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2 episodes with spanish government
2 episodes with spanish government
War leaves scars not only on people but also on the land. In Ukraine, vast fields are littered with explosive remnants, threatening the future of farming. Tiphaine Lucas, a Programme Coordinator for FAO's Mine Action and Land Rehabilitation Initiative, is on a mission to collect and analyze soil samples, ensuring the land can once again grow wheat and sustain communities. Watch how science and resilience are helping Ukraine rebuild. Financing challenges are at the heart of the current sustainable development crisis. The International Commission of Experts on Financing for Development, a group of experts on Financing for Development, will launch its report on pathways to resolve this crisis on Tuesday, 11 February 2025, at 1:15 p.m. (EST). The launch will take place on the sideline of the 3rd Preparatory Committee Session of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), which will take place at UN Headquarters from 10 to 14 February 2025. The report provides innovative ideas and fresh perspectives critical to shaping the future of financing for development, putting forward proposals for concrete actions across a range of areas, including debt restructuring and strengthening the global safety net. The International Commission of Experts on Financing for Development comprises 14 distinguished experts, including Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Laureate and Professor at Columbia University. Chaired by Professor José Antonio Ocampo, the Commission has developed a comprehensive set of recommendations to support all stakeholders involved in the substantive preparations and negotiations of the outcome document for the upcoming Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain. The Commission was set up by the Spanish Government, in support of its commitment to advancing the Financing for Development (FfD) process and welcomed by the UN Secretary-General. The Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism Vladimir Voronkov today (10 Feb) told the Security Council that the “volatile situation in the Syrian Arab Republic is of great concern, especially as there is a risk that stockpiles of advanced weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists.” Briefing the Council on the threat posed by Da'esh to international peace and security, Voronkov noted that the Syrian Badia region “continued to serve as a centre for Da'esh external operational planning and a critical region for their activities.” He also expressed concern over the situation in detention camps and other facilities in the north-east of the country. On Afghanistan, Voronkov said ISIL- Khorasan “has continued to pose a significant threat in Afghanistan, the region and beyond,” as supporters have “plotted attacks in Europe and were actively seeking to recruit individuals from Central Asian States.” He stressed that no State can confront terrorism in isolation, and noted that Member States “must prioritize comprehensive, long-term responses that address the conditions conducive to terrorism while strengthening the rule of law and upholding international human and humanitarian rights.” Also, addressing the Security Council on the twentieth report of the Secretary-General on the threat posed by Da'esh to international peace and security, Natalia Gherman, the Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, highlighted the UN's efforts to support Member States in addressing the challenges. Gherman said, “the challenges posed by Da'esh remain complex, with humanitarian, security, and governance concerns persisting across regions affected by its activities.” She said, “after devastating so many parts of the world for more than a decade, Da'esh and other terrorist groups now pose the most significant threat to peace, security and sustainable development across the African continent.” For her part, United States Ambassador Dorothy Shea said, “countering ISIS and other terrorist groups around the world is a top priority for the Trump Administration. President Trump has already taken decisive action in conjunction with the Somali government by directing precision airstrikes against ISIS in Somalia on February 1st. President Trump's message is clear: The United States always stands ready to find and eliminate terrorists who threaten the United States and our allies.”Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/policy-and-rights--3339563/support.
The Spanish Government has declared Valencia a disaster area and is providing 10.6 billion euro in urgent aid following last week's devastating flash floods. Cormac speaks with Eimear McCormack who is helping with the clean up in Valencia.
Renewable energy projects require substantial front-end investment as well as complicated permitting and licensing in order to operate, but what happens when there are disputes in the sector? In 1994 the European Union signed the Energy Charter Treaty which provided for International Arbitration through the World Bank ICSID Court. However, earlier this year the EU signalled it's intent to leave the Treaty, citing its support for traditional forms of energy. Why then are nearly all of the outstanding claims in renewable energy? And what impact will leaving the Treaty have on renewable investor confidence in Europe?As an example, we will discuss the Spanish Renewable Awards. Spain has defaulted on more than 25 international arbitration awards amounting to €1.56 billion in compensation for the retroactive withdrawal of renewable premiums. This amount is further increased by over €315 million in legal and financial overcosts resulting from non-compliance with the rulings. The situation has become so bad that numerous enforcement procedures and asset seizures are in play through courts in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Australia, and the United States.The Spanish Government has been accused of taking an ideological position to refuse to settle these claims and has attempted to persuade the European Commission to retrospectively declare these awards as 'state aid'. If this is proven to be the case, what message does this give to large renewable investors about the rule of law in Europe?Join us for this important and lively discussion with renewable energy investors, senior litigators and European officials.Organised by: Aream Group SAMedia Partner: Euractiv
Katy Perry is being investigated by the Spanish government after her latest music video allegedly shows her dancing around on a protected environmental site.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Officials say another 70 people are missing in Rio Grande do Sul. Also, talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages continue in Cairo, and the Spanish Government tries to calm tensions with Argentina after some unguarded comments about the Argentine President.
564. Candidate Richard Anderson talks to us about his campaign to be elected to the Louisiana DSCC. The Democratic State Central Committee (DSCC) is the governing body for the Democratic Party of Louisiana and has sole responsibility for the affairs of the Louisiana Democratic Party. This is Richard's call for support: "For a NEW DAY, VOTE # 3 for Richard R Anderson of the Richard Anderson Campaign as the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee Member representing District 11-B encompasses BIENVILLE, CLAIBORNE and LINCOLN PARISHES in NORTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA during the March 23rd Election Cycle. Please REPOST and SHARE to ALL YOU KNOW in that region of Louisiana. Thanks for your time and help." "A PROACTIVE Democratic Party working on behalf of its constituents is key to gain the confidence and stimulate future participation but it's time to organize and get back to work with people that want better for themselves." This week in Louisiana history. March 9, 1804. Three Flags Ceremony in St. Louis - Spain transfers Upper Louisiana to France, France then transfers it to the United States (March 9-10) This week in New Orleans history. James Mather (c. 1750 in England – 1821 in St. James Parish, Louisiana) was mayor of New Orleans from March 9, 1807 to October 8, 1812. His place of birth is variously given as Coupland in Northumberland; or London. A merchant by trade, he moved to America in 1776, and by 1780 he was working in New Orleans, contracting with the Spanish Government to operate two vessels out of the port and importing articles required in the trade with the Indians of Louisiana and West Florida. Mather & his descendents owned a large sugar plantation in Lutcher, Louisiana until 1879. He was appointed mayor of New Orleans by William C.C. Claiborne, governor of the Louisiana Territory. This week in Louisiana. Choctaw Firemen's Fair March 08, 2024 - March 10, 2024 Visit Website 2854 Choctaw Road Thibodaux LA 70301 Thrown by the Choctaw Volunteer Fire Department, the Fireman's Fair is a fun 3-day celebration for the whole family. Enjoy live music, great Cajun food, amusement rides, a live auction, and a parade on Sunday. Phone: (985) 633-2888 Email: choctawfiredept@gmail.com Postcards from Louisiana. Boardwalker & the 3 finger swingers sing at Bamboulas. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook.
The question of Catalan independence has never been more visible in the UK and its dramatic appearance on the news agenda has highlighted new complexities in Spain's territorial constitution. On the 18th October 2017, a day before the Spanish Government announced its intention to suspend Catalan autonomy, historian Dr Andrew Dowling of Cardiff University gave the following presentation that explores the underlying reasons that led to the referendum and subsequent events of October 2017 in Catalonia. More about Dr Andrew Dowling: www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/1614…7-dowling-andrew Andrew on Twitter: twitter.com/painesrepublic This presentation on YouTube: youtu.be/Ck1NUruZ38w If you like the show, please be in touch with us on Twitter: twitter.com/golau_podcast and please do rate and review the show on your podcast player of choice.
Teresa Ribera, Third Vice-President of the Spanish Government and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, receives the Progressive Person of the Year award from the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) this Wednesday, January 24th, 2024. Ribera is an outstanding leader and international policymaker in the fight against climate change who has helped European socialists develop a robust climate agenda over the past decade. FEPS awards the title of Progressive Person of the Year to social democratic policymakers who contributed to the most important progressive policy initiatives of the past year. Previous recipients include Frans Timmermans, Sanna Marin, and Roberto Gualtieri.
Plenty to talk about this week with Delta Lithium (DLI) rattling the tin for a big $70m. We dissect the angle that ChrisGina have & what their true intentions with Delta are. Infinity Lithium (INF) got a mention with the award of an €18.8m (A$31m) grant from the Spanish government to breath some life into the story whilst we tossed up what the fire at the Ozerny mine could mean for the zinc market. We rounded off with a chat about the issues facing First Quantum (FM.tse) with the Cobre Panama mining concession at risk of being revoke after a popular uprising in country. All Money of Mine episodes are for informational purposes only and may contain forward-looking statements that may not eventuate. The co-hosts are not financial advisers and any views expressed are their opinion only. Please do your own research before making any investment decision or alternatively seek advice from a registered financial professional. Thank you to our Podcast Partners:DSI Underground – Supplier of Ground Support Products to the Mining and Tunnelling industriesTerra Capital – Specialist investment manager in the natural resources sectorMcMahon Mining Title Services (MMTS) – Australia-wide tenement service expertsFutureproof Consulting – Specialist mining-industry sustainability consultants providing ESG solutions for miners of all sizes, stages and commoditiesAnytime Exploration Services – Exploration workers, equipment, core cutting/storage + much moreKCA Site Services – Underground mining machine hire for IT's, normet's, trucks and moreJP Search – Recruitment specialists for the financial worldBrooks Airways – Perth's leading charter flight operatorsK-Drill – Safe, reliable, and productive surface RC drilling Join our exclusive Facebook Group for the Money Miners and request access to the Hooteroo chat group. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter HOOTEROO HERALD Follow Money of Mine on YouTubeFollow Money of Mine on TwitterFollow Money of Mine on LinkedInFollow Money of Mine on Instagram Chapters:(0:00:00) Introduction(0:05:24) The BIG Delta Lithium capital raise(0:29:07) Infinity Lithium get $31m from the Spanish Government(0:33:29) Will zinc continue to stink?(0:34:55) Why has Cobre Panama led to 50%-fall in share price for First Quantum(0:40:30) Magnis Energy Debt Breaches(0:40:59) Centaurus DFS Pushed Again
“Coal demand reached a new all-time high in 2022.” That was the headline of the International Energy Agency's annual coal market update, released in July of this year. In fact, 2022 was the third year in a row that global coal consumption has increased. This growth occurs against the backdrop of an ever-worsening climate crisis driven by energy sector emissions, of which coal accounts for 40%, and it's why the IEA's own executive director Fatih Birol called for an end to new coal power plant construction in a recent op-ed. But despite coal's impact on the climate, it remains a vital source of energy for much of the world, particularly in Asia. What is the outlook for coal in the years to come? What will it take to move away from the fuel? And what would phasing it out mean for emerging and developing economies? This week host Jason Bordoff talks with Carlos Fernández Alvarez about the findings of this year's Coal Market Update. Carlos is a senior coal analyst at the International Energy Agency, and recently served as the acting head of the Gas, Coal, and Power Markets division. He was the lead author on this year's Coal Market Update and has contributed to many other IEA reports, including the organization's flagship publication, the World Energy Outlook. Carlos has 25 years of experience in the energy sector, serving as an energy consultant, an energy advisor for the Spanish Government, and later as the director of the Spanish Coal Agency.
A Clare Fianna Fáil TD is expressing confidence that a route from Shannon to Seville could be established in the near future. The Spanish Government has been hosting talks with European delegates in the city this week on transport policy. Ryanair is currently offering a six day service from Dublin, however the low-budget airline has in the last year added a new aircraft to its fleet at Shannon. Meelick Deputy Cathal Crowe who is his party's spokesperson on Aviation believes the opportunities for commerce and tourism would be immense.
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Sam and Chern look back at results from Spain's July General Election and look ahead to what's to come in the rest of the 2023 electoral calendar. Is Pedro Sanchez now the favourite to form the next Spanish Government? What happened since the Autonomous Community elections to change the Peoples Party fortunes so significantly? What's next for Alberto Feijoo, and who are the winners and losers? All these questions and more answered in this episode. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ballot-to-talk-about/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ballot-to-talk-about/support
Luis Rubiales has been criticised for kissing a Spanish player at the Women's World Cup
This very special episode features Diana Pelaz Flores, guest editor of the current Royal Studies Journal special issue 'The Iberian Queen's Households: Dynamics, Social Strategies and Royal Power' (Vol 10.1, June 2023). Diana is the 'host' of this episode, in conversation with Lledó Ruiz Domingo and Paula Del Val Vales, who both contributed articles to this issue. We are delighted to have this episode in Spanish--a first for the Royal Studies Podcast!Please note: We are aware that there are some minor issues with the audio which could not be completely addressed in the mastering of the episode. We apologise for the less than ideal audio but we hope you will still enjoy listening to this feature.Information about our guests:Diana Pelaz Flores is Senior Lecturer in the Medieval History at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She was the main researcher of the project “Court feminine spaces: Curial areas, territorial relations and political practices”, granted by the Spanish Government, integrated within the MUNARQAS coordinated project, under the direction by Angela Munoz Fernandez. Her research examined the history of women and power, in particular the Queens consort of the Crown of Castile during the Late Middle Ages. She has several publications, including Rituales Líquidos. El significado del agua en el ceremonial de la Corte de Castilla (ss. XIV-XV) (Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, 2017), La Casa de la Reina en la Corona de Castilla (1418-1496) (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 2017), Poder y representación de la reina en la Corona de Castilla (1418-1496) (Ávila: Junta de Castilla y León, 2017), and Reinas Consortes. Las reinas de Castilla en la Edad Media (siglos XI-XV) (Madrid: Sílex, 2017)).Dr. Lledó Ruiz Domingo is postdoctoral researcher of Late Medieval Iberian Queenship at the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and University of Valencia (Spain). Her wider interests focus on political activity of Aragonese consort as co-rulers and partners with their royal husbands, especially during their periods as Lieutenant, using all the King's powers and authority. She has also focused her analysis on the Queens' economic resources during the Late Middle Ages. In this sense, she has published a monography “El tresor de la Reina” about the patrimony, income and expenditure of the Aragonese Queens.Paula Del Val Vales is a third year PhD student and Associate Lecturer at the University of Lincoln, where she develops her thesis ‘The Queen's Household in the Thirteenth Century: A Comparative Anglo-Iberian Study'. Paula is a Postgraduate Fellow Abroad as her PhD is funded by the La Caixa Foundation, and a member of the research group MUNARQAS. Paula has been on placement at the British Library, within the digitisation project 'Medieval and Renaissance Women', focused on digitising more than 300 documents related to medieval and renaissance women (1100-1600). Through her research she aims to explore the queens' establishments, resources, revenues, personnel and networks. She is also working on the first ever critical edition of the household and wardrobe accounts of Eleanor of Provence.
AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports on Spain Election.
According to José Manuel Campa, Chairperson of the EBA, the increase in interest rates and uncertain macroeconomic environment have resulted in the materialisation of some risks impacting the banking sector. After years of increased resilience, the ability of the EU banking sector to weather these challenges is paramount to ensure economic resilience. A strong banking system will also provide support to the transition to a sustainable European economy. In his address to the IIEA, Mr Campa argues that regulation and supervision have contributed to strengthening the sector and the EU needs to continue to pursue a banking sector that supports the economy for the challenges ahead. About the Speaker: José Manuel Campa is the current Chairperson of the European Banking Authority. After studying law and economics at the University of Oviedo and earning his PhD in economics from Harvard University, Mr Campa taught finance at New York University and the IESE Business School and consulted for a number of international organisations including the World Bank, the IMF, the Bank for International Settlements, and the European Commission. He then served as the 10th Secretary of State for Economy of the Spanish Government and was most recently Director of Regulatory Affairs of Santander Bank.
