While the French are worried about their presidential elections and how the results will affect their way of life in these times of economic crises, south of their border, in Spain, the precarious economic situation has worsened. With a right wing new government, intent in dismantling many of the social programs that took the country decades to establish after the end of the Franco’s dictatorship, Read the rest of this entry »

This morning Spaniards woke up to face a general strike over economic reforms. The workers are trying to challenge Spain’s new conservative government and thus venting their frustation at the severe austerity measures many of them perceive as aiming them mostly while the companies that hire them are barely touched. Read the rest of this entry »

This month, fifty years ago, the United States began the embargo on Cuba which is still on, something that nobody could have expected to last so long. Read the rest of this entry »

There is a popular joke among Spaniards these days, it says: “In what do you think Bolivia and Spain are similar? The answer is that Bolivia has a Department of the Navy but does not have coastline. Spain has a Department of Justice but not justice! In itself and in view of what is going on in the Spanish courts at the moment it is not so funny, but could be considered realistic. Read the rest of this entry »

Friday 13 means in many countries bad luck. France, Austria and seven other countries in Europe are probably agreeing with that now as yesterday, January the 13, the US based ratings agency Standard & Poor’s cut France and Austria triple -A rating by one notch to AA+, and downgraded the other seven countries -Spain, Italy, Portugal, Malta, Cyprus, Slovakia and Slovenia two notches. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Sunday, Spain held national elections. It was a rainy day in most of the country, almost everyone seemed to know in advance what the results were to be, which after almost eight years of the Socialists (PSOE) in power it was to be expected. Expected in our days of crisis and unemployment. Read the rest of this entry »

More than four decades of violence are hopefully going to end in Spain after the Basque separatist group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatsuna or Basque Country and Freedom) announces the expected end to violence in the negotiations that are beginning today. Read the rest of this entry »