09.07.09 - 18:14 -
The Euribor has fallen, but they revised your mortgage using the previous month’s figures. The government announces generous incentives to buy a new car, but your old one has only been dodging ruts in the roads for nine years so you don’t qualify. They waive the toll on the AP7, but only for the weekend and on a certain stretch - if you wanted to go from Marbella to Estepona you had to pay. It’s frustrating but good news always comes with smallprint, and there’s the catch.
After months of begging and pleading last Friday the Ministry of Development announced out of the blue that there would be no toll on the motorway between San Pedro and Estepona last weekend to ease traffic flow on the day they call something like “Operation off on holiday”.
The excitement lasted a nanosecond. The waiver was only for the weekend and only on the side toll exit. All those who tried to go free from Marbella to Estepona, having heard the general rumours that the barriers were up, had to fork out four euros and 15 cents, and swore never to use the blasted motorway again.
There is also smallprint in the heralded dismissal of Juan Antonio Roca from his position at Marbella Town Hall. Unbelievable but true: after three years in prison for allegedly being the brains behind the Malaya corruption ring, Roca is still on the staff list. Last week the PSOE asked exactly what the local authority was doing to get rid of him.
Once again we come up against the smallprint. Instead of just throwing him out they want to be so meticulous that they have started by taking disciplinary action for absence from work - after more than a thousand days behind bars - which will eventually lead to his dismissal.
It’s what the legal services say they have to do and they know best, but they can’t complain when we sound surprised. After all wouldn’t we all like to have a boss who was so relaxed about such indiscreet absenteeism?