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Proposals for the AI Regulatory Sandbox in Spain, published by Guillem Bas on April 27, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Translated by Daniela Tiznado. Summary: The European Union is designing a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence (AI) that could be approved by the end of 2023. This regulation prohibits unacceptable practices and stipulates requirements for AI systems in critical sectors. These obligations consist of a risk management system, a quality management system, and post-market monitoring. The legislation enforcement will be tested for the first time in Spain, in a regulatory sandbox of approximately three years. This will be a great opportunity to prepare the national ecosystem and influence the development of AI governance internationally. In this context, we present several policies to consider, including third-party auditing, the detection and evaluation of frontier AI models, red teaming exercises, and creating an incident database. Introduction Everything indicates that the European Union will become the first major political entity to approve a comprehensive regulatory framework for artificial intelligence (AI). On April 21, 2021, The European Commission presented the Regulation laying down harmonised rules on AI –henceforth AI Act or Act–. This legislative proposal covers all types of AI systems in all sectors except the military, making it the most ambitious plan to regulate AI. As we will explain below, Spain will lead the implementation of this regulation in the context of a testing ground or sandbox. This is an opportunity for the Spanish Government to contribute to establishing good auditing and regulatory practices that can be adopted by other member states. This article is divided into six sections. Firstly, we provide a brief history of the Act. The second part summarizes the legislative proposal of the European Commission. The third section details the first sandbox of this regulation, carried out in Spain. The fourth lists the public bodies involved in the testing environment. The fifth part explains the relevance of this exercise. Finally, we present proposals to improve the governance of risks associated with AI in this context. We conclude that this project provides an excellent opportunity to develop a culture of responsible AI and determine the effectiveness of various policies. Brief History of the Act The foundations of the text date back to 2020, when the European Commission published the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence. This was the beginning of a consultation process and a subsequent roadmap that involved the participation of hundreds of stakeholders, resulting in the aforementioned proposal. After its publication, the Commission received feedback from 304 actors and initiated a review process involving the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union as legislative bodies. In December 2022, the Council adopted a common approach. In the case of the Parliament, the vote to agree on a joint position is scheduled for May (Bertuzzi, 2023). The trilogue will begin immediately afterward, and the final version could be approved by the end of 2023, entering into force at the beginning of 2024. Summary of the Act The main starting point of the proposed law is the classification of AI systems according to the level of risk they entail. Specifically, the proposal is based on a hierarchy distinguishing between unacceptable, high, limited, and minimal risks. The first two are the main focus of the regulation. As part of the category of unacceptable risks, practices that pose a clear threat to the safety, livelihoods, and rights of people will be banned. Currently, three practices have been deemed unacceptable as they go against European values: distorting human behavior to cause harm; evaluating and classi...
On 16 November 2010, UNESCO declared this among the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. This is usually seen in the Catalonian region of Spain, the Balearic islands and Valencia. This also has a sibling 7000 kms away on the coast of India. This week, we travel from Catalonia in Spain to the town of Pandharpur in Maharashtra to find the similarities between the two art forms. We uncover the Warkari movement, its impact on Hinduism and the story behind the much loved 'Dahi' of Dahi Handi. Tune in, and discover the true spirit of Dahi Handi and the lessons its holds for us. Till then Check out the other episodes, Anne Frank, Lootera and Endless Life of TreesThe Trees that built VeniceElm Trees, National Revolutions and Modern PaperEuropean Impressionism, Japanese Nationalism and Cherry Blossom TreesThe tree that built New ZealandLiving Fossils, National Identities and 200 MM year old trees You can check previous episodes of 'Podcasts from Nowhere' on IVM Podcasts websitehttps://ivm.today/3xuayw9You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42(https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42 )You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: IVM Podcasts - Apps on Google Play or all other major audio platforms.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Week of March 13, 2023 Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/40833847/admin/ Check out our website: TalesOfTheTribunal.com For Feedback, comments or submissions contact TalesOfTheTribunal@Gmail.com News: Kluwer Arbitration Blog – Eurus Energy v. Spanish Government, Here Vale v. CMC, Here Ruling from the London High Court, Here Canadian Mining Company Dispute, Here Access to Indian Legal Markets, Here None of the views shared today or any episode of Disputes Digest is presented as legal advice nor advice of any kind. No compensation was provided to any organization or party for their inclusion on the show nor do any of the statements made represent any particular organization, legal position or view point. All interviewees or organizations included appear on an arms-length basis and their appearance should not be construed as any bias or preferred affiliation with the host or host's employer. All rights reserved.
Thanks for joining us, today we are excited to welcome Adrián Ferrero, he is the Co-Founder & CEO of Biome Makers. With recognition from the Spanish Government, Illumina Accelerator, and MIT Technology Review —Adrián is a self-described entrepreneur on a mission to improve the world. And he is doing just that as he and his company work to have an impact on how we look at and utilize the soil. He says, “this work at the end of the day helps to improve the way we are farming, the way we preserve and restore the life of the soil, and also create awareness on the relevance of the biological pathways in the soil." Join Monte and Adrián as they explore the intricate relationships between microbial life and the soil as well as the work Bio Makers is doing to provide an understanding of these relationships. You can find out more about their BeCrop® products and solutions at: https://biomemakers.com/ Their products include BeCrop® Technology providing key insights to improve soil health, increase crop yield and quality, and reduce farm costs. BeCrop® is the missing puzzle piece in agriculture that connects soil needs to inputs and illuminates the path toward regenerating soils. Got questions you want answered? Send them our way and we'll do our best to research and find answers. Know someone you think would be great on the AgEmerge stage or podcast? Send your questions or suggestions to kim@asn.farm we'd love to hear from you.
In episode # 31 We sit down with Don Kagin of Kagin's and cover a bit of everything. We get a quick background on the history of Don's company, their research on Pioneer Gold, the Spanish Government's new bullion coins and more. As always, it's an honor and a pleasure to pick Don's brain and I'm glad we are able to share our conversation with you all. Enjoy!https://www.kagins.com/inventory/coin...https://www.apmex.com/product/262105/...https://vegascoindealer.com/http://auctions.vegascoindealer.com/Support the show
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This week on Weird News, an unfortunate purchase for the Spanish Government, A considerate Florida Man and Shaun's going to the Olympics!...If you want to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/heroesforhirepodcastTo get Heroes for Hire merch: https://heroesforhire.ie/shopFollow us on Twitter: @Heroes4hirepod , @conlawler , @shaunmeighanFollow us on Facebook: Det. Divilment's Discussion GroupFollow us on Instagram: heroesforhirepodcastEmail any questions or queries to: HeroesforHire_@outlook.com Big thanks to our Patrons:Róisín The Wife PalmerJoe BernieRyan Komatsu Dozer Enthusiast EvansonFun facts with Waffles Aotearoa New Zealand has the highest sheep to person ratio on the planet with roughly ten sheep per personDavid ClarkeShaun Chuck it in the wash and it'll be grand JamiesonDominicAnna Irish Walrus Forever HjelmroosDanny McLaughlinNo one's ever really gone….. Luke HothLordsmishMichelle BrowneMichaela DoughtyBusterEd BallThe adventures of Indiana Jones and the franchise that just won't dieLorraine and Conor have swapped the order of their names to purposefully bamboozle SeánRuss- Shaun you only have odd news stories and comic characters to go and then you won't like anything you talk about-ParfittJackson Brueheim Get access to all our movie reviews here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
jQuery(document).ready(function(){ cab.clickify(); }); Original Podcast with clickable words https://tinyurl.com/2g4u2yn2 Contact: irishlingos@gmail.com A change of tune at the IABA and sending young boxers to fight. Athrú poirt ag an IABA agus dornálaithe óga á gcur chun troda. The Irish Boxing Association, the IABA, have confirmed that they are going to backtrack on a decision they announced yesterday, and that they will now be sending a team to the World Under-18 Championship in Spain next month . Tá sé deimhnithe ag Cumann Dornálaíochta na hÉireann, an IABA, go bhfuil siad le ghabháil siar ar chinneadh a d'fhógair siad arú inné, agus go mbeidh siad anois ag cur foireann chuig Craobh Faoi Ocht mBliana Déag an Domhain sa Spáinn an mhí seo chugainn. When the boxers gathered for a team training session at the IABA high performance center in Dublin 10 days ago, they were told that a reduced team of twelve or so would be sent to Spain in an effort to reduce costs, but when the boxers returned to training last Saturday, they were told that no team at all would be sent to Spain. Nuair a chruinnigh na dornálaithe do sheisiún traenála foirne in ionad ardfheidhmíochta an IABA i mBaile Átha Cliath 10 lá ó shin, dúradh leo gur foireann laghadaithe, dáréag nó mar sin a bheithfí ag cur chun na Spáinne, i n-iarrachtaí costas a laghdú, ach nuair a d'fhill na dornálaithe don traenáil Dé Sathairn seo caite, dúradh leo nach mbeadh aon fhoireann chor ar bith á chur chun na Spáinne. The young boxers were told that due to a decision made by the High Council of the Organization to boycott the games, a team would not travel. Dúradh leis na dornálaithe óga gur de bharr cinneadh a rinne Ard Chomhairle na hEagraíochta boycott a chur ar na cluichí, nach mbeadh foireann ag taisteal. The boycott was said to be related to a decision made by the head of the world organization, the IBA, to allow a team from Russia and Belarus to participate in the competition at the World Championship. Bhain an boycott dúradh le cinneadh a rinne an ceann eagraíocht dhomhanda, an IBA, cead a thabhairt d'fhoireann ón Rúis agus ón mBealarúis páirt a ghlacadh san iomaíocht ag Craobh an Domhain. The boxers were heartbroken and their friends and parents organized an online petition campaign, and on social media, to try to convince the authorities to change their decision. Bhí na dornálaithe croíbhriste agus d'eagraigh cairde agus tuismitheoirí leo feachtas achainí ar líne, agus ar na meáin shóisialta, féachaint a chur ina luí ar na húdaráis a gcinneadh a athrú. The President of the Boxing Association of Ireland Gerry O'Mahony confirmed to Nuacht RTE/TG4 this evening that it is now possible to send twelve to Spain, because the Spanish Government has refused travel permission to the teams from Russia and Belarus. Dheimhnigh Uachtarán Chumann Dornálaíochta na hÉireann Gerry O'Mahony do Nuacht RTE/TG4 tráthnóna go bhfuil fúthú anois dáréag a chur chun na Spáinne, de bharr go bhfuil Rialtas na Spáinne i ndiaidh cead taistil a dhiúltú do na foirne as an Rúis agus an Bhealarúis. He strongly denied that efforts to save money had anything to do with the IABA's decision to announce a boycott of the world games yesterday. Shéan sé go láidir go raibh aon bhaint ag iarrachtaí airgead a shábáil le cinneadh an IABA boycott a fhógairt ar na cluichí domhanda arú inné.
Spain's equality ministry recently launched a summer campaign to encourage women worried about how their body looks to go to the beach. Whilst the thought behind this advertising campaign may be positive, three women have since come forward saying their images had been used without their consent. Why do Governments feel they don't need permissions to use photographs?======================================00:00 Intro01:46 Krys Alex & UK Cyber Campaign04:06 Beach Bodies Campaign======================================THIS WEEK'S LINKS:Episode 37 - KRYS ALEX Interview - https://youtu.be/u08qEDgX3i0JOIN THE CAMERA SHAKE COMMUNITY for the latest news and some behind the scenes insights: www.camerashakepodcast.com======================================CAMERA SHAKE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE:https://www.youtube.com/camerashakeFULL EPISODE 115 IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON: YouTube - https://youtu.be/hKjfrvCIQkAApple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2Y2LmfmSpotify - https://spoti.fi/304sm2G======================================FOLLOW US ONInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/camerashakepodcast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/camerashakepodcastTwitter: https://twitter.com/ShakeCameraTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camerashakepodcastKersten's website:www.kerstenluts.comKersten on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/kerstenluts/https://www.instagram.com/threeheadsinarow/Nick on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/nickkirbymedia/
The Spanish Government recently announced that it is considering creating new laws that would give employees the right to take between 3 and 5 days off every month if they suffer from severe period pain. Several other countries around the world already have period leave, so should our Government consider implementing the same laws for people here? The Quicky speaks to an expert in women's health, and a specialist doctor to find out whether period leave is necessary for female workers, and if and how it could work here in Australia without bankrupting businesses. Subscribe to Mamamia GET IN TOUCH Feedback? We're listening! Call the pod phone on 02 8999 9386 or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au CONTACT US Got a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us an email at thequicky@mamamia.com.au CREDITS Host: Emma Gillespie With thanks to: Dr Sonia Davison - Endocrinologist at the Jean Hailes Medical Centre, and President of the Australasian Menopause Society (AMS) who has a special interest in women's health, including gynaecological and general endocrinology. Sonia recently spoke at Mamamia's Very Peri Summit on the science behind Perimenopause Emilee Gilbert - Associate Professor in Psychological Science at the University of Western Sydney and an expert across a range of qualitative research methods, public health policies and practices, and the application of post-structural feminist theory to the analysis of issues surrounding gender, health and sexuality Producer: Emma Gillespie Executive Producer: Siobhán Moran-McFarlane Audio Producer: Thom Lion Subscribe to The Quicky at...https://mamamia.com.au/the-quicky/ Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading our articles or listening to our podcasts, you're helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We're currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Support the show: https://www.mamamia.com.au/mplus/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Wallace and panellists Dr Ella Henry and Mark Knoff-Thomas hear from economist Tony Alexander about why the New Zealand housing market has gone from the fear of missing out to the fear of paying too much. They talk to food waste consultant Kaitlin Dawson about the Spanish Government's move curb food waste and what is happening here in Aotearoa. And finally they talk to one of New Zealand's top food microbiologists Dr John Brooks about why the humble kitchen sponge might be doing more harm than good.
This week Eoghan speaks to academic Deborah Madden and journalist Laura Seoane about the feminist policies being advanced by Spain's coalition government, concentrating particularly on the country's new active sexual consent law (known as 'only yes is yes'). We also talk about how the debates among different strands of the country's feminist movement are playing out at cabinet, with major differences emerging on trans rights, prostitution and menstrual leave.
