A little bit of mathematics

The unemployment data disclosed earlier this week have fallen like a bomb in Spain. All headlines in the media have echoed the figure of 6,000,000 unemployed persons in Spain, a 27% rate. But, beyond that dramatic number, which should be attacked as soon as possible, there are two other figures which have passed almost unnoticed and that I consider equally worrisome.

The first one refers to an unemployment rate of 40% among the foreigners living in Spain (around 5,000,000, of which around 3,300,000 are working or looking actively for a job). Such a high rate is a bomb at our core. Spain received a lot of foreign workers, mostly in the construction sector, in the years before the crisis and these workers contributed to our Social Security system. Several years after coming to Spain, once they have gone through the hard years of adaptation to the new country, they find themselves unemployed and with little perspectives of getting a job, given their previous occupations (believe me, we will not build many houses in the next ten years in Spain). Our government must tackle this problem and offer these foreign workers a real chance to get a job, be it in Spain or in their countries of origin.

In my view, the most dramatic number is that of the working population. Spain, a country with 46,000,000 inhabitants, has only 16,500,000 workers. That means that the 16,500,000 workers must pay for a group of 30,000,000 people comprising unemployed (6,000,000), children and students (schools), and retired workers (pensions and hospitals). By a simple look at the numbers, the conclusion is straightforward: that is not sustainable in the medium-term. The return to normality should be achieved by a combination of actions which should aim at increasing the number of people workin
g in Spain (this would reduce the unemployment) and at optimazing the Public Sector, so that every euro spent is really worth that euro. Otherwise, the working population will become more and more drowned in taxes and nothing will improve. Correcting this unsustainable trend shall be the first priority in our country.

Being tremendously worried as I am by the dramatic figures of unemployment, I wish to finish the blog with some optimistic anecdotal facts. Lilly is moving all her production in Europe from Germany to Spain and car manufacturers are returning to us. After all, do not forget this, we Spaniards are very hard and efficient workers.

Sécurité totale

Les deux bombes qu'ont explosé à Boston il y a quelques jours et la réaction postérieure m'ont fait penser, une autre fois, au concept de sécurité totale.

Dans notre monde occidentale on croit souvent que la police (et l'État) doit assurer la sécurité des citoyens en tout cas. On oublie que la sécurité totale n'éxiste pas. Il y a rien à faire quando deux déments decident de porter deux bombes en une marathon. Se ils ne avaient utilisé la marathon pour leur attaque injustifie, ils auraint pu choisir parmi des autres possibilités (par exemple, le métro de Boston). Il est impossible pour la police de prévoir tous les menaces potencielles qu'on a tous les jours et d'en nous protéger.

Le risque est part important de notre vie, parce que tous les jours on risque de mourir dans beaucoup d'activités qu'on fait, en commençant pour guider la voiture et en comprennant de faire partie de une agglomération. Mais ce risque n'est rien en comparison des risques dans autres pays, où la vie humaine à peine a de valeur.

De plus, on doit aussi compter les actions des autres: le concept d'être au lieu erroné dans le temps erroné. Dans une seconde, notre vie peut changer de façon dramatique pour la décision d'un autre. Mais ce risque ne peut pas nous terroriser, on ne peut pas vivre avec peur.

Bajo la sombra del Monte Krivan

Justo antes de iniciar de nuevo la rutina habitual en Guadalajara, una vez regresado de Fráncfort, me fui de vacaciones con Andrea unos días a las montañas del Alto Tatras (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alto_Tatra y http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montes_Tatra), en Eslovaquia, junto a la frontera con Polonia. En estos últimos años he ido allí varias veces, siempre con la nieve acechando, y tengo que admitir que la zona me gusta muchísimo. Tiene paisajes que parecen sacados de Canadá u otras regiones, sin necesidad de coger un vuelo transoceánico.

Esta vez elegimos un hotel-spa en medio de las montañas (Hotel Permon, para los más curiosos), bajo la mirada y control del monte Krivan (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriv%C3%A1%C5%88), que es el que aperece en las monedas de céntimo de Eslovaquia y que es uno de los símbolos del país. Desde nuestra habitación teníamos preciosas vistas al monte Krivan, que en días soleados permitían hacer fotos como esta.

Como no podía ser de otra forma, nos encontramos con bastante nieve en cuanto subimos un poco de altura. Tuvimos algunos días soleados que hicieron que pudiésemos andar sobre la nieve sin tener que soportar temperaturas gélidas o nieve. En este sentido, descubrimos por casualidad una ruta preciosa donde casi daba miedo ir, porque no había ningún ser humano en kilómetros a la redonda y quizá sí algunos osos o lobos hambrientos. Otro día nos fuimos a andar alrededor del hotel y descubrimos un parque infantil, que permite hacernos una idea de la cantidad de nieve que había.

El hotel en sí parece construido en los últimos años del comunismo como residencia de los miembros respetados del partido comunista. Dispone de todo tipo de comodidades, pero con un aire a los años setenta y ochenta. Todo ha sido recientemente renovado, sobre todo la zona de las piscinas y saunas. En estas últimas, tengo que admitir que no consigo cogerlas el truco: después de dos minutos estoy o aburrido como una ostra o cociéndome vivo.

