Editorial:
Small bits of 'good news' for the Spanish economy (if you want to believe them), together with large bits of bad news for Spanish society. What will the New World hold for us... and how close it is?
Housing:
Editorial from El País in English: - 'Spain is for sale. And finally, it seems there are buyers. Dozens of investment funds from all over the world, but mostly from the United States, are buying apartment blocks, real estate firms, and even company debt. There are some vulture funds out for a quick buck, but most are looking for medium-term returns. "Two years ago, Spain was radioactive, and the property sector toxic. Suddenly it's become our savior; it's that stupid," says one veteran real estate developer on condition of anonymity.
On February 7, 2012, when the future of the euro was still in the balance, Jaime Bergel, a former board member of energy giant Endesa, opened an office for 13-billion-dollar US investment fund HIG Capital in Madrid. "We had a feeling that people would come here looking for opportunities," he says. In fact Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs were already here'...
'The Moroccan property market could be under something of a Spanish invasion in the near future, as more and more people from the financially troubled European country look for a new life elsewhere. Bloomberg reported that Spaniards are increasingly fleeing joblessness in their home country and heading to Moroccan shores where there are more opportunities for employment. Barcelona-born architect Jean-Pierre Monguard Estragues explained to the news provider that it's much easier to find clients and projects in Marrakech than back in Spain. "The money isn’t the best pay I’ve ever had but it allows me to live and send some home," he said. "Experience and know-how are much more appreciated here than they are in Spain."'... From Property Showrooms.
From The Leader, a piece called 'Construction without Conscience': - 'Anyone driving around the urbanisations of Orihuela Costa will notice that a forest of cranes again peppers the skyline. It appears that the brakes have come off the construction industry and there is another mad scrabble to build on any piece of vacant land. Several major builders have large scale projects all intent on cramming as many housing units as possible onto the small plots of land'...
'Cadiz is a compact, handsome place of 125,000 residents with a hugely atmospheric old town connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. The city lies at the heart of the Costa de la Luz, the name given to the section of the Spanish Atlantic coast between the Strait of Gibraltar and the Portuguese border.
“A trickle of foreigners have bought here, principally Germans and Britons,” says Concepción Zarzuela, of the Puertatierra estate agency, who has been instructed to sell a traditional, unrenovated Andalucian townhouse close to Calle Ancha, the most prestigious shopping street in Cadiz’s old town. The three-storey house, with an asking price of €800,000, has nine bedrooms distributed around a cool patio with delicate wrought-iron railings and traditional Moorish-style tiling'... The Financial Times, Spain Property
'Like a stone in your shoe. For over ten years Pascual Carrión, a shepherd and farmer from Jumilla, whose stubbornness to defend his own has defeated the excessive urban plans of a company supported by the local City Council. The story is a reflection of how things used to go here until the bursting of the Spanish housing bubble.
Last Tuesday was the latest success for Pascual. The municipality of Jumilla allowed the time for appeal against the judgement of the Superior Court of Murcia to elapse. The case which had annulled the Santa Ana del Monte Jumilla-Golf. As its name indicates, in addition to a couple of the green sport fields, some 15,000 houses were to form the complex, which was intended to include the 30 hectares that belong of Pascual. A classic 'land-grab'. But now with the promoter company in receivership since 2008, it seems impossible to resurrect the project'... From El Confidencial.
Tourism:
From The Entertainer Online: 'The PSOE spokesperson in the Almerían resort town of Roquetas de Mar has originated an unlikely thought... maybe 'turismo todo incluido', the kind of pared-to-the-bone tourism where everything is paid for when the holiday is booked, is producing 'a kind of cheap tourism that may help the accounts of the hotels but is destroying the rest of the local offer. The shops and restaurants are dying', he says. No one is making any money from the tourists who wear all-inclusive identity bracelets - the hotels give them all they need and the rest of the local businesses are empty, says the socialist. (All-inclusive people get the cheapest holidays, leaving over half of their entire investment back with the agency and carrier in their country of origin). Roquetas accounts are now being published, and while tourism, that's to say 'visitor numbers' is up over last year, income is firmly down.'.
Finance:
'The companies listed in the main indicator of the Spanish stock market, the Ibex 35, closed the first half of the year with a positive return of 14.633 million euros profit, 9% more than in the same period from 2012 and far from the losses that ended that year'... From El Mundo on Wednesday.
