WHY SPAIN HAS BECOME THE BUTLINS OF THE CRIMINAL FRATERNITY

Until such time as the Spanish government makes a serious effort to bring its laws into line with the rest of the EU, Spain will, I'm afraid continue to be tha criminal's favourite workplace. In,fact even as I write more and more "petty" criminals are pouring through the frontiers (thanks to Schengen this is now childsplay) whether by bus from the north east or by air from other parts. Pickpockets, bagsnatchers,shoplifters, conmen and a long and large etc. are now here to make our lives a complete misery with the tacit consent of the Spanish government. And the reason? In just one word el HURTO.
According to Simon and Schuster's English- Spanish dictionary, The verb Robar means to steal or thieve and the verb Hurtar means to steal or thieve so why oh why are these two sinonimous verbs treated so diferently by the Spanish judicial system? If violence is involved or quantities of a value of more than 400 euros are taken, then that is considered as ROBO and the culprit (if caught) will be tried and, if found guilty, punished by the traditional methods,i.e. fines community service or imprisonment as the judge sees fit. In this aspect, Spanish laws are no different to the rest of Europe's.( With one important and to my mind ludicrous diference...If the guilty person is sentenced to two years or less jail and has NO PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS, he or she will NOT have to serve that sentence.although it will be taken into account in the case of re-offenders.) No room here therefore for the "short sharp shock" treatment handed out , in many cases succesfully by British judges where many an adolescent has been put back "on the rails" after a three month taste of prison porridge and slopping out.
However, if your pocket is picked as you travel to work or your bag gets stolen from the restaurant, if your money and clothes are nicked from your towel while you enjoy a dip in the warm sea or ,when you get back to your car there's a window broken, and the radio's gone. THAT'S HURTO.If your shop gets its stock reduced by shoplifters or your garden shed is relieved of you black and deckers, that's HURTO If you've just popped down the shop for a kilo of spuds and when you come back your laptop's disappeared then there's little or no point in phoning the police because that's HURTO. IN SPAIN; HURTO IS NOT A CRIME even though you, the victim, have just lost some of you most prized posessions, it is not a crime. I will try to explain.
Resorting once more to my overworked and afforementioned dictionary, the word CRIMEN translates CRIME. I bet you can't guess the meaning of the word DELITO. Yes, that's right the translation of the word DELITO is CRIME Yet, for some inexplicable reason HURTO is not a crime but a delito which means that it will NEVER come before a judge of any kind and NO PUNISHMENT will ever be given. If you are caught for having committed a delito you will be taken to the police station, identified,fingerprinted, your records will be checked to see if you are on the wanted list anywhere in the world and then, after a short time, you will be BACK ON THE STREET and that is the end of it.No fine No prison no deportation. YOU ARE SCOTT FREE TO GO AND COMMIT ANOTHER HURTO.There have been cases of pickpockets being arrested three and even four times in one day. There are people walking around free who have been pulled in hundreds of times for this kind of offence and nothing ever happens to them.Small wonder then that this country is filling up with the underworld scum of the entire world.Where would you prefer to steal a wallet; in Bucharest where you would risk a year's hard labour in an archaic unheated prison left over from the communist regime; in Islaamic countries where you could lose your hand in a public place or here in sunny Spain with its lovely climate where it doesn't matter?
From here I would like to cry out for an immediate change in the law. STEALING is STEALING and if the governing body of this country don't understand that simple fact I will lend them my dictionary.

