Spanish flue

The commotion in Catalonia has been given a new twist by F, whose father and antecedents came from those parts.

Apparently the schism, fundementally with Madrid, stems from the Civil War, when Franco's delegates asassinated a large number of Catalans and shovelled them into mass, unmarked graves. To this day F and her family do not know where her great-uncle and his wife's bodies rest.

People who were at least sympathetic to the fascist cause are still ruling from Madrid and apparently have never acknowledged or apologised for the atrocities. Since then, whilst Fascist widows get a pension, Republican ones don't. And the authorities have been silent with their hands in their pockets over the puzzle of where the bodies have been thrown. (And they take more money from the area than they ever return in kind.)

Like the Japanese actions in Manchuria, if old crimes are not confessed and vitiated, hatred and distrust will continue for generations.

Meanwhilst, back at the worksite, I have removed the old cast iron fireplace, cleaned the chimney and knocked out the old concrete stovepipe surround to make the surfaces all nice and flattish for the new one that I pressured F to order. Maybe at the end of the week we'll have some heat in the evenings.Read more