ONE of the more exciting updates about Spain that have been happening is to put lyric into the wordless national anthem of Spain so that popular Spanish tenor Placido Domingo would have the opportunity to debut it. But then again, there appears to be a deadlock in installing the lyric for the Spanish national anthem as the various cultural groups in the country have protested that the lyrics did not include their representation. As we know, there are various tribes in Spain and areas there are as diverse. Madrid is very urban, Barcelona prides itself with bullriding and flamenco dancing, Salamanca is more Americanized, Palma de Mallorca is the capital of non-Spanish house music, Granada is home to the Moorish minority in the country, Garabandal is a dry and humid farming region and the Pyrenees are a shivering place.

Despite this deadlock, the Spaniards are unwavering and unrelenting in their pursuit for national prosperity. In fact, the governments of Spain and Malaysia have recently forged several economic and political agreements with the visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Badawi. Badawi’s visit to Granada is expected to boost the morale of the Islamic community in Spain and it is expected to mend its relations with Morocco following an impasse because Spain has been claiming three islands near Morocco as their own. Of course, Badawi was here to grace the First Alliance of Civilisations forum. The aim of the First Alliance of Civilisations is to forge strategic economic and political cooperation between the West and the Islamic world. And efforts to solve the Spain-Morocco row are certainly part of this. A similar conference will be held in Malaysia this June and Spain has announced its intention and willingness to attend the event. It is also an opportunity to strengthen economic arrangements between the two countries. Spain is an importer of electrical goods, telecommunications equipment, pork fats, rubber gloves and textiles from Malaysia. On the other hand, Spain exports olives and olive oil to Malaysia.

Importing of pork fats from Malaysia and exporting olives and olive oil to Spain are two very interesting points. This trading has definitely benefited a lot between these two countries. First of all, as an Islamic country, Malaysians do not eat pork. But they have lots of pigs there and you just can’t make natural resources go to waste, do you? So they import pork products to non-Islamic countries such as Spain. Of course, Spaniards are not fond of fats either but only because they use olive oil in their sautéing. But once in a while such as barbecue parties and other occasional celebrations, they use pork fat in cooking. Even if most Spaniards adhere to a strict Mediterranean diet, they still love tapas after all and tapas is certainly not made of lamb like shawarma but is made of pork. On the other hand, Malaysians badly need non-pork oil so olive oil is the answer. Olive oil is relatively pricey but Malaysia is a rich country and can certainly sustain buying that product.