Tombstoning Tragedy
(DD) It’s always easy for the older generation to point out the stupidity of certain pastimes, and the media continually points out the dangers and risks involved in ‘tombstoning.’
For the unaware, tombstoning is the act of jumping into water from any fixed point, such as rocks, piers or hotel balconies. It has been around for quite some time and visitors to the Junta de los Rios can often catch youngsters leaping into pools, and I might as well admit to having performed equally stupid jumps as a youngster.
Recently, a 26-year-old Italian died after plummeting from a 7th floor balcony in Ibiza when he missed the swimming pool below. A target that looks to be just a few feet away when you’re four floors up turns out to be five or six metres away when you arrive at mac2.
Either that, or the protagonist doesn’t realise that a couple of metres of water will not slow a body down enough, when you’re jumping from the 4th or 5th floor, to prevent serious injury or death on contact with the bottom of the pool.
This tragedy follows on the heels of similar incidents involving British youngsters in Mallorca and Ibiza and brings the total deaths to six this year alone.
Hotels are now trying to find ways of stopping the practice and are putting up signs and information sheets explaining the dangers and pointing out that it is also prohibited to jump from hotel balconies.
Flush with Foreigners
(DD) According to European figures, Spain has one of the highest percentages of foreign nationals living within her borders. I didn’t need the statistical office of Eurostat to tell me that, just a quick visit to Mojácar near Almería will bring this truism home in a jiffy! You can spend days in the area and not hear a word of Spanish.
For those of you who like statistics, here comes the number crunch:
Foreign residents account for 12.3% of the population of Spain, which doubles th
e combined average for the rest of the EU, which is 6.4%.
In the EU as a whole, there are 31.9 million foreign nationals and 11.9 million of those transferred from one EU member state to another, with the rest coming from countries outside the EU.
Spain has 5.65 million foreigners (yes, that’s you!), of which 2.27 million are from another member of the EU with 3.37 million from countries outside the EU.
Spain only comes second to Germany (they have over seven million foreigners), followed by the UK, France and Italy, with these five hosting 75% of the total foreigners in the EU.
Where do all these foreigners in Spain originate? Well, most are from Romania, a full 11.8% of the total, then Morocco with 11.4% and Ecuador with 7.4%.
That’s it with the figures… let’s get on to something more interesting before readers start pouring salt into their eyes!
Drug Arrests
(DD) Eight men and four women have been arrested on drug trafficking charges in Orihuela and Torrevieja. The group, who are all British from the Liverpool area of the UK, have been trafficking their wares along the Alicante coast and in the Baleares, dealing mainly in ecstasy pills and marihuana.
During the police operation codenamed Operación Zumo, six properties were searched; three in Orihuela and three in Torrevieja, a vehicle has also been seized and impounded along with a 6-metre boat. Drug paraphernalia was also found at a well-hidden marihuana plantation in Crevillente, Alicante.
It was back in May when the investigation into the group really got underway as Guardia Civil and National Police began to receive intelligence that a group was trafficking along the Levante coast, followed in June by a breakthrough when one of the group was arrested trying to board a ferry in Denia for Ibiza with around 53,000 pills hidden in the door panels of the vehicle.
With the group now safely behind bars and awaiting trial, it has been revealed that the drugs originated from the UK with group members occasionally making trips to Britain and bringing the drugs back into Spain in vehicles with hidden compartments and sometimes secreted in airline baggage.
Members of SOCA, the Organised Crime Unit of the British Police, have closely assisted Spanish police during the investigation.
President Prosecution
(DD) The ex President of the Balearic Parliament, María Antónia Munar Riutord, has a staring role as the accused in the Maquillaje (Make-up) corruption case in Palma de Mallorca.
The body of evidence again the ex President appears to be large and pretty much irrefutable, and the prosecutor has asked for a 6-year prison sentence, combined with a 14-year ban from holding public office. But we shouldn’t hold our collective breath, as we know from certain local politicians, an apparently watertight case can spring all sorts of leaks, with the politicians often chuckling all the way back into office.
Ms. Munar Riutord is the ex leader of the Unió Mallorquina, or UM as it’s known, and she has been a huge part of the islands political scene for the past 30 years, often switching her alliance from the PP to the PSOE depending the political leverage available to her at the time. (Sounds familiar),
The case centres around the movement of some €240,000 belonging to the regional government, which, by some sort of hockey pokey, ended up in the accounts of companies owned by none other than the lovely Ms. Munar.
Further charges include misuse of public funds, perverting the course of justice, fraud and finally, carry out business activities prohibited by her office.
