¿Qué Calor?

It's getting warm along the Camino a Ítaca. Successive heatwaves have already struck here in Spain and it's not even July yet. Click over to read the originally published piece in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo en castellano) 

It’s well past the cuarenta de mayo (fortieth of May) and while I might not be seeing sayos (cloak) out on the streets, this week I have seen the reappearance of a few winter coats. Full disclosure, I’m not sure that I would be able to identify a sayo if I was confronted with one, but the brusque change in the weather has meant that some have dug out their winter apparel.

It's almost hard to believe that just over a week ago we were sweating our way through this year’s second heatwave, even if the first in May wasn’t technically classified assuch. Whatever the case, this past heat event was one of the earliest on record. As temperatures remained above 25º throughout the darkest hours of the night, many of us chose to ignore the vertiginously high price of electricity to manage a few hours of sleep under the whirling blades of a fan or, somewhat more luxuriously, be lulled to sleep by the hum of an air conditioning unit.

Now that school is over, we quickly forget that our kids had to leave school early that week because the temperatures in the classrooms were more apt for reheating food than revealing the methodological mysteries of ‘la copia’ (where kids are asked to copy out long texts from books into their notebooks).

Yes, we quickly forget. That is until the next one comes around and this summer holds promise.

Albert Einstein is said to have stated that memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events. We are so sure that our memories accurately reflect our past, that what we don’t realize is that what we remember is also a reflection of our current situation, beliefs and values.

In other words, yeah I remember it being hot last week, but now that there is a chill in the air, it wasn’t so bad, was it?

It was. And it’s only going to get worse.

Climate change is no longer a question of if it’s going to happen. It already has. What we don’t know is how bad it will eventually get. These are simple facts that only religious fundamentalists and the overtly greedy choose to overlook. The former because they believe in a celestial dictator who controls everything no matter what we do, while the latter is more worried about their bottom line and have a false sense of security that their money will buy them safety when the water wars begin.

But what about our elected governments? The right seems to want to delude itself believing that the free market will somehow find a solution. The left opts for conning individual consumers into thinking that conscientious recycling and eating less meat will magically lower Chinese and American emissions.

By stating this doesn’t mean that individual steps shouldn’t be taken, but they will not result in drastic changes. What needs to be done is to act now to palliate the effects and prepare ourselves for the successive heatwaves, droughts and wildfires to come. Greening our economy is necessary, but in addition practical steps need to be taken to ready us for the extreme weather events to come. This may turn out to be the hottest summer of our lives, but in the future it may turn out to be the coldest that you remember.

Inflation

This week's Camino a Ítaca looks at the rising cost of merely taking a breath. Click over to read the original Spanish version in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo)

After living and working on four continents, my social media feeds can at times seem like a BBC world weather report. Friends living in Australia and Southeast Asia tend to post in the very early hours here in Spain. During the day, friends and relations here in Europe and across the Mediterranean in Africa fill my feeds. Then, just as I’m going to bed, New York, Calgary and Los Angeles start to chirp in.

The disparity of the time differences is also usually reflected in the content. In just one day, ex colleagues in Hong Kong can be lamenting the erosion of democratic freedoms, while in Yemen they might be bluntly speaking of ongoing famine and nearby missile strikes. While in Key West, Florida ,they find themselves once again preparing for hurricanes.

Ideological differences can also be just as severe. Acquaintances in the Midwest of the United States might be virulently justifying their right to openly carry weapons of war at the same time as British friends post pictures of the endless airport queues they now have to suffer after the Brexit disaster.

The curious thing is that amidst all this noise and disparity a strikingly common theme has emerged in recent months. It’s a general complaint that obviates time zones and ideologies, and it’s getting louder on all sides.

How have things become so expensive?

And while everyone on my Facebook wall unanimously concurs that prices have risen way beyond what can even be considered extraordinary, the consensus stops there.