'The bad loan rate for Spanish banks has reached a record of 11.97 percent as the recession forces more companies and individuals to dodge repayments.
Central bank data released Wednesday shows non-performing loans totalled 178.7 billion euros ($238.6 billion) in July, up from 176.4 billion euros in June when the rate was 11.6 percent. It was the fifth consecutive monthly increase. The ratio has soared from 1 percent in 2007, a year before Spain's property market collapsed. Spain has been in recession for most of the past four years and has a 26.3 percent unemployment rate. The government says its reforms are producing results and predicts the recession will end this year but international experts are less optimistic'... From The Houston Chronicle.
From Bloomberg: 'Spain’s public debt rose above Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s year-end goal last quarter as the nation struggled to emerge from its second recession since 2008.
Borrowings by the euro area’s fourth-largest economy at the end of June rose to 92.2 percent of gross domestic product, or 943 billion euros ($1.3 trillion), the Madrid-based Bank of Spain said on its website today. That compares with 923 billion euros, or 90.1 percent of GDP, at the end of March, and the government’s goal of 91.4 percent by the end of the year. Spain’s debt load has more than doubled since 2008, when the end of a real-estate boom triggered an economic slump that is now in its its sixth year. The International Monetary Fund predicts the debt-to-GDP ratio will top 100 percent in 2015. The European Commission says it’ll be higher than the euro-area average, forecast to be 96 percent, for the first time in the single currency’s history'...
'The recession may have hit hard and long, but it looks like Spain may finally emerge from the downturn this year. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), Gross Domestic Product in Europe could be flat or grow by up to 0.2 per cent in the third and fourth quarters. If this prediction is correct then Spain will be out of recession this year, reaching the end-of-year target of a 1.3 per cent.
Spain’s Economy Secretary, Fernando Jiménez Latorre, comments: “We believe there’s been an important turnaround in the economic cycle and that the bases are there to continue this new trend and this will show growth, finally ending the long and deep recession.”' From The Olive Press.
'Madrid stands to lose out on Eurovegas if the central government doesn’t act quickly to change the anti-smoking laws, regional premier Ignacio González warned on Tuesday.
“We run the risk that Eurovegas will be moved to another site,” González told esRadio in an interview. The Popular Party (PP) premier revealed that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy promised on two occasions to push for a relaxation of the smoking regulation after holding meetings with Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson. But so far Rajoy, also of the PP, has not kept to his commitment that the proposal would be ready by September, he said'... From El País in English. A late article in El Mundo (Wednesday night) says that the Health Minister Ana Mato is prepared to consider relaxing the smoking laws 'for the creation of jobs'...
'JPMorgan doubts that Las Vegas Sands will finally build their macro leasure project in Madrid, following talks that the U.S. Bank analysts have maintained in recent days with leaders of the company controlled by Sheldon Adelson.
The huge tourist project in Spain of the Vegas Sands "may be axed", says JPMorgan in a recent analysis on the evolution of the US company. The Bank added in its report that in their opinion "the directives of Las Vegas Sands have spoken very little about this project [with analysts of JP Morgan] compared with other plans they have elsewhere, leaving the bank thinking that it must be difficult to achieve more concessions from Madrid, thus causing Las Vegas Sands to reconsider its plans"'... From Cinco Dias.
'The two main newspapers of Spain (El Mundo and El País) are the best example of the decline of an industry that is now in the sixth year of crisis. The collapse of advertising, sales and a lack of a viable alternative model leaves the two papers in the worst economic situation in their history. Unidad Editorial (owners of El Mundo) last week feared for the viability of the company following the rejection of its committees for an agreement to cut costs, while Prisa has mortgaged 'El País' to the Spanish banks and is without a plan for the future that could remove them from technical bankruptcy during the coming months'... From PR Noticias.
'The potential loss of purchasing power retirees face as a result of the proposed amendments to the state pension system is much greater than estimated by the government. The draft bill containing the reforms presented on Monday by the Labor Ministry comprises savings of 33 billion euros over the period 2014-2022. However, that figure is based on the assumption of an annual inflation rate of only one percent, a supposition clearly at odds with the trend in consumer price increases in Spain'... From El País in English.
'The Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias, presented his new plan of corporate sponsorship for the Transportes Metropolitanos de Barcelona (TMB) network to hundreds of business leaders last week. He announced that, for the first time, the very names of the City's Metro stations themselves will now be for lease. With this proposal, Trias opens the possibility (already a reality in Madrid) that any company willing to pay the agreed price can unite their name to that of Passeig de Gracia or Liceu, for example'... From La Vanguardia.