Adrián Ferrero is the Co-Founder and CEO of Biome Makers, one of the foremost global AgTech leaders setting the standard in soil health with BeCrop® technology. Built on industry-leading AgTech expertise and driven by data and science, Biome Makers connectsoil biology to agricultural decision-making to optimize farming practices and reverse the degradation of arable soils. With labs across the globe, customers on 4 continents, and 1M+ acres of land impacted, Biome Makers revitalizes soil functionality and agricultural sustainability worldwide. With recognition from the Spanish Government, Illumina Accelerator, and MIT Technology Review —Adrián is a self-described entrepreneur on a mission to improve the world. He holds a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Salamanca and a Master of Environmental Management from the Turku School of Economics and Business Administration. Growing up in an agricultural region of Spain inspired Adrián to co-found, together with Alberto Acedo, Biome Makers Inc., and create its patented BeCrop® technology. From there, Biome Makers has received many awards worldwide (AgSum in Japan, agripreneur 2019 in Greece, WINnovation in US, or Best innovative startup by AgFunder) and attracted over $24M from investors. Prior to Biome Makers, Adrián has founded three start-ups and worked as an innovation consultant for more than nine years. Connect with Biome Makers Website | Twitter Co-op Links Co-op Details | Buy an NFT | Resources | Follow us on Twitter for memes
Our LUXURY VOICE today is María Llinares, Tourism Councilor for Tourspain. Maria developed almost her entire professional career in the public and institutional communication sector. After working in the organization of the international news coverage of the President of the Spanish Government in the Secretary of State for Communication, she worked for five years in China and five in Russia, as head of communication for the Embassy of Spain. In September 2020 Maria returned to Beijing as Tourism Councilor, joining the Turespaña team. In this episode, Joanne and María discuss the current tourism situation in Spain, how to capture arrival growth from China post pandemic, what defines Spain as a luxury destination and how to increase the mix of luxury travelers from Spain. About this episode:Company Name TourspainCompany Website www.visitspain.com.cnwww.spain.info About Infinite Luxury:LUXURY VOICES is a podcast curated by Infinite Luxury Group, a luxury Sales, Marketing, Communications specialist based in Asia. www.infiniteluxurygroup.com Follow us: LinkedIN www.linkedin.com/in/infinite-luxury-a132271bInstagram infiniteluxurymanifestoWeChat InfiniteLuxury-jxm Contact us: WeChat InfiniteLuxuryEmail hongkong@infiniteluxurygroup.com Podcast available on iTunes, Spotify, online or wherever you listen to your episodes
Show #1458 Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily, you trusted source of EV information. It's Saturday 7th May, it's Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to. VOLKSWAGEN: AFFORDABLE SMALL EV TO BE MADE IN SPAIN FROM 2025 ⚡️ Volkswagen Group & SEAT S.A. will help to electrify #Spain by ▶️ mobilizing 10 billion € - the single largest industrial investment in Spain's history ▶️ building a battery factory in Sagunto ▶️ producing small e-cars in Spain from 2025 ▶️ building up a comprehensive supplier ecosystem “The Volkswagen Group, SEAT and the Spanish Government share a vision: to make Spain a European hub for electric mobility. We are ready to initiate this transformation”, says our CEO Herbert Diess. Sneak peek!
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Two examples of European alt. protein policy, published by Aryan on April 27, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Two weeks ago, at EAG: London, I was introduced to alternative protein policy. I went into conversations about alt pro policy without really knowing anything about it. I also realised there wasn't a forum post that would give me examples of what this space looked like beforehand. I thought I'd try and fill that gap. This post is a quick look at two concrete policy projects in Europe. Thanks to Alex Holst for helping me learn about them! All mistakes remain my own. Public research funding The first initiative that has had a strong push by people working in European alternative protein policy is to have government-backed funding for open-access alternative protein research. Whereas companies who provide private alternative protein financing guard the research that gets produced, public funding for open-access research would give more talented people access to cutting-edge research and new developments, ideally allowing new alt pro companies to get off the ground more quickly and easily. It should also allow more types of alternative proteins (like plant-based steak) to work their way into markets. The theory of change with alternative protein is to get consumers who would otherwise eat meat to switch over to plant-based/cultivated meat items. Research (and my anecdotal evidence) suggests that alt pro companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are getting close to hitting the nail on the head in regards to the taste of plant-based burgers. However, there is still an array of meat items that plant-based alternatives can't compete with and a lack of companies to help fix that. What public funding can do is provide companies with the fuel to accelerate their research and development and allow them to get their products out on shelves at competitive price points. Examples of this type of policy initiative The Dutch government invested €60 million in funding for cultivated meat and precision fermentation. Horizon Europe made €32 million in funding available for areas including sustainable protein research. The Spanish Government invested €5.2M in Cultured Meat Labels Another policy initiative is to fight for clearer labels of alternative proteins in Europe. Europe is fairly strict when it comes to advertising and labelling. For example, purely plant-based products cannot, in principle, be marketed with designations such as ‘milk', ‘cream', ‘butter', ‘cheese' or ‘yoghurt', which are reserved by EU law for animal products. (See here) The European Union considered banning plant-based producers from describing their products with words like ‘burgers' and ‘sausages'. The European Alliance for Plant-based Foods tried to fight this and won! By lobbying against the proposed ban and getting the word out via media outlets across Europe, the ban difference came down to just 48 out of 705 votes, and phrases like “plant-based sausages” – were protected. Another example of this can be seen with amendment 171. I am generalising here. This study was done on participants in the U.S. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.
This week on Energy Unplugged, we discuss energy security and the current energy crisis at just few hours since the UK Government has published its much anticipated energy security strategy. Our Managing Director for UK and Ireland, Dan Monzani, is delighted to welcome to the podcast the UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - Kwasi Kwarteng. The British Energy Security Strategy comes at a very challenging time for the global energy policy and sets out how Great Britain will accelerate homegrown power for greater energy independence. Main topics include: • Security of gas supply and UK's access to the physical supply of gas for the next winter • The Government's new commitments on hydrogen and its potential in decarbonisation • The longer term announcements on electricity security including technology announcements such as an increased target of 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030 • Market reform options in the UK and the bigger market interventions suggested in Europe, such as the Spanish Government's proposal to cap wholesale prices charged by gas generators
EPISODE 15 (Minisode): A WIBBLY-WOBBLY, TIMEY-WIMEY FILIPINO TELEPORTATION TALE In our first (actually ‘mini') minisode, we cover a fascinating tale of teleportation all the way from our 16th-century Philippine colonial period. In this account, we meet the unassuming guardia civil Gil Perez, who was inexplicably plucked from his guard post in Manila to another place thousands of miles away. Was it a hoax? ESP? Or were there more devilish forces at play? — Notes: On Dasmariñas: The Spanish Government named the town Perez de Dasmariñas in honor of the Spanish Governor General of the islands from 1590-1593. Perez Dasmariñas was well remembered because he was the one who initiated the fortification of Intramuros and Fort Santiago. (From https://dasmacitygov.weebly.com/) — The Gods Must Be Crazy is a podcast on Philippine Mythology hosted by friends Anama Dimapilis and Ice Lacsamana, avid mythology nerds, and semi-professional gossips. Follow us over at @godsmustbecrazy.pod on Instagram and Facebook for more good stuff. We also welcome any suggestions on future topics or episodes. You can also find us on Youtube – Gods Must Be Crazy Podcast channel, where we post some of our episodes and interviews. For other inquiries, please email us at godsmustbecrazy.pod@gmail.com The intro and outro music is by Brian O'Reilly (@dendriform on Instagram). --- SOURCES: https://justhistoryposts.com/2020/10/24/a-brief-moment-of-history-the-teleported-soldier/ https://archive.org/details/legendsofcityofm00janvrich/page/96/mode/2up?view=theater https://mexicodailypost.com/2021/10/02/the-soldier-teleported-from-the-philippines-to-mexico-in-1593/ https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/315457/p2fb-time-traveler-claims-philippines-will-be-a-giant-utopia-crime-free-by-2030/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Episode 156: Julio Berbel is a Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Cordoba where he coordinates the research group ‘WEARE' (Water, Environmental, Agriculture and Resource Economics), which works on environmental management, agribusiness and biotechnology. He holds a PhD in Agricultural Engineering (Univ. Córdoba) and a Masters in Agricultural Economics (Univ. Manchester). He has consulted for the European Commission, Spanish Government and other public administrations and private stakeholders. He combines hand-on experience in environmental and agribusiness sector with academic and scientific perspectives. Julio's homepage https://www.uco.es/investiga/grupos/weare/people/julio-berbel/ JT on blockchain and farmers https://soundcloud.com/jivetalking/07-keith-agoda-connects-farmers David's posts on footprints https://kysq.org/aguanomics/2016/02/four-billion-facing-severe-water-scarcity-i-think-not/ David's posts on diversions vs return flows https://kysq.org/aguanomics/2018/05/chris-perry-on-water-rights/ http://kysq.org/aguanomics/2012/02/water-rights-diversion-or-consumption/ https://kysq.org/aguanomics/2015/03/the-problem-is-water-consumption-not-use/
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, stood up before the plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York today, Thursday, September 23, and warned that he believes “democracy is threatened”, calling for its “defence”, as the only alternative against any totalitarian, exclusive and intolerant drift”.
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, stood up before the plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York today, Thursday, September 23, and warned that he believes “democracy is threatened”, calling for its “defence”, as the only alternative against any totalitarian, exclusive and intolerant drift”.
Nuria Montes, general secretary of Hosbec, the hoteliers association of Benidorm and the Costa Blanca, made a scathing attack of the UK's criteria for classifying countries in their traffic light system and accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of protectionism. Emiliano García-Page, president of Castilla-La Mancha, has said that his government is planning to end the compulsory use of face masks outdoors in the region by July. According to a recent study published in early April 2021, by researchers Adrià Miralles- Núñez, Carlos Pradera and Juan A. Pujol, a new insect – Zelus renardii – with a powerful bite, has been detected in some of the autonomous communities of Spain, namely, the Valencian Community, Madrid and Cádiz, but they forecast that it will quickly spread to other regions of the country. Guardia Civil officers in La Zubia – a small municipality in the province of Granada – have arrested a 38-year-old man who has a previous criminal record, charged with being suspected of stealing more than €8,000 from an 80-year-old woman after he passed himself off as a gas inspector in order to enter her home. There has been a lot of speculation recently both on social media and in the press about whether UK visitors to Spain who are coming to stay with friends and family, and do not have tourist accommodation booked, have to complete and pay for a carta de invitación, an official form that specifies who you will be staying with while in Spain. The Spanish Government has clarified that the carta de invitation is one of the options available to prove that you have accommodation if staying with friends or family. One piece of good news for UK nationals living abroad arrived this week: British citizens will be given “votes for life” as the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scrapping the current 15-year limit on voting rights.
Check out today's TOP travel news!JoinMyTrip has you covered! In today's travel news, the Norwegian Cruise Line has announced plans to return to service from July 25th. Here is the most important travel news from around the world that we would like to share with you. Watch our daily YouTube Travel News Show, so you can stay informed every day. If you happen to have missed the previous episode, make sure to check that out too!8th April, Thursday. For all those of you who are dreaming about a lovely cruise trip this year, the Norwegian Cruise line has announced plans to return to service from July 25th. However, the line will restart with limited capacity with Norwegian Jade, Joy and Gem as the first of its 17 ship fleet. In Spain, the Covid 19 mutations have widely spread. So the Spanish Government has extended the existing restrictions for certain regions. The restrictions will be imposed till April 19, 2021 and it could be extended if the virus and the mutation is not contained. Yesterday, I reported about the Travel Bubble initiated between Australia and New Zealand. However, now Singapore wants to join the travel bubble with Australia as early as July. The three top travel stocks to watch out for April are Royal Caribbean Cruises, Airbnb and Walt Disney. The Post Office has won top honours as a travel and life insurance provider for 2021 in the UK.Today's Fun Travel Fact: The world's busiest airport is Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, USA.Source : Breaking Travel News, Simple Flying, Skift, Insurance Business Mag We hope you enjoyed this episode of JoinMyTrip Travel News. See you Tomorrow!------------------------------------------------------------New to JoinMyTrip? No Problem!To start joining other people's experiences or create your own, head over to www.JoinMyTrip.com the New Community for Travelers.Find like-minded travelers to join your trip or plan your own trip with JoinMyTrip. Share costs, experiences, and come home with unforgettable memories.We are a community of 125,000+ passionate travelers around the world. We connect travelers to share their interests, travel costs and unforgettable memories.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••▷ Find us on social media! Instagram ‣ https://www.instagram.com/join.my.trip/Twitter ‣ https://twitter.com/joinmytrip
As New Zealanders prepares for a four-day working week, more businesses and governments are getting on board with making it permanent.The Spanish Government is offering to cover the cost of four-day weeks at some businesses.It follows trials of a 32-hour working week here in New Zealand, by Perpetual Guardian and Unilever.Four-Day Week Campaign spokesman Joe Ryle told Tim Dower workers on four-day weeks are more rested, and motivated.He says companies trialling the four-day week are getting more output from their workers.LISTEN ABOVE
Teresa Ribera, Deputy Prime Minister in the Spanish government and the Minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, is joining us this week on Cleaning Up. She has played a key role in Spain’s low-carbon transition and is a vocal advocate of a green COVID-19 recovery. Bio Since 2018 Teresa Ribera is a Deputy Prime Minister in the Spanish Government and the Minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge. In her role, she has advocated reorienting the Spanish economy towards green tech, put in place a €220m deal to get coal off the grid as well as negotiating a nuclear phase-out. From 2008 to 2011 she held the position of Secretary of State for Climate Change and Biodiversity in the second administration of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Between her two ministerial stints in government, Teresa was the Director of the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations. In that capacity, she focused on influencing the negotiations towards the Paris Climate Agreement. From 2004 to 2008 she served as Director-General of the Office of Climate Change, and prior to that, Teresa worked closely with different ministries in the Spanish government including Environment, Public Works, and Transportation. Teresa studied law at the Complutense University of Madrid and constitutional law with political science at the Center for Constitutional Studies. Following her studies, she worked as an assistant professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She was featured in Politico’s ‘Class of 2021’ annual ranking of the most powerful people in Europe. In 2018 she received Climate Reality Project Award in the category of 'Public Personality'. Links Bio https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/gobierno/Paginas/130120-teresariberarodrig.aspx Energy pact divides EU as Spain threatens walkout (February 2021) https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-split-over-energy-charter-treaty-as-spain-floats-unilateral-withdrawal/ European Green Deal must be central to a resilient recovery after Covid-19 (April 2020) https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/04/09/european-green-deal-must-central-resilient-recovery-covid-19/ Spain’s socialists win the election with Green New Deal Platform (April 2019) https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/04/29/spains-socialists-win-election-green-new-deal-platform/ European Green Deal must be central to a resilient recovery after Covid-19 (April 2020) https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/04/09/european-green-deal-must-central-resilient-recovery-covid-19/ Declaration from AT, DK, ES, LU, PT on the adoption of the ‘Manifesto for the development of a European “Hydrogen Technologies and Systems” value chain’ https://www.euractiv.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/Declaration-AT-DK-ES-LU-PT-manifesto-IPCEI-hydrogen_clean2.pdf Further Reading: Liebreich: Climate and Finance – Lessons from a Time Machine (March 2021) https://about.bnef.com/blog/liebreich-climate-and-finance-lessons-from-a-time-machine/?fbclid=IwAR1AlzXo4r7zA8v7v5D1XyydcFlU8ueu4h63fuQy1ZU5CvIFqISa2O44KNY About Cleaning Up Once a week Michael Liebreich has a conversation (and a drink) with a leader in clean energy, mobility, climate finance or sustainable development. Each episode covers the technical ground on some aspect of the low-carbon transition – but it also delves into the nature of leadership in the climate transition: whether to be optimistic or pessimistic; how to communicate in order to inspire change; personal credos; and so on. And it should be fun – most of the guests are Michael’s friends. Follow Cleaning Up on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLCleaningUp Follow Cleaning Up on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clea... Follow Cleaning Up on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MLCleaningUp Links to other Podcast Platforms: https://www.cleaningup.live/
Last week the Spanish Government agreed to a pilot scheme for a four-day work week. In Ireland, the 'Four-Day Week Ireland' Campaign has been making moves to shorten the Irish work week and Joe O'Connor, Director of campaigning for Forsa and chairperson of the 'Four-Day Week Ireland' campaign, joined the show to explain the work.