Her closest associate, Míquel Nadal, who also faces a 6-year prison sentence, has decided that there is no honour amongst thieves and already told the judge that Munar gave him €300,000 in cash whilst in her official car and told him to buy two production companies and to control the local television channel.
It’s always really entertaining watching politicians wriggle and writhe their way out of these situations… let’s see what happens.
Data Dilemma
(DD) We hear much talk in northern Europe about data protection, and if there are any slip-ups with public information, the press are quick to jump. Well it now seems Spain is looking hard at the data held on members of the public by a range of public bodies.
The Spanish Agency for Data Protection (AEPD) has compiled a report on Spanish hospitals that reveals one in three fail to meet data protection laws.
The report was compiled with information from 605 hospitals, and although the report did not cover the entire country, they did get responses from 562 institutions, 294 private and 268 public ones.
The agency has sent a list of recommendations to 360 that were lacking, and another 202 have been given specific changes to implement to bring them in line with current legislation.
The most worrying of the failings were security issues, such as sending personal data through insecure computer networks, and even cases of data turning up in rubbish bins in the street.
The report also highlighted that 30% of public centres do not have specific measures to prevent access to clinical records and documents during transportation, and in some 35% of cases, clinical histories not being properly sealed.
The hospitals have been given six months to implement any changes, after which fines of between 300,00 and 600,000 euros will be enforced.
Elvis & The Transsexual
(DD) Don’t you just love regional politics? There are some colourful characters throughout the world, and none more so that transsexual artist, Carmen de Carmen, who is moving into politics and is to become second in the candidate list in Barcelona for the Coordinadora Reusenca Independent or CORI, at the regional elections in November.
Carmen has ambitions to be the Mayoress of Barcelona one day, and she hopes that her sexuality will bring a new style of politics to the regional parliament.
No stranger to controversy, Carmen started out doing impersonations in the bars of Barcelona, and even worked in the field of prostitution around the area of El Raval in the city.
Her name came up in the media last year when police raided rooms she owned in Barcelona during an investigation into a prostitution racket.
Did I mention Elvis? Well, the CORI party already has representation in Reus Town Hall, as the party leader, an Elvis Presley impersonator, Ariel Santamaría, already holds a seat.
Sad Survivor
(DD) The waters off the coast of Coruña were host to an extraordinary story of survival when a young diver found himself the only survivor of a boating accident in which his two friends died.
The survivor, José Manuel Pérez Miguez described his harrowing ordeal after spending seven hours in the sea, during which time he lashed the dead bodies of his two friends to himself to avoid freezing to death, as at the time of the accident he was only wearing a pair of shorts, and reasoned that the remaining heat in the bodies would give him a little more time. He also explained that if he died as well, he wanted all three of them to be found together. Rescue teams were lucky to find him and his dead companions at 03.30, as he clung to the remains of their damaged craft.
The accident happened at 20.00 when the three were preparing to return to harbour, when suddenly a propeller cable broke, sending the craft into a spin, during which the other two other crewmembers died.
The two dead men were buried in the cemeteries of San Pedro de Muro and Queiruga after a joint funeral. The City Council declared two days of official mourning.
Zapatero Poll Gloom
(DD) With austerity measures being rolled out in just about every country throughout the world, the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero found himself defending cabinet reshuffle. He announced a new social agenda, which he said, would eradicate inequalities, all directed by his new cabinet that would have more ‘drive and initiative’ and he made it clear he intended to carry on to the end of the legislature in 2012.
Speaking in Aragón, Mr. Zapatero explained to party activists that it was clear they were on the right track, “You only have to see the faces of the PP to see that we have got this right,” he said.
Although the speech was short on detail about the new ‘social agenda,’ he did explain that there would be specific projects to assist those most affected by the financial crisis, the young and the long-term unemployed, of which Spain has many. There will also be moves to assist and encourage women into the workplace, with family policies enabling them to return to work.
Among the new faces in the reshuffle is the new Organisation Secretary of the PSOE, Marcelino Iglesias, who was described by Mr. Zapatero as “an exemplary manager with a grand vision of the future.” He is replacing Leire Pajín who is the new Minister for Health.
This article has ‘poll’ in the title, and that is because El Mundo has published an opinion poll from Sigma Dos, which puts the PP in an extended lead over the government of 12.6%. The poll suggests that if there were an election tomorrow the PP would obtain 46.4% of the vote, which is reckoned to be 2% more than would be needed for an overall majority… mind you, who ever believes the polls?