Hard times

T he deep recession which continues to dog Spain was brought home to me yesterday when I saw a long queue of people in the Plaza España early yesterday who were waiting at a soup kitchen. There must have been at least 150 people in the queue and I am led to believe that this scene is repeated at other similar venues across the city. Sometimes it is easy in Majorca to forget that there are 80'000 people without a job in the islands. Behind the glittering exterior of Majorca there are plenty of problems ranging from poverty to economic despair. Times are hard here and we shouldn´t forget it. It is going to take a long time for Spain to fully recover from this economic gloom. I just sincerely hope that once the good times return the local authorities decide that good housekeeping is the way forward, in otherwords not spending more than you earn. I sincerely don´t know how the Balearics has gone from being one of the richest places in Spain to having hundreds of people queueing outside a soup kitchen. Perhaps greed is the word I am looking for. The local authorities have little or no money to help those who are in need. infact the welfare budget has been slashed. The church is paying a key role helping those who are in need. It would be difficult to forget the sight I witnessed yesterday and it is very sad. I have never seen anything similar in Palma before. I sincerely hope that the hardship of these people end soon.