BENIDORM

Benidorm, for years the Brits favourite low cost holiday resort, is at the centre of the news these days not for lager louts fighting or the increase in prostitution but for the strange circumstancias surrounding the political situation within the Town Hall where history,as supposedly it has the habit of doing, is repeating itself. In1991 the socialist mayor was deposed in a motion of no confidence by Eduardo Zaplana of the conservative Popular party when PSOE councillor Maruja Sanchez deserted the socialist whip and crossed the floor to join the P.P. thus swinging the majority to the right. Zaplana later became president of the Valencian Community and will be remembered for all time as the author of the all time record taxpayers' money loser, Terra Mitica. At the time,the move was applauded by the national P.P. as being a positive move towards the governability of the city of Benidorm.
Twenty eight years on and Benidorm is ,once again on the brink of a new motion of no confidence,this time caused by another floor crossing only this time,it is a P.P. councillor who has abandoned his party whip tilting the balance of power back to the left. The Spanish saying "who robs a thief shall have 100 year pardon" could well be applied here were it not for the fact that a pact was made between the two major parties to prevent this kind of situation from repeating itself. This pact has been repeatedly ignored over the years but what is worthy of note in this case, that of Benidorm, is that the national PSOE have struck their councillors off the official party list as they have gone against the official pàrty line . This ,in itself, would not be especially newsworthy were it not for the fact that the number three of the national PSOE, Leire Pajin, is none other than the daughter of one of the now disowned Benidorm socialists. One can imagine that Sunday lunch with Mum and Dad may be a hazardous practise in the Pajin household at the present time. I would love to be a fly on the wall.
There is, however , another co-incidence, Guess who came to Benidorm to support the coup when exercised by the P.P? Thats right, Don Mariano Rajoy the then number three in the Popular Party. The same Mariano Rajoy who has been vociferously protesting at this "antidemocratic act" when put into practise by the other side. Life has a habit of playing tricks and time, the habit of putting things into their place.

Do you want to sell?

Do you really want to sell your product? Are your sales figures going down and down? Are you worried about it? Well the answer is simple. REDUCE PRICES. It's as easy as that. Let's take some examples. Houses. Houses, flats etc don't sell because they are too expensive. Add up the cost of the materials used in the construction and finish of a new house or flat and see if it exceeds20,000 €. Of course the builders have had to be paid. How many man hours? At what rate? If you are capable of working that out, ( I am not), you will almost certainly discover that there is still an enormous difference between what it cost to build and its final price. Not only are the constructors too greedy but so are local councils not to mention the contents of the brown envelopes which change hands as planning comittee palms are greased.. Result.. in times of crisis we don't buy houses.
Cars. When cars didn't have double bars of lateral protection, 6 airbags, an onbord computer with a luminous screen to point out that the handbrake was on, enormous headlights to wrap around the edges of the vehicle, not to mention those less understood ( by me )technological innovations under the bonnet and alloy wheels THEY WERE CHEAPER. You could buy them.Many of us drove perfectly safely in Morris Minors or Ford Cortinas with none of the aforementioned devices and then, as now, accidents were caused by distractions, lack of attention, tiredness,alcahol etc. the same as they are now.
This same argument could be applied to household appliances and technology. Just how much did it really cost to manufacture and import that laptop you paid 699€ for. It's my guess that the importers ,who brought them to us by the containerful, paid about the sixth part of that figure transport included. I was once offered a containerload of electric guitars which would have to be assembled here at a price which worked out at about 6€ each. I declined of course because there are already enough low quality guitars on the market but it shows just how cheaply these goods can arrive in Europe. While I'm not suggesting that cars should be produced with the poor quality of those guitars, I am suggesting that if certain people or corporate structures stopped being so damned greedy and if they eliminated the un-necessary extras, then consumer goods would become much cheaper, more would be sold and the government could STOP GIVING MY MONEY TO SUBSIDISE THEIR PURCHASE BY OTHER PEOPLE while I remain unable to afford them, for myself.

Today ve vill all change our underpants.

Due to the unfortunate death of one of the only councillors for the Valencian Generalitat who actually knew what he was doing, President Camps has been forced to change his government. Ah!, I hear you think,"he has brought in some dynamic new blood to solve the problems of unemployment and crime" Well no, not exactly. It would be very difficult today to find a bright young spark prepared to throw in his lot with the severely tainted hand of Paco free suits from Milano Camps. The reshuffle consists of moving everyone around as really there is nothing else he could have done. Reminds me of the joke about the concentration camp commander who announced over the loudspeakers," Today as it is my birthday and I am very happy, ve vill all change our underpants. A company vill change vith B company, B company vill change vith C company and C company vith A company. The smell ,I imagine, is about the same.

Why Bosses are NOT creating jobs.

