extend the concept. Please post on your blog and notify us of your entry by comment below.

Nick Drew: EDF angling for guaranteed profits from building nuclear power stations

Our expert is caustic about the wily French operator and supine British Government - see the Energy Page.

Should China stop burning coal?

See the Energy Page here.

Death of a Chinese sage

See World Voices here.

Transhumance

Writing about moving South for the winter, CIngrams makes a passing reference to transhumance, and that sets me off on another few minutes' happy diversion through byways on the Internet. I'd known about seasonal movement of herds in the Swiss Alps, but not the ancient and widespread trails through Spain that were followed well into the twentieth century. CIngrams comments, "Now it has gone for good, and good riddance. It was a very tough way to live, but seen from a distance, there is romance and beauty in it."

I wonder whether much of the fidgety irritation of comment and protest on the Internet is related to the cellular instinct in us to roam as our ancestors did. From the Great Rift Valley we wandered out and along the riverbanks and coastlines of the world, reaching Australia maybe 50,000 years ago. We must have eaten a lot of oysters on the way.

Even now, that restlessness is in the bones of bikers like Richard and Longrider. I have it, too - wanting to change house, job, get to know new people, start new projects. In a way, the nomadism hasn't gone, after all.

Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.

Nick Drew: Why Germany is forced back to coal

Our expert explains why eco-minded Germans have returned to the energy source we thought we needed to stop using.

Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.

Nick Drew: "Green" initiatives have contradictory effects

See our energy expert's latest squib here.

Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.

Ancient underground city in Turkey!

Seen on Nourishing Obscurity: a fantastic, multi-level underground city that housed up to 10,000 people in siege times, a thousand years ago. Discovered only in 1963, when a Turkish man demolished an interior wall in his dwelling. Don't miss it!

Part 1
Part 2

Green energy, black lungs

See the Energy Page for the dark side of "heat from waste".

Nick Drew: solar power undermines the efficient market in electricity

See the really enlightening next instalment on the Energy Page.

Nick Drew: Danish & German power problems

See new article on the Energy Page.

Max Keiser's speech in Parliament ignored by MSM

See report and video on Home Page.

Airbrushing out The Queen

My wife asked me what this was, on the back of a pound coin:

 

It's the Arms of the City of London:

... and on further investigation it seems that ever since this little metal thing was introduced into our system of exchange, the Royal Arms have been omitted (except for the 1988 design) in favour of a cycle of images from the regions.

Doubtless we'll be told not to take it too seriously, but it seems to me that the 1.5 billion pound coins are being used as yet another method to condition us to accept the "inevitable" breakup of the Union.

Another subliminal point, maintains the wife of a friend, is that the change from a banknote to a small coin was to help us not to expect so much for our money.

Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.

Nick Drew: Solar power the worst option for reducing carbon emissions

See The Energy Page for an industry expert's assessment.

Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.

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