by metavision
Wed Nov 1st, 2006 at 01:17:13 PM EST
1. Description. 2. The Good. 3. The Bad. 4. The Ugly. 5. Changes are in Order.
Pictures: http://www.casareal.es/ingles/index.jsp
The bad
*In talking with local movers-and-shakers, the royal family is going down the tubes in every respect. These people have some inside details, but I take them with a ton of salt because they exaggerate all information to infer false conclusions and they feel important being bad news leakers.
Now there are rumors of serious health problems, of total discord among members, separation, jealousy and corruption. All of them are true to a minor degree, just like most public figures and most human beings. They age, they go through changes and crises, they have feelings and conflicts, so this is a case of gossipers in need of new material: If you see Queen Sofía in London, visiting her brother Constantine too long, let me know, and I will keep the secret.
*It has been a rumor for decades that, besides the allotment in the national budget, the King gets a percentage from Spain´s oil imports, which would explain part of the good relations with Arab royal families, but there are no sources to verify that. Of course.
*Last I checked, the royal family´s website has no contact email address, which is pretty frustrating, but I know they do not have the staff to handle that endless task.
Right now I want to express "my disapproval" of the King going big-game hunting in Russia, or anywhere for that matter, and I have to do it through a newspaper.
*Controlled press coverage is very practical, until it is used to cover up... Sailing, skiing, tennis, soccer, etc., are "true" sports and JCI allows the press coverage, but hunting is obviously improper to him and excepting that coverage is really bad form.
*Transportation issues are obviously ungreen, since they move by separate-helicopter (their flight path is right out of my window) to private jet, probably through a (2) "joint/foreign airbase" near Madrid. Their cars are Audis and Mercedes, just like the Spanish government officials, so those two firms must have the monopoly on anti-everything vehicles.
(2) W´s twins have also used said joint/foreign airbases in Spain and Germany for their drinking junkets: Tarifa scandal in 2004, where SS goons pulled their guns and fired in the air! to get Jenna out of a bar, with the excuse that someone was trying to steal her cell phone...
by metavision
Tue Oct 31st, 2006 at 04:38:58 AM EST
1. Description 2. The Good. 3. The Bad. 4. The Ugly. 5. Changes are in Order.
The Good
*I was not living in Spain during the coup of 1981, but it seems JCI played an audatious role in bringing it to an end. He was playing among the military and political factions, when most of the country was still in Franco mentality. There must be many more events where he intervened during the transition to democracy, but I just don´t know any that seem as important.
*Foreign media played a big part, but I am convinced there was some "royal intervention" to stop the right-wing, PP government from canceling the presidential elections and/or the results on 14March 2004, after the 11M terrorist attacks. (It was, 911 days after 9/11...) Ex-prez Aznar had already been acting, incrementally, as a little emperor in a bush-kissing fit for three years.
After 11M, the king had to, at least make a call to Aznar, to remind him who was the head of state, because it was intensely obvious that his government had gone off the extreme-right end. This "little chat" would explain the openly hateful behaviour by the entire PP ever since, as opposed to the "I can´t hear you, people" before then.
The PP act like spoiled, raging brats because they had been ramming bushisms down the throats, got caught lying and lost the elections. The public shock grew into furor.
*At the nationwide demonstrations 13M, Prince Felipe had to march next to Aznar in Madrid, but stayed at his long arms-length from him and the skirting banner they were carrying, as if he were forced to be with something contagious. If I remember right, the King gave an excuse to not attend and that seems positive, because he would have to march WITH the government and the government had added a divisive "constitution" issue to their anti-terror banner.
*I get a strong sense that the PP fears the King because "he´s got their number", which is very reassuring for the country. He seems to maintain a good balance between keeping his privileged role and carrying a big stick when he sees a major threat to the country´s democracy and therefore to himself. As to the left, no faction
exists that would even consider such a stunt. Not the true anti-monarchists, nor the
mild IU, Izquierda Unida.
*In 2004, as the head of state, JCI had to acknowledge the existence of W, especially because the latter would not even acknowledge the existence of Spain, after the PSOE won the elections and immediately removed the troops from Iraq:
Just the symbolism of the event was priceless: First, by visiting W at his ranch and not at the WHouse, which would have validated his title, and second by making that visit a stop-over on a larger trip. The King met W in the country, at his own ranch, where his seat of power really is and where he really belongs! I reel over a proper put-down and this is a 360! because I doubt that anyone on george´s world has gotten that diplomatic message yet.
*The royal family is sensible and discreet enough to be well-liked, and I should give them credit for their no-nonsense and occasional intelligent action, that probably goes unnoticed to most people. There are no "words", or acts of displeasure, but the kingly choices of time and place, usually say it all. He has always been much better at acting "like anyone else", than at his boring speeches, which he painfully reads. Queen Sofía is known for preserving the protocol and she pulls on JCI´s sleeve when he misses a queue.
by metavision
Mon Oct 30th, 2006 at 07:22:25 PM EST
1. Description. 2. The Good. 3. The Bad. 4. The Ugly. 5. Changes are in Order.
For some reason, my writing about life in Spain starts from the "top down". It´s my personal need to see the whole picture for comprehension, but it´s also an efficient way to see connections and point fingers. I have done no research, but now that the diary has grown into a tome, I would love to hear what you gleam from it and also your comparisons with other royals. (If you can get through so much plain writing.)
by metavision
Tue Oct 24th, 2006 at 08:29:32 PM EST
Here I am, a new gnobody on the site, I don´t even understand the TUGuidelines yet, I don´t know what PNing means, I am reinventing writers´ block and now I am getting a guilty complex reading about transparency.
