The Not Yet Pensioner

A few months back, being both over sixty five years old and a little short of cash (I was ripped off by some far-from-honourable Brit employees some years ago), it came to my notice that I could get a pension here in Spain.
Now, I have contributed to the system with fourteen years of social security 'autonomous' payments, generally known as 'el impuesto revolucionario', and while you need seventeen years worth before consideration for a thousand or twelve hundred euros or so, anything less is considered to be a non-contributive pension, currently worth around 390 euros per month.
It ain't much, but the wolves are out there.
After getting ripped-off by the rascally employees, and then later by a loutish family-member, there's little left under the mattress.
So, I fill out the forms: yes, yes, no, you're kidding, no and yes, and hand it in to the pension people.
Now, a mere two months later, a fellow called José Francisco says he wants to now how long I've lived here as a resident (it says so right there on the Communitarian Citizens Police Letter which I had sent them, the thing that took over from the Residents' ID Card) and he also wants to know how much, if anything, I get from the UK as a pension. Nothing, not a sausage, nada since I left the place at a Tender Age.
Unlike José Francisco, who can look forward to a couple of thousand a month when he reaches retirement age, I'm fighting here for 392€ in fourteen (!) easy-to-cash annual payments, which will cover the utilities, plus a cheese sandwich twice a year.
So, I've written to some address in Newcastle Upon Tyne asking for them to look me up in their ledgers. I don't have a British ID number, or a social security number either, so I look forward to their reply in interest.
Between this document, duly translated officially, together with a letter from the immigration people in Almería, I shall be ready for Round Two with José Francisco.
Maybe by Christmas.

16 October: Well, sod all has happened so far, with no reply from the British funcionarios in Newcastle. No reply! They only need to say 'Nope, never heard of him', or 'Geez, I hope he isn't deported, destitute, back to the UK, because we won't do fuck all for him then, either'.
I wrote to them twice, then sent an email. But, not a word.
So, I've written a cringer to José Francisco, saying that the Brits can't be arsed to answer, but the bank says I don't get a bean from Foreign Parts, and could he please review my case.
The Fraudsters meanwhile make light of my poverty, but, you know, fuck 'em.  
 

The Town Halls are Decided (at least)

The famous mayor from 'Bienvenido Mr Marshall'

The town halls have now been occupied by the victors from the elections last month. Usually the party most voted, but sometimes an agreement between two or more groups sealed the deal – or in some cases, an arrangement was made by the party leaders in a quiet office in Madrid: you take x and we’ll have y.

The most remarked on deal happened in Spain’s capital city, where Manuela Carmena’s Ahora Madrid was the most voted, but Manuela has gone – ‘now I’m just another madrileña, she says. In her place, a coalition between the PP and the C’s with the Vox for the moment in dubious support. The new mayor is the PP candidate José Luis Martínez-Almeida, wants to close down the low-pollution ‘Madrid Centro’ scheme and to make (another) attempt to win the Olympic Games for the city, this time for 2032 (Madrid’s bid lost out in 2012, 2016 and 2020). The new mayor for Madrid has recognised that Manuela’s government has lowered the city debt and says he hopes to lower taxes accordingly. The new vice-mayor is Begoña Villacís from Ciudadanos.

In Barcelona, Ada Colau managed to hold on as mayoress.

Vox meanwhile has been instrumental in bringing right-wing corporations to six capital cities: Madrid, Zaragoza, Granada, Palencia, Teruel and Badajoz. What do they get in return? The party says they may release the secret document signed by them with the PP if they feel that they haven’t got whatever it was the PP had agreed to.

One party, even more extreme than Vox, namely España 2000 (Wiki), has taken Los Santos de la Humosa: a town in the Madrid Region.

Finally, there are fifteen cities where the so-called ‘Columbus Trio’ couldn’t agree, allowing rather the election of more centrist mayors. These cities include Burgos, Huesca, Jaén and Cáceres.   

In the smaller towns and villages, where everybody knows everyone, the town halls are more to do with local personalities than with far-off leaders and politics. Spain remains a practical country at heart.

Mass Tourism and its Pollution

We have seen how much contamination can be caused by tourism (even if we prefer to ignore the data). From Interesting Engineering (May 2018) here: ‘Research Shows Pollution from Global Tourism is More Than What We Thought’. The article says: ‘...The researchers found out that the emissions from tourism are much higher than even international trade. Also, the newfound values point the greenhouse gases from tourism, accounting for one-tenth of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions...’. Less flights would help ‘...because nothing that we do pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere faster than air travel...’ (here).  ‘Over 4,000 million Passengers Flew In 2017 Setting New Travel Record’ (here). Of these, 1,400 million were international tourists (here).

