Dexter House

Nothing concerning Catalonia or any recent event. If you are ever looking for a cheap place to stay in New York City try Dexter House on W 86th Street. It's old and the bathrooms would need some reformation but everything is clean, the rooms have a sink, a fridge, a microwave, a TV, and AC. The atmosphere is that of a student dorm. It's even cheaper than a youth hostel and a lot quieter. There's a metro station two blocks away, i.e. on upper Broadway as well as supermarkets and pizza places. I stayed there in March 2010 and really liked it. Reservations can be made via budgetplaces.com.

Finally an anti-tobacco law

Though today the big news in Spain is the government exchange of six secretaries and the long overdue "elimination" of two departments - that of housing and that of gender equality (cf. FT article at post's end) - finally the parliament in Madrid has approved a general smoking ban from January 2011 on in all restaurants and bars and also on child playgrounds and hospital facilities - though there will the exceptions for psychiatric hospitals, old-age nurseries and prisons.
This was also long overdue as the first "anti-tobacco" law of 2005 was a "toothless tiger" as it exempted bars smaller than 100 sqm, where the owners could decide if they wanted to become smoke-free; and hardly any wanted to...
Campaigners criticize that the new law will allow gas stations to install cigarette vending machines, i.e. increasing the number of places where one can buy tobacco at the same time that it is decreasing the number of places where one is allowed to smoke.


For more news on the changes in the Spanish government:

Zapatero reshuffles cabinet as austerity bites

By Victor Mallet in Madrid

Published on ft.com: October 20 2010 13:29

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spanish prime minister, has reshuffled his cabinet in the face of rumbling popular discontent over his handling of the economy and the government’s austerity programme.

On Wednesday he promoted Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the interior minister widely regarded as the most competent member of the administration, to the additional post of deputy prime minister, replacing the loyal Maria Teresa Fernández de la Vega.

Full article here

Ils sont foux les français

They are simply crazy the French strikers: while in the rest of Europe governments are pushing the retirement age to 67, they do not want to accept that they will have to work until age 62 before receiving a government pension. With life expectancy rising in France like everywhere else in Europe the actual system will quickly become unsustainable: the pension age has to rise or pensions have to be cut drastically - or the children of today's strikers will have to bear the burden of their parents' blindness.
This blog's writer was affected personally by last week's general strike in France as his parents had to stay two days longer on a holiday to the Catalan countryside as their flight was cancelled due to the air traffic controllers's strike...

St. Michael's little summer and the General Strike

September 29 is St. Michael's Day and around this date, summer returns here with very sunny and warm afternoons.
This year the two big Spanish trade unions planned a general strike for this day. Around the countryside there were very few people participating; most of the farmers are self-employed and a lot of other workers had to guarantee minimum services as fire-fighters or nurses. It was more or less a public sector and big industry strike; and as train and bus drivers went on strike and others blockaded important roads other people had problems to get to their jobs.
The trade union's perspective is typical of European trade unions: they look to the interests of their members and do not care about the unemployed or the economy in general; the Spanish unemployment rate is around 20%, and for workers under 35 it is around 42%! Dominique Strauss-Kahn recently talked about the "lost generation" in this context. Around 40% of people with a university degree who have a job work in areas they are overqualified for. On the World Economic Forum's competitiveness index Spain has fallen to the same level as Costa Rica, I think, around position 40, while countries such as Sweden, Finland, Britain, Germany have climbed positions. Yesterday Moody's lowered Spain's debt rating.
Trade unions should become more realistic and wait if the recently introduced labor reform leads to more employment before opposing every change. And the goverment should continue with their reform program and raise the retirement age to 67; Spain has one of the oldest populations in Europe and due to its benign climate and good health system life expectation is continually growing.
Where the government is wrong is in cutting education funds: Spanish students are only mediocre in the PISA studies and its universities do not figure on the lists of the world's best. And there is a brain drain of graduates who do not find adequate employment to the north of Europe and America.

Grape harvest 2010: Carinyena

Carinyena is the grape variety we harvest last. This year its quality has been good to very good. On the family architect’s field we harvested in a muggy afternoon 30 boxes of premium quality grapes, and on a breezy Saturday a tractor load of good grapes. The vines are old and not supported by guiding lines, i.e. they grow close to the ground and it is hard on your back harvesting the grapes. On the field we went to they use a method called “sexual confusion” to prevent a pest from mating and multiplying; the system comes from Japan and works with smells, I think.

As to the harvesters we were the typical family team: the 82 year old officially retired wine grower, uncle of the 61 year old public sector worker and active wine grower, his 56 year old wife (officially in charge of all the family’s agricultural activities as she once received subsidies as a young farmer), the already mentioned 47 year old family architect on visit from the capital (owner of the field) and the active wine growers’ 38 year old immigrant son-in-law who irregularly works in editing and translation.

For breakfast there was salted herring roasted on-site for those who like it, the uncle cooked some tomatoes on the fire, too; then there was bread with ham and cheese, nuts and cookies, water and wine.

In general, 2010 has been a very good year as to the grapes’ quality due to a cool and rainy winter and a very dry summer.

(Written on Sept. 27 but not posted earlier due to problems with the internet connection.)

The grape harvest again

Two weeks ago the grape harvest finally started in our village. The time depends on the grapes' maturity and varies from region to region and village to village and probably according to the winemakers' preferences, too. Before and during harvest time, the wine growers watch the weather forecast more closely than they normally do as a lot of their future income depends on the state of the grapes on harvesting day.
The local cooperative determines which growing zones and grape varieties get preference and how the harvest proceeds. During one or two days a rabbi comes from Barcelona to supervise personally the delivery of the grapes that are used in the production of kosher wine - a great idea to draw a lot of attention to the cooperative and its other wines that sell in more than 40 countries.
Though in other places the harvest is widely mechanized, here the grapes are harvested manually: a labor-intensive and back-breaking operation. One heads out before sunrise, often accompanied by relatives from the city who return for a few days to reconnect with their roots and lend a helping hand. The best part of the workday is the breakfast hour around or shortly after the full sunrise; the traditional meal consists of herring roasted over an open fire accompanied by bread and wine.
As one works side by side with the others there is a lot of time for the exchange of family news and village developments. After all the news have been shared it's time for the old stories that are retold for the benefit of the younger generations and the newcomers: stories involving villagers dead or alive and crimes or scandals.
The afternoon is normally quieter as the work seems harder with tiredness and higher temperatures. One goes to bed early as the body demands rest.
These events are repeated every year. During the first week one still enjoys it. Afterwards it becomes a little tiring, especially if the mosquitoes and flies do not move away from one's head on a muggy day and the grapes begin to rot due to late harvesting or rain showers not untypical for this time of the year.

How to gain publicity for your "Oktoberfest"

These days Avilés, a town of 84.000 inhabitants in Asturias, is frequently on the news because it's socialist city councillor for women's affairs wants the organizers of a beer fest to change their poster announcing the event as she deems it sexist. The poster is the one acompanying this post



and the question is debated widely in the Spanish blogosphere. Helpfully a blogger already has put together a collection of American posters inviting to similar events.
The link is here.

If the authorities in Munich thought as the councillor in Avilés does they would have to impose dress codes on the waitresses there...

All of this might be part of what Javier Marías sees as a growing trend in Spanish society of prohibiting everything that you do not like. There certainly is this trend but a lot of things they want to prohibit I would prohibit, too, e.g. smoking in restaurants, bars and other public places or bull fighting in Catalonia (I would prohibit it in all of Spain, too).