The Anglo Saxon idea of the boss being just another cog in the wheel,neither more nor less important than the manual or office workers; the "we're all in this together so lets be friends and make this business work" logic DOES NOT EXIST IN Spain today. In fact it has never existed. The exact opposite is the norm here. Bosses DO NOT TRUST their workforces. They are convinced that their workers are innately lazy and untrustworthy and that the only one who worries about the future of the company is himself. They will do all that they can to avoid giving anyone a permanent contract as this could mean that one day he will have to pay compensation if he ever wishes to close or sell the business, or, have to make that worker redundant. It's the old "us and them" sindrome which was rife in British industries for so many years with disastrous results in both production and balance sheets. For this reason it is difficult to find a genuinely LOYAL worker. Why should he be loyal if the boss thinks he's a waster? this vicious circle exists in all types of businesses be they service or manufacturing and is a pattern repeated throughout the entire country.
Unfortunately, bad bosses are counterplaced by poor and in many cases useless trade union officials, too many of whom pay lip service to the principles of sindicalysed workers, while their real motivation is not to fight for the working class but to enjoy the "escape" from the daily routine to partake in "union affairs" while being paid full whack for the job that they are not doing during those hours. Don't be fooled. Spanish Trades unions defend themselves, not the workers who pay their dues.
To understand the present reluctance to create jobs, we don't need to look too far into the past. When the government of Felipe Gonzalez started to agonise on a bed of corruption charges, the bosses, scenting a change of government and knowing that the incoming Popular Party would pass legislation which would enable them to dismiss workers more cheaply and employ workers on "junk" contracts, giving workers no rights whatsoever, made the actual situation even worse by NOT employing people. ( Why employ workers today with a contract which would defend them, if ,by waiting a few months ,they would be able to employ and dismiss workers at no cost whatsoever?) The result was ,of course, Populars take office and bingo, thousands of jobs are suddenly available. What brilliant politicians these of the right wing.! ! It's a miracle!. In fact, and as they continue to prove, right wing politicians are just as ineffective and incompetent as their left wing counterparts.
At this moment in time, the "crisis" or economic recession as I prefer to call it, (see my last entry) is once more helping bosses to formulate their strategy. They are convinced that it will cause the downfall of Z,P's government and are playing the same "farole" over again. During the rule of the P.S.O.E. the workers have gained rights and lost jobs. The opposite will be true if the unscrupulous managerial class has its way once more. More jobs. Less rights, Free dismissal. No wonder neither side trusts the other.

The crisis and the media

There are an abundant number of types of crises. Personal, academic,emotional and there are also economic recessions. As I battle through my own personal selection of crises,(aleviated now by the good news that at last my scribblings have a follower,--thanks Shaq, nice of you to drop in on me.---Ican't help wondering about the anomolies of this particular recession. It is not, apparently, like any previous recession. According to the P.P. it's all Zapatero's fault although personally I don't believe that Z.P. was involved directly with granting junk mortgages to Mexicans in the U.S,A. So, having discated that particular theory as political claptrap, let's think more deeply about it. Not everyone is in crisis. With prices lower than ever, consumers should be able to consume even more than they have been doing for the last few years of plenty.Civil servants,secretaries,lawyers ,doctors ,teachers, vets,mechanics plumbers, shoe repairers, shop assistants,butchers,bakers,ironmongers,gardeners,policemen,firemen,ambulance and bus driversand a long etc SHOULD BE BETTER OFF NOW than they have ever been and that is A LOT of people. So why are they not out there spending money and making those economic wheels go round and round? What are they afraid of? Perhaps if these good citizens were not constantly being depressed with doom and gloom forecasts from the predominately right wing media, they might just open those wallets and get it all moving again.

O.k. there are certain sectors that are plunged into the depths of despair. Notably the construction industry which was obviously going to be the fall guy due to the enormous corporate corruption which created and maintained the housing boom for six or seven long years. That had to come to an end one day with or without the economic recession. Result.. 4 million unemployed. Hoiwever ,unemployment never really dropped below the million mark even in the good years so the recession has devoured 3 million jobs and not 4. How then can 3 million jobs be created? By this I mean real jobs, not just temporary "PlanE" type of jobs. Well, I have at least a partial solution to that one.

In England the regulations governing permitted opening times in retail establishments have, to all intents and purposes, disappeared. If you want to go to the supermarket at 4am there is nothing to stop you. You want to buy some C.D s or a pair of fashion boots on a Sunday,,,no problem. Here,the archaic laws of Sunday opening are so hopelessly out of date that they should be scrapped immediately. How many PERMANENT jobs could be created by permitting 24/7 opening in all retail establishments? Of course some small businesses would protest. They could however compete by working as hard and opening as many hours as the Pakistanis do in their small businesses. I've never heard one of them complain, nor,in that respect, have I ever seen one close from 2 til half past five for the siesta. If you can't beat them, join them.I estimate that well over a million PERMANENT jobs could be created by this one measure.