Corruption:
'The Seville judge Mercedes Ayala has taken the first steps towards involving the leaders of former socialist governments at the Junta de Andalucía, with ex-presidents Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán at their helm, in the ongoing ERE scandal.
So far the investigation (into the alleged embezzlement of funds reserved to help struggling firms with redundancy pay-offs) has avoided directly accusing the government leaders, although Judge Mercedes Ayala did express a need to establish how the “top steps of the pyramid” fitted into the equation as long as two years ago'... From the Sur in English.
Prologue of an interview granted to El Páis by the new president of the Andalucían Community, we read: 'The new President of the Junta de Andalucía, the Socialist Susana Díaz (Seville, 1974), shows her "pain" and "shame" over the fraud of the ERE and she underlines her commitment to be ruthless against corruption. In the interview with EL PAIS, she adds that Spain needs a "strong and solid" PSOE. Regarding the current debate on sovereignty in Catalonia, she is emphatic: "this is a national problem that affects us all"... Meanwhile, Ms Díaz has upset the eighth province of Andalucía, Almería (always a little bit wobbly about being in the autonomy after its negative vote back in 1982) after her new cabinet had no representation from the easternmost province. The local newspapers are raking over ideas for independence from Andalucía and 'its hegemonic hold over Almería's interests'.
On that 'won't-go-away' ERE scandal in Andalucía, here's El Huff Post: 'Rafael Hernando, Deputy Spokesman of the Partido Popular in the Congress, said on Saturday that "The PSOE, unfortunately, continues trying to harass the judge Alaya, and is obstructing the course of Justice and continues to deny the truth of what is one of the largest cases of corruption in the history of Spain"... The pot calling the kettle 'black'? See 'Essay' below.
Pictures and video of Luis Bárcenas in jail were circulating in the media over the weekend. Yesterday, the Interior Ministry showed a mini-camera they had found discarded in the prison. Bárcenas is understandably suing everyone... (article and short video here).
'-Listen, I just earned, so to speak, one million euros from drug trafficking and need to launder it in Gibraltar. I ask you, as an expert on the issue, what I have to do.
-It is very easy. Just a phone call.
- And who do I call?
-Any Gibraltarian lawyer. Or to any Spanish bank. The procedure used is correspondent banking. You have a million euros, you pick up the phone and call any Spanish bank. You say you want to put one million euros in Gibraltar. Then an agent of the bank drops by your office, your company or your home. Takes you money and gives you the receipt from the Bank in Gibraltar. All the Spanish banks have branches in tax havens. That man, that banking correspondent, what he does is he puts the money in his name. Not yours. And the operation is contained in the accounts of the Bank as an operation that is made between the Spanish entity and the corresponding Spanish entity in Gibraltar, or Jersey, or wherever. It appears as an internal bank operation. You have the receipt, but you don't appear. It's perfectly safe: and it's that easy'.
This crude explanation of how to launder your capital on the Rock comes from José María Peláez, Member and former President of the professional inspectors of Finance of State organization'... Story from El Confidencial.
Inheritance:
'The entry into law of the European Regulation of Inheritance, scheduled for August 17, 2015, affects the legitimate rights of the children. The rule will allow European citizens to choose the appropriate system of the Member State of the EU that suits them, so it opens the possibility of leaving some descendants without their inheritance. An option which might occur if unusual conditions assessed by the Civil Code are met.
To avoid the Spanish system of family heirs, it will only be necessary to ask to avail oneself, for example of Anglo-Saxon law, characterized by allowing a total freedom in the disposition of the assets of the final will. A legal form of 'hereditary dumping' that promises to multiply the number of famous stories about fratricidal wars caused through inheritance'.... From El Confidencial.
Politics:
'Against a backdrop which offers an eerie parallel with events which took place somewhat to the North more than 30 years ago, Catalonia is now threatening to separate from Spain. In so doing the region seems to be putting at risk both the future of the host country and beyond that the outlook for the Euro currency and the process of European unification'... Beginning of an essay about Catalonian independence at A Fistful of Euros by Edward Hugh.
