I was surprised to see it in my Glob:
"Thousands protest Spain’s new labor reforms" Associated Press, February 20, 2012MADRID — Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched throughout Spain yesterday in the first large-scale show of anger over new labor rules that make it easier for companies to fire workers and pull out of collective bargaining agreements.
Okay, I can see the historically-weak in labor organizing Americans being bent over on this, but the Europeans?
The country’s main trade unions organized marches in 57 cities, including Madrid. They began midmorning in Cordoba in the south and ended with evening marches in Toledo and Valencia.
Union organizers said more than a million people had marched, but official figures were not released.
“If we want Spain to grow and create employment, we had to do what we’ve done,’’ Rajoy said at his Popular Party’s annual congress in southwestern Seville yesterday.
Now please excuse him as he starts signing the debt interest payments checks for banks.
The government’s sweeping changes allow Spanish companies facing dwindling revenues to pull out of collective bargaining agreements and have greater flexibility to adjust employees’ schedules, workplace tasks, and wages, as well as making it easier and less costly to fire workers.
“If the government doesn’t rectify this, we will continue with an ever-growing mobilization,’’ said General Workers Union spokesman Candido Mendez.
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Another surprise:
"FACES OF THE DEAD -- A banner hung outside Spain's Supreme Court in Madrid yesterday showed victims of the Spanish Civil War. It was the last day of the trial of judge Baltasar Garzon, who faces charges that he overstepped his jurisdiction in investigating crimes of the forces of Francisco Franco during the war, which ran from 1936 to 1939 (Boston Globe February 9 2012)."
WTF?
You simply can't question a country's past in self-reflection no matter what nation you live?
Related: Spanish judge, hero to many, is on trial for ordering wiretap
Crusading Spanish judge barred from courts for 11 years
It is important to note that two trails I wanted to see in Spain -- Israeli war crimes during Operation Cast Lead and AmeriKa's torture during the war on terror -- have been dismissed or dropped.
Also see: Manuel Fraga Iribarne, controversial Spanish conservative
"Spanish police have arrested three men, including one who had been a fugitive for five years after being convicted for the 2003 assassination of Serbia’s prime minister, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Friday....
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One last surprise if you purchased a printed paper and saw the photograph:
"ASTRIDE SPAIN'S 'LUMINARIAS' -- A horseman jumped through a bonfire in San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain, in a festival intended to honor Saint Anthony, the patron saint of animals. The "Luminarias" bonfires on the eve of the saint's birthday are said to provide purification and future protection for the hundreds of horses that participate (Boston Globe January 18 2012)."
What sort of saint would be a patronizing protector by making the horse jump through fire?
Between this and the bullfighting my prism called a paper occasionally brings me you would think the Spanish are barbaric.
