19 Friday Jan 2024
Posted in life stuff, sevilla
Spent the late morning and early afternoon dodging raindrops while getting to and from the Plaza de España today. Why? Because I was getting my residency card renewed! And it all went great, they even got my fingerprints done without any issue this time. So yay! I can pick up my new card in 30 days.
09 Tuesday Jan 2024
Posted in coronavirus, covid, hope, sevilla, spain
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As of Wednesday this week there is a return of the national mandate requiring the use of masks in all hospitals and health centres in Spain. THANK FUCKING GOD (or what/whoever). And about time. Though of course once governments make these decisions it’s always way past the time they were actually needed. Still I guess… better late than never?
We are still not being given accurate information about recent rampant global Covid and Flu infections and deaths, let alone any recognition of Long Covid sufferers. The WHO and other such organisations started “recommending” the use of masks a few weeks ago which of course was a red flag for people who aren’t running around living their “normal lives” as if the pandemic never happened. THE WHO KNEW THEN that a huge Covid wave was coming and… oh look there it is.
From mid-December I have cut my tours to a bare minimum and would have stopped totally but, you know, financial suicide. I’ve also cancelled the two short research trips planned in January while I was “off work”. Though if there was still a mask mandate on public transport I would have considered doing them.
It was honestly killing me the last few times I had to go to various hospital appointments during the past couple of months and NOBODY had a mask on, not even cancer patients waiting for treatment in the waiting room. AND NONE OF THE DOCTORS. I mean…
Sometimes I’m a bit nostalgic for those lockdown days when it felt like, for a brief moment, we actually cared about each other. But as soon as the governments told us we were free to go back to our normal lives people doubled down on being selfish and uncaring. It was the death of empathy. Well, hopefully it was “just” the beating to a pulp of empathy and she still may recover. At least I hope so.
08 Monday Jan 2024
You all know how much I love living in Spain. I love the country, the people (well, mostly), the culture, the food and wine, the pretty much everything… except the bit about it being so casually racist. To the point where almost nobody will admit to it. And every year this becomes glaringly apparent during the festival of Los Reyes Magos – The Three Kings – on January 6th. This is traditionally when kids receive their presents over the holidays, just as the baby Jesus received gifts from the three wise men. On January 5th there are massive parades everywhere with floats and lights and music, culminating with the final float of the Kings. WITH BALTHAZAR INEVITABLY WEARING BLACK FACE.
Above you can see the usual depictions… Gaspar from India, Balthazar from Arabia and Melchior from Persia. Their gifts had special symbolic meanings: gold signified Jesus’ status as “King of the Jews;” frankincense represented the infant’s divinity and identity as the Son of God; and myrrh touched upon Jesus’ mortality. So far so good. EXCEPT that during the cabalgatas (parades) and other festivities Balthazar is always a white guy in black face. And somehow most Spanish people see absolutely no problem with this. Just like the people running the new 5 star hotel in Triana see nothing wrong with keeping racist tiles on their building. Why? Because IT’S TRADITION.
This caused a bit of a stir over the weekend on Twitter with both Spanish natives and non-Spanish residents (including me) posting comments and/or photos of black face Balthazars all over Spain. Mostly us non-Spanish were met with “go back to your own country” (those were the polite replies) as if somehow after 32 years I don’t understand Spanish culture. I’ve probably lived here longer than some of these commenters have been alive. Meanwhile, the thing about traditions is that they can evolve like anything else, otherwise we’d still be burning non-Christians on the stake here. I mean if Spain can embrace Santa Claus, Halloween and fucking Black Friday then I think there’s some wiggle room for removing racist “traditions” such as this. Of course, the obvious solution would be to just get a black guy to be Balthazar in the processions… except… there aren’t any. Or at least not many who are allowed to assimilate here in any meaningful way. And that is also racism, but you know what they say… the first step to solving a problem is admitting it exists. ✌️
05 Tuesday Dec 2023
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The Christmas lights were switched on this past weekend. Traditionally it should have been this week on the eve of the Immaculate Conception (December 8th) but, you know, money. I took walk around to check them out. Bit too much purple for my liking, but overall quite pretty.
(more pics below)
20 Monday Nov 2023