Ah, independence, where you're always a bit better than your neighbour. Scotland appears to be against it (if you believe El Mundo), Catalonia is apparently for it and Galicia had a big march with the BNG just the other day (Público). Then there's the Basque Country (Headline in El Mundo: EH Bildu Announces a Democratic Confrontation with Spain and France): - 'The Pro-independence Coalition Euskal Herri Bildu has defended putting up a 'Via Basque' (a human line of supporters à la catalana) for the 'shared construction of our Homeland' as a manifesto that insists on the national construction of Euskal Herria'... The Greater Basque Country, Euskal Herria, is three Basque provinces, plus Navarra with its capital city of Pamplona as the new capital of the Basque Homeland, together with three slightly unwilling French provinces. All based on something that happened in the year 1004ad. Never do something by halves...
'Hey amigo, wanna vote in German elections?' Público runs an article about Germans who will willingly cede their vote to a foreigner who may have more interest in voting in the German elections. Well, it's a very European idea, surely!... - 'Egality Berlin is a small collective of the German capital, formed by young, activist and utopian types. They are the drivers of Electoral Rebellion, a campaign that want to contact Germans willing to give up their vote with anyone who wants to take it over. They fight for a global democracy, far from the boundaries of national borders. "This system no longer makes sense; everything these days has been globalized... except for democracy", explains Sonja Wyrsch in a downtown café in Berlin.
Red Tape:
'If you’ve lived in Madrid long enough to require a NIE, it’s highly likely that bureaucracy is up there on your list of cons about living and working in this city. And if you’re an ex-pat entrepreneur, it’s not just “up there”, it’s number one. That shouldn’t come as a surprise since Spain ranks a staggering 136 out of 184 countries for ease of doing business in a study done by the World Bank as recently as 2011. (Just for reference, our neighbours France, Portugal and Morocco respectively rank 27, 31 and 56 in that report while the US and UK rank 13 and 19.)
In fact, the amount of red tape is so bad in Madrid that an entire occupation was borne out of it: the gestor. Somewhere between a gofer and a fixer, a gestor is someone who “knows his way around the intricacies of Spanish administrative bureaucracy, as well as knowing with whom to speak to get things done quickly.” Sounds like a modern day pícaro, living by his wits in a corrupt society, doesn’t it? But without this middleman, getting your business permit in Madrid is nothing short of a nightmare, as many will attest'... An entertaining article called 'The surprising history of red tape and how the Spanish are able to bear it so well' from Vaya Madrid.
Essay:
From opinion blog Voto en Blanco (Francisco Rubiales):
Judge Alaya, calling for the imputation of former Andalucía Presidents Chaves and Griñán, along with five former members of the Junta de Andalucía, has opened Spaniards' eyes and showed them with all harshness the terrible degradation of democracy, creating anguish for the future because the two major political parties, the only ones likely to govern, do not represent any guarantee of decency, democracy, justice and regeneration. The order of the judge is the dramatic confirmation of the failure of generations of politicians who followed from the Franco regime, the end of Partitocracia (a shrewish word for the two-party system) and the deeply undemocratic infection suffered in Spain by the major parties.
The fanatical Spain who always votes for the Right is of course pleased to know the order of Judge Alaya, who accuses the Andalucian Presidents Manuel Chaves and José Griñán in the dirty scandal of the fraudulent EREs. Then, the stalwarts who vote on the Left have felt pain to see involved two prominent Socialists, the main players in Andalucian politics over the past three decades, stuck in the manure. The few remaining Democrats who are still found in this troubled land are filled with sadness to note that there is no hope in this country for clean and decent politicians and that Spain is imprisoned in the iron fist of corruption and, lastly, that the two main parties, the only ones with serious options to govern, compete for political misery and ethical and democratic impropriety.
The PSOE, which has seen how the auto "spoiled" Inauguration Day for the new Government of Andalucía, has wanted to be prudent, but has ended by accusing the judge of generating a “media frenzy” against Chaves and Griñán, saying through their spokesperson Soraya Rodríguez, that the PSOE maintained a huge confidence in the two former Presidents of Andalucía.
Of course, more than just a "mediatic accusation", the judge's summons is rather a juridical demonstration of the ultimate degradation of politics in Spain.
The PSOE, which was frankly enjoying itself watching the PP taking their medicine with the Bárcenas case, must now themselves cringe before public opinion and assume that the huge theft of the EREs puts them in the eyes of Spaniards as the protagonist of the biggest scandal of the "democratic" era and as just another anti-democratic rapist of all decency.
