Worrying, very worrying

One of the most poignant memorials I have ever seen was in downtown Buenos Aires. It was so simple we might well have missed it but for our guide, William. It consisted of a small garden with trees and a white stone bench and the markings left behind by the rooms of a building upon the wall of the adjoining building. The wall had been painted a ghostly white. We were told that it marked where the Israeli Embassy had stood before it had been blown up by Iranian terrorists, killing about 20 people (each tree in the garden commemorated one of the victims), and that shortly after this an Israeli community centre in the city had also been blown up. This was all thought to be a campaign against the then Argentinian Prime Minister, Carlos Menem, who had failed to deliver on his promise to support Iran in some anti-sanctions vote in the UN. Menem's son was later killed in an unexplained car accident. Anyway, one of the alleged suspects for the bombings, Ahmad Vahidi, is in line to become the Defence Minister in Ahmadinejad's cabinet.

Meanwhile, here in Spain unemployment continues to rise. It stands at about 19%, higher than in many parts of Eastern Europe. Worse still, the figures for youth unemployment are higher-38% of those under 25 are said to be unemployed.