Cordoba ...

Plenty of people and philosophy to process since the last post ... and plenty of opportunity to catch up since it is raining in Cordoba and its undoubted charms are limited without the Sun ... dodging locals and their umbrellas, themselves dodging packs of sodden tourists each armed with their own umbrellas an art in itself, let alone locating dry places of interest to shelter and learn some of the rich history ... the compact single room in the simple hostal, not to be confused with hostel, offers dry base with WiFi between cultural expeditions ... the challenges and opportunities of new roommates each night, new companions in the kitchen, which is hostel life, exchanged for the privacy and peace of the single room and less convivial company ...

In Tavira information gleaned, briefly, from young Mexican student of molecular biology, based in Germany, and older statistician from Brazil, working in the government, observing recent political developments with interest, noting economic record of recent left wing administrations as poor to say the least ... and pointing out the deeper problems worldwide of widening gap between contributors to pensions and social support and those requiring them ... a fundamental issue needing radical solutions maybe transcending traditional left-right polarities ... accelerating automation exacerbating the problem, global warming and current economic need for ever expanding growth on a finite planet insisting on more than incremental change ... 

... whilst Paloma, from Madrid, offers serious challenge to Spanish speaking, since she has next to no English and a walking trip to Fuseta, followed yesterday by a bus trip to Seville, lunch there and onward train to Cordoba pushes linguistic skills to the limit, albeit assisted by smartphone translate function ... 

Of course, plenty of folks are working on answers to the big questions and young people will do it, when not hypnotised by the dross possible from smartphones, the current brainwashing medium meaning the limited exposure of plugged in televisions are supplemented by always-on opportunities ... whether to make us smarter or stupider our choice perhaps ... recognising the shift to simpler lives essential for individual sanity and thereby saner societies ... less being more and more less ... the perverse power of the super-rich undermined by a populace no longer looking upwards for more stuff but sideways for mutuality ... contemporary communications pointing to this anyway: when we can talk with anyone, anywhere, anytime about anything, vertical hierarchies dissolve, held together temporarily by old structures ... disruptive economic forms are already at it ... liftshare and bla bla car, couchsurfing and airbnb, helpx and workaway, peer to peer funding platforms ... blockchain with its distributed technology to undermine the attempt of older forms to hang on ... 

Now for some damp exploration ...