The shocking summons of the judge, together with the equally nauseating Bárcenas case, makes it clear that the Spanish “two-party turnaround” has failed and that neither the Right nor the Left have moral or ethical legitimacy to govern our nation; now in decline, ruined, internationally discredited and morally undone because of the poor government.
Supporters of the PP and the PSOE are a mass of both the sick and the blind, unable to accept that their own champions lack any discernible merit, while those Independents and others who dream of political regeneration feel alone, rudderless and without hope in a future dominated by people who no longer honourable, not so much by what they have done but by what they appear to be unable to do: to assume, with all the consequences, the need for change and to recreate it – to repair, as they must, the betrayal of democracy.
The worst thing about the PP and the PSOE is not that some have exchanged envelopes, or used the corporate donations for their own personal ends, or that they have used money meant to fight unemployment to benefit themselves: cheating and in violation of laws, but that they have no plans or desire to change their protection from the public, merely covering or using their privileged status to go unchallenged.
This far, some could say that corruption was a matter of very localized minorities, but when suspicions and allegations are touching Presidents and senior members of the Government, then it is no longer possible to hide from reality any longer and to ignore that Spain is a cesspool that requires urgent repair to rebuild a truly democratic state where corruption can not survive; raise up to power the best and most honest of our citizens; to eradicate the caste of scratch-my-back politicians and, in short, to free it from one of the worst political classes on the planet.
The big question is 'What to do now'? The only answer is to rely on the few citizens who resist, those who have managed to stay on the sidelines of the main parties of corruption. Those few clean citizens, marginalized and harassed by politicians and their parties, have become almost an endangered species, but they are the only ones who can save a country in which politicians are no longer the solution but the problem.
Various:
'Cristóbal Montoro mediated with Prisa (El País and others) and Planeta (laSexta TV) to lower their criticism of the Government. Hacienda can postpone their debt and the payment of social security contributions. The Minister of Finance has decided to engage directly in the Government's offensive to try to reduce the editorial line critical of some media. In recent months, Cristóbal Montoro has maintained contacts with leaders and executives of struggling media groups to offer aid, but in a trade-off, they should moderate their criticisms and "put their shoulders to the wheel" to help remove Spain from the crisis'... From El Confidencial.
'Emigration due to the crisis is now greater than the 1960s. Many young people have decided to try their luck abroad but the situation today is different from that of their predecessors'. - An article from the Sur in English.
An interesting history of the decline in numbers of Andalucía banks and cajas, by David Jackson. (includes this quote: 'In 2008 there were 7085 bank branches in the region, in December 2012 just 5695, a loss of 1390 branches, or 20%, a closure rate which was the highest in Spain').
'The transparency law that came into force in March in Rwanda is more advanced than the one approved last Thursday in the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies. So say all major platforms fighting in Spain for the right of access to public information. According to the analysis carried out by the organisation Access Info Europe, Spanish regulations will place the country in the back of the queue in the international ranking of the countries that have them. Out of 95, Spain manages to earn position 72 in transparency and the right to public information'... From Público.
'The future 'Services and Professional Associations Act' (Ley de Servicios y Colegios Profesionales) threatens to open a deep rift in the courts. The draft law sponsored by the Ministry of Economy will allow a liberalization in prices in some professions and suppresses the incompatibility of functions between procurators and lawyers.
The new rules aim above all to favour clients and to lower the costs of contracted services; However, in practice the initiative has raised a storm of criticism (from lawyers) for "favouring poor service for the public"'... From La Voz de Almería.
'Madrid city council has debts of 7.780 billion euros. And after having crashed out in the first round of voting on Saturday in its bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games, the prospect of an influx of funds has vanished into thin air. The estimated 4.012-billion-euro injection of investment that hosting the 2020 Games would have brought with it would not have allowed the council to pay off its debts, which are the highest among all of Spain’s municipalities. But it would have given Mayor Ana Botella two things: liquidity, and hope in a project that would have mobilized the city and, thus, also voters.
The huge blow of losing the Games to Tokyo leaves the future of numerous half-finished construction projects up in the air, as there is no budget or political plan to see them completed. Finishing, tidying or improving the structures would take an additional 1.5 billion euros'... El País in English on the aftermath of the failure of Madrid's Olympic bid.