Cruise ships are dirty, too. Forbes reports that ‘Cruise Ship Pollution is Causing Serious Health and Environmental Problems’. Around 26 million customers took a cruise in 2017 (here). From Hosteltur here (and staying with aggressive pollution) ‘From next year NASA will open the International Station to tourists’. From Responsible Travel, an essay called ‘Is travel a right? – The concept of right, & when it’s just wrong’.

Mass tourism can create other ills, too. From Hello BCN Hostel comes ‘The combination of cheap airfare, affordable lodging and social media has led to one of the biggest “trends” in our world today – tourism. It’s a beautiful thing, being able to travel and experience a culture so different from your own. However, there is a certain type of tourism, known as mass tourism, that is destroying culture in these beautiful areas, and driving out locals...’. 

Closer to home, our summer festivals are starting (to continue, in lesser and greater ways, until mid September). The souvenir shops and restaurants are full, the beaches crammed and the roads (we only have two) barely moving. Right now, we are about to discover another form of pollution, brought to us by the trabuco, the ear-splitting discharge from a blunderbuss.

Podemos Blues

Podemos has come to the end of its tether. It was a fantastic run – a party that came from nowhere and managed to ignite the passion of the young; bringing change and progress to Spain in a few short years. We can thank Podemos, amongst other things, for the fall of the corrupt government of Rajoy, the end of the ‘Sun Tax’, the regularisation of pensions and for last year’s minimum wage (SMI) increase to 900€.

The power-that-be were against Podemos and its eccentric leader from the start, plotting with Venezuelan politicians to invent scandals against the party and even spending public money on creating an anti-Podemos news-site called OKDiario, with its visible champion Eduardo Inda. The conservative newspapers happily followed the story-line from Inda and even found their own narratives. But it was Pablo Iglesias himself that managed the final shot against him, by unwisely buying a large mansion in a fancy part of Madrid when he should really have been staying with his wife (who is Nº 2 in Podemos) in a modest garret in a poor part of the city. His house may not be as large as some other politicians’ homes, but, hey, Pablo Iglesias’ message is about the little folk, not the nobs on the hill!

A couple of weeks ago, Pablo criticised Amancio Ortega, who is Spain’s wealthiest man (his daughter is third on the moneyed list of billionaires). Amancio has donated expensive machinery to the Spanish health service and Pablo made the point that tax-avoiders should pay their dues rather than perform philanthropic stunts. This, as the Americans say, didn’t go down well in Peoria.

Now, with several founder-members of Podemos either absent, or in another party (Iñigo Errejón being the most notable), or quitting (the leader of Podemos for Zaragoza says ‘she’s lost the dream’ and quits politics), or critical of Iglesias following two disastrous election results; with several break-away Podemos parties like Compromís, Podemos Andalucía (here),  En Marea and Ahora Madrid. Now fellow party founder Ramón Espinar is proposing ‘an urgent Citizen Assembly to address "the failure" of Podemos, "that is broken into pieces"’. ‘Kichi’, the charismatic mayor of Cádiz, supports the idea. Could Espinar be planning to take over the party as Iglesias falls on his sword asks the media?

While Pedro Sánchez holds Pablo Iglesias at arm’s length following the general elections, needing but not needing the input from Unidas Podemos, the Podemos leader has created a small purge in the party, removing the wheelchair-bound Pablo Echenique as party spokesperson in favour of dreadlocks Alberto Rodríguez.

For Iglesias, it could be coming to the end of the trail, a shame indeed, for he will – someday – be recognised as being one of Spain’s greatest politicians.

Post Politics Tristese.

The politics are strong, but maybe, after all the recent elections, we will soon be able to talk of other things. There’s just the small problem of Brexit to resolve (and the looming visit of the American president and the sale of milk shakes to bemuse the British). And, Goodness! Who will become the next (undemocratically chosen) prime minister? Not Boris, surely?

In Brussels, the question arises of what to do with Farage and his ghastly crowd – ‘ghastly’ if you happen to be a European, or just working in Brussels. He’s evidently a hero in England. Maybe the European Commission could formally eject the UK from the EU (and just keep Scotland) just to preserve some sanity. We shall have to look it up in the rulebook.