This would of course change our lifestyles to a certain extent. If we could do the weekend shopping in the early hours of a friday morning for example, our Saturday mornings would be free to do other things creating more work for the service industries who offer us so many attractive leisure possibilities.

Time, unfortunately does not permit any more at this juncture but as soon as I can I will explain why another million jobs are not being created right now

IMMIGRATION

Twenty years ago an English friend of mine jokingly suggested that the trouble with Spain was that there were too many Spanish people in it. At that time you would probably go for weeks without seeing a coloured person; the few Arabs there were would generally keep themselves to themselves and on the street you would only ever hear Spanish being spoken. The South American community was so small that it was unnoticeable. The culture shock after living in multi-racial Britain was quite tremendous. The rapid change from those days to the new modern multi racial Spain has, unfortunately, managed to create reactions varying from fear to indignation among born and bred Spaniards which, in certain areas is creating a social unrest in which real violence could break out at any time.
One of the main factors for this social unrest is the lack of integration. Moslems, in general, will not integrate with non muslems either here or in any other part of the world. Oh yes you can work alongside them and occasionally share a joke with them but the barriers are always there.
Contrary to popular opinion they are not hard workers who are here to do the hard dirty work that the nouveau rich Spanish disdain In fact most of the ones with whom I have worked are skivers and their disdainful attitude towards western women is disgraceful.
The South American communities are generally not inclined to integrate with the Spanish people either which, if we take into account the fact that the language is shared, is surprising. Here the lack of integration is mutual as the typical Spaniard is not particularly interested in opening his heart to them and so LatinAmericans generally bunch together. They are not hard to find at weekends around a football field for example or in a particular favourite meeting place where they will congregate in large numbers( often hundreds or more) where they resemble a flock of particularly vociferous starlings. Look among them. You won't find any Spaniards. Many families have arrived with young children wh, resenting having been taken away from their homeland and friends and usually ostracised by Spanish kids, find it extremely difficult to achieve at school,
and, as school failures, organise themselves into gangs such as the well known Latin Kings...... Shades of West side story without the music and with a lot more violence.
The dark skinned African immigration is, for obvios reasons, the most notice-able of all immigrant group. Many have arrived illegallyand live in a clandestine world of their own, usually sharing a flat between about twenty in order to make survival possible and work as itinerant sellers or seasonal field workers. Unlike the previously mentioned groups most Africans are open and friendly and only too pleased to integrate with the Spanish as much as the Spanish themselves will allow.
The Chinese community, which is dedicated to doing business with their shops,restaurants and clothing businesses has to integrate superficially in order to do business with everyone else but they are still like chalk and cheese on the personal level and only befriend their own kind.
The ex communist block north europaean countries contribute greatly to Spain's immigrant community. While the majority are hard working and honest they themselves suffer from the bad press that a certain number of their countrymen cause them as there seems to be an elevated amount of crime, often violent crime, associated with these nations,which logically makes Spanish people reluctant to integrate with them. Give a dog a bad name..........
The last group of immigrants is us. The Brits, French, Deutches, Holanders etc. etc. who did not come here to escape from poverty. I often wonder why many of us are here. So now I come to the Big Prize question. Are you integrated?. Are your parties attended by your Spanish friends? Do they invite you to their parties? And do you really speak Spanish? Do you know what is being talked about? Do you know who Fraga is? or Paquirrin? Have you got any c.ds of Spanish groups in your collection? If the answer to any of these questions is NO, then it's time YOU started to INTEGRATE. The Spanish will accept you warmly if you try and understand them, This blog hopes to provide you with some insight on the topics of the day which will help you in the right direction.
BUT Remember, as my old friend Paco el fontanero once said..." You can be whatever you want in España. What you can't be is an hijo de puta.

NOT MISSED THE BULL.

