Saturday, March 28, 2015

Election results

Ok, since I brought up the topic of elections:

In the elections for the region of Andalucía that took place last Sunday, the PSOE (Socialist party) got 47% of the vote;  the PP (the conservatives...they are in power in the national government) got 33%, a new party called Podemos (Yes We Can) got 15% - lower than expected - and other parties got 5% or lower.

The PSOE was in power in 2008 when the economic crisis began, and was thrown out in reaction to that crisis.  They also have been accused of corruption.  An important part of their influence comes from the labor unions.

The PP took power in almost all of Spain when the PSOE was voted out.  They are now being accused of corruption.  Their power comes more from the financial sector.

Podemos was founded a few months ago by a university professor, who is also the party's candidate for the position of prime minister.  THAT vote will come later on this year.  Its most important goal is to end the austerity imposed by the PP (under prompting by the Germans and the bank of the European Union).

And enough of politics.  The next post will move on to other topics.
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Eve A. Ma is in Spain where, having completed the revised Afro-Peruvian documentary, she is getting back to work on a documentary about flamenco.  Subscribe HERE to our monthly newsletter to keep up with her work.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Consequences-Tale of the Burning Containers (end Mar. 2015)

In the last blog, I talked about elections and hiring people when you couldn't afford to pay them.

What are some of the consequences of doing that?  Well, other than really messing up the lives of the people working for you, here's a little story about consequences.

Color-coded containers:  olive green is for garbage.

Half a block from my apartment in Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) is a set of containers:  one for plastic recyclables, one for paper trash, one for glass recycling, and one for garbage.  (Here, you take out your own garbage;  the garbage truck comes every night to empty the big garbage container.)

There's another set of similar containers about two blocks away, etc., etc..

Yellow is for recycling plastic.  What's behind that ugly blue
wall?  A construction site where work stopped 5 years ago.

Or rather, up until a couple of days ago, this is the way it was.

But yesterday afternoon, when I went out with my bag full of paper trash, the paper trash container had disappeared!  The glass recycling container was gone as well.

Missing!  grey container for paper recycling, bright green
container (rounded at the top) for glass

...but not the garbage container or the plastic recycling container.

SO--I walked with my bulging bag of paper trash the two blocks to the other set of containers.  Both the paper trash and the glass recycling containers had disappeared!  Extraordinary!

I had to bring my bulging bag home, where it still is.

This morning, when I went out for a brief run-walk, I looked around at other places where I'd expect to find paper trash and glass recycling containers.  There were none to be found,

When a friend dropped by later on, I asked him about this.  He told me that "they" had burned them up and taken them away!

The containers two blocks away;  notice the big space
between them where the MISSING containers used to be.

I asked him what he meant.  He said he saw the paper recycling container near his house in flames, and called the police to let them know.  They gave him the brush-off.  He walked to the next paper recycling container with his paper trash, and it was on fire as well.  This time, he didn't  call the police.

In total, that day, he saw five of these containers on fire.  A little while later he saw a truck come by and pick up all the burned containers as well as the glass recycling containers.  Now, when he wants to recycle, he has to go in his car to where his sister lives, and where there are still containers.

He finished his story by explaining he assumes the recycling people burned up the containers because city hall isn't paying them.

Bad, bad, BAD city hall.  (NOTE:  the people in
uniforms are city police, chewing the fat.  It's not THEIR fault.)

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Eve A. Ma is in Spain where, having completed the revised Afro-Peruvian documentary, she is getting back to work on a documentary about flamenco.  Subscribe HERE to our monthly newsletter to keep up with her work.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Election time in Spain (Mar. 21, 2015)

Spain is divided into municipalities, counties, regions, and the nation.  There are elections for all these different levels of government except for the counties.

Elections for the region of Andalucia, where I am located, take place tomorrow while municipal elections for all the cities in Spain, and most (but not all) of the other regions are going to be held in May.  The national elections must take place before December 20, but no specific date has been set.

Elections in Spain always take place on a Sunday, so as to make it more convenient for people to get to the polling stations.

I have been told by a (hopefully reliable) source that the city recently hired 200 workers.  This is to lower the unemployment rate and also make 200 people plus their families very happy.  One fly in this ointment is that the city doesn't have the money to pay these people.  When their contracts are up (after the May elections), they will be told, sorry, the city purse is empty.

bad, bad city hall

The same source heard from some city workers that their pay was docked at the end of last month by 50 euros each...the reason being that the city doesn't have the money to pay them all it owes them.  These workers can, of course, quit their jobs in protest, but then they would be unemployed.

So it goes.

The business about hiring 200 new workers reminds me of something from when Ronald Reagan was governor.  During his two terms, he secured income tax rebates four separate times.   The most famous one was in 1973.  As I remember it, however (but I can't find any references to confirm this), the first one was very near the end of his first term, when he was running for the second one, ensuring that many people got a check in the mail from the State of California shortly before going to the polls.

And THAT reminds me of growing up in New Orleans, where everyone was aways paying off everyone else.  Huey P. Long comes to mind, but there were plenty of others.

