The Dystopian Times, 1. A Little Bit of This and That.

I'm posting quite late tonight. Tomorrow is a holiday, so I can't do my weekly Saturday shopping. This evening, right after my husband got home, I took his car and went to take care of helping empty the supermarkets.

Like I said yesterday, the times we're living in are more dystopian than normal. One proof of this is that today the central government decreed the closure of all night clubs and discos. Bars and cafés must close at 1:00AM, and cannot allow new customers to enter after midnight. There is no smoking allowed in the streets nor the terraces, and there are special restriction in place with elderly residences. No, this isn't normal. 

What also isn't normal is the number of national tourists there are in our townships. This evening in Boiro, where I tend to do my shopping, it was chock-a-bloc. Yes, practically everyone had their mask on, and I only saw one man sitting at a terrace with a cigarette in his hand who wasn't sure whether to light it or not. But the crowds of people made it seem like almost any other summer. I even saw an adapted van with British plates. It seems the couple stepping out of it don't mind spending two weeks of quarantine when they get back home. 

Some people in the supermarkets had full carts. But I don't know if it was because they were stocking up because of the times, or if they were stocking up for the two weeks vacation in a rental apartment. Again, it could be because tomorrow is a holiday, and the tourists of the second half of August have arrived, but some shelves were half-empty tonight. Not the toilet paper, though, so I suppose the disappearance of some foodstuffs must be due to normal causes. 

What also isn't normal is our modern history. In 1977, an amnesty law exonerated all those within the Franco regime of any wrong doing they may have committed. That includes the military judge, Carlos Rey González. The family of Salvador Puich Antich, the last anarchist condemned to death by garroting, had tried to bring the judge to trial for his death sentence against Puich Antich, claiming it was a crime against humanity. But the case was dismissed, because of the 1977 law. And, if any other crime had been committed, the statute of limitations had long ago prescribed. 

It was only to be expected. Real justice for those who suffered under Franco doesn't exist, and probably never will. You can't rock the boat, you know. But I think that boat has capsized.

Let's see what things the near future holds for us. Normality is not one of them.

Life continues.