MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Police and Civil Guard members join massive spontaneous protests in Spain
The protest movement against the conservative Spanish government's latest austerity measures swelled on Thursday as public sector workers stepped up demonstrations in Madrid and around the country after more than a week of spontaneous action. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesSpain is fubared.
Jul 19th, 2012 - 06:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I know Aesop said “the unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others” but I can’t help feeling a little, if not happiness, maybe righteousness at Spain’s situation.
Back in the mid 90s the Spanish showed up down here in Chile buying up everything. They bought the national phone network, they bought the national power generating company, they won contracts to build new highways and more. They made similar acquisitions in other Latam countries. The Spanish professionals who invaded, strutted around liked they owned the place. They were arrogant and thought themselves very superior to us. In many conversations I pointed out to Spanish colleagues and acquaintances that only 20 years earlier Spain had been a 3rd world country and their recent purchases were only possible because of low interest funding flowing from Europe.
They squandered all that low interest borrowing on a spending spree, puffing themselves up like a cockerel and really believing in their “economical miracle”. Well I don’t believe in miracles, whatever the pope may say. Now their chickens are coming home to roost. Now their bubble has burst it is plain to all that Spain is still an underdeveloped nation relying on tourism and agriculture for foreign earnings.
Now, after Peruvians, Columbians and Argentineans, the Spanish form the largest group of immigrants in Chile - a lot more humble than 15 years ago. Misery lies ahead in Spain and the only way out is to accept it, dig deep and work harder...or accept German fiscal control and credibility.
“The cabinet was expected to approve on Thursday a parliamentary motion categorizing “urban violence” as a specific crime, which could empower police to detain suspects preventively before being charged with the offence.”
Jul 19th, 2012 - 07:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0An interesting idea. If the police and the government's armed paramilitary thugs (Guardia Civil) are joining the protests, who is going to do the detaining?
Will she be the last of the PIGS to fly,
Jul 19th, 2012 - 10:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Or will there be A 5th .,???
#1 You sound almost like a resource nationalist, if the Spanish buyups of the 90s were so bad, surely nationalisation as Cristina has done would be a better remedy than the destruction of Spain itself, which the neoliberal SDpanish government seem to be making a good attempt at!
Jul 20th, 2012 - 07:51 am - Link - Report abuse 0BK
Jul 20th, 2012 - 05:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I don’t have political colour or ideology to cling to. I believe in doing what is right and pragmatic in the circumstances. I am in favour of many socialist policies up to the point they do good. But I am also in favour of maintaining choice in society and prioritizing enterprise.
Nationalisation of resources can be a good thing when done right, that doesn’t mean that it is always the right thing to do and it can be disastrous. The Chilean case of CODELCO is particularly interesting. It is a success story in that it delivers a huge amount of revenue in to public coffers. But you have to dig deeper to find the key to success. Codelco operates alongside many large private mines which have much better productivity. For example Escondida (the largest private mine) is 400% more productive than codelco. Due to its co-existence with private mines, codelco can continually recruit professionals from private industry. If this weren’t the case, codelco would be a basket case with a horrible safety record and dismal production.
This successful co-habitation has come about by chance. There would be no Codelco if Allende hadn’t stolen the mines and there would be no private sector if the Right hadn’t created the correct conditions for foreign investment. If it was all codelco or all private we would be worse off.
That is why blinkered following of any political ideology if foolish. The key to all survival is diversity.
On YPF: until CFK pays Repsol its market share it is theft. Spain was a soft target and victimised. Chilean & Argentinean held shares were not stolen. If YPF remains a monolith with no competition it will struggle and be an unsafe place to work for the working man. If she can find a creative way to introduce competition and enterprise it will succeed.
If you are ever in Argentina and you need a nice clear example of what I am saying, take a flight on Aerolineas Argentinas and then take the return flight on Lan.
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