In a recent and unprecedented public ballot organised by the mayor of the Valencian town of Paterna, the majority voted AGAINST the use of Bulls in the towns fiestas this year. That may come as a surprise to you as, in fact, it did to me but it is a fact that on the subject of bullfighting the"fiesta national" public opinion is deeply and bitterly divided. At many of the major bullrings around the country protest demonstrations are frequently staged ;at times ending in violence between the pro and anti groups albeit often spurred on by the sensationalist media looking for a good story. Although no national poll has ever been suggested by the government I am confident that ,should it ever take place, the anti bullfighting lobby would win by a considerable majority.
The younger and middle aged Spanish are sick and tired of being tarred by the same bullfighting brush wherever and whenever they travel abroad. From Brussels to Bangkok Spaniards are fed up to the back teeth of hearing outraged critics of this practise spoiling their otherwise idyllic tourism. Most Spaniards do not go to bull fights. Most Spaniards wouldn't go to a bull fight if they were paid to. Those who do go to bullfights are mostly well into their middle age, the majorityof whom are right wingers whose Frankist parents indoctrinated them in this barbaric practise and are too thick skinned to even consider changing their ways. Having said this ,of course, any up and coming young creeper on the vine of right wing politics would HAVE to be seen at the important events to help his progress through the ass-licking jungle of the post Franco right wing. If my words offend anyone who is not a) right wing, b)brain dead c)employed in the multi million€ bullfighting industry, and actually ENJOYS WATCHING NOBLE ANIMALS BEING TORTURED TO DEATH then I am very pleased to have offended you.
If then,like me and the majority of Spanish people you are against this sad and indefensible anachronism, don't be too worried. IT IS ON ITS WAY OUT: In two generations ,mark my words, BULLFIGHTING WILL DISAPPEAR like urban zoos and cock fighting

Here come de judge...but I ain't afraid.

Autonomous community politicians throughout Spain will be delighted to learn that they can accept expensive presents from anyone, however shady the character of the gift giver may be and irrespective of how much public money may be engrossing his offshore bank B account. Isn't that good news? You and I may not agree but that is basically what the decision by the Valencian supreme court to file the corruption proceedings against President Camps insisting that there was no proof that the gifts, not only suits, expensive toys, watches,Louis Vuitton bags and a large etc of expensive goodies so generously handed out to important members of the Valencian Popular Party by flamboyant head of 'Orange Market' Don Alvaro Perez had any cause-effect relationship with the multi million € contracts adjudicated to him by by this administration over the last few years. And how did the supreme tribunal come to this surprising decision? When the scandal first hit the media Presi' Camps denied all knowledge of Orange Market and Alvaro Perez. When photos linking them on various occasions, both publicly and .especially, privately, Camps was forced to admit their close friendship. Then the suits. " I didn't receive any suits, I pay for all my clothes." Nothing of the sort. The court found that the offending tailor mades were indeed gifts from the philanthropic Mr Perez. So I ask myself, "if there was no cause effect relationship between gifts and public contracts, WHY LIE? All very mysterious isn't it,? Or is it?
It happens that the Valencian Supreme court consists of three learned magistrates and it also happens that these magistrates are political appointments. If ,therefore, we take into account the fact that in the final two to one decision in favour of filing the process against Camps i.e. his not having to stand trial, the two judges in favour were not only known right wingers but also, and sinisterly, in the case of the presiding magistrate,Judge Juan Luis de la Rua, a well known personal friend of the Camps family...Sunday paellas etc. etc. It would be dangerous to my reputation to procede along these lines any further so I will leave it to my reader's imagination or mathematics to put two and two together. The saddest part of this whole scandalous Greek tragedy is that this TOTAL LACK OF DEMOCRACY AND ABJECT FAILURE OF THE JUDICIARY took place not in a banana republic, Hugo Chaves's Venezuela or Mugabe's Zimbabwe for example ,but right here in the Valencian Communioty in the modern Spain which, even as I write ,is preening itself to be admitted into the all powerful G8 group of economic potencies.

My Tailor´s name is Tomàs.