Back on the subject of foreign titles here in Spain, here's an article in Ciencias y Cosas alarmingly called 'Is it Worth Having a Nobel Prize in Spain? For our Universities, the Answer is 'No'!' - 'To have a Nobel prize is supposed to have reached the top of a career of a scientist, an economist, etc... (we shall quietly ignore certain Nobel Peace Prize awards...). But for a scientist for example, having spent all his career in research, obtaining the Nobel Prize is meant to give global recognition to a discovery, a theory, and so on. Yet, when one comes down to it and asks, would having a Nobel help you with the Spanish universities? As far as the Spanish bureaucracy would be concerned, the answer is no'...
From Spectrum Radio, Costa Almería: IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON UK TERRESTRIAL TV CHANNELS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE
Television and Internet services in South of Europe is changing soon.
(1) All BBC, ITV, Ch4 and Ch5 TV channels etc. will disappear from the SKY platform at end of October beginning November. None of these channels will physically reach Europe mainland via Satellite.
The Satellite launch has now been completed on the 15th September and final switch over to the new satellite will be end of October beginning of November affecting more than 1,000,000 Ex-pats and foreign users outside the new footprint.
(2) Sky will stop the use of their cards in all Digital receivers other than their own.
(3) Sky Channels (Pay TV) will only be available on a SKY Digi set-top boxes with fixed card, however after end of October no BBC or ITV channels etc. will be viewable on your SKY Box, or Free to Air box.
(4) The only way as of now to get UK TV in areas outside the new footprint is via Internet:
through a telephone line with broadband ADSL with a minimum of 2 Mbps download speed or with an Internet via Satellite system, utilizing an IPTV set-top box easy-to-use for television via Internet (plug and play) or VPN service.
(5) If your only option (remote rural locations) is via Internet via Satellite, you will need a special VSAT satellite system and a package to make sure you have a perfect uninterrupted TV reception via Internet.
As you can see all these changes will be happening at once.
Astra 2E Launch - September 15, 2013
The ILS Proton returns to flight mission will be the Astra 2E satellite for SES on September 15, 2013.
Changes to BBC satellite transponders in 2013 - Astra 2E
The BBC has confirmed their plans to move their services from Astra 1N to Astra 2E in 2013. The overspill of the BBC’s services will be reduced so viewers outside the UK will find it even harder to receive them.
'...There is a new restaurant called Hispania, just along from the Bank of England, where I had a splendid dinner the other evening. The best anchovies I have ever eaten. The finest Albariño I have encountered. Outstanding jamón. Excellent Ribera del Duero: a range of good Riojas. If (like me) you enjoy Pedro Ximénez, that dessert sherry which tastes of figs, they have a delicious example. They also have fine Spanish brandies, the colour of Armagnac, except more so, and easy on the head… when taken in moderation. One warning: the staff are a delight, and wholly immoderate in their enthusiasm for their cuisine and those who enjoy it'. Bruce Anderson in The Spectator.
Letters
I loved the videos at the end, Lenox! Listening to Ana Botella's Olympic pitch made me understand even more why Madrid lost and also made me think of my bilingual nine year old Spanish granddaughter in Madrid who would no doubt have made it a lot better!!
I know it is very easy to criticize the missing language capabilities of many Spanish politicians, but how would e.g. Obama or Cameron make it in Spanish or French or???
Ivar.
I do enjoy Business Over Tapas - great name by the way - and I shared with you, your obvious disappointment that once again Madrid failed to secure the Olympics. What was astonishing were the costs involved, €100 million and expenses involved in wheeling 300 'representatives' around the world in an effort to secure the premier athletics event.
Add to this your mention of €6 billion to build stadiums, some 'unfinished', at a time when Spain is mired in debt and downturn and one wonders if the focus has been slightly off the ball? Yes, getting the Olympics would help the economy but is the timing right to continue trying to win?
Three attempts at glitzy hollowness in an era when youth unemployment in Spain has hit 56.1 per cent and unemployment in general stands at 26.3 per cent gives me the confidence that we do live in a two speed world. Yes building stadiums does generate jobs, but I wonder if the stadiums will be used, will they generate cash in the long run to help repay the costs (or end up derelict), and if the jobs involved will be, at best, short term.
Will there be a fourth attempt? And, how do you get to be a 'representative'? I'd like to see a bit more of the world, without the having to pay anything - great work if you can get it and after three failed attempts I am sure they could do worse then me.
Sergio
(Ana Botella, mayoress of Madrid, says she'll pass on the Madrid 2024 games... - Lenox)
Finally:
The death of the Spanish bar. Video with English subtitles.
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