I have come to the conclusion that having children is for the rich. Let me explain. My son just had surgery for a broken humerus, we have five days of leave, and then it’s back to work. If we want to care for him longer, there’s the option of taking the new unpaid parental leave. Is that what they call help? After becoming a mother, I had to request leave of absence for each of my two children, without pay. When I returned to work, I was forced to leave the children in a paid daycare: in the public one, they wouldn’t accept us because both of us work. That is, childcare is subsidized for those who don’t work and therefore could stay home to care for their children. When summer arrives, we have no choice but to put them in a summer camp for a month and a half —we have 23 annual vacation days like almost everyone else—, paying 1,600 euros, because the cheaper camps don’t cover our working hours. To top it all off, when the search for solutions and making the vacation period not so long is debated, we have to listen to comments from teachers who say we use school as a children’s parking lot. No wonder there are more pets than offspring in homes now.
Patricia Cárcamo Carbayo. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Shame
The EU countries have failed to agree on the total or partial suspension of the association agreement with Israel, and the application of sanctions. Something that is shameful for those of us who believe in human rights and international law. No European country denies that Israel violates international law: massacres of civilians, systematic destruction, documented war crimes. But when it comes time to act, Europe hides in complicit silence. We condemn Russia for Ukraine, but we look the other way when Israel devastates Lebanon. International law is not an à la carte menu. Either it is defended for everyone, or it is useless.
Caetano Chenel Rial. Santiago de Compostela
Preserving memory
April 14th has already passed, but it seems that the 14ths of this month go increasingly unnoticed in our Spain. On that day, the Second Republic was born, and it was as much a democracy as the current one. We are not, and even less so now that totalitarian and illiberal strongmen dehumanize the world and destroy international law, to put our democratic memory in the drawer of oblivion. And it is that, even because we have a democracy constituted as a parliamentary monarchy, it will also strengthen us to recognize, celebrate, and commemorate more and better the only democracy that existed here before the current one.
Gaspar García Fernández. Madrid
A matter of ethics
I want to thank María Gabriela Gutiérrez Morillo de Córdoba for her attitude, who in her letter to the editor pointed out the responsibility that landlords also have in real estate speculation. One can own apartments and allow those who do not have the resources that the real estate market demands today to live with dignity. We are capable of limiting speed on the road to avoid killing, yet incapable of setting limits on something that prevents lives from being built.
Read more A Lorcan spring: the inexhaustible inspiration of a poet
Giordano Valeriani Colombo. Beasain (Gipuzkoa)
