An Interesting Comparison

[TizMe]

From Sydney Morning Herald and The Age

Business on a bar stool.

By Anthony Ham

July 23, 2005

The Age

Living in Madrid, it's difficult not to adopt a creative approach when it comes to obeying laws.

This is a country where motorists routinely overtake police cars while travelling at 140 km/h and where it is not unusual to see smoking policemen immediately adjacent to airport no-smoking signs. Madrid is also one of Europe's noisiest cities, the sort of place where noise pollution laws have become the expression of an ideal rather than an enforceable sanction against bad behaviour.

Having lived for a time opposite a popular bar, I used to complain long and loudly about the revellers who, having said their goodbyes inside the bar at 3am on a weeknight, would stand outside on the street and talk loudly for a further 30 minutes (I timed them). I soon stopped complaining when I realised that whenever my friends and I left a bar, we did so singing.

Because Spaniards lived under dictatorship for almost four decades, they have come to regard governments - healthily, some would say - as a necessary evil. Indeed, it is something of a national tradition that governments make laws and then each Spaniard decides whether or not to obey them. The first night I went out in Madrid, a Spaniard whom I'd never before met assured me that every one of his compatriots carried a letter from the king which read "This Spaniard is entitled to do whatever he feels like doing". My Spanish friends fervently confirm that not only are these words true but most of them carry just such a letter in their pockets.

The idea of laws as guidelines that other people follow is not restricted to social transactions.

When my wife and I were buying an apartment, we agreed on the price with the vendor - no real estate agents were involved so as to avoid their iniquitous policy of charging a commission - only to discover that he wanted $A100,000 of the price in dinero negro (black money, i.e. cash).

We told friends that our dream had been thwarted. Not so, they assured us. Everyone has black money. It's only a matter of finding it. It is said that the concentration of luxury cars on the streets of Madrid dates back to the time when Spain forsook the peseta for the euro and millions of Spaniards, wary of declaring their money to the authorities, raided their piggy banks and mattress springs to go on an unprecedented spending spree.

Unconvinced, we told the bank of our dilemma. The bank manager, a respectable middle-aged businessman, at first looked baffled and then said: "Of course, we'll give you part of the money in cash. If we didn't do this, we'd never have any mortgages."

Thus it was that we bought our dream home by handing over $100,000 cash in a brown paper bag, all the while perched on bar stools and drinking beer.

Some time before this transaction, I discovered that my tourist visa had nearly expired. Armed with papers attesting to my good character and financial solvency and accompanied by two of my soon-to-be wife's uncles who happened to be policemen, we marched into the police station ready to argue the case against deportation.

The senior officer was direct: "I'm not exactly sure why you're here. I have called the head of the central immigration office to confirm that the advice I am about to give you is correct. There is nothing you can do. On Monday you will become illegal and there is no visa for which you can apply until after you get married. But the truth is, we don't care. We rarely deport anyone and I certainly don't think we've ever deported an Australian. As long as you don't kill anyone, we won't come looking for you."

The police officers who had gathered around looked at their watches and suggested that we adjourn to the bar across the road for tapas and a few drinks. As I perched atop yet another bar stool, one of the policemen, who insisted on paying for our drinks, turned to me and asked: "So what is it exactly that you like about Spain?"

Anthony Ham is a photojournalist living in Madrid.

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