Sensible Spain

EVERYWHERE you look in Spain at the moment there appears to be bad news; the economy is in recession, unemployment is at record high and even the King´s son-in-law is being investigated for fraud allegations. In Greece, which has its own serious economic problems, there has been a massive increase in so-called social unrest with demonstrations against government cuts often turning nasty. But Spain, to its credit, appears to be taking the economic woes in its stride. There have been no major protests and those that have taken place, especially in the Balearics, have usually been peaceful. On Saturday, when the King´s son in law, Iñaki Urdangarian, appeared in court there was only about 30 demonstrators eventhough various organisations had called for mass protest actions. So are Spaniards resigned to their fate or are they just getting on with their lives and just trying to overcome the recession. To be honest I am not sure. Spaniards do like to demonstrate but I think they have come to the conclusion that at the moment protest is in vain and in some ways it will just make matters worse. When the government first announced their major austerity plan protests did take place but that was it. I think the Spanish are being very sensible. Times are very hard but at the moment perhaps it is sensible to make the best out of a bad situation and hope that times will improve in the future.