Remembering Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

His death is today's top news. I've never owned any of the company's products but have been impressed with their keyboards, the iPad, and the quality of the iPhone's photos.
Recently a column in La Vanguardia's culture supplement made me aware of his Commencement address at Stanford University in 2005, to be read here, or to be seen on youtube here.

Here is a collection of obituaries from today's media:
A quite comprehensive approach you can find in The Guardian, here, with these headlines:

Computing 'visionary', 56, had resigned as chief executive in August after suffering from pancreatic cancer
Obituary: Apple chairman, inventor and entrepreneur
Tributes: the world remembers a visionary
The life and career of Apple's driving force
Dan Gillmor: a man of contradiction and genius
Apple insiders remember life working for Jobs
From parents' garage to world power
In pictures: Jobs and Apple - the highlights
Steve Jobs quotes: the man in his own words

The New York Times coverage, here. The Wall Street Journal's, here. The Washington Post's, here, does not open with a recent picture of the sick man, but one of the earlier days.
The FT's John Gapper in his blog, their Tech Hub lists quite a lot of influential people and their condolences via Twitter, etc. here. Their editorial comment, here, is only for registered users.
The Economist's obituary is here. And another piece here.
Wired.com is all black today, here.
Engadget.com, the world's most important blog on gadgets - and often critical with the premium prices of Apple products - stresses Steve Job's own words, here.

These will be sufficient if one wants to get an idea of the man and his vision.
(And I need to get some work done...)

Remembering Josep Maria de Sagarra, 1894-1961

The Catalan daily El Punt Avui has a long article on this writer today, the 50th anniversary of his death, here.
Some of the thoughts expressed there: the novel Vida Privada ["Private Life"] (1932) is undoubtedly a classic, and de Sagarra one of the great Catalan writers of the 20th century. He was born into an aristocratic family, studied law and was meant to become a diplomat but then became a writer. He worked as a journalist in the 1920s and 30s, also as a foreign correspondent. A lot of his columns of the intellectual who observes his surroundings and cherishes the good life ("bon vivant") were later made into books, e.g. Cafè, copa i puro ["Coffee, brandy and cigar"], L'Aperitiu ["The appetizer"], or El be negre ["The black lamb"]. He was a popular theatre author, too. Also wrote travel books and novels, as well as his memories (Les memòries, 1954).

The English-speaking Wikipedia does not an entry on him, but the Catalan culture ministry offers an exhaustive English introduction here.

The FT focuses on Spain again

The Financial Times ("Spain, not Greece, may be the biggest eurozone threat", insight piece by Charles Dumas) warns about a possibly disastrous economic future for Spain (again). It stresses the importance of non-financial sector debts and compares the country to Japan in the late 1990s and names the measures the Japanese took to get out of that situation - which are out of the question for Spain as e.g. it cannot devalue its currency (the Euro) nor run large budget deficits. The main points are cited below, the full article is here.

But Spain’s current situation is in several respects far worse than Japan’s back then. First, Japan had a currency, which devalued in real terms by 20 per cent over the six years to 2002, aiding adjustment. Spain is fixed in the euro.
Second, having a currency, Japan also had a monetary policy – the famous “ZIRP”, zero-interest-rate-policy. Spain’s monetary conditions are set by the ECB in Frankfurt, with recent tightening that could hardly be more unsuitable for Spain.
Third, Japan had an independent fiscal policy, and ran large budget deficits to offset private-sector debt repayment via financial surpluses. Spain is under orders from its eurozone “partners” to slash its deficits, “no matter how politically painful” to quote Wolfgang Schäuble, German finance minister, in Financial Times columns recently.
Fourth, Japan had (and has) flexible wages – downward in nominal terms as well as upward. In the six years from 1997, as recession hit, average nominal weekly wages fell by 1¼ per cent a year – and they have continued to fall (on average) since then, though more slowly. Spain, by contrast, has a consistent inflation record and in many cases index-linked wage increases. Lastly, Japan was handling its problems in a broadly expansionary world economy, which Spain regrettably cannot hope for.
The chances are high of a Spanish asset price slide and banking crisis, with stagnation (at best) or depression, if it sticks in the euro.

Americans dominate in Barcelona... as tourists

The original story by Antònia Justícia from today's La Vanguardia newspaper is here. 
The following is a google-translator aided, shortened, unauthorized version:

The United States is again the major emitter of (foreign) tourists to Barcelona. Direct air links and cruises from BCN help | Tourist season from March to November | More than half of Americans come to Barcelona for a cruise | Six airlines with a total of 42 flights a week connect BCN to major American cities | In July foreigners spent almost 220 million euros in BCN, 19.3% more | More than three million overnight stays of 1.5 M tourists
Antònia Justícia
After 9/11 Americans lost their status as numerally most important group of visitors to the city. Now, ten years later, the U.S. has returned to the top spot in the ranking of "emitter" countries, significantly ahead of France, Italy and Britain. With 340,497 American visitors until the end of July, nearly 30,000 more than France, the second biggest emitter so far this year, the United States is poised to set a new record. All in a positive context: July and August closed with 16.5% more tourists -in fact, Barcelona is the European city that has grown most in volume of tourists this August, according to analysis by the local tourism authority-; spending on international credit cards are growing around 18% and overnight stays in the city have increased by 11%.
The main reasons for the boom are the status of Barcelona as the Mediterranean's most important cruise port and a significant growth in nonstop flights connecting El Prat airport with various U.S. cities. About 60.5% of all U.S. tourists that visited Barcelona during the first half of the year came to go on a cruise of the Mediterranean. If expectations are met, the port will close 2011 with 2.5 million cruise passengers, 17% of those, 425,000 would be Americans. This figure could end up much higher if the upward trend continues, as there are now five carriers operating from the port of Barcelona exclusively with U.S. clients: Holland America, Princess, Crystal, Disney (with the Disney Magic) and Carnival (with the Carnival Magic).
There are also cruise lines with multinational guests, such as Royal Caribbean, Norwergian, Celebrity and Silversea. Royal Caribbean this year expects to carry 100,000 U.S. passengers from Barcelona. These have the choice between six airlines and 42 weekly flights connecting Barcelona almost daily with cities like New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago or Miami. An offer that began to develop in 2006 and has had a  multiplier effect with each new flight.
"We know they are attracted by the "brand" Barcelona because it combines food, art, sports, culture and entertainment with cutting-edge infrastructures," said Marc Pedrol, director of marketing and communications for Royal Caribbean. The arrival of Disney Magic last season in Barcelona has also contributed to the increase, bringing a new profile American tourist: the family. "Traditionally the American tourist has been rather senior, but recently the average age has fallen somewhat. ... There are still few families but Disney will support this market, " analyze Ana Pujols and Montse Miquel, responsible for reservations and Public Relations Officer, respectively, at Le Meridien hotel, traditionally catering to well-heeled Americans. [Blogger's comment: It is a fine hotel with a good location on the Ramblas but if you are willing to spend that much money on a hotel you might also want to have a look at Hotel W (like Meridien a member of Starwood) or Hotel Arts that are on the beach...]
Promotional campaigns have also been successful, claims Turisme de Barcelona. Earlier this year, in a CNN report on unforgettable places, three experts put Barcelona as the fourth preferred travel destination in the world to discover in 2011. "People are in love with Barcelona, ​​and this is a fact that has taken years of work," claimed yesterday Gaspart, who added: "And the fame of FC Barcelona also has helped us a lot."
The municipal tourism agency is not only satisfied with the U.S. market recovery. Also the fact that Barcelona closed the most outstanding summer in its history. The months of July and August saw an increase of 16.5% of tourists). These figures have placed Barcelona as the European city with the highest tourism growth this past August. The outlook for September and October, according Gaspart are also excellent, though Gaspart would like to increase profitability ("milk" the tourists more...).
Results which, despite the crisis, denoting good health of tourism in Barcelona. A city that, according to the evolution of people registered every month, has established itself as a tourist destination throughout the year. Here the time between March and November can be considered high season.

(Blogger's comment: you should also come for Christmas shopping in December; and on January 7 start the winter sales - still more clothes shopping...)

Catalan (and Spanish) "Dollar Stores"

Last week the New York Times Magazine published a very interesting article by Jack Hitt on the "dollar-store economy", here. It remined me very much of the stores now to be found in every town and village (of say 2,000+ inhabitants) around here. Ten years ago they were still called "Todo a 100" ("everything at 100 pesetas" - then still Spain's currency; 100 pesetas roughly equalled 60 Euro cents). Today they are not called dollar or euro stores either, but typically bear names such as "Bazar Asia", etc. and are run by Chinese immigrants.  There you find more or less everything small sized that you might need for your household, and the goods come almost exclusively from the PRC. The store I have in mind starts with plastic boxes of a great variety of sizes on the right side of the entrance door (these come from Ibi, Alicante, the Spanish plastics hub). In all there are about ten rows of goods. At the far end of that side of the store one finds detergents, etc., all kinds of boxes, buckets, small drawers, kitchen and bath utensils, etc. made of plastic, metal and glass.
The wall opposite to the entrance is dedicated to small tools, appliances, and electronics such as energy-saving light bulbs of all kinds, sizes, types, etc. A limited but very practical and low-price offer of what you normally find in a hardware store (though some of the tools are also very low quality). There is one row dedicated to office supplies, another one to small home electronics, such as radios, computer accessories, hair cutters, etc. At least one and a half rows are filled with bright toys - all made of plastics, nothing to be found for the progressive parents that trust in good old wooden building blocks... On the left side of the entrance there is the cash register, on the far off wall the luggage department and the clothes section. Next to the cash register is the battery and watch section, always under the vigilance of one of the staff. The watches are among the most expensive goods on sale...
In general, on one's first visit one is constantly monitored by some staff - they always find something to do nearby; on successive visits they leave you alone.
In comparison with their American counterparts, they are tiny stores, do not sell food, do not have any customer parking, etc. And, unfortunately, they do not sell branded goods whatsoever except for some footballs with the FC Barcelona or Dora the Explorer logos, so one cannot put too much trust into the quality of the goods purchased there...
These stores are typically run by one Chinese family taking turns to fill all shifts of a Monday to Saturday working week. The goods come from centrally located distributors in Barcelona or Madrid and the whole ownership structure seems opaque (there were no interviews done for this blog entry)...

Barcelona: Museum of Ideas and Inventions

I saw it mentioned in an article on creativity in La Vanguardia's Saturday lifestyle supplement, itself a creation of 2011. Haven't been to it but would like to go some day. Its website in English is here, but only its basic functions work. Looks as if it has an interesting giftstore.

The Economist on Spanish politics

On August 6, The Economist published an article titled "Anyone want to run this country", here; it made some headlines in the Catalan media, too, as it was highly critical of the opposition's Popular Party leader, Mariano Rajoy, who looks set to become Spain's next prime minister and promises "cuts without pain". Though regional branches of his party, especially in Valencia, have been involved in numerous corruption scandals, Spanish voters are fed up after seven years of Socialist rulers concentrating on marginal topics and not standing up to trade unions but going slow-motion on economic reforms.