Justice?

Every day, when I come back home from my daily swim, I turn towards Toni and ask, “Carcel?” which is the Spanish for, “Prison?”  This does not refer to my esteemed partner, but rather to the multitude of miscreants who were, are, may be members of the Spanish conservative party called PP.

PP is systemically corrupt and corrupting.  The number of members of PP, or ex-members of that degenerate party who have been or are in the process of being condemned for corruption is astonishing.  Astonishing, that is, in terms of a British view of the political situation in Spain: whatever you Brits who might be reading this think about your government, you have to come to Spain at the moment to see real corruption in operation.  Teresa (or however you spell her name) May might be a fairly worthless piece of self-regarding, opportunistic, political self-seeking cowardice, but compared to the filth-in-depth that “rules” Spain, she is of thrice-refined gold!

For what seems like years (and actually is) we, in Spain have been watching a slow implosion of decency, as member after member of the ruling party of PP has been accused (with what appears to be 24 carat gold evidence) of astonishing culpability in a systematic (I make no apology for repeating the idea) defrauding of the public purse of this country. I have watched in half-fascinated, guilt-ridden disbelief as this country seems to accept venality as a necessary component of government.  Now, at long last, my repeated question is being answered in the affirmative.

We are starting to see a sad (from their point of view!) procession of lying criminal thieves take the drive to their cells.  Unfortunately, they are all going to prisons in Spain, and not as I wanted, an open dormitory prison in the deep south of the US of A!  But at least they are going.  God knows, there are positive armies of potential inmates to join them, if the justice system keeps this up!

What is fascinating from my point of view is exactly what the ruling party is actually going to do now.  The criminals who have been put away have deep and historical knowledge of exactly what the good and the great within the party have been doing over the years.  They may be in prison, but they must know that if they cared to open their mouths and tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then they would be joined in secure accommodation!  So, how is PP going to keep their mouths closed?  What sort of offer can they make to these people who have been used to the high life and now find themselves in rather more cramped conditions?  Even in the relaxed open-type prison that we have seen illustrated on the television for some of the more highly placed thieves, they are going to be chaffing thinking about all the resources that they have salted away and which they will not be able to use!

All of these proven liars keep harping on about their innocence, they haven’t even the good grace to admit their manifold mistakes and thefts, they will never appreciate what they have done until all the money (with interest) is taken from them.  They have shown that they have nothing but contempt for the people whom they have defrauded; their only god is cash and that is where must hit them.  Between the lot of them, they have probably stolen enough money to build tens of schools, hospitals, parks, swimming pools, libraries: to finance the building of roads, bridges, tramways, metros, you name it.  Instead of which, these bloated thieves have raided the public purse and enriched themselves at the expense of the people of Spain.

Watch this space to see exactly how the ruling party manages to mitigate the sentences of their corrupt friends.  The one thing that I am certain about, is that these miscreants will never serve their full sentences.  PP will find a way to make their lives just that little bit different from those of the “ordinary” criminals.  Watch this space indeed!

On a more personal basis, I am still trying to teach my fingers to deal with the placement of the shift and return keys on the new computer.  It is amazing how difficult trying to come to terms with a new stretch for the little finger can be when years of previous typing are working against new skills!  The computer, however, is far too expensive for me to do anything other than adapt!

I have also reverted to old habits, as this typing is my usual displacement activity.  Next week (and frighteningly near) is another test in my Spanish class.  I should be cramming with a desperation that is a function of my lack of specific grammatical knowledge in the areas of language that the next two units demands, however I fear that the relationship is something of the inverse variety than anything useful.

I could always write poems!