Nadia Calviño, Vice President of the Spanish Government and Minister for Economy and Digitalisation, and László Andor, FEPS Secretary General, analyse in this podcast episode the Spanish recovery plan in a European context. The Spanish economy is one of the hardest hit in Europe by the #COVID-19 crisis, mainly due to its dependence on sectors like tourism and hospitality. From the first days of the crisis one year ago, the Spanish government embarked on a strategy to mitigate the economic consequences and to establish a social safety net to avoid a rise of unemployment and poverty comparable to the previous one. Calviño and Andor agree that this time Europe has provided a timely and robust response, with better coordination through the whole EU, which makes this crisis different to the last one. Looking to the future, the Vice-President explains the need to adapt the Spanish economy to four progressive pillars: digital transformation, green transition, social and territorial cohesion and gender equality. She also opines that the EU’s SURE instrument is just a start, to be followed by genuine re-insurance of unemployment benefit schemes.
In today's episode I invite Saket Sethi. Saket Sethi is the Founder and Principal of Archilogics in Mumbai and Barcelona - a collective of avant-garde designers redefining contextual future living from a historical perspective for an international audience. He has the rare distinction of being the only Indian Architect hosting two TV shows simultaneously; disseminating the latest on Indian design with NDTV GoodTimes “Luxe Interiors” and a celebrity design chat show with a makeover for Fox Life's “Design HQ” Season 2. Saket has a Bachelor of Architecture from Woodbury University, LA; studied Digital Design at UC Berkeley and Interior Design at NYU. He interned with Eric Owen Moss, Frederick Gibson and KMD Architects before establishing Archilogics. He was recognised as ‘Avant Garde Architect of the Year' by Good Homes Magazine in 2016. Saket engages in various teaching activities and has been featured in leading design magazines like AD & Elle Decor and also writes for the largest Indian newspapers including the Times and HT group. He was invited by the Spanish Government to be a guest at the opening of the Spanish Pavilion at La Biennale 2018 in Venezia and is writing an article for his pick of Top Pavilions at the Biennale for Elle Decor India.
Jesus Nebot is a renowned filmmaker, social entrepreneur and human rights activist who speaks internationally on issues related to environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfillment. He is the newest member of the Gente Unida Board. www.GenteUnida.net Originally from Spain, Jesus studied drama in Madrid, and eventually made his way to Venezuela where he became well known and loved as a telenovela star. Nebot’s eventual emigration to the United States created a crisis in self identity and 180 degree turn in the direction of his career and life mission as he found himself a homeless actor and producer in Los Angeles. Nebot recreated himself as a social entrepreneur, activist, motivational speaker and producer who now uses the arts to create awareness and social change. Jesus is the winner of 26 international awards for his work as writer, director, producer and star of the immigration feature film NO TURNING BACK which has been sold to 92 countries already. Nebot’s latest film is AMERICAN NIGHTMARE, about the unfair criminalization of undocumented immigrants. It has already won 11 short film festival awards and it can now be viewed athttp://www.americannightmarefilm.com ( www.americannightmarefilm.com) Jesús has been invited to over 200 universities and colleges to show his films and inspire students become visionary leaders that can solve our greatest social challenges. After receiving his B.A. degree with honors from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in Madrid, Jesus completed his training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York on scholarship from the Spanish Government. He then became internationally known for his starring roles in the top-rated television series’ “LA LOBA HERIDA” and “DIVINA OBSESION,” distributed by Warner Brothers International in 29 countries. Seeking to expand his career Jesus came to the United States in 1995 where he was granted the green card as a “person with extraordinary ability in the arts.” In 2000, Jesus launched his own production company by the name of Zokalo Entertainment with the intent of making films that were socially relevant and thought-provoking. Zokalo’s first production was the critically acclaimed feature "NO TURNING BACK" picked up for distribution by Universal after its successful theatrical release in Europe and in the United States. Nebot’s recent acting credits include guest-starring roles in the Fox EMMY WINNING SERIES’ “NYPD BLUE" and “ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT.” Nebot’s mission has always been to inspire personal and social healing and transformation through his speaking engagements, training seminars and artistic endeavors, including writing, producing, directing and acting. http://www.jesusnebot.com/ (www.jesusnebot.com) 323-295-0000 Ph. Watch film at http://www.americannightmarefilm.com/ (www.americannightmarefilm.com) or at youtube at https://youtu.be/x2olcBQsvn4 (https://youtu.be/x2olcBQsvn4) NO TURNING BACK trailer youtube at https://youtu.be/6F7dE-eV5bM (https://youtu.be/6F7dE-eV5bM) Subscribe to our podcast at BuenHombre.org or ManificentMujer.org, on AppleItunes, TuneIn, Stitcher and on Youtube at Buen Hombre Magnificent Mujer. Please like our podcast and videos on these platforms as it helps us reach more listeners and grow our community. Join me as I talk to important influencers on issues regarding human rights, activism, creativity and how we can all make this a better world. Hear their inspiring stories, Amor Si Se Puede! Love is an Action not just a word. Buen Hombre Magnificent Mujer is a project of GenteUnida.net A 501c3 nonprofit corporation and all donations are tax deductible… Donate to Buen Hombre.org MagnificentMujer.org at https://www.genteunida.shop/support-a-program/ (https://www.genteunida.shop/support-a-program/) Support this podcast
Transcript: Day 95 Bonfire night Thursday and now just a few days before everything un locks, the end of the Alarma and the new normal will start on Monday, many Spanish can go back to work and get the working week off to.. er, well er, a two day start, because next Wednesday “we are having a Fiesta” The Fiesta of San Juan to be precise, the beginning of summer and those long summer holidays, after all we have all been working so hard these last few weeks … erm! San Juan is when hordes of Spanish all head to the beach for a party, it will last all night and bonfires are lit all along the coast on the beach, there will be a lot of food and drink, all in throwaway plastic containers, barbecues and plenty of booze, that will also come in plastic containers and tin cans. The idea is that the bonfires of San Juan are said to purify and protect, and ward of evil spirits, also at midnight, Spanish time, you go to the water’s edge and wash your face in the sea water to bring you good luck and hope for the future. The following morning all along the beautiful coastline it looks like there has been an illegal rave, the devastation and litter is truly appalling. The crowds must leave the beach by 10am that following day so that a massive council run cleaning operation can come along and mitigate the damage done to the eco system. By removing hundreds of tons of rubbish off the beaches. They are often too late, and we have the pleasure of watching swathes of plastic litter pass by us on the sea. For two years running the locals decided, why bother bringing your own firewood to the beach when you can rip up the disabled wooden walkways for wheelchairs and set fire to them, at the expense of the local council and of course those who are disabled. Ok, ok, I am painting a rather bleak picture here and there are some who bring their own bin bags and do clear up, but some don’t and as I have mentioned the Spanish do like a smoke, so hundreds and thousands of butt ends are discarded on the beach. Every cigarette has a small ring of plastic at the filter end, so they also need to be cleared up off the beach too. At least twice a year usually at the end of summer we have beach cleaning volunteers who go along the beaches collecting cigarette ends and other summer holiday detritus left by visitors and tourists. This year, San Juan is cancelled, no bonfires, no plastic waste out at sea, no drunken behaviour ripping up disabled boardwalks, also no income for the bars and restaurants that stay open all night. Covid19 measures mean instead of spending money on cleaning up the beaches, the council is spending money on policing the beaches and closing them ALL across the whole of Spain next Wednesday. I have been to a San Juan festival and enjoyed the event, but there is a great deal of young drunken behaviour, a lot of drugs and booze, not the family event we were expecting so came away soon after midnight. I think what has happened, well at least here, is that what should be a great family festival has been hijacked by a club 18 to 30 mob who just go wild and trash the place. We have seen it happen so many times in the UK. When we lived in Essex, we were very close to a rather attractive park with a museum, there were ornamental flower beds and lovely stretches of grass to enjoy a summers day on. Except that summer picnics have turned into a competition to scatter as much plastic and other waste around and then leave it on the grass. I know speaking like this makes me into a bit of a Victor Meldrew. I am not. I like a good party, I like to let my hair down, if I had any, but I can’t bear to leave a mess behind, and I don’t understand why you would want to do that? Thursday and the economic figures are starting to emerge all over Europe detailing the cost to the economies of Lockdown. In Germany there was a 13% decline in economic activity, here in Spain a whopping 34% fall in output. Spain is hit harder as it has a reliance on the services industry. And almost 95% of Spanish businesses are small to medium enterprises, here where we live, they are often family run. It was another of those big culture shocks to discover so few national chains of anything other than McDonalds or Burger King, I swear the first business on the moon will be one of those two. The Spanish Government is expecting a drop in GDP of 9.2% this year, I personally think they are way out and GDP has fallen a lot more than that. There is to be EU money made available to help Spain but some in the EU are worried that the left-wing Government will spend the money on ideological schemes rather than re-igniting the business sector. The conservatives in Spain believe that the money should be spent on digitising Spain, making more of the administration online and easier to work, create jobs with re-industrialisation to provide what they describe as ‘real jobs’. The good news is neither side want cuts or austerity. The bad news is as usual left and right are both at logger heads as to how the money should be spent. One thing is for certain though, they are not alone, the whole world is sharing in the same challenges and that getting us out of lockdown will be a far more complicated process than putting us in.
Transcript (uncorrected) Day 92 Dance off Monday has come, I usually dread Monday as it always brings administration stuff which I really don’t care for. By the way if you want to catch all 92 episodes with transcripts of Spanish Practices head over to THE secret spain dot com. Today the administration was our Spanish Tax return, I say our, as we are married it has been done jointly, I get the classification of Woman, the form does not seem to have a code for Partner. The Spanish Tax year runs from January to December, unlike the UK tax year that runs April to April, it means that, certainly for a Brit you have to get your shite together straight after a major holiday of feasting and excess. The Spanish celebrate Christmas differently, it outwardly seems a much more serious affair, Midnight Mass at the Church is a rather dreary occasion, I have heard carol singing from the children in the main town. Carols are sung in Latin which makes them sound beautiful if a little inaccessible. We still haven’t got our Christmas quite right, it is fairly difficult to have a traditional Christmas here, several attempts at cooking a turkey has led us to give up and go for a chicken. The main Spanish meal and celebration is on Christmas Eve, like it is in many other Catholic countries. One year our friend Maggie got us organised enough to make a Christmas cake, she brought dried fruit over from the UK, it is quite hard to find here, even though a lot of it comes from nearby Morocco, There is more than a physical divide between Spain and Morocco, it extends to a cultural one as well. When the Moors were driven out of Spain by the Christians, the ones that remained were forced to convert to Christianity and as a kind of obvious test, a lot of local Christian dishes were pork based. Many of the exotic spices were now more difficult to obtain and were not used in the new Christian cuisine of the conquered area. It does mean that the local pork here is quite delicious, but for our friends who are Jewish who asked me did I think there was anywhere Kosher to eat, the answer here is no. The cake we made came out very well, Maggie told me to feed it regularly with Brandy. So I fed it every day, turns out that it only needed a feed once a week, but I have to say it was far more delicious Brandy soaked. But it does not put you in the mood to fill a tax form in, January is bleak enough without that. There are personal allowances here, but less generous than the UK, there is also little incentive to save, no ISAs or as far as I can see opportunity to easily buy shares, up to now cash is king, it allows the Spanish to ‘protect’ there money from the onerous tax system. I mentioned to Carmen that winning the lottery is probably the only way the ordinary Spanish can hope to amass a fortune. She told me “you are joking, they tax you if you win at 33%!” So good luck can turn into bad luck when the tax man comes knocking to take a share of your good fortune. In the UK, I believe the tax is taken at source when you buy a ticket, in the long run the taxman makes more money taxing everyone than just the winners, but it doesn’t work like that here. Speaking of Christmas, one year in the little village of Velez the whole village, well everyone who was in the syndicate won the major Christmas lottery – The Gordo. Every person walked away with one hundred thousand Euros, many bought flashy cars and others improved their houses, for one-year Velez was a very lucky little village. Monday and today the Alhambra has announced how it will welcome visitors back to the palaces. No more tickets but a system that links your entry back to your Passport number or DNI number and I guess our NIE number. The attraction will run at just fifty percent so a lot fewer visitors milling around could actually make the Alhambra a nicer place to visit. Some clarification on tourists yesterday and it looks like the British will also be allowed to come to Spain along with the rest of the European Gang, although not a member of the Schengen area or an affiliate, I think, if I understand right, UK is still technically in Europe so tourists are allowed. There is the complication that the UK has, finally, introduced a quarantine period, just at the time the whole of Europe drops their quarantine period. I was looking on a Spanish site that has the UK Government quarantine advert in Spanish on. I have to say the Spanish were very unimpressed by the less than warm welcome they might receive in London, so I imagine if you stay at home in the UK this year, London will also be a great place to see as there will be fewer tourists willing to spend 14 days banged up in a Travelodge waiting for their holiday of a lifetime to start. Oh, and if you are thinking of going on a clubbing holiday to Ibiza this year, it looks very much like you will not be doing much dancing. Clubs that have areas for dancing will be prohibited from opening them. The dance floor must be laid out for sedentary use. Tables and chairs with social distancing measures. I think the Spanish Government has identified clubs with a lot of people up close and personal as a viral hotspot. To discover more episodes of this Podcast Spanish Practices head along to the secret spain dot com where you can find all the episodes and transcripts. This evening we are off to the gym, Chris has a class to teach, I am not sure that there will be many people there, it is after all the first day of Gym’s being able to open, tomorrow I will report back on just how that went. SOC
Transcript here: Day 90 holiday from hell Saturday your Sunday and the Spanish Government has started to talk about how they envisage foreign visitors coming to the country, the first lot will turn up on Monday, they are Germans coming to the Balearic Islands. Interestingly about 35,000 people travelled to Spain in May, whilst not holidaymakers, they were mainly people returning back to Spain for work or back to their residency. From all those who travelled, 104 people were detected to have Corona Virus. But in a couple of weeks the onslaught will begin, instead of personnel there will be automatic heat detector cameras, inline health declarations, this will only apply to people arriving by sea and air. If you drive into the country, there will be no health checks. But as we know people lie on health declarations, they do it all the time with travel insurance, and how do you track and trace hundreds of thousands of visitors into the country? I am not sure that will be possible. For us we are probably going to stay away from the beaches and bars, at least for the moment. For the all-important tourist industry, the spring was a disaster, a complete standstill, nobody went anywhere, saw anything and it is highly likely that, that will continue into the summer. Only half of the hotels in Spain will open and most of them will only be at 25% capacity. As I have mentioned in previous Podcasts, tourism represents more than 12% of Spain’s GDP. The Industry want some kind official map of safe areas to travel in Europe that will allow travel corridors, I am not sure that any area is really safe. Also, you are going to have to ask yourself can I trust the airline. How safe will the hotel be? If there is a virus outbreak, will I end up being trapped in Spain unable to return home? Airports are fairly unpleasant places not, what will they be like with all the virus prevention measures? Personally, I have no plans to travel at the moment, we are discouraging friends and relatives from travelling this year too. It is not all bleak news, there will be intrepid folk who will see this as an opportunity. An opportunity to explore and see tourist sites normally rammed with coach parties and other tourists. The Spanish themselves will probably come to the coast, so far, fingers crossed, the social distancing on the beach is working well, helped by the Lifeguards and security staff employed by the Local Government to ensure beach safety. The new normal is embracing face masks, alcohol cleaner and reducing surfaces and objects that get touched a lot. All the restaurants here are using chalk board menus or telling you is on offer. No sticky menus and special of the day cards. Our Gym also opens on Monday, there are a raft of health measures and social distancing happening. Studios are marked out for distance, entry is strictly by booking a class, use of masks and alcohol cleaner at the point of entry to the class is obligatory. But you don’t need to wear your mask when you are in position in your marked square. Exercise equipment has been re-spaced to reflect the 1.5 metre rule for distancing and cleaner is to be used on all equipment. The use of a towel is also obligatory, it was before. I am not a fan of grubby towels; I prefer disposable tissues and cleaner before and after I use an exercise machine. Towels don’t kill bacteria or viruses but do mop up the sweat. We will go on Monday, Chris is teaching a class, it will be interesting to see how many turn up and what the overall experience will be like. Saturday afternoon and Carmen is coming, or rather we are going to pick her up from Alcampo after I collect my glasses, hoping there will be no dramas collecting them, I have waited patiently for nearly three months for them. Currently I am writing this with a pair of one Euro reading specs from the pound shop, which is far from perfect. I do worry that we all bang on about the new normal, but that it doesn’t actually exists and that the virus is still out there waiting. I don’t even know if I have the virus and was asymptomatic, I bet you don’t either. New glasses but no fitting service, they were just inched over a sanitised mat and I was given a card to read from, in Spanish of course. We were early so shopped in Alcampo, no gloves just alcohol dispensed from an automatic machine. The shelves were looking healthier, no police tape sealing off the things you could not buy, I am still wondering who made a list that you could buy a TV but not a book. We saw Carmen and we drove her back home to hand over the car. Some refreshments and a bowl of Tyrrells Crisps, “Oh my god, I forgotten how good British salt and vinegar crisps taste,” She said. The Spanish supermarkets are not very adventurous in the crisp flavours. I notice that quite a few Spanish like Pipa’s – they are just sunflower seeds that they eat spiting the husks out into a nearby handy ashtray. The day ended with Carmen disappearing into the distance with our old car. Tomorrow as story of the Playboy King of Spain and why a little beach below the estate got Royal Approval. If you are enjoying Spanish Practices we would love a 5 star review. The music Leaving Havana is by Marty Stone and Ben Hatten, Spanish Practices is a Creative Radio Partnership Ltd Production.
