When Greece suffers, Spain suffers. And, in spite of its bailout, Greece is miserable.
You can see the effects in Cordoba. Well, I assume that's what I'm seeing. I've never been to Spain during good economic times, but there are a lot of people begging for money. Women, mostly. Sometimes with children in their arms.
But in the tourist district, you can't tell how bad things are. Shop after shop is filled with beautiful silver jewelry, and in the early afternoon the area is flooded with people going in and out of stores.
In an un-Keynesian move, Spain's government has begun to take austerity measures, privatizing a number of previously socialized services such as airports and the lottery. And in spite of-- or, more likely, because of-- the over 20 percent unemployment rate, it has cut back unemployment benefits.
The Spanish people aren't just taking this lying down. All the flyer-posting locations contain fliers for political meetings and protests (I'm not counting "Zombie March: Cordoba" as a protest, but I thought it was interesting that it exists here, too). Thursday night, when some friends and I were in the central plaza, a march went right past us, chanting, "¿Que pasa? ¿Que pasa? ¡Que no tenemos casa!" ("What's going on? What's going on? We don't have houses!). They were marching under all sorts of banners, from a hammer and sickle to an Anarchist flag. We followed them to a nearby square where the group formed a circle and a number of people spoke. The Spanish was a bit fast for me, but one thing I understood: the alliance between the different political groups present was very strained. They were united for that particular cause, but the Anarchists stayed with the Anarchists, the Socialists with the Socialists.
The speakers also discussed media censorship. I hadn't realized that was still an issue in Spain. I'd like to figure out to what extent it is, but I'll save that for a later date.
Protests here too, Per. A report from a friend describing the occupation of Dewey Square in Boston across from the Federal Reserve:
ReplyDelete"Yesterday I took part in a large afternoon march from Dewey Square past Hynes Convention Center, where a College Fest was selling corporate products to college students, then on to Mass Ave and back along Newbury Street. Spirits were high, especially because we got overwhelmingly positive reactions -- lots of honks and raised fists from taxi drivers, bus drivers, Duck Tour drivers, bike messengers, and even from Saturday shoppers and tourists, with only a few scowls and taunts (see the link to my photos below). The cops were mellow, mirroring the marchers; there's been no effort so far to cause a confrontation - no effort to walk down the middle of the street, for example, while the cops let us walk on the sidewalk and directed traffic so we could keep moving. Even "taking over" Dewey Square was somewhat anticlimactic - although the group did not request a permit, city and state officials seem inclined to let us stay at least for now; I'm guessing that will change if the Direct Action committee moves towards stronger direct action. But so far things are calm; organizers have assured the Nature Conservancy, which manages the site we're on, that we'll come back on Earth Day to re-seed the muddied lawn.
Some of my photos of the past three days are now on Flickr: . There are a lot of other people's photos, video, and reports of the events online, just search for Occupy Boston"
How to share the pain? When women and children are going begging?
Definitely curious about the censorship!
ReplyDeleteWhat's the begging atmosphere/culture/response you've observed?