Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis

I am no longer an English teacher, wow, I think that deserves a celebratory podcast! Working full-time from home now as a translator and jack of various other trades (web design, writing… podcasting!…)

Slightly concerned about going mad with no-one to talk to all day – anyone out there who works from home got any tips on that? So far so good anyway.

“…the Tube’s great these days – not nearly as busy and nearly always a seat to be had.”

From JH, London based businessman.

Off to the beach for the weekend, expect a new podcast from the trip early next week… Can’t wait to get out of stifling Madrid for a few days – have a good weekend!

Man Shot by Armed Police on Tube

Mark Whitby said: “I was sitting on the train… I heard a load of noise, people saying, get out, get down.

“I saw an Asian guy. He ran on to the train, he was hotly pursued by three plain clothes officers, one of them was wielding a black handgun.

“He half tripped… they pushed him to the floor and basically unloaded five shots into him,” he told BBC News 24.

Reports of more bombs in London. What the hell is going on? My sister, who was caught in the middle of London again, has phoned to say it is like living in hell – with police sirens as a constant back drop to her call as she once again has to walk several miles home as the transport network grinds to a halt. To keep up to date on just what madness has happened this time, check out the bbc news website, or the Guardian site, particulalry the news blogs.

Really depressing news, no matter what the extent of today’s attacks turns out to be.

People are obviously disturbed that the London bombers were suicide bombers. This opens up a host of horrible scenarios in people’s imaginations. The police chiefs are not doing anything to help by saying that similar attacks are very likely in the near future. I hope they are not capitalising on people’s fear of terrorism, as we have seen happen so often in the past. Related to this is the fact that measures are being discussed to allow the powers that be to read all the Brit’s emails and telephone records. And then there is the thorny issue of the imminent introduction of ID cards in the UK.

If everyone is given an ID number, and a card which doubtless it will be necessary to carry everywhere sooner or later just for convenience, and if the British police can read all emails and check out all telephone activity, all it needs is a severe right-wing government to take power in the future and all the facilities are already in place for a nasty, freedom-stripping dictatorship to snatch away all civil liberties, freedom of movement and freedom of speech in a matter of minutes.

As Michael Moore has pointed put in his books and latest film, it is probably a good time to re-read George Orwell’s 1984 – I think he was trying to warn us about this continuous war > continuous fear > sweeping powers type of thing…

Here’s a typical excerpt on the manipulation of fears (substitute place names for US/UK/Iraq/Middle East as necessary):

“Winston was listening to the telescreen. At present only music was coming out of it, but there was a possibility that at any moment there might be a special bulletin from the Ministry of Peace. The news from the African front was disquieting in the extreme. On and off he had been worrying about it all day. A Eurasian army (Oceania was at war with Eurasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia) was moving southward at terrifying speed. ….. One did not have to look at the map to see what it meant. It was not merely a question of losing Central Africa: for the first time in the whole war, the territory of Oceania itself was menaced.”

I’m standing at a Telefonica phone/net terminal in Madrid’s Barajas Airport, on the way to the UK with my wife for the weekend. Maybe we’ll do a neither here nor there podcast, impressions of an expat when he goes home for the weekend… not sure yet. Back to Spain on Monday. Feliz fin de semana!