How much does a tailor made suit cost? This question has a variety of possible answers but if you are Francisco Camps, president of the Valencian community for the ruling Popular Party, it could cost your position, your credibility and your future. At this very moment Camps faces corruption charges for receiving suits and a waistcoat (in which to meet the Pope) to the value of around 12,000€ paid for by a group of businessman who have received millions from the public purse of the Generalitat and the private purse of the Popular Party. While the latter is of no concern to anyone outside that party, the former is most certainly a matter for public concern.
Every grand event, political meeting, trade fair or public celebration of any kind requires an enormous amount of organization so that everything runs like clockwork on the night. This is something that we,the public who attend, usually take for granted without a second thought as to who designed the set, who bullt the stage, rented the seats, provided the flowers etc.etc. As you can imagine , this is a highly specialized business which needs all the right contacts and an artist`s ability to visualise and then create the right scenario and ambience to create the successful effect desired. In this area, the Valencian company Orange Market seems to have been THE BEST. La créme de la créme.
This we can safely assume, as it appears that Orange Market is the ONLY company to have organized events of the aforementioned kind during the last five or six years. The astronomical sums of money received by this company is unknown but it is safe to say that it runs into several millions of euros. In this country, when public sector contracts are adjudicated, they are supposed to be submitted to a process of scrutinization and later offered to the company with the lowest tender, assuming that the standard of workmanship and guarantees be the same. This system is the one which functions in just about every democratic state. let`s face it , it is one of the fundamental parts of a democratic system. Strange then that not one other company has been capable in all these years of offering a better tender to the Valencian authorities than the flamboyant Alvaro Perez head of Orange Market. Indeed the philanthropical Mr Perez, who has become a wealthy man during this period as well as a personal friend, not only of President Camps and his wife, but also of other high ranking members of the Popular Party in the three provinces of the Valencian community, is known to be a very generous person. Amongst the presents which have allegedly been received from him by his political benefactors figure the hand made suits adorning the sprightly figure of Francisco Camps. That is the sad situation. One could interpret it as corruption or simply a friendly gesture from a generous friend. The judge will be the one to decide. What is not on trial here is whether or not this has been a hidden way of illegally funding the Popular Party, and I, for one would prefer to keep MY opinion to myself.

BARCA or MADRID?

Could you imagine entering a pub in Liverpool and discovering its decor to be dedicated to the glory of Manchester Utd? Or a Birmingham coffee bar decorated with memorabilia of Arsenal? No? Nor me and yet you will find bars full of Barcelona or Madrid mementos from Sevilla to Compostela to Valencia. And the bar on the corner of your street? Chances are that it won´t be decked out with posters or scarves of the local team. Have you ever wondered why these seemingly incongruous circumstances exist? To find the answer, we must travel back in time to the days of the dictatorship and advance from there.
With the civil war over and Franco installed in power, Spain, while officially at peace was a deeply and bitterly divided land. While supporters of the regime lived and worked in relative comfort, the repression continued against known or suspected dissenters be they communists, socialists, anarchists or simply believers in democracy. Now Franco, apart from his hunting was a passionate supporter of Real Madrid C.F. He rarely missed a match which he would watch from his seat of honour in the tribune. As a result of this of course his entourage, followers and arselickers in general also declared their undying devotion to the "equipo del govierno", the government`s team as Real Madrid is still known in many parts of the country. There are many accusations from that period of unfair advantages favouring Real, bent referees, star players from other countries only being facilitated the paperwork if they signed for Madrid and not other clubs and a large etc. which cannot be proved and is now irrelevant.
In those dark days of closed frontiers there were only two teams with the ability to take on and beat Real Madrid. They were Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao. The overiding difference between these two clubs of course was that Bilbao , staunchly nationalist would only play with Basque born players (although the club now insists that its players be Spaniards while preferring those of Basque origen), whereas Barca played with a mixture of Spanish and foreign born footballers. Therefore, outside the Basque country, Barcelona C.F. became the symbol of anti-franquism attracting supporters from every corner of the Spanish geography whether interested in football or not.
Although a lot of agua has passed under the bridge since the dictatorship, human nature is still human nature. It would be difficult to find a Spurs or an Aston Villa supporter for example, whose father or grandfather hadn´t supported that club. Football fanaticism runs in the family however much the younger generation may rebel against their parents. So is it for the sons and grandsons in whose bars you may find yourself observing football paraphenalia of Barca or Madrid even though you are at 1000km distance from either Camp Nou or el Santiago Bernabeu. Remember,you are not looking at football but at the political history of modern Spain and don`t be surprised at the passion aroused in any match between these two teams. It runs much, much deeper than simple sporting rivalry.

Valencia formula one

VALENCIA STREET CIRCUIT: ALL FUR COATS AND NO KNICKERS 18 years ago it was common to see in grafiti sprayed around Valencia capital the words, "volem circuit" we want a circuit in Valenciano. Then ,as now, there was an enormous group of motor sport fans, especially motor cyclists, who were demanding not only a circuit nearby where they could watch their idols, but also a circuit where they themselves could race at speeds not permitted on the public roads. As a result of this lobby, the beautiful circuit of Cheste was developed. This circuit is one of the best in the world for spectators as almost all the circuit can be seen from almost all the grandstands. It is set in a natural amphitheatre with excellent road communication( at the side of the A3 motorway) with ample parking facilities and sufficiently far away from the urbanised area to cause only minor acoustic problems for the local residents.

