A Country Of Strippers

People love to watch people. Many television programmes are based on this principal. The department for the selection of programmes of the producers, and the various channels strive to select human specimens to populate their programmes with the most attraction and interest to suit the purpose (to excite the TV audience). The thing is, for some reason, the selectors of participants for reality shows and competitions seem to be convinced that most audience like to see one or two who declared to be strippers. At least it appears so in Spanish television.

I have noticed this for a while. There seems to be no reality shows (of singing, dancing, coexistence, games, or love encounters, dating shows) without one or two strippers participating.

Should some aliens from another planet visit this country, and try to deduct what people here do to make a living according to what they declared on such TV programmes, they would surely conclude that one of every 5 Spaniards strip to entertain the other 4!

Are there really that many strippers here in Spain? Or are they selected specially, or even part of the requirement laid down by the selection board, to attract more audience? I just wonder .....

If the same aliens try to deduct, going by the TV programmes, what social situation Spain is in, they won't doubt for a minute that the Spanish is a society deep in decomposition formed by drug addicts and drunkards, living in dark ghettos filled by prostitutes and 3rd rate delinquents. It's recurrent favourite of scenario for programmes of social reporting (information or morbid spectacle?), which leads our perplexed aliens to such anguished conclusion. C'est la Vie!

I know for sure though, the government does appear to care for it's citizens. The pensions here are the highest in Europe, or so reported, and subsidies too, for families with children of school age (up to 18), for the disabled, old age, home-help, etc., and new mothers get 20 weeks maternity leave with pay (fathers 2 weeks). That's how real life is here.

Tags:Spanish,strippers,tvshows

Current Mood: Awake

B & B With Matron

The obsession of cutting costs at the present time of crisis is expanding and dispersing like dust, covering everything and everywhere. The Spanish are staying put within the home country for their holidays, and the tour companies even offer a €50 guarantee for every rainy day, and another offers free 'canguros (kangaroo)' which in Spanish also means babysitter.

Asepeyo, one of the principal Mutual of Accidents of Work and Professional Diseases, recently sent recommendations to their employees that 'If there were available rooms and when it doesn't interfere with any activities', it's recommended, in both Madrid and Barcelona, to spend the night in the hospital that belongs to the company, with breakfast and meals too there. This being part of the plan of saving money.

"We are a sufficiently solvent company not having to resort to adjusting salaries, but reduce significantly high and unnecessary expenditure." said Ricard Alfaro, the director of Expedient of Regulations of Employment (ERE). The syndicates are delighted.

Asepeyo has 3,500 employees scattered in 160 centres all over Spain. Between centres and offices, many of them, not only the 250 directives, travel frequently for work, for meetings and formation, in classrooms belonging to Mutual, as well as 2 hospitals, one in Madrid and one in Barcelona. The many travels, locomotion and maintenance amount to huge expenses. Taking advantage of their own hospital beds and dinning rooms seems a good measure in hard times.

It was explained that the hospitals function in floors. If the occupation on one floor is 20% or less, that floor would be closed, and the patients would be transferred to the other floors. So the company travellers would only be using the floor where there are no patients. As to the meals, the kitchen has to prepare food for 40 doctors and nurses, putting out another 10 or 15 plates is not a problem. But the saving is considerable and direct, as those are the service we already have. For further saving, the Mutual has also decided to intensify more video-conferences, to save travel time and related expenses.

Tags:travel hospital

Current Mood: Accomplished

Pondering Upon ...

