I have spent many summers of my life in Spain.....it began when I was young and has continued to be the destination of choice for me in adult years in summertime with my children. My favorite destination being the island of Mallorca in the Baleares.
The Spanish people have a happiness and kindness that is infectious in my opinion....I cant help but feel it when I am there.....in addition to it being a beautiful place, the people and traditions and culture is one so rich in history that I have still much to learn.
There is of course a dark side too....as in with all things....the history with Franco and going long before that in terms of the role of the Spanish crown and explorers.....but culturally and as a Nation, they have so much to offer....and its why this horrible economic situation is so upsetting....
I was just in Spain a few weeks ago....when talking with people there, there is much frustration and the blame goes constantly to the Banks and the Conservatives (hmmmm....sound familiar) for how they got there.....there is much frustration on how to solve this situation. The real estate situation is a mess with lots of foreclosures and evictions and the taxation system is also a mess, with benefits going largely to corporations and the wealthy. (also sounds familiar?). Fixing it is going to take a very creative solution and fighting an entrenched bureacracy that wants to protect its interests.
Of course, all we hear about (and read in these British news blurbs) is about the number of young people "on the dole". That is true, but its only part of the picture....critics of that (the conservatives in Spain particularly) want to end the system that has "the dole", yet ironically, that is in fact what is saving that nation right now from collapse. They have a very complex social net system....one I wont necessarily advocate for entirely or denounce. It needs to be re-structured, but not destroyed as the Spanish Conservatives wish to do. If it was destroyed, there would be a revolution in Spain. Whether that might be a good thing, could be debated. But what has become very clear to me in the time I spend there, talking to people, including good friends I have made over the years ranging from hotel staff, to shop owners, to my good friends who I stayed with just a few weeks ago whose wife is unemployed after being laid off and the husband who is a Police Captain, the solution lies in stopping the plans the conservatives and banks have in destroying the retirement system, but rather in coming up with ways to build the economic machine of the country to be beyond the banks and real estate developers who basically raped Spain economically.
And yet, as dire as things may seem there, I can report that the unemployed, the underemployed and people of Spain are still better off than our equivalent here in the US.....and they all have fabulous healthcare....
Here is to Espana figuring out how to rid themselves of the conservative noose and disease of the bankers and real estate prospectors in 2013 moving forward......here is to a recovering economy for them and keeping their retirement and healthcare....Viva Espana!
PS: and the same wish for my beloved United States....might I add that we can get the healthcare for my fellow citizens and keep social security unchanged!!!!! And bankers in jail....
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