Comments on: Son of a nice fishy tapas… and nepotism in Spain

By: Thou shalt have a fishy on a little dishy… « Debbie’s Weblog

Thou shalt have a fishy on a little dishy… « Debbie’s Weblog — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:22:52 +0000

[...] “Hijo de puta” (son of a ‘prostitute’), is up there with the worst swear wor… [...]

By: ignacio

ignacio — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 06:05:00 +0000

I find your web due to “10 annoying things about spain” I think this web is really good.

Ok, the japuta is the same than palometa, they are a types of fishes.
usually japuta is only used in the north of spain.
For example the unique place that i know that people calls it japuta is in cantabria.

Sorry for my english.
Maybe the numer 10 annoying thing is “The spanish people is unable the learn english or another language”.
Sorry for my english an be fine in spain.

By: luke

luke — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:52:43 +0000

When I considered working as a university lecturer in Madrid, I was told by Spanish friends not to bother since that kind of job was taken up by people in the right families. As an occasional university lecturer in London I can see that there is an element of nepotism here too but this is outweighed by a strong element of ‘positive discrimination’. Institutions want to tick the right boxes when it comes to having enough ethnic minorities or females working for them. In the end both of these systems leave many deserving people out of the loop. I think that the working classes of whatever gender or race are the biggest losers in the UK. Most companies would prefer to take on a woman of Afro-Caribbean descent with a middle class accent to a woman of the same ethnicity with a working class accent. As someone with a middle class accent I can see that I have an unfair advantage; this distinction seems not to exist in Spain.

By: Edith

Edith — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 07:19:04 +0000

Oh yes, ‘enchufismo’ exists in Holand, too. Why is it that CEOs and politicians – to name but a few – hardly ever find themselves out of a job for a very long time?

By: Gary

Gary — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:36:16 +0000

I miss tapa of the week…

By: Frank

Frank — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 19:24:26 +0000

One of the biggest examples of “enchufismo” in UK are the Freemasons!! Nobody quite as bent as them!

By: MrMark

MrMark — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 13:21:02 +0000

Mmm, I’ve even had 1 or 2 of those as free aperitivos in Madrid bars. I didn’t realise what their name was, nor that they were a pun for that expletive.

Muchas gracias Frank por tu aclaracion.

As for nepotism, of course it still exists in the UK (and everywhere where families live of course). More prevalent is the “old-school tie” syndrome. End of the day it’s normal for people to prefer to take on a worker they already know about (and can trust).

By: Frank

Frank — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 22:34:19 +0000

Antes de nada quiero aclarar que una japuta es un pez también conocido como palometa negra, que sois muy malpensados vosotros, ¿eh?

By: Frank

Frank — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 22:30:05 +0000

Japuta is a fish!
f. Pez osteíctio perciforme de unos 65 cm de longitud, de color plomizo, con escamas regulares y romboidales, cola en forma de media luna y aleta pectoral muy larga; habita en el Atlántico y el Mediterráneo y su carne es apreciada como alimento.