Prices? 90%
think they’ve risen in the past three months. Oh, and what about the threatened
degradation of our credit into junk status? Well, 61% of us don’t understand at
all or only a little the whole thing, but 67% think it would affect them
personally. 41% rate the quality of life in Puerto Rico as bad or very bad, and
guess what? Fully 33% think it likely to some extent that they will leave the
island in the next four years.
Right—take
that razor blade away from your wrist, Dear Reader!
(Note—all
of these data appear in the print edition of El Nuevo Día of 4 November 2013, which I bought for
75 cents yesterday at the grocery store. Unfortunately, the survey is available
only through the “paper” paper or a “digital” (read “for sale”) paper. Two
choices, Readers! Trust me, or send me a comment, and I’ll scan the paper….)
Into this
grim situation steps the governor, who electronically is reported as admitting
that the situation, the mood on the island is “pesimismo.” He then wonderfully retreats to his
delusional world by stating the following:
“El
crimen se ha reducido, el desempleo se ha reducido, la luz se ha reducido, el
agua hay que reducirla”, expuso sobre las metas que se ha propuesto o cumplido
para acabar con la imagen negativa.
Here it is:
“Crime has been reduced, unemployment has been reduced, electricity has been
reduced, and water has been reduced,” he stated about the goals that he had
proposed or achieved to put a finish to the negative image.
Well, well—time
to check up on the gov, which I can now do, since I am one of the 22% of the
population without a job. So let’s google “costo de agua Puerto Rico.” Right,
and halfway down the first page is this,
from El Nuevo Día of
31 August 2013:
Sube la tarifa del agua en los condominios en Puerto Rico
Subir—to rise, go up, increase, mount.
La electricidad de la Isla es la segunda más cara en EE.UU.
OK—that’s
from two years ago, but according
to WAPA television, as of 1 October 2013, the price may rise.
Look, do I
need to go on? Is there any good news, anywhere?
In fact,
there is: the world just got 1500 pieces of art back; here’s The New York
Times on the subject:
The trove
includes works by Picasso, Marc Chagall, Auguste Renoir, Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec and the German artists Max Beckmann, Max Liebermann, Ernst
Ludwig Kirchner and Carl Spitzweg, said Siegfried Klöble, the head of the
Munich customs office, which oversaw the operation to recover the art.
Hey, great
news—though it does come with an opportunity, as I used to say in my corporate
days. And that is? Well, most of this stuff was either looted or bought at rock
bottom price from Jews wanting out of Nazi Germany. So how do you figure out
who owned what, and who sold what for what? Here,
according to the Times,
is what art historian Meike
Hoffmann had to say:
She stressed
that it is extremely difficult to nail down the origin and the ownership
history of some of the works and that she has only begun initial research on
some 500 of the works. Further research, she said, could take years.
Among other
things found, by the way, was an unknown self-portrait of Otto Dix, about whom I knew
nothing: here’s another self-portrait:
Oh—and good
news in the world of opera: the Times is reporting
renewed appreciation of the works of Spontini.
Spontini?
Damn—it’s one
thing after another, the stuff I don’t know. So who was the guy?
Wikipedia to
the rescue!
Gaspare
Luigi Pacifico Spontini
(14 November 1774 – 24 January 1851) was an Italian opera composer and conductor, extremely
celebrated in his time, though largely forgotten after his death.
Right—that
made me feel better. And if our governor can live in his own private Puerto
Rico, can’t I create a nice delusional cocoon myself. Why not listen to a 1954
recording of Maria Callas
singing Spontini? So I ambled over to YouTube and dug her up.
Verdict?
Not sure—but
why does the term “justly forgotten” spring to mind?
