30 años no son nada.

Llevo desde el año 1982 viviendo y trabajando en España. Estoy casado con una Andaluza, tengo cuatro hijos españoles, y la residencia permanente. Hace unos dos años la crisis se llevó por delante mi negocio, y ahora estoy en paro. Hoy he ido a por mi tarjeta sanitaria europea, para poder viajar y visitar a mi familia en UK. Pero, acorde con la nueva ley,  he sido borrado de la seguridad social. Todos los papeles rellenados con anteriordad - el empadronamiento, libro de familia, tajeta de la seguridad social etc etc - habrá que rellenar de nuevo. ¿Por qué? Porque soy extranjero, y por ende sospechoso, un posible estafador, un parásito del sistema. Así que nada, a empezar de nuevo con la tan querida burocracia. ¡Esto sí que es ahorrar!
Esto es la democracia entendida como cuestión de bandos; Nacionalistas contra Republicanos, PP contra PSOE, Real Madrid versus Barcelona. Tarjeta roja y expulsión hubo contacto o no. Es patético, y lleva al país a un terrible atraso. Mientras tanto, el ciudadano de a pie sufre el infantil tira y afloja de nuestros sabios y prepotentes gobernantes.
De acuerdo, volveré mañana.
Pero tomo nota.

We all love a freebie

And why not? Times are hard, and something for free is not to be sniffed at. After all, culture is not (should not be) a perishable good. So, and thanks here to www.smashwords.com, I am happy to offer you all free literature and comedy. Just visit the site, punch in Tommy Dakar, and download in your preferred format.
Over 4.000 downloads this year, so if that were, say, 5€ a shot.....  Oh well, I never had a head for business, so all the downloads are FREE. Hope you enjoy them. If not, ask for your money back.

De nuevo nos equivocamos y disparamos al pie. Como medida de protesta contra los recortes en educación los profesores de la escuela pública en Granada han decidido que este curso no habrá teatro, ni villancicos, ni excursiones, ni viaje fin de curso. ¡Que tiemble el gobierno! Y los niños, pues que les jod...

Spain to get EU bank aid in exchange for job cuts

That's the way forward, innit? Save the banks, screw the workers. Sounds like a really intelligent move.

The End of the World again

The Future (one month to go)

Some people have chosen to live in the past and couldn't care less about what lies in store for humanity. Others would rather not think ahead, happy to let events unfold one by one. Que será, será, they say. There are those who prefer to leave it all in the hands of the experts, and face the future with religious philosophy – insha'Allah, god willing. But the vast majority of us enjoy having a bash at fortune-telling, thinking we can make intelligent guesses from the available information. Unfortunately our track record is not very encouraging.

1984 came and went, and Big Brother turned out to be no more than a TV show, a gossip monger's paradise. It is true that a great number of people feel that their lives are controlled from above, or afar, but it is also true that the controllers are under the very same impression. There are sporadic outbreaks of Dictatorship from time to time, but as in all contagious diseases, isolation is the key. In general the death toll is tolerably low if dealt with in time, and the antidotes appear to work in most cases. In all it would appear that the world is more likely to go to pot than to Pol Pot.

Nostradamus forebode that Paris would be invaded from the sky by Asian hordes. Sounds feasible, to some it may even sound recommendable. Unfortunately he chose to put a date to this – 1999. No doubt when he wrote his prediction 1999 sounded terribly remote, but as the British found out with Hong Kong, time has a nasty habit of catching up with you.

The year 2000 was to herald in any number of media inflated catastrophes. Planes would fall out of the sky, and computers would lose their binary minds. Our digital Lazarus would fail us and we would all tumble ungraciously into the ditch. But the fuse fizzled out and there was not so much as a whimper. Perhaps because the year 2000 only applied to the Gregorian calendar, not the Jewish, or Chinese, or Inca calendar. Maybe these universal disasters are yet to occur and that magical number should be reached according to the calculations of the Muslims, or better still, the Mormons, so we have more time to prepare ourselves.

Now the extinct Malayans tell us we have one month to go. Oh well, never liked Christmas much anyway.

Some authors insist on alien contact as a safe bet for future predictions, but to date the results have been a little disappointing. Maybe because we are under the delusion that Homo Sapiens is the intelligent species they wish to communicate with, when in reality they have come to make contact with the trees, the whales and the dolphins.

One future event we all seem to agree upon is that we will all die. A comforting thought. Some poets try to soften the blow with lines like 'when we are no longer here to listen the birds will still be singing'. Very true, but not the same birds. The dawn chorus we enjoyed in our youth was sung by the great great grandparents of the birds we heard this morning. What persists is not the individual, but the species. Perhaps we should glean from that that only the childless really die, whereas parents die in proportionally decreasing percentages, like homeopathic pills. Small solace.

Personally I have no idea what the future holds in store for us, but one thing I do know. While I was writing this, I neglected the pot of beans I was preparing for lunch, and they have burnt.

Hola/Hello,
In keeping with our philosophy (todo gratis!), here is a link/enlace to our new demo/maqueta.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OagiTDC3qpE&feature=plcp
Revolution For sale, de la banda Critical Moment
More to come.

