So... what exactly has been happening in Spain these days? I'm not sure how well-known these recent headlines are outside of Spain, but there's been plenty of controversy to go around.
First there was the 13-year-old grandson of the royal family who accidentally shot himself in the foot. Here's the kicker: it's illegal for 13-year-olds to handle shotguns like that. The royal family made some kind of statement like "he was cleaning the weapon."
In the same week, the Rey went on an expensive elephant hunting trip in Africa (amidst all the internal and external problems that Spain's been having- demonstrations, cuts in the public sector, expropriations going on in Argentina) and broke his hip. The kicker (for me at least)? Rey Juan Carlos is the honorary president of the Worldlife Wildlife Fund in Spain. After the flood of criticism, he finally came out and apologized with a few simple lines: "Lo siento mucho, me he equivocado. No volverá a ocurrir" (I'm sorry, I made a mistake. It won't happen again.) Of course, this set off tons of spoofs, caricatures, etc. online saying "Oops, I killed a person! Sorry, it won't happen again."
And with Tuesday being the Workers' Day, of course there were demonstrations that now seem to be protesting anything and everything related to the crisis. Sometimes people ask me how it is in the U.S. and if people talk about the economic recession and I try to tell them the truth- yes, there is a recession and many economic deficits and spending cuts but it's not a topic that's nearly as discussed in Spain. Not a day goes by that I do not hear something about la crisis. The worst part is the people here seem to have lost all trust in their government and hope that things will improve. Criticizing the corrupt politicians and complaining about the budget cuts has turned into a daily sport.
On the bright side, the sun is shining and a good fiesta is never lacking here.
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