Por último, después de ir detrás de un camión durante casi una hora sin posibilidad alguna de adelantarlo, en el camino de vuelta decidimos parar a comer en Banská Bystrica (creo haber puesto bien los
acentos), la tercera ciudad minera eslovaca junto a Kremnica y Banská Stiavnica. Banská Bystrica es la ciudad de las tres con menos mineral pero la más grande y la más comercial, por estar mejor situada que las otras dos. Su plaza SNP es realmente espectacular y cualquier calle del centro está repleta de palacios y otros edificios históricos. La plaza SNP rinde homenaje a aquellos que se levantaron contra la ocupación nazi y que fueron fácil y rápidamente masacrados porque los tanques rusos no pudieron pasar las montañas del Tatras por el paso Dukla (de ahí el nombre de algún equipo de fútbol) tan rápido como habían previsto. Esta vez los soldados rusos sufrieron los rigores del "General Invierno". En dicha plaza se pueden apreciar sus tres torres, dejando atrás por una a la Tierra Media. Es realmente una ciudad que merece la pena visitar si se está de paso.

Amidst castles at the core of France

Our return journey from Frankfurt to Guadalajara took us from Reims (see previous post) to the Loire castles. To be more precise, we visited Chenonceau and Chinon, where we spent the night. Before going into detail with the castles, let me insist that we tried hard to find any vinyard when leaving Reims to justify that champagne is produced there but we could not find any. Let's just assume that vinyards are hidden away from the motorway.

Our trip was quiet and easy until Chenonceau. I can only remember the tremendous cold weather for April which we found when we stopped for petrol near Orleans. This kind of cold belonged more to Northern territories than to the middle of France and took us totally by surprise. That explains also the strange grim we got in most of the pictures we took of the two castles.

Going with the first one, Chenonceau, what can I say about the second most visited castle in France (only after Versailles)? It is wonderfully situated on the Cher river and has beautiful gardens surrounding it. It has been inhabited by several members of the French royal family and its interior is really worth a visit. The only negative point was the avalanche of Chinese tourists which prevented us from visiting the chapel: it was materially impossible to get inside...

Our next destination was Chinon, where we were supposed to stay overnight. Chinon may not be so well-known in the route of the castles around the Loire but has a superb fortress on a hill, looking over the Vienne river. At this point, the navigator played a dirty trick on us, as it took us to the hotel using the shortest way in kilometres (not in time), which involved taking a very narrow street on the hedge of a hill in the middle of the medieval town. Thanks Lord we did not face any car, because then we could have had a very hard time trying to move out of that horror of narrow streets.

As it can be seen in the picture above, weather was not very "adequate" for a tourisic walk, although we managed to really enjoy the medieval old streets of Chinon. We also saw a place where Jeanne d'Arc came down from the horse!!!!

The last part of our trip had a stop-over in Irún, where we met relatives and have a really good time. Unfortunately there are no pictures of it, but we visited a very nice park in a bay in Irún, where one shore belongs to France and the opposite to Spain.

Finally, tired but happy to be back home, we reached Guadalajara the next day around lunch time.

In the land of champagne

This is the first post of a series of them which will describe our trip from Frankfurt to Guadalajara, through France, with our car full of stuff after three years living in Frankfurt. Life is now incredibly hectic, so the frequency of this blog may diminish a little bit, I am afraid.

Our trip from Frankfurt to Guadalajara had as first stage Rheims, capital of Champagne and widely-known for its Gothic cathedral. Despite of these two important highlights, which should make an appealing tourist destination of Rheims, we found a very quiet city with very few tourists. I do not know whether something else could be done to increase its potential, but we expected something more from Rheims.

Its cathedral though is impressive and superb. It is one of the best Gothic cathedrals in Europe and the place where kings of France were crowned until 1825. The building itself is really long (over 100 metres) and tall (over 30 metres). There are hundreds of sculptures outside, which can be found in the main façade, in the towers, at both sides,... Inside, the atmosphere is much quieter and intimate as the use of electric light is quite restricted.

Beyond that, Rheims is the capital of Champagne as well, even if Épernay, around 25km to the south, is the place where most caves are located. Nonetheless, in our trip with the car through the region, we could not see any single vinyard close to the highway. In the view of that, we are starting to draw two alternative theories: (i) champange is not made from grapes, but from something else (oil, potatoes,...), and (ii) producers buy the grapes from elsewhere. Really, leaving jokes aside, it was shocking for us not to see any single vinyard in more than 100km.

Finally, I did not know that Rheims was the place where the surrender of Germany was signed in 1945. There is a tiny museum in the place where it was signed, the headquarters of the US Army in Europe. Being also so close to Verdun, one really feels the horror of the two World Wars in this area.

All our visit to Rheims was accompanied by a very cold weather, which urged us to seek refuge indoors and which probably prevented us from discovering more. In any case, although we really liked Rheims, we got the feeling that beyond the cathedral, there is not much to offer to the tourist.