The more the world changes, the more it stays the same?
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Eve A. Ma is in Spain where, having completed the revised Afro-Peruvian documentary, she is getting back to work on a documentary about flamenco.  Subscribe HERE to our monthly newsletter to keep up with her work.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Palaces, aristocrats, casas de vecinos (Jerez, Spain-March 2015)

Spain is a monarchy, and there are still aristocrats.  The aristocrats have what is known here as "palaces," although these are usually considerably smaller than what you might think of when you're thinking of the palace of a king or queen.  They are the fine town homes of the aristocrats, who usually also have other residences in other places.

tree peeking out over the high wall of a palace grounds

The palaces open onto the street.  There is usually a patio in the center, and grounds - with a garden and trees - on one side, enclosed by a high wall.

There are quite a few palaces near where I live, about half of them in ruins but the others, still used by their aristocratic owners.  One very nice one is located about a block from my apartment.  


the palace of the Benavente family

It belongs to the Benavente family.  My street, named Benavente Bajo (Lower Benavente) and the street parallel to mine that is up the little rise, Benavente Alto (Upper Benavente), are both named after this family.  The Benavente palace is located on Benavente Alto.  

A friend of mine was fascinated by aristocrats and persuaded me to go to a lecture in which one of the Benaventes talked about his illustrious family.  I found the talk boring, but at least I know that the Benaventes actually exist.

Right next to the Benavente palace, in a FORMER palace, is something known as a "casa de vecinos;"  a building in which many, many families live in their own, small apartment.  They share a common patio.

"Casa de vecinos" right next to the Benavente palace.
Notice clothes hanging out to dry on the balcony.
In Spain, a class-conscious country, people of different classes often live next to each other.  (In the United States, where we claim we aren't class conscious but really are, different classes live in different neighborhoods.)

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Eve A. Ma is in Spain where, having completed the revised Afro-Peruvian documentary, she is getting back to work on a documentary about flamenco.  Subscribe HERE to our monthly newsletter to keep up with her work.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Event in a bodega (winery) in Jerez, Spain (early March 2015)

I've just come back to my apartment from something known as a "poster presentation," which means that a poster for an upcoming event is officially presented to "the public" in the hopes that everyone (especially business people) will take copies of the poster and stick it in the windows of their own, or someone else's, business.

These events come complete with wine (fino and the like), jamón (like prosciutto) and cheeze.

This is what the main bodega building looks like on most days.

But on special occasions, they open the gate, and voilá.

They are usually quite enjoyable, and the one I just went to was no exception.  It was held in a bodega (winery) near my apartment.  The bodega was established in 1730 by a Spanish family (the Domencq family).  It is now owned by a British firm (Harvey's Bristol Cream).


This is part of what we were served:  fino wine, jamón (Spanish prosciutto) and cheese.

This is not to say that the poster that was presented was spectacularly beautiful, but the designer, a neighborhood resident who fancies himself an artist, is an agreeable fellow.  The mayor was at the presentation and mentioned three times in her brief talk how "proud" she was to be sitting near such a talented artist who lives in a neighborhood with such an active neighborhood association.

Elections are coming up in about two weeks.

The poster.  No, it's not an oil well, and the yellow,
red and green things are not smoke, or cotton candy.

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Eve A. Ma is in Spain where, having completed the revised Afro-Peruvian documentary, she is getting back to work on a documentary about flamenco.  Subscribe HERE to our monthly newsletter to keep up with her work.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Chimney pots in Paris (late Feb. 2015)

My mother loved to go to Paris.  She first went when she was in her late teens, and she studied there on a couple of occasions.  She also went often after she married and had a family, both when her kids were growing up and after they were all grown and gone.

there was half a day of sun while I was in Paris
She had an aunt who lived there, who ran the student housing where she stayed when she was a student.  She became close friends with her aunt's companion, who she visited often after her aunt (my great-aunt, of course) passed away.

looking down from the window of my teeny, tiny apartment

Her aunt, Sarah Watson, was the first foreign woman ever to be inducted into the French Legion of Honor.  Her induction was to honor her for her work in France in World War II, during the French Résistance (resistance).

chimney pots up close and personal

My mother passed her love of chimney pots on to me.  I hope you enjoy these.

looking out across the rooves (roofs)
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Eve A. Ma passed through Paris on her way to southern Spain, where she is working on a documentary about flamenco, and finishing up a video about Afro-Peruvian music and dance.  Keep up with her work at http://palominoprodvd-cd.com.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

And then, the rest of Paris (or some of it) (late Feb. 2015)

(late Feb. 2015)

When I visit Paris, I in fact DO do things outside of the Jardin du Luxembourg.  I have lunch with my cousin, I walk up and down streets, I look at beautiful things like les Invalides, I go to movies or to a play, and if time and weather permit, I go to museums.

fine buildings on the Blvd. du Montparnasse
On this trip, I didn't make it to any museums but I did have lunch with my cousin, go to a movie, and also did a LOT of walking, and etc, etc.  Don't have photos of ALL of this but do have some to share.

a smaller street near where my cousin lives

I'll do one more Paris blog after this, which will be dedicated to the chimney pots of Paris...something my mother used to love.



the Eiffel Tower on a rainy night

don't know why I like this;  the man is coming out of the place I get chocolate and croissants

I would, by the way, love to do a documentary about the Jardin du Luxembourg, looking at it as it changes with the four seasons.  Maybe one day....


woman with dog
people hurrying along on a dark, cold winter's day
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Eve Ma passed through Paris on her way to southern Spain, where she is working on a documentary about flamenco (and finishing up some work about Afro-Peruvian music and dance).  Keep up with our work at http://palominoprodvd-cd.com.