In Spain, the local and regional elections went fairly well, with the centrist parties of the PSOE, the PP and C’s taking most of the votes. Both Podemos and Vox failed to perform, with Podemos-clones only managing to hold Cádiz and Valencia (with Barcelona in doubt). A shame about Madrid though, where the stern book-keeping of Manuela has halved the astronomic debt incurred by previous PP overlords. Now they are apparently back...

In my local town of Mojácar, an unpopular town hall not only resisted the call from the opposition, it actually increased its hold on the place.

Strange stuff politics, let’s talk about the weather.

Tourism is Good for Business, But Bad for Comfort

It looks like one of those fakes, but apparently it is kosher. Now six people have died in a couple of days on the final slopes of Mount Everest. So many people were making that last stagger to the top that there was a jam. But look at them!

Tourism these days is sacred. Everyone has the right to see the world (even from the top!). Spain had 82.6 million foreign tourists last year, and another indeterminate amount of national tourists besides. They all went, apart from those Spaniards who chose to visit their grandparents' pueblo for a few slightly uncomfortable days, either to look at some monument or maybe a museum - the Alhambra (2.76 million visitors) or the Museo del Prado (3.6 million in 2018) or away to the beach. 

 Mojácar has a beach. It's nothing special, but it is coated with bars and restaurants to serve both the residents and the visitors - those who aren't staying 'all inclusive' in one of the cheaper hotels. These hotels, in the unfashionable Marina de la Torre area, are owned by Catalonian companies, and the staff is South American. The food is prepared in Málaga and sent up to be reheated in the hotels' kitchens. Sometimes the hotels are successful, other times they aren't like the doomed Hotel Moresco, which adorns the right hand side of the village, closed since 2008 and now housing some okupas, or to say it in English, some squatters.
Another hotel that never got much off the ground is the Macenas Hilton. Two or three stories of concrete shelving, wondrously decorated by graffiti-idiots, and providing a delightful view for the apartments behind. Drive into the next resort, Carboneras, with its power station chimney, and enjoy Spain's most famous incomplete hotel, the Algarrobico. There since 2006.

Mojácar is a delightful village. It has won-bought-acquired the title of Most Beautiful along with a clutch of other resorts. It has narrow streets and white flat-roofed buildings covering the top of a hill - it looks like a pile of sugar lumps, left there under the stark blue sky by playful giants.
As a residential village, it is a nice place to live. You can walk everywhere (the streets are too narrow for anything wider than a donkey) and, if pushed, you can go down to the beach to find a supermarket or a bank.
Mojácar village though, while without any hotels - open hotels at least - still prefers visitors and their wallets (tourism has always been about the wallets) over residents. In the village, there are fifty souvenir shops, and no resident ever goes to a souvenir shop (or, for that matter stays in a hotel). For the local businesses, residents, for all their wealth, aren't necessarily much cop. Oh yes, we drink, we sometimes eat out (although we have our own kitchen at the house) and we are there all year long (a tourist spends about four days average, and probably goes somewhere else for the following holiday). Contrast Turre - an ugly residential town with no beach, no hotels and no tourists - in the winter months with Mojácar. Turre has ten times the night-life.
On Mojácar's beach, it's the same - a number of establishments who serve locals and visitors alike, but who often close for the winter months. Those who own or rent such places (huge, staggering rents from the wealthy local families) will move away during the winter - not really local businessmen after all, just people out to make some business. They want more tourism, just like the souvenir sellers.
But do they represent or speak for those who live here?
Would more tourism bring more out-of-town businesspeople to serve them through the season?
Our politicians work tirelessly for the local business community, and packing in more tourists for a longer season is the apparent dream. Now we have giant pelotones of winter cyclists riding two-abreast (really? Is that the best you could do?). Now we have kids roving the streets at night, looking for some fun. Now we have pickpockets. Now we have fights and vandalism.
Now we have crowds and queues.
Now our mainstream political parties are campaigning for more, more, more, because they speak for the merchants. Not the residents.
If you are living here and don't run a shop, a bar or a restaurant, or God-forbid a souvenir shop selling the same junk as all the others, then more tourism to what is a wealthy-enough pueblo is not the answer.  Your only investment is your home - would you like it to go up in value, or, as Mojácar bursts at the seems, to go down?