No pictures this time. 😛
These last days in Madrid have been quite hectic. On Sunday morning I realized I had to go through the ITV (spanish vehicle inspection procedure) before March 8th. Due to a couple of small incidents lately I had two broken rear lights in my car. So, I had to repair that before the inspection. And taking into account that I am flying to Stockholm on Saturday, that left me only 5 working days for both actions.
The reparation was easy. I have a garage next to my place, and they did it in just one day. It was a bit more problematic to get an appointment for the vehicle inspection. They give some telephone appointments, but they were all occupied for this week… So, I had to go without specific appointment and I had the great idea of going when they open it: at 7.00 a.m. in the morning. So, I could be early at work, would not need to queue a lot and don’t suffer too much traffic.
So, I was there at 6.30 a.m. (yes, well in advance) and there were already 2 cars. That’s ok, no waiting time. At 7.00 a.m. there were already between 15 and 20 cars… Incredible.
Anyway, everything went ok in the inspection, and I drove back to Madrid… Oh, yes, the problem of this kind of inspections is that the places where you can be inspected are normally out of the cities, and talking about Madrid, that means driving 20 km out of the city…
And today I experienced something for the first time since I’m in Madrid: traffic jams at 7.30 a.m. I was kind of surprised and enjoying the situation. I could not believe that those people are in a traffic jam everyday, and imagined how angry they could be when they get to their workplaces.
I was thinking that stopped 15 km away from Madrid, when the car in front of me started slowly moving again (to stop after 10 meters) and I took it easy…
So easy, that the car behind me started moving before I had released the brake! She probably felt it was time to move, but unluckily I was in the middle and she slightly hit me from behind. I knew nothing had happened to my car due to the slow speed, and I just looked at her through my mirror, and raised my hand open like saying: “Take it easy… Go slower”. And she has reacted in a surprising way: probably insulting me, and blaming me of the situation.
I guess she was in a hurry, nervous, thinking in one hundred things and hating the daily traffic jam… but I hope I do not go into that dynamic (at least avoiding the traffic jams in the morning).
Or at least that’s the first thought I got when I saw this in Maisonnave Avenue, in the very centre of Alicante and just in front of one of the El Corte Inglés shopping malls.
Why didn’t they remove this traffic cone when they finished with the construction works? But when I got closer for taking the picture I realized this was no mistake, but done in purpose as the cone was protecting a cable pipe.
Anyway, a bit strange, isn’t it?
Hace un par de días estuve leyendo todas las entradas que tenía pendientes de ciertos blogs, y me encontré con ésta, que me recordó algo que tenía pendiente de comentar desde hace unos meses.
En España hay más de 50 Cámaras de Comercio, 17 comunidades autónomas, cada una de ellas con un centro de promoción de la internacionalización de las empresas; y varios a nivel nacional. Este despliegue de entes no ha producido en los años pasados una reducción del déficit comercial sino que se ha producido una total falta de sinergias (término que se utiliza para casi todo hoy en día) dentro del propio país. Cuando sales fuera es más habitual ver una promoción de un producto del extranjero que de productos españoles. Si los vinos australianos o neozelandeses han logrado ser un referente en las mesas de los mejores restaurantes de Londres, realmente ¿Puede un consumidor alemán distinguir entre el Rioja, el Rivera de Duero, el Somontano, el Alvariño o la amplia gama de excelentes vinos nacionales?
Hay que tomar conciencia 1) que es muy difícil la internacionalización, con 17 ideas diferentes de origen y 2) de que hay que animar a los jóvenes a emprender. ¿Seguirá siendo más factible y posible que unos jóvenes chilenos pongan su vino en mesas francesas (a pesar de la distancia) que que lo hagan los españoles? ¿Es el objetivo de nuestras licenciados aspirar a trabajar en la administración?
No puedo decirlo mejor: tenemos falta de sinergia y de eficiencia en la promoción exterior. Todas esas oficinas de internacionalización y las oficinas de las cámaras de comercio en el exterior deberían trabajar coordinadas para que no se hagan la competencia entre ellas.
Otro ejemplo de esto, lo tenemos en el turismo. Echad un vistazo al stand en la feria JATA, la feria internacional de turismo en Tokio:
El gran logo de España arriba, y abajo, mostradores individuales ofertando: Madrid (ciudad), Madrid (comunidad), Barcelona, Cataluña, Valencia, Alicante, Andalucía, las provincias de Castilla y León, … No había ningún mostrador de atención al público en el que se tuviera información global del país. Señores, ¿de verdad alguien en Japón va a cogerse un avión para ir a Palencia (que me perdonen los de Palencia)? En este caso, ¡deberíamos estar pensando en ofertar tours europeos! Pero no, nosotros somos mejores que nadie y ofertamos nosotros solos, y encima, por separado…
¡Olé, olé y olé!
I just read this post in a spanish economy blog regarding the Index of Economic Freedom. Apart from checking where Spain is as the original blogger did. I got surprised for one thing: Hong Kong is the leader of this index… Wait! Isn’t Hong Kong part of China? Yes, politically, but not in an economic sense. Together with Macao, they have a special status named Special Administrative Region, and do not follow many chinese policies, including economic.
So, if Hong Kong is not China, and Hong Kong is the leader, where is China? In the position 132, which is normal based on the lack of correlation between a communist system and economic freedom.
Isn’t it ironic that two parts of the same country have such a big difference? The S.A.R., which gives Hong Kong independence in almost all fields, will be valid for 50 years, and then the idea is to have “one country, one system”, and not “one country, two systems”, as per today. Will this time be enough for reducing the huge gap? In which way will it be reduced?
