THE ECONOMY AND THE CAMINO Not long after we started walking this morning from Palas del Rei, we fell into step with a Spaniard who spoke English well. He has just left his job as a lawyer for a bank and is walking for eight days to ponder his future. He has a wife and two young daughters. When Martha asked him his name, he said, Santiago, and I am going to Santiago to find myself. The Spanish economy is not doing well. Unemployment rates are high, especially among youth, and this led to a youth rebellion that preceded the Occupy movement in North America. I asked Santiago what had happened to the economy in Spain. He said that Germanys power in the European Union means that the central bank has been fixated upon keeping interest rates low in order to make it cheaper to finance the reunification of Germany. With interest rates so low and a lot of money available for lending, more and more people were encouraged to take on greater household debt. When the banks reckless financial practices almost brought down the worlds economies in 2008-09, the credit taps were turned off and many people could no longer get credit to finance their debt. For them, the bubble had burst. This does not entirely explain how and why the economies of countries such as Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece got into such deep trouble. But the response by most governments has been harsh austerity measures that have shrunk governments, slashed services that people need, and driven up unemployment. Santiago said, for example, that public sector salaries had been reduced by 30 % in Spain. I would have had more questions but at some point he politely took his leave saying that he had to rest. I took that to mean that he had life decisions to contemplate and that he needed privacy to do that. As pilgrims and tourists, we are in a bubble and we really do not know what is happening in the country in which we are visiting. But I have encountered occasional glimpses of the malaise, even if they were not presented in the macroeconomic language of someone like Santiago. Quite early in our walk, just prior to reaching the city of Burgos, Martha and I shared a room in an albergue with a Spanish couple named Juan and Magdalena. They were perhaps in their early 50s. They live farther south near Valencia and were doing one week on the Camino this year. Our talk among the bunk beds that afternoon soon turned to our respective children, and it became clear that they are concerned for theirs in the current economic climate. They have two sons in their 20s, one studying engineering and the other medicine. They are worried that the engineer may find no work. They are less concerned about work for their son studying medicine. But they fear that either or both of their sons might leave for greener pastures in Germany or Britain and not return. There is labour mobility among member countries of the EU, and young people use it to leave their home countries and go to where they believe they might find work. The harsh economic reality was brought home in a more raw form along the trail. One day, early on, we came upon a sign saying that we would soon be meeting some young people who would sooner sell to us than steal from us. Soon, at a high bend in the rocky trail, we came upon a young woman selling coffee, juice water and fruit. She told me that she lives in Spain but comes from Romania and that she has not been able to find work. I believed that she was Roma but did not ask. It happens often that people set up little stands out on the trail to catch hikers before they will reach the more established bars and cafes in towns and cities. I remember, in particular, our buying some delicious watermelon from two younger women who were accompanied by their father at a stand set up at a strategic point along the trail. Another young man embellished his stand with blunt messages about the high rates of youth unemployment. It was a reminder that in 2014 we are not yet back to where we were in 2008 when the Great Recession struck. Any politician who says we have made up all of that lost ground is not being honest - and to a great extent it is young people whose prospects have been most severely affected. Most people walking the Camino and concerned with their own issues or hopes for the future are likely unaware of the economic reality that exists around them. Speaking of the trail, tonight we are in an albergue near the tiny village of Ribadiso, 42 kilometres from Santiago. We hope to get there on Friday.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 06:06:15 +0000
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