|
Be surrounded by lots of British people in New Zealand, from time to time the hijos de la G Bretaña come up with questions about Gibraltar. Few things touches more our Spanish balls than seeing those monkeys that never die in the rock and the Royal Quilt waived by the gibraltareños, those guys that are able to speak the English of the King and the worst Spanish with Andalusian accent. Well… the origin of this situation is situated in another King Charles. Charles II was the last Habsburg king of Spain. His health was notoriously poor, and he was considered mentally and physically unfit to rule. This is what happens when his family had been marrying cousins for generations…. The guy was so ugly that not even Carreño, the best student of Velazquez, could paint him “right”.
People believed he was cursed or "bewitched"—hence the nickname "El Hechizado." Despite his clear inability to govern effectively, no one in his court dared to tell him the truth. His advisors, ministers, and even doctors concocted absurd treatments to "cure" him. They claimed he was cursed by witches, subjected him to bizarre rituals, and wasted vast resources trying to "heal" him with potions and prayers…. What made it worse was that his court was in constant chaos, plagued by factions and internal power struggles. The beauty was easier to manipulate than a kid with ice cream. Despite the dysfunction, the court maintained a facade of control, and nobody questioned the absurdity of what was happening. Of course, such a “Hechizado”, could not procreate and when Charles II died without an heir, the Spanish War of Succession broke out, plunging Europe into conflict. It was a kind of France against Germany in Europe, with the British on the German side, this time. The Spaniards decided to kill each others in preparation for better times. When the British saw that they were going to lose, let the Habsburgs at the bottom of the culvert… To say thank you, Spain gave just a rock… until today. Not being able to tell the truth brings many problems to your life. Consequences for generations. You won’t make much progress, and you’ll always have a rock in your shoes. I’m building something to remove rocks. You can tell me if you are interested, below. ​Click here. ​ PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
You know what I like saying. The most expensive piece of infrastructure is not a tunnel. It is not a bridge. It is the Send button. Welcome to Northern Ireland. Project Omega. A 25-year PFI plant for wastewater and sludge treatment. The SPV, Glen Water, put a £4.4 million claim. The issue? Failures by Northern Ireland Water to meet its obligations for an existing incinerator. Typical… the client not meeting expectations… And this is what everything stats to be interesting. There had been...
There is a strange phenomenon in big projects. The bigger the project becomes… …the smaller your world gets. Egos kill more projects than bored consultants. I’ve seen it. Normally, it goes like that… You spend your morning discussing clause 38.4. Lunch reviewing the debt sizing. And your afternoon arguing whether a risk should be red… …or dark orange. … and what would be the right color after mitigation… Meanwhile: Interest rates move. A contractor issues a profit warning. A Government...
You arrive to the room like a child with new shoes. First project meeting. Excited. Then a guy with not much hair says… “The SPV will pass the risk down through back-to-back contracts, subject to equivalent project relief and the lenders’ step-in rights.” You nod. Of course you nod. You have a degree. Twenty years of experience. And a LinkedIn profile that says “strategic leader.” You cannot possibly ask what the hell that means. So you write “back-to-back” in your notebook. Twice. Must be...