Times change. Rock groups record their own material and place it on the internet for free. It's about time writers did the same. How can we really ask for money for an epub document?  Surely the publicity is enough, the knowledge that at last there is a body of people willing to read your work? I firmly believe that books, in their digital version, should be considered promotional freebies, to be downloaded and enjoyed by anyone in the world. The printed version is another story, the signed copy, the deluxe collection and the like. But a digital copy?
If copyrights and marketing only serve to close doors, fling them wide open and offer your work for free in epub! It's a fantastic opportunity to reach readers globally - take it!

Las Malvinas de nuevo

Han pasado 30 años, y aquí estamos otra vez con el 'problema' de Las Malvinas/The Falklands. Quizás sería interesante enviar a toda la población 'británica' de las islas a pasar unos meses en Argentina. A lo mejor después de estar con ellos una temporada entenderán que todo es una burla política. Preguntan a los muertos de los dos bandos qué sentido tiene hablar de nacionalidades. ¿Acaso importa? ¿Acaso sirve para algo? ¿Para cuando la ciudadanía mundial?

Free ebooks

Until Sunday you can download loads of ebooks for free, including my books, at Smashwords.com. Go for a browse, there's something to meet all tastes.

Ex Juez. La Historia se repite sin fin.

Claro está que el cuento corto La Noche Mas Larga (http://www.ariadna-rc.com/numero51/lab56.htm) era una fantasía. Parece que no hay posibilidad de una reconciliación entre los beneficiados por la Guerra civil y los damnificados. Todo sigue igual. A pesar de los años, a pesar de los agravios comparativos con Alemania, Chile, Argentina, Camboya..... Spain is different. ¡Qué pena!

Little Britain

So now Wales wants independence. And Rutland, of course. Now Scotland has threatened to break away they call it Little Britain, because it is a comedy programme. Mrs Windsor will not be amused. And THAT is Britain, once again forgetting the real issues whilst squabbling over the minor details like hungry hens. We should be breaking down barriers, not re-creating them. We should be joining forces, not in-fighting like sulky siblings. Look up from your plate of mash and realise you are not alone. Enough of independence, it is interdependence we need.

Garzón y las fantasmas del pasado.

España tiene un gran problema, y es que le resulta imposible pasar página.  La reconciliación de las dos Españas parece aplazarse generación tras generación. Quizás porque el régimen de Franco duró tantos años y no fue solo un episodio en la historia, sino una etapa. De todos modos conviene leer esto, La Noche Mas Larga. Hay que mirar al pasado sin miedo, sin juicios previos, sin rencor. Solo así podemos avanzar. Sigue este enlace para ver el cuento. http://www.ariadna-rc.com/numero51/lab56.htm

Europe

In 1982 applying for a work permit, by a British citizen, was administrative hell. Solicited in September, it finally arrived in May, one month before the contract was due to expire anyway. The following year the whole ridiculous procedure was repeated, with the same result.
Now Spain is Europe, and fellow Europeans can come and go, and stay, pretty much as they please. THAT is progress. Not independence, ruptures, or nostalgia for a romantic past which never really existed as such.

Crumbling Parliament

It seems that the Palace of Westminster is cracking and crumbling and about to fall into the Thames (Guardian, 23/01/2012). I say no more.

Queenie, queenie, who's got the gall?

I am a great believer in inherited wealth and status- Geroge Bush and Dubbleya, PapaDoc and BabyDoc,Thatcher and Blair. It is a long and noble list. Therefore I urge you all to contribute a florin to the Queen's new yacht. It's only 60 million pounds! If you are Scottish, please ignore this appeal.

Scotland, their Scotland

They say Scotland wants to be independent - I thought it always was!
An anectdote.
My Scottish friend met a fellow Scot in a bar. ‘I'm Scottish too' he claimed. 'Where from?' asked the man. 'Greenock'. 'Well, that's hardly Scotland, is it?'
Anyway, as the Mad Hatter would say, it’s a step forward. With so much European Union maybe a little old style fragmentation is in order. I think the Tyneside Terrorists should form an alliance with the King of Cumbria to try and break free from the tyrannical influence of the Edinburgh-London axis.
Long live Rutland. Bring back the florin. And remember that yesterday today was tomorrow.

ENGLAND, THEIR ENGLAND

I am a rat. I left the sinking ship and managed to scramble aboard a boat bound for the Mediterranean. It was not a shipwreck, was not as spectacular as that. Rather It was that the vessel, a battleship turned cruiser, then reconverted once more into a ferry, was too old for the job, and leaked more than  soldier Manning. It was sinking slowly, and is sinking still.
I am a rat, but not a dirty one.  I was fortunate enough to see it coming, and said so. As the Spanish say, ‘el que avisa no es traidor’, he who gives warning is no traitor. There was not one great hole through which the water came flooding in, but a thousand little cracks seeping seawater.
Britain is not a Police State; it is an Administrative State. The four pillars on which this great land now rests are the Law, the Banks, the Social Services and Health and Safety (please read insurance companies and their lawyers). Another fine mesh you’ve gotten me into.
An anecdote.
In Spain the Three Wise Men, known as The Three Kings, come bearing gifts on the 6th of January. There is a traditional parade on the 5th where men in disguise throw sweets to the thousands of children and parents that line the streets. It appears that one King threw his sweet missiles with too much impetus and struck a woman in the face. She decided to take the incident to court, no doubt in search of some kind of compensation. The Judge assigned to the case gave his ruling. He had been unable to ascertain the whereabouts of said King, as he was a foreigner and had no fixed abode in Spain.  Case closed.
Now I wonder what would have happened in Britain?