polemic discussions

Last weekend, Valencia saw some violent clashes between demonstrators and police. Teachers and students were protesting the education budget cuts, and I guess the protests turned into demonstrations against all the extreme spending cuts. The heating was shut off in schools, during the out of the ordinary cold temperatures we had in February. There are some very disturbing videos that show the police pushing and becoming violent with students (and these not adult-students! they're middle school and high school students). Later in the week, there were other demonstrations (peaceful, thank goodness) for both cuts and the violence.

So something else that I should mention- the other day in class, a classmate (we'll call them R) started ranting about the Valencian system, which is ostentatious and wasteful. Millions of euros are spent on the famous Fallas, on events, organization, mascletas, falleros, and the elaborate dress. Apparently when the annual Fallera is selected, which is a kind of a princess of the Fallas, it's not her talent, beauty, intelligence, or community service that matter but solely the amount of money paid by her parents. And here I was thinking that there would be some kind of pageant with talent competitions. Furthermore, the actual falleros, which are huge elaborate sculptures that ridicule political figures or provide some caustic social commentary, are burnt at the end of the Fallas in a huge bonfire, and the most expensive one cost more than 1 million euros last year. These are sponsored by companies I believe and not the government, but hundreds of thousands of euros is quite a bit of money that could be used in many different ways. So ironically, the kids sitting in class don't have heating yet so much money is "burned" in Fallas. Needless to say, like all institutions there's a very wide variety of opinions and complaints. Within a few weeks, I'll see and decide for myself!