Native Speaker Blog – The Crisis in Spain – Subtitled

The Crisis / La Crisis

In this interview which was recorded in 2009, José Luis gives his impression of the Crisis in Spain and he talks about what he perceives will be the future for Spain. The fact is that, although things seemed quite grave in 2009, they are nothing compared to what is happening now. The entire country is in problems and to such a degree that even the government workers are struggling to get paid sometimes. It was only a few years ago that the people in the south of Spain took the law into their own hands and broke into a Mercadona store taking food out to give to the people who literally had nothing to eat. There was mass media focussed placed on this event with people asking if they really should have broken the law and whether it was a warranted action. What do you think? Would you steal to feed your friends and family?

Politics and the politicians.

Now, in Spain, there exists a total lack of confidence in the government and the politicians. Clearly, there always has been a level of dissatisfaction regarding the performance of the government, but now, talking to the people everywhere, you can really get their sense of frustration and mistrust in the leaders. It doesn’t help that terrible scandals come to light almost daily of politicians being caught with “las manos en la masa”, or “red handed” as we say, after having stashed away money that certainly wasn’t their own. The king also got into hot water recently when it came to light that he had repeatedly spent time in Africa hunting and killing endangered animals. The issue was split between the fact he was hunting animals, (the Spanish are great animal lovers) and that someone was paying for these trips, and it wasn’t the king. To save face, the king was obliged to apologise live on national TV, saying that he was sorry and that it wouldn’t happen again.

Hit on all sides.

The issue with the crisis is that it is affecting the Spanish each and every way. Prices are soaring, income is reducing, the government, in a state of panic, is cutting services and state aid, unemployment is at an all time high and many thousands of people are having to rely on charity for their food and clothing. It’s all a bit of a mess, really. Even José, a few years after this video, was suddenly made redundant and hasn’t been able to find employment since. Listen in as he explains just what is going on regarding the crisis.

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson