Spain...who knows

  I was among those who did not believe it. I was one who thought the slogan "they call it democracy and it isn´t" was exaggerated. I was aware, like everyone, that there was political corruption in Spain. I knew that many of our politicians were not what they seemed to be and a handful of large companies enjoyed special favors from the authorities. I thought that after all, the laws were enforced (with more difficulty with those in power, than those who do not have).

 

  As the crisis advanced, I thought that there was a danger of cutting the social and civil rights under the pretext of economic difficulties. This was what I thought, and I'm sure I was not alone. This vision was dark in appearance, in reality it was just a fairy tale. The reality is different.

 

  The reality, we now know, it´s not that there are corruption cases in Spain, but that the whole political system is corrupt. Corruption is not the exception but the rule. Now we know that Spain is governed, like many other countries, by a corrupt political-business oligarchy that uses the resources of the state and of course the Autonomous Communities to defend their interests. As in many other countries, the system operates on several levels. On the one hand, as a tool for favoring certain companies that provide the financial flow of corruption. On the other, use the administrative system as an employment office, to place their allies in key management positions. As the third leg, there is the looting of public funds and ownership. Corruption occurs at all levels, national, regional and local levels. As in certain degraded countries, the Spanish government does relinquish of the defense of national interests in international forums and in bilateral relations and subordinated to the interests of determined agents, so the moment they finish their public duties, they start working officially.

  Of course, anyone who opposes their interests is conveniently set aside. In this aspect we have tons of recent examples. Judges that seeking to investigate, are moved aside or intimidated. Police investigating corruption cases are dismissed or replaced. Like if that was not necessary.

  The laws are suitably reformed in the interests of the corrupt, as the recent tax amnesty law or the reformed Penal Code. If despite all this, some of them are trailed and convicted, the system reserves the last round: the pardon. In this way the impunity of criminals in power, friends, family and clients is guaranteed.

 

  How we got to this situation is something beyond my ability. The majority of the population has been willfully blind, while they had their pocket fairly full and could pay their mortgage. The lack of ethics, as a filtration that moves up and down. This week, a mother refused to acknowledge what five witnesses and a judge had witnessed: that her daughter had beaten and insulted a school classmate. Some vulgar medias and servile, along with the demolition of the public school has finally created a population with low levels of education, low levels of civic responsibility (for instance Spain is the European country where more cyclists are run over by motor vehicles), and adopt as their own vague false-North American popular culture, with complete ignorance of the culture, if not, with a perverse interpretation of the same, as the local peripheral nationalists do.

 

  From a historical perspective, perhaps we could point out that the aim of the Spanish transition to initiate a democratic regime without wanting to hold accountable those who for years have been benefited from a dictatorial regime, and seek justice for those who suffered the atrocities of Franco, was naïve.
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As it often happens in these cases, the greatest threat to the oligarchs, as for gangsters are other oligarchs or other criminals.

 

But... who knows.

El Señor Gordo

El humor está aquí, en alguna parte

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Translation by Amanda Perri