Friday, May 01, 2009
Labour Day, Día del Trabajador, or just Mayday?
Today, May 1st is a national Public Holiday in Spain and this weekend is a puente (bridge), or long weekend for people to escape and do something enjoyable. That is, unless you're one of the majority unemployed, when really, Worker's Day (celebrated by not working), doesn't seem much different to any other day.
Día del Trabajador (May Day), like most Bank Holiday weekends (anywhere), means roads come to a chaotic standstill as everyone tries to escape elsewhere and return later, while road deaths - through excess speed - increase in inverse proportion. It's an illogical conundrum, for which I have no explanation.
Had we been able to tell you earlier, you could have gone along and protested in Santa Cruz at mid-day about the terrible conditions in your job (if you have one), or the lack of one (if you don't). The aim was to "publicly denounce the systematic loss of rights that workers suffer, with the excuse of the current economic crisis." They do.
Interestingly, it is reported that Spanish PM, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is putting off the execution of measures against the crisis in the Canary Islands, until June. Funny that, when something goes wrong on the islands, it's Central Government's job to provide the funds and the wherewithal to fix it. At all other times, Central Government is accused of meddling and not leaving the regions to govern themselves. An idiom involving cake and eat it, comes to mind.
Gran Canaria Wins First Suspected Flu Case
The Pios of Las Palmas [Gran Canaria] couldn't manage to beat Tenerife in the local derby last week, but they just had to get one back and win this weekend ...
... with the first suspected case of the gripe porcina (swine flu) in the Canaries. The sniffler is a 28 year old male who had travelled to Mexico recently and who's state of health is described as "satisfactory."
Of course, the virus can't be called gripe porcina (swine flu) now, presumably because the WHO considered it politically incorrect and racist against pigs. Should we change it and follow historical convention, such as was used for the 1918 Spanish Flu or 1969 Hong Kong Flu outbreaks, then?
Clearly something needed doing, because it wasn't just the media in English that was getting a bit carried away with panic mongering. Some Canarian and Spanish sources had begun calling it "peste porcina", which translates to porky pestilence or plague, like it's 1350, with bodies in streets and crosses on doorways.
But who in their right mind, will go round telling their friends, "Sorry, I can't come to the pub tonight, 'coz I have a nasty case of influenza A(H1N1)?"
Ain't. Gonna. Happen.
But top marks to ABC in Las Palmas, for coming up with a useable alternative:
They've called it "nueva gripe", which translates to new flu. I suggest that in English, we should spell this nu-flu, which sounds more funky, 2009.
A Wiltshire Chimney Lining company should get a bonus boost in trade! 
Masking the symptoms: While we're on naming conventions and boosts in trade, you may like to know that the co-operative that the supplies farmacias (chemists) in Tenerife is called Cofarte (remembering that the final letter "e" is never pronounced by English speakers) and they're reporting an "exaggerated and unjustified" increase in the demand for surgical masks.
The worry was that front-line medical staff would be left without and, the head of the College of Pharmacists is calling for calm amongst the island population.
The same article states that it has been prohibited, since last Monday, to distribute the anti-viral drug, Tamiflu, to chemists in Tenerife. This is to prevent indiscriminate use that might cause people to become resistant to the drug, which in turn would prevent it being effective later.
Mayday: Humm ... I just can't imagine there being any anti-social, isolated, uncontagious things to do in Tenerife this weekend. Oh, maybe walking alone in the mountains, but otherwise the Tenerife culture just doesn't do anti-social.
The biggest events on the island this weekend are the International Paragliding Festival, FLYPA 2009 and the Fiestas de Mayo / Fiestas de la Cruz (May Fiestas or Fiestas of the Cross.) See decorated crosses in Güímar and Puerto de la Cruz and catch the 3 hour firework battle in Los Realejos on May 3rd.
