Points of view

 For the last week I have run most mornings, often in fine crisp sunny weather – but rather cold. The weatherman assures me that it will turn to rain later this week so I must make the best of it. The cold had me thinking of the ladies I saw in their fur coats in Spain, complaining of the cold there, where I thought it was quite mild most days. It’s all down to where you start from. 

And then, because I neglected to turn the TV set off after the news the other night, I found myself watching a documentary about the effect the cold weather has been having on wildlife. However, it wasn’t really the main theme of the programme that caught my attention. It was the fact that during the programme they repeated a documentary made back in 1963 at the end of a very long cold spell in the “coldest winter since 1947”. 

Apparently the snow fell around Christmas time and lay for weeks. There was a brief thaw and then more came and lay again for weeks, more or less over the whole country. There were shots of snow not several inches but several feet deep. Whole chunks of the country were cut off and began to run out of food. People had to be rescued by helicopter from isolated country places. And we think we’ve had it bad this winter!!! Amazing!! 

The truly amazing thing is that, although I was a teenager back in 1963, I have no memory of that cold winter. Maybe Southport, where I grew up, just didn’t get the snow. It was, indeed still is, quite rare for it to snow there. Maybe it just passed me by. I suppose it may be from that winter that I have memories of walking along the beach and seeing the sea frozen; contrary to popular belief the sea does come in on Southport beach, especially in the winter. 

Another strange thing was seeing TV presenters I had always thought of as ancient. Indeed, I had seen them grow even more ancient until they became venerable old men of television. Now, from my older perspective, I was astounded at how very young these same presenters appeared. How strange life is! 

Other contrasts I have noted. 

In La Voz de Galicia I read a report about how the botellón (young, and sometimes not so very young, people gathering to drink and socialise outdoor where it is cheaper than in bars and clubs) on Riazor beach in La Coruña has become almost institutionalised. It seems that the police keep an eye on things but don’t intervene a great deal. In the article young people from other parts of Spain expressed their surprise. But they all agreed that the laws about botellón don’t work well. AS they said about the police, “si te quitan de un sitio, te vas para otro” – “if they remove you from one place you go elsewhere”. 

On the other side of the world, in the USA, I have read that there are states where it is hard to obtain alcohol at all on a Sunday, let alone drink it in a public place. So, in the country where you can acquire a gun without too much difficulty and where some states have even gone so far as to legalise recreational use of marihuana it is still against the law to buy alcohol on a Sunday. I wonder why it’s morally reprehensible buy the means to get drunk on the Sabbath but less so to possess the means to kill someone! 

Back in Spain, the unemployment figures have topped 5 million. Unemployment has gone up in almost all the autonomous regions, particularly in Andalucía and Madrid. And it’s in Andalucía that a movement called “Corralá Utopía” has taken off. With the slogan "Ni gente sin casa, ni casas sin gente" (No people without houses, no houses without people) this group has occupied blocks of flats, first of all in Sevilla but spreading to other parts of Andalucía such as Málaga. Respectable people who found themselves on the streets or sleeping in their cars have taken the law into their own hands. 

Desperate times calling for desperate measures!