Fakery

Readers may have noticed a sense of unease about the Costa in general and golf, polo, urbanisations and Marbella in particular.

Longer term readers may have observed a similar sense in the pages from the walk along the Algarve coast, particularly Albufeira.

Pedantic readers may have noticed these opening paragraphs are traditionally punctuated .... don't get used to it ...

Russ, who has been earning a crust (when they get round to paying him), driving the polo ponies from their stables to the matches at one of the many polo grounds to be found at this end of the Costa, says it's all fake... imagine how much water it takes to keep the vast lawns green in this climate ... golf too ... and the whole polo drama is immensely costly, just for a few very wealthy folk to flaunt their money ... a whole economy with groundkeepers, stable hands, saddlers, farriers, riders, caterers .... all for a fairly short season in August ...

Yet fakery also has a relative sense ... perhaps ... my experience of the polo crowd is non-existent, so why speculate? The sporting dramas of other strata of society may be equally fake or real to non-participants ... political dramas too ... and excess of money may not be better or worse than the lack of it ... so-called spiritual seekers embrace ascetism or abundance depending on their "path" ... who is to judge?

Anyway, whilst polo has never called, it seemed a one off opportunity, being in San Enrique a few more weeks,  to pop along and check for resonance ... there was none, so it's not for me ... which does not mean it's not for others, of course ... and the problem of Russ getting paid is common for all the employees apparently ... according to him it is to do with cash flow, currency controls across borders and so on ... another informant, from a wealthy family, reckons it is the casual arrogance of the rich ... not concerned or truly aware that the plebs are often skint ... what is seen is that this behaviour spreads down through the supply chain ...

Let's say fakery is for each to own ... becoming aware, developing authenticity ... the bank balance not the issue ... and this sometime social commentator may develop his own faculties to be less critical of the lifestyles of others ...

Meanwhile, the political dramas in UK and US of A become more bizarre ... to be a player in them a real test of credulity ... most of my friends in the UK, leaving aside Cruella aka May, are cheering for J.C. a decent chap with social democratic credentials, whilst a strangely faceless establishment social democrat plays Aunt Sally ... it may be instructive to read Yanis Varoufakis' version of his pal Tsipras' treatment at the hands of Merkel and the ECB ... cross the lines we draw and the ATMs are turned off tomorrow ... so UK has a bigger economy than Greece? Sure ... and we voted to leave the EU ... let's see how all that plays out ... it is capitalism that is the problem and the capitalist stooges who are trying to solve the problem ... and that, of course, is the real problem ...

Whoops. .. wandered about a bit there ... never mind, it's all fake on one level ... keep on stripping away the fakery ... the real is there somewhere ...