Today the embarrassment of explaining Fawlty Towers to my Spanish friends, an internet outage, and the end of central Government control in Spain Find out more: https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 87 Fake Spanish Waiters uncorrected transcript Wednesday and the Spanish Parliament has approved the Royal Decree for “new normality”. It starts in a very good place with central control being released and the regional Governments can go back to being in charge. Well I say Wednesday, it is actually Thursday we had an Internet moment last night, every couple of months the internet falls over, we have a peculiar Internet system here, it uses a line of sight dish that sends and receives the internet from a transmitter and receiver site, last night it decided to be naughty and not work. We found out after returning from our Covid19 shopping experience, now that we can both travel in the car we split the shopping so I get to enjoy the rubber glove, mask, steamed up glasses experience too. Our client Ryan emailed to say he had not received the audio I sent him at midday. He was right it still had not synced into the cloud even after 5 hours. Then we could not turn the lights on through Alexa, she did that red spinning thing saying she couldn’t connect to the internet. This is our fault for bringing northern European technology down to southern Spain and expecting it to work as well as it did in the UK. Spain, does have good high speed internet in many of the cities, but out here on the coast it is not particularly fast or reliable. Why am I banging on about the internet? Because right now as many people as possible who can work from home should, that is the Spanish Government advice. But it is going to require massive infrastructure improvements, more fibre optic availability and a much quicker and better way of being connected. I remember when we first used to come to Spain twenty or so years ago, the electric grid network was equally unreliable, now there seems to be fewer power outages even in the big storm we had 18 months ago, the electricity stayed on. So, Spain has come a long way in 20 years with the quality of the power network, now I think they need to think about the internet network in the same way. A phone call from the Opticians about my glasses, in Spanish I picked out most of the words, but there I was having trouble with a word that sounded like mountains, she kept saying the mountains are wrong, or at least that is what is sounded like. For the last 12 weeks I have been wearing a pair of specs that are held together with insulation tape, it makes me look a bit special needs, if I dare say that in this Little Britain p.c. world. It turns out that the mountains, is the word Monturas, - the frames, so the bloody frames of my new glasses are broken on arrival, so the new glasses have been sent back to the factory… sigh! Back to Little Britain and whilst I am not going to comment on the ‘black face’ characters of that show and ‘Come Fly with Me’ – I leave that up to my black friends, it really is their call, though I find characters like Precious Little funny, but uncomfortable watching all at the same time. She is what comedy writers would call a grotesque, a bit like Judy in Punch and Judy. A few years ago when we were learning Spanish and helping our friends with their English the subject of comedy came up and what our favourite comedies were about. I spoke to Maria about “Fawlty Towers” “Tell me,” she said “What is funny about an hotel,” I said, “Well there is this character called Manuel, he is from Barcelona and is portrayed as a stupid idiot because he never understands what anyone is saying.” “So, who is the Spanish actor who plays this Manuel,” she asked. “Well he isn’t Spanish he is English and he, er well puts make-up on and a silly Spanish moustache and walks around with a vacant expression on his face.” Suddenly she recognised the show, “This is cannot be right, we had this show many years ago and the waiter was a stupid Italian from Naples, not Spanish, ha you know how stupid Italians are,” she laughed. Turns out she was right, when Fawlty Towers was shown on La Una, they dubbed all the characters into Spanish and made Manuel a waiter from Naples in Italy. He was still Andrew Sachs an English Caucasian actor playing a Latino with a false moustache and fake suntan skin. Finally yesterday, Wednesday we are sorting out selling our car, in Britain you fill in the little slip at the bottom of the V5 and exchange some money and job done. It would appear in Spain it is a long complicated process which involves a trip to the main Trafico DGT office in the city of Granada, a great deal of form filing and there is TAX to pay on the sale, based on how new the car is. There is an official list of the tax payable. The Administrator who will be receiving a large fee for doing all this work has already said “Your car does not exist.” I do feel that a car selling drama might be on the horizon, keep listening and subscribe to the Spanish Practices Podcast, in a few days’ time I will tell you the story of an event that I shall always regret for the rest of my life.
Monday and we are off to buy our new car in the Covid19 world of car showrooms, no coffee, no handshake, just masks and security tape. Has the glamour of car buying come to an end? find out more https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 85 Testing Times uncorrected transcript Monday morning, normally I do the hateful administration work but this morning we are off to the car showroom to collect our new car. Yesterday we did a test run, found the dealer and the car looking rather dusty sitting in the disabled parking space. We arrived just before ten a few moments in front of our Bank Manager who accompanied us to translate the paperwork. Car showrooms in our part of Spain are exactly the same as anywhere else. So Chris, Laura and I entered the showroom, the interior done out in Germanic grey tiles and fairly stark furniture, that was taped off, yellow and white tape marked out where we could stand and the cars all had a security tape on the doors, to stop you casually opening them without a salesman, welcome to the Covid19 car buying experience. Our new car was in the showroom facing a large glass door that led to outside. Suddenly a thin man with kind brown eyes appeared. He might have had a beard, who knows, he might have smiled, who knows. He addressed Chris in very fast Spanish. Laura interrupted with the “he is English but understands some Spanish.” “Come to the desk, please have a seat.” He said arranging three seats at two metre intervals, he sat behind the desk, behind a plastic screen with a little hole to pass documents through. “Pasporte please or your Residence card.” Chris produced his little green card. This unimpressive bit of green card, that you need to keep safely behind a plastic wallet, or the ink and print wear off. Is our identity that allows to stay here in Spain during the Alarma. Now in a perfect world it would have a photograph, but the British Government objected to the Spanish Government keeping photographic records of its citizens. Never mind that a scan of your Passport at Passport Control here, brings up your UK photo, your address and pretty much everything else about you! Luckily we now both have Spanish Driving Licences and they have our photograph on, Spanish style. In the UK you go to a Photo-Me booth, here you go to a photography studio and a woman with a camera tells you to look ahead, “no smiling.” Then you sit in the window of the shop waiting for her to print out the pictures and take a pair of scissors to cut each photo by hand. That bit was easy. The next not so. Our Lawyer – Paco took us to Trafico in Granada, a building in amongst a large housing estate, driving through Granada is bewildering, traffic coming at you from all angles and directions. Paco weaved his way in traditional style, missing the exit for a roundabout so swinging the car back on itself and the traffic to exit. I found myself gripping my seat as he ignored the red light ahead and turned into a side street where the Government office was. We were early and had the strongest coffee I had ever drunk in a small bar nearby that looked over a piece of derelict land where people clearly took their dogs to do their business. The austere Trafico building had an equally austere inside, Paco had to punch a great deal of information into a touch screen to produce a ticket, “come” he said “we must go upa the stairs.” We followed him upa the stairs. “Sit” we sat down in those chairs that had not only been joined together but bolted together onto the floor. In front of us stretched a row of desks and behind the desks some very serious Functionarios were processing paperwork, that when completed was filed behind them in acres of filing cabinets stretching back into the distance. To amuse us while we waited there were four TV screens hanging from the ceiling all showing the same thing. They were driving safety films, various hapless drivers crashing into each other, mangled wreckage and bodies and blood, not the cheeriest introduction into our future as Spanish Licence holding Brits. The was a loud BUZZ and it was our turn. A very serious man sat behind a tower of papers, Paco did the talking, the man said nothing, looked at all our paperwork. He then moved his chair back a few inches and took in a large breath. This is always the point when you know things are going to go badly wrong. “Now,” he said in Spanish “I can under the European law give you a new licence, but it will end when you do the Brexit, so maybe a few months, maybe a few years,” he laughed. There then followed an intense conversation with Paco. Paco turned to us and said, he thinks you are better to make the exam and then come back. It took me 23 years to pass my driving test, and I only passed because the examiner knew a friend of mine really well so we just took a gentle trip into the country where I did some parallel parking and we came back to the test centre, I botched up reversing into a parking space, but he said, take another go at it, I did and he said I am pleased to say you have passed. But no, not that sort of an exam a medical one. We were told to go over to the building across the road where they did the exam. The first part involved you grasping two bath taps and a very old computer in front of you showed a game of pong that you had to steer with the two taps. When I played this game there was a lot of buzzing sounds and at the end it came up 40% The lady in a white coat sitting at the desk looked at me, sighed, looked at my score, sighed again and said “you pass, got to the lady of bloods.” “It is OK,” said Paco, they just want to pressurise you.” In the next office another woman in another white coat wrapped a blood pressure monitor around my arm. There was a lot of peeping, she sighed, “You are very pressurised, you bloods are too high.” She said. Paco interjected, “He has just had a cup of strong coffee,” “Oh,” she said “That is OK you pass, go to the room for your eyes.” Another room another lady in a white coat. “You wear the gafas when you drive?” Truthfully I didn’t when I was in the UK so answered “no” “Take them off,” I took my glasses off, “you see the shapes ahead, tell me which way they are up?” I actually couldn’t see the chart, let alone the shapes. “Put your glasses on.” I put them on, she got a large wooden stick and whacked the stick against each line, “Read,” “In Spanish?” “Si, this is a Spanish test.” I told her which way up the shapes were but sometimes I got my “sube” mixed up with my “baja” She put the stick down and sighed “You must always wear your gafas when you conduct,” she said, “will you?” “Yes I promise,” I said – “Good you pass that will be thirty eight Euros.” So we both have a driving licence with our photos on and I do wear my glasses to drive. The process of buying the car was very professional, Ruben the Salesman tried very hard to speak English, showing Chris the whips of rain, the spear of oil and the lights of always on. The paperwork done he handed Chris the keys. You may take your car. Chris looked at the impossible turn out of the showroom, there was a large wall directly in front of the exit. Ruben said, “Do not worry I take the car out for you,” and that was that, a very pleasant experience, no touching, no coffee, no smiles no handshake but everybody was trying their best to be as new normal as they could.
Wednesday and there is news that tourists coming to Spain will be greeted by beach vigilantes, who will be employed to make sure we all socially distance and bathe in the correct safe way. Day 73 of Spanish Lockdown for a British couple and their three-good legs cat. Find out more here: https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 73 Beach Vigilantes Wednesday week two of Phase 1 and we learn that the Spanish Government is going to make sure that you naughty old tourists behave yourself on the costas, if you decide to take a holiday abroad here. Three thousand vigilantes will be hired by the Junta to police the beaches and make sure your Parasol is the right distance between the family social distance sitting next to you. They will be paid 1,900 Euros a month for the summer period. It will cost 24 million Euros the Vigilantes will report to the Policia Local. It is worth just pausing a moment to explain the police services here in Spain there are three main types. The Guardia who dress like a scary military army, that is because they are a scary military army. They do the highways, ports and rural areas, and will investigate crime in those areas and they work out of, in the case of our local main town. A big, scary fortress like building that looks like it might contain thumbscrews and other such paraphernalia, called a Garrison. All the while you also must remember policing in Spain is not like the consent policing in Britain, if you mucked around with the Spanish police like you sometimes see the British Bobbies suffer in social media videos, you are likely to find the butt of a rifle whacked around your face, or at the very least be flung to the floor, for a jolly good batoning. Next up from the Guardia are the Policia Local, they are more like the British Police, crime prevention, traffic control, a bit like the Guardia and also intelligence gathering – for instance investigating if you might be one of those naughty indoor farmers growing wacky baccy. Then there are the National Police they will be the ones that might give you a jolly good batoning in a riot, they have civilian status. BUT there are various different mixtures of these three main police, remember this is Spain and Autonomous regions have created their own police forces that carry out the functions of one or the other groups of police. Again – really confusing for the Tourist, they all travel around in different colours of cars too, the local police look like a typical police car, the ones from that work for the Autonomous area might have red and yellow cars, looking a little like New York Yellow Cabs and finally the Guardia have white and green cars, usually those big four wheel drive things. It is Wednesday and there has been a lot of drilling and noise from our neighbours below. This has much to do with the way that houses are constructed here. The Spanish have an amazing love affair with Portland cement, pretty much every building you come across is made from the stuff, they pump it out from great elephant trunk things into shuttered wood and build incredible buildings. They are the masters of the cement truck and mixer. No self-respecting Spaniard doesn’t have a cement mixer tucked away somewhere.. that might be an exaggeration. But it is hard to fathom the next stage of building. Once they have completed their cement buildings and walls inside and out, they take a cement cutter and rip holes out of every part of the newly constructed building. In the UK we love a bit of trunking, it is easier to hide behind a stud wall. For the most part Spanish construction uses very little wood. It is very expensive here; I think there were historical political difficulties in persuading countries like Sweden to sell wood to the country. So, no trunking, but tubo – round plastic piping is placed into the gaping cement wounds in a building then plastered into place with a magic substance called Yeso. Yeso comes in two flavours – “bloody hell that dried quite quickly” and “oh shit it has set straight away” Yeso holds up many Spanish Houses in the same way “no more nails” seems to keep British homes together. It means that house building is a very noisy process here. Everything from a simple wall to a three-bedroom villa seems to require a lot of shouting, drilling, banging, crashing, cement mixing, hammering before it gets completed. A special mention must be mentioned about Jesus or Jesus the Grua, he is an amazing local man that owns a large red crane attached to a lorry. He is the person tasked with delivering all the building materials. Clearing away the spoils and dropping plant and cement down the mountainside where it is needed. He does this with the precision of a marksman, not from the comfort of his cab but with a remote-controlled thingy that operates the crane. It is precision work, one moment of distraction and you could loose a corner of your balcony. Yesterday I watched him reverse down our tiny main Estate road in between parked cars, me flattened against the wall, and two oleander bushes. He was magnificent, there could only have been a few inches gap between us all, I am pleased to say he missed us all. I am not sure what the uniform they will give the beach vigilantes of Andalucia but I am guessing it will not be a pair of too tight red shorts and jolly yellow tee-shirt with Baywatch written on it.
Monday and day 71, and a few tips about buying a property here in Spain and what you need to do as a Brit, before January 2020. Find out more: https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 71 Peseta Pats Monday of week two of phase 1, we are still confused about why we have not moved to Phase 2, so I asked my Spanish neighbour from Granada. “There are not enough beds in the Hospital, of the critical kind.” She said. It would appear one of the worries is a flood of inter-province holiday makers would risk overwhelming the hospital. I suppose the answer to that would be to add more beds. I think all hospitals will have to re-think their ICU facilities and what is required to look after and keep alive patients with Covid19. Monday is accounts day, and Chris is going through the Community payments for our Estate, he is the joint Treasurer. If you live in an Urbanised Estate or a block of flats you will have what amounts to a resident’s association with the power to collect fees and make decisions about any building work and maintenance. A kind of mix of Management Company and Residents Association. We have a President, Vice President, Treasurer and hold a regular annual meeting where you can vote on passing budgets and plans for building and maintenance. For the fee you get to live in a block of flats or development that might have community facilities like a pool. The land will be, well should be, legalised for urban development. There should be services like electricity and water available, sewerage. Roads and public gardens are maintained along with shared thing like lifts. When the visitors to Spain return it is worth considering living in an organised development like this, if you want to be closer to the coast or near or in a town. If you are looking for solitude, it is a lot cheaper, in some ways or can be a lot more expensive if you find there is no water supply or electricity, or the electricity is not powerful enough to turn a toaster on. That can all mean expensive utility costs or having solar power. Access roads here can be owned by other landowners, so you need to check you can actually tar over a road. Look out for Canadas – the protected goat tracks, you can’t change those very easily and they are usually no more than a dirt track, that might lead to your new rustic house. We are now only a few weeks from the tourists returning back to Spain, some will be keen to look at coming here to live, even though Spain has suffered a great deal with the Covid19 virus, it still remains a beautiful place to live, with many places enjoying mild winters and hot sunny summers. The pace of life here is slower, particularly here in Andalucia, it makes for an attractive retirement option. The process for Brits to live in Spain will be a little more complicated in the New Year, but people from all over the world come and settle here. It just might mean the end of the Peseta Pat’s – those Brits who came here thinking it might be a cheap place to retire to – I guess it depends on how you put a value on lifestyle. It is possible to live on a budget here, just as it is possible back in the UK, but truthfully we find the cost of living is much the same as it was back in Britain, you might pay less council tax, but you will pay more income tax, alcohol costs are lower but eating out is now only slightly cheaper than the UK in many of the tourist places. If you are considering a move to Spain, try to avoid thinking about living the dream, but living the reality, be honest with yourself about how big a change it is to jump from one country to another. Monday in phase 1, there is a bit more traffic about, below us I can hear the familiar sound of banging, crashing and drilling as our neighbours are having a new metal gate put in. I am off to the opticians a six o’clock appointment, but when I looked at the ticket it said 4 o’clock so we rocked up at 4 to discover that Claudia had a ticket that said six o’clock but written in the diary in biro she was 4pm and I was 6pm – have you lost the will to live yet. Thought so. Suffice to say there was a lot of ballet dancing mask wearing social distancing, I was allowed to remove my mask to see what my new glasses would look like san mask. Two weeks and some more glasses to drop to the tiled floor and break. If you are serious about coming to live in Spain, as a top tip get here as soon as the Alarma – what the Spanish call the Lockdown is over and you can fly, get your NIE, rent a property with a tenancy agreement, then apply for your Residency card. Once you have the Green card it will give you protected rights and an easy transition to the new T.I.E. card for British citizens in Spain. Oh and don’t confuse citizenship for residency. You can be a British citizen and reside in Spain. Becoming a Spanish citizen is a whole different thing the being able to live, work and retire here. The clock is ticking down to January. The clock is also ticking down to the end of the Spanish Lockdown it might come quicker than sooner, there is a lot of pressure for the Spanish Government to keep up with the timescale of Italy and Greece, it is an interesting that the Lockdown was put on a short hiatus as the Government worried about the economy, and in reality it is the economy that is again driving the end of the Alarma in Spain.
Day 65, Tuesday and Phase 1 of the unlockdown, today stealing from the sun and the return of the peseta. Find out more at: https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 65 Stealing from the Sun We are in Phase 1 of Unlockdown – it is Tuesday and the weather is improving, bringing with it our hay fever. We both suffer from it, I have to say that I didn’t really suffer in the UK, but although we live in the coast, it really gets me for about a month a year. Some of culprits include the blossom from Olive trees, they do say if you consume the local honey it can help with immunity to hay fever. The local honey is delicious, a bit like a floral toffee. It comes in quite plain jars that have been filled from a great big vat of the stuff. It is a bit like the water, which tastes delicious if you go to the spring just outside the village, we lived in. Whilst we were living in the village we filled used water bottles with the water, it had a clean sweet taste to it. I do ponder that with a solar panel array, some batteries, collecting rainwater and going to get spring water, we could almost live off grid. Many rustic fincas do, they get their water from a spring have solar energy and a cesspit for sanitation. Up until recently it was quite difficult to live off grid as the Spanish Government decided they owned the sun and that should you dare to put up a solar panel, you were heavy taxed and had to compensate the old state power company for “stealing from the sun” The European Parliament forced the Spanish Government to overturn the tax and now you can put up solar panels, but you do not get compensated for over producing electricity and putting it back into the grid. So, there is a device that, in effect, wastes the excess energy that you produce, stopping it returning into the grid. Southern Spain is the perfect place to have solar power and on grid installations are becoming much more common, they are the ones that make hay whilst the sun shines and then rely on the grid at night for power. Day 65 and I have been on a rubbish trip, normally Chris does this, but as I have put on at least 4 kilograms in the last few weeks, I have decided that I really ought to start increasing my exercise regime. Oddly rather like the excuse that it is Christmas.. so I WILL eat that piece of cake, the Virus has also given some of us an excuse to have that extra glass of wine, eat a whole packet of crisps. Now I am beginning to notice that my tee-shirts have either shrunk in the wash or are not fitting me as well as they should, I still can’t go to the big Hypermarket and buy more, not in Phase 1. Tuesday and the big news is that the Government want to make mask wearing obligatory in all confined spaces, so banks, shops, anything inside, and also outside where social distancing is not possible. I really don’t like the intrusion of my civil liberty to choose what I wear, but on the other hand if it stops me unwittingly passing on the virus then it is no different to being made to wear a seat belt in a car. But it will be very odd to see newsreaders on the TV wearing masks, having worked in a TV studio, they are very confined spaces! Also, we are allowed in phase 1 to meet up to ten people on the terrace of a local bar or restaurant, that must also mean wearing masks. It is going to make eating and drinking quite difficult. I think that is the trouble with making anything ‘obligatory’, it often leads to ill thought out law making. The Bank of Spain has today revised its impact on the virus, they believe the economy is expected to slump anywhere between 9 and 13% with public debt running at 124% and economic activity not to recover until late 2021. Once again, the Governor of the Bank of Spain is suggesting that Europe helps out with a ‘risk-sharing’ scheme to mitigate the chances of countries like Spain or Italy failing financially. Well Europe didn’t help Greece out and I guess the same will happen again with Spain, it will be asked to make the country more efficient, offer more opportunities for self-employment, reward its citizens for success rather than punish them with some of the most draconian tax payments in the world. Somehow, I doubt that either of those scenarios will happen. It is a country that has had persistently high unemployment and relied heavily on international tourism to prop the economy up. I also doubt we will see the return of the much-loved Peseta, where five thousand pesetas could get you a very nice full English Breakfast with coffee and a small house in the countryside. There are plans to include International Tourism that would return when the country reaches Phase 4 in mid-June, which would also allow country-wide travel. Who knows we are only at Day 65, and the days have turned into months, that might well turn into years too.
Day 61 and this is the story of a British couple behind the police lines in Lockdown Spain, the real story of day to day life under the Alarma. The frustrations of a loss of freedom despite the Health Region reaching the criteria for the easing of Lockdown, the Government have decided though to keep us in Lockdown. Find out more: https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 61 - Civil Unrest and Manic Mondays It is Day 61 of our Spanish Lockdown, we have reached the point last week when we were hoping for a bit of freedom, by the end of today we should know, but last week the government didn’t tell us until Sunday afternoon. Just the ability to pop to the main town would be helpful, a few restaurants open anything that would bring a touch of normality to our life. Yesterday we spoke to our friends Shelley and Chris back in Essex. Apart from going for walks they have not left the house, though will need to next week to pick up medicine in central London. They will drive in and only one visit the Doctors. They shop online and use Amazon Prime to deliver anything else. They can both work from home, Shelley has done an amazing job turning the office-based company she works for into a virtual office in a matter of weeks. But she has had to work very long hours to achieve that. The one thing they miss is the freedom of spontaneity, you can’t just pop out to grab something from the shops as they have to say isolated. It is the same for us, we are being overwhelmed with rules and regulations by the Spanish Government and the Local Government – The Junta Andalucia. And both keep changing their minds. As a result, many are not sure when and where they can go out, or if they can travel to certain areas or how many should be in a car. The Police Guide frequently asked questions runs to a head popping 24 pages alone. As an antidote to all this misery I have been wallowing in old TV shows, I discovered a few days ago that they have made some new Thunderbirds episodes. Not the new Children’s TV series, but actual episodes of the 1960s show. It seems there were a number of sound records released with adventures using the voices of the original cast and they have extended those recordings with extra effects and made them into new episodes using reconstructed puppets complete with strings made of titanium. You might remember in Episode 43 I mentioned that my mother treated Chris a bit like Parker, whilst she was on holiday with us, Chris driving her around everywhere. I always like those Gerry Anderson TV shows, for one they were made in colour and on film so looked and sounded so much better than the other children’s shows around at that time. You can still watch an old episode and they stand up pretty well with the current TV shows for children. There was one night and that famous LBC Arts show, sometime during the mid 1980s when Gerry Anderson came in with two of the puppets, which I think were up for Auction, ‘Lady Penelope’ and her faithful Butler come Chauffeur ‘Parker’ I have to say close up, they were much larger than I expected and ‘Lady P’ bless had let her self-go, her hair was looking very Lockdown – and her dress a bit untidy – but she did have amazing eyes. Parker was in a worse state of repair. The solenoid that made his mouth work was connected to a piece of leather that had rotted, so his mouth hung open like some kind of idiot. He didn’t smell too good either. That kind of over handled 1960s child toy smell. But it was a pleasure to see them both close up without their strings. Day 61 and I have spent most of the day in our little recording studio recording the last few children’s literacy scripts, having work forces us into having a structured day. Although Chris can’t work at the moment as all the gyms here are closed, he fits in with my work pattern and will do something like an online class or watch a seminar whilst I record. Yesterday afternoon I spoke to our old neighbour Erika, who now lives nearby, although we cannot travel to see her, as that is not allowed. She says she is going out of her head, living alone she just has her cat for company, she can’t travel the few miles to see her friends as they are in a different Province. She hates going to the shops, putting the gloves on wearing a mask. On the way home a few days ago she saw a friend from the local town, they stopped, two metres and more apart and started to have a chat. At that point the police passed, slowed down to have a look at what they were doing. They both felt uncomfortable so decided to go their different way. It is very hard to undo human nature, we are social animals and crave fellowship, social interaction – and these last few months have been very hard, particularly if you are on your own. The Guardia Civil Police have produced a report, which has been leaked, where they fear if Lockdown restrictions are not eased, there could be isolated pockets of civil unrest in the Country. That, although understandable, would be a disaster for the whole country. Here we wait again to see if this coming Monday we shall enjoy a Happy Monday or another Manic Monday in Andalucia.
Day fifty nine. Life behind the police lines in Lockdown Spain for a British couple and their three good legs cat. Today Bosoms and Birthdays Find out more at: https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 59 bosoms and birthdays It is Day 59 of our Spanish Lockdown, Wednesday, there is a rumour that Mercadona has masks for sale in its stores, and if so we will buy some. I notice that the UK Government is encouraging people to make their own out of sticky back plastic and a pair of Val’s old knickers, since the episode with the Blue Peter Advent Calendar where my poor construction of the thing allowed family retainer Reg to be scalded with boiling wax.. I would rather leave surgical mask making to, .. surgical mask makers. The day is dry and there is some sunshine, enough to clear up the mess of dirty rain that fell last night covering every surface in Sahara sand, three good legs cat is having a bad day, he has had several of his ‘fits’ and horrifying sight where his right back leg comes unjointed and clearly gives him sharp pain that makes him spin around on the floor hissing in agony. Although the medicine we give him helps with the inflammation, it doesn’t stop the pain. When we enter Phase 1 we will take him to the vet, if he does need an operation at least from Phase 1 there will be staff to look after him, and routine or non-emergency operations should resume then. Day 59 and our friend Carmen’s birthday in lockdown, but she has treated herself to a new red phone, I think it might by an iPhone, she really wanted a red car, but that will also have to wait. I messaged Juan the builder, not the gardener or the estate agent. He says that a plumber will call tomorrow at 4 to 5pm in the evening. The drip drip drip leak in the pool room might finally stop. I caught a video of Sandi today called cleverly, of course Vox Tox, she was talking about the history of May Day.. social history is one of Sandi Toksvig’s favourite things, when she came to LBC it was my job to find and research at least a couple of ‘facts of the day’ for her. No mean feat as the internet was really still in its infancy, so a mixture of slogging through Google and her mini book library of information allowed me to piece together the information for her the previous afternoon ready for her to arrive in the morning and turn it into sparkling, funny and interesting radio. She is an amazing woman, I once brought in a very old Electrical Guide I had found in the loft of our house. It dated from 1920 and was full of frightening illustrations of gentlemen leaning over a full sink of water to fit an electric razor to the light fitting. She turned the booklet into twenty minutes of hilarious comedy.. genius. I never made it to University, but my job at LBC was like being in the middle of a living University with so many guests that came in who were as clever as Sandi. My first encounter with the Arts show I remember had an eclectic mix of guests there was their regular ballet correspondent and slightly built American lady who was forever going on about the Ballet Rambert, then a drunk comedic actor Terry Scott who arrived flustered and beetroot faced, reeking of Brandy who was probably appearing in a local pantomime, I think by then his TV career had ended except for his role as a voice on Dangermouse. Then the final hour was the film Director Derek Jarman who had just made a film about the painter Caravaggio, that had a lot of male nudity in it.. one of those films that Channel Four used to show with a little triangle in the corner of the screen. Indeed we would often sit around in the engineering department watching those films in the hope, for most of the engineers, that they might spot a naked breast.. or worse. I remember we were casually watching one arts film and a lady with enormous exposed bosoms walked into shot, and we all gasped it was Angela, the Producer of the Arts Show that happened to be on the air down the corridor. My Shift Leader Tony went galloping down to the studio, swinging the door open he announced to her “Hey Angela we’ve just seen your tits on Channel Four.” She turned toward him with disinterest “Oh that, I did that film in my modelling days, so what.” She said. Just another evening working for LBC. Day 59 and Chris has once again gone out for the weekly shop, he has returned with gin and cake, but no masks yet. With the Spanish Government now considering the wearing of masks obligatory, we will probably have to wear one, if it gets us to Phase 1 and onward, then bring it on.
