The Importance of Being Heard
At ten o'clock in the morning the temperature was already up to seventy degrees. The prediction here is that it will reach ninety degrees. But in the interior of Galicia, near Castilla-León, it's supposed to reach over a hundred. It's a heatwave that is touching us after broiling the rest of the country over the weekend. But, while in the interior it will last through tomorrow, here on the coast we're going to get a seabreeze and sea fog this evening. We're always on the edge, never in the thick of things.
Don't get me wrong, I can't stand temperatures of over a hundred. But it seems we have a different microclimate on this westernmost coast that denies us the extremes of summer or winter. While I don't want days of extreme heat, one every year would be enough to say that summer has touched us. On the contrary, we also almost never get snow. Winter is not winter without snow. But the national television stations don't seem to take our microclimate into account. This weekend they were saying the entire country was going to be hot until Wednesday. It's the same when a front comes through that brushes us with rain but doesn't touch the rest of Spain. The forecasters say then that the entire country is having good weather. They just put a couple of clouds on the northwestern area of the map and don't mention us. And if in the rest of the country it's raining, it's raining all over, with a little sun stamped on us. You have to change channels and watch the regional news to get any good weather forecast.
There is a centrality in this country that is annoying. It seems that everything has to revolve around the capital, Madrid. Anything that happens out in the periphery is not important to the rest of the country. It doesn't mattter whether it's political, meteorological, social, or criminal. The most important things are always in Madrid. It helps explain why some of the ancient kingdoms that existed before the final conquest of Granada and the consolidation of one kingdom under the monarchs of Castilla want out. Of course, the major cities such as Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla also get good coverage, but only because of the importance of their population. Since there are no major cities in the northwest, it seems a lot of times when we watch the national news that we're not included.
So today we're being touched by a hot finger that has travelled up from the Sahara, but it will quickly recoil when it touches the sea. Though that will not be mentioned. If a tree falls and there is no one to hear it, will it make a sound?
Don't get me wrong, I can't stand temperatures of over a hundred. But it seems we have a different microclimate on this westernmost coast that denies us the extremes of summer or winter. While I don't want days of extreme heat, one every year would be enough to say that summer has touched us. On the contrary, we also almost never get snow. Winter is not winter without snow. But the national television stations don't seem to take our microclimate into account. This weekend they were saying the entire country was going to be hot until Wednesday. It's the same when a front comes through that brushes us with rain but doesn't touch the rest of Spain. The forecasters say then that the entire country is having good weather. They just put a couple of clouds on the northwestern area of the map and don't mention us. And if in the rest of the country it's raining, it's raining all over, with a little sun stamped on us. You have to change channels and watch the regional news to get any good weather forecast.
There is a centrality in this country that is annoying. It seems that everything has to revolve around the capital, Madrid. Anything that happens out in the periphery is not important to the rest of the country. It doesn't mattter whether it's political, meteorological, social, or criminal. The most important things are always in Madrid. It helps explain why some of the ancient kingdoms that existed before the final conquest of Granada and the consolidation of one kingdom under the monarchs of Castilla want out. Of course, the major cities such as Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla also get good coverage, but only because of the importance of their population. Since there are no major cities in the northwest, it seems a lot of times when we watch the national news that we're not included.
So today we're being touched by a hot finger that has travelled up from the Sahara, but it will quickly recoil when it touches the sea. Though that will not be mentioned. If a tree falls and there is no one to hear it, will it make a sound?
Comments
Post a Comment