Yesterday was the International Day Against Violence Against Women, something that the Spanish government supports. And how, exactly, does it support it? By making a radio advertisement featuring famous (male) soccer players encouraging women to leave a violent domestic situation.

Imagine it: suave, radio-friendly male voices purring that you’re worth more than that, you should get out, you don’t have to tolerate domestic violence. Like All Blacks going on TV telling women to leave their abusive husbands. I guess I should be glad they’re making the effort, but if you ask me, they’ve seriously missed the mark on this one. Read the rest of this article »

Today is the anniversary of the day I was born, and the day former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died. He finally kicked the bucket in 1975 – which is quite recently really, and the memory of the dictatorship remains clearly a part of the public consciousness. So each 20^th of November there are big demonstrations all over Spain. What could be better for my birthday than a bit of politics in action, eh?

The “fascists” come out and chant “Long Live Franco”, and the “anti-fascists” come out in force and tell them to sod off and grow up and chant “Long Live Democracy”. Or something like that. (I don’t mean to take the mickey or anything by using the quote marks and term fascist, I am actually quoting the terminology of the young politically-left here).

So how did it all go on Saturday night? Read the rest of this article »

I had been quite impressed with the quantity of international news reported here in Spain, and I had thought that the turmoil in Tonga was quite a big deal. But had it not been for New Zealand news sources, I wouldn’t have known that anything unusual was going on there at all. It’s made me think about how current events are reported by newspapers around the world. Read the rest of this article »

It’s raining in Madrid. This month has seen a record amount of rain, for Spanish standards, but after a very dry summer the city’s water supplies are still looking low. It is making me realise how lucky New Zealand and New Zealanders are. Our country doesn’t have centuries-old architecture or massive stores of oil. But we have plenty of that which is most basic: fresh air and water. Read the rest of this article »

I was going to write a couple of weeks ago about how cool my students are for giving at least two hoots about politics, for knowing who Che Guevara is (other than that funny looking silhouette on Hallensteins’ t-shirts), and for going on strike to oppose the proposed education law amendment. And well, yes, I still think they’re great for those reasons.

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