Day fifty eight. Life behind the police lines in Lockdown Spain for a British couple and their three good legs cat. Today Bombs and Bonfires Find out more at: https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 58 Bombs and Bonfires It is Day 58 of our Spanish Lockdown, and what a miserable wet day it has been, chilly too. It is quite annoying that the UK is enjoying good weather and we have had, well really quite British weather. A few days ago, we had a massive fire along the vega – the reed beds between Salobreña and Motril, destroying many acres of natural wild habitat. It looks like it was started by yet another bonfire that got out of control. Several times a year we suffer from bonfires that are uncontrolled, burning whole sides of beautiful rugged mountain landscape, destroying acres of plains, leaving a blackened scorched waste. Here between certain months of the year you are allowed to burn agricultural rubbish, leaves and the like, although judging by the acrid black smoke sometimes, the odd bit of plastic waste too. The bonfires contribute to the poor quality of air we sometimes suffer here. I can only describe it as the choking, smoky night after bonfire night in the UK. I have no idea why farmers and small holdings are not made to compost garden and agricultural waste, as they are in the UK, or incorporate it back into the fields, instead in one of the driest regions of Europe, sometimes tinder dry, they can light a bonfire and choke the air with smoke. The bonfire that got out of hand in Salobreña was also lit in an area outside the town curfew, so the Lockdown rules had been ignored. It has left a great blackened scar along the coastline, I hope the person responsible feels thoroughly ashamed, but I doubt it. Day 58 and a chat on Skype with mind coach and hypnotherapist Steve Simpson who is planning a new Podcast. He was speaking from a lovely part of Essex – Burnham on Crouch, probably one of the poshest parts of the county, where everyone has their own boat and makes that strange posh laughing sound. … when they hear something funny. We talked about synchronicity how certain events lead to others and all of them seem to be interconnected. If it wasn’t for my friend Diane, helping me get my first radio job and then when she left to work for LBC, I sort of followed her along and ended up at the radio station, I wouldn’t have had a career in radio. It took me nearly a year to break free of the audio department and start working on Engineering live and recorded shows. What a relief but what a horror, as I had to work shifts, that included night work. I don’t know if you have ever worked a night shift. Some people enjoy it others do not, I fall into that latter category. Night-time is for sleeping. Nights on the radio are populated by weirdos and insomniacs and sometimes insomniac weirdos. One of my jobs later on was to answer the calls from listeners, some just wanted to call for a chat, some just rang called you an Effing C, hoped you die of cancer, and then would hang up. Once I took a call from an Irish Man with a strong southern accent, he told me he had planted a bomb at Victoria Station and then he gave me a codeword, which for obvious reasons I am not going to repeat. We had a special form to fill in to keep those bomb callers talking, I tried desperately to find it amongst the mountain of paperwork in the studio, as he was talking, but to no avail. As soon as he hung up, I dialled 999 and was put through to Scotland Yard, they asked me what he said, and did he give me a codeword? I said yes and told them what it was. They said thanks and hung up, immediately evacuating Victoria Coach Station. It turned out to be a hoax on that occasion. To begin with LBC had a trained Counsellor to take the overnight calls from the nutters, but it turned out all the calls were from nutters. Then LBC radio, very early on, hit a financial crisis, the advertising revenue dried up and a large number of Journalists were made redundant. But they kept the Counsellor, the reason? He had a bicycle, and as they could not afford the radio car, they pressed him into service covering London news stories holding a walkie talkie as he cycled past police lines, as the BBC and their radio car was being held back, so he scooped a number of stories, broadcasting live to air on just a walkie talkie. His name was Jon Snow and he is now one of the most respected Journalists in the UK, regularly presenting Channel 4 news since its inception in 1982. Day 58 and it’s three o’clock in the morning and I am awake. Once more I have just had an anxiety dream. This time I couldn’t find my train ticket to get home from work at the radio station, there were lots of young kids, well twenty-year olds, laughing at my incompetence, one round face girl came up to me and said, ‘do you need some help?’ I said thanks and she helped me look for the orange ticket to get me home, “Where have you got to get back to?” she asked, I answered “Southern Spain” she didn’t blink an eyelid .. well that stuff happens in dreams doesn’t it. Then suddenly I was out on the streets of London, lost, trying to find the tube station and right line to get me back to Spain. Every corner I turned seemed strange, I didn’t know where I was, then I woke up. Today the Spanish Government announced that anyone now travelling to Spain will have to go into self-appointed quarantine for 14 days! So I guess that ends any chance of international tourism this summer in Spain? It is going to mean for many businesses that rely on tourism, some tough months ahead. Meanwhile, according to The Seaside Gazette, the Town Hall at Velez Malaga have awarded themselves a whopping salary increase, their Mayor will receive over sixty-three thousand Euros and expenses paid in 14 payments, as Functionarios in the Town Hall get double payments in July and December, whilst the Town Hall is in effect closed. So it really is a tale of two cities in Velez Malaga, the poor businesses and the wealthy Town Hall.. right in the middle of Spain’s most challenging times in its recent history.
Day fifty five. Life behind the police lines in Lockdown Spain for a British couple and their three good legs cat. Today The Pain in Spain. Find out more at: https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 55 - The Pain in Spain It is day 55 of our Spanish Lockdown and Uncle Pedro has succeeded in shattering the country into tiny pieces. Some parts will move forward to phase 1 including the Basque region which jumps to moving between provinces too, I am sure it has nothing to do with the support that the Spanish Prime Minister needs from the Basque Party. We will stay in lockdown phase zero. Despite our local health area coming up to the criteria of phase 1 we have been lumped together with the city of Granada and so our lockdown continues. It is interesting a similar province like Valencia has been allowed to split into its health authority areas and not us. I think the reason is that the government are frightened that if they open up the coastline of the Costa del Sol and the Costa Tropical, where we live. There will be a great wave of Spanish travelling down from the cities to their second beach homes. They are probably right. It didn’t stop us getting very cross last night. My friend Pilar posted a very sweary post on Facebook, we all joined in, I decided to do my swearing in English, which she seemed to appreciate, nevertheless we all calmed down enough to agree that we didn’t want an onslaught of people flooding the coast .. not just yet anyway. What it has done is to fragment Spain into pieces, where one neighbour can be living in Phase 1 and enjoy the benefits, whilst another neighbour a few miles down the road is still stuck at phase zero.. what a shambles. Day 55 and the night was miserable, it is funny how much you are affected by the outside force of government and how miserable you can wake up in the morning, even though the sun is shining. I have busied myself – the best medicine – and connected up our cat 5 network around the house.. I know that sounds beyond boring, but sitting there with a soldering iron reminds me of those far off days when I worked for Marconi and would be assembling electronics from a schematic and assembly instructions. I didn’t regret leaving Marconi or the fruit juice factory to work at Essex Radio, but I was deeply saddened when I parted company with the radio station. I had been a freelance for over two years and the promise of a full-time job was in the end not offered, so I look around for somewhere else and wrote on spec to LBC radio in London with a list of my experience, they wrote back and offered me an interview. So I took a rare trip to London, found the wretched place tucked in a side street in Fleet Street, by the famous Dr ‘Dictionary’ Johnson’s old house. The interview was a car crash, I think at one time I thumped the table saying that I could do the job as I already do it every day for Essex Radio. I left with a sinking feeling. A few days later in the record library I was assisting our Managing Director, the larger than life, Eddie Blackwell, pick his Jazz records for the show I was about to record for him, when the phone rang and Jean on reception said that LBC was on the line for me. There followed a difficult conversation in front of my boss where they offered me a job. My boss Eddie Blackwell was a kind of east end barrow boy made good. During the 1960s he worked for a radio station called Radio London, it was on a ship anchored in the north sea and was the inspiration for Radio 1. Radio London was a slick American sounding radio station and he was in charge of RadLon sales, bringing in a great deal of money with big advertisers like Weetabix.. a fact he reminded us all of at least once a day. He loathed the control of the I.B.A. – the radio authority who dictated when and what we should be broadcasting and also should we dare to make too much of a profit the rate of tax leapt up to something ridiculous like sixty percent. Eddie used to say “I might as well take money we make and give it away in the street as I would pay less tax.” Day 55 and we went toilet flushing in the big house, I removed a very dead cockroach from one of the bedrooms, it had stuck to the floor, but I prised it off and put it in some loo roll. So that was my bit of exercise today, frankly I just don’t feel in the mood to do very much at all. Oh and we have a little drip, drip leak down in the pool room, that is coming from the joint between the sump drain and the pump… we are really hoping that will not need the pool to be emptied as it costs more than 100 euros every time we do that. Back in 1984 and I started working for LBC, my trips to London were a great adventure, I had never properly commuted, though I did travel to Southend on the bus every day when I worked for Essex Radio. So I got to work with Donal, who was a very bad tempered Irishman who smoked a pipe, he wasn’t particularly well liked, and he smoked that really strong tobacco which filled the already cigarette blue air with a yellow pipe fug. There were quite a few Engineers who didn’t like Donal or his pipe smoking, once when he went to the toilet they filled his pipe with marijuana and that sent him berserk and then he went fast to sleep for the rest of the day. Somebody else super glued his pipe to the wall, - he used to leave it propped up against a shelf, that again was less funny than it sounds. As when he tried to pull it off the wall the notice board it was stuck too came away from the wall and struck him on the head. On the first day he introduced himself “I’m Donal and do you know why I hate the …”. And then he used the ‘N’ word, quite openly and went on with a long diatribe about black people being less than white. He was a fairly incompetent engineer, I remember once Lisa Hampele who went on to work for the BBC, had tried to send him audio down the line from some far flung part of the Empire and Donal had forgotten to hit record, then she got flustered and her crock clips fell off.. in those far off days you had to unscrew the telephone handset and put crocodile clips of the mouthpiece connections then connect your tape recorder. It all turned very nasty and we have a recording of her telling him to F – Off, which he did by cutting her off and her story never got to air. Everybody had a story to tell about Donal. I made a decision to get out of that department as soon as possible, I gave it six months and then I would move on. Day 55 and the best we can hope for is that the Spanish Government realises what a muddle it has turned the country into and re-considers its decisions, it is very disappointing that they treat the Spanish like children but then if you look at the way some people have ignored social distancing in the UK.. you can hardly blame them.
Today Boobies and Zoom Day Thirty nine of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped. To find out more: https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 39 Boobies and Zoom It is day 39 of our Spanish Lockdown, last night brought more custard and more bad dreams. I seem to keep getting those high anxiety dreams where I am not in control. I have not really had them since I worked at the radio station. And it was about the radio station last night, I had to engineer a radio show, but I managed to take the radio station off air as I did not recognise the buttons that sent the studio to the transmitters. I imagine that we are all having similar dreams of not being in control, because I think this must be a bit like being in Prison, having decisions taken away from you about where you can go and what you can do. The Spanish Government have back tracked on the decision only to allow children to accompany adults to supermarkets, pharmacies and banks. My next door but two neighbour, Sylvia shouted across from her garden saying even before the “veerus” she would never entertain taking her children to a supermarket as they would run wild and pick up things from the shelves, which would now be dangerous for their health. She said in English.. “I do not have a word for our Government!” Sylvia cleans, she is very good cleaner, before she had her children she was a very good teacher, had passed her exams and taught in a local school. About a year or so ago she decided that she wanted to return to teaching. Now here in Spain she has to take all her exams again. Once you leave teaching your professional qualifications are struck off and if you return you have to all the exams again. And you must pass each part of those exams again, if you do the authority will decide where you can go and teach.. and it can be anywhere. It is a similar situation for the police, there are tough exams and you can posted anywhere. To me it seems really harsh and quite unfair, in contrast my niece Alice had to return back from France when her husband’s work started to be more difficult to find. She has good qualifications in Geography, so thought she would approach a local school to see if there was work. She got an interview, that went well. They told her “you can start now.” And they did mean now, that afternoon she found herself teaching in class for the first time with just the National Curriculum guide and a white board for company. And I bet she is a very good teacher just Sylvia. These are some of the cultural differences you come across when you start to scratch the surface of another country’s way of life. Britain will allow you to hold your professional qualification and be quite happy to employ you without all the jumping through hoops that Sylvia will need to do. Pilar with the big boobies has set up her own Estate Agent. We love Pilar she was one of those larger than life personalities that dominated the little village we lived in when we first came to Spain. I can’t think of more crazy time to begin such an enterprise, but she has some very interesting properties on her books. She had lived in Germany for a while, so saw how business was conducted there and believes that she take that experience and make something for herself. No need to take all her exams again. I am not sure what will happen to the property market anywhere in the world, let alone Spain, but this is a beautiful part of the world and the weather is mostly glorious, and I can imagine once the hiatus of the virus is over, a vaccine found and slowly we all get vaccinated, life will return to a new normal. Day 39 and it has been a long day, I did my first Zoom directed voiceover. Back in the UK I had got used to Skype where usually just one person directs you remotely. Zoom is something else, this time I had five people from the project, quite daunting, and then there was the technology that had to be tamed. I managed to stick some earbuds into one ear, hook the microphone onto the same side and then listen to myself through the actual headphones and record myself and keep notes of the takes and finally read the script. I did it, I was a bit stressed, so were the others at again having to be together remotely. There was interesting BBC article that people were finding Zoom meetings far more difficult than ordinary face-to-face meetings as you miss the social cues, facial expression. I had no visual link to the guys directing me as the computer was behind me. My studio laid out for a singular experience. I reckon I will need a monitor on the wall in future to get some of those important visual cues that were lacking today. Poor Chris has to spend the time being as quiet as possible. Although the studio is sound proofed and treated, if you open a door or put the air-conditioning on in the house you do hear it. Over the years I have got used to working a lot more from home. I don’t think I would want to go back to my life in the UK, where it took me longer to travel, and cost a fortune in rail fares and finding an overpriced sandwich in London, for the sake of a few hours work. I think a lot of you are thinking just the same, here in Spain where remote working was never a thing… well it is now … and it might just be one of the good things that come out of this pandemic – people get to spend more time with family and the ones they love and can work just as well away from the office.
Miguel Arias Cañete (@mac_europa) was the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy and led the EU negotiations of the Paris Agreement.He’s now involved with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation which has launched the Prize for Humanity, an annual €1m award for people or organizations from all over the world focused on mitigation of, and adaptation to climate change.Miguel has served the Spanish Government as both the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and Minister for Agriculture, Food and Environment before being selected to head his Party List in the European Parliamentary elections.In today’s episode we discuss:- The unique challenges that went into crafting the Paris Accord- What the US’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement means for climate policy- How hard it is to ensure collective action on big problems- China’s role in addressing the environment- Why Miguel thinks the US will rejoin the Paris Accords- How the EU is leading the effort on decarbonization- What to think about nuclear energy- The reason transportation is so hard to go green- What happens if we don’t reach climate goals- The problems of bureaucracy and why the EU is actually pretty efficient- Which agritech areas are most important to reduce global warming- How business can be used as a force for good- Are we headed for a future of mass migrations- Why democracy is a stronger governance system than centralized economies in the long run- How China’s policy on coal could crush climate goals
Day Three of the Spanish lockdown, the story of a Brit living in Spain and how coronavirus has changed ordinary life in Spain in just four days. Today wind, tough Spanish Government love.
In this housekeeping episode of The Tonic Accord, Alex discusses the fourth Democratic 2020 Presidential Debate. He then gives listeners a brief background and analysis on the breakdown in relations between the Catalonian Government and the Spanish Government. The episode ends with a quick update on the Brexit Crisis and Alex tries to answer whether there will be another extension for when the UK will leave the EU.