I have been welcomed and haven´t contributed a cent, but I´m not qualified for that discussion. Please let me know what fees I should take care of.
For now I am keeping the pedestals for each of you because you want to make the best ET possible and these are normal, dysfunctional-family-in-recovery conflicts. Keep up the good work!
If you decide to change the org chart into moms, pirates, cyclists, visionaries, jokers, fools... I´d choose pirate mom.
by metavision
Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 11:19:21 AM EST
1. Broken Mind and Spirit. Paragraph C., SubSection y.
Two days trying to compart-mentalize the evils of the torture law and I still have no words. I resisted writing about it because it´s a party pooper of the global kind. An eleventh dimension could not help me put this in its proper place. This gives me more insight about PSY-OPS than I ever want to have. Merely passing the law, is PUBLIC, SOCIO-PSYCHO-illogical TORTURE at a new scale.
Can anyone find one dot of benefit (1) to humanity in this aberration? I cannot conceptualize a case, which could prove torture worthwhile, overall, for safety, practicality, effectiveness, materiality or quantification reasons. That´s an impossibility of Life as I know it. Harm done in one place to save lives there, WILL CAUSE lives lost in retaliation in another place, within a very short period of time.
Of course, my "disconnect" is assuming the value of a human life is the same in both places...
Now, imagine actual safety from "terra" by working on good communication within the administrative agencies and shaming absolute negligence out of the system.
A. There was a call from an agent in Minneapolis(?) to DC in August 2001, that stated "threat of planes into buildings" by an arrested terrorist. There was time to avoid 9/11, uncountable deaths, wars, invasions, destruction and occupation, if it were not for second-guessing, negligent parasites.
B. There were direct warnings, private and public, of Katrina´s power, more than 2 days before it hit the US. People without means did not scream in time. Politicians did not care to believe, smug in their power to change public perception in any event and safe from any consequences.
*The ACCUMULATED MORALE-BREAKING, day after day for 6 years, has dehumanized congress enablers to such a degree, they consider this just another parrot routine of parties winning or losing. It is "the machine bot" process.
*WHAT IS THEIR PAY-OFF?
Are they all plain EVIL and share putrid human values?
Are all of them PAID OFF TO REMAIN SILENT?
Do they all have another "FAMILY SECRET" in common, that we don´t know about?
Do all of them have BLACKMAIL REASONS that would explain why they, actively or passively, fall in line with the corporate, blairbushpope axis of evil? (I mean, even one Democrat, NE Senator Nelson, voted against the Democrats´amendment to soften the impact of the bill!)
OR WHAT?????
*The UN has not had an Emergency Meeting to consider sanctions against the US,that I have heard of. Will they wait for Chavez to ridicule it on his next visit?
*The pope, so informed on 700-year old matters, has NOT PEEPED... about peace, morality, compassion, love, hope, charity, see-jesus-in-your-brother, or any other of ITS infallibilities. Maybe it only acts on Sundays.
*The EU has not called for an EMERGENCY meeting to CONDEMN the legalization of human rights abuses, while they decide what actions may be effective.
*The PEOPLE, have gone past shock and settled into helplessness-and-numbness by the overwhelming and constant barrage of "big lies". They take REFUGE FROM REASON in their creature comforts, knowing that, at least for tomorrow, they can still "buy stuff" at Wal-Mart. How many DECADES will it take for the "social fabric" to reweave itself, for the "we, the people" to exist again?
*My role? It seems as ineffective as unclear. It´s just "political", it´s just social, it is just unfair and irrational, but they are not after me, so "it´s not personal"?. Yet, it affects me enough to think about it, to bring it up in conversations and to write.
I FEEL TORTURED, so I need to find something I can control, find the .0000001% positive: At least this issue seems to be "named" correctly in the media as "torture bill" and "torture law", so it should be pretty hard to "redefine" that concept and connotation in the public perception. Really?
=
Footnote(1) Being on such shaky topic, I think I have just found proof of spontaneous "artificial intelligence". As I began the second paragraph and finished typing the word "benefit", the automatic spelling-checker had CHANGED MY WORDS to say:
"Can anyone fin done dot of Benedict" =
fin done Unnamable!
I know perfectly well that I typed it correctly, that my messed up configuration of Spanish and English dictionaries confuses the machine, but the COINCIDENCE of Freudian slips, is Microsoft´s, or mine? This is scary stuff.
by metavision
Tue Sep 26th, 2006 at 04:20:49 PM EST
Dear ET´s,
I found you and you got me. Thanks.
The name is so proper that I thought "it cannot be progressive". It´s not funny I have become so cynical since 2001, but I checked the site backwards and forwards, let me tell you. Cynicism is one of the things that I get for having deep ties in two continents and king george trying to run them all.
International policy is almost a passion for me and I am glad I am on the socialist side of the Atlantic that bush "doesn´t talk to". We sleep well here, even if nothing is perfect and we have our own rabid right-wingers. I have endless stories about them for another time.
I see you are still debating the development stage and I may offer help at some point, just not "right now". I will pay a fair amount to include pampering and helping along. K? A cook would be nice, too.
It is time to rest and I have only read faq #2, so I will read some more.
P.S.
Damm! The Probo Koala is now anchored in Estonia... Merchants of Hell! I was tired before, I am pissed now.
