There's another animal charity in Pinoso. They operate a café to raise money for their work. For a variety of reasons they are in financial difficulties which are principally Covid related. Maggie gave them some cash and we handed over a few things for their second-hand shop.
My support for that particular animal charity is somewhat coloured by a training event I went to in the 1990s about funding for charities. A photography project volunteered to be the guinea pigs. The trainer asked what their "mission" was; they were clear and succinct. "To promote good quality photography to the people of Cambridge". We were asked, by the trainer, to suggest ways to achieve that goal. We came up with things like pasting photographs on the side of buses, having people with sandwich boards bearing photos in the streets, publishing photos in the local paper, preparing exhibitions for schools and shops etc. The trainer asked the charity how they were promoting photography. They said they ran a gallery. The trainer suggested that maybe a lot of their effort was going towards paying the rent, heat, light and maintenance of a gallery to hang their photos for only a few hundred, already motivated, visitors rather than on doing what they'd set out to do. I am reminded of that every time I think about the efforts to run a café and good as new shop, which has all sorts of benefits for lots of people, but which only supports the animals by a rather serpentine route.
A few days ago I was watching the TV news. I saw the Open Arms boat operating off the Libyan coast and that reminded me it was a while since I'd given them anything. The bit of video that was shown over and over was of a refugee boat sinking, of a woman hauled into one of the rubber rescue boats hollering that she had lost her baby. The toddler was recovered from the Med but died soon after.
I'm almost certain that the boat has been banned from actively looking for refugees; the best they can do is wait on one of the known routes and rescue people in trouble. It should be a thing of pride to Spaniards that Open Arms is a Spanish NGO. Economically and legally Open Arms is hanging on by the skin of its teeth. Other boats were operating in the Med, including the one funded by Banksy, but I think the ever so caring Italian Government has put so many legal obstacles in their way that the Open Arms is the only boat still currently at sea. I'd be very pleased if someone were to tell me that's duff information and there are tens of boats out there doing the decent thing whilst our governments look the other way.
The supermarkets have all joined in an initiative for the next week or so to raise money for the food banks. Covid means that collecting food is a bit dodgy so, at the checkout, you're asked if you want to be "solid" and donate. I've not seen anyone say no yet.
My charitable monthly direct debit is for the omnipresent Red Cross. This time of year they always phone trying to sell me lottery tickets but this year the approach was different. They said that Covid was pushing them to the limits. They wanted me to take 100€ worth of tickets and sell them amongst my friends. I said no but I bought more tickets than usual.
Another Christmas time appeal is Un juguete, una ilusión - A toy, a hope. They sell a biro each year with the funds raised going to providing toys for kids who don't have any. They only mentioned Covid in passing.
These groups want my money for the good things they do. There are thousands more and the virus isn't helping.
The other day I got an email from my bank. They pointed me to a message they'd sent me via their bank app which I never read. I nearly didn't read the email as I presumed it was, yet another, advert. They told me that they were changing my current bank account and updating my terms and conditions. Although the first message was dated 6 November the changes were from the beginning of November. This is a translation: "At Santander, in recent months we have been closer than ever to our clients, helping them overcome their difficulties. Now our commitment is to reward your loyalty. We are going to transform the way we relate to you. This new, simpler and more personalised model is called Santander One".
I have been paying 36€ per year. With the new, simpler, personalised model the cost for the same service will be 120€ per year.
An article in PC Bolsa, dated 27 October 2020, says that Santander's profits are 48% lower than last year. No wonder they want extra money from me! Projections for Santander's profit for this virus lashed year are now just 1,109,000,000€. Poor things, how will they struggle by?
And, unlike those refugees and cats and dogs and people queuing for food and children without toys the banks know that the state, which gets a lot of its money from people like me, will look after them - they have experience. The Spanish Audit court said, in December 2015, that the cost of restructuring Spain's bankrupt savings banks after the 2008 crisis had totalled €60.7 billion, of which nearly €41.8 billion was put up by the state. I can never remember which convention Spain uses for billion - so that may be 41,800,000,000,000€ or only 41,800,000,000€.
