Meet Spain's New Director General de Policia

It's really strange for us extranjeros how things work here in Spain sometimes.  I mean you will often hear us grumbling about the ambivalence of waiters and bartenders, the smoking that still goes on in non-smoking areas especially after dark, and that whole close-the-business-down-from-2pm-to-5pm thing that still surprises us when we forget about it.  So figuring out Spanish politics can be as mysterious as a Stephen Hawking documentary to us even on a good day.  Therefore, I am not going to draw any conclusions from the things I have dug up in the past couple of days.  I'll let you readers, especially the Spaniards tell me what all this means below in the comment section.

In the past couple weeks, the Conservative Popular Party (PP) took the reins of power from the Socialists (PSOE) in what could be described as an electoral drubbing.  Mariano Rajoy was sworn in as the new Spanish prime minister on December 21, after 8 years of Socialist Party rule.  Mr. Rajoy has been mostly out of sight in his first few weeks in office.  However, 3 interesting decisions have already been made.  First, the new government decided that the Spanish tear gas reserves needed to be replenished and OKed a 1-million Euro purchase of the chemical weapon used mostly to keep protesters in line.  Second, Mr. Rajoy bowed to US pressure and passed the Ley Sinde, which makes its US counterpart SOPA look impotent in comparison.  And finally, and you would not even know this from the media or any other source because it was not covered as an important news event, but for an Indignado it is of vital importance -- a new Director General del Cuerpo Nacional de Policia was appointed. 

Wise Man Detained at Racist Immigration Checkpoint in Spain

Spanish speaking children around the world are in for a bit of disappointment it seems this Navidad.  In a lighthearted communique from the Leganes Assembly in Madrid, King Balthasar is rumored to have been arrested at one of the hundreds of racist immigration Police checkpoints that have popped up all over Madrid during the past couple years, in which the Police demand documents from anyone and everyone that looks, acts, or speaks just a little differently from the norm.  I am not sure if Balthasar was responsible for bringing the gold, frankincense, or myrrh to the Baby Jesus, but I do know that many a Spanish speaking niño y niña will be shedding tears this year after finding empty shoes in their living rooms -- pobrecitos!  Sorry niños, perhaps the remnants of racism still left over from the days of Francisco Franco still prevalent in the Spanish police force will be eliminated by next Christmas.  Enjoy the translation!

A Message From Spanish Police and Media to the Masses

For those of you who read my post from 9 days ago titled "A New Indignado", I intended to write a "New Indignado Part II."  I wanted to tell the story of my frustration after 9 days, the fact that nobody apart from my closest friends and the Indignados themselves would even listen to me, and the fact that even my own embassy seems uninterested in my case.  But after letting a week and a half pass and engaging in exercises of relaxation and meditation in a futile attempt to dampen my indignation, I believe I am now ready to talk about the Elephant in the Room.

My brother advised me to try to connect my stories, videos and anecdotes of this new blog to larger social issues.  And so, following his advice, I would like to put my case behind me (not that I am not interested to know if the 4 men dressed in black on December 22 who accosted and insulted me in Tirso de Molina were actual cops) and move on to something much more important -- and that is this:  

A New Indignado!

On Thursday December 22, 2011 in the Tirso de Molina neighborhood of Madrid, Spain, I was stopped, accused, searched, insulted and to my mind threatened by four undercover members of the Madrid police force, simply due to their perceived notions of my political beliefs.  I have filed a denuncia (official complaint) against this deed, but as the officers basically refused to identify themselves, I was unable to file against them individually.  

Let me begin by saying that until this early morning just after midnight, never did I consider myself an Indignado.  I am hardly young.  I work.  I have many things for which to be thankful, things that the Spanish youth graduating from universities today see as an impossibility to attain.  However, I have been sympathetic to the movement because of a strong feeling of injustice coming from a system that offers young Spaniards few opportunities, and yet seems deaf and sometimes outright combative when these disenchanted young people have the courage to speak out.  I admired the Indignados.  I filmed the Indignados.  However, I have done little actual protesting.  That has all changed in the past 24 hours.  I am officially indignant, and feeling a bit ashamed that it has taken me this long.  Now my story....

Will Spanish Labor Be Joining the Revolution Soon? Don't Count On It.

Back at the end of September 2010, I had the fortune or misfortune of experiencing my second Huelga General (General Strike) since having moved to Madrid more than a decade before.  My first General Strike had been organized back in 2002 to protest reforms to Spanish unemployment subsidies.  I witnessed buses being attacked and was even accosted myself because I'd made the mistake of visiting my neighborhood supermarket.  When I told my flatmates from the Canary Islands what had happened to me as I'd left the store with groceries in hand, they nodded and explained to me as best they could what the General Strike was all about, and why the people were attacking public transport workers who had chosen to work, and shouting at people who had decided to go shopping.

So in 2010, I was a bit more prepared and certainly more knowledgeable.  For 24 hours, organized labor in Spain brought the country mostly to a standstill.  It was remarkable for me as an American, because I'd really had no experience to compare it with from back home.  Leading the charge were Spain's two biggest unions -- the CC.OO or Comisiones Obreros (Workers Commission) and the UGT or Union General de Trabajadores (General Workers Union).  Remarkable I should say for 24 hours, because after that everyone packed up and went home, and Spain's two biggest unions fell right back in line!  And so it goes.  Do not expect Spanish labor to join up with the Indignados any time soon as the biggest unions in Spain are bought and paid for.