1. DON'T SWEAT THE PETTY THINGS AND DON'T  PET THE SWEATY THINGS.
2. ONE TEQUILA, TWO TEQUILA, THREE TEQUILA, FLOOR ...
3. ATHEISM IS A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION.
4. IF MAN EVOLVED FROM MONKEYS AND APES, WHY DO WE
STILL HAVE MONKEYS AND APES?
5. THE MAIN REASON SANTA IS SO JOLLY IS BECAUSE HE KNOWS
WHERE ALL THE BAD GIRLS LIVE.
6. I WENT TO A BOOKSTORE AND ASKED THE SALESWOMAN,
"WHERE'S THE SELF-HELP SECTION?" SHE SAID IF
SHE TOLD ME, "IT WOULD DEFEAT THE PURPOSE."
7. WHAT IF THERE WERE NO HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS?
8. IF A DEAF PERSON SWEARS, DOES HIS MOTHER
WASH HIS HANDS WITH SOAP?
9. IF SOMEONE WITH MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES THREATENS
TO KILL HIMSELF, IS IT CONSIDERED A HOSTAGE SITUATION?
10. IS THERE ANOTHER WORD FOR SYNONYM?
11. WHERE DO FOREST RANGERS GO TO "GET AWAY FROM IT ALL?"
12. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE AN ENDANGERED ANIMAL
EATING AN ENDANGERED PLANT?
13. IF A PARSLEY FARMER IS SUED, CAN THEY GARNISH HIS WAGES?
14. WOULD A FLY WITHOUT WINGS BE CALLED A WALK?
15. WHY DO THEY LOCK GAS STATION BATHROOMS?
ARE THEY AFRAID SOMEONE WILL CLEAN THEM?
16. IF A TURTLE DOESN'T HAVE A SHELL, IS HE  HOMELESS OR NAKED?  17. CAN VEGETARIANS EAT ANIMAL CRACKERS?
18. IF THE POLICE ARREST A MIME, DO THEY TELL HIM
HE HAS THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT?
19. WHY DO THEY PUT BRAILLE ON THE DRIVE-THROUGH  BANK MACHINES?
20. HOW DO THEY GET DEER TO CROSS THE ROAD
ONLY AT THOSE YELLOW ROAD SIGNS?
21. WHAT WAS THE BEST THING BEFORE SLICED BREAD?
22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT EGOTISTS: THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE.
23. DOES THE LITTLE MERMAID WEAR AN ALGEBRA?
24. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A CIVIL WAR?
25. IF ONE SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMER DROWNS,  DO THE REST DROWN TOO?
26. IF YOU ATE BOTH PASTA AND ANTIPASTO,  WOULD YOU STILL BE HUNGRY?
27. IF YOU TRY TO FAIL, AND SUCCEED, WHICH HAVE YOU DONE?
28. WHOSE CRUEL IDEA WAS IT FOR THE WORD 'LISP'  TO HAVE 'S' IN IT?
29. WHY ARE HAEMORRHOIDS CALLED "HAEMORRHOIDS"
INSTEAD OF "ASTEROIDS"?
30. WHY IS IT CALLED TOURIST SEASON IF WE  CAN'T SHOOT AT THEM?
31. WHY IS THERE AN EXPIRATION DATE ON SOUR CREAM?
32. IF YOU SPIN AN ORIENTAL MAN IN A CIRCLE THREE TIMES
DOES HE BECOME DISORIENTED?
33. CAN AN ATHEIST GET INSURANCE AGAINST ACTS OF GOD?

Tags:pondering

Current Mood: Blah

Computer Proverbs

** Home is where you hang your @. ** The E-mail of the species is more deadly than the mail. ** A journey of a thousand sites begins with a single click. ** You can't teach a new mouse old clicks. ** C: is the root of all directories. ** Don't put all your hypes in one home page. ** Pentium wise; pen and paper foolish. ** The modem is the message. ** Too many clicks spoil the browse. ** The geek shall inherit the earth. ** A chat has nine lives. ** Don't byte off more than you can view. ** Fax is stranger than fiction. ** What boots up must come down. ** Windows will never cease. ** Virtual reality is it's own reward. ** Modulation in all things. ** A user and his leisure time are soon parted. ** Know what to expect before you connect. ** Oh, what a tangled web site we weave when first we practice. ** Speed thrills. ** Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to use the Net and he won't bother you for weeks. Tags:computerproverbs

Current Mood: Amused

Birth Of The Blues - Carson & The Rat Pack

This is supposed to be the ONLY time Carson sang in public! This show is at Kiel Opera House in St Louis in June, 1965 when Johnny Carson hosted the Tonight Show. The Rat Pack were playing Vegas, but visited Carson for this wonderfully entertaining performance. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Carson, and to top it off Quincy Jones was conducting the Count Basie band, and he is visible in the background.