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.