In their desperate need to grab votes before fhe municipal and autonomic elections of 2007 and spurred on by the success of the America`s cup yacht regatta, the local right wing Popular Party enticed Formula one`s owner and mentor Bernie Ecclestone, whose true colours are becoming daily more evident, into not only agreeing to stage a race on the projected Valencia street circuit, but also into conditioning this event to the re-election of his good friend Francisco Camps president of the Generalitat . Neither Ecclestone nor Camps paid for the construction of this circuit. We did, the taxpayer 90 odd million euros worth of asphalt and a swing bridge across the waters of the harbour. Now ;I don`t know about you other taxpayers but if I invest money in something, I expect a good return on it. Not,of course,if its a hospital: better health care is its own recompense for the investment, but in an unnecessary, non ecological, environmentally unfriendly cnstruction of this type ,I want some profit. I am getting none.Three big time operators (their names are not important although one happens to be ex-president Aznar`s son in law) have the rights to the exploitation of the circuit and, after paying Ecclestone the paltry 18million euracos for his slice of the cake, any profits made go into their three already well-lined pockets. So what´s in it for us? If you´re a fan and wish to watch the race, you will have to fork out a minimum of 200€ each for a poor seat where, if you´re lucky, you may just be able to see 100 metres of track. If, on the other hand, you are unfortunate enough to live in one of the three neighbouring areas Nazaret, El Grau or El Cabañal and are not a motor racing maniac, through no fault of your own you are in for a week of misery, which you helped to pay for. Travelling from one of these areas to the other (normally 5-10 minutes by bus converts itself into an

odyssey of anything up to an hour and a half " I m just going to see if Mum`s O.K. I`ll be back in three and a half hours." " What! you want to drive down your street and park your car in the underground parking space that cost you 27,000 € Forget it. You ain´t going down there til Monday" You want some peace? Go to Cheste. There`s a beaautiful natural amphitheatre there with absolutely nothing going on.

Around the circuit is a mixture of wasteland, vacant lots and semi-derelict industrial buildings whose appearance is so dilapidated that in the first,2008, edition of the race they had to be covered up by giant tarpaulins with photo imposed images of how they once looked so that the world´s T.V audiences would not see the real and apalling state in which the long neglected surrounding area has fallen. "Ah," I hear you thinking," but that was the first year. This year will be better¨Wrong. NOTHING has been done in 300 odd days Everything is just as it was and is ready to be disguised once again so that from Japan to Montreal, from Oslo to Rio de Janeiro T.V. vieweres will be able to enjoy the "virtual" Valencia and not the real one.As my old Mum used to say, " All fur coats and no knickers".

What´s this bog all about?

Are you a guiri? an expat? enjoying a better life in a better climate? Are you popular? With the Spanish community or just with your fellow countrymen and women?I suspect that many of you are missing out on a whole lot of information that could help you to become REALLY integrated in this generally beautiful (and on occasions very ugly)country called Spain. How much do you know about your host country? Why are the Spanish people like they are.? What makes THEM tick? What do they and what don`t they like about you? How is your local community governed? and your comarca? your autonomous community? Who is getting rich at your expense? Is public money, your money, being spent wisely on concepts that you consider important? If you get your information from Sky and the local free newspapers in English or Deutch you will no doubt be up to date in matters varying from Coronation street to Gordon Brown`s personality deficit and whatever else may be going on "back home" in the country that YOU LEFT BEHIND. So what use is this information to you? You don`t live there any more. YOU LIVE HERE. This blog is designed to tear down the walls of ignorance and with YOUR help open up a whole new understanding of what the issues are, who the people are, what is right,what isn`t right and how it all works. HERE. Right here in our host country. So stop saying that "back home it`s all gone to the dogs" and wise up to why and how your new adoptive home country might just be going in the same direction.

This blog will contain OPINIONS. Some may NOT be POLITICALLY CORRECT although every attempt will be made to NEVER resort to personal insult. It is hoped that YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS will maintain the same criterion and if not they will be excluded. This is a FORUM where the REAL ISSUES in our municipalities, comarcas and communities can be aired OPENLY. Alone this task would be impossible. With YOUR help this can become an interesting and widely consulted blog and,who knows, we may even be able to solve one or two problems and not just moan about it. So, to anyone who has read this far let me welcome you to this new blog knowing that unity is strength.