Wherein we entertain tales of treasure and avarice. Men Dig in Richmond Yard And Carry Away – What? (the question-mark, perhaps) Sun News-Pictorial, 27 March 1936, p. 4 (copied from microfilm at State Library Victoria) Children Spy on Mysterious Digging Operations (News (Adelaide), 30 March 1936, p. 3) https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/11034096 One of the Spanish Prisoner letters found by historian Robert Whitaker in the British National Archives. Purportedly written by one Luis Ramos, it was received in 1905 to Paul Webb, a London shopkeeper. Take a closer look and read Whitaker’s article, Proto-Spam: Spanish Prisoners and Confidence Games, and see more examples here, from the archives of Plymouth Libraries. Warning issued by the Spanish Government in 1908 – National Archives (UK): HO 45-10500-120541 The hunt at Queenscliff for Benito Benita’s treasure – if only it were that easy. (Herald, 24 March 1954, p. 3). Read the full account here Mr Don Nicholson with his favourite spade (Herald, 8 April 1954, p. 12) See more photos of his treasure-digging venture here Three Women Dig for Treasure Charter – Lillian Nicholson and her sisters continue the search (Herald, 20 December 1954, p. 5) See it on the page here Got the treasure bug? Find links to stories about the fabulous Wiberg’s Gold here and also here
In the last episode we spoke with David van Gennep, the Executive Director of AAP – a rescue and rehabilitation centre, mainly known for helping chimpanzees, with a centre in the Netherlands and another one in Spain. Today, we're staying on a similar subject. In this episode we're speaking with Olga Feliu who is the Director of the MONA Foundation – that's a sanctuary for chimpanzees located near to the town of Girona in Catalunya, Spain. Yes, we have the same name, so for clarity whenever I speak about “Olga” from now on, it's not about me, it's about our guest! The chimpanzees that live at the "MONA sanctuary" are mostly former TV advert and circus stars. Celebrities, really. Whichever country we live in, we've probably seen an advert for fast food or a brand of tea. How much fun they always seemed to be having in those situations, we all thought, including me when I was a child. It wasn't until I visited the MONA sanctuary that I found out that the fall from TV stardom for a chimpanzee is a sad and grave event which tends to see them sent to live in a (usually tiny and filthy) cage for the rest of their lives. This is an episode where we explore the lives of some of the chimpanzees that Olga's amazing team has looked after over the years. We talk about the other situations where chimpanzees are kept as pets and, of course, what their journey looks like when they reach a place like the MONA sanctuary where they can experience at least a fraction of a "normal" life as a chimpanzee. About our guest OLGA FELIU, Co-founder, Board member and Director of MONA. Brave, pragmatic and always optimistic. Olga always sees the bright side of things and that has made the MONA project a reality out of nothing. Olga is a veterinary graduate who has worked with animals for the entirety of her career. She also has a Master´s Degree in Primatology and Doctorate in Primate Ethology at the University of Barcelona. Olga founded and runs the Fundació MONA Sanctuary and Recuperation centre in the province of Girona, Catalunya, Spain. Now, in the last episode with David from AAP we already learned that there's a surprisingly large trade in wild animals across Europe. In fact, because Spain is a gateway from Africa into Europe, it's often the entry point for animals like chimpanzees and macaques who are caught in the wild and then… through a chain… sold on to people who keep them as pets or as workers. Olga is going to talk to us about the kind of things that she has seen over her career. In fact, she was a vet specialising in the health of baby cows. One day, the company she worked for got a call from someone who needed help with chimpanzees! Olga was the one sent to meet a British chap called Simon Templar (not many of her colleagues spoke English) who was privately rescuing chimpanzees from some terrible situations and giving them a safe home. That was some 20 years ago, but that was the meeting which was to change the course of Olga's life, as she'll explain, and saw her becoming a go to person for the Customs department of the Spanish Government. So, whenever they had found an illegally kept chimpanzee and wanted to confiscate it, they'd call Olga to try find a home for it. Hence, she found out just how many of these poor chimpanzees were finding themselves far from home, working in circuses, as TV stars or living as pets in apartments. And so, as good people do, she decided to do something about it. I have visited the MONA sanctuary several times, met many of the staff there and also got to know the stories of the chimpanzees and barbary macaques they have there. It's not a huge place, and the setup is two separate enclosures for the chimpanzees where they live in their little groups, and then their connected bedrooms where they go at night. There's also a sort of separate quarantine / introduction area which is where new chimps first live when they arrive. The chimpanzees enjoying life in one of the enclosures at MONA. (Photo credit: --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/other5billion/message
This week our three hosts discuss a great number of things including how a delusional German physician got away with killing people, and how Pope Francis thinks right to tackle poverty. Loads of good news this week: The John Maddox Prize goes to Britt Hermes and Terry Hughes this year, ARP-SAPC reaches 20 years of activity, the Spanish government moves against pseudo-therapies in health care, the BBC upholds the Good Thinking Society's complaint about a homeopathy-related phone-in and ComCept awards journalist Vera Novais for advocating science as opposed to nonsense. Also, on the less positive side, we report on child marriages no longer being recognised in Sweden, no matter what the culture of the country of origin is, authors of a paper based on a national survey into CAM use in the UK suggest NHS funding for bogus therapies and christian parents threatening legal action for something that wasn't what it looked like. And the Norwegian Labour Party gets this week's Really Right prize for suggesting the revoking of VAT excemption for alternative medicinal practices.
Adam and Jon discuss the recent developments in the Spanish Government, and this week's withdrawal of the United States from the UN Human Rights Council.
#51- The World Cup is on!!!!! Mexico and Russia both won in shockers. Spain and Portugal played out a thrilling and amazing draw. Argentina looked aweful. Germany looked like shit. We're talking about a lot of the games so far and who we think can go on and who might crash out. At the end, we discuss Ronaldo's $21 million tax bill due to the Spanish Government and why it's immoral and wrong for Ronaldo to be forced into paying these taxes. Thanks for listening. Sign up for our email list to get hilarious stories about the world of soccer, opinions on different stories, and exlusive content and a spot in our private facebook group. Sign up with the link below. https://mailchi.mp/7036eefc08d6/on-the-counter-email-listGive us a 5 star rating and review on iTunes to help us move up the rankings and get access to our private facebook group.Like our facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/onthecounterpodcast/ for memes, funny videos and more.
Seamus and Dan talk to Sergio Herndandez about the recent changes in Spain's governing body. The three discuss how these changes were brought about and what the new center-left government plans to do after this unconventional rise to power. Recorded June 14th, 2018 Intro Song Credit: "New York City Serenade" - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to Jorge Toledo, Spain's minister for EU affairs. When the Spanish Government threw out the regional Government in Catalonia, imposed direct rule from Madrid and called regional elections, it took a calculated risk. Next month we'll see whether it was well advised. If Catalans give a clear majority to pro-independence parties, Spain - and the European Union - will be facing a protracted crisis. Can Madrid out manoeuvre the secessionists?
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Jorge Toledo, Spain’s minister for EU affairs. When the Spanish Government threw out the regional Government in Catalonia, imposed direct rule from Madrid and called regional elections, it took a calculated risk. Next month we'll see whether it was well advised. If Catalans give a clear majority to pro-independence parties, Spain - and the European Union - will be facing a protracted crisis. Can Madrid out manoeuvre the secessionists?
27: Spain and the Catalan Crisis Intro The question of Catalan independence has never been more visible in the UK and its dramatic appearance on the news agenda has highlighted new complexities in Spain’s territorial constitution. On the 18th October 2017, a day before the Spanish Government announced its intention to suspend Catalan autonomy, historian Dr Andrew Dowling of Cardiff University gave the following presentation that explores the underlying reasons that led to the referendum and subsequent events of October 2017 in Catalonia. More about Dr Andrew Dowling: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/161427-dowling-andrew Andrew on Twitter: https://twitter.com/painesrepublic This presentation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ck1NUruZ38w If you like the show, please be in touch with us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/golau_podcast and please do rate and review the show on your podcast player of choice.
As the events of Sunday's referendum on Catalan independence sink in, we take a look at the violent reaction of the Spanish Government, and the road ahead for Catalonia - with the help of an MEP who was part of the international delegation overseeing the vote. Also on the program - The United States is facing widespread criticism for refusing to back a UN resolution condemning the use of the death penalty for the “crime” of same sex relations - we'll be looking at the justification given by the US. It's no secret that Prime Ministers spend a long time planning their annual party conference speeches - but was this how Theresa May wanted HER big comeback speech to be remembered? We look back at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, and ask just how tenable Theresa May's position is now. It wasn't just Theresa May's speech that made it a difficult week for the UK Government, MEPs voted overwhelmingly in support of a motion to delay brexit trade negotiations in a debate that saw blow after blow being delivered to the UK Government. CLIP ** A Scottish Government report has shed light on the sociological impact of the private renting sector - we'll be talking to Common Weal's head of policy Ben Wray about Common Weal's report on the matter and their housing conference.
Darrell Castle talks about revolution in Spain as the region of Catalonia seeks independence. Transciption / Notes CATALONIA REALLY WANTS TO BE FREE Hello this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. Today is Friday, October 6, 2017, and on today's Report I will be talking about the nation of Spain and the struggle of one of its regions, or provinces, to become an independent nation. We start with a little background. Prior to the start of World War Two, the Spanish Region of Catalonia sought to establish a Republic in Spain, which was was allied in its struggle with the Soviet Union. The opposing force was Spanish Dictator Francisco Franco who was allied with Nazi Germany. Adolph Hitler had begun rearming Germany from its defeat in World War l, and the Spanish Civil War gave him a chance to test his new weapons, especially the Luftwaffe or German Air Force. The new airplanes used in Spain caused Great Britain to take notice and start its own re-armament. The Spanish Civil War became a cause for celebrity attention around the world. Ernest Hemingway went there and wrote “For Whom The Bell Tolls” about it. Franco continued as Spanish head of state until his death in 1975. After his death a Constitutional Monarchy was established with 17 autonomous regions, one of which was Catalonia. The autonomy of these regions was spelled out in the Spanish Constitution of 1978, but the Constitution did not allow for complete independence from Spain. Since that time the region of Catalonia has been in a struggle with the Spanish Government in Madrid. The two sides can never agree on how much autonomy each region has or even what is meant by the term autonomy. The Catalan people have voted in non binding referendums many times and each vote is overwhelmingly for independence. Each time the Spanish Government goes to the Constitutional Court for a ruling that the referendum is illegal and unconstitutional, and each time they get it. Spain will not voluntarily let go of Catalonia, the nation's most valuable and richest region. Catalonia is not the only Spanish Region to consider independence. The Basque region is watching these events very closely. Catalonia is located on the northeast corner of Spain. It borders France and the Mediterranean Coast, and includes the city of Barcelona. It is Spain's number one tourist region, from which comes its highest tax revenue. The tax system is Catalonia's reason for wanting independence, and has been since the Constitution of 1978. The Catalans are upset because more than a majority of their taxes are collected from them but used in other regions. Catalonia is being used as a tax farm by the Spanish Government to fund its welfare and vote-buying schemes in other regions. In a nutshell, the real problem with Catalonia, and Spain in general, is one of demographics. Spain has the lowest fertility rate in Europe and its population is rapidly aging. While Spain struggles to deal with an unproductive and aging population the European Union requires the immigration of a few million immigrants supposedly to replace Spanish low wage workers, but who in reality, fill the welfare rolls. Scotland could not afford to vote for independence from Great Britain because of all the subsidies it receives but in Spain the relationship is reversed and Catalonia subsidizes the Spanish Government. The Catalan people have come to the conclusion that they would be better of without the rest of Spain so they are pushing independence as far as it will go. Other regions such as the Basque region watch and wait for their own opportunity. Spain is in a very difficult spot because if Catalan is allowed to be free, other regions will follow suit and the Spanish Government will have no way to pay the debt service on the billions it has borrowed from the European Central Bank and the German Banks. In its desperation to keep Catalonia peaceably, Spain has offered to pay billions to the region.
Live from Cape Town Ray Familathe, Torben Seebold, Jorge Garcia Faerna, Paddy Crumlin, and the entire ITF Dockers section have a message for the Spanish government.
CAR manufacturers in Spain are offloading an increasing number of motors to countries outside the EU. The Spanish Government may finally follow other democracies by setting time limit on classified documents. Barcelona city council will fine holiday rental websites Airbnb and HomeAway €600,000 (£509,000) each for offering unlicensed accommodation, it has announced, as it steps up its campaign against tourism saturation. Unemployment and precarious labor market is driving up number of young people unable to leave home A document mistakenly revealed by a Tory aide leaving Downing Street yesterday gave a rare glimpse into the Government's stance on EU exit talks. The notes suggest the Government has already given up on staying in the European single market and will not go for a Norway-style deal. Instead they indicate the UK is looking at a 'Canada-plus' trade arrangement, and will leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice as it does not 'fit' with the PM's determination to curb immigration. British Influence – set up by the arch-Europhile Peter Mandelson claimed the Government has no mandate for leaving the European Economic Area. The Equality and Human Rights Commission urged politicians on both sides of the bitter row to tone down their rhetoric saying Breiteers are not racist. Describing Brexit as the UK 'leaving the EU, but not leaving Europe', Beata Szydlo said Poland would conduct negotiations in a 'down-to-earth' manner, and called on other EU nations to do the same. Astonishing footage has emerged of a van driver grappling with a trucker, reversing his van into him and then smashing his victim's window with a shovel. A scathing report found ‘very high’ levels of violence at HMP Hindley, near Wigan, with prisoners often locked in their cells 24 hours a day David Isaac, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said employers needed to take a 'common sense' approach when dealing with the Christian holiday. Smelly food in the office has become so prevalent that it is hampering workers’ productivity, a study has found. The habit of eating ‘Al Desko’ has grown that now two thirds of people do it.
CAR manufacturers in Spain are offloading an increasing number of motors to countries outside the EU. The Spanish Government may finally follow other democracies by setting time limit on classified documents. Barcelona city council will fine holiday rental websites Airbnb and HomeAway €600,000 (£509,000) each for offering unlicensed accommodation, it has announced, as it steps up its campaign against tourism saturation. Unemployment and precarious labor market is driving up number of young people unable to leave home A document mistakenly revealed by a Tory aide leaving Downing Street yesterday gave a rare glimpse into the Government's stance on EU exit talks. The notes suggest the Government has already given up on staying in the European single market and will not go for a Norway-style deal. Instead they indicate the UK is looking at a 'Canada-plus' trade arrangement, and will leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice as it does not 'fit' with the PM's determination to curb immigration. British Influence – set up by the arch-Europhile Peter Mandelson claimed the Government has no mandate for leaving the European Economic Area. The Equality and Human Rights Commission urged politicians on both sides of the bitter row to tone down their rhetoric saying Breiteers are not racist. Describing Brexit as the UK 'leaving the EU, but not leaving Europe', Beata Szydlo said Poland would conduct negotiations in a 'down-to-earth' manner, and called on other EU nations to do the same. Astonishing footage has emerged of a van driver grappling with a trucker, reversing his van into him and then smashing his victim's window with a shovel. A scathing report found ‘very high’ levels of violence at HMP Hindley, near Wigan, with prisoners often locked in their cells 24 hours a day David Isaac, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said employers needed to take a 'common sense' approach when dealing with the Christian holiday. Smelly food in the office has become so prevalent that it is hampering workers’ productivity, a study has found. The habit of eating ‘Al Desko’ has grown that now two thirds of people do it.
There's always money in the air and Scottish Premier club Rangers are now in trouble. Brawling heavyweight boxers are also in the news and the Spanish Government are capping wages in the public sector
There's always money in the air and Scottish Premier club Rangers are now in trouble. Brawling heavyweight boxers are also in the news and the Spanish Government are capping wages in the public sector
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