The right and left may debate about whose fault this is, but the cause is clear. Corporate profits are at their highest point in 70 years.

In Poland they blame the far-right for the people’s inability to make it to the end of the month, while here in Spain Feijoo and his acolytes seem to believe that Pedro el guapo possesses superpowers to cause this phenomenon around the world. But the painful truth is that at least 60% of the price increases we are suffering stem from corporate profits. Sorry Olga and Macarena, it’s not taxes.

Why are corporations raising prices? Simple, because they can.

The global inflation we are experiencing, conveniently hidden behind the veil of a war, has been the excuse to not only pass along costs to the consumer but to inflate prices beyond that and engage in straightforward price gouging.

How is this possible? Easy. While the likes of the ex-minister of Finance, Fatima Bañez joins the ever-growing list of defunct politicians to join the ranks of these enormous multinationals, our economies are forced to depend on a shrinking number of corporate giants with the power to raise prices.

If markets were truly competitive, companies would be forced to keep their prices down in order to prevent competitors from grabbing away customers, but as banks and these enormous companies merge into larger and larger conglomerates, where is this real competition?

Corporations are using the excuse of inflation to raise prices and make fatter profits. Call it extreme left, call it extreme right, but this structural problem can only be solved one way: the aggressive use of antitrust law.

My timelines are screaming under the weight of this abuse, but I wonder…is anyone in the EU listening?

Anachronisms

"Aren't the 'colonies' curious my dear?"

In this week's Camino a Ítaca, a less jubliant Royal Jubilee. Click over to read the original piece in Spanish in el HOY or read the English version below.

What do such diverse countries as Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Great Britain, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Tuvalu all have in common? 

If you’re having trouble finding a common thread between such vastly different nations, I wouldn’t be surprised. After all, they span the globe and range from huge frozen spaces, such as my native Canada, to tiny South Pacific nations that are difficult to find on the map.

Still struggling? Here’s a hint, Barbados used to be part of the group.

That was until last year when the Caribbean Island nation made the bold move to right a wrong that began in the 1600’s and took their final step in becoming a fully sovereign nation. The country came of age and replaced the Queen of England as head of state with an elected representative and became a republic. And it is just the latest Caribbean country to do so. In 1970, Guyana dropped the Queen as its head of state, followed by Trinidad and Tobago in 1976, and Dominica in 1978. Mauritius, way out in the Indian Ocean, left the club in 1992.

While it may come as a surprise, the rest of the countries on that list all have Queen Elizabeth as head of state. In these countries, known as Commonwealth realms, the queen appoints a representative, such as a governor general which is generally recommended by the popularly elected leader, such as the prime minister or president but the queen remains head of state.

Sometimes these countries are confused with other members of the Commonwealth. Most of whose members are simply states, like India, Kenya and Malaysia, with close ties to the United Kingdom. These do not have the queen as their monarch and who elect a head of state from among their own people.

But these are tough times for those with blue blood. Life is no longer just a steady stream of Vega Sicilia and jilted former lovers. During a recent tour of the Caribbean, Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge were greeted by more protests than admiration as they drove around in colonialist parades. Local protesters in Belize and Jamaica called for a formal apology by the royals for their family’s role in the enslavement and brutalization of Africans and demanded reparations. Something they refuse to do.

As they treated their sunburns back home, Belize, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Kitts and Nevis all announced plans to follow Barbados’ lead.

Then another royal shock happened over the weekend, not in Sanxenxo, but in our antipodes. Australia ousted their populist right wing Prime Minister and elected Anthony Albanese. The Labor leader is an avowed republican who has stated that Australia should hold a referendum to remove the queen as head of State.

Growth and change are inevitable. As these brave nations have shown, coming of age and becoming a truly democratic country does not have to be traumatic. The word ‘republic’ doesn’t have to mean rebellion. It simply means choice. The power to choose heads of